seeking unusually cool Nethack moments
Kyle Silfer
where several disparate elements--creatures, objects, forces--can interact in
a way that triggers a chain reaction of cause-and-effect. I've had a couple
of "Nethack moments" like that where the farsightedness of the DevTeam and
the depth of the Nethack microverse become apparent... but the experiences
were some time ago and for the life of me I can't bring them to the front of
my brain.
See, I am writing a "review" (of sorts) of Nethack and would like to use some
real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
interactions among several Nethack elements. Anyone? I know there must be
some good war stories out there. I have one I pulled from and old r.g.r.n
post (involving eating a chameleon on a fountain in Delphi and polymorphing
into a gremlin that multiplies into other gremlins who wander into more
fountains, etc.), but I'm looking for more. Any goodies you might have would
be gratefully received.
./k
Kyle Silfer
--
[Reign of Toads 87196-0498 USA ] ==oo==
[http://www.rtoads.com/hypertoad/ ] ==oo==
[in...@rtoads.com; subject: "subscribe" ] ==oo==
kiloclass
at work. Fire him.) to show me the situation he was in. We couldn't
stop laughing. He had a pet mountain nymph who had encountered a water
nymph in a dungeon room. The nymphs kept charming each other and
stealing a stupid dwarvish cloak back and forth from each other. My
friend's character also had an ice troll as a pet who stood by the
door, wandering around, and who would occasionally whack the nymph,
but then back off. I told my friend that his character could open up a
dungeon peep show, the troll could be the bouncer, and he could charge
admission to wandering bands of hill orcs.
kiloclass
Jeffrey Bay
>The thing that makes Nethack so impressive is its level of "deep simulation",
>where several disparate elements--creatures, objects, forces--can interact in
>a way that triggers a chain reaction of cause-and-effect. I've had a couple
>of "Nethack moments" like that where the farsightedness of the DevTeam and
>the depth of the Nethack microverse become apparent... but the experiences
>were some time ago and for the life of me I can't bring them to the front of
>my brain.
>
>real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
>some good war stories out there. I have one I pulled from and old r.g.r.n
>post (involving eating a chameleon on a fountain in Delphi and polymorphing
>into a gremlin that multiplies into other gremlins who wander into more
>fountains, etc.), but I'm looking for more. Any goodies you might have would
>be gratefully received.
>
Well, I had an interesting situation a day or two ago... I was playing along
with a new doppleganger, and stumbled into the town level. Just as I made it
into town, there were 2 dogs and a cat coming at me. Considering I had just
been through combat, I was running low on hit points and didn't want to fight
any of them. I threw a food ration to the first dog, who promptly turned and
bit the cat. (I was now out of food.) Thinking quickly, I stepped forward
beside the dog and waited. Sure enough, the dog killed the kitten just
as the second dog started to attack me. It got one attack on me, and then
I threw the kitten corpse to the second dog, and then proceeded to clean out
the entire set of shops, only to die a level later ;)
--
***** Jeff Bay ***** *------------->> jb...@rsn.hp.com <<--------------*
"Why are we here? | Where am I going, and what am |
because we're here." | I doing in this handbasket? |
-- Rush: Roll the Bones *------------->> jb...@rsn.hp.com <<--------------*
Netflyer
of interactions in Nethack invokes in the adventurer. From having 100 pet
gremlins, polymorphing into a female red dragon and laying 10 baby dragon
eggs that hatch and become your buddies, combining the luck of a full moon
with sacrifices to aquire great artifacts, the amount of monsters in the
game, the monsters that change to literally thousands of other monsters
while you hallucinate: pushme pullyou's for instance, to ripping off
shopkeepers, outsmarting nasty mind slayers, xenociding entire classes of
monsters, wishing for stuff (*grin*), eating royal jelly, getting
teleportitus, etc. etc. to say nothing of the dev. teams remarkable ability
to have the game play entirely differently for each character: given the
same set of external circumstances each character must react true to their
alignment or suffer the subtleties of luck, peturbing the diety, and other
consequences. Ever play on Friday the 13th? This game is more then a game,
it is like chess a classic strategic battle of wits that is never the same.
