The Ancient's Tombs - Umbra's Tall Tale

  • Brief Overview

    A new feature that expands the world vertically, taking the players deep underground to explore real and complex cave systems as opposed to expanding the world horizontally with new generic islands and areas. Become a spelunker and explore these dark and hidden graveyards, learn the secrets of the past, their history and heritage and most important, earn a pretty penny while doing so. In these Catacombs, the players must endure a multitude of challenges to fully explore these ancient ruins, overcoming all odds and surviving the dangers will uncover forgotten tales and untold riches of the Ancients, the previous inhabitants of the Ancient Isles.


    Beginning the Tale

    The barmaids tell of fascinating voyages, tales of crews digging deep into the earth and finding the ruins of ancient graveyards holding many secrets and untold riches. They send the player down to the Lagoon of Whispers to speak with Umbra the Scribe, a cartographer who knows all the secrets of the Sea of Thieves and the stories of it's crews. Beside her lies a book to begin the tale, upon starting Umbra will begin to explain what she knows and give the players what they need for the Tale.

    "So you're going after the mines eh? Can't say I blame you, were I to have a ship and a proper crew I'd go for them myself, not sure what you'll find though, they haven't seen the light of day for many years now. Still, maybe you'll have some luck, you never know what them Ancients left buried in the earth, there's still so much we don't know bout them.
    Tell you what, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Take this Journal, it washed up on the shore so there's a few pages missing but there ought to be enough to send you on your way. Take this too, it's a Cartography Set, use it to map out the mines for me and ill pay you for your time. So how bout it, Do we have a deal?"


    Following the Journal

    The journal is a captain's log of a previous crew who went searching for the catacombs however they could not find the entrance so they buried the key for safe keeping. The player must follow the journal taking them to a random island where they will search for the Ancient's Key to begin the next step


    Finding a door

    Once the player has a key, they are free to explore the Ancient Isles in search of the catacombs and caves that dot the islands, the key will only open one door and cannot be retrieved after it's use. The doors are concealed, hidden behind the rocks inside the cave systems of any of the large island throughout the ancient Isles such as;

    Crook's Hollow, Devil's Ridge, Discovery Ridge, Plunder Valley, Shark Bait Cove, Snake Island and Plunder Valley. The entrance on each island are concealed and dwell deep in the already existing cave systems of these islands.


    Exploring the Tombs

    When the player begins to explore the Caves, they will be met with a number or challenges, each one is a maze loaded with wrong turns and dead ends, to make matter worse each one has it's own dangers that make traversing the tunnels all the more perilous. Players must trust in their exploration skills and use the Cartography Set

    Cartography Set

    As the player walks through the caves, they must equip the cartography set. Walking through the tunnels whilst equipped will record your taken path, the player can use this to navigate the halls in the event they get lost, walking around without the Cartography Set equipped will not track the players progress. It is not imperative to map out the caves but returning the set to Umbra when the Tale is finished, she will reward the player with an extra sum of gold based upon the amount the player has mapped out for her.

    Individual Catacombs;

    Crooks Hollow - Hollow Halls
    The Hollow Halls are dark and barren, there are no torches on the walls so the players must juggle using their lanterns through the darkness whilst mapping out the halls. There is little to find in these tunnels besides the cave paintings that coat the wall, each tell of the Ancient's history, their traditions and heritage. Inspecting each painting, the player will record their findings inside the Journal.
    Compared to the others, these Halls are relatively peaceful, the occasion skeleton of another explorer may attack the player but besides that the player will generally be left to explore the halls.

    Devil's Ridge - Crumbling Crypts
    The Crumbling Crypts are a set of halls used by the Ancients to bury their dead. Over the years of neglect, this burial ground has become a ruinous mess, the pillars used as structural supports are failing and clusters of rock and boulders rain down from the ceiling. The braziers have long since been extinguished but can be relit with wood and a lantern.
    In the deepest recess of the crypts lies the grave of one of the Ancient's most revered heroes, a small pedestal resides next to it with a priceless golden idol used as an offering to forgotten gods. If the player picks up the Idol, an earthquake shakes the crypts causing all remaining structural supports to crumble, the grave besides the pedestal will also open and a Skeleton Lord will chase down the players until it's defeated.

