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LEGEND OF LOTHIAN: Instructions
By David W. Meny
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     "Legend of Lothian" is a fantasy-adventure game set in the mythical
kingdom of Mercia. In this game, you assume the role of a poor shepherd who
has been chosen to save the king of Mercia. For some unknown reason, King
Lothian will not wake from his sleep, and, in his absence, chaos reigns over
the land. It is up to you to find a way to revive King Lothian and restore
Mercia to its former tranquillity.
     You must explore the large continent of Mercia and beyond. Along your
journey you will talk with many different people, battle fierce monsters and
solve strange puzzles, all in hope of saving King Lothian. Your success or
failure in this quest will determine the fate of the whole land of Mercia.
     The well-being of your character is determined by two attributes: health
and stamina. Health is an indication of how physically fit your character is,
while stamina indicates how well-fed character is. Stamina is diminished when
your character runs out of food and is starving, while health can be
diminished through combat, and by starving, after your character's stamina
level reaches zero. If your character's health level ever reaches zero, the
character will be dead.
     Since the fall of King Lothian, the Mercian army has become disorganized
and has been unable to check the advances of the monsters. You will
undoubtedly encounter many of these horrible monsters and be forced to fight
them. Monsters also provide the available source of income, so fighting them
is a necessity to gain gold. Killing monsters also gives your character
experience points. After acquiring enough experience points, your character
will advance to a new combat level, thereby becoming a better fighter and
acquiring higher health and stamina levels. But beware! As your character
becomes progressively better at fighting, the monsters also increase in
difficulty!
     The monsters can do much damage to your character, and therefore,
healing is very important and can be achieved in a variety of ways. When you
have food, by simply walking around, you will eat, and your health and
stamina levels increase, if either are below their maximum level. As long as
you have food, your character will heal. This process usually takes a while,
which is fine for small damage, but if you are seriously wounded, healing by
this method will take a long time.
     Alternatively, you may rent a room in one of the inns located in many of
the towns. Although this costs a small amount of gold, no food is lost while
sleeping, and this method is quicker than consuming food to regain health and
stamina, especially when you are badly hurt.
     Finally, you may choose to visit one of the several mystic healers found
in a few of the towns and castles. They charge for their powerful magic, but
no food is lost, and this is the fastest and easiest way heal.
     Communicating with people is one of the most important elements of game.
All the information needed to complete your quest is acquired by
communicating with people, so talk to everyone you can. Also, some people
may help you by giving you tools that are needed in your quest. When you talk
to someone who gives you a tool, you automatically receive that tool.
     There are many puzzles you will need to solve. This is accomplished
primarily by using the tools acquired during the journey. Think carefully
about the puzzles you encounter, for you will not solve your quest without
completing each puzzle.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
     Double-click on the "Legend of Lothian" icon. After the game has
loaded, it will ask you to enter your name or the name you wished to be
called. You may enter any letter from A through Z plus the space character.
Press ENTER after typing your name. Next you are asked to specify your sex.
Press M for male or F for female, or you may select either with the mouse
pointer and press a button. Then you are asked if you have heard the tale of
King Lothian. Read the tale at least once to get the story behind the game.
You may press any key or press either mouse button to advance pages in the
story. After the story has finished, the game screen will appear and your
quest will begin.
     The game screen is divided into six separate windows. The map window is
in the upper left corner of the screen and represents the area immediately
surrounding your character. In the center of the map window is your character
icon.
     Directly beneath the map window is the location window. The name of your
current location will be displayed in this window. For example, if you enter
a town, the name of the town will be displayed here.
     Beneath the location window is the icons window. Two rows of icons are
here for mouse control of the game. From left, the top row of icons represent
talk, get, open door, climb ladder, board ship, attack, save game, and the
restart game. The bottom row of icons, from left, are use tool, info, pray,
sleep, disembark ship, flee from combat, load game, and quit game. By simply
moving the mouse pointer to the appropriate icon and clicking either mouse
button, that command will be activated, if it is valid at that point in the
game.
     In the upper right of the screen is the text window. This window
provides all text information from the game and shows the past history of
most recent commands. A purple cursor indicates the current position for your
input.
     Below the text window is the combat/talk/use window. Here is where the
monsters you fight in combat are shown, where people and speech are shown
when you communicate, and where you select tools to use. This window will
remain blank until one of these functions occurs.
     Finally, beneath the text window is the information window. Here is
displayed all the current data on your character. Your current health and
stamina levels are shown here in two ways: by bar graphs on the left side of
the window and the numerical form showing the current and maximum (in the
format "current/maximum") health and stamina levels on the right side. In
this window you will also find the amount of gold and food you have, the
number of experience points you have earned, current combat level, along with
the weapon and armour you have, if any. All of the information in this window
will be automatically updated when needed.
     You may control the actions of your character by using the keyboard, the
mouse, or a combination of both devices. The mouse may be used to do
everything in the game, with the exception of three tasks: typing your name
at the beginning, specifying how much food you wish to purchase at stores,
and typing in a chant that you want to pray upon. Action is specified via the
mouse by selecting one of the icons in the lower left of the game screen and
pressing either mouse button. If that command is valid at that time, it will
be executed.
     Each icon also has a keyboard equivalent. Press the corresponding key
for the action you wish to perform. Valid keyboard commands follow (the notes
that follow most commands also apply when these commands are executed via the
mouse):

