Mortal

*"We don't go near the castle. If the Lord saw fit to ride out then he rode, saw fit to hunt then he hunted and we questioned not, for 'tis not our place to speak on such. If he or his stopped by our thatches then we gave what was asked and said nothing, if the Reeve came with demands what was wished went with him, as is the law, but we never went near the castle. If a maiden was chosen or a boy taken to serve then a father's teeth would grind, yet we said goodbyes and hoped that amongst the armed and armoured that later passed that one would glance toward a door from which a wet-eyed mother watched, but we would not go near the castle. When bellows not borne by men broke the night and flame filled the sky, when the morn' brought naught but burnt beam and splintered stone, we gazed at black ruins and tended our business. We won't go near the castle. It has been a turning, but now you and your lord come to raise timber and walls and pennants anew, so we suffer again for a time 'til the cycle turns, but for our sanity, our souls, and our salvation we will not go near the castle!*"

- Henry Rolfe, deceased.

## Gameplay

New players in the Dark Lair normally have some knowledge about GodWars M.U.Ds and the World of Darkness already, if not then a quick internet search will bring up the official White Wolf forums and other resources to learn from. No matter your level of knowledge, you should read any relevant material to make sure you can pass any required interviews and write an appropriate background to gain your RP flag, so please do your research and remember this MuD is based on the classic World of Darkness, so anything after the Revised editions of Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse and Mage: the Ascension can be disregarded! Now, lets discuss how Mortals work in the Dark Lair...

Everyone character here starts as a Mortal and this is the time to learn the basics, make mistakes and more importantly make friends! You may have an idea for a character you want to portray already or a Class you want to explore, but relax, take your time and get used to the essentials of the game as it currently stands. Experience with GodWars style M.U.Ds will be of great utility and these pages cannot comprehensively cover every command, feature or function (type "help" to access in-game assistance), but we can focus on a few of the more important factors.

You will likely want to explore and, whilst you have your Newbie flag, any kill will grant at least 1 Exp, so try to find feeble mobs you can blast through quickly and make the most of it. Combat will train Stances, Skills and various other Abilities through use, so this is the time to go rocketting around experimenting with what you can do and learning your limits. Don't worry about dying or failure as it's not permanent, you can recover cash or items from your fallen body and everyone makes mistakes.

Mortals are living creature and obviously need to "eat" (try some body parts from fresh kills if you're desperate), "drink" (find a fountain or suchlike) and breathe, so you stay aware of your surroundings and seek ways to replenish yourself. Hunger makes your Health regenerate more slowly and affects your combat effectiveness, thirst cripples Mana regeneration and being unable to breath makes you, well, dead!

The maximum Health and Mana you can achieve are 7,500 without an RP flag and 10k with one, but Dark Lair's Mana calculation algorithm divides it by 125 for Mortals. This means that your natural, trainable, maximum Mana becomes, effectively and respectively, 60 or 80 and will display as such. Taking damage in combat equal to or greater than a 10th of your current maximum Health will raise your current maximum Health by 1, and "cast"ing spells has a chance to raise your current maximum Mana by 1 although that chance decreases the higher your Mana gets.

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## **Commands**

The Commands listed below are available to everyone. Some are essential, some situational, but all are useful! There may be others around, but these cover the basic functions.

### Information Commands

* Affects: Displays what spells are currently affecting you and generally from what source.
* Exp: Displays current Stance, Skill and Spell Colour levels as well as other minor things.
* Practice: Displays all the spells that you have successfully learned and *currently* have the Mana to cast!
* Prompt On/Off: Toggles your Prompt, use this then type the following to make it more informative.

prompt #G(#n%x:XP#G)#n %h:#RH#G/#n%m:#CM #G(#c%c:#WAC#G/#n%p:#WHit#G/#n%P:#WDam#G)#n

cprompt #G(#n%f#G)#n %h:#RH#G/#n%m:#CM #G(#c%c:#WAC#G/#n%p:#WHit#G/#n%P:#WDam#G)#n

* Score: Displays your Attributes, Ability scores and some other minor things.
* Stats: Displays general character information, including Health, Mana, Learns, money etc.
* Soulpoints: Displays the amount of time until you gain Learns again.
* Upkeep: Displays any Class powers you currently have actived..

### Defensive Commands

* Defences: Toggles your ability to be taught some Class powers, or staked/fed from/interfered with!
* Summon: Toggles your ability to be Summoned.
* Transport: Toggles your ability to have items sent to/taken from you.
* Visible: Removes any Invisibility effect from you, to help with shopkeepers etc.
* Willpower: Toggles your automatic resistances to mental powers..

### Description Commands

* Config: Toggles various display related options like turning the map on or off (config +map or config -map).
* Description Edit: Change what is seen when someone looks at you.
* Email: Toggles your email address being shown on "finger".
* Incognito: Toggles your Faction being shown on the "who" list.
* Roomdescribe: Change what is seen when someone looks at a room you are in.
* Title: Change the text following your name on the "who" list.

### Stance Commands

* Autostance: Determines what Stance you automatically use when entering combat.
* Setstance: Designs SuperStances, covered on the Stances page.
* SS: Shows information on a SuperStance, covered on the Stances page..

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## **Mortal Limits**

These are the maximums you can raise various things to, along with the associated commands or processes.

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## **Mortal Magic**

The below table shows all spells confirmed to be "practice"able, "study"able and "cast"able by Mortals. See the Static Magic page for more details. Spells with a \* are currently important for potential Mages. Max these before Classing, as you likely cannot later!

Please remember that displayed Mana is currently calculated via an algorithm, which divides your actual amount by around 125. For example if your *actual* amount is 10k then it would divide down and display as 80, thus precluding the use of certain spells even if known, although some Items may aid in this...

Once Classed this algorithm will alter, meaning Cainites and Garou have even less (effective) Mana whilst Mages have substantially more!

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