The Corrupted Shrines¶
Twice each day, one of Britannia's shrines falls.
The virtue it holds is overtaken by its opposite — Honesty by deceit, Compassion by hatred, Valor by cowardice — and what pours out of the corrupted ankh is not the shrine's usual quiet. Ten waves of creatures rise from the ground, each worse than the last, and behind them waits something wearing the shape of the virtue's antithesis.
Kill it, and the shrine is cleansed until the next time.
When it happens¶
Two events every day: one in the morning window and one in the evening. The exact hour is random within each window, and there is always a gap of several hours between them, so the shrine is never corrupted twice in quick succession.
A server-wide announcement names the shrine when it begins. Get there fast — the waves start immediately, and every wave you miss is tokens you don't earn.
The shrines¶
| Shrine | Location | What waits there |
|---|---|---|
| Compassion | North-east of Britain | Astaroth's Spite |
| Honesty | Verity Isle, Moonglow | Faulinei's Reflection |
| Honor | Serpent's Hold | The Forsworn |
| Humility | Dagger Isle | The Gilded Pride |
| Justice | Yew, near Empath Abbey | The Black Judge |
| Sacrifice | Minoc | The Hoarder of Covetous |
| Spirituality | The mountain chamber | The Hollow Mantra |
| Valor | The Jhelom isles | Nosfentor's Dread |
| Chaos | Near Britain | The Shade of Lord British |
The same shrine will not fall twice in a row. The Chaos shrine is far rarer than the rest — most players will go weeks without seeing it.
How an event runs¶
Ten waves. They spawn in a ring around the shrine and must be cleared entirely before the next arrives. The early waves are skeletons and orcs; by the end you are facing ancient wyrms and worse. There is a short pause between waves.
Then the shrine boss. Each shrine has its own, tied to the virtue it guards. It cannot be tamed, will not flee, and drops no ordinary loot.
Waves have a time limit. If the corruption is not pushed back in time — or if everyone leaves — the event fails, the creatures vanish, and the shrine stays fouled until the next one.
Creatures dragged too far from the shrine will disengage and walk back. You cannot pull them home and farm them at leisure.
Ankh Tokens¶
Ankh Tokens are the currency of the corrupted shrines, and the only reward the event pays.
How you earn them. Every wave carries a pool of tokens, and the boss carries a larger one. Your share of each pool is your share of the damage done to it. Later waves are worth considerably more than early ones. A full event — all ten waves and the boss — pays out 150 tokens across everyone who fought.
How you receive them. After each wave you are told what you earned. Tokens accumulate as a fractional balance and are placed in your pack whenever you have a whole one and are within 60 tiles of the shrine. Fight from further away and you will still earn, but nothing arrives until you return. Anything still owed is settled when the boss falls.
If you are dead, disconnected, or too far away at the end, your tokens are held at the boss's remains and can be claimed by double-clicking there.
What they are. Tokens stack, weigh a tenth of a stone each, and are ordinary property in every sense that matters — they can be looted from your corpse and stolen from your pack. Carry a hundred of them through Felucca and you are carrying a hundred reasons for someone to try.
Opening them. Double-click a token in your backpack to open one. Most hold gold. Beyond that: crafting materials, runes and reagents, magic weapons and armour, treasure maps, and — rarely — something considerably better.
The shrine bosses¶
Each boss fights by the rules of the vice it embodies. Learn them and the fight becomes readable; ignore them and it becomes miserable.
The Forsworn — Honor, at Serpent's Hold. A paladin who broke his oath. He names one opponent at a time and will only be fought honourably — everyone else strikes at a fraction of their strength. Rotate, or waste your swings.
The Black Judge — Justice, at Yew. What remains of Blackthorn's machinery for enforcing virtue by torture. It returns a share of everything dealt to it, back at whoever dealt it. Pets included.
Astaroth's Spite — Compassion, near Britain. Hatred at the shrine of mercy. It feeds on the wounded, drawing strength from every blow it lands on someone already hurt. Protect each other, or feed it.
Nosfentor's Dread — Valor, at Jhelom. Cowardice given form. It grows crueller toward anyone who stands and watches. Fight, heal, play — do something — and its attention passes.
The Hoarder of Covetous — Sacrifice, at Minoc. Selfishness at the shrine of giving. It swallows gold from those it strikes and swells with every coin. Everything it takes is recovered when it dies.
Faulinei's Reflection — Honesty, at Moonglow. A fragment of the Shadowlord of Falsehood, wearing a borrowed face. It surrounds itself with copies of itself, identical in every particular, that vanish at a touch. Find the real one.
The Hollow Mantra — Spirituality. The sacred syllable spoken by something with nothing inside it. It draws breath, and everything near it is emptied — mana and stamina both. The breath is audible before it lands.
The Gilded Pride — Humility, on Dagger Isle. The sin that called the daemons down on Magincia. The more who come to claim the kill, the mightier it grows — up to a point, past which further help is free.
The Shade of Lord British — the Chaos shrine. The sovereign's spirit was drawn here to hold the shrine and was bound and twisted by it instead. He takes up each of the other corruptions in turn, wearing them for a time before discarding them for the next. You are not slaying him. You are laying him to rest.
Signature relics¶
Each boss carries one relic, and it can be won only from that boss. They are echoes of the companions who once kept these virtues.
| Boss | Relic |
|---|---|
| The Forsworn | Dupre's Tarnished Shield |
| The Black Judge | Jaana's Broken Gavel |
| Astaroth's Spite | Iolo's Silent Lute |
| Nosfentor's Dread | Geoffrey's Notched Blade |
| The Hoarder of Covetous | Julia's Unfinished Gear |
| Faulinei's Reflection | Mariah's Shattered Lens |
| The Hollow Mantra | Shamino's Lost Ankh |
| The Gilded Pride | Katrina's Plain Crook |
| The Shade of Lord British | The Sundered Crown |
A relic falls to one of those who fought the boss, chosen by weight of contribution — the harder you fought, the better your chances, though the strongest fighter is not guaranteed to take it. It goes directly to the winner's pack, never loose on the ground where another could claim it. If they cannot receive it at the time, it is held for them.
Katrina's Plain Crook is the humblest-looking object in the set, and the hardest of all to earn. That is the joke, and the virtue.
Advice¶
- Arrive early. Tokens are paid per wave. Turning up for the boss alone forfeits most of the event.
- Stay close. Tokens only reach your pack within 60 tiles of the shrine.
- Learn the boss. Every one of them punishes a particular habit, and every one of them tells you it is doing so.
- Mind what you carry. Tokens can be stolen and looted like anything else. So can the person carrying them.