CMB: C. Michel Boucher (aa699@freenet.carleton.ca)
FF: Fred Farzanegan (fredf@bnr.ca)
DA: Dennis Ahr (dahr@fred.net)
AvL: Alexander von Luenen (luenen@athene.informatik.uni-bonn.de)
MEB: Marilyn E. Burford (ad636@ccn.cs.dal.ca)
GRL: Garrett R. Le-Page (lepag001@maroon.tc.umn.edu)
copyright 1995 (except for quoted material, as indicated)
Specifically for version 483.07 of Darklands
The HTML version of this file is accessible at uni-bonn by using the
following URL: http://ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs3f8/darkland.html
0. INTRODUCTION
1. BEFORE WE BEGIN
What do we know about Arnold Hendrick, the designer of DARKLANDS?
What did Microprose say about DARKLANDS?
Where do I find DARKLANDS now?
What is Jojo's list and why is it important?
What's that again about a sequel?
2. TECHNOBABBLE
What files are available for DARKLANDS from Microprose and elsewhere?
3. GAME CONSIDERATIONS - Early game (raubritters, thieving, demoniac villagers)
Travelling by land - dealing with travellers (bandits, good and bad alchemists, bishops, noblemen, pigs, wolves, etc.)
Armour and weapons
Stealing armour, buying armour
Where to find good armour, weapons
Improving skills by seeking out robbers in towns
Getting jobs
Getting help (extra people, prayers to saints)
Fighting tactics
Alchemy
Money
4. GAME CONSIDERATIONS - Taking on tougher things (knockers, witches and the Wild Hunt)
Getting money, alchemical stuff
Using your improving reputation to get jobs, instruction
Mines
Dragons
High Sabat
Great Monastery
Defeating Baphomet
Retiring characters, dead characters (quoted from the README.TXT with v7)
Continuing after you've completed the objectives of the game.
5. LISTS, TIPS & OTHER PARAPHERNALIA FOR THE DARKLANDS VOYAGER
Rare items and places in DARKLANDS (Holy relics, Devil's Bridge, etc.)
List of cities with Cathedrals, Universities and neither
Strange things in the game
Things with no apparent purpose in the game
Bits and pieces
Stupid things about DARKLANDS
List of the first 40 significant events in one game
Cities of Germany
Enemies
Saints
Summary of Darklands Hint Book
Additional Files
A quick note before beginning. This FAQ reflects the many considerations
that could be brought to it by the four authors, as well as input from
various sources. As much as possible, authorship of a particular section
is indicated. Where there are comments, these are inserted with the preface
NOTE and the initials of the note's author in brackets. Quotes are marked by >
and, unless a different provenance is given, are to be understood as coming from
Microprose literature on DARKLANDS.
Also please note that the Introduction and sections 1 and 2 were largely
written or put together by CMB as drafts of the FAQ project and have not changed
much since.
Here is the long awaited DARKLANDS FAQ. It is the product of the labour of the six people
mentioned above. It has the distinction of being perhaps the only FAQ ever produced for an
out-of-print game.
Don't be fooled by cheap imitations. This is the genuine article, a blatant attempt
on the part of a few hardcore DARKLANDS players to manipulate Microprose into producing
a sequel, as was originally promised. Admittedly, this is a last ditch attempt, as they have stated
they will NOT produce a sequel, but as Babe Ruth was fond of saying: "It ain't over till the fat lady
sings".
Although this FAQ covers a lot of ground, there remains much to be covered. There are gaps
here and there which individual players might be able to help us fill. If you can, write to any of
us with your comments and suggested additions. Separate files are also welcome to be added
to the list of files below.
There are two other mentions made of DARKLANDS on the
net search tools. The first is an album and a tour by The Jesus and Mary
Chain. The second is a "gothic" recording label in Finland. For those
interested in pursuing either line of enquiry, I propose the following
sites:
Please note that some of these links may be inactive at the time of release. They were all
listed at NetSeek during the summer of 1995. Now that we've got these things out of the way,
let's talk about the game DARKLANDS from MPS Labs.
What do we know about Arnold Hendrick, the designer of DARKLANDS?
Before he designed games for Microprose, Arnold Hendrick designed a few
role-playing games. Of note: BARBARIAN PRINCE, a paragraph adventure
boardgame from DWARFSTAR (1981) and another game for SPI, DRAGONQUEST
(2 editions, 1980, 1981) .
Arnold Hendrick has designed a number of games for Microprose.
Darklands won the 1992 PC Special Achievement Award from Game Players
Magazine.
>********** DARKLANDS **********
>
>HUNT VALLEY, MD _ MicroProse Software, Inc., famous worldwide for its
>high-quality entertaining simulations of combat and adventure, will release
>DARKLANDS, its first true fantasy role-playing game, this fall.
>
>Set in 15th Century Medieval Germany, DARKLANDS will be as realistic and
>challenging a simulation as previous MicroProse releases. "The common thread
>of all of our titles, from GUNSHIP to RAILROAD TYCOON, is that they have an
>intellectual core," said Arnold Hendrick, DARKLANDS' game designer.
>"DARKLANDS will be no different _ the problems and tasks the gamer will face
>are straight from the events and attitudes of Medieval Germany." 15th
>Century Germany was a time of violence and corruption and was an era with
>three Popes simultaneously in charge, powerless emperors, gangster nobles
>and venal clergymen. DARKLANDS recreates this period and emphasizes the
>beliefs of the time: witches worshipping the devil, people praying to saints
>to produce real miracles, alchemists turning lead into gold and dragons
>inhabiting caves.
>
>Players will explore a vast map of Germany with a party of four adventurers
>created from the likes of nobles, swordsmen, mercenaries, thieves, alchemists,
>monks and several more. Millions of different character types will be
>possible by choosing from 26 attributes and skills. The ultimate goal of the
>game will be to achieve fame and immortality on multiple quests, many of them
>simultaneous. Quests will be created by an "adventure generator" for endless
>replayability.
>
>DARKLANDS will be released for IBM-compatibles and will require 640K of RAM.
>The game will support AdLib, Roland, Tandy and IBM sounds, and EGA, MCGA/VGA
>and Tandy 16-color graphics. A hard disk will be required and a mouse
>recommended.
I received this note from Daniel Hall, when I asked him to give me the
information on where he had been able to find DARKLANDS on a CD. Please
note this has been edited for the purposes of this FAQ.
>Date: Tue Aug 1 03:36:26 1995
>From: dhall41@portland.caps.maine.edu (Daniel Hall)
>Subject: Re: darklands
>To: aa699@freenet.carleton.ca
>
>Gold Medal 12 CD Pack
>Mediaquest
>(found at Electronics Boutique at the price of $30 American)
>
>It includes: Darklands, Blue Force, Jet Fighter 2, Maelstrom, Microcosm,
>Shadow President, Dune II, CyberRace, Casino Master Gold Edition, The
>Selfish Giant, The Complete House, The Peter Norton Productivity Pak
*NOTE (CMB): I also found DARKLANDS available in a CD five-pack with
*other games. It was on sale at Electronics Boutique for $24.99 CDN, plus
*GST and PST (where applicable):
*Action 5 Pak
*GT Interactive Software
*
*It includes: War in the Gulf, Shadowlands, Spectre, Combat II & Darklands
Unfortunately for those of you who have bought CD versions of DARKLANDS, you
have found out by now that the information that comes with the company's package is
not included in the CD's documentation. We have read complaints about this on the net,
specifically that the look-up codes, simple as they are, are not included. It is not within
the scope of this document to provide you with these codes, as much as we would like to,
as we would risk being in breach of copyright laws. -- The Management
This is a weekly voting list which produces the top 100 games. Almost 1000 people vote
on this list and it is checked by game companies to see how well their product is doing. To check
out Jojo's list, find it on comp.sys.ibm.games.announce. Currently, DARKLANDS has been
on almost since the beginning and has been climbing from the mid-eighties to the mid-sixties. Any
DARKLANDS player is invited to add his vote to Jojo's list by mailing your entry to jojo@xs4all.nl
as per the instructions in the report. DARKLANDS's number in Jojo's list is 1008.
In the manual for DARKLANDS, it says that the designers were planning a number of sequels to
expand the game throughout medieval Europe, including Russia and other locations. This never
materialized, but gamers are a persistent bunch and every now and then, the questions re-emerge.
This is what was said about a sequel (straight from the horse's mouth, as it were):
>From: polar@u.washington.edu (B. Power)
>Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg
>Subject: Darklands: Dead. *sigh*
>Date: 3 Sep 1995 17:26:41 GMT
>
>Several weeks ago, I sent Microprose mail about a possible sequel to
>Darklands. Here's what I received:
>
>From support@microprose.com Sun Sep 3 10:23:49 1995
>Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 11:05:12 -0400
>From: MPS/SH On-Line
>To: Brendan Power
>Subject: Re: Darklands: Dead in the water?
>
>Hi Brendan,
>
>There are no plans for a newer version of Darklands, or to license out the
>source code.
>
>Regards,
>Tim/Spectrum HoloByte-MicroProse
We here at FAQ Central, however, believe in miracles, especially if one attempts to manufacture
them. We encourage all and sundry who enjoyed the game DARKLANDS to write to Microprose to
suggest they reconsider reopening the DARKLANDS dossier. A letter campaign, along with an increase
in DARKLANDS's standing in Jojo's list, should certainly make The Company think twice before refusing
flat out. As far as I know, the e-mail address is support@microprose.com. There is also a
web page at http://www.microprose.com/.
What's the latest version of DARKLANDS and what does it do?
The current version of DARKLANDS is 483.07. If you don't know what yours is,
check out the file BANNER.DAT which should contain the number of the latest
version. This is the file that appears as a grey screen when you first boot
the game up. In my version 5, the file flashed by so rapidly that I couldn't tell which
version it was, so I used a DOS utility like DR.EXE (you could also use
WRITE or NOTEPAD from WINDOWS) to open the BANNER.DAT file and read the
number. If you use a text editor, don't save afterwards. Just exit.
If you don't have ftp, you can reach the people at Microprose and they will
send you an upgrade by snail mail. Be sure to tell them which version you
currently have. As far as I know, version 7 was never available as a
commercial game. It is therefore necessary to upgrade your current version
to 7.
*NOTE (DA): I bought my Darklands commercially as revision 7, so I believe
*that statement is not correct.
As stated above, the address is support@microprose.com.
Technical and other considerations for version 483.07 (February 26, 1993) as
quoted from the README.TXT that accompanies update v7.
>This version is a major upgrade. Numerous problems and difficulties have
>been solved, thanks both to the many contributions and notes from users,
>and our own continuing testing. This version allows save-games during
>certain big battles, and makes both loading and saving much more reliable.
>
>Games saved using earlier versions should still work. However, some fixes
>do not take effect unless you start a new game. These fixes are minor; for
>example, in one, it's easier to leave Graz. However, for the best possible
>version, start a new game.
>
>HARD DISK SPACE
>
>DARKLANDS requires about 17,500,000 bytes (17.5 MB) of hard disk space. This
>includes about 16 MB of files, plus approximately 1.5 MB of temporary
>storage, first for high speed installation, and then reused as temporary
>file storage during play, including a reasonable number of saved games. The
>exact amount of hard disk space may increase on very large hard disks. On
>one 600MB hard disk we've seen the game require 22 MB of space.
>
>MEMORY (RAM) REQUIREMENTS
>
>Currently DARKLANDS requires 595,000 bytes (581K) of main memory, plus
>180,224 bytes (176K) of EMS memory. If you are uncertain of the memory in
>your machine use the DOS 5.0 command "MEM /C" to view the entire memory
>configuration of your computer.
>
>DARKLANDS also requires FILES=20 (or more) in your CONFIG.SYS file.
>
>FAST LOADING COMMANDS
>
>The "DARKLAND /Q" command mentioned in the technical supplement disables
>ALL animation routines in the game, not just the initial animation. This
>command is intended for hardware configurations that have problems with the
>animations, but which can run the rest of the game (see Extended Animation
>Sequences, below, for details).
>
>To preserve the animations, but quickly bypass the opening sequence, load
>normally with DARKLAND, then immediately tap the space bar. This bypasses
>the opening animation, while preserving the later defeat and victory
>animations.
>
>SAVING THE GAME
>
>The best places to save DARKLANDS are:
>
>(a) While staying at a city inn;
>(b) While camping in the countryside;
>(c) While on the travel map of Germany.
>(d) On certain battlefields, in certain cases.
>
>Battlefields that allow save-games are indicated by a message saying
>"Battlefield save rules are in effect". The main "save rule" is simple:
>there must be no living enemies on the current floor or level. In addition,
>you can save any time the game leaves the battlefield for an interaction
>(i.e., a full-screen text/picture/menu combination). In general, if you can
>use group movement mode, you can save (on appropriate battlefields).
>
>The only battlefields that allow saves are the largest: the various mines,
>the Templar's fortress monastery, and Baphomet's Citadel of the Apocalypse.
>In fact, we recommend you save frequently in these battles. This protects
>you from unexpected problems.
>
>You can save the game at other times outside of battle. However, when you
>restore, you may sometimes be "set back" a bit in time because a lot of
>complex logic has not yet changed all data in the "permanent" areas yet.
>
>You can have up to 100 saved games. To scroll through the list, use the up
>and down arrow keys on the keyboard.
>
>FRANKFURT, FREIBURG and FREIBERG
>
>Astute players will realize that some cities have similar names. Within the
>game, "Frankfurt am Main" is abbreviated as "Frankfurt M", while "Frankfurt
>an der Oder" is "Frankfurt O". Freiburg im Breisgau is misspelled "Freiberg
>im Breisgau" on the map. It is spelled correctly in the game, and abbreviated
>to "Freiburg B" for greater clarity. The other Freiberg, in the Wettin Lands,
>is spelled correctly and is just "Freiberg" in the game.
