The Slopes of the Pyramid and Watcher Postern
The Green Pyramid consists of 2-4 Areas, depending on which side of the Map you are using. These Areas are all marked; one mark in each Area is the die roll result on which the Watcher appears; the other mark is a symbol indicating that Controlled Gates on the Pyramid earn their Controller 1 additional Power during the Gather Power Phase. Therefore, Controlled Gates on any Green Pyramid Area (including the Watcher Postern) produce 3 Power in each Gather Power Phase instead of 2. (Yog-Sothoth produces 3 Power if he is in a Green Pyramid Area during this Phase).
Abandoned Gates on the Green Pyramid still only produce 1 Power for all Factions.
The Watcher
The Watcher of the Green Pyramid is a hideous abnormality, a monstrous fellow to the Great Old Ones. It dwells in the abysses beneath the Green Pyramid. Activity on Yuggoth periodically brings forth the Watcher, to ravage and destroy.
Doom Phase-The Watcher Awakens
At the end of the Doom Phase, after all players have had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation and if there is a Controlled Gate in any Green Pyramid Area, roll a die. If the result equals the number printed on an Area with a Controlled Gate, the Watcher Awakens. Flip the Watcher Token to the lit-up (Awakened) side, and place its figure on the Watcher Postern (regardless of the number rolled).
Yog-Sothoth’s presence in a Green Pyramid Area counts for Awakening the Watcher, even if a normal Gate is not Controlled in the same Area.
Should any player’s Doom Marker pass over the dark Watcher Token, flip it to the light (Awake) side. Thus, when a player first reaches or exceeds 12 Doom, the Watcher Awakens (if it is not already Awake). If a player’s Doom reaches 12 during an Action Phase (due to turning in Elder Signs, for example), the Watcher won’t Awaken until the following Doom Phase.
The Watcher Decays
If the Watcher is already Awake before the Doom Phase begins, roll a die and lower the Watcher Token’s position on the Doom Track by that many spaces. If it Decays to 0, it is Killed; remove it from the Map. In this way the Watcher gradually dwindles and eventually vanishes, even if no players inflict Kills on it in Battle, but it may re-Awaken later!
Never Decay the Watcher on the Doom Phase in which it Awakens (and never re-Awaken the Watcher in the same Doom Phase in which it reaches 0).
Action Phase—The Watcher Attacks
If the Watcher is Awake at the start of the Action Phase, then it will Attack. This occurs before the First Player takes a turn.
The Watcher Attacks once per player. The First Player Controls its first Attack, followed by the next player, and so forth, until each player has had a chance to Control it once or until it has been destroyed.
Controlling the Watcher
On each Watcher Attack, the controlling player must Move the Watcher into an adjacent Area of his choice that contains Units belonging to any Faction. If no player’s Units are in an adjacent Area, the Watcher may be teleported to any Area containing any player’s Units. The Watcher may never remain in the same Area. A player may return the Watcher to Attack an Area it moved from earlier in the same Action Phase.
Immediately after moving, the Watcher initiates a Battle with Combat dice equal to the Watcher Token’s position (initially, twelve). It attacks EACH Faction in the Area separately and independently, in the order chosen by the controller. Example: if two Factions, including the player’s Units, are in the Area, the player can choose to have himself attacked second, hoping the Watcher will have lost strength by the time it gets to him. If the Slime Molds are neutral, it does not attack them. Any number of Battles in a single Area, against multiple Factions, counts as a single Watcher Attack.
The defending Faction rolls Combat dice against the Watcher as normal; each Kill rolled drops the Watcher Token down 1 point on the Doom Track. The Watcher is immune to all Pain.
The Watcher is a Great Old One. While Spellbooks and abilities can be used in Battle against it, they may only affect your own Units. For example, you cannot use Windwalker’s Howl to send the Watcher out of the Battle Area, nor does Demand Sacrifice have any effect on the Watcher’s dice results.
The Watcher costs 0 Power, has no Spellbooks or Doom, and is considered for all purposes to have no Power of its own or any other normal features of a Faction, such as calculating the Combat of Tsathoggua, Ithaqua, Nyarlathotep, etc. As a Great Old One, however, the Watcher can provide Nyarlathotep with 2 Elder Signs for scoring a Kill against it. It is immune to Pains, so Nyarlathotep must actually score a Kill (multiple Kills against the Watcher do not provide Nyarlathotep with additional Elder Signs).
Once the first Watcher Attack has been completed, the second player then takes Control of the Watcher for the next Attack (which, again, includes both a Move and a Battle). This continues until all players have Controlled the Watcher once (or until it has been destroyed). At that point, the First Player takes his own first turn as normal. During the rest of the Action Phase, any player may initiate a Battle against the Watcher. It will roll its Combat dice and ignore all Pains as normal.
When the Watcher’s Token drops to 0 on the Doom Track (even if it reaches 0 due to Watcher Decay in the Doom Phase), its figure is removed from the board and the Watcher Token is flipped back to the dark, sleeping side. That token is then placed back at 12 on the Doom Track. It will re-Awaken if another player’s Doom Marker reaches 12, or via the die roll as normal. If all players have already reached or exceeded 12 Doom, then the Watcher will only re-Awaken via die roll.
Tip:
Since the Watcher first Awakens on the Watcher Postern and it must Move into an adjacent Area with Units, you might at first feel safe by having a Gate on the Watcher Postern itself . Be aware that the Watcher may simply return to the Postern on its second Attack!