The Dungeons of Moria Page 18 hard, therefore hard to dig through, and contains no valu- able metals. Magma and Quartz veins are softer and some- times bear valuable metals and gems, shown as a `$' or a `*' character. You can tell if the metal or gems are embedded into the wall by trying to move onto them. If you can't move over them, you'll have to dig them out. There is an option which causes magma and quartz to be displayed dif- ferently than other rock types. Tunneling can be VERY difficult by hand, so when you dig be sure to wield either a shovel or a pick. Magical shovels and picks can be found which allow the wielder to dig much faster than normal, and a good strength also helps. Tunneling can have a count. V - View scoreboard. This command will display the contents of the score board on the screen. On a multiuser system, typing `V' again will show only those scores from the score board that are yours. a - Aim a wand. {z - zap} Wands must be aimed in a direction to be used. Wands are magical devices and therefore use the Magical Devices abil- ity of the player. They will either affect the first object/creature encountered, or affect anything in a given direction, depending upon the wand. An obstruction such as door or wall will generally stop the effects of a wand from traveling further. b - Browse a book. {P - peruse} You can only read a book if you are of its realm. Therefore a magic user could read a magic book, but not a holy book. Warriors will not be able to read either kind of book. When the browse command is used, all of the spells or prayers contained therein are displayed, along with information such as their level, the amount of mana used up in casting them, and whether or not you know the spell or prayer. There are a total of 31 different magical spells in four books, and 31 different prayers in four books. c - Close a door. Nonintelligent and certain other creatures will not be able to open a door. Therefore shutting doors can be a life saver. You must be adjacent to an open door, and you cannot close broken doors. Bashing a door open will break it. d - Drop an object from your inventory. You can drop an object onto the floor beneath you if that floor spot does not already contain an object. Doors and traps are considered objects in this sense. If you have several objects of the same kind, you will be prompted for dropping one or all of them. It is possible to directly drop things which you are wielding or wearing. The Dungeons of Moria Page 19 e - Display a list of equipment being used. Use the Equipment command to display a list of objects currently being used by your character. Each object has a specific place where it is placed, and that only one object of each type may be used at any one time, excepting rings of which two can be worn, one on each hand. f - Fire/Throw an object/use a missile weapon. {t - throw} You may throw any object carried by your character. Depend- ing upon the weight of an object, it may travel across a room or drop down beside you. If you throw an object such as an arrow, only one will be used at a time. If you throw at a creature, your chance of hitting the creature is determined by your pluses to hit, your ability at throwing, and the object's pluses to hit. Once the creature is hit, the object may or may not do any actual damage to it. Certain objects in the dungeon can do great amounts of damage when thrown, but it's for you to figure out the obscure ones. Oil flasks are considered to be lit before thrown, therefore they will do fire damage to a creature if they hit it. To use a bow with arrows, simply wield the bow and throw the arrows. Extra pluses to damage and hitting are gained by wielding the proper weapon and throwing the corresponding ammo. A heavy crossbow with bolts for example, is a killer... i - Display a list of objects being carried. This command displays a list of all objects being carried, but not currently in use. You may carry up to 22 different kinds of objects, not including those in your equipment list. Depending upon your strength, you will be able carry many identical objects before hitting your weight limit. j - Jam a door with an iron spike. {S - spike} Most humanoid and many intelligent creatures can simply open a closed door, and can eventually get through a locked door. Therefore you may spike a door in order to jam it. Each spike used on a door will increase its strength, although the more spikes you add, the less effect each additional spike has. It is very easy to jam a door so much as to make it impossible for your character to bash it down, so spike doors wisely. The bigger a creature is, the easier it can bash a door down. Therefore twenty or more spikes might be necessary to slow down a dragon, where one spike would slow down a kobold. This command can be counted. l - Look in a direction. {x - examine} The Look command is useful in identifying the exact type of object or creature shown on the screen. Also, if a creature is on top of an object, the look command will describe both. You can see creatures and objects up to 200 feet away (20 The Dungeons of Moria Page 20 spaces). You may freely use the Look command without the creatures getting a move on you. Looking in a particular direction sees everything within a cone of vision which just overlaps the cones of the two adjacent directions. Looking with the null direction `5' (or `.') sees everything which there is to be seen. You are also able to access you monster memories with this command. If you see a