Adom Game Walkthrough

Adom

I am writing this message to get major loads of information out of
my cranium. I played ADOM waaaay too long and thought I could
finish it sooner. If I had realized it would take so long to
finish, I probably wouldn't have started. But it was fun anyway.

Here is a very long-winded walkthrough for ADOM version 9.4.
Please don't read it if you want the satisfaction of solving the
game via your own puzzle-solving and exploration skills.

In any ADOM game, you will want to start by going to the training
caves. These are a good place to find out whether your character
is worth continuing or whether you'd be better off starting over.
The training caves are just about 15 or so spaces to the left of
the NE corner where you start out. Keep killing monsters until you
get to experience level 6, then leave, because after level 6 the
monsters get too deadly.
Once you've left those caves, go to the Terinyo village. Buy a
couple of large rations if you want. (It doesn't matter that much
because you'll find them all over the place in one of the upcoming
dungeons.) Make sure to talk to the old mystic who lives in a
square building to the left of the water area of the village. He
will tell you about a Mad Carpenter who needs to be saved. His
telling you about it will allow you to find a location you could
not have found otherwise.
Now you'll want to visit the caves where the Mad Carpeneter lives.
They are on the far East side of the kingdom, very close to
Terinyo. They show up as an orange symbol next to the mountains.
Once you've entered, start killing monsters and picking stuff up
until you get to level 4. Here you'll want to pay closer attention
to make sure you don't start hacking away at the Healer, who will
appear as a white @ sign. Chat with him and he'll tell you you
need to learn tolerance. What this means is that when you get to
level 7 (which is the last level), you will find the Mad Carpenter
and he'll keep attacking you. Just ignore his attacks and get him
to follow you down all the levels until he is at level 4. His
attacks never seem to do any damage. Then make him walk adjacent
to the Healer. The Healer will give him his sanity back and the
Carpenter will disappear. He'll leave you a book of bridge
building, a blessed hatchet, and something else I forget. Pick all
this up. Also chat with the Healer and get him to teach you the
Healing skill if you don't already have it. If your hit points are
low, ask him to heal you too. Then leave this dungeon.
Now you are probably moderately tough with a fair amount of money
and enough food to do some decent exploring. You can go back to
Terinyo and buy some rations, talk to the Old Mystic (who will
tell you about another dungeon, but this isn't necessary the way
it was before), or get training from the Carpenter (who should be
around somewhere). You can also go to the Thieves' Village just SW
of Terinyo. There you can buy more advanced items (potions,
scrolls, blessed weapons, rings, etc.), talk to a Crime Lord or a
Master Thief, or talk to a Mad Scientist type guy on the far right
side of the screen (where a lot of people probably never explore).
I am not sure what the Mad Scientist is good for, but apparently
you don't need to talk to him to finish the game. The same is the
case with the Crime Lord and the Master Thief. If you chat with
the Crime Lord he'll ask you to kill the Terinyo sheriff and the
Old Mystic -=-- you can come back and get a gift (a Chaos amulet).
I don't think this is a very useful course of action, and you
don't really want the Terinyo village people pissed off at you. In
my opinion, it's a much better bet to eventually kill the citizens
of the Theives' Village, but this isn't necessary either.
Okay, so now what? It's time for you to cross the kingdom. You'll
have to veer far south because a large body of water splits the
right side of the screen off from the larger left side. When
you're traveling south, you can stop in the "Endless Dungeons" if
you want and build up your inventory/experience points. As far as
I know there are no interesting artifacts or beings in the Endless
Dungeons, but I haven't explored it much. It isn't necessary to
complete the game. It also apparently goes on, deeper and depper,
to infinity. Not my idea of a good time. (I could be wrong about
its being infinite.)
After you have passed by the Endless Dungeons, veer west until you
are past the water. Then head NW until you are in the middle/left
upper area of the screen. There is a location that is just
diagonal from a corner of mountains. It is marked by an asterisk.
Enter it. This is the Dwarven Caves and it's where most of the
action occurs.
The Dwarven Caves are extremely deep, but you won't find out how
deep until much later in the game. They go all the way to level
50, but for now we're just concerned with the first 20 or so. The
levels get progressively more difficult, with tougher, more
vicious monsters as you go down further. That means that the first
several levels are pretty easy.
The first interesting (not completely random) level is the Arena
level. Here you'll find that a wide area fills the entire right
side of the screen. The wide area has a rectangle in it, and on
the north side of that rectangle sits an "@" sign who you can chat
with. This is the Arena Master. Don't try to fight him (you can do
this much later, if you want). Just chat. He will offer to let you
fight in arena matches. Try some if you want, but remember, you
probably aren't going to be tough enough to win many of them in a
row. You might want to fight several battles, then come back later
when you've recovered hit points or gotten toughter. Each time you
win an arena match you get a good sum of money from the Arena
