A Death Cache preserves eligible carried property after a player's death so the owner still has a route to recover it. Access changes over time, but ownership does not: a cache becoming publicly accessible does not make its contents free to take.
Death Cache timeline
| Phase | Who can access it | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| On death | The owner | Eligible carried property enters the player's personal Death Cache. Coins remain account progression currency and do not enter it. |
| First 10 minutes | Owner only | The owner protection window prevents other players from taking the contents. |
| Next 60 minutes | Anyone who reaches it | The cache is publicly accessible for recovery, but the property still belongs to its owner. A finder can return it or take it and accept the consequences. |
| After the public phase | Recovery system | Seventy minutes after the death, an unresolved cache leaves the death site and continues through Lost and Found recovery. It can move between locations and cross into another server. |
Public access is not public ownership. Taking another player's property can lower Honour even after the owner-only protection has expired.
Sealed, opened, and returned caches
| Finder's choice | Recovery result | Honour result |
|---|---|---|
| Return the cache sealed | The complete sealed cache is delivered to the owner's Returned Property storage. The eligible returner is identified so the owner can thank them. | A genuine sealed return can earn positive Honour. |
| Open the cache, then return remaining property | The remaining property can still reach Returned Property storage, but the return no longer carries the sealed chain of custody. | It does not receive the sealed-return Honour reward. |
| Take another player's property | The items leave the owner's recovery route and the taking is recorded. | Theft can lower Honour. |
The owner claims returned items from Returned Property storage. Because an unresolved cache can cross a server boundary, the finder may be on a different server from the one where the owner died.
Arranged reciprocal returns, alternate accounts, repeated farming pairs, and other collusive returns do not earn Honour. The exact detection limits remain private so they cannot be tuned around.
Honour mood and cosmetic appearance
A Death Cache records its owner's private Honour tier at the moment of death and uses the matching mood. A later Honour change does not recolour or replace a cache that already exists.
| Private character tier | Death Cache mood | Mechanical effect |
|---|---|---|
| High Honour | Holy | None; normal ownership and recovery rules apply. |
| Neutral Honour | Ordinary | None; normal ownership and recovery rules apply. |
| Low Honour | Hellfire | None; normal ownership and recovery rules apply. |
The Honour mood is separate from the player's selected Death Cache effect style and colour. Those cosmetic choices can change the presentation, but they never change ownership, contents, protection time, Honour, or the recovery route.