Disappearing Items in the Ruins

[WashYourHands]

I was in the ruins, where Hutch died from Damaged Clockworks. He was storing at least 1 of every gem and half a stack of the Wire and Marbles trinkets. I left the items on the ground, and fled area until Hutch respawned (since I didn't have the inventory space). When I returned, all of the items were gone. I searched and found 2 moleworms in the area. I killed them and dug their burrows, but didn't get my items returned.

Do items DESPAWN in the ruins? Do Moleworms CONSUME and DESTROY the items they pick up from the ground?

I was in a public server; I'm certain there was nobody else in the ruins with me. Could it have been a server bug?

I'm very confused...

[Auth]

Hey, welcome to the forums!

This does certainly sound like an interesting case. It could've been another, secret moleworm plotting a nefarious crime with the perfect framing of two innocent moleworms, who's to say. But to my knowledge, items do not mysteriously despawn, there's always a cause, like another player, moles, eyeplants, and meteors, but it looks like since you're in the ruins it narrows things down.

They could always have been hiding behind something, so it might've been your camera rotation.

Or hey, maybe you're like me and easily get confused. Maybe you weren't even looking in the right area in the first place.

[Footman Crouch]

Welcome to the forum!

I believe your item might have been destroyed by an earthquake, anything that drop from the ceiling can destroy gems, i learn that the hard way.

[fimmatek]

I suspect what happened is what DarithD said. Never leave any minerals on the ground in the caves, or you can consider them destroyed. I'd recommend putting them in a chest or backpack every time. Furthermore, I always keep them in my backpack when I carry them (so not in the regular 15 slots) if there is room, because that way even if I die, they are in safety from both moles and earthquakes (and rock lobsters).

[JackJohnsn]

Don't forget the monkeys! They are always searching for bananas to steal! ( and almost everything else )

As a side note, I would say that it's always a good idea to keep food - especially meats - and pig skin in your backpack ( on surface ) or gems and ruin loot ( in ruins )

[BeeClops]

yep, probably one of those 3 cases stated above:

1. moleworm wich you somehow missed

2. eathquake. Tho that could only destroy some of your itmes i don t think they can destroy frazzled wires and such

3. monkeys. Just one intruder monkey there could steal a lot of your items.

 

This reminded me that the other day, i had an oasis base wich was close to mosaic, and somehow there was meteor showers right by the lake tho it was a little further away, really annoying stuff. I just managed to solo fweaver for the first time after many many triesand got his gear, so i had this bone helmet in scaled chest wich got hit by meteors, it destroyed the bone helm. That was a bummer.

[WashYourHands]

I was certain I was in the right place. I triple checked the area for more Moleworms and found none. 

I had no idea items falling from earthquakes could destroy items on the ground! I suspect that was the culprit, since when I entered the ruins, there were no Moleworms in the first place, thus no earthquakes. And when I returned to the area, there were 2 Moleworms.

Mystery solved! Thanks for your help.

P.s. This would be a handy discussion to add to the "lesser known mechanics" topic 

[Easonade]

I don't think it could be earthquakes, they don't destroy trinkets to the best of my knowledge. My bet is on the monkeys