============================================================================= The Standing Stones FAQ/Walkthrough (Commodore 64) ============================================================================= Version 1.0 July 14, 2018 By Chad Laughlin Email: chad@chadlaughlin.net ============================================================================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================================================= 1) INTRODUCTION -How the Grail Came to be Hidden Beneath the Standing Stones -A Note on Emulation 2) KNIGHT MANAGEMENT -Options 3) STATS AND EFFECTS -Status Effects -Monster-Induced Effects 4) NON-PERMANENT MAGIC ITEMS -Chests -Books -Scrolls and Potions 5) PERMANENT MAGIC ITEMS -Rings -Swords and Armor -Helmets and Shields 6) LANCELOT 7) COMBAT -Combat Spells -Greet -Bribe -Run -Fight -End of Combat 8) LABYRINTH COMPOSITION -Movement -Peaceful Spells 9) OASIS 10) CHEATS 11) RECOMMENDED PROGRESSION 12) LEVEL 15 AND THE CHAMBER OF THE GRAIL ============================================================================= ================ 1) INTRODUCTION ================ HOW THE GRAIL CAME TO BE HIDDEN BENEATH THE STANDING STONES (From the manual) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many time cycles ago it was when the great but gullible wizard Merlin threw the party of the century for his associates. He laid out his best silver and plate for his honored guests, and served them the finest morsels available by stove or by spell. Many hours later, stuffed and befuddled, guests and host alike slept the sleep of the overfed - all but the krafty Kormath. Kormath of the covetous eye, Kormath of the treacherous heart, Kormath of the sticky fingers! Into his wizard's cap he thrust spoons and spittoons, all the gold he could hold, and even - alas and alack, the heartless old hack! - the Holy Grail and Mithril chain mail! Into his belt he thrust Excalibur. Out the door he skipped; and with nasty joy in his heart and a bawdy song on his lips, he beat a path to his private stash, which lay beneath the great rocks of Stonehenge. A quick mutter of a passwall spell, and he was gone - vanished into the thick earth with the theft of the millennium. When Merlin awoke and discovered the spell, how he did rage and rant, and swore many an unrepeatable oath. He vowed revenge upon Kormath, and offered great power and glory to anyone who would recover the treasure - especially the Grail. Lancelot swore too - more loudly than the rest - and pledged his aid to anyone brave enough to undertake the quest. Other guests contributed spells and charms - enough to outfit anyone, or so it seemed, for the dangerous excursion. At first, many brave but foolhardy lads and lasses attempted to recapture the Grail. Few returned. And those who emerged alive from the descent into the labyrinth beneath the Standing Stones told terrible tales of tragic times! As the years went by, fewer and fewer adventurers dared to challenge the guardian monsters of the labyrinth. Now, no one but a madman or a witless woman would think of challenging the world beneath... A NOTE ON EMULATION ------------------- Many of the .d64 images for this game were from the Section 8 cracked version from 1984. These differ from the retail version in several key ways: -The Fireburst spell cannot be used -All gold picked up on the ground is multiplied by 10 -Spells cast outside combat do not reduce the current spell count -Spells can reach a maximum limit of 999 (the retail version limit is 50) -More spells are earned per level increase than normal -There is an extra arrow on Lancelot's path on level 1 at 1,7 that faces west -Many rings are of type NASTYCRU (which is a type not found in the retail version) and more than the limit of 2 can be worn at once. The ability of this particular ring is unknown. -The password for Dungeon Master administration has been set to TOM ===================== 2) KNIGHT MANAGEMENT ===================== After the game loads, you are taken to a lobby of sorts where characters can be administered and then taken into the labyrinth. This game does not utilize traditional save game slots. If something bad happens and you lose items or stats and then try to cheat the system by resetting, you will find on reload that your character is now dead. To keep this from happening, you MUST (E)nd the game correctly per the manual. I've lost experienced characters to thunderstorms and power outages before. All you can do is cross your fingers and hope your session will not be interrupted. Running on an emulator will help but the only disk images I've found for this game online have a built-in trainer that can't be deactivated. Death carries a hefty penalty in the form of a reduction in experience, stats, maximum hits, and loss of EVERYTHING you are carrying. Don't die. Considering the password feature and the message board on the oasis deep inside the labyrinth, this game seems to have been developed with a shared user concept in mind. The same items are in the labyrinth for all knights to discover. OPTIONS ------- -Createth a New Knight - Your starting stats and hit points