Setup

Each player is dealt a Wizard and places it face up in front of them. The extra Wizards are not used.

Shuffle the Spell cards together and deal each player 7 of them. Each player keeps 5 and discards the rest. The retained Spell cards form the player's hand of Spells, called their Spellbook.

Shuffle the discarded Spells together with the remaining Spells to form the Research deck.

Shuffle the Creature cards together to form the Recruitment deck.

Dungeons start empty, with no Guard.

Each player rolls the die, with the highest roller starting play, and play proceeding clockwise.