Lost Books
| Lost Books | |
|---|---|
| Type | Collection |
Lost Books are scraps of old writing that come out of the ground and out of the water, and not one of them ever reaches the inventory. Each find goes straight onto the bookcase shelves in the Museum & Library, and from then on it can be read whenever the farmer walks in, by examining the shelf tile it sits on. Twenty-one titles exist, and they always arrive in the same fixed order, so the shelf fills like a slow bar rather than a hunt for one particular volume. What the books pay out is knowledge: the depth at which diamonds start to form, the waters and seasons of the five legendary fish, which produce a keg turns into which drink, the steps from a bouquet to a wedding, and the one delicacy a goblin will not refuse. The last book on the shelf is a puzzle wearing the costume of a book.
Overview
Artifact Spots are the mainstay. Every outdoor map away from the farm carries a steady chance of a book rather than a relic, and because the chance sits near the top of the list it beats most of the artifacts to the prize. Winter is therefore book season, since that is when spots crowd the valley. A Hoe swung at bare soil in The Mines or the Skull Cavern can turn one up too, which makes tilling the sandy patches on a mining run worth the handful of energy. Fishing is the third route: both the ordinary treasure chests and the golden ones hold books now and then, so an angler collects them without ever picking up a Hoe.
The fixed order is the thing that shapes the whole collection. "Tips on Farming" is already on the shelf when the farmhouse door opens for the first time, so the first book found is the second title in the sequence. Nothing can be skipped or chased. That makes the books a background collection, filling in over several years of ordinary play, and it means the reward for a long dig is whatever comes next rather than whatever was wanted. Once all twenty-one are shelved, that step of the Artifact Spot list quietly turns into Mixed Seeds, so the digging keeps paying afterwards.
The early titles are the game explaining itself. A note from Marnie covers animals: petting them every day, grass outdoors beating dry hay, rain souring their mood, and happy animals giving better produce. "On Foraging" explains that clearing weeds, stumps and stones out of the woods and mountains gives wild food room to grow, and hints that an expert forager can grow it on the farm. The two acts of "The Fisherman" are written as a short play between Tex and Gordy, and between the jokes they explain that fishing skill raises casting speed and that bobbers are a thing a skilled angler can make.
The middle of the shelf holds the genuinely useful research. "A Study on Diamond Yields" is signed M. Jasper and reports that diamonds only form from mine level fifty downwards, and that they grow slowly commoner with every floor below it, which is a real argument for going deeper rather than farming the same floor. The "Brewmaster's Guide" lays out the whole keg: vegetables make juice and brew fastest, wheat makes beer, hops make Pale Ale, and fruit makes wine, which takes longest and pays best. "Scarecrows" explains that a scarecrow only guards a limited circle, that a big farm needs several, and that each one keeps a count of the crows it has turned away, so the count tells whether it is standing in a useful place. The "Technology Report" describes the Crystalarium copying any gem placed inside it, and warns that a Prismatic Shard is the one stone it cannot handle. The "Marriage Guide for Farmers" is paid for by Pierre and says so: a bouquet from his shop asks someone to date, a Mermaid's Pendant asks the bigger question, and the ghost of an Old Mariner is rumoured to carry one on stormy days.
"Secrets of the Legendary Fish" is the single most valuable page on the shelf. It names all five and where they hold: the Crimsonfish in the warm ocean off the far east of the beach in Summer, the Glacierfish at the southern tip of the arrowhead island in Cindersap Forest in Winter, the Anglerfish north of town where the river comes down from the mountains in Fall, a twisted thing living in the sewer, and Legend itself in a submerged log in the mountain lake, out only on rainy Spring days.
Several books are there for the lore rather than the advice. "Mysteries of the Dwarves" has M. Jasper arguing, against his colleagues, that the dwarves are the survivors of a crashed interplanetary vessel, which would explain both their technology and why they call themselves sky people while living underground. "Highlights From The Book of Yoba" tells a creation story of golden light swirled into a vortex, a seed, a vine and a fruit with the world inside it. "The Secret of the Stardrop" quotes a researcher on traces of matching genetic material found on meteorites. "Goblins by M. Jasper" is the one with a practical sting in its tail: it describes the goblins of the far northeast and mentions, almost in passing, that Void Mayonnaise is the finest thing in all goblin cuisine, which is exactly the hint a farmer blocked at the entrance to the Witch's Swamp needs.
Gunther gets two entries of his own. One is an unsigned scrap about something strange in the tunnel out of Pelican Town, a little door hidden in the dark that would not open. The other is a short thank-you, written once the library has grown into something worth visiting.
The final book is the one nobody can read. Its text is a run of nonsense syllables, and taken letter by letter it is not nonsense at all: the first letter of each word spells out three short phrases, and each phrase pairs an item with a place in town. Posting the named item into the hidden box at the named place pays out a statue with an unpronounceable name. It is the only book on the shelf that asks the reader to do anything.
Notes
A Lost Book pulled out of a fishing Treasure Chest shows a description of its own on the way past: "Writings from a wide variety of time periods."
The shelves are shared with the room's other business. Penny tutors Vincent and Jas in the library on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, so the quiet reading corner is often the noisiest part of the building.
Lost Books are a different animal from the skill books and power books sold by the Bookseller. Those are read out of the inventory and vanish in the reading, leaving a lasting bonus behind. A Lost Book stays on the shelf for good and can be read again any time the museum is open.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
