You may walk through any room containing monsters (either peaceful or at war).  If you are peaceful, they will leave you alone as you walk through - this is often useful if your character is beat up or if you don’t want to bother with small encounters.  However, if you are at war, the monsters will try to terminate you as you maneuver through the room, and may block you from moving at all. 

As you venture further into the dungeon, your character may have problems properly identifying monsters within the first few rounds.  How long it takes for your character to recognize a monster depends on your character’s Intelligence, Wisdom and Experience.  After a few rounds, your character should be able to recognize the monster(s) properly. 

How afraid are they of you? 
As your characters become more powerful, you will notice that many monsters may become wary of you and your abilities.  This usually causes the creatures to hold back from fighting with you and claim peace while you are in their territory.  However, there are some monsters that will attack any character, no matter how close to demigod they are.  Monsters that are deathly afraid of you may flee the room even if you are peaced! 

Retreating and getting Blocked 
Some monsters will attempt to block you and your party members (if any) if you try to flee during combat.  The chance of being blocked is based on the speed of the monsters versus the speed of the characters and companions in your party.  Quite often when monsters do block your retreat (or your advance), they will get an extra attack round, and be warned that large parties are very hard to retreat! 

Companions & Monsters offering to Join 
Sometimes one or more monsters may offer to join you and become your companions.  When they do offer to join, you can press ‘j’ to allow them to follow you.  Once a companion, a monster will fight for you in combat and will act as an alternative target for the monsters you are fighting. 

For more information on Companions, see the Companions section later in this Helplesson 

Talking with Monsters 
Some creatures in the depths below are capable of speaking the common tongue or some other language.  Quite often, these creatures will be interested in talking with you and even sometimes offer valuable information – after all, they live in the place that is feared by most everybody.  To attempt to talk with a creature, you can press ‘T’ during a peaced encounter.  You cannot talk with monsters if they are not peaced. 

Be warned that some creatures will attack you on the spot if you attempt to talk to them.  At the same time, some monsters will offer information so valuable that it will become News for others to hear about.