creature, you are prompted to ask if you wish to see a short paragraph of information about your experiences with that creature. See also the section on being attacked. m - Cast a magic spell. To cast a spell, a character must have previously learned it, and must also have in the inventory a magical book from which the spell may be read. Each spell has a chance of failure which starts out fairly large but decreases as a character gains levels. If a character does not have enough mana, the chance of failure is greatly increased, and he gambles on losing a point of constitution. You will be prompted for confirmation before trying to cast a spell when you don't have enough mana. Since a character must read the spell from a book, he cannot be blind or confused when cast- ing a spell, and there must be some light present. o - Open a door, chest, or lock. To open an object such as a door or chest you must use the Open command. If the object is locked, the Open command will attempt to pick the lock, based on your ability at disarming. If an object is trapped and you open it, the trap will be set off. This command can be counted, you may need several tries to get it open. p - Read a prayer. To pay effectively, a character must have learned the prayer, and must also have in the inventory a holy book from which the prayer may be read. Each prayer has a chance of being ignored which starts out fairly large but decreases as a character gains levels. If a character does not have enough mana, the chance of failure is greatly increased, and he gambles on losing a point of constitution. You will be prompted for confirmation before trying to pray when you don't have enough mana. Since a character must read the prayer from a book, he cannot be blind or confused when praying, and there must be some light present. q - Quaff a potion. To drink a potion use the Quaff command. A potion affects the player in some manner. The effects of the potion may be immediately noticed, or they may be subtle and unnoticed. r - Read a scroll. The Dungeons of Moria Page 21 To read a scroll use the Read command. A scroll spell has an area affect, except in a few cases such as identify scrolls which act on other objects. Two scrolls, the iden- tify scroll and the recharge scroll, have titles which can be read without setting them off, and by pressing ESCAPE can be saved for future use. s - Search general area one turn. The Search command can be used to locate hidden traps and secret doors about the player. More than a single turn of searching will be required in most cases. You should always search a chest before trying to open it because they are generally trapped. This command can be counted, which is useful if you are really sure of finding something eventu- ally. A counted search ends as soon as anything is found. t - Take off a piece of equipment. {T} Use the Take Off command to remove an object from use, and return it to your inventory. Occasionally you will run into a cursed item which cannot be removed. Cursed items are always bad, and can only be taken off after removing the curse. u - Use a staff. {Z - Zap} The Use command will activate a staff. Like scrolls, most staffs have an area affect. Because staffs are generally more powerful than most other items, they are also harder to use correctly. v - Display current version of game. The Version command displays the credits for the current version of moria. w - Wear or wield an item being carried. To wear or wield an object in your inventory, use the Wear/Wield command. If an object is already in use for the same function, it is automatically removed first. An object's bonuses cannot be gained until it is worn or wielded. x - Exchange primary and secondary weapons. {X} A secondary weapon is any weapon which may be needed often. Instead of searching through your inventory, you may use the exchange command to keep the weapon ready. For instance, if you wanted to use your bow most of the time, but needed a sword for close combat, you could wield your sword, use the exchange command to make it the secondary weapon, then wield your bow. If the sword was suddenly needed, simply use the exchange command to switch between the bow and the sword. / - Identify a character shown on screen. Use the identify command to find out what a character displayed on the screen stands for. For instance, by press- ing `/.', you can find out that the `.' stands for a floor The Dungeons of Moria Page 22 spot. When used with a creature, the identify command will tell you only what class of creature the symbol stands for, not the specific creature, therefore use the look command for this information. If you identify the character for a creature in your monster memory, you are also prompted to ask if you wish to see a paragraph of information on those creatures identified by the given character. Several creatures may be identified in this way. Typing ESCAPE after the paragraph for any creature will abort back to command level. See also the section on being attacked. ? - Display a list of commands. The ? command displays a quick reference help page on the screen. - - Move without pickup. This is followed by a move command, and causes you to move over any object without picking it up. You can associate a count with this command. = - Set options. This is a free move, to set various moria options. The available options are: (1) Cut known corners when running. This is on by default, and the only reason for switching it off would be if you had the search flag on