The Drowned Scriptorium

Lightning arcing across the flooded pit of the Drowned Scriptorium, striking a creature wading in it, with sea-lantern pedestals standing out of the water A storm spell in the flood shocks everything wading in it.

What it is

A dry library on the deep ocean floor. You enter from below, through a pool in the floor. Its keeper, the Tide Scribe, floods its pit and drains it again, over and over. Water conducts: storm magic in the flood shocks everything wading in it, the Scribe hardest of all.


Biomes	Deep oceans (deep, deep cold, deep lukewarm, deep frozen)
How often	About one in every square 640 blocks across
Doors	Frost and Storm, then Life and Wind. The vault’s is Storm and Arcane
Boss	The Tide Scribe, 340 health
Its own rune	Tidewrit (Tier IV)
Trophy	The Drowned Quill
Runes found only here	Drowning Word, If Wet

How to find it

Look for a lantern-lit path of prismarine over the sea floor, with sea-lantern pillars either side and a glass dome behind. Bring a way to breathe: the Tidebreath rune, a Water Breathing potion or a Respiration helmet.

The way in

Under the sea: prismarine walls and a sea-lantern pillar beside the dark mouth of the Scriptorium's flooded tunnel The lantern-lit way in, and the mouth of the flooded tunnel.

Room	What’s in it	Door out
Flooded tunnel	Runs under the building, with two air pockets in its roof	Swim up through the moon pool
Antechamber	Dry, ringed with sea lanterns	Frost and Storm seals
Hall of Shelves	Shelves with kelp tanks, a chest, and four Runebound	Life and Wind seals
The Arena	A balcony round a pit, with six pedestals in the pit and the core in the middle	Side door of Storm and Arcane, off the balcony
The Vault	Two chests

How to open the doors is on the Archive page.

The Hall of Shelves: bookshelves with kelp tanks along prismarine walls, a cyan carpet, a Runebound witch and drowned before the Life and Wind door The Hall of Shelves and its drowned keepers.

The hall’s guards: two drowned (Shock Bolt, Frost Wave), a witch (Bubble Bolt) and a drowned Adept (Shock Ring). The witch’s Bubble leaves you soaked, and storm spells hit a soaked target with Conduct. Kill the witch first.

The hall chest holds 2 to 3 Tier II or III storm and frost runes, plus 2 to 3 of: a Torn Page, Blank Runes, lapis, prismarine crystals, a Mana Crystal, ink sacs, nautilus shells, or (rarely) a heart of the sea.

The Tide Scribe

The Scriptorium's arena from the balcony with the tide out: a dry pit with rings of brick and sea lanterns round the core, six pedestals, and a glass dome above The pit with the tide out. The pedestals and the balcony stay dry when it floods.

It rises over its core the first time a player comes within 14 blocks. It floats, can’t be knocked back, breathes under water and never strays more than 16 blocks from the core. It’s weak to life (+50%) and resists frost (half), though frost still freezes its flood. See Creature Affinities.


Health	340 (phases change at about 227 and 113)
Armour	6
Immune to	Falls and other monsters
Boss bar	Blue. Between spells it shows the tide: rising, flooded, going out, or stranded in the ice!

Its trick: the tide

The Tide Scribe swimming in its flooded pit, the water two blocks deep, the six pedestals standing dry above it The tide is in.

The pit (within 12 blocks of the core) floods two blocks deep, then drains, over and over:

	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
Dry	12 seconds	10 seconds	8 seconds
Rising	2 seconds	2 seconds	2 seconds
Flooded	15 seconds	13 seconds	11 seconds
Draining	1.5 seconds	1.5 seconds	1.5 seconds

The balcony and the tops of the six pedestals stay dry. Each drain clears all the water and ice from the pit.

While the pit is flooded:

Storm shocks the flood. A storm spell landing in the water shocks everything in it that your spells can harm, including you if you’re wading (friends and pets are spared). The Scribe takes five times the shock, straight through its water armour, and staggers for 2 seconds: it can’t cast and takes 50% more from other hits.
Frost freezes the surface into ice you can stand on. If the Scribe is swimming within 3.5 blocks of where it lands, it’s stranded for 3.5 seconds: held still, can’t cast, and takes 50% more damage. It can’t be stranded again for 5 seconds after it breaks free.
The water wraps it. While swimming it takes half damage from everything except a shock through the water. When the pit is dry, it takes full damage.
Its own storm spells shock you through the flood too, if you’re in it.

Its moves

It fights two ways as the tide comes and goes. On the dry floor it writes; in the flood it swims. It never makes the same move twice running, and its boss bar names each move. Every move marks where it will land during its tell, and anything aimed stops following you a moment before it strikes.