are selected at random and range from 3 to 18. The computer rolls 3 6-sided dice for each stat (3D6). If you don't like the values, keep rolling until you find what you want. There's no limit to how many re-rolls you can do, until you finally settle on one. Then name your character, choose a password (I just use the character's name. You don't have to use any special characters), and then prepare to enter the labyrinth. Note - All characters share the same labyrinth. This means that if a character finds a permanent magic item but does not pick it up, another character can come by and get it. It is advantageous to only use one knight per labyrinth so that all the available permanent magic items are not spread out between several knights. Only by re-initializing the dungeon can you generate more magic weapons, but this will destroy all your characters on disk. -Getteth an Old Knight - Load an existing character. Don't forget your password! -Listeth all the Characters - Show all the characters in the current game. Up to 16 can be stored on disk at one time. -Displayeth the Hall of Fame - Show characters that have retrieved the grail, if any. -Playeth Dungeon Master - Can re-initialize the dungeon. In addition to deleting all knight files, this is the only way to create new permanent magic items to be distributed in the dungeon. If you get a bad mix of cursed permanent magic items or simply not enough, it might be a good idea to re-initialize the dungeon and start over with a new character in order to get the maximum amount of good gear. From here you can also purge oasis messages and delete characters. If you delete one that happens to be carrying the grail, you will have to re-initialize the dungeon because it will be lost forever. Requires a password to access this feature. ===================== 3) STATS AND EFFECTS ===================== -Virility - Affects your strength in combat and gold carrying capacity -Intellect - Your ability to cast Magic spells -Holiness - Affects your ability to cast Cleric spells -Agility - Your ability to run from enemies, damage received from opening chests -Initial Hits - Starting maximum life -Spells - Instead of a single pool of magic points to cast all spells, there are two separate pools for the two schools of magic, Magic and Clerical. Spells can use 1 or 2 point from one or both schools. The maximum number of hits and spells can be increased by gaining experience. Experience is gained by fighting monsters, reading certain books, and by leaving the labyrinth with gold. Upon exiting the labyrinth your gold is transferred to experience at a rate of 2 gold to 1 experience point and then removed from your inventory. But beware, the more gold you are carrying, the more monsters will attack you at once. The frequency of encounters will also increase. The number of maximum Magic and Cleric spells maxes out at 50 each. STATUS EFFECTS -------------- -Healthy - The default status. -Blinded - If you are blinded you may still move through the maze but are likely to bump into walls and become weakened. Follow your map if you can. It is possible to just rest a few times and your vision should come back. While blinded, you cannot read scrolls. Your inventory may contain a "cure blindness" potion but there is no way to tell which one you are drinking, so you can only drink a random potion. The best way to cure it is to throw a (L)ight spell or two. -Weakened - Bumping into walls will temporarily weaken you, which is not good for combat. Simply rest once or twice and it will go away. -Stronger - Cast a Magic spell (S)trength and combat will be a bit easier. The gold carrying capacity is increased slightly. This wears off after a short while. -Ethereal - You can walk through walls for a short while. Most monsters can't catch you. The downside is that you can't carry any gold while ethereal -Invisible - The monsters have a harder time finding you. -Paralyzed - You are unable to move. Besides monsters and traps, this also results from carrying too much gold at once. -Poisoned - Life will drop steadily until neutralized by spell or potion, or death -MONSTER-INDUCED EFFECTS ------------------------ Instead of outright killing you, some monsters can leave you battered and bruised with a nasty effect. -Robbed - Will lose lots of gold and possibly magic items -Drained - Can lose up to 1/3 of your total experience points and and stats/spells associated with that loss. Watch out for Death Angels! -Paralyzed - Paralysis -Blinded - Blind -Poisoned - Poisoned ============================= 4) NON-PERMANENT MAGIC ITEMS ============================= One-time use items such as chests, scrolls, potions, and books are considered non-permanent magic items. These items are randomly generated and dispersed throughout a given level of the dungeon, usually in quantities of 8-10. Once all but 1 or 2 have been picked up by the player, they are randomly recreated and distributed again. CHESTS ------ Chests will only contain gold and come in a Small or Large variety. Chests are booby-trapped and will damage you when opened. Take a (L)ook at it to get a vague idea of how dangerous