Beneath the town of Veln lie the Proving Depths: ten levels of corridor, door, pit, and dark. On the tenth level, behind a warm Seal, waits Vethurn, the Undermost. Build adventurers, form a party of up to six, descend, grow strong, and break the Seal. Everything is permanent. The depths keep what they are given.
Every menu item shows a bracketed key. Press it, or click/tap the line. In the maze, the arrow keys also work: up moves forward, left and right turn, down turns around (same as W A D S).
At the Training Grounds, name your adventurer, pick a race and an alignment, and roll a bonus pool. Spend points one at a time on the six qualities. Made a mistake? Press M to switch the allocator to SUBTRACT mode, take points back (down to your racial base), then press M again to keep spending. You can also reroll the whole bonus. Classes light up as your qualities meet their requirements; the four elite classes demand rare rolls.
Alignment matters: Priests are never Neutral, Thieves are never Good, Wardens are only Good, and the Shadow walks only in Evil.
Assemble up to six at Gilgamesh's Rest. Order is formation: slots 1 to 3 are the front row and can swing weapons and be clawed in return; slots 4 to 6 are the back row, safer but limited to spells and items. Put your armor up front and your casters behind it.
Ten fixed levels, each 20 by 20. The automap fills in as you walk. The deeper you go, the worse everything wants you dead. An elevator links depths 4 and 8 once you find both platforms.
| < | Stairs up. On depth 1 they lead back to town. |
| > | Stairs down. |
| + | A door. Walk through it. |
| E | Elevator platform (depths 4 and 8). |
| o | A pit. The whole party takes falling damage. The map remembers; you should too. |
| A | Antimagic zone. No spell will answer while you stand here. |
| ? | Darkness. The viewport goes black unless a light is burning (the Beacon spell or a Torchstone). |
| B | The Seal of Vethurn, depth 10. Break it only when you are ready. There is no running from what is under it. |
Camp anywhere with C to cast healing and travel magic. Save with Q and resume later from the Castle Gate; one expedition can be held at a time.
Monsters come in groups, sometimes two at once. Each round, choose an action for every able member, then the round resolves: your party acts in slot order, then the monsters answer.
Lower AC is better. Watch for poison (HP drains as you walk), paralysis, sleep, silence (no casting), and the touch of the drained dead, which can pull whole levels of experience out of a body.
At 0 HP a character is DEAD. Carry on; the temple can attempt a raise, and the Raise and Restore spells work in the field. A failed raise leaves ASH. A failed attempt on ash leaves nothing at all: LOST, stricken from the roster forever. Every successful raise costs a point of vitality, and vitality is what raises you. Spend bodies wisely. If the whole party falls, the expedition ends and the roster keeps the dead where they lie until someone pays the Patient Flame.
Two schools, seven circles each. Casting costs one point from the spell's circle; points return when you rest at the inn (any room, even the stables). Mages learn arcane magic, Priests divine, Scholars both (thinly). Blademasters and Wardens come to their schools three levels late. A new circle opens roughly every two levels.
The depths keep their own census. Fifty kinds of things live below, and one thing that rules them. You will meet them in the order you deserve.