Altars, forges, and springs
Three kinds of special room hold something you can use. A forgotten altar answers prayers, for good or ill. A forge’s anvil lets you temper metal arms and armour. A healing spring can be drunk from as often as you like. Each is used by walking into it, or from the Here group of the abilities menu while you stand beside it.
Forgotten altars
An altar room holds a forgotten altar: worn stone, its carvings rubbed smooth, its god’s name long lost. Yet something there still listens. It is not a temple, and not a god you serve. There is nothing to sacrifice and no one to convert to. It is a gamble.
To pray, walk into the altar and say yes when asked, or stand beside it and choose Pray from the abilities menu. It is listed under Here only while you stand next to an altar. A prayer takes a minute. Anything that would stop a rest, such as a creature coming into view, a blow, or a noise, breaks it. A broken prayer gives nothing, and the minute is still gone.
At the end of a prayer one outcome is drawn. Most prayers do little: a few coins, a little healing, a pang of hunger, a brief hex, a wandering creature, or nothing at all but a line of flavour. A few do more, for good or ill. Now and then the altar bursts apart in fire and leaves rubble. The blast hurts everyone near it, you included, and it can kill.
Every altar has a hidden side: good, neutral, or evil. The game never says which, but its glow does: gold, grey, or red. The side tilts the odds against your own alignment. At an altar of your own side the boons come more often; at one of the other side, the banes. A neutral altar, or a neutral you, leans neither way. Praying also moves your alignment a little: toward good at a good altar, and further toward evil at an evil one. The Pious talent (Wayfarer) doubles the lean of an altar of your side and takes away an opposed one’s.
After each completed prayer there is an even chance the altar is spent. Its glow gutters and dies, it stands cold and dark, and nothing answers there again. So an altar usually gives one or two prayers. Then seek out the next one: about one generated floor in twenty has one.
| Lean | Boon / nothing / bane | Nothing | Minor | Moderate | Great | The altar explodes | Prayers an altar takes | An altar explodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None (a neutral altar, or a neutral you) | 35 / 30 / 35 | 30% | 43.8% | 22.1% | 4.2% | 1.8% | 1.97 | 3.4% |
| Agreement (good at good, evil at evil) | 50 / 30 / 20 | 30% | 44.5% | 21.3% | 4.2% | 1% | 1.98 | 2% |
| Opposition (good at evil, evil at good) | 20 / 30 / 50 | 30% | 43% | 22.8% | 4.2% | 2.5% | 1.95 | 4.9% |
| Agreement, Pious | 65 / 30 / 5 | 30% | 45.2% | 20.6% | 4.2% | 0.25% | 2.00 | 0.5% |
A prayer takes 60 seconds. After a completed prayer the altar is spent with 50% chance, whatever the prayer gave, unless it exploded. The lean moves 15 points between boon and bane. An altar’s side is drawn one good to two neutral to one evil, and its glow shows it: good gold, neutral grey, evil red. Praying moves your alignment by 5 at a good altar and -10 at an evil one.
Rarely, an altar marks you for good. The great boons:
- raise a stat for good;
- give a whole level at once;
- grant a talent for life (never one of your level’s picks);
- leave a relic or an elixir (see Potions) at the altar’s foot.
The great banes:
- lower a stat for good;
- take a level away. You keep what you chose at that level, but gaining it again gives no new choices;
- mark you with a flaw for life;
- call a horde around the altar.
Talents an altar gave you are marked “altar” on the Talents page. No prayer grants a wish.
