THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



DARK SCEPTRE



PUBLISHER

Firebird



YEAR

1986



AUTHOR

Mike Singleton



CATEGORY

Strategy



CONTROLS

Keyboard, Kempston.  The keyboard controls are redefinable.



INSTRUCTIONS

Tranquil year after tranquil year, the Islands of the Western Sea

slumbered. Then, on the wings of a winter storm, came ships from

the north, tossed and broken by the icy seas. The Lord of the

Isles smiled upon the Northlanders, harboured them and gave them

shelter.



Then came the spring. The Lord of the Isles offered strong, oaken

ships to the Northlanders, yet they chose not to leave, coveting

the riches of the Western Isles. They drew their swords and

demanded land to make homes upon.



The Lord of the Isles smiled no longer. The Northlanders were too

many for even his enchanted sword of lightning and dragonsfire

to chasten. In secret, fearing more treachery, he gathered the

finest smiths he could muster and bade them forge him a magical

sceptre of terrible power.



Five long years passed, during which the Northlanders grew in

boldness and power. Then the Lord of the Isles summoned the

Northlanders to attend his court. "By the Dark Powers", cried the

Lord of the Isles, "Let the Hounds of Hell harry you to the end

of time itself!"



Upon his words, lightning leapt outwards from the sceptre,

touching each one of the Northlanders with fire. One of the

Northlander warlords, maddened with pain, leapt upon the rostrum

where the Lord of the Isles stood.



"Powers of Death, I call upon thee!", cried the Northlander.

"Save us and we will serve you forever!". Now the darkness that

had gathered around the sceptre twisted into long fingers that

reached out to touch the burning, writhing Northlanders, soothing

their pain yet at the same time causing their flesh to become

shadowy and vague, glowing faintly like the embers of a fire.



The Lord of the Isles had made a terrible mistake. Seeking to

destroy the Northlanders, instead he had given them a strange and

evil power. The sceptre had touched the Northlanders with its

dark force. No more were they mere men; now they were Lords of

the Shadow, gripped by evil and ruled by the Dark Sceptre that

had created them The Isles of the Western Sea would know no peace

until the Sceptre was destroyed and with it, the evil of the

Shadow Lords.



You control a company of warriors, your task being to find and

destroy the Dark Sceptre. When (if?) you find it, you must beware

- its dark powers may destroy yoou if you have not taken the

proper precautions. What those precautions are you will have to

discover on your quest.



To hinder you, the computer controls other companies of warriors.

Most of these are neutral towards you but the Shadow Lords

(coloured red) are implacable enemies. The other companies may

become friends or enemies, depending on the events that take

place during the game.  You can recruit new members to your own

company, but you can also lose warriors by desertion to other

companies.



The action takes place on the top three quarters of the screen,

with the bottom quarter being given over to a status display. The

features on this are, from left to right:



 1) Control options - WATCH, SCAN, CHECK, PLAN and QUIT.

 2) A scrolling map, showing a close-up of your warrior's

    position.

 3) Your warrior's rank, location, object carried and the date.

 4) A time-of-day indicator.



  The control options control the basic functions of the game:



 i) WATCH - Allows you to watch a fight. If you hear the sound

           of clashing metal, then one of your warriors is in

           battle. Select this option to WATCH the combat.



 ii) SCAN - Allows you to see a full map of the Isle. The

           positions of each of your (alive) warriors is shown

           in yellow. The white square indicates the position

           of the currently selected warrior.



 iii) CHECK    - Allows you to check the personality of the

                 current warrior and the last orders he was

                 given.



 iv) PLAN - Allows you to plan your orders for the current

           warrior. A question and answer session happens in

           the viewing window until your orders are complete. If

           you select the GO TO command then the map will appear

           in the viewing window. You must move the cursor to

           the place that you want to go (you may only select

           junctions) and press fire.





All play in Dark Sceptre is indirect; like a true commander, you

have no direct control over your warriors' movements. They use

their own skills and personalities in carrying out your orders.

Nonetheless, their strategic thinking is poor and without your

commanding intelligence, they cannot complete their quest. You

must choose your orders carefully, bearing in mind the nature and

personality of the warrior in question.



To give orders to a warrior, first get him in view. Then select

PLAN - this enables you to "contact" the warrior. He will tell

you his current orders and you can then change his orders or

issue further ones. You can select from a large variety of

orders, any of which can be given to any warrior. Some can only

really be carried out by certain warriors, however; the magical

orders, for instance, can only be carried out fully by those with

magical powers.



