Arch-Mage's Tale
David J. Grabiner
Although I am just a novice high-elven mage, I have accepted the
quest to free the pits of Angband from the dominion of Morgoth. If I
cannot accomplish the quest myself, I hope to lead others to follow my
example, and I will keep this diary as a guide.
I started with excellent strength and magical skill for a novice mage.
My magical power was sufficient to cast my one spell of magic missile
three times, and my strength was about average for a high elf despite my
complete lack of strength training.
(The story which follows describes the experiences of a mage playing
Vanilla Angband 3.0.2 or 3.0.3, including some strategies which are
useful for a mage. Consider this a minor spoiler warning.)
--
David Grabiner, grab...@alumni.princeton.edu, http://remarque.org/~grabiner
Baseball labor negotiations FAQ: http://remarque.org/~grabiner/laborfaq.html
Shop at the Mobius Strip Mall: Always on the same side of the street!
Klein Glassworks, Torus Coffee and Donuts, Projective Airlines, etc.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 1
I started poorly prepared for an expedition into the Pits of Angband.
Novice warriors usually leave their masters with some weapons and armor.
I left with only my savings of a hundred gold pieces, a dagger which
would barely scratch most creatures, and a scroll of recall which would
not help me against any monsters.
Since the scroll was of no use to me at the start of my quest, I decided
to sell it instead. Scrolls of recall are standard issue in the temple.
Bosk the Wise, the temple priest, offered to buy mine. However, he is a
dwarf, and I have learned from experience not to trust the dwarves, so I
decided to try some comparison shopping first.
That turned out to be a wise decision. The alchemist deals in scrolls,
but he also offered me less than I thought the scroll was worth. The
magic shop doesn't normally sell scrolls, but they are magical, so I
asked Luthien whether she was interested. She offered me 120, a much
better deal than the other offers, and I accepted. I would have been
happy to return the favor, but Luthien didn't have anything I could use
in stock, so I had to go elsewhere.
The armory was my first priority, as I needed some protection against
monsters. I bought a pair of boots, a small shield, and a metal cap. I
could have afforded a suit of hard leather armor, but it would have been
too heavy; I needed to be able to carry some treasure without being
slowed. There was also a magical robe in stock, but it cost far more
than I could afford, so I decided to go to the dungeon without any body
armor. Ithyl-Mak tried to sell me a pair of gloves, but I pointed out
that I was a mage and would have trouble making the necessary hand-waves
with gloves on.
The blacksmith had nothing I could use. He did have arrows in stock,
but no bows, and the arrows would have been of little use. He told me
to try again later.
I didn't even bother to check the black market. It wouldn't stock
anything that I could afford at this point, and in any case, a
nasty-looking warrior was standing outside the door.
That left the general store, which had several useful items. I bought a
brass lantern and some oil to fill it, allowing me to sell my torches.
I also bought a cloak and a miner's shovel.
I still had some cash left, and tried to go back to the alchemist to buy
some scrolls. A crowd of children blocked my way, begging for money. I
refused to pay, and they took matters into their own hands, stealing my
purse. I was at least minimally equipped for the dungeon, so I ran down
the stairs, expecting the children to be too scared to follow.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 2
The stairway deposited me in a room with a door on the east side, and a
giant centipede, a pile of copper, and a mushroom on the west side. The
centipede looked like a good target for my magic missiles. The first
missile fizzled, and I tried to rest to recover the mana, but the
centipede woke up first. My second missile worked, and the centipede
fled, giving me some breathing room. A third missile killed the
centipede, and allowed me to rest before picking up the items.
After picking up the copper, I tried to pick up the mushroom, and was
surprised as it released a cloud of spores. I stumbled, and was caught
in another cloud, but I got out of its range. Now that I knew it was
alive and dangerous, I killed it with a magic missile.
A small kobold opened the door of the room, cutting me off from the
stairway. I fired my last two magic missiles at the kobold, wounding it
badly but not killing it. It had not yet reached me, so I tried
throwing my flasks of oil, but I couldn't hit it. This is why I wanted
a bow, but now all that I could do was wait in the corner, and hope to
win the melee. Fortunately, my missiles had given me a head start in
the battle. It wounded me twice, but I nicked it with my dagger, and
the kobold fled, allowing me to regain some mana. As soon as I was
ready with a magic missile, I fired it, and the kobold fell. I searched
the body and found a robe.
Since I was not wearing any body armor that would conflict with the
robe, I tried it on. It fit me nicely, and it wasn't cursed, so I
decided to wear it. I would at least be slightly better protected the
next time I met a monster.
Anthony Wesley
> Chapter 2
I'm keeping copies of all these - consider them backups. I won't do
anything with them without your permission, so don't be alarmed.
... I hope you've got enough stamina to keep this up fro the whole game :-)
cheers, bird
dzhang
> anything that I could afford at this point, and in any case, a
> nasty-looking warrior was standing outside the door.
What!? Oh man...
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS
try to steal something from the Black Market. Dex is generally a good
attribute, so you should pumpt at least 7 out of your 48 points into it at
character creation.
Since stealing is based only on weight, even at the beginning you should be able
rings (I usually go for RoSlaying, RoIce/Flames/Lightning/Acid, or in some
exceptionally lucky cases, random artifacts). Other attemptable items are
potions and scrolls. Never really did see a good scroll to steal in Bree, but
I've seen and successfully stolen Augmentation Potions of Lvl 1 before.
It won't always be successful, but if you fail then you can just suicide and
restart. Having a Ring of Slaying (+10, +10) at the beginning noticeably
shortens the first part (getting up to level 10 or 15).
Jules Bean
>>I didn't even bother to check the black market. It wouldn't stock
>>anything that I could afford at this point, and in any case, a
>>nasty-looking warrior was standing outside the door.
>
>
> What!? Oh man...
>
> ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS
>
> try to steal something from the Black Market. Dex is generally a good
> attribute, so you should pumpt at least 7 out of your 48 points into it at
> character creation.
Um. Can you steal from shops in vanilla now?
Timo Pietilä
> dzhang wrote:
>
>> What!? Oh man...
>>
>> ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS
>>
>> try to steal something from the Black Market. Dex is generally a good
>> attribute, so you should pumpt at least 7 out of your 48 points into
>> it at
>> character creation.
>
> Um. Can you steal from shops in vanilla now?
No. I guess that dzhang is thinking about nethack or similar. Maybe in
ToME you can steal from BM, I don't know.
Timo Pietilä
--
A(2.9.3) DI(>) "Wanderer" DP L:43 DL:2200' A+ R+ Sp+ w:Ulmo/BoChaos
A(3.0.3) CI(ax) "Wanderer" HoM L:47 DL:3000' A? R+ Sp w:Westernesse
A/S L/W/D H- D+ c-- f PV+ s-(+) TT? d(+) P++ M+
C-- S+ I-(++) So+ B++ ac GHB- SQ RQ++ V+ F:S Rod Stacking
ColdSnickersBar
I got the impression that this story is V and not ToME. You can't steal anything
in V.
--
JESUS SAVES... he passes it to Gretzky... Gretzky shoots! HE SCORES!!
R Dan Henry
<ju...@jellybean.co.uk> declared:
No, this is just another clueless one-variant player (of ToME, I
expect).
--
R. Dan Henry, Emperor of the Universe
Is an enthusiastic Fire Hound a hot dog with relish?
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 3
I left the room through its door. The door led into a corridor which
ended at another door, and that door led to a corridor which ended in a
room with no exit. The dungeon levls are much larger than this, so I
looked for secret doors, and found one near the door in mid-corridor.
While exploring that corridor, I stepped onto a scratch on the floor,
which turned out to be a magical rune. It teleported me halfway across
the level, and into a room full of jackals. I ran to the exit of the
room, taking two bites in the process, but I escaped into a corridor in
which only one jackal at a time could attack, and then picked off the
jackals with magic missiles and my dagger, one by one.
A large brown snake entered the corridor from the other direction. I
was out of mana, and tried to attack with my dagger, but I missed and
the snake bit me. I ran back into the room, and discovered that the
snake was only half my speed.
This suggested a strategy for beating it in melee; I could strike once,
and then back up before the snake struck back. I had to be careful not
to be cornered, and it took a long time because snakes are hard to hit.
Finally, I recovered enough mana to cast another magic missile,
finishing off the snake.
The experience from that battle was enough for me to learn two more
spells; I chose monster detection and phase door, both of which would
help in my long trip back to the exit. I checked for monsters as I
entered every new section of the dungeon, and took advantage of the
spell to ambush a pack of jackals. When I reached a clear room, I tried
my phase door spell for the experience.
I found several some potions and scrolls, but I didn't want to try any
untested magic on myself, and I had no way to identify the useful ones,
so I just carried them. I also accumulated enough gold to buy some
useful items.
Finally, I returned to the area where I had entered the level, and tried
to carefully erase the magic rune. It vanished, and I studied my
spellbook again, learning the spell of trap detection to prevent any
similar mishaps.
Martin Bazley
> Jules Bean wrote:
>
> > dzhang wrote:
> >
> >> What!? Oh man...
> >>
> >> ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS
> >>
> >> try to steal something from the Black Market. Dex is generally a good
> >> attribute, so you should pumpt at least 7 out of your 48 points into
> >> it at
> >> character creation.
> >
> > Um. Can you steal from shops in vanilla now?
>
> No. I guess that dzhang is thinking about nethack or similar. Maybe in
> ToME you can steal from BM, I don't know.
>
> Timo Pietilä
>
In ToME you can steal from all shops by pressing Shift-Z. Beware, for
if you get caught you get thrown out of the shop for a few hundred
thousand turns.
Wait a minute, that's given me an idea.
How about a new 'Jailbreak' quest that you have to go through if you
get caught? And maybe if you kill 'innocent' townsfolk (Boil covered
wretches and the like) a la Kamband? Of course to balance this they
should all be made uninterested in (and maybe even afraid of) you.
But back to the quest. It would consist of some rooms with locked
doors and prison guards guarding them. Probably with all weapons you
were carrying confiscated and put in a 'confiscation room'. (Have you
noticed I have the thieves quest in mind yet?) Fortunately I can't
imagine prison guards being too tough or strong. Perhaps as a
counterbalance, you miraculously manage to save your bow and arrows.
Policemen would be *very* dangerous, but not too tough.
This is my impression of the map:
p=policeman c=chief g=guard @=You i=inmate |=weapons (if necessary)
#######################
#..p..p.....p..p#g+...#
#.p.p....p.p...p#.#.@.#
#.....|c........#.#...#
#.p...p..p.p....#.#####
#.p..p....p...p.#g+...#
#......p.p...p..#.#.i.#
#..p..pp...p.ppp+.#...#
#######################
Perhaps this could be expanded and balanced with fewer policemen, and
more inmates, gaurds and cells?
The inmates would of course, be friendly to you.
Letme know what you think, please.
--
- Martin Bazley - "The only good zombie is a dead zombie" /
mar...@bazley.freeuk.com _____________________________/_
Wimbledon, London, England /|> | < / /\ < |>| | | |_ < /\ |/
__________________________/ |\ | _> \_ \/ _> |\ \/ |_ |_ _> \/ |\
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 4
I returned to town and sold all of my unidentified potions and scrolls
to the magic shop. Luthien threw several dangerous items away, leaving
me relieved that I had not tried them out. She also identified the
useful items, usually offering to sell them back for a higher price. I
wasn't interested, but I did have the cash to make an important
purchase, the second spell book.
With some cash to spare, I checked the other shops again, and bought a
short bow, a quiver of arrows, and a scroll of identify. I still had a
small amount of gold; I didn't see an immediate use for it, but then I
remembered a scroll of treasure detection that I had just sold to the
magic shop, and bought it.
Returning to the dungeon, I found my way blocked by a kobold. My first
magic missile wounded the kobold but did not frighten it, and my second
failed. The kobold then attacked, but its dagger went, "plink!" off my
robe. I fired another magic missile and was grazed in return, and a
fourth missile finished the kobold, which dropped its dagger.
While thinking over my experience and trying unsuccessfully to study my
spellbook, I realized that daggers do not normally go "plink" against
robes. I may not be a trained warrior, but I knew what that meant; my
robe was magical. I didn't need to identify the robe yet, since it was
certainly better than any alternative, and I wanted to save the scroll.
I entered a corridor with quartz veins running along both its north and
south sides, and some embedded copper. I decided that this was a good
place to use the scroll of treasure detection, and was rewarded when the
scroll revealed six hidden strikes, worth nearly 200 in gold, enough to
justify another shopping trip.
I used the gold to buy a scroll to sharpen my dagger, but before I could
continue my shopping trip, Farmer Maggot screamed at me to get off his
land. He seemed harmless, but he refused to get out of my way, and I
wasn't on his land, so I had little choice but to attack him with my
enchanted dagger. It was a long battle, but he finally died, and
dropped a lance.
The lance was much too heavy for me to use as a weapon, but as an item
dropped by a special monster, it was worth identifying. It turned out
to be enchanted with fairly strong magic, worth several hundred gold
pieces at the blacksmith. I sold it, and bought a long bow to replace
my short bow, another scroll to sharpen my dagger, and more identify
scrolls.
awesley
> Chapter 4
>
would you mind putting the chapter number in the title? Makes it much
easier to keep track of them.
:-)
cheers, bird
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 5
After a brief expedition on the first level, I had learned two more
spells, and was ready to learn my first more difficult spell. I thought
of learning the spell of lightning, but I decided to wait, as it wasn't
reliable enough to be better than my magic missile. Trap/door
destruction was a better spell, as it would allow me to get around
jammed doors, or traps that I did not want to risk setting off.
I decided to try the second level, as I was now well prepared for
combat, with the ability to cast eleven magic missiles or three stinking
clouds.
As soon as I reached the second level, I encountered a large dog, who I
recognized as Grip, one of Maggot's dogs. With Maggot dead, it wasn't
surprising that Grip attacked me. Phase Door let me get briefly out of
range, and a few magic missiles felled Grip.
The next room contained nine cave spiders, a natural target for a
stinking cloud. However, only three of the nine were killed, and I now
had six wounded spiders, some fleeing and some approaching, and all
moving at double my speed. A floating eye in the back of the room woke
up and drained some of my mana; I couldn't hit it with either a wooden
or magical arrow because spiders were in the way.
I couldn't run away from the double-speed spiders, so my best hope was
to cast a stinking cloud at the floating eye. It worked on the second
try, leaving me with just one magic missile. The spiders were wounded,
which allowed me to kill one with a single dagger stroke after it had
bit me once, then use a magic missile against a second which was getting
too close, kill others at a distance with arrows, and finish the last
one with my dagger when it had fled to the corner and then regained its
courage and charged me.
A mass of green worms crawled into the room, and split into two masses.
I couldn't afford to recover mana while the worms mutliplied further,
and I didn't want to challenge them in melee, so I started firing
arrows. At the long range, I couldn't even hit the worms effectively,
and after killing four and leaving four in the room, I ran back up the
stairs, finding myself in a different part of the first level.
I had hoped to go back after the worms with stinking clouds or magic
missiles, but it was no longer possible, so I just rested on the first
level to recover my mana and went down again. I didn't encounter
anything else nasty, and I finally went back up when my pack was filled
of unidentified potions and scrolls, and weapons and armor that I might
want to sell but that weren't worth identifying unless I recognized them
as magical.
I learned more spells in the process, and was about to learn lightning
bolts, but I checked the first book first and found that my magic
missile had become more powerful and thus lightning was still useless.
I returned to town, sold everything, and then used the money to buy back
a potion of haste self and a magical cloak, which I had sold because it
wasn't worth identifying everything.
Wim Benthem
wrote:
>>I learned more spells in the process, and was about to learn lightning
>bolts, but I checked the first book first and found that my magic
>missile had become more powerful and thus lightning was still useless.
>
You know that in the newest versions, lightning bolt does only a little
bit more damage than magic missile, but that it always beams?
If you consider the damage against a single monster, lightning bolt
will always be useless.
--
Wim Benthem
Martin Bazley
He used to do that, and got attacked for creating numerous unnecessary
threads. Don't confuse him. :->
Kamen Kirilov
"Wim Benthem" <wben...@wxs.nl> wrote in message
news:h9rniv0koj6nkjccj...@4ax.com...
Yes, it's always beams. I use it on hill orcs. Other types of orc are spear
of light fodder :D
--
Kamen K.
Julian Lighton
Martin Bazley <mar...@bazley.freeuk.com> wrote:
>Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed, and awesley did decree on 1 Aug 2003...
>
>> David J. Grabiner wrote:
>> > Chapter 4
>> >
>>
>> would you mind putting the chapter number in the title? Makes it much
>> easier to keep track of them.
>>
>threads. Don't confuse him. :->
One can change the title without breaking the thread.
