Copyright: Sorcerer's Cave Help ©1995 Peter Donnelly


Contents
SORCERER'S CAVE

Copyright ©1978, 1982, 1995 by Peter Donnelly

Art by Michael Donnelly

Contents

Registration	Artifacts and Treasure
Overview	Using Artifacts
Choosing a Party	Disabling Strangers
Exploring	Special Treasures
Exchange Dialog	Hazards
Entering a Chamber	Scoring
Encountering Strangers	Preferences
Greeting Strangers	Using the Keyboard
Attacking Strangers	Hints for Successful Play
Combat	Designer's Notes
Special Characters
Notes

†.This symbol indicates something that exists or works only in the registered (non-shareware) version of SORCERER'S CAVE. Click here to find out more about the benefits of registration.

You can read this manual from beginning to end by using the buttons labelled >> and << on the Help toolbar.


Registration

SORCERER'S CAVE is being distributed as shareware. If you like the game, and intend to continue playing it beyond a reasonable evaluation period, you are expected to pay for it.

Benefits of Registration

For just $15.00, you will get an enhanced version of the program that includes at least the following additional features:

ORB  An artifact that enables you to see unexplored cells near your party. Very handy for finding chambers and stairs.

BELLROPE  When you pull it, a random stranger appears -- and you can't back off.

ACID  At last, something to create tunnels where you really need them.

AXE  Adds strength to anyone who wields it, especially Dwarf. Great for protecting your valuable Dwarf against Ghoul attacks.

APPRENTICE  The second nastiest character in the game -- but he can be paid to turn a blind eye toward those who would rob his Master.

THIEF  A character who will steal anything from strangers, or from you.

In addition, the registered version allows you to set several game variables through the Preferences dialog, including the size of the map and the length of the game.

Here's How

If you have a CompuServe account:

GO SWREG and search for registration ID 8664. As soon as we receive notice of your registration, we will e-mail the enhanced version to you. This generally happens within a day. The price will be billed to your CIS account.

If you don't:

Send a check on a U.S. bank for $15 (or on a Canadian bank for $20 CDN), or an equivalent postal money order or bank draft, to the address below. A diskette will be mailed. Please allow two to four weeks for delivery.

Be sure to specify that your order is for SORCERER'S CAVE.

Skookum Software

1301 Ryan Street

Victoria BC

Canada V8T 4Y8


Overview

SORCERER'S CAVE is a simple game of exploration, magic, and adventure, based on the author's popular card game.

An evil Sorcerer has created an ever-changing labyrinth in which to hide his stolen treasures. The entrance is easy to find, and many are the adventurers who try their luck within the Cave's winding passages. Some return with their lives, and a few with riches; but many more have cause to remember the warning of the poet Vergil:

The descent to the underworld is easy:

By day and night the door of the Dark One stands open.

But to retrace your steps and escape to the upper air

There is the trouble, there the toil.

Object of the Game

You form an exploring party, explore the Cave, and attempt to return to the surface with as much booty and as many allies as you can acquire. Extra points are gained for slaying Dragons or the Sorcerer. You don't get any points if your party fails to return to the surface.

Much of the challenge of the game lies in finding a return route to the surface when your party becomes trapped. Sometimes you will find yourself in a confined part of the Cave from which there is absolutely no escape. When this happens you have to abort the game, and you score no points.

Time and Morale

There is no fixed time-limit on exploration, but eventually the members of your party get tired and want to go home. The current morale is reflected by the bar graph on the right side of the main window. Once the bar turns red (after half the starting morale is gone), there is a chance that members of the party will start to desert. The likelihood of desertion increases as morale drops further. When morale drops to zero, the remaining members of your party all perish.

Morale drops as time passes, and there is nothing you can do to raise it. However, the rate of drop depends on what you are doing. The following events use up morale at the rates indicated:

1. Explore a new cell (3 points)

2. Move to a previously explored cell (1 point)

3. Greet strangers (1 point)

4. Fight a round (1 point)

†Registered users can adjust the number of morale points available at the beginning of the game, in the Preferences dialog.


Choosing a Party

The first thing you see is the Pick Exploring Party dialog. On the left is a listbox to which you add the names of one or more characters from the stack of tabbed cards on the right. (You can see more characters by clicking on the little arrows to the right of the tabs.)