The best thing about Nethack is none of us have seen all that it has to
offer to that I am sure. I have played for over 13 years and still go away
smiling...
Netflyer
Bishop187
> Ever play on Friday the 13th?
Ever play on a full moon and friday the 13th? That is *the* YAFMC.
Bishop (not your average AOheLLer) (and proud of it)
~~Racism is being blind and thinking you can see...~~
Matt Ryan
baddies than I could handle or get away from, started reading
unidentified scrolls out of desperation, one turned out to be
Consecration. Most of the monsters proceeded to take three steps back,
giving me enough breathing room to pick them off one at a time.
Kyle- could you repost the gremlin story you mentioned you have?
-Matthew Ryan
mbr2@{nospam}world.std.com http://uhs.uchicago.edu/~matt/
================================ ====================================
Let us treat men and women well; If you dare to be who you truly want
treat them as if they were real. to be, you risk enjoying every day
Perhaps they are. --R.W.Emerson of your life. --Desmond Atholl
================================ ====================================
Miran Miksic
: See, I am writing a "review" (of sorts) of Nethack and would like to use some
: real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
: interactions among several Nethack elements. Anyone? I know there must be
: some good war stories out there. I have one I pulled from and old r.g.r.n
: post (involving eating a chameleon on a fountain in Delphi and polymorphing
: into a gremlin that multiplies into other gremlins who wander into more
: fountains, etc.), but I'm looking for more. Any goodies you might have would
: be gratefully received.
Indy-A was hacking happily down the Gnomish Mines, protected by his brand
new GDSM and followed by his faithful dog Fido. An unusual number of
strange monsters (peaceful enrergy vortex, f.e.), brought him to an idea
that a polymorph trap could be hidden somewhere on the level. Indeed, after
a little bit of searching, the location of that strange magic device has been
found. Indy thought that a little exercise with his Fido could be a good idea.
After hundreds of turns, Indy was a proud owner of Fido the large kobold, when
a beautiful mountain nymph came around. Indy didn't want to give her all of
his hard earned armor, so he started moving back while she was approaching.
That wise sexy creature stepped on the trap and turned immedietely into ---
a balrog (good job, RNG *^&%*$&%$*). Indy realized pretty quickly that it was
time to go. Luckily one of unidentified wands in his inventory was a fully
charged wand of teleportation, which helped keeping that nasty demon at safe
distance while running as wild towards nearest stairs. Indy proceeded further
down to the bottom level, picked up the luckstone and started climbing up
with an unpleasant feeling in his throat. But, the fortune smiled at him
that time and sent in a chicken that was so kind to leave a corpse. Soon
afterwards, the balrog was history and Indy continued his struggle through
the Dungeons with his faithful pal Fido the Vampire Lord...
EPILOG: Indy died a looong time after that ecounter, killed by Death on the
Astral Plane...
--
Miran
Miran Miksic
: See, I am writing a "review" (of sorts) of Nethack and would like to use some
: real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
: interactions among several Nethack elements. Anyone? I know there must be
: some good war stories out there. I have one I pulled from and old r.g.r.n
: post (involving eating a chameleon on a fountain in Delphi and polymorphing
: into a gremlin that multiplies into other gremlins who wander into more
: fountains, etc.), but I'm looking for more. Any goodies you might have would
: be gratefully received.
Once I arived at the Astral Plane with an unused wand of wishing(3). I've
locked all the doors, wished for seven (7!) Archons and teleported tham into
those 3 high altar areas. Then I put my blindfold on watching how the number
of creatures on the level rapidily decreases...
--
Miran
Kyle Silfer
>Kyle- could you repost the gremlin story you mentioned you have?
Here it is. Thanks to all who have posted, BTW. If I use your anecdote I will
let ya know.
Repost follows:
From: gdo...@primenet.com (Stephen Searle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack
Subject: You gotta love the detail in this game!
Date: 3 Oct 1997 05:18:03 GMT
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Xref: sloth.swcp.com rec.games.roguelike.nethack:50051
The attention to detail in Nethack sometimes amazes me!
[possible spoilers]
A week or so ago, my character had just ducked into Delphi in order to
dip some cursed armour into a fountain and hopefully remove the curse.