David J. Grabiner
No, I didn't know this, despite having won with a mage in 3.0.2. My
scribe will discover this eventually; it still isn't useful against most
of the creatures he meets at his current level.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 6
I was ready to try the third dungeon level, but on my way down, I had a
good feeling about the first level. Such a lucky feeling meant that the
level has very good treasure or lots of nasty monsters, so I decided to
explore the first level instead.
Since there might be a special item, I saved even the broken daggers. It
was unlikely that I would want to use one, but a broken dagger of dragon
slaying could be sold for several thousand.
The first unexpected item I found was a mace; it wasn't normal on the
first level but was nowhere near accounting for the level feeling.
After exploring half the level, I found the real reason, a book bound
with dragon hide rather than leather, titled "Ethereal Openings".
I couldn't read the book, but I was sure that it was valuable, so I ran
back upstairs to sell it at the temple. Bosk offered me three
thousand gold pieces at the temple, and when I sold it, he put it in a
special case for rare books rather than on the shelf with the other
prayer books.
The gold gave me my first chance to shop in the black market, where I
bought three more potions of haste self, and scrolls of long-range
teleportation for emergency escapes. I then returned to the magic shop
to buy the third spellbook, which I would need soon. Knowing about the
special bookcase in the temple, I asked Luthien whether she had a rare
book collection.
"I do," she said, "but it's usually empty; I'll offer you at least eight
thousand if you have spare books to sell. Powerful wizards have learned
to save some of their spell memory in case they find the rare books;
their advice is to learn about one spell for each time you advance your
skill."
I still had enough gold to buy a few more items, so I bought the most
powerful healing potions the temple sold, and heroism potions. The
heroism would protect me against fear, and the healing potions would
cure most other ills.
Sean Keenan
I've seen newsreaders that will start a new thread if the subject is
changed.
--
Sean
No fucking cat. No fucking cradle.
R Dan Henry
jl...@fragment.com (Julian Lighton) declared:
For those threading purely by references, true, but breaking threads
when the subject changes is often preferable if most posters follow
proper procedures and change the subject header when the topic drifts
into an entirely new area.
Anthony Wesley
> On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 20:03:05 -0000, in a fit of madness
> jl...@fragment.com (Julian Lighton) declared:
>
>
>>In article <9a0aa51b...@freeuk.com>,
>>Martin Bazley <mar...@bazley.freeuk.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed, and awesley did decree on 1 Aug 2003...
>>>
>>>
>>>>David J. Grabiner wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Chapter 4
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>would you mind putting the chapter number in the title? Makes it much
>>>>easier to keep track of them.
>>>>
>>>
>>>He used to do that, and got attacked for creating numerous unnecessary
>>>threads. Don't confuse him. :->
>>
>>One can change the title without breaking the thread.
>
>
> For those threading purely by references, true, but breaking threads
> when the subject changes is often preferable if most posters follow
> proper procedures and change the subject header when the topic drifts
> into an entirely new area.
>
SInce I started this...discussion... can I just say that I understand now why the subject stays the same each time, and
it's cool.
cheers, bird
Bruce
> Lassie relayed this information from Julian Lighton:
> I've seen newsreaders that will start a new thread if the subject is
> changed.
If their newsreader can't thread by references, it's broken and he
shouldn't worry about it.
--
Bruce Labbate | Imagine your whole self is filled
shiftless layabout | With light, your voice ringing out
| Through the whole f-ing town.
| - PJ Harvey
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 7
This time, I found nothing interesting on the first two levels, and went
straight to the third. The toughest creature I encountered was Fang,
Maggot's other dog, who gave me little trouble and allowed me to learn
another spell.
The treasure on the third level was substantially better, with wands
lying on the floor. Wands are safe to identify by trying them out, but
I used my scrolls anyway, as I could gain more than the cost of a scroll
by learning how many charges were in a wand before using it.
I entered a new section of the level, and my monster detection revealed
no monsters, but as I advanced into the room, I found a horrible-looking
creature named Smeagol. Since my spell didn't notice him, he must have
magical invisibility, but high elves are immune to that magic.
I cast magic missiles at Smeagol as he approached, then attacked with my
dagger. He struck back, robbing my purse and blinking away. I rested
to recover my mana, then searched the area and found him again, mostly
healed. This time, in order to decrease the searching time, I attacked
at a distance with my arrows, and with a wand of magic missile I had
just found. He tried to rob me again but failed, teleported away, and I
found him by reading a scroll of detect invisible. Another attempt with
more magical and non-magical missiles ended the battle.
Smeagol dropped a dagger bearing faint runes. My scroll of identify
clarified the runes; they read "Narthanc", the Blade of Fire. I had
found my first artifact.
The scroll was not strong enough to reveal the powers of the dagger, but
I quickly discovered that it burned monsters because it did little
damage to a salamander. I then tried speaking the word "Narthanc" aloud
while pointing the dagger at a kobold; a bolt of fire emerged, burning
the kobold to a crisp.
While Narthanc is known as one of the lesser artifacts, it was an
excellent weapon for me at that stage. I could open a tough battle
with a fire bolt more powerful than any attack I had, and not using up
the mana that my own frost bolt spell would require. Then, when I was
in melee, Narthanc did more damage than more swords, and it was much
lighter.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 8
Although Narthanc and lots of magic missiles gave me good offensive
power, I had little defensive ability, and didn't want to go any deeper
than the third level because I would take serious damage from archers
and spell casters.
Most of my cash came from wands, as it wasn't worth using scrolls to
identify weapons or armor and hoping to find the few magical ones, and I
didn't have the strength to carry around a pack full of weapons and
armor and hope that I noticed one that was magical.
Still, a pack full of wands was worth a lot of money, enough that I
could buy some word-of-recall scrolls when I returned to town. I
intended to walk down, but I expected to be deeper by the end of the
journey and wanted to avoid the walk back up.
A monster I couldn't see cast a confusion spell at me. I drank a cure
critical wounds potion to cure the confusion, then shifted my magical
field of view and cast a spell to detect the spellcaster; it was a
kobold shaman. It reacted by wounding me, and I aimed Narthanc at it,
but the bolt was apparently intercepted by an invisible creature in the
way. I hit it with a magic missile, and it struck back with another
wounding spell, forcing me to drink another potion. Another missile
killed the kobold shaman.
That was a tough battle, but the reward was great; I earned the title of
Trickster, and with it, the ability to use one of the most important
spells, identification. I tried the spell out on the shield the kobold
dropped; it turned out to be magical, so I switched it for my old shield.
As I was down to one cure critical wounds potion, I recalled back to
town before continuing my descent.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 9
As I descended, the treasure got more interesting, in several senses. A
pile of copper coins on the fifth level bit me when I tried to pick it
up; I had to hit it with Narthanc a few times to destroy the spell that
had animated the coins and collect them. More seriously, rings and more
wands became common; I saved a wand of slow monster and kept others for
sale.
On the seventh level, I met a pack of cave orcs. I lit up the room, and
one of the orcs near my screamed as it was caught in my magical light.
This gave me an idea for dealing with the whole pack; I ran into a
corridor, let the orcs chase me, and cast Spear of Light twice. Most of
the orcs died or fled, and single magic missiles took care of the rest,
one at a time.
I had the ability to learn two more spells, but I remembered Luthien's
advice to keep learning ability open, so I learned just one spell, the
lightning bolt that I had skipped earlier.
The orcs dropped a lot of treasure, including some magical swords. The
treasure was so heavy that it slowed me down to carry my pack, so I read
a scroll to recall back to town and sell it all.
I had a lot of gold, and the alchemist had lots of enchantment scrolls
to spend it on. Artifacts are hard to enchant, so I worked on
strengthening my bow instead, waiting to try enchanting Narthanc until
my bow was close to its maximum power.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 10
The monsters still were not particularly challenging, so I continued to
go deeper. I intended to go down to the tenth level, but I had a superb
feeling as I entered the ninth level, so I stopped there to find out
what powerful monsters or treasures there were.
I found a large room filled with mushrooms, jellies, and molds. An
ochre jelly knocked down the door of the room, chased me, and splashed
me with acid, rusting my shield. I teleported out, and decided not to
try coming back, running downstairs instead.
On the tenth level, I detected a corridor filled with orcs, with
Grishnakh in the middle. Remembering orcs' vulnerability to light, I
cast Spear of Light in the corridor. The cave orcs behind Grishnakh
screamed, but the hill orcs in front didn't mind, and neither did
Grishnakh himself. I tried a lightning bolt instead; unlike magic
missiles, it ran through the orcs, damaging all of them. I tried two
more lightning bolts, but the orcs continued to charge, and I was about
to run out of mana. Before being forced to teleport into unknown
territory, I tried a sleep spell. The orc in front fell asleep,
blocking the corridor, and I ran away to recover mana.
When I returned, I used four more lightning bolts to kill the hill orcs.
Grishnakh was still 120 feet away, so I had time for more distance
attacks. I tried Narthanc's fire bolt, then some magic missiles while
saving enough mana to teleport out, and finally some arrows from my
magical bow. He was almost dead when he reached me, and a few strikes
from Narthanc brought me the victory.
Twenty dead orcs, and one chieftain, led to a lot of treasure, including
several magic weapons that I immediately took back to town to sell for
two thousand gold pieces. I also had the opportuntity to learn more
spells, but I skipped it again.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 11
Wormtongue greeted my return to the dungeon with a frost bolt, which
hurt me and froze one of my potions. I teleported away so that I would
be at full strength for the next approach. When I returned, I gulped a
potion of haste self to reduce the number of nasty attacks he would get,
and a potion of heroism to improve my own fighting, then atatcked with
Narthanc's bolt, several magic missiles, and finally melee. He was
almost dead when he robbed me of fity gold pieces and blinked away, but
I tracked him down, and another bolt from Narthanc killed him.
Wormtongue dropped a strangely glowing phial, which I identified as the
Phial of Galadriel. The Phial gave a brighter light than my lantern,
and when I tried speaking Galadriel's name, the corridor lit up.
Besides the extra light, the Phial was useful because it saved me the
need to carry oil.
A bit later, I used the Phial to light up a room full of orcs,
surrounded by Shagrat, their captain. The black orcs responded with
several arrows, some hitting me and others hitting other orcs in the
way. I cast phase door and wound up back in the entry corridor, then
let the orcs approach through the corridor, using the front orc as a
shield. Once the corridor was full of orcs, I cast Spear of Light four
times to kill all the light-sensitive orcs. I wasn't too afraid of the
hill orcs, but Shagrat himself was unhurt. I tried to teleport out with
most of the rest of my mana, but the spell failed, so I decided to fight
it out.
I drank a haste self potion, and found that I was completely safe in the
combat. I cast a bolt from Narthanc and put the last of my mana into
magic missiles before Shagrat approached. In the melee, I could attack,
back up, attack, back up, and so on; Shagrat, who was at half my speed,
could not touch me, and I killed him before the potion ran out.
The treasure wasn't interesting; my main reward from the battle was the
ability to learn another spell.
Wim Benthem
wrote:
>
>A bit later, I used the Phial to light up a room full of orcs,
>surrounded by Shagrat, their captain. The black orcs responded with
>several arrows, some hitting me and others hitting other orcs in the
>way. I cast phase door and wound up back in the entry corridor,
May I just mention here that phase dooring when near a large group
of monsters is a just a rather uncertain method of killing yourself.
How do you know you won't end up right next to a lot of them?
As a mage you should have detected them beforehand, and then it's
typically easy to separate the unique from the escorts, or at least
spread them out enough so you can risk a phase door. All this should
be done on foot.
Inappropriate use of phase door has killed a lot of my characters
before I figured this out.
(it might be possible that your character is buff enough to risk this,
but with a mage.. not bloody likely)
--
Wim Benthem
Kenneth 'Bessarion' Boyd
> On 07 Aug 2003 23:13:12 -0400, grab...@alumni.princeton.edu (David J. Grabiner)
> wrote:
> >
> >A bit later, I used the Phial to light up a room full of orcs,
> >surrounded by Shagrat, their captain. The black orcs responded with
> >several arrows, some hitting me and others hitting other orcs in the
> >way. I cast phase door and wound up back in the entry corridor,
>
> May I just mention here that phase dooring when near a large group
> of monsters is a just a rather uncertain method of killing yourself.
Phase Door is better than plausible death in 1-3 rounds. He's probably down
25%-60% immediately.
--
H(1.5.1) +(Gorlim) "Tharlyki" Du Pa(Cr) L:26 DL13(Yeek)/1(Angband) A- R !Sp
w:The Spear of Destiny
H/A W H- D c- f PV+ s !TT d P M+
C- S+ I So B- ac GHB++ SQ RQ+ V+
David J. Grabiner
> On 07 Aug 2003 23:13:12 -0400, grab...@alumni.princeton.edu (David J. Grabiner)
> wrote:
> >
> >A bit later, I used the Phial to light up a room full of orcs,
> >surrounded by Shagrat, their captain. The black orcs responded with
> >several arrows, some hitting me and others hitting other orcs in the
> >way. I cast phase door and wound up back in the entry corridor,
>
> May I just mention here that phase dooring when near a large group
> of monsters is a just a rather uncertain method of killing yourself.
> How do you know you won't end up right next to a lot of them?
> As a mage you should have detected them beforehand, and then it's
> typically easy to separate the unique from the escorts, or at least
> spread them out enough so you can risk a phase door. All this should
> be done on foot.
> Inappropriate use of phase door has killed a lot of my characters
> before I figured this out.
I envisioned a situation like this.
####################
#...ooooooo........####
....ooooooo....@...
#...ooooooo........####
#######+############
I would be willing to try one phase door here, as it would probably land
me in the corridor, on the west side of the room (where the orcs are
hill orcs), or on the other side of the south door. If I wound up four
squares west of my starting point, I would read a scroll of teleport on
the next turn.
But you are probably correct that the battle should have been planned in
advance, and the Arch-Mage will make some mistakes and learn from them.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 12
My detection spell revealed a pack of dark hounds. I didn't know much
about them, but given my power over light, I was afraid of the dark, so
I drank a heroism potion before trying to fight them. I killed one with
Narthanc's bolt, but then found myself in a dark cloud. The darkness
didn't hurt me much, but it blinded me, and since I didn't know where
the hounds were, I ran toward the nearest corridor, where only one hound
at a time could bite me. There were several more breaths, but I
couldn't see, so I wasn't affected by the darkness, just the magical
force. The darkness lifted briefly, but then another hound breathed and
blinded me again.
This battle wasn't going well, and I couldn't cast any spells while
blind, so I made it to the corridor and then drank a potion to cure the
blindness and heal some damage. This time, none of the hounds breathed,
giving me a chance to teleport. When I returned, I hid around a corner
so that only a few hounds could see me at once, and I killed them one by
one without too much trouble.
After that harrowing experience, I decided to return to town to buy a
staff of teleportation so that I could escape from battles while blind
or confused. I stopped in the black market first, and bought a potion
of charisma, figuring that it would pay for itself in lower prices. I
found the teleportation staff as well, and was ready to return in more
safety.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 13
I felt that my luck was turning as I returned to the fifteenth level, so
I decided to find out what was causing the feeling before going down.
It didn't take me long, as I found a large room containing a whole tribe
of orcs, with three captains in the center, surrounded by six Uruk-hai
and an assortment of lesser orcs. Apparently, even the greatest orcs
weren't that far out of depth, or I would have felt as "lucky" as when I
found the jelly pit.
The orc pit wasn't hard to clear, with orcs easy to line up for my
lightning bolts and Spear of Light spells; only the captains required me
to teleport out. The treasure was excellent, including lots of gold,
and a small shield of acid resistance, which was also itself immune to
corrosion.
I made it all the way to the twentieth level before I met a really
menacing monster, a pack of fire hounds. Narthanc, a fire-brand, wasn't
of much use, and I couldn't line them up for a lightning bolt without
exposing myself to a lot of breaths. Narthanc did give me fire
resistance, so the breaths wouldn't hurt me badly, but they could still
burn up my inventory. I cast a few frost bolts from around a corner,
then teleported away, casting detect monsters regularly on may way back
to find the stragglers.
I had almost finished with the battle when a breath burned up my second
spell book. I couldn't afford to carry spare books because they were
too heavy. I teleported away using my staff (the spell was in the book
I had just lost), and returned to town to replace the book.
At least the battle wasn't a total loss; hounds are nasty, but they are
worth a lot of experience. I learned another spell, and I was looking
forward to the point at which I could learn haste self, the most
important spell for mages.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 14
Something I couldn't see summoned a kobold. I killed the kobold
quickly, and then went to look for the summoner. Detect monsters didn't
reveal anything, so I tried detect invisible, which revealed a
Quylthulg, a pulsing flesh mound, a hundred feet west of me. The
Quylthulg then summoned a homunculus on my east side.
