QUESTING Now you are on a Quest. You are able to move around the kingdom and experience many adventures. You can capture cities, challenge rivals, or just explore the countryside. 1. Travelling 2. In the City 3. In the Country 4. Meeting Another Player 5. Hiding Out 6. Scouts and Abandoned Knights 7. The DRAGON Q. Quit * * 1. Travelling To (T)ravel, just press the T and you will be prompted for the direction you wish to go. If that direction takes you off the map, you could wind up anywhere, and perhaps some of your knights won't survive the experience. To move a little faster, you could take a (P)otion, assuming you have one. In this manner you can travel to any location on the board using only one move. Trouble is, you have to have a potion for you, and one for each knight you want to take with you. Another funny thing about potions, they seem to react somewhat strangely in the presence of large quantities of gold. If you are carrying a lot of gold with you, the potions are likely to misfire and deliver you to the wrong place. Even worse, some of your guards might end up where they were supposed to, while you end up somewhere else! Also, potions don't work in regions of large population density, such as a city. * 2. In the City After you travel, you might wind up in a city. You may then try to capture the city from its owner, or from its citizens if it is unowned. If you can capture it, you may place guards on it and collect taxes which will accumulate each day. The taxes that accumulate depend upon the base tax rate and the number of knights you have guarding the city. The knights will collect ten gold coins apiece out of the taxes, as wages. But, if you post more knights than the city can afford, they find a way to survive, somehow. In fact, you can leave up to 32,767 knights guarding a single city. But, of course, there won't be any taxes left over for you to collect. For you to collect your taxes, you must pay a personal visit to the city. When you have captured a city, you can elect either to execute the leaders among the rabble, or spare them. If you execute them, the tax rate for the city is cut in half, because you only left the stupid ones alive. If you spare the leaders, you collect the full tax rate, but there may be instances where the peasants strike out at your guards, occasionally killing a couple. * 3. In the Country If you find yourself in the Excalibur countryside, you will become exposed to many dangers. In the mountains are bandits who can murder your knights. They have little use for potions, though, and sometimes you may find a few unbroken vials amongst the rocks. The deserts are harsh and cruel, and cost you many knights. Two deserts in succession can be devastating. If you should happen to encounter three of them in a row, you'll be lucky if any of your retinue remain alive. Swamps, too, are merciless; the going is so slow that it costs you two turns to get through. Plains are relatively safe. Nobody gets killed there, and occasionally you can move so easily that it won't even cost you a move. But if you run across a rival in the plains, you can challenge them to duel, and vice-versa. Forests are safe, as well, but beware of the Robbin' Hoodlums, who will take your gold if you have any. But if you don't, they will give you some. Robin Hood and his men won't bother you if your retinue is large enough. * 4. Meeting Another Player If you should come upon other players, you can try to capture them. If you succeed, you will acquire all their gold and potions as ransom, and they will be returned to Camelot. However, do not risk your last knight, for if you do, you yourself may be captured and suffer the same fate, and will have no further moves left for the day. If you run away the opponent's forces will attack you as you run. * 5. Hiding Out If for some reason you find yourself unable to get back to Camelot before you have used up all your moves, you might leave yourself in a city that is not owned by you. You will be invisible there, and the only way another player can discover where you are is to purchase (I)nformation while in Camelot. If they do, they can try to find you by doing a (H)unt, which will cost them 100 gold coins and five moves, and even then there is a fifty-fifty chance that you won't be discovered. You might also leave yourself upon the plains, where you can't be captured, but other players may challenge you to combat while you are there, wagering gold and potions upon the outcome. * 6. Scouts and Abandoned Knights If you get sick of seeing your knights decimated as you march your army around the board, you might try sending out (S)couts to help reveal the map. It's much less expensive that way, but maybe not as much fun. Unfortunately, scouts can only be sent out to squares which are adjacent to you. And, of course, if your retinue is down to zero, you won't have anybody to send out. Knights which are left behind when their owner potions away without them, usually hang around waiting to be hired by the next Lord or Lady passing through. It's best to use up your retinue or post them as guards before your turn is through, or you will have to pay them their wages the next day that you log on. * 7. The DRAGON Somewhere on the map is a horrible dragon, who moves around the map one square per day, or sometimes stays in the same place. If she arrives in your city, your guards will be destroyed, your taxes stolen, and the city will be the property of the dragon. You may fight the dragon, but your chances of defeating her are small. You can improve the odds with a large number of knights, but the odds are still poor, and a loss takes a terrible toll upon your retinue. If you should defeat the dragon, however, you will become the new ruler of the kingdom and will collect all the dragon's treasure. It costs three turns every time you attempt to slay the dragon. HAPPY QUESTING! *