THE ORDERS: There is a large number of orders available, which 

should fit virtually any situation you encounter:



 FOLLOW warrior          - attach yourself to him as helper

 PROTECT warrior    - attach yourself to him and guard him in

                      battle

 STALK warrior      - go wherever he goes, a few paces behind

 HARASS warrior     - follow and get in his way as much as

                      possible

 AVOID warrior    * - stay out of his way

 FIND warrior     * - find him and do no more

 KILL warrior     * - find and kill him



 BEWITCH warrior  * - find and magically turn him into your

                           spy

 PETRIFY warrior  * - find and magically turn him into stone

 CURSE warrior    * - find and magically change good qualities

                      to bad

 CHARM warrior    * - find and magically recruit him to your

                      company

 RELEASE warrior  * - find and magically release him from the

                      effects of bewitchment, petrification or

                      cursing



 THREATEN warrior * - find and take what he carries by threat

                      of force

 CHALLENGE warrior* - find and recruit him to your company by

                      theat of force

 PERSUADE warrior * - find and recruit him to your company by

                persuasion

 BRIBE warrior    * - find and recruit him to your company by

                      gift

 JOIN warrior     *    - find him and join his company

 GIVE TO warrior  * - find and give him what you carry

 BEFRIEND warrior * - find him and give him a message pledging

                      friendship of your company to his

 INSULT warrior   * - find him and give him a message ending

                      any friendship of your company to his



 WAIT FOR warrior  *     - wait until he arrives

 AMBUSH warrior    *     - wait until he arrives and then attack 

                           him



 TRACK object       - find it, do not take it, but follow it if

                      it is taken elsewhere

 GUARD object       - find it, do not take it, but let no others

                      take it

 SEEK object        - find it but do not take it

 TAKE object      * - find it and take it but do not use force

 GRAB object      * - find it and take it by force if necessary

 USE object       * - find it, take it by force if necessary and

                      use it



 BLOCK place        - go to place, stay there and let none pass

 DEFEND place       - go to place, stay there and let only

                      friends pass

 WAIT AT place      - go to place and wait there

 GO TO place        - go to place



 ROAM               - wander around at will

 WAIT               - wait wherever you happen to be



Where "warrior" is marked with an asterisk (*), the order can

also be chosen to refer to "friends", "enemies" or "anyone".

Where "object" is marked with an asterisk, the order can be

chosen to refer to "anything". When an order has been completed,

successfully or not, the warrior will automatically follow his

next order; if he has no further orders, he will go into WAIT

mode. Thralls are simple souls who can only remember one order

at a time; other warriors can remember a number of orders.



RANKS: There are eight basic ranks of warrior - all have the same

body (a programming cheat!) but can be distinguished by their

headwear:



 THANE         - Wears a crowned helmet. The commander; without

                 a Thane, the members of your company are more

                 likely to desert.



 MYSTIC        - Wears a pointed wizard's mask. Possesses magical

                 powers.



 HERALD        - Wears a winged helmet. A messenger and a

                 fighter.



 ASSASSIN -      Wears a turban/headscarf. A hunter and a killer.



 REAPER        - Wears a skull-faced mask. The executioner.

                 Strikes fear into others.



 FOOL          - Wears a crown. A charismatic talker, not as

                 foolish as his name suggests.



 SAVAGE        - Wears a wolf's head. The wild man of the woods,

                 tough and resilient



 THRALL        - Wears a cowl. An underling, a pawn. Being simple

                 people, thralls do not have complex  

                 personalities - they are however numerous.



Six other companies of warriors are at large. During PLAN mode,

you can specify whether an order is to do with friends or

enemies. The purpose of this is so that you can refer to friends

or enemies in your orders without being long-winded.



However, friendship pledged by a BEFRIEND order is different. If

you attack a pledged friend, you will be marked for the rest of

the game as treacherous and other companies will be wary of you.

To avoid this, you must officially signal the end of the

friendship with an INSULT. This may anger the offended party but

you will still be regarded by others as an honest dealer.



The BEWITCH order turns someone else's warrior into a spy for

your company. Even so, he remains a member of the other company

and behaves as such. You cannot give him orders but you can watch

him as he goes on his travels and see what he does. This can be

a valuable source of information.



You can be kind to others in a number of ways - you can give them

objects, send warriors to join their companies or simply pledge

friendship. In return, they are likely to be kind to you. The

motto is: scratch my back and I'll scratch yours for you.



 There are seven teams in total. Their colours are:



 UMBRARG'S (the Shadow Lords) - Red

 VERDAN'S           - Green

 TYRIAN'S           - Purple

 KUANO'S            - Cyan

 AURIC'S            - Yellow

 GRISUL'S           - Grey

 YOUR OWN           - White



 USEFUL TIPS: Some (possibly) useful information:



1) Only Mystics can successfully CHARM, CURSE, BEWITCH or

RELEASE.



2) You will hear the sounds of any fight which one of your

warriors is involved in, even if it's off-screen. Pressing fire

during WATCH will get you straight to the fight.



3) You will hear a snatch of music whenever any warrior changes

sides, even if he's off-screen. Usually this will be someone

joining your side; if you want to find out who it was, check on

your warrior's orders. Warriors with orders you haven't given

will be the new recruits.



4) Petrified warriors will not move off or take new orders.

However, they will fight if forced to and can kill or be killed.



5) Warriors en garde are either in a fight or about to fight.

They will ignore further orders until the fight is over.



6) No more than one fight is in progress at any one time. This

allows you to keep a better eye on what's happening.



7) Warriors will chivalrously not attack a warrior who is already

in a fight or waiting to fight. This sometimes means you can find

a whole bunch of warriors standing by near a fight, all waiting

their turn to try their luck!



8) The outcome of a fight depends entirely on the qualities of

the two warriors. There is no random element. If both warriors

have exactly the same fighting qualities, the attacker wins.



9) Just setting off to KILL ENEMY or GRAB DARK SCEPTRE without

  preparing the way first is simply suicidal!















































