DitL Logs of a Minimalist Buffer

[Frumple]

Also known as the most unimaginative title I could manage, but I'm a
little sleepy right now, so whatever. Heh. Anyway, first post is
pregame and initial generation up to the first death on dlvl 2. More
tomorrow or after a nap, whichever shows up first, heh.

Pregame and character gen, take I

So, this is a character with a mission: Get a mage to victory in a
standard (OoD active, yo') non-challenge game using as few buffs as
possible. Specifically, I plan on using two: /Floating Disc/ and /
Detect Monsters/, though maybe /Death Ward/ if I can find someone to
barter it from, but I shouldn't need it. During the process, I'll
stream-of-conciousness style thoughts and reasons behind various
decisions I make, yeah, though probably not with too terribly much
attention to literary niceities outside of fairly basic grammar. Eh.
On with it, yo'.

For stats, I'm looking for three things specifically -- a minimum 16
in intelligence and wisdom, and a >10 constitution score. The way I
run it nowadays is to take the 4d6 + Perks, reroll sans-perks five
times if that doesn't have anything I want, and then abort to
pointbuy. First stat set has nothing useful, but the first reroll
gives me more or less just what I'm looking for: 12 12 11 18 17 11 15,
in order. A fairly solid caster set, though a higher con woulda' been
nice -- ideally, casters want the constitution of a dwarven whore,
equal or surpassing their mental stats, but they can definately get by
with less.
I pick human as my race -- they're right down the middle, more or
less, in terms of straight up power, so they're not a particular
advantage nor disadvantage to show the viability of the build. For
skills, I grab lockpicking and healing, one for loot and the other
just in case.
Alignment wise I just go with neutral, though I don't plan on paying
(any) attention to it, so it'll likely end up neutral evil before the
game's over.
School choice is iffy -- I want to go with weavecrafting for the
directed teleportation, but go with Arcana instead. As with humans,
it's more or less middle of the road -- though an interesting thing to
note is that if you tally up the school percentage modifiers, Arcana
comes out 20 points ahead of the next highest, at a net 55% total
bonus. In counterpoint, the school with the lowest conglomerate
modifier is Evocation at a surprising -30%, a full 40 points less than
the next lowest.
Feat choice is a bit tougher than normal -- with most casters,
especially humans, I go straight for the guildmage->mystic preparation
and then whatever, but that won't be too terribly useful for this
fellow. I grab combat casting, spell penetration, and light sleeper --
CC's always useful, the SP eventually will be, and the LS is a 'why
not'; I'll have plenty of feats, and it saves a spell slot.
Skill choice is a point in searching, spot, and use magic, two in
healing, lockpicking, and concentration. As I'm not doing the buff
route, Knowledge (Magic) gets ignored, though I'll probably grab
educated and a smattering of knowledge skills later on, to beef up my
summons.
Spells are /wizard lock/, though I hope to not need it much, /burning
hands/, so I won't have to whack on things, MSI, for disposable
meatshields/weapons/scouts, /floating disc/, as mentioned, and, uh... /
mending/, I guess. It's cheaper for arcanists, anyway. I'll probably
buy the Ars Mortis book ASAP for /minor drain/, heh.
And thusly Samisa Faravis, the Introspective Visionary, is arrived. As
per the bug, she's also got fire +10, the landed noble feat, and a +2
cloak of resistance. I dump the cloak, just to be fair(ish), heh.

Dungeon level 1, take I

My first step is to check and organize my inventory -- the buff
scrolls, daggers, and the cloak gets dropped, and my equipment gets
arranged as per my preferance. Gold in the t slot untill it gets
heavy, mana potions stored, channeling stone just below the gold, and
the healing and dimdoor pots will go in the w and y slots,
respectively. The easy way to remember which one is whch is that,
barring something wandering in and looting, there's always 5 healing
potions and 3 dimdoor ones in the starting room. The see invisibility
potion (the only solo one in the room) will be stored and marked as my
primary ammo with the shift+a command, a neat trick to avoid having to
ID it and still not lose track of which potion it is -- I think the
lowest I've gotten without something happening to ID those is the 9th
dlvl, heh. Oh, and I hop up into the store and buy a suit of leather
armor -- most mages start with enough gold to buy one and it gives
vital coverage, which helps block stat draining and a myriad of other
effects. Plus it doesn't have any penalties, so there's no casting
troubles involved.
Floating disc gets set to autobuff, then the rest of the spells
hotkeyed as per preferance -- I could share the exact numbers, but
it's really a matter of personal comfort, so that's only on request,
heh. The only thing to note is that it's probably in one's interest to
try and keep common spells hotkeyed to the same thing no matter the
character -- for example, I always set /phase door/ to 5 and my
primary summoning spell to 2, stuff like that.

And I'm off. The first monster I run in to is, unsurprisingly, a
bonebat -- had it rolled 4 higher and I wasn't wearing that armor, I'd
be down a few points of wisdom.
... well, there's three routes out of the main room -- two end in
doors I fail to unlock, and the third goes through an ice matrix which
ends at a door I finally manage to get through. That route leads
through an armory -- important thing to note about those is that
there's usually something lurking around in it, often a bandit group
at these levels. In this case, there's no one there, but there _is_
two chests and a fountain. My, that's a nice way to start the game.
Unfortunately, they only net three ID scrolls and a junkload of un-
id'd items. Fortunately, they also get me enough platinum to go grab
that Ars Mortis book, which I hop back and do. Minor drain'll cut back
on healing potions, and it's a decentish offensive spell to boot --
better damage output than M.Missile for a few levels, at least.
Oof, anyway, the loot was good, what I managed to ID. Bracers of
might, boots of striding, a ring of mind shielding, and one of those
anti-poison amulets, all +2. Also a wand of terror, but I'll dump that
in the nearest water tile. I've no use for it, yeah.
While I'm at the store, I also grab the Place and Time book -- it's
got Call Companions and Slow in it, along with a few other useful
spells. Oddly enough, it lists as having /rope trick/ twice. Eh.
Not much of note for a few rooms -- I kill an eagle, which appeared to
be what got the inhabitants of that armory, but that's about it.
Things spice up a bit after that -- there's an empty space streamer of
sorts (crumbling crevice?) leading through a good chunk of the level,
and it's got some zombies wandering along it. A few other things roll
up while I'm killing them -- a combination of summoning to keep them
at a distance and M.Missile handles the lot readily, getting me half
way to clvl 2.
Bad news in the form of an obviously escaped warded lab critter. I
don't think I've seen it yet, but those things are never good news. I
leave the room itself and whatever else is in it alone -- they don't
give XP, so they're worthless to anything except maybe an Asherath
worshipper. Eww... turns out there's at least two things loose from
that room, and now that I remember I unlocked the door leading to that
first open one, at least one of them's either incorporeal or has
earthmeld, neither pleasent thoughts. It's going to be karmic
repayment for those chests if I run into a wraith or something on this
level.
Another chest in a misty cavern not far from that lab. Not much
interesting in it (that I can tell yet, at least), but there is some
more cash.
Next room is an elemental chamber with a _lot_ of fog and... another
chest. Huh. It's got some gold and a potion, but that's about it --
except for a place and time book, heh. Eh, money's easy to find, so it
wasn't that much of a loss.

A pair of modrons get me some more XP, and an unlocked door nets me
Clvl 2. Whoo~
Spell choice is /call companions/ and /minor drain/, leaving a slot
open. I wouldn't mind /cause fear/, but the rest'll probably be left
be -- many of my usual 1st level slot eaters are minor buffs, which I
won't be using. Skill choice is the same as the intial one, and will
mimic that untill I get some int trains in or hit level 5, I think,
whichever comes first.

Level's been going pretty smoothly so far -- the next to last room is
a vine region full of dead monkies; note, the reason they're dead is
probably the braciation feat, which doesn't allow for flawless
movement between trees like it vaguely suggests it does... and falling
from elevation _hurts_. Thus the dead climbing things. Anyway, the
last room, an ice cavern, is empty, so that's mostly it for this
level. I run across a gnome paladin on the way to the stairs, who nets
me two ID scrolls and an Ash wand. The ID scrolls manage to stretch
over the two unid'd wands I had and most of the robes as well --
highlights are a scintillating color robe, which gets worn untill I
nab DetMon, and a +1 health vest. The SC robe isn't as helpful as it
could be, since I'm summoning, but at least it doesn't enrage my
allies anymore, heh. Oh, and I run accross a stone jelly somewhere in
there, which probably came from that lab. Relatively pointless, but
things like said stone jelly still leave bolders or rocks or whatever
when they're killed, even if summoned.
Anyway, off to dlvl 2.

Dungeon level 2, take I
First door opens up into an orcish barracks, and I promptly get a half-
dozen whatevers tossed at me. I really don't like that first barrage,
heh, but on the bright side, they tend to hit each other as much/more
than they hit me. A few moments of concetrated summoning spam prunes
down their numbers and I move on; it was a small-style barracks, not
the big ones.
Next room is an Acid Fog Cavern, which usually means acid blobs or
vampiric mists -- in this case, it's the blobs. A few summons take
care of it, naturally; the blobs aren't really all that dangerous to
anyone that doesn't have to beat on them from direct melee. Even reach
weapons can take 'em out pretty easily.
Room after, just to the south of the orc camp, is a ritual chamber --
a proper one at that, with only one circle. Unfortunately, said circle
has a rutterkin in it, and there's something with obscurement running
around in here. A few summons to keep the fiend from calling help, and
I walk into the fog cloud and hope. Turns out it's a halfling druid --
one burning hands casting gets it scared, and I manage to kill it on
the AoO I get as it tries to run. Lucky lucky, yeah. Anyway, the
rutterkin dies to my summons shortly after, and off I go. Well, after
autoresting for mana -- I was down to 75 or so out of 97 effective.
Next room is an orderly flood full of bloodbloaters, which is nice --
I'm almost at level 3, and those bloaters are free game for anyone
with ranged attacks, which I have plenty of. I use minor drain to help
out my summons, and net clvl 3 during the slaughter.

I shrug my shoulders and grab shield proficency as my feat -- when I
find a decent buckler I'll dump my quaterstaff for it and it'd be nice
to have shield expert for the extra coverage.
Spell choice is /levitation/ and /scorcher/. Visage of death was
_really_ tempting, but, yanno', slim buffs. Oh well. Ooh, just noticed
that Ars Mortis, I think, opened up /halt undead/, so I fill that open
1st level slot with that. Useful useful, it is. The no res-water is
going to be harsh, but I'll make it through, I guess. Bets are off if
I run into a bloody wastrilith or whatever, though.

Anyway, next room is an island lake. Its mongrelmen inhabitants die to
summon/M.Missile in short order, and a dozen or so attempts at phase
door gets me into the middle. Best part of the chest is a stack of ID
scrolls, which I promptly eat through. Mm... ID reveals some mostly
useless wands, a pointless robe of blending, and a ring of djinn
prison. I normally don't use those, but hey, why not? I got call
companion to keep it from wandering too far, and they are pretty
powerful whatsits (Oof, CR 8. That's a bit OoD, kehehehe...). That,
and I don't have a better ring to use yet, heh.
Ooh, flooded encampment. Time to test out this Djinn. And my, what a
big stick it counts as, hehehe. It's cutting a nice sized swath
through whatever's in my way. I think I'll keep this baby around for a
while...

...

Well, uh... back to level one. Two-shotted by a s-whatsit (saughuin? I
dunno. Blood-something or other, or based off the word.) chieftan.
Shoulda' phase door'd rather than tried to back off. Oh well.

Well, tomorrow, at least. Or at least after a read'n'nap. Kinda'
sleepy, heh.

[Frumple]

Dungeon level 1, take II

Maa, the nap was good. Now then, time to have another go at it.

Inventory management and potion snatching goes as per the first run
start. First room I run into this time is a kobold warren, which I
promptly walk back out of. You can check for traps using 's'earching,
taking note of when you fail as often as when you succeed, but that
doesn't tell you _where_ the traps are, just that they're there. And
then there's the gaggle of kobolds most likely running around in
there, as well, who like to throw bolos and spam tanglefoot bags.
Better to deal with them somewhere else.
The next room I run into is another armory... with another chest in
it. I'm sensing a pattern here... the chest doesn't have anything
useful outside of cash, though. Eh. I hop back upstairs to grab those
books I like, heh. A flooded cavern, fungal forest, and orderly
graveyard follow in short order -- the only things of note are some
acid blobs and a chest, which has of greatest note a Water Authority
book, which has some nice spells in it. Then a hall of knights, which
a sleeping human warrior in it, who nets me a few hundred XP -- I
don't coup him, but summons and M.Missile handles 'im easily. Next
critter is a human bard, probably from the same encounter, a room or
so away. Annoyingly, it's got both shield and protection from evil
running -- I risk it and hit it with burning hands 'till it dies,
putting me over the hill for clvl 2. It was riding a graveborn
warpony, though, so I phase door off before leveling up.

Clvl 2 goes about the same as the first time -- the only difference is
I go ahead and grab /halt undead/ as well.

The bard was kicking down the door to an ancient barracks when I
ganked it, so that's the next room. Good thing to remember for these
encampment style places is to always, when possible at least, send a
summons over a threshold before you go. If something shoots it, keep
summoning untill they run out of ammo -- _then_ go into the room.
Saves on a lot of deaths, that does.
Bleh. About halfway through the encampment, a summoned water gensai
manages to block off the rest of the place with water, so it's off to
the next room. ... which turns out to be more or less the same
encampment, just from the other side. There was a smooth enclosure,
but it was empty. Eh. Mm... a few undead, and then some kind of
caster. A summoned shadow ooze ends up with me dimdooring out, after
it ensares me. Lands me in an elemental chamber
...
Oh. Joy. No, not another death, but I manage to summon a gremlin
killing off a sleeping kobold, who promptly jumps into the nearest
water source. Now I've got a few dozen gremlins running around with
me... which I guess isn't _so_ bad... anyway, I soon manage to get
back to the encampment, where the gremlin horde takes down that caster
quite quickly -- turns out it was a kobold bard. They also strip the
corpse of loot before I can Call them off of it, but whatever; it nets
me Clvl 3, which goes precisely as the first clvl 3 went. Whoo~

The encampment's pretty much done though, short of one small slice at
the bottom being blocked off by a dimension anchor trap that's so
totally not worth trying to go over -- ever since the new e-gen,
chests seem to not generate in encampments anymore, for some reason or
another. Well, excepting crazily high luck characters, but they tend
to get chests _everywhere_, heh.

... yeah. I'm reminded _why_ I don't like the gremlin hordes, now.
Next corridor out from the encampment, I'm down to half health (which
is like 10 hp, as I've only got 20 or so) due to idiot gremlins
throwing bolos 'past' (read, into the back of) my head. A really nice
option would be to squlech ranged combat for allies -- preferably
straight through the options menu, yeah. Anyway, that leads to a
comedy of error-style period of me alternating between scorcher and
M.Missile to get rid of the damn gremlins, which puts me near death
more than once. Buggery hell. At least I get the ID scroll they looted
from the bard back...

Anyway, next encounter is another bard, an elf this time, who again
almost kills me. Beyond having shield and ProtEvil running, my major
other offensive spell, scorcher, isn't particularly useful against
elves. I end up (barely) distracting it with summons while I minor
drain it to death -- in the process, the bugger manages to summon an
accursed cow, which drops me some four or so strength points. Healing
manages to bounce it back up by a couple of points, though, so it's
not all bad. The real ringer, however, is when I ID this mithril bark
armor I had switched into, that I got from a kobold chieftan, I think
back in that elemental chamber. Me oh my, it turns out to be a
plusless mithril bark armor of _great invulnerability_ and agility.
Its base cost is 1 gp, which tells me yet again something wonky's
going on with plusless items. But whatever, the blazes if I'm
complaining. This is most definately going to help out, kehehe.

I move on. Next room I wander in to is a proper ritual chamber, with a
mote of vacuum and a myconid, both of whom get promptly M.Missiled. I
also take a rest in the middle of the chamber to get rid of a reduce
trap I got hit with some time back and let me get my strength back up
to normal -- I've got light sleeper and phase door, so I'm not _too_
terribly worried about taking naps whenever I please. I can't be
coup'd and PD'll get me out of melee range of most anything quick
enough to avoid death, after which MS can lock down or slow down
whatever it is long enough for me to kill 'em or run away. Either way,
I'm not particularly concerned. The next room, unfortunately, is a not-
so-proper warded laboratory. It looks, fortunately, like the wards are
smushed together in such a way I'm not going to run into any of them
somewhere _else_, but there's most likely six or seven OoD critters in
that room, motionless or not. I turn around, heh. Turns out I'm more
or less done with Dlvl 1 though, finally. Only thing unexplored is
that warded lab and the kobold warren from earlier, neither of which
are worth checking out. I head on down stairs.

Dungeon level 2, take II

Stairs down land me in an abandoned temple to... Aiswin. There's a
rainbow sprite (which dies to minor drain and some summons) in there,
but if there was a priestly caravan, it's already moved somewhere
else. Next room is a magic academy, full of priests and multitude
cultists -- I manage to kill about five between to the two templates
in the first three rooms of the place, most of them satyrs. Between
the lot, I manage the XP for clvl 4, heh.
For spells, I grab /web/, /acid arrow/, and /apportation/. One for LoS
monkeying, a second for a non-beam offensive choice, and the last to
grab chests out of prisons and crap. I also grab /transposition/, so I
can send summons accross rivers and junk and swap spots with them,
rather than bothering with /levitation/.
Ahh, it's clvl 4 that you start topping off the skill levels, not 5.
Anyway, all the skills I was putting two points into get taken to the
max, as well as searching and spot. The remaining points gets decipher
script maxed out too, which means the knowledge skills will probably
start getting boosts fairly soon.

Eww... mummy rot. That's not cool. I don't like boalisks, at _all_.
Anyway, this may or may not be the beginning of the end, heh. Mm...
though I did just remember that the store likes to carry cure disease
potions, sometimes. Let's go find out! Turns out that yes, they do,
and no, I can't afford it. I can, however, manage their supply of
restore con potions, which'll have to hold me, I guess. Not righteous.
Oh ho ho. A little bit more exploration on dlvl 2 nets me a chest with
enough cash to afford that cure disease pot. Back up I go. Got the
pot, disease is gone, and that bought restore con potion tops my con
back off at 12 -- oh yeah, I had used the level 4 train on con. Forgot
to mention that. Anyway, the mummy rot's gone now. Ha.

Crap. Black orcs. I _hate_ these things. Well, not as much as scryers,
or... well, a lot of other things, but definately more than the rest
of the orcs. A horde of spell-enabled creatures is never pleasant.
After the initial phase door/health potion, I manage to make a come
back with my summon hordes, one of the better ways of dealing with the
buggers -- they don't have too terribly much mana and they don't
exactly conserve it, so summons tend to bleed it off fairly quickly.
After _that_, at least, they're not much more than a regular orc.

Anyway, next room of note is a community office, which is usually
nice. They used to usually have a least one chest, but not so much
anymore. At least the XP tends to be more, heh. Oh ho ho. An aasimar
druid drops a ring of djinn prison -- it's even uncursed! Fun times
are here again! ... except they like to turn invisible, which isn't a
good thing. See, if I can't see them, I can't tell if I'm about to hit
them, and a CR8 creature that's probably right beside me _isn't_
something you want to just randomly P.O. Oh well -- I keep the ring
around, at least. It'd be nice if summoners always knew where their
summons were, regardless of invis or whatever, yanno'? Maa, anyway,
things go on. Off'd a halfing priest whose (magical) buckler turns out
to be a +3 one. The elven small shield I was toting promptly gets
dumped, heh.

Ooh, Rhapsody in Blue. Love that song... anyway, next room of note is
the library. Feels a bit weird finding it on Dlvl 2, heh, as I'm used
to seeing it on 3, but whatever. I find the safest way to deal with
these oft-trapped critters is to go along the outer edge, using blasts
and summons to clean it out, then toss on levitation and bookloot
_then_. It's the path of least trapdoors, keheh. Books of note are
Evelyn's Tactical codex (a lotta' stuff), Ars Bellicus (Shatter), and
Lordship over Air (which doesn't really have anything I particularly
need, but I like to keep the elemental books around.).

Anyway, with that, the level's mostly done -- the last unexplored part
has a chest with a +2 health vest in it (which gets promptly worn) and
a pinch of cash, but that's it. Time to head on down... and I think
I'm thirsty, so a pause for supplies, heh.

[Journeyman]

I am following with interest. The build notes and consideration
were especially interesting.

Just to clarify, however, none of the changes I've talked about
on the design list have been intended to make mages _this_
buff-light, _especially_ at low levels, where in the proposed new
system they'll have _more_ mana. I think of a "low buff" mage
as having 1/3rd mana held, and a "high buff" mage as having
2/3rds held.

Isn't Levitate a buff?

If I had to choose a school for this, I would have chosen
either Evocation (to maximize use of metamagic with all
that free mana) or Thaumaturgy (simply for the benefit of
the d8 HP, since you lack any real defenses). Halfling
might also be a consideration, hoping to find equipment
to cover things normally covered by buffs.

I know Arcana has higher modifiers than everyone else.
They are specifically built to be generalists. It's not so
much that they have higher plusses all around, as that
they have no minuses at all, AFAIR. And that's their
"specialist advantage" -- they don't get anything else.

Apropos of nothing, I've often thought of given Evokers
a better or different advantage -- perhaps rolling damage
twice on blasts and taking the better roll, probably in
addition to their existing fatigue perk. Evoker should not
by necessity equal metamage, and conversely some
metamagic has nothing to do with Evocation, like Still
Spell.

Sahuagin are vicious tribal fish-men with a close affinity
to sharks, who enter a blood frenzy in combat when they
injure their foes. The frenzy has the same effect as a
barbarian's rage.

[Frumple]

On Jun 20, 9:24 am, Journeyman <jmen...@shaw.ca> wrote:
>   Just to clarify, however, none of the changes I've talked about
> on the design list have been intended to make mages _this_
> buff-light, _especially_ at low levels, where in the proposed new
> system they'll have _more_ mana. I think of a "low buff" mage
> as having 1/3rd mana held, and a "high buff" mage as having
> 2/3rds held.

Ah, I know, I know, I'm just doing it to see if I can, heh -- I'd
normally have at least ProtEvil and Shield by this point, with maybe
Visage of Death. I am, however, fairly convinced that one could manage
without buffs at all with the right build, but I don't want to take it
_that_ far, heh. Though 1/3rd mana is still more than I normally use
for buffing mages -- I usually stop before or at two 'stars' of held
mana, which can be anywhere from a tenth to a seventh of my max mana,
I think... mostly because it's usually around there that mana bleed
kicks in. And I still have issues with hitting the mana regen line, go
figure.

>   Isn't Levitate a buff?

It may have been at some point, but right now it's neither persistant
nor using held mana (and please, _please_ don't make it start), so I'm
not counting it as such any more than I do /phase door/, which can be
used in a highly similar, if more erratic, manner... anyway, if
anything it's more a very specifically useful _de_-buff than anything
else. The penalties, especially for casters, are pretty major, yanno'?
I'd be slapping other people with it if the spell could target other
critters.

>   If I had to choose a school for this, I would have chosen
> either Evocation (to maximize use of metamagic with all
> that free mana) or Thaumaturgy (simply for the benefit of
> the d8 HP, since you lack any real defenses).

I'm very not-fond of metamagic -- it's not really a flaw in the
system, I'm just don't like them personally (I'm a mana-miser, heh...)
-- and Evocation has that massive divination penalty (and enchantment
and necromancy, both of which I hope to get some use out of). Thaum
has penalties in two of the schools this'll henge strongly on,
Divination and Evocation, so it's a no-go too... I don't want to
scroll-buff, and a penalty'd /detect monsters/ cost is _massive_.

The three things running in the back of my head for this whole thing
is the Sun Tzu quote, "Know thy enemy and thyself and you need not
fear the result of a thousand battles," (or something like that, in
this case meaning the /detect monsters/ spell for near-perfect
detection capabilites, along with careful summon-scouting.), the old
saying "The best defense is a good offense," (carefully applied
blasting and debuffing), and an amusing quote from somewhere or
another that goes, "The sooner you start thinking of your allies as
giant meaty protective devices instead of real human beings, the
sooner you'll be on your way to thinking like a true wizard." (The
summoning, kehehe.) Between the practical application of the three and
a healthy sense of paranoia, I'm pretty sure I'll make it
(eventually), heh.

>   Apropos of nothing, I've often thought of given Evokers
> a better or different advantage -- perhaps rolling damage
> twice on blasts and taking the better roll, probably in
> addition to their existing fatigue perk. Evoker should not

It'd likely be nice -- evocation's probably my least attempted school,
and really, it's major specialist modifer is one of the least useful
-- most blast spells currently aren't even in the same ballpark, cost-
wise, as the various buffs other school-mods knock costs off of -- and
as mentioned, I'm not fond of metamagic... and if I wanted to use it,
I'd pick dwarf or multi with a few levels of Zurvash or Essiah priest
so that fatigue isn't (as) much of an issue. (Run on sentance for the
win!) The thaum and abj boosts are alright, but I can get by with a
definate minimum of spells from those two -- it's not uncommon for me
to not use thaum buffs, at least, at all.

>   Sahuagin are vicious tribal fish-men with a close affinity
> to sharks, who enter a blood frenzy in combat when they
> injure their foes. The frenzy has the same effect as a
> barbarian's rage.

Yeah, those critters. They're kinda' neat and don't kill me nearly as
often as those other water-based 'h's with the crossbows (locaths? Ah,
no, locathahs. Summoned one on the way to the stairs down, heh...),
kehe.

On with the show!

Dungeon level 3, take I

Mm... fatigue's pretty low (1/5), so I'll probably have to rest
soonish. There's the first sanctuary around here somewhere though,
so... yeah. No worries. Well, the first stairs down puts me in a one-
off spot with no exit, which /phase door/ won't get me out of. Eh.
Next set puts me in the middle of a graveyard -- not disturbed,
fortunately, but I don't need to be summoning in the middle of it,
either. The third puts me somewhere platable, finally. The first room
I run into, just south of that graveyard, has an orcish group if
what's being tossed at my summons is any indication. A nice bonus,
though, is that my first summons is a giant tortise, off of which most
ranged attacks bounce. They bleed off most of their ammo while I
summon up more critters... or would have, if one of said critters
wasn't a water gensai I needed to dismiss. Eh. Next room has a chest
and a tiny fire elemental -- best of the loot is some boots of the
druid (which I leave off for now, I found some evasive footwork ones
in that library up above.) and a cloak of arachnia. There's also a
staff of the goblin queen, but that's not exactly useful to me, yeh.
Oh... and a headband of magical aptitude, which lets me resummon that
Djinn without quite as much worry.

Equipped with my new Big Stick, things proceed smoothly. An
infestation of white worm masses gets /sorcher/'d to death in short
order, netting a nice thousand or so XP, leaving me only 800 from
DetMon. Well, smoothly untill I notice that summoned foxbats and a
'c'at of some sort had managed to knock my fatigue down to -2 -- by
the time it registered, I had already ran up to a pair of skilled...
ixie whatevers (Okay, Ixitxachitls, to be precise. The Xs, heh.) and
been knocked down to half health again. Actually, I'm not clvl 5 yet,
am I? Up to the inn!

Ah, that's better. Back down I go. Mm... somewhere or another along
the way I pick up a pair of spiked bracers, which ID as of defense --
with them, I've now got a DC of 20 and a coverage of 11, not bad for a
fourth level mage. A few undead and an elemental later, and it's time
for DetMon!

For my bonus feat, I grab lore of storms -- I expect to be using
lightning bolt plenty in the future. For my other feat, I grab shield
expert like I had planned -- with it, my coverage value goes up to 16,
which is better than some heavy armor warriors! Nice stuff. Spell
wise, I grab /detect monsters/, of course, and /lightning bolt/ for my
new 3rd level spells. The open first level slot gets left be for now.
Skills keeps what was topped off before maxed and a point in Use Magic
and the planes, nature, and infernal knowledge skills.
With that, /detect monsters/ get set to autobuff and cast, bringing me
to 210/239 mana, and I continue on.

Well, that level gain happened right as I was entering a fiery prison
room. These things are fairly amusing to mages -- between summoning,
blasting, and /phase door/, it's like a turkey shoot where the
turkies' legs have been chopped off with a free prize at the end. It
takes all of one lightning bolt and a single M.Missile to completely
clear out the six or so elementals that were inside, heh. A quick
summon/transposition gets me in the middle (that's safer than looting
outside the flames, so no need for /apportation/, and it tends to be
quicker than PDing untill I land inside) gets me... not much. A wand,
one of the holy artifact swords (which I just toss back in the box
without IDing -- evil alignment makes it easy to notice those), a
viewing lens, and a cursed good fortune ring, of a plus equal to the
uncursed one I've been wearing, heh. Ah... well, the wand turns out to
be an ID wand (though with only 16 charges, bleh) and the lenses are
always useful, so it wasn't exactly a _loss_, by any stretch of the
imagination.
Anyway, the next room is a hedge maze with a few 'j's and not much
else besides a raging underground river cutting through about a third
of it, which is actually a fairly appealing visual effect. Anyway,
I've got to break for laundry and then it'll be time for dlvl 4.
Things are moving along fairly well, thus far.

[Frumple]

Dungeon level 4, take I

Annd, we're back. Dlvl 4's first few rooms are relatively uneventful
-- some ooze mephits (with the ever-annoying stinking cloud), and some
fungi of various sorts, but nothing dangerous... yet. I notice a few
notable things about the Djinn ring now -- one, it's not a persistant
spell and two, it sometimes pops out riding a warhorse, which is kind
of odd. Not that I'm complaining, it makes a long-lasting target for
transposition, heh.
Dwarf group doesn't give much -- looked like a few rogues, but none of
them survived a lightning bolt, tehehe.
Mm... run into a fiery prison with a muddy river passing through it,
through which the contents of said prison apparently escaped. Run
into them a little bit further down the mud streamer and they manage
to actually kill the djinn... not that they survived the lightning
bolt that offs the remainder of 'em. Oh well -- it'll be a while
before I get some more charges in the ring, as I'm set for a bit
before needing to sleep again.
Ha. Hippogriff almost manages to get some shots in on me, but a
summoned gnome slaughters him with a wand of thunderbolts. Oh --
terrain's not been particularly notable, since the mud river -- an
elemental chamber and underking's court, but that's it. It's not
uncommon for the underking's court rooms to have some interesting junk
in it, but not this time around, at least.

... and then a holding trap gets me killed. Paralyzed and a riding
lizard meanders -- slowly, at that -- its way over to me. Two blows
later, I fail the fort save. *mutters* Ah well. Back to the stat-
rolls, I don't think this un'll reincarnate.

Character gen, take II

I'm probably just going to roll up the chara' and take a bit of a
break, heh. I do try to when I get one-shotted by annoyances, just to
make sure I don't actually get annoyed -- plus, it lets the mind (and
the eyes, and the wrists, heh) rest of a little bit, which almost
always helps yeh play. Well, there's two stat sets right off the bat
that'd be useful; one, which has con 14, int 17, and wis 16, has
Tevlar's Transformation as an innate, the other, at 15 18 16, comes
with telepathy +3, a +2 bat cloak, and disease immunity. ... okay,
yeah, the second choice has it, heh. Most choices are the same, except
no /burning hands/ this time -- I take chromatic orb instead, mostly
due to lack of anything more useful. Thus Orchal Oswin, the
Introspective Visionary, is arrived as well. *strech* And a break,
then I'll be back.

[Frumple]

Dungeon level 1, take III

Maa', I'll speed up a bit more now, laying off a little on individual
rooms and such, yeah, at least untill I catch back up to the last
critter's progress.
Level's going passingly -- lost some health (at least once
critically), but haven't keeled over yet. ID moss infestation lurking
around, but can't really do anything about it. Rounded up the cash to
grab an Ars Mortis book, but there was a library already that had one
-- I'll slip by the shop for a Place and Time tome, though, as I
rather want /call companion/.
Nabbed level two off some kobolds, got /halt undead/ and /minor drain/
-- I can kill that moss now. Skill points as they've been the last two
times. Rollin' on... oh I did take some wisdom damage from a Soul
Flaying wand. Those things have freakishly huge AoE.

Found out the store didn't have any books with /call companion/.
Giving that library another looksee. ... it turned out to have that
Ars Mortis book and an utterly useless (to me) Twin Axis Defense
Sutra. And a pair of ID moss. Bah. Slaughtering off the moss
infestation a few rooms away in retribution.

Bah. Level's been pretty sparse. Last bit of anything notable is a
duodrone (skilled, the lot of them) trio + mote of entropy group that
got loose from a 9x9 warded lab room that had a single circle, no
runes, and a halfing priest corpse. At least the body had some potions
and a buckler. Bah. That's it for dlvl 1, anyway.

Dungeon level 2, take III

Second level starts off with a misty cave, a chest, and... a vampiric
mist, who I notice only after it had engulfed me. A phase door, one
summons, and some spell spam later, it's dead and I'm back to looting.
I never get tired of killing those mists with /minor drain/, heh. Some
ID scrolls from the chest lets me learn that buckler was a _+4_
buckler of Aiswin. That seems a bit off for a dlvl 1, luck 11 find,
but I'm not complaining. Ah... unlocking the door out of the room nets
me clvl 3.
This time, I take clear-minded as my feat choice. I didn't really
_need_ shield expert (or proficiency, heh), and this'll help prevent
what happened to the last one occuring. No scorcher this time, but I
do grab levitation and acid arrow, which'll do untill I hunt up a
Place and Time book, or something better.

Oh ho. After some undead -- there's a disturbed graveyard somewhere
around here, but hell, I have halt undead. Barring casters, they can
_bring it_, hohoho -- I find another library. First book I see is
Words of Power -- not much use _now_, but /Power Word: Stop/ will be a
seriously welcome addition to my late game arsenal, if I make it that
far. Anway, two more rooms after that -- a flooded cavern with acid
blobs and an orderly flood holding a nixie, and I'm clvl 4.
I grab /web/, /shatter/ (for clockwork buggers), and /gust of wind/
(for lots of things, not the least of which is actual cloud
dispersal). I really want /scorcher/, but I'll have /lightning bolt/
next level, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.
Skill choice flows down the same path the last time I made it here
did, yeh.

Not much left to the level after that -- I find and finish off the
last of those raging undead, an icewight, check over the rest of the
level, then head on down.

Dungeon level 3, take II

Level starts out with a bit of a frenzy -- in fairly short order a
group of various fire creatures, a migrating herd of mud elementals
(If you've ever seen a half dozen or so moving along, you'll probably
note there's not many better words to describe it), and a mixed race
classed group falls to my spellwork. Then I step into a surreal maze
-- I'm actually really fond of these rooms, as they tend to, well,
generate classed creatures. Classed creatures normally carry nice
loot, yanno'? They're also more likely to generate peaceful, or so it
seems, and to an evil player 'peaceful' usually translates as 'first
strike'. Anyway, things pull me from the house for a few hours, and I
came back tired, so it's nap time. More later, heh.

[Frumple]

Dungeon level 3, take II, continued

Music maestro! Today starts, after copious napping, with the djpretzel/
Vigilant collaberation piece 'Short Skirts', based off the FF7 song
'Tifa's Theme', from the delightful folks of Overclocked Remix. Why
share this? Because I can! Hoho. Hoho.

... or something like that. Anyway, last left off as I walked into a
surreal maze, somewhere on dlvl 3. The contents arree... one minotaur,
a trap, a wand, two traps, and the tail end of a raging underground
river. Pretty empty, though I guess that classed group came from here
too... maybe. A bit later I end up at the actual river, which I manage
to get across with only two PDs -- levitation was, of course, an
option, but there's a warded lab being intersected by that river, and
I don't want to be half crippled if something that got loose just
happens to be able to swim -- or fly.
Next room of note is a floating rock -- personally, I usually love
these things. A few immobile OoD critters that have a good chance of
not being able to fight back if I want to chunk things at them? Win!
Except when they can fly. Or cast. Or have things like brilliant
energy weakening arrows. Fortunately, only one of those happens this
time -- a rast, which aren't that impressive.
... actually, make that a rast and a greater floating eye. Well, I'm
paralyzed again. Joy. _Fortunately_, the rast was already running and
I had a good 5 CR worth of summons surrounding me, so no coup for me.
Yay. The rast gets away, though. Unless it walked off with something,
neat loot was another +2 bat cloak and some headband I can't ID quite
yet.
Trying to get back across that river drops me in what I thought was a
warded lab, but turns out to be a ritual chamber, which are far less
likely to have scrunched up runes letting everything walk off. It has
a ramadeen in it I end up /minor drain/ing for a bit to get some
health back. I probably should have left it alive for later drainings
-- I need to remember to do that to regenerating things that can't get
away, which I'm sure to run into at some point -- but I M.Missile to
death after I'm healthy again.
*mutters vaguely* Wasn't paying attention. Summoned an accursed cow.
Took 4 strength damage in one turn. Healing gets it down to -1 damage,
but tha's stilla' pain.
Fortunately, the next room is the sanctuary. I still have quite a bit
of wisdom damage from the crazy AoE of a soul flaying wand, so I go
ahead and take a nap.
*mutters some more* Which triggers an inbounds 224 error, which
normally doesn't happen except when I go downstairs. Oh well...
Game's back open, make to the sanc, no crash this time. Sleeping and
healing gets strength back to full, but only manages to get two points
of wisdom back, leaving me at 14 of 16. I'll rest again after the
level's cleared out, probably.
Next room out is kinda' icky -- accursed cow, a pair of bone dwellers,
and some other junk. Summons and M.Missile takes 'em out though, and I
manage to not get near anything long enough to count, which is good...
though I wouldn't have gotten grave rot, now that I remember the
disease immunity. Which, like said, is good -- it _would_ have killed
me.
*vile vulgarities* Another accursed cow summon I didn't notice untill
it was too late. _This_ time, I'm down 6 strength. I'm going to be
reeeeaaaallly glad when those things get squelched come 9H. Anyway,
the only thing left in the map is what appears to be some graveyard,
but to get there would require moving down a small sized river
streamer, which would mean going up against a zombie swarm with
massive penalities. No thanks, yo'. I had off to the sanctuary for a
rest, then it's down the stairs.
A second sleeping depleats the sanctuary, but still leaves me down
three strength points after healing. Let's see if my next action gets
me killed, heh...
A third leaves me still alive, but also still down a point of
strength. -1 isn't enough to quibble over, so it's downward ho.

Dungeon level 4, take II

Mm... so the level stars me off in a gardend forest accompanied by a
diseased arena -- it's got mummy rot, having been leered at by a
boalisk. Had used it to destract some earthen critters while I hopped
down the stairs heh. Room's got a chest in it, but I don't manage to
unlock it. I've got a few wands, so I start working through them, to
check for opening ones. The first one is an undead summoning one, via
which I manage to summon a CR 10 critter, which is pretty extreme. It
wouldn't have been a big deal if it _had_ turned out hostile, as it
was only a shadow gaunt, but, yanno'... but et al. No complains,
kehehe. The other two un-ID'd ones I had were a thunderbolts and
surtension wand.
Between the encounter in the forest -- a varied group of animals --
and an orcish group, the next door I unlock nets me clvl 5. Huzzah!
Feats net me lore of storms and educated.
Spell choice was the same as last time -- Detect Monsters (which gets
promptly auto'd and cast) and lightning bolt. I also grab /spirit
net/, though it's a little buggy.
Skill choice is mostly the same, except I put three points into
Knowledge (Magic) instead of spreading them around. Happily, this
opens up *Identify* scrolls for scribing, which, yanno', I promptly
do. I also grab a four-stack of Enchant(Resistance) scrolls, just for
the heck of it. Between the two, though, I half my gold stores, from
4k something down to 2.1k... which isn't exactly a big deal,
considering. Heh. _This_ time, my concentration score is at +15. No
more paracouping! Huzzah!

Anyway, good level. Moving on, heh. I'm still short /call companions/,
but my offensive capabilities just got a pretty hefty boost from LB --
it's doing around 25 or so damage per shot, which is about the same as
an 11th level M.Missile.
Next thing of note is a green hag, though this is a few rooms away,
whose death (Summoned critters on the far side of it, webbed it from
one square in my direction, so as not to annoy the summons, then
spammed M.Missile at it through the webbing) netted me enough scrolls
to warrent a reading of one of those *ID* scrolls, as my pack's slam
full. Best of what I was toting was a girdle of fortification (yay!).
Also had a helm of scroll saving, heh, and some misc. wands and junk,
nothing particularly notable. I stop by a flooded room to dump the
stuff I don't want, getting rid of most of the wands, some buff
scrolls, and a useless potion or two (Fire breath and true strike, in
this case. Build doesn't have much use for 'em.).

Now there's a levitrip down a river, which is never fun. Fortunately,
I remember to summon up a chunk of swimming critters to float along
with me, just in case. Highlights include a fiendish crocodile, some
piranha, and one of those locathah critters, who fortunately fails to
filet me with a fired crossbow bolt. The river happily ends in, or at
least runs through, a flooded encampment. S'where the locafishmen came
from, who I manage to lure close enough to be electrocuted quite
quickly. Ooh... they turn out to actually be a group of warrior
template'd ones, which explains how one managed to survive not one,
but _three_ lightning bolts. My summons, though, take up the slack
handily -- MSI'll summon nixies fairly often, who rather like to spam /
waterspout/ when the opportunity arises.
Ice dagger would make this place much easier... well, ResWater would
too, but that's a no-no. Mm... a neat thought -- maybe let it so you
can touch water when under the effects of /cold touch/, freezing it.
Would give mages a neat, if fairly slow, way of getting over water
tiles.

Well, with the flooded encampent cleared out, that's most of the
level. There's a ettercap left sleeping in a vine region, but it takes
all of three spells (MM, MS, LB) to kill it off. There's also a stairs
down in the same room, which is nice. Onward!

Dungeon level 5, take I

First stairs down lands me in an inescapable one-off, again. I do
learn something neat, though -- seems to you can tell what a room is
even on unknown tiles, simply by using the e'x'amine (I think)
command. S'kinda' useful, if too time consuming a scouting method for
me to bother with. Second set lands me about three squares away from
an enraged graveyard. Did figure out at least one thing that's causing
them to generate like that, though -- the same thing that's causing
casters to apparently cast full buff upon generation, which P.O.s the
tombstones. Makes an odd kinda' sense, I suppose. I _was_ going to pop
back up the stairs and change spots... but then I remembered I had /
halt undead/. Hehehehe... it takes one unknown undead (killed from
around the corner, heh) and two ancient icewights to get me to clvl 6
-- and there's still more in there! Whoo!

Kinda' starting to lose things to choose, featwise. I got with roll
with it, for kicks. Spellwise, I grab /explosive runes/, for a damage
dealer I can use without having to care so much about my summons, /
thunderlance/, for a non-elemental offensive spell, /rope trick/, and /
wall of ice/, for a last-resort escape tactic. Skill choice mostly
follows the last level, except I start spreading out the knowledge
points -- two in planes and infernal, and one in nature. With the *ID*
scrolls creatable, I don't really have too many other reasons to use
scrolls, heh...

Back to clearing out the graveyard. I learn something fairly abusable,
namely that time doesn't seem to pass the same way on levels you're
not on -- which means /halt undead/ doesn't start to wear off if I'm
upstairs regenerating my mana. Nor do things regenerate HP. Kukuku...
*coughs* Not that I don't see _why_ it doesn't. Massive system
resources would be consumed otherwise, I imagine.

Ah well. Graveyard's cleared out, both the undead and the dwarves that
woke 'em up. Next on queue is an encampment-style Ice Matrix. It's got
at least one mixed racial group in one corner, and lots of little
pansy critters -- wolf group, ice slug group, ice toad group, two
icemantle groups by the look of it, and a few little things. This'll
be a cinch, though, heh. Summons away!
Along the way, I finally remember there _is_ a use for /knock/, namely
opening doors from a distance, so I learn it. This'll help stop being
ganked by things piled up on the other side of the door. This room
also confirms you can't stack exploding runes, which makes me vaguely
sad, heh. ... I also get to watch a wolf trip a tyrannosaurus
(celestial one, a cave orc pallie was riding it), which is a rather
odd moment to me, if amusing. Out of curiousity, does anyone know what
the two feats that particular dino has besides Run? It just lists them
as 321 and 340...
*mutters* Cow. _Again_. At least I had a ResStr pot this time, but
it's likely the only one I'll see... bah.
Anyway, after bolting some ice slugs, the camp's done with.

Next room is... another surreal maze. It's got a monk, one of the
various ranged templates (Ranger/archer/rogue-archer, etc), what looks
like a mage, and a druid, at least that I can see. Not a one is
peaceful, either. Joyous. Fortunate placement lets me LB the mage and
druid -- 3 shots take the two out, which was a bloody relief.
Ran into another holding trap. There was even another riding lizard
nearby, heh... didn't die this time, though. Whoo~
Well, the maze is one of those odd ones off that has another streamer
running through it, which blocks off about a quarter of it from me, so
I move on. Next room is a fiery prison, whoo! Free chest and xp! Past
that, a library. Maybe I can _finally_ get call companion! But no, no
CC. I do grab a book with /scorcher/ in it, though (Celestial Lion
Sutra), which means I can open up ice walls if I feel like it. A good
thing, that.
Next is a group of freyr, who end up running from me, amusingly.
Between them, a clockwork warhorse, and the last of that maze (a pair
of multitude cultsits who fall to LB without much difficulty), I
manage to hit clvl 7, huzzah!

Mm... choices, choices -- my spell list is finally getting lengthy.
Well, lengthier. For my 4th level spells, I grab, ah... hm. Let's try /
crushing despair/ and... /solid fog/. Haven't played around with CD
before, but -2 penalty to everything with a mind is pretty decent, I
guess. The fog's just nice, heh, and cheper for Arcanists. I also
grab /choke/, /polymorph self/ (which I hope never to need), and /
dispel magic/ (ditto). Skill choice is mostly the same, except I top
off Use Magic (which had been getting a point a level this whole time,
if I hadn't mentioned it.), and the knowledge skills only get a point
each in the previous three. Onward!

... after I let the cat in and grab something to drink. Thirsty
thirsty...

[Frumple]

Dungeon level 5, take I, continued

And we start back with Mindless Self Indulgence's remix of the song
'Tom Sawyer'. They're a surprisingly decent group, as the particular
genre goes.

The level's about half way done -- I've got a mage academy and three
unknown rooms to clear out, and then it's dlvl 6 time, heh. Magic
academy's first victim is a human ghost, that I'm fairly sure wandered
off from that graveyard. Unlike the crazed OoD ghosts that like to
spawn, this one appeared to be just a plain human one, who dies easily
to /halt undead/ and M.Missile. DetMon's also picking up a black bear,
some various undead, and a hag of some sort if its inventory is
anything to go by. Though... is DetMon supposed to show inventory? I'm
not complaining that it _does_, mind... Ooh, turns out the bear is
actually an owlbear. In the process of killing it, I find out /solid
fog/ angers summons when it's dropped on them, which is kind of a
downer. Next is a hieracosphix zombie, which is a minor blessing -- it
only roars for stunning, heh. A claripot check after an unknown undead
walks in (fear the bodak, yo'. It's just a ghoul, though.) shows the
hag was green, one of the weaker variaties. It dies to summon
distraction and M.Missile spam, heh.

Next is a floating rock, with a pair of jovacs, a goblin spider, and a
giant owl. The lot die to M.Missile, after I use /minor drain/ on the
jovacs to top my health back off -- it was particularly easy to do so,
as one of the corridors leading into the room was a misty one, with
just the right angle to be able to hit the stuff on the rock. Annd...
level ends with a jovac in a ritual chamber. I notice I did leave
another room unexplored, but it's on the opposite end of the level,
and the stairs down are, well, right here. Downward ho!

Dungeon level 6, take I

And level six starts with Natalie McMaster Allison Kraus, playing
'Fast Fiddle and Banjo tune', one minute and forty-three seconds of
delightful banjoy goodness.

... and an inbounds 224 error, heh.
Gwagh. Second try doesn't crash, but it _does_ land me, a. in the
middle of a lava streamer and b. within sight of what's probably about
three different casters. Back up I go! The nearest down stairs is...
about halfway across dlvl 5, so I'll probably check that last room
while I'm up here... which turns out to be an armory with a pair of
vetren bogwarts and a chest, which I fail to unlock. Bleh.
Second stairs down lands me in a fairly docile Oddly-formed Hall.
There's a group of dwarves in it, only one of which is hostile. Let's
fiiix that, kehehee...
Eww... druids. The lot of them, _druids_. This may end up
unpleasent... or not. They line up nicely, and LB knocks 'em over like
tenpins. I only eat through about 30 mana to kill the lot of them,
hehehe. Lootloot time... Ooh, one had an FA ring. Score. S'also a
kobold ring I can use -- rings have been pretty scarce so far -- and a
Djinn prison, which I tote with me just to keep it outta' other folks
hands.

Oh my. Vault. Um... hmm. Well, I try to go around it, hoping to
wizlock the doors. Turns out that, as usual, wizlock doesn't even slow
crap down. I get down to 11 hp when I got stuck, stunned, in a
stunjelly/vrock sandwich. Dimdoor gets me far enough to run, and I get
out. I just got reeeeaaaallly lucky.

Anyway, on with the rest of the level...

There's a lava streamer (Okay, magma flow. I rarely bother to be
precise with those things -- lava's lava to me, underground or not.
Eh.) running through the level. I slip on the druid shoes I had been
carrying... didn't I have evasive boots at one point? They're gone
now... huh. Maybe it was the last chara. Anyway, druidshoes, lava,
onward.

Next room is a Feast Hall with, uh... *counts* 23 ice toads in it. Let
the narcoleptic slaughter begin!
Mm... about half way through, a mounted class group walks in from the
east. Let's see what happens if I drop a solid fog on the doorstep...
heh. Between them not being able to see me and LB, the lot of them
falls over pretty quick. Mm... undead hunter, paladin, and a pair of
priests. Room over's a Asherath temple, but at least one of the
priests worshipped Zurvash. Odd, but I don't suppose the gen themes
them like that quite yet.

Graveborn hill giant ends up with me downing a healing potion -- I
normally pause to drain something, but this bugger's spamming a
dehydration wand at me, and the thing outranges my casting radius at
the mo'. I end up summoning things in range of it 'till it runs out of
either mana or charges, though I'm not wasting an ID scroll to find
out which, heh.

The next joyous moment is when a couatl nails me with frikkin' /
boiling blood./ I now realize just how cruel I was to use that
frakkin' spell on, well, anything. I eat through over a dozen healing
potions surviving the damn thing. Killing the bastid is a pain, too.
It's got shield running, _and_ its phased, so neither M.Missile nor
most of my spells are worth much. After nailing it with /spirit web/
and dropping /solid fogs/ to cut out its LoS (so it can't nail me with
something vicious again), I end up killing it off with, of all
things, /chromatic orb/ -- the clear version, specifically. It does a
pretty decent amount of damage, actually. Naturally, the snake was
carrying no loot. Bah.

Soon after, I learn that earth elementals apparently won't walk over
lava. Cool. A short trip brings me back to that mage academy, and a
few more kills brings me on up to clvl 8. Nice.
I grab /transmute rock to mud/ and /phantasmal killer/, which I've
never used before, for my 4th level spells, leaving two slots open.
I've still got 4 1st level slots and 3 2nd ones just sitting there,
but they'd normally be filled with buffs and I'm missing a few books
I'd like, so I'm not too terribly bothered by it.
Mm... things have halted at 10 for most of the skills I've been
pushing, so I've got plenty of points to spend. I put 10 into
appraise, and pop two into the infernal, nature, and planes knowledge
skills. The final point I toss into athletics, which brings it to +3
and an extra fatigue point.

Back to that academy, yeh. I'm getting a little jittery -- m'fairly
close to the point I could start diving for the gobbo camp, if I felt
like it. Honestly, I could make it now and stand a good chance of
winning, but I'll hold off for clvl 9 at the least, I think.
Anyway, highlights of the academy: Scryer. Evil, evil scryer, whose
mana I bleed off via summons, kehehe... or at least start to, untill a
water gensai gets summoned, drops its spell, and prevents me from
spamming MSI some more -- when cast on top of water, it makes you take
a swim check just as if you were in the stuff -- sans res-water, I
can't afford to be doing that. I can, however, afford to just change
where I was summoning, heh... Bah. After summoning a good 50 or more
mana worth of critters around the corner, the scryer's still spamming
strong. I toss up a /solid fog/, summon something in it to make sure
the bugger can't see through it, then walk in and start casting at it.
Two spells later, I find out it was actually clockwork, and /shatter/
ends the mini-drama nice'n quick. After that, a green hag that manages
to curse my buckler before I drop a fog on her to cut off LoF.
Fortunately, I've got 4 remove curse pots and the hag drops readily to
M.Missile spam. Then an advespa, who spends far too much time trying
and failing to /command/ me and a leprechaun, both of whom drop to /
solid fog/ and M.Missile spam.
With the academy clear, that leaves about 2/3rds of the level explored
-- the last 3 rooms are that vault and the rooms to the north. I'm,
uh... not bothering with those when there's a nice non-vrocky set of
stairs right here.

Dungeon level 7, take I

And hey, a welcome wagon! Kyrie group, fortunately non-hostile. I
really don't like kyrie now that they come in packs, heh. They _all_
see able to summon and shatter, which can get nasty pretty quick.
Actually, a quick desc check just shows they cast as a 3rd level
priest, before templates and junk. Yeah, that's pretty nasty.

After that, it's a long mixed-race line of classed characters, all
nice and stuck in a corridor. LB gets spammed, heh, and then there's
the looting. The major highlight is, _finally_, a Place and Time book.
Call companions is mine! I also grab MSII, heh. Mm... then it's an
enchanted forest. There's a druid running around here, somewhere...
s'probably the smilodon I see near the edge of the screen. Nextly
comes a maze. Two mages (Bards only carry one book, most of the time),
a priest (Holy symbol _and_ hallow scroll -- pallies rarely have the
scroll, and cultists have the symbol and daggers), three warriors
(healing pots, full equip (shield/armor/weapon), and ID scrolls, but
no ranged weapons), that druid (natural animal with an inventory
usually means shaped druid), and a minotaur, at least insofar as their
inventories tale is told. Yes, it's probably some kind of telling I
can eyeball templates based off of inventory, heh.
Brown pudding and seven eyes near the edge of detmon's range tells me
there's probably another vault here -- and a quick look 'x' check
confirms it. Maybe it'll be one of the spiral ones instead of the four-
chamber 'let's let them all go free' kind...
Ah, one of what I thought was warriors was actually a bard. Eh. A
summon distracts it and an exploding rune one-shots it, so no biggie.
Not done with the maze, but a quick peek in the next room shows a...
yeouch, CR 11 dragon, according to the journal. It's actually CR 12,
if I'm reading the templates right -- CR 14, -3, +1, a celestial young
adult brilliant Ur. It's not hostile, but I'm not too terribly worried
if it turns, the Ur variants aren't magic resistant ^^. There's also a
pair of poly'd juvies -- I oneshot a nonhostile one with LB, and the
Ur /flame strike/s the other, as near as I can tell. Free loot! No
useful loot, though. Eh.
Back to the maze. Found two new critters near the bottom, though I
can't reach 'em yet -- a human barbarian and a... half-fey ooze mephit
warrior? That's kinda' freaky, but whatever. Turns out the druid was a
tabaxi. Either the barb or the mephit was carrying a +1 'shadow sacred
dwarven feather-light' coat of plates, which replaces the +3 bonemail
I was toting. I lose some cover, but it's lighter, has a point more
slashing AC, and the sacred part won't hurt -- for those interested,
my DC is at 18, my cov at 8, and my AC is 10/8/8. All that's left is
the mage, who turns out to be peaceful... and carrying a claripot,
which I'd rather like to have. A blast from the thunderbolt wand I've
been toting, the first time I've used it so far, oneshots 'im. He also
had a restoration potion and, amusingly enough, another +1 thunderbolt
wand. I down the restopot, which brings my strength back up to 12,
still two points from full.

Soon after, I hit a teleport trap, which bounces me past a warded lab
I had partially sealed up with /spirit net/. Just below my landing
point is a flooded encampment, filled to the brim with... uh... ...
mostly junk. The worst seems to be a group of nixies. This is going to
be a slaughter...

... when I start back at it tomorrow. 'Bout time for sleep and I
wanna' get some reading time in, yeah.

[Frumple]

Dungeon level 7, take I, continued

And this one starts off with K-OS's 'Highway 7'. A band I never
thought I'd like, but they turned out pretty good, yeah.

Last post was the beginning of the Great Seventh Level Fish Massacre,
which is what I'm calling even if there's not too terribly many actual
fish swimming around in here. Yiikes. Critical damage from a
mongrelman with what was probably a high plus firebolt wand -- summon,
run, heal, summon, slaughter. Master critters have quite a bit of hp,
yo'. Turned out to be just a +1 wand, but the critter evidently lucked
out with the rolls -- the lowest damage was 4d6, with its other two
shots being 6d6. Painful, yeah.
Mm... I grab /ice storm/ to avoid having to levitate or PD past the
deep water patches. I soon find out that it has to travel through
space, even if you target as if it didn't, and that, no, it doesn't
avoid damaging the caster, but yes, it has pretty impressive AoE. It
_said_ I took 18 cold damage, but I lost more like 40 hp, or
thereabouts. Gonna' be a lot more careful with this particular spell
now... and shortly thereafter, I remember that /trasmute/ spell works
just fine on encampment walls. Silly me. I also learn that electric
eels aren't immune to electrical damage. Neat. Then it's a locathath
vs summons battle, who lose handily to a summoned nixie's /waterspout/
spamming. I've also somehow managed to get 69/64 hp. I have _no_ idea
how.

Then I get around to trying this horn of panic I've been toting
around... only to find out I can't. 'a'ctivate doesn't work, nor does
the 'y'use command. Oh well. 'Least I dunnae have ta' carry it
anymore...

Next is a zombie horde, who are unfortunately still in a graveyard
room. There's about 20 of 'em, if I'm counting the ones I've already
killed right. Biggest trouble here is getting them _out_ of the
graveyard so I can actually kill them without causing more trouble...
at which point I facepalm, forgetting I have a wall removing omnitool.
Transmute agogo! ... note to self. /Transmute rock to mud/ tips over
gravestones. Joy. But hey... no bodaks. Score.
Most of the bigger critters are dead, then a cast /ice storm/ (was
hoping to quick-mop some leftover zombies) manages to crash the game.
Buggery. Reload shows I only have to kill an almost dead elder mummy
again, instead of the whole lot. That's a small blessing at least, I
suppose. Oooh, a repeating bug. Let's put this save aside and ticket
it quicklike... let's name it 'Orchal-Hailstormnorth4CtD.rar'. Just to
make a second report, casting a hail-version ice storm on the mud
square the furthest directly north of the character's position is
CtDing.
Ah, that's done. Reloading, then it's LB time for those remaining
zombies, heh. Manage to unlock a chest that was in the graveyard --
best loot was some +5 zappy gloves, which are mostly useless to me,
and some cash. It does remind me to hop over to that encampment and
dump some useless junk; the lesser charged zap wand I was toting and
some scrolls. By the by, if it's not ticketed already, /remove curse/
scrolls (and possibly the spell itself) doesn't seem to be working any
more. Um... right. Moving on.
Ah, right. I down a RemCurse potion -- that mummy had nailed my luck
with a curse.
Next thing of note is almost getting wasted by an ursoi chieftan with
a thunderbolt wand. Those things _hurt_.
And then an unlocked door tips me over the edge to clvl 9. Hee~

For my fifths, I grab /Power Word: Stop/ as mentioned some ways back
(It's at 65% casting chance, at the mo'.) and /lower resistance/.
Then /slow/, /transposition/, and... hmm. /Force missiles/. Sure.
Skill wise, things at 10 gets upped to 11, athletics gets put up to 5,
and nature and ocean knowledge skills get a point in each. Anyone know
if the knowledge skills stack for critters they both fall under?
Oh... I grabbed enchantment focus for my feat. *shrug*

Anyway, after offing a few wandering frost slugs, the level's pretty
much done. Downward!

Dungeon level 8, take I

And this level starts off with an encampment-style ice matrix, holding
a good dozen or more classed creatures. Fun times!
Anyway, between a modicum of summoning and plenty of LB and /scorcher/
spam, I manage to clear the place out without too terribly much
trouble -- I lose about 20 hp and hit the regen line once (though
sooner than I _should_ have -- about 280 or so, with a mana-after-
buffs of 397 and a max of 426.), but that's what's potions are for,
heh.
I do notice that concentration bug -- insofar as I can tell, it starts
looping back to zero after a point, insofar as circumstance penalty
negation goes. Kinda' sucks. Anyway, loot's good -- I replace my armor
with +5 padded and pick up rings of waterwalking and nondetection,
both of which might come in handy.

Eww... signs point to annoyed graveyard, just ran into what looked
like a classed ghost. Nasty. Yup, there's the death knights... and
hey. A tome. First one I've seen so far... s'only a chabook, though.
Bah. Ooh, and a curate that walked in from somewhere was toting a +5
proficient buckler... of Zurvash, but the heck if I care about _that_.
It replaces the +4 one I've been using for a loong while. Though, as
is unsurprising, it quick-intuits as merely (magical). Maybe it's
something to do with the god part? Does remind me to mention I tossed
a holy artifact sword of some sort into the water, though, as the
curate was carrying the hornblade that was in the same stack. Eh. Now
to go find whatever crawled outta' that graveyard... along the way, a
flame winter wolf! Shouldn't those elemental templates, like, not
effect things with counter-types in them? It's odd seeing flame frost
slugs and junk...

Little bit more wandering -- I've mostly decided to ignore that
graveyard, as I'm almost to clvl 10 and I'll dive once I hit that
point -- finds me another tome, a dex one this time. A little better,
but I wanna' libram... one crystal, stun, and stone jelly later, I'm
clvl 10!

Featwise, I grab run and lore of rime. No particular reason for
either, but they're both useful, so why not? My newly opened fifth
level slots nab me /cone of cold/, /eldritch bolt/, and /cloudkill/.
Between that lot, the gobbo camp's gonna' come crashing down, heh...

Skills top off the usual suspects and plop two points into the
knowledge skills I've been raising, and then it's down the stairs I
go.

Dungeon levels 9 and 10, take I

Hmm... just noticed that I don't have /erase/, nor can I learn it.
That's alright though, I think I know another trick to get rid of
those bloody runes -- I figure I can slap /wall of ice/ over 'em then /
scorher/ to turn the ground to water. Or maybe just /wall of doors/
it. I don't think those things go away, and they might overwrite the
runes. I do so hope so...

Anyway, dlvl 9 doesn't last long, as there's a stairs down the next
room over from the one I start in -- it's dangerous down here though,
as I've already passed a dark sorcerer and a young adult dragon, so
I'm not hesitating.

So then there's dlvl 10. A fairly drawn out battle including six or
seven air elementals and a few gaseous critters start the place off --
between summons and spells, I manage without take any damage from the
lot. Ah, and there's the camp. A /transmute/ opens up space along the
wall so I can reach one of the entrances without going around, and the
slaughter begins. The biggest killer is gonna' be /cloudkill/. Sofar
as I can tell, it oneshots the goblins -- _always_. /Phantasmal
killer/ will probably off some of the larger critters, and LB/MM will
take out many others. /Solid fog/s gonna' block sight when I need it
blocked and... off I go! Ooh, the icewall/scorch trick does indeed
knock out the runes. Excellent...
Into the keep! Shatter goes the columns! Up goes the ice wall! Down
goes the ice wall and the runes! Up goes a sleet storm! Away with LoS!
Spammed goes the Lightning Bolts and the Magic Missiles! DEAD goes the
Murgash! Bwahahahahaa! Fight the remainder? Nah. Walk out. I did what
I came to do. Heeheehee... well... okay. I'll apportation 'is corpse,
or at least one of his toys.

... and then one of the viziers summons a young adult celestial
hatori, which jumps my face. It's also a bug, however, as it got
summoned via holy summoning, uh... four. And it's got a CR of 10 or
so. Yeaah.

Sooo... reload. Come back, still some things alive in there -- try for
a bit, then something decides to summon a water gensai. At that point,
I'm in water and something spat out Evard's Pedocles, so I dimdoor
outta' the keep and decide it ain't worth it. Back up the stairs!
Well... after I slaughter off a chunk more of the army. Almost clvl
11, after all. A little bit of /cloudkill/ spamming later, and I hit
clvl 11. I toss whatever's left, skill point wise, into various
knowledge skills, but don't bother with spells. No feats, so up I go!

Getting back to dlvl 1 isn't much of a problem, as I tunnel my way to
the nearest stairs via /transmute rock to mud/. I actually use /cone
of cold/ on the way back up, to freeze over that lava streamer on dlvl
6, to get the stairs sitting in it. Turns out what I thought was a
graveyard back on dlvl 3 was just an abatoir with a zombie in it. Huh.
*stretch* And that's that. Dlvl one. On the stairs. Makin' the YAVP
dump now, hee.

[Frumple]

And here's the victory post. It's cross-post over in the Inc-L group,
yeah. Nice run, and not even particularly frustrating, heh.

I'll run some commentary through this, but any major things're covered
by the DitL itself, I think. I'll put up the save here come tomorrow
if no one objects, yeah.

Orchal Oswin, The Introspective Visionary
[WINNER]


Gender Male
Race Human
Class Mage 11
XP 55157
Next @ 66000
Align Neutral Evil


STR: 13/09 [+1/+1] (base 14, -1 damage)
DEX: 15/00 [+2/+2] (base 12, +1 magic, +2 inherant)
CON: 16/30 [+3/+2] (base 15, +1 inherant)
INT: 27/06 [+8/+8] (base 18, +1 magic, +8 inherant)
WIS: 20/00 [+5/+4] (base 16, +4 inherant)
CHA: 11/68 [+0/+0] (base 10, +1 inherant)
LUC: 11/107 [+0/+0] (base 11)
// Int was good, wis not bad, con decent. The rest, mostly meh, if
tolerable. Strength drain was, with the exception of summoned cows
eating through a good dozen an' change points worth, soley from a
weakening trap. Had -2 for a while, -4 for a good bit before that. I'm
glad I made one of my two exceptions for /floating disc/, heh. The
base stats are -7 in point buy, which is a little higher than it tends
to average, but definately not the highest I've seen.

Fortitude +9(Mage +3, +3 Con, +3 feat)
Reflex +5(Mage +3, +2 Dex)
Will +13(Mage +7, +5 Wis, +1 competance)
(+3 vs. poison, +2 vs. disease, +3 vs. spells)
// Pretty bloody poor, heh.

Brawl +toHit +15 (Mage +5, +1 Str, +5 magic, +4 circumstance)
Damage +6 (base 0, +1 Str, +5 magic)
Speed 155%(base 100% +25% circumstance) x 125% magic
Melee +toHit +15 (Mage +5, +1 Str, +5 magic, +4 circumstance)
Damage +5 (base 0 / 0, +5 magic)
Speed 155%(base 100% +25% circumstance) x 125% magic

Size Human-sized:
(base human-sized)

Defense Class 21:
(base 10, +2 Mage, +2 Dex, +7 shield)
_______________(19 while casting)

Coverage 13:
(base 0, +13 armor)

Movement Rate 190%:
(base 100%) x 180% magic x 120% feat x 90% encumbrance

Hit Dice Rolls 81:
20 + 11d4 (2, 4, 3, 2, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4, 3, 1) + 33 (CON bonus)

Mana Rolls 590:
10 + 11d20 (7, 10, 17, 10, 10, 10, 1, 10, 10, 10, 10) x 5 + 55 (WIS
bonus)
__(Bonus Mana)______(base 590, +40 magic)

Encumbrance Light:
(Light 25.3s, Moderate 76.0s, Heavy 153.0s, Extreme 230.0s, Max
Press 300.0s)

Spell Slots 11th:
7+8 (6) / 7+7 (4) / 5+7 (3) / 4+6 (4) / 3+5 (3)
// Plenty open, but that's mostly 'cause of the slim-buff buil --
though I did miss out on being able to learn some spells I woulda'
liked to have. Eh.

Special Abilities:
Evasion
Inherant Potential +3
Spellcasting (11th)
Specialist:
Arcana
Telepathy (30 ft)
Versatility
Arcane Will +3
Fatigue Regeneration

Feats:
Clear-Minded
// Was to get concentration up quickly -- having being paracoup'd
with a previous character, I didn't want it to happen again. I did get
paralyzed two or three times with this character, too, so it wasn't a
waste.
Combat Casting
Educated
Great Fortitude -- Item
Hardiness -- Item
Light Sleeper
Lore of Rime
Lore of Storms
Roll With It
Run
School Focus:
Enchantment
Scribe Scroll
Spell Penetration

Resistances and Armor:
Slashing Damage 10
Piercing Damage 10
Blunt Damage 11
Poison 5

Complete Immunities:
Slowing
Paralysis
Entangling
Petrification
Disease

Proficiencies Staves and Daggers

Skill Ratings:
Alchemy +10 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train)
Appraise +18 (12 ranks, +4 WIS, +2 train)
Athletics +7 (5 ranks, +2 CON)
Bluff +4 (0 ranks, +4 synergy)
Climb +3 (0 ranks, +2 DEX, +1 synergy)
Concentration +19 (12 ranks, +2 CON, +2 train, +3 feat)
Craft +4 (0 ranks, +2 DEX, +2 train)
Decipher Script +24 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +2 feat)
Diplomacy +4 (0 ranks, +4 synergy)
Handle Device +6 (0 ranks, +2 DEX, +4 synergy)
Healing +18 (12 ranks, +4 WIS, +2 train)
Illusioncraft +10 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train)
Intimidate +5 (0 ranks, +1 STR, +4 synergy)
Intuition +12 (0 ranks, +4 WIS, +2 train, +3 feat, +3
synergy)
Jump +11 (0 ranks, +2 DEX, +8 magic, +1 synergy)
Knowledge (Theyra) +13 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Knowledge (Infernal) +29 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat, +4
synergy)
Knowledge (Magic) +27 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat, +2
synergy)
Knowledge (Mythology) +20 (7 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Knowledge (Nature) +25 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Knowledge (Oceans) +25 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Knowledge (Planes) +25 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Knowledge (Theology) +13 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Knowledge (Undead) +13 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +3 feat)
Listen +7 (0 ranks, +4 WIS, +3 synergy)
Lockpicking +19 (12 ranks, +2 DEX, +2 train, +3 synergy)
Metamagic +15 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +2 feat, +3
synergy)
Perform +4 (0 ranks, +4 synergy)
Searching +13 (5 ranks, +8 INT)
Spellcraft +14 (0 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +2 feat, +2
synergy)
Spot +12 (5 ranks, +4 WIS, +3 synergy)
Swimming +2 (0 ranks, +1 STR, +1 synergy)
Use Magic +24 (12 ranks, +8 INT, +2 train, +2 feat)

// Nothing particularly unusual here, I don't think. There is a
repeat comment to be made about concentration, namely that it seems to
either loop back to zero or start reducing the circumstance penalty
effect after... some point I haven't noticed. Anyway, after a while, I
could no longer cast without penalty in water, despite being able to
earlier, and that's without any equipment-induced changes.

Spiritual State:
__You are not devoted to a
____single god.
__You flawlessly embody Evil.
__You are perfectly neutral with
____regard to Law and Chaos.

CharGen Options and Choices:
__Beginner's Kit: OFF
__Initial Rolling Method: 4d6 + Perks
__Allow Rerolling: YES
__Use the Subraces: YES
__Disallow Wizard Mode: NO
__Maximum Hit Points: NO
__Maximum Mana: NO
__Default Character Gender: RANDOM
__Monsters Maximum Hit Points: NO
__Roll Attributes First: YES
__Gain Attributes With Levels: YES
__Allow Rapid Intuition: WEAPONS
__Monsters Use Djikstra: NO
__Out-Of-Depth Monsters: YES
__Transgression Hints: YES
__Difficulty Level: BASELINE
__Power Stats: BASELINE
__Elude Death: NO
__Disable Complicity Transgressions: YES


Inventory:
mildly damaged uncursed proficient Buckler +5 of Zurvash
uncursed brass lantern (with 13293 turns of light left)
mildly damaged uncursed Wand +1 of Thunderbolts [2d6+8, 1d6+8] (50
charges)
uncursed Girdle of Fortification
badly damaged uncursed robes
uncursed padded armor +5
uncursed Boots +4 of Striding and Springing [+80%, +8]
uncursed Cloak +2 of the Bat [+2, +2]
uncursed Ring of Free Action
uncursed Ring +1 of the Kobolds [+1, +1]
uncursed Amulet +1 of Natural Armor [+2]
uncursed Gloves +5 of Lightning
uncursed Circlet of Spellbreaking +3 [+3]
uncursed Bracers +2 of Blinding Strikes [+25%, +4]
10348 uncursed gold pieces
uncursed Stone +2 of Channeling [+8]
18 uncursed Potions of Healing [2d8+8]
10 uncursed Potions of Dimension Door [2d20+3]

// Fairly sufficient. The FA ring and circlet I especially liked,
and the buckler/armor combo didn't exactly hurt, heh.

On The Ground:
uncursed medium backpack
blessed Periapt of Proof against Poisons +5 [+10, +20]
// Good to keep around when you find one of decent plusage. It
managed to get a giant wasp poisoning outta' me, if nothin' else.
badly damaged uncursed spellbook [Gift of Death]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Celestial Lion Sutra]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Place and Time]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Adventurers' Arts]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Ars Mortis]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Fundamentals of Magick]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Lore of Murder I]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Shadowcraft]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Tome of Magic]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Tome of Storms]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Tricks and Traps]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Water Authority]
partly damaged uncursed spellbook [Words of Power]
// Yeah... no reswater. Didn't actually lose any of 'em though, which
was nice. Wish I'd found more -- there was probably a few stuck in
various unopened chests, but I didn't bother to go around and collect
'em. Eh.
uncursed Boots of the Druid
uncursed Cloak +2 of the Bat [+2, +2]
11258 uncursed platinum pieces
5 uncursed food rations
uncursed Helm of Comprehending Languages and Reading Magic [+10]
2 uncursed Oils of Transformation
uncursed Potion of *Mana* [5d12+12]
18 uncursed Potions of Extra-Healing [3d8+12]
8 uncursed Potions of Mana [3d8+8]
2 uncursed Potions of Remove Curse
2 uncursed Potions of Restoration [0d6]
2 uncursed Potions of Restore Charisma [6d8]
uncursed Potion of Restore Constitution [6d8]
uncursed Potion of Restore Intelligence [6d8]
3 uncursed Potions of Restore Luck [6d8]
uncursed Potion of Restore Wisdom [6d8]
4 uncursed Potions of See Invisibility
uncursed Potion of True-Healing [4d8+20]
uncursed Potion of Valor [0]
2 uncursed Potions of Vitality [3d4+1]
uncursed Ring of Nondetection
uncursed Ring of Water Walking
2 uncursed Scrolls of *Identify*
// Scribed, yosh. I think I lost one to water or something, though,
as I don't remember using two...
3 uncursed Scrolls of Enchant Armor (resistance)
// Also scribed. Forgot I had 'em, and the first attempt failed. Oh
well...
34 uncursed Scrolls of Identify
uncursed healing kit
uncursed viewing lens
uncursed Wand +1 of Polymorph (48 charges)
uncursed Wand +1 of Sleep (50 charges)
uncursed Wand of Alacrity [+25%] (50 charges)