and wished to look for doors in the extremity of every corner. (2) Examine potential corners when running. This is on by default, and allows you to run along an unknown curving cor- ridor. If, however, you are running from a creature, and wish to stop at an unknown corner to make a considered deci- sion, then you may wish to switch this option off. (3) Print self during a run. This is off by default, which gives faster screen updating. (4) Stop when map sector changes. This is off by default, but can be switched on if you wish to stop running whenever a new part of the dungeon appears in view. (5) Treat open doors as empty space while running. This is off by default, in which case you stop when ever you run up to an open door. (6) Prompt to pick up objects. This is off by default, in which case stepping over an object automatically causes you to pick it up. With the option on, you get prompted in all such cases with a description of the object to see if you really want to take it. The Dungeons of Moria Page 23 (7) Rogue like command set. This option controls the command set in use. It is off by default. (8) Show weights in inventory. This is off by default: switch- ing it on causes the inventory and equipment listings to include the weight of all objects. This may be useful to know if your pack is getting too heavy. (9) Highlight mineral seams. This is off by default. Switching it on causes quartz and magma to be displayed as `%' instead of `#'. This is handy when mining. Setting this option does not immediately highlight all minerals, but only those which are subsequently displayed. To display all minerals, just move the map around a bit with the `Where' (or `Locate') command. (10)Beep for invalid character. This is on by default. When on, the program will beep for most invalid characters, such as trying to choose a spell that you haven't learned yet. When off, there are no such beeps. (11)Display rest/repeat counts. This is on by default. When on, the program will progessively display the remaining turns left while resting, and for repeated commands. For those trying to play over a 2400 bps or less connection, or for those playing on very slow microcomputers, turning this off will make resting and repeated commands work much fas- ter. The setting of all these options persist in your savefile, even after you die. ^P - Previous message. The Control-P command will redisplay the last message printed on the message line at the top of your screen. A second such command will display all of the saved messages. You may also give this command a count to specify the number of previous messages to display. At present, only 22 mes- sages are saved. ^K - Quit the game without saving. {Q} To exit the game without saving your character (i.e. kill him/her) use the Control-K command. Once exited in this manner, your character is nonrecoverable. ^X - Save your character and exit the game. To save your game so that it can be restarted later, use the Control-X command. Save files will also be generated if the game crashes due to a system error. When you die, a reduced save file is produced containing only your monster memory, and your option settings. { - Inscribe an object. This command can be used to inscribe any short string on an The Dungeons of Moria Page 24 object. Inscriptions are limited to twelve characters. The inscription applies only to the particular object, it is not automatically transferred to all similar objects. Under certain circumstances, moria will itself inscribe objects: if they have been discovered to be cursed or enchanted, or if they have been sampled without being identified. In this last case, moria does in fact carefully inscribe every such item. ! - Shell out of game. Use the Shell command `!' to temporarily exit the game to execute UNIX or MSDOS commands. You may reenter the game by typing exit to end the spawned process. This is not imple- mented in the Macintosh version. < - Go up an up staircase. If you move onto an up staircase you may use the `<' command to go up one level. There is always one staircase going up on every level except for the town level (this does not mean it's easy to find). Going up a staircase will always take you to a new dungeon area except for the town level, which remains the same for the duration of your character. > - Go down a down staircase. If you are on top of a down staircase you may use the `>' command to go down one level. There are always two or three staircases going down on each level, except the town level which has only one. Going down will always take you to a new dungeon area. . - Move in direction. {shift} The Run command will move you in the indicated direction until either you have to make a choice as between two direc- tions, or something interesting happens. There are options which determine behaviour at corners, and at screen boun- daries. More precisely, the conditions which stop a run are as follows: (1) A creature appears on the screen, one already on the screen moves, or a creature attacks you or casts a spell at you. (2) You move next to an object, or a feature such as a door or trap. (3) You come to the end of open space, or the end of a passage, or a junction of passages, or a hole in a wall. (4) Corners are more complex. A corner allows a choice between adjacent rectangular and diagonal directions. If you can see walls which ensure that the diagonal gives a faster traversal, then action is determined by the "cut corners" options. If it is set, then you move diagonally through