Muddled Times
Issue:Issue 14, February 2002
Section:Fiction
Author:Cockroach

How to Kill a Wizard

I know how to kill a wizard. You make them cry so hard that they stop breathing and then suffocate to death, but that is a real life wizard, and there aren't many of them left these days, and even if there were, they'd probably have an anti-dying spell. But mud-wizards are harder, apart from people like Vaevictis, and so they are more difficult to kill. So difficult in fact that the game describes them as being impossible to kill; after typing "levels" in game you are informed that that "Minimum Points for Killing Someone of this Level" is "n/a". It seems then, that these wizards are over-confident that they are immortal. They should not be, they are far from invincible.

Below I have listed some ways to kill them, and explanations about them.

  1. The FOD spell is used excessively by some wizards. However, there is a defence against it. According to legend, if you position people in all five of the icon meditation spots and place a shiny object in the inner sanctum, when the FOD comes, providing it is against one of the placed, it will ricochet around the land, before being directed back against its maker, powerful enough to kill them.
  2. A wizard is only a wizard as long as they have 204800 points, any fewer and they revert back to mortal status. I have seen this happen on a number of occasions, and on one of these the mage was sent far from the graveyard by the banshee. This way will rely on the wizard being either extremely stupid, or extremely drunk, or as in the majority of cases, both. If you want to stir things up though, you will have to trick them into giving away those vital extra points, for example, ask them to dote on you or "congratulate all". Remember, it will not normally take much to bring a newly-made wiz back down to middle-earth, they will probably be only slightly over the magic number.
  3. Wizards have their wizard room, but legend has it that if you manage to find a way in (look around the druids) and leave the doll and Cuthbert there, then the first wizard who picks them up will revert back to level 3, because he'd be more suited to playing with such toys. Only cynical people believe this, however.
  4. Drown them! Implemented by someone who believes in dwarven-rights and has a sense of humour, this will drown wizards who spent many of their playing days drowning dwarves. To do this is quite complicated, firstly you have to find the reed, normally in the music temple. If you play it during the third rain of the reset whilst in the lake you will make the swan dance (provided it is in the same room). After it has finished its dance the swan will turn golden and sink. You will gain a certain level of knowledge. Go to the birdbath, you will find that you will now be able to drink it. You will gain the next level of knowledge. With this you should know enough to be able to "where" anything, so do "wh invis cloak" and pick it up (it is there every reset, just invisible so you can't see it). Wear it and you will become invisible to ALL eyes, and gain the level of knowledge that a wizard will normally have. Go to the swamp and type "down" (do it - it works, I'm not just trying to make you die foolishly). You will emerge in "Under the swamp". There will be a mobile here (it changes randomly each reset as to which one), give them what they ask for, and they will ask what you want. Say "3" and there will be a hurricane. The river will overflow and flood, and everyone above the surface will be drowned, including wizards. Once the mobile tells you it is safe, go up and collect all the surface treasure. Due to the flood it has all been moved out of position and will quite strangely be out in the open. If you can find the golden swan and swamp it, you will be in for a lot of points.

Happy wiz-bashing, remember don't let their heads get too big and if they do, you can always pop them with the pin.


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