The Codex of Ages
finis omnium nunc est

Здобуток. Hand

Item. Relic. Tome. Blessed.

Cost: 2.

Нейтральний

Father Mateo deck only. Seal ().

You get +1 while there is a token sealed here.

When you would reveal a chaos token from the chaos bag, discard The Codex of Ages: Resolve the token that was sealed here as if it were just revealed from the chaos bag (instead of revealing a token from the chaos bag).

Andreia Ugrai
The Forgotten Age #13.
The Codex of Ages

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • "As If": This was added to the FAQ (v.1.7, March 2020) and then amended (v.1.8, October 2020). You can read the October ruling on the ArkhamDB rules page here. (I'm adding a hyperlink rather than retyping the rules in case in future the ruling is changed or amended - at that point, the rules page will be updated and all ArkhamDB FAQ entries will link to the correct ruling.)
Last updated

Reviews

I think this card is pretty useful. Now, in multiplayer, taking away the Elder Sign from the group to give Father Mateo +1 Willpower is not the best idea. If Father Mateo is taking a lot of Will tests, it actually isn't that bad of an exchange in a 2-player game; but at higher player counts it does start to hurt the group. More importantly, removing the Elder Sign takes away fun from other investigators and will quickly make you the least popular player on the table. I don't recommend it!

But this card is still fine as a kind of janky Seal of the Elder Sign. Just wait until you need to Shrivelling V a high-fight enemy or Rite of Seeking IV a high-shroud location, or attempt some other similarly high-reward, high-difficulty test, plop down The Codex of Ages, and use it right away. The 1-action, 1-card, 2-resource cost of the The Codex of Ages is easily justified by the guaranteed success on a critical test, and of course Father Mateo's Elder Sign effect will make back some of that anyway. It's a strong play, and I wouldn't use The Codex of Ages for its icons unless I was desperate.

Obviously nice with a teammate's Double or Nothing for e.g. six clues from Rite of Seeking IV. That's a power move.

In solo I would think +1 Willpower would ordinarily be superior to having the Elder Sign in the bag, even considering how useful Father Mateo's Elder Sign is. So you probably want to just play the Codex in advance there, if you have time. This will also make it easier to use the Codex against enemies, something that would otherwise be tricky in solo (but less so in multiplayer).

CaiusDrewart · 3125
Too bad the Father can't play scavenging to reassmble the ashes, after burning his book. — Django · 5070
I've always called it like a cop "I'm going to throw the book at him!". In some cases, I was assuming he literally throws the book at the monster. — duke_loves_biscuits · 1256
@Django: Yah, Scavenging with this and Grotesque Statue would be pretty sick for Mateo. Oh well. — CaiusDrewart · 3125
And now, it's time to figure out whether or not the potential combo is worth throwing in Versatile for that single copy of Scavenging. — Ruduen · 974
I heard somewhere that if the Serpents of Yig show up then they take the Elder Sign from this card but this seems incorrect to me. Serpents of Yig do not Seal anything; they have a Revelation to "search the chaos bag" for the Elder Sign. Now is said Elder Sign is on the Codex, I'm afraid the Serpent is s*** out of luck, isn't he? I also think that since the Codex says "seal" and not "search", that the Codex can seal the Elder Sign FROM the Serpents of Yig should they have if. — LaRoix · 1643
@LaRoix neither can steal from each other. Searching the bag is part of the Seal keyword. From the rules, "As an additional cost for a card with the seal keyword to enter play, its controller must search the chaos bag for the specified chaos token and place it on top of the card, thereby sealing it. " — Death by Chocolate · 1440
The main difference between the two is that since The Codex has the Seal keyword, you HAVE to be able to seal as part of the cost of the card, so you can't play it AT ALL if the elder sign isn't in the bag. The Serpants, however can enter regardless and might just whiff sealing the token if it isn't in the bag. — Death by Chocolate · 1440

You're paying 2 resources to automatically succeed a test in the future. It cost 1 action to play & you'll get that action back as part of Mateo's ability.

You don't wanna hold on to it for long, maybe a turn or two, as removing the hurts your team. This is exponential with more players. It's also better played at towards the end of the scenario when skill tests become harder & more important.

Mateo does have access to Shrine of the Moirai to return the codex to his hand potentially getting the 4x in a scenario!

Calprinicus · 5788
Moirai is a non-bo. Signatures have no level, so you can't get them back this way. — TheNameWasTaken · 3