A private server · Minecraft 1.21.1
“The lamps have waited long enough.”
Wipe your boots & come inI · The closing
A cosy Victorian countryside adventure with an undercurrent of mystery: lamp-lit rooms, village gossip, and old machines waking after a long sleep.
Three generations built Alderwick. Augustin raised the house on a rise with a tall belvedere tower so he could see his orchards from his desk. Edmund, an engineer, filled the grounds with machinery and ran a railway to Ironmere. Lenora ran it all for decades: exacting, practical, never without a notebook.
About twelve years ago, in a single season, she shut it down. She stopped every machine by hand in a particular order, let the staff go with wages and references, closed the house room by room, and left. She never gave a public reason.
Last winter Lenora died. Her will put the estate into a trust with two custodians’ chairs.
II · The will
The first to arrive is always the Heir: Lenora’s great-niece or great-nephew, raised far from the valley. Everyone after draws one identity from the will, kept for good. It changes your greetings, which villages warm to you first, and the letters you receive.
Every identity has a story of its own. Don’t look it up.
III · The valley
First impression: divided
The market village at the gates. Families worked at the house for three generations and still talk about “before the closing” and “after.” Split down the middle about Lenora.
Charter Day — the founding charter read aloud; bring a chair.
Lamplighting Night — first frost.
First impression: warm
An orchard village with a long memory, tending the estate orchards on very old leases. Remembers the Drowning Week, when the estate’s pumps saved three trapped miners. Calls Ironmere folk “clinkers.”
The Four-Day Bell
The Blossom Walk — dawn, in spring.
First impression: cold
A stern railway and metalworking town, grown up around a foundry that burned down and a terminal that went quiet. A hard year is “a Long Cold year.” Calls Bramblemead folk “pippins.”
Whistle Night — anvils beaten now there are no engines.
All three meet each autumn at the Harvest Fair, where the Golden Apple goes to the best produce.
IV · Acquaintances
“Ah. You’ll be the new custodian. Do wipe your boots; the foyer has had twelve quiet years and would like a thirteenth.”
Estate steward. Formal, dryly funny, still says “Miss Lenora.”
The EstateMechanic. Blunt, brilliant; her mother was the estate’s chief mechanic.
AlderwickGrocer and matchmaker, in a freight-rate war with Ironmere’s stationmaster.
AlderwickThe law. Slow, fair, procedural.
AlderwickMiller. Talks weather first; keeps a copy of something Lenora told him.
BramblemeadInnkeeper. Food before opinions.
BramblemeadStationmaster. Precise to the minute.
IronmereElectrical engineer. Lectures in numbered points.
IronmereThe law. Severe, consistent, strict about tools.
IronmereV · Customs of the house
Right-click with an empty hand to talk; anything typed in nearby chat gets an answer. Topic buttons unlock as the estate is restored and trust grows. Sneak + Right-click opens the normal MCA screen and shop.
Gossip isn’t always accurate, and you can tell a chatty villager to hush. Without AI, villagers still answer with written lines, shops, requests and the law.
Levelled by doing. Press K for levels 1–50, each with a perk tree. Skill XP is never lost, even on death.
Quests never stall: if a step needs a level, you’re raised to it after finishing the prior step. Machines use their owner’s skills; unowned ones work at level one and can be claimed with a wrench. Training sites — ore rocks, regrowing trees, fishing spots, combat camps — sit around the estate.
Village chests, barrels and crops belong to someone. Theft is remembered, and so is help. Constables may ask for restitution or a short stay in the lock-up; running makes it worse. Ironmere fines industrial theft hardest.
Ruins with a white placard are fair game:
A narrated fly-over plays on arrival (sneak to skip; /estate intro replays it). Villages notice whether custodians squabble or share, and people say different things to each of you.
The house is safe and lit from the first night, and the library has books for it. Danger exists in the wilds, some of it clearly signposted. Retreating is always sensible.
VI · Arrival
In CurseForge, Create Custom Profile → Import the Alderwick client ZIP. Allocate 6 GB of memory (8 GB comfortable).
Multiplayer → Direct Connection with the address from your invitation. Keep pinned mod versions and dismiss update prompts.
On first login MCA asks “Who are you?” Keep your name, choose gender, pick Vanilla, Accept.
Open the Quest Book in slot one, read the introduction letter, and find Elias Ward.
The lamps have waited long enough.