A monster followed me in, it was a jackal I think. I waited until it moved
next to me before clobbering it. It left a corpse, so I moved on top of it
to eat it.
Here is where the fun starts...
In my haste to eat the corpse, I failed to notice that it was not a
jackal but a chameleon who was just pretending to be a jackal.
Upon gobbling the chameleon corpse, I was promptly polymorphed into
a gremlin.
Of course, as I was in Delphi, I just happened to be standing on top
of a fountain and I instantly multiplied to get a tame gremlin for a pet.
This tame gremlin promptly wandered over to another fountain in Delphi -
and several turns later I had a whole army of gremlins following me!
The attention to detail in Nethack is fantastic - when little intricacies
of the game combine in such a cause-and-effect manner, I am amazed!
Hearty thanks to the DevTeam and anyone else who has ever played a hand
in forming Nethack!
-SJS
(return address is a spammer)
Roger Carbol
> See, I am writing a "review" (of sorts) of Nethack and would like to use some
> real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
> interactions among several Nethack elements.
I always kinda liked the message when you're a gargoyle (for example)
fighting Medusa:
"Medusa looks at you! So what?"
(at least that's the message as I recall it)
.. Roger Carbol .. r...@shaw.wave.ca .. how cool is that
Jeffrey Bay
Matt Ryan <mbr2@{nospam}world.std.com> wrote:
>I stepped on a magic trap in the mines, which mass-summoned many more
>baddies than I could handle or get away from, started reading
>unidentified scrolls out of desperation, one turned out to be
>Consecration. Most of the monsters proceeded to take three steps back,
>giving me enough breathing room to pick them off one at a time.
>
What is a scroll of Consecration? What version are you playing? I've never
heard of such a thing in nethack, though I have heard that it exists
in other roguelike games...
--
***** Jeff Bay ***** *------------->> jb...@rsn.hp.com <<--------------*
"Why are we here? | But the world is the world is what you make of |
because we're here." | it makes of you. -- bill bill wetware com |
Matt Ryan
Jeffrey Bay <jb...@convex.hp.com> wrote:
>In article <Eynu2...@world.std.com>,
>Matt Ryan <mbr2@{nospam}world.std.com> wrote:
>>I stepped on a magic trap in the mines, which mass-summoned many more
>>baddies than I could handle or get away from, started reading
>>unidentified scrolls out of desperation, one turned out to be
>>Consecration. Most of the monsters proceeded to take three steps back,
>>giving me enough breathing room to pick them off one at a time.
>
>What is a scroll of Consecration? What version are you playing? I've never
>heard of such a thing in nethack, though I have heard that it exists
>in other roguelike games...
Ah, it didn't occur to me that that would be specific to my odd
version. I'm playing NH:TNG.
Aaron
1)
A lowly caveman on level 2, reads an unidentified scroll which
turns out to be punishment.
After a initial curse, I pick it up, and figure I can whack a
monster or two with it.
Take one step, and fall down a pit...
Ahhh....
Fall three levels, and land ... on another pit!
Ahhh....
Fall one more levels.
Take two steps, and hit yet _another_ pit!
Now, I'm a level 2 caveman, with an iron ball on his leg,
on level 8 of the dungeon.
Try to find the stairs up, and get confronted by a giant
beetle.
I go to read a second unided scroll, hopeing for teleport or
scare monster or the like... Type the wrong letter, and read
a second scroll of punishment...
The iron ball gets even heavier! The beetle closes in.
Read the correct scroll... and my iron ball glows brightly.
With my newly juiced ball-o-death, I actually killed the
beetle!
Dunno what two punishment scrolls and an enchant weapon
scroll did to the iron ball, but I was much too low a level to
be killing giant beetles. =)
Needless to say, I eventually managed to rush back up to
a respectable dungeon level, and gain 4 levels of
experience in the process.
I took the stairs down after that.
2)
The 2nd event came while attempting a 'athiest' ascension
a rogue named Heathen. No praying, no using holy water,
no using altars for anything (including learning bless/curse
status), no sacrificing, et al.
Got all the way up to the astral plane, found the right
altar, then realized that sacrificing the amulet would
violate my restrictions...
Unsure what to do, I went and sacrificed the amulet to
a different god, just to spite the other guy.
