BatMUD

The Bards' Guide

**** Please read the articles in the guild room. They contain good info written by
**** experienced bards. There are good guidelines and general rules concerning the guild.

The quests in the guild are, and how they're solved:

level   title                  requirements                      
1st  .. Novel song-brother ... civilized background, dex
2nd  .. Song scribbler ....... explore the guild

  * You need to visit every room at the guild. You'll see a progress
    info when you go around.

3rd  .. Simple harpist ....... setting the message

  * Set your guild status message that is shown at 'bard who'
  
4th  .. Pied piper ........... itinerant errand of bards 

  * Contact a Loremaster or a Masterbard. You can see who they are
    with 'bard who'. Ask from him (politely!) to give you a task.
    He will then tell you what your task is.  

5th  .. Singing sword ........ win at the bardic casino

  * Go to the bardic casino, it is w,nw,d,n,e,s from the entrance. 
    There are two games available for you. Pick the one you like and
    play until you win enough. You can type 'info 5' at the guild advancement
    room to see how much you need to win.
    NOTE: The amount of money you need to win is depending on your player level.
    for a lvl 50 its petty cash, but for 90 its ~40-50k already. So
    do this quest and advance to 6th before you advance your player levels too much.

6th  .. Explorer ............. explore 15% 
7th  .. Wandering loresman ... - 
8th  .. Sell-harp ............ meet the songmasters

  * Check 'bgreet xxx' to see all the Songmasters. You need to visit
    each one. I am not sure if only going to the same room and leaving
    counts, but type 'greet  just to make sure.
    To ease up the quest, you can ask for a distinguished bard to help you.
    He can use 'Pathfinder' to relocate to the songmasters directly and
    then summon you there.
  
9th  .. Promising harpist .... have a costume approved

  * Go to the wardrobe (w,ne from 'enter') and create yourself a costume.
    Look at the list for instructions and follow them. Don't muck around
    with the costume, but do it properly. You might consider also thinking
    about your first onstage performance, and create a costume for that.
    Ask for a Loremaster (politely) to come and approve your costume when
    it's done.

10th .. Songwriter ........... three songspells kbh'd

  * You need to see three spells 'known by heart' in your bscore.
  
11th .. Known songwriter ..... onstage performance

  * Your first performance. There is a stage where you enter the bards'
    guild that is used for performance alone or in a group. Pick an idea,
    lyrics, poems, something you like and go to the stage and rehearse.
    Look at the instructions how to use the stage, and how to wear your
    costume. When you think your ready, inform a Loremaster (politely)
    about it, and set a date/time when he/she will come and see your
    performance. You also must inform other players at the 'tales'
    newsgroup so they can come and watch it.

12th .. Musician ............. 500 gold received alms
13th .. Legendteller ......... 10 quests solved
14th .. Grindstone champion .. instrument created

  * See below in the 'Instruments' section how to do this.
  
15th .. Grinning picker ...... -
16th .. Bard ................. -
17th .. Adventurous musician . explore 28%
18th .. Robust poemist ....... play (minimum 2 persons)

  * This is probably considered by many the most intimidating quest at the
    guild. Performing is always exciting and for many, frightening. This however
    requires more timing and teamwork. Get a friend, make up a play or re-act
    some famous dialogue, etc. The main point is that both performers are at the
    same page when the performance is on. The keyword is: rehearse.
    Go to the stage, and go through the play. You can 'review' the play
    after you've rehearsed it to see what it looked like to the audience.
  
19th .. Respected musician ... -
20th .. Deadly singer ........ six songspells kbh'd 
  
  * You need to see six 'known by heart's in your bscore.

21st .. Reigning sell-harp ... three instruments

  * You need to create three instruments. As the instrument creation cooldown
    is three days, on your first reinc you cannot advance in less than
    nine days beyond this level no matter what.

22nd .. Virtuous bard ........ tale 

  * You must write a tale and present it to a Loremaster (politely) who
    then approves.
  
23rd .. Bladesinger .......... - 
24th .. Songweaver ........... - 
25th .. Songhurler ........... 20 quests solved
26th .. Bladesdancer ......... - 
27th .. Divine composer ...... five instruments 

  * Create two more instruments.

28th .. Singing wayfarer ..... explore 35%
29th .. Expert wayfarer ...... explore 45%
30th .. Professional bard .... explore 50%, 23 spellsongs kbh'd

  * This is a tricky one. There are two ways of acheaving this.
    1) KBH all songs, including the infamous melody of the misadventurer.
    2) KBH all songs except the melody, and keep casting bardic spells until
       your might is 'paltry'. One player told me that this took 4 months 
       RL time of playing to achieve, but atleast you dont have to suffer the
       consequences of the misadventurer.
       
    NOTE: You cannot join the navigator's guild until you're a full bard.

