Alderwick Estate

A private Minecraft modpack · 1.21.1 · NeoForge

The Alderwick Estate

The lamps have waited long enough.

A cosy Victorian countryside adventure with an undercurrent of mystery: lamp-lit rooms, village gossip, and old machines waking after a long sleep.

How to join
Painted key art of Alderwick Estate: a red-brick Victorian house with verdigris roofs, a windmill, a waterwheel works, and a steam train on a viaduct below lamp-lit gardens.
The house on the rise, as Augustin built it.

Concerning the Estate at Alderwick

Why the estate is dark

Twelve years ago, in a single season, Lenora closed Alderwick. She stopped every machine by hand, in a particular order. She let the staff go with wages and references, shut the house room by room, and left. She never gave a public reason.

Last winter Lenora died. Her will placed the estate in a trust with two custodians’ chairs, and one of them is about to be yours.

Restore it one building at a time. Get to know the villages that have watched it sleep. And find out what happened here.

Yours, with the keys enclosed,
The Trustees

Three generations

  1. I

    Augustin

    The builder

    Built the house on a rise, with a tall belvedere tower, so he could see his orchards from his desk.

  2. II

    Edmund

    The engineer

    Filled the grounds with machinery and ran a railway all the way to the town of Ironmere.

  3. III

    Lenora

    The keeper

    Ran the estate for decades. Exacting, practical, and never without a notebook. Until the closing.

Put to sleep, not broken

The machines are only sleeping

Every one of them was shut down carefully. In game, /estate ledger lists what each restoration needs.

  • The coach-house press

    Asleep

  • The mineral works

    Asleep

  • The windmill

    Asleep

  • The boiler house

    Asleep

  • The electric wires

    Asleep

  • The railway to Ironmere

    Asleep

“Light first, then hands, then water.”

The staff’s one remembered instruction

Read at the reading of the will

Who you are

Your identity changes how people greet you, which villages warm to you first, and the letters you receive. Once drawn, it’s yours for good.

The first to arrive

The Heir

The first player to join is always Lenora’s great-niece or great-nephew, raised far from the valley.

Everyone after draws one identity from the will. Break a seal to see the name on it.

Every identity has a story of its own. Don’t look it up.

Three villages, three opinions

The valley has been talking

Each village has its own festivals, its own memory of the estate, and its own first impression of you.

The market village at the gates

Alderwick

Families here worked at the house for three generations, and they still talk about “before the closing” and “after.” The village is split down the middle about Lenora.

Festivals

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

Every autumn, all three meet at the Harvest Fair, where the Golden Apple goes to the best produce.

Calling cards

People worth knowing

Start here

Elias Ward

Estate steward

Formal, dryly funny, and still says “Miss Lenora.”

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

Alderwick

  • Mara Voss

    Mechanic

    Blunt and brilliant. Her mother was the estate’s chief mechanic.

  • Juniper Bell

    Grocer & matchmaker

    Currently in a freight-rate war with Ironmere’s stationmaster.

  • Constable Hale

    The law

    Slow, fair, and procedural.

Bramblemead

  • Tomas Reed

    Miller

    Talks weather first. Keeps a copy of something Lenora told him.

  • Nell Finch

    Innkeeper

    Food before opinions.

Ironmere

  • Orin Pike

    Stationmaster

    Precise to the minute.

  • Dr. Ada Wren

    Electrical engineer

    Lectures in numbered points.

  • Warden Crowe

    The law

    Severe, consistent, and strict about tools.

Built on NeoForge, Create, MCA Reborn & FTB Quests

How it plays

Talking to villagers

  • Right-clickwith an empty hand to talk
  • Chattype anything nearby and you’ll get an answer
  • Sneak+Right-clickthe normal MCA screen and shop

Topic buttons unlock as the estate is restored and trust grows. Gossip isn’t always accurate, and you can tell a chatty villager to hush.

Without AI, villagers still answer with written lines, shops, requests and the law.

Skills

K

11 skills

Levels 1–50, each with a perk tree. Levelled by doing.

  • Skill XP is never lost, even on death.
  • Quests never stall: if a step needs a level, you’re raised to it after finishing the step before.
  • Machines use their owner’s skills. Unowned machines work at level one and can be claimed with a wrench.
  • Training sites sit around the estate: ore rocks, regrowing trees, fishing spots, combat camps.

The law

Public notice

Village chests, barrels and crops belong to someone.

Theft is remembered, and so is help.

Constables may ask for restitution or a short stay in the lock-up. Running makes it worse. Ironmere fines industrial theft hardest.

Playing together

  • A narrated fly-over plays when you arrive. Sneak to skip it; /estate intro replays it.
  • Villages notice whether custodians squabble or share.
  • People say different things to each custodian.
  • The library has books for the first night.
  • The house is safe and lit from the first night.

Fair game for salvage

Ruins with a white placard are yours to pick over. Danger exists in the wilds, some of it clearly signposted. Retreating is always sensible.

  • Old Rook Mill

    Rotten floors.

  • Harrow Foundry

    A fallen chimney.

  • The Flooded Pumpworks

    Bring a boat.

  • The Blackglass Works

    High danger. Leave if it turns.

Before you take the train in

Getting started

Minecraft 1.21.1 on NeoForge, via CurseForge. Allow 6 GB of memory; 8 GB is comfortable.

  1. Install the pack

    In CurseForge, choose Create Custom Profile, then Import the Alderwick client ZIP. Allocate 6 GB of memory (8 GB is comfortable).

  2. Connect

    Go to Multiplayer → Direct Connection and use the address from your invitation. Keep the pinned mod versions and dismiss any update prompts.

  3. Answer the door

    On first login, MCA asks Who are you? Keep your name, choose your gender, pick Vanilla, and Accept.

  4. Find the steward

    Open the Quest Book in slot one, read the introduction letter, and go and find Elias Ward.

Pocket reference

  • KSkills and perks
  • What each restoration needs
  • Help, in game
  • Replay the arrival fly-over