A Curious Substance
| A Curious Substance | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Special Orders board |
| Giver | Wizard |
| Time Limit | 7 days |
| Repeatable | No |
Rasmodius wants a single jar of goop scraped out of a dead ghost, and he will not say what for. It is the shortest shopping list on the town board, and the only reason it takes more than an afternoon is that the goop does not exist until the notice is up. Ghosts drop it about one time in ten while the order runs, which means a dozen or so kills on the right floors of The Mines. The payment is a tidy sum of gold and the plans for a pair of Mini-Obelisks, a cheap bit of farm plumbing that cuts the daily walk from one end of a large farm to the other. For a farm that already has a sword and a lift pass, this is close to free money.
The board reads: I seek an extremely rare and powerful goop, known as 'ectoplasm'. It can be found in the remains of slain ghosts. -M. Rasmodius
Requirements
Ectoplasm exists only while the Wizard is asking for it. Ghosts carry it in the same inventory they always have, but the entry switches on when the order begins and switches off the moment it closes, so there is no way to have a jar waiting in a chest beforehand. Anything beyond the single jar vanishes with the order too, which makes stockpiling pointless.
Ordinary ghosts haunt the band of The Mines that sits above the lowest floors, below the frozen middle and above the hot stone at the bottom. Carbon Ghosts drift through the Skull Cavern and the dangerous version of the mines, and Putrid Ghosts belong to the dangerous mines alone. All three carry the goop at the same rate, so the plain variety on the mine lift's deepest usable stops is the sensible target.
The chance is a shade under one in ten per kill, so a thin floor with two ghosts on it is worth leaving. The mines rebuild every floor when the shaft is exited and re-entered, which turns the hunt into a loop: ride down, clear the ghosts, walk out, ride back. One good run usually settles it.
The Burglar's Ring doubles the rolls on a monster's loot, and a ghost killed while it is worn can hand over two jars at once. Only one is wanted, so the ring shortens the hunt rather than adding anything to it.
The order asks for every item in this table.
| Item | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Ectoplasm | 
|
1 |
Rewards
The gold is useful but not remarkable at the point most farms meet this notice. The letter that follows carries the real payment.
A Mini-Obelisk is half of a doorway. Two of them stand anywhere inside the farm's boundary and step the farmer instantly from one to the other, which is the difference between a two-minute walk and no walk at all on a large layout. Only two are allowed, so the pair has to be placed with some thought: the far corner of a field and the spot beside the farmhouse door is the usual answer, or the shipping bin and the back of the greenhouse. They refuse to work inside buildings, they refuse to leave the valley for Ginger Island, and a horse cannot be taken through, so the walk to the stable still has to be made on foot.
Crafting a pair costs hardwood, gold bars and a good pile of Solar Essence. That last ingredient is the quiet joke of this order: ghosts drop Solar Essence almost every time they die, so the hunt for one jar of goop pays for the obelisks it unlocks.
Finishing the order pays out all of this.
| Reward | Image |
|---|---|
| 2,500g | - |
| Mini-Obelisk recipe | 
|
Strategy
Go down with a weapon that hits hard and slowly. Ghosts drift straight at the farmer, ignore rock walls and float over the gaps in the floor, and each hit knocks them back several tiles, so a club or a heavy sword that lands one big blow beats a dagger that lands five small ones. Standing still and swinging as the ghost arrives wastes the least time. A dagger's special move is the exception, since it pins the ghost in place and strikes repeatedly without any chasing.
Pack food. The floors that hold ghosts also hold skeletons and shadow creatures, and the loop of leaving and re-entering means a long afternoon underground rather than a quick raid.
The common way this one fails is picking the wrong depth. Hunting on the frozen floors or in the hot stone near the bottom turns up almost no ghosts, and the day goes by. The other way is the calendar: the week shrinks each day the paper hangs on the board, accepted or not, so a notice spotted on Saturday leaves a single evening for a trip that wants a full day.
Notes
Rasmodius takes the jar in person at his tower in Cindersap Forest, so the last step of the order is a walk south-west rather than a drop into a box.
The same deep floors that hold ghosts are the stretch of The Mines most worth farming anyway. Refined quartz, Gold Ore and the occasional diamond come off the same kills, and a farm that still needs a Dwarf Scroll for the museum has a reasonable chance at one while it hunts.
Ghostfish comes off ghosts as well, which is a small mercy for anyone who still owes the Junimos one for the Specialty Fish Bundle and would rather not sit by the underground pond with a rod.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.