Just bringing to the designers' attention that Scenario 6-4B: Rock and Steel has an almost entirely nonfunctional reward.
For the rest of the Adventure Path, when you close a location and move to the Base, you may immediately explore it once.
Note that the Core Rulebook forbids this exploration from occurring... admittedly unless you closed your location, during your turn and outside of your explore step .
If a location is closed during your explore step, you may no longer explore.
If the storybook, cards, or rules are ever in conflict, the storybook overrides the cards, and the cards override the rules. There is one exception to this: When the rulebook uses the word “never” or “always,” nothing can override it. If powers on cards conflict with one another, locations override support cards, support cards override characters, and characters override other card types.
Despite this hierarchy, if the storybook or a card says that you cannot do something and something else says that you can, comply with the one that tells you that you cannot. For example, if you’re at a location that says you cannot move, and the scenario has an effect that would move your character, you do not move.
The Rules As Written here is very clear; you cannot explore the Base after closing a location, even if you have a power that would seem to let you do so. I have no doubt that the single exploration granted by the reward is meant to let you break that restriction (albeit only for that one exploration), but this is objectively not supported in RAW.
Barring a formal errata; do PACS players (and Box Runners) have implicit or explicit permission to play it as it appears to be intended? I'm uncomfortable using my own judgement for RAI (no matter how clear it is) as justification for overruling the RAW for players in a formal, PACS setting.
For the rest of the Adventure Path, when you close a location and move to the Base, you may immediately explore it once; closing your location does not prevent this exploration.
There's probably a more text-efficient way to describe the same effect, but I just used the accepted template for such an effect, lifted from Amiri (Core).
So actually, your bolded text does not say anything about the rulebook, and the rule about not exploring after closing a location is in the rulebook. So it might not need your clarification.
...huh, I never actually noticed that. But surely that's an oversight, or not describing the complete rules?
If a card telling you that you can overrides the rules that say you can't (since Cards override Rules, as per the Golden Rules), then that means ANY power that lets you explore would override the rulebook statement that prevents you from exploring further. Which would render that rule effectively nonfunctional, because that's the only way to explore past your free exploration anyway.
admittedly unless you closed your location, during your turn and outside of your explore step .
"You may never explore outside of your explore step."
So, yeah, intent is that this power overrides the prohibition on exploring on close, as it requires the close to work and it can never work outside of closing during your explore step. It's possible that someone may want to change the language on it, but since there's literally no other way for it to function (without opening a rules black hole), it's at least clear what to do in the mean time.
admittedly unless you closed your location, during your turn and outside of your explore step ."You may never explore outside of your explore step."
So, yeah, intent is that this power overrides the prohibition on exploring on close, as it requires the close to work and it can never work outside of closing during your explore step. It's possible that someone may want to change the language on it, but since there's literally no other way for it to function (without opening a rules black hole), it's at least clear what to do in the mean time.
Thanks!
Though, there's a few ways to close outside of your exploration step (such as a power that is "Examine and encounter"); so if The Red Raven used his power to encounter and defeat a closing henchman before his exploration step...
He's able to accept the power to move to the Base and explore, either way, right? If you're given an exploration before your exploration step, you just jump to your exploration step and lose your free one - at least that's how I remember it being ruled from Imrijka (WotR)'s power, if she encounters a summoned monster at the start of her turn and wants to leverage that for her exploration.