Buying Life

Two of the most common questions on the talker and the newbie channel are "I'm dead, what next?" and "How do I buy more lives?". This page seeks to address the second of these questions.

The normal means of purchasing an extra life is at Pishe's Temple in Ankh-Morpork, other locations and methods are discussed at the end of the document.

Pishe's Temple

Where

At Pishe's Pool, which is located in the Temple of Pishe, in the Apothecary Gardens, in Ankh Morpork.

Directions

From outside The Mended Drum:

4 west, 5 north (crossing Contract Bridge), west, north, northwest, 2 north, 3 northeast, northwest, north, northeast, 2 northwest, north, 2 northwest (crossing Lost Bridge), north, west (into Apothecary Gardens), southwest, 3 west, northwest, west, northwest, west, northwest, west, north, west (into Temple, cost 1p / Guild level), northwest.

Note - entering the temple costs 1p per guild level except for adventurers, ghosts and Pishites.

How

You buy lives by tossing royals into the pool. The syntax is:

toss <1 royal / n royals> into pool

Most people toss a single royal at a time, until they receive a life. This is indicated with a message such as:

Saving...
You feel like you have more life.
Pishe smiles on you and lifts the clouds from your heart, but the moment has been draining. Some rest will probably help.

The pool seems to have some memory and will remember for a time, no-one knows how long it seems, if you have to go away and get more royals part way through the process. However, most people prefer to make sure they bring plenty with them.

Cost

It varies. Random numbers, the phases of the moon, your guild level, how long since you last bought a life? Who knows (apart from the Cre's)? The following are based on my own perception:

• It seems to get more expensive with each life.
• Going by the cost of my own (Sined's) lives, it seems to be roughly either Number of Deaths so far, or Number of Lives Bought so far, divided by 5, in royals, with fluctuations of about 20% either side.
• In other words, it goes up on average $20 each time, but there's some random variations too.
• It might be cheaper if you allow a bit of time between buying lives.
• The cheapest solution is to not die.

Warning!!

Remember that message above? Where it said "But the moment has been draining. Some rest will probably help." .... it wasn't kidding. Your con stat has dropped several levels. It will come back up over time, or with a "restore" ritual from a Pishe priest. Your con stat affects your HP, a lot. You have low HP. In addition, you may not have enough con to buy another life straight away. If you try, one of two things could happen.

• You buy a life, then die.
• You lose the money.

So wait until your con is restored. It can be checked with score stats. If there is a (-x) next to con, wait!

You can not buy another life until your con stat has been restored!! Just stop trying already!!

Other Methods Of Increasing Life

You can buy life at a pool in a little clearing in Lancre Kingdom, a few miles North of the town of Lancre. The pool accepts donations of Lancre sovereigns (and possibly other denominations of Lancrastian currency) and as a basic calculation, two sovereigns are equivalent to one royal. The syntax is "offer to Pishe", and this is the pool in the clearing with a small hut containing a Pishite Religious Instructor NPC (Gath) to the west of it. The pool responds to "syntax offer" and "help altar". Any other small clearing with a pool in Lancre Kingdom is the wrong place. I don't know if donations made at the two locations go into a central pot for the purpose of determining when you get a life, or if both pools are completely separate. Nor do I know how good if at all the Lancre pool is at remebering donations between visits.

In Bes Pelargic there is a Golden Chicken. If you can persuade it to eat enouugh chicken logs (purchased from a stall in the High Tide Road covered market) it may lay an egg. Rumour has it that if you manage to chase this egg around for long enough keeping it happy and feeling content, you may be rewarded. I don't know anyone who has done so recently enough to be able to say that it still works, if it ever did, but it may be cheaper than paying Pishe. In my own experience, it's a lot more aggravating.