Treasure maps

Treasure Map Quests, by Daedalus Rising and Kynaerth'an

Are you growing weary of gating peasants to and fro across the land? Well, there is a more lucrative quest on the horizon -- one that will test your mind, as well as your sword arm. These new quests take the form of treasure maps, which hold out the promise of riches for the intrepid adventurer.

In order to begin hunting treasure, you will need several things:

• A treasure map :)
• "Cartography" (to decode the map)
• A very good map, and access to a ship or and/or rune library (to find and get to the treasure -- many are on islands)
• A shovel or pickaxe (to dig for the treasure)
• "Mining" (to increase your dig radius)
• "Detect Hidden" (to detect the traps, and ease the opening of the lock, especially with higher level maps).
• "Remove Trap" (to safely remove the trap you found). The spell "Telekinesis" may suffice for 1st-level chests. Strong characters may try to just open the chest and take the damage.
• "Lock Picking", and a bag full of lock picks (to open the chest). The spell "Magic Unlock" may suffice to open first and second level chests, a minimum magery skill of 50 is required to have the chest unlock to that spell.
• Combat skills, to defeat the treasure's guardians.
• Some of the aforementioned skills (like mining) are optional. However, for any serious treasure hunter they are really quite necessary.

We realize that this guide is not definitive. So if you see something amiss, please email us with any additional data or suggestions so that this guide can be more complete and accurate. We particularly need data on what CANNOT be done at a certain skill level, but CAN be done at a slightly higher skill level.

Thanks again. Your messages have been very, very helpful so far. We wish that we could reply to more of your questions individually, but the message volume has simply been way too high for that lately :)

Where Can I Find a Treasure Map?

Treasure maps can be found as "loot" on some of the more difficult creatures in the game. These maps range in difficulty on an internal scale of 1 to 5:

What monsters carry treasure maps ?

Map Level	Monsters
1	Earth Elementals, Gargoyles, Gazers, Liches, Mummies, Ophidian Enforcers, Ophidian Warriors, Orc Mages, Sea Serpents, Terathan Warriors and Trolls. Level 1 maps can also be fished up with a skill of 90 fishing or above.
2	Air Elementals, Earth Elementals, Fire Elementals, Snow Elementals, Stone Gargoyles, Water Elementals, and Wyverns.
3	Cyclopean Warriors, Drakes, Dread Spiders, Efreet, Liches, Mummies, Ogre Lords, Ophidian Knight-Errants, Ophidian Shamans, Terathan Avengers.
4	Daemons, Dragons, Elder Gazers, Lich Lords, Ophidian Matriarchs, Terathan Matriarchs, Ice Fiends, Titans, and White Wyrms.
5	Ancient Wyrms, Balrons, Blood Elementals, Poison Elementals, Titans.

The odds of a map appearing on one of these monsters is approximately 1%. All maps refer to the "old lands" of Britannia, no matter where they are found.

Level One maps are vastly different than the other four classes of maps, in that they can be easily tackled alone. Level Two maps and above are really more of a "group activity".

Because of this difficulty curve, you may find higher-level maps for sale from other players and their vendors. Be very wary when purchasing these maps -- maps that have been decoded or dug up already are labeled differently than virgin maps. If you are thinking of purchasing one, the map must read "a tattered treasure map" when you single-click on it. If it does not, then do not attempt to purchase it. It will be useless to you.

Decoding a Treasure Map

I have a map -- now what do I do with it? Once you find a map, simply double click it to decode it. Your ability to decode the map is based on your cartography skill -- the higher your skill, the more more likely you are to be able to decode any and all treasure maps. (If you are unable to decode a map, you may pass it along or sell it to someone who can). These maps may be stored safely in your bank, until you decide to hunt after it; for the treasure will not begin to "decay away" until you actually dig up the chest (after which time the chest and its contents will linger for about no more than 3-4 hours).

Skill required to decode a map

Map Level	Skill Level
1	0% Cartography required
2	60% Cartography required
3	70% Cartography required
4	90% Cartography required
5	100% Cartography required

* These are minimum requirements. The higher your cartography skill, the more detail the map will show. The pin will always be on the exact location of the treasure. After decoding your treasure map, the center will be indicated with a single pin.

Once decoded, this map cannot be passed off to another player -- the first person to decode the map must also be the one who digs up the treasure.

Finding the Map's Center

Before heading off after the treasure, you would be well-advised to compare your treasure map against a world-map (the cloth map you received with your CD works very well for this purpose). Look for any prominent landmarks -- shrines, mountains, roads, water, the shape and size of the island -- and compare them against your world map. By doing this, you should be able to narrow your search down significantly. (For example -- the map to the right here contains both a shrine, and a road/bridge. There is only one shrine located that close to a road, and that is the shrine of spirituality). Once you have an idea of where the treasure might be located, you're ready to depart.

To determine if you are close to where you need to be you can make a detailed map of the area where you are by using the cartography skill. Comparing the drawn map with the treasure map can give valuable clues, the center of the drawn map will be your exact current location. You can even use the aid of an external drawing program to compare the two maps and determine in which direction you should search. Some people simply use a transparent piece of paper with an X drawn on it to determine the center of the drawn map.

Many of the treasure chests are located on islands, requiring either a ship or access to a very good rune library. The inexperienced, and those not intimately familiar with the lands of Britannia would be well-advised to stick to sea-travel. For it is easier by far to find your quarry by ship, then it is to island-hop via rune hoping to find the right spot.

Note: Many cartographers have found that older maps (decoded before feb 25) of locations near the edge of the world (i.e. Shrine of Valor) can be very inaccurate. The pin can be located in the north area of the map while the treasure can be buried at the south coast of the island.