Characters have values for strength (sword icon), magic (lightning), charisma (handshake), maximum burden (sack), and scoring (coins). For purposes of choosing an exploring party, each character also has a cost that takes into account its strength, magic, charisma, and special abilities. You can recruit characters with a total cost of 8.

Sample exploring parties:

	Total Strength	Total Magic	Leader's Charisma
Hero	5	0	3
Priest and Squire	4	2	2
Two men	6	0	2
Ogre, Dwarf, and Dog	8	0	1

Add a character to the party by selecting the appropriate tab and then clicking on the red arrow button. Remove a character by highlighting it in the list and clicking on the cross-out button.

After you have played the game once, your last starting party appears in the list by default.

Once you have created a satisfactory party, appoint one of the characters leader by dragging the name to the top of the list. The leader's charisma will be used in befriending strangers, and he or she will always remain loyal. The order of the other characters in the list is not significant.

It's a good idea to have a human character in your party to serve as leader, since the low charisma of non-humans makes it difficult for them to befriend strangers. A party led by Hero or Amazon has extra charisma, which in the long run counts for more than extra strength -- provided you survive the first few encounters.

You can give any character a name at this point by highlighting it in the list and clicking the picture of the writing hand. Name characters now if you want their names to appear in the list by default at the start of the next game.


Exploring

Click Play to close the Pick Exploring Party dialog. Your party descends into the Sorcerer's Cave.

What you are looking at is an overhead or plan view of the first level of the Cave. The yellow door leads back to the surface, and the tunnels lead north, south, east, and west. Black areas are unexplored.

Explore a new area, or cell, by left-clicking on a blank part of the map adjacent to a tunnel. You can also move with the arrow keys. Return to previously explored areas in the same way.

Yellow doors lead up, and red doors lead down. Black doors are one-way chutes to the level below. Move up or down by clicking on the door or by using the PageUp and PageDown keys. Note that the active tab at the bottom of the map changes to show what level you're on.

You can refer to maps of other levels by clicking on the tabs. The relative position of the maps within the scrolling window is always the same, so you can easily see whether your party is over or under an explored part of the Cave.

Explored cells remain visible for the rest of the game. A cell that contains any strangers, treasure, or artifacts is marked with a star. Right-click on any such cell to examine its contents in the Exchange dialog.

To return the map view to the present location of your party, choose View: Find Party or press Ctrl-P.


Exchange Dialog

You see the Exchange dialog whenever you enter a cell that contains any strangers, treasures, or artifacts. This dialog is the place where you reorganize your party, interact with strangers, and pick up or redistribute treasure and artifacts.

You can also use the Exchange dialog for checking on the contents of any explored cell, by right-clicking on that cell. If your party is not in the cell, you don't see the cards for your party, and of course you can't pick up or drop anything.

At the bottom is a list of all the characters in your party. You can change the order in the list by dragging names with the mouse. The first character in the list is your party's leader. Characters whose names appear in serif type (Wizard) are unswervingly loyal; others (Wizard) may desert.

Above the party list is a stack of tabbed "cards" representing the party member highlighted in the list, and all the treasure and artifacts carried by that character. You can examine any card by clicking on its tab. If there are more tabs than can be displayed at once, a small set of arrows appears to the right of the tabs. Click here to scroll through the full set of tabs.

The right-hand stack represents everything in the chamber or corridor that does not currently belong to the party or is not being carried by anyone.

Below this stack is a message panel that displays reactions of any strangers in the room, or the current attitude of strangers toward your party.

The three buttons at the top of the toolbar are for encountering strangers.

The button with the writing hand is for giving a name to the selected party member.

The button with the wand is for using an artifact.

The Done button is for closing the dialog, but is not available if you have to encounter any strangers at this time.

Dropping and Taking Things

Note that if an artifact or treasure is on top of the party member stack, the red right-arrow button on the toolbar is enabled. If you click on this button, the item disappears from the left-hand stack and appears on the right.

The left-arrow button causes the selected party member to pick up a treasure or artifact selected in the right-hand stack.

To transfer a treasure or artifact from one party member to another, drop the item, select the member who is to take it, then pick it up.

