Caravans¶
Civilization
Towns ride on the backs of enormous walking beasts.
| Kind of world | Civilization |
|---|---|
| Serum in the arrival Box | 2 ampoules |
| Native Serum stand-in | None: bring spare Serum |
| Quests | None |
caravans-beastWhat happens when you arrive¶
Golden grass runs to every horizon under a hot, dry sky, and the ground shakes softly. Somewhere, a town is walking. In this world no town stands still: each one rides the back of a Caravan Beast, a placid giant with pillar legs and two tusks, a house on its back and two traders on its deck. The first one is always ambling past a short walk east of the arrival Box.
The rule: the towns walk¶
There's no strange physics here. The twist is that the only people in the world live on the move, and their market goes wherever the beast decides.
| What | How it works |
|---|---|
| Climbing aboard | Use the beast to climb onto its deck, three blocks up. Up to four riders in all. |
| Getting off | Sneak. |
| Steering | Nobody steers. The beast goes where it likes, slowly, forever. Ride along and walk back. |
| Trading | Right-click a trader, from the deck or from the ground (the beast passes your click on to the trader you're looking at). |
| Nights | Normal Overworld nights with the usual monsters, but no phantoms. |
More beasts wander the plain as you explore new land, about as often as other big animals. They never despawn, and their traders never leave the deck.
caravans-deckThe caravan market¶
Every caravan trader sells the same goods:
| You give | You get | Stock |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Emeralds | 1  Serum Ampoule |
1 per trader (so 2 per caravan) |
6  Lead Ingots |
1 Emerald | 16 |
2  Tesseract Ingots |
1 Emerald | 12 |
| 1 Emerald | 4  Quantum Dust |
8 |
| 2 Emeralds | 6 Bread | 12 |
| 3 Emeralds | 2  Beast Hide |
8 |
The traders want lead and tesseract, the two metals you mine at home for the lab. 24 emeralds for an ampoule is 144 lead ingots, or 48 tesseract ingots. Dear, but honest.
What lives here¶
Farm animals, herds of horses, and the Caravan Beasts. Normal monsters come out at night.
A Caravan Beast is tough (200 health) and drops 3 to 6 Beast Hide if killed, but it is also the town:
kill it and its traders are left standing on the grass.
Serum and getting home¶
- The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
- There is no native ingredient, but the caravans sell Serum Ampoules for 24 emeralds.
Tips¶
- Bring lead and tesseract ingots if you want to buy Serum or Quantum Dust. Mine and smelt extra before you come.
- Tame a horse: the beasts are slow, but a horse gets you back to the Box after a long ride.
- Climb aboard before you trade. Clicking from the ground works, but on the deck there's no chance of hitting the beast instead.
- The first caravan is always near the Box, so it's the easiest one to find on your next visit too, if it hasn't wandered off.
Birds¶
Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.
- Beast Oxpecker: common
- Thunderstrider: rare, dangerous
The traveler's tape¶
Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.
Read the journal (spoilers)
Golden grass to every horizon, and the towns walk. Each one rides the back of a beast as big as a house, with two traders on its deck who never get off. The first one was ambling past a short walk east of the Box. Use the beast to climb aboard and sneak to get down; nobody steers, so I ride where it goes and walk back. The traders want lead and tesseract, and they sell the Serum, dear but honest, which is more than I can say for anywhere else.