Editor's Note: The following guide was commissioned by the Lorekeeper's (Mentors) Society as a quick-start guide for bards who have used other guides to prepare to adventure, and have just entered the Lands. With a limit of 100 lines, the guide is purposefully not in-depth, and will therefore be most useful to very beginning adventurers. -- The Webmistress.

FIRST THINGS FIRST -

- Advice
You can use ADVice to find out about some of the main places around town that you should visit. As a bonus, you'll find that if you visit enough of the places listed you'll learn enough EXPerience to train from level 0 to level 1.


NEXT -

- Running Errands
Next you can now go back to Moot Hall and see the clerk in his office, once there you can ask the clerk for a job and he will send you on errands to various locations around the Landing. You can do this to earn more experience and some silvers to pay off your debts and maybe even put some extra in the bank.


NOW WHAT? -

- Hunting: Before You Start
Well, by now you are getting anxious to go kill something, but there's one thing you should do first and then for the rest of your life. Go get some deeds! So lets head for the temple and have a look though the black arch, from there you are on your own. When you're level 0/1, you get 5 free deaths. However, when you reach level 2 and higher and don't have a deed when you die, you will not return from the dead.

- Hunting: Where To Start Hunting
Best place to get your feet wet is to wander over to the Catacombs and hunt giant rats. If you used the ADVice command as recommended above then you have been to the Catacombs and should be able to find them again. If you didn't use the ADVice from above, now might be a good time to give it a try.

- Hunting: Basic Advice
Well, this is a quick start guide so I'll leave the finer points of hunting for another time, but there are a couple of important things to remember. Put your weapon in your right hand and your shield in your left. To hit something you most likely will have to adjust your STANCE, but be careful: the more aggressive you get the more likely what your fighting will be able to hit you in return.


SINGING -

You did decide to be a Bard so you could sing, right? Well there are two types of singing...Good old tale-telling-type SINGing and LORESINGing. I will cover a bit of both.

- General Singing
I have been known to perform now and then, but its not my strong suit. However, if you decided to be a Bard to be a great performer there will be lots of opportunities for you to show off your skills. Watch the NEWS for information on any of the many bardic events that take place from time to time in various locations around the Landing. The better Bards use not only the SING command but embellish their performance with various forms of ACT, SMILE and RECITE commands. I'll not go into details in this guide, but if you are interested, attend one of the bardic events to see them in action.

- Loresinging
Loresinging is the bardic ability to learn information about items. To be a good Loresinger it helps to be Charismatic. To learn all about an item and to get accurate information you'll need have a lot of training under your belt. Also, remember that Loresinging is magical so it will use Manna, so when you're young you will be limited in how many verses you can sing in a row without resting.

That said, how do you Loresing to something? With the item you wish to learn about in your right hand, Loresing something like the following:

Loresing This (item) in my hand I turn,; Its value I do wish to learn.

This will tell you the weight and the value of the (item). When you are first starting this is about all the information you're going to learn. As you get older, you will be able to sing multiple verses to items and learn such things as: purpose of item, any enhancements item might have, number of charges and spell contained in magical things like wands and rods, and any special modifications the item might possess.

Now, when you are first starting don't expect the results to mean much. Until you can sing to an item and get the same result (or close) for its weight and value three times in a row, don't trust the information you receive. (Note: the value you see when Loresinging is the approximate worth that a shopkeeper might pay for the item, like at the pawnshop or the gemshop. Not what another adventurer might be willing to pay)

Yes, there are keywords that you can use in your songs to skip to specific verses that will tell you specific information. I leave the learning of those up to you.

With both Singing and Loresinging try to be creative; those around you will appreciate it and will be more willing to sit around and listen to you. Don't limit yourself to two line verses. That was just a simple example I gave above ... be creative. Who knows? If you are good enough with your Singing or Loresinging and have a large enough audience you might even gain some experience towards your next training.