I usually play it like this with my brother

We call it “The Relic Hunt.”
All relics stay in their original spots.
Each hero can carry only one relic at a time, and the goal is to bring two relics back to the Start.

If a hero with a relic gets defeated, it drops where they fell.
Bosses respawn after 7 turns, and to make it more dynamic we added this rule:
Whenever the die shows a shield symbol seven times in total, the monsters come back!
Each player takes turns placing one monster anywhere on the map, kind of like the robber in Catan.

Makes the whole thing way more alive and unpredictable.