YAAP: Corwin the knight (Spork)

[3cn...@gmail.com]

"young boys are not named Corwin here, nor am I brother to anyone of
that name."
- Benedict, speaking of Corwin the Tyrant of Avalon.

Corwin, the main protagonist of the Chronicles of Amber, was once the
ruler of the shadow realm of Avalon. He, shall we say, mellowed out a
bit after four hundred years stranded on our Earth afflicted with
amnesia.

For this reason, I chose to start with a dark knight and self-convert
to Lawful. I also decided to afflict myself with amnesia and drain
myself to INT:4 before self-conversion for roleplaying - NO, damnit, I
just got badly flayed due to carelessness. Don't feed the mind
flayers, kids. Anyway, I didn't quite convert, but spent the last
10,000 turns as a Lawful thanks to the helm of opposite alignment I
wore. Since the helm was the "tinfoil hat" that protected from psi-
bolt spells, I didn't mind it at all.

In the early game, I started using my lance when I claimed the
luckstone. This was a mistake. I broke my lance after 400 turns or so.
While I discovered the lance's true power in the late game, I
discovered another good weapon early on to replace it.

"The blood covers the altar! Your sword slithers in your hand and
changes!"

Since Mac Lir granted me a nice +5 rustproof long sword during altar
camping, I decided to rob a nearby store, sacrifice the policemen, and
obtain Dirge, one of three artifacts (Koelewa, Dirge, Lifestealer)
exclusive to Sporkhack. When I read the label on the blessed tin of
Dirge at nethack.nineball.org, I was not impressed with "d6 poison
damage", but hey, it was at the very least a +5 long sword. So I
dropped my riding gear, suited up with +5 splint mail and AC -29, and
raised some Cain in the dungeon.

I polypiled for an amulet of reflection, along with a nice +7 silver
short sword for #twoweapon, once I found a wand of polymorph. And then
Dirge showed me its true power at the numerous barracks I had found,
but not disturbed.

"The poison was deadly..."

Dirge is an awesome early game weapon, on par with Mjollnir or
Excalibur, and I do not regret creating it. When I #twoweaponed it,
soldiers dropped dead in two hits. I cleared the castle without
incident, save for a titan vaporizing my +5 gauntlets of dexterity
(DAMN YOU DESTROY ARMOR SPELLS!). Though demons are not poison
resistant, they dropped easily due to my silver offhand weapon. An
excellent combo, all in all.

However, a master lich and some summoned q reduced me to 3 HP before
croaking. Harrowed by this near-death experience, I concluded that I
needed a better weapon for Gehennom. Unfortunately, my kit was
woefully incomplete at that point and I had already generated
Ogresmasher, Dragonbane, and Dirge, so Grayswandir, *Corwin's own
sword from the Chronicles of Amber*, was not an option. Instead, I
wished up the helm of opposite alignment and became a lawful. (in
retrospect I had missed a lawful altar and could have used genocide
scrolls instead) Producing a +8 long sword via polypiling, I dipped
for the +8 Excalibur. Heh heh heh.

Since I was busy paying a visit to the early dungeon levels, I tested
a new +7 silver spear/ +8 Grayswandir/+2 increase damage combo on
Yeenoghu and Juiblex. Juiblex died in one hit, Yeenoghu in two. I knew
I was then ready for the big league demons. I tamed a Jabberwock and
burned a wish on a saddle since I had re-polypiled a +7 lance, then
descended.

It did not end well. I easily pounded Asmodeus to death, but a black
dragon killed my mount, and disentegrated my saddle with it. In
frustration, I fetched my spare saddle from the tippity-top of the
dungeon, wished for a blessed figurine of a Ki-rin, and gave it my
spare +4 elven leather helm, +3 leather gloves, and +0 shield of
reflection.

And that wish ended well.

The knight's true power is his lance. Since the lance requires three
functioning pieces of equipment, the saddle, steed, and lance itself,
for efficacy, and a lance can easily break without luck/blessing
preparation, I feel that it's a mid game/late game tool only. But
damn, riding on a ki-rin with a +7 lance kicks some serious
spellcaster ass. Having been at the receiving end of the magical eye
and Nazgul's stunning attacks, I relished in turning the tables with
the lance's stunning ability. Rodney dodged every death zap I used,
but it didn't even matter in the end. Arch-liches, Rodney, demons of
all stripes perished with nary a chance to retaliate. The ascension
run proceeded smoothly despite both wands of death having been drained
of charges.

On Astral, I used the knight's intrinsic jumping, probably a mistake
since switching to jumping boots wouldn't have affected my steed's
speed. Though I reached Lugh's altar last (didn't want to give the
amulet to Mac Lir due to changes in Spork), I survived without a taste
of Death or Pestilence due to the lance's pounding ability.

My morning began with the ascension of my first knight.

Overall, I hated the code of knightlyness for lawful knights, and I'm
glad my lawful stint came in late game when the alignment penalty
didn't matter. It added nothing to what I consider a fairly
interesting role, a decent paladin with
good combat skills and impressive special abilities. I have expressly
considered ascending a knight named "Caitiff" for this very reason.
But chaotic knights get all the advantages of knightlyness, a weapon
that's almost as easy to acquire as Excalibur and by some measures
better for the upper dungeon, and are already caitiffs to begin with,
allowing them to thankfully bypass those stupid conduct messages.
Thanks Derek.