>
>CHARACTER COLORS
>
>We very much regret that an extremely rare problem may cause a battlefield
>character to suffer some color changes in battle. However, you as a player
>won't notice the change until the next battle. The bad part is that the
>change is stored in the saved game file. You can fix up your characters by
>returning to an old saved game. For example, in battle #3 you notice Gretch
>has green hair (yuck). If you return to a game saved prior to battle #2,
>Gretch will be fine again. We apologize for this work-around. We've tried
>all sorts of tools and traps for this condition, and spent hundreds of hours
>testing for it. We'd be delighted to publicize the name of the first person
>who can tell us how to make it occur upon demand.
>
>SAVES\DEFAULT FILE
>
>The SAVES subdirectory includes a file titled "DEFAULT." This file must be
>present in this subdirectory to permit character generation. If you use DOS
>commands to copy, clean out, etc. the SAVES files, be sure to not erase
>DEFAULT.
>
>LOADING SAVED GAMES
>
>This version supports the ability to load saved games while in the game, as
>described on page 18 of the manual. In addition, you can scroll through the
>list of saved games using the keyboard arrow keys. Loading is prohibited on
>certain information screens. Simply exit the information screen and loading
>is re-enabled.
>
>Beware that once you commit to loading a game while playing, you MUST select
>a game to load. You cannot escape back to the game you were playing. We
>apologize for this inconvenience.
>
>HALL OF FAME
>
>The manual incorrectly states that DARKLANDS has a Hall of Fame. The game
>does not. However, for your information, we expect that moderately successful
>parties will achieve fame in the low hundreds, while very successful ones
>will reach the high hundreds.
>
>DARKLANDS has no specific ending -- you can play forever. However, if you
>have defeated Raubritters, dragons, the three different kinds of problems in
>mines, and ultimately Baphomet, you have encountered all the major challenges.
>Good luck and good adventuring!
>
>EXTENDED ANIMATION SEQUENCES
>
>The opening sequence and two other animations during the game may have
>problems with a few hard disk drive controllers. Generally, if the opening
>animation runs without problem three or four times, you should not have any
>difficulties.
>
>If, however, you do have difficulties, we suggest you load with DARKLAND /Q.
>This will bypass all the animation sequences, thus avoiding any chance of
>trouble.
>
>SIMULTANEOUS ROLAND & SOUND BLASTER SUPPORT
>
>It is possible to have both Roland MT-32/LAPC-1 sound and digital speech in
>DARKLANDS. However, it requires that you rename certain files (described
>below) and then use INSTALL to set the game's sound to whatever NON-Roland
>board you are using. These boards include:
>
>Covox Sound Master II, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro,
>Pro Audio Spectrum (including + and 16 versions),
>Thunderboard, ATI F/X
>
>To rename the files to support both boards, go to MPS\DARKLAND (or whatever
>subdirectory you installed the game into) and type the following DOS
>commands:
>
>COPY PSOUND.DLC PSOUND.DC
>COPY PSOUND.DLB PSOUND.DB
>COPY ASOUND.DLC ASOUND.DC
>COPY ASOUND.DLB ASOUND.DB
>
>COPY RSOUND.DLC PSOUND.DLC
>COPY RSOUND.DLB PSOUND.DLB
>COPY RSOUND.DLC ASOUND.DLC
>COPY RSOUND.DLB ASOUND.DLB
>
>Later, if you wish to restore the game to its normal configuration, type the
>following DOS commands:
>
>COPY PSOUND.DC PSOUND.DLC
>COPY PSOUND.DB PSOUND.DLB
>COPY ASOUND.DC ASOUND.DLC
>COPY ASOUND.DB ASOUND.DLB
*NOTE (DA): Use of Gravis Ultrasound Card
*
*If you have any of the GUS cards, you can use megaem.exe rev. 3.03 beta to
*increase the quality of the tunes in Darklands. First copy the sound files
*under the paragraph in this FAQ called Simultaneous Roland & Sound Blaster
*Support. Then load megaem.exe. Finally, run the install program in your
*DARKLAND directory. You should be able to select the Roland choice now.
*To do this automatically every time you run Darklands, make a batch file as
*follows:
*
*~path\megaem
*cd\~path\darkland
*darkland
>DARKLANDS CLUE BOOK
>
>A clue book full of numerical data of all sorts, not to mention outlines of
>the quests, hints and answers to puzzles, and much more is available now from
>MicroProse. It is available either with or without a special disk. The
>special disk contains a music player, a picture viewer, and a character
>editor.
*NOTE (CMB): See below, for a description of the Hint Book. Also, something
*these notes don't mention is that version 7 seems to have a simpler BASIC setting
*than the earlier versions (5 in particular), from my experience.
DESCRIPTION OF BUGS ENCOUNTERED
--Contributed by AvL--
When I saw a couple of postings in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg concerning
DARKLANDS, one more thing to mention came to my mind. Has anyone noticed
that annoying bug in ver7 ? It happens when you're travelling on the map. In
the old version, I was able to walk on without getting interrupted (beside
game issues of course). Now, in ver7, there's often some strange hard drive
activity which results in nothing, in the best case. I travel and the screen
freezes as if engaging in some action. But then, the map shows up again, and my
'walker' stands there and waits for new clicks. In the worst case, the screen
starts to scroll madly, I mean, my travelling-character stays around and the
map scrolls in all directions and ends in the sea eventually. Has anyone
encountered that as well ? Seems like a bug to me. Even though I wouldn't
call this a major bug, it can cause some mess, if you haven't saved often
enough (after landing in the sea, the machine hangs up).
--Contributed by DA--
That's a new one to me, but it reminded me of a bug (rev 7) that I encounter
every once in a while.
Sometimes when a battle in the wilderness is about to begin (doesn't seem to
matter with whom), there are no enemies anywhere on the battle map. I have
found that the only way to "jump start" the battle is to move my characters
around a little; after a bit, the hard drive starts up and the battle begins.
NOTE: Anyone with any other strange behaviour by the program is
encouraged to describe it in gory detail and e-mail to one of the authors.
It stands a chance of being added (with appropriate credit) to this document.
Also, feel free to substantiate these two bugs if you can.
What files are available for DARKLANDS from Microprose and elsewhere?
There are quite a few kinds of files for DARKLANDS: upgrades, animated
unplayable demo, a press release and some save game editors. The section
that follows explains where to get the material, or, if you have WWW access,
you can just point to the site to receive the file. Please note that I have
not been able to find DARKSND.ZIP at the Microprose site although it is
listed as being there.
UPGRADES
You can get the following upgrades of DARKLANDS by ftp to the site below:
DARK6-7 ZIP 614K DARKLANDS Version 06 to 07 Update
DK4_6 ZIP 812K DARKLANDS Update Version 04 to Version 06
DK5_6 ZIP 831K DARKLANDS Version 05/051 to Version 06
DKV06 ZIP 1214K DARKLANDS Version 06
This non-playable demo shows some screens from a game, using the default
characters (Gretchen, Gunther, Hans and Ebhard). Never having seen the early versions
of the game I cannot say for sure which this one intends to demonstrate.
I can say that it is different in some appearance to versions 5 and 7, so
I can only surmise it is a view of an earlier version. Given the nature
of demos, I would suspect it shows a version somewhere between beta and
483.01. Differences are: characters not as graphically clear, lettering
in character screens different as well as the character representations,
equipped objects were marked with a + and a different colour (something
I feel they should have kept [also an object sorter would be nice]), dead
remain on screen as a body (not just a spot of blood). There may be other
differences.
DLED ZIP 71K DARKLANDS Save Game Editor v1.1 + doc
DLEDIT ZIP 60K DARKLANDS Save Game Editor v1.1
DLQUE ZIP 21K Lists all current quests in DARKLANDS
DRKLND ZIP 15K UGE module for DARKLANDS. Must have UGE.
You may also be able to find most of these files at
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.2/dresden/games/pc
---------------------------------
Here are excerpts from the DOCs from DLED, DKQUE and UGE (DRKLND)
DLED.ZIP (71Kb) - a character and party editor for DARKLANDS (excerpt)
>**** DLED Version 1.1 New Features ****
>
>Now you can edit any character in the saved game. In addition to editing
>the skills and attributes, you can now edit equipment, and knowledge of
>saints and formulas. Edit party wealth, PStone and Fame (although I
>haven't found much advantage to increasing party fame this way).
>
>Print individual characters or the party as a group. Print to printer or
>file of your choice.
>
>Seamless transfer of party between saved games, no hassles.
>
>DLED is a utility that allows you to display and modify the attributes,
>skills, equipment, saints and formulas of all the characters in your
>saved game. It will also print a report of attributes, skills, equipment,
>saints and formulas each character or all characters in your party.
>Output can be directed to the printer or a file. DLED also allows you
>to transfer the current party from one saved game to another (different
>worlds).
DKQUE.ZIP (20Kb) - program that lists pending quests (excerpt)
>DKQUE is a utility program that lists all pending quests. Run DKQUE
>before starting the game (you may want to redirect output to the printer
>lpt1). Tells you where to go, what to get and who to give it
>to. Often (for quests not in a city) it will specify a location near a
>city different than what you were told in the game, as a rule DKQUE
>provides a closer city than the game did. If you took notes when the
>quest was given to you, you'll have an excellent set of directions to
>triangulate. When questing for a Raubitter, it also tells you the name
>of the Keep.
>
>Questions or comments may be directed to
>
>Steven J. Cotellesse
>71255,1276
DRKLND.ZIP (14Kb) - Universal Game Editor module for DARKLANDS (excerpt)
>YOU MUST HAVE UNIVERSAL GAME EDITOR TO USE THIS MODULE.
>
>This module will allow you to change money, philosopher stone,
>attributes, skills and more. You may create ANY item in the game!
>
>UNIVERSAL GAME EDITOR
>
>Universal Game Editor is an editor created specifically for editing saved
>game files. UGE is available on Compuserve, GEnie and America Online.
>The filename is UGExx.ZIP, where xx is the version number. UGE may also
>be uploaded to bulletin boards around the country.
*NOTE (CMB): UGE comes with save files for Master of Orion, Civilization,
*Betrayal at Krondor and Lands of Lore. The save files for DARKLANDS must
*be obtained from the Microprose site.
A shareware version of UGE can be obtained from Jack Hartman (the author)
by contacting http://pages.prodigy.com/TX/jhartman/jhartman.html
Travelling by land - meeting travellers (bandits, alchemists, bishops,
noblemen, pigs, wolves, etc.)
--This section contributed by CMB--
In the beginning of the game, you will have to travel by land. Except for
a few minor exceptions, this is the cheapest, but most time consuming way of
travelling.
When travelling across the map, you will encounter all sorts of creatures.
The main ones are bandits, boars and wolves, which can all be dispatched.
You may also run across tatzelwurms, hellhounds, schrats and the Wild Hunt.
If you have a chance to assist a schrat being hunted, do so. He will
give you a gift that will be of benefit to you. Any endurance lost during
these combats can be recovered in an overnight camp. To recover a fair
amount of lost strength, it is best to go to a town and lodge at an inn.
The healthy members can earn a little money to help defray the costs while
the unhealthy members can recover.
Alchemists offer or demand exchanges of potions. If you encounter an
aggressive alchemist and defeat him and his retinue in combat, you will be
able to keep the potions you find on him. You can freely refuse exchanges
with non-aggressive alchemists.
*NOTE (AvL): When engaging the agressive alchemist, be sure you can take
*on his guards. Neither his guards nor the alchemist himself is a guy
*to take a Sunday afternoon walk with, if you know what that means. I
*mean, to defeat them in battle, your fighting skills should be on the
*same level you would need to wipe out Raubritters and their bandits.
Bishops, noblemen and hermits have a right to make demands upon your
purse. Refusal to pay the price (or appropriately argue your case) and
engaging them in combat results in a loss of Virtue, as a sign that this
sort of action is not tolerated in 15th century Germany. Do not try to
attack the abode of a legitimate lord.
*NOTE (AvL): When encountering noblemen and clergymen on the road, always
*try to convince them to leave you alone. Assuming you have Speak Common
*skills of 50+, this will work in most cases. If not, pay the tithe. Never
*attempt to kill them! Not only will this decrease your virtue level, it
*will decrease your local reputation; for example, if near a town it would
*make your popularity score go down from about zero (unknown) to approx. -7 down
*to -14 (suspected). This would it make nearly impossible to enter this
*town by normal ways. Trouble with the town guards would be omnipresent.
Travelling pilgrims and displaced villagers can be assisted with gifts of
money and clothing or by accompanying the former to their destination. This
latter action is not necessary if you donate a few groschen. These actions
serve to increase your virtue.
Another type of encounter is the virtuous hermit who will give you news and
instructions in a saint you wouldn't find in monasteries, and the women
with the dogs. This is a special case. You must observe these women to
determine who they are. There are two types: a female hermit (or white
witch) and a practicioner of the black arts. The first one you must leave
alone and any attempt to disrupt her will result in loss of Virtue. The
second one, however, must be defeated and she can be asked to reveal
information about the witches' gatherings.
The next kind is a village. It is in villages that you will find the least
expensive housing (but no income) and possibly good blacksmithing. You can
sell your acquired weapons and armour. Villages are either good or bad.