If there are strangers in the cell, you can drop items but not pick them up again. Transfers between party members have to take place in a cell that contains no strangers.


Entering a Chamber

Whenever your party enters a chamber that has never been explored, it finds things: magical artifacts, treasure, or strangers. The number of things found in the chamber depends on the level: in general, one on the first level, two on the second, three on the third, and four on the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels.

Once things are discovered, they remain where they are until you have dealt with them in some way: by befriending, killing, or chasing off strangers, or by picking up artifacts and treasure.

Whenever you enter a chamber or corridor that contains anything, the Exchange dialog appears. If there aren't any strangers in the cell, you can simply pick up whatever you find (provided someone in your party can carry it). But if there are strangers present, you must encounter them first.


Encountering Strangers

Whenever you enter a chamber containing one or more strangers, you must choose one of three actions, represented by the three top buttons in the toolbar on the Exchange screen.

Withdraw from the room the way you came, without disturbing the strangers. They will not notice or pursue you. You can come back anytime, and you have the same options as before. Withdrawal is not an option if a Trap or Cave-in prevents you from going back the way you came.

Greet the strangers. This option is not available if you have already fought the strangers; in that case they are permanently hostile to you.

Attack the strangers.

You must attack or greet in order to get past the strangers into a corridor beyond. If you end up in a fight, after a round of combat any survivors in your party can leave by any available exit.


Greeting Strangers

Your chance of success in greeting strangers depends on two things: the charisma of your leader, and the personality of the leader of the strangers. The leader of the strangers is whatever character is showing when the Exchange dialog first opens.

In general, you have a better chance of befriending humans than non-humans. If the leader of the strangers has no score value (notably Specter, Dragon, and of course the Sorcerer), that is a sure sign that the group will never befriend you -- the best you can hope for is that they will let you pass. (We leave it to you to decide if greeting the Sorcerer is ever a good idea.)

You can greet any group of strangers up to three times over the course of the game; after that, if they haven't joined you, attacked you, or fled from you, they will leave and disappear from play, taking all their treasure and artifacts with them.

You can check on the current status of strangers in any chamber by right-clicking on the cell. The message panel displays Unaware if you've never greeted them, Aware if you've greeted them once, or Wary if you've greeted them twice.

The possible results of greeting are:

1. The strangers attack you. They have the advantage of surprise, which gives them a bonus in the first round of combat. You have to fight at least one round, and from then on the strangers are always hostile to you. (If the strangers have no chance of inflicting casualties on your party, they will run off instead, leaving any treasure or artifacts behind.)

2. They are indifferent. You can't pick up any treasure or artifacts in the cell, but you can leave by any corridor (after clicking Done to return to the map), or you can greet the strangers again, or you can attack them.

3. They join your party. You are now free to pick up any treasure or artifacts in the chamber.


Attacking Strangers

If you choose to attack strangers, you must fight at least one round, and from then on the strangers are always hostile to you. (If the strangers have no chance of inflicting casualties on your party, they will run off instead of fighting.)

If you attack a party without greeting it first, you have the advantage of surprise, and a bonus is given to your party in the first round of combat. You get this advantage even if your party previously entered the chamber and immediately withdrew -- remember, in that case the strangers don't notice you.


Combat

When you attack strangers, or they attack you, the Fight dialog appears. You must fight at least one round. A round consists of up to four separate match-ups, depending on the number of characters involved.

The fighting arena is divided into four columns of nine rows. The top half of each column belongs to the strangers, and the bottom part to you. The center row, marked by pillars, is used to show the division between the two forces.

The strangers line up in one to four columns, depending on how many of them there are, and how many are in your party. The computer then chooses as many of your party as can take part in the fight, and arranges them opposite the strangers.

The effective fighting strength of each column is shown as a number above or below the arena. This number takes into account any bonuses such as surprise or special weapons.

The first two ranks of characters will engage the enemy in the same column in hand-to-hand fighting, using their total strength and magic. Any characters in the last two ranks will contribute their magic only.

The names of the characters in the battle array are color-coded to indicate what they contribute to the match-up in their respective columns.