Master. The 20th won battle (which is always at least twice as
hard as the previous 19) will win you an artifact --- a pretty
good blessed sword. Again, you may have to come back after you've
gotten to a decent level in order to win this 20th match. The 20th
win makes you the Champion.
Other interesting levels in the early part of the Dwarven Caves
include the "no walls" level, where you can find most types of
lower-level monsters. It's also a good place to practice your
herbalism skill (stomafillia herbs are quite useful for hunter,
alrunia antidotes for poison, and I forget what the other ones
do.)
Eventually you'll get to the Dwarven City. I forget what level
this is, but it's probably somewhere between 15 and 20. It's a
very important spot in ADOM because you will be returning to it
many times for a variety of reasons. First of all, there's the
shop. Then there's the church where you can give sacrifices to
your deity. There's also (in version 9.4 anyway) a place where you
can do Smithing, and a home where an elderly warrior lives. Most
important are the Training room and the Dwarven Leader room (which
stands out because it always has two dwarven guards guarding the
door, who are the origin of the quote "Axes high!").
One other room that is important to mention is the tiny room with
no doors. You can't dig your way in here -- you need to teleport
in. If you don't have the teleport skill, I don't know how you can
get in there, but eventually everybody gets the teleport skill
when they become corrupted by chaos. Inside the small room lives a
mystic who will happily give you a really excellent blessed battle
axe that does a ton of damage.
Okay, back to the previously mentioned rooms in the Dwarven City.
In the Elderly Warrior room, talk to him repeatedly. If you have
the weapon from winning the 20th Arena fight, the Elderly Warrior
will notice it and ask you if he can have it. I forget what he
gives you in return but it's worth giving him the weapon if you
already have something better.
The Training Room is a great place to build up your skill points.
I find that giving the trainer 1000 gold coins each time you pass
through is a great policy. (Usually you don't have much else to do
with your money.) 1000 is a number I made up -- It could be that
you need less, or possibly more -- I don't know. Anyway, I've seen
characters gain dozens of strength, dexterity and other points by
regularly consulting the trainer. And building up your attributes
is extremely important if you want to get anywhere in ADOM.
Where the church is concerned, I don't really understand how
worshipping works and it never played a large role in my playing
of the game -- but it might for you. The main thing is, experiment
with sacrificing stuff and try to make your god happy so you can
"wish" later on. Again, I personally don't find this all that
important in the grander scheme of things.
The Dwarven Leader is a very important character to talk to
because he will send you on quests (you have to say "quest" to
him) and also he will send you on a "portal" quest (you have to
say "portal") which will take you to the other side of the
kingdom. I don't recommend doing the portal quest until you have
done a significant number of regular quests for the Dwarven
Leader. Each time you complete a quest, go to the Dwarven Leader
and he will give you something useful (the rewards get better
during the later quests -- one of them is an excellent shield).
The levels that go lower than the Dwarven City are pretty tough,
and you will want to play them carefully. Among the many tough
levels are the "living trees" level and the Undead level. There is
also a level somewhere down there that is full of bees. Remember
to kill all the bees until the queen bee comes out. Kill her, then
go to the hive and try to pick stuff up. You will need the bee wax
for later.
The "Living Trees" level is also important. For one thing, you
will need to cross it during one of the quests. For another thing,
it is a good place to get logs with which to build a bridge. This
is not the only place to get logs, but if you have acquired the
"Strength of Atlas" or an equivalent spell, this is as good a
place as any. (You'll need the "Strength of Atlas" spell to carry
more than a couple sets of logs at a time). If you have access to
a lot of stomafillia herbs or a ton of rations and other food,
then you can ignore the "living trees" level as a source of wood,
because you can do all your wood chopping out in the general
kingdom where otherwise your hunger would progress very rapidly.
Anyway, the "living trees" level is an interesting place to visit.
To cross it, keep moving. Don't get sucked in to the concept of
standing and fighting because you will never be able to kill all
those trees. Don't try to burn them, they'll just get pissed off
and all attack at once.
The Undead level I mentioned earlier is a big pain in the butt
unless you're pretty powerful. You have to run a gauntlet of
zombies and so on. If you have a pickaxe for digging, this is a
great level to use it so you can avoid a lot of monsters. You'll
probably want to kill them all eventually, though.
Below the Undead level, somewhere around level 25 I guess, is a
level with a blocked portal. You can go no further than this until
you have completed the Portal Quest that the Dwarven Leader will
tell you about if you ask.
The thing to remember about the first 25 or so levels of the
Dwarven Caves is that you will have to do a lot of running back
and forth (or up and down) in order to get things done. You will
basically live in these areas for a while. Get used to it. Your
character needs to build up strength here before he/she can really
kick butt. But there are other things to move on to.....
THE RING OF THE HIGH KINGS AREA