Generally it is possible to tell simply by speaking to the Schultz but
the quickest way is to visit the church and go to confession. If the
penance required is the sacrifice of a small animal, or while speaking to
the priest he mentions two saints that don't exist in the list, you can
then leave the church, speak to the Schultz and accuse his village of
witchcraft, defeat the villagers in combat and learn the location and
date of the next witches' meeting. Note that you may or may not be able
to get there on time. If you can't, don't worry, there are quite a few
during the year, as many as you will find villagers to attack.
Mines are earthen humps with wooden frames over the doorways on the landscape
map. You can enter and purchase things for your alchemist, raw materials
and various bases. The best way to get a fair amount of alchemical materials
is to defeat Knockers.
*NOTE (DA): Something that I don't think has been mentioned is that battles
*are easier and the booty is less during the early part of the game. Only 4
*robbers are encountered in the back alleys initially, but later there may be
*5 of the brutes, and they will no doubt be wearing more and better armor.
*The same thing holds true for battles in the countryside. I have had the
*temerity to tackle a renegade alchemist fairly early and just sneak by with
*a victory; the same has been true for raubritters. Later in the game, the
*raubritters always seem to have more rounds of battles in store before the
*big guy comes out to fight. I don't know about High Sabats as I have never
*attempted one of these really early in the game. I don't recommend knocking
*on the door of the Fortress Monastery early on either.
Well, concerning armour it's kind of obvious, that your best choice would
be Chainmail. It's light and has very good protection capabilities. Plate
Armour might be an even better security-thing, but usually only the dumb,
strong oaf is endowed with enough strength to wear it without getting
overloaded. However, in the beginning you might equip the party-members with
a less wealthy family background, who came along with poor armour, with some
more affordable stuff. Considering the need of protective clothes, you might
use Cuirbouilli or Scale Armour in the beginning. Always keep an eye on the
weight according to the strength of the character.
A short list of Armour:
Padded, Leather, Studded Leather: Worthless, use only if no alternatives.
Cuirbouilli, Scale: Good choice in times of scarce wealth.
Chainmail, Plate: High-end armour.
A real good opportunity to get equipment like armour and weapons is to
"steal" them from killed opponents. "Good" means it might be the most
affordable way. For example, tracking down a Raubritter doesn't only mean a
reward but also one set of plate armour. But beware! Here's the drawback
in this cheap method: obtaining armour or other equipment usually provides
only a quality-level up to 25q. In case of weapons like swords or so, this
might be enough, but a 25q armour isn't meant to be a longlasting joy.
Buying armour at an amourers shop in a town usually results in a 35q
equipment. This is only exceeded by gifts or similar bounty (e.g.: rescuing
merchants on the road, chests in the Great Monastery or in the mines).
Well, like I pointed out the paragraph before, high quality equipment
can be found in hard-to-access locations. For example, you'll find plate
armour in the Great Monastery at 45q! But to get there, your party should
be capable of excellent fighting skills and more. There are some towns,
in which certain weaponry and armour can be bought in a better condition
then in other cities. Yet, I haven't located them all and unfortunately,
I forgot to write them down last time I played DARKLANDS. Maybe someone
else can contribute that.
*NOTE (CMB): It is possible to get six sets of 45Q armour from the Great
*Monastery without encountering more than a few bears as opponents.
*
*The route is simple: enter the cemetery, speak the name that opens the
*gate, enter the building, then go to the right-hand door on the "top" wall
*(to the far left of where the characters arrive). Inside, there is another
*door on the right-hand wall and it is necessary to fight some bears. After
*that, enter the room and walk along the closest right-hand wall.
*
*There is a secret door that leads to a chest (trapped, I believe), that
*contains six suits of 45Q plate armour. You need a character with fairly
*high artifice, as I recall. You can then leave the Great Monastery without
*encountering resistance and go on adventuring for a while with 45Q armour.
*NOTE (DA): The best armor outside of the Great Monastery is always in
*Nurnburg (quality - 37). The only city with better weapons than Nurnburg
*(that I have found) is Paderborn (quality - 38). Best overall town for
*both armor & weapons is Nurnburg; both are 37.
*
*Cities with weapons >30
*
*1. Burglitz (32)
*2. Freiberg-im-Breisgau (36)
*3. Koln (35)
*4. Kufstein (31)
*5. Magdeburg (34)
*6. Marienburg (30)
*7. Naskskov (30)
*8. Nordlingen (33)
*9. Paderborn (38)
*10. Trier (33)
*11. Wein (35)
*
*Cities with armour >30
*
*1. Basel (31)
*2. Dresden (34)
*3. Marienburg (33)
*4. Nancy (36)
*5. Salzburg (32)
*6. Soest (35)
*7. Speyer (30)
*8. Stuttgart (33)
*9. Ulm (31)
*10. Wurzburg (32)
Early on, you can't take on dragons and even most raubritters because your
skills are not sufficiently developed. Your best bet to increase your
skills to a good beginning level for adventuring is to seek out thugs in
towns. Since thugs don't come out during the day, you'll have to wander
the streets at night. This is dangerous because of the night watches.
Always pay the fine. This is the sequence from main street: find a secluded grove;
wait for darkness, wait another hour, exit by side street, go to market area.
Generally, at this point, you'll run across a band of thugs. They'll be
fairly easy to defeat and it will increase your local reputation slightly,
as well as improve your skills. Wander around a bit more and you'll meet
another group and so on. Should you run into the night watch, pay the fines
and return to the gasthaus whenever you feel you've had enough. If you
don't pay the fines, you'll have to flee or fight and in either case, you'll
be unable to return to that town. In the morning, seek out the weapons
makers and sell the night's catch.
*NOTE (AvL): The easiest way to run into robbers is cycling between the
*docks and the secluded grove at night. You'll normally 'meet' with robbers
*each time you change between one of these locations. At minimum, you'll get
*in contact every time you return to the grove.
*NOTE (DA): My rule of thumb here is not to travel far from the starting
*town until everyone in the party has a full set of at least leather armor,
*a weapon upgrade, and several javelins. In order to save money after a
*night's work dispatching the bad guys, I send my group ouside the city walls
*to rest and heal -- it's free. If the group is not fortunate to convince
*the guards to let them enter without paying, then they will try to sneak
*into the city. Either way, they will gain a modicum of speak common and
*sometimes stealth. In other words, never pay to enter unless you have to.
*Leaving the city is a different matter -- never sneak out because its
*decreases your local reputation.
Once you are lightly armored with a decent weapon and javelins, you can
start travelling between towns more safely and really start to gain skills,
money and experiences.
Use those javelins as the first line of offense against robbers. Their
use will increase everyone's throwing skills and will immediately weaken any
robber struck by one. Try to gang up one one robber if possible and go on
to the others (this is not always possible). The maximum number of battles
per night seems to be 5. If the group survives the night without much
"damage," then they are surely ready to leave town for some serious
adventuring.
The best way to get jobs is to visit the various interested parties in a
town: Fugger, Medici, Hanseatic League, town leader, leading merchant,
pawnshop owner. These will often have tasks to perform, three types in
general: dealing with raubritters, recovering stolen articles, recovering
lost articles. Each of these has a specific method of dealing with the
problem. The amount of money you will be offered won't appear to be much
but it's enough, if you keep your expenses down by travelling overland.
*NOTE (AvL): Success in getting jobs is only likely with the Fugger,
*the Medici and the Hanse in the beginning, which means it is uncertain.
*The merchants, the herbalist and the town leader will only offer you
*tasks, if your reputation is high enough. Note that town leaders and Dukes
*in a city's fortress won't pay for the job; success only increases your
*local reputation, which is achieved through other jobs too (but paid
*more accurately ;-) ). So you'd better leave the town halls and fortresses
*alone and check out the marketplaces.
Raubritters: in the easy setting, raubritters can usually be approached
in a friendly manner. Once at the table, you should request to stay
the night, then sneak out to try to catch the raubritter alone. More
often than not, this will work and you will be able to defeat him, being
four or five to his one. As this method will sometimes result in having
to fight your way through the castle, you should save before entering
into contact with the raubritter if you insist on the easy way.
*NOTE (AvL) The easy way has been described above. But, assuming your
*characters are strong enough (I'd say, having a weapon level above 65) and
*owning kinds of missile weapons, the most money-providing way is to lay
*siege up on the castle. This lets you engage up to four parties of bandits
*and the Raubritter and some companions eventually. Taking all their stuff
and selling it in town makes you much wealthier.
Recovering stolen articles: You will be asked to recover an item stolen by
a business rival in another town. You must travel to the town, seek out a
secluded grove, wait for nightfall, then another hour, and exit by a side
street. Go to the market area, sneak into the market building and find the
appropriate office. The game then lets you decide to use your character
most competent in artifice to unlock the door. If you feel this is possible
(a Hanse [see C5, below] will always have enough skill), you will likely
succeed. Otherwise, you will need to use alchemy and the noise means you
stand a good chance of alerting the night watch. Your escape from the town
will then be difficult and you will not ikely have the item. Return to this
town will be difficult to impossible as the watch will recognize you.
*NOTE (DA): Some of you may disagree, but I make it practice never to recover
*stolen items. The risk is too great, the rewards are too small, and the
*distances involved are sometimes great indeed.
Once the group has been given a raubritter to terminate, other towns in
the area may also give the group the same job. If the group is lucky, it
can pick up a good deal of money by checking around various towns for the
same raubritter job. I have always felt that the game had some intelligence
about when to first offer the group a raubritter to handle (at least on
standard and expert levels); that is, if the group is offered this type job,
then in principle, they are ready to do the deed if they are careful.
One easy way to get help is to keep pumping the Hansards for employment.
Eventually, one will offer to send a young knight with you for assistance
in dealing with a raubritter. If you accept, which you should, you can
perform a number of more difficult tasks with an extra pair of hands. Try
to keep these additions until you really need them. If you perform the task
as specified right away, the young Hanse will leave you when you next exit
the city of his employer, or if you're travelling by river, when you exit a
city next (which is to say that he will accompany you until you exit through
any city gates). Eventually the young Hanse will leave you, so try to
organize your tasks in order to take advantage of his presence right away.
This of course also makes it difficult to determine whether you should be
spending money to equip the knight or not, or to improve his skills. The
conservative approach would be to use his services and part with him. As
he is not a permanent member of your party, you need not worry that he will
take a share upon leaving. He NEVER offers to stay beyond his "appointed
time".
*NOTE (DA): In addition to the hanse offered for raubritter quests, the
*group may find in one of the small villages a Mayor who will consent to
*travel with the group in pursuit of an infamous raubritter. The hanse or
*town mayor who comes with the group on a raubritter quest will always stay
*one year. Make sure the group gets all the stuff he's carrying before
*saying adios.
*NOTE (CMB): I've also encountered once the leader of the miners who offers
*to join you in defeating the knockers. But I've never been able to repeat
*that.
Saints can assist you at various times: in dealing with problems during
travelling and also during combat. In the first instance, you can invoke
the assistance of a saint to modify the outcome of a potential encounter
BEFORE it happens, for example with refugees on the road. Prayer can reveal
to you whether there is a trap, giving you the option to avoid contact
altogether, should you not wish to involve yourself in combat.
AUDIENCES: S. Alcuin, S. Raymond Pf, S. Wolfgang, S. Wenceslaus
DEALING WITH DOMINICANS: S. Godfrey, S. John Nepl, S. Dominic
DEALING WITH HELLSPAWN: S. Anthony, S. Clare, S. Cyprian, S. Peter
DEALING WITH LORDS IN TOWERS: S. Gabriel, S. Hildegard, S. Isidore
ENTER CITY GATES: S. Lutgardis, S. Milburga
ENTERING CITY FM WATER: S. Finnian, S. Florian, S. Pantaleon, S. Raymond Pf
EXIT CITY GATES: S. Christina, S. Lutgardis, S. Milburga
GREAT MONASTERY (DESK): S. Adrian, S. Lutgardis, S. Milburga, S. Vitus
GREAT MONASTERY (FOUNTAIN): S. Boniface, S. Raphael, S. Gabriel, S. Gertrude Ni
GREAT MONASTERY (GRAVES): S. Catherine Si, S. Emydius, S. Gabriel, S.Raphael
GREAT MONASTERY (MAD MONK): S. Martin Tr, S. Godfrey, S. Paul Smpl, S. Herve
GREAT MONASTERY (PASSWORD): S. Paul Smpl, S. Eric, S. Gabriel, S. John Nepl
INVESTIGATE DEMONIC SITES: S. Aidan, S. Boniface, S. Emygdius, S. Hildegard
PIRATES: S. Genevieve, S. Godfrey, S. Julian
PRISON: S. Bathilde, S. Dismas, S. Peter, S. Reinold
REFUGEES ON ROADS: S. Roch, S. Sebastian, S. Lazarus
ROAD TOLLS FROM NOBLES: S. Alcuin, S. John Nepl
SNOWSTORM: S. Christopher, S. Drogo, S. Godehard, S. Wilfrid
TRAVELLING MERCHANTS: S. Catherine Si, S. Dorothy Mn, S. Herve, S. Martin Tr
UNDEAD: S. Boniface, S. Emydius, S. Raphael
VILLAGERS/SOL. WOMEN: S. Dorothy Mn, S. Heribert, S. Herve, S. Martin Tr
WILD HUNT: S. Eustace, S. Hubert, S. Gertrude N.
WOLVES/BOARS: S. Aidan, S. Hubert, S. Perpetua, S. Tarachus
*NOTE (DA): One way to enhance the chances of getting a job is to enhance the
*group's local reputation with a saint. My favorite is Cecilia, because
*praying to her will increase the local reputation in every city. Her only
*requirement is that the person praying must own a musical instrument.
