THE EMPERORS ARE DEAD
Your luck means nothing down here. Master forbidden geomancy, manage your exhaustion, and prepare to bleed...
THE VEIL IS TORN.
You are a Tomb Delver—a specialist in ancient geomancy thrown into the chaotic collapse of the late Qing Dynasty. You’ve been poisoned and forced underground by the secretive Xiaoling Battalion. Your mission? Retrieve the legendary Netherworld Candle. Your reward? The antidote.
But you are not the heroes of this story. You are expendable. Down here, rolling dice won't save you. You must rely on ruthless resource management, modular exploration, and the ancient secrets of the Bagua. Navigate the black markets of Wuhan, trade cursed relics with cutthroat factions, and face what sleeps in the dark.
THE POISON IN YOUR VEINS
The Xiaoling Battalion fed you Datura—a cursed flower grown from the blood of a child sacrificed by the first Gold-Touching Captain. They thought it would control you. They were wrong.
Bound by a Karmic debt, you must decipher the lost Silk Manuscripts of the Dai Kings. Confront the Gu-Sorcery King, the Plague King, the Illusion King, and the Terror King. Will you seize the Netherworld Candle, or will your soul be permanently drafted into the Emperor's undead army?
THE ARSENAL
I packed this box with enough premium components to ensure your suffering is highly tactile.
4 Asymmetric Delvers
Play as masters from the Gold-Touching, Tombdiggers, and Inkseekers Sects. Each features unique starting Action Cards, distinct stamina management, and a highly detailed 32mm miniature.
The Story Book
Over 150,000 words of branching narrative. Your choices in the overworld permanently alter the campaign. Kill a merchant today, and his faction will hunt you three scenarios later.
The Fate Deck
Combat and skill checks are deterministic. Resolve attacks and geomancy puzzles using your personal Fate Deck. Burn limited "Redraw" tokens to mitigate disaster, and customize your deck by unlocking nodes on your Tree of Fate.
The Qimen Dice
You don't roll dice to attack. The tomb rolls them to accelerate your death. Roll the engraved Bagua dice—if they match the Feng Shui of your room, the Candle Track drops, bringing you closer to a permanent game over.
Netherworld Artifacts
Reach into the blind-draw bag to extract priceless relics to trade with earthly factions. Push your luck if you dare. But if you pull the 'Blood Corpse Head', your action aborts, your loot turns to ash, and the tomb retaliates.
Cooldown Economy
Swinging a weapon isn't free. Play a card, and it locks into your Cooldown Zones (A, B, or C). Want it back? Spend your physical Energy. Energy hits zero? You pay with your Health.
BY COCKCROW OR
THE YIN & YANG DECKS
Your exhaustion dictates your fate. Low Energy forces you to draw from the Yin deck, spawning terrifying horrors. High Energy triggers the Yang deck, burning the candle timer faster. Choose how you wish to suffer.
THE QIMEN DICE
Every roll of the Bagua dice risks advancing the flame. The tomb is alive, reacting to your greed. You must decode the shifting trigrams before the darkness swallows you whole.
SHIFTING FENG SHUI
The tomb is alive. To survive, you must use the "Decode" action to cover the Bagua icons on the location boards, disabling traps and cutting off the enemy's supernatural advantages.
TIME IS A NOOSE
The Candle Track is not a round counter; it is an executioner. Yellow. Blue. Green. As the flame shifts color, catastrophic global events trigger. When the candle extinguishes, your expedition—and your soul—is permanently lost.
THE ARCHITECTS
OF THE ABYSS
Forged over five relentless years of development, Netherworld Candle is the creation of designers Ai Yanbin and Gu Lezhang.
Born from a deep obsession with late Qing Dynasty history and authentic Eastern folklore, this campaign strips away generic fantasy tropes in favor of a grueling, survival-horror economy. Every mechanic—from the Cooldown Zones to the mathematical distribution of the Fate Decks—was stress-tested by an underground community of hardcore players until the failure rate was perfectly ruthless.
The Chinese edition has already been successfully funded and delivered to over 2,000 victims. The English edition is a polished, fully-realized execution engine.
We didn't just design a board game. We excavated a nightmare.
SIGN THE BLOOD PACT
Leave your mark in the Netherworld. Receive exclusive artifacts, secret lore, and Gamefound launch alerts before the candle dies.