Playing a Thief in Legends of Kesmai The purpose of this dissertation is to provide some guidelines for anyone who has never played a thief in Legends of Kesmai and would like to do so. At the outset I must state that this is written from my own personal perspective. There may well be other ways to play and enjoy the thief character. This is my way based on my experience of playing a level 16 thief in open-beta and rapidly getting there in the commercial game. Late breaking news ------------------ Since version 1.11.0 there have been some changes to the Legends of Kesmai environment of major significance to thieves. These changes are:- 1) Your hide spell is no longer totally inviolate. Any critter may now see you, if only for one round. This may or may not give the critter the time to attack you or move to within visible range of you. Be careful. 2) There is now a new thief spell, SPEED. You can buy this at level 8 magic and when cast upon you it will enable you to move twice per round i.e. a twice the normal speed. This is a great help when trying to duck and weave your way through large groups of critters, who will find it hard to lay a finger on you. 3) Thieving now works properly. So if you are interested in this skill, go get those lockpicks out and start training. 4) Lair critters have had a major beefing up on the intelligence front. No longer will they just hop around aimlessly while you subject them to the “death of a thousand pinpricks”. Rather, once they realise that they are being attacked by an invisible enemy, they will start casting their magic spells randomly around them in an attempt to flush you out of the woodwork. This is no big deal in the case of Daisy, the Kesmai dragon as you should be standing in water when she casts her fire. In the case of drakes and the yeti though, it really makes life a lot more difficult. While the same general guidelines listed below still apply, you must be ever prepared for a lightning bolt (drake) or ice storm (yeti) to hit you. In addition, the yeti can be quite persistent in following you once he sees you – so keep that speed spell warm. If you don’t have enough hit points or sufficient protection to survive these attacks, then leave the lairs alone until you advance a bit. 5) The Axe drake is now always evil and so will start fighting with the presence as soon as it sees it. Naturally the presence will fight back. The problem is that both are immune to each other’s armoury (the presence is immune to lightning and all but blue glowing weapons and the drake laughs at ice storm). This causes two problems. Firstly, the drake will move about a lot searching for the presence. Sometimes this will bring it within your visibility range and other times it will take it out of your view for long periods. Secondly, getting caught in the presence’s ice storm is now always a serious business, as the drake will almost always be in view when this happens and will pounce on you straight away. So the rule is as stated already, wear armour, get those hit points up and be vigilant. The drake is still doable, but you will have to be a character of somewhat more mettle than heretofore. 6) Thieves can no longer train beyond martial arts level black belt anywhere in the known lands. I believe that this is a temporary situation and will be corrected soon. 7) Changing facet in Axe-Glacier no longer deposits you in the Thieves' Guild but at the portal complex. Some will be glad of this change while others, especially advanced thieves, may see it as a retrograde step. Why play a thief character? Thieves start life with pitiful statistics and frankly, working their way up through the levels doesn’t really improve the situation very much. After wizards, thieves have the lowest hit points among the various classes of characters. Like wizards, they do get increasing levels of mana (magic) points, but while the fortunate wizard receives deadly offensive spells, the poor thief only gets defensive skills. Also, being neutral, none of the regular blue-glowing weapons (broadsword, returning hammer, returning axe, etc.) will work in his hands. On top of all that, his best defensive weapon (the Hide Spell) is broken by all but the lightest of weapons. So, given all this, why would anyone want to play a thief in the first place. Well, the answer is simple. A relatively low level thief can go places, kill critters and collect goodies that elude even advanced players of other classes. But more of that anon. Apart from this, the thief also represents the biggest challenge to players. If you like to do things the hard way, this is the character for you. If you prefer to throw your muscle or magic around, don’t play a thief. Finally, the thief is one of the best characters to play solo. If you don’t like group hunts, try a thief for excellent solo reward. Starting out your thief. I would not recommend starting a thief character until you have an already developed character of another class (preferably fighter, for reasons I will explain later), or are on very good terms with someone fitting that description. I usually choose Leng as the homeland for my thief as it gives him reasonable starting skills in dagger and martial arts. You can check the help file and choose the homeland that gives your thief the type of skills that you are comfortable with. When setting