Guides · The world
Folk and Waysteads
The Waned that shamble about at night were travelers once, the people who walked the old Wanestone roads. With a Wanestone, a Homefire and one careful night, you can wake one back up. Wake a few, give them a well and some beds, and you have a Waystead: a little roadside village that trades, hands out quests and grows.
Waking a Waned
Any of the three Waned can be woken: Waned, Dustwaned, and Rimewaned.
Lead a Waned to within 8 blocks of a Homefire at night. Hold a Wanestone and use it on the Waned (right click, or tap on a phone). It takes the stone and stands still, warming by the fire. Keep it safe until dawn, and it wakes up as a Rekindled.
- It only works at night. By day a Waned will not stand still long enough.
- A Waned that is chasing someone will not take the stone. Let it settle first.
- Anything that hurts it before dawn breaks the spell: a blow, fire, or the sun coming up on it early. So does wandering out of the fire’s reach. Either way, the Wanestone is gone.
A Rekindled remembers the roads but not its own name. It is friendly, cannot hurt you, and heads back to the fire every night. Talk to one and it might tell you a little about the old roads.
Founding a Waystead
A Waystead starts with a Waywell, the well at its middle. Make one from stone bricks around a water bucket, with a Wanestone in the top middle. Set it down within 8 blocks of a Homefire and you have founded a Waystead. It shows on your compass from then on.
A few rules keep Waysteads spread out:
- Waysteads stand only in the middle lands, where the old roads ran.
- Two Waywells must be at least 24 blocks apart.
- You can found up to 4 Waysteads, and a world holds up to 16.
- In the Gleamlands, a Waystead has to stand inside its founder’s claim.
Each Bedroll within 16 blocks of the well is room for one more of the folk, up to 8. A Rekindled you wake inside that reach stays and lives there. A Bedroll is two wool (or two wheat) over a haft and a torch.
If one of your folk gets knocked down, it waits on the ground. Get it back to a Bedroll before dusk, or it slips back into being a Waned.
How a Waystead grows
A Waystead grows in three steps, and a banner over the well shows which one it has reached.
| Step | What it takes |
|---|---|
| Hearth | A Waywell by a Homefire |
| Waystead | At least 3 folk, one of them the Wayhost |
| Crossroads | At least 8 folk, a Wayhost, and a Hornrider’s road to another Waystead |
Once your Waystead has a Wayhost, a new Rekindled walks in from the road every 3 days or so, as long as there is a free bed.
The Wayhost
When a Waystead has 3 folk, one of them becomes its Wayhost, who keeps the fire and trades. A Wayhost trades goods for goods, never money. Each Wayhost sells what its own land is known for, so it pays to found Waysteads in different places.
The stock is fresh every morning. Each trade can be made a few times a day, and each time you make it again that day it asks for half as much more. A trade marked “some days” is only in stock now and then. Nothing a Wayhost sells is better than the best you can make or find yourself: no mining tools, weapons or armor, and no boss prizes.
Green lands
A Waystead in plains, forest or pine woods, away from the sea, trades the crops and saplings of the green roads.
| You give | You get | Times a day |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat ×12 | Hedgeberries ×4 | 4 |
| White Wool ×4 | Birch Sapling ×2 | 3 |
| Iron Ingot ×2 | Jungle Sapling ×2 | 3 |
| Wheat ×8 and White Wool ×2 | Pine Sapling ×2 | 3 |
| Wheat ×20 and Iron Ingot ×2 | Sun Carrot ×1 (some days) | 1 |
| Wheat ×10 | Corn Seeds ×4 and Rice Seeds ×4 | 3 |
| Carrot ×6 | Leek Seeds ×4 and Bean Seeds ×4 | 3 |
| Wheat ×10 and Bread ×2 | Recipe Card ×1 | 1 |
| Gold Ingot ×4 and Wheat ×16 | Thornsnare Folio ×1 (some days) | 1 |
Snow
A Waystead in the snow trades ice and cold-weather food.
| You give | You get | Times a day |
|---|---|---|
| Coal ×8 | Hard Ice ×8 | 4 |
| Roast Beef ×4 | Deep Ice ×4 | 3 |
| Roast Pork ×4 | Snowberries ×6 | 3 |
| Coal ×16 and Roast Beef ×4 | Leap Ward ×1 (some days) | 1 |
| Wheat ×10 | Beet Seeds ×4 and Bean Seeds ×4 | 3 |
| Roast Beef ×3 and Coal ×4 | Recipe Card ×1 | 1 |
| Gold Ingot ×4 and Frost Crystal ×4 | Frostbind Folio ×1 (some days) | 1 |
Desert
A Waystead in the desert wants water, and pays in sandstone of every cut.