Before discussing this area I should say that bridge building is
important here. Always keep your book of bridge building in your
possession because if you don't have it, you can't add points to
the bridge building skill each time you go up a level.
Whether you get logs from the "living trees" level of the Dwarven
Caves or from the general outside area, you'll need at least 3
logs and probably many more in order to build an adequate bridge.
(This depends on your skill level in bridge building.)
Okay....let me back up. The Ring of the High Kings area is in the
far upper left corner of the kingdom. You can't get there unless
you have a Climbing Set or a really good Climbing skill level, or
maybe both, I'm not sure. The Climbing Sets are not too hard to
find after a while.
Basically, when you go to the Ring of High Kings area you will be
in a one-level (no stairs) room with an island that is surrounded
by piranha-filled water. You can't cross this water without
building a bridge. To build a bridge, you must have both the
hatchet and logs in your possession. You will want to stand by the
edge of the water on the south side, where it only takes 3 spaces
to reach the door of the little island. Put the hatchet in your
Tools inventory spot, then "U"se it. When you have reached the
door with bridges, you will have to kill a water monster of some
sort, then you can get the Ring of the High Kings.
I am not sure what this ring does exactly, and I am not even 100%
sure you need it in order to win, but I think you probably do.
Most likely it's what gets you past one of the deeper portals.
Order-wise, this is probably the first place you should attempt to
visit after you've been in the Dwarven Caves.
THE PORTAL QUEST

The Portal Quest will take you to a previously-invisible graveyard
in the SE area of the kingdom. It is marked, appropriately enough,
by a cross (plus sign). Once there, you will have to fight many
zombies, wraiths, ghosts and other annoying creatures in order to
get yourself inside a tomb in the center of the screen. This tomb
has a downwards stairs, which take you to a quite deadly area.
The thing to remember about the lower level is that you don't need
to explore it all. It's a trap room and you'll probably die or be
in a world of pain if you try to map it all out. (I used to think
you had to step on all the "you hear a squaking sound" traps in
order to finish this quest, but I later realized those traps don't
have special significance). Basically, just go all the way south
and hit the "s" key until a secret door opens. Then travel S and
then E along the bottom area of the screen until you are as far SE
as you can go. Somewhere around there is a secret door. (It's in a
vertical hallway on the right/lower side of the screen.)
When you find the secret door, enter carefully. It should take you
to a large room on the right side of the screen. Then start
hacking away until you have killed the Necromancer and Griff, who
the Dwarven Leader should have told you about. Kill everything
else threatening. Then use a pick axe or wand of digging to dig up
that grave in the center of the large room. You will find a good
artifact. I think you need to pour holy water on this grave too.
Your portal quest is finished -- get the $#% out of there.
At this point, there is no one order you need to do things in. You
just need to do things. Here are some areas you might want to
focus on:
THE GREMLIN AREA

