chapter 1 "Getting started: The Newbie Mansion" You understand the basics. You've read the player's handbook (you read that, right?), you now understand stats and skills, you've customized your stats, and you're ready to play. This chapter will now give you a walkthrough of the first quest a newbie should perform. It is a *complete* walkthrough! It is a SPOILER. If you don't want the quest spoiled, stop reading now! I'm going to assume your mud does not allow picking your class at char creation, or that the class you picked is "explorer". This is to simplify the walkthrough. This also assumes you've just created this char and it is level 1. We'll start in the reception room, with Jennybot (5 south, 3 east, 1 south, of the village clocktower). If you haven't done so already, this might be a good time to: %^GREEN%^activate bot%^RESET%^ What she says is kind of boring if you're not new to muds. But hang around until she gives you the baseball cap. It's worth some money. %^RED%^PROTIP%^RESET%^: If she has already given you a cap before, you won't get a new one. Once you get the cap, go 1n, 3w, 5n, 1e, 1n. This is the village shop. Remove and drop your worthless t-shirt and jeans, and sell the cap to otik: %^GREEN%^sell cap to otik%^RESET%^ Sell any other crap you've picked up along the way. The newbie mansion will have all the equipment you'll need to solve it. But keep this hint book handy! Now it's time to open a bank account. Believe me, you do not want to be carrying around all your money if you die. So let's go open an account and put our hard-earned cash somewhere safe: 1s, 1w, 3n, 1e. %^GREEN%^request account from zoe%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^deposit all%^RESET%^ Good! I feel safer already! Now let's head to the mansion. From the bank it is: 1w, 3s, 2w, 2s. If you're still at newbie levels, the mansion guard won't notice you slip by. You're now in front of the mansion, but how to get in? The door is locked! Pay close attention to the description...did you notice that the mansion is described as having an open second story window? Go to the gardener's shack (1w, 1n) and get the ladder. Return to the front of the mansion (1s, 1e) and: %^GREEN%^drop ladder%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^climb ladder%^RESET%^ You're in! You're now standing in the second floor hallway of the newbie mansion. Time to get equipped. Go east into the guest room, open the overnight bag, and get and wear the following: leather jacket, leather pants, helmet, shirt, and gloves. This is relatively decent newbie armor that still lets you gather loot because it's not too heavy. %^RED%^PROTIP:%^RESET%^ You can do stuff to more than one item at a time, and when you do, worn items are ignored. Try: %^GREEN%^open overnight bag%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^get all from overnight bag%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^wear all%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^drop all%^RESET%^ Did you notice that you only dropped the things you were not wearing? Now, go to the master bedroom (1w, 3s), open the wardrobe and get the boots from the wardrobe and wear them. These are long boots and are better than the boots in the guest room. These boots also protect your legs. Leave the rest of the stuff in the wardrobe alone for now...you can loot the mansion after you complete the quest. Next, let's get you a weapon. Go downstairs, just outside the kitchen (1n, 1d, 1n). The kitchen will be east. Do this, very quickly: %^GREEN%^go east%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^get carving knife from rack%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^go west%^RESET%^ Ignore the kitchen rats...kill them later if you want, for now let's save up your strength for the mansion boss...and he's next! Before we go on, though, let me ask you...did you get both knives from the rack? No! just the carving knife! You see, only fighters are skilled at using two weapons at once. As an explorer, if you try to wield two weapons at once, you will do very very badly in combat. The carving knife is an excellent weapon. Just wield that, and drop the butcher knife. Now go north and east...and meet your first quest boss. Yes, the soggy thief! He's snuck into the mansion while the master was away, and made himself at home! He won't like your presence and will attack you, but he's really quite wimpy. Just stand your ground and you'll defeat him with no effort. Finished? Aren't you sad now? No? Good. There's plenty of slaying to do in this game, if you're getting sentimental over killing a burglar while wearing his armor (that you stole) then this just might not be the game for you. Now, take his stuff and look around. See anything that piques your curiosity? %^GREEN%^get all from corpse%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^look%^RESET%^ Maybe the rug is valuable... %^GREEN%^exa rug%^RESET%^ %^GREEN%^get rug%^RESET%^ Weird! What if we... %^GREEN%^move rug%^RESET%^ Well what do you know! Open that trap door, go down into the secret chamber, and you'll have solved your first Dead Souls quest. Congratulations! You'll be awarded quest and experience points, and if your mud is set to auto-advance, you'll probably gain a level or two. If not, you can visit Dirk and ask him to advance (Dirk is 1e, 1s of the village clocktower). There's a bunch of loot in the chest in the secret chamber, as well as a bag with money (don't just sell the bag, "get all from bag" first!). You can now focus on robbing the mansion blind and selling everything you steal. With the money, you can start buying expensive equipment you need for the more challenging quests. %^RED%^Loot tip 1:%^RESET%^ Go back to the master bedroom and move the bed. Surprise! Enter the passageway and unlock the safe with the complex key you took from the thief. Inside the safe you'll find stuff you will want to keep, not sell. Trust me on that. Don't sell that stuff. %^RED%^Loot tip 2:%^RESET%^ Search the room across the hall from the guest room you looted. %^RED%^Loot tip 3:%^RESET%^ Whether you sell or keep it, remember where the bear costume is. It could come in handy later. %^RED%^Loot tip 4:%^RESET%^ Sell stuff to Kim if you can, rather than Otik. Otik pays with silver, which is heavy. Kim pays with dollars, which are light. Sadly, Kim will not buy or sell weapons, but for everything else, her light currency is very convenient. You can always exchange currencies at the bank. Kim's bookstore is 1n, 2e, 1n of Jennybot. %^RED%^Loot tip 5:%^RESET%^ If you advanced automatically, you might find that the mansion guard no longer lets you past him any more...and you can't get rid of him. Strategies for dealing with the gate guard are discussed later.