The outcomes, by kind and tier (“Of its kind” is its share of its kind’s draws):
| Kind | Tier | Outcome | Weight | Of its kind | What it does | Message |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boon | minor | Coins | 10 | 10% | At the altar’s foot: 2d10 copper coins (75%) or 1d6 gold coins (25%) | “Coins lie at the foot of the altar.” |
| Boon | minor | Glimpse | 6 | 6% | One unidentified item carried identified | “Something you carry becomes clear to you.” (when it finds nothing to do: “You feel you understand a little.”) |
| Boon | minor | Sated | 8 | 8% | 1 hunger state better (never past Satiated) | “You feel fed.” |
| Boon | minor | Soothed | 13 | 13% | 2d6 hit points back; bleeding cured | “A little warmth runs through you.” |
| Boon | minor | Trickle | 9 | 9% | 2d4 mana back | “Your mind stirs.” |
| Boon | minor | Trinket | 7 | 7% | An item of loot at the floor’s item level at the altar’s foot | “Something lies at the foot of the altar.” |
| Boon | minor | Uplifted | 7 | 7% | Inspired (1 degree, easing a degree every 300 s) | “Your heart lifts.” |
| Boon | minor | Wary | 5 | 5% | Every trap within 10 cells known | “You sense where the floor lies.” |
| Boon | moderate | Blessed | 5 | 5% | Blessed (3 degrees, easing a degree every 600 s) | “You feel watched over.” |
| Boon | moderate | Cleansed | 4 | 4% | Every disease (and status) cured by prayer cured | “A sickness leaves you.” (when it finds nothing to do: “You feel clean.”) |
| Boon | moderate | Favour | 2 | 2% | 20% of the experience to your next level | “You feel wiser.” |
| Boon | moderate | Mended | 6 | 6% | All hit points back; bleeding and poisoned cured | “Warmth runs through you, and your wounds close.” |
| Boon | moderate | Offering | 3 | 3% | An item of loot at the floor’s item level + 3 at the altar’s foot | “Something lies at the foot of the altar that was not there before.” |
| Boon | moderate | Replenished | 5 | 5% | All mana back | “Your mind feels clear and full.” |
| Boon | moderate | Restored | 4 | 4% | All stat damage mended, and drained points restored | “You feel whole again.” |
| Boon | great | Chosen | 1 | 1% | A talent you may take and do not hold, drawn, given free and kept for life (never one of your picks) | “You have been chosen.” (when it finds nothing to do: “Something looks you over, and finds nothing more to give.”) |
| Boon | great | Elixir | 1 | 1% | At the altar’s foot: an elixir of might (16%) or an elixir of grace (16%) or an elixir of vigour (16%) or an elixir of wit (16%) or an elixir of will (16%) or an elixir of presence (16%) | “A flask stands at the foot of the altar.” |
| Boon | great | Exalted | 1 | 1% | Experience to the next level’s threshold: a whole level | “Power floods into you.” (when it finds nothing to do: “Power washes over you, and finds nowhere left to go.”) |
| Boon | great | Gift | 2 | 2% | +1d3 to a random stat’s score and potential, for good | “You feel changed.” |
| Boon | great | Relic | 1 | 1% | An item of loot at the floor’s item level + 10, rare (the top rarity its base allows) at the altar’s foot | “Something gleams at the foot of the altar.” |
| Nothing | minor | Breath | 10 | 10% | nothing | “A cold breath brushes your neck, and is gone.” |
| Nothing | minor | Dust | 15 | 15% | nothing | “Dust sifts down from the ceiling.” |
| Nothing | minor | Echo | 15 | 15% | nothing | “Your words echo, and fade.” |
| Nothing | minor | Flicker | 15 | 15% | nothing | “The altar’s glow flickers, then steadies.” |
| Nothing | minor | Omen | 20 | 20% | nothing | “The smoke of your breath bends toward the stairs.” or “For a moment you smell rain.” or “Somewhere far below, a bell rings once.” or “The carvings seem to shift under your eyes, and are still.” |
| Nothing | minor | Silence | 25 | 25% | nothing | “Silence answers you.” |
| Bane | minor | Drawn | 4 | 4% | +1 hostile creature(s) of the floor’s danger, awake, at the room’s edge, out of view if it can be (none on a level without a danger) | “You hear something stir.” |
| Bane | minor | Hungry | 8 | 8% | 1 hunger state worse (never into Starving) | “Your stomach growls.” |
