Assassins - Teachers at the AM Guild
Here is a summary of the teachers at the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild
Balourd, Monsieur le
Teaches
- Trip - requires fighting.special.tactics of 15 or above
Notes
Monsieur le Balourd can also teach you all about etiquette. Just ask him about it. He can also accompany on the piano while you practice the dance of your choice with the Troll dance instructor. This may involve some injury but may also TM dodge. Again, you just need to ask him about dancing to get this started and then name a dance.
For dancing use say waltz, say foxtrot or say cotillion to get a lesson and practice dodging.
For information on greetings, say greetings and note that he lists further topics in this category at the end if you want more detail. For a quiz on them say quiz greetings.
For table settings advice say table settings, and then test yourself with say quiz table settings. The questions here are trickier in that you must point to (not point at) the relevant item on the ready prepared table in answer to the question. It may help to type syntax point to get the idea. You can also study your choices of fork with look fork for example, and the same is true of other items.
Finally, don't overlook the piano in this classroom. It's actually a pianola, which is a clockwork piano that plays music without the need to have a pesky musician sitting at it. It is used to train students to deceive the eye by pretending that they are actually playing the instrument. Just type play piano and you'll have a chance to TM your covert.manipulation.sleight-of-hand skill.
Band, Miss Alice
Teaches
- Pick - requires covert.lockpick.doors of 60 or above
- Probe - requires covert.items.traps of 20 or above and covert.casing.place of 60 or above
- Disable - requires covert.items.traps and covert.lockpick.traps. Both of 60 or above
Notes
You can say traps or say lockpicking here for some more information. This includes her ongoing struggle with Baron Strifenkanen at times.
Miss Band no longer tests people's skills by locking them in the classroom. Instead, there is now a cabinet in the classroom that you can use to practice lockpicking, trap disarming and trap arming. Be sure to read the note on each drawer so that you know what difficulty of lock and trap you are attempting. Although Miss Band will check and reset the cabinet periodically it is more polite if you leave the cabinet in the state you found it, so that the next student can practice easily.
Deux-Epees, Madame les
Teaches
- Abscond - requires covert.stealth of 50 or above (NOT a subskill of covert stealth - actual covert.stealth itself must be that level)
- Feint - requires fighting.special.weapon of 15 or above
- Pierce - requires fighting.special.weapon of 15 or above
- Stab - requires fighting.special.weapon of 15 or above
Notes
She may teach an impressive number of commands but this teacher appears to have no other uses. You can't challenge her to a friendly sparring match I'm afraid.
Gladys, Nurse
Teaches
- Bandage - requires crafts.medicine.firstaid of level 25 or above
Notes
The bandage command is a handy one, although I prefer the Cure Light Wounds ritual myself. Remember that your ability to bandage goes down if you are injured, so it is more useful for healing others. Bandages heal over a period of time rather than instantly and multiple bandages can be applied for greater effect. Obtain bandages by using the tear command on appropriate items of clothing. The tear command does not need to be learned.
I have found no other uses for Nurse Gladys. Nobody I asked knew if she could heal the injured, although it is a possibility.
This teacher is also the examiner for the practical examination for students enrolled on the Master of Medicine and Applied Pathology (MMAP) post-graduate course.
Moody, Mr
Teaches
- Backstab - requires covert.stealth and covert.items.weapons. Both of 60 or above (NOT a subskill of covert stealth - actual covert.stealth itself must be that level)
Notes
He teaches my favourite command, so this guy gets the thumbs up from me. If you want a lecture on personal presentation then feel free to say grooming while in his classroom.
This teacher is also the examiner for the practical examination for students enrolled on the Master of Disguise (MD) post-graduate course.
Nivor, Mr
Teaches
- Ambush - requires covert.stealth and covert.items.weapons. Both of 60 or above (NOT a subskill of covert stealth - actual covert.stealth itself must be that level)
Notes
You can also say ambush here for some very useful info on which skills are used for which aspects of ambush.
You can say practice please? to try your ambushing skills. Mr Nivor will then set the scene and you should type ambush to drop into readiness, although you can skip that stage if feeling confident. When ready, type pounce on nivor to spring your ambush. Your performance will be rated and you may take minor damage if you fail. It uses GP so this is presumably an opportunity to TM your skills.
Paige, Miss Gwendolyn
Teaches
- No Commands
Notes
Miss Paige is the Guild Librarian. She doesn't teach any commands and can't help improve any skills. The most useful thing she can do is tell you about the books available. A command such as say books please will set her off listing and describing all the books available.
Perdore, Dr
Teaches
- No Commands
Notes
Dr Perdore is the invigilator for the post-graduate exam room. Post graduate studies are expensive courses taken by Assassins who have already passed The Run. If you aren't aware of the courses then it is unlikely that you will need his services yet, but there are books in the library that explain these courses if you wish to learn more. If you are already on a course and need to take the exam then just use help here in the exam room for a very detailed help file on how the exam works.