Black	Strength only
Cyan	Magic only
Blue	Strength and Magic
White	Nothing
Gray	Dead
The computer selects your strongest characters to take part in the fight, but does not necessarily deploy them in the most effective way. Before proceeding, you can rearrange the members of your party by dragging them with the mouse. You can remove characters from danger by putting them in an unoccupied column, or in the back ranks, but you must have at least one character in either the first or second rank of every column that has a stranger in it.

If you want to get an extra bonus for killing a Dragon single-handed, remove all characters but one from the column.

When you have two characters in the first two ranks of a column, the order is not important; both of them contribute equally to the fight, and both are in equal danger.

After you have arranged your forces to your liking, click on Go. A round is fought and the name of any warrior killed is shown in light gray. (In this game, all wounds are fatal.) Characters in the back ranks are never killed. Note that if all columns fight to a tie, there is no visible result (other than the Exit button becoming enabled after the first round).

After a round, if there are survivors on both sides, you have two choices.

1. Run away by clicking Exit. All heavy treasure carried by your party, as well as any artifacts carried by those who have been killed, is left in the chamber. You are returned to the map, where you can leave the cell by any corridor. If you change your mind, right-click on the chamber to bring up the Exchange dialog, and attack the strangers again.

2. Fight another round. If there were casualties in the previous round, you may first have to click the Form Up button. This removes the corpses and regroups the fighters; it may also call in more members of your party if you have suffered casualties. As before, you can rearrange your own line before proceeding.

Note that clicking Form Up after the first round doesn't commit you to fighting another round. Before deciding whether to fight or flee, you can always use this button to check what forces are available to you and what odds you can get in each column.


Special Characters

†APPRENTICE  Simply drop one of the items he wants, and he and any other strangers in the cell will ignore you for the time being. If he's with the Sorcerer, of course, this doesn't work; he has to be the leader of the group.

SORCERER  The Sorcerer is by far your most formidable adversary. If you are lucky enough to defeat him in combat, you are offered a choice: either kill him and earn bonus points, or spare his life in return for immediate transportation out of the Cave for your entire party and all treasure in the cell. The second option ends the game.

The Sorcerer has a special chamber or Den on every level except the first, exactly under the entrance your party came in by. He is generally to be found in or near one of these Dens, more often at the deeper levels. In addition, every Den contains one extra stranger, artifact, or treasure. The location of the Dens is shown on the map by portraits of the Sorcerer.

SPECTER  Specters present a special hazard in combat. The presence of a Specter in a column nullifies the strength of any characters you have in that column. If you have no magic in the column, there is a bare chance that you will survive the round but there is no chance at all of killing the Specter.

As in any other combat, you must have someone in the first ranks opposite a Specter. But there's no advantage in double-teaming a Specter with non-magical characters, so you might just as well put any extra warriors in another column where they can do some good.

The Sword effectively transforms the strength of any human who carries it into magic that can be used against a Specter.

†THIEF  As a member of your party, he can steal any artifact or treasure (except Ruby and Chest) from a chamber occupied by strangers, regardless of whether the strangers are unaware of your party, neutral, or hostile to it. There is a chance that the strangers will catch him, in which case they immediately become hostile and attack your entire party. (There is no advantage of surprise on either side.)

To steal something, select the Thief in the party list, click the tab for the thing you want to steal, and take it. If it's treasure, the Thief has to be able to carry it.


Artifacts and Treasure

Artifacts have no significant weight, and any character can carry any number of them. Some items should be carried by the character who can use them to best advantage (e.g. Staff by a magician),

Treasure comes by the sack, and all sacks weigh the same. A party member can carry as many sacks as are shown on the character card. If a character is fully loaded, or will not carry any treasure at all (e.g. Wizard and Dog), the name appears in a light color in the list.

The Ruby, once removed from the statue it's found on, is the equivalent of a sack of treasure.

Remember that if you retreat from combat, all characters in your party -- even those not actually in the fight -- leave all treasure behind. Survivors keep their artifacts, though.


Using Artifacts

Some artifacts are automatically used as necessary. For instance, a human carrying a Sword always benefits from its power in combat, and the Talisman automatically repels Ghouls.