statistics I always maximise constitution, strength and intelligence and pump whatever is left into dexterity. As soon as your thief enters Kesmai town for the first time, have your 'sponsor' character give him 20,000 coins for experience training with the Sage (40,500 if you can afford it) plus another few thousand for further training. This will take your dock baby up to level 8 (level 9 if you chose the higher amount) immediately and give him the hit points he needs to survive the first few blundering hours of life in a hostile climate. It’s nice also to give him what armour (which should be of a leather type, otherwise the hide spell will not work), rings, etc. you can manage, but there are two important items you should try to provide above all else, a crossbow (the favoured weapon of the thief) and a robe (for increased magic regeneration). I have found that the easiest way to obtain these items is by having your strong character take a quick trip to Leng. There you will find a centaur wandering the desert at town level. The centaur always yields a +3 crossbow and in fact you may just find a few lying around and not have to worry about fighting the critter. Down the stairs near the portal in point in Leng live a couple of spectres and a wraith (among other things). One, two or all of these yield a robe, but be careful, they all pack pretty decent Blind / Death spells. Once again it is not uncommon to find a robe just lying there. While in Leng, you may also want to grab a +3 dagger (the one with the wavy blade) which are quite common there. Armed with crossbow and robe, our thief is now ready to train. It is best to avoid the regular town trainers as the sheriff is liable to attack you (he can see straight through your disguise). Go to the Thieves’ Guild, behind a secret door in the Pawn Shop. Stand in the inner doorway with the dark hexes to your south. Move south and south again through the darkness, to emerge in the brightly decorated upper floor of the Guild. There you will see the Thief Trainer, Lars, behind his counter. Start out by having him train you in magic by holding your book in your right hand, putting coins on his counter and typing 'Lars, train'. Next, open your book and transfer your two starting spells to your spell palette. At this point I would recommend that you macro your Hide Spell as you will be using it regularly each time you play. To assign your hide spell to macro number 1 type ‘Define 1 ""’. To warm your spell thereafter, simply enter '$1'. Now start casting magic spells until your mana is exhausted. This will give you useful experience. Next go downstairs and find the Weapons Trainer, who is located at the northernmost end of the lower floor of the Guild. Get training in the crossbow, martial arts and dagger. You can start practising immediately. There are two secret exits from the Guild to levels -1 and -2 of the Kesmai dungeons. The -1 exit is through the door just south of the Weapons trainer then all the way west. The -2 exit is all the way south of the weapons trainer. Remember to find these secret doors with your magic (when you get to magic level 3) as this gives you valuable experience. You can stand right in the doors and shoot all passing critters with your crossbow, simply jumping back into the Guild if you get injured as the critters cannot follow you (however, be careful at the -2 door as the critters can be spell casters who can zap you through the door). When things are quiet on the killing front, cast, then cast again and again and again. Periodically, you return to the trainers for further education in all your skill areas. This is particularly important for your magic skill. As I mentioned above, you best defensive weapon is the Hide Spell. However, at low magic skill levels this spells is not as effective as it might be. The hide spell works, in theory, by making you invisible to all creatures (including players) who are 2 hexes or more away from you, provided that you are standing next to something that casts a shadow, such as a wall or large tree. However, when your magic skills are low, the spell doesn’t work perfectly and a creature with more skill than you can see you 'flash' from two or three hexes away. As your magic skill increases, this flashing is reduced, but you should not rely on your Hide Spell to be 100% effective until you reach level 6 or 7 in magic and even then there may be some advanced critters or players who can see through it. The best technique for using the crossbow that I have found, is to nock the weapon with the mouse and use the parser to shoot it (e.g. 