LM   .. Loremaster ........... masterbard's approval
MB   .. Masterbard ........... unimaginable pain and suffering

Bardic might

When casting bard spells, getting them KBH'd you get Bardic might, which can be seen with the command 'bmight'. The statuses are:
pathetic
pitiful
sad
bad
tiny
little
meager
feeble
poor
paltry
crude
weak
slight
low
mediocre
average
decent
adequate, good
nice
great
excellent
impressive
incredible
superb
awesome
dazzling, magnificent
unearthly
divine

After you've KBH'd all spells, the might should be somewhere around 'meager', if you've just been doing the KBH. While writing this, the best bard in the game had 'excellent' might, so it's not a fast process obviously.

Spells and KBH guides:

How spellbooks work:

Some spells can be KBH'd at the trainer, but some require a target.
Some require a monster, some another player or both. You can buy spellbooks from the bards' guild, go w,s from the entrance. There is a vendor that keeps 30 books in store. Some can be found at the magical shop at shadowkeep. You can also buy a bag to store ~10 books.

The basic idea is that when you study the spell at the guild, you cannot cast it immediately. You need to learn the words for that spell from a trainer that are scattered around the realm. Type 'bgreet xxx' to see all the trainers. From the list below you can see each spell and their spellsong.

First of all you need the skill 'songscribing'. The better it is, the better your songbooks will hold. Then you must choose a spell to cast, and study it. If its a spell you can KBH at the trainer, then go there and start casting.
Otherwise you need spellbooks, and here how it works:
Get books. You can buy them near the guild. From the street where the entrance to the auditorium, go 2 w and one south.
Go to the trainer and check your inventory. See that you got your books in order there. Type 'learn', and you will scribe the words to your spellbook. Select the next book (give book 2 to yourself) and type learn again. Repeat this until all the books are written.
Then check 'bscore'. You'll probably notice that it says something like this:

Clandestine thoughts     needs more practice         currently in memory

If you dont have the spell currently in memory, its says:

Clandestine thoughts     needs more practice         not in memory

When you cast the spell successfully, it will disappear from your memory, and you need to either type 'learn' at the trainer, or 'read book'. If you have multiple different books you can type 'read Spellsong name' (case sensitive). When you memorize the spell, you'll get a message:

You memorize the tunes for 'Clandestine thoughts'.

After this, you can cast it. The spell% affects on how many times you need to type 'learn' or 'read book'. The higher the spell% the less you need to read.
When you read a book, it starts to decompose. When the book reaches a condition:
A dead notebook for 'Clandestine thoughts', it will break down from the next read.
At this point, choose another book (again give the second best book to yourself so it'll be first in your inventory), until all your books are depleted. You do not need to throw the 'dead' notebooks away, but you can write them again at the trainer by typing 'learn' again with each book. The maximum condition of the books will suffer, but atleast you dont have to run and get new books all the time.

Instruments

You need to create yourself atleast 5 instruments in order to max out the bards' guild.
The instruments are created at the bards' guild, southwestern part. You need to choose
a material and the type of your instrument. Here are the types and materials:

instrument      material        not allowed materials
========================        =====================
bagpipes        50 kilos        air
banjo           20 kilos        burlap
bongo           12 kilos        chalk
cello           35 kilos        charcoal
clarinet         8 kilos        clay
contrabasso     70 kilos        cloth
cymbals          9 kilos        coal
didgeridoo      28 kilos        cotton
flute            5 kilos        earth
guitar          30 kilos        emulsion
harmonica        2 kilos        enchanted air
harp            40 kilos        feathers
horn            30 kilos        fire
lute            18 kilos        flesh
mandoline       18 kilos        food
maracas          2 kilos        fur
oboe            12 kilos        hemp
piccolo          2 kilos        ice
saxophone       30 kilos        leather
sitar           22 kilos        paper
tambourine       7 kilos        phosphorus
trumpet         25 kilos        rubber
tuba            80 kilos        silk
violin          25 kilos        sulphur
xylophone        8 kilos        vegetation
                                water
                                wax
                                wool

Different instruments give different stats. You get hpmax, epmax, str dex and con.
To create an instrument, you need the skill 'Instrument creation'. It's very expensive,
but in order to create good instruments you need it at 90%+
So, choose an instrument, get the required amount of material which is not of the
disallowed materials and go to the instrument creation room.
Drop the nugget of material you have on the ground and type:

create [instrument] of [material]

This will take some few minutes, and depending on your skill the instrument is generated. When you create an instrument and you're already wielding one, you need to 'store' it first at the backroom (south of the creation room). You can only create one instrument per three days, so start creating them as soon as you get the creation skill.

WARNING - NOTICE - ATTENTION:
The material needs to be in ONE PIECE. So providing 2x5kg does not work as one
10kg piece. BRING ENOUGH MATERIALS WITH YOU - if you break the instrument
and leave the room to get more materials, you burn your bardic might and cannot
create another instrument for three days.