This depends on your opponent. While town robbers and cutthroat-thieves
may be just wiped away like nothing without any particulary strategy, other
foes may take a great deal of tactical considerations. First rule is, only
hunt what you can kill. Be sure your characters can take care of themselves.
If necessary, "train" them by searching out robbers in town. It might be a
good idea to put your weaker characters in the first row or even let them
fight alone if facing such "training fights". At stronger enemies, even when
your party appears strong, you should use all your fighting skills. That
means using missile-, bow-, and alchemical-weapons at long-distance and
good weapons at melee. Use the full bandwith of your Alchemist. Let him
(her) throw potions at longer-distance and use healing potions on your
seriously wounded party-members.
The Thunderbolt potion is an excellent all-round alchemical piece (see
below), a Stone-Tar potion is of use when you are outnumbered by the enemies
and you need to slow down their approach. In buildings or dungeons (mines)
put your stronger characters in the first row. Enemies often show up after
opening a door. While two of your party (of course the strong ones) block
the doorway and engage the foe in meele, the rest of your party can shoot at
them with their missile weapons. I made a scene:
x
x x
---------------------|x x|-----------------
o o
o o o
x = Your party
o = Enemies
- = Wall
||= Door
With this technique, I managed the Great Monastery quite well, this
constellation occurs pretty often there. Another thing of which you should
take care, is the "I-haven't-been-harmed-so-I-won't-engage!" attitude of
your characters. This means, as long as a party-member hasn't been attacked,
he (she) won't attack either. This might not be useful, especially if you're
meeting a foe who comes alone, but is hard to fight for one character, like
the Wild Hunt or a demon. So make sure, all characters have been assigned to
a target.
First of all: Get your Alchemist the best training he or she can get.
Training is provided by alchemists in town and at universities. Next
thing: get formulas and ingredients. Alchemists in town will trade and
sometimes sell formulas. Getting ingredients can be a pain, some stuff
is rather rare. Be sure to buy a lot of a rare item if you once have
found it. You'll need a lot of all the kinds of bases. But Sanguine
Base and sometimes Choleric Base are not at hand. Very important are
Aqua Regia (for Thunderbolt potions) and Camomile (for Essence o'Grace),
both are darn hard to find. Find below a list of potions which are in
my opinion very useful:
Essence o' Grace: A must ! Assure yourself of having about 20 potions
at hand during normal travelling. For special tasks, you have to
figure out the number according your characters vunerability at that
special time. I took over 80 potions to the Great Monastry with me,
and even ran low !
Thunderbolt: Necessary as well. Needed as a Throwing Weapon in combat,
useful when cracking locks and to get "access" to a castle. All-round
potion.
Transformation: Very helpful. Turns an evil altar into white marble,
and can get a character out of the quicksand really properly. Needs
pure gold to be made.
Stone-Tar: Should be in the inventory of every good alchemist. Helps
you getting out of a pit, slows your enemies to provide you with
accurate time to deal with them.
Firewall: Of great use when dealing with dragons and evil alchemists.
Everything else is depending on one's preference. Arabian Fire and
Breath Of Death might be a good choice in combat, too.
Buy ready-made potions only if you haven't got the formula of that
potion. Purchased potions have a quality of 25q, while self-made have
35q-45q ! In case of Essence o' Grace, this can make a great
difference in restoring strength. A nice occasion of getting new
formulas is the witch in the forest. After defeating her, she offers
you three formulas for her life (among other options).
*NOTE (CMB): Many rare alchemical items can be obtained from pharmacists'
*stalls in market squares, universities, and untroubled mines. You also
*receive a large amount of alchemical material for defeating the knockers.
*Furthermore, there is a large amount of information on Alchemy in the file
*DARKLAND.TEX which can be linked to at the end of this file.
This is obviously of great concern. It is best solved by killing
enemies. Not only by a reward, but by the equipment you can gain and
sell. So if you are travelling and some bandits want to provide you
company, don't refuse :=) Even if you think you don't need anymore
fighting training. Otherwise, be sure to get yourself hired for jobs.
You should ignore the small jobs such as retrieving documents, for
they usually demand a long-distance travel and are paid lousy.
Raubritters are a cool way to make money (by reward and by loot) and
they enhance your local reputation by 20. On the other hand, if a
"retrieving-job" or something like that is not out of way, why shouldn't
you agree ?
4. Game considerations - Taking on tougher things (knockers, witches and the Wild Hunt)
--This section provided by AvL--
Knockers: Can become difficult. See '4D' for details.
Witches: Taking a witches High Sabbat is harder than you might think,
witches and their companions can provide quite a fight ! Make sure
your stealth and fighting skills are not too poor. Don't get engaged
in too many combats, for that might reveal your true intentions and
would make you banned. You should go to the feast first. There you say
you'll help preparing, but then you convince the people to abolish
such cruelties. Then go to the altar, perform a little sabotage and
get to a secluded spot to wait for the next day until the ceremony
begins. Invoke your sabotage and face the demon. The demon should be
easy dealt with, but thereafter there are coming two or three waves of
witches. And they are quite the kind you should better not fool around
with ! After the defeating the witches, you've won. Virtue will be
increased by one or two for every character of your party.
Wild Hunt: You can defeat him in battle rather easy, but he will show
up again, until you haven't found a saint that helps you. On your
travel you will meet the Holzfrau, she will tell you the saint. Of
course, it's one you won't find in every library.
Once your wealth improves, you can travel by water. This is costly
compared to travelling by land (usually 2/6 to 4 groschen), but will get you
places much faster (in terms of player time, if not "real" time). For
example, you can get from Speyer to Dresden or from Breslau to Flensburg by
town hopping. Sometimes, you are lucky and upon arriving at a town, you can
just continue on to a further destination. Sometimes you have to wait a few
days by taking on odd jobs (and checking the wharves every day for outgoing
ships).
Using your improving reputation to get jobs, instruction
--This section contributed by AvL--
Well, like I said before: some folk won't give you jobs, until your
popularity has grown. While it is easier to get jobs at the Fugger,
Medici and Hanse when you have high reputation, it's nearly impossible
to get jobs at town halls or fortresses without such (but I pointed
out previously that it might not be desirable anyway). Town leaders or
fortress chiefs won't give you an audience if you're too low on reputation.
Other merchants like the "everyday-items", the "foreign-trader" and
the herbalist will offer jobs, too, from time to time, if you're a
well-known party. Instructions for this are short: Do everything to
increase your reputation, preferably by going after raubritters, in
their castles, and knockers in mines. These encounters occur quite often
and improve your reputation by an appreciable amount.
*NOTE (DA): I don't think that it's mentioned anywhere that the Foreign
*Traders will, on occasion, offer much larger rewards than anyone else for
*a raubritter.
This is an essential piece of the whole game. There are three different
problems in mines. They can all be solved without too much effort and
include a reasonable quantity of increased training, money and
reputation. The opposition in the mines isn't too hard, but still
considerable.
i) Problem One: Trouble with raising the dead. Undead folks have taken
over the mine, and so the dwarves, who once co-existed in a friendly
manner with humans, have driven out the miners so as to have a new home.
Help the dwarves and kill the undead. You have to go through a couple of
levels, facing skeletons which are serious enemies, perhaps the
hardest of all three different tasks in the mines. You have to go deep
in the mine; first you will recover a holy relic, captured by the
undead people, then you're facing the gateway of the dead, which
they're using to get into this world. I managed that by locking the
gateway using the artifice skill of the party-member who's best at
this.
ii) Problem Two: Uprising Dwarven-King. There's a rebellious dwarven-
king and he has frightened away the miners. After meeting him, he offers
you a reward if you leave him alone. Don't agree and he will flee.
Follow his trail into the mine. He has a helmet that makes him
invisible. When facing him in his throne room, try to shoot the helmet
out of his hand. This could take several attempts and after every
failed one you have to fight the dwarven-king's guard, but keep
trying. There was that problem reported by russel@redash.qut.edu.au,
concerning the strange fact that after you've found the crown jewels
of the dwarf you can't go any deeper into the mines. Yet, I haven't
figured it out either; any hints are appreciated. Another thing is
that you merely 'find' the jewels but you can't take 'em with you.
*NOTE (CMB): The same thing will occur in tombs where you retrieve
*the ancient crown (or some other thing). If you take it, you will
*not escape the tomb with the crown. On the other hand, if you use
*a potion of Transformation, you can get the crown and avoid combat.
iii) Problem Three: War between Dwarves and Kobolds. A war
between Kobolds and Dwarves has forced out the miners. You are asked
by the Kobolds to aid them. You can either agree and fight the dwarves
or deny and fight the kobolds. Or you can even fight both parties.
However, you must defeat at least one of them to accomplish the
mission. To be, honest, I always choose the first option and
supported the Kobolds. This means a similar gameplay as problem two.
Going deep into the mines and finding the leader of the dwarves. Now
you have to meet him in battle and kill him.
Well, if you've read through the DARKLAND.CAP file, you've probably seen
my mail about this. I haven't got a clue about these beasts ! I mean,
as I mentioned in the mail, I merely ran into some dragons by accident
without any plan in particular. I'd be grateful about some knowledge of
tracking down dragons methodologically.
*NOTE (CMB): The only method I have is to narrow down the geographic
*area by checking rumours in various towns. If it says North, go to another
*town North of there and see where they suspect it is. If they say West,
*then change directions, until you vector in on the area (usually heavily
*wooded or hilly areas, free of habitation). Then you have to go in on
*foot and trudge through the area for a long time.
*NOTE (DA): If music is turned on and you are near a dragon's lair, you will
*hear subtle changes in the music. It gets very ominous! It's still hard to
*find dragons in the countryside.
This is almost a walk-through of a High Sabat. I am assuming that players
are in the right place at the right time. Otherwise the player encounters
nothing but burned trees, bad smells, etc.
The first choice to be made is whether or not to announce your presence to a
group of partygoers. The answer is yes -- seek an encounter. When the
second choice appears, prepare an ambush. Then attack the group and get
their clothes.
Enter the fair. Don the clothes to fool the wolves. Say that Klaus is
ill and couldn't come.
Take each of the activities in turn and try to disrupt them and/or try to
convince the people to mend their evil ways. Sometimes you convince them;
sometimes you don't.
Pay attention to names and places when the "Summoning" comes. Then wait
for the demon to be called and send him back to never-never land. That's
the easy part. The hard part is fighting two or three waves of hooded
klansmen and their alchemists. If you succeed, you can look forward to
increases in virtue for all party members.
Prepare your party for the toughest task they will have yet faced in this
game. They should be clothed in plate armor or the heaviest armor they can
handle without becoming overloaded. It should be high quality, preferably
37 from Nurnburg. The weapons used should be top notch -- 38 quality
battleaxes, greatswords, great hammers. Each member should carry some
combination of Essence of Grace, Eater Water, and New Wind potions. Firewall
and Hardarmor potions can be taken after entering the fortress to aid in
maintaining armor quality. Otherwise, your 37 armor will become 05 armor
or less when you're done. I have tried carrying extra armor, but it seems
to degrade, too. Stone Tar potions come in handy to keep the party from
falling into certain traps. Artifice skill should be as high as possible
in one member so that the relics present in the fortress can be regained.
Saints can be handy here as well in increasing artifice, armor rating, weapon
skills, etc.
At this point in the game, my group has relatively high average religion and
virtue, and each member has learned at least a few weapons, and that includes
the throwing skill. In summary, this task will probably not be possible until at
least a few years have passed. The earliest that I have cleaned out the
Templars is around 4 years with a group of 25 year-olds on the expert level.
My favorite strategy for group battles involves getting everyone into the
fray. I try to line up the party a short distance from a door leading to a
battle like so:
x x x x
------------| |----------
Then I will send one member to open the door while the others fire into the
guards on the other side. They use either potions like stone tar or arabian
fire or just javelins (love those javelins). I try to get the member who
opened the door back to the group as quickly as possible. I do not like one
or two members fighting alone, and this is the way I avoid that circumstance.
2. WALKTHROUGH (for your reference)
Assuming you have reached Flensburg after opening the seal at a High Sabat,
you will find a castle west of this city with a black roof (to distinguish
it from a conventional castle). Go to it and enter the Graveyard area.
The first room on YOUR right has a bone (for possible use in getting
additional information for defeating the great demon) and a high quality
Essence of Grace potion. The second room on your right has 2 high quality
New Wind potions.
After retrieving these items, go to the Graveyard on the left. Say aloud
one of the names (you should recall the correct name from a High Sabat).
A stairway leading down will open on the far left of the Graveyard.
The group will be in a large area with many doors leading to various Nasties.
I am going to speak of the nearest two doors on the right of the GROUP as the
more important ones. This path will negate the need for the bone.
If the group takes the first door on the lower right, it will find a stairway
leading up to another room with three doors. Have the group go to the room
on YOUR right. Approach the desk in this room. If your alchemist can handle
the reading skill, he will end up with three new formulae. If not, your best
reader will end up with the formulae. Of course you have to do the proper
thing. It is the most logical thing to do -- "copy the symbols onto the
silver paper using the silver ink." Leaving this room for the door in the
middle leads to nothing. Opening the door on your left leads to 4 guards and
an alchemist. Go ahead -- make their day!
Since you have exhausted the possibilities here, proceed to take the stairway
back down to the lower level. Now take the stairway up in the second room on
the lower right (after dispatching the guards). The group will be in an area
with only one door. When you approach this door, a Templar Guard will ask
you for the "Password." The easiest thing is to know the proper password.
If you're feeling particularly macho, attack the guard.