the corner. This gives you maximum speed (as is nice if you are fleeing a hidden creature). On the other hand, this option The Dungeons of Moria Page 25 should not be set if you want more careful coverage (as when you are searching) so that you take two moves through the corner. (5) At a potential corner, where walls are not yet visible ahead of the rectangular direction, the "examine corners" option is considered. If set, you will move straight into the corner, which will light up all the corner and so determine where you can go from there. This allows you to follow corners in new passages. If the option is not set, you stop. This allows highly cautious running where you want to stop at all potential choice points. (6) If you move off the screen while running, then a new section of the dungeon is display and the run continues. However, if the "stop when map changes" option is set, you will stop. Again, this is an option for nervous players, after all, there may be a dragon on the new screen. (7) Anything typed during a run causes the run to stop. The character causing this to occur is ignored. It is best to use a space, which is ignored as a command, just in case the run stops just before you type the character. (8) Various changes of state, such as recovery from fear or loss of heroism, will stop a run. 6. The Town Level The town level is where you will begin your adventure. The town consists of six buildings each with an entrance, some towns peo- ple, and a wall which surrounds the town. The first time you are in town it will be daytime, but you may return to find that dark- ness has fallen. (Note that some spells may act differently in the town level.) 6.1. Townspeople The town contains many different kinds of people. There are the street urchins, young children who will mob an adventurer for money, and seem to come out of the woodwork when excited. Blubbering Idiots are a constant annoyance, but not harmful. Public drunks wander about the town singing, and are of no threat to anyone. Sneaky rogues hang about watching for a likely victim to mug. And finally, what town would be complete without a swarm of half drunk warriors, who take offense or become annoyed just for the fun of it. Most of the towns people should be avoided by the largest possi- ble distance when you wander from store to store. Fights will break out though, so be prepared. Since your character grew up in this world of intrigue, no experience is awarded for killing on the town level. The Dungeons of Moria Page 26 6.2. Supplies Your character will begin his adventure with some supplies already on him. Use the Inventory `i' command to check what these supplies are. It will be necessary to buy other supplies before continuing into the dungeon, however, so be sure to enter each of the stores. 6.3. Town Buildings You may enter any of the stores, if they are open, and barter with the owner for items you can afford. When bartering, you enter prices you will pay (or accept) for some object. You can either enter the absolute amount, or precede a number with a plus or minus sign to give a positive or negative increment on your previous offer. If you have previously given an increment or decrement amount, you can just type RETURN, and the program will use the last increment amount that you typed. But be warned that the owners can easily be insulted, and may even throw you out for a while if you insult them too often. To enter a store, simply move onto the entrance represented by the numbers 1 through 6. If you consistently bargain well in a store, that is, you reach the final offer much more often than not, then the store owner will eventually recognize that you are a superb haggler, and will go directly to the final offer instead of haggling with you. Items which cost less than 10 gold pieces do not count, as hag- gling well with these items is usually either very easy or almost impossible. Also, the store owner will always haggle for items costing more than 1000 gold pieces, because of the amount of money involved. Once inside a store, the store inventory will appear on the screen along with a set of options for your character. You may browse the store's inventory if it takes more than one page to display, and you may sell to, or purchase items from, his inven- tory. You can execute your inventory and equipment commands to see what you are carrying. Not shown with the options are the wear, take off, and exchange commands which will also work, but were excluded to keep the options simple. Stores do not always have everything in stock. As the game progresses, they may get new items so check from time to time. Also, if you sell them an item, it may get sold to a customer while you are adventuring, so don't always expect to be able to get back everything you have sold. Store owners will not buy harmful or useless items. If an object is unidentified, they will pay you some base price for it. Once they have bought it they will immediately identify the object. If it is a good object, they will add it to their inventory. If it was a bad bargain, they simply throw the item away. In any case, you may receive some knowledge of the item if another is The Dungeons of Moria Page 27 encountered. The General Store The General Store sells foods, drinks, some clothing, torches, lamps, oil, shovels, picks, and spikes. All of these items, and some others, can be sold back to the Gen- eral store for money. The entrance to the General Store is a `1'. The Armory The Armory is where the town's armor