I wasn't too afraid of minor demons, so I decided to use Narthanc's fire
bolt to get rid of the Quylthulg. The Quylthulg died, but the
homunculus then hit me with a poisoned talon, paralyzing me as it
started to tear me to bits. Fortunately, I was still alive when the
paralysis wore off. I couldn't risk my teleport spell failing and
leaving me next to the homunculus, so I read one of my scrolls.
I noted on my map where I had found that homunculus, and managed to
attack it safely from a distance as I returned. Clearly, even the
twentieth level was dangerous without immunity to paralysis, and going
any deeper would probably be quickly fatal, so I decided to stay there.
The twentieth level was a source of good treasure. I found a ring which
increased the damage I did with my attacks, and another to resist cold
attacks. I still needed lightning resistance to be safe from the basic
elemental attacks.
Since I was close to learning haste self, I started using my remaining
haste self potions more freely, such as agaainst hound packs to reduce
the number of damaging breaths.
When I returned to town, I bought a potion of enlightenment in the black
market. The next time I found an interesting level, I would be able to
map the whole level immediately, and have a good chance of finding the
nasty monsters before they found me.
dzhang
recently.
Hm... interesting. But this jailbreak quest is just too easy for Thaumaturgist
and Mindcrafters, and too difficult for mages requiring spellbooks.
I rather think that the better penalty for being caught stealing is confiscation
of all your stolen properties, and 1 random item. That would make people with
lots of stolen goods/ very good equipment less likely to steal. Maybe you
could make it so that you can buy your random non-stolen item back at twice its
price or something.
Of course, something STILL has to be done about the insane steal rates.
According to:
http://www.killerbunnies.org/angband/skill-220.html
Anyone with 29 (18/110) DEX absolutely WILL NOT BE caught stealing a ring or
amulet, which are usually the expensive things you need to steal anyway.
--
---
"Follow your heart and never look back" only works well for a blind person.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 15
As I returned to the twentieth level, I had a very good feeling. I
drank my potion of enlightentment, which magically lit up the entire
level as well as mapping it for me. I studied the map, trying to find
the source of the feeling, and guessed that it was probably a tiny
cross-shaped room packed with objects, on the opposite side of the
level.
As I crossed the level, I had to deal with a pack of earth hounds. I
drank my last haste self potion to reach double speed, fought from
around a corner, and survived with only minor wounds. I was then ready
to study my spell book and learn the spell of haste self, followed by
mass sleep. With the ability to haste myself before any tough battle,
and enough mana to try it four times, I had become much more powerful,
but I still wasn't safe any deeper than this as long as I was subject to
paralysis.
I was close enough to the cross room to detect the monsters in it, a
carrion crawler and four nexus hounds. I didn't recognize either
monster type, but the carrion crawler looked poisonous and the nexus
hounds looked too big to deal with four at once, so I hasted myself as I
approached the room, then aimed a wand of teleport other across the room,
intending to get rid of the crawler and two of the hounds at once.
Unfortunately, I mispronounced the word of activation, and one of the
hounds breathed nexus on me. I felt my body get taken apart, and then
put back together at the same spot, rearranged. I had forgotton my mass
sleep spell, and lost a good deal of my magical energy.
I still had the wand, so I tried it again, getting rid of the three
monsters in its line. One of the other hounds moved into line, and I
teleported it away as well. The final hound could probably be defeated
alone; I gave it a fire bolt with Narthanc, and it breathed and took me
apart again, but this time I reappeared next to the hound. I killed it
quickly in melee.
Now I had time to think about what had happened. My intelligence had
been swapped with my charisma. I had lost a quarter of my magical
ability, and if I hadn't bought two potions of charisma, it would have
been much worse. I also understood part of the reason for Luthien's
advice; with my reduced intelligence, I had the ability to know only
twenty-five spells, and I was lucky that haste self had been my
twenty-fifth and the spell I forgot was not immediately useful.
At least I had the vault to look through, and its treasure was
excellent. There was a metal cap of intelligence, which got me halfway
to where I had been before; a long bow of accuracy, which replaced my
old bow, and a sword of evil slaying and wisdom enhancement, which I
didn't need but could sell for a lot of cash.
I wasn't going to stay on a level with these creatures roaming it, but I
had a lot of good items to sell. With my improved charisma, the prices
were even better than before. In addition, Delilah had taken over the
temple from Bosk, and as an elf, she was much more willing to deal with
me. The temple doesn't normally deal in swords, but the sword I had
found was blessed, and Delilah offered to buy it for eight thousand,
which was more than I could get in the weapon shop.
I had over thirty thousand in gold, and promptly spent most of it on a
potion of intelligence at the black market. I still needed one more
potion to get my magical ability back.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 16
I would have liked to go down further, but it wasn't safe without free
action, so I had to stay on the twentieth level for a while. With the
ability to haste myself, nothing on that level was much of a challenge,
and the treasure was useful, I found an amulet of lightning resistance
to give me coverage of the four basic elemental attacks.
Well, make that almost nothing was dangerous. I hasted myself and then
greeted a ranger with an acid bolt, and he decided to strike back by
summoning animals, including packs of fire and water hounds, and a
saber-tooth tiger. I had to read a scroll of teleportation, as I
couldn't risk a failed spell. I returned to the area and took on the
animals one by one, then waited for the ranger to come around the
corner, and gave him another acid bolt.
The ranger dropped an onyx ring, which was a ring of free action, and of
freedom for me to head down quickly. I kept wearing my ring of resist
cold and stored my ring of damage at home; I was headed to dragon
territory and didn't want a white dragon breathing on me at full
strength.
Werner Baer
"David J. Grabiner" <grab...@alumni.princeton.edu> ...
> A small kobold opened the door of the room, cutting me off from the
> stairway. I fired my last two magic missiles at the kobold, wounding it
> badly but not killing it. It had not yet reached me, so I tried
> throwing my flasks of oil, but I couldn't hit it.
This is why i like to buy a sling and ~5 bullets before my first trip down.
Useless later, but useful at level 1-3.
Werner.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 17
I walked down the stairway to the twenty-fifth level and found myself
nearly surrounded by orcs, fortunately all still asleep. I cast a spell
to find the chieftain; it was Azog, king of the Uruk-Hai, with sixty
orcs in the room. Another spell identified the door to the room, and
with the orcs still asleep, I ran to the door, waking up only a single
snaga. I didn't want to fight Azog together with his minions, so I cast
a spell to teleport a line of monsters away. Azog vanished, and I
fought the rest of the orcs one by one.
I had no idea where he had gone, but it didn't take me long to find him.
I hasted myself, but he matched my speed. I read a scroll of protection
from evil which turned back most of his attacks, but I quickly
discovered that I still couldn't beat him in a straight melee. I
phase-doored away, and that gave me several turns to attack with frost
bolts, and then arrows as I ran low on mana. Another phase door was
followed by three more arrows. A third one put me in an unexplored
portion of the level, in a small room containing a ruby, a red mushroom,
and a pack of algroths.
Before I could even think of picking up the ruby, the mushroom shrieked,
and the algroths, enraged, charged towards me at double speed. My
protection from evil didn't work on them; their evil power must have
been stronger than my power of good. I was clawed and bitten several
times, poisoned, bleeding, and about to be troll fodder. I teleported
away, landing next to an uruk. It was alone, apparently one I had
teleported away from Azog, so I felt safe drinking a potion that would
heal me only partially. The uruk was repelled by my protection from
evil, and it didn't last long in melee.
I knew where the double-speed algroths were, and was able to avoid their
room as I tracked down Azog. He had healed a bit, but I had recovered
my mana, and I frost-bolted him to death. His treasure was the best I
had seen from a single monster, with a quiver of magical arrows to
replace the ones I had shot at him, a dagger named Nimthanc, and a
shield of resistance.
Nimthanc was the Blade of Frost corresponding to Narthanc's fire; I
preferred Narthanc, so Nimthanc became the first artifact I sold, for
nine thousand. The shield of resistance allowed me to get rid of the
ring and amulet I had been using for cold and lightning resistance, and
wear a ring of damage and amulet of wisdom instead. I was well
equipped, and headed towards the levels at which it was rumored I could
find potions which improved my skills.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 18
I reached the level I wanted, and was immediately rewarded with a green
potion lying next to the stairs. It didn't want to be identified, but
after several tries, I discovered that it was a potion of dexterity,
which I drank immediately.
The level appeared to have been torn apart by powerful magic; a large
sections had collapsed, with plenty of hiding places for monsters. I
checked the area and found a basilisk. I was safe against its
petrifying gaze, but I still hasted myself for safety. The walls forced
me to wander around a bit, but I eventually made it out of the collapsed
area and into a corridor. By the time I reached the room outside the
clear aread containing the basilisk, it had woken up.
I gave the basilisk my most powerful reliable attack, an acid bolt. The
basilisk grunted and approached me; it was just slightly faster than I
was. I fired another acid bolt, and the basilisk breathed, surrounding
me with a poison gas cloud. Before I could react, it breathed again,
and I could barely breathe on my own.
This was a real emergency. I couldn't even teleport out safely, as I
might end up next to a kobold and suffer an ignominious death. Instead,
I read a scroll of destruction. There was a huge explosion and a very
bright light; it would have been a blinding light except that high elves
are immune to such things. I still needed to drink a potion to cure the
poison, but I could then wait in safety, and search the area that I had
created.
Now I understood what created these powerful magical collapses;
everything within 150 feet of me had been destroyed, including the
basilisk. On second thought, it wasn't everything; a set of gauntlets
that had been at the back of the basilisk's room was still intact, and
not even dented by the falling rock.
I identified the gauntlets as Paurnimmen, the Fists of Frost;
apparently, the artifacts cannot be destroyed even by powerful magic. I
tried putting them on, but I discovered that I couldn't make proper
magical gestures with them on, and quickly took them off.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 19
I met my first young dragon, a white one. I had resistance to its
breath, but I still hasted myself first and fired my best spells in
order to protect myself. After two acid bolts, the dragon breathed on
me. The breath didn't do much damage to me, but it froze one of my
powerful healing potions, and the flask shattered. My third acid bolt
fizzled, and I was out of mana, so I finished the dragon off with
Narthanc.
The battle had actually been even more costly for me than the basilisk
battle was; it cost me a valuable item. At least the dragon hoard was
good compensation; it contained adamantite worth five hundred gold
pieces, a potion of restore mana, and a mace of Westernesse. The mace
improved my physical skills, and was also an excellent weapon,
especially deadly against orcs, trolls, and giants. It also gave me
free action, allowing me to replace that ring.
I returned home, where I had a ring of damage stored. After selling
Narthanc, Paurnimmen, and the ring of free action, I had enough gold to
afford a potion to improve my skills at the black market, but the only
potion there was wisdom, which wasn't worth it.
Returning to the level, I had a superb feeling. A potion of
enlightenment revealed a large room nearby, and I expected another jelly
pit, but was pleasantly surprised to find a room packed with trolls.
With my haste self spell and a mace that was deadly to trolls, the troll
pit didn't cause me that much trouble. I lured a few trolls out at a
time, fought them one by one, rested to recover mana, and then went back
to lure a few more out. Even the eldrak at the center wasn't too bad; a
wand of fire bolts that one of the other trolls had dropped helped me
fight it without running out of mana.
The treasure included two potions to improve my skills, and lots of
gold.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 20
The black market had somehow acquired a copy of Resistance of
Scarabtarices, which I bought for 50,000 gold. I has the opportunity to
learn twenty-nine spells but knew only twenty-six, so I was able to
learn three of the four spells I could understand in the book. I had
become much safer from basilisks, as I could call up temporary
resistance to poison gas.
I had a superb feeling when I returned to the dungeon, and with no
potion of enlightenment, I had to explore the whole level before I found
the cause. My monster detection spell showed a huge pack of monsters,
apparently between two diagonal walls. I happened to have a scroll of
object detection, so I read it, and found that the room was equally
packed with objects, many of which looked interesting.
I hased myself and prepared to enter the room. One of the monsters was
a shrieker mushroom patch, and I had to be careful to prevent it from
shrieking and aggravating several nearby creatures to chase me at double
speed. I opened the door, stood back, and aimed a stinking cloud at a
wall so that the mushroom would be in the fringe of the cloud. Another
cast of monster detection confirmed that the shrieker was dead.
A banshee had been in front of the shrieker; the poison gas had not hurt
it much because it was already dead. The banshee picked up a potion and
a wand, then tried to pick up a flail, but failed. I cast an acid bolt
at the banshee; it turned into a beam, tearing through the banshee to
hit a baby black dragon behind it, and then several orcs. The acid bolt
was the wrong spell to use with that particular target, as I had woken
up the baby dragon without hurting it. It breathed at me, corroding a
dagger on the floor but fortunately hitting my acid-proof shield. A
fire bolt killed the dragon, and I ran quickly to pick up the flail,
expecting an artifact, then retreated to recover mana.
The flail was a weapon of undead slaying, which I left outside the room
so that I could at least save it for sale. I had to teleport a few
really nasty creatures away, such as Kavlax the Many-Headed, a dragon
who was clearly too big for me to handle even with my resistance spells,
but I killed most of the monsters, and collected all of the treasure
except for a few items that had been destroyed by dragon breaths.
Kavlax had been sitting on a copy of Mordenkainen's Escapes, a book
which looked interesting, but I couldn't learn any more spells. I also
found a pair of gauntlets of free action, and was pleased to discover
that they did not interfere with my spell casting. I didn't need their
free action immediately since I had it from my mace, but they allowed me
to switch weapons if I found something better.
There were so many valuable items that I dropped many of my common items
so that I could carry more items to sell. I left my heroism potions,
cure critical wounds potions, and even word-of-recall scrolls, reading
one off the floor to return to town, and intending to buy some back with
the thousands in gold I would earn.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 21
Monsters on the thirtieth level refused to drop enough useful potions,
so I went a bit deeper, hoping for better treasure. On the
thirty-third, a group of algroths dropped two potions to improve my
strength, eliminating my problems carrying my inventory.
I also had the opportunity to learn another spell, and with several
useful choices, I chose the spell of recall from Mordenkainen's Escapes,
then tried the spell out immediately, and sold my word-of-recall scrolls
and other items in town, then returned to the dungeon.
The first room I found was filled with phase spiders, who were annoying
but not particularly dangerous; they blinked out, or teleported me to
them. I had killed all but two, and forced one of them to flee to the
next room over, but the fleeing spider teleported me to it, and into a
pack of barrow wights. Two of them touched me, draining my life force.
I was hasted, so I ran out of the room and killed them one by one with
fire bolts.
I tried to read my spell of recall so that I could go back to town to
get a potion to restore my life force. However, I discovered that I
could no longer understand the spell; I had lost just enough magical
ability to make the spell too complex to read. Instead, I had to walk
all the way up, or at least until I found a useful item. I had climbed
up five levels when I regained enough experience to learn the spell
again, and decided that I would carry some scrolls of recall until I had
an experience cushion.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 22
I had just arrived on a new level, and lit up the room. Mim, betrayer
of Turin, was on the far side of the room. I hasted myself, then tried
waking him with an acid bolt, which he resisted. He also resisted a
fire bolt, frost bolt, and a lightning ball from a wand I had just
found. Since he resisted everything, I tried melee, and discovered that
this was a mistake, as he grabbed my magical shield and drained some of
its power.
I couldn't fight and retreat, since Mim was as fast as my hasted speed.
I didn't have a good damaging spell, and couldn't reasonably fight him
with missiles; magic missile spells did very little damage, and I didn't
have enough arrows for the battle. I chose to teleport away, then
recall and come back; I was happy enough with the thirty-third level and
didn't want to go any deeper.
Bill the Stone Troll challenged me, surrounded by at least forty trolls.
I cast a spell to teleport Bill away so that I could deal with the
lesser trolls alone. The trolls weren't hard to kill, and I seemed to
have found the right depth for good treasure; two algroths dropped
potions to improve my strength, and another dropped an unidentified
ring.
I still hadn't found the potion of intelligence I wanted, but the ring
was something even better, a powerful ring of intelligence. When I put
it on, my mana doubled, and I had no trouble learning all of the rest of
my spells in all six books. I appreciated the spell of stair creation,
as it would allow me to go up and down whenever I wanted in order to go
deeper quickly, or to look for interesting levels.
Bill wasn't much trouble with my improved magical power. I hasted
myself, then tried a frost bolt, which he resisted, and then a bunch of
fire bolts. When I ran low on mana, I cast phase door to get some
distance between me and him, then ran around a corner so that he could
not see me to pursue me. My second salvo of fire bolts ended the
battle.
Bill dropped a broad axe named Barukkheled. I had a powerful
identification scroll to find the axe's powers. It was a great weapon,
slaying all evil creatures with even greater damage against orcs,
trolls, and giants, and it improved my health even more than my old mace
of Westernesse did. I lost the strength bonus, but I no longer needed
it.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 23
I don't remember how I arrived on the level. All I remember is that I
was hasted and fighting a mind flayer which blanked my mind. I was
still able to read my spellbooks, and two acid bolts killed the mind
flayer.
I had forgotten the identity of all but one of my items. The powerful
identification scroll I had read to learn the powers of Barukkheled
affected my mind so strongly that the amnesia spell could not erase it.
However, I no longer remembered the activation word for my phial, the
enchantments of any other items, nor the number of charges left in my
wands. This was only a minor annoyance, as I was a powerful wizard and
didn't need long to re-identify everything.
I also had not forgotten that I had felt my luck turning when I arrived
on the level, so I explored the rest of the level to find the reason.
The reason was a leather scale mail of elvenkind, which gave me
resistance to the basic four elements, extra stealth, and a hidden
power. I wasn't carrying a scroll which could identify the hidden
power, but the armor was clearly worth wearing.
My detect monsters spell apparently revealed a blue dragon. I hasted
myself and cast resistance, then approached it, and discovered that I
should have taken another look and noticed the dragon changing colors;
the dragon was actually a chaos drake. I still expected the fight to be
worthwhile, and I had plenty of acid bolts. The dragon breathed chaos.
I was shaken up, but nothing else happened; apparently, my unidentified
magical armor gave me chaos resistance.
Two acid bolts wounded the dragon, and it breathed again, but this time,
the breath was disenchantment, and still worse, it disenchanted my
brand-new armor of elvenkind, which would be hard to enchant back up.
I couldn't allow this dragon to have a line of sight to me.
I ran into a corridor out of the dragon's sight, then cast stone-to-mud
twice to create a pillar, and stood on the east side, waiting for the
dragon to approach. It approached on the north, and I attacked it once,
then ran to the south side before the dragon could react. The dragon
approached again on the west side, giving me another chance to attack it
and duck to the east. My haste spell ran out before the dragon was
dead, but fortunately for me, it ran out when the dragon was on the
other side of the pillar, and I had a chance to cast it again, then
finished the dragon.
The battle was still worthwhile, as I finally found another potion of
intelligence, and even more important, I learned a spell which would
create a magical shield for protection in melee.
Mark Constantino
I jumped in shock at the sheer audacity of it all! You die, it said. You die.
Hitting the carriage return at that point has been one of the most sad and gut
wrenching moments of my life.
And then, grim look of determination on my face, I immediately grabbed my
hundred page printout of the latest game manual and made my plans to create the
most successful arch mage ever!
A few hours debate consisted of whether to switch in a lesser mortal being for
my high elven birth. In the heart twisting game ending in "you die!" I had oft
wondered at the case where I didn't have to take so many spell casting lessons
to advance. Believe you me, the internal debate lasted hours, and long ones
too. I kept flipping back and forth to read the descriptions of what each stat
meant, and what bonuses to stats were due to birth choices, and what was the
best kind of magic for the new version of the Arch Magus. And I haven't even
thought of a good name for the character yet! The best time a man could ever
have though, I thought-drank a beer to myself.
I finally decided on a chara
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 24
On the thirty-fifth level, a troll pit gave only a good feeling, but it
was still worth cleaning out; even stone trolls could drop potions to
improve my skill. With my magical shield spell and well-enchanted
armor, few trolls could hit me; even the troll chieftain at the center
of the pit missed more often than he hit, although I did have to
teleport out once.
The troll chieftain dropped a dagger of Westernesse. Normally, I
wouldn't have bothered with a non-artifact weapon while I had a good
artifact, but I tried it anyway, and it turned out to be much better.
Barukkheled was so heavy that I could only get one blow to a monster's
one blow, while the dagger, which increased my strength and dexterity,
gave me four, and my ring of damage added to all four blows. With that
dagger and a magical shield spell, I was ready to go down further.
I met my first ancient dragon, a huge blue draconic form. The lightning
was sufficiently threatening that I cast a spell of resistance as well
as haste self and shield, and drank a potion of heroism to improve my
melee skill. I attacked with acid bolts as the dragon approached. It
breathed a ball of lightning, but with my double resistance, I barely
noticed the breath. When the melee started, I hit it with my dagger
more often than it hit me with its claws.
The dragon's bite was electrified; that barely damaged me, but it
short-circuited a ring in my pack. Fortunately, that was a ring I had
been planning to sell, not one I needed. It did serve as a warning not
to fight ancient white, red, or black dragons in melee.
When my dagger struck the killing blow, the dragon exploded with
treasure, for a true dragon hoard. There were eight piles of treasure,
and four items, two of them valuable. A potion of constitution gave me
still more health, while a Holy Avenger sword, while I didn't need it,
sold for almost enough for me to buy another valuable potion all by
itself.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 25
The fortieth level was a good source of treasure, experience, and
danger, with ancient dragons providing all three. I had the health to
survive a breath from an ancient green dragon with my poison resistance
spell not up yet, but I had to teleport out, return with better health
and the spell up, and finish off the dragon.
The dragon dropped a potion of full healing. My ordinary healing
potions were almost as good at this stage, and I needed to save full
healing for later battles, so I returned to town and left the potion at
home.
A small vault on a level with a good feeling did not contain any
treasure of obvious interest, but it did contain a dragon sitting on an
unusually shiny-looking longsword. The dragon was the largest I had
seen, with five different colors on its head. I decided to teleport it
away so that I could get the sword first, expecting an artifact; I had
heard rumors of a sword named Ringil which looked like that. However,
it turned out to be just a longsword of troll slaying, made of some
magical metal that caused it to do extra damage even beyond its
enchantment.
I encountered the dragon again later, after hasting myself and casting
resistance and shield spells. A troll priest at the back of the room
teleported closer to me, and then the dragon breathed the thickest cloud
of poison gas I had seen. Even with my resistance, I could barely
breathe, and had to teleport out. When I returned, I saw that the cloud
had killed the troll priest, who had dropped his gold. I couldn't pick
it up until the dragon got out of the way.
I didn't want to let the dragon breathe until I could attack it, so I
hid around a corner. Lacking any effective spell, I shot an arrow at
the dragon as it approached, then used my dagger. It breathed a cloud
of fire, which didn't hurt me too badly with double resistance, although
it did burn up the arrow. I had taken the dragon down to about half
strength when a breath of poison forced me to teleport out to heal
again. With the dragon at half strength, its breaths were much weaker
when I returned, and I finally killed it.
The treasure gave me the true impression of a dragon hoard. There were
fifteen items, which took me a long time to sort through. Several were
worth saving to sell, and two were quite useful, a heavy crossbow of
power, and a quiver of magical bolts to use with it.
The ancient multi-hued dragon was a bit out of depth, but I clearly
couldn't go any deeper without a permanent source of poison resistance.
Wim Benthem
wrote:
>The dragon dropped a potion of full healing.
Hey, this isn't Nethack!
--
Wim Benthem
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 26
I couldn't go any deeper, but I advanced rapidly where I was. I found
and sold valuable items faster than I could find items worth buying. I
learned spells rapidly, as experience came in large amounts from
monsters such as ancient dragons and minotaurs, and even faster when I
encountered ten Vrock demons and killed them one by one.
One of the Vrock demons dropped a yellow potion; this was the first new
potion I had seen in a long time. It turned out to be a potion of
augmentation, which increased all six of my abilities, taking my
strength and charisma both to the maximum. That added even more to my
ability to collect gold, as potions of strength now became surplus and
sold for 7200 each.
I met a mighty warrior, Lorgan, Chief of the Easterlings. My spells and
dagger were a match for most mighty warriors, and I appeared to be
winning this battle when Lorgan cast a summoning spell and summoned a
roomful of monsters. I didn't even bother to see exactly what they
were, instead teleporting out.
I cast detect monsters and detect invisible as I returned to the area,
in order to idetify the dangerous creatures. Lorgan was obvious, but he
had also summoned Uvatha the Horseman and twelve gravity hounds.
The hounds approached first, and I lured them as far as possible from
the rest of the monsters, then fought them with melee and spells. One
breathed gravity on me, slowing me from my hasted to normal speed and
warping me within breath range of several others, but fortunately not
close enough to Lorgan's room to allow other creatures to attack.
Before I could react, a second one breathed on me and warped me back to
where I had been before. I was still in a fairly safe spot, so I drank
a potion to cure the stunning and finished off the rest.
I was low on mana, so I needed to rest before going after Lorgan and
Uvatha; Lorgan would heal, but I couldn't help that.
Mark Constantino
I woke up with steely grains of dried mucus in my eyes. I looked around. The
smell of freshly soiled work gear grafted to my nostrils as my sensory inputs
kicked in, and I thought of how much I had to do for the day. I sat up in my
bed.
The puissant feel of pressure in my abdomen reminded me that I'd had to check
my biological functions, a clock so to speak, before I would get to urinate to
relieve the pressure. A few minutes of yawning and picking at my eyes led me
to the bathroom where I swiftly brought down the rim of my tight jammies and
let loose.
I let loose for what seemed like the edge of forever into the clean clear
toilet water, and no, it didn't smell like the french kind.
Should I change for work yet? No I though
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 27
Lorgan could only be fought if I could prevent him from summoning.
Using my spell of stone-to-mud, I dug a zigzag corridor; monsters can
only be summoned to a spot that you can see, and the zigzag limited my
vision to one space in each direction. Lorgan chased me into the the
dead end, then tried a summoning spell but had nowhere to summon. He
then teleported me to his other side, leaving one open spot for
summoning, and summoned a minotaur to that spot. I retaliated by
teleporting the minotaur away.
Lorgan summoned again, this time producing Olog-hai. Since they were in
a group, teleporting one away would just let another one take its place,
so I went after Lorgan, pleased that the adjacent spot was full and thus
there was no room to summon. The Olog hit me several times, and these
wounds combined with Lorgan's left me badly wounded in mid-battle.
Since I was fighting a powerful unique, it was worth using one of my
valuable healing potions. Lorgan teleported me back into the dead end,
and I finished him off before he could try teleporting me again, then
dealt with the ten Olog-hai.
Before I could deal with Lorgan's treasure, I had to deal with Uvatha.
He drained my experience once, but I just kept fighting and didn't worry
about further drains; I had a potion of restore life levels handy. Near
the end of the battle, he fled, which gave me a chance to drink the
potion, and then kill Uvatha with my last two acid bolts so that I got
full experience from the battle.
Uvatha dropped the leather cap of Thranduil. I didn't know the cap's
full power, but just as a cap which increased my intelligence and wisdom
and which was magically hardened, it was at least as good as the metal
cap of intelligence I was wearing, so I put it on. Thranduil's main
power was immediately obvious; it was a thinking cap, and it gave me the
telepathic power to see the intelligent monsters nearby.
When I returned to town to sell the rest of the treasure, I found a ring
of poison resistance in the black market. It cost fifty thousand and
required me to leave my ring of damage behind, but it was an item that I
needed for safety.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 28
I had the equipment that I needed to dive quickly: personal abilities
near the limit, telepathy so that I couldn't be ambushed by hounds,
three blows per round with Barukkheled, resistance to blindness and
poison, and a powerful heavy crossbow with two quivers full of magical
bolts. My last potion of intelligence, combined with my magical items,
had raised my spell-casting ability to the point at which most spells
never failed.
I wasn't yet totally invincible, as I discovered when I met Ariel, Queen
of Air, and tried to fight her in melee. She was faster than my hasted
speed, and she hit me with a mesmerising fog. I drank a potion of cure
critical wounds to lift the confusion, but she then confused me again.
After five potions, I gave up and used my staff of teleportation, which
took two tries. I would have to leave her for later, as I had done
earlier with Mim.
And speaking of Mim, he was on the other side of the level. This time,
I was prepared for the battle. I drank potions of heroism and berserk
strength to improve my archery skills; since there was not going to be
any melee, I didn't care about the loss of defensive ability from being
berserk.
I approached Mim in a large room, hasted myself and started firing
crossbow bolts. When he reached me, I had a 100% reliable phase door
spell, which gave me room to fire more bolts. After several
repetitions, Mim was nearly dead, but I was out of bolts and had to walk
around to pick some up. Mim cast an acid ball at me. My armor of
elvenkind resisted the acid damage, but all the bolts near me were
corroded, forcing me to finish off the battle with magic missiles. Mim
healed himself, and then fired another acid ball, corroding my
gauntlets. My twentieth magic missile was the fatal blow.
Mim dropped three powerful items, although one was a useless dagger of
orc slaying. The other two were the Star of Elendil, which allowed me
to map the area; and the armor of the Rohirrim, which increased my
strength and dexterity enough that I got the fourth blow with
Barukkheled. When I returned to town to identify the armor fully, I
also discovered that it gave me confusion and sound resistance, which
meant that I could have gone back and fought Ariel.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 29
It wasn't just that I felt strangely lucky about the level that made me
nervous about the vault that the Star of Elendil had just mapped for me.
The floor was shaking, and I wasn't close enough to the vault to find
out what what shaking it at the time.
When I did approach the vault, I saw that it was Quaker, Master of
Earth, who was responsible for the shaking. Quaker resisted my fire,
cold, and acid spells, so I tried melee, and was hit by an earthquake,
which wiped out most of the vault and woke up a greater basilisk inside.
It also nearly crushed me, so I teleported Quaker away.
The greater basilisk was blocked behind the collapsed area Quaker had
created, so I had time to heal and recover my lost mana. I assumed that
it was dangerous, given the power of regular basilisks, so I prepared as
well as I could, and made sure to stone-to-mud a wall which didn't
immediately put the basilisk in my line of sight, giving me the first
blow.
As the basilisk approached, I used fire balls, my most powerful spell
although not the most efficient for mana. It breathed poison
immediately, but I had double resistance and barely noticed. When I had
it down to half strength, it breathed darkness. Thranduil protected me
from the blinding effect, but it still chilled my soul.
I cast door creation to put a row of doors between myself and the
basilisk. This bought me enough time to drink several cure critical
wounds potions, saving the more powerful ones. The basilisk bashed down
a door, and I cast another fireball, then attacked in melee. This time,
it breathed nexus, teleporting me across the level.
I landed next to Quaker, but since I was twice his speed, I was able to
attack, fight and move back. He cast an acid ball, corroding my boots
but giving me time to fire two crossbow bolts. The battle continued in
this way, and after getting my armor corroded four times, I finally
reduced Quaker to a pile of rocks. I was very disappointed that Quaker
was one of the few uniques who dropped nothing, particularly since he
destroyed everything else.
Power
wrote:
> Chapter 29
..
> When I did approach the vault, I saw that it was Quaker, Master of
> Earth, who was responsible for the shaking. Quaker resisted my fire,
> cold, and acid spells, so I tried melee, and was hit by an earthquake,
> which wiped out most of the vault and woke up a greater basilisk inside.
> It also nearly crushed me, so I teleported Quaker away.
Quaker doesn't actually resist acid.
.snip attacking a Greater Basilisk
> I landed next to Quaker, but since I was twice his speed, I was able to
> attack, fight and move back. He cast an acid ball, corroding my boots
> but giving me time to fire two crossbow bolts. The battle continued in
> this way, and after getting my armor corroded four times, I finally
> reduced Quaker to a pile of rocks. I was very disappointed that Quaker
> was one of the few uniques who dropped nothing, particularly since he
> destroyed everything else.
Yeah, no drops from the Elemental Uniques, Grip, Fang, and Omarax the Eye
Tyrant. Also, shouldn't most of your armor have been acid-proof (i.e.
artifacts/resist acid) by this point?
Kenneth 'Bessarion' Boyd
> On 2003-08-28 05:47:26, grab...@alumni.princeton.edu (David J. Grabiner)
> wrote:
>
> > Chapter 29
> ...
> > I landed next to Quaker, but since I was twice his speed, I was able to
> > attack, fight and move back. He cast an acid ball, corroding my boots
> > but giving me time to fire two crossbow bolts. The battle continued in
> > this way, and after getting my armor corroded four times, I finally
> > reduced Quaker to a pile of rocks. I was very disappointed that Quaker
> > was one of the few uniques who dropped nothing, particularly since he
> > destroyed everything else.
>
> .... Also, shouldn't most of your armor have been acid-proof (i.e.
> artifacts/resist acid) by this point?
This character does *not* have artifact boots (yet). (If he's seen Boots of
Wormtongue, he isn't using them.)
--
H(1.5.1) +(not immediately teleporting away an Enchantress) "Taelith" M Pa(Cr)
L:26 DL13(Yeek)/1(Angband) A- R Sp w:Dagger of Rilia
H/A W H- D c- f PV+ s !TT d P M+
C- S+ I So B- ac GHB++ SQ RQ+ V+
David J. Grabiner
> On 2003-08-28 05:47:26, grab...@alumni.princeton.edu (David J. Grabiner)
> wrote:
>
> > Chapter 29
> ..
> > When I did approach the vault, I saw that it was Quaker, Master of
> > Earth, who was responsible for the shaking. Quaker resisted my fire,
> > cold, and acid spells, so I tried melee, and was hit by an earthquake,
> > which wiped out most of the vault and woke up a greater basilisk inside.
> > It also nearly crushed me, so I teleported Quaker away.
>
> Quaker doesn't actually resist acid.
You're right about that; I misread which four resistances he had. I'll
send a corrected chapter 29.
> Yeah, no drops from the Elemental Uniques, Grip, Fang, and Omarax the Eye
> Tyrant. Also, shouldn't most of your armor have been acid-proof (i.e.
> artifacts/resist acid) by this point?
This character does not yet have an acid-proof cloak, gloves (found
some artifacts without free action), or boots.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 29 (corrected)
It wasn't just that I felt strangely lucky about the level that made me
nervous about the vault that the Star of Elendil had just mapped for me.
The floor was shaking, and I wasn't close enough to the vault to find
out what what shaking it at the time.
When I did approach the vault, I saw that it was Quaker, Master of
Earth, who was responsible for the shaking. Quaker walked right through
the walls of the vault, and since he was inside a wall, I didn't have an
effective spell to use, so I tried melee. Quaker hit me with an
earthquake, which wiped out most of the vault and woke up a greater
basilisk inside. It also nearly crushed me, so I hid behind one of the
new walls and teleported Quaker away as soon as he was in the open.
The greater basilisk was blocked behind the collapsed area Quaker had
created, so I had time to heal and recover my lost mana. I assumed that
it was dangerous, given the power of regular basilisks, so I prepared as
well as I could, and made sure to stone-to-mud a wall which didn't
immediately put the basilisk in my line of sight, giving me the first
blow.
As the basilisk approached, I used fire balls, my most powerful spell
although not the most efficient for mana. It breathed poison
immediately, but I had double resistance and barely noticed. When I had
it down to half strength, it breathed darkness. Thranduil protected me
from the blinding effect, but it still chilled my soul.
I cast door creation to put a row of doors between myself and the
basilisk. This bought me enough time to drink several cure critical
wounds potions, saving the more powerful ones. The basilisk bashed down
a door, and I cast another fireball, then attacked in melee. This time,
it breathed nexus, teleporting me across the level.
I landed next to Quaker, but since I was twice his speed, I was able to
attack, fight and move back. He cast an acid ball, corroding my boots
but giving me time to fire two acid bolts. The battle continued in this
way, and after getting my gloves, boots, and several items in my
inventory corroded, I finally reduced Quaker to a pile of rocks. I was
very disappointed that Quaker was one of the few uniques who dropped
nothing, particularly since he destroyed everything else.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 30
I wasn't as afraid of nexus as I had been before, so I was still willing
to challenge the greater basilisk, despite its nasty breath. My
abilities were all at or near the maximum, so a shuffle wouldn't be very
damaging.
Tha basilisk's first breath shook me and the floor, but I resisted the
attempt to drive me through the floor. That would have been bad, as at
would have teleported me off the level before I could check the remains
of the vault. I didn't need to heal immediately because the basilisk
was at less than half strength, and with a few more spells and rounds of
melee, I had won the battle.
The greater basilisk was the first non-unique monster I had seen which
dropped only good objects; this was fair compensation for the havoc it
could wreak with its breath. It dropped only two objects, but one was a
quiver of bolts of frost, which would be very useful against nasty
monsters; I could do more damage with these bolts than with my spells,
if I could hit the monster and it was vulnerable to cold.
The back of Quaker's vault was still intact, and a two-handed sword,
surely an artifact, had survived the collapse of the front half. My
pack was full, so I identified the sword off the floor, and it turned
out to be Mormegil, one of the most evil cursed swords in existence. I
didn't even want to find out whether it was safe to pick up.
The back was much more rewarding, as I found a dragon-hide spellbook I
hadn't seen before. The cover read, "Raal's Tome of Destruction." I
immediately learned all seven spells, giving me seven different ways to
attack monsters, and usually several effective ones.
Mark Constantino
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 31
I had an immediate opportunity to try Raal's Tome out against Kavlax the
Many-Headed. He faced me with nine heads, each ready to strike with a
different breath weapon, and each indicating a resistance to some type
of magic. I didn't see a poison-breathing head, but my cloudkill spell
wasn't very powerful. Instead, I used a meteor swarm, which did impact
damage that nothing could resist.
I cast four meteor swarms before Kavlax had a chance to breathe. By
then, he was already at half strength; while his sound breath stunned
me, it didn't hurt me badly. I drank a potion to cure the stunning, and
cash three more swarms. He breathed gravity, barely damaging me but
slowing me, stunning me, and teleporting me behind a wall where I could
rest to recover mana.
After resting, I hasted myself again, then stone-to-mudded a wall and
let Kavlax approach. My second meteor swarm killed Kavlax with its
second meteor. The third and fourth meteor still exploded on the same
spot, burning up most of Kavlax's hoard; I should have used a different
spell or a crossbow bolt for the final blow.
Two items survived the meteor storm, a metal shield which I expected to
survive, and a cloak which refused to burn up. The shield was just an
ordinary magical shield, but the cloak was Holcolleth, one of the best
cloaks for a mage, as it increased my intelligence and speed.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 32
With intelligence to spare, I tried swapping out my ring of intelligence
for another ring, but I discovered that I lost my perfect spell-casting
skills, which a true sorceror needed at this depth. I would need to
find that one last potion of intelligence to get to the maximum before I
could swap rings.
Smaug looked like the ideal target for an ice storm, given his fiery
breath. The storms hurt him, and as an added bonus, it also stunned him
(although he recovered quickly), giving me more chances to cast a spell
between chances for him to breathe. I didn't have enough mana to do the
whole battle with ice storms, so when I ran low on mana and Smaug came
close, I created a rift, which also hurt Smaug, but more important, it
teleported him a short distance away. With my telepathy, I could tell
where he went, and hide where he would not find me until I had recovered
my mana. Raal's spells had made this battle relatively easy, and saved
me the need to use most of my magical bolts and hope that they
penetrated his dragon scales.
Smaug's hoard was no bigger than a typical dragon hoard, but unlike most
dragon hoards, all of the items were magical. Two were useful, the ring
of Barahir and a shield of elvenkind. Barahir's ring increased all of
my abilities, including the extra intelligence I needed, so I decided to
return to town immediately to swap rings, and find Barahir's powers in
the process.
A powerful identification scroll revealed that Barahir gave resistance
to poison and dark, allowing me to sell my ring of poison resistance and
wear Barahir and a ring of constitution to get outstanding health.
I didn't know whether I would want the shield, as it was not as good as
my shield of resistance, but it could have had a useful extra power. I
took off all of my items with known extra powers, then drank a potion of
self-knowledge, which revealed that I resisted light (as my innate
ability) and dark. Given Barahir's dark resistance, I had no need for
the shield.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 31 (corrected)
I had an immediate opportunity to try Raal's Tome out against Kavlax the
Many-Headed. He faced me with nine heads, each ready to strike with a
different breath weapon, and each indicating a resistance to some type
of magic. I didn't see a poison-breathing head, but my cloudkill spell
wasn't very powerful. Instead, I used a meteor swarm, which did impact
damage that nothing could resist.
I cast four meteor swarms before Kavlax had a chance to breathe. By
then, he was already at half strength; his sound breath didn't hurt me
badly, and didn't even stun me because my armor of the Rohirrim provided
resistance. I drank a potion to cure the stunning, and cash three more
swarms. He breathed gravity, barely damaging me but slowing me and
teleporting me behind a wall where I could rest to recover mana.
After resting, I hasted myself again, then stone-to-mudded a wall and
let Kavlax approach. My second meteor swarm killed Kavlax with its
second meteor. The third and fourth meteor still exploded on the same
spot, burning up most of Kavlax's hoard; I should have used a different
spell or a crossbow bolt for the final blow.
Two items survived the meteor storm, a metal shield which I expected to
survive, and a cloak which refused to burn up. The shield was just an
ordinary magical shield, but the cloak was Holcolleth, one of the best
cloaks for a mage, as it increased my intelligence and speed.
--
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 33
I found the last two potions to increase my physical and mental skills,
but I still needed experience and resistances to go any deeper, so I
spent a long time on and near the fiftieth level looking for them. I
used my potions of enlightenment on interesting levels, but I found few
interesting items. Since Smaug, I had killed several uniques, but the
only useful artifact I had found was Cammithrim, the Gloves of Light,
which added to the light from Elendil, and also produced feeble magic
missiles whenever I wanted them.
Suddenly, it all changed. I had a superb feeling as I arrived on the
level. I was out of enlightenment potions, so I had to use the Star of
Elendil to map it out, and I found a huge area of 10-foot-square rooms
separated by walls, with a 10-foot by 110-foot area in the middle. Most
of the walls were impenetrable, with only one path through from each
side of the room. My spells revealed that all of the rooms contained
monsters, many of them powerful creatures I had only heard rumors of.
I cast a spell of detect enchantment to get some idea of the treasure,
and was impressed. There were three silver rings and two amulets which
I didn't recognize, and an assortment of weapons and armor, including
quivers of mithril and seeker bolts and two suits of dragon scale armor.
I had to stone-to-mud halfway around the vault to get in to the
northwest entrance. This took so long enough that many of the creatures
woke up.
I entered the rooms one by one, attacking only those creatures I was
sure I could beat. Anything dangerous was teleported away, including
several uniques which I could have beaten but which might require me to
teleport away from the vault, possibly to where I had already teleported
the deadly monsters. The first monster I could not handle was a nexus
quylthulg; it would have teleported me away if I let it out, so I read a
scroll of banishment to get rid of all quylthulgs.
The nexus quylthulg had been sitting(?) on one of the silver rings,
which I identified as a ring of speed. I had to drop my ring of
constitution to put the speed ring on, but I was actually safer with it.
I could haste myself to triple speed, protecting me against a monster
breathing or casting spells twice before I got a chance.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 34
I reached the center of the vault, but I had to stop there. The room
had eleven treasures, but also eleven monsters, including the Tarrasque,
Ancalagon the Black, two Great Wyrms, a dracolich, Feagwath the Undead
Sorceror, and several other powerful spellcasters. No mage could
survive the spells and breaths that would come when he knocked down the
wall. And with three uniques, even banishment would not help; in any
case, I was down to one banishment scroll and had no mass banishment.
I picked up a few items that might be worth saving, then dug my way
around the vault to its other entrance. Some of the monsters I had
teleported away found their way into the corridor I had dug around the
edge, but all I needed to do was teleport them again.
I found a copy of Tenser's Transformations, and was disappointed that I
could only read two of its spells. I did make immediate use of
Elemental Brand, converting a spare quiver of crossbow bolts to bolts of
flame. However, I found a set of seeker bolts of flame in the next room
and dropped the ordinary bolts.
After clearing the second side of the vault, I reached the center room
again. It was still unsafe, but I had a plan. I dropped some of the
artifacts that I had found, while carrying non-artifact items I wanted
to save. I then read a scroll of destruction. The vault was
obliterated, and the uniques teleported away, but the artifacts
survived. I found two artifacts in the remains of the center room, and
they were two valuable ones, the amulet of Carlammas and the shield of
Anarion.
I had so many items to take back to town that I dropped easily
replaceable items, such as potions of cure critical wounds, heroism, and
even some of the basic spellbooks. The total haul was eight artifacts,
four of them useful; three rings of speed, one of which got me up to
double speed on its own; a heavy crossbow of extra might and three
quivers of magically enhanced mithril and seeker bolts for it; and two
copies of Tenser's Transformations.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 35
I had the powerful identification scrolls which I needed for the
artifacts I had just found. The shield of Anarion sustained my
abilities. The amulet of Carlammas could be activated to ward off evil,
allowing me to leave my protection from evil scrolls behind.
Haradekket, the Southrons' sword, gave me six blows rather than
Barukkheled's four, but it still cost me too much health, so I left it
at home. The fourth useful artifact was the helm Holhenneth, which gave
confusion resistance but not telepathy; I saved it in case I needed it
later.
Tenser's Transformations turned every quiver of magical bolts into a
quiver of elemental bolts. I carried three quivers, one each of fire,
poison, and frost, and used them against the toughest monsters. Bolts
of slay evil were potentially useful, but I saved them at home,
intending to use them against Morgoth.
I was willing to go a bit deeper, but I was still lacking the important
resistances to disenchantment and nether. My only source of chaos
resistance was my spare suit of leather scale mail; I carried it in
order to deal with chaos breathers, but I couldn't wear it regularly
because the armor of the Rohirrim was my only source of confusion
resistance.
It took a long time to advance to the next circle of magic, but
experience came quickly at depths of half a mile. I could haste myself
to more than one and a half times the speed of most of the powerful
monsters, and slightly faster than the very fastest. Large packs of
plasma hounds could be defeated one by one as I attacked from around a
corner and used spells for damage as they approached. I could even do
the same with nether hounds, as long as I was prepared to drink potions
of restore life levels in case a wounded hound got in a breath.
I made the mistake of trying the same strategy with a pack of time
hounds. I killed the first two, and then a breath clocked back my life
experiences; a potion fixed that, and I killed that hound. The next
hound aged me, and despite Anarion's power, all of my skills were
damaged. I didn't even have a magic mushroom handy to cure this; I had
to return to town to get the restoration potions.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 36
My luck gave me a superb feeling, but there was still something odd, a
darkness creeping over the level even after I lit it up magically. The
magical map didn't reveal any vaults which could have caused the
feeling, so I explored the level, expecting to find several interesting
items scattered around it.
I did find a suit of red dragon scale mail, which I didn't need but
which contributed to the feeling. But as I approached it, a bolt of
mana hit me from a distance. I took a magical look, and understood the
darkness; there was a room filled with undead, and a huge winged
creature had just flown out of the room and was beckoning for my soul to
come towards it.
I ran away from the nightwing's line of sight, and nothing else followed
me. I didn't know what the nightwing could do in melee, but I knew that
I didn't want to let any powerful undead creature touch me. I was
significantly faster when I hasted myself, which gave me some safety. I
also had protection from evil, which was probably useless against
something as strong as the nightwing but would at least make it less
likely that the lesser undead could hurt me.
Waiting at a distance, I fired my seeker bolts of flame at the
nightwing. I didn't always hit, but when I did hit, the creature
screamed; most undead hate fire, and I was a powerful archer with my
magical crossbow.
Three crossbow bolts had drained the nightwing to half strength. It
summoned a vampire, so I backed up in order to prevent the vampire from
drinking my blood. Another crossbow bolt hit, and the vampire commanded
me to return, teleporting me to its other side, but right next to the
nightwing. The nightwing then touched my leather cap of Thranduil,
disenchanting it.
This was a warning to me not to let too many undead get close to me at
once. I cast a rift spell at the nightwing, teleporting it fifty feet
away, and more important, not next to the vampire. I killed the vampire
in two rounds of melee, and the sixth bolt killed the nightwing.
The nightwing dropped only good items, but they were all useless, and I
had no intention of returning to the graveyard, which had two more
nightwings and a lot of other deadly undead.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 37
I reached the rank of Arch-Mage, finally justifying the name I have
given to my diary. However, I didn't feel that I deserved the title
yet. A true arch-mage should know all of the spells, and I still needed
the most powerful spellbook.
However, it was going to be a long time before I could get that last
spellbook. Until I found the extra resistances, I wasn't safe deep in
the dungeon where it was likely to be found. A pack of chaos hounds, or
Azriel, who could breathe nether and was faster than my unhasted speed,
could be lethal. Disenchanters were not lethal but threatened to damage
my items; I had lost an unrecoverable enchantment on my crossbow to a
Storm of Unmagic in a vault.
I tried my best to find the items I needed, going up and down fairly
rapidly between levels and only stopping on those which felt
interesting. There were dangerous monsters in vaults, but I was usually
able to find them well in advance with detection spells, and avoid the
vaults or teleport the creatures away.
On a level with a good feeling, I found another vault. Before I even
had a chance to cast detect monsters, I ran into a shimmering vortex,
which shrieked, waking up everything in the vault. The vortex didn't
last long, but I heard something huge bash down the door of the vault.
The huge monster was a dracolich, the animated skeleton of a dragon. I
wasn't sure what it breathed, so I cast the full resistance spell, as
well as haste self and shield. As soon as it appeared around a corner,
I fired a crossbow bolt of fire, but missed. It breathed a deadly
force, draining almost all of my life energy. I couldn't even drink a
healing potion safely, as another breath would be deadly. I did have
some strength to spare, so I was reasonably safe teleporting it away,
rather than obliterating everything including the vault.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 37
I reached the rank of Arch-Mage, finally justifying the name I have
given to my diary. However, I didn't feel that I deserved the title
yet. A true arch-mage should know all of the spells, and I still needed
the most powerful spellbook.
However, it was going to be a long time before I could get that last
spellbook. Until I found the extra resistances, I wasn't safe deep in
the dungeon where it was likely to be found. A pack of chaos hounds, or
Azriel, who could breathe nether and was faster than my unhasted speed,
could be lethal. Disenchanters were not lethal but threatened to damage
my items; I had lost an unrecoverable enchantment on my crossbow to a
Storm of Unmagic in a vault.
I tried my best to find the items I needed, going up and down fairly
rapidly between levels and only stopping on those which felt
interesting. There were dangerous monsters in vaults, but I was usually
able to find them well in advance with detection spells, and avoid the
vaults or teleport the creatures away.
On a level with a good feeling, I found another vault. Before I even
had a chance to cast detect monsters, I ran into a shimmering vortex,
which shrieked, waking up everything in the vault. The vortex didn't
last long, but I heard something huge bash down the door of the vault.
The huge monster was a dracolich, the animated skeleton of a dragon. I
wasn't sure what it breathed, so I cast the full resistance spell, as
well as haste self and shield. Since it was undead, I assumed it
resisted poison and cold, so I loaded my crossbow with a bolt of fire.
I fired as soon as it appeared around a corner, but missed.
It breathed a deadly force, draining almost all of my life energy. I
couldn't even drink a healing potion safely, as another breath would be
deadly. Instead, I teleported the dracolich away, drank a potion of
restore life levels, and then searched the rest of the vault, finding
nothing of interest.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 38
I intended to go back upstairs and leave the dracolich behind, but I
noticed that it was all alone in a room and decided to go after it with
my powerful bolts. I timed my entry into the room to give me two bolts
of fire, both hitting, before the dracolich got a move. It didn't
breathe nether at all, and it made only a weak breath of frost, freezing
one of my cure critical wounds potions. It took seven hits from
crossbow bolts before the skeleton fell apart.
I deserved a trophy from this battle, and I received one, the mithril
plate armor of Celeborn. The Arkenstone replaced the Star of Elendil,
with the extra benefit that it help me hold my life force. Celeborn was
even better, as it gave me disenchantment resistance, and activated for
banishment. I still needed the armor of the Rohirrim as my main armor
for extra health and confusion resistance, and Celeborn was so heavy
that I was slowed when I carried it, but the abilities were worth it.
As soon as I returned to the dungeon, I had an opportunity to use the
armor. I encountered a vault full of time hounds, put on the armor and
invoked Celeborn's great power to drive away all the hounds. The power
of the spell strained me badly; I had apparently banished more than a
hundred hounds. Wearing Celeborn, I entered the vault to deal with a
chaos drake. Its disenchantment breath no longer threatened me, and its
chaos breath was not powerful enough to concern me.
The dragon had been sitting on Thorin's shield, which gave me extra
health, immunity to acid, and resistance to sound and chaos. The extra
health let me wear Celeborn as my main armor, and switch to Holhenneth
for confusion resistance. I lost telepathy, but I had good detection
ability, with Holhenneth allowing me to detect everything at once when I
needed. I was also well-prepared for combat, because Celeborn's armor
was remarkably strong, and Thorin was even better than Anarion had
been; few things hit me in melee.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 39
I had a good feeling about the sixtieth level. Unlike the graveyard
level I had seen recently, this level felt unusually holy; possibly
there was a Holy Avenger somewhere that was looking for me.
I didn't find the Holy Avenger, but I did find a weapon which a priest
would have liked. A huge flail, Thunderfist, was lying on the floor.
It increased my health even more than my old axe, Barukkheled; with
Thunderfist, Thorin, Carlammas, and Barahir, I had reached the maximum
possible health, and could survive a nasty nether breath, drink a
healing potion, and be prepared if the same creature breathed again. It
was also a very powerful weapon.
Thunderfist alone wouldn't account for a good feeling, so I stayed on
the level to look for something else, and found the real source of the
holiness. A small vault was filled with angels, with Gabriel at the
center. This was a job for my magical banishment; I called on
Celeborn's name, and all of the angels except Gabriel disappeared. I
then stone-to-mudded the wall of the vault to let Gabriel out.
I tried all of my magical bolts, but Gabriel resisted all the elements,
so the damage was no more than I could do with a spell. Meteor swarms
followed, followed by a rift when Gabriel got too close. The rift
teleported him away, but he was still in my line of sight. Instead of
responding with a spell, he blew his horn, and his minions returned,
surrounding me.
Celeborn's banishment spell had not recharged, so I had to read a scroll
to banish the rest of the angels, followed by a spell of door creation
so that Gabriel wouldn't have much room to summon more. When I opened
the door, he blew his horn again, but only one angel and one archangel
appeared. I killed both quickly, with some help from Gabriel, who cast
a mana bolt at me that was intercepted by the archangel.
Gabriel then teleported me out of my sanctuary but next to himself;
another door creation spell blocked any summoning room, and a long melee
with Thunderfist, plus one healing potion, gave me the victory.
Gabriel dropped an amulet of the magi, and I also looked at a pair of
gloves in the vault, which Gabriel had been unable to pick up. The
gloves were Cambeleg, which improved my fighting skills, and gave me the
constitution bonus which allowed me to switch amulets without losing any
health. The amulet of the magi gave me confusion resistance, which
allowed me to switch helmets back to Thranduil to get telepathy.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 40
I was finally prepared for essentially everything (famous last words?)
I still didn't resist nether, but I had the telepathy to see nether
breathers, and the speed to avoid most double breaths. I wasn't
necessarily prepared to fight all of the most powerful creatures, but I
could at least teleport them away before they killed or seriously hurt
me, so I went down quickly.
I started to encounter Great Wyrms, the mightiest of all dragons. The
first one I killed was a Great Bile Wyrm, which could not hurt me
because of my acid immunity, and which dropped an impressive dragon
hoard. Other Great Wyrms were good targets for my magical crossbow
bolts, which did extra damage if they were branded with an element the
dragon did not breathe. Wyrms kept only the choicest items for their
hoards, so I often found more bolts to replace the ones I had fired, and
I branded them with cold, fire, or poison if they were not already
branded. I was disappointed when I found bolts of wounding, as they
already had a special magical enhancement to do a bit more damage, and
would not accept an elemental brand.
As I entered the seventieth level, I didn't even need to drink my potion
of enlightenment to see why the level gave a special feeling. There was
a huge collection of monsters nearby, and two of them were Lungorthin
and the Tarrasque. The potion revealed an enormous vault, with four
diagonal corridors filled with monsters and treasure leading to a
central room, and other chambers connecting to that central room.
Celeborn gave me one chance for banishment, and given the number of
ancient dragons and wyrms which would be in line to breathe on me as
soon as I dug my way in, I chose to get rid of them. I had two scrolls
to use later if I needed them, but there wasn't anything immediately
dangerous in the corridor I entered, or in the central room. With the
Great Wyrm of Many Colours gone, the central room was guarded by just an
ettin and a white wraith, clearly inadequate guardians for such great
items.
The ettin had picked up one of the items in the central room, and it was
the most powerful spellbook in the game, Kelek's Grimoire of Power. It
also dropped a potion of experience, and when I drank it, I had reached
the final circle of wizardry.
Rubinstein
>
> Chapter 40
great game, great story, go on..
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 41
I had to rest because I was low on mana, so I spent the resting time
reading my new spellbook and learning its spells. The most valuable
spell was banishment, which I could now cast with a zero failure rate.
It gave me the opportunity to immediately get rid of any non-unique
monsters which I did not want to fight. I used it immediately to get
all remaining hounds out of the vault, and planned to use it again if
necessary.
I also looked at some of the other spells. Mass banishment would be
useful if something summoned multiple monster types at once. The word
of destruction gave me a guaranteed escape from any dangerous
situation. Two of the damaging spells didn't look that useful; soul
rending would not work well against evil creatures, while mana storm,
the most powerful spell of all, was so complicated a spell that I still
couldn't cast it reliably, and even if I did, it would obliterate all
items. Chaos strike, however, looked like a good spell; it was 100%
reliable, few creatures resisted it, and it did a lot of damage.
I tried a chaos strike against a master lich. The lich didn't resist
the damage, but after being damaged, it was enveloped in chaos, and
turned into a troll chieftain. The newly-created troll chieftain was at
full strength, so the damage was apparently not useful. Howevr, I
realized that chaos strike was a useful spell for different reasons; it
could be used to polymorph monsters such as undead beholders which I did
not want to fight, as it was unlikely to be resisted. I did use it
occasionally for its damage, but only against uniques, which are immune
to the polymorphing effect.
After killing, banishing, or teleporting away everything in the vault, I
had found eight artifacts, two of them useful. The most obviously
useful item was Ringil, a sword which I recognized by its glow even
before picking it up. It was a great weapon, and it increased my speed.
The boots of Thror gave me a bit more speed, and constitution to spare,
so that I didn't lose too much health by swapping Thunderfist for
Ringil.
The most valuable item was not even an artifact, but a heavy crossbow of
the Haradrim. This crossbow cocked itself for the next bolt as soon as
I fired the first one, and it also did extra damage. Although I was
technically a mage, I had become more powerful as an archer; I could
fire two bolts in the same time that it would take me to cast one mana
storm, and the bolts would do more damage even if they didn't have a
special bonus. With the special bonus, there was no comparison; I
destroyed a black reaver with just eight seeker bolts of flame,
representing four rounds of combat.
VALIS
> useful item was Ringil, a sword which I recognized by its glow even
are you really still playing this character, or just telling the story? This is
awesome. :-)
--
-Campbell
- Join the steamband group by sending an email to
steamband...@Yahoogroups.com !
- Visit the Steamband web page, and follow the progress of Steam! (and view my
art!) http://angband.oook.cz/steamband/
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 42
I had enough magical items to get to three and a half times normal
speed, but I discovered that I had reached a point of diminishing
returns. Hasting myself got me only to exactly four times normal speed,
not four and a half. Still, four times normal speed was good enough to
fight double-speed monsters in melee without letting them touch me; I
could fight, retreat, and fight again. I used this against several
powerful liches in order to save my mana.
I then discovered that it was not quite safe as some monsters were very
slightly faster than normal, as an archlich drained my staff of healing.
After dispatching the archlich, I tried Greater Recharging, but the
staff exploded. I was still armed with five potions of healing, with
many more stored at home; I didn't like to carry too many potions at
once, as white dragons tended to freeze them.
I had run from Azriel before, but with my enhanced speed and my
double-speed crossbow, I thought that I could take him on this time. I
had four quivers, with bolts of acid, fire, poison, and lightning, but
none of the bolts hurt Azriel especially badly. He summoned a horde of
angels, but that was no problem as I simply banished them. He then
breathed nether, taking me to about a third of my normal strength. I
drank a potion of healing so that I could survive another breath, which
came a short time later. This time, a second potion would not protect
me against another breath, but I had an alternative. I cast door
creation to put a closed door in Azriel's line of sight, then drank a
healing potion, and cure critical wounds potions until Azriel opened the
door.
I could do about as much damage to Azriel with a chaos strike as with
two bolts that might miss, so I used the spell instead. Azriel then
teleported me to himself. I cast a rift spell, driving Azriel away,
then waited to recover my hit points and mana. I didn't gain much, as
Azriel recovered as well. I approached from a distance, and tried more
chaos strikes, but Azriel cast a nether ball, followed by another nether
breath. I needed two more potions of healing, leaving me with just one.
I was low on mana and needed to save some for emergencies. I had Azriel
down to less than half strength before he required me to drink my last
healing potion, with a nether breath that was no longer full strength.
Still, I couldn't continue the battle any further without healing, so I
gave up, read a word of destruction, and went back to town to restock
healing potions.
I needed a better healing item than the potions, as they wouldn't last
long against many of the uniques. The staff of healing would probably
have allowed me to complete that battle.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 43
I thought I had found every amulet, but there was one I didn't
recognize, just lying on the floor on the seventy-fifth level. It had a
beryl stone, and as a high-elf, I knew that as the elven stone, so I
wasn't surprised to find that it was the Elfstone amulet that was worn
by King Elessar. The Elfstone absorbed poison, so I was able to leave
the ring of Barahir at home, and put on a ring of constitution to get
back to maximum health. However, my amulet of the magi had been my
source of confusion resistance, so I had to switch helmets back to
Holhenneth, losing my telepathy.
The Elfstone also had an even more important use, rechargeable healing,
which was the reason I was willing to use it even at the cost of
telepathy. While it wasn't perfectly reliable, and thus I couldn't use
it when my life was in immediate danger, I did have many chances to use
it. The Mouth of Sauron had just cast a mana storm at me, and while I
could survive another storm, I didn't have much to spare, so I healed
with the amulet. The Mouth of Sauron was vulnerable to my venomous
bolts, so I was able to continue the battle quickly, and defeated him
using only one healing potion.
I don't know how the Mouth of Sauron got his hands on an elven ring, but
he had Nenya, the ring of frost. Complete immunity to frost meant that
I could carry as many potions as I needed, because they were no longer
subject to freezing. Nenya also gave me back my telepathy, and returned
me to the maximum possible intelligence.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 44
I would have liked Narya, the Ring of Fire, so that I could swap it in
to protect my scrolls and spellbooks. However, it never turned up, so I
just held on to three copies of each book, and banished hell hounds and
fire-breathing hydras. I had to abandon a battle with Glaurung when his
fiery breath burned all three copies of my third spellbook; if I had
continued the battle, I would have been unable to identify his hoard.
Except for such minor mishaps, I wasn't seriously challenged, so I went
down quickly, stopping only on interesting levels. There were a lot of
interesting levels, because dragon scale mail and rings of speed made
levels appear interesting, although I had no need for dragon scale mail,
and I already had a good ring of speed and gained very little from
finding better ones.
Even a superb feeling was not necessarily interesting. On the eightieth
level, I found a small vault, containing a Horned Reaper which killed
all of the other monsters. I teleported the Horned Reaper away to find
blue dragon scale mail, an amulet of the magi, a long sword of
Westernesse, and the Arkenstone of Thrain. I would have liked the
Arkenstone earlier, but it no longer helped me because I had other items
which had all of its powers. I didn't need the Arkenstone's detection,
while Elendil's magic mapping was still useful.
When I did find the Horned Reaper, I used the usual strategy of digging
a zigzag corridor to prevent it from summoning more demons. It dropped
a quiver of mithril bolts of slay evil. Rather than carrying these, I
stored them at home, saving them for the final battle.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 44
I would have liked Narya, the Ring of Fire, so that I could swap it in
to protect my scrolls and spellbooks. However, it never turned up, so I
just held on to three copies of each book, and banished hell hounds and
fire-breathing hydras. I had to abandon a battle with Glaurung when his
fiery breath burned all three copies of my third spellbook; if I had
continued the battle, I would have been unable to identify his hoard.
Except for such minor mishaps, I wasn't seriously challenged, so I went
down quickly, stopping only on interesting levels. There were a lot of
interesting levels, because dragon scale mail and rings of speed made
levels appear interesting, although I had no need for dragon scale mail,
and I already had a good ring of speed and gained very little from
finding better ones.
Even a superb feeling was not necessarily interesting. On the eightieth
level, I found a small vault, which I mapped out with the Star of
Elendil; I no longer needed the Arkenstone's detection and I had all of
its other abilities, so I had switched back. The vault contained a
Horned Reaper which killed all of the other monsters. I teleported the
Horned Reaper away to find blue dragon scale mail, an amulet of the
magi, a long sword of Westernesse, and a very weak ring of speed; that
accounted for a superb feeling without helping me at all.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 44
I would have liked Narya, the Ring of Fire, so that I could swap it in
to protect my scrolls and spellbooks. However, it never turned up, so I
just held on to three copies of each book, and banished hell hounds and
fire-breathing hydras. I had to abandon a battle with Glaurung when his
fiery breath burned all three copies of my third spellbook; if I had
continued the battle, I would have been unable to identify his hoard.
Except for such minor mishaps, I wasn't seriously challenged, so I went
down quickly, stopping only on interesting levels. There were a lot of
interesting levels, because dragon scale mail and rings of speed made
levels appear interesting, although I had no need for dragon scale mail,
and I already had a good ring of speed and gained very little from
finding better ones.
Even a superb feeling was not necessarily interesting. On the eightieth
level, I found a small vault, which I mapped out with the Star of
Elendil; I did not need the Arkenstone's detection and I had all of its
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 45
If I wasn't already able to kill Morgoth alone, I would certainly be
ready soon, but the key word was "alone". Morgoth would be likely to
summon the most powerful creatures he could find, and if that included
any unique monsters, I wouldn't be able to banish them. There were five
uniques that I had seen but not yet defeated, and probably several more
that I had never seen; Saruman had yet to make an appearance himself,
although his servants were all dead.
Saruman did finally appear, as I saw him with my telepathy. I mapped
out the area and found him trapped in one of three adjacent eighty-foot
corridors. Only one end of each corridor was even made of ordinary
granite; the sides and the other end were magically impenentrable walls.
My detection spells also revealed that Qlzqqlzuup, the Emperor
Quylthulg, was at the end of the middle corridor.
Saruman was no problem; I dug a zigzag corridor with stone-to-mud to
prevent him from summoning anything, then opened the wall to Saruman's
corridor to let him and the other creatures out, and killed everything
in turn. He dropped a huge pile of great items, including a slightly
better ring of speed and a palantir. Not having a scroll to identify
the special powers of the palantir, I decided not to try it out; the
palantir was a very powerful and possibly dangerous item.
I couldn't do the same against Qlzqqlzuup; like other quylthulgs, he
didn't move, so I couldn't lure him into the zigzag corridor. I also
assumed that, like other quylthulgs, he would summon monsters like crazy
if given the chance. I had sometimes killed quylthulgs by aiming ball
spells at a spot in my line of sight while the quylthulg itself wasn't,
but that would not work because of the straight corridor. However, I
had another idea. I dug my way to line up with the corridor but did not
destroy the wall that would open it. Instead, I dug north until I was
thirty feet east of the wall, then west twice, and lay down two runes of
protection to the west and two to the south of the corner. I could now
stand in the corner, and nothing could be summoned onto the runes.
After recovering my mana, I was now ready to destroy the last wall. A
Great Wrym of Law was between me and Qlzqqlzuup, and after I hit it with
a bolt, its first action was to summon ancient dragons, but it had no
room to summon; neither did Qlzqqlzuup. I shot my best bolts at the
Great Wyrm, as it had powerful breaths and I had no resistance to
shards, and in addition, I didn't want it to destroy the runes. I had
to use Elessar's healing after a shards breath, but I eventually killed
the dragon. Qlzqqlzuup had been made harmless, and died quickly.
Qlzqqlzuup dropped a ring of speed, but to my surprise, it was cursed,
and the rest of his treasure was equally disappointing. He was the only
unique I had seen who had dropped a cursed non-artifact.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 46
When I identified the palantir, I was happy that I hadn't looked in it
first. It allowed me to see nearby creatures, but it also alerted them
to my presence. If I had used it in Qlzqqlzuup's vault, I would have
awakened the Great Wyrm of Law, allowing it to move closer to me and get
the first breath.
I did have a use for the palantir. By concentrating my thoughts, I
could see the entire level, as I would with a potion of enlightenment.
It also gave me extra intelligence, although that extra intelligence
would only help by slightly reducing the chance that my mana storm would
fail. Since it drained my life energy slowly and aggravated monsters, I
wouldn't use it continuously; I went back down with the Arkenstone in my
hand and the palantir in my pack.
Holding the Arkenstone, I teleported back to the dungeon, and used melee
and spells to clear out the area around me before switching to the
palantir. The only creature it woke up was an ancient multi-hued dragon
that could not reach me because of a wall. I looked at the full level,
and found a pit filled with major demons, many of them dropping only
good drops; this should be an excellent source of items. The dragon was
between me and the pit, so I went after it first.
As I fought the dragon, the demons in the pit moved into range of my
telepathy. A horned reaper in the center of the pit started tearing
through the other demons. When I rested to recover mana, the horned
reaper continued to tear the others apart. By the time I reached the
pit, only three demons remained. There were two horned reapers, and one
pit fiend that was too powerful for the horned reapers to destroy.
I had lost most of the potential treasure, but I fought the last three
demons for what I could get, and found a quiver of seeker bolts of holy
might. These were the most powerful bolts ever made; five hits from my
crossbow would have sufficed to kill the pit fiend that had dropped
them.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 46 (corrected)
When I identified the palantir, I was happy that I hadn't looked in it
first. It allowed me to see nearby creatures, but it also alerted them
to my presence. If I had used it in Qlzqqlzuup's vault, I would have
awakened the Great Wyrm of Law, allowing it to move closer to me and get
the first breath.
I did have a use for the palantir. By concentrating my thoughts, I
could see the entire level, as I would with a potion of enlightenment.
It also gave me extra intelligence, although that extra intelligence
would only help if I swapped out one of my other items. Since it
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 47
Before going down to the next level, I waited in a clear area, holding
the palantir. I rested until it was recharged, then switched back to
the Arkenstone as I went downstairs. I felt that the level was boring,
but I checked with the Arkenstone first, found nothing of interest, and
then looked into the Palantir. As I did this, I felt Azriel wake up.
This time, I had enough healing for the battle. With my maximal
intelligence, making mana storm the best attack against Azriel, as there
were no bolts which did extra damage to him. I had cast six mana
storms, five successfully, before Azriel did anything dangerous,
teleporting me to himself. I rifted him away from me, and was hit by a
mana bolt, then a nether ball after my eighth mana storm. I healed with
Elessar, and Azriel finally gave his deadly nether breath, but he was
already less than half strength and thus the breath was not at full
power. A single healing potion was all that I needed, as I finished
Azriel with bolts.
Azriel dropped the Golden Crown of Gondor, and with a powerful scroll of
identification, I learned that Elessar was carrying on the tradition of
the kings of Gondor in providing healing. A second source of
rechargeable healing made it less likely that I would run out of healing
potions while fighting the rest of the uniques. Unlike Holhenneth, the
crown did not increase my intelligence, so I lost 100% reliability of
chaos strike and a bit of reliability of mana storm unless I used the
palantir, but with Holcolleth and Nenya, I still had 100% reliability on
all other spells.
The crown also gave me extra speed, bringing me to four times normal
speed without magical hastine, and 4.4 times normal speed with it; that
4.4 was important because it allowed me to fight-backup-fight against
double-speed monsters and be safe from attacks even if they were
slightly faster than normal melee speed. I accumulated bolts quickly
now that I no longer needed to use them against most demons and liches.
Circone
How do you manage do double- and triple-post chapters?
And please put numbers on them, it would help avoid double-posts.
David J. Grabiner
I deliberately re-post when I find an error, and mark it as a
correction. If I find the error quickly, I cancel the original and hope
that the cancel prevents the erroneous chapter from getting out.
Checking Google, I see that this didn't work with Chapter 44, and thus
all three copies appeared. (The error in Chapter 44 was that the
Arch-Mage had found the Arkenstone twice.) If I don't find it quickly,
I leave the old copy intact and re-post with (corrected) in the chapter
title.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 48
I still carried a lot of healing potions for the rare times that I
needed 100% reliable healing, but with Azriel gone, only a mana storm
from a powerful monster, or a double attack, dropped me to half strength
and required them. I also had to use a few potions when my healing
items were still charging, or when I was hit a second time after the
magical item failed, but I worked my way through most of the powerful
monsters.
I stayed on the ninety-eighth level, going up to the ninety-seventh
rather than down, as I did not want to meet Sauron yet, with too many
uniques about. I killed the remaining uniques one by one; I no longer
cared much about interesting levels, although there were surely some
useful artifacts if they ever showed up, and I might find a better ring
of speed or better bolts.
There were only two uniques left, the Tarrasque and Ungoliant. I
explored the levels several times without finding them, and finally
encountered the Tarrasque (for the second time; I had run from it
earlier). I put up my usual spells, including resistance. It was
rumored to be unkillable, but I found that my venomous bolts hurt it
badly. I needed one healing potion after a powerful disenchantment
breath, and healing from Elessar and Gondor after fire breaths. It
breathed disenchantment again after my twelfth bolt, but the force was
so weak that I did not need to heal at all, and two more bolts ended the
battle.
The treasure included the heavy crossbow of Umbar, and a heavy crossbow
of the Haradrim that was better than the one I had been using. The
crossbow of Umbar did more damage with its bolts, but it didn't shoot at
double speed, and I didn't need its other abilities (particularly
aggravation), so I left it behind.
R Dan Henry
grab...@alumni.princeton.edu (David J. Grabiner) declared:
>I deliberately re-post when I find an error, and mark it as a
>correction. If I find the error quickly, I cancel the original and hope
>that the cancel prevents the erroneous chapter from getting out.
Very few servers honor cancels these days. Too many forged-cancel wars
put an end to that.
--
R. Dan Henry, Emperor of the Universe
Is an enthusiastic Fire Hound a hot dog with relish?
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 49
I decided not to wait for Ungoliant to show up, and just went right
after Sauron. I picked up a lot of potions of complete healing from
home, and potions of restore mana; there was no need to save these for
later. I left my bolts of slay evil and holy might at home, as these
were for Morgoth. I also left the palantir at home; it was very heavy,
so I was slightly faster not carrying it. I took a potion of
enlightenment to map out the level, which was the only reason I wanted
the palantir.
I was no longer interested in the ninety-eighth level, where I had
recalled. I immediately cast stair creation, and when I created a down
staircase on the third try, I rested only to recover mana and went
straight down, then drank my potion of enlightenment. I started in a
room with a staff of probing, which I picked up; I wasn't sure of
Sauron's vulnerabilities, and could confirm them with the staff rather
than trying different bolts.
I explored half the level, and then found Sauron, out of my line of
sight. I had a chance to prepare for fighting. Normally, I wanted to
block all summoning, but this time, I had a different plan. I placed
three glyphs of warding in a corridor, 10 and 20 feet west and 20 feet
east of the spot where I wanted to stand. By leaving the spot 10 feet
east open, I would allow Sauron to summon one creature at a time, and I
had a chance for that one summon to be Ungoliant.
With the corridor prepared and my spells cast, I moved over to let
Sauron approach, then ran back into the corridor. I pointed my staff of
probing at Sauron, and learned that he was vulnerable to acid, and that
fourteen of my seeker bolts of acid would be enough to kill him. He
immediately cast a mana storm, forcing me to drink one of my complete
healing potions. I fired three bolts, hitting twice, before the next
spell; he summoned a Great Wyrm of Balance. I banished the wyrm, as I
didn't want to be teleported near it if I teleported away. Sauron's
next spell was a unique summons, which worked as I intended; Ungoliant
appeared, and I teleported her away. I had hit with twelve bolts, and
Sauron was nearly dead, when he teleported me away, in order to let
himself heal.
I found Ungoliant first, in a room with a Great Ice Wyrm. Since I was
immune to frost, I deliberately woke the Great Ice Wyrm, hoping that it
would help. I was happy to watch it breathe on my area when Ungoliant
surrounded me with spiders, blocking the path of my bolts of fire; a
breath of frost killed most of the spiders, although it didn't harm
Ungoliant, who was too far away. I had nearly killed Ungoliant when she
breathed poison from twenty feet away. I didn't notice the breath at
all; she must have been nearly dead. However, when the Great Ice Wyrm
breathed again, Ungoliant survived; she was powerful enough that only I
could get rid of her for good. I did get rid of her, choosing a fire
bolt spell for the killing blow, and then dispatched the dragon.
I returned to face Sauron, and as I approached, I noticed that he had
crossed my glyphs of warding; this wasn't surprising, given his power as
a sorceror. This time, I didn't want him to summon anything, so I dug a
zigzag corridor to block all summons, and lured him in. I fired my last
three acidic bolts, hitting twice but not killing Sauron because he had
healed. He then touched my staff of probing, draining it and gaining
some health for himself. I continued the battle with Ringil; I had to
use a potion of healing after another mana storm, but Sauron didn't last
much longer.
Sauron dropped a lot of items, including a ring that I didn't recognize,
which was probably one of the remaining rings of power. However, before
I could pick up that ring, the floor under Sauron shook, creating a
staircase down to Morgoth's domain, and the ring and several other items
fell into the abyss. This was the first time I had seen a magical
effect powerful enough to destroy, or at least remove, an artifact.
I didn't want to go down the stairs, as I needed different items for the
battle with Morgoth, so I went back home to restock.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 50
This would be the end, one way or another, and since I might not be
coming back, I left my diary at home and kept a single scroll of
parchment for the final stage.
I picked up twenty bolts of holy might and forty of slay evil which I
had been saving for this battle; that should be enough bolts to kill
Morgoth if I had a chance to fire all of them. I also took my three
potions of life, which would heal me completely and also restore my
abilities; I had not needed them against Sauron. Since I expected a
long battle, I carried extra potions of heroism and berserk strength to
improve my archery skill.
I recalled into a room on the ninety-ninth level with a stairway leading
down, and walked straight down as soon as soon as I had the preparatory
spells cast. I didn't see Morgoth immediately, even with my telepathy,
but I knew that I was in his domain, and I expected him to find me. I
cast door creation to block some spaces from summoning, so that I
couldn't be surrounded. As soon as Morgoth got in range of my
telepathy, I drank my heroism and berserk strength potions, and opened
the door to my east, which was the direction I needed to shoot. He tore
through the wall, but I was ready.
There was something wrong with this battle. Morgoth, wielder of Grond,
the mighty hammer of the Underwold, fought me with spells, while I, an
arch-mage, attacked with a crossbow and bolts, and I hadn't even
enchanted either one myself. Morgoth opened the battle with a mana
storm, requiring me to drink a full healing potion immediately. I got
off four bolts of holy might, hitting three times, before the next
spell. Morgoth tried to summon the Ringwraiths, but I had slain all
nine, so all he got was a pack of barrow wights, who opened some of the
doors. I banished the barrow wights, but Morgoth took advantage of the
open space to summon many greater undead, including a nightwalker which
hit me, a black reaver, and another pack of barrow wights.
I could have cast mass banishment, but the strain of the spell would
have left me vulnerable to immediate death if Morgoth cast another mana
storm. Instead, I teleported out, used ordinary banishment to get rid
of the wraiths and liches now on the far side of the level, and healed
myself with the crown of Gondor so that I would be ready when Morgoth
reached me on the other side of the level.
I could hear Morgoth arrive, tearing through the walls again, but I was
ready with my bolts. Every time Morgoth summoned, I banished the
summoned creatures with a spell; I didn't use Celeborn because it was
not 100% reliable and thus was not safe. Every time I had lost a third
of my health, I drank a healing potion, as Morgoth could do two-thirds
with a mana storm, and an ordinary potion healed exactly one-third. If
I had lost more than half, such as by a mana storm, I drank a full
healing potion for extra safety. I was also slightly faster than
Morgoth, so when I had to react to him, I sometimes got a chance to get
back to firing my bolts, and I could fire two or three bolts between his
moves.
As I ran out of bolts of holy might, Morgoth moved up to me, and I
rifted him away, using most of the rest of my mana; I intended to drink
a potion to restore mana as soon as I had the chance. Morgoth tried to
summon uniques, but with them all gone, he summoned a vampire lord and a
black reaver. I was at full health, but I didn't have the mana left to
cast a banishment spell, and if I drank the restore mana, the black
reaver and Morgoth could combine for two deadly mana storms. I had just
enough mana left to teleport and set up the battle again.
I wound up back in the room where I had started, so the doors I needed
were already there. Morgoth approached again from the east, as I opened
my first quiver of bolts of slay evil. They weren't quite as powerful
as the bolts of holy might, but the difference was slight, and Morgoth
still screamed when they hit him. Another rift drove Morgoth away
again, and this time I didn't wait to run low on mana before drinking my
potion. I closed the door to my east and opened the door to the west.
Morgoth summoned ancient dragons, which I removed with ordinary
banishment. I had an extra turn, and fired a bolt which did an
especially good hit; Morgoth screamed and fled.
Even fleeing, Morgoth was still dangerous, as he proved with yet another
mana storm which forced me to heal. But after six more bolts, four of
them hitting, it was over.
A boom sounded, even louder than the explosions I had created with my
spells of destruction. Grond itself fell to the floor, as did Morgoth's
crown, and a collection of other objects. There was no trace of
Morgoth's body.
I found the two missing elven rings, and discovered that Narya gave
resistance to nether, but it was no longer important because the lord of
nether had been defeated. These rings, and Grond and Morgoth's crown,
were my trophies from the final battle.
And so my quest ends. If Morgoth himself is not your quest, my diary
may serve as your guide. There is still the One Ring to Rule Them All,
which must have been the one Sauron dropped because it didn't look like
either of the two elven rings I found from Morgoth. It is probably
buried more than a mile deep, and I may go back for it some day, but for
now, I will retire as the King of the Light who has defeated the Lord of
the Darkness.
