Vagabond (Scoundrel)

The Vagabond is unlike any other faction on the board. You hold no clearings, field no army, and answer to no banner — just a lone wandering figure weaving through a forest already torn apart by larger powers. Your currency is items: boots carry you across the map, swords let you fight, torches unlock ruins and fuel your most destructive trick, hammers let you repair, and crossbows let you eliminate targets without the mess of a full battle.

The Scoundrel is the incendiary side of the Vagabond life. Where the Thief picks pockets and the Tinker tinkers, you burn things down. Your signature move — Scorched Earth — lets you exhaust your torch to place it in your current clearing, removing every enemy piece there and permanently blocking anyone from placing new pieces or moving into that space. It is a one-time-use nuclear option on each torch you carry, and it reshapes the board in ways that no other single Vagabond action can match.

You arrive with two Boots, a Crossbow, and a Torch — a kit built for rapid movement, precise surgical strikes, and the threat of scorching any clearing you pass through. You are not here to build a kingdom. You are here to ensure no one else keeps theirs.

Your scoring engine is the same three-pronged machine every Vagabond runs, but the Scoundrel is slanted toward the violent end of each channel:

• Complete quests by reaching a matching clearing and exhausting the required items. Each finished quest scores VP or draws extra cards, and chaining quests of the same type scores more per completion.
• Aid other factions by giving them a card that matches the suit of your shared clearing. This advances your relationship track with them, and hitting higher tiers scores VP directly — often your steadiest income stream early on.
• Remove enemy buildings and tokens in battle — unlike most factions you score VP for destruction, which means the chaos you spread with Scorched Earth and your Crossbow pays dividends on the victory track.

The Scoundrel's path to 30 usually runs through targeted disruption: use Scorched Earth at the right moment to cripple a leader's key clearing, collect VP from the rubble, then slide somewhere else before you become the table's primary target. Quests and Aid fill in the gaps between conflagrations.

Your entire turn runs on item exhaustion. Moving costs a Boot (two Boots if the destination is Hostile), battling costs a Sword, crafting costs the symbols on a card, and everything else costs whatever the action specifies. Items damaged in battle sit off your tracker until repaired with a Hammer, so your effective action count on any given turn is exactly how many undamaged, un-exhausted items you have ready.

The Scoundrel's distinctive feel comes from the Crossbow and the Torch. The Crossbow lets you exhaust it to Strike — removing one enemy warrior or building from your clearing without initiating a full battle. That matters because it scores VP without the risk of a dice roll. The Torch, when used for Scorched Earth rather than Exploring a ruin, is permanent: once placed in a clearing, pieces can no longer enter or leave through it. Timing that decision — burn a ruin chance now, or lock out a critical clearing forever — is the central tension of playing the Scoundrel.

Relationships still matter. Going Hostile with a powerful faction means they can attack you unprovoked and your Boot cost to move through their territory rises. The Scoundrel is naturally confrontational, which makes managing those dials harder than it is for a more diplomatic Vagabond. Aim Aid at factions you're about to help score, and fight factions you're about to disadvantage — that way the VP from burning their stuff offsets the relationship damage.