is fashioned. All sorts of protective gear may be bought and sold here. The entrance to the Armory is a `2'. The Weaponsmith's Shop The Weaponsmith's Shop is where the town's weapons are fashioned. Hand and missile weapons may be purchased and sold here, along with arrows, bolts, and shots. The entrance to the Weaponsmith's is a `3'. The Temple The Temple deals in healing and restoration potions, as well as bless scrolls, word of recall scrolls, some approved pri- estly weapons, etc. The entrance to the Temple is a `4'. The Alchemy shop The Alchemy Shop deals in all manner of potions and scrolls. The entrance to the Alchemy Shop is a `5'. The Magic User's Shop The Magic User's Shop is the most expensive of all the stores. It deals in all sorts of rings, wands, amulets, and staves. The entrance to the Magic Shop is a `6'. 7. Within The Dungeon Once your character is adequately supplied with food, light, armor, and weapons, he is ready to enter the dungeon. Move on top of the `>' symbol and use the down `>' command. Your charac- ter enters a maze of interconnecting staircases and finally passes through a one-way door. He is now on the first level of the dungeon (50 feet), and must survive many horrible and chal- lenging encounters to find the treasure lying about. There are two sources for light once inside the dungeon. Per- manent light which has been magically placed within rooms, and a light source carried by the player. If neither is present, the character will be unable to map or see any attackers. Lack of light will also affect searching, picking locks, and disarming. A character must wield a torch or lamp in order to supply his own light. Once a torch or lamp has only 50 or less turns left before burning out, the message "Your light is growing faint" The Dungeons of Moria Page 28 will be displayed at random intervals. Once a torch is burnt out, it is useless and can be dropped. A lamp or lantern can be refilled with oil by using the Fill `F' command. You must of course be carrying extra oil to refill a lantern. 8. Attacking and Being Attacked Attacking is simple in moria. If you move into a creature, you attack him. You can attack from a distance by firing a missile, or by magical means such as aiming a wand. Creatures attack in the same way, if they move into you, they attack you. Some creatures can also cast spells from a distance, and others can breathe fire or worse on you from a distance. Creatures moving in walls can not be attacked by wands and other magic attacks normally stopped by walls. You can attack a creature in a wall normally though by trying to move into the wall space containing the creature. However, in order to attack an invisible creature in a wall, you must tunnel into the wall containing the creature. If you just try to move into the wall, you will bump your head and look quite silly. If you are wielding a weapon, the damage for the weapon is used when you hit a creature. Otherwise you get two fist strikes. Very strong creatures can do a lot of damage with their fists... You may have a primary weapon, and a secondary weapon which is kept on your belt or shoulder for immediate use. You can switch between your primary and secondary weapons with the exchange com- mand. Be sure to wield the proper weapon when fighting. Hitting a dragon over the head with a bow will simply make him mad, and get you killed. Missile weapons, such as bows, can be wielded, and then the proper missile, in this case an arrow, can be fired across the room into a target. Missiles can be used without the proper mis- sile weapon, but used together they have a greater range and do far more damage. Hits and misses are determined by ability to hit versus armor class. A hit is a strike that does some damage; a miss may in fact reach a target, but fails to do any damage. Higher armor classes make it harder to do damage, and so lead to more misses. 8.1. Monster Memories. There are hundreds of different creatures in the mines of moria, many of which look the same on the screen. The exact species of a creature can be discovered by looking at it. It is also very difficult to keep track of the capabilities of various creatures. Rather than forcing you to keep notes, moria automatically keeps track of your experiences with a particular creature. This is called the monster memory. You monster memory recalls the The Dungeons of Moria Page 29 particular attacks of each creature (whether or not technically a monster) which you have suffered, as well as recalling if you have observed them to multiply or move erratically, or drop treasure, or many other attributes. If you have killed enough of a particular creature, or suffered enough attacks, recalling the monster memory may also provide you with information not otherwise available, such as a armor class or hit dice. These are not explained, but may be useful to give the relative danger of each creature. This memory can be passed on to a new character even after you die, by means of a reduced save file. 8.2. Your Weapon Carrying a weapon in your backpack does you no good. You must wield a weapon before it can be used in a fight. A secondary weapon can be kept by wielding it and then using the exchange command. A secondary weapon is not in use, simply ready to be switched with the current weapon if needed. Weapons have two main characteristics, their ability to hit and their ability to do damage, expressed as `(+#,+#)'. A normal weapon would be `(+0,+0)'. Many weapons in moria have magical bonuses to hit and/or do