The Riven Realms, the setting of Vagrus, is a harsh, violent place. Up until now many players have felt that their ventures are the primary targets of this cruelty but with Mercenary Tasks, you will have the opportunity to return the favor. This facet of gameplay has been in the works since we began developing Vagrus, and it not only adds a ton of variation and replayability, but also goes a long way in softening up story content. Along with the branching story and trading, we consider mercenary work as one of the three pillars that hold up the game. Of course, we leave it to players which facet they want to concentrate on at times in each playthrough. Mercenary Tasks even allow for a completely combat-oriented gameplay, concentrating on forging a warband from your comitatus.

'If they catch you, they will kill you this time. Or worse, sell you to the slavers of Ash.'

- Ecra to fellow household slave Fabo, upon hearing his plan of escape

As many Imperial citizens would tell you, Ash is truly the ass-end of the Empire, even though there are more remote or less inhabited regions out there over terra supra. And yet most agree that this border town is worse off than most others, or at least that it is among the most unpleasant places you can visit. Its location is rather unfortunate: the Wayward Ash that surrounds it is a desert of lifeless grey silt, tormented by ashen storms all too often. On the other hand, Ash has become the greatest slave market town north of the Sepis Mountains, in part because its surroundings discourage escape, and also because of its remoteness as well as closeness to regions loosely controlled by the Empire; regions where the slavers that converge here can gather their unfortunate inventory. And even though there are many more large slave markets in the Empire, none of them is considered as cruel and soulless as this one.

Those of you who have played the game extensively surely know Deven, the great Imperial city that occupies vast caverns beneath the arid and hot Jagged Waste. It is a regular stop for many traders, wanderers, and vagri. Although the subterranean location is protected from the scorching sunlight of the surface, it is in turn enveloped in perpetual twilight only broken by the many braziers and luminous crystal clusters.

Commerce in the Riven Realms is held by the iron grip of Trading Houses through official monopolies or the control of locations that produce valuable goods. A simple merchant who deals in smaller quantities of wares can not begin to imagine what profit these factions work with, especially compared to what the actual manufacturing or harvesting costs. Yet there are considerable expenses involved in these operations, too. If the hardships of travel over the accursed wastelands were not enough by themselves, factions regularly wage bloody wars for resources, mostly in the shadows but often openly as well out on the frontier - and these are astonishingly expensive.

'Ah, Larnak, the city of contradictions. It sits in the middle of the hottest, driest desert of the continent and yet you could not find a more damp and dark place. The reason is, of course, the presence of the vast underground lakes around which the settlement was built. The waters are sacred to the desert-dwelling Sadirar tribes and yet these days the Imperials use them as industrial ponds to grow their precious brightkelp. But that is not the strangest thing to see in Larnak, oh no. For that reason, take in its wonders but tread lightly, good master.'

'They came at night - in the darkness that enveloped the valley, thick as ink. But then pale ghost light appeared and danced all over the carvings of the old tombs. The stink of terror was awful. And then I heard the screaming. Not that of the horrifying specters... but that of my comrades.'

Hey everyone,

first of all, Happy New Year. We made it to 2021 at last.

It's been a while since we posted a devlog entry and we figured that this would be a great time to do so. Today's topic, Dynamic pricing, has been on our minds for a long-long time, and finally, we've decided to pull the trigger on implementing it. To provide a little background on why we need it, let's review what happens in the current build of the game when you go trading.

Hey everyone, a quick recap of the patch/fix that went live during the weekend can be found here. Hopefully, the more egregious errors have been squashed, now onto the smaller ones as well as the upcoming content development before the year closes out. :)

New/Updated Features:  

• Exploit leadership perk enabled. Use RF to reroll available Trade Tasks  
• Objective area markers for certain events where you need to scout a larger area [like bounties] so you know, at least roughly, the location  
• Goods category filters on the Market  
• Specify quantity button on the Market - mainly for Steam Remote Play users playing on iPads  
• Goods pilfered by the enemy can be taken back if you destroy them in Crew Combat  - Entering major settlements with a larger armed force now requires a license  
• Vagrus now runs in the background

Bug Fixes:

'Disgusting little runts. Eaters of the dead. Pale vermin. I hereby vow to do all in my power to push them out of your neighborhoods and businesses, to bar them from decent citizens of the Empire, and in the end perhaps even rid this city of their filth altogether.'

- Tribune Septimus Votano of Deven in a speech about Wraiths during his campaign for office

Hey everyone,

and first of all let us thank all of you who shared their views regarding our planned priorities. We took that to heart and worked tirelessly to implement Companion Progression, which includes raising the Prowess cap from two to five, introducing Companion-specific traits that increase stats, and much more.