There was some discussion on the matter in a thread about Skeleton Horde, but even Mike's input didn't clarify the matter (at least for me), so here it goes.
The text on the barrier:
“Each character at this location encounters this barrier … Banish this card.”
So we all know if Merisiel encounters the Falling Bell she may chose to evade it and shuffle it back into the deck. What happens however if she decides to encounter it?
Dissimilar to other barriers of the sort, the Falling Bell doesn't “each other character at this location summons and encounters the Falling Bell”. What the wording does seem to imply (to me), is that once anyone encounters the Falling Bell, it 'summons' copies of itself for each character at this location, and they're all dealt separately with.
Let's assume that each other character can evade their encounter with Falling Bell. What happens however, when the 'encounterer' wants to evade his copy? For reference, normal spreaders say “each character at this location summons and encounters...” and it is clear there that encounterer gets a chance to evade his summon. Shouldn't it be the same with Falling Bell? Or are we to assume that once the encountering player has decided to encounter the card and not to evade, he has forfeited his chance of evading at all?
The latter theory bring about the problem that either “everyone encounters this barrier”, but somehow everyone but one person can actually evade it, or that we assume that the time for evasion has passed, and therefore no one should be able to evade the effects (which seems counter-intuitive to the way other spreaders work).
For the record, I'm on the opinion (flavor-wise and mechanically), that once the active player chooses not to evade and to encounter the barrier, all players at the location must take the effect, without a chance of evasion. However, Mike has already stated in that other thread (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qekn?Am-I-allowed-to-evade-a-Skeleton-Horde) that Merisiel (not the active player) CAN evade the Bell.
So how does that work exactly? Is to active player allowed to evade a 'copy' of the Bell after he has chosen not to evade the card?
I would treat it like it said "Before you act, each other character at your location summons and encounters this card." Mike's input seems to be saying that only if the original encountering character evaded it would it shuffle back in. For anyone else, evading it only affects themself and everyone else still has to encounter it.
I would treat it like it said "Before you act, each other character at your location summons and encounters this card." Mike's input seems to be saying that only if the original encountering character evaded it would it shuffle back in. Fire anyone else, evading it only affects themself and everyone else still has to encounter it.
So there's a point of the turn where the character who encountered the Bell can't evade it any longer, but anyone else can?
Pretty much. If you look at where Mike said "but not" that is one of the things he is pointing out. And treating it like it happened before you act accomplishes that.
