Level up!
- Reaching a new level now shows: a ring of gold light, a column of sparks and the skill's name over your head. Everyone nearby sees it too, but only you see the level itself.
News
What has changed in the realm, newest first.
Staying connected
- If your connection drops, the game tries to reconnect by itself and puts you back where you were. If it can't, you're returned to the login screen.
- There's a Log out button in the Settings tab. You can't log out in the middle of a fight.
- Before an update the realm now warns everyone a few minutes ahead, with a countdown, so you can log out somewhere safe.
- On phones, typing in the chat no longer zooms the screen in.
- The shore path to Brackwater has its missing planks back, a path now leads right up to the Sorcerers' Spire door, and the Smugglers' Cave lookout keeps watch from the passage instead of the foot of the stair.
Lighter pockets
- Purses in Saltmarch hold less than their owners boast: pickpocketing pays a handful of coins, a hero's purse a few dozen.
- Get caught with your hand in a pocket and you are boxed round the ears and stand dazed for a few moments.
- Small chests take longer to be restocked after a thief has emptied them.
- Beer costs 8 coins everywhere. Landlords discovered that the glass was worth more than what was in it.
- The guild signs now say what they mean: a guild takes members by skill level, not by purse.
- Men and women in the street will now pass the time of day if you talk to them. Goblins still won't.
The Sorcerers' Spire, Rushford and the knoll country
- East of Copperhollow, a road runs past Coalback to Gloam Scar, a grey crag with a stair cut up its side. On top stands the Sorcerers' Spire, seat of the Gloam Circle: four storeys of stone under a pointed roof. Its door opens only for Sorcery 25.
- Inside, the shardkeeper sells gale, tide, stone, ember and thought shards, an apprentice will tell you about the place, the librarian will tell you to be quiet, and the archmage at the top will tell you about your great potential. The study on the second floor has a shard chest. It is trapped. The apprentices keep a herb garden beside the tower.
- At Giant's Knoll's north foot is Knollside mine, iron and coal, just far enough from the giants. The miners' drift broke through into the Giants' Larder under the knoll, where knoll giants and their chieftain keep their stores, and a chest they took from a merchant.
- A lane runs from Hob's Tor mine east to Barleyknowe, a farm with a barley field, pigs and hens, and on north to Knollside. On Star Knowe beyond the farm lives a stargazer who was thrown out of the Sorcerers' Spire for asking the wrong question.
- North of Runmere, the Valley road follows the river up to Rushford, a hamlet at a plank bridge: the Floating Log tavern, a well, cottages and the log drivers' landing. Harrow lane runs from there east to the north road.
- Up the river from Rushford, Rushford sawmill has a water wheel that turns millstones on grinding days and the saw on the others, and the sawyer sells axes. Beyond it the woodcutters' camp stands at the edge of Fellwood, spruce and birch on Fell Knowe. Mind Fell Gill, a ravine in the middle of the wood.
- Some of the new chests are trapped. Search before you open.
Hayfold, Cockle Cove and the Anglers' Guild
- Halfway along the road from the Port of Falbridge to Clyffside lies Hayfold: the Drowsy Drover inn, a well, a few thatched cottages, a farm with cows and a kitchen garden, and a smithy with a furnace and an anvil, the first on the road from the beach.
- South of Hayfold the Hay Brook runs through Windbent Wood to the sea. Dig clay on its banks, and copper and tin at Redcliff quarry under a red sea crag.
- A new lane leaves the east road at the Wayside Inn and crosses Saltgrass Downs, where a shepherd keeps her ewes, to Cockle Cove: a fishing hamlet on an inlet with the Gutted Herring tavern, a smokehouse with a range, a fish stall and a jetty to fish from.
- East of the cove the Spit Light stands at the end of a sand spit. Its keeper has noticed that some nights another lamp is lit at Black Rock.
- Under Black Rock is the Smugglers' Cave, where smugglers, their chief and the rats they brought ashore guard what House Marlowe's customs never saw.
- On the east coast south of Saltcrown stands the Anglers' Guild. Its gate opens only for Angling 40, and its sea wall shelters a pier over deep water: lobster, tuna, swordfish and shark. Inside are a bank chest, ranges, the guildmaster and a tackle counter at honest prices.
- A hermit lives on the cliff top at Gannet Head and remembers the night the Grey Gull came onto the rocks.
- Some of the coast's chests are trapped. Search before you open.
Stonebeck and the Mere road
- A new road, the Mere road, runs from Runmere round the west side of Stone Mountain and down the great lake's east shore to the farms north of the Port of Falbridge. Signposts at its turnings tell you which way is which.
- Where the road crosses the Stonebeck, a brook that comes down from the mountain into the lake, lies the hamlet of Stonebeck: the Wet Heron tavern, a well, a few thatched cottages, and a windmill with its own wheat field. Fish where the brook meets the lake, and dig clay on its bank.
- East of Stonebeck, Stonefoot Wood climbs Oakshaw Rise: ash trees on the slopes, alders by the water, and deer. A woodcutters' track runs through it to the Clyffside road below Thistlewell.
- North of the farms stands the Cooks' and Artisans' Guild. Its door opens only for Cookery 32 or Handicraft 32, and inside are ranges, a sink, a potter's wheel and oven, spinning wheels, a bank chest and a storekeeper with honest prices. Its cows and hens are outside for anyone with a bucket.
- A recluse lives on Heron Point, the lake's south-east shore, and argues with the herons about the fish.
- Between the farms and Clyffside rises Sorrow Knowe, a barrow ringed with grey stones. Below it the old dead of the war keep their hall, and a barrow wight keeps the captain's tomb.
- There are trapped chests in Stonebeck and under the knowe, for those who search before they open.
Thistlewell and the plateau
- The open country between Runmere, Copperhollow, Clyffside and Saltcrown is open no longer. It rolls now: the Long Downs run across it, a brook comes down the valley below them, and Hob's Tor stands up grey above the north road.
- Halfway down the Clyffside road lies Thistlewell, a thatched hamlet round a green and a well. Drink at the Leaning Plough (and cook your catch on its range), buy a felling axe at the axe shop, and mind the reeve, who counts House Marlowe's tenth of everything. Thistlewell farm next door has a wheat field, a kitchen garden and a pasture of cows and sheep.
- East of the farm is Hartwood: ash, birch and alder round Hart's Mere, where you can fish. Deer and boar roam it, and somewhere at the end of a path lives a hermit who would rather you hadn't come.
- A lane leaves the road for the mine at the foot of Hob's Tor: copper, tin, iron and coal. A hole in the rock leads down into Hob's Hole, where hobgoblins have made themselves at home and the old dead of the war lie in a barrow.
- By the north road stands the Quarriers' and Forgers' Guild: a walled yard of coal, iron and blue ore round a hall with a furnace and two anvils. Its gate opens only for Quarrying 30 or Forging 30.
- Some chests on the plateau are trapped. Search them for traps, if your fingers are quick enough.
A wider Saltmarch
- The towns and villages of Saltmarch have moved apart: every road between them is about half as long again. Each place is just as it was; only the country between has grown.
- The walk from the wreck to Clyffside now leaves the mountains behind before it climbs to the village, and the roads to the Port of Falbridge, Saltcrown, Copperhollow and Brackwater run through open country that is waiting to be settled.
- Stone Mountain stands a little further south of Runmere, and Sealskerry's lake has grown round its island.