it is. (C)arefully opening it will yield fewer gold coins but you will take less damage than if you simply (O)pen it carelessly. The deeper you go into the labyrinth, the better the chest's rewards will be. The damage you receive on opening them will increase as well. On the first level a fully-opened chest may contain 12,000 or so gold coins and damage you for 15 hits. On level 15 that same small chest could grant 150,000 gold but hurt you for 130 hits. Trapped chests may also blind you with a flash of light. BOOKS ----- Books are one-use items that are found scattered throughout the labyrinth. Stats can be both lowered and raised by reading books, so be sure to examine them with Cleric spells beforehand. Books can also provide experience gains (or losses). SCROLLS AND POTIONS ------------------- You can carry up to 10 each of Scrolls and Potions. Scrolls grant you extra (or in some cases, subtract from) your current number of magic spells. Potions can grant status effects or change your hit count. Each potion has a taste that provides a clue on what it does. Some friendly creatures will sometimes offer to decode a scroll or potion of your choosing. Below is a partial table of potions and their tastes: Tasteless --------- -Poison -Cure Blindness Oily ---- -Extra hits Sweet ----- -Strength Bitter ------ -Favor of the Gods -Cause Blindness ========================= 5) PERMANENT MAGIC ITEMS ========================= Weapons and armor are considered permanent magic items. These include swords, armor, helmets, shields, and rings. Unlike non-permanent magic items, they do not regenerate when the supply on that level is depleted. These items may not even be found on the top few levels, depending on the current dungeon layout. When discovered, they should be Clerically examined to check for possible curses. If they are cursed, you will have to find an exorcist at an oasis to remove it. The stat increases range from +1 to +5 per piece of equipment. RINGS ----- Up to two rings can be carried at any time. They come in these types: -Levitation -Heroism -Nice Plastic -Protection -Flight -Cleric Enhancement -Magic Enhancement -Regeneration -Dragon Cntrl SWORDS AND ARMOR ---------------- Swords and armor can grant additional attack or defense points, but also come in a "cursed" variety which cannot be removed once picked up. The only way to remove curses is to go to an exorcist at an oasis. The item is destroyed in the process of removing the curse. They can be Clerically examined when you find them, but sometimes the results of the tests are unclear. Besides the +5 bonus items, you may be lucky enough to find the legendary Excalibur and Mithril Armor somewhere in the deepest levels. HELMETS AND SHIELDS ------------------- These rare items can grant additional protection and are normally found deep inside the labyrinth. Unlike swords and armor, they are never cursed and provide up to +5 protection. ============ 6) LANCELOT ============ You are not alone in your quest for the grail. At the beginning of the game new players are accompanied by the Spirit of Lancelot. Lancelot assists in two ways. First, a path is displayed on the first level showing the way to the exit. Second, if you are attacked by a monster that will bring your hits below zero, he should whisk you out of combat and slay the monsters for you. No experience is gained but you live to fight another day. However, some monsters will make him nervous. Others will make him real nervous. Still others will catch him snoozing. In these cases you are on your own. When you set foot on the 4th floor, the Spirit of Lancelot will leave your side for good. He'll still leave you messages at an oasis from time to time and offer hints. Once Lancelot has left, the arrows leading to the exit on the first level will disappear. By then you should have around 100 hits and ========== 7) COMBAT ========== Only one phase of combat is visible to the player. If you cast a spell that doesn't kill the monster, you will automatically finish it off with a melee attack. If you (G)reet a monster that chooses to fight, you lose the option to use a spell. When a monster appears you have about 15 seconds to make up your mind what to do before another one joins in, for a maximum of 20 foes. COMBAT SPELLS ------------- -Fireburst Your most potent spell is Fireburst. It will make short work of most anything, but can only be cast once per trip. Save it for when Lancelot is napping on the job or you are in a really bad spot. -Lightning Bolt The damage of this (and Fireburst) scales in proportion to your experience points, so it can be your most potent spell. However this spell tends to bounce and reflect back at the caster. You can (and probably will) end up killing yourself if you rely on this spell too much. -The remaining spells (Sleep, Kitchen Sink, Charm, Flaming Arrow, Light Candle, Pray, Hold, Dispell, Datspell) All other combat spells have different effects on different enemies. This is just a matter of trial and error to determine which one works best against which monster. I prefer to save all my Cleric spells for Divine Guidance, so I strictly use