Crossings and cairns

In short: other players' heroes walk the same land. Now and then a step brings you face to face with one: challenge them to a duel for a little gold, trade stories for a little experience, or walk on. Nobody dies in a duel, and a hero who beats you for gold is more likely to cross your path again for a few days, so you can settle the score. When no player's hero is near, you may meet one of the realm's own heroes instead, a character of the game (see Rival heroes). Where heroes fall in battle, cairns rise, and those who pass can pay their respects.

How it works

Meeting another hero

A once-a-day game rarely has two players online at the same moment, so you meet other heroes as they stand in the realm, with their level, their gear and their strength. They do not need to be playing.

Each step onto dangerous ground (not a site or a lair) has a 4% chance of meeting another hero, when someone qualifies (see Fair play below). The meeting takes the place of that step's encounter, and choosing costs no turn:

A duel's stake is 10% of the gold the loser carries, but never more than 3 kills' worth of gold at their level. Nobody dies in a duel: at worst you end it on 1 health, and the other hero's health is not touched at all.

When the road would bring you a hero but no player's hero qualifies, you may meet one of the season's rival heroes instead: characters of the game, never players, and labelled as such. A duel with one is for experience only, with no gold either way (see Rival heroes).

A duel between two players' heroes can make the next morning's Daily Happenings, the paper every hero reads at dawn: who bested whom, and where (a rematch is bigger news). A player who keeps out of the paper is never named: their win is left out, their loss has them as "a traveller".

The other hero reads about it in their journal: who met them, and what gold they won or lost, or that you traded stories. Their next chronicle tells it too, straight after its opening line: who challenged them, whether they held, and the gold (see The chronicle and the story). So a duel fought against you while you were away is the first news you read at dawn. Back after a break of a day or more, the dawn's While you were away card also lists each duel fought against you, whether you held, and the gold won or lost.

Fair play

• New heroes are left alone for their first 2 days: they neither meet anyone nor are met.
• Only heroes of a similar level meet: in the same season, within 3 levels of each other, and only heroes who have played in the last 48 hours.
• Once a day per pair: two heroes meet at most once a day, whoever met whom, and whatever was chosen.
• A cap on losses: a hero who has lost 2 duels in a day as the one challenged cannot be challenged again until the next day. You can still meet them and trade stories.
• Duels are optional: turn Duels with other heroes off in Settings (Hero tab). Then nobody can challenge you and you cannot challenge anyone: your meetings only offer stories or walking on. The setting is kept with your account, on every device.
• Only carried gold: gold moves only if the loser still carries it when the choice is made, and gold in the Oakhaven bank is never at stake (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold).
• Ignoring a hero: you never meet a hero you ignore, and they never meet you (see below).

Grudges and rematches

Lose gold in a duel, whether you challenged or were the one challenged, and for 3 days you hold a grudge against the hero who beat you. A hero who begins again after the dragon (see Bosses) leaves their grudges behind, and the grudges held against them too: a duel from before a Rebirth belongs to the old climb. While it lasts, each time the road brings you face to face with another hero there is a 50% chance it is them, if they could be met anyway (the same season, level range and recent play as any meeting, not met today) and challenged today (duels on for you both, and not beaten too often today). If not, you meet whoever the road brings, which may still be them.

You know them when you see them: the meeting says so, and the duel is called Settle the score. It is fought like any duel, with them at full health, but the stakes differ:

• Win and you take back what they took from you, never more (and never more than their usual stake, from what they carry now).
• Lose and you pay the usual stake again.

Either way, the grudge is over. Walking on or trading stories leaves it for another day. If the hero who beat you challenges you again and wins, that starts a new grudge.

Only the hero who lost is steered: the one who won meets whoever the road brings, as before. They read of the rematch in their journal ("came back to settle the score"), and after a break their While you were away card says you came back for a rematch and whether you won your gold back. A grudge never outweighs an ignore: you never meet a hero either of you ignored.

Ignoring a hero

After any meeting, whatever you chose, the result offers Ignore and the hero's name, and so does the meeting's line in your journal. The hero you met can do the same from the line their journal gets when you duel them or trade stories, and a duel fought against them while they were away offers it on their While you were away card.

Once you ignore a hero, the road never brings the two of you together again, whoever is walking: they cannot meet you either. They are not told. Nothing else changes: they can still pay respects at your cairn, and their name still shows in the hall.

Heroes you ignore, in Settings (Hero tab), lists them with Undo. The list is kept with your account, on every device. It holds heroes, not players: a player's hero in a later season is a new hero.

Cairns

When a hero dies in a fight out in the wilds, whether to a monster, a boss or a quest's foe, a cairn rises where they fell. Walk onto that tile and the location card shows the last 3 heroes who fell there this season: their name, level, what killed them and when. Cairns are drawn on your map as a small pile of stones.

Pay respects at another hero's cairn to add a stone. It costs no turn and gives you 50% of the experience of a kill at your level, once a day for each cairn. Your own cairn is shown too, but you cannot mourn yourself. Each cairn counts the stones that have been added.

The hero under the cairn hears of it: your name appears in their journal, their next chronicle says who honoured their cairn, and after a break their While you were away card names you too (see The chronicle and the story).

Cairns are there so the realm remembers: a tile where several heroes fell is a warning worth reading. Paying your respects can make the next morning's Daily Happenings, small news but news.

A cairn raised by a hunt may have the monster that did it still beside it, named and holding the fallen hero's gold: their nemesis. Whoever slays it first keeps the gold (see Nemesis).

Tips

• You duel as you stand and they fight at full health, so heal before walking where you might want to duel.
• Trading stories is always safe and helps you both.
• A rematch is a bet with a capped prize: the hero who beat you once still defends at full health. Heal before settling the score, and walk on if they have grown stronger since.
• Bank your gold before a long walk: duels, like deaths, only take what you carry.
• Before hunting near a cairn, read what killed the heroes under it.
• A hero who keeps seeking you out is easy to be rid of: ignore them from your journal.
• A tile with several cairns is worth passing through: each one you honour gives experience, every day.