Once you believe that you have arrived in the right area, you can begin digging by double-clicking on your shovel. Digging can take several seconds to complete. Any interruption to this dig will invalidate your attempt -- so stand still, stick down the shovel and keep at it 'till you're finished :)

If you fail to find the treasure, move on a bit and try again -- the treasure may be as far as three screens away from the perceived "center of the map". The treasure will be buried at the spot where the red pin actually pierces the map.

After some attempts you will at one time hear the distinct sound of digging, the same sound miners hear when they mine for ore. This means you have found the treasure chest. At first you will see the ground where you are digging change into "a dirt patch" and soon thereafter the chest will pop-up. The first round of monsters may spawn and you will have to get rid of them. After that the fun of opening the chest can begin.

The following messages are given when digging:

"You dig and dig, but do not find any treasure". Meaning the treasure is not there. "You dig and dig, but no treasure seems to be here". Meaning you are close to the treasure, but not close enough to dig it up. "You stop digging because something is directly on top of the treasure chest". Have the person, animal or monster move away from that spot and dig again. There seems to be no message for success, but you will hear the sound and then see the dirt patch and the treasure chest appear. Another treasure-hunting suggestion is to bring along several blank maps, and use your cartography skill to create a map of the area -- comparing this terrain map against the treasure map can be quite helpful.

As valuable as the map might seem to the intrepid treasure hunter, once you successfully find and dig up the treasure your map becomes useless.

While searching, your mining skill will come in handy. The higher your mining skill, the larger your dig radius. Regardless of where you click on the floor, you will always dig at the location where you are standing.

0-30 Skill:	1 tile by 1 tile
30-60 Skill:	3 tiles by 3 tiles
60-80 Skill:	5 tiles by 5 tiles
80-90 Skill:	7 tiles by 7 tiles
90-100 Skill:	9 tiles by 9 tiles

If you want to skip the running around and digging everywhere looking for the correct spot bit, then I suggest you have a look in the Treasure Map Sextant Coordinates section. The exact sextant location of at least 200 known treasure map locations can be found in there.

Claiming your Prize

I've found the chest -- now I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams, right!? Well, not exactly. Most chests are trapped and do damage equal to chests fitted with a Tinker's trap. Of more concern are the monsters which spawn nearby when the chests are dug up, and spawn when you remove items from the chest. These creatures can be very dangerous, and seem inclined to target the chest-digger as soon as they appear.

Indeed, it has been rumored that not even the most brave adventurers can survive the spawn that accompanies the opening of a higher-level chest. Treasure hunting is definitely a group activity -- especially considering that many of these chests are located on shrineless, wandering healer-free islands :)

Note: The chests have been said to disappear within 1-3 hours after being unearthed, whether they have been cracked open or not.

In order to safely open a chest, you need to do the following things:

Use "Detect Hidden" to check for traps. If you do not do this you may be able to pick the lock, but you will need a higher Lockpicking skill. Of course for GM Lockpickers this is not a problem at all. Use "Remove Trap" to remove the trap or just skip this and deal with the effect of the trap later. Use lock picks to pick the lock of the chest. Alternatively you can use the "Magic Unlock" spell for lower level maps. Open the container by double-clicking on it. If you did not remove the trap then it is advisable to use the "Telekinesis" spell from a safe distance to avoid the damage. Alternatively, strong characters may try to just take the damage, but chances are the effects of the trap will kill you. The skill necessary to open the chests and detect the traps therein is scaled to their difficulty -- magic will only get you so far, and only grandmaster rogues will be able to open the most difficult treasure chests. Only level one and two chests can be opened with magic, the caster has to have a minimum Magery skill of 50. Note: The player that decodes the map and digs up the chest does not have to be the same player that picks open the chest.

Skill required to open a treasure chest

Map Level	Lockpicking only	Lockpicking & Detect Hidden
1	35 LP	--
2	70 LP	50-70 LP and some DH
3	80 LP	70-80 LP and 40-50 DH
4	90 LP	80-90 LP and 50-60 DH
5	100 LP	90-100 LP and 60 DH

* As you can see, using Detect Hidden first can compensate for not having a high enough Lockpicking skill.

The following is an indication of the types of creatures you should expect to spawn when you open the chest, and when remove items from it*:

Creatures Spawned during looting of chest

Map Level	Creatures Spawned
1	Mongbats, Orcs, Ratmen, Headless, Skeletons, Zombies (0-6 total)
2	Orc Mages, (Orc Lords), Gargoyles, Gazers, Hellhounds, Earth Elementals (4-10 total)
3	Liches, (Orc Lords), Ogre Lords, Dread Spiders, Air Elementals, (Water Elementals), Fire Elementals (5-10 total)
4	Dread Spiders, (Headlesses), Liches, Lich Lords, Daemons, Elder Gazers, Ogre Lords, (Orc Mages) (5-10 total)
5	(Balrons), Lich Lords, Daemons, Elder Gazers, Poison Elementals, Blood Elementals (10-15 total)

* Monsters in parenthesis are as yet unconfirmed. Should you encounter one of these at the given map levels then please let us know.

The following is an indication of the types of treasure you should expect to find within the chests:

Treasure found in chest

Map Level	Gold	Magic Items	Scrolls	Gems	Reagents
1	1000	2-6	2-5	10	20-35
2	2000	10-15	10-15	20	25-40
3	3000	15-20	20	30	20-40
4	4000	15-20	30	40	40-80
5	5000	20-25	25-35	50	100-150

- Daedalus Rising of Atlantic, Kynaerth'an of Catskills.