This is located in the SW area of the kingdom. It's all dark, so
use a torch or your amulet of protection. Do not go here if you
aren't pretty tough. I am not sure what the intended point of this
area is, but the bottom line is that you have to kill a ton of
gremlins because they keep reproducing (due to a well-placed water
trap). Hack through the gremlins and stand on the trap until
they're gone. If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do. Also,
I don't know of any good use for the balls of fluff. One time I
had one in my inventory and when I got soaked by a water trap much
later on, the ball of fluff turned into a gremlin in my backpack
and ruined some of my stuff. Obviously the creator was making a
reference to the movie "Gremlins." In the Gremlin area you will
find a "Phial" potion which is useful for creating blasts of
light, but not anything else that I know of.
THE TOWER

This is a hot, hot place. You need to be pretty tough and you need
at least two objects or experiences that involve immunity to fire.
(Eating fire beetles and wearing a ring of fire resistance would
work). Otherwise you'll steadily lose hit points.This area is all
red and about 3 or 4 levels deep. You'll have to fight red dragons
and the like, so be prepared. The on the last level, you may need
to dig or use a wand to get to the other side of the screen (where
the action is). If you defeat all the really tough dragons, etc.,
you'll get the first Chaos Orb -- the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire.
You definitely need this.
THE PYRAMID

Another tough, tough level for more experienced players. I'm not
sure what exactly triggers your ability to get into the pyrarmid
(an ability you don't have early in the game). Maybe it's being a
certain level or character. Anyway, the pyramid has 3 levels and
they're all tough. In the first level, don't bother with the right
side of the screen unless you want to fight mummies. Go left and
search for secret doors everywhere you can. Eventually you'll find
an area to the NW of the screen where a downstairs can be seen.
Now you'll be in a smaller area with a few secret spots, etc.
There's another stairway. Go down. Now you will be in a huge room
and a ton of monsters will be after you. Good luck. If you
complete this battle you get an ankh amulet. Again, I'm not sure
how crucial this is to finishing the game, but I imagine it plays
a role.
THE GRASSY PARK AREA

There's an area near the pyramid that consists solely of a cresent-
chaped body of water, a house with a back room, and many trees. I
have no idea what good this area is, but I vaguely recall a Fool's
poem about this area being good for magic (for reading tomes,
maybe?). I am not sure....in any case, this seems to be another
non-crucial area.
THE BLUE UNDERWATER AREA

This is a good place to go relatively early (though after
completing the portal quest) because it's not *that* hard. The
important thing though is that you have proper swimming
ability/breathing aid. You'll be in a big blue room that you have
to explore thoroughly to get around in. (Swim around the south,
not north, to get places faster.) In the very center of the screen
is a large room with tons of items there. The trouble is you can't
pick up anything without your God yelling at you. Oh well. You
*can* talk to the blue dragon in the middle of the screen, who
will discuss her baby with you.
After this has happened, go to Terinyo and talk to the blue baby
dragon. It will fly off into the sunset in order to get together
with the mom dragon. Now go back to the underwater dungeon and
talk to the blue mama dragon again. She tells you she'll be
sending you a great thing later. What this turns out the be is a
really tough two-handed trident that somebody drops near you much
later in the game. (By the time I got it, I had forgotten all
about that part of the game.)
I forgot to mention that the blue underwater area is not initiall
easy to find. You'll need to walk through the big lake in the
middle of the kingdom until a message says "You discover an
underwater passage!" or something similar. Some of your gear might
rust in the meantime. Don't say I didn't warn ye.
THE RIFT

