CoE Digest #211 Q2 - River on a site

[DamienX207]

What happens if River is played on a company's new site, but then the company uses an effect to move to a different site and thus the site with River is discarded?

When River is played on a site, its effect remains on that site for the rest of the turn, even for other companies that move to that site. However, whenever any entity in MeCCG leaves play, any ongoing effects on that entity end immediately, meaning that if River is played on a site and then the site is discarded or returned to its player’s location deck, the effect of River (or any other effects on the site) would end.

As an example, a Balrog player moves their Company #1 from The Under-gates to The Under-leas, and Player B plays River on The Under-leas. Player A then plays Gangways over the Fire to move Company #1 to another site, this time from The Under-leas to The Iron-deeps. At the end of this second movement-hazard phase, if no other companies have declared movement to The Under-leas, it would be returned to the Balrog player's location deck and the River effect on it would end. Because River wasn’t played on The Iron-deeps, Company #1 may enter its current site during its site phase without having to tap a ranger.

Continuing the example, if the Balrog player were to move Company #2 to The Under-leas later on the same turn after the site had been returned to the location deck (e.g. again with Gangways over the Fire), River would no longer be in effect on the site so Company #2 could also enter without tapping a ranger. However, if Company #2 had declared movement to The Under-leas at the same time as Company #1 when declaring movement at the end of the organization phase, the site would not have been returned to the location deck, River would still be in effect for Company #2 even though it was played during the movement/hazard of Company #1, and Company #2 would then need to tap a ranger to enter.