Rallick, Master
Teaches
- No Commands
Notes
A handy chap despite the lack of teaching of any commands. You can say poisons to get you started and then just say the subject that interests you from his list. The further subjects that he is prepared to inform you about are: grinding, heating, distilling, steeping, pressing and smokebombs. Use this information to get a good start in poison making. The guild library has information on ingredients.
This teacher is also the examiner for the practical examination for students enrolled on the Doctor of Alchemical Science (DAlSc) post-graduate course.
Schotter, Mr
Teaches
- Conceal - requires covert.hiding.object of 30 or above (possibly changed to 60 now)
- Hide - requires covert.hiding.person of 10 or above
- Palm - requires covert.manipulation.palming of 3 or above
- Peek - requires covert.stealth of 10 or above (possibly available at 6 now) (NOT a subskill of covert.stealth - actual covert.stealth itself must be that level)
- Slip - requires covert.manipulation.passing of 3 or above
- Sneak - requires covert.stealth of 10 or above (NOT a subskill of covert.stealth - actual covert.stealth itself must be that level)
- Unconceal - requires covert.manipulation.sleight-of-hand of 60 or above.
- Unhide - requires covert.stealth of 20 or above (NOT a subskill of covert stealth - actual covert.stealth itself must be that level)
Notes
In addition to teaching all those commands you can say the name of any of them to him and he will explain how and when to use the command.
Look at any of the sets of string here to gauge the difficulty of the sneaking mazes. For example, look black string. You can also use the string mazes to practice sneaking, like this - sneak along black path. The difficulties vary by colour with blue as the hardest. David Buckley (didn't give character name) has confirmed that TMs are possible by practicing sneaking through the mazes.
Finally, you may practice your hiding skills by typing stand still. After a while of standing still, you'll be told how well you did at it. It costs GP so again, I believe TMs will be possible from this.
Smith-Rhodes, Miss
Teaches
- No Commands
Notes
Does not teach commands, but if you say domestic science and then she will explain a little about the subject. More fun can be had if you say test my herbal recognition please as she will then test your knowledge of plants. There are various pictures on the wall that are used as part of the test. Look at them by using look red frame for example and use look frames for a full list. Your answers can be single words identifying the colour of the frame in most cases, such as say red. Some answers require the name of the plant to be said. I'm not sure that you can improve your skills through this but it will accurately measure your ability as the picture descriptions will become more informative as your skill improves. Thanks go to Johenius for reminding me to add this new feature to this description.
Stone, Professor
Teaches
- Fix - requires crafts.smithing of 10 or above
- Judge - requires other.evaluating.weapons of 5 or above
- Leatherwork - requires crafts.materials of 10 or above
- Vurdere - requires other.evaluating.armour of 5 or above
Notes
In addition to the commands he teaches Professor Stone is also the man in charge of the forge. It can be found in the southernmost of the Professor's rooms. Here you can fix armour, weapons or jewelry providing you are skilled enough. Ignore any comments he makes about poisons though. Although alchemy may relate to poisons you will find that other teachers are now better able to assist you in this subject since the building of the poison labs and lecture theater.
Strifenkanen, Baron
Teaches
- Assess - requires that you have already graduated and have 50 levels of covert.casing.person (not certain but hopefully correct)
Notes
A bit of a practical joker but the Baron has no useful function apart from teaching the assess command. You can say assess here for some general tips on the command.
T'malia, Lady
Teaches
- Inhume - This can only be relearned here by graduated assassins who foolishly used commands clear inhume and lost their inhuming ability.
Notes
You can say rings here to hear about the special rings and say Can I buy a ring please? if you are interested in designing and purchasing one.
This teacher is also the examiner for the practical examination for students enrolled on the Doctor of Political Expediency (DPE) post-graduate course.
Ubersetzer, Doktor von
Teaches
- No Commands
Notes
Just about the only information you can get out of this guy is by typing say languages. I predict that when people start to venture into Uberwald and other such places this classroom will become a lot more active. For now, however, there is little to be learned here.
Yoyo, Kompt de
Teaches
- No Commands
Notes
Although teaching no commands he can teach you the basics of Morporkian, Djelian and Agatean. For example, try say teach me spoken agatean please to learn 5 levels of spoken agatean. After initial training you can practice spoken languages further here too. Try say story in djelian please for example. Reading skills in the various languages can be increased by reading the plaques around the room. The trick to TMing off the stories is to ask for the story in Morporkian then swap to speaking the appropriate language while listening. An alias to do this quickly is advisable or alternatively use the syntax say #morporkian Tell me a story in <language>, please while already set to speak the desired language. Once good enough at a language you can ask in the language itself and be understood.
I don't believe that you can find musical instruments by searching the shelves any more. Instead, the Kompt de Yoyo now sells instruments, including the lethal inhuming variety. Standard shop commands such as list, browse and buy work to accomplish this.
This teacher is also the examiner for the practical examination for students enrolled on either the Doctor of Languages (DL) post-graduate course or the Master of Music (MM) post-graduate course.
There are other teachers who just wander about the guild building but they seem of little use. All of the staff listed above remain in their rooms.