Playing Grendel's Revenge
You've now successfully created your character and gotten into the game. At this point you should find yourself standing in Grendel's Shrine, at the heart of Uthgol. Type the following command and you'll find yourself roaming Grendel's lands:
> go east
Becoming a Monster
There are two unique and different types of monsters within Uthgol: the social monsters and the wandering monsters. Each lives a very different life, with different goals and different threats. However, these two types of monsters also have a number of things in common.
Everyone needs to travel Uthgol, exploring Grendel's Realm. Everyone needs to fight Uglies and other monsters. (Or, at least, everyone likes fighting Uglies and other monsters.) Finally, everyone gets better as they travel the realm and use their special abilities.
Exploring Grendel's Realm
Uthgol is a large place. As you emerge from Grendel's Shrine you will see that you are surrounded by verdant plains, lush forests, rolling hills, and towering mountains. For a moment you could almost forget that Uglies had invaded your realm.
Wandering Uthgol is very simple. You can just type the appropriate compass direction on the command line:
> n
The map located to the right of the client is also very useful for navigation. It shows your current locale as well as the eight locations surrounding you. The arrows around the map are green if that direction is legal for your movement and red if it is not. If you prefer you can click on an arrow to move rather than typing in the direction.
You'll notice a variety of terrain in Uthgol. Grasslands and forests are some of the most common. You'll note that some terrain, such as mountains, hills, and rivers, tend to block travel — though there are almost always paths through or bridges across those terrain types.
Within Uthgol there are also occasional structures. You've already seen Grendel's Shrine, but there are others. Structures tend to be entered and exited via the go command; you might also be able to enter some areas by typing "up", "down", "go up", or "go down". The most common type of structure is the lair — home to a clan of social monsters:
> look
You see a lair entrance leading downwards.
> go down
You walk to a lair entrance, downwards.
You arrive at a lair entrance. You see a tunnel to the north and to the east; and a mud-brick ziggurat leading upwards.
Lairs are other monsters' homes. Don't enter them without permission unless you're looking for a fight.
If you ever got lost while out in the wilds, use the "gaze" command to reorient yourself. The talons of Grendel's Shrine can almost always be found, marking Uthgol's heart and soul.
> gaze
You gaze about. Sharp talons reach out of a grove of trees about a quarter-mile off to the southwest, marking the presence of Grendel's Shrine.
Other Types of Movement
Though walking about is the most common method to traverse Uthgol, certain monsters have other way to travel, prime among them flying and teleporting.
Flyers can either fly just above the ground, or ascend up into the open sky:
> fly
You take off, soaring into the air.
> ascend
You fly to the open sky, upwards.
You arrive at the open sky. You see the open sky to the north, to the northeast, to the east, to the southeast, to the south, to the southwest, to the west, and to the northwest.
To return to the ground, a flyer must simply "descend" and then "land". This is required occasionally, as flying can be tiring.
Teleporting allows a monster to jump directly from one locale to another. A monster must first mark a location:
> mark shrine
This location has been added to your list of personal destinations.
Afterward a monster may teleport to his mark by using the teleport verb, ie, "teleport shrine". As with most special abilities teleporting may or may not work depending on the monster's luck and level of proficiency.
Fighting Uglies
If you wander around, exploring Grendel's realm, you'll inevitably fight Uglies. These vermin have invested Uthgol like cute little bunnies. So, of course, you must kill them.
Most Uglies in Uthgol are "adventurers", which is another name for roaming-mindless-monster-killers-without-honor. You'll see clerics, skilled in both the martial and healing arts; fighters, the most mindless of all the killing machines; magicians, who burn and freeze and shock with magic; and thieves who skulk and attack from hiding. None of them are fit to live in Uthgol under Grendel's shadow.
Every monster in Uthgol starts off with their sharp claws and teeth. Thus it's easiest to close in on adventurers and shred them with your natural weapons:
> approach fighter
You move toward a scrawny, lithe fighter. You stop next to her.
[Success: 520, Roll: 938] A scrawny, lithe fighter pokes you with her dagger! 5 points of damage!
claw fighter [Success: 586, Roll: 579] You slash at a scrawny, lithe fighter with your strong claws, but miss.
You must always approach enemies in order to fight with hand-to-hand weapons. Sometimes they'll retreat and you'll have to approach them again and again.
If you manage to defeat your opponents, you may first "loot" them to gather their resources, then "take" weapons and armors from their corpses. Chimera do not use such vulgar items, but other castes of monsters found them quite useful.