In either case, after you get by the guard, you will find yourself in a room
with a stairway up and a passage leading off to the lower left. If you want
to shorten your stay here in the fortress, take the stairway up to the next
level.
Now you will be in a passageway with a locked door in the lower center and
another stairway up on the left. Again, for a shorter route to the bad guy,
open the locked door (if you can't, pray to a saint to increase your best
lock picker's artifice skill or use one of those Eater Water potions that you
brought along-- otherwise, it's time to say bye-bye to the fort and increase
your artifice skill another way). Passing through the locked door will lead
to another passageway with another locked door. Unlocking this door will
force the party to proceed down and to the right. There will be a trap here.
If one of the party has really high Perception, you may even avoid it.
Otherwise, have a Stone Tar handy for escape (other potions work, too).
This path will eventually lead to a room with an up staircase.
Taking these stairs leads to a room with a treasure chest, 4 plate
armored guards, and a door. One of the party must have high (>50)
artifice skill to pick the lock on the chest and retrieve a relic. The best
saint for the purpose of increasing artifice skill is Eligius (assuming the
member who knows this saint has at least 29 virtue).
When the party is finished in this room, open the door to the next room.
Therein lies another chest, six tough guards, and another door. This chest
also has a relic if you can pick the lock.
When the party has finished here, open the door to the next room and find a
third chest and some even tougher guards. The door in this room must be
unlocked. When the party passes through this door, there is nothing in the
new room except a couple of gaping holes on the far wall.
Take the party near the far wall to reveal the final room. Here you will
encounter the "Great Demonic Form." You may have gotten some hints earlier
about how to weaken the demon if you did some additional exploring. The
saint, Dymphna, will try to weaken the demon also if you know her.
Finally, make sure you make a note or remember where your "ultimate fate
lies."
*NOTE (AvL): This is the hardest task in the whole game! Prepare yourself
*for extremely hard and long fights. Have a lot of Healing potions in your
*bag. Enter the monastery with five party members only. The fifth member
*sometimes stays over a year with you, so invest in his education and
*equipment also. You'll learn about the Monastery's location at the witches'
*sabbath. At the monastery you have to face a lot of Templars which are rather
*hard-to-deal-with foes. You may sweep through all the rooms, but keeping it
*down to a minimum works as well. It's no problem to leave out the cellar for
*example, but if you go there, be sure to take the bone with you, which can be
*found in one of the guard-houses at the entrance of the monastery. Give the
*bone to the skeleton and it will tell you a weak point of the demon-lord
*which you'll face in the upper-level of the monastery. I'm not sure if this
*weak spot is necessary to defeat the demon, however (it's a Fleadust potion).
*NOTE (CMB): This is the shortest route through the Monastery: Enter the
*cemetery and speak the name that opens the gate. Go through into the
*building and go to the second door on the right (bottom). Fight six
*Templars, go up the stairs, go to the door, give the password (Beelzebub
*forever), then go to the opening on the left. Take the first door, down
*the stairs, straight up, right, left, down the stairs, left, then right
*(down) to get the book which reveals the location of the Citadel of Baphomet.
*Back up both flights to the large room, right, right, up the stairs. Turn
*left, then right down to a small red door. Pick the lock, move to the other
*door, pick the lock, move to the other door, then down. You will encounter
*a trap here. Successful call to S.Lutgardis will make you float through the
*air, avoiding the drop to the bottommost dungeon. Move on through to the
*stairs, go up, fight the knights, get the holy relic from the chest, open the
*door, fight the zealots, get the holy relic from the chest, open the door,
*fight the enemies (can't remember what they are), get the holy relic from the
*chest, open the door, move through the antechamber, fight the Demon Lord.
*End of the Great Monastery.
Your ultimate fate lies here in a black-topped castle near Salzburg (this
location may vary; has anyone ever found Bapho somewhere else?).
*NOTE (CMB): These are the locations I've been given for the Great Monastery and the
*Citadel of the Apocalypse:
*
*Northwest of Flensburg leads to South of Salzburg
*South of Gorlitz leads to South of Pressburg
*Northeast of Graz leads to (don't recall, could be South of Salzburg)
Then, I believe it returns to the first combination.
You will not be able to enter unless you have closed down the Fortress
Monastery and broken the second seal. Of course, the party must have
excellent skills, weapons, armor, and varied potions such as Firewall,
Essence o' Grace, New Wind, Iron Arm, Thunderbolt, and Sunburst potions.
Hm-m. I wonder what those sunburst potions are for? The first area of
the castle has some giant gnomes that are easy prey.
The first door on the left leads to the first gate where you must pass
through fire and ice to do battle with some demons. I like Firewall potions
for defense against the elements. Take the group near to the interesting
area on the far side of the area for a surprise.
The second gate leads to a lake of fire. St. Cecilia is the only known way
to pass unscathed. Use of a Firewall potion will help, but is not as good
as Cecilia. Fighting Vulcans is nasty business. They use missile weapons
to decrease your armor quality. Close in for battle as fast as possible and
use firewall potions to protect yourselves. Take the party to the shipwreck
for some very interesting information.
The third gate leads to a bunch of wild-eyed alchemists. Spread the party
so that each member is fighting a different alchemist. Otherwise you will
get pounded with their potions. Hopefully your leader is highly perceptive,
because now you must run a gauntlet of traps to get the honey prize.
The fourth gate is rather easy and you must merely defeat various groups of
skeletons to reach your goal.
The fifth gate leads to hordes of locusts. There are many high quality
Essence o' Grace potions here if you want to defeat the locusts in each
room. You will eventually reach one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse,
Famine. You must offer something over which he has no power. Pray if you
need to.
The sixth gate leads to a hopeless battle with goblins. Either one of your
party will suffer permanent damage or all of the party members will suffer
some permanent damage. In essence, you will pay a dear price for the prize
here, a little goblin sword.
The seventh gate leads to the Great Dragon. The dragon is immune to many
battle potions. (I don't know whether we want to divulge the secret here,
but Sunburst potions will keep the dragon from launching an all out attack
as long as one member keeps firing them at the dragon while the others do
battle either directly or with Thunderbolt potions).
Once you bring down the dragon, you will have to face Baphomet himself.
Answer his proposal as the legendary heros that you are and then watch and
listen to the final animation.
*NOTE (AvL) Once you're ready to take on Baphomet's Residence, you should
*be well-equipped and well-trained enough to manage this without any trouble.
*Staying tuned for healing potions, however, won't be a bad idea. Check
*through all the rooms, starting at the most left door in the entrance hall.
*Be sure to finish off all the rooms, you'll get a special item at each end.
*When encountering the Great Dragon, use missile weapons. Alchemical potions
*are helpful only for defensive purposes (Firewall and Essence o'Grace).
If one character grows too old, get rid of him. Just be aware of the
situation. If preparing yourself for a greater mission, it might not a good
idea to drop a character which is rich in experience and skill, just lacking
strength and endurance. New characters have to be trained all over again to
reach such a skill and experience. However, a character above the age of 40
should be designated for retirement.
RETIREMENT (from Microprose, quoted from the README.TXT with v7)
Characters can temporarily retire at any city inn. You can later
return and invite them to rejoin the party once more. However, when
anyone joins an existing party, be they an old friend or someone
new, they come with NO equipment, just their knowledge. Therefore,
before retiring someone, cache their equipment at that inn.
There is no specific screen for retiring the entire party. To retire,
just save the game and erase all earlier saved games for that party.
You can take them "out of retirement" at any time by loading that
saved game.
Continuing after you've completed the objectives of the game.
--This section contributed by AvL--
Of course, it's possible to keep on playing DARKLANDS after you've
accomplished all major and minor tasks, just as it is mentioned in readme.txt
of the DARKLANDS game. Perhaps you'll simply get tired of doing everything
all over again, and your characters have suffered too much because of age.
So one might prefer start a completely new game and try out some completely new
strategy rather than going on in the same way (regardless of the fact that
you could create new characters within the running game, retire all the old
ones and keep playing with a new party (but old fame) and try new things by
this as well).
Rare items and places in DARKLANDS (Holy relics, Devil's Bridge, etc.)
--This section provided by CMB--
a. Holy Relics
These are found in evil monasteries, locked in chests.
Once in the hands of the group, they are freed and can be returned to a
cathedral (not just any church) in a city. The return of these holy relics
does not appear to confer any direct benefits on your group in the way of
improving individual characteristics, but each donation transfers 30 points
or so to improve your local reputation. It would appear that a donation of
more than one relic per day does not, however, grant more increases. If a
player has more than one relic, he should spread the donations over a few
days, or a few cities.
Some holy relics can be used by the group, others cannot. All those with
99Q are not useable or saleable, and all weapons (with less than 99Q) can
be equipped and used as regular weapons. Other than their obvious quality,
useable holy relics may or may not have other beneficial properties.
Certainly, no items of such quality can be purchased anywhere.
Useable
S.Arnulf's Greatsword (55Q)
S.Olaf's Battleaxe (55Q)
S.George Greatsword (60Q)
S.Dunstan Hammer (65Q)
Spar [Club] of Erasmus (50Q)
Spear of Longinus (65Q)
Staff of S.Patrick (60Q)
S.Hubert's Bow (55Q)
Unuseable (99Q)
Thorn of the Crown
S.Mary's Tears
S.Catherine Pain
S.Edward's Ring
S.Emydius Finger
S.Gabriel's Horn
S.Ita's Needle
S.Kessog Medallion
S.Odo's Testament
S.Odilia's Oil
S.Raphael's Water
S.Swithbert's Foot
S.Willehad's Shoe
S.Thealeaus' Spoon
*NOTE (AvL): Donating relics not only improves your local reputation, it
*increases your virtue level as well. Furthermore, relics can be used to
*cleanse an evil place, the diabolic altar in a satanic village, for
*instance.
b. The Devil's Bridge, the Good Witch
--This section provided by CMB--
The Devil's Bridge can be found before entering the village of South Nurn.
'Nuff said.
The good witch can be found in a tower SW of Magdeburg. She will evaluate
your level of training to determine whether you are capable of taking on the
evil that lurks in the darklands. You can return to this place for a quick
appraisal.
c. Clothing Manufacturers in cities
--This section provided by CMB--
As was pointed out by Chris Meadows [robotech@eyrie.stanford.edu
(Robotech_Master)], clothiers will never sell you anything during the day, but if you
go back at night...
In Universities, you can combine most of the functions of some of the
other learning institutions, the Kloster and the Alchemist. The University
will allow you to learn about saints or purchase alchemical material (the
physician also), and to upgrade your Philosopher's Stone. Furthermore, you
can hire the services of a professor to teach the following subjects: Alchemy,
Religion, Speak Latin, Read and Write and Healing. The first can also be
obtained from an Alchemist, the middle three from a Kloster and the last from
a Physician. Note that cities not listed here have neither a Cathedral nor a
University.
Grappling Hook, Rope
A rope is of use for leaving a town by the city wall, entering a
cave on top of a mountain, getting yourself out of the pit in the mines and
dragging a companion out of the quicksand when travelling through a bog. I
believe a grappling hook supports most of these purposes as well. However,
all occasions for using a rope include different options which will
serve the special purpose more accurately. Leaving the pit with the help of
a Stone-Tar potion is guaranteed success better than anything else, leaving the
town by a sewer rather than climbing up the wall using a rope, and getting
your comrade out of the mud is properly done with a Transformation potion. (NOTE AvL)
Harp, Flute
To be used in combination with prayers to St.Cecilia, Patron
Saint of music, who, among other thing "enhances local reputation greatly if
the person has a musical instrument". (NOTE CMB)
Superb Horse, Fast Horse, Average Horse, Pack Horse, Mule
Superb horses increase the travel speed of the party. The best
indicator for this is the night/day icon in the upper right corner of the
display: it really slows down when the group has superb horses. It will
speed up again in mountainous and forested areas or anywhere the going gets
tough. I have never found whether the party needs only one superb horse or
whether everyone needs one -- anyone know? I am not sure, but I think that
the best places to seek out superb horses are in villages (that's where I
usually find them) or monasteries. (NOTE DA)
With horses, you have the option to make an attempt to outrun
boars, wolves and the Wild Hunt. Yet, I haven't figured out (or just can't
remember) if this works if only one of your party members owns a horse.
Nor did I find out if a fast or a superb horse increases your chance of
success proportionally. But I guess your riding skill will affect this as
well. Also, when meeting pilgrims, sick people or displaced villagers, you
can offer your mules to them for easing their travellings, which increases
your virtue. What I can say, is that horses and so on are significant only
if your purse grows too heavy }-) I haven't noticed a better traveling speed
or anything like that. (NOTE AvL)
Furthermore, horses appear in towns. They don't seem to affect
the price of your lodgings, but they are mentioned if you go to the port at
night, as part of an attempt to escape from a city. (NOTE CMB)
The following is quoted from Microprose, README.TXT distributed with patch 483.07
*CHARACTERS LEAVING BATTLE by STAIRS or LADDERS
*
*If a character uses a ladder or stairway (a "portal") to change
*floors, remember that the character is now inaccessible except
*through the appropriate number key (1 through 5) on the keyboard.
*Please review pages 35-36 of the manual if you're confused.
*
*Also note that "Multiple Portals" is more flexible than the manual
*suggests. If all survivors have left the original floor in different
*directions, the view shifts to the character who departed last.
*However, we still recommend that you rejoin the party immediately,
*since various functions (including group mode) may be confused
*by a party split onto various floors.
