Treasure Hunting¶
Creatures across the wilds sometimes carry treasure maps. Follow one to its dig site, put a shovel in the ground, and a buried vault opens beneath you: a lawless underground chamber of guardians with a cache of gold and old magic at the end.
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.
- Decipher it. Double-click the map, or open the satchel with
[tmapsand choose DECIPHER. Cartography gates each level (table below). A failed attempt can be retried. - Follow the X. Deciphering marks an X on your world map. The map is imprecise on purpose: the vault lies hidden somewhere within the map's search radius of the X, and higher level maps are fuzzier. TRACK in the satchel re-lights the X any time.
- Dig. Near the true site, with a shovel or pickaxe in your pack, double-click the map. The ground splits, the earth rumbles, and a cave entrance grinds up out of the ground.
- Descend. Step into the mouth. The vault is a buried chamber; 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 who carries the cache key.
- The cache. When the last guardian falls, the chest materializes on the dais. From level 3 it is locked: use the Keeper's key, or pick it. From level 2 it is trapped, so bring Remove Trap or eat the blast.
- Leave. Climb the staircase to surface; you emerge beside the cave entrance. Once the cache is opened, the vault begins to seal; two minutes later it ejects everyone to town and the entrance sinks back into the earth.
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 mouth is the only way in or out. Walking in or out is never punished. If you log out inside, or the vault closes over you, 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 | Cartography to decipher | Search radius | Vault |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | plainly drawn | any | small | one wave, unlocked chest |
| 2 | expertly drawn | 41 | modest | two waves, trapped chest |
| 3 | adeptly drawn | 51 | wide | Keeper appears; chest locked (84 lockpicking) |
| 4 | cleverly drawn | 61 | wider | three waves + Keeper; richer cache |
| 5 | deviously drawn | 70 | widest | the deep vault; cache locked at 100 lockpicking |
Digging accuracy is not required: anywhere within a few paces of the true site works. Mining does not change the dig.
The satchel¶
[tmaps opens the treasure map satchel: every map in your pack with its
level, decipher state, the distance and direction to its X, and DECIPHER
and TRACK at a click. Maps whose vault has been plundered read as spent.
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 found before this system went live work again: every old map now points at a real site of the same level. Check your bank box.