Journal
The journal is your museum. Every artifact you've ever brought out of the ground lives in it - the Perfect ones you brushed free grain by grain, the Weathered and Chipped ones you saved from your own pickaxe at the last second, and yes, the Destroyed ones too. The journal doesn't judge. It just remembers.
It remembers kindly, though: find a better copy of something you once butchered, and the page quietly upgrades. Your worst day at the dig site can always be redeemed by a better one.
Turning the pages
[edit]Entries are kept by era - a Roman wing, an Egyptian wing, a Prehistoric wing - and each era's pages run from its everyday pottery up to its once-in-a-lifetime Mythical finds. Every artifact you've recovered shows its story: what it is, the real-world find it's based on, and the best condition you've ever gotten it out in. The ones you haven't found yet are still there too - silhouettes, waiting.
Why archaeologists keep journals
[edit]A full page is its own reward, but the journal is also how the world opens up. Prove you can bring an era's artifacts out whole and new dig sites open their gates - even the bulldozer starts trusting you at the controls. Collectors chasing Achievements live in these pages - the Collection achievements are, in the end, just journal pages you haven't finished yet.
A note on tools
[edit]The condition an artifact enters the journal in is the story of how you dug it out. The brush writes gentle entries slowly; the pickaxe writes fast, ugly ones; the shovel sits somewhere in between. Choose accordingly - the journal remembers everything.
Related
[edit]- Storm warning - why every find had to be paid for in digging time.
- Achievements - collection milestones read straight from these pages.
- Eras - the wings of your museum.