Locking Assigned Dice During Resolution Phase in Elder Sign

Question

I came across a situation when attempting a mystery that had a terror effect that spawned a monster.

The player had completed one of the tasks using the yellow die. On the next roll, the terror effect triggered, spawning a monster that was supposed to lock the yellow die.

We ruled that the since the yellow die was already used to complete a task, it didn't make sense to remove it to put it on the monster and cause the task to become incomplete again. Once the resolution phase was over, we then locked the die on to the monster card.

Was that the correct ruling?

Answer 1

Yes, that would be correct.

The task on the current adventure is complete, and absolutely nothing in the rules states that anything can change that task state back to incomplete during the current turn. So up until the adventure card is completed and awarded, or in the end is failed and all the dice cleared, it's good. Even if it was a monster task, there is no rule that states the task can then be failed.

The specific text under the "Locked Die" says that:

Locked dice cannot be in the dice pool until they are unlocked.

If the die hadn't yet been used and was still in the pool, it would have immediately been removed from the pool and you would have been out of luck. Since it wasn't in the pool, just set aside to mark the task completion, the ruling was fine.

It could have been moved immediately to the locked marker and it would have simply been "understood" that the task was still complete, or as you did, simply moved it after it was no longer needed to mark the task.