I didn't ascend, but it was one of the niftier high score
entries. =)
3)
A valkyrie had made it down to the the Inner Sanctum, when
Rodney mobbed me.
Already were various undead moving in... then the Wiz
double troubled, then both of them called in some pets...
_numerous times_!
Surrounded by death, and losing hitpoints quickly, with
a sudden hoard of nasties between me and any kind of
reprieve, I suddenly got swallowed by a purple worm.
Sad part was, I was losing hitpoints much slower inside
the worm's digestive tract, so I figured it was safer in
there. Used a wand of teleport on it, and kept zapping
the worm, with myself inside its tummy, around the level,
until I ended up in spot that looked like it was close
to the stairs up (took a while). Then I used a wand of
digging to get out, and fled like a little baby up the
stairs to recuperate.
A
Gabriele Neukam
>>From: "Netflyer" <pu...@logic.com>
>
>> Ever play on Friday the 13th?
>
>Ever play on a full moon and friday the 13th? That is *the* YAFMC.
>Bishop (not your average AOheLLer) (and proud of it)
>
Wasn't it in late last year one could see this combination on the
screen (I was quite embarassed - did this mean, the luck would be
calculated down and up again for every event that would be happening
in the game?)...
And some months ago, I had the message:
"You smile at the newt seductively" -more-
"You destroy the newt!"
(Being polymorphed into an Incubus, a really interesting experience.
Of course, soon after this another YASD occurred).
Gabriele Neukam
Ulrich M. Schwarz
>In article <Eynu2...@world.std.com>,
>Matt Ryan <mbr2@{nospam}world.std.com> wrote:
>>I stepped on a magic trap in the mines, which mass-summoned many more
>>baddies than I could handle or get away from, started reading
>>unidentified scrolls out of desperation, one turned out to be
>>Consecration. Most of the monsters proceeded to take three steps back,
>>giving me enough breathing room to pick them off one at a time.
>>
>
>What is a scroll of Consecration? What version are you playing? I've never
>heard of such a thing in nethack, though I have heard that it exists
>in other roguelike games...
>
Sounds like a new name for scare monster, from the effect.
>
>
>--
>***** Jeff Bay ***** *------------->> jb...@rsn.hp.com <<--------------*
>"Why are we here? | But the world is the world is what you make of |
> because we're here." | it makes of you. -- bill bill wetware com |
>-- Rush: Roll the Bones *------------->> jb...@rsn.hp.com <<--------------*
Ulrich M. Schwarz .oOo. usch...@NOSPAM.nwn.de
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/smiley/574
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than you should remember and be sad.
Elisabeth Anne Riba
>See, I am writing a "review" (of sorts) of Nethack and would like to use some
>real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
>interactions among several Nethack elements. Anyone? I know there must be
My fiance and I are both Nethack addicts.
Once, while playing on the mainframe, I ran into one of his ghosts.
Somehow, I found it quite amusing for Nethack to keep sending me messages:
"Ian touches you. Ian touches you."
Especially, since that was the ghost of an archaeologist -- wearing
leather and wielding a whip. :)
--
-------------------> Elisabeth Anne Riba * l...@netcom.com <-------------------
"Love wouldn't be blind if the braille weren't so damned much fun."
- Armistead Maupin, "Maybe the Moon"
Manzilla
which I couldn't hit without a plus weapon, I got the idea to pull off my +2
iron boots and whack my way out with them! Saved my life for a while anyway.
Manzilla
9605...@my-dejanews.com
genocide....
You have found a scroll of genocide! --More--
What kind of monster do you want to genocide (type the name)? wizards
Wiped out all wizards. --More--
You die. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 zorkmids.
Now _THAT_ was funny!
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Dylan O'Donnell
> beat a shade to death with a silver ring...
_A_ shade? It was seven of them! (Miika Warsell, posting in August last
year. Sascha, somehow this post from Aero has escaped your "nethack fun"
compilation (unless he asked for it not to be republished, in which case
my apologies). It's one of my favourites:
Subject: Question about wizard level
From: Aero <ae...@clark.net>
Date: 8 Aug 1997
In article <5sfi07$1ka$1...@news.clinet.fi>,
Miika Warsell <war...@bizar.dystopia.fi> wrote:
[[ snip - D.O'D. ]]
>BTW, killed seven shades with a silver ring. Brave lass. ;)
I'd say! I can hear the dialogue now...
