Stoneshard Updates, $46,132 and Counting

With 18 days left to go, Stoneshard’s Kickstarter campaign is going fairly strong. The roguelike RPG currently sits at $46,132 pledged, working towards its first $50k stretch goal. But before that happens, we get to check out a couple of recently published campaign updates. The first of those tells us about Verren, a character we got a chance to meet during the game’s free prologue. Here’s what he’s all about:

Verren, one of those famous people you can tell nothing about. Usually laconic and silent, he makes the impression of a tough man. But those who managed to get to know the old caravaneer mention the amazing breadth of his soul and courage, which you do not often see nowadays.

Verren avoids any mention of his childhood and youth, so that his past is hidden by a veil of secrecy. Some say that he lost his family soon after the fall of the last dynasty, and was left on the street in complete poverty. However, he managed to pull himself out of the bottom of the pit, thanks to incredible cheerfulness and determination. Years passed, he has tried many crafts – from field work to mercenarism and smuggling. Word is, he used to work alongside the rogue Grey Army, well, Verren himself persistently denies these rumors.

One day he found himself in trading artifacts, ancient treatise and other magic stuff. After becoming quite fortunate, Verren invested everything in the caravan and built an extensive network of informers and useful acquaintances, from Aldor to Jade Kingdoms.

Thanks to Verren’s reputation, being a man of his word, he never lacks work. No matter how big the problem is, it’d roll of his back. Even in the most darkest days, you could see Verren’s caravan driving across Aldor, no doubt, hunting another artifact.

That last part brings us to the second fresh update that offers an overview of the caravan that will serve as our mobile hub in Stoneshard:

Caravan is a mobile hub that can be customised and changed during the playthrough. Your best way of travelling around the global map. The Caravan is managed by Verren, you know him well already. While being the Caravaneer, at the same time he is your global map coordinator.

Caravan is a bunch of wagons, which you can improve and add all the way on. Standard carts hold two slots you can use to place followers or chests in order to have more free item slots in your caravan. For a fee, you can improve the wagons by adding new properties to them, while reducing the number of available slots. Here are a few of the planned upgrades:

• Field Kitchen. Slows down the rate of hunger increase for all the inhabitants of the caravan, reduces the cost of converting food to supplies, reduces the rate of spoilage of transported provisions.
• Cargo Wagon. It can not have followers in it, but it greatly increases the number of slots in the caravan storage.
• Altar. This wagon can be dedicated to one of the Pantheon gods, which will simplify the process of accumulating divine benevolence.

At the very beginning of the game, your caravan will consist of one Verren’s wagon, in which he lives together with the main character, and one ordinary cart. During the campaign, you can accumulate enough money to increase the number of wagons to four — and customize them at your own discretion!

At safe locations it will be possible to arrange a halt, laying out a caravan. This will give access to some followers’ functions (since the smith, for example, can’t repair items while caravan is moving), and will also allow them to rest and respire.

The established caravan will facilitate the district exploration, since you do not have to drag yourself into the city every time to sell your loot, repair equipment, or get medical treatment — in these cases, hired followers will be able to help you, if, of course, they are trained to do so.