Other artifacts must be selected for use at the appropriate time. To use an artifact, select the bearer in the party listbox, then click on the tab for the artifact. If the artifact (e.g. Flute or Balm) is to be used on a specific stranger , select the victim's (or beneficiary's) tab. Then click the Use button.

If the Use button is grayed out, check that you have met all the necessary conditions. Can the bearer of the artifact use its power? Is it aimed at the right kind of stranger?

Some items, such as Lotus Dust, disappear from play after a single use.

Luckily, strangers never use the artifacts they are guarding.

†AXE  Can be used by anyone except Dog. Adds 1 to strength, 2 for Dwarf. If a human character has both Axe and Sword, only the Sword counts.

†BELLROPE  To pull the rope, "take" it. A stranger immediately appears. You must attack or greet the stranger. The rope disappears from play.

The Thief can pull the rope while there are strangers in the cell, but he will be noticed and you cannot then withdraw. If the new arrival has higher charisma than the other strangers, he or she becomes their leader.

CARPET  If used on the first level, it will always send your entire party out of the Cave. Elsewhere, it will normally send your party to the cell directly above, but its accuracy depends on the magic of the character using it. The lower the magical rating of the user, the more likely it is that the Carpet will send you to a random location on the current level or the level above.

The carpet is always left behind in the cell where you use it. It can be reused if you go back and pick it up again.

†ORB  When you possess this artifact, you can see all adjacent cells, even on other levels. An eyeball icon appears in unexplored cells.

STAFF  Adds 1 to magic, 2 for Wizard. The bearer must already have magic of greater than zero in order to benefit.

SWORD  Adds 1 to strength of any human, except Hero and Amazon who get 2.


Disabling Strangers

Some artifacts allow you to destroy or put to sleep one or more strangers in a cell. For instance, with the Talisman you can annihilate all Specters. Such artifacts must be used on the Exchange screen; there is no way to invoke their power once you have entered the first round of combat. You can, however, exit from combat after the first round, use an artifact, then attack again.

Any stranger you put to sleep is eliminated from play for the rest of the game, but you don't get any bonus points. Sorry, the Code of Adventurers forbids the killing of sleeping Dragons.


Special Treasures

RUBY  When you first find the Ruby, it is set in the forehead of a colossal statue. When you remove it (by selecting a party member who can carry more treasure, and clicking the Take button), there's a chance the statue will come to life and attack you as a Giant. If you defeat or chase off the Giant you can then pick up the Ruby without further danger.

CHEST  To open the Chest, click the Take button. The Chest may contain a Specter that immediately attacks you, or up to four sacks of treasure, or nothing at all. Once opened, the Chest itself disappears from play.


Hazards

CAVE-IN  A Cave-in closes off all entrances to the cell your party has just left. There is no way to predict Cave-ins or prevent them from happening.

DESERTION  As morale decreases, it becomes increasingly likely that members of your party will sneak off, one by one, taking whatever they happen to be carrying. Some characters are loyal and will never desert.

GHOULS  Ghouls are small but numerous. They appear without warning in corridors below the first level -- even those you have already explored -- and attack every member of your party individually, tending to kill the weakest. Whatever the result, the Ghouls disappear from the location after a single attack, and your survivors are free to pick up anything carried by the dead. If you have the Talisman it automatically protects your entire party against Ghoul attacks.

MEDUSA  Medusa attacks your party without warning as soon as you enter her lair. All your characters have an equal chance of being turned to stone by her glance. Any survivors are free to pick up treasure and artifacts before leaving, but Medusa continues to defend the chamber and will attack again if you come back to it. The Shield is automatically used against her if your party possesses it. All characters found in Medusa's lair -- both strangers and any friends you have lost to her spell -- are made of stone and won't do anything until you revive them with Balm, or Wizard and Staff. Any characters you revive will immediately join your party and will never desert.

TRAP  A Trap drops the entire party to the cell one level directly below. Once you have fallen into a Trap, its position on the map is indicated by a question mark. The Trap continues in effect and cannot be avoided if you re-enter the cell, until it is disabled by a Dwarf. Note that the cell may contain strangers, treasure, or artifacts, but you won't see these till you return with a Dwarf. A Dwarf in the party permanently (and without comment) disables any new Traps you come across, as well as allowing you to explore cells containing question marks.