damage. Some weapons are cursed, and have penalties that hurt the player. Cursed weapons cannot be unwielded until the curse is lifted. Moria assumes that your youth in the rough environment near the dungeons has taught you the relative merits of different weapons, and displays as part of their description the damage dice which define their capabilities. The ability to damage is added to the dice roll for that weapon. The dice used for a given weapon is displayed as `#d#'. The first number indicates how many dice to roll, and the second indicates how many sides they have. A "2d6" weapon will give damage from 2 to 12, plus any damage bonus. The weight of a weapon is also a consideration. Heavy weapons may hit harder, but they are also harder to use. Depending on your strength and the weight of the weapon, you may get several hits in one turn. Missile booster weapons, such as bows, have their characteristics added to those of the missile used, if the proper weapon/missile combination is used. Also, these weapons will multiply the base damage of the missile by a number from 2 to 4, depending on the strength of the weapon. This multiplier is displayed as `(*#)'. Although you receive any magical bonuses an unidentified weapon may possess when you wield it, those bonuses will not be added in to the displayed values of to-hit and to-dam on your character sheet. You must identify the weapon before the displayed values reflect the real values used. The Dungeons of Moria Page 30 Finally, some rare weapons have special abilities. These are called ego weapons, and are feared by great and meek. An ego sword must be wielded to receive benefit of its abilities. Special weapons are denoted by the following abbreviations: DF - Defender. A magical weapon that actually helps the wielder defend him- self, thus increasing his/her armor class, and protecting him/her against damage from fire, frost, acid, lightning, and falls. This weapon also will increase your stealth, let you see invisible creatures, protect you from paralyzation attacks, and help you regenerate hit points and mana faster. As a result of the regerenation ability, you will use up food faster than normal while wielding such a weapon. FB - Frost Brand. A magical weapon of ice that delivers a cold critical to heat based creatures. It will inflict one and a half times the normal damage when used against a heat based creature. FT - Flame Tongue. A magical weapon of flame that delivers a heat critical to cold based creatures. It will inflict one and a half times the normal damage when used against cold based or inflamm- able creatures. HA - Holy Avenger. A Holy Avenger is one of the most powerful of weapons. A Holy Avenger will increase your strength and your armor class. This weapon will do extra damage when used against evil and undead creatures, and will also give you the abil- ity to see invisible creatures. SD - Slay Dragon. A Slay Dragon weapon is a special purpose weapon whose sole intent is to destroy dragon-kind. Therefore, when used against a dragon, the amount of damage done is four times the normal amount. SE - Slay Evil. A Slay Evil weapon is a special purpose weapon whose sole intent is to destroy all forms of evil. When used against an evil creature, either alive or undead, the damage done twice the normal amount. SM - Slay Animal. A Slay Animal weapon is a special purpose weapon whose sole intent is to destroy all the dangerous animals in the world. An animal is any creature natural to the world. Therefore an orc would not be an animal, but a giant snake would be. This will inflict twice the normal amount of damage when used against an animal. The Dungeons of Moria Page 31 SU - Slay Undead. A Slay Undead weapon is a special purpose weapon whose sole intent is to destroy all forms of undead. This weapon is hated and feared by the intelligent undead, for a single blow from this weapon will inflict three times the normal amount of damage. This weapon also gives you the ability to see invisible creatures, which is especially useful against undead, since many of them are normally invisible. 8.3. Body and Shield Bashes Weight is the primary factor in being able to bash something, but strength plays a role too. After bashing, a character may be off balance for several rounds depending upon his dexterity. Doors can be broken down by bashing them. Once a door is bashed open, it is forever useless and cannot be closed. Chests too may be bashed open, but be warned that the careless smashing of a chest often ruins the contents. Bashing open a chest will not disarm any traps it may contain, but does allow the strong and ignorant to see what is inside. Finally, a creature may be bashed. If a shield is currently being worn, the bash is a shield bash and will do more damage. In either case, a bash may throw an opponent off balance for a number of rounds, allowing a player to get in a free hit or more. If the player is thrown off balance, his opponent may get free hits on him. This is a risky attack. 