NLarn is a modern Larn: a small town above a cavern of ten levels and a volcano below it, and a daughter who dies if you are too slow.

Your daughter has caught dianthroritis. The only cure is a potion hidden deep in the volcano under the caverns of Larn, and the doctor gives her a limited time. You start in town with a dagger and leather armour; the caverns entrance is the O on the town map. Fight, collect gold and gems, buy better equipment in town, and learn spells at the college, until you are strong enough to go down the volcanic shaft I and find the potion.

Keyboard controls
Saving your game
Tips
New player's guide
In the browser
Credits
About this version

Keyboard controls

The keys to remember

?: In-game help: all commands
X: Auto-explore: walk to the nearest unexplored spot or item
Enter: Menu of all commands
i: Inventory: letter = main action, Enter = all actions of an item
<: Go up (walks to the nearest known stairs up first)
>: Go down or enter a building (walks to the nearest known stairs down; in town: the caverns)
Ctrl+S: Save and end the session

Essential keys

Moving

arrows / hjklyubn: Walk (the number pad works too)
HJKLYUBN: Run
X: Auto-explore the level
< / >: Walk to the nearest known stairs; press again to take them
v: Travel to a place you choose

Items

i: Inventory: letter = main action, Enter = all actions
e: Equipment list
,: Pick up
d: Drop
W / T: Wear or wield / take off
q / r: Drink / read

Fighting

walk into it: Melee attack
f: Fire a ranged weapon
c / a: Cast a spell / cast the last one again
t: Throw an item

Game

Enter: Command menu (every command)
?: In-game help
Ctrl+R: Message history
Ctrl+S: Save and end the session
Ctrl+Q: Quit (the character is lost)

Complete key list (49 commands, from the game's help)

vvoyage (travel) to a location on the level

Vcontinue travelling

Xauto-explore the level

<walk to the nearest known stairs up

>walk to the nearest known stairs down (town: the caverns)

acast the previously cast spell again

Adesecrate an altar

ccast a spell

Cclose a door

ddrop an item

eshow the equipment list

Ddisarm a trap

ffire a ranged weapon

Fwash yourself at a fountain

gmove until something interesting is found

iopen the inventory window

oopen a door or a chest

ppray at an altar

Pdisplay tax status

qdrink a potion or from a fountain

rread a book or a scroll

Rremove gems from a throne

ssearch for traps

Ssit on a throne

tthrow an item

Ttake off a worn/wielded item

wwait/rest up to one mobul or until healed

Wwear/wield an item

xexchange the primary and secondary weapon

<climb up stairs/volcanic shaft (elsewhere: walk to the nearest stairs up)

>climb down stairs/volcanic shaft or enter a building (elsewhere: walk to the nearest stairs down)

,pick up items

$display the bank account balance

:look at the location you are standing on

;look at another location

.rest one turn (alternate key: 5)

\show a list of identified objects

?this help screen (alternate key: F1)

TABshow worn equipment

Ctrl+Aconfigure auto-pickup settings

Ctrl+Dlist discovered landmarks

Ctrl+Dpage down in the inventory, spell list and messages

Ctrl+Lredraw the screen

Ctrl+Pconfigure presets for new games

Ctrl+Qquit the game

Ctrl+Rrecall message history

Ctrl+Ssave and exit the game

Ctrl+Upage up in the inventory, spell list and messages

Ctrl+Vprint the game's version

Saving your game

Saving is automatic. The game is stored in this browser (IndexedDB) when a new character starts, every two minutes while it waits for your next command, and whenever you switch to another tab or window. Reloading the page and choosing Continue saved Game goes on from there.
Ctrl+S saves and ends the session, as in the original; the page restarts by itself and the main menu offers Continue saved Game.
When your character dies, or you quit with Ctrl+Q (the character is lost), NLarn shows its end screen and the high scores and then its main menu for a new game. Quit Game in that menu restarts the page.
Each browser keeps one game. File ▾ → New game deletes it and starts over.
File ▾ → Export save downloads the save file (nlarn.sav); Import save loads one. Use them for a backup or to move a game to another browser or computer (the same NLarn version reads it).
Your settings (nlarn.ini), the high scores, the window layout and sizes and the font choices are stored in the same browser storage.
Private/incognito windows and "clear site data" delete the stored game. Export first if it matters.

