Adventuring in Merchant Mineshafts

Description:

• TLDR: Merchant made mineshafts are a great place to explore for EXP and money when you get tired of farming the same old areas day after day.
• Merchants can make mines in Batmud's outerworld (often referred to as "Minecrafting") that players and player parties can adventure through and explore.
• These mines are created by merchants so they may appear somewhat random to adventurers.
• Merchants earn EXP when players explore their mines and kill monsters, giving them an incentive to build them up.
• Players on the other hand benefit because the monsters in these mines are "no-tunes" which means they always grant full EXP for killing them, regardless of how many mines your ran previously or what other players are doing.
• The monsters can also drop interesting equipment, and once you clear out a mine you can search it for additional items.

Locations:

• Technically these mines show up in the outerworld where the merchant created them and will appear as a question mark (?) in your map. You can directly enter them when you see them.
• In most cases though you will want to enter them through a quick-portal that appears outside each major city in Batmud.
• This is the "mysterious chamber made out of sparkling cloth"
• To enter it, type: "portal".  This will take you to a room with a listing of all the mines you can visit. 
• The portal exit will last for a set period of time after you use it, which will allow you to transport back from the mines to the chamber.
• If you type "locations" in the chamber, it will give you a detailed description of the different mines you can choose from.

• Arelium Chamber Location: At south crossing

General Mechanics:

Mineshaft Mechanics:

• If you look at the outside of a mineshaft you can see if someone is currently it by the (disturbed) status flag next to its description.
• This flag will disappear about 10 minutes or so after they leave the mine.
• The mineshafts can be quite deep
• The one I'm exploring now has 13 levels.
• If there are not a lot of mines on a particular continent (for example if Rothikgen) you will get bonus exp for killing monsters in it [Ref]

Monsters:

• Many monsters are aggressive and wander. So make sure you leave the mines to regenerate, rest, and/or idle.
• Some mine types have more aggressive monsters than others.
• Monsters will respawn every 20 minutes or so. This includes the minibosses.
• This gives you a short window to kill everything so you can loot the mine.

Rewards:

• There will be various bits of "debris" in the mines that you can search for items and equipment. The catch is you can only search them once you've cleared out most of the monsters in the mines.
• Example message when the mine is not cleared: 
• You move in to ransack the goods, but the indigenous dwellers nearby move in menacingly, warning you to not touch anything. There's too many of them to take on all at once.
• Example message when the mine is  cleared: 
• You deem it's safe and quiet enough to ransack through the place, and lay the discovered treasures in front of you.
• Most of the items you will find will be random "junkish" items. Examples include:
• Tinning kits
• Random bits of iron or other materials
• Random gems
• Occasionally you will find locked chests though, which can be a great source of skillbooks.
• In general, you need to kill around 20 monsters to be able to loot the items in the mine.
• The "debris" locations will respawn along with the monsters. So expect new ones to show up every 20 minutes or so.

Mini Quest:

• You can gather four items from different types of mines to complete a miniquest.
• The items are:
• Antlers, Compass, Relic, Old book
• Then say "Non serviam"

Mine Types:

Mountain Expedition:

• Difficulty: VERY HARD
• Meant for high level parties. This is the toughest variety of mines
• Rewards:
• There will be a boss that drops very nice equipment

Hillside Expedition:

• Difficulty: HARD
• Meant for High Level Characters, and Experienced Parties
• Rewards:
• There will be a boss that drops very nice equipment

A Tall Old Tree:

• Difficulty: Medium
• Most of the creatures are around 10k exp
• Unlike the tombstones, *most* of the creatures are not aggressive which makes this a bit easier to run.
• Mini-Quest Components:
• Still figuring out how to get the antlers
• Notes:
• Most of the creatures here are of good alignment, making it a useful place to run if you are of evil alignment.
• Kill Board:
• A majestic looking stag galloping through the undergrowth
• 10000 exp
• Untangled roots of a tree, wandering around aimlessly
• 9000 exp
• A small druid sapling tree dashing around.
• 8000 exp
• A decimated tree flailing around
• 7000 exp
• An enchanted mushroom sloshing along 
• 8000 exp
• A shadow fox lurking in the undergrowth
• 8000 exp
• A huge gopher digging furiously
• 12000 exp
• A tiny living flower dashing on the floor
• 6000 exp
• The Green Man, guardian of the forest
• 22000 exp

An Old Tombstone:

• Difficulty: Medium
• Most of the monsters are in the 10k exp range
• Hope you like killing undead....
• The mini-bosses were too tough for me to solo, so if you are clearing it out it helps to have a party.
• Mini-Quest Components:
• Still figuring out how to get the relic
• Notes:
• Lots of undead. Great place for liberators and good aligned characters to explore.
• There are mushrooms in here which you can pick if you have plant lore.
• Kill Board:
• A ghastly image of a dead being hovering in the air
• 7000 exp
• An image of a decaying banshee, floating through the crypts
• 10000 exp
• A frozen skeleton clattering violently
• 10000 exp
• A faint ghost blinking in and out of existence 
• 7500 exp
• An animated poltergeist trashing around
• 14000 exp
• A smoldering skeleton risen from the crypts
• 13000 exp
• Abercrombie the Old
• 25000 exp
• An animated corpse dragging its feet through the hallways
• 6000 exp
• A tiny apparition floating around
• 7000 exp

A Worn Out Sign Saying BEWARE!: 

• Difficulty: Medium
• Lots of aggressive creatures in the 5k-10k exp range
• If you are doing ok killing butterflies and bunnies in their valleys, you should be able to handle these mines.
• Mini-Quest Components:
• Still figuring out how to get the compass
• Notes:
• These mines are filled with aggressive bats and rats
• Kill Board:
• A bloodthirsty bat zooming around wildly
• 8000 exp
• A black furry bat trying to bite you
• 5000 exp
• A huge vampire bat
• 8000 exp
• A dirty rat scurrying around
• 6000 exp
• A nasty black rat 
• 8000 exp
• A huge earth dweller
• 12000 exp
• Earth grue
• 5000 exp
• A faceless horror 
• 15000 exp
• A huge earth dweller
• 12000 exp
• An apparition of a dead miner grinning horribly
• 30000 exp
• Ragged wild-eyed man
• 24000 exp

Old Crumbling Mining Town:

• Difficulty: Medium to Very Hard
• This is very different from other mines, with a mixture of easy monsters and named bosses that will absolutely destroy you.
• Notes:
• Unlike other mines, this is a town with specific rooms and villagers that thematically fit into the rooms.
• Some of the villagers seem like they might answer questions as well.
• There seems to be a lot of secrets to discover in this mining town...
• Kill Board:
• A small mouse squeaking in the corner of the street
• 3500 exp
• A dusty vagrant shuffling along the road
• 16000 exp

Mystical Dimension:

• Difficulty: Medium
• Random magical shops and areas that you can explore
• Mini-Quest Components:
• There is a subtask in this area where you will need to find pages of a book, the binding for a book, and reassemble them.
• You can find the pages from killing monsters
• Notes:
• Not crazy hard, as a mid level player should be able to kill most monsters. But harder than the tree or tombstone areas.
• Kill Board:
• A feisty little gnome stomping angrily 
• 13000 exp
• A small hunched servant trotting along 
• 6000 exp
• A magic wand spinning and sparkling in the air
• 8000 exp
• The Wizard's Broom 
• 24000 exp
• An enchanted cutlery set gone rogue
• 10000 exp
• A magical broom sweeping the floors
• 6000 exp
• An enchanted book flapping around
• 8000 exp
• A rogue magic wand angrily spitting off sparks!
• 6000 exp