Ethernalis Systems Reference

Advanced Actions

The dungeon is not only crossed and looted. It can be worked: fished, searched, washed, mined, cut, harvested, prayed over, and changed by the tools a seeker carries.
- On sustainable survival and extracting resources from places, objects, and conditions
Action Costs· Tool Families· Proficiency Growth· Tag-Based Actions
I
Survival Loop

The Survival Backbone

Location actions are the game's reliable resource engine. Containers are finite, enemies are dangerous, and traders can be distant or poor. A prepared character can return to the environment and ask it for what it naturally provides.

PLC
Place

Rooms Have Work to Offer

Rivers can provide water and fish. Forests can provide forage and wood. Mines can provide ore. Libraries can provide books and lore. A room's identity determines what kinds of work make sense there.

KIT
Tools

Preparation Opens Options

A rod, net, spear, axe, pickaxe, bottle, bag, bucket, lantern, candle, bowl, shovel, blade, fire source, rags, soap, or water can turn a plain room into a practical opportunity.

REP
Repeat

Sustainable, Not Free

These actions are repeatable sources of value, but they spend turns, may wear down tools, and can fail. Sustainability is earned by carrying the right kit and managing time.

II
Action Resolution

How an Action Resolves

A location action is a declared use of the current place. A tag-based action is a declared use of a nearby object or visible condition. In both cases, the seeker spends effort, proves they have the necessary tool or material, then tests whether the attempt succeeds.

  • Sourcethe current room, a nearby object, or a visible condition
  • Costusually one action point
  • Requirementa specific tool, a tool family, a carried material, or no tool at all
  • Rolla chance test improved by relevant practice
  • Weartools and consumable helpers may degrade or be spent
  • Outcomeloot, transformation, cleaning, event, or simple success
AP
Cost

Turns Are the Price

Spending a turn to fish, mine, clean, cut, or draw water is a survival choice made instead of moving, fighting, opening, or crafting.

REQ
Requirement

Specific Tools and Tool Families

Some actions demand one exact object, such as an empty bottle. Others accept a family of tools: any axe for cutting, any suitable blade for bark, any fishing tool for water work.

SKL
Growth

Practice Improves the Loop

Fishing, mining, foraging, woodcutting, ritual practice, and similar disciplines become more reliable as the character performs them.

VAR
Variation

Success Is Not Always the Same

A successful search or harvest draws from what the place could reasonably yield. Better finds are possible, but the dungeon does not promise the same result every time.

III
Resource Families

What Location Actions Can Provide

The important pattern is not one exact reward. It is that each biome, room type, object, and condition points toward a different survival economy. Players who remember useful sources can build routes around them.

WTR
Water

Drink, Bottle, Carry

Rivers, swamps, wells, flooded places, and wet rooms can let the player drink directly or fill a container. Bottled water turns a place into portable survival.

FSH
Fishing

Food from Water

Fishing rods, nets, and spear-fishing tools turn watery rooms into renewable food sources. Different tools give different chances and produce different catches.

FRG
Forage

Plants, Scraps, Small Finds

Foraging yields herbs, food, crafting scraps, stones, fungi, or other local matter. It is the broadest survival action and often works without a dedicated tool.

ORE
Mining

Ore, Gems, Stone

Pickaxes turn caves, mines, and stone-heavy rooms into sources of ore, minerals, gems, and raw stone for crafting and trade.

WOD
Wood

Fuel and Timber

Axes let forested places provide wood and planks. This supports fire, crafting, repairs, construction chains, and comfort in cold regions.

SLV
Salvage

Bookshelves, Graves, Workshops

Libraries, burials, workshops, ruins, and chambers can be searched for lore objects, tools, nails, relics, or old materials that ordinary wilderness cannot provide.

CLY
Bulk Matter

Clay, Dirt, Sand, Resin

Buckets, bags, bowls, and other containers transform terrain into craft stock: clay, dirt, sand, resin, and similar materials that anchor longer production chains.

EVT
Events

Actions Can Open Scenes

Drinking, praying, or interacting with special places can call authored consequences instead of simple loot. Some actions are doors into the event system.

IV
Tag-Based Rules

Tag-Based System Actions

Some advanced actions do not belong to a whole room. They belong to the nature of a thing in the room. A tree can be cut because it is a tree. A soiled object can be cleaned because it is cleanable. A cold furnace can be lit because it is a furnace waiting for fire.

OBJ
Object Traits

The Thing Names the Action

Objects carry traits that imply possible work: trees can be cut or stripped for bark, flooded ground can fill bottles, cleanable objects can be scrubbed, washable things can be washed.

TL
Tool Traits

The Tool Answers the Thing

The matching requirement may be an equipped axe, a blade, rags, soap, water, a fire source, or another practical helper. What matters is what the item can do, not only what it is named.

TRN
Transformation

Actions Can Change the Board

Some actions exhaust or alter the source. Cutting can turn a tree into wood. Lighting can turn a cold furnace into a hot one. Cleaning can remove grime. A worked object may not remain the same object afterward.

SUP
Replacement

Special Work Can Override Basics

When an object offers a more precise action, the ordinary interaction may step aside. The player is being invited to work the object directly rather than treat it as a generic card.

MAT
Material Memory

The Source Shapes the Result

When an action harvests from an object, the result can inherit the feel of its source. Cutting, stripping, or gathering from a material thing is not the same as drawing from a neutral loot pile.

RISK
Risk

Failure Still Costs Time

A failed attempt spends effort and may still wear the tool or the source. Advanced actions are dependable over time, but each individual attempt remains a choice with cost.

V
Sustainable Play

Planning Around Location Actions

A character survives longer when the inventory is treated as a toolkit, not only as treasure. The right cheap tool can make a harsh route livable, and a remembered room can be more valuable than a one-time chest.

REM
Remember

Mark Useful Places

A river that fills bottles, a forest that gives wood, a mine that yields ore, or a wash place that cleans gear is worth remembering. The map is a survival ledger.

INV
Inventory

Carry the Enablers

Tools and empty containers create options. A bottle, bag, axe, pickaxe, fishing tool, blade, rag, soap, or light source may be dead weight until the exact room that makes it profitable.

DUR
Durability

Maintain Your Tools

Required tools can lose durability when used. Sustainable harvesting depends on repairing, replacing, or carrying backups for the tools that feed the expedition.

RTE
Route

Return with Purpose

The best route is not always the shortest. It may pass through known water, known wood, known ore, cleaning opportunities, and safe rest points before pushing into danger.

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