Lion Caches (Drume)

"The usurper pressed the Seal too hard, and it still bleeds."

Story. The Usurpers loot the Order of the Lion's sealed war chests to pay for their coup. Each chest is locked with a lion-crest lock that opens only after its keepers fall.

The site. In a side room you find a locked cache of one of three kinds: Oak (common), Iron, or Gilded (rare, best loot). Higher tier maps make better chests more likely. A Keeper, a Lion mini boss, guards it together with a squad of lion monsters.

Cache modifiers. Each chest carries one to three, shown on it: Oak one, Iron two, Gilded three.

Armoured: the guards take less damage.
Hasty: the guards are faster.
Vengeful: opening it spawns the Keeper again at half life.
Gilded Oath: double loot, but the chest relocks 90 seconds after the Keeper dies if guards remain.
Decoy: a second, false chest bites and calls three monsters.

Opening. The Keeper drops a Lion Key, which works only in that instance. Use it on the chest. Optionally, before using the key, you may press the Seal: burn one Chaos Orb per tier to roll the chest's loot once more, one tier higher. This adds the Vengeful modifier.

Rewards. Lion identity: pre-socketed Normal bases and runes, plus currency and Lion Crests (the faction token). A Gilded chest holds the most bases and even a chance at a high rune. The loot is shared by the party, with a bonus for each extra member (Sockets, Runes, Party experience and loot).

Why it matters. Normal bases with sockets are the raw material for runewords, and they rarely drop elsewhere (Runewords).

Escalation. Keepers are Captains with the signature Shieldwall modifier (armour with a frontal block cone) at Stage I, and Champions that also Roar and call adds at Stage II. At Stage III you reach the Lion Sanctum hold (Faction Holds). The pinnacle is Drume at area level 85, who commands three chests and three commanders, and drops the Lion Seal (Pinnacles and Writs).