Each character at a distant location from the villain may immediately attempt to fulfill the To Guard requirement for their location; the villain’s location cannot be guarded. You may decide the order in which these attempts are made. If anything causes a character to move to another distant location before their attempt is made, they may attempt to guard only their new location. If any character succeeds, their location is guarded and the villain cannot escape there this encounter (see the Determine Whether the Villain Escapes section for more details). Guarding a location only prevents the villain from escaping there during this encounter; when the encounter ends, the location is no longer guarded.