Environment

Mastering the Environment around you offers a variety of skills to help you survive in the differing surroundings. Skills in this ability range from movement (such as finding sewers or climbing trees) to perceiving the state of the environment around you to useful skills to survive the weather.

Skill	Learned At	Description
Swimming	Inept+0%	Swim in the beautiful waterways of Lusternia.
Glancing	Inept+0%	See summarized information about your surroundings.
Surveying	Inept+21%	Gain information on the characteristics of your location.
Snowballs	Inept+42%	What's more fun than a snowball fight!
Forecast	Inept+71%	Check the weather in your location accurately.
Squinting	Novice+0%	See extended distances in your line of sight.
Secrets	Novice+50%	Discover hidden exits.
Treading	Capable+0%	Swim in one place without drowning.
Perceive	Capable+12%	Perceive magics melded into the local environment.
Scouting	Capable+25%	Scout for nearby areas.
Flyers	Capable+38%	Take notice of those in the skies.
Dousing	Capable+53%	Only you can stop forest fires!
RockClimbing	Capable+84%	Scale even the most difficult of surfaces.
Windtalk	Master+0%	Don't let the wind blow your words away!
Observe	Master+14%	Gain information about your extended surroundings.
Sewers	Master+29%	Gaining entry to the dark underbelly of the cities.
Chop	Master+45%	Chop down the sacred trees of the nature communes.
Fluidswim	Master+72%	Swimming with not a care in the world.
Tumbling	Gifted+0%	Tumble past obstructions.
TrueGround	Gifted+11%	Uncover the true environment in unmelded areas.
DisarmTraps	Gifted+23%	Disarm pesky traps you see lying about.
Mountaineering	Gifted+36%	Scale the sides of steep mountain slopes.
Crashing	Gifted+57%	Crashing past obstructions that block your way.
Stargazing	Gifted+78%	Witness the splendor of the stars.
Climbing	Expert+0%	Rise up into the trees.
Rooftops	Expert+15%	Scale up onto rooftops in urban environs.
Diving	Expert+31%	Dive deep below the waves.
Shaking	Expert+47%	Shaking a tree to see what falls out.
Clinging	Expert+64%	Clinging tightly onto a tree.
Weathersight	Expert+82%	Navigate through even the most horrid weather conditions.
Attunement	Fabled+0%	Attune yourself to your surroundings.

Morning to Night (by Ashai)

Swimming

Syntax

SWIM <direction>

Using this ability, you can swim in lakes, rivers, and the ocean, albeit slowly.

Additional Notes:

You will take health damage unless you can breathe water or know Fluidswim.

Glancing

Syntax

GLANCE <direction> GLANCE [GROUND|SKIES|ROOFTOPS|TREES]

Take a quick glance into an adjacent location. Alternatively, you can glance at different elevations, assuming you have the pre-requisite Environment skill. GL is also a pre-set alias for GLANCE that is usable with any of its other arguments.

Surveying

Syntax

SURVEY

You've learned the lay of the land enough to be able to determine some basic information about your surroundings from a simple glance. If you have the Gatemaster ability in Planar, you can also see where rifts in your location lead whenever you survey your surroundings.

Additional Notes:

This will show what area and plane you're in, as well as some key facts such as the presence of stink or the destination of mystic pathways. Note that the environment it shows might be false if a mage or druid has imbued the area (even if not melded), or if an illusory terrain is placed, or both.

Snowballs

Syntax

PACK SNOWBALL

During a snowfall, you can pack well formed snowballs and have a lovely snowball fight.

Additional Notes:

Snowballs melt over the course of a day; probing them will show how slushy they are.

Forecast

Syntax

FORECAST

Perceive the weather conditions in the environment around you with a remarkable degree of accuracy.

Additional Notes:

Requires being outdoors. Despite the name it doesn't actually tell you what the weather will be, just what it is right now.

Squinting

Syntax

SQUINT <direction>

Glance through all locations within your line of sight.

Additional Notes:

Outputs glance information for all rooms adjacent along a single direction.

Secrets

Syntax

SECRETS

Using your perceptive powers, you will attempt to spot hidden exits from your room. It should be noted that secret exits can be fairly difficult to spot, and that you will often fail to find an exit with this ability.

Additional Notes:

Your likelihood of success depends on your total lessons invested in Environment.

Treading

With Treading, you are able to stay in one place in the water without fear of drowning.

Perceive

Syntax

PERCEIVE

When surveying a location, you can now determine whether you are treading within the demesne of a powerful mage or druid.

Additional Notes:

Contrary to the description above, you don't get this information automatically when you SURVEY, you have to separately PERCEIVE.

Scouting

Syntax

SCOUT

Look around for adjacent areas and estimate in which direction they can be found.

Flyers

Syntax

FLYERS

If you use this ability while outdoors, you will gain information on those in the skies above you.

Additional Notes:

All you really learn is who is up there.

