Rules reference (condensed)
Turn. Reveal the top Journey card. A ♥ is a Refuge: take actions equal to its value (faces 10); each is Forage (draw), Recover (slide any discard under the Supply), or Cache: hide one card from your satchel at the location, out of use until the journey home. Only one card per location, and your refuge there ends at once, so what you hide cannot be replaced. A ♠ is an Adversary: health = 2× rank index, attack = rank index (J/Q/K = 11/12/13).
Hide. Against any adversary but the Nemesis, you may hide rather than fight or flee. Reveal the top Supply card: if its rank is lower than the adversary's (an Ace always is), you slip past and keep it in your satchel — it is your reward, and can later cover an ambush or a counter. No counter this time; then choose again — hide once more, fight, or flee. Each further attempt must reveal a card lower than the one before, so the looks get harder, and you may hide only while below your satchel limit. A failed reveal is an Ambush: the adversary strikes the front at once and the attempt ends; then you fight or flee. A kept card stays in hand; a failed reveal is spent to the discard.
Fighting. Each round, Strike with one card: a ♦ deals double its value (Bombardment), a ♣ its value. Or Regroup: play a ♣ to the discard and take any other discard into your satchel, dealing no damage. Or Flee: discard one card, and the adversary is reshuffled into the Journey. The adversary's counter strikes every traveller for its full value. Damage exactly equal to the remaining health scores a direct hit: bank Wreckage worth its attack. If it survives, cover its attack with card values and wreckage, or you fall.
The Aces. A♥ the Destination, Primrose Hill: set aside, and turned when the Journey empties — you have arrived. A♠ the Nemesis, the Fighting Machine: 40 health (+10 per traveller beyond the first), 20 attack; you can neither flee nor hide from it. A♣ the Reckoning, Terrestrial Bacteria: a free action in any fight, halving the remaining health, once. A♦ the Revelation, HMS Thunder Child: strike for 20 flat, and that round's counter −10. A♣/A♦ take no satchel room and count 0 if discarded.
Allies (optional). ♦/♣ faces trigger when played as your Strike: Jacks retrieve one same-suit card from the discard; Queens also reduce that round's counter by 5; Kings may rally as any rank 2–10 of their suit (♦ doubled).
The Return Journey (optional). Arriving is only half of it. Remove the two spendable Aces, shuffle the discard and one Joker back into the Supply, then forage until every satchel is full and set the Supply aside. Walk back through the ♥ you passed, in reverse, with Woking last. Each place asks a toll equal to its rank, per traveller, from one shared purse; overpayment is lost. Pay and score the place; fail, and that traveller stops there. Wreckage seeds face-down Ruins: pay half to strip one for salvage. The Joker steals a card at every stop until you shed a face card. Companions travel as before, and Q/K may be spent as a 10.
Companions (optional). One at a time: a ♥ face joins after its refuge-10. Q the Partner: +1 satchel limit. K the Witness: see the top Journey card. J the Burden: −1 limit, and the group can neither flee nor hide. Be rid of him via an adversary (not the Nemesis) — every traveller discards one card, plus one further card from any one traveller — or discard the Deliverance (10♣) free at any time. Q/K may be spent as value 10 when covering. Any companion who leaves is removed from the game, and anything hidden with them is lost.