Homeland: The Stone of Night
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Homeland II: The Song of the Void

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Mouse Controls

• Left Mouse Button: the left mouse button is used for moving. Simply click and hold to move in the desired direction. Double-left-clicking will cause you to run rather than walk. Holding down the SHIFT key and using the left mouse button will also run rather than walk.
  The left mouse button is also used to drag inventory onto the playscreen or other player's images -- click once to select the item, then move over the target and click a second time to drop or move the item.
• Right Mouse Button: the right mouse button is the "smart action" button. When the mouse is over an item with which you can interact, that item will become highlighted. Then, by right-clicking, you can pick up objects, open doors, talk to others... well, most any action. If you have right-clicked on an item to use it, you can cancel the use by right-clicking again.

Inventory

To drag an item from your inventory, you left-click once and the cursor will become that item. Then, left-click again to move or drop the item or right-click to cancel the transfer. To use an item, you right-click on it. On the far right of the screen, above the inventory button is shown the bag whose items you are currently viewing. Each player has a main backpack, and inside each backpack it is possible to have additional bags. Say, for example, you like to store all of your bandages in one bag. Then, you simply click on the bag which contains the bandages to get into it. To get back to your backpack, you right-click on the large bag image on the top.

When you kill an enemy, you can view its inventory by right-clicking on its carcass. Then you can move items around as though it is your own inventory. When you are through, you right-click on the gravestone to close its inventory.

Buttons and QuickKeys

ESC -- Brings up the options menu... save, load, sound on/off, music on/off, quit.
ENTER -- Hold/Break Formation. In combat, break formation allows the players to run off and attack. There will be an icon showing the current status soon...
SPACE -- Activates or secures from pause. In the lower right corner of the playing field, there is a pause bar that measures how much time is left before game resumes automatically by shortening as the time left shortens. It will recharge as soon as game is resumed, either automatically or by hitting the SPACE bar again.
TAB - the tab key allows you to tab through the various object on the screen to select one for interaction. During combat, only enemies are tabbed through, but when not in combat, all objects with which you can interact are tabbed through. The space bar can then be used to select the target. q -- eQuipment.
c -- Cast spell.
s -- Status.
k -- sKills.
w -- Water spells.
e -- Earth spells.
a -- Air spells.
f -- Fire spells.

Movement

As already mentioned, the main form of movement is using the left mouse button. To run, you may double-left click and hold, or left-click and hold while pressing the SHIFT key. Alternatively, to move somewhere REALLY quickly, you can right-click on the Thumbnail Map at the bottom, center of the screen.

The Action Menu

• Inventory - Brings up an inventory of items carried by the player. These can be dragged onto the play screen or dropped onto the player's face image from the inventory box. Right-clicking on an item will cause the player to try to Use that item. The current bag you are in is shown on the right of the inventory. You can right-click on this bag to go up a level in bags.
• Equipment - Produces a list of items in use. They also can be dragged onto the play screen from the list box. Right-clicking on an item will move it from In Use to Carried.
• Cast Spell - This button will give the player a list of spells available to cast. Right-clicking on a spell will cause the player to try to Cast it.
• Stats - This button lists the player's stats.
• Skills - This button lists the player's skills. You can find all the group formation under skills, as we plan to have a skill level for group interaction which determines how much time you have to organize your group during combat.

Combat skills can be broken down into three main categories:

• Long-Range Weapons
• Short-Range Weapons
• Magic

• Fire
• Water
• Earth
• Air

Skills do not tell the whole story. In addition to skills, of utmost importance are a person's strength, dexterity, and intelligence.

• Strength affects how much you can carry. It modifies your hit points and the damage inflicted by weapon attacks.
• Dexterity affects your speed in combat and your ability to successfully strike an opponent.
• Intelligence affects your ability to learn, which is especially important with magic. It also affects your ability to successfully cast spells.

Dog - These noble beasts will fight to the death to defend their human companions.

Humans - Seemingly the most populous of creatures... definitely the most noisy.

Chomper - a 'minertarian', this creature consumes not plants nor animals, but rocks. Its extreme mass and rock-crunching jaws, along with nearly impenetrable skin make it a most daunting foe. Highly territorialistic.

Undead - these are most assuredly just creatures out of the nightmares of children. Despite the people of Necrose who worship the Dead, it is most doubtful that the dead can actually walk the earth.

Changelings - sometimes referred to as the Tricksters. Small items which disappear often get blamed on these creatures, when clearly the owner of said items probably just misplaced them.

Giant Spider - These creatures are spotted from time to time, especially in the Gilgamesh Forest. Akin to their smaller bretheren, they can sometimes be poisonous. Regardless, their huge size makes them dangerous foes.

Giant Rat - These giant rodents are more agressive than their smaller kin. Perhaps their size makes them think they can get away with anything.

Dothraki - a cold-faring, reptilian race only of legend now. They once inhabited the Ice Caves in Boulkaloch, but were eradicated by humans several generations ago. This saddens a schaolar such as myself, who would have liked to understand how, unlike other reptiles, they withstand the cold.

Ugs - these massive, humanoid creatures live in the cold regions to the north. They are incredibly stupid, attacking most anything, and only seem to utter one syllable... "Ug."

SnowCat - inhabitants of the Ice Caves in Buolkaloch. They are more plentiful now that the Dothraki have been exterminated.

