DAVY JONES LOCKER — EMBER & HAILSTONE

Davy Jones Variant

Port Variant rules for the full board game. A 12-tile loop around the edge of the map — 4 port corners with 2 hazard tiles between each. Race to accumulate crew and coin, then defeat the Kraken to reach the end.

Starting Setup

🏴‍☠️ Each Captain Starts With

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6 Coins

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6 Crew dice

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2 Cards

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1 Captain's Dice (battle die)

🎯 Goal

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Travel around the 12-tile loop, accumulating coin to buy crew

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You need enough crew to defeat the Kraken at the end and pass through to the final space

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If 2+ captains pass through, a Final Battle determines the winner

🗺 The Board

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12 tiles total around the outside edge

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4 corner tiles are Ports (buy crew, cards, play mini games)

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2 tiles between each Port — mostly hazards affecting your crew and capabilities

How a Round Works

Phase 1 — Betting Turn

Play a round of Liar's Dice or Perudo — with the variant that you can remove 2 or more matching numbers to re-roll those dice

🏆 Winner Gets

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Gain 2 coins

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Take the Pirate Die (3×ones, 3×sixes) — used in next round and for any game or battle this round

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Activate the tile you land on

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At a port — choose the mini game to play

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Bonus: the mini game winner's ante is paid by the bank

💀 Everyone Else

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Battle among losers for the Cursed Die

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Cursed Die: faces 0–5. Whatever you roll turns off that number on all dice during battles and Liar's Dice next round

Phase 2 — Sailing Turn

Everyone rolls the Sail Die and moves that many spaces

You may choose to slow your movement and take a Strong Winds token instead

Players may play Gold Cards during sailing — Gold Cards can disrupt sailing

Phase 3 — Tile Turn

Resolve your tile's event (see the Board Tiles below)

At a Port tile — the Betting Phase winner chooses and runs a mini game

Board Tiles (in order)

Starting Tile

Game starts and ends here. The final tile — if 2+ captains reach it after the Kraken, a Final Battle happens here.

⚓ Safe Lagoon — 1st Port

Buy crew, buy cards, play mini games to gain coins. 2 mini games are available at this port.

Plague Tile

Roll a die — that number is how many of your crew you must roll the Plague Die for. On a 0: nothing happens. On an ✕: that crew member is lost. Roll separately for each affected crew.

Watch Tower

Challenge another captain to a Tower Fight. Start with one die on the table — take turns dropping a die onto the tower to build it. If the tower falls on your turn, you lose and must give the other captain 1 crew.

⚓ Treasure Island — 2nd Port

Buy crew, buy cards, play mini games to gain coins. 2 mini games are available at this port.

Caught by the Navy

Lose 2 crew immediately. On your next turn you must roll to escape — use your Captain's Dice, and on any Sword result you escape. Otherwise you're stuck and must try again next turn.

Spy Glass

Take one Spy Glass token. On a later Betting Turn, spend it to secretly look at one other player's dice roll under their cup.

⚓ Black Market — 3rd Port

Buy crew, buy cards, play mini games to gain coins. 2 mini games are available at this port.

Curse Tile

Roll the Sail Die — that's how many Curse Cards you must draw. Curses last until the end of the game unless stated otherwise.

Bar Fight

Up to 3 players — anyone on the tile must play; if 2 or fewer, the first to land there picks opponents. Give each captain 2 Broken Bottles. With hands behind their backs, each secretly choose to hold 0, 1, or 2 bottles. Starting with whoever won the last Bar Fight (or whoever landed there first), each captain guesses the total bottles in all hands — all guesses must be different. Reveal: whoever guessed correctly (or closest without going over) wins the round and discards one bottle. Keep playing until someone empties both bottles. Each loser gives the winner 1 Cargo (Crew or Card).

⚓ Gamble — 4th Port

Buy crew, buy cards, play mini games to gain coins. Special: You may choose not to sail and stay in port to keep playing for more coins.

☠ Kraken

The final boss — no matter what you roll, you must fight the Kraken. You must roll at least 45 to survive and move to the End Tile. All 1s and 6s are lost in the battle — you're left with only the remaining dice for any further fights on the End Tile.