Dousing

Syntax

FILL BUCKET WITH WATER, DOUSE FIRE

With this ability, you may fill a bucket with water in any watery location, and then, while standing in a burning location, douse the fires that rage.

Additional Notes:

One can create buckets using the Ironcraft ability in Arts.

RockClimbing

Syntax

CLIMB ROCKS

Power: 3 (any)

If you find yourself stuck in a pit and are having trouble climbing out normally, your skill at rock climbing is such that you are able to pull yourself out under even the most severe conditions.

Windtalk

Your words will never be blown away during high winds.

Additional Notes:

Note that wind stealing your voice even affects denizens, like scholars you're offering to lead.

Observe

Syntax

OBSERVE

This will perform a QL on each location adjacent to yours, in quick succession. An excellent way to ensure your surroundings are safe.

Sewers

Syntax

ENTER GRATE

Dotted around the streets of cities are sewer grates, leading to the sewer system of that city. This ability will allow you access to that foul area, but be warned that many unsavoury characters reside there.

Additional Notes:

Also note that sometimes sewers can lead you unwillingly into the body of Muud, which is very dangerous for all but the most powerful.

Chop

Syntax

CHOP <tree> WITH <axe> CHOP VINES

With an axe, you can chop down even the great trees of the forests, including dryad trees.

Additional Notes:

Axes are made by smiths. [OLD NOTE] The stats of your axe do determine how many blows it takes to fell a tree. [PLEASE VERIFY]

Fluidswim

Once you have gained this ability, you will be able to swim constantly without fear of health loss due to drowning.

Tumbling

Syntax

TUMBLE <direction> TUMBLE BELOW

You can tumble past obstructions, or tumble towards the ground if you are above it. Useful for escaping sticky situations where you might otherwise be unable to move!

Additional Notes:

Very few things prevent tumble and even fewer will stop a tumble once it's been started.

TrueGround

Syntax

TRUEGROUND

Power: 2 (Any)

In unmelded rooms where the environment has been changed, you can tap into its etheric spirit and reveal its true nature.

DisarmTraps

Syntax

DISARM <trap> [CAREFULLY]

Power: 2 (to disarm carefully)

If you know the trap that is in the room, you can attempt to disarm it.

If you disarm a trap carefully, you will expend some power to enhance your dexterity and sensitivity to the trap's mechanisms, allowing you a much greater chance at disarming it without triggering the trap.

*NOTE - You are very unlikely to succeed in disarming an active trap without doing so carefully so be warned.

Mountaineering

Syntax

SCALE [UP|DOWN] OBSERVE MOUNTAINS

You can scale up to the highest peaks of a mountain.

You are also able to peer into all the mountain elevations in a room, at an equilibrium cost.

Additional Notes:

Scaling uses balance. Mountain rooms have 10 special elevations between flying and the ground. Like how flying puts you in "Flying above <room name>", scaling up will put you "In the mountains above <room name>". If flying, one can use LAND MOUNTAINS to immediately reach the highest mountain elevation, however, without Mountaineering, the landed flyer will then rapidly drop down through these elevation rooms one at a time (taking health damage each time). The effect of a pair of thin spectacles (see ASHOP 22) does apply to OBSERVE MOUNTAINS.

Crashing

Syntax

CRASH <direction>

Using this ability, you will be able to crash through any unnatural wall (except a firewall). This will destroy the wall completely. Note that it may take multiple attempts before the wall comes tumbling down, and different walls may be harder to destroy than others.

Stargazing

Syntax

STARGAZE

By grasping a basic knowledge of astronomy, you can generally tell the alignment of the Sun and Moon within the heavens, depending on which currently ascends the sky. Only an Astrologer can make accurate predictions and reveal the full readings of the heavenly bodies.

Climbing

Syntax

CLIMB UP, CLIMB DOWN

When in a forest location, you will be able to climb up into the trees.

Rooftops

Syntax

SCALE ROOFTOPS / CLIMB DOWN

You can scale up to rooftops if they are accessible. Rooftops can only be found in certain urban locations, usually over roads.

Diving

Syntax

DIVE, RISE

When in an ocean location, that does not have a down exit, you can DIVE into the ocean depths.

Shaking

Syntax

SHAKE TREES

By using this ability, you will be able to try and shake people loose who might be hiding up in the trees.

Clinging

Syntax

CLING

Such is your knowledge of the outdoors and so comfortable are you in the trees, that you are able to cling tightly onto them, maintaining your balance when in them, even if the branches should be greatly disturbed by wind or sinister persons.

Weathersight

You will be able to find exits even during blizzards or through banks of fog.

Attunement

Syntax

ATTUNEATTUNE RELEASE

Power: 10 - Attune, 3 - Release (Any) Damage Modifier: 2/6 universal resistance (In Environment)

Taking the environment around you within, you are able to form a bond that affords you some protection as long as you remain within it. If you choose to release the bond in a special manner, your connection will return lost health to you.