Known Spells:
Knock 1 100% 1
// Finally found a use for this that trumps wizlock, namely distance
opening -- good for when something(s) piled up on the other side of
the door.
Mending 1 100% 7
// Didn't use, but did use a few of the potions. It'd be nice if you
could leave a slot or two open during generation...
Wizard Lock 1 100% 1
Magic Missile 1 100% 1 6d4+6
Floating Disc 1 100% 5
// Buff one. Books are heavy, yo'. Any potential plan on scaling
their weight to match their contents?
Chromatic Orb 1 100% 0
// Used once or twice. It's more expensive than M.Missile, but
shield doesn't block it, and it _does_ do more damage per hit, I
think. Used the clear one mostly, yeah.
Minor Drain 1 99% 1 1d4+8
// Used to heal up minor damage, to keep me at the toppa' the game.
Healing pots patched up the big ouchies.
Halt Undead 1 100% 2 -200%
Monster Summoning I 1 100% 2
Phase Door 1 100% 2 1d4+4
Web 2 100% 4
// Didn't use as much as I had planned to. Eh.
Spirit Net 2 100% 4
// Never poofs out. Works as it says it does otherwise, though.
Scorcher 2 100% 4 2d8+19
Acid Arrow 2 95% 4 2d4+8
Shatter 2 98% 4 9d4+8
Gust of Wind 2 100% 4 1d4+4, 1d4+4
Choke 2 98% 4
// Never got around to using it. Pretty late-game buy, anyway...
Levitation 2 98% 4 -2, -50%, -15%
// Well, alright. I'll let this count as, maybe, a quarter-buff, if
anyone wants to argue it. Really, it's more of a particularly useful
debuff than an actual buff, yanno'?
Monster Summoning II 2 100% 4
// Eventually replaced MSI as my primary summon. Lasted the rest of
the game after that point -- higher level summoning spells usually
aren't as useful as just spamming the cheaper ones, in my experience.
Transposition 2 100% 4
Dispel Magic 3 97% 15
// Tried to use it on the guardian runes like, once. It took out
maybe two. Then I used... other... methods.
Explosive Runes 3 100% 5
// Used often enough. Still goes off the second you cast it, if you
do so under folks, but you can spit it through walls are crap anymore.
It makes a pretty decent offensive spell for summoners, yeah.
Wall of Ice 3 100% 6
// This plus scorcher can temporary overwrite those guardian runes.
Since I didn't get around to finding a book with erase in it, that's
how I got past the blighters.
Detect Monsters 3 100% 30 +0
// Buff number 2. "Know thy enemy and thyself and you need not fear
the result of a thousand battles." ... or something really close to
that, at least. All hail Mistah Tzu.
Lightning Bolt 3 97% 6 9d6+8
// Primary offensive spell after M.Missile. Love it when things line
up for me, kehehe...
Thunderlance 3 97% 6 5d4+30
// Secondus after LB, this does non-elemental damage. Obviously
useful in many situations, yeah.
Slow 3 100% 7 -50%, -2
Polymorph Self 3 94% 10
// Never used this, but it was a just-in-case buy anyway.
Rope Trick 3 99% 15
// Ditto, heh. Sancs got me through most of the game, and I had LS
anyway... and coulda' grabbed alarm if I wanted it.
Solid Fog 4 100% 8
// Nice for LoS trickery and cheap enough for an arcanist. Would be
nice if it didn't anger allies caught in the intial cast radius, but I
guess that's just quibbling.
Transmute Rock to Mud 4 100% 8
// Pretty nice. Got me from the camp to the surface quicker and
safer than it otherwise woulda' been -- I used this to more or less
tunnel my way between stairs.
Crushing Despair 4 96% 7 -2
// Used a few times. Doesn't have a message telling you if it worked
or not, so I got no clue if it's worth a slot.
Force Missiles 4 99% 7 7d4+8, 30
Ice Storm 4 96% 8 3d10+19
// Deadly spell, though especially for yourself. Don't let this hit
you, heh.
Phantasmal Killer 4 95% 8
// Used quite a bit during the gobbo camp, took out giants/trolls/
tojandas handily. Nice spell.
Cloudkill 5 100% 10 9d4+8
// Slaughters goblins en masse. Decent enough otherwise, too.
Power Word: Stop 5 84% 30
// Used once or twice. Would have moreso, but the vaults I ran into
were particularly vicious, so I went around.
Lower Resistance 5 100% 9 +0
// Ditto, and for the same reason.
Cone of Cold 5 95% 10 9d8+8
// Used in only one case, to freeze over a lava streamer that was
sitting on toppa' stairs. Woulda' used more, but I never really needed
a stronger beam spell than LB, and I didn't have this the time or two
I ran into things that were immune to lightning but not cold.
Eldritch Bolt 5 95% 10 9d8+8, -1
// Never got around to using it, but never ran into a situation I
needed to, either. It does a pretty impressive amount of damage to a
single target, and its damage type isn't resisted by much that isn't
undead.
Call Companions 1 100% 2

Journal: Trimmed down, yo'.

12:00 AM, 1st of Suntide: Unknown Location (H:18/22 M:13/13 XP:0)
Starting Perks:
Extra Ability: Telepathy +3.
Starting Item: uncursed Cloak +2 of the Bat.
Immunity: Disease.
// Nice perks, ne?

8:31 PM, 1st of Suntide: Misty Cavern, 20' (H:43/43 M:181/186 XP:
5583)
e.epFailed == true after 20 tries: Enc 'monsterous animated corpse',
CR 0, Part 0, eimXCR 55, enRegID 'Graveyard'.
// These pop up several more times as the game progresses, if it helps
any.

2:30 AM, 4th of Suntide: Ritual Chamber, 50' (H:59/59 M:302/331 XP:
23656)
Seen: human ghost (CR 10)
Seen: cursed impact hunga-munga -2 (IL 6)
OOD monster young dragon (CR 8) generated on dlev 6 by Encounter
'sylvan creatures' and the ENCOUNTER_LIST from 'Gardened Forest'.

3:31 AM, 4th of Suntide: Lesser Vault, 60' (H:11/59 M:289/331 XP:
24224)
Seen: fiend (CR 11)
Seen: uncursed Ring, Djinn Prison (3 uses left) (IL 7)
You are gravely wounded by a vrock!
// Vrock _and_ a stunjelly. On each side of me. Dimdoor saved me, if
barely.

6:41 AM, 4th of Suntide: Oddly-formed Hall, 60' (H:19/59 M:298/331 XP:
26413)
Seen: vrock (CR 11)
Seen: uncursed Potion of Extra-Healing (IL 4)
You are gravely wounded by a couatl!
// Burning blood spell. I now realize just how massively powerful that
spell is...

10:56 AM, 4th of Suntide: Flooded Encampment, 70' (H:14/64 M:337/382
XP:31482)
Seen: master mongrelman (CR 3)
Seen: uncursed padded armor +3 (IL 6)
You are gravely wounded by Orchal!
// Unwisely cast ice storm, I think.

3:42 PM, 4th of Suntide: Armoury, 70' (H:71/71 M:397/426 XP:36640)
Seen: uncursed Periapt of Proof against Poisons +1 (IL 2)
OOD monster flame winter wolf (CR 9) generated on dlev 8 by
Encounter 'fire creatures' and the ENCOUNTER_LIST from 'Elemental
Chamber'.

Monsters Encountered:
Total: 1500
// S'pretty low, yeh. Probably 'cause I didn't bother much with the
last few levels...
236 Animals
65 Bats
30 Birds
25 Cats
37 Dogs
6 Eye Creatures
69 Faeries
149 Goblinkin
548 Humanoids
2 Imps
96 Jellies
111 Oozes
13 Kobolds
1 Lycanthropes
36 Orcs
81 Quadrupeds
3 Rodents
30 Spiders
39 Trappers
3 Hags
9 Vortices
67 Worms
196 Vermin
30 Celestials
165 Beasts
28 Constructs
9 Dragons
66 Elementals
19 Fungi
1 Golems
29 Giants
3 Illithids
1 Genies
82 Elementalkin
25 Mythic Hybrids
189 Outsiders
21 Plant Creatures
148 Reptiles
40 Snakes
6 Spirits
5 Trolls
42 Corporeal Undead
13 Negative Undead
113 Aberrations
8 Hominids
37 Zombies
31 Humans
13 Elves
19 Dwarves
5 Gnomes
4 Halflings
3 Drow
1 Dinosaurs
21 Swarms
25 Planetoucheds
18 Demons
8 Devils

Level Statistics:

Lvl | Act | Key | Turns | Secs | XP | Explored
----+-----+-----+-------+------+-----+------------------
1 | 1244| 2904| 91523| 1917| 2059|2655 / 2732 = 97%
2 | 1447| 3199| 62475| 2124| 3534|3564 / 4339 = 82%
3 | 1741| 3944| 576034| 85224| 3698|3120 / 3312 = 94%
4 | 1839| 5019| 299718| 3860| 4957|4972 / 5012 = 99%
5 | 2712| 7428| 107440| 6980| 9898|4555 / 4725 = 96%
6 | 1670| 4737| 99264| 4869| 5093|3903 / 5178 = 75%
7 | 2762| 8211| 133987| 58964| 7517|3692 / 4088 = 90%
8 | 1348| 4152| 90605| 2369| 8449|1773 / 4260 = 41%
9 | 92| 578| 1361| 400| 413| 620 / 3581 = 17%
10 | 1043| 2899| 69000| 1704| 9539|1964 / 5441 = 36%
// Hit clvl 10 on dlvl 8, I think. Just hopped down after that.

Messages:
ss].
Spellcraft Check: 1d20 (15) +14 = 29 vs DC 12 [success].
It begins casting Spiritual Hammer.
Decipher Script Check: 1d20 (9 [9/9]) +26 = 35 vs DC 16 [success].
Mongrelman's Damage: 9d4+8 = 36 Poison
Your evocation kills something.
Kyrie's Damage: 9d4+8 = 29 Poison
Your evocation strikes something.
The kyrie snaps and turns on you!
// Some times it doesn't matter if they snap -- even if they're angry
at you, what you want them to distract is closer and they're still
hostile to each other. Heh.
Mongrelman's Damage: 9d4+8 = 27 Poison
Your evocation kills something.
Decipher Script Check: 1d20 (19 [9/19]) +26 = 45 vs DC 16 [success].
Mongrelman's Damage: 9d4+8 = 33 Poison
Your evocation strikes something.
Decipher Script Check: 1d20 (16 [16/8]) +26 = 42 vs DC 16 [success].
// Odd... what's with these? I wasn't reading anything...
Mongrelman's Damage: 9d4+8 = 27 Poison
Your evocation strikes something.
You stop running (region boundry).
Autosave...
Done.
You have won...

// Hoo!