Getting Around Town

When you begin the game, you will be in one of Exile's many towns and forts. There are a variety of things you can and should do.

Moving around: To move, place the cursor on the terrain screen in the direction you want to move (it should turn into a little arrow) and click. You will take a step in the direction the arrow points. To move up, for example, move the cursor above the little person in the middle (you). The cursor should turn into an arrow pointing up. Click. You will move up a space.

You can also move using the keypad. Hitting 5 pauses your party, 8 makes you move up, 2 down, and so on, allowing movement in all eight cardinal directions. You can also use the arrow keys to move, and if two arrow keys are pressed at the same time, you can even move diagonally. Unfortunately, in some circumstances, this diagonal movement may not work the way you want it to - for example, if you're in combat and you don't tap both arrows at the exact same time, you'll lose 2 action points instead of 1. For such situations, you can use Home to move up and left, End to move down and left, PgUp to move up and right, and PgDn to move down and right.

If you cannot move there, because of something in the way, the text screen will tell you so. If you've stepped on something unpleasant, like swamp, lava, or some sort of trapped square, you will be informed. There are several interesting things to know about moving around...

Leaving Town:
When you want to leave a town or dungeon, pick a direction and keep walking. Eventually, when you walk off the edge of the map, you will be outdoors. A handy way of telling how far you are from the edge of the map is to use the Map button, described below.
Special Encounters:
You will occasionally see, both in town and outdoors, a white circle on the the nearby floor/ground/whatever. The white circle signifies a special encounter or occurrence of some sort. Step on it to find out what it is.
Wall and Secret Doors:
Not all walls, man-made or otherwise, are as they appear. Some walls (and trees, and pillars, and many other terrain types) have secret doors and hidden tunnels. When you walk into a wall with one of these, you will pass through it. This may not always be a good thing.
Locked Doors:
When you walk into a door, you will try to open it. However, some doors are guarded by locks, magical and non-magical. To open a locked door, you can bash it or pick the lock. Bashing only rarely works, and failed attempts are punished by damage. Only strong characters should try to bash doors.
Locks can be picked by a character who has a decent Pick Locks skill and has lockpicks equipped. When you fail, there is a chance that one of your picks will break. It is rumored that you can find higher quality lockpicks.
Finally, some doors are magically locked. Bashing and lockpicking will not work - you will need to use the mage spell Unlock Doors. And, every great once in a while, you will find a door on which none of these methods will work! You'll need to find a key or lever or something else to open it.
Boats and Horses:
Both outdoors and in town, you can find boats. To enter one, move onto it. To leave it, steer it onto ground. Boats are essential to get to certain interesting places, and may be able to travel over more things than water...
Horses, on the other hand, enable you to move over land much faster. Monsters are easier to outrun, and the time it takes to travel outdoors will be halved. To mount horses you own, move onto them. To dismount, pause (click on your party or press 5 on the keypad).
When you find boats and horses you don't own, often you will be able to find someone nearby to sell them to you.
Light:
Some areas are dark. To see beyond your nose, you will need a light source, be it a torch or spell. In certain unpleasant areas, even a torch or spell won't get rid of the darkness.
Pausing:
Sometimes, you'll just want to sit and watch the world go by. Click on your party or hit space or 5 on the keypad to let a turn pass without action.