'shoot troll', 'shoot goblin', etc.). Then to shoot the same critter the next time, you just need to nock with the mouse and enter 'a'. Remember, given a good hide spell, you cannot be seen until a critter steps into an adjacent hex. Don’t be afraid to retreat when critters get too close or even recall. It’s easy to work your way back under cover of your hide spell but it is quite difficult to re-establish hide once you have become visible with several critters around. This is also a good point to mention spell casters. Spell casting critters have major problems with Thieves who are hiding. Most of them (and there are exceptions especially in the more dangerous areas) must warm their spell before casting it. They will not warm the spell until they see you so as to conserve magic points. However, having seen you, most critters will step away from you to warm the spell. If you are a thief in hiding, having stepped away the critter can no longer see you, so it doesn’t bother to warm the spell. It comes back to see where you are and goes through the whole rigmarole over and over again, never managing to warm or cast the spell. The whole affair can be quite amusing, as well as productive as I will mention later. Therefore, it is always wise to kill the non-spell- casters first. As you move up through the magic skill levels, you will have the opportunity to buy spells form the magic trainer. You should buy all of these as they give you more opportunity to cast spells and increase your magic skill even further. The 'makerecall' spell is particularly favoured by players as a means of increasing skill and providing a useful community service. To improve your combat skill, you can either wander further afield in the Kesmai Dungeons or take the bold leap to Oakvael (which I my preferred option). In general, Oakvael (levels -1 and -2) offers better experience gain per critter killed and is more suited to a thief’s special skill. The riskiest areas are the climb down points into the -1 and -2 areas as you are generally unaware of what might be waiting at the other end. But the points rewards are worth the risk. On level -1 the critters are relatively easy to kill. Watch out for rats, which can sneak up on you and break your hide spell by biting you. If there are no other critters around, rats and spiders are ideal opponents with whom to practice your martial arts or dagger skills. On level -2, my favoured option is to find a water hex, become visible (by dragging my armour to my hand), then when sufficient crits have surrounded me, hide again and pick them off. You will need to watch out for spectres while you are visible and also for web casting orcs. If an orc casts a web on your water hex, then trolls appear to be able to step onto that hex and beat you up. By the way, my favourite route to Oakvael is via Leng, where my thief habitually kills the already mentioned spectres and wraiths before faceting and portaling on to Oak. By hunting areas such as those mentioned, a thief can rapidly gain skill, possessions and money. At some point you will want to get your hands on a Doom.Orc crossbow, the ultimate thief weapon. The Doom.Orc lives in a lair on the Oakvael surface area and shares his accommodation with eight or more regular orcs as well as one or more other critters including bears, griffins and a presence with a mean stun spell. You can tell if the presence is in by the sound of his cloth dragging on the ground which can be heard from outside the lair. The lair can only be entered by night and when the moon is in a certain phase. Also, certain classes of player (including Wizards) cannot enter at all. The lair is probably beyond the solo capability of all but the most advanced of thieves. A party of several thieves can probably take it on, but the stun spell of the presence makes it quite dangerous along with the heavy hitting of any griffins or bears that might be there. The best tactic is to bring along a strong knight or two. A knight with decent hit points has the best chance of surviving the stun and should be able to kill the presence with relative ease. He will need a returning weapon to deal with the orc-archers. The primary target is, of course, the Doom.Orc. It is not necessary to be the one who kills him to bond with his crossbow. The first person to pick up the bow becomes its owner. So, don’t pout if another player gets the kill. Your day will come and after all, you’re getting the bow, which is what you came for. After the bow, the most important skill the thief should learn is martial arts. As you will quickly find out, there are a number of critters that cannot be killed with the crossbow, for example skeletons and the gargoyles in the lower levels of Oakvael. Therefore a second fighting skill is essential do deal with these and martial arts is my personal choice. You can get training up to black belt from any MA trainer or from the trainer in the Guild. Thereafter you must go to the thief trainer in Oakvael for training up to third dan level. Once you get to third dan, you can no longer train. At black belt level you can start to use the flail. I have never used one myself, nor do I know anyone who has, but the help notes for Legends of Kesmai say 'these weapons are popular with Martial Artists and Thieves because of their compactness', and so I assume they can be wielded without breaking your hide spell. Flails are numerous in the Leng dungeon (just following the passage that is east of the Leng Guild door) and are usually carried by the Hobgoblins there. The Legends help files also states 'Nunchakus, morning stars and flails are included in the flail weapon type'. a +3 black flail is said to be found on the fourth level of the dungeon; it is considered an extremely potent weapon in the hands of an adventurer with the proper martial arts training'. Apart from the Leng flail, I have never come across any of the weapons mentioned. As a third string weapon, I go for the dagger and usually carry a +3 for general use, a Yeti Dagger for those opponents who required a blue glowing weapon to kill (e.g. The Axe Trio presence) and a +2 silver dagger for those that require silver (Oak Wyrms, etc.). Remember that daggers can be thrown, although collecting them afterwards can be a real pain. On the top of my wish list to the Kesmai programmers is a +5, returning, silver dagger that glows blue. "What about thieving?" you may ask. To be frank, I have never bothered much with growing my thieving skills and I have never really considered them worth developing. I’ve heard stories of thieves who have stolen items right out of the pockets of the most feared lair critters, but I cannot confirm these. In addition, at the time of writing, there seems to be a problem with the program related to thieving and a lot of complaints about the subject. If you want to improve your thieving skills you need to first get your hands on a lockpick. These are available free from the general store in Lockpick Town, if you can get there. You can also get a jewelled key from the Leng Powertroll (who lives under the bridge) which acts as a lockpick for training purposes. If you have a strong fighting character of your own or know someone who has one, it is easy enough to get the jewelled key as the Powertroll is only about twice as tough as a regular Leng troll. To train, hold the lockpick in your right hand and request training from the thief trainer. You may here stories about how attacking someone with the lockpick improved your thief skills. This used to be true but has now be removed from the game. To gain thieving experience, it is best, in the first instance to practice on a trusted friend. Cast hide (stealing when not hidden is just about totally ineffective) then type 'Steal from '. It doesn’t matter if you manage to remove something from your target’s sack, you will still get skill gain. If your target notices your stealing, as he probably will until you become quite skilful, his self defence flag will be set against you, which means he can attack and kill you without penalty. This is why I recommend a 'trusted' friend for this exercise. When it comes to stealing from critters, I strongly favour the Kesmai gargoyles. This is because they tend not to move around a lot. The best technique (assuming you have nightvision) is to warm your darkness spell and step into a hex next to the gargoyle. As soon as he moves into your hex, cast the darkness spell. You can then steal from the gargoyle without fear of him moving or seeing you for as long as the darkness spell lasts. When you have cleaning him out, kill him for the experience points. Well, I’ve mentioned one lair critter, so what about the other lairs that are good for thieves? Daisy, the Kesmai Dragon, is quite easy prey for a Thief with a +3 crossbow and a decent hide spell, provided he has a breathewater ring or boots (don’t rely on your breathewater spell as it is liable to run out just at the wrong time). Some may find this a rather rash assertion, but my own character soloed Daisy in the commercial game just three hours after he was created and had done so three times within five hours. As with most lair critters, the biggest dangers to a thief are the critters he meets on the way and other players. If you meet critters, you can choose to kill them (although this can take quite some time if there are a lot of them), slither past them or recall and try a different route. If you meet a group of others players obviously heading for the dragon liar, then give up for the time being. The chances are that if fighters or other players are tackling the dragon, she will be hopping all around the place and casting fire, either of which can cause her to see you. The best time to go after the dragon is when you are pretty sure that you are the only one doing so. When you get to the lair area, follow the southern wall, westward toward the dragon. Pass through the first set of water hexes, then over the dry hexes and into the second set of water hexes. Park yourself by the wall with one water hex between you and the innermost part of the lair. The Dragon can enter the water, but won’t do so unless she has reason and if she can’t see you then she has no reason. You then simply shoot the dragon until you kill her. This may sound very simple and it often is. Sometimes things can be complicated by other critters in the lair, but in general killing Daisy is quite straightforward, if somewhat nerve tingling. (Incidentally, you can also use this technique to help your fighter to kill Daisy for the agate gem. Simply park your Knight close to the lair, have your thief shoot the dragon until she is almost dead, then fetch your knight to finish the job and get the agate. Just don’t forget that Daisy packs quite a punch even on her deathbed.) You can loot the lair of course and don’t forget to take the agate. The thief can use it as a returning weapon and, while it doesn’t make for much of weapon, it is effective against skeletons (which are immune to the crossbow) and using it gives you throwing skill gain. If you feel so inclined, you can also clear out the ghoul crypt behind the dragon’s lair. Usually you will find a wraith as well a several ghouls there. Don’t forget to cast hide again before you go back there. The wraith can be killed from a distance, while you will need to stand in a water hex next to the crypt floor to see the ghouls, which also