8.4. Your Armor Class Armor class is a number that describes the amount and the quality of armor being worn. Armor class will generally run from about 0 to 60, but could become negative or greater than 60 in rare cases. The larger your armor class, the more protective it is. A nega- tive armor class would actually help get you hit. Armor protects you in three manners. One, it makes you harder to be hit for damage. A hit for no damage is the same as a miss. Two, good armor will absorb some of the damage that your character would have taken. An armor class of 30 would absorb 15% of any damage meant for him. Three, acid damage is reduced by wearing body armor. It is obvious that a high armor class is a must for sur- viving the lower levels of moria. Each piece of armor has an armor class adjustment, and a magical bonus. Armor bought in town will have these values displayed with their description. Armor that is found within the dungeon must be identified before these values will be displayed. All armor always has the base armor class displayed, to which the The Dungeons of Moria Page 32 bonus is added. It is always possible to figure this out anyway, by watching the effect it has on your displayed armor class. Armor class values are always displayed between a set of brackets as `[#]' or `[#,+#]'. The first value is the armor class of the item. The second number is the magical bonus of the item which is only displayed if known, and will always have a sign preceding the value. There are a few cases where the form `[+#]' is used, meaning the object has no armor class, only a magical armor bonus if worn. Some pieces of armor will possess special abilities denoted by the following abbreviations: RA - Resist Acid. A character using such an object will take only one third normal damage from any acid thrown upon him. In addition, armor so enchanted will resist the acid's effects and not be damaged by it. RC - Resist Cold. A character using a resist cold object will take only one third damage from frost and cold. RF - Resist Fire. A character using a resist fire object will take only one third damage from heat and fire. RL - Resist Lightning. A character using a resist lightning object will take only one third damage from electrical attacks. R - Resistance. A character wearing armor with this ability will have resis- tance to Acid, Cold, Fire, and Lightning as explained in each part above. 8.5. Crowns Some crowns also have special magical abilities that improve your chances in a battle. Crown of Might This is the great crown of the warriors. The wearer will have an increased strength, dexterity, and constituion, and will also be immune to any foe's attempt to slow or paralyze him or her. Crown of the Magi This is the great crown of the wizards. The wearer will have an increased intelligence, and will also be given resistance against fire, frost, acid, and lightning. The Dungeons of Moria Page 33 Crown of Lordliness This is the great crown of the priests. The wearer will have an increased wisdom and charisma. Crown of Seeing This is the great crown of the rogues. The wearer will be able to see even invisible creatures, and will have an increased ability to locate traps and secret doors. Crown of Regeneration This crown will help you regenerate hit points and mana more quickly than normal, allowing you to fight longer before needing to rest. You will use of food faster than normal while wearing this crown because of the regenerative effects. Crown of Beauty This crown looks impressive, and will increase your charisma, but is otherwise not useful. 9. Objects Found In The Dungeon The mines are full of objects just waiting to be picked up and used. How did they get there? Well, the main source for useful items are all the foolish adventurers that proceeded into the dungeon before you. They get killed, and the helpful creatures scatter the various treasure throughout the dungeon. Most cursed items are placed there by the joyful evil sorcerers, who enjoy a good joke when it gets you killed. You pick up objects by moving on top of them. You can carry up to 22 different items in your backpack while wearing and wielding many others. Although you are limited to 22 different items, you may be carrying several items of each kind restricted only by the amount of weight your character can carry. Your weight limit is determined by your strength. Only one object may occupy a given floor location, which may or may not also contain one creature. Doors, traps, and staircases are considered objects for this pur- pose. If you try to carry more weight than your limit, you will move more slowly than normal until you drop the extra weight. If picking up an object would take you over your weight limit, then you will be asked whether you really want to pick it up. It is a good idea to leave the object alone if you are fleeing from a monster. Many objects found within the dungeon have special commands for their use. Wands must be Aimed, staves must be Used, scrolls must be Read, and potions must be Quaffed. In any case, you must first be able to carry an object before you can use it. Some objects, such as chests, are very complex. Chests contain other objects and may be trapped, and/or locked. Read the list of The Dungeons of Moria Page 34 player commands carefully for a further understanding of chests. One item in particular will be discussed here. The scroll of "Word of Recall" can be found within the dungeon, or bought at the temple in town. It acts in two manners, depending upon your current location. If read within the dungeon, it will teleport you back to town. If read in town, it will teleport you back down to the deepest level of the dungeon one which your character has previously been. This makes the scroll very useful for get- ting back to the deeper levels of moria. Once the scroll has been read it takes a while for the spell to act, so don't expect it to save you in a crisis. The game provides some automatic inscriptions to help you keep track of your possessions. Wands