Wax Eaters roam the labyrinth, nightmarish monsters that despise the light and attack any soul that moves in their presence. They are the only monsters inhabiting the core game, but they are to be avoided at all cost.

Wax Eaters are drawn & placed like any other tile. Once placed, Wax Eaters are motion sensitive. They will attack anytime a Prisoner moves along, into, or out of a pathway connected to them in a straight line. Wax Eaters attack in all 4 directions simultaneously, as far as they can reach down an uninterrupted pathway, including around the wrapping edge of the board.

POTENTIAL range of attack, wrapping around all edges to the opposite side.

1. The attack UP hits PURPLE but stops at the “T”, unable to strike the 4-way above it because the path is interrupted.

2. The attack RIGHT is stopped by empty spaces. But the attack LEFT hits RED as it wraps to the other side of the board.

3. The attack DOWN is stopped by the PIT. GREEN is not hit.

An empty space, without a tile, creates an interruption that the Monster cannot see past. Likewise, Pits interrupt the pathway and therefore a Monster will not trigger, nor strike, a Prisoner across an existing Pit.

Monsters are triggered to attack when a Prisoner MOVES within their line of sight, by FALLING onto one, and/or in a CHAIN REACTION, where another Monster’s attack hits them.

While movement in their line of sight triggers an attack, moving out of a Monster’s line of attack evades their strike and its penalties.

This is true of Falling through a Crumbling tile or Leaping into a Pit, as well. It’s like taking a side Passage. The Monster will be triggered, but Falling avoids the attack.

Falling onto a monster triggers the Monster immediately, attacking the Prisoner who landed on it AND any Prisoner in line of sight. After the attack, the falling Prisoner scrambles to an adjacent space, either an existing tile, or a newly drawn one.

If a Wax Eater’s attack hits another Monster, that Monster also attacks in a chain reaction. Below, a single move by any Prisoner will trigger all Monsters. Only the first player to Move or Fall can avoid being hit.

Penalties:

When a Prisoner is struck by a Wax Eater attack (either at range or by falling on one):

• Discard the top 3 tiles from the Draw Stack face up.

• That Prisoner goes LIGHTS OUT.

These penalties are incurred for each Prisoner hit by a given Monster. Multiple Prisoners can be hit at the same time and/or a Prisoner can be hit by multiple monsters, leading to a massive amount of tiles discarded from the Draw Stack. Such a large loss of tiles risks discarding critical tiles needed to win – or simply devour so much wax that your lights will fail before you can escape.