have hide spell. The ghouls will not enter the water, so you will be quite safe. You may have to step into the crypt to attract the attention of one or all of the ghouls, once you see them, run back to the water again. Finally, if the is a returning hammer in the ghoul crypt, please don’t touch it. It is of no use to you and someone else might be very glad of it. Another easy lair critter, provided you can reach his lair, is Ydnac, the Chaotic Thaum. He leads a hermit’s life in a cave way out in the north-east corner of the Kesmai surface. It’s close to Hermann, the Knight-maker and any knight should be able to give you directions. The route is quite dangerous and there are areas where you will not be able to use your hide spell, but with some thought and cunning it should be an easier trip than to Daisy’s lair. Once you reach the lair, inch up to the entrance until you can see right inside. Ydnac lives alone, so you can concentrate on killing him without much risk of interference. He yields a returning hammer, which again, you should leave alone. He doesn’t offer much in the line of goodies except for a black robe and a wisdom potion, which you might be able to sell to a thaum for a half- decent price. One of the questions all thieves ask sooner or later is "when and how can I get Sparkles, the Axe Drake?" My own view is that you should be at least magic level 7 (Obscurer of Ways). It may be possible to try it at lower levels, but I haven’t done so and therefore am reluctant to recommend it. In addition, a Doom.Orc bow is essential and you should be reasonably skilled in its use (at least level 7 - experienced). Also, featherfall makes escaping a lot easier in the event of being seen. If you don’t have the featherfall spell, see if you can get a loan of a pair of featherfall boots. You’ll, hopefully, only need to borrow them once as the Drake’s Lair always yields a pair. To get to the Drake’s lair, you can either walk from town or facet change after you arrive in Axe Glacier (only do this if you have featherfall). When a thief changes facet in Axe Glacier he re-enters the scenario in the Thieves’ Guild. From there, it is a short (if slightly dangerous) trip to Lockpick Town. Rather than fight your way through, use your nightvision spell and the cast darkness. Only a few critters in the area can see in the dark. Route from Thieves Den to Lockpick Town Follow the asterisks to the climb up point 102[][][][][][][][][][][][][][] [][][][][][]. . . . []. A [] 100[][][]up. . . [][][][][]==[][][] []. . . . . . []. . . []THIEF [] []. . []. . . . . . . []. D [][] []. . []. . . . . . . [][]E [] [][]. . . . . . . []. [][]N [] 95 [][]. . . . []. . []. [][]t1[] [][]. . . . [][][][][][][][][] ~.[][]. . . . . . . . t1[] ~.[][][][][]. . . . . **[] ~.~.[][][]. . [][][][]**[] 90 ~.~.[][]. . . []********[] ~.~.[][]. . [][]**[][][][] ~.~./ / . . []**. . . . [] ~.~.~.[]. . []**. . . [][][][] ~.~.~.[][][][]**. . . [][]. [] 85 ~.~.~.[]. . . **. . . []. . [] ~.~.~.[][]. . []**. . []. . [] ~.~.~.~.[]. . [][]**[][]. . 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[][] F - Tavern []. . []. . . [][][]. [][] G - Recall Seller [][][][]. . [][][][]SD[][] H - Tanner []%%[][]o G . . []F | . . [][] I - Bank []%%%%. . . . . []==[][]. [][] J - Weapon Trainer 90 []%%%%. . . . . []. . []. [][] K - General Store []%%%%. . . {}. | . . SD. [][] []%%%%. . . . . []. E [][][][] % - Air hex []%%%%%%. . [][][][][][][][][] []%%%%%%. . | . H []I [][][][] 85 []%%%%%%. . []. . []==[][][][] %%%%%%. . [][][][]. . [][][] %%%%%%%%. . . . | . . [][][] %%%%%%%%. . . . [][][][][][] %%%%%%. . . . . []. J [][] 80 %%%%%%%%. . . . []. ()[][] %%%%%%%%. . . . []. . [][] %%%%%%XX. . . []--[][][] %%%%%%%%. . . . . cd%%[] %%%%%%. . . . . . . [][] 75 %%%%%%. . . [][]--[][][] %%%%%%. . [][][]. . [][] %%%%%%. . [][][]. . [][] %%%%%%. [][][][][]==[][] %%%%%%%%[][][][][]K [][] 70 %%%%%%%%[][][][][][][][] 69 %%%%%%%%%%[][][][][][][] 3 3 4 4 1 5 0 5 Near the ring seller in Lockpick Town are several air hexes into which you can jump to arrive quite close to the Drake’s lair. After jumping, the drake is in a generally northern direction. (Hint: Get Maps!) To the south of Lockpick down you can also jump down quite close to the climb down to town. There is also rumoured to be an extremely useful and unlikely shortcut in the area, but I’ll leave you to discover that for yourself. (Hint: What was that old pirate saying?). Once you are at the climb up point to the Drake’s lair, make all your preparations. Cast hide, set a recall if you wish to return again later and empty your hands for the climb. Climb up and move one hex to the north-east. If you go any closer, the drake may see you. Shoot the drake from that hex. It should take about 45 hits to kill Sparkles. The biggest danger comes from a possible presence (who can cast ice without warming, thereby making you visible and turning you into Drake fodder) and from other players! It may happen that a band of Mama hunters will arrive at the lair. Because they will not be hidden, like you, the Drake can see them and will attack. You will be caught up in this attack and be just as vulnerable as anyone else. In either event, your best escape route is to jump south-east and recall. After all, tomorrow is another day. Of course you can always go straight back and if the Drake is still alive, there