| Bane | minor | Ill wished | 6 | 6% | Hexed (1 degree, easing a degree every 60 s) | “You feel a stranger’s ill will.” |
| Bane | minor | Lightened | 7 | 7% | 33% of every stack of coins carried lost | “Your purse feels lighter.” |
| Bane | minor | Muddled | 4 | 4% | One identified magic item carried unidentified again | “Something you carry seems strange to you.” (when it finds nothing to do: “You feel a moment’s confusion.”) |
| Bane | minor | Sapped | 7 | 7% | 2d4 mana lost (never below 0) | “Your mind dims a little.” |
| Bane | minor | Scorched | 11 | 11% | 2d6 fire damage, never the last hit point (resistance counts) | “The altar’s glow flares and burns you.” |
| Bane | minor | Sluggish | 8 | 8% | Sluggish (1 degree, easing a degree every 60 s) | “You feel sluggish.” |
| Bane | minor | Snuffed | 5 | 5% | Your lantern goes out | “A cold wind blows past you.” |
| Bane | moderate | Answered | 4 | 4% | +1 hostile creature(s) of the floor’s danger + 4, awake, beside the altar (none on a level without a danger) | “Something answers your prayer.” |
| Bane | moderate | Burst | 5 | 5% | A fireball of radius 2 on the altar (3d6 fire, half at the edge) hurting everyone in it, you too, which can kill; the altar becomes rubble | “The altar bursts apart in fire!” |
| Bane | moderate | Displaced | 5 | 5% | Moved to a random free spot of the level | “The world lurches around you.” |
| Bane | moderate | Hexed | 4 | 4% | Hexed (3 degrees, easing a degree every 60 s) | “You feel watched with malice.” |
| Bane | moderate | Sickened | 5 | 5% | A random disease, the deadly ones too | “A chill settles in your bones.” |
| Bane | moderate | Smitten | 3 | 3% | 4d10 electricity damage from above, which can kill (resistance counts) | “The altar answers with fire from above!” |
| Bane | moderate | Tithe | 3 | 3% | The most valuable stack carried (worn and wielded too) gone | “Something precious is gone.” (when it finds nothing to do: “A hand seems to pass over your pack, and find nothing.”) |
| Bane | moderate | Withered | 5 | 5% | 1d3 stat damage to a random stat | “Something is taken from you.” |
| Bane | great | Damned | 2 | 2% | 2d4 hostile creature(s) of the floor’s danger + 3, awake, beside the altar (none on a level without a danger) | “The dark fills with answering voices.” |
| Bane | great | Forsaken | 2 | 2% | A flaw talent of the birth signs you lack, drawn, kept for life | “You have been marked.” (when it finds nothing to do: “Something marks you, and finds the mark already made.”) |
| Bane | great | Unmade | 1 | 1% | One experience level lost: experience to the threshold of the level below, its hit points and mana taken back (never the last hit point); its choices, once made, are kept, and the level gained again gives none | “Your past slips away from you.” (when it finds nothing to do: “Something gropes at your past, and finds none.”) |
| Bane | great | Wrath | 1 | 1% | −1d3 to a random stat’s potential and score, for good, never below 3 | “You feel lessened, forever.” (when it finds nothing to do: “Something reaches for you, and finds too little to take.”) |
Forges
A forge is a cold smithy: soot on the walls and an anvil, its hammer chained beside it. One more anvil stands in Cēaptūn, in Eadric’s Smithy beside the smith’s fire. It is free to use; it is not the shop’s service.
Tempering needs Metalcraft. If you are not trained, walking into the anvil only tells you so. If you are, walking into the anvil opens your Metalcraft… list of recipes; so does its row in the abilities menu. Choose Temper (a recipe; away from an anvil it is greyed out “no anvil beside you”). Then pick something of metal you carry: a weapon, a missile weapon, armour, or a shield whose main part is metal, as its description says. Leather, wood, and bone will not do, and neither will ammunition, rings, or amulets.
An attempt is ten minutes of work. Anything that would stop a rest stops it. The item is then untouched and the attempt does not count, but the time is gone. The more Metalcraft you have, the better it goes. Every finished attempt may train Metalcraft and Strength, whatever came of it.