*UNCERTAIN FATES & PRISONERS
*
*Sometimes a character will suffer an uncertain fate. A series of
*"?" symbols appear in the blue character box. Such characters may be
*dead, may be a prisoner in a nearby city, or may have escaped their
*fate and be waiting for you at some nearby city inn.
*
*To rescue a prisoner, you must get into the dungeons of the city
*hall. If forced into a fight, you must kill ALL the guards.
*Accomplishing this will free your compatriot.
--This part of the section provided by DA--
1. Do you want to beat that bothersome knight who keeps challenging you to a
joust or ride? Pray to Christoph (31) or George (23), defeat the knight, and
increase your reputation.
2. The person using a rope to climb up something should remove all armor and
weapons before climbing.
3. If the party is fighting just one strong enemy (raubritter, demon, etc.)
he will fight with only one of your party. That means the other three may
do battle using their berserk mode thus making short work of the enemy.
4. Once the party has some experience and skill, they may gain money at an
accelerated pace by scouring the countryside for castles with evil rulers.
Using Roch and Reinold or other saintly combinations, the party can discern
whether or not the ruler is a good man or an evil man and then sneak into
the castle if he is evil. There are usually bountiful goodies inside.
5. A note on the Wild Hunt. I think someone mentioned some specific saints
who would stop the Wild Hunt. In my experience, the saint needed to end the
hunt is never the same from one game to the next.
*NOTE (CMB): The saint even changes within a single game, once you have
*defeated the hunt with one saint. The hunt will continue to attack you,
*and the Holzfrau will tell you the name of another saint. I presume it is the
*name of a saint you do not know at the time.
6. Sometimes I think I am repeating myself. Has anyone mentioned that when
a character retires, he or she takes 1/5 of the group's wealth?
7. Here is what I know of the dwarf king mine question that Alex posed. On
the second level down there are two ladders downward; one leads to the
dwarf's treasure and the other leads to the dwarf himself. Take the
treasure level first which consists of a couple more levels down before you
reach the treasure. This path leads to the area where the gnomes keep
multiplying as fast as you can kill them. The best thing to do is to run
from them and escape to the next level down. This takes some dexterity and
maneuvering since each member of the party must move as an individual. When
you have retrieved the dwarf's treasure, return to the second level down
from the surface and take the other ladder down to find the dwarf. The
obvious thing to do when you meet him is to trade his treasure for returning
the mine to the miners.
1. Characters have no real limit on how much they can carry, even though
weight for each object is given.
2. There is never a shortage of any particular good for sale. No matter
where you go, you can always buy any number of a particular item for sale.
Considering that Germany was not yet the rich nation it later became, it
seems unlikely there would be an unending number of all items for sale at
any given time.
3. There is no difference in size for various characters (Gretch can wear
Gunther's armour, an unlikely occurence in real life).
4. There is no need to eat or sleep while on the road. Normally, I would
say this has been abstracted for the sake of simplicity, but for a game that
actually requires you to decide what your characters do every hour of every
day, you would think eating and sleeping might be requirements, rather than
simply optional. Also, travelling is continuous, with no stops at night,
unless you desire to do so. Your characters will cross Germany from end to
end without stopping to rest or eat.
5. Travelling further by water does not cost more. Assuming it costs 3
groschen to go from Vordingbord to Naskskov, and it costs 3 groschen to go
from Naskskov to Flensburg, it doesn't cost more than one fare to go from
Vordingbord to Naskskov and continue on to Flensburg and even further, all
the way to Thorn, if the opportunity arises.
6. Germans are extremely honest people; nothing you carry with you is ever
stolen without your knowledge, or being able to fight to keep it.
7. You are never caught unaware, with your pants down and your weapons
unready, unless the player has chosen to unequip his characters ahead of
time.
8. No one ever bolts from combat, everyone fights to the death, unless the
player chooses otherwise. Non-player characters die with their boots (or
hooves) on.
9. A player character who has not been attacked will not involve itself in
the defense of others, but a non-player character will.
10. Characters on the point of death can still strike with full force.
11. Armour and weapons never degrade as a result of regular combat. Only
alchemical weapons cause armour to degrade.
12. Characters can pass things to one another, even though they're rooms
apart.
13. The Archbishop of Trier has two capitals, Trier and Koblenz.
List of the First 40+ significant jobs in one game
--This section contributed by CMB--
This is the list of the first 40 jobs of a particular game. This is not
intended to suggest that the events will take this course, but only as a
guide to the types of jobs one can expect. This also does not include
random events, such as wilderness or town encounters.
No. 1
Patron : Fugger, Frankfurt M
Task: Raubritter Raban of Bar, W of Speyer, SW of Frankfurt M
No. 2
Patron: Fugger, Frankfurt M
Task: Raubritter Endres Holtzel, NE of Bamberg, E of Frankfurt M
No. 3
Patron: Medici, Frankfurt M
Task: Raubritter Raban of Bar, W of Speyer, SW of Frankfurt M
No. 4
Patron: Hansard, Frankfurt M
Task: Medici in Freiberg, letters
No. 5
Patron: Medici, Frankfurt M
Task: Raubritter Konrad of Thurgau, NE of Koln, NW of Frankfurt M
No. 6
Patron: Fugger, Frankfurt M
Task: Fugger in Groningen, letters
Event: Witches' gathering, S of Goslar, 22SEP
Event: Knockers, Mines near Aachen
No. 7
Patron: Fugger, Dresden
Task: Tarnhelm of Siegfried, SE of Worms
No. 8
Patron: Hansard, Dresden
Task: Raubritter Ulderich Linck, N of Freiberg, W of Dresden
No. 9
Patron: Medici, Dresden
Task: Scroll of Walram, N of Fulda
No. 10
Patron: Medici, Fulda
Task: Raubritter Endres Holtzel, NE of Bamber, SE of Fulda
No. 11
Patron: Hansard, Leipzig
Task: Medici in Linz, letters
No. 12
Patron: Hansard, Goslar
Task: Silver mace of Friedrich Barbarossa, Shrine N of Trier
No. 13
Patron: Fugger, Koblenz
Task: Medici in Burglitz, document
No. 14
Patrons: Medici and Hansard, Kuttenberg
Task: Raubritter Eike of Lenzburg, W of Olmutz, E of Kuttenberg
No. 15
Patron: Archbishop, Koblenz
Task: Raubritter Konrad of Thurgau, NE of Koln, N of Koblenz
No. 16
Patron: Fugger, Koblenz
Task: Goods merchant in Groningen, document
No. 17
Patron: Alte Herr, Koln
Task: Raubritter Kaspar Linck, NE of Aachen, W of Koln
No. 18
Patron: Fugger, Koln
Task: Fugger in Freiberg-im-B, document
No. 19
Task: Raubritter Diepold of Bar, NW of Xanten, N of Koln
No. 20
Patron: Fugger, Koln
Task: Tarnhelm of Siegfried, S of Leipzig
No. 21
Patron: Fugger, Frankfurt M
Task: noble relic (crown), W of Salzburg
No. 22
Patron: Merchant, Salzburg
Task: Raubritter Boto of Nunnenbeck, N of Salzburg
No. 23
Patron: Bishop, Salzburg
Task: Raubritter Leopold Osiander, N of Passau, N of Salzburg
No. 24
Patrons: Fugger and Medici, Augsburg
Task: Raubritter Thom of Thurgau, NW of Ulm, W of Augsburg
No. 25
Patron: Hansard, Augsburg
Task: Fugger in Leipzig, document
No. 26
Patron: Medici, Augsburg
Task: Tarnhelm of Siegfried, N of Speyer
Event: Knockers, Mines near Kuttenberg
No. 27
Patron: Fugger, Heidelberg
Task: Raubritter Raban of Bar, W of Speyer, W of Heidelberg
Event: Witches' gathering, S of Freiberg B, 22SEP
Event: Discover location of Great Monastery
No. 28
Patron: Hansard, Freiberg B
Task: Raubritter Raban of Bar, W of Speyer, N of Freiberg B
Event: Witches' gathering, E of Strasburg, 13APR
Event: Witches' gathering, NW of Groningen, 22SEP
No. 29
Patron: Medici, Groningen
Task: Raubritter Lienhard of Berlichingen, E of Paderborn, SE of Groningen
No. 30
Patron: Fugger, Worms
Task: Raubritter Thom of Thurgau, NW of Ulm, SE of Worms
Event: Invoke St. Crispin to save team from Wild Hunt
Event: Witches' gathering, N of Breslau, 11JUN
Event: Witches' gathering, SW of Teschen, 31OCT
No. 31
Patron: Hansard, Teschen
Task: N of Burglitz, Prayer Book
No. 32
Patron: Fugger, Teschen
Task: N of Frankfurt O, Crown
No. 33
Patron: Hansard, Dresden
Task: Raubritter Udalrich Linck, N of Freiberg, W of Dresden
Event: Knockers, Mines near Speyer
No. 34
Patron: Alte Herren, Hamburg
Task: Raubritter Joachim Hochstetter, NE of Luneberg, E of Hamburg
No. 35
Patrons: Fugger and Medici, Hamburg
Task: Raubritter Lienhard of Berlichingen, E of Paderborn, S of Hamburg
No. 36
Patron: Teutonic Knights, Marienburg
Task: Raubritter Rupert Sch uffelin, W of Danzig, W of Marienburg
No. 37
Patron: Fugger, Marienburg
Task: Medici in Stettin, document
No. 38
Patron: Hansard, Marienburg
Task: Medici in Dresden, document
Event: Witches' gathering, SE of Gorlitz, 25MAY
No. 39
Patrons: Fugger and Medici, Prenzlau
Task: Raubritter Bernard Waas, NW of Prenzlau
No. 40
Patron: Hansard in Prenzlau
Task: Fugger in Thorn, document
(umlauts and other accents were not included, verify game for spelling,
modern names, where applicable, given in square brackets)
CITIES OF THE DANUBE
Pressburg [Bratislava] (Moderate Size)
Gateway to Hungary
Ruled by the Erbvogt for the King of Hungary
Docks: Olmutz, Brunn, Wien, Graz
Wien [Vienna - written as "Wein" in the manual] (Moderate Size)
Austrian capital on the Danube, Free City
Losunger handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Linz, Steyr, Pressburg
Graz (Moderate Size)
Styrian city on the Mur, gateway to the Balkans
Capital of the Duke of Styria
Docks: Pressburg
Brunn [Brno](Small Size)
Gateway to the Danube
Ruled by the Obervogt for the Margrave of Mahren
Docks: Olmutz, Pressburg
Olmutz [Olomoue] (Small Size)
Bohemian city on the Upper March, known for its bowyers
Capital of the Margrave of Mahren
Docks: Brunn, Pressburg
Steyr (Small Size)
Austrian trading city, famous for its swordsmiths
Ruled by the Landhofmeister for the Duke of Styria
Docks: Linz, Wien
Linz (Small Size)
Modest trading city on the Middle Danube
Ruled by the Richter for the Duke of Styria
Docks: Passau, Steyr, Wien
Passau (Moderate Size)
City between the Danube and the Inn
Capital of the Prince-Bishop of Passau
Docks: Regensburg, Munchen, Salzburg, Linz
Salzburg (Moderate Size)
Gateway to the Alps, famous for its armourers
Capital of the Archbishop of Salzburg
Docks: Passau, Kufstein
Kufstein (Small Size)
Surrounded by important alpine mines
Ruled by the Obervogt for the Duke of Tyrol
Docks: Passau, Salzburg
Munchen [Munich] (Moderate Size)
Capital of the Duke of Bavaria
Docks: Regensburg, Passau
Regensburg (Moderate Size)
Imperial Free City
Schultheiss handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Passau, Munchen, Augsburg, Ulm
Augsburg (Moderate Size)
Rich Imperial Free City, home of the Fugger Bank
Frager handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Ulm, Regensburg
Ulm (Large Size)
Large trading city on the Upper Danube, gateway to the Alps
Altere Herren handle affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Regensburg, Augsburg
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF THE UPPER DANUBIAN BASIN
Teschen (Small Size)
Famous importer of superlative bows
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Prince of Teschen
Docks: none
CITIES OF THE NECKAR
Rottweil (Small Size)
Free City, at the beginning of the Neckar
Burgermeister handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Stuttgart
Stuttgart (Moderate Size)
Centre of the Duchy of Wurttemberg, famous for its armourers
Capital of the lands ruled by the Duke of Wurttemberg
Docks: Rottweil, Heidelberg
Heidelberg (Moderate Size)
Largest city of Rhine Palatinate, famous for its University
Capital of all lands ruled by the Count Palatine
Docks: Worms, Speyer, Stuttgart
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF THE UPPER DANUBE/RHINE AREA
Hall (Small Size)
Free City
Alte Herr handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: none
Nordlingen (Moderate Size)
Imperial Free City, known for gunsmiths
Schoff handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: none
Freiburg B (Moderate Size) [mispelled on map and in game]
City of Black Forest, famous for swordsmiths
Capital of the lands ruled by the Count of Freiburg
Docks: none
CITIES OF THE MAIN
Nurnberg (Large Size)
Imperial Free City, finest metalworkers in the Empire
Schultheiss handles affairs for the Rat of Reichstadte
Docks: Bamberg
Bamberg (Moderate Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Bishop of Bamberg
Docks: Nurnberg, Wurzburg
Wurzburg (Moderate Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Prince-Bishop of Wurzburg
Docks: Bamberg, Frankfurt M
Frankfurt M (Moderate Size)
Imperial Free City of Main River
Schultheiss handles affairs for the Rat of Reichstadte
Docks: Wurzburg, Mainz
CITIES OF THE UPPER RHINE
Konstanz [Constance] (Small Size)
Free Imperial City on the Bodensee
Schultheiss handles affairs for the Rat of Reichstadte