Alchemy:
One of the things you can do in town is use ingredients you've found in your adventures to try to make potions. Should you have the right ingredients, the right recipe, and a PC with sufficient alchemy skill, select Do Alchemy from the Actions menu. You will be asked who is going to make it, and then given a list of potions you can make. Certain potions cannot be made by a character with low alchemy skill. The higher the alchemy skill, the better the odds of success.
For more information on the things you can make with alchemy, inside the game select Alchemy Info, under the Library menu.
The Town Guard:
Be careful! Damaging a friendly townsperson or stealing items can get the town guard after you! If this happens, you best flee town, before they destroy you.
An angry town will generally forget that it's mad at you, if you stay away for long enough.
Selecting Spaces Shortcut:
When you hit the 'look' button (or the 'talk' button), click on the space you want to look at to look at (talk to) it. A quicker way to look at (or talk to) something is to hit l or t on the keyboard, and then the key indicating the direction you want to look. This has you look at (or talk to) whatever is in the next space in that direction.
The Buttons:
Each of the many buttons at the bottom left corner of the screen has you do something. Several of them have keyboard equivalents. When they do, the key is given in the parentheses below:
  • Cast Mage (Fireball. m): You will be asked to select one of your party members, who will then be given a chance to cast any mage spells he or she knows. Mage spells are described later.
  • Cast Priest (Ankh. p): Same as cast mage, but for priest spells.
  • Look (Eye. l): Clicking on this button and then on a space in the Terrain Screen gives you a list of everything in the space you click. Terrain, monsters, and items will be listed. Also...
    Looking Off screen:
    When you look, if you click on the terrain border, the terrain you're looking at will scroll in the direction you click on, so you can see the monsters before they're right on top of you.
    Signs:
    When your party is adjacent to a sign, you can read it by looking at it.
    Searching Stuff:
    When your party looks at something it is standing adjacent to, you will search the crate/desk/bookshelf/body/whatever for interesting things. If there is something there, you will have a special encounter. Some dungeons have very interesting things hidden in very mundane objects.
    Sequential Look:
    If you hold alt while selecting the space to look at, your cursor won't change back and you'll be able to select another space to look at.
    Quick Look:
    You can quickly look at any space onscreen by right-clicking it. This works exactly the same as if you looked at it normally.
  • Talk (Lips, t): You can talk to any living creature which is not actually trying to kill you. To do so, click on this button, and then the thing you want to talk to. You will then be presented with a window with a description of the person.
    To ask someone about something, click on the word after they say it. If someone says "I really hate goblins," click on 'goblins' to ask about that. If the person has something to say, the word will flash, and something else will come up. In addition, there are buttons at the button of the talk area:
    Look/Name/Job:
    Clicking on these buttons always gets a response, and clicking on 'Name' and 'Job' is the best way to begin a conversation.
    Ask About:
    This extremely important button lets you ask characters about things beside what they mention. For example, if you're told to ask Honkblatt about swords, when you find Honkblatt, click on Ask About, and enter 'swords,' and you may be pleasantly surprised.
    Go Back:
    Clicking on this brings up whatever the character said previously. A useful time saver.
    Buy/Sell:
    Many characters will buy, sell, or identify items, or otherwise do useful things. These buttons provide a useful shortcut to obtaining these services.
    Record:
    This has your characters write down what was just said. You can review it later by selecting See Talking Notes from the Options menu.
    Bye:
    Ends the conversation.
    Other interesting things about conversation:
    Special Information:
    Occasionally, someone will tell you something that will help you do something else, such as a password or the location of a hidden item. When this happens, you will be told something along the lines of "You take note of this." This means your characters know something new. If you die later without saving, be sure to go back to get this information again.
    Stores:
    Most of the towns have a store of some sort in them. To buy something or sell something, you can generally press the appropriate buttons. How to buy, sell, and identify items is described later on.
    Training:
    You can spend your experience to gain valuable skills at the occasional training center. This works exactly the same as when you created your character, but you also have to pay gold. Each level in a skill costs the amount after the slash in the cost column. Should you buy some skills and then decide you don't want them, press the Cancel button to restore your character. Press the Keep button to keep the training.
    Boats and horses:
    Some people will sell you boats and horses, both useful ways to get around. When you buy one, a nearby boat or horse will become yours, and you will be able to enter/mount it.
  • Get (Hand picking up scroll. g): When you see items nearby, click on this button to get them. If hostile monsters are in sight, you will only be able to get adjacent items. If not, you will be able to get all items nearby.
    When the item-getting window comes up, click on an item to get it. To have a new PC get items, click the button by their picture.
    Finally, some items in towns are not your property. Getting these items puts you in danger of being attacked by the town guard!
  • Use ('Use', u): This all-purpose command has you do something to an adjacent space. Using an open door closes it, and vice versa. Using a space with webs has you clear the webs away. Perhaps this action has other uses...
  • Map (A Scroll, a): As you wander around the town or dungeon, you will automatically keep track of the terrain you see. When you click this button, you will see a map of the area you're in.
    Also, you can leave the map window up while you play. It will keep updating itself as you travel. Note that this will slow the game down.
  • Enter Combat Mode (Sword. f): As you wander around, someone or something might decide to attack you. When in town mode, you travel in a tight-knit, awkward group. Thus, you can't fight back, and the monsters move and act faster than you.
    To deal with this unpleasant situation, click on this button to enter combat mode. Your group will split up into its individual members, and you will be able to fight back.
When you leave town (or go into combat) the buttons will change. The next two sections say what the new buttons do.
Buying Items:
Often, someone you meet in town will have something to sell you. Clicking on the Buy button will bring up the shopping window.
The items available will be listed, along with their prices, and, if weapons or armor, their important statistics. To get detailed information on an item, click on the 'I' button to the item's right. To buy it, click on the item's name. To have a different character shop, make that character active (click on his/her name, or type 1-6).
There are some unusual sorts of shops:
Healers:
Visiting a healer brings up a list of bad conditions the active character has, with the cost to heal that ailment. You can, for example, pay to heal a character's dumbfounding, but leave the character's damage unhealed.
Alchemists:
A few characters sell alchemical recipes. You only need to buy each recipe once for the entire party. The seller will usually explain what ingredients that recipe calls for.
Mage and Priest Spells:
Most spells can be bought from people in towns. When you buy a spell for one character, only that PC knows it. You need to buy it again for other PCs who want it.
Specialized Trainers:
Some shops will offer training for specific skills. These let you increase your skills without spending skill points.
Selling/Identifying/Augmenting:
Some characters in town will attempt to buy your items. When you hit the Sell button while talking, smaller Sell buttons appear by your items. Some people only buy armor, some only weapons, some everything. Click the small Sell button to sell an item.
People will only buy identified items. To identify an item, go to a sage (such as Axel, in Sweetgrove, in "Valley of Dying Things"). Ask about 'identify' (or, usually, click the Buy button), and ID buttons will appear by your unidentified items. Click this button to pay to have it identified. You will now know exactly what it is.
Finally, a very few people will cast magical spells to strengthen your identified, non-magical weapons. When this is offered, small 'Ench' buttons will appear by items that can be augmented. Press them to buy the improvement.