This is an optional variant.

Shuffle the 16 exploration tokens and randomly place one exploration token, face down, in each region not occupied by a player’s starting meeple. The number of exploration tokens in play will vary by the number of players you have. Do not place exploration tokens on water or crags regions. When a meeple moves into a region with an exploration token, reveal the token and resolve it as described below:

Crown- The crown is put into possession of the player who finds it. This is placed on their faction card. It is worth 2 victory points at the end of the game. If the player who has the crown ever loses a war, they must yield the crown to the player who defeated them.

Treasure- Immediately gain two resources of your choice and discard this token.

Bandit- When this token is revealed, you immediately get ambushed. Pay two resources of your choice or remove your meeple and place it back in your supply. Then discard this token.

Dragon’s Lair- This token stays on the board in the region that it was found. If the player that controls this region defeats another player in war, in any region, he/she may make the losing player drop one level on the tower card instead of losing his/her meeple. In this event, the loser’s meeple must retreat to an open adjacent region at no cost. If there is no open adjacent region then the meeple is removed and placed in the losing player’s supply. The losing player’s tower level is still dropped by one.

Camp- This token stays on the board in the region that it was found. This region now gives an additional resource to the player who controls it. The resource is of the same type of the region.

Fort- This token stays on the board in the region that it was found. The player who controls this region is granted -2 war cost when attacking any region.

Town- This token stays on the board in the region that it was found. At the end of the game, this region is worth one additional VP.

Church- This token stays on the board in the region that it was found. If the player that controls this region loses a meeple in war, they may place it in the region with the church instead of losing it. This can only be done once. Discard the church token once it has been used. If there are two meeples in the region with the church, its power cannot be used.

Blank- This token does nothing, discard it.