Just south of the Ring of the High Kings Area is an area that you
can't get into unless you have a reasonable climbing ability.
Sometimes if you *do* get in, you'll fall and much of your stuff
will be damaged, as well as yourself. So you might want to make
sure you're ready before you try this area.
When you get in, basically you'll be in dungeons like any other
dungeons. The monsters are fairly tough, but not excruciatingly
so. When I was in here I came across a sick baby white dragon, and
I imagined I was supposed to help him, but I couldn't figure out
how (I tried to "g"ive him a number of items, including healing
herbs, but he refused). So if anybody knows what to do with the
sick white baby dragon, let me know. (I ended up killing him
because I was bored and chaotic.)
When you're in the rift, go as far down as you can. Eventually
there will be no more downstairs. So go up. (There are levels
above the level you start in.) Sooner or later you will come to a
room with two upstairs symbols. One of those symbols takes you to
another level. The other one goes to an area of the Kingdom screen
that is unreachable from any other means because it's surrounded
by white (unpassable) mountains. When you get to this area, walk
over to the entrance that's on the right and you will be in the
the Library. The Library is chock full of tomes (i.e. spells) but
you'll have to kill a ton of tough monsters to get them.
After that, you can continue back up the rift and get out. That's
all I know about that area.
THE STEEL GOLEM AREA

This is in the central south area of the kingdom. I find the steel
golems extremely difficult to kill. So you will probably want to
visit this area very late in your game. The dungeon starts out
like any other, but its first exit is guarded by the previously
mentioned golem. If you kill him and go downstairs, you'll have to
kill literally dozens of identical (and equally tough) steel
golems. Yikies, these guys are tough. Needless to say, there are
some worthwhile items in this dungeon, once you've gotten past the
monsters. There are rooms full of armor, weapons, and a room full
of pools (that do various unusual things to you). The armor and
weapons are unremarkable, mostly; presumablythey're there for you
to do smithing on.
The center of this level has a diamond-shaped pattern of forges
and a chaotic dwarven dude who runs the place. If you talk to him,
he'll ask you to kill the Terinyo dude (I forget what he's called
but he's represented by a green @ sign). Then, if you come back,
he'll ask you to kill the Dwarven Leader. I think he rewards you
with a cool shield or something. I don't find it much worth it,
since the Dwarven Leader already gives you a great shield when you
complete all the quests. But if you're Chaotic, maybe you'll want
to go this route.
In the SW corner of this level is a downwards stairs. You can't
get into it ever, to my knowledge. It's blocked by a statue of a
knight and flames, or something. It seems to be a one-way door
that you can only come up through (from a deep Dwarven cave) and
never go down. I think you have to be around level 30 of the
Dwarven caves to find the stairway that comes up to this.
Obviously this stairway makes for a nice way to make a quick
escape from the Dwarven caves -- but only if you are prepared to
kill all the steel golems in this dungeon (or have already killed
them).
One other thing. I don't remember but I think the Dwarf in this
dungeon will teach you Smithing if you don't already have this
skill.
THE UNICORN QUEST

