Sites and rumours

In short: scattered across the wilds are shrines that heal you, ruins worth searching, watchtowers that fill in your map and hermits who sell potions. Each works once a day. Every morning the rumour board points you at four places, including a treasure cache that only you can dig up.

How it works

Sites

Sites are special places in the world. They are fixed: a shrine you find today is still there tomorrow, and every player sees the same ones. None sits within 2 tiles of Oakhaven, and none shares a tile with a boss lair.

When you stand on a site, the location card shows what it offers and a button to use it. Arriving at a site never starts a random encounter.

• Shrine: heals 40% of your maximum HP. Shrines exist so a long walk out doesn't end your day with a walk back to the inn.
• Ruin: the item rolls 1 tier above the usual tier for your level, but never above the tier your boss kills allow (see Levels and gear). The gold is what one monster would drop there. There is a 30% chance of a trap that wounds you, though it never kills and you keep the loot. Ruins are the one site that costs a turn, because they are the one that makes you stronger.
• Watchtower: reveals the land around it on your map, so you can plan a route instead of stumbling into it.
• Hermit: sells potions for 1.25× the Oakhaven price (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold), less on a Harvest Fair (see Omens). The usual carrying limit of 5 potions still applies. Hermits are there so you can restock without going home.

Each site works once per day for you: once you have prayed at a shrine, searched a ruin or climbed a tower, the button reads "Already used today" until the daily reset. A hermit's stock is also yours alone and refills at the reset. Different sites are counted separately, so two shrines mean two heals.

The rumour board

Every day you hear four rumours. In Oakhaven the list is headed "Notice board in Oakhaven"; out in the wilds it reads "Rumours you have heard". The Rumours tab shows how many you have not yet followed up.

1. The next boss on your ladder, with its lair and level (see Bosses).
2. A hermit or a shrine somewhere around Oakhaven.
3. A ruin or a watchtower somewhere around Oakhaven.
4. A treasure cache, buried somewhere just for you.

Every rumour names coordinates, and most give a direction and a distance too. Your rumours are yours: another player hears different ones. They stay the same all day, down to the wording, and change at the reset. A rumour is ticked "visited" once that tile is on your map (a watchtower's view counts), and the cache is ticked "claimed" once you have dug it up.

Your quest sits above the rumours on the same tab, and a quest on offer counts in the tab's number too (see Quests). If a monster killed you on a hunt and still prowls where you fell, it heads the board, marked as your nemesis, with where it is, the gold it holds and how long it stays. It takes none of the four rumours' places, and it leaves the board once it is slain or gone (see Nemesis). Settlements have talk of their own: the locals tell you of the nearest site (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold).

Your word

Tomorrow's rumours are known the evening before, so when your turns are spent (or you have fallen) the Evening lets you choose one of them as your intention: the boss, the shrine or hermit, the ruin or watchtower, or the cache (see The daily loop). The next morning that rumour heads the board and the dawn's list, marked Your word. It is one of the four, moved to the top, so the list never grows, and it is the same kind of rumour you chose, pointing wherever that rumour points on the day you actually play: if you skip a day, it is that day's shrine or cache, not the one you read about.

You keep your word by reaching the place that day: stepping onto it (any time, even if you have been there before), using the site or challenging the boss there if you camped on it overnight, or digging up the cache. The board then ticks it "word kept", and the next chronicle says so; if the day went elsewhere, the chronicle says that too, kindly. Keeping your word brings nothing beyond what the rumour already offers: it is a promise to yourself, not a quest.

Treasure caches

The cache rumour marks a tile somewhere out in the wilds, further out as you level up. Walk onto it and you dig it up instead of meeting an encounter. Inside you find:

• gold equal to 4 kills of a monster at that distance, with the usual bonus for being far from Oakhaven, and 2× that in the Long Fog (see Omens);
• a guaranteed piece of equipment, one tier above the usual tier for your level (still capped by your boss kills).

Only you can claim your cache, and only once. If you leave it, it is gone at the reset and a new one is rumoured somewhere else.

Rumours on the map

Rumours you have not followed up are drawn on the parchment map as a dashed ring with an X, even on ground you have not explored yet. On the full-screen chart, tapping a rumoured place shows the rumour's text. See The interface for the map itself.

Sites move with the season: each new season scatters them afresh, so the shrine you relied on last season will be somewhere else.

Tips

• Read the board before you set out. A cache in the same direction as a shrine and your hunting ground is a good day.
• Choose tomorrow's rumour in the evening, while the day is fresh in your mind: the dawn then opens with a plan.
• The cache is worth several fights of gold, and the walk costs one turn a step. The further out it is, the more it pays.
• Save shrines for when you are badly hurt. They refuse to work at full health, and they come back tomorrow.
• Climb every watchtower you pass. It is free, and an explored map shows you sites you would otherwise walk past.
• Search a ruin with turns to spare and some HP in hand. The trap can't kill you, but it can end a fight badly afterwards.
• A hermit's price goes up with your level, as Oakhaven's does. Buy there when a trip home would cost more turns than the markup costs gold.