Fire

• Light (similar to a torch, but doesn't require a free hand to hold it)
• Dazzle (blinds opponent for a couple of minutes; blinded monsters should attack whatever is next to them - with a penalty to their attack chance - and wander in random directions when nobody's next to them)
• Flame Dart (single target, ranged attack spell)
• Flame Weapon (surrounds a weapon by flames, making it do more damage)
• Protection from Fire (you won't take any damage from walking through normal fire, and only half or so from magical things like fireballs).
• Wall of Fire (doesn't actually block anything, but it hurts to pass thru)
• Sunlight (certain monsters, particularly undead, are harmed by sunlight)
• Aurasight (allows you to detect magical energies and emanations)

• Tranquillity (calms an enemy so that he will stop fighting until provoked.)
• Water Walk
• Hesitation (slows opponents' thoughts and thus their actions)
• Translation (a telepathic spell that allows you to understand whatever somebody says in whatever language; doesn't help with written texts)
• Mind Sense (allows you to detect creatures, even invisible ones or things hidden behind walls)
• Mind Shield (protects against most mental attack forms, including other spells from the Water discipline, such as Mindshatter)
• Cold Ray (ranged single-target attack spell)
• Freeze Monster (paralyzes)
• Water Breathing

• Shock (touch attack spell)
• Wind Change
• Telekinesis
• Shelter (target disappears for a couple of minutes, then pops back in; he cannot be harmed while 'gone')
• Dispel (cancels most spells, but Quench Fire has a much larger chance of dispelling Fire Auras and such)
• Blink (short range teleportation, useful in combat)
• Summon Animals
• Lightning Bolt (ranged single-target attack spell)

• Heal
• Weaken (single monster)
• Materialize (forces an ethereal foe to de-etherealize, allowing it to be hit by normal weapons)
• Toughskin (minor protection)
• Cure Poison
• Haste (speeds up target)
• Grounding - protect form electrical attacks (including Shock and Lightning Bolt)
• Strength
• Poison Ray

During a conversation, especially with a shopkeeper, you may be given the option to trade. Store onwers are willing to both sell you items and buy needed items from you. A good way to make money is to sell needed items to the stores.

The only way to learn is to ask... Communication is the key to learning your way around.

There is armour made for different levels of protection. The general types of armour are boots, gloves, helms, leggings, shields, shirts, capes, and there is even armour made for animals. The material is clearly important - typically, those that provide greater protection are heavier, and can encumber movement. When acquiring a new set of armour, one should be sure the burden is not too great, for in the end, the loss of speed with heavier armour could lead to your death. The general materials used are cloth, leather, scale, chain, and plate. There are reports of magical armour, providing the protection of heavy armour, while not weighing nearly so much. The user of this armour would clearly have a great advantage in combat.

The combat interface has been set up so that by default, the combat will do something natural. The result is that during combat with simpler creatures, the player will not have to take over control of every hero's move, but just let the combat progress in real time.

If, however, the player is in a difficult combat situation, he/she can take over manual control using the mouse and keyboard. There are presently three keyboard controls:

• space - this controls the pause timer. There is about a 4 or 5 second pause to allow you to control your heros. It recharges when not in use. The timer is the red bar in the bottom-right corner of the playscreen.
  
• enter - this controls whether your group is "in formation". There is an icon on the info screen which shows whether you are presently "in formation" or not. This icon can be clicked on to send the same control as hitting the enter key. Putting your group "in formation" groups them all about you in a user-specified order. Letting your group "out of formation" allows them to chase after bad-guys.
• tab - the tab key allows you to tab through the various object on the screen to select one for interaction. During combat, only enemies are tabbed through. The space bar can then be used to select the target.

At one time, magic reigned supreme. The power of one individual could determine the fate of thousands. Mages warred amongst themselves and the untalented were the fodder for their battles. One such wizard attempted to raise forces from other worlds and brought into this world a demon beyond his power to control... the Devourer of Souls. This demon feasted on mankind, with a particular taste for mages.

For the first time, the mages united, if hesitantly, against a common foe. The hunt was long and cost many lives, both mages and their untalented brethren. The Wizards of Light were formed to hunt the dark forces of the Devourer. The Legions of Light were formed to be the warrior army, or sword-arm of the mages. The Legions, protected and bound by the Wizards of Light, fought off the minions of the Devourer. The day finally arrived when the Wizards trapped the Devourer of Souls in the Void, but at great cost... a personal cost to the greatest Wizard and Sorceress of all time, who lost their child in the trap, and the loss of the lives of many of the mages themselves.

With the Devourer captured and the Wizards of Light weakened to ineffectuality, splinter groups of mages began to challenge the power of the Light. In their greed they sought the power of old, the control over the lives of non-mages. The Legions were used to hunt down these renegades, for that abuse of power could not again be tolerated... it could lead to the freeing of the Devourer, or worse.

As the last of the Wizards of Light perished, the bond between the Wizards and Legions became corrupted. The Legions became a power unto themselves, hunting mages and destroying magic of all kinds. They are now more of a religious sect, witchfinders if you will, though of enormous power and reach.

Meanwhile, the world has begun its recovery, growing without the destructive power, or the beauty, of magic. The abandoned Fortress of Light, home of the Wizards, has had a mighty forest grow around it, and a new Fortress of Light, controlled solely by the Legions, has appeared in the city of Aldar. Remote villages remain where once great cities flourished, such as Whitewater near the ruins of Mandolin. The face of the world has changed greatly since the reign of the Wizards. Most people prefer the heavy-handedness of the Legions to the fear instilled by the mages of the past.

Still, strange things have been seen lately... the stories, told by children, of creatures shadowed in darkness... that village found abandoned... the unnatural fear of going out at night. The Legions have begun their hunt once again, for they fear a new mage has been born who has eluded them, and who now abuses his power. Generations have passed since the Devourer hunted this world... for if any were still alive from that time, they would have recognized these signs for what they truly were...

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