Here are some example of instruments you can create (thanks to Wermine):

 Instrument                                   Stats
 ===============================================================
 A violin made of titanium (divine)           +5dex
 A tambourine made of crystal (incredible)    +6str +6con +36hpmax
 An oboe made of ruby (incredible)            +3str +6dex +3con +18hpmax +25epmax
 A maracas made of dukonium (divine)          +10str +10con +60hpmax +14epmax
 A guitar made of mithril (divine)            +5dex +20epmax
 A flute made of emerald (divine)             +5str +10dex +5con +30hpmax +41epmax
 A bongo made of laen (magnificient)          +8str +8con +48hpmax +1epmax
 A trumpet made of kryptonite (divine)        +5str +10dex +5con +30hpmax +42epmax
 A xylophone made of ruby (unearthly)         +8str +8con +48hpmax +1epmax
 A piccolo made of ruby (divine)              +5str +10dex +5con +30hpmax +42epmax
 A harmonica made of weenite (unearthly)      +4str +8dex +4con +24hpmax +34epmax

Spell KBH info

Spell: Musicians Alm
Trainer: Cyarus
Casts required: 100 successes

Usage: No practical use

KBH: Create lyrics with the 'balm'-command that are not too long,
and sing the song by the trainer.

---
Spell: Kings Feast
Trainer: Derevan
Casts required: 100 successes

Usage: Creates a feast with food and drink

KBH: Just go to the trainer, and cast it repeatedly

---
Spell: Vigilant Melody
Trainer: Fyanna
Casts required: 105 successes

Usage: Creates a mist that informs the caster whoever runs
through that mist.

KBH: Go to the caster, learn the song, run few paces to some direction,
cast it and go learn it again. You cannot cast the spell in the
room if there's a mist already in there.

---
Spell: Campfire Tune
Trainer: Gilian
Casts required: 140 successes

Usage: Heals everyone at the same room. A fire in the room enhances
the effects

KBH: If the trainer happens to be near a big mob, a frozen sea
or something similar, just get yourself hurt in there
run back to the trainer and heal yourself. Or get some
elemental item that hurts while held in your inventory

---
Spell: Venturers Way
Trainer: Holm
Casts required: 90 successes

Usage: Restores endurance points.

KBH: Just run 20 paces away and back to the trainer, and
cast the spell.

---
Spell: Strength in Unity
Trainer: Malecketh
Casts required: 200 successes

Usage: Unifies the party, sharing some of the damage anyone
in there receives.

KBH: Get a friend, remove all weapons and anything that
does damage and create a party. Go to an area with
some 1-2k mobs, attack the mob, cast the unity, leave
the room. read the book, go in, cast unity and leave.

---
Spell: Uncontrollable Mosh
Trainer: Patricia
Casts required: 160 successes

Usage: Physdam area spell that hurts everyone in the room,
including your partymembers

KBH: Go to newbie mountain and shoot.

---
Spell: Sweet Lullaby
Trainer: Razmatag
Casts required: 65 successes

Usage: Lets everyone in your party camp, even if they don't
have the skill.

KBH: Go to the trainer, cast, wait for camp to reset, repeat.

---
Spell: Jesters Trivia
Trainer: Sineyole
Casts required: 85 successes

Usage: Show everyones boosts, curses and suchs in the same room

KBH: Go to the trainer and cast repeatedly.

---
Spell: Noituloves Dischord
Trainer: Stringbreaker
Casts required: 39 successes

Usage: A very weak attack spell

KBH: Go to newbie mountain and snuff some flies.

---
Spell: War Ensemble
Trainer: Talos
Casts required: 295 successes

Usage: Gives an str/dex-boost +hpmax depending on your background

KBH: Go to the trainer and cast. Can be cast upon another so
just cast as soon as you regen enough.

---
Spell: Singing Shepherd
Trainer: Tinebring
Casts required: 139 successes

Usage: Make outworld mobs follow you

KBH: Find some outworld area with a few squirrels and mice,
cast the spell on them (4-5 mobs), run around in a circle
(like 20x e,n,w,s) for a few times and they will drop
from your follow, cast the spell again and repeat. Note:
This is good to do when your spell% is low so they wont
follow you for long.
NOTE: There are a few ways to make this even faster, like meddling with indoor exists and such. HOWEVER this most likely is considered illegal, and should not be tried. Getting your KBH status resetted because of a spell that can be KBH'd in a few hours anyways is not worth it.
---
Spell: Con Fioco
Trainer: Yomototh
Casts required: 230 successes

Usage: A good fire attack spell

KBH: Newbie mountain calls

---
Spell: Melodical Embracement
Trainer: Zantus
Casts required: 325 successes

Usage: Gives +skill% to some skills

KBH: Go to trainer, cast repeatedly.

