The second way to see in the dark is by having someone cast a GLOW spell on you. You will often hear people shouting asking for a glow, because they can't cast the spells themselves. Magic-users can, however, and since it is a "cheap" spell to cast, will often oblige if you ask politely. If you are obviously a complete novice, stumbling around lost in the dark, you may even be given an unsolicited glow by a wizard or witch who has noticed your plight. It's always polite to shout thanks if that happens.
You can get to glow yourself if you find the circle in the attic of the inn, and drop some treasure in it. It will then 'tingle with magic', and you can ENTER CIRCLE to start glowing. Certain objects glow in the dark, eg. some swords, but if you do find such an object, always keep a check on your stamina...
A more common reason, though, is because the value of all treasures is scaled. Except for a select few items, all treasure has a 'minimum value' and a 'maximum value'. The more (visible) players there are in the game at the time, the closer to its maximum it will be. This reflects the increased difficulty in finding treasures when there are many people competing for them. So an object will be worth more if there are more people playing.
That's not the end of the story, though! There is a second type of scaling involved. Every 105 minutes or so, MUD 'resets', which entails throwing all the players off for a few moments while objects and puzzles are replaced in their starting configurations. It stands to reason, then, that treasure will be easier to find immediately after a reset than later on when a lot has been found. To account for this, the value of treasure is scaled by a factor which increases as more treasure is dropped in the swamp.
The VALUE command combines both these scaling factors where appropriate.
If you think you can win, or would like to risk it anyway, do nothing! Fights continue automatically in MUD, blow by blow, until either party dies or flees. The exact details of how a round of fighting proceeds are quite elaborate, but are based on your strength, dexterity and stamina. The higher your dexterity, the greater your chance of hitting your opponent. The higher your strength, the more damage you will do when you do hit. Your stamina is how much damage you can take, and when it falls to 0 or less, you die. When you are hit in a fight, you are told your remaining stamina as a fraction of your total, eg. (39/45) means it's 39 out of a maximum of 45.
Lots of players wait until their stamina gets close to 0, then FLEE. A good many of such players get killed, because the time between blows in fights is randomly determined and there's a fair chance another exchange will take place before your FLEE command takes effect! So leave a margin of error when you decide to flee, in case your opponent gets another blow in! The most common complaint received by MUSE is "my flee didn't work", which is regarded by the more experienced players as meaning "I didn't flee in time"...
There are many other commands related to fights, and although most are too specialised to mention here, there are three which merit a brief outline. If you are attacked and are carrying something you think you could use as a weapon, use the RETALIATE (or USE) command, eg. USE STICK. This will increase the damage you do when you land a blow. To find out how badly injured your opponent is, use LOOK, as in L ENID. You'll be given a description which, although vague, is good enough to tell you whether you're making an impression.
Finally, the command sequence F O followed by QUIT is very popular because people don't want to hang around if they are low on stamina. However, if your opponent is quick you can be attacked again after the F O but before the QUIT has been performed. The command SUPERFLEE (or SF) combines the two. It costs more points to use, but at least you'll survive!
Expect to be killed, especially when you are exploring. You have three personae which you can use, ie. three different characters. Most players keep one for "serious play" and use the others for fun and exploring, since it doesn't really matter if these get bumped off by The Land's creatures or other players.
A similar way to get back stamina safely is to stand around in the Tearoom when you enter the game. This is quicker than leaving your persona out of play, but of course you will be paying money while you wait. Quite often when you enter the game there will be people hanging around in the Tearoom recovering lost stamina, and they will usually be only too pleased to have someone to chat to; if you need any help or advice, or just a shoulder to cry on, just sit around in the Tearoom accosting people as they enter!
A more dangerous way to regain stamina it is to SLEEP. Here, you get your stamina back at the rate of 1 every 2 seconds after the first 6. If you are attacked while asleep, however, the consequences with respect to your health will be severe! It is also difficult to sleep sometimes because other players keep making noises and waking you up (but not always in bedrooms).
The quickest way to regain stamina is to eat a wafer. These are highly sought-after objects found in places which are difficult to get to, but they will immediately add an amount to your stamina if you eat them. As with treasure, there are some wafers which are intended expressly for the use of low-ranking players, especially in the monastery area.
Of course, there are other ways to get back stamina (eg. certain potions and spells), but they're not all that important to low-level players such as yourself...
This looks odd at first, but is indispensible once you get used to it. For example, suppose you had earlier hurt RAT2 but it had fled. If you then entered a room containing six rats, you wouldn't want to KILL RAT because then you'd end up fighting all six! KILL RAT2, however, would select the particular rat you knew was low on stamina.
There is another pair of commands, FIGHTBRIEF and FIGHTVERBOSE (FB and FV) which you might find useful. They control the amount of text you get when a fight is taking place. Although the descriptions of blows may be interesting, they can sometimes be a pain, especially for players at 300 baud.
Your VERBOSE/BRIEF and FV/FB settings are saved with your persona, so you don't need to use them every time you play.
What is often confusing to newcomers is the strange call "icons?" followed some minutes later by a countdown from three to one. This is where a group of players have got together to tackle a particular puzzle which involves their issuing a MEDITATE command simultaneously in certain places about The Land. Once you've got the feel of the game, you'll find out more about it from the other players.
Some players like to keep everyone informed of their activities. You often hear people shouting "hi" (or words to that effect!), and bidding you farewell when they leave (often saying where they have left the useful objects that they had accumulated while playing, eg. keys). These characters will usually supply a ready stream of amusing incidents as they stumble about The Land in their quest for treasure, although not all are friendly...
You will occasionally hear appeals for help, when players have been attacked by some of the more vicious creatures. Wait until you have experience of fighting before thinking of joining in, or you might not last too long. Sometimes players shout for help to lure others into a trap, but thankfully not TOO often..!
Some wizards and witches will set quests or quizzes for players, by shouting out questions and awarding points for the correct answers. This can be fun, and you can join in while carrying out your normal exploring/treasure-seeking activities. If a visible wizard or witch shouts, you will be told their name, rather than the 'male/female voice inthe distance'. Likewise, they will be told your name when you shout - anonymity is not guaranteed!
Finally, not everyone likes shouting and you will sometimes see shouts like "QUIET!" and "SHUT UP!!!". These people are trying to catch some sleep to restore stamina, and shouting wakes them up! If they're powerful magic-users, you may find yourself being 'dumbed' if you persist. You have been warned!
To accommodate such situations, MUD has a class of "protected personae", or PPs. These are just the same as normal personae, except they cannot attack or be attacked by other players; this includes "attacks" from spells (benign or otherwise) and the stealing of objects from them. Note that game-controlled objects ("mobiles"), such as the vampire, are not bound by any restrictions, and have no compunction in attacking or otherwise harassing PPs. You can tell a PP because the persona's rank is of an explorer/priestly kind, rather than the conventional fighter/magic-user variety.
By far the best way to get information, though, is to chat with the other players. The Elizabethan Tearoom is a good place to talk, since everyone passes through there when they start to play (and there's no fighting, either!). You'll find they are an endless source of information, generally happy to talk, and will probably be interested in you and what you have to say. Communication is MUD's main strength, and you should use it to the full. It is also two-way: if you want to talk, then talk, don't wait for someone else to start!