A New Player's Guide to The Land - Small Dwellings

At first when you start to play you will probably want to know where the easier treasure is and avoid the bothersome mobiles, so for the first part of this series where Muddled Times will be looking at various areas of The Land, I've taken a look at The Land's 3 most newbie-friendly areas.

The Gravedigger's Cottage
The Admiral Bombow Inn
The Il Castellare Italian Villa

The Gravedigger's Cottage

The Cottage is perhaps the easiest building to find, and one where a lot of new players will stumble over. It's located on the road and can be entered from 3 points - via the dining room, via the front door or through a secret tunnel that connects the cottage cellar to the Woodman's Hut.

How to get there: The Cottage is to be found west of Narrow Road between Lands.

Inhabitants of the cottage: At the start of a reset you may come across the man in the cottage, although he tends to leave and wanders around. There is also a zombie who starts off in the cottage; in the secret passage, both these mobiles are un-aggressive - unless of course you steal from them! In the cellar of the cottage lives the rats, there are quite a few of them and they can be quite vicious as they attack in a group, so it's perhaps best to avoid them if possible at first.

Items of interest: In the Study, there is a bookcase and it contains a book called the Libram, this contains information that will help a newer player to The Land. Also to be found in this room is a map, it's a fairly basic map but useful.

Treasure: The cottage is littered with treasure, on all of its four floors. Most of it is trinket (type DEFN TRINKET) treasure, perfect for newbies to swamp or use for getting a glow.

Inside the cottage: The cottage exists on 4 levels, the top level being the attic (where you might find a small treasure trove!), on the 1st floor you will find the bedrooms, the bathroom and various small items of treasure. The ground floor has the study, the lounge and various small treasure and items of use. The basement comprises of a secret passage and also the cellar.

The Admiral Bombow Inn

The Inn is an important place for every newbie to visit since it is the only place where you can glow yourself.

How to get there: The best way to enter the Inn is via the door that enters out onto the Badly Paved Road. Entering here will bring you into a one-man room called the Entrance Hall.

Other entrances are:

Down the chute from the BACK YARD OF INN to the Beer Store
From the WELL NEAR INN west into the LOUNGE
From the SIDE YARD OF INN east into the PUBLIC BAR

Inhabitants of the Inn: The only real mobile that lives in the Inn is the mouse, which lives in the attic. The parrot is generally in the vicinity of the Inn and the thief will often dash through and steal treasure. The ram will often be around the Inn and will attack without warning. The well, which connects the Inn to the Pagoda area, is full of slimy water snakes, which also sometimes attack without warning.

Items of interest: The major thing to pay attention to in the Inn is the magical circle in the west part of the attic. To reach this find the ENTRANCE HALL then keeping on navigating yourself upwards in the Inn via the corridors until you reach the West Part of the Attic. Now to glow yourself, you will require a small piece of treasure, take that with you and read the circle once you reach the West Part of the Attic.

Treasure: The Inn is literally full of treasure, but you have to explore to find it. There is a good mix of small trinket treasure, and larger surface treasure, most of it goes pretty quick so you have to be fast to grab it!

Inside the Inn: The Inn is more complex than the Cottage; it has confusing upper floors and can be quite easy to get lost in. It is worth exploring and if you are planning on mapping the game, this is often a good place to start to get practise. The Inn like the Cottage links to another part of the land, in the Inn's case, it links to the North Mountain (and the pagoda area).

The Il Castellare Italian Villa

The third and final place, this is for the more adventurous newbie. Another haven of small treasure and no immediate dangers, this is a bit harder to find.

How to get there: There are several routes into the Villa, the easiest way is to follow the driveway up from the Ford in the River to the back entrance. There is also a way in through the Olive Grove to both the Courtyard and the Dinning Room of the Villa.

Inhabitants of the Villa: What a lonely place! Its pretty much deserted, occasionally the zombies will spawn near here and you will run into them, but other than that, the only occupant of the villa is the Snugglepuss who lives at the very top of the tower. The snugglepuss is easy to kill and will never generally attack. (Not that anyone would ever want to be that nasty to the snugglepuss of course! - Ed)

Items of interest: The Villa contains a few pieces of useful objects, which you will have to figure out for yourself, it has a handy phial in the bathroom, which is usually around for most of the set unless a mass attack against poisonous creatures has been issued. It is also the starting point for vials (sometimes!)

Treasure: The villa is a treasure trove, from top to bottom it is packed full of treasure, again, you can find lots of trinket items here, but if you get here first in the reset, then you will be very happy with the other treasure you find here. It's hard to carry it all in one journey though! So make sure to bring a container!

Inside the Villa: Again, like the Inn, it's quite a complex area. Inside you have corridors upstairs and a variety of rooms downstairs, there is also a pool outside to the west and a workshop to the east. Like the Inn, its worthwhile mapping, it builds skills that will come in useful when mapping harder areas such as the Goblin Realm or the Dwarf Realm.

Overview

I would advise exploring the above 3 areas on your own, and get used to going about them, and try mapping them. They will help you become more independent in your MUD adventures. All the areas mentioned in this article are not dangerous and when explored (esp. at the very start of a reset) and should prove to be profitable.

The approach to these areas have a small amount of danger, at the start of a set you may get bothered by the goat or the ram, and zombies tend to just be a nuisance. When heading for the Inn, if you find yourself heading towards the Evil Wood you have made a wrong turn and come back, the vampire and the wraith live in the Evil Wood - making it a highly dangerous area!!

All 3 of these places are on the one road in the land, it goes from Lovers Leap upto the Gardens at Haha, the Gardens are also a good area for a new player to explore, they are relatively danger free, but they are also treasure free. If you happen to wander by the gardens, there are 2 hard mobiles, the stag and the boar, and there is a lovely yew maze which is very easy to get lost in! - Don't say I didn't warn you!