CoC - New Cycle - Ancient Relics

[fatolaf]

Exciting times for CoC as the cards now go global,starting with some good old Egyptology (gone wrong...)

Plus the introduction of new story cards will really help evolve the game....



The red sun sank low, bringing the relentless chill of Egyptian dusk; and as it stood poised on the world's rim like that ancient god of Heliopolis .. we saw silhouetted against its vermeil holocaust the black outlines of the Pyramids of Gizeh...
     - Under the Pyramids, H.P. Lovecraft

The Great Old Ones' reach extends worldwide in Ancient Relics, the latest cycle of expansions for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. This exciting series begins with its first Asylum Pack, The Shifting Sands, coming in the third quarter of 2011!

The Shifting Sands strikes out in a bold new direction, moving Call of Cthulhu's action away from the darkened mansions of Arkham and the squalid alleys of Innsmouth and onto the burning sands of the Egypt. The theme of this Asylum Pack is the cursed tombs beneath the great pyramids, and as Lovecraft describes in Under the Pyramids, "the cryptic yellow Nile that is the mother of aeons and dynasties."

Within the Tombs

Investigators and Cultists confront each other - and sometimes work together - beneath the shadows of the great pyramids, in The Shifting Sands. In this Asylum Pack you will meet diverse agents from each of Call of Cthulhu's factions: from John & Jessie Burke, dauntless Agency bounty hunters, to the archaeological adventurer, Miskatonic University's Professor Sam Campbell, to Nigel St. James, the Order of the Silver Twilight's sorcerous recruiter, and many more...

The Shifting Sands also features a number of new Relic support cards - ancient and powerful tools that will aid your faction's takeover of the world for the Ancient Ones or guard against them. Cthulhu's direct damage capabilities surge with the Khopesh of the Abyss, a double-edged blade that gives wounds to both your character and an opponent's. Hastur's Guardian Beast forces additional terror struggles, but unlike story Attachments, this support card will stay with a character - presumably your most terrifying.

New Tales to Tell

Most prominently, The Shifting Sands features twelve all-new story cards, forming a brand new story deck. Race around the globe as the long tendrils of the Ancient Ones extend out into the wider world. The story cards in this new deck feature big, symmetrical effects, especially tied to the pursuit of ancient and terrible artifacts that will run through the Ancient Relics cycle.

Each story card in this Asylum Pack will be unique and will displace all of the neutral cards that would normally appear in a pack. Each other faction will still get three copies each of two new and unique cards.

In the third quarter of 2011, The Shifting Sands will reveal long forgotten horrors and new mysteries waiting to be discovered beneath the burning sands...