Dark Designs 1: Grelminar's Staff manual

^CCLOSING THE GATE

^Cby
^CJohn Carmack

You have Grelminar's Staff, and now you must journey to Mount Delkeina!
Somewhere in its maze of tunnels is the gate controlled by the evil warlord.
His intent -- to bring foul creatures from some nether world to attack all the
good inhabitants of ours. Only you can save the land before it is too late!
Top quality graphics and superb sound make this role-playing game a delight
to play.

^C^1WHAT IS DARK DESIGNS II?

Dark Designs II is a role-playing fantasy game. Your goal is to lead your
four party members into Mount Delkeina, find the gate, and use Grelminar's
staff to close it forever.

If you haven't played Dark Designs I and don't plan to get it (you should,
it's great!), then you can create new characters. You will move them around
using the arrow keys. Occasionally you will encounter a group of hostile
monsters that have entered this world through the gate. You'd best attack
them, as their sole purpose is to kill anything living that they see. They
are not nice beings. You can use your weapons and spells to defeat these evil
forces and forge on to close the gate!

You can try out this game for a while. If you like it but find it too
hard, try Dark Designs I on Big Blue Disk #52.

^C^1PLAYING DARK DESIGNS II

After you press a key at the title screen, you will see a menu of choices.
If you played Dark Designs I this will be fairly familiar. For the
uninitiated, let's take a look at each option.

^C^11-4: Examine character

This allows you to look at each of the four members of your party.

You can examine the items or the spells they have.
You can Transfer, Drop, Ready (for fighting), or Use Items.
You can cast spells.

^C^1C: Create character

If you do not own Dark Designs I and you want your own characters,
you will have to use this option. Characters have five attributes: Strength,
Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, and Piety. Fighters need Strength,
Dexterity, and Constitution. Priests need Piety and Intelligence first, then
the fighting attributes. Wizards need Intelligence foremost. You can
distribute the numbers using the arrows and spacebar. Once you place the
last, press RETURN and choose what kind of character you want. Then you may
name your character.

^1NOTE:

Try to have two fighters, a priest, and a wizard. This seems to be the
best balance. Once you create them, you can add them to the party.

^1ALSO NOTE:

Newly created wizards will automatically have Grelminar's Staff -- you are
essentially making up a character that has already completed part I. This
will allow you, if you like to mess with the program, to give everyone in the
party a Staff of Grelminar. But who cares? You will find it of little value
or use until much later, so why bother? (This was the best way we could think
of to let people start with their own set of characters without having played
Dark Designs I.)

^C^1D: Delete a character

If your character roster starts getting full, you can delete a character
with this option.

^C^1R: Remove a character

This removes a character from the current party.

^C^1A: Add a character

This allows you to add a character to the current party.

^C^1H: Heal a character

If you have the money, you can heal characters at the local temple.
Sometimes the characters will be so bad off that the only people that can
help them are at the temple.

^C^1E: Equip a character

You can go to the equipment shop to buy or sell equipment. You cannot
sell the staff, as no one else wants to close the gate.

^1NOTE:

You must buy equipment for your character before you enter Mount Delkeina.
If you don't, your party will go naked and weaponless into battle -- not the
smartest plan of attack.

After equipping them, press each character's number (1-4), go into the
Items menu and Ready their equipment. Fighters need a weapon, shield (unless
the weapon requires two hands to wield), and armor. Priests need the same,
but can't use pointed weapons. Wizards can only wear leather armor (they need
to gesture a lot), and usually use a staff.

^C^1T: Transfer a party

If you finished Dark Designs I, you can transfer your characters from that
scenario to this one. You can transfer from Big Blue Disk #52 or wherever
you have copied the game. You will need to know the exact pathname if your
Dark Designs I is not on your Big Blue Disk.