    Discovery Ridge - Mermaid's mines
    Once made by the Ancients, they would dig deep into the earth to mine for precious metals such as silver and gold. Since the Ancients disappeared these mines began to flood, these flooded mines provided a great refuge for mermaids over the years though they had no need for the precious resources that lie within.
    Relighting the braziers will help the player navigate through the waist high water maze of puddles and pools, the player will find many ore deposits throughout and while they cannot go mining themselves there are many piles of gold and silver as well as crates of ore already mined they may choose to collect these items to earn some extra gold if they so wish.

    Plunder Valley - Ceaseless Cemetery
    The ceaseless cemetery was and still is the biggest burial grounds in all of the Sea of Thieves, here lays the remains of thousands of Ancients who don't take kindly to trespassers disturbing their rest. Undead caretakers patrol the grounds keeping the braziers lit and polishing the offerings made to the dead.
    When the player explores the cemetery, the dead become restless, raising from their sleep the unarmed skeletal army will attack on masse and non stop, players must battle their way through in order to explore further. The undead caretakers will attempt to run away from the player, killing one will drop the Caretaker's Skull, an item to be sold to the Order of Souls.

    Shark Bait Cove - Sunken Subways
    A flooded cave system that is now inhabited by schools of sharks, players must swim through the caves whilst defending themselves from the sharks that now call it home. In the deepest recesses lie a plethora of mermaid gems and statues for the player to take at their leisure. There is little to no natural light so the player needs to juggle their lantern, cutlass and the cartography set.

    Snake Island - Poisonous Passageways
    Twisting tunnels that might as well be flooded with poison, this cave system is home to many snakes that dwell in the darkness. The more snakes that are attacked by the player, the more snakes spawn meaning it's best to keep them happy with music whilst you navigate your way through with the cartography set. In the largest of chambers lies a giant anaconda snake, this serpent is large enough to constrict a player, halting their movement until it is swatted off with force. If the player cannot break free they will slowly be crushed to death and eventually consumed whole.

    Thieves Haven - Tunnel of Traps
    The Tunnel of Traps were used by the ancients to protect their most precious of items. The player will traverse though and avoid the deadly trap to the best of their ability, reaching the very end of the tunnels, the player will come to a vault where in they will attempt a confusing pillar puzzle to open the vault door. Opening the vault will disable the traps for a period of time, the players will grab what loot they can before the vault door closes again. If the player wanted more loot from the vault they must complete a new puzzle that the pillars create when the vault closes.


    Returning to Umbra

    Once the player has left the various tombs they may use their loot as they please but to complete the tale they must return to Umbra and give back the cartography set. On doing this Umbra will reward the player with a lump sum of gold that is variable depending on which tomb they explored and how much they completed the map. This means players could choose not to complete any of the map, instead choosing to take the loot and run at the cost earning more gold.

    Titles will be rewarded for each tomb fully discovered for example "Tomb Raider," "Hollow Spelunker" etc
    Earning all seven titles will reward the player with a new cosmetic for the lantern, instead of a regular lantern it is shaped like a tiki torch but acts just the same as a regular lantern.


    Please check out my other concepts for the game below
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/125998/tall-tale-concept-the-curse-of-yig-the-father-of-serpents
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/125235/hunter-s-call-world-event-the-wreck
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/109323/npcs-update-deadshot-charlotte-lone-cove
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/84783/the-rotten-mail-a-postal-service-for-the-sea-of-thieves

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  • I did change the idea and clean up the format once before but felt I could do it some more justice to it so I have overhauled it once more. Now that the post is 30 days old I shall refrain from adding more, or at the very least announcing the fact.
    I hope you enjoy the concept and would like to hear your thoughts, any upvotes are also greatly appreciated.

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