What an attempt does depends on the item:
| The item | Made | Failed |
|---|---|---|
| Not damaged | It takes one improvement | It is damaged: all its improvements are gone |
| Damaged | The damage is gone: a plain item again | It is destroyed, even from your hand, with its affixes and however rare it is |
| Three improvements | It can be made no finer, and the anvil will not take it |
Every attempt is harder than the last, for the item’s whole life, whether it was made or failed, and repairs count too. An item worked long enough will only ever break. Nothing tells you how many attempts it has had.
| Modifier | Attempt 1 | Attempt 2 | Attempt 3 | Attempt 4 | Attempt 5 | Attempt 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0 | 54% | 38% | 25% | 15% | 7% | 2% |
| +4 | 81% | 69% | 54% | 38% | 25% | 15% |
| +8 | 96% | 90% | 81% | 69% | 54% | 38% |
| +12 | 99% | 99% | 96% | 90% | 81% | 69% |
An attempt takes 600 seconds (10 minutes). Its check is 2d12 plus your Strength modifier, what Metalcraft gives, and what talents add to Strength checks, against 13 plus 2 for every attempt ever made on the item. A natural 2 always fails, a natural 24 always succeeds.
An improvement goes to one of the item’s numbers, drawn evenly at random, and the same one may come twice. The item’s name says how far it has come, whatever you know of its magic:
| Improvements | Called | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fine | ×2 |
| 2 | Marvellous | ×3 |
| 3 | Masterwork | ×5 |
| none | Damaged | ×½, rounded up |
| Betters | Which items | Each time |
|---|---|---|
| Damage dice | Anything with an attack | 2 more sides on its dice (1d8 becomes 1d10, 2d6 becomes 2d8) |
| To hit | Anything with an attack | +1 |
| Damage | Anything with an attack | +1 |
| Defence | Armour, shields, and parrying weapons | +1, of the kind it gives |
| Protection | Anything that gives Protection | +1 |
A damaged item is a point worse than a plain one until it is mended. It loses a point of Protection if it gives some, else of Defence, else of damage. So stopping while you are ahead is a real choice. Acid, rust, and heat damage an item the same way (it is then called corroded, rusted, or scorched instead of damaged), and the anvil mends it all the same. Damaged again by anything, it is destroyed. No material withstands a failed attempt, except adamantium, which nothing damages: a failed attempt on it only fails to improve it.
The anvil neither adds nor takes affixes; they stay through improvement, damage, and repair. Whatever survives is identified. A worked item is like no other and never stacks; from a stack, one is worked at a time. The anvil never wears out.
The makeshift anvil
A craftsperson of level 32 can build an anvil anywhere with Field forge. Choose it in the abilities menu and pick a cell beside you. You need one ingot of any metal. The cell must be open floor with nothing on it: no one standing there, nothing lying there, no trap you know of, and no door, chest, stairs, grave, water, ice, glowing fungus, or shop floor. It cannot be done on the overworld map.
The work takes 1 hour. If something interrupts you, nothing is built and you keep the ingot. When the hour is up the ingot is used and the cell becomes a makeshift anvil. There is no roll: it always works.
A makeshift anvil is an anvil in every way. You can temper at it, and forge, smelt, and make every recipe that needs an anvil. Walking into it opens your Metalcraft recipes, just as the real anvil does. It stays where you built it for good. It blocks the way like a wall; a pick-axe clears it back to floor, and mining finds nothing in it.
Healing springs
A spring room holds a healing spring: clear water welling up in an old stone basin. To drink, walk into it and say yes when asked, or stand beside it and choose Drink from the abilities menu (listed under Here only while you stand next to a spring).
A drink takes ten seconds. Anything that would stop a rest breaks it off, and a broken drink gives nothing. Most drinks are good, and some taste only of stone. Now and then the water is foul and gives you marsh ague. A prayer (a temple’s cure) or a remedy cures it. A spring never runs dry: drink as often as you like, and take the risk each time.
| Kind | Tier | Outcome | Per drink | What it does | Message |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boon | minor | Refreshed | 55% | 2d8 hit points back | “The water is cold and good.” |
| Boon | moderate | Clear headed | 5% | Half the maximum of mana back | “Your head clears.” |
| Nothing | minor | Stone | 25% | nothing | “It tastes of stone.” |
| Bane | moderate | Fouled | 15% | Marsh ague caught | “The water tastes foul.” |
A drink takes 10 seconds. A spring never runs dry: drink as often as you like.
See also: Special rooms, Prayer, and Forging at the anvil.