^C^1L: Learn spells

You can learn (read "buy") spells. Your priest or wizard will be taken
to the appropriate spell shop. Each has eight spells to offer.

|5Wizard Spells:

|5Magic Missile:^0 shoots a bolt of energy at a monster
|5Speed:^0 gives a player great dexterity for a while
|5Strength:^0 improves a player's strength for a while
|5Stun:^0 paralyzes a monster temporarily
|5Lightning Bolt:^0 zaps a monster with an big lightning bolt
|5Fireball:^0 blasts a column of monsters with fiery force
|5Flame Strike:^0 blasts all monsters with critter-crisping fire
|5Death Ray:^0 convinces most monsters to crash and burn

|5Priest Spells:

|5Cure Light:^0 heals a character of some damage
|5Dispel Undead:^0 commands magically animated dead creatures to be gone
|5Bless:^0 protects the player from attacks
|5Cure Serious:^0 heals a character of serious damage
|5Death's Door:^0 heals a knocked-out character to consciousness
|5Banishment:^0 tells evil beings to go take a hike
|5Word of Recall:^0 moves the party from big danger back to town
|5Cureall:^0 heals a character completely (unless they are dead)

It is wise to accrue all of these spells.

^C^1Q: Quit and Save position

This quits the game and saves the state of your party.

^C^1M: Enter Mount Delkeina

To enter Mount Delkeina and look for the gate, use this option. You will
enter the wandering mode.

^C^1INSIDE MOUNT DELKEINA

When wandering around Mount Delkeina, you will have four windows full of
information.

The upper left window presents a 3-D view of the hallway you are in (spiffy
graphics courtesy of Laura Malone). Your arrow keys move you around the
dungeon. The left and right arrows turn your party left or right. The up
arrow moves you forward in the direction you are facing and the down arrow
turns your party around 180 degrees.

When you look at a character (by pressing 1 through 4), the character info
will appear in this window. When you are attacked by monsters, an overhead
view of the melee will appear in this window.

The upper right window contains the automatic map. Wherever you have
explored will be automatically mapped for you. When you are attacked by
monsters, their numbers will be displayed here.

Across the center of the screen is the information window. A text
description of the area you are in will be here, as well as information and
prompts during an encounter.

At the bottom of the screen is the character status window, showing each
character's name, body points, spell points, and class.

^C^1COMMANDS IN THE DUNGEON

You can use the arrows keys to move around.

Press |5S^0 to search the wall in front of you for a secret door.

Press |5Q^0 to quit and save the game where you are.

^C^1ENCOUNTERS

When a group of monsters attacks, you can Fight or Run away. If you run
away, you will move back to the square you were in.

If you fight, each character can choose to Attack, cast a Spell, Use an
Item, move Forward to the front line, or drop to the Back of the party.
If the character doesn't want to do any of these, press the SPACEBAR to
pass the turn.

Once all characters have chosen you have one last chance to change your
course of action.

The fight continues until a) the monsters are defeated, b) you are
defeated, c) you cast a Word of Recall, or d) you run away.

If you are victorious you will get either a) gold, b) an item, or c)
nothing. Regardless of which you receive, you'll get experience points,
which go toward your character improving his or her body and spell
points.

^C^1SOME TIPS ON PLAYING DARK DESIGNS II

|5^0 If you haven't found out by playing Dark Designs I, you need the
Striking Staff to kill golems. Nothing else works.

|5^0 Do not worry--you will know when you have reached the gate.

|5^0 Never let your cleric get too low in hit or spell points. If you
need to get out quickly, they are your only hope. (Unless you have
wisely purchased a Recall Scroll....)

|5^0 Your wizard has taught each party member how to use the staff, so
anyone can carry it. (Basically, you must hold it high over your head
pointing toward the gate, speak the power words "Plothar caleth
rescalin!", then flip the on/off switch.)

|5^0 Cure Light is a pretty good spell, as the higher level the
caster, the better it heals, and it only takes one spell point. Save
the other healing spells for heavy combat.

^C^1RESTOCKING

You can restock the game so someone else can start from scratch by
pressing Control-R when the colorful title screen appears. All characters
that have not closed the gate will be deleted. ^1You have been warned!

^1OUTSIDE OF BBD

To run this program outside the ^1Big Blue Disk^0 menu, type: ^1DARKDES2^0.

^1DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES

^FDARKDES2.EXE
^FDDCHARS.DAT
^FDDMAP*.*