Treasure Hunting¶
Creatures across the wilds sometimes carry treasure maps. Follow one to its region, search the right spot, and a buried vault opens beneath you: a lawless underground cavern of guardians with a cache of gold and old magic at the end. No skills and no tools required: any adventurer can read a map and any adventurer can dig.
The loop¶
- Find a map. Any creature that carries maps has a small chance to drop one on death. Tougher creatures carry higher level maps.
- Study it. Double-click the map. A chart opens showing a piece of the world around a red X, and the same X lights up on your world map. The map is imprecise on purpose: the vault lies hidden somewhere within the circle drawn on the chart, and higher level maps are fuzzier. The chart opens centered and keeps its controls inside the frame at every UI scale.
- Travel there. Your own position shows on the chart as a blue dot when you are close.
- SEARCH HERE. Stand where you believe the vault rests and press the button on the chart. Searching the wrong spot tells you plainly that nothing is there; the right spot splits the ground, and a cave entrance grinds up out of the earth. The map is consumed when its vault opens.
- Descend. Step into the mouth. The vault is a buried cavern; guardians wake in waves as you enter.
- Clear it. Cut down every wave. From level 3, the final wave is led by the Keeper of the Cache, a named champion.
- The cache. When the last guardian falls, the chest materializes at the heart of the cavern, unlocked and ready to plunder.
- Leave. A glowing blue gate stands at the cavern's exit; step through it to surface beside the entrance you came down. Once the cache appears the vault starts sealing: it closes half a minute after the last person leaves, and five minutes after the cache appears it closes no matter what, spitting anyone still inside out at the entrance.
The vault is lawless¶
The open entrance is visible to anyone passing, and anyone may walk down it while it stands. Inside the vault there is no law: any player can attack any other freely, with no criminal flag and no guards. Recall, Gate, Mark, and Teleport do not function inside; the entrance and the exit gate are the only ways in or out. Walking in or out is never punished. If the vault closes over you, you are spat out at the entrance. If you log out inside, you wake in town. A body left inside is returned to the surface at the dig site when the vault seals.
Bring friends or bring paranoia. Both work.
Map levels¶
| Level | Map | Search radius | Vault |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | plainly drawn | small | one wave |
| 2 | expertly drawn | modest | two waves |
| 3 | adeptly drawn | wide | the Keeper leads the final wave |
| 4 | cleverly drawn | wider | three waves + Keeper; richer cache |
| 5 | deviously drawn | widest | the deep vault; the richest cache |
Pinpoint accuracy is not required: searching anywhere within a few paces of the true spot works.
Rewards¶
The cache holds gold scaled by level, spell scrolls, gems, and old-school magic arms and armor whose power ladders with the map level. Guardians and the Keeper fight and reward like any wilderness kill.
Old maps¶
Treasure maps you had not yet used before this system went live still work: every unused old map now points at a real site of the same level. Old maps you had already completed are cleared away, since their treasure was claimed long ago. Check your bank box.