Sleep, Kitchen Sink, Charm, and Flaming Arrow. GREET ----- Not all monsters are trying to kill you. Some will leave you alone if you just (G)reet them when they appear. If you're lucky they may decode one of your scrolls or potions, or give you one of their own. They may just say hi. Most monsters will just say "No way, Jose. Press any key to fight," and you lose your chance to open combat with a spell. The only monsters I've encountered that I can confirm are friendly are Elves, Chhi-lins, Gnomes, and ::God::. If they sound friendly it might be worth trying to say hi. BRIBE ----- You can attempt to bribe monsters with scrolls and potions. If your offer isn't high enough, they'll fight you anyway. It can be a good way to get rid of potions or scrolls that would harm you anyway, if the bribe is accepted. RUN --- Will cause you to automatically turn around and run a few spaces in a panic. Should you hit a wall you will forced to fight in a weakened state and lose the initiative to throw a combat spell. Running is not usually very effective. FIGHT ----- Perform a melee attack. When all else fails the best and quickest course of action is just to attack head on and not waste spells. END OF COMBAT ------------- If your foe has been vanquished, the screen will show you how much experience you received, how much damage you took, and how effective your spell (if any) was. If you are killed, you can resurrect outside the labyrinth or go back to the lobby. A third result is that combat can end in a draw of sorts, with the monsters placing a status effect on you before they disappear. ========================= 8) LABYRINTH COMPOSITION ========================= -Two way doors -One way doors -One way wall -secret door -Up stairs -Down stairs -Pit -Oasis -Labyrinth entrance The labyrinth is composed of a 16x16 square grid, 15 levels deep. Each level has an up an down staircase (except for the 1st and 15th level only having 1). The locations of staircases do not correspond with each other between levels. For instance, the down stairs from level 1 located at 8,0 lead to 6,6 on level 2. Coordinates provided by the deities are in the form of Y,X and start at 0. Location 7,4 would be eight rows down from the top row and the fifth spot from the left side. The labyrinth insides are formed with both walls and doors. Some of these doors are one-way, some doors are hidden inside of a wall, and some walls will close behind you in the form of one-way walls. Each of these are found on the first floor, so try to explore it fully in order to see how the labyrinth can seemingly change around you. This makes mapping the dungeon difficult and time-consuming, as you would need to rotate behind yourself to check if the maze has changed after each step. Always know your current location and facing direction. Stairs can be treacherous, and it is possible to fall down them to the next level. Hidden pitfalls also provide one-way transportation down to the next level. Sometimes stairs lead off into space, which is just a drop to a random location on the floor below. Just move off the space and back onto the stairs and it should simply lead down as normal. Each level has a certain number of non-permanent magic items for you to discover. Once only 1 or 2 remain, more will regenerate. This prevents you from having to take that last cursed book in order to create more items to discover. MOVEMENT -------- By default, movement is achieved by using the IJKM keys. Hold down the CTRL key and a direction to pass through a door. Otherwise you will bump into a wall and be weaker for a short while. This applies to using CTRL when there is no door before you. (R)esting will restore the Healthy state. The keys can be toggled to WASZ in the Change Settings screen before departing for the labyrinth. PEACEFUL SPELLS --------------- -Divine Guidance - This is the most common spell you will cast. You consult the deities for guidance regarding what's on the current level. Most of the time they will remain silent and you will waste a spell. They also may tell you where you are, how many magic items are found on the current level, or the location of one of those items. Always try to use the rest of your Cleric spells before exiting the labyrinth to see if the deities will talk. In some rare cases magic items will no longer regenerate on that level and the deities will respond with "There is no magic left on this level." -Passwall - Will transport you one space ahead in the direction you are facing. It's a great way to take a shortcut when you need to take a more direct path. As long as you are moving inside the 16x16 grid of the labyrinth you will be fine. If you use this spell to go outside (going north from row 0), you will teleport into stone and be killed. Just be aware of your location and facing direction at all times. -Jump Plane You will be teleported to the next level up or down, whichever you choose. There is a 10% chance that this spell will fail and you will go in the opposite direction, but at least it will not embed you in stone. Your location on the new level is chosen at random. -Teleport Transports you to another