VIPER PIT  Unlike Ghouls and Medusa, Vipers do not attack without warning. When you discover their lair, you see a snake icon on the map. If you withdraw from the cell by the way you came, there is no danger. However, if you decide to go through the cell, or are forced to because a Trap or Cave-in has made retreat impossible, there is a chance that each member of your party will die. Anything carried by the victims is irretrievably lost. Vipers present no danger if your party contains a Dog.


Scoring

During the game a score is shown at the top right of the screen, but this number shows only what your score would be if you left the Cave immediately. When you do leave the Cave, you are awarded points for every character, treasure, and artifact you hold. In addition, you are given bonuses for killing Dragons and the Sorcerer.

Your average score is also calculated at the end of the game, and you are ranked with one of the famous explorers of the Underworld. Here is a little background on each of these figures, in order of rank from lowest to highest.

SISYPHUS  In the Odyssey he is one of the tormented in Hades, having to perpetually roll a rock up a hill only to have it roll down again. His name has become emblematic of frustration and failure.

ORPHEUS  Another character from Greek mythology, he pursues the shade of his lover, Eurydice, to the Underworld, and almost succeeds in bringing her back.

GUYON  One of the knights in Spenser's Faerie Queen, he makes a journey to the treasure-cave of Mammon. His name is pronounced GUY-on in the English fashion.

ULYSSES  Also known as Odysseus, he makes a brief stop in Hades on his way home from Troy in Homer's Odyssey.

THESEUS  Another hero of Greek mythology, who defeats the Minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth. Later he has less luck trying to bring Persephone back from Hades, and has to be rescued by Hercules.

HERCULES  One of his famous labors is to capture Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of the Underworld.

AENEAS  The hero of Vergil's Aeneid. The sixth book of this Latin epic is the greatest classical account of the Underworld.

DANTE  This Italian poet of the Renaissance wrote the definitive book on Hell, casting himself as the hero and Vergil as his guide. The Inferno is the first book of the Divine Comedy, which also takes Dante through Purgatory and Heaven.

The average score is based on all games that ended in your leaving the Cave alive, or in extermination, or in choosing New Game from the menu. The only time an unfinished game does not count toward your average is when you abort by quitting the program or loading a saved game.

The Clear All button clears all high scores and the average. The average will be cleared automatically if the cumulative score ever exceeds 32,767.

If you want to clear the average but save high scores, you can edit the CAVE.INI file. Just delete the whole [Average] section.


Preferences

In the Preferences dialog under the View menu, you can toggle Button Hints on and off.

†Registered users can also adjust some variables used in subsequent games. Map height and Map width refer to the number of cells making up the north-south and east-west dimensions of the Cave. The frequency of stairs can be in the range 1 to 10; higher numbers mean more stairs but fewer chambers, especially on the lower levels. Starting morale can be in the range 100 to 999; a higher number means a longer -- but not necessarily better -- game.


Using the Keyboard

You need a mouse to play SORCERER'S CAVE, but a few of the basic commands can be carried out with the keyboard.

On the map, as already noted, you can move the party around with the arrow keys, and with PageUp and PageDown.

In the Exchange dialog, some of the buttons can be activated by keystrokes:

Withdraw	Backspace
Greet	Spacebar
Attack	A
Pick up	Left arrow
Drop	Right arrow
Done	Esc
In the Fight dialog, Enter is the equivalent of Go.


Hints for Successful Play

Obviously your strategy will differ depending on whether you're going for a high single score, or a better average. If you're going for average, be especially prudent in the early stages of the adventure -- get a few low- to medium-strength allies before approaching Giants and Wizards.

The Ring is a very useful artifact in more ways than one. Not only does it ensure the survival of at least one member of your party in every circumstance except exhaustion, but it can enable you to defeat otherwise overwhelming odds in combat. The trick is to put your Ring-bearer against the strongest enemy in the first round of combat. Then, presuming your other fighters have defeated their opponents, you can turn them against the enemy who has been kept busy by the Ring-bearer.

Time and morale are very important. Unless you really need more allies, it may not be worth spending time repeatedly greeting indifferent strangers who don't have any treasure. The time it takes can often be better spent looking for high-scoring items.

