=== General Information ===

Halls of Mist is basically a complex single player dungeon simulation.  A player
creates a character, choosing from a variety of sexes, races and classes,
and then "runs" that character over a period of days, weeks, even months.

The player will begin his adventure on the town level where he may acquire
supplies, weapons, armor, and magical devices by bartering with various shop
owners.  Then the player can descend into the dungeon, where he will explore
the many levels of the dungeon, gaining experience by killing fierce creatures,
collecting powerful objects and valuable treasure, and returning to town 
occasionally to barter for new supplies.  Eventually, as the player grows more
experienced, he may attempt to win the game by defeating The Thin White Duke,
who resides at the bottom of the dungeon, on dungeon level 48.

Note that Halls of Mist is a very complex game, and it may be difficult to
grasp everything at first, especially if you have never played a "roguelike"
game before.  Even if you are an experienced hand at Angband or others of its
many variants, however, you will discover that much is different.  You should
probably browse through all of the "online help files" before beginning any
serious adventuring.

For the true newcomer, a simple tutorial is available in the "tutorial.txt"
help file.


=== Halls of Mist ===

Halls of Mist is the successor to FayAngband, my earlier variant. FayAngband is
a variant of EyAngband, which is a variant of Angband.


=== A Note from Eytan Zweig ===

Welcome to EyAngband. My name is Eytan Zweig, and I have maintained EyAngband
ever since it branched out of the main Angband development line in October 
2000, and started a life of it's own.  However, it is far from correct to 
attribute the entire project to me - for much of what you see when you play the
game I am indebted to previous maintainers, patch writers, and many people who
took the time to share their ideas and feedback with me.

EyAngband's official home page is http://eyangband.sourceforge.net where the 
newest versions can be found, as well as information about the current state
of development, and some additional documentation.  You can email compliments,
complaints, suggestions, bug reports, and patches to me ("eytanz@oook.cz"). 
Finally, a mailing list exists for discussion of all things EyAngband, at 
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/eyangband.

For more information, you might want to check the Official Angband Home Page 
("http://thangorodrim.angband.org/"), which contains news and links to all the
different Angband variants and versions.  Another great resource is 
http://angband.oook.cz, the site of the Angband ladder, where many past 
EyAngband (and other Angband) characters are comemorated.  And, of cours, you
 can post interesting experiences and basic questions to the Angband newsgroup 
("rec.games.roguelike.angband").

You may freely distribute the game, and its source, though you are bound not 
only by the existing copyright notice from 1984, but also whatever restrictions
may be present on various other pieces of the code, including the fact that any
source written by any contributer other than myself is automatically put under 
copyright and may thus not be used for commercial purposes.  My own code is all
under the public domain - however, there are very few areas of the game where
the code is purely mine.  Remember to read the "version.txt" help file for some 
more copyright information.

I aim to keep the basic help files supplied with this game are more or less up 
to date, but when in doubt, you should ask the newsgroup for confirmation.  

And be sure to tell all your friends about how much you like EyAngband - and if 
you found that it isn't quite suited for your tastes, try one of the many other
Angband variants out there.  You'll be amazed at the variety available.