 A = ATTACK! (valid only in combat).
 B = BOARD a ship (player icon must be on ship).
 C = CLIMB ladder (player icon must be on ladder).
 D = DISEMBARK from ship (ship icon must be on beach).
 E = ENTER a town, castle, etc. (player icon must be on object).
 F = FLEE! (valid only in combat).
 G = GET item (player icon must be adjacent to item).
 I = INFO (gives information to player).
 O = OPEN door (player icon must be adjacent to door).
 P = PRAY (to meditate upon a chant).
 Q = QUIT game.
 S = SLEEP (player must have rented an inn room and be present in the room).
 T = TALK (player icon must be adjacent to a person or a merchant).
 U = USE tool (used to solve puzzles).
 
 ESC = Quit game.
 F8 = Restart game.
 F9 = Load old game position from disk.
 F10 = Save current game position to disk.

     Movement in "Legend of Lothian" is accomplished by using the arrow keys
on the keyboard, or by positioning the mouse pointer in the map window, in
the direction where you wish to move (i.e., above your character icon for
north, below for south, right for east, and left for west). When the mouse
pointer is in the map window, the pointer turns into an arrow indicating the
direction you will go when the mouse button is pressed.
     If your character is standing on an object that can be entered, such as
a towne, castle, etc., then by position the mouse pointer on your character
icon, the pointer will turn into an "in-ward arrow", and by pressing the
mouse button, you will enter that object (the same as using the E key). Also,
if your character is on a ladder icon, positioning the mouse pointer on your
character icon will turn the pointer into an "up and down arrows" pointer,
and pressing the mouse button will climb the ladder.
     One of the most important commands is the Info command, accessed by the
I key on the keyboard or the ? icon. After executing this command, the mouse
pointer will change into a question mark. By placing this pointer on anything
in the game screen, you will be told what that object is. This is especially
useful for knowing what the graphics in the map screen are supposed to
represent.
     The talk, open door and get commands (whether accessed by the mouse or
through the keyboard) will automatically check to see if there is only one
person, door, or object adjacent to your character. If there is, then that is
the object that is acted upon. However, if there are two or more people,
doors, or objects adjacent, the game requests you to "Select dir:" (specify
direction) that you wish to act in. For the majority of the time, you will
never need to specify the direction, but there are a few places you will.
     At various points in the game, you will prompted for input, such as a
yes or no question, whether you wish to be male or female, or the number of
the weapon or armour you wish to buy. You may use the keyboard or move the
mouse pointer to the response desired and press either button. For example,
when you want to buy a weapon or armour, a "Select: (0/1/2/3/4/5)" prompt
appears below the price list of weapons/armour. By pressing the appropriate
number key, or by moving the mouse pointer to any number on this prompt (not
to the names of the weapons/armour!) and pressing either button, you indicate
which weapon/armour you want to purchase.

GAME INFORMATION
     "Legend of Lothian" was written in SAS/C, version 5.10, on an Amiga 1000
with two disk drives and two megabytes of RAM. All of the graphics seen in
the game were drawn in DeluxePaint III and are loaded at run-time. Almost a
year of my time was spent on this game, and I hope you enjoy all of my effort.

HELPFUL HINTS
     1. Make a map of the various places you visit. The land of Mercia is
very large and a map will aid you in your travels.
     2. Listen to the townsfolk carefully and take note of important
information. Although some people may offer only useless chit-chat, most have
valuable information that will help you in your quest.
     3. Don't try to go exploring too soon. Stay around Larkspur until you
you have purchased both a weapon and armour and have enough food to travel
long distances.
     4. Explore everywhere! The land of Mercia is very large and some places
you need to visit are located in hard to reach areas. Also, in towns not all
people are located in buildings; some are off the paths, so explore
everywhere.
     5. Save your game position often. Death can come very quickly in this
game, and you don't want to lose anything important that you may have
accomplished.

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