When you are of a sufficient level (probably 25 or 30), go to the
Terinyo village and talk to the guy whose title I forget but who
is represented by a green @ sign. That guy. Chat with him and
he'll tell you about a Unicorn that needs your help. Then and only
then can you see a location that you couldn't see earlier.
This location is in the middle of the Kingdom, not too far from
the calm park area and the pyramid. You'll see it if you walk
around there a little. Enter it and you'll be in a big grassy area
that has a thick forest in the center. Walk around the forest and
soon you'll meet an upper-case white "U" which is a Lawful
unicorn. Chat with him and he'll ask you to kill his foe, a black
unicorn who lives in "the forests to the east" or something like
that. Exit the level and now you'll find another new location just
east of the White Unicorn spot, and also near the pyramid. Enter
there and go kill that Black Unicorn. (If you chat with him, he'll
ask you to kill the white unicorn! Which one you kill is a
personal choice depending on your alignment.) When you have killed
one unicorn or the other, go to the unicorn for whom you did the
killing and chat with him. I forget what he awards you with, sorry
to say. BUT he does offer to relieve you of ALL your corruption,
once and only once. I strongly recommend you NOT have him relieve
you of your corruption until you are extremely corrupt (8 or more
corrupt traits). Even if it means making a special trip up 30
levels of Dwarven Dungeons much later in the game, it's worth
waiting to have the Unicorn un-corrupt you instead of squandering
this one-time miracle too early in the game.
I think that sums up the non-Dwarven areas of the kingdom pretty
well. I hope I didn't miss or forget anything. If you think about
it, four of the areas nicely sum up the elemntal orbs: the steel
golem area represents Earth, the underwater area obviously
represents Water, the fire tower represents Fire, and the rift
sort of represents Air. It's nice to know the designer tried to
make the game thematically consistent.
Now, let's get back to the Dwarven Caves.

When you get through the first portal (the one that was opened for
you by the Dwarven Leader's hidden lever after you killed Griff
and the Necromancer), you'll soon come to a level with a very
deadly creature in it. This creature is similar to the Siren in
Greek mythology, except that her singing doesn't cause men to
become slobbering lust-filled fools, just to instantly die. I wish
I knew my Homeric literature better, but I believe it was Odysseus
who was tempted by the sirens. To get safely past the island where
the sirens lived, he had all his men put wax in their ears and tie
him to a mast (where he could hear the beautiful singing but
couldn't foolishly react to it). Well, that should be a clue as to
how to defeat a certain ADOM monster. If you EVER get to a level
and hear something to the effect of "You hear a high-pitched
screech!" (or something similar), DON'T go anywhere new. Go find
some wax and "u"se it, which will cause you to put it in your
ears. (If you don't know where to get wax, read through the
earlier part of this message and you'll find out where to get it).
With wax in your ears, you can defeat the screeching monster
(whose name escapes me). Otherwise you're dead meat, no matter how
tough you are. I think this monster only shows up once, which is
quite fortunate.
As you go deeper in the Dwarven Caves, you'll find increasingly
tough monsters, many of whom breathe fire or lightning or acid or
frost or garlic or whatever. Hopefully by this time you will have
built up a resistance to most forms of attack either through items
(like rings of resistance) or because you've eaten corpses of a
variety of monsters with these abilities.
Whenever you are in a level that only allows you to explore half
the screen, get out your wand of digging or your pickaxe. You are
in an Orb area. The first Orb area you'll encounter is the Orb of
Water area. Be prepared to fight a LOT of monsters. After that,
the Air area is much deeper and the Earth area is the last one, at
least it was in the game I played. These are all very, very tough.
Also get used to fighting a ton of red dragons. They are very
deadly but the upside is that they leave lots of cool stuff behind
when they die.
There's also a Casino way down there somewhere. There are plenty
of items for sale (at amazingly high prices -- you'll really need
that Haggling skill here!). Unfortunately, there don't ever seem
to be Scrolls of Un-Corrupting here, which are very useful
scrolls. You can play slot machines till your heart's content, but
it's not my cup of tea. (I remember somebody giving a hint about
how you can do really well at the slots if you have coins made of
the right material, but I have no idea how to get such coins).
Whenever I get to the Casino area, I usually just ignore
everything and keep going -- unless there's something I really,
really want to buy in the big-ass store.
My memory is hazy at this point because I only ever got this far
once, and I completed the game after that. But there aren't that
many interesting levels after this. Except for the end ones....
When you get to about level 48, you'll find four platforms that
represent the four elements: a bonfire, a mini-tornado, a pool of
water, and a pile of rocks (or something representing earth).
Hopefully by now you have all four orbs -- if not, go get them!
(Remember, the fire orb is in the Tower, not in the Dwarven Caves,
so make sure you have this before you go to the deepest levels of
the Dwarven Caves.)
You'll want to "U"se each Orb while standing on the appropriate
platform. I don't know what happens if you try to "U"se the wrong
orb at the wrong place (e.g. water orb while on the bonfire) --
does anybody know? When you have put all four orbs in their
appropriate places, the stair that used to go up turns to a
downwards stair. Now there is no way for you to go back up. No
turning back! You'lre almost done!
Go downstairs to level 49 and you'll be in a big icy area. You
can't even move, the floor is so icy. Unless.....you throw stuff
in the opposite direction. Remember Newton's laws of physics?
Remember inertia? Wasn't high school fun? Well okay, then. Start
throwing stuff.... I find that it's better to use the wand of
digging (or a spell of Divine Digging) beforehand so you can just
go on a path to the NW instead of all around the screen. At the
center of the screen is a downstairs. This will take you to level
50 -- the very last level, yay.
This is one tough level. You'd better be prepared to fight. This
is a very good time to have lightning bolt or death ray spells.
And a great weapon(s). And a lot of hit points. And scrolls of
melee damage. And rings of increase damage, or of protection. Or
an amulet of protection. Or boots of dexterity. You get the idea.
There are tons of Chaos monsters, Ghosts and other badass,
annoying creatures here. Take a straight path to the left side of
the screen. Go the the extreme SW or NW corners of that left-most
little room (which has a swirling mass of pure chaos in it).
You'll find secret doors in the corners. Beyond those doors will
be more monsters -- kill 'em. Then you'll find levers in each
secret-door room. These two levers will stop all Chaos. You have
completed your ultimate goal! (You may want to just run past the
monsters and pull the levers, because after you pull the levers
they can no longer corrupt you).
Now what? Well, you can go back up now and keep fighting other
monsters. You shouldn't get any further corrupted, but I'm not
100% sure about this since my character turned into a gooey mass
of chaos right after I "won" the game. I've heard that you can go
back to the NE corner of the kingdom, where you started, and get
some special congratulatory message. I imagine also that if you go
talk to the Old Mystic in Terinyo (if he's still alive) he might
say something nice to you, like "good job!"
And that's all she wrote. You're done. You can run around and
explore all you want, learn more about the game, but YOU ARE DONE.
I highly recommend quitting the game and finding something
creative to do. Because you've probably just sunk about 2-4 weeks
worth of leisure time into a game that is very hard on your eyes,
fingers, and your back (especially if you have a crummy folding
chair like I do).

Was it worth it? I hope so. And I hope you enjoyed reading this
walkthrough. I also hope I didn't leave out anything major. I
wrote this spoiler because I wanted people to have the option of
saving their time, hearing what it's all about through the written
word, and not playing. I kinda wished I'd had that option when I
was playing ADOM. I had an obsessive-compulsive reaction to the
game, and wasn't able to stop playing even when I should have. I
told my psychologist all about it, and I even gave him a disk with
a copy of the game on it so he could see what I was babbling
about. I haven't seen him since -- he canceled all appointments.
Last I heard his wife was divorcing him because all he does is sit
locked in his room in front of the computer all day. (Alright, so
I'm making this up.)

ADOM is an incredibly complex, addictive game because it's got so
many possibilities. The game has really transcended its
limitations as an all ASCII program. The creator should be proud,
and it's cool that he's made it total shareware. But boy is it a
dangerous game for obsessive personalities like mine. Whew, I'm so
glad it's over. Ahhh...

This spoiler message was written based on playing version 9.4 of
Ancient Domains of Mystery. Everybody is invited to repost this
message, put it in a FAQ area on a web page, edit it down, or
anything else. I don't much care whether you give me credit. :-)