Shells MMCCCXXXIV

Shells is a turn-based tabletop game with puzzle elements. After receiving a letter from your long-missing cousin, you travel to your family’s old manor in Vienna, only to be drawn into a blood-soaked ritual woven into the history of your lineage. To survive, you must complete the rite, follow your cousin’s trail, and face the ancient power that still hungers for your bloodline. 

Ritual

Pyramid stands before you, its hollow core hiding a trembling heart. Each turn you and the cube drive your blades into the openings along its surface, feeling your way toward the single path that reaches the heart. When a blade finds it, the pain claims the dagger’s true owner. As the rite deepens, more of the cube’s five shifting faces turn toward you, each bringing a new opponent and a harder trial.

Arcane Cards

Fortune is a fickle goddess, and she won’t carry you far on her own. To stand a chance, build a deck of arcane cards that let you push back against her whims. But nothing in this life comes free, and the cards are no exception. Some ask for insight earned by sacrificing other cards, while others consume the daggers you gain by risking your life with the pyramid. How well you manage these resources decides whether your deck saves you or leaves you to Fortune’s mercy.

Cipher

Your cousin has left you letters that hint at where he went and what your family has been hiding. Each one is sealed, and to read it you must first find a keyword and set it into the cryptex. Clues to each word lie in a family book, a collection of your bloodline’s texts that stretches from the truths behind your childhood tales to the myths of an ancient pact with something beyond this world.