| HEAVY ON THE MAGICK
THE AIM OF THE GAME LOADING AMSTRAD: Press the CTRL and ENTER button together. Press PLAY and then any key on the keyboard. SPECTRUM: Type LOAD "" and ENTER; press PLAY on recorder. Spectrum 128K; select TAPE LOADER and press ENTER; press PLAY on recorder. Axil the Able stood in three inches of stagnant water and surveyed one of the most dismal dungeons he had ever been thrown into... 30 seconds earlier, he was sitting in front of the ox-roast in that famed haunt of the Occult. The Golden Thurible engaged in his favourite pastime of Wizard-Baiting. What a good story Axil was telling - a new one about Therion, a certain Moon creature and a rather gullible Elf- really, the sudden silence ofhis audience should have warned him. The crowd parted as Therion strode across the floor, dangerous in all his 10 degrees. Therion raised a twig-like index ringer and flung Axil several hundred leagues across Graumerphy, into the dungeons beneath the dreary castle called Collodon's Pile. In the dark twilight. Axil tutted - and then took stock. He was, at least, clothed: he carried a large leather pouch, and, on a nearby table, there was a book. The title read as follows:- The Net of Gugamon - a Grimoire: wherein is contained the proper rites for the Convocation of various Demonly Princes, the procurement of lesser spirits, together with sundry workings, conjurations, manifestations, symbols relating to all manner of Asral Phenomena: and so on for several more pages, in the rather turgid style thought necessary for such books. Unfortunately, apart from the title, there seemed to be little more than a rather tattered contents page. But they didn't call him Axil the Able for nothing. So, with a flourish, he marched for the door in search of a way out. DUNGEONS AND HOW TO SURVIVE THEM Dungeons are fairly unhealthy places, the best way to survive, is to Get Out. There are three separate exits. To help you locate them you have a book of spells (which you add to) and your whs; to hinderyou there are Wandering Monsters, Demons, Traps, Tricks and Puzzles. STARTING UP You may have noticed that the Program had already generated values for stamina, skill and luck. While you can't alter the values themselves you can re-locate them - select option 6 and the values will be re-aligned. It dependson whether you think skill counts for more than stamina. When saving or restoring a game, you will be asked for a Version letter, so keep a note of Version letters. Note: However, that saving a game will deplete your Stamina, so that a save cannot be used as an easy way of getting around difficult choices; saving and restoring, Axil allows you to save Axil's current experience and Grade, and (some) items. COMMUNICATIONS Communicating with the Program is all done through Window 2 (the middle window) in the section of Merphish. t STATUS If you run out of Stamina, you Die: your Stamina and Skill together affect the outcome of conflicts: your Luck will influence virtually all your actions. Combat will reduce your Stamina a lot, most other actions will reduce it a little, but taking food or drink may well increase it: other special objects will enhance your Skill and Luck. EXPERIENCE As you play, you will gain in experience: this will enhance your Status, advance your Magical grade, which will allow you access to items and knowledge not available to the lower grades. COMBAT All combat is Magical - physical encounters with other creatures are often fatal. If you decide to engage in combat, check your own, and the Monsters' status before each round. Some Monsters and all Demons, may have information which may prove useful, and often the status of a creature will give you a clue of how to deal with it. UNLOCKING Most locks that you encounter are Magical Locks and need Magical Keys; they might not be recognised as Keys but they need only to be dropped by a Lock to be effective. Other Locks can be opened by Magical passwords. STUCK? If you're really stuck, ask Apex - or try Examine OBJECT. MERPHISH AND HOW TO SPEAK IT All input is in Merphish. All commands take the form: Keyword (Object) followed by Return/Enter. Keywords are entered as just the first letter (occasionally two letters as in North-East etc), the names of Objects must be entered in full. Unrecognised keywords will be queried. Commands can also be entered as a string, with each separated by a comma, and a final Return. A single delete will cause the command back to the previous comma of Return to be "forgotten". There follows a list of Merphish Keywords: N. North N.E. North-east N.W. North-west S. South S.E. South-east S.W. South-west E. East W. West L-Left R- Right H. Halt; this will abandon the command being actioned and the rest of any outstanding command string. Z - a special function to swap the information in Window I. 0 - to return to Option Screen. X - (Object) Examine the named object. P - (Object) Pick up the named object. D - (Object) Drop the named object. Spells: I - (Object) Invoke the named Demon. B - (Object) Blast the named object or Monster. F - (Object) Freeze the named object or Monster. Here are thge Merphish object names: ASMODEE ASTAROT AXIL BELEZBAR BOOK BOX BOTTLE LOAF CANDLE CHAIR DEMON MAGOT OBJECT TABLE WALL MONSTER SWORD ROCK SIGN RUBY Conversion is carried out as follows:- "name, object" (the leading quote marks are necessary, the final quotes are optional) Where name is the name of the Demon, Monster or Thing that you are addressing: object is the name of the Demon Monster or Thing that you wish to be attacked or about which you require information or that you wish to locate etc., depending on the nature of the creature you are addressing. ASMODEE - The Great Destroyer whose number is 122 ASTAROT - The Spirit of Assemblage whose number is 1376 BELEZBAR - The Master of Flies whose number is 20 MAGOT - The Diviner whose number is 443. And the number of Magick is II; but the number of the Great Abyss is 24 ... CREDITS 1985 Carter Follis Software Associates. The program and data are copyright and may not be reproduced in part or in total by any means without the written permission of Hewson Consultants Ltd. All rights reserved. No responsibility is accepted for any errors. Our policy is one of constant improvement. Therefore, we reserve the right to modify any product without notice. Published on the Rebound label by Hewson Consultants Ltd., 56B Milton Trading Estate, Milton, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Retyped in 2011 by hERMOL Visit my website at http://CPCRULEZ.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Retyped in 2011 by hERMOL Visit my website at http://CPCRULEZ.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |