Fortenax

Early on you come across a wizard held inside a cage of fire. He is Fortenax. Whatever bound him took his power with it, and he cannot break out on his own — so he asks you to do it for him.

He needs Wood, and orbs of fire and of ice. The orbs drop from the elemental wolves and nothing else, so the wolves and the wizard are one job.

Free him and he pays well. Among what he hands over is one item nobody can identify — it holds tremendous power, and it will matter in an update still to come. Keep it safe until then.

World Map Events

Exploring is no longer only about what you find standing there. Travel through a region and the land puts situations in front of you — a fire someone left still burning, something moving in the trees behind you, a stranger who wants something before he lets you pass. You decide how to handle it, and your decision directs how it ends.

Sixty of these are live across grassland, forest, mountain and desert. A card comes up, tells you what you have walked into, and gives you options. Outcomes are real: a choice can hand you loot, drop you straight into a fight, or cost you Health and Energy.

Events get more frequent the harder the land gets — a quiet crossing of grassland is not the same gamble as a walk through the desert.

The most important thing to understand: an event is not always a reward. Some of these are traps, and the safe-looking option is not always the safe one. Read the card.

Elemental Wolves

Something in the wild has stopped being only an animal. Two packs now range the map with an element living in them, and neither fights the way anything you have cleared before fights.

Fire Wolves are fast and hit disproportionately hard when they land a good strike. They will take a party apart if you let the fight run long.

Ice Wolves are the opposite problem: slow, armored, and they punish you for swinging. Trading blows with one is how you lose Echoes.

They hold their own ground in specific parts of the map, sometimes running with goblins. Both are worth hunting — they carry more than the wolves you are used to, and they are the only things in the world that drop the orbs.

Homestead

Homesteads have arrived, and they can be placed on the map today — ground of your own, held early, before what is coming gets here.

A Homestead needs quieter ground than any other settlement. Clearing a zone comes first, and keeping it clear matters after that.

A larger logic for Homesteads is in development, and there will be more news in the coming releases.

Two Shops Open

Two trades that had premises and no craftsman behind them are working now: the Woodshop and the Potion Shop.

Eleven New Recipes

• Woodshop — Wood Plank, Short Wood Sword
• Potion Shop — Lesser and Light Health Potions, Lesser and Light Energy Potions
• Archery — Crude Bow, Yew Longbow
• Forge — Shovel
• Tannery — Rope
• Anywhere — Torch

Six of these were stocked in shops until today. All four potions, the Short Wood Sword and the Crude Bow can no longer be bought from the local store — they are crafted now. That makes potions in particular dependent on somebody running a Potion Shop.

Wood Planks and Rope feed the better bows, so the archery line now runs through two other shops before it reaches you.

Starting Out

The opening mission chain has been rebuilt. It still walks you from your first two wolves to your first brute goblin, but it now pays in equipment as well as Gold — you finish it dressed and armed rather than just richer.

Also In This Update

• The Global Store is easier to find — the button has moved and it is hard to miss now.
• New sound in the world, and around the wizard in particular.

See you in the Night.

Play Mirandus Eternal Night