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 seems to disappear about 5 minutes or so after they leave the mine.
• The mineshafts can be quite deep
• The one I'm exploring now has 13 levels.

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 servium"

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.
• Rewards:
• Still figuring out the main rewards...
• 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.
• Rewards:
• Still figuring this place out
• 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