As the morale meter approaches the red zone, think about going back to pick up things you weren't able to get before, rather than exploring new territory. Remember, morale drops much more quickly if you continue to explore.

Poor morale affects a large party much more than a small one, since each follower is tested individually whenever morale drops by a point. If you have a small, unsuccessful party, it may be worth continuing to explore for some time after the meter turns red.

Your loyal party members should carry most artifacts so you can be sure no one will desert with them. But it may make sense to give weapons like †Axe and Sword to weaker characters, to help them survive Ghoul attacks. Also, Staff and Carpet should be kept by someone who can use them most effectively in an emergency -- remember, you can't transfer items between characters in the face of strangers.

When morale is low and youre on your way to the surface, you may want to give your most valuable treasure to a Giant or Ogre and make that character leader, in order to keep him loyal. At this stage in the game charisma is not as important as keeping what you have.

Don't hesitate to use things like †Acid and Carpet if they can get you out of the Cave faster. The few  points you lose by giving them up are nothing if you prevent a Giant from deserting with six sacks of Gems.

A good use for artifacts such as Lotus Dust, Flute, and Talisman is to eliminate a particularly nasty leader so that you have a chance of befriending his companions. If you disable a leader, the next stranger in the stack always takes his place. You can also use Lotus Dust to disable a very strong follower in order to more safely approach the leader -- for example, knock out a Giant before greeting a Wizard.

When you're looking for a way up,. don't forget to check the map of the level above. Any red doors you discovered on that level will have corresponding yellow doors below.


Designer's Notes

I developed the original SORCERER'S CAVE in the mid-1970s after being introduced to an intriguing new game called Dungeons & Dragons. The open-endedness offered by D&D excited me, but I was put off by the effort involved in creating a game world, and by the sheer complexity of the thing. So I set out to design a "dungeon crawl" that could be played right out of the box, without a referee or a lot of lookup tables, yet be different every time.

The result was a game made up of a six-sided die, a few plastic counters, and two packs of cards, one for the map of the labyrinth and one for all the characters, treasure, artifacts, and hazards. The map was laid out card by card as it was explored. Since the map cards were pretty big, a notable feature of the game was its tendency to take over the whole of the living-room floor.

The game was published in 1978 in the U.K. by Philmar and later taken over by Gibsons. It was well received: the leading hobby magazine of the time called it "the best game since Diplomacy", and it rose as high as third place in their annual reader poll. In 1982 it was followed by a sequel, MYSTIC WOOD, which used the same card system but was much lighter in tone and better suited for multiple players. SORCERER'S CAVE could be played competitively but in essence it had always been a solitaire game.

In designing both SORCERER'S CAVE and MYSTIC WOOD I stuck to a couple of principles which I have tried to maintain in this computer version of the Cave. One is that basic archetypes and characters with a solid mythological pedigree are far more interesting than wholly imaginary, bizarre creations: I'll take a good old-fashioned Troll over a Corrosive Gelatin any day. The other is that complex mechanics get in the way of fun, and that the best games create a huge variety of situations with a few simple elements.

I personally have played SORCERER'S CAVE thousands of times, and I have had some remarkable experiences with it. The cards can assume a Tarot-like significance, and at times the Sorcerer seems to take on a life of his own. I hope the spirit of the original survives in this computer adaptation.

-- Peter Donnelly


You can give any character in your exploring party a name either in the Pick Exploring Party dialog or in the Exchange dialog. Names are optional but can be useful for keeping track of who holds important artifacts.


The leader of your party is the character at the top of the list. You can change leaders by dragging a different name to the top. The leader of strangers is the character on the leftmost tab. The result of greetings depends on the charisma of your leader, and the personality of the strangers' leader.


A character's strength is used in hand-to-hand fighting. It remains the same throughout the game, though it may be augmented by artifacts such as Sword or Axe.


A character's magic is used in hand-to-hand fighting and may also be used in combat from behind the front lines. It remains the same throughout the game, though it may be augmented by artifacts such as Staff.


Your leader's charisma is used in greeting strangers. It remains the same throughout the game.


Some party members remain loyal no matter what happens. These are the leader, the original members, Dogs, and anyone you have rescued from Medusa's spell. Loyal members are shown in the party list in a serif typeface.