location on the same level. Specify a direction and distance and you will be moved to that location. Direction 0 is the current direction you are facing. This can be very dangerous if you don't take note of your current direction and location, otherwise you could end up in solid stone. Economically it can be much cheaper than tossing several passwall spells to create your own shortcut. -Etherealness Turns you ethereal. In this state you can walk through walls and avoid most monster encounters. It's a good way to explore a level without having to burn spells on passwall and teleport. While ethereal, you cannot carry any gold. -Bless This will beef up your attack and defenses. It's not shown under your status as an effect so it's hard to determine how long it will last. It also doesn't work every time, as sometimes God is too busy vacationing in Warsaw to listen to your prayers. -Heal wounds Restores a small amount of your life -Cure Paralysis Removes the Paralysis status effect. May take a cast or two to take effect -Light Cures Blindness. May also need to be cast several times to work -Strength Increases your attack power and ability to carry gold temporarily -Invisibility While invisible, monsters have a harder time finding you -Neutralize Poison Can remove the Poison status effect. ========= 9) OASIS ========= An oasis can be found somewhere on both the 5th and 10th levels. These rest stops give you the only chance to heal up once inside the labyrinth. Their location changes occasionally but can be revealed with (D)ivine Guidance (as Something Odd). Visiting the Exorcist here is the only way to remove cursed items. You can also gamble for gold on the roach races or by playing craps (rolling the bones). The oasis also has a message board. Players can leave messages for other players here. Their locations can be found by casting Divine Guidance. The locations may change once you visit them, so don't count on them being in the same place every time. Lancelot will also leave messages and hints for defeating the Ultimate Dragon: -The dragon breathes deadly fire - his mouth is to be avoided. There's nothing wrong with a rear assault. -Magic doesn't work as usual when dragons are around. Even the most powerful incantations become useless. -Special items in the chamber are certainly most useful; but remember - smoke is a dragon's best friend. -The dragon's sleep is very light. It takes little to provoke his might. But he's a sucker for a charmer -Drungankham may seem hard to beat - but let this not your spirits defeat. *Thunder and lightning make him weep* =========== 10) CHEATS =========== Once you reach the final door prior to the exit to the maze, you can use a Passwall spell to teleport to a glitched spot. This spot contains a " chest" (identified with an extra space in front of the word chest) that can be opened regardless of the trap damage you would receive. Don't worry about carefully opening it or inspecting it, just open it normally. Though your hits may drop into negative numbers for a split second, you will be transported back to the entrance with full health and an additional 70,000 gold to convert to experience immediately afterwards. This trick only works once per session. To repeat, you need to end the game, reset the power and reload from BASIC. If you try to throw a passwall the second time in the same session you will be killed by passing into stone. There is another way to make a ton of experience using this trick if you get lucky at the casino. Winning big is great until you leave the casino and can't move because you are carrying so much gold. First, you must have entered the oasis while facing north. Once you leave with your winnings and can't move, simply jump plane up to get to the first floor. Then, use Teleport to move to location 0,6. The reason you must have entered the oasis facing north is that when you are encumbered with the weight of the gold, you cannot even rotate to face a different direction. By now you should be facing the exit but can't even pass through the door. If you have already used the Passwall cheat during this session, simply (E)nd the current game, reset, and reload. Now you can cast passwall and pick up the hidden chest in the process. All the gold you were carrying is now transferred at a 2:1 ratio into experience points. Using an emulator you can save snapshots just prior to betting on the roach races and pick the winner every time. Just make sure you have plenty of spells so that you can determine where you are prior to casting teleport. It may be possible to predict the outcome of the races. Maybe there is a predetermined order or some method of how the winners are seeded. I have been able to save a state in an emulator before choosing a winner, then playing it out and seeing who wins. Restoring that state always yields the same winner. When I first did this trick coupled with teleporting to the exit and using the passwall to exit, I ended up with 65 million experience and about 3000 hits. ============================ 11) RECOMMENDED PROGRESSION ============================ Create your new knight. When rolling for starting