| You give | You get | Times a day |
|---|---|---|
| Water Bucket ×1 | Sandstone ×12 and Bucket ×1 | 4 |
| Glass ×6 | Sandstone Stairs ×8 | 3 |
| Glass ×4 | Sandstone Slab ×12 | 3 |
| Water Bucket ×2 and Glass ×8 | Sandstone Wall ×12 and Bucket ×2 | 2 |
| Bread ×4 | Dates ×6 | 3 |
| Wheat ×8 | Sunflower Seeds ×6 | 3 |
| Water Bucket ×1 and Bread ×2 | Recipe Card ×1 and Bucket ×1 | 1 |
| Gold Ingot ×4 and Glass ×8 | Stone Throw Folio ×1 (some days) | 1 |
Coast
A Waystead near open water (but not in snow or mountains) trades boats, glass and fishing gear for fish and Seamcord.
| You give | You get | Times a day |
|---|---|---|
| Riverfish ×6 | Boat ×1 | 2 |
| Seamcord ×6 | Glass ×8 | 3 |
| Silver Perch ×3 | Fishing Rod ×1 | 1 |
| Riverfish ×4 and Seamcord ×2 | Glass Pane ×16 | 3 |
| Riverfish ×6 and Bread ×1 | Recipe Card ×1 | 1 |
| Gold Ingot ×4 and Pearl ×3 | Tidemend Folio ×1 (some days) | 1 |
Mountains
A Waystead in the mountains trades old Firstfolk scrap for food.
| You give | You get | Times a day |
|---|---|---|
| Bread ×6 | Rusted Firstfolk Gear ×2 | 3 |
| White Wool ×6 and Bucket ×1 | Pitch Bucket ×1 | 2 |
| Roast Beef ×6 | Metal Plate ×2 | 3 |
| Bread ×4 and White Wool ×2 | Recipe Card ×1 | 1 |
| Gold Ingot ×4 and Iron Ingot ×6 | Stone Throw Folio ×1 (some days) | 1 |
Every Wayhost also has a Recipe Card for its land’s food (see Cooking and fishing), and some days a spell folio (see Magic).
Hornriders
When two Waysteads, each with a Wayhost, are within 600 blocks of each other, one of the folk takes up the road between them on a Roadhorn. This Hornrider sets out soon after sunrise, rests a while at the far end, then rides back, and is home again by the next sunrise. It takes the same winding road every day.
Stop a Hornrider on the road and it trades a little of both ends: the first 2 trades of each Waystead. It also carries orders. Pay at one end and collect at the other, with up to 6 orders waiting at a time.
If hunters take a Hornrider’s Roadhorn, it waits on foot by the road and asks for another one so it can ride again.
Meeting folk on the road
You do not have to found anything to meet the folk. Out in the open in the middle lands by day, you will sometimes come across a Rekindled traveler. Each wears a colored cord on its cloak for the road it once walked: the green road, the dust road or the snow road, depending on the land. A traveler stays about 5 minutes before moving on, and you meet one at most every 10 minutes. Say hello: travelers give quests too.
Quests of the road
The folk ask for help in their own words, and your Journal keeps track. What they give is always something handy, never something sold.
| Quest | Who asks | What to do | Reward | How often |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood for the Fire | A Rekindled | Bring Oak Log ×8 for the fire | Bread ×3 | Once |
| Coal for the Lamps | A Wayhost | Bring Coal ×4 for the road lamps | Torch ×16 | Every day |
| The Night Watch | A Wayhost | Put down 3 hostile creatures at night, then report back | Bread ×2 and Torch ×8 | Every day |
| A Clear Road | A Hornrider | Put 5 Waned to rest, then report back | Chest ×1 and Torch ×16 | Once |
| The Road Together | A Hornrider | With anyone else on the quest, put 8 Waned to rest together, then report back. Opens after A Clear Road | Bread ×3 and Torch ×8 | Every day |
| A Fire Kept | A Rekindled | Found a Waystead, wake a Waned, trade with the folk, then talk to a Wayhost. Opens after Wood for the Fire | Bedroll ×2 and Chest ×2 | Once |
Lighting the road lamps has a bonus: that night the Hold’s supply beast sets out from the Waystead for the Hold, and walking it home safely pays everyone nearby. See Trade Waybills.
Stillglows
In a few old Firstfolk places, a figure made of pale light stands where a person stood when the white light ran. These are the Stillglows. You cannot make one or hurt one. Each has one thing it never got to finish and asks you to do it. Finish it, go back, and it tells you a piece of the old story before it fades away for you.
| Who | Where | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| The Lensmaker | A Lens Foundry | Carry what it asks for into each of the 4 Keepers’ temples, so it sees what they saw |
| The Pumpwright | The Siphonworks | Beat the 4 Wrights who hold the great siphon’s valves |
| The Child | A Reliquary | Climb the middle lands’ mountains, above where the snow starts, and be there at dawn with her Torn Page II in your bag |
| The Council's Clerk | A Cinderwrack’s tallest tower | Open a Lens Foundry’s vault while none of its Wardens is standing |
Next: Effects and food. All sections: the guides.