Quests & exploration

Quests start with
something small.

In Icesus you find adventures by paying attention: a delivery that never arrived, someone with something on her mind, a path you nearly walked past.

Follow a story →Plan your first outing
Travellers follow a winding path through a cold pine valley toward a timber mill beside a stream.

The Guest Table · a newcomer story

The rye that
never arrived.

Rye meant for Vaerlon’s guest share has stopped on the south road. The grain should become bread for travellers arriving cold. Someone needs to find out what happened.

  1. Notice what is there.

    Read the room and look closely at the things it names. A delivery account, a piece of working equipment or something beside the road can turn out to be a lead. Start with look and look at <thing>.

  2. Let people tell you more.

    Vizra’s missing delivery is a story about people doing ordinary work. Ragnhild keeps the south-road accounts. Listen for the subjects an inhabitant mentions, then ask about the one you want to follow.

  3. Follow the evidence.

    Take what you have learned beyond the city. At a stranded cart, the surroundings and the people’s accounts help explain why the load stopped, and what you learn there points to the next step.

  4. Make your contribution.

    Help the grain on its way. At the mill you choose who gets the first loaf.

  5. Finish the job.

    See the load through to the mill so the guest-share custom can continue. Completing this chapter earns experience and coin.

A traveller listens to a local inhabitant beside sacks and practical tools in a warmly lit timber doorway.

A manageable beginning

Start close to home.

You can have a first adventure inside Vaerlon. Visit Vizra at the warehouse, take on one small task and return to her before choosing a longer journey.

  1. Pick up the thread.journey

    After the tutorial, your newcomer journey shows the current chapter and its next step. It guides this introduction; it is not a journal of every quest in the world.

  2. Find the warehouse.hike to warehouse

    In Vaerlon, this walks you through the city to Vizra’s workplace. Read the surroundings when you arrive.

  3. Talk before you act.ask vizra

    Learn about her work. Young adventurers can help with rats, and the warehouse also rewards sharp eyes. Start on the ground floor; leave the larger cellar rats until the small ones come easily.

  4. Return and decide what comes next.

    Talk to Vizra again after helping. Follow the guidance you are given, or stop to rest and prepare. A short successful outing is a good first evening.

Before you pass the gates

Pack for the return
journey, too.

For your first trip into the wild, choose a nearby destination, travel in daylight and keep to the roads. Leave yourself enough strength to get home.

Light for the dark.

Carry a torch or another suitable light source, with a spare for a longer trip. Vizra can help new adventurers with torches. Darkness can hide the very details you came to find.

Food, water and room in your pack.

Bring food and a filled water flask. Leave space for what you find, and take the equipment you know how to use. You can also cook your own meals.

A destination and a way back.

In town, map landmarks lists destinations and map inn gives directions. In the outworld, survey helps you spot known landmarks. Some places still need to be found by exploring.

Know when to turn around.

Check hp, use consider <monster> before starting a fight, and learn help wimpy. Rest or return before your resources run low. Ask for company when a route feels beyond you.

Open the world map →Use the text map →Your first commands →

Leave yourself another lead

Where to go
next.

A few places for a newcomer to try next. None of them needs a walkthrough.

Visit Drudric.

East of Vaerlon, Drudric welcomes beginning adventurers with tasks. Help him and you can earn access to a portal leading to other newcomer areas.

Lend a hand at the farm.

At Gale’s berry farm, the farmer is ill and his wife has too much to do.

Read what remains.

An abandoned homestead and its mill still hold traces of the people who lived there. Read what they left behind, and be careful: something lives in the outbuildings.

Explore at your own pace.

Some discoveries lead to a quest, others to a useful service, a new hunting ground or a better understanding of a place.

Take a little of the world home.

Your journeys can also supply a craft: a hunt yields a skin, a gathered material becomes something useful, and a market gives you a reason to visit another settlement.

Follow gathering into crafting →Discover the world’s history →

Start playing

Find your first story.

Make a character, meet the people of Vaerlon, and follow the detail that catches your attention.

Create your character →Return to the game