Alderwick

A countryside adventure for Minecraft 1.21.1

Alderwick Estate

A great Victorian house, put to sleep twelve years ago. Three villages with long memories. Machinery waiting under dust sheets. The lamps have waited long enough.

Take up your chair Read the primer

I.

The valley

Alderwick Estate is a slow, warm adventure built on Minecraft, Create and MCA villagers. You restore a great estate one building at a time, get to know three villages that each have opinions about you, and find out what happened here.

The tone is cosy with an undercurrent of mystery: lamp-lit rooms, gossip over a shop counter, machines waking after a long sleep. Danger exists out in the wilds, and some of it is clearly signposted. Retreating is always a sensible choice.

Minecraft 1.21.1 NeoForge Create MCA Reborn FTB Quests 94 pinned mods
Illustrated key art of Alderwick House: a red-brick Victorian mansion with teal copper roofs, lit windows, a windmill, a brass-geared workshop and a small steam train on a viaduct.
Plate I. Alderwick House and its belvedere, lamps lit.

II.

Why the estate is dark

Augustin

Built 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 finally ran a railway to the town of Ironmere.

Lenora

Ran the estate for decades. Exacting, practical, never without a notebook. Then, one season, she closed it all.

About twelve years ago

In a single season, Lenora Alderwick shut the whole estate down. She stopped every machine by hand, in a particular order. She 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 surprised everyone. The estate does not go to a single owner. It goes into a trust with two custodians’ chairs.

That is where you come in.

The machinery ledger

Nothing here is broken beyond repair. It was put to sleep. Authorize a restoration to see it wake.

  1. The coach-house press
  2. The mineral works
  3. The windmill
  4. The boiler house
  5. The electric wires
  6. The railway to Ironmere

In the game, /estate ledger lists what each restoration asks for. Bring the materials, authorize it, and watch the building come back to life.

The one instruction the staff still quote

  1. Light first,
  2. then hands,
  3. then water.

III.

Who you are

Lenora built the trust with two chairs on purpose. The first player to join is always the heir. Anyone who follows draws a name from the people the will remembered.

The first chair

The Heir

Lenora’s great-niece or great-nephew. You were raised far from the valley and know very little about the family. The house is yours to wake, and the whole valley has an opinion about that.

The second chair

Drawn from the will

Each later arrival receives one identity, kept for good. It changes how people greet you, which villages warm to you first, and the letters you receive. Turn an envelope to see who you might be.

Every identity has a story of its own, uncovered by playing. Don’t look it up.

IV.

Three villages, three opinions

A sketch of the valley Not to scale. Alderwick House on its rise with Alderwick village at the gates, Bramblemead's orchards to the west, Ironmere at the end of the estate railway to the east, and ruins scattered through the wilds. Alderwick House Alderwick Bramblemead Ironmere Old Rook Mill Flooded Pumpworks Harrow Foundry Blackglass Works HIGH DANGER N A sketch, not to scale. Your valley will differ. estate line
Click a village, or use the tabs.

The market village at the gates

Alderwick

For three generations its families worked at the house, and folk still talk about “before the closing” and “after.” Alderwick is split down the middle about Lenora: some families swear by her, others haven’t forgiven her for the closing.

Charter Day
The whole founding charter, read aloud. Bring a chair.
Lamplighting Night
On the first frost.

First impressionDivided

The Long Table. All three villages meet each autumn at the Harvest Fair, where the Golden Apple goes to the best produce. Bramblemead and Ironmere still quarrel over smoke on the blossom and the closed railway halt. Both think their nicknames are very clever.

V.

People you’ll meet

Every villager can talk. These are the ones worth a calling card. Start with the steward.

VI.

Talking to villagers

  • Right-click a villager with an empty hand to start a conversation. Anything you type in chat nearby is answered by them.
  • Clickable topic buttons appear just for you. New topics unlock as you restore the estate and as a village comes to trust you.
  • Sneak + Right-click goes straight to the usual MCA screen and the shop.
  • Villagers gossip, and gossip isn’t always accurate. If someone’s too chatty, tell them so (“June, hush”) and they’ll stay quiet a while.
  • No AI available? Villagers still answer with written lines, shops, requests and the law.

Example

Elias Ward Ah. You’ll be the new custodian. Do wipe your boots; the foyer has had twelve quiet years and would like a thirteenth.

VII.

Eleven skills, levelled by doing

Press K for your skills, levels one to fifty, and each skill’s perk tree. Skill XP is never lost, not even on death.

The quests never stall

When a step needs a level, its text says so. Finish the quest or restoration before it and you’re raised to that level if you’re behind.

Machines use their owner’s skills

Anything you place is yours. An unowned machine works at level one; sneak-right-click it with a wrench to claim it.

Training sites

Ore rocks, regrowing trees, fishing spots and combat camps sit around the estate, so you never have to hunt for something rare to practise on.

VIII.

The law, and salvage

Village chests, barrels and crops belong to someone. Theft is remembered, and so is help. A constable may ask for restitution or a short stay in the lock-up; pay it and you walk out square. Running away makes it worse. Ironmere fines industrial theft hardest.

Salvage

Ruins bearing a white placard are fair game.

Ruins in the wilds

  • Old Rook MillRotten floors
  • Harrow FoundryA fallen chimney
  • The Flooded PumpworksBring a boat
  • The Blackglass WorksHigh danger. Go prepared, and leave if it turns.

IX.

Playing together

  1. Watch the intro

    A short narrated fly-over plays on arrival. Sneak to skip; /estate intro plays it again. Each finished restoration gets its own scene.

  2. Share the work

    The villages notice whether the custodians squabble or share. One gathers while the other builds; one earns trust while the other mends machines.

  3. Compare notes

    People say different things to different custodians, and each of you has your own letters. Compare, or keep a surprise for later.

  4. Read what you find

    The library has books for your first night. More turn up as the estate comes back to life.

  5. Follow the order

    Light first, then hands, then water. The quest book leads the way.

  6. Sleep in your own bed

    The house is safe and lit from the very first night.

X.

Taking up your chair

Alderwick runs on a private, invitation-only server. If you’ve been invited, here’s your first evening.

  1. 1

    Import the pack

    In CurseForge, choose Create Custom Profile → Import and select the Alderwick client ZIP. Give the profile 6 GB of memory; 8 GB is comfortable.

  2. 2

    Connect

    Launch Alderwick Estate, then Multiplayer → Direct Connection, and enter the address from your invitation. Keep the pinned mod versions together and dismiss update prompts.

  3. 3

    “Who are you?”

    On first login, MCA asks. Keep your name, choose your gender, and pick Vanilla to keep your normal Minecraft look. Then Accept.

  4. 4

    Open the Quest Book

    You arrive by the welcome desk in the foyer. Slot one holds the Quest Book; the next, an introduction letter. Right-click to read, then go and find the steward.

KSkills & perks
/estate ledgerRestorations & materials
/estate helpEvery estate command
/estate introReplay the arrival

Keep restoration materials in your own inventory when you choose Restore; the household cupboards are ordinary storage. Sneak while chopping to take a single block instead of the whole tree.