should be plenty of death piles to be had. If the presence is your problem, then just keep jumping down and going back. You should be able to stay clear of the presence long enough to get Sparkles. When the Drake is dead, jump into the lair and start looting. Remember that the presence may (still) be there so don’t dump all of your balms until you have been visible for a few minutes. The presence can only be killed with a blue glowing weapon and while he is pretty tough, you should be able to kill it easily with a shoot and balm routine. When you eventually get a Yeti dagger, it is the weapon of choice for killing the presence. Don’t forget to strip the drake, for that all important potion. I always take the body too, for, even if I have plenty of armour, drake scales sell for 5000 coins. The lair yields plenty of goodies and I often return for a second loot once the items have been sold (which you can do in Lockpick town) or lockered. Once you have dealt with the drake, you can either call it quits or shoot for Yoric, the Yeti, who lives close by. Be warned, you have to pass the most feared creature in land, Mama, the Ice Dragon, to reach him. From the drake’s lair, ensuring that both hands are empty, climb up then travel north and west until you arrive at Mama’s lair. There is one white (ice) hex upon which you can safely stand and see into the lair. Move east - west wall on the approach to the lair and one hex west of where the wall ends. The safe hex will then be 2 hexes north of you across one brown hex. Do not step on the brown hex as you will become visible. From the safe hex you will be able to see six of the nine hexes that form Mama’s patrol area when not attacking. From this point, your next target hex will appear black and will be to your north and east. Wait until Mama is not visible (i.e. she is to the very back of her lair) then go for it. Immediately head for the climb up hex (to your east) and don’t stop to admire the view. Once on the climb up hex, you are safe again. Your biggest worry during this dash is that you slip on the ice and Mama moves to within one hex of you. Provided you don’t slip a second time, you should make it. If you do slip a second time, get out your underworld maps. I have, so far, always managed to slip past Mama, although it was a close call on one or two occasions. When you climb up, you may bump into a critter or two. Unless the critter is a bear and can see you, these should present little problem. Just be careful of the lizards if there is a bear around. The lizard will ice you if it sees you, making you visible and appetising to the bear. Proceed west as far as you can and then north toward the one way portal. The portal hex is one south of the hex with the 'spire' on it. When you pass through the portal, you may run into similar problems to those described for the top of the climb up. From the portal travel east and north until you come to and east - west corridor. Along the southern wall of this corridor are a series of secret door leading into the lair proper. I always use the first door. Through door is an ante-room which may also house lizards and a bear. From this point on, only move one hex at a time to avoid breaking your hide spell. Move south along the wall, then south-east into the lair door. As with most lair critters, the Yeti normally patrols a 3 x 3 block of hexes. Your safe hex is one north of the actual door opening. Yoric is usually accompanied by a bunch of goblins, which never leave the lair and so are safe to ignore. Indeed, sometimes the Yeti is evil, rather than chaotic and will make your task even easier by killing the chaotic goblins as they generate. You may also find a lizard or two in the lair. These will wander out of the lair area and you will have to back off until you either kill them or they wander away. The Yeti will take a lot of shooting to kill. Once he is dead you may then have to deal with the goblins, which should be killed without moving from the safe hex. When everything is dead move into the lair with caution. The further south you go, the greater the chance of attracting Mama from her lair. Of the nine 'Yeti patrol hexes', the two most northerly rows are safe to loot. I have attracted Mama by going to the row two north of the air hexes although it is possible to run south, grab what you want and scoot back north again without attracting her (casting darkness also helps). The primary treasure is the dagger, which is blue glowing and neutral, the bear skull which contains the spell of nightvision and the saffron robe which is light and therefore less hindering when using martial arts. Finally, you need to get out of the lair. As far as I can tell, the only official way out is by jumping down into Mama’s lair. There is an 'unofficial' way out which you will have to figure out for yourself. The next lair critter up the scale is Sparky, the Leng Drake. Taking on Sparky is a lot tougher than his Axe cousin mainly because is lair is protected and inhabited by quite a collection of hard hitting minotaurs, manticoras and Liches. The latter do not present a big problem for the thief, but as it is wise to tackle Sparky with the aid of a strong non- thief companion, they can’t be a problem to the rest of the party. In Leng, you get a lot less goodies for killing the drake, but you do get the