and staves which are known to be empty will be inscribed with "empty". Objects which have been tried at least once, but haven't been identified yet will be inscribed with "tried". Cursed objects are inscribed with "damned". Also, occasionally you will notice that something in your inventory or equipment list seems to be magical. High level characters are much more likely to notice this than beginning characters. When you do notice this, the item in question will be inscribed with "magik". And lastly, a final warning: not all objects are what they seem. Skeletons lying peacefully about the dungeon have been known to get up... 9.1. Cursed Objects Some objects, mainly armor and weapons, have had curses laid upon them. These horrible objects will look like any other normal item, but will detract from your character's stats or abilities if worn. They will also be impossible to remove until a remove curse is done. If you wear or wield a cursed item, you will immediately feel something wrong. The item will also be inscribed "damned". 9.2. Mining Much of the treasure within the dungeon can be found only by min- ing it out of the walls. Many rich strikes exist within each level, but must be found and mined. Quartz veins are the richest, yielding the most metals and gems, but magma veins will have some hordes hidden within. Mining is virtually impossible without a pick or shovel. Picks and shovels have an additional magical ability expressed as `(+#)'. The higher the number, the better the magical digging ability of the tool. A pick or shovel also has pluses to hit and damage, and can be used as a weapon. The Dungeons of Moria Page 35 When a vein of quartz or magma is located, the character should wield his pick or shovel and begin digging out a section. When that section is removed, he should locate another section of the vein, and begin the process again. Since granite rock is much harder to dig through, it is much faster to follow the vein exactly and dig around the granite. There is an option for highlighting magma and quartz. If the character has a scroll or staff of treasure location, he can immediately locate all strikes of treasure within a vein shown on the screen. This makes mining much easier and more pro- fitable. It is sometimes possible to get a character trapped within the dungeon by using various magical spells and items. So it is a very good idea to always carry some kind of digging tool, even when you are not planning on tunneling for treasure. 9.3. Staircases, Secret Doors, Passages, and Rooms Staircases are the manner in which you get deeper, or climb out of the dungeon. The symbols for the up and down staircases are the same as the commands to use them. A `<' represents an up staircase and a `>' represents a down staircase. You must move your character over the staircase before you can use them. Each level has at least one up staircase, and at least two down staircases. There are no exceptions to this rule. You may have trouble finding some well hidden secret doors, but the stairs are there. Many secret doors are used within the dungeon to confuse and demoralize adventurers foolish enough to enter. But with some luck, and lots of concentration, you can find these secret doors. Secret doors will sometimes hide rooms or corridors, or even entire sections of that level of the dungeon. Sometimes they simply hide small empty closets or even dead ends. Creatures in the dungeon will generally know and use these secret doors. If they leave one open, you will be able to go right through it. If they close it behind them you will have to search for the catch first. Once a secret door has been discovered by you, it is drawn as a known door and no more searching will be required to use it. 10. Winning The Game Once your character has progressed into killing dragons with but a mean glance and snap of his fingers, he may be ready to take on the Balrog. The Balrog will appear on most levels after level 49, so don't go down there until you are ready for him. The Dungeons of Moria Page 36 The Balrog cannot be killed in some of the easier methods used on normal creatures. Because of the Balrog's cunning, he will teleport away to another level if a spell such as destruction is used upon him, and the Balrog cannot be polymorphed, slept, charmed, or genocided. Magical spells like coldball are effec- tive against him as are weapons, but he is difficult to kill and if allowed to escape for a time can heal himself. If you should actually survive the attempt of killing the Balrog, you will receive the status of WINNER. Since you have defeated the toughest creature alive, your character is ready to retire and cannot be saved. When you quit the game, your character receives a surprise bonus score. 11. Upon Death and Dying If your character falls below 0 hit points, he has died and can- not be restored. A tombstone showing information about your character will be displayed. You are also permitted to get a record of your character, and all your equipment (identified) either on the screen or in a file. Your character will leave behind a reduced save file, which con- tains only the monster memory and your option choices. It may be restored, in which case the new character is generated exactly as if the file was not there, but the new player will find his mon- ster memory containing all the experience of past incarnations. 12. Wizards There are rumors of moria Wizards which, if asked nicely, can explain details of the moria game that seem complicated to beginners.