stats I would make sure they are all at least 12. Stats don't increase with experience, only from books. Choose a password you won't forget, like the character's name. Your first few trips through the labyrinth will trace Lancelot's arrows on the floor. This will give you a chance to start collecting gold and kill your first few monsters. Before you hit the exit, always burn your Cleric spells on (D)ivine Guidance to start mapping out the location of items on the floor. I suggest printing out a map on paper to pencil in item location and keep track of your location and direction. It can be easy to forget when combat interrupts your travels. You'll also want to keep track of scrolls and potions manually. The game won't remember if the orange potion was oily or if that Elfe you ran into last night told you what the pink scroll will do. Once you have around 100 hits, you can venture down to the second floor. The monsters get tougher the further down you go, but the gold becomes more plentiful - both on the ground and in chests. Trap damage from chests increases as well. Explore this level until you have found all the gear. Save your Fireburst for encounters down here when Lancelot is snoozing. You may be tempted to use Jump Plane to go back up to the first floor, but if the spell fails it will drop you to the third level and Lancelot will go his own way. Only go down to the third floor when you feel you can easily handle anything (in groups of at least 3). From here, repeat the process until you get to the fifth floor and locate your first oasis. I would suggest mapping out down to at least the 5th level and doing most of your grinding here. It's still high enough up that you can make a quick escape with some Jump Plane spells but low enough to get a good amount of gold from treasure chests. The monsters also offer decent experience. Once you feel comfortable, I would just Jump Plane down and start trying to collect some weapons and armor from the lower levels. ========================================== 12) LEVEL 15 AND THE CHAMBER OF THE GRAIL ========================================== Eventually you will be strong enough to face the final challenges. I waited until I had around 500 hits and was maxed on spells. For the last trip you won't need to worry about gold. You might want to carry enough to heal up at an oasis. The more gold you are carrying, the more likely the monsters are to sniff you out. By the time you reach the 7th floor or so, it would be more economical to throw a Jump Plane spell down rather than wander around trying to find the next set of stairs (you did remember to map out all the stairs, right?). Once on the 15th level you will want to spend your Cleric spells using Divine Guidance in order to locate the grail chamber. It will be identified by the deities as Something Odd. It's entirely possible to wander into it but the monsters here are no pushovers. If you have less than 15 cleric spells, I'd recommend throwing in the towel and Jump Planing back up to the exit and try again. I was only able to take on the grail chamber after 4 attempts. Once you have the location, go back to the exit and heal up before coming back to take on the grail chamber. Before you enter the chamber, make a note of your current experience points. When you step inside, the game switches to a text-adventure game format. Outside the temple you meet an old man. Talk to him a few times and he asks your name and your quest (FIND THE GRAIL), and how many experience points you have. You are given a test booklet with a cryptic phrase on the cover. OPEN BOOKLET. The questions are different every time and may include: Which processor does this machine use? -6510 What was the name of Arthur's not-so-humble abode? -Camelot On which levels is there an oasis? -5, 10 What is Durin's Bane? -A nasty balrog Which of these could not possibly win the casino roach race? -Shufflin' Sam Upon entering the temple, you are thrown into combat with the now-sleeping dragon Drungankham. This battle is different from every other battle in the game in that it takes place in real time. Search the chamber for useful items, like a Missile Launcher. Use the movement keys to manuever through the rectangular chamber. Get in behind or from the side and attack. Remember the messages from the oasis? If you scored perfect on the written test, the dragon will drop dead of a heart attack before you even enter the chamber. See what smoking can do to you? Once the dragon is dead you will be teleported to the inner sanctum to be tested by the grail itself. For the final test you have 60 seconds to provide an answer to the riddle or you will be killed by the grail. If the answer is correct you are deposited outside the grail chamber. It will now be in your inventory. Hopefully you still have enough spells to Jump Plane back up to the surface and escape the labyrinth to watch your reward. Note that the character is listed in the Hall of Fame but is no longer available to play. The dungeon will be re-initialized the next time you return to the lobby. =============================================================================