lightning resistance ring and as far as I know, this is the only way to get it. My favourite way of tackling the Leng drake it with a strong Wizard. He clears out the approach to the lair with firestorm or whirlwind, then stands guard at the lair entrance while the thief proceeds to the inner lair. The safe hex is the easternmost blood stained hex in the corridor up to the lair. Sparky can be shot from there but watch out for the lair minotaurs which can venture out beyond the confines of the lair. There are also manticoras within the lair, but these generally remain on their hex until you start shooting them. I have had a manticora regenerate on the hex next to me and so it could see me. It was a hairy moment, but I survived. If a critter does emerge from the lair, run back toward the entrance and let your companion deal with it. If the lich sees you, you can simply ignore it. Just be sure your visible fighting partner doesn’t wander too close to the lair where the lich can see him. When the drake is slain, it’s best if you allow your stronger colleague to clear out the remaining critters. A wizard can do this in a couple of casts. If you really want to solo the drake, you will be unlikely to succeed with crossbow alone. However with good martial arts skills (say first or second dan) you can probably do it with a reasonable chance of success. Another nice area for a thief is the Leng Tower, up to level 2. The base of the tower is usually guarded by chaotic Wizards and Wraiths. These are easy for the hiding thief. Levels 0 and 1 can be somewhat trickier with limited space to work in and some pretty heavy hitters there, but a wily and experienced thief should be able to get the better of them. The real fun is on level 2. This is usually occupied by two liches, at least six (and often more) wraiths and two chaotic wizards. As will be obvious, these are all spell casters (albeit with a hide spell) and so will be confused by your hide spell. I have spent many a happy hour there honing my crossbow skills and lapping up the experience gain. There is one note of caution I must sound. Sometimes, trolls or other fighting critters can end up on this level, as a result of following or running from players on other levels of the tower. If you see one, just get out. You won’t last 5 seconds once you become visible. Don’t bother with level 3, unless you have a death wish and if you want to take on Vlad, the Vampire, do it with one of your other characters. That really covers the areas that are tailor made for Thieves. You can, of course, venture anywhere you wish and the more experience you become the easier it will be to survive and prosper. In general any area where there are high numbers of spell casters will suit a thief well. This statement may tempt you to wander down to the undead level in Oakvael. You should know before you do so, that things aren’t always what they seem down there. There are spell casters who don’t need to warm their spells and who will break your hide in an instant. Also, critters that you might expect to be spell casters will attack you with martial arts. It’s a jungle down there and only suited to the advanced thief. There are also places which you should simply forget about. For example, don’t bother with Kosh, the Leng Dragon. His layer is too small to use your hide spell and he is just too vicious for your low HP count. Mama, the Ice Dragon is also probably going to prove beyond your ability. Of course, a level 20 thief with fifth dan martial arts and an incredible dagger would, most likely, take a different view. “So what do I do with my advanced thief?” you may well ask. Well, having done all of the above, some just call it quits and ignore their thief until the need for some DPs or night-vision helmets arises, then drag him out, dust him off and pepper a drake or a Yeti. Others chose to develop their character into a lean, mean, fighting machine. If you plan to do the latter, I would suggest that the martial arts route is the best way to go for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you can get training up to third dan level (from the thief trainer in Oakvael) and secondly, there is no real alternative, since the major weapons just don’t works in our hands. Even as a skilled martial artist you will face difficulties. The best MA weapon you can have is a pair of +2 gauntlets – hardly the most intimidating of offensive capability. In addition, your low hit points are always going to put you at a disadvantage in any nose-to-nose slugging match. But there is a small glimmer of hope. At the time of writing, a new land is in development and it is strongly rumoured that our gallant band of thieves may find it a valuable source of new weaponry. Watch this space! In summary, a thief can be a difficult and exasperating character to play. The most important characteristic that you need to play him is patience. If you have that and if you know what your thief can and cannot do, he will reward you handsomely. He will provide drake potions for your sudden deaths, robes and mana potions for your magic users, +2 dexterity rings for your martial artist, +6 strength bracers and lightning shields for your fighters, cash for your wizard training, wisdom potions for your thaum and nightvision helmets, shield rings and lightning rings for all who need them.