Docks: Zurich, Basel
Zurich (Moderate Size)
Leading Swiss city, famous for crossbows and guns
Oberste Hauptmann handles affairs for the Swiss Confederation
Docks: Konstanz, Basel
Basel (Moderate Size)
Free City, trade nexus of the Upper Rhine
Alte Losunger handles affairs for the Rat of Reichstadte
Docks: Strassburg, Zurich, Konstanz
Strassburg (Large Size)
Ancient Roman City between the Ill and the Rhine
Ruled by the Erbvogt for the Duke of Burgundy
Docks: Speyer, Basel
Speyer (Moderate Size)
Independent bishopric in the Middle Rhine
Capital of all lands ruled by the Bishop of Speyer
Docks: Worms, Heidelberg, Strassburg
Worms (Moderate Size)
Imperial Free City, famous for fine craftsmen and great churches
Burgermeister handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Mainz, Heidelberg, Speyer
Mainz (Moderate Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Archbishop of Mainz
Docks: Koblenz, Frankfurt M, Worms
Koblenz (Small Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Archbishop of Trier
Docks: Koln, Trier, Mainz
CITIES OF THE MOSEL
Trier (Moderate Size)
Large wealthy city on the Mosel, with Roman ruins
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Archbishop of Trier
Docks: Koblenz, Nancy
Nancy (Moderate Size)
Burgundian city with large armour and gunmaking industries
Ruled by Landhofmeister for the Duke of Burgundy
Docks: Trier
CITIES OF THE MIDDLE RHINE
Koln [Cologne] (Large Size)
Largest city in the Empire, centre of trade, Free City
Alte Herr handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Duisberg, Koblenz
Duisberg (Moderate Size)
Growing metalworking centre at the junction of the Rhine-Ruhr
Ruled by the Obervogt for the Count of Cleve
Docks: Wesel, Xanten, Koln
Wesel (Moderate Size)
Modest city at the junction of the Rhine and the Lippe
Ruled by the Landhofmeister for the Count of Cleve
Docks: Xanten, Duisberg, Paderborn, Nymwegen
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF THE MIDDLE RHINE
Luxemburg [Luxembourg] (Moderate Size)
Wealthy traditional home of the House of Luxemburg
Ruled by the Vogt for the Duke of Luxemburg
Docks: none
Aachen (Moderate Size)
Ancient capital of Charlemagne, rich in craftsmanship, Free City
Schoff handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: none
Kempen (Small Size)
Modest city alternately claimed by Dutch and German lords
Ruled by Landhofmeister for the Archbishop of Koln
Docks: none
CITIES OF THE LIPPE
Paderborn (Small Size)
Modest city famous for its swordsmiths
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Bishop of Paderborn
Docks: Wesel
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF THE LIPPE
Dortmund (Small Size)
Imperial Free City, famous for its gunsmiths
Altere Herren handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: none
Soest (Small Size)
Westphalian city, famous for its armourers, Free City
Frager handles affairs for the Duke of Westphalia
Docks: none
CITIES OF THE LOWER RHINE
Xanten (Moderate Size)
River port on the Lower Rhine, Free City
Alte Losunger handles affairs for the Archbishop of Xanten
Docks: Nymwegen, Wesel, Duisberg
Nymwegen [Nijmegen] (Small Size)
Famous Dutch city of artisans, Free City
Losunger handles affairs for the Duke of Guelders
Docks: Deventer, Xanten
Deventer (Small Size)
Wealthy Dutch trading city and clothmaking centre
Ruled by the Erbvogt for the Bishop of Utrecht
Docks: Zwolle, Nymwegen, Xanten
Zwolle (Small Size)
Dutch trading city on the Ijsselmeer (Zuider Zee)
Ruled by the Vogt for the Bishop of Utrecht
Docks: Deventer, Elberg, Leer
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF UTRECHT
Munster (Moderate Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Prince-Bishop of Munster
Docks: none
Osnabruck (Moderate Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Bishop of Osnabruck
Docks: none
CITIES ALONG THE COAST OF THE NORTH SEA
Elburg (Moderate Size)
Dutch seaport in Guelders that imports English cloth and bows
Ruled by the Erbvogt for the Duke of Guelders
Docks: Zwolle
Groningen (Small Size)
Small North Sea port controlled by Dutch nobles
Ruled by Vogt for King of Danemark
Docks: no destinations (accessible only overland from Zwolle and Leer)
Leer (Small Size)
Friesian port town that imports missile weapons, Free City
Alte Losunger handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Bremen, Zwolle
Bremen (Moderate Size)
North Sea port, famous entry point for swords
Ruled by the Vogt for the Archbishop of Bremen
Docks: Hannover, Braunschweig, Kassel, Hamburg
Hamburg (Large Size)
Imperial Free City, known for its English imports
Altere Herren handle affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Luneberg, Brandenberg, Magdeburg, Bremen
CITIES OF THE WESER
Kassel (Moderate Size)
Business centre for Landgrave of Hesse
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Landgrave of Hesse
Docks: Bremen, Fulda
Fulda (Small Size)
Modest but strategic city
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Prince-Abbot of Fulda
Docks: Kassel
CITIES OF THE ALLER
Hannover (Moderate Size)
River port in Duchy of Brunswick
Ruled by the Burggraf for the Duke of Brunswick
Docks: Bremen, Brunswick
Braunschweig [Brunswick] (Moderate Size)
Ducal residence of the Brunswick family
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Duke of Brunswick
Docks: Bremen, Goslar, Hannover
Goslar (Small Size)
Modest city on the northern flanks of the Harz Mountains, Free City
Altere Herren handle affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Braunschweig
CITIES OF THE ELBE
Luneberg (Moderate Size)
Free City
Frager handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: Hamburg
Brandenburg (Small Size)
Modest capital of Brandenburg, also known as Prussia
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Margrave of Brandenburg
Docks: Berlin, Hamburg, Magdeburg
Berlin (Small Size)
New and growing city in the Prussian heartland
Ruled by the Burggraf for the Margrave of Brandenburg
Docks: Furstenberg, Brandenburg
Furstenberg (Small Size)
Modest city near the border of Prissia and Mecklenburg
Ruled by the Landhofmeister for the Margrave of Brandenburg
Docks: Berlin
Magdeburg (Moderate Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Archbishop of Magdeburg
Docks: Hamburg, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Freiberg
Wittenberg (Moderate Size)
One of the capitals of Saxony
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Margrave of Meissen
Docks: Magdeburg, Leipzig, Freiberg, Dresden
Leipzig (Moderate Size)
Great trading crossroads of North East Europe, Free City
Burgermeister handles affairs for the Margrave of Meissen
Docks: Magdeburg, Wittenberg
Dresden (Moderate Size)
Great Saxon city, famous for armourers, gunsmiths and artisans
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Margrave of Meissen
Docks: Wittenberg, St.Joachimsthal, Prag, Kuttenberg
Freiberg (Moderate Size)
Saxon town, famous for its silver mines
Ruled by the Vogt for the Margrave of Meissen
Docks: Magdeburg, Wittenberg
St. Joachimsthal (Small Size)
Town in the Bohemian highlands, surrounded by mines
Ruled by the Obervogt for the King of Bohemia
Docks: Dresden, Kuttenberg, Prag
Burglitz (Small Size)
Ruled by the Burggraf for the King of Bohemia
Docks: Prag
Prag [Prague] (Moderate Size)
Central and greatest city of the Kingdom of Bohemia
Capital of all the lands ruled by the King of Bohemia
Docks: Burglitz, Kuttenberg, St.Joachimsthal, Dresden
Kuttenberg [Kutna Gora] (Small Size)
City amidst the great mining centre of the Empire
Ruled by the Landhofmeister for the King of Bohemia
Docks: Dresden, Prag
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF THE MIDDLE ELBE
Erfurt (Moderate Size)
Imperial Free City, of modest armament and great craftsmen
Schoff handles affairs for the Rat of the Reichstadte
Docks: none
CITIES ALONG THE COAST OF THE BALTIC
Vordingbord (Small Size)
Small Danish trade and fishing port
Ruled by the Obervogt for the King of Danemark
Docks: Naskskov
Naskskov (Small Size)
Tiny Danish trade and fishing port
Ruled by the Burggraf for the King of Danemark
Docks: Vordingbord, Flensburg
Flensburg (Small Size)
Small Baltic port with many Danish residents
Ruled by the Erbvogt for the King of Danemark
Docks: Schleswig, Naskskov
Schleswig (Moderate Size)
Central city of the Duchy of Schleswig
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Duke of Schleswig
Docks: Flensburg, Lubeck
Lubeck (Large Size)
Wealthy Imperial Free City, centre of the Hanseatic League
Oberste Hauptmann handles affairs for the Hanseatic League
Docks: Wismar, Schleswig
Wismar (Small Size)
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Duke of Mecklenburg
Docks: Lubeck, Rostock
Rostock (Moderate Size)
Ancient Baltic port city, famous for its guns, Free City
Schoff handles affairs for the Duke of Mecklenburg
Docks: Wismar, Stralsund
Stralsund (Moderate Size)
Modest Baltic trading city on the Sound of Strela, Free City
Burgermeister handles affairs for the Duke of Pomerania
Docks: Stettin, Rostock
Stettin [Sczcecin] (Small Size)
Small Pomeranian port at the mouth of the Oder
Ruled by the Burggraf for the Duke of Pomerania
Docks: Frankfurt O, Posen, Bromberg, Danzig
Danzig [Gdansk] (Large Size)
Large polyglot Baltic seaport of Germans and Poles
Ruled by the Richter for the Teutonic Knights
Docks: Marienburg, Thorn, Stettin
CITIES OF THE ODER
Frankfurt O (Moderate Size)
River port, crossroads to Poland and the Ordenstadt (lands of Teutonic Knights), Free City
Frager handles affairs for the Margrave of Brandenburg
Docks: Stettin, Gorlitz, Posen, Breslau
Gorlitz (Moderate Size)
Small city frequently incorporated into Bohemia
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Count of Gorlitz
Docks: Frankfurt O, Breslau
Breslau [Wroclaw] (Moderate Size)
Great trading city of Silesia, Eastern Germany
Ruled by the Vogt for the Duke of Silesia
Docks: Frankfurt O, Posen, Gorlitz
NON-RIVERINE CITIES OF THE ODER
Prenzlau (Moderate Size)
Border city between Prussia and Pomerania
Ruled by the Richter for the Duke of Pomerania
Docks: none
CITIES OF THE WARTHE
Posen [Poznan] (Small Size)
Teutonic-Polish fortress town above the Warthe
Ruled by the Erbvogt for the Teutonic Knights
Docks: Stettin, Frankfurt O
Bromberg [Bvdgoszcz] (Moderate Size)
Small city with population mixture of Poles and Germans
Ruled by the Burggraf for the Teutonic Knights
Docks: Stettin, Frankfurt O, Posen
CITIES OF THE WEICHSEL
Marienberg [Malbork] (Moderate Size)
Fortress capital for the Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order
Capital of all the lands ruled by the Teutonic Knights
Docks: Danzig, Thorn
Thorn [Torun] (Moderate Size)
Teutonic fortress city guarding the lower Vistula
Ruled by the Vogt for the Teutonic Knights
Docks: Marienburg, Danzig
All these characteristics vary a lot from one group to another, but
I'm not sure what effect it actually has on combat.
Ordinary Humanity:
Rather than show all the possible variations, let's say that humans of all
ilk usually wear leather, padded or scale in the 10-15Q range and will have
weapons ranging from 5Q (for city bandits) to under 15Q for Sergeants of the
guard. Raubritters will have a good weapon (25Q) and also good armour
(V Plate and L Chain, 20Q). Expect to find 25Q items in chests in
raubritters' towers. Knights Templar appear below.
The values which appear below are not fixed in any given event (except for
weapon quality where given). The ones given here are intended as examples,
not fixed values.
Rather than show all the possible variations, let's say that human servants
of Evil usually wear leather, padded or scale in the 10-15Q range and will
have weapons ranging from 5Q (for villagers) to under 20Q for Schulzen and
cultists. High witches will have a good weapon (30Q) and very good potions,
although none are likely to survive the combat.
Human servants of Evil at Great Monastery:
These have armour and weapons in the 20-25Q range. Alchemists are weaker.
Alchemist: V - Studded Leather; L - Padded; Dagger +; Potions +
Dark Knight: V - Plate +; L - Plate +; Medium Shield; Long Sword +
Evil Knight: V - Brigandine; L - Chain; 2H Sword
Evil Monk: V - Leather; L - Padded; QuarterStaff +
Templar: V - Plate +; L - Chain +; Large Shield; Two-handed Sword +
Zealot: V - Scale +; L - Studded Leather; Large Shield; Long Sword
Evil Minions at the Citadel of the Apocalypse:
Antechamber (Big Gnome): Natural Armour - Very Good; Natural Weapon - Fair
Room 1 (Demon): Natural Armour - Good; Natural Weapon - Poor
Room 2 (Vulcan): Natural Armour - Very Poor; Natural Weapon - Fair
Room 3 (Alchemist): V - Studded Leather; L - Padded; Dagger +; Potions +
Room 4 (Skeleton): Natural Armour - Good; Natural Weapon - Good [Battle Axe]
Room 5 (Hell Locust): Natural Armour - Superb; Natural Weapon - Very Good
Room 6 (Lancers): no data (menu selection only; loss of 25% in all attributes)
Room 7 (Hell Dragon): Natural Armour - Superb; Natural Weapon - Very Good
The party needs to have knowledge of certain saints in order to get along
comfortably in Medieval Germany. Some saints have very high Virtue
requirments and are usually only useful to foil the Wild Hunt. I have
compiled a list of saints, which I have found useful and which do not
require extreme Virtue (listed in parentheses) to learn.
