🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm fairly new to the game of hack (I've made it down to the
10th level a couple of times), but some of the discussions I've
seen here have gone completely beyond me.  

1.  What is a 'ghost level'?
2.  Some people on this newsgroup have referred to things
     that have happened because 'someone was there before'.
     Does hack maintain a memory of what has happened in
     previous games?  Does that memory only apply to yourself
     or to everyone who's played?
3.  The hack manual (the stuff that comes out when you enter
     a '?' as a command) says that the little dog "can be
     trained to do all sorts of useful things"(paraphrased).  
     Like what? How do you train it?
4.  How can I tell when the dog is getting hungry?  He turned
     on me once out of confusion brought on by hunger...
5.  I have entered the vault once, and was promptly chased
     (er, "escorted") out by a guard.  Should I have tried to
     fight, or is the guard as tough as he sounds?  I have
     inferred from some discussions that the vault is a vertical
     chamber running through all the levels, so that one may dig
     down (and up) to get lots of gold.  Is this valid?
6.  This is a much more general kind of question.  As I said
     above, I've made it pretty far down (level 10) a couple of
     times, but that's very rare.  I start out as a Wizard
     (has there ever been a discussion of the pros/cons of 
     various starting choices?  If so, has anyone got a summary
     they could mail me?  I'd love to know what the Speleologist
     is supposed to do with that box...).  Anyway, I usually end
     up dying on the 3rd or 4th level when something as innocent
     as two bats at once gang up on me.  Basically I'm going
     along just fine and then all of a sudden they get me and I'm
     dead!  Is there a strategy for living longer?  Or do you just
     have to play lots and hope you live until your character
     reaches the 2nd or 3rd level and you have some hit points
     to work with?  I know this sounds dumb, and maybe naive,
     but I'm getting tired of getting killed just as things get
     interesting...

Enjoy!
-- 

-Andrew		Andrew Glassner		
glassner@unc	decvax!mcnc!unc!glassner