Quest Book
The Journal, Embers & Torn Leaves
How the journal screen on the L key works, how the prologue leads you to the journal, what torn leaves and embers are, and which gameplay actions the quest book checks for.
The journal is the screen behind the L key. It sits on top of the quest book: it tells the story of the traveller who left the book, keeps your torn leaves and your embers, and opens the quest book at the right chapter. This page covers the prologue that gives you the journal, the four journal sections, torn leaves, embers and the gameplay actions the book checks.
How it works#
The prologue. On your first night every online member of a team that has not yet found the journal receives a paper leaf, A Leaf, Torn Out. It asks you to find the traveller under a spruce that came down, where a road starts, and to light a fire after dark with the leaf beside you. A campfire your team lights after dark answers the leaf with a direction and a rounded number of paces. The first answer builds the site where the journal waits: a fallen spruce, a laid but unlit campfire and a chest. The stack of stones you pass on the way is her mark.
Opening the chest sets the fact that the journal is found and completes the quest Under the Spruce. That quest opens most of the book: Chapter Gates & Book Order lists what it unlocks.
The journal screen. Press L or use the tab on top of the survival inventory. Until you have found the journal, the screen shows only the leaf. Afterwards it has four sections, which you can also reach with the keys 1 to 4:
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| The road so far | The parts of the book with their tallies, locks and a "continue here" marker. Clicking a chapter opens the quest book at that place. |
| Her pages | The torn leaves you have pasted in. |
| Purse and wares | Your embers and what the fire offers for them. |
| Fires and titans | The fires you have lit in the dimensions. |
The journal only works once the server has synced the story to you and the pack's resource pack provides the journal file. Without that, the key does nothing and the inventory tab is not added.
Torn leaves. 16 torn leaves exist. You find a leaf as an item in loot chests of the dimensions the story takes you to, and as the item A Page, Torn from three loot caches (the Traveller's Cache, the Lamplighter's Cache and the Deep Road Cache). Using a leaf pastes it into the journal, where you can read it under Her pages. The chest chance is 6 % per chest, grows by 2 % with every miss, is guaranteed after 20 misses and does not apply while you already carry a leaf.
Embers. Embers are the currency of the story. The wallet holds up to 999. You earn them from quest rewards (38 quests pay embers, 64 in total across the book) and from Ember Coin items found in three loot caches: a coin that sits in your inventory is absorbed into the wallet. Giving an ember to your own fire after dark is the one gesture the story asks of you, and the fire answers with what it has in stock.
The bond. The story keeps a bond level between your team and the traveller. It rises one level at four of the gate quests (listed below), and it decides which glimpses she gives, which wares the fire shows and which signs can appear.
Numbers and settings in Nytheria#
| Setting | Value | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Journal key | L | Opens the journal (rebindable in the QuestBridge category) |
| Skip conversation | Enter | Skips dialogue lines (rebindable in the QuestBridge category) |
| Torn leaves | 16 | The number of leaves to find |
| Leaf chance in a chest | 6 %, +2 % per miss, sure after 20 | Chance to find a leaf in a loot chest |
| Journal site distance | 120 to 260 blocks | Walk from the answering fire to the journal (config range) |
| Ember wallet cap | 999 | Embers above this are not kept |
| Embers in the book | 64 from 38 quests | Total from quest rewards |
The distance to the journal site is a configuration range. The real placement can differ if claims or fluids are in the way.
Bond rises at these gates#
| Gate quest | Chapter | Bond level reached |
|---|---|---|
| Under the Spruce | One Leaf | 1 |
| Where She Went | The Marked Road | 2 |
| A Blade Worth the Trip | Forge and Gauntlet | 3 |
| Stores for the Dark | Past the Last Island | 4 |
The journal shop#
Under Purse and wares you can spend embers. The prices below are in embers. Some wares appear only at a higher bond level.
| Ware | Price (embers) |
|---|---|
| Road salt | 1 |
| Wet rope | 1 |
| 2 warp scrolls | 2 |
| Village map | 3 |
| 8 experience bottles | 3 |
| Ruin map | 4 |
| Eye hint | 5 |
| 2 diamonds | 5 |
| Netherite scrap | 8 |
| Walking stick | 8 |
| Tin cup | 9 |
| Candle stub | 10 |
| Aethersent ingot | 10 |
| Lamplighter's pole | 12 |
| Netherite upgrade template | 12 |
The shop has a few more offers, which this wiki does not list.
Gameplay requirements the book checks#
Besides items, kills, structures and so on, 
QuestBridge adds tasks that watch what you actually do. Of the 51 custom tasks, 19 are gameplay requirements. Several of them are optional tasks: the quest completes without them. Nothing in the book asks you to craft, trade, fish or breed. The look-at tasks are a different task type and are described on The Quest Book.
| Quest | Chapter | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Salt and Sense | A Roof and a Pot | Place any campfire |
| Somewhere Obvious | Shelves and Signposts | Place any sign |
| The Hill's Far Side (optional task) | Ruins and Rumours | Use a lectern |
| Bells in the Mist | Bells in the Mist | Ring a bell |
| A Drink in the Sun (optional task) | Still Water | Drink a Beachparty coconut cocktail |
| Places That Fed Me | The Long Table | Eat any food once |
| Something for the Road (optional task) | The Long Table | Eat five different foods |
| Come Back For It | Fields and Fences | Feed or handle a farm animal: cow, sheep, pig, chicken, goat, rabbit, mooshroom, horse, donkey, mule or llama |
| A Herd Worth Leaving (optional task) | Fields and Fences | Tame a wolf, cat, parrot, horse, donkey, mule or llama |
| A Place to Sit (optional task) | The Long Table | Sleep through the night inside a village |
| The First Warm Meal (optional task) | First Fire | Stay within 4 blocks of a lit campfire at night for 1 minute without leaving |
| Four Days | Still Water | Spend 1 minute beside water |
| The Sculk Line (optional task) | The City That Listens | Crouch in the Deep Dark for 30 seconds without breaking the streak |
| A Roof That Sheds Rain (optional task) | Shelves and Signposts | Spend 1 minute in a thunderstorm with no sky above you |
| A Million Stars (optional task) | Sky of a Million Stars | Stand 1 minute under open sky in Eternal Starlight |
| A Village Out Here (optional task) | Past the Last Island | Wait 10 seconds inside the Better End village |
The table lists the requirements that have a visible quest title in Parts 1 to 10. The others sit behind hidden quests; two of them are in the spoiler below. Each campfire task gives a short line on the action bar, a sound and flame particles as feedback.
Spoiler: hidden quests tied to the story
Hidden quests that follow the story state work like this. They complete from something that happens in the world or at your fire, not from an item.
- a coin in the fire (First Fire): give your own fire an ember once.
- the second bowl, empty (A Roof and a Pot): see her once at a fire.
- a lamp, gone out (Ruins and Rumours): see the sign of a dark lamp in the world.
- the tenth door (The City That Listens): reach the second level of the bond.
- forty-eight years, lit (The Far Shore): reach the third level of the bond.
- warm, all the way up (A Door of Water and Light): stay beside a lit campfire in the Aether for a minute without leaving.
- half a page, blank (Forge, Garden and Frost): the same, in Eternal Starlight.
Step by step#
- Start a new world. The leaf arrives on its own, and Find Me, the checkmark quest in One Leaf, opens the book.
- Wait for night and light a campfire with the leaf in your inventory. The quest A Fire and a Leaf asks for exactly this.
- Read the answer: a direction and a number of paces. Walk that way. The site stands 120 to 260 blocks from the fire.
- Pass the stacked stones halfway. Her Mark is an optional quest for this.
- Open the chest under the fallen spruce. It holds the journal, flint and steel and 3 bread. This completes Under the Spruce.
- Press L. The journal now shows its four sections, and the rest of the book is open to you.
Tips#
- Light the first campfire somewhere you are happy to walk away from. The site is placed relative to the fire that answered.
- Keep the leaf in your inventory until the fire has answered, and take food and torches for the walk of 120 to 260 blocks.
- On a server, each online member of a team that has not found the journal gets a leaf, and the team's fire answers for the team.
- Carry Ember Coin items rather than dropping them in a chest: they only count in your inventory.
- Spend embers in the journal shop instead of hoarding them. The wallet is per player, while the story state is per team.
- If L does nothing, see Troubleshooting before you reinstall.
Changed from the old wiki#
Earlier versions of this wiki said L opens the quest book and that the quest book has a button in your inventory. In the current pack L opens the QuestBridge journal, the inventory tab is the journal tab, and the journal opens the quest book at the right chapter. Earlier versions also called the book "The Lamplighter's Chronicle". The shipped data has no title for the book, so this wiki says "the quest book" and "the journal".
See also#
- The Quest Book - how the book, its parts and its rewards work.
- Chapter Gates & Book Order - which quest opens which chapter.
- Rewards, Loot Caches & Choice Kits - where Ember Coins and torn leaves come from.
- Part 1: The Journal - the prologue chapter as quests.
- Controls - all default keys.
- Troubleshooting - when the journal key does nothing.