Autonomous adventurers

The shard keeps a small standing population of server-controlled adventurers: a pair in each dungeon, two in the capital, a lumberjack, a miner and a ship's captain, replaced automatically after a restart. They use ordinary character appearances, varied equipment, movement and combat. Their character profiles identify them as server-controlled. They are not connected human players and do not increase the online player count.

Town adventurers run errands between the capital's NPCs, from the bank counter and Elder Mara to the smith, the tavern and the training yard, and now and then make a long trip to the harbour or the rat-catcher's house by the south wall. Dungeon adventurers explore an assigned dungeon area in pairs, sharing targets and bandaging each other, and push deeper when nothing is left near the entrance. Melee fighters and archers engage ordinary hostile creatures, drink heal and cure potions, step out of boss telegraphs (not always in time), retreat when hurt, and take breaks. They loot the corpses they earn and dump the take at the bank; nothing is sold. They do not initiate attacks against players. Attacked by one, they run for the town bank and wait under the guards rather than fight back. The captain is the exception: it patrols the water east of the docks and fires on enemy fleets and on any player ship it sights, under the same lawless-waters rules as everyone else. Normal local combat and guard rules still apply. They can be killed, even during general playtest death protection. On configured dungeon routes, their ghosts run to an exit or town gate before recovering after at least three to four minutes. A dead adventurer lies still for ten to fifteen seconds first, its custom robe, cloak and boots go into its pack rather than staying on the ghost, and the ghost runs at ordinary foot pace. If you resurrect one it thanks you, goes back for its body, puts its gear on again and heads out to the bank to regear. It gets no new gear until its usual recovery time has passed. Adventurers at the bank counter ask the banker for their bank like anyone else.

They wear lootable, ordinary exceptional equipment with no magical bonuses and can carry up to 3,000 gold collected from monsters. Their gear, supplies and carried gold can be looted from their corpses. Their custom robes or coats, flowing cloaks and custom boots are blessed and do not drop. Killing them does not award player-kill progression.

Cathedral, Temple, Pit and Depths adventurers run out, ride the roads to town, visit the central bank, deposit earnings and ride back to the dungeon entrance. The lumberjack and the miner work the woods and rock near the capital and haul their take to the bank the same way. Recall uses mana and scrolls and follows normal travel restrictions. Replacement travel supplies cost their earned gold. Banking requires a nearby banker. Their bank storage is bounded, and full banks or insufficient travel supplies make them rest.

Adventurers run at normal player speeds and ride horses outside dungeons, dismounting for dungeon travel. They still stop for combat, casting, banking and occasional rests. Blocked paths do not allow them to walk through walls.

They do not complete reward-paying quests, join queues, or speak as though they were real players. Farming pauses when no connected player is nearby; travel already underway can continue. This is an early staff-controlled test system, not a replacement for player groups.