Larn log

started by ~fruit on 2026-02-05 (skip intro)

I learned about Larn on tilde town, because ~elly shared a link to a quote collection with many nice quotes:

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.

-- Simone Weil

I did some scrolling, and stumbled upon this one:

don't fall into a bottomless pit

-- random fortune from larn(6)

I wondered what this larn thing might be about.

It turns out Larn is a role-playing game first published in 1986 for UNIX. It is playable in the browser on larn.org, which was convenient as it did not seem to be installed on tilde town or available in the Fedora-Linux default repos. It turns out ularn is, though! I want to start with the regular larn, though.

I never finished a roguelike, they seemed too long, clever, and too much of an investment to me (many computer games intimidate me in general), but the straight-forward story I was greeted with on the welcome screen appealed to me:

Your daughter has contracted a strange disease, and none of your home remedies seem to have any effect. You sense that she is in mortal danger, and you must try to save her. Time ago you heard of a land of great danger and opportunity. Perhaps here is the solution you need.

It has been said that there once was a great magician who called himself Polinneaus. Many years ago, after having many miraculous successes, Polinneaus retired to the caverns of Larn, where he devoted most of his time to the creation of magic. [...]

The caverns of Larn, it is thought, must be magnificent in design, and contain much magic and treasure. One option you have is to undertake a journey into these caverns.

I want to save my daughter and find a cure for the strange disease!

2026-02-05

#1 Slain by a yeti

Instead of sleeping, I was browsing ~ pages and found larn. I had been awake all night. I'm using the browser version on larn.org for now. Playing at difficulty 0 and with the DOS/UNIX graphics.

I am represented by an character in this world. It approximates my posture quite well.

I collected gold, a brilliant diamond, a ruby, potions and several books with spells, ring mail armour, and probably some other items. A ring of dexterity, I think.

Drinking from a fountain with hard water made me lose wisdom. Trying to clean myself in it did not work, because the water was hard. Drinking from it again made me lose strength.

I got bitten by a giant centipede. That really hurt! I have slain several kobolds and gnomes and stole their gold, I do not feel good about that.

Then I saw an altar. First, I prayed at it (for like 2 gold), nothing seemed to happen. Curiosity got the better of me, and I desecrated it several times in a row. Each time, it seemed to me like that made monsters spawn. The first creatures that appeared after desecrating the altar were not very dangerous (like bats and jackals), but then a yeti appeared and it ripped me apart. I died with 762 gold.

I like the wall character used in the game (I wonder what its unicode is? please tell me if you know). It was satisfying exploring the caverns, bringing light into darkness with every step.

#2 The Hobgoblin

Slain by a hobgoblin probably not even one minute into my run. Unfortunate. I had no idea what a hobgoblin was. Apparently a mischievous household spirit. Cute.

#3 Ice Lizard & Gnome King

Wielded my dagger. Entered the dungeon. Killed a gnome. Found 31 gold. Another gnome. 56 gold. Only 6/10 HP left. A mirror? No idea how I can interact with it. Maybe one could reflect spells on it. Reminds me of advent of code. Sometimes, mirrors distress me. Ever felt ashamed of looking into a mirror? The act of being seen while looking (into a mirror).

A troglodyte almost killed me! Only had 3 HP left, but then I killed them by casting my "mle" missile spell.

Opened a chest. It exploded into my face and I lost 1 HP. Got an energy ring, lots of gold, a new dagger, leather armor (+6) (I assume the +6 means it's better); also found an enchanting emerald.

Killed a kobold. 630 gold so far. Found a sparkling sapphire. Killed a bat, reached level 2. 296 mobuls left. 17/17 HP now.

A hobgoblin, again. Killed it with a missile. It dropped 46 gold. Killed another hobgoblin with my dagger. Or my bare hands? Not sure, in any case by means of melee combat. Why was that so easy this time? It was like a one hit K.O. The last attempt, a hobgoblin absolutely destroyed me.

Reached level 3. 295 mobuls left. 928 gold.

Quaffed a potion. It made me feel... greedy? Ate a fortune cookie: "Energy rings affect spell regeneration", it said. A brilliant diamond. A handsome jewel encrusted throne? I could have removed the gems, but I sat down. Nothing happened.

Killed a jackal.

Donated 32 gold to the altar. This also made monsters spawn! So it's not just desecrating it that makes them spawn. Donated 64 gold. Still, only monsters! Okay, so I tried desecrating it. Oh no, an ice lizard. That one almost killed me, and my second missile spell failed. But then it hit again, and I defeated the icy boy. That was close. It dropped 69 gold. Nice.

Quaffed a magic potion. It gave me "incredibly bulging muscles". How nice.

293 mobuls left at that point. 1140 gold.

I drank another potion and it made me more confident. And another one. This one made me fall asleep. Only 290 mobuls left, time's running out...

Fortune cookie: "Sitting down can have unexpected results". Maybe such as blood clots? It can be a good idea to take an aspirin before day-long train journeys.

Marble statues. I did not get aroused by them in the slightest. It's high art!!!

Suddenly, I got teleported into a new, dark, unexplored dungeon. What the frick? Sat down on a gem encrusted throne there. Nothing happened. Then I took the gems, and the gnome king appeared. Bad news. It hit me once. It hit me twice. And it has slain me. Died with 1305 gold. Nobody in hell cares about my gold. They are already grilling me on those god damn marble statues...

P.S. I noticed I can share replays: replay #3