A. Saints who increase local reputation.
1. Agnes (19) increase 10-20 (must have woman in group)
2. Alexis (28) increase 10-20
3. Cecilia (41) increase 20-60 (person praying must have musical instrument)
4. Florian (17) increase 15-25 if city is Austrian
5. Odilia (25) increase 15-25 in Strassburg & Basel
B. Allow party to pass over large bodies of water.
1. Finnian (17)
2. Florian (17)
C. Increase anyone's Virtue to 20 if Edward Confessor (5)
Sebastian (28) or Roch (19)
Wilfrid (25) & Willehad (35)
Perpetua (16) & Hubert (34)
Reinold (27)
Isidore (21)
Boniface (25) or Emydius (31)
Dominic (29)
Alcuin (39),
Dominic (29), Gertrude (26), Godehard (39), John CH (37) - (best
improvement), Patrick (22)
L. Improve Artifice for picking locks, etc. in mines, castles, & the
Eligius (29), Joseph (27), Reinold (27).
Erasmus (32) - (best
improvement)
Various other saints could also be listed, but for their high virtue
requirement. In general, I try to visit the Monks in each town in order to
check out the saints available for study. When the Wild Hunt comes, maybe
you will be lucky and already have the saint you need -- virtue does not
matter in this instance. Also, many saints temporarily increase strength,
endurance, weapons skills, armor value, perception, etc. Reading the
saint's "biography" will advise you of the improvements. There are a couple
of saints that actually are bad influences; Giles of Portugal is one I can
think of. He will permanently decrease strength and endurance.
*NOTE (CMB): The information given on each saint is fairly accurate when
*dealing with game information. Unfortunately, you can't read that until
*you've learned about the saint. In the Basic and Standard settings, it
*isn't necessary to read them carefully as the game will give you the list
*of saints for each situation, but in the Advanced mode, you must be aware
*of the characteristics of the saints from reading their blurbs. The info
*provided in the manual is not really enough, although it does give you
*the level of virtue required.
NOTE (CMB): All material quoted from the DARKLANDS HINT BOOK
for the purpose of this review has been identified by marking the text
with a >. Identification of provenance will not be given in each
individual case.
--This review contributed by GRL--
Darklands Clue Book:
I have purchased many hint/clue books over the years for computer
games. I made it a policy to buy books for those games that I enjoyed
completing enough to want to have a hard copy of what completing the game
entailed. The Darklands clue book stands forth as one of the best I have
owned. It covers the details of the game in depth. At 124 soft-bound
pages, it encompasses everything from character generation, to what
bonuses every Saint gives, and to the answers for every riddle. The
version I purchased included a 3.5 disk which had the Version 6 Upgrade,
a Character Editor, a program that allowed visualization of all Screen
Backgrounds, and a program that allowed you to play all the Darkland
Tunes. The date of printing is 1992 and the book is textual in nature
with no illustrations.
The layout of the clue book is as follows:
I. Introduction
II. Ebhard's Guide to Adventure
III. Character Creation
IV. The World
V. Equipment and Combat
VI. Enemies
VII. Alchemy
VIII. Religion
IX. Quests
X. Puzzles and Answers
XI. Final Notes
Below is a brief summary of each chapter with relevant examples.
EBHARD'S GUIDE- A few pages of fiction which describes the making of a
game party.
CHARACTER CREATION- This chapter is divided into tables which give all
the information about each choice made in character development. I have
copied excerpts from each table type to give you a sense of the
information contained.
So, a Wealthy Urban character would start with Heal=1 and would get
Heal +2 free by becoming a Monk with the possibility of buying up to +8
more for a total of +10. Every occupation is covered in the same
complete detail.
These tables are followed by a Occupations and Age section. This
lists the bonuses for early ages and penalties for older characters.
Reaching age 50 would reduce your Agl by 3 and you would have lost
10 total by age 50.
The next section deals with occupation requirements. Ex.
Physician - Character must have healing 15+, and experience as either a
student, clerk, professor, physician, alchemist or master alchemist.
Therefore, mapping out a strategy for developing a specific
occupation is easilly accomplished using this information.
The chapter concludes by listing the equipment each profession
begins with and a suggestion of important skills.
THE WORLD- This chapter contains an extensive list of the cities in
the game. Ex:
>City Map Size Cath Univ BkSm SdSm Arm Bwy Artf Clth Slm Lhaus
>
>Danzig H1 7 Yes No No 26 25 25 25 26 Yes Yes
Sizes range from 1-8 and the numbers below the various weapon shops
are the quality of wares that they sell. Of note, Clothmakers sell
non-metal armor in versions higher than 6 only. Squinting at the map in
order to find a city is alleviated by the location numbers. Finding
which cities offer those wonderful 40+ weapons and armor is also a breeze.
The Saints offered by each location are radomized at the beginning
of each game.
The end of the chapter describes the various locations found with in
cities and in the countryside. The descriptions are short and concise.
EQUIPMENT AND COMBAT- Once again, tables are used to cover the
specifics of each weapon and armor. Ex:
Other mundane equipment is briefly described, as are the
encumbrance levels. The chapter goes on to describe combat in great
detail (6 pages). All "To Hit" and "Damage" probabilities based on str,
weapon skill, equipment quality, type of weapon/armor, situational
effects and speed are spelled out. Admittedly, this section is a bit
tedious. I prefer to just build up my skill, buy good weapons/armor and
just assume that this is a good thing to do.
ENEMIES- A very interesting chapter. After all, we all want to
know just what is behind all those nasties that have been trashing our
party. Replaying the game after buying the manual, though, I did notice
that some levels of enemies are not covered. The information is
presented entirely as tables, Ex:
>Templar or Preceptor:
>
>Name Type End Str Agl Melee Missile
>
>Templar A 50 40 50 90 60
>Templar B 38 35 20 70 50
>Templar C 35 33 20 50 40
>
>Name Type Weapon Shield Vitals Limbs
>
>Templar A 2H Sword 99q L 35q Plate 55q Plate 55q
>Templar B 2H Sword 35q L 30q Plate 30q Chain 30q
>Templar C 2H Sword 25q L 25q Brgdn 25q Chain 25q
>
>Templars in Darklands are demon-worshipping monks. Types B and C are
>formidable warriors, with type B sometimes carrying noxious aroma
>potions. However, type A is the Preceptor, the Templar overlord and
>leader. He may have noxious aroma and/or eater water potions. The
>Preceptor also carries one of the most powerful weapons in the game.
>Unfortunately, over half of it's quality comes from satanic attributes
>unavailable to you (if captured it is 45q).
Each enemy has such a table and description. Quite thorough and
interesting reading.
ALCHEMY- Have a question about alchemy? Then, this is the chapter
for you! Nothing is left out. There are three parts: alchemical
formulas, probability of success equation and potion effect description.
As always, I provide an example of each below.
> Potion Compon
>Formula Qual Value Value Magic# Risk
>
>iY Hardarmor 25q 378 264 151mn High
> 1 Manganes, 1 Aqua Regia, 2 Nikel, 3 Zinken, 4 Sanguine Base
>
>BE Hardarmor 35q 497 249 160mn Mod
> 1 Zincblende, 1 Aqua Regia, 3 Nikel, 2 Zinken, 3 Sanguine Base
>
>LM Hardarmor 45q 615 225 167mn Mod
> 1 Solanaceae, 1 Aqua Regia, 3 Nikel,, 2 Zinken, 1 Sanguine Base
Probability of Success = k + ps + int + alch + mn, where k is a constant
and the max is 99%.
>Fleadust: Anyone within the relatively small cloud loses skills based
>on the thickness of vitals and limbs armor. Amount varies from 10% lost
>(if leather and/or padded) to 50% (if all plate). The exact formula is:
>Skill lost = 5*(vitals thickness + limbs thickness)
>
>Duration of fleadust effects varies with the potion's quality:
>quality 25 (al-Razi's)-- 25 sec
>quality 35 (Nicolas F's)-- 40 sec
>quality 45 (Richard A's)-- 60 sec
As stated, this is a very complete listing. As in the chapter
concerning combat, the specific information about potion lengths of
effect, % increases to stats, etc. is not really something that you need
to know. However, the fact that the information is there to be
referenced is a definitely appreciated.
RELIGION- A brief description of the factors influencing prayer
success and the length of the effects gained through prayer. This is
followed by the complete listing of Saints. Ex:
>St. Peter [53v, 25-75df, 55%]: Str +(12-19), Chr +(8-15), SpkC +(10-19),
>SpkL +(10-19), Heal(skill) +(10-19), wEgd +(15-29), but Per halved
>(temporarily). If imprisoned, this Saint may aid in party's escape.
So, it is all there. Need to know what a Saint does, calculate how
effective you would be at praying to a Saint, or find a Saint that gives
the best particular bonus? Then, just look it up.
QUESTS - 20 pages detailing then various quests and objectives of
the game. Some minor spoilers are given in these pages. An example
would be particular Saints that might aid in a given situation. For
greater spoilers, you are referred to a particular number in the answers
section of the next chapter. Larger quests (Dragon Dens, for instance)
are subdivided (intro, dragon lairs, dragon fighting, dragon causes,
rewards). For instance, the Dragon Lairs section tells you that finding
dragon lairs is mostly a matter of blind luck. It also refers you to the
answers section of the next chapter where you find:
>Dragon lairs may be found in the following areas: (a) south of Bremen
>and Northeast of Hannover, in the middle of the geest; (b) east-northeast
>of Koln, in a Sauerland valley almost halfway to the Paderborn-Frankfurt
>road; (c) southeast of Goslar, deep in the Harz, a tiny bit southeast of
>the river source in the central part of these mountains; (d) northeast of
>Frankfurt an der Order and south-southwest of Stettin, in the middle of
>the great forest on the north side of the Warthe River; (e) north of St.
>Joachimsthal, at the top of an Erzgebirge peak (the specific mountaintop
>is just a tiny bit west of a line running directly north of the city);
>(f) north of Passau and south-southwest of Burglitz, on a mountain peak
>in Bohmer Wald just south of the source of the west branch of the Moldau
>River; (g) west-northwest of Freiberg-im-Breisgau and north-northwest of
>Basel, in the mountains west of the Rhine, on a west-slope hilltop
>between the two river sources (the rivers run north-northwest toward
>Nancy); (h) in the Tauren southeast of Steyr, southwest of Wien, and
>west-northwest of Graz, in the alpine range along the south side of the
>small river that eventually runs to Steyr and Linz. The specific
>mountain is near the eastern end of this range.
This information is nicely described and only read it if you choose to
go to the next chapter and look it up. I am very fond of the approach that
allows you to peruse the general info without major spoilers present. The
information that is given is well constructed and thought out.
Actually, I found Dragons in the two games that I completed before buying
the book. Kept on refighting them too ;) The book mentions locations
(it also mentions the High Sabbat locations, etc.). When replaying the
game after buying the book I visited one of the locations and got the
"burned out and lifeless area message", but I could not track down the
lair in that location. I think you just have to look at each until you find
the right one(s) in a given game.
PUZZLES AND ANSWERS- This chapter is structured much like the
last. Each puzzle is listed out with a verbal work through. The answers
are not given directly, but are refered to in the latter half of the
chapter. Ex:
>Puzzle #3:
>The path is blocked by an iron door. Flanking it are two paintings
>of grotesque dwarfs. One painting animates and speaks aloud, pointing to
>the other:
>'Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father is my
>father's son. Tell me who that man is, and the door opens.'
>What is the answer? The wrong conclusion may release a dwarf trap!
>You consider carefully, then answer...
>...himself
>...his father
>...his son
>...his grandson
>
>Hint: If I have no siblings, who is 'my father's son'? Answer: See #27"
Look up #27 and you get "#27: 'My father's son' must be me. Thus,
the painting is saying '...that man's father is 'me'.' Hence, the other
painting is his son."
Wow! Not only the answer, but an explanation to boot. All answers
in this section are handled in this manner.
The book concludes with a description of the various versions of the
game, minor system tweaking, the use of type mem.log to check the power
(1-10) of your party (sixth column) and thanks to those individuals that
worked on Darklands without being mentioned in the original manual.
I hope that my examples have given you a feel for why I rate this
clue book so highly. It essentially removes all the blindspots from the
game and gives you solid information to fill them. The writing is
excellent and great effort is given to make all the material easy to
interpret and a pleasure to peruse. My only complaint is that it
appears as though the authors of the book were never listed and they did
such an excellent job. Kudos.
For the ASCII version of the FAQ, use the link to the HTML file to obtain
the ASCII versions or ask on the newsgroup for UUENCODED copies.
Link to download an ASCII text river map of DARKLANDS Germany, put together
by CMB.
Link to download an ASCII text copy of the FAQ, the HTML text stripped
of coding.
Link to download a file of lists of things in DARKLANDS Germany that aren't
listed in the manual, including the blurbs on saints, alchemical formulae, weapons, complete place-names,
quest items, enemies' list. A bunch of related stuff drawn up by CMB.
As files completing the knowledge base of Darklands are added to the list, they will be listed
here with their URL. We requet that anyone producing a file for addition to this list send a copy to
each of the authors listed above for approval to this list.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
C. Michel Boucher | aa699@freenet.carleton.ca
Researcher, Documentation Centre |
Parliamentary Publications Directorate | (insert usual disclaimer here)
House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada |
