The Bard’s Tale – The Early Work

This guide only pertains to the start of The Bard’s Tale, and is not a complete walkthrough.
CHARACTER CREATION
When you begin The Bard’s Tale, you will have to set up your character. Unlike other games, you do not choose the name for The Bard. He is just “The Bard”. You can call him “Poofy MacFlufflefuff” in private, but no one else except you is going to call him that. However, you can allocate points to his attributes, and there is the one thing that you can do to personalize him to your game style.
Strength: If you allocate more points here, he will do more damage with his sword. Or morning star. Or his long club that can strike fear into the hearts of wolves and young maidens everywhere.

Vitality: If you allocate points here, he will have more hit points and will be able to take more damage. Large wolves will have more to chew on. They say that you can down more ale this way, too.

Luck: This would be the luck of the Scottish, not the luck of the Irish. And damn sure not the luck of the cursed English. At any rate, this attribute combines will with the Skill (see below) “Critical hit”. You will strike critical blows more often with this attribute high. It also helps you randomly at other points.

Dexterity: If you allocate more points here, he will do more damage with his bow. Some people prefer the style of shooting from a distance. There really isn’t much reason to select this AND Strength at the beginning, so if you are going to use a bow, allocate points to Dexterity; if sword, then put them in Strength, instead.

Charisma: Allegedly gives you better prices at the stores. Doesn’t seem to affect the ladies, though, and unless it helps rip her bodice off, I am not sure what this is good for. But if you want to make yourself popular with the cows or the sheep that are in the village, then by all means give some points to this one.

Rhythm: This allows you to summon helpers that are stronger in their own way. It can be very helpful to have a pet with a bit more strength to attack and a bit more vitality to take a few blows. Also, a Bard without rhythm should seek some other career.

You also get to pick a Talent, and will get more later on. Here are the early ones
Two-handed Weapons: Allows the Bard to equip and use two-handed weapons. I would have thought one hand would suffice.
Dual Wield: Allows the Bard to fight with his dirk in one hand and a sword in his other!
Flail: Allows the Bard to flail. Perhaps sometimes this is needed.
Shield Bash: The Bard will automatically bash with his shield after blocking, stunning his enemy.
Shield Charge: A powerful charging attack which stuns enemies. Used with the sword. Must be activated to be used.
Power Shot: A powerful ranged shot which passes through its target. Used with a bow. Must be activated to be used.
Critical Strike: Gives the Bard a chance to score a critical hit on his enemies, and inflict additional damage. Because a dog likes to chase a ball, but a wolf does not like to chase his balls when they are removed.
Treasure Hunter: The Bard gains bonus coins for any treasure he finds. Barmaids like rich Bards, and beer is never free.

Pick the Talent that you want to define you the most. You will get more with later levels. Additionally, there will be other Talents that become available depending upon what you already have.
Riposte: The Bard will counterattack in a circle after blocking, knocking down his enemies. Used with the Dual Wield talent. Also requires a sharp tongue.
Heavy Parry: The Bard will counterattack in a circle after blocking, knocking down his enemies. Used with the Two-Handed Weapon talent.
Blade Dash: A deadly charging attack. Used with the Dual Wield talent. Must be activated to be used.
Spinning Smash: A damaging spinning attack. Used with the Two-Handed Weapon talent. Must be activated to be used.
Whirlwind: A powerful spinning attack which stuns enemies. Used with the Flail talent. Must be activated to be used. This is where flailing can really help.
Arrow Storm: A ranged attack that fires multiple arrows which pass through their targets. Used with the bow. Must be activated to be used. It is annoying to have to keep saying that. I’ll bet it’s annoying to you, too. At any rate, you just hold down your attack button for a bit, then release it, and you will fire the arrows. I won’t say it again.
Improved Critical Strike: Like what it says. Improved. Did you know you can castrate a wolf through its nose? But only an expert can do it. Also really handy if Mary wants to get into acupuncture with you.
Dog Handler: This allows your dog to attack as well. Good dog. Without this skill, he’s just a really cute puppy. Every bard needs a dog, especially one that will attack for him while he stands in the background and plays his lute or takes another swig of ale.

At the Drunken Rat: The Bard arrives in Houton, badly in need of food and drink. He conjures a little rat to scare the owner of the inn, and arrives to save her from the vicious rat. She is Mary McCrory and… WOW! She has… marvelous… beer to serve… and stuff. She gets the Bard to agree to kill the rat in the basement in return for a free meal. She suggests using a bigger sword than he has, but at first he refuses.
At this point you can begin moving around. Learn your movement keys, and also how to rotate the map clockwise or counter clockwise.
Talk to the various people in the inn before starting out. You will receive some magnificent abuse from them and a wonderful song from the drunks. Mary will question your manhood. Start heading towards the stairs going to the cellar, but first stop and investigate the chest in Mary’s room and listen to the dialogue. Downstairs, you may smash barrels if you like, but your sword is not very good for this sort of thing. Head along the passage until you find the rat. And kill it. QUEST COMPLETE!
Actually, it isn’t. At this point, a giant fire-breathing rat comes out and sets the bard on fire. Head back upstairs in a hurry to get Mary to toss water on you. You will be mocked by everyone, and this time you will take the broadsword from Mary. Head back downstairs.
When you get back downstairs, you will have your first meeting with a mysterious old man. He will teach you “The Thunder Song” and also how to block attacks. Using your new song, go attack the giant rat. This time, with at least moderate competence on your part, you will defeat the beastie. Head back upstairs.
You get a dialogue option with Mary. You can either be snarky (the mean face) or nice (the smiling face). If you choose to be nice, she will decide that you are a nice person and immediately “friend-zone” you. If like a real man you are snarky, letting her know that you have more testosterone than a bull in heat, then you will get your free meal and a free bed. And a “Scottish warming pan” in your bed. (Look up the phrase, if you haven’t heard it.) Suffice to say that if you choose to nice and polite, then your dagger is short, made of rubber, is flopping around your leg, and whatever stones you started life with must have been taken long before.

So, next morning, being rested and refreshed, head outside the inn. You will meet the creepy old man again, who will once more help you out. He gives you a healing charm, and hints at being part of an order that needs you for something or another. Be snarky or polite to him, as you wish, but you seem to get the same result either way. He sends you to the Fairyhaunt woods, south of town, to meet with someone named “Bannafeet” who will teach you a new summoning song.
Look around Houton, before you go. One of the first encounters you will have is with a puppy dog. You have the choice to be kind to the dog or speak cruelly to it. Though you might think a Bard would be sarcastic to everyone, ask yourself this: what kind of man is cruel to a puppy? If you are kind to a dog, he will follow you loyally forever. I mean, really. Forever. Also it allows you to get the talent “Dog Handler” when you level up. If you don’t get the dog at this point, you don’t get the talent.
Also around Houton are a number of brochs. Some of them have chests for you to steal. One has a chest with a wanted poster for some notorious criminal, and also a woman who will scream in terror. One has Ogan’s mom – a crazy old hag who thinks her son is “The Chosen One” but who clearly didn’t read that this game is called “The Bard’s Tale” instead of “The Crazy Woman’s Son’s Tale.” Oh, and she is fat. In addition to the crazy lady, there is a church where you can purchase healing, and to the north the Sherriff’s office (but he isn’t home, yet). Two more important brochs have men who will tell you about a bugbear. Speak politely to the old man called Darraugh at the broch in the southeast side of the town - honestly telling him that you are there to steal his silver – and he will cheerfully send you on a quest to kill the bugbear. Old Man Vintner will just ramble on about the bugbear, ginning up fear. Of course, a bard never feels fear, so he is wasting his time. Finally, a broch has a barrel maker. You can smash barrels outside his house after talking to him, then talk to him and amazingly you should be nice, having smashed his livelihood and all. He’ll give you a quest to sell barrels that he has already sold.
In the middle of the town is a man who is annoyed at you for crashing into everyone and for exposing people to your electric monster. He wants an apology. Don’t give him one. Crotchety old men shouldn’t be apologized to. At least, nor for the first, second or third times. Eventually he says he will give you one more chance. You should apologize to him then, because you will be rewarded with 200 experience for doing so. Nothing feels quite so rewarding as doing the noble thing. Anyways, on to the barrow…

The entrance to the barrow will appear only if you have taken the quest. Inside, go slowly when you round the first corner. At the second corner, the bugbear will try to rush out and claw you. Jump back quickly, and he will miss. This will happen at several places inside the cave, and always close to some corner. Don’t try to kill him yet. You can’t. Just don’t get killed by him. In the cave you will find a chest and a save point. Save here, because you will need it. In addition to the bugbear coming out to grab you in hallways, there are two types of traps you need to pay attention to. Any place on the floor that has holes is a kind of spike trap. On the way to the bugbear’s den, if you step on the holes, the spikes will come up and badly injure you. Always go around them. The other trap looks like a bull’s head on a pole. Some poles have bull’s horns but are just round at the top, but the ones that really look like a bull head on a pike is a trap. It shoots twin arrows in front of it. Run sideways quickly and get behind this trap whenever you can, and don’t stand in front of it. Unless you are stupid, in which case you should let it put an arrow through your brain, in hopes that it will give you something to think with.
The bugbear cave goes in a loop, and you can go either clockwise or counterclockwise to reach the bugbear. At this stage, you aren’t there to kill the bugbear, though. Just to familiarize yourself with some things and to pick up some special loot. Go clockwise first. The bugbear will try to get you twice in the first hallway. After foiling the bugbear the second time, run forward and to the right to get behind a bullhead trap, then circle to your left, staying behind the trap. There is a chest here, which you should loot, of course. Then retrace your steps to get back to the first chamber, where you saved. Next go counterclockwise, avoiding a number of spike traps. There is a small entrance to a chamber on your right, and in that chamber is a chest. This is a wonderful chest because it will give you an upgrade to your sword. This is really what you came into the barrow to get. After this point, leave the cave, and go off to gain a few levels. A first level character simply will not defeat the bugbear.
LATER… when you are more powerful by a level or two, proceed to the bugbear’s chamber. Before you walk to the chest in the center, make sure you have your electric spider summoned, because you will need the help. In this room, there are the holes for spike traps and the bull’s heads for arrow traps, but they won’t trap you yet. Nonetheless, you must watch where you put your feet. When you get to the chest in the center, the bugbear will come out to fight you. Whenever you hit him, make sure you are not standing on the holes of the spike trap. If you do enough damage to him, you will suddenly be dizzy, and can’t move, while he runs over to the nearest lever. When he pulls the lever, the spikes come up and the arrows start shooting. You have to be (1) not on the holes and (2) behind cover. The arrows cannot hit you at the tunnels at the side nor behind the pillars. Also there are no holes near the side for spikes to come through. Try to stay there and shoot the bugbear from a distance. Whenever he focuses on you, run around in circles around him until he decides to attack your dog. Then you can get in place and attack him from safety. And don’t worry about your dog dying. He will do that several times, but a good dog always comes back to help his master. Also don’t worry about your electric spider dying. They don’t have feelings, and when he is attacking your dog, you have time to summon a new one. Eventually, you will defeat the bugbear. His true identity will be revealed, and you will be richly rewarded!

The Fairyhaunt Woods: This forest is a good place for first level Bards to wander. Nothing except for packs of ravenous wolves. And a woodsman who tells you to get a bow. You should, if you like shooting things. But first you have to kill some wolves to get wolf pelts and money. Don’t ignore the tree stumps that serve as chests: somebody left treasure there for you to find. Fight your way over to the southwest corner where you will find Bannafeet. There engage in discussion with him. If you choose to be snarky, he will send you on a wild goose chase to the bottom of a well. Actually, this is a good thing to do, since you get quite a bit of experience for going to the bottom of an otherwise useless well. Then, go all the way back through the Fairyhaunt woods again, and speak with Bannafeet once more. After mocking your gullibility (and you really were an idiot…) he asks you to rescue someone named Ketill Swart from the Sherriff’s jail, over in the Houton Woods. So, off you go, to seek for beer money in another part of the forest. Back to Houton, then over to the southeast gate out of town, and into…

Houton Woods: This forest is teeming with Kunal Trow, who shoot arrows as well as impale you with spears. You should keep a thunder spider with you. Or let the puppy take most of the blows while you hang back and fire from a distance. Fight your way through the forest making sure to miss none of the tree stump chests, and finally winding up at the Jail. Save outside the jail, so you can enjoy the inside dialogue. Once you enter the jail, you will have to kill a pair of Kunal Trow, but then you get to engage in dialogue with Ketill Swart and two other criminals who will tell you to listen to them, and they will let you know how to open the gate of the jail. Here is the secret if you want to open all three: only Ketill Swart really knows the combination that opens the gate; the others are just pretending. If you want to have some fun, listen to the advice of the other two and they will get themselves killed. You might want to do this, then reload and follow Ketill Swart’s advice as to opening the gate, and all three criminals will escape. Then head all the way back to Bannafeet in the Fairyhaunt Woods. He will give you your second summoning tune: Heroine. In addition to looking better than the electric spider, she shoots a vicious arrow shot!
The adventure continues after this point and goes on to chapter 2. But I won’t tell you what to do. Find it out yourself. And if you complain that I haven’t given enough information to know what to do, or that there are better things you could do in chapter 1, then fine! But remember that you didn’t pay one silver piece for this advice, and you get what you pay for. If you want more, then cash directly to the author will enable me to keep up my quest for new and adventurous ales, and the barmaids that go with them.