Tips

Time is the real enemy. Every turn counts against your daughter (the status window shows the turn as T; 100 turns are one mobul). Explore with X and use < / > to walk straight to the stairs.
Sell gems to the bank in town; money buys armour and weapons in the DND store and education at the college, which raises your stats.
Unknown potions and scrolls are risky but often useful: read scrolls when no monster is near, and keep a healing potion for emergencies once you know one.
Rest with w to heal, but not for too long: time passes.
Spells come from books (r); cast them with c and repeat the last one with a. Magic missile is a good first attack spell.
Fountains, altars and thrones can bless or curse you: save first if you like to gamble.
Do not dive too fast: monsters on deeper levels outpace a weak character quickly.

New player's guide

Your first steps

After the welcome screen choose New Game, type a name, pick a gender and a character build (strong, agile, tough or smart). You start at home in town. Walk out, look around (the Visible window lists what you see), and press >: you walk to the caverns entrance O; press it again to go down.

In the caverns

Press X to explore. It stops when a monster appears or something happens; fight by walking into the monster, then press X again. Pick up what you find with ,. When the level is done, > walks you to the stairs down.

Back to town

Go up with < when you are hurt or rich. In town: the bank buys gems, the DND store sells equipment, the college teaches (raising your stats), the trading post buys items, and the monastery cures diseases and sells a few provisions. Enter a building by standing on it and pressing >.

Growing stronger

Experience levels raise your hit points and mana. Wear the best armour you can afford, learn spells from books, and identify your potions and scrolls by using or buying them. The caverns have ten levels; the volcano three more, where the potion lies. Bring it home before time runs out.

In the browser

Windows: the tiled map with Messages (with history) below it; Status, Inventory and Visible (monsters and items in view) on the right. Menus, lists and questions pop up over the map; the newest message also shows in a line over the map until your next command.
Windows ▾ switches between one window and several, shows or hides each window and resets the layout. Drag the gaps between windows to resize them, drag a title bar to move a window. Hover over a title bar for ✎ (rename), A− / A+ (text size of that window) and ×. Everything is remembered.
Zoom: A− / A+ on the Map title bar change the size of the map. A map bigger than its window scrolls to keep you in the middle.
Tiles switches between the Amiga Larn tiles and plain text. Font picks the font of the text windows; in text mode the map has its own font chooser on its title bar.
Mouse: click a spot on the map to travel there, click a monster to attack it; menus and lists take clicks too. A click on the Inventory window opens the inventory.
Keys: the arrow keys, the number pad or hjklyubn move you; capital letters run. Browsers keep a few shortcuts for themselves (Ctrl+W, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+N, Cmd shortcuts on a Mac), so those never reach the game.
Audio ▾ → Sound effects plays a short sound when you hit or miss, a monster hits you, you kill something, cast a spell, drink, read, pick up, drop, wield or wear, open or close a door, take the stairs, enter a building or pay, fire a missile, gain a level, and when you die. It is off by default and remembered with the window layout. NLarn ships no audio, so these effects were synthesized for this port; there is no music.
If the game ever crashes, a message appears at the top; reload the page to continue from the last autosave.

Credits

NLarn by Joachim de Groot (author and maintainer, copyright 2009-2026 in every source file), with Johanna Ploog as the second main contributor and patches from others; nlarn.github.io.
Licence: GNU General Public License, version 3 or later (the source headers and LICENSE).
NLarn is modelled on Larn by Noah Morgan (1986) and its last version 12.3, with a few ideas from Phil Cordier's ULarn.
Tiles: the Amiga Larn set from larn.org (github.com/primeau/Larn, MIT, Jason Primeau), a few recoloured for town and volcano terrain.
Sound effects: synthesized for this port (web/mksounds.py).
Fonts: the text-window fonts come from the Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack by VileR (int10h.org, CC BY-SA 4.0); the default is your system's monospace font (DejaVu Sans Mono, Menlo or Consolas).

About this version

Based on NLarn 0.8.1, upstream nlarn/nlarn @ 8851b1f.
Original source: nlarn/nlarn, commit 8851b1f (GPL 3).
Our changes (browser build, auto-explore, command menu, inventory, tiles, windows, sound): memmaker/nlarn (all changes).
The browser build keeps NLarn's rules, texts and save format; it adds auto-explore (X), stair walking (< / >), the Enter command menu, item letters and item menus in the inventory, tiles, windows, autosave and sound. English only.