Vagabond (Vagrant)

The Vagabond is unlike any other faction on the board. You have no territory, no buildings, and no warriors — just a single wandering figure picking through the forest for useful items and forging quiet alliances with whoever is winning. Where others fight over clearings, you slip between the battles and collect the spoils.

The Vagrant is the most deliberately provocative face of this wandering life. You don't just profit from conflict — you manufacture it. Your starting kit of a Boot, a Torch, and a Coin sets you up to be everywhere at once: the Boot keeps you mobile, the Torch is the engine of your signature trick, and the Coin gives you a Refresh bonus that no other starting Vagabond enjoys from turn one.

Where other Vagabonds tolerate war as a backdrop, you are a Vagrant — a deliberate agitator who wanders into the middle of someone else's territory and lights a fuse, then steps back to count your points while the smoke clears.

You stack points through the same three channels every Vagabond uses, but your whole game is tilted toward creating the conditions that make two of them pay off simultaneously.

• Battle VP — you score a victory point for every building or token removed in combat, including from battles you Instigate between other factions. A single well-placed Instigate in a clearing packed with enemy structures can score you three or four points without you throwing a single punch.
• Quests — reach a clearing matching a revealed quest's suit and exhaust the listed items to complete it; each finished quest scores VP or draws you extra cards. Stack quests of the same type to climb the VP table faster.
• Aid and relationships — hand a card matching a faction's clearing suit to give them Aid and advance your relationship with them. Higher relationship tiers score VP directly, and reaching Allied status unlocks powerful joint actions.

The Vagrant's edge is that Instigate VP arrives without spending your own Sword or spending a whole turn in a fight. You can trigger a damaging battle, collect the points, and then Aid the battered winner — advancing your relationship while they're too busy repairing losses to retaliate.

Your turn runs on item exhaustion. Moving costs a Boot, battling costs a Sword, and most other actions cost the matching item. After you act, exhausted items sit face-down until your Birdsong refresh — and hits absorbed in battle damage your items rather than removing your figure.

The Coin you start with immediately lifts your Refresh limit to four. That one-item head start means you're refreshing more items per turn than any other starting Vagabond, which translates into more actions before you need to rest or repair.

Your signature action, Instigate, is available during Daylight and costs your Torch. When you Instigate, you pick two factions present in your clearing and force them into battle — you designate who attacks and who defends, you handle the dice rolls and piece removal on their behalf, and you pocket a VP for every building or token that comes off the board from either side, plus one for every Hostile piece removed. You are not a participant; you are the one holding the match.

Relationships shape your whole strategy. Because you spend your Torch on Instigate rather than Explore, you'll rely on Aid, quests, and careful positioning to build your item pool. Hostile factions can attack you freely and cost you extra movement, so keep your diplomatic standing warm — even with the factions you just finished setting against each other.