Move	When	The tell	What to do
Quills	Dry	Its quill drawn back, a fan of lanes drawn on the floor (3, then 4, then 5 by phase)	A volley flies down each lane. Stand between the lanes, or close in under it.
Script	Dry	Bent over its writing, then glowing words appear under everyone and round about	They burst 0.8 seconds later. Step off them. It’s left bowed over its writing for 1.7 seconds.
Whirlpool	Flooded	Sinking and turning as a ring closes in	For 2.2 seconds the water drags everyone wading toward it, and the middle hurts. Wade out, freeze the water, or keep more than 9 blocks off. It’s left spun dizzy for 1.8 seconds.
Riptide	Flooded	Coiled back, a lane of foam drawn across the water	It races 15 blocks down the lane, sweeping you along. Step out of the lane.
Ink	Phase 2 on	Reared back, a cone drawn before it	A cloud of ink: Blindness and Slowness. Get behind it or out to its side.
Pages	Dry, phase 2 on	Pages torn out	They wheel round it 3 to 6 blocks out for 2 seconds, cutting four times. Hug it inside 3 blocks or stay beyond 6.
Breaker	Phase 2 on	Risen 2 blocks over a marked ring	It slams down and a wave rolls out 13 blocks. Jump it on the dry floor. In the flood, stay on the bottom and let it pass over you.
Dive	Flooded, phase 2 on	It sinks, and a trail of bubbles hunts you for 2 seconds	The trail settles on a marked spot and it bursts up there 0.8 seconds later. Get off the mark. A storm spell into the flood still shocks it while it’s under. It’s left surfaced and dazed for 2.2 seconds.
Tide Call	Dry, phase 3	Its scroll raised, the pit’s rim marked	A wave rolls in from the rim and the flood starts early. Jump the wave.

Bowed, spun or surfaced, it takes 30% more and the water no longer shields it. Its boss bar shows it.
The currents only come in the flood and break off when it drains. The writing only comes on the dry floor.
Phase 2 adds ink, pages, the breaker and the dive. The whirlpool pulls harder, more lanes and words appear, and it rests less between moves.
Phase 3 adds the tide call, and half the time it follows a move straight on with a fitting second one: a second volley down the gaps the first left, a second wave of words where you then stand, a fling out of the whirlpool (get more than 4 blocks off when its ring flashes), a riptide back the way it came, a wider cone of ink, its pages flying out as a ring to 11 blocks (jump it), a second breaker, and a second dive.

Its spells

Between its moves it still casts. Each spell is named on the boss bar and lands 1.4 seconds after its circle opens. While you’re wading it favours its storm spells.

Phase	Its spells
1	Shock Bolt, Frost Wave, Bubble Bolt
2	Shock Rain, Coldsnap Ring, Jolt Orb, Bubble Bolt › Shock Bolt
3	Shock Domain, Lightning Bolt, Freeze Wave, Wide Jolt Rain

If you’re wet (in water, rain, or soaked by a bubble), its storm spells set off Conduct on you for extra damage.

Calling the tide. At each phase change it can’t be hurt for 3 seconds, and if the pit was dry the tide starts rising at once. Two Runebound drowned rise in the pit (Shock Bolt and Frost Touch; Adepts the second time). No single blow skips a phase.

Tips and counterplay

Get out of the water when the tide comes in. Stand on the balcony or a pedestal. From there, shock the flood freely.
Shock the flood. Even a plain Bolt · Shock does big damage to it through the water. Pile other damage into the 2-second stagger.
Freeze it where it swims to strand it, then hit hard. The ice also makes a floor, until the next drain.
Never cast storm while wading. The shock hits you too.
Use life magic while it’s dry (Vinelash, Moonpetal). Frost’s own hit does only half, so use frost for freezing.
Watch the boss bar. The tide is rising gives you about 2 seconds to climb out.
Kill the drowned it calls. Their storm reaches you through the flood.
Beware of being soaked after a Bubble Bolt.
Read the floor. Lanes mean quills or a riptide; glowing words mean script; a closing ring means a whirlpool or a breaker; a trail of bubbles means it’s diving for you.
Hit it when it’s bowed, spun or surfaced. That’s when it takes more, flood or not.

When it falls

The tide goes out for good. Then:

Everyone who fought and is within 96 blocks of the core gets a Tier IV rune they don’t know yet, straight into their pack.
Its killer also gets the Drowned Quill trophy, the Tidewrit rune, 3 Mana Crystals, a Torn Page, a storm or frost rune, and a 50% chance of a rune of the Scriptorium.
220 experience drops on the core. Anything that doesn’t fit is left there, safe.
Everyone within 64 blocks earns the Low Tide feat (1,500 mana toward your next Heart Circle) and advancement. It counts as a boss for the 7th Heart Circle, and the feat itself is one of the things the 12th Heart Circle asks for.

The Drowned Quill is kept, not spent: hold it up for 3 minutes of Water Breathing and Dolphin’s Grace, then it rests for 5 minutes.

The vault

Each of its two chests holds a Tier IV rune, a rune of the Scriptorium (35% chance of a second), and 2 to 4 of: Mana Crystals, a Torn Page, prismarine crystals, gold, ink sacs, diamonds, nautilus shells, an echo shard, or a heart of the sea.

The runes of the Scriptorium:

If Wet (Tier II link, the more common): the rest of the spell fires only if you’re in water or rain.
Drowning Word (Tier III frost): fills the target’s lungs with water for a few seconds, and soaks it.

Full details are on Runes of the World.

The Tide Scribe floating over the dry pit beside its core, a spell circle in its hand, a glowing magic circle spread on the floor round the core The Tide Scribe at its core, the tide out.