Lairs · Board game rules
How do Treasure and monsters interact with Lairs?
Quick answer
Monsters are Hazard Features placed in lair spaces, while Treasures are found inside Chests (a Goal Feature); both count toward achievements needed to Exit and toward final scoring.
Details
During Lair building, Monsters and Chests are both Features placed one per space in the grid — Monsters are a type of Hazard, while Chests are a type of Goal that hold Treasures [p.5 — BUILDING YOUR LAIR]. The Peril Rule requires that every Goal (including each Chest) remain reachable from the Start without passing through two Hazards of the same type, so a path may pass through at most one Monster and one Trap on the way to a Chest [p.5 — THE PERIL RULE].
While exploring, if you move into a Chest space, you may open it to gain two Treasures — one drawn blind from the deck and one chosen from the face-up display — and the Chest token goes to your achievements row [p.10 — GOALS / CHESTS & TREASURES]. Separately, if you move into a Monster's space, you must fight it via a dice check against its Target; defeating it also earns you an achievement token, and some Monsters (outside the base game's Hungry Blob) grant Treasure or other rewards upon defeat [p.9 — FIGHTING MONSTERS].
Both defeated Monsters and opened Chests matter for exiting the lair: you need to reach specific combinations (3 Chests, 3 Monsters, or 2 Chests + 2 Monsters) before you're allowed to use the Exit [p.10 — THE EXIT]. They also both contribute to your final score — Treasures via your collection (up to 4 kept face-up) and Monsters via bonus points for your 2nd and 3rd defeats [p.11 — GAME END].
Watch out: Monsters and Chests don't interact directly with each other — a Monster doesn't guard or block a Chest's space unless its card says so, and defeating a Monster never grants Treasures unless the Monster's card explicitly lists a reward [p.9 — HAZARDS; p.9 — FIGHTING MONSTERS].