Willem Siemelink
David J. Grabiner <grab...@alumni.princeton.edu> wrote in message
news:uu17a5...@alumni.princeton.edu...
>
> Chapter 50
>
[snip]
>
> And so my quest ends. If Morgoth himself is not your quest, my diary
> may serve as your guide. There is still the One Ring to Rule Them All,
> which must have been the one Sauron dropped because it didn't look like
> either of the two elven rings I found from Morgoth. It is probably
> buried more than a mile deep, and I may go back for it some day, but for
> now, I will retire as the King of the Light who has defeated the Lord of
> the Darkness.
>
> --
Well done. This was an excellent read all the way until the end. I enjoyed
your tale a lot.
Willem
Werner Baer
"David J. Grabiner" <grab...@alumni.princeton.edu> wrote ...
> There is still the One Ring to Rule Them All,
> which must have been the one Sauron dropped because it didn't look like
> either of the two elven rings I found from Morgoth.
If it was indeed a ring of power, you should have known.
The three, the seven, and the nine each have a unique gem
on it. But the One is without any jewel; it appears like
a plain gold ring.
Great story. I very much enjoyed reaing it.
Werner.
MattyG
wrote:
> Chapter 50
>
> This would be the end, one way or another, and since I might not be
> coming back, I left my diary at home and kept a single scroll of
> parchment for the final stage.
That was a lot of fun to read. Very unique and comprehensive; thanks for taking
us through with you.
-matt
David J. Grabiner
Editor's Notes
The following notes are some details which the Arch-Mage could not
explain in the context of the diary (what is a hit point?) but which may
be useful for understanding his hints.
Chapter 1: The Arch-Mage's starting statistics were strength 10,
intelligence 18/50; these are good minima for a high-elven mage. He was
also playing in maximize and preserve mode.
Chapter 18: Average damage for a poison breath from a full-strength
basilisk is 103, but basilisks are of variable strength; mages should
avoid them at this stage.
Chapter 25: An ancient green dragon can do 240 damage with a poison
breath.
Chapter 35: The very fastest monsters are actually +30 speed, not +20,
but the shimmering vortex is the only mobile monster which is +30 other
than powerful uniques; +22 speed is usually good enough to be safe from
double attacks.
Chapter 37: An unresisted nether breath from a dracolich does 550
damage. A dracolich is native to level 55.
Chapter 42: Speed up to +26 is linear, but then diminishing returns kick
in; quadruple speed is +34 to +36, not +30.
Chapter 42: It take 800 hit points (and +20 speed) to fight Azriel this
way without nether resistance; if he breathes nether for 550, you can
drink a potion of healing to get to 550 hit points and survive another
nether breath.
Chapter 46: Intelligence beyond 18/220 does not reduce spell failure
rates any further.
Chapter 47: +46 speed is required for 4.4 times normal speed;
double-speed monsters can be as fast as 2.2 times normal.
Chapter 49: Bolt multipliers apply to all bonuses, and bolts of acid
fired from a heavy crossbow of the Haradrim do x15 damage. Thus seeker
bolts (average base 12) with +15 to damage and a crossbow which is +23
to damage do an average damage of 50x15=750, and fourteen of these will
kill Sauron.
Chapter 49: Even in preserve mode, artifacts at the location of Sauron's
magical staircase will be permanently lost. Had the Arch-Mage gone
searching for the One Ring, he would never have found it, as Sauron
dropped it but it fell immediately into the abyss.
Paul Moore
> Editor's Notes
>
> The following notes are some details which the Arch-Mage could not
> explain in the context of the diary (what is a hit point?) but which may
> be useful for understanding his hints.
I loved this series. Thanks very much for posting it. Is it archived
anywhere (other than Google)?
One question - how long did it take you in "real time"? Were the
postings made as things happened? (If so, I play even slower than I
thought...)
Paul
David J. Grabiner
> grab...@alumni.princeton.edu (David J. Grabiner) wrote in message news:<uwuc5h...@alumni.princeton.edu>...
> > Editor's Notes
> >
> > The following notes are some details which the Arch-Mage could not
> > explain in the context of the diary (what is a hit point?) but which may
> > be useful for understanding his hints.
>
> I loved this series. Thanks very much for posting it. Is it archived
> anywhere (other than Google)?
I'll put an archive on my Web page soon.
> One question - how long did it take you in "real time"? Were the
> postings made as things happened? (If so, I play even slower than I
> thought...)
I wasn't actually playing the character, because I didn't want to have
to post several boring stories during the long waits for stat gain and
poison resistance, nor start over if the character died midway through.
I posted one chapter per day, with a different story each day (splitting
some long ones in half), skipping one weekend that I was one vacation.
However, many of the stories are based on my actual experience playing
mages. For example, I lost my first 3.0.2 mage to a basilisk because I
didn't know that the poison breath had been added in 3.0, and lost
another one to a double breath from a basilisk that was faster than his
hasted speed. My mage winner in 3.0.2 encounter the same two near-death
experiences against Morgoth that I described in chapter 50.
Mark Constantino
>intelligence 18/50; these are good minima for a high-elven mage. He was
>also playing in maximize and preserve mode.
I find lower intelligence scores at the start not too untenable, if you can get
a good missile or hth weapon in your hands that you will be able to kill
monsters with on levels up to 200 feet. That means, half-orcs or even troll
mages aren't unplayable, with better mundane weapons skills, as well as the
generic human mages which rely on the lack of experience penalty for an
advantage in gaining levels. Mebbe you get lucky with an int amulet or cap of
int or a sword of *slay* animal with a bonus to int early. Maybe you don't and
life is exciting for you to even try to survive stat-gain.
>Chapter 18: Average damage for a poison breath from a full-strength
>basilisk is 103, but basilisks are of variable strength; mages should
>avoid them at this stage.
A mage should run from anything that can kill in one turn. So you're fighting,
then it becomes apparent that a monster with LOS can kill you in one turn. The
autoresponse is to read a scroll of teleport level, regardless. Unless there's
booty on the floor and you're willing to start a new character anyway, then you
might risk it for fun.
>Chapter 25: An ancient green dragon can do 240 damage with a poison
>breath.
Poison resist is overrated. Don't wait, identify poison breathers and avoid.
>Chapter 35: The very fastest monsters are actually +30 speed, not +20,
>but the shimmering vortex is the only mobile monster which is +30 other
>than powerful uniques; +22 speed is usually good enough to be safe from
>double attacks.
I never worry about speed differences. With mages and distance attacks, all
you have to worry about is twice in a row distance attacks, and the game seems
to weight the decision of moving closer to the character so that this rarely
happens.
>Chapter 37: An unresisted nether breath from a dracolich does 550
>damage. A dracolich is native to level 55.
Nether resist is not overrated. At level 55, there are tons of nether and
poison breathers, as well as elemental breathers and gravity hounds yada blah.
>Chapter 42: Speed up to +26 is linear, but then diminishing returns kick
>in; quadruple speed is +34 to +36, not +30.
The guideline is +20 speed uberalais, then don't add speed bonuses if you can
get a needed resist or ability, ie question wearing the boots of Feanor if you
already have Ringil and a ring of speed or even a speed spell or potion.
>Chapter 42: It take 800 hit points (and +20 speed) to fight Azriel this
>way without nether resistance; if he breathes nether for 550, you can
>drink a potion of healing to get to 550 hit points and survive another
>nether breath.
Azriel is mighty, but mightier still is the LOS algorithm. Shoot around a
corner, teleport, attrition, then finish off. It's a hassle, but hey, it's
Azriel!
>Chapter 46: Intelligence beyond 18/220 does not reduce spell failure
>rates any further.
In some versions there's always a 5% fail rate for half-caste spellcasters. 0%
fail rate occurs at around 18/150 iirc, and increases temporarily when you are
stunned or possibly when you are wearing gloves or are carrying too much
weight. Priests wielding an edged weapon incur a spell fail rate penalty.
>Chapter 47: +46 speed is required for 4.4 times normal speed;
>double-speed monsters can be as fast as 2.2 times normal.
Speed up to par is enough to battle any monster.
>Chapter 49: Bolt multipliers apply to all bonuses, and bolts of acid
>fired from a heavy crossbow of the Haradrim do x15 damage. Thus seeker
>bolts (average base 12) with +15 to damage and a crossbow which is +23
>to damage do an average damage of 50x15=750, and fourteen of these will
>kill Sauron.
Seeker bolts? Sauron's AC is massive, so tough to hit with a missile weapon,
especially from a mage, but it's a nice idea using the LOS quirk. How about
manastorm? 300 damage, 35 castings kill Sauron, as opposed to maybe 42 shots
with the crossbow of Haradrim even if you hit 1/3 of the time. I seem also to
remember that manastorm does double damage against evil, so that's 17 or 18
castings, hitting each time you cast manastorm. Sauron regenerates hp quickly,
remember.
>Chapter 49: Even in preserve mode, artifacts at the location of Sauron's
>magical staircase will be permanently lost.
Kill Sauron in an empty room, then the staircase will be generated on an empty
square. Iirc, the staircase only destroys stuff if the stuff can't be
displaced to another drop square.
hth
Gasfaerthaji the Necromancer
David J. Grabiner
> >Chapter 1: The Arch-Mage's starting statistics were strength 10,
> >intelligence 18/50; these are good minima for a high-elven mage. He was
> >also playing in maximize and preserve mode.
>
> I find lower intelligence scores at the start not too untenable, if you can get
> a good missile or hth weapon in your hands that you will be able to kill
> monsters with on levels up to 200 feet.
I agree that less than 18/50 is playable (18 should be the minimum), but
a high-elf might as well go for the 18/50. The extra mana and spells
are very useful.
> >Chapter 18: Average damage for a poison breath from a full-strength
> >basilisk is 103, but basilisks are of variable strength; mages should
> >avoid them at this stage.
> A mage should run from anything that can kill in one turn. So you're
> fighting, then it becomes apparent that a monster with LOS can kill
> you in one turn. The autoresponse is to read a scroll of teleport
> level, regardless. Unless there's booty on the floor and you're
> willing to start a new character anyway, then you might risk it for
> fun.
I mention basilisks specifically because it is almost impossible for a
mage to be safe when he meets them. Before stat-gain, a mage is
unlikely to have poison resistance or enough hit points to survive a
double breath, and possibly not even a single breath.
> >Chapter 35: The very fastest monsters are actually +30 speed, not +20,
> >but the shimmering vortex is the only mobile monster which is +30 other
> >than powerful uniques; +22 speed is usually good enough to be safe from
> >double attacks.
>
> I never worry about speed differences. With mages and distance attacks, all
> you have to worry about is twice in a row distance attacks, and the game seems
> to weight the decision of moving closer to the character so that this rarely
> happens.
But the difference can matter, and I lost one mage in the same way that
the Arch-Mage nearly died. He hasted himself to fight a basilisk
without poison resistance, and the basilisk breathed poison twice in a
row.
> >Chapter 37: An unresisted nether breath from a dracolich does 550
> >damage. A dracolich is native to level 55.
>
> Nether resist is not overrated. At level 55, there are tons of nether and
> poison breathers, as well as elemental breathers and gravity hounds yada blah.
I agree. However, even with resistance, nether breath can still do 486,
and nether resistance is very hard to find, so I am willing to go on
without it as long as I have 18/200 constitution.
> >Chapter 42: Speed up to +26 is linear, but then diminishing returns kick
> >in; quadruple speed is +34 to +36, not +30.
>
> The guideline is +20 speed uberalais, then don't add speed bonuses if you can
> get a needed resist or ability, ie question wearing the boots of Feanor if you
> already have Ringil and a ring of speed or even a speed spell or potion.
+30 with haste is essential against Morgoth, as this is Morgoth's speed.
> >Chapter 46: Intelligence beyond 18/220 does not reduce spell failure
> >rates any further.
>
> In some versions there's always a 5% fail rate for half-caste spellcasters. 0%
> fail rate occurs at around 18/150 iirc, and increases temporarily when you are
> stunned or possibly when you are wearing gloves or are carrying too much
> weight. Priests wielding an edged weapon incur a spell fail rate penalty.
Only mages and priests can get 0% failure with 18/200 intelligence or
wisdom. However, every point reduces the failure rate by 3%, up to
18/220; a level 50 mage needs 18/210 to get 0% failure with chaos
strike, and even at 18/220 has 14% failure with mana storm.
> >Chapter 49: Bolt multipliers apply to all bonuses, and bolts of acid
> >fired from a heavy crossbow of the Haradrim do x15 damage. Thus seeker
> >bolts (average base 12) with +15 to damage and a crossbow which is +23
> >to damage do an average damage of 50x15=750, and fourteen of these will
> >kill Sauron.
> Seeker bolts? Sauron's AC is massive, so tough to hit with a missile
> weapon, especially from a mage, but it's a nice idea using the LOS
> quirk. How about manastorm? 300 damage, 35 castings kill Sauron, as
> opposed to maybe 42 shots with the crossbow of Haradrim even if you
> hit 1/3 of the time. I seem also to remember that manastorm does
> double damage against evil, so that's 17 or 18 castings, hitting each
> time you cast manastorm. Sauron regenerates hp quickly, remember.
Only Orb of Draining does double damage to evil; manastorm does normal
damage to everything. The damage is 400, not 300, but this has to be
adjusted for the failure rate (14% minimum).
With a magical crossbow and bolts, and bonuses from strength, dexterity,
magical items, heroism and berserk strength, you can have a bonus of
about +90 to hit; the heroism and berserk strength alone are +36.
That's enough to hit Sauron or Morgoth about 2/3 of the time.
But the key is that the crossbow of the Haradrim shoots two bolts per
round. The damage is 1500 times the hit rate if you have bolts of acid;
22 bolts, representing 11 rounds of combat, would be likely to do the
necessary 14 hits.
Even against Morgoth, bolts of slay evil or holy might are better than
any spell. Again, each bolt does 500, two bolts can be fired per round,
and you can hit 2/3 of the time, so you need 40 hits in about 30 rounds.
If you are wielding Cubragol, you can do more damage with a mana storm
than with a bolt.
> >Chapter 49: Even in preserve mode, artifacts at the location of Sauron's
> >magical staircase will be permanently lost.
>
> Kill Sauron in an empty room, then the staircase will be generated on an empty
> square. Iirc, the staircase only destroys stuff if the stuff can't be
> displaced to another drop square.
I rechecked this in the source. Items are destroyed by the staircase,
but the staircase cannot be placed on top of an artifact; it will find
another location and destroy non-artifacts if necessary. I will correct
chapters 49, 50, and the editor's notes.
David J. Grabiner
Chapter 49 (corrected)
didn't want to be teleported near it if I teleported it away. Sauron's
next spell was a unique summons, which worked as I intended; Ungoliant
appeared, and I teleported her away. I had hit with twelve bolts, and
Sauron was nearly dead, when he teleported me away, in order to let
himself heal.
I found Ungoliant first, in a room with a Great Ice Wyrm. Since I was
immune to frost, I deliberately woke the Great Ice Wyrm, hoping that it
would help. I was happy to watch it breathe on my area when Ungoliant
surrounded me with spiders, blocking the path of my bolts of fire; a
breath of frost killed most of the spiders, although it didn't harm
Ungoliant, who was too far away. I had nearly killed Ungoliant when she
breathed poison from twenty feet away. I didn't notice the breath at
all; she must have been nearly dead. However, when the Great Ice Wyrm
breathed again, Ungoliant survived; she was powerful enough that only I
could get rid of her for good. I did get rid of her, choosing a fire
bolt spell for the killing blow, and then dispatched the dragon.
I returned to face Sauron, and as I approached, I noticed that he had
crossed my glyphs of warding; this wasn't surprising, given his power as
a sorceror. This time, I didn't want him to summon anything, so I dug a
zigzag corridor to block all summons, and lured him in. I fired my last
three acidic bolts, hitting twice but not killing Sauron because he had
healed. He then touched my staff of probing, draining it and gaining
some health for himself. I continued the battle with Ringil; I had to
use a potion of healing after another mana storm, but Sauron didn't last
much longer.
Sauron dropped a lot of items, including an amulet that I didn't
recognize, which was probably a powerful magical amulet. However,
before I could pick up that amulet, the floor under Sauron shook,
creating a staircase down to Morgoth's domain, and the amulet and
several other items fell into the abyss. Was Sauron's destruction
powerful enough to destroy an artifact such as the Necklace of the
Dwarves, or was it just the warriors' amulet, having found amulets of
the magi, devotion, and trickery?
I didn't want to go down the stairs, as I needed different items for the
battle with Morgoth, so I went back home to restock.
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