> loot corpse
You loot 6 gold, 6 stone, 6 shadow, 6 iron, and 6 mana from a human wizard.
> look at corpse
You see nothing extraordinary about the corpse of a human wizard. The corpse of a human wizard has a dagger, a club, a robe, a dagger, some shoes, a hat, some breeches, and a robe on it.
> take shoes from corpse
You take some shoes.
You may "wield" weapons if you have the appropriate special ability to use them. You may "wear" armor. Again, chimera are excepted.
Beware, however; many Uglies are quite dangerous. If you're not careful they can send you right back to Grendel and steal valuable loot from you:
[Success: 520, Roll: 649] A scrawny, lithe fighter pokes you with her dagger! 7 points of damage! You fall, kicking and screaming, into the oblivion of Grendel's embrace! A scrawny, lithe fighter loots 57 gold, 0 iron, 95 mana, 96 shadow, and 21 stone from you.
Fortunately, death is not the end. Sometimes when you are dead, karma accrued in your past life may better your position in life (see below). When you are ready to begin your new life, you must type the following commands:
> soulrelease
Your soul flees from your body.
> reincarnate
You are still under the tutelage of Grendel and receive no penalty for death.
You arrive at a massive room.
To avoid the eventuality of having to once more depend upon Grendel's beneficence and your own karmic quotient, you can always retreat from an opponent:
> retreat
You retreat.
Afterward, flee from your enemies as fast as you can. And return to kill another day.
Other Types of Fighting
Though clawing is the most common method of monster combat, there are some monsters who are more sophisticated and use weapons, while there are others who instead use combative special abilities.
Weapons require a special ability to use, typically either Crush (for blunt weapons) or Slash (for edged weapons). You always need to wield such weapons first.
> wield club
You wield a club.
> crush cleric
Ranged weapons must also be wielded, but they may be used to hit opponents who are in other, nearby locales using the "scan" and "shoot" commands. Many natural abilities, like fire breathing and chain lightning, are also ranged attacks, but don't need to be wielded:
> scan s
You scan to the south for targets. You can target a pot-bellied cleric, a shifty-eyed thief, and a human wizard to the south.
> lightning cleric
[Success: 485, Roll: 759] You release a thick bolt of chain lightning at a pot-bellied cleric. Contact is made, and you electrify a pot-bellied cleric! ZZZZZT! 8 points of damage!
Monsters may also loot armor from adventurers which they may "wear"; Chimera may neither wear armor nor wield weapons.
Fighting Monsters
You can fight other monsters too. In particular it should be noted that chimera don't get along that well with undead and undead aren't that found of humanoids and humanoids don't like chimera. And for that matter, humanoids don't like undead too much either ... you get the idea.
Wandering monsters tend to be roving sources of death and destruction and are sometimes the target of massed social attack. Clans sometimes also engage in warfare against other clans while fighting for resources or looting lairs.
It's generally considered a poor idea to attack lone social monsters. Not only is it often neither fair nor fun, but you also might be alienating someone who might have joined your own clan or worse ... making yourself a whole clan full of enemies.
Spending Favor
As you progress through Grendel's realm you will gain experience. You will get favor points every time you kill something, and whenever you use other notable abilities. These increase the favor point meter to the left of your client. Every time you accrue enough favor points, you will get a favor — a mark of Grendel's approval of your deeds.
Favor is primarily used to make your character better in two ways. These are both accessed via the "favor" command:
• A point of favor can increase one of your attributes by a point.
• A point of favor can increase the rank of a special ability by a point.
You may also trade favor points in for karma points. This may only be done at Grendel's Shrine and appears as an option on your favor screen. The resultant karma points will only be useful when you are dead ...
Spending Karma
While you're dead you may use Karma to improve your lot in life. In your next life, that is. Simply type "karma" and you'll see a box pop up which allows you to spend your karmic resources.
Although death is not the end, it is a traumatic event, and thus will set your monster's progress back. This can result in the loss of favor, items, and resources. You can reduce this loss by spending karma on the main karma screen.
You can also ensure that when you return to life your monster will appear with new special abilities. Simply choose "Purchase a Special Ability" on the karma screen.
Wandering monsters get even greater benefits from karma, as is discussed below.
Playing a Social Monster
This section is still be written. Check back next week.
Playing a Wandering Monster
This section is still be written. Check back next week.
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