[Crawl] ["b2"] b2 the DECj -- From Weakness to Power, the Weakness of Power
Erik Piper
The early levels were very corridor-ish, which is great for a pure
conjurer. The Temple came late this game (D:7) and the Lair came early
(D:8). A kobold room on D:7 has put me in a very good piety situation
quickly, though it sure didn't help with food -- taking out so many
kobolds costs a lot of food, and without poison resistance, it doesn't
net you any. I've already met my first unseen horror -- fortunately near
a corridor, but it did cost me my only potion of speed. I've been
wearing various cursed stuff for most of the game; nobody but a conjurer
can survive that quite so well. :-) The Orcish Mines haven't arrived
yet. I have no enhancers and no new books, but I've got decent potion,
scroll, and wand collections, and OK jewellery. I've just moved into my
new home.
b2 is another fire/earth conjurer. Several avoidable and unavoidable
deaths preceeded this particular b2.
A strength of only 5 has made my campaign to keep the dungeon a cleaner
place a rather food-intensive one. :-)
Since the Lair arrived so shallow this game, I've decided to stick to
the main dungeon for a little while longer -- it'll still be the path of
least danger for a while.
D:8
---
The Mines entrance. No shops sighted yet, so no real guaranteed benefit
except the tremendous benefit to Vehumet piety that the Mines tend to
produce.
ccc's ghost. My stealth hides me from it, and I'm hungry for piety, so I
skip it for now so I can run into it while already praying (and
hopefully neither close enough for it to wail on me nor distant enough
to be out of BoMagma range). After taking down yet another centaur with
stone arrow (their clumsiness makes it a safe bet), I do exactly that.
Finally get a scroll of blinking to replace the one I use-ID'd.
D:9
---
Orcish wizard. Here again I take advantage of my stealth to back up
before praying -- it's not so much that the extra turn would kill me
(though it might) as that that's one more turn for him to fry my stuff.
For the same reason I go whole hog and hit him with a bolt of magma.
x - a smoking staff
Use which ability? (? or * to list)
Okay, then.
x - a smoking staff (weapon)
Cast which spell ([?*] list)?
You feel a surge of power!
Which direction ([*+-] to target)?
Cast which spell ([?*] list)?
You are wielding a staff of conjuration.
You feel a surge of power!
Which direction ([*+-] to target)?
Errr...
Cool. :-)
Adjust (i)tems, (s)pells, or (a)bilities?
x - a staff of conjuration (weapon)
Adjust to which letter?
a - a staff of conjuration (weapon)
x - a +0 elven dagger
Adjust (i)tems, (s)pells, or (a)bilities?
x - a +0 elven dagger
Adjust to which letter?
b - a +0 elven dagger
x - a wand of random effects
Thanks to Easy Butcher, I don't *have* to have my butcher knife on b,
but it does make it easier to avoid throwing it away while vacuuming the
dungeon if it's always at the top of my weapons list.
The book of Minor Magic
Spells Type Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration 1
b - Summon Small Mammals Summoning 1
c - Throw Flame Conjuration/Fire 2
d - Blink Translocation 2
e - Slow Enchantment 3
f - Mephitic Cloud Conjuration/Poison/Air 3
g - Conjure Flame Conjuration/Fire 3
Since not everyone is as allergic to summoning as me, I'll use a little
summoning this game for a change, though due to my lack of experience,
I'm hardly an expert on the best and worst tacks to take. In any case,
summons are certainly useful as walking shields. Blink is a must-have,
and Mephitic Cloud is pretty nice on open levels (though I may regret it
later on if I can't find Selective Amnesia easily, due to the larger and
larger percentage of poison-resistant monsters I'll meet as I proceed).
Staff of Earth.
1 staircase missing for Up and Down.
D:9 continued
-------------
Wyvern -- 2 magma bolts do the trick.
Erolcha (while encumbered :-/). Ditto.
All the armour I can't curse-ID due to waiting for a cursed weapon is
bogging me down, so I make a stash run. On the way back, I hit an orcish
wizard with a robe of fire resistance. Nice! The rest of D:9 itself is
uneventful. I'm starting to feel ready for the Lair, and it's certainly
full enough of goodies and piety, so let's go!
Lair:1
------
Small chamber; only 1 up stairs and 2 down stairs. More down stairs than
up on the first level of the branch means that part of it may be
inaccessible except by digging/teleportation.
Lair:2
------
A "main-dungeon-like" level, which is always nice -- plenty of corridors
to block off, etc.
My first plants and fungi. I'm still raising Spellcasting for the
moment, and after that it'll be other, so-far neglected spell skills,
but sooner or later, I'll want to come back and whomp on these to raise
my Fighting skill. There *have* been winning conjurers with no Fighting
skill, but it surely does help to have that extra couple of HP.
The book of Air
Spells Type Level
a - Shock Conjuration/Air 1
b - Swiftness Enchantment/Air 2
c - Repel Missiles Enchantment/Air 2
d - Levitation Enchantment/Air 2
e - Mephitic Cloud Conjuration/Poison/Air 3
f - Static Discharge Conjuration/Air 4
Shock is cute, but it doesn't do much that Magic Dart doesn't do
already. Swiftness can be a lifesaver, especially when combined with
Levitation, but I'm willing to get by on just potions of levitation for
the moment rather than learning the spell. Repel Missiles also saves a
lot of grief. Static Discharge demands that you get up close to the
enemy, which is exactly what I don't want to be doing.
B - a pitted leather armour
May well cost me a Remove Curse, but I'd certainly like to know what
this one is worth ASAP, so I schlep to a quiet place to check it. (I'd
schlep upstairs for greater safety, but I can't remember offhand which
stairs I took on the way down, and I'm in the mood to check armour, not
head into battle.)
It's just a +3 leather armour, so I switch back to the robe of fire
resistance. If I had cold resistance instead of fire resistance, I'd
take it, though (not many cold attacks in the Lair system -- just the
occasional unique).
A komodo dragon ambushes me. Well, the nice thing about having a ring of
wizardry, an INT of 27, and a Spellcasting skill of 14 is that you can
do things like cast Blink with a success rate of Great without even
having any Translocations skill. ;-)
1 down staircase missing.
Lair:1 continued
-------------
A mess of rats and a spiny frog. I can withstand some melee contact with
the rats, but the spiny frog has gotta go. It flees and leaves BoM
range, so I blow a wand-of-cold charge for good measure -- even wounded
it could still be a threat.
Lots of dissection ambushes after the fight -- it's important to always
check your inventory in such cases, just in case you end up accidentally
carrying a corpse.
"You can now tap ambient magical fields."
SUCH an important line to cross. In other words, w00t!
At the end of the exploration, we're still 1 up staircase short. Hard to
say if this is worth blowing the next scroll of magic mapping I find.
Depends on how soon I find Detect Traps, Detect Creatures, or Projected
Noise -- all 3 of these can indirectly reveal undiscovered areas. I
don't yet have any sources for digging or plentiful teleportation anyway.
Lair:3
------
Pray and descend... what's to come?
A big open level with adjacent "edge" staircases, probably full of
lakes, that's what. This will be a dangerous one. But at least it'll be
easy to check out that missing bit of Lair:2. :-)
Lair:2 continued
----------------
Level 11. I celebrate by finally turning on skills other than Spellcasting.
The book of Wizardry
Spells Type Level
a - Detect Creatures Divination 2
b - Summon Elemental Summoning 4
c - Magic Mapping Divination/Earth 4
d - Teleport Self Translocation 5
e - Fireball Conjuration/Fire 6
f - Identify Divination 6
g - Haste Enchantment 6
Ignoring the fact that some of these are out of my league for now:
Detect Creatures is a no-brainer; information is power. Summon Elemental
could dig me to the last bit of Lair:1, but most of the earth elementals
I would summon would be hostile for now. Magic Mapping is 4 levels for
something that I won't be using much. Teleport Self is pretty nice, but
there are lots of teleport scrolls out there in the world and I have a
wand of teleport to use if those ever run out, so I'll pass. Identify is
too many slots for a spell I won't be using much. Haste is very, very
nice... looks like I've just found my priority for what to start
training next.
Heh. Turns out the only thing that originally blocked full exploration
of the level was a plant in a corridor. Sneaky, those.
One quick stash run later...
Lair:3 continued
----------------
AoConservation. I've gained some respect for these lately, and I won't
be getting mutated much yet (and have already found !oM), so I swap it in.
Unlike my usual "pray on demand only" tack, I'm repraying immediately
every time my prayers run out on this level -- serious dangers can pop
up at any moment here, and I don't want to be forced to choose between
piety and survival.
The book of Hinderance
Spells Type Level
a - Confusing Touch Enchantment 1
b - Slow Enchantment 3
c - Confuse Enchantment 3
d - Paralyze Enchantment 4
I take none of these. Resistable spells just aren't worth the slots
unless you have Selective Amnesia IMO.
=oSeeInvis.
Lair:4
------
This is probably the last level I'll want to do for now -- not so much
for the danger level as for the fact that more and more stuff will have
poisonous corpses, so it'll start being difficult to live off the land
until I get poison resistance. I hear the Orcish Mines are hiring...
=oTeleportation. OK, if worse comes to worst I can just bounce my way
to the missing part of Lair:1.
Cy's Assorted Antiques
a - a jeweled brass wand 94 gold
b - an animal skin 8 gold
c - a pitted cloak 162 gold
d - a crystal ball 1215 gold
e - a scroll of identify 54 gold
f - a small ebony casket 1080 gold
g - a scroll of identify 54 gold
h - a leatherbound book 405 gold
i - a runed splint mail 307 gold
Not much attraction in a random wand. I'll be taking the cloak for sure,
and at 8 gold, there's no reason not to check out the animal skin. The
crystal ball variants range from marginally useful (seeing) to deadly
(fixation), and I'll run into them in the wild before having 1215 gold
to throw around blindly anyway. I'm not short on ID, really, and with
low Evocations, I won't get much use out of a Box of Beasts (small ebony
casket). The book is worth a look. The runed splint mail... well duh. :-)
The book of Conjurations
Spells Type Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration 1
b - Throw Frost Conjuration/Ice 2
c - Mephitic Cloud Conjuration/Poison/Air 3
d - Static Discharge Conjuration/Air 4
e - Bolt of Cold Conjuration/Ice 5
f - Freezing Cloud Conjuration/Ice/Air 7
Select a spell to memorise (8 levels available).
Throw Frost is tempting, but Stone Arrow will serve me just as well. My
reasons for skipping SD I've already covered. Bolt of Cold may well be
castable with the \oConjuration, and it beats BoMagma for range, but
I've only got 8 spell levels left, I'm pretty hungry to learn Haste, and
I may well find a ring of fire soon. Freezing Cloud is also attractive,
but I'm rejecting it too, for the same reasons.
I finish the level and learn Haste. It's at Poor. OK, some work to do
heah...
Orc:1
-----
The initial welcoming committee is a bit of a joke this time. As is the
whole visible portion of the level (which is also small).
Lair:4
------
n - the +3 cloak of Ebuxxtp (worn)
A cloth cloak.
Armour rating: 1
Evasion modifier: +0
It affects your intelligence (-2).
It affects your dexterity (-2).
It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+3).
It weighs around 2.0 aum.
Err.... well, good for the Slime Pits, I suppose.
Orc:2
-----
See Orc:1. And I've now reached the end of the "normally" accessible
part of the mines.
Unlike the situation in Lair:1, where the unreachable area is probably
only a small percentage of the level's total non-wall squares, these
mostly-inaccessible Mines levels will be quickly "solvable" using my
ring of teleportation. Just hafta remember to immediately take it off
once I've used it... ;-)
Even though Orc:2's explored area is smaller (and thus less tedious to
leave) than Orc:1's, I decide to tackle the problem from the Orc:1 end,
since that lessens the chance of landing next to an Orc Knight or whatever.
Orc:1 continued
---------------
I land in an alcove, which is nice from the standpoint of not being seen
too much, although it's hard not to draw attention when you're flinging
fire around, in my anecdotal experience...
I kill some stuff. The visit nets one more up staircase, and one more
down. (An "elevator," to be precise: >< .)
Orc:2 continued
---------------
Nothing much here, and no more stairs but the elevator.
Just in case, I pray just before descending even though I still have the
tail end of a prayer going -- if there's tough stuff down there, I don't
want the prayer to run out just a few turns in.
Orc:3
-----
Big open chamber, and an orc high priest and orc sorceror are in the
distance, plus a variety of orc warriors and minor riffraff. If I leave
now, I won't be able to safely return by these stairs, since the orcs
will gravitate to the stairs on my return. Fortunately, it's the
elevator (there's only one per level when they exist at all), so it
won't be hard to remember which stairs to avoid. But I'd like to at
least give the priest/sorceror a shot.
..
.#..##
..#...# ##
......##.##
.........#
#...$....#
.g.....#
#.#.....##
.......>@...p....
............ws..#
.................
......o......#o
.#.ow....#..# #
......o.#...
...o.o## ..
..$.##
##
They're the spots marked "p" and "s" above. The "w"s are orc warriors.
Let's see...
m - a wand of cold
v - a wand of draining (7)
x - a wand of random effects (12)
E - a wand of flame
c - a scroll of detect curse
d - a scroll of blinking
f - 2 scrolls of identify
s - 2 scrolls of teleportation
H - 2 scrolls of fear
g - a potion of levitation
t - a potion of invisibility
z - a potion of berserk rage
A - 2 potions of heal wounds
L - 3 potions of healing
The priest is safely within BoM range, the sorceror isn't lined up to be
hit at the same time as the priest, and the sorceror is fire resistant
if I recall correctly. So BoM is in, and the wands and Fireball are out.
Oh wait a second...
Your Spells Type Success
Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration Perfect
1
b - Throw Flame Conjuration/Fire Perfect
2
c - Conjure Flame Conjuration/Fire Perfect
3
d - Stone Arrow Conjuration/Earth Perfect
3
e - Bolt of Magma Conjuration/Fire/Earth
Excellent 5
f - Fireball Conjuration/Fire
Excellent 6
g - Repel Missiles Enchantment/Air Great
2
h - Blink Translocation Great
2
i - Mephitic Cloud Conjuration/Poison/Air
Excellent 3
j - Swiftness Enchantment/Air Great
2
k - Summon Small Mammals Summoning
Excellent 1
l - Haste Enchantment Poor
6
...Mephitic Cloud will probably be worth a turn, especially since that
"o" next to them is a warrior. And indeed, it does help in delaying the
dangerous threesome.
Oh, crap, the priest is fire resistant too. But draining resistant he
ain't. (The wand of cold could end up firing a blank, so I'll avoid it.)
..
.#..##
..#...# ##
......##.##
.........#
#...$....#
.......#
#.#.g...##
.......>@...)h...
........o...ps..#
......ow....#o...
.......o.....#.
.#....oo.#..# #
........#...
......## ..
..$.##
##
The extra "#" is from the mephitic cloud.
I have one more turn until the warrior comes adjacent to me, then I'll
have to bug out. Or I could hit it with mephitic cloud, but that's an
unsure bet.
I bug out. A blink and a few magma bolts take out the warrior and his
friends easily.
Finish the job? Well, thanks to the "suction" effect when I return,
it'll be risky, but the toughest enemies will probably still be damaged
when I return, which is a plus.
I cast Swiftness and Repel Missiles and pray, then return.
Maybe that was dumb... I've got an orc warrior, 4 orcs, and a warg right
on top of me. Any sort of blink will take me from the safety of the
stairs (critical if the sorceror gets happy with the type-1 demons), but
reascending runs a risk of a 1-turn death if the adjacent orcs get lucky
blows and the orc priest smites. I scroll-blink.
#
##.
..$
##..
...#...#
........##
.o......@#
..$...#..##
... ..#...# ##
......##.##
.........#
#...$....#
#...w.o...#
#.#.h...##
.......oos..%....
The aim with this blink was to cut the LOS of the Orc Priest as long as
I could while still maximizing distance from the melee orcs.
The sorceror is back down to Lightly Wounded. Better than nothing. I
decide to drain the sorceror rather than fling a fireball -- there are
few things more dangerous for a level-11 conjurer than a demon-happy orc
sorceror. He goes down in two drainings and I get an orc for free on top
of that. I follow up with a fireball to get the w and the h (they're
side by side) -- it's a bit inefficient, but they're a bit deadly.
Crawling without a scroll of blinking is like sex without a condom, so I
delay my reascent only long enough to take out the high priest. It
catches me low on MP and gets demon-happy, but they're all 3s and lower
(one's a smiter -- a smoke demon -- though), so I manage to get him with
the wand of cold, at the cost of a couple of !oHW. :-( And some missed
dedications to Vehumet. ;-)
One stash trip later...
Orc:1 continued
---------------
The =oTeleportation lands me in a new part of the level this time.
Nothing interesting here, though, except a new staircase, which is a
tons safer way to reach the "new" part of Orc:2 than taking the teleport
express. (In fact, if I were more conservative, I would never be taking
the teleport express at all -- I'd be waiting for digging instead.)
All staircases accounted for except a single up staircase.
Orc:2
-----
A nice little romp, and one that leaves all 6 staircases accounted for
(unless some of what I see are brown ones I forgot about -- those kind
are in addition to the 6 white staircases).
Orc:3
-----
Various cleaning up and hoovering up, when suddenly:
You offer a prayer to Vehumet.
Vehumet is exalted by your worship.
Vehumet has granted you a gift!
The book of Power
Spells Type Level
a - Animate Dead Necromancy 4
b - Teleport Other Translocation 4
c - Venom Bolt Conjuration/Poison 5
d - Bolt of Iron Conjuration/Earth 6
e - Invisibility Enchantment 6
f - Mass Confusion Enchantment 6
g - Poisonous Cloud Conjuration/Poison/Air 6
Select a spell to memorise (2 levels available).
Just because I've made some concessions to summoning this game doesn't
mean I wanna go around animating corpses. Teleport Other is a resistable
spell, and I dislike those. Venom Bolt is poison magic, extremely
effective, but soon to go somewhat out of style. Bolt of Iron is a
serious contender, but Crystal Spear is only 2 levels higher and is
vastly more effective. Invisibility is nice, but I'm not sure if it's 6
levels worth of nice. Mass confusion is resistable, and poisonous cloud
is, well, poison. So even once I get some more spell levels, I'm
unlikely to be making much use of this book.
Lair:4
------
That antique book was...
...another Book of Power. :-)
Erik
---
Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.
[snipped]
.......#..#..>.....###....##
#.###.####....#....##...#.##
### ##.##...........#......#
#..............###.##.##
##.#....#.....## ######
##...........#
##.......#..##
#.....^..#...#
##.##.#.###@###
#######......##
#........#
##......##
####.###
###
b2 the Thaumaturge (Deep Elf)
(Level 11 Conjurer)
Play time: 05:34:01 Number of turns: 27173
Experience : 11/20893
Strength 6 Dexterity 12 Intelligence 26/27
Hit Points : 48 Magic Points : 33
AC : 11 Evasion : 12 Shield : 0
GP : 330
You are in the Lair.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.
Inventory:
Hand weapons
b - a +0 elven dagger
n - an orcish dagger
q - an orcish dagger
u - an orcish dagger
D - an orcish dagger
G - an orcish dagger
P - an orcish dagger
S - an orcish dagger
Armour
e - a robe
i - a +2 helmet (worn)
j - a +2 pair of boots (worn)
k - a +1 cloak (worn)
l - a +2 robe of fire resistance (worn)
r - a robe
w - an orcish leather armour
A - an orcish leather armour
C - a robe
F - an orcish leather armour
I - an orcish leather armour
K - an orcish leather armour
N - a robe
O - a robe
Q - an orcish leather armour
R - a robe
Magical devices
m - a wand of lightning
v - a wand of draining (4)
x - a wand of random effects (12)
E - a wand of flame
Comestibles
h - 7 grapes
J - 2 meat rations
V - 4 chunks of orc flesh
Scrolls
c - a scroll of blinking
f - 2 scrolls of identify
s - 2 scrolls of teleportation
H - 2 scrolls of fear
Jewellery
o - a ring of wizardry (right hand)
p - an amulet of conservation (around neck)
y - a ring of see invisible (left hand)
B - an uncursed bronze ring
M - an amulet of resist mutation
Potions
d - a potion of heal wounds
g - a potion of levitation
t - a potion of invisibility
z - a potion of berserk rage
L - 3 potions of healing
Books
T - a book of Power
U - a book of Power
Magical staves
a - a staff of conjuration (weapon)
You have 2 experience left.
Skills:
- Level 1 Short Blades
- Level 1 Staves
+ Level 4 Dodging
+ Level 4 Stealth
+ Level 14 Spellcasting
+ Level 14 Conjurations
+ Level 4 Enchantments
+ Level 7 Fire Magic
- Level 1 Air Magic
+ Level 3 Earth Magic
You have 2 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Magic Dart Conjuration Perfect 1
b - Throw Flame Fire/Conjuration Perfect 2
c - Conjure Flame Fire/Conjuration Perfect 3
d - Stone Arrow Earth/Conjuration Perfect 3
e - Bolt of Magma Fire/Earth/Conjuration Excellent 5
f - Fireball Fire/Conjuration Excellent 6
g - Repel Missiles Air/Enchantment Great 2
h - Blink Translocation Great 2
i - Mephitic Cloud Poison/Air/Conjuration Excellent 3
j - Swiftness Air/Enchantment Great 2
k - Summon Small Mammals Summoning Great 1
l - Haste Enchantment Fair 6
Mutations & Other Weirdness
Your muscles are strong (Str +1).
Vanquished Creatures
[a bunch]