What Coins Buy

⚓ At a Port

Cost	What You Get
2 coins	1 Crew (max 10, or 11 with special Captain)
2 coins	1 Card
3 coins	1 Blue Strong Winds Token

⚔️ In Battles & On Tiles

Cost	What You Get
1 coin	Re-roll all dice once

Fallen Crew & Rescue Missions

💀 When Crew Are Lost

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Whenever a crew die is killed or removed, 1 crew die is always placed on the tile you are currently on

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Other captains who land on that tile may attempt a Rescue Mission

🎲 Rescue Mission

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Roll the Purple Die

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1: You rescue the crew — add them to your ship

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Skull: Rescue fails — the crew die remains on the tile

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Bomb: The rescue goes wrong — you lose one of your own crew

General House Rules — Always in Effect

🪙 Pot Carryover

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Coins left in the pot at the end of any mini game stay and carry forward to the next mini game pot

📦 Cargo Ante

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The Captain may always ante cargo from their own hold instead of a coin

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All other players may also ante any type of cargo instead of coin

Curse Cards

13 Curse Cards total — 5 are unique (★ marked with gold border). Drawn when landing on the Curse Tile. Most curses last until the end of the game unless stated as One-Time or Immediate.

Betting Curses

Forked Tongue

Betting Ongoing

Reveal immediately

Force your target to reveal one die of your choice from their cup, face up, for the remainder of the Betting Phase.

Ill Omen

Betting One-Time

Reveal face up before bets are revealed

You are now cursed. If you win this Betting Phase, you receive no Coins or Pirate Die control — the rewards are skipped entirely. Once this triggers, discard the card.

Sea Hag's Hex ★

Betting Ongoing

Reveal immediately

Target immediately rolls 1 die — the result is the cursed face value (a roll of 1 becomes a 6). For the rest of the game, the target's dice showing that face value count one lower whenever revealed during a Betting Phase (e.g. sixes become fives, twos become ones).

Battle Curses

The Kraken's Mark ★

Battle One-Time

Reveal immediately

You are now Marked. The next time you lose any battle this game, you lose 2 Crew Dice instead of 1.

Black Spot

Battle One-Time

Reveal when entering a battle

Your next Battle Die roll this round is downgraded one rank — a Skull becomes a Single, and a Single becomes a miss.

Davy Jones' Grip

Battle One-Time

Reveal when entering a battle

In the next battle you participate in, your roll automatically counts as the lowest result among all participants — regardless of what you actually rolled. If the card-player is also in that battle, their own roll resolves normally.

Bad Blood

Battle One-Time

Reveal at any time

Force a duel between two target players, outside the normal Sail Phase sequence. The loser of that duel immediately gives you 1 Crew Die.

Movement Curses

Trapped in the Grip

Movement One-Time

Reveal immediately

You cannot move forward during the next Sail Phase, regardless of dice results or other cards played.

The Albatross

Movement One-Time

Reveal at any time

Target's ship moves back 1 tile immediately and must re-trigger that tile's event.

Lost Bearings

Movement One-Time

Reveal immediately

Swap the target's ship position with whichever ship is currently in last place on the board.

Darker Curses — Kraken / Leviathan / Plague

Call of the Kraken ★

Darker Immediate

Immediate effect

Summon a Kraken battle for all ships within 3 tiles of yours that are not in a port. Each affected player rolls every die in their cup and sums the results. Any total below 30 fails to survive — that player sacrifices 2 Crew Dice, and their ship is pulled 1 tile toward the Curse Tile.

The White Leviathan ★

Darker Immediate

Immediate effect

Target's ship is harpooned. Until they win a Sail Phase battle, they may not play Gold Action Cards, and must sacrifice 1 Cargo (their choice: a Crew Die or a Card from hand) at the start of each Sail Phase.

The Hex Plague ★

Darker Immediate

Immediate effect

For the rest of this round, whenever the target loses a Crew Die for any reason (sacrifice, theft, battle), roll 1 Crew Die — the hex jumps that many players clockwise from the target, and that player also loses 1 Crew Die.