---
Spell: Soothing Sounds
Trainer: Otharus
Casts required: 220 successes

Usage: Disables default aggro from a mob, and often stops the
battle cancelling all spells and skills

KBH: Noctur's Ant Hill in Lucentium is an excellent place for
KBHing this. Or Kara'Tur if you're tough enough.
Just enter a room with an aggro mob, cast the spell, and
find the next aggro.

---
Spell: Noituloves Deathlore
Trainer: Noitulove
Casts required: 202 successes

Usage: Psionic area spell

KBH: Newbie mountain

---
Spell: Dancing Blades
Trainer: Vahearun
Casts required: 400 successes

Usage: Make blades dance in the air, attacking a mob of your choice

KBH: Newbie mountain.
Get a blade/knife, and do 'cast dancing blades at use knife 1'
and repeat. Very many times.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you leave the room when the blades are flying, go ld, quit,
get summoned, relocate or are any other ways removed from the
room, the blade will drop to the ground and is pickable by anyone.
You can try to 'catch' the blade from mid-air if you need to leave.
WARNING: There have been several reports of this spell bugging
so that your blades will stay on the air and not return, or otherwise
mess up so you'll lose your eq. So do _NOT_ use any expensive eq if you're
not prepared to lose them.

---
Spell: Clandestine Thoughts
Trainer: Dria
Casts required: 280 successes

Usage: Shield yourself from snooping spells

KBH: Shoot at yourself at a trainer (takes weeks), or search
for players to cast it on.

---
Spell: Catchy Singalong
Trainer: Endek
Casts required: 95 successes

Usage: Annoy the hell out of people with a tune that travels
from player to player.

KBH: To newbie mountain again. Cast the singalong to a mob
and kill it. Wait for the catchy to drop and find the
next mob. You might try to lessen the lenght of the song
with shorter lyrics (using balm), but I don't know if
that's of any value.
WARNING: If you enter the church, you will stop singing
and you can cast the spell again immediately.
This however IS ILLEGAL and YOU WILL BE SCR00D if you do this.

---
Spell: Pathfinder
Trainer: Zord
Casts required: 333 successes

Usage: Teleport

KBH: Get books, move a few steps away from an inn or your
startloc, cast, repeat.

---
Spell: Arches Favour
Trainer: Jolm
Casts required: 1 success

Usage: Gives luck.

KBH: You can train this when your bardic might reaches 'paltry'.
NOTE: See Melody of the Misadventurer.

---
Spell: Sounds of Silence
Trainer: Aline
Casts required: 195 successes

Usage: mutes the mobs it hits so that they won't shout if they kill you.

KBH: Get books and silence the mobs at newbie mountain.

---
Spell: Melody of the Misadventurer
Trainer: Forsimnetu
Casts required: 295 successes

Usage: To stop people from reaching the highest level of bards too fast

KBH: This spell ruins the luck of the target for ~15 minutes, but it
will screw the casters luck permanently, so you'll have to sac
items and wait for your luck to return to normal after this
for awhile.
I reckon the easiest way to KBH this is to hire few of your friends
to stand in the field for a few days, and just keep casting on them
one by one, wait for it to drop and repeat. Casting this randomly
to other players will make you a nice bunch of enemies and other
fun stuff.
WARNING: Using quit/re-enter or other methods that
decrease the time it takes to KBH this are all illegal.
People have gotten their KBH statuses nulled because they tried to
circle around this one way or the other.
HOWEVER: You can avoid KBHing this by casting enough bard spells
to increase your bardic might enough to get Arches Favour, which
completes the last bard quest, 23 songs kbh'd.

---
Spell: Achromatic Eyes
Trainer: Zinbaf
Casts required: 350 successes

Usage: Brings the targets alignment towards yours.

KBH: Go to newbie mountain, cast the achromatic eyes to a mob and kill it.
Note: The spell takes its power from the following stats:
duration: song's %
power: song's %, charisma and guildlevel
This means that casting it to bigger mobs is more difficult, and the spell
ain't that useful alltogether, so keep it low% and cast it to really small mobs.

--- KBH Statuses in 'bscore':

not even started
no hope
little progress
will take forever
needs more practice
6000X = rememberance
one fifth soon!
far far, far away
one fourth someday
keep on trying..
this is sick, hehe
won't tell you! ;)
not even halfway
someday, my friend
seek the knowledge!
on the better side
courage, doing well
dreams do come true
1,000,000X and you see it
Gm's fax: +358 0 577795
PING! THE magic number!
still far away
good progress
getting there
warm already
not so far anymore
getting hot
almost there!
on the verge
any play now
SooO CLOSE!

NOTE: The statuses do not always go in correlation with your casts. Sometimes
they might go one per cast, sometimes stuck in place for many casts.