Tainted

Tainted cards were introduced with Mists of Bilehall and appeared again in The Chains that Rust.

File:Tainted Card Back.png

Back side of Tainted Cards.

During quests or the campaign in either of those expansion, the heroes use a new type of card: Tainted cards.
Tainted cards represent the corruption that afflicts the heroes as they linger in the Mistlands.
At the start of each quest, the overlord shuffles the Tainted cards together and deals 1 card to each hero,
placing it facedown near each hero’s Hero sheet. No player should know which card has been dealt to any hero.
The overlord places the remaining cards aside. While a hero has a Tainted card in his play area, apply +2 to that hero’s Health.
When a hero with a facedown Tainted card is defeated, he flips that card faceup.
That hero is then affected by that card until the end of the quest or a game effect flips it facedown again.

FAQ

Q: Can a tainted hero stand himself up?

A: A tainted hero cannot stand themselves up, as by definition this would be recovering hearts from a tainted source. Keep in mind that there IS an exception for heroic feats, so a character like Orkell the Swift is able to revive himself with his feat, and a tainted Avric Albright would be able to revive knocked out heroes through the use of his heroic healing feat.

Source FFG Forum user Charmy

Q: I looked around and couldn't find an answer, but my group and I have been discussing the repercussions of the new taint cards from Mists of Bilehall. The first thing I thought when I read them was that I'd like to start using them with our current Nerekhall campaign because they seem to give back some power to the overlord because power creep has really been favoring heroes over the various expansions. My friend thinks they are too strong though because of how he reads the effect. Which leads me to my question:

A: While you can house rule as you like, it is important to not that tainted cards are not intended to be used outside of Mists of Bilehall. Using them in Nerekhall is not intended because the quests are not designed to end if all heroes are KO.

Source FFG Forum user Zaltyre