V: "I want you to imagine that I have the blessed +7 Grayswandir in my hand."
Shade: <silence>
V: "Um, okay. I want you to imagine that I have a perfectly ordinary silver
saber in my hand."
Shade: <silence>
V: "Undead have no imagination." (V pokes the shade with the ring)
Shade: >SIZZLE<
I suppose that in a pinch, you could always wield the Bell of Opening and
whack them over the head with it, since it's made of silver as well...
Isabel, crunched in the head by an iron ball.
--
----------
<ae...@clark.net> -- Public key and Geek Code available by finger -l.
Unsolicited commercial e-mail will be proofread with the help of the mailer,
the mailer's postmaster, and if necessary, their upstream provider(s).
(I've still got a bracket open, right? Better close it.))
--
: Dylan O'Donnell : "No more will I go to Blandford Forum :
: Demon Internet Ltd : and Mortehoe, / On the slow train, :
: Southend slave deck : from Midsomer Norton and Mumby Road..." :
: http://www.fysh.org/~psmith/ : -- Michael Flanders, "The Slow Train" :
Miikka S Taponen
>>See, I am writing a "review" (of sorts) of Nethack and would like to use some
>>real-world examples of particularly clever or funny or complicated
>>interactions among several Nethack elements. Anyone? I know there must be
The following just happened to me. I'd consider it a cool Nethack
moment. (Sorry for length!)
Chapter I:
Egar-W finds an armor store on the 4th level. A leprechaun has just
stole most of his gold, but he is carrying a dwarvish cloak and some
other goodies that can be sold. After trying on some cheaper boots he
runs into a more expensive pair. "Mmm, these must be good, I must
try'em on!", he thinks. A few seconds later he finds himself floating
well above the ground. The boots won't come off. Thoth might help. But
wait! Egar just prayed for food. No, that won't do. The wizard checks
his inventory to see - a wand of cancellation. Yes! Egar drops all the
stuff he does not want to cancel, including a bunch of potions that
shatter. Whoops. Finally zapping the wand uncurses the levitation
boots. However, the shopkeeper insists that Egar pay for the boots
that were cancelled. Still that does not make them his. "Unfair", he
thinks while paying. Still there are interesting gauntlets in the
shop. Egar does not have money even close to paying them, but hey, he
just wants to try them anyway. The first step wearing the pair
results into tripping on a helmet. And they're cursed too! Is this
bad luck or what? Hmm. Egar weighs his options which are not many.
Not enough money. No scrolls of enchant or destoy armor. He decides
to try praying, but Thoth gets pissed. The trick with the wand just
might work. He has to sell all his armor and weapons, including the
cloak of magic resistance and the +1 athame (well, it was rusty
anyway) in order to pay for the gauntlets, so he does. He tries to
buy the gauntlets, but his 80 zorkmids are not enough. Being aware of
the +1 ring of adornment in his backpack he still hopes for the best
and zaps the wand. Now the gauntlets come off and the ring can be put
on. Apikalapi (?) demands 75 zorkmids and Egar is free to leave the
store!
Chapter II:
Having no weapons or armor Egar knows that the only chance to survive
is casting the spell of magic missile very cautiously and quickly
finding gold or stuff to sell in the store. And there is a leprechaun
with his gold on the level, too. At the door of the store there is an
incident with an iguana, which is solved by kicking. Not very much
later Egar runs into a Werejackal. He cunningly backs into a corridor
between two rooms. After the first magic missile the werejackal
summons some friends. Egar casts another magic missile and succeeds
in killing the werejackal and two beasts behind it. Having used all
his power he scrambles for the stairs down to an unknown level,
leaving behind 4 jackals. After a short and unsuccesful attempt to
find gold or goodies Egar runs into a hill orc in a corridor! Again,
knowing that those buggers come in numbers he heads for the corridor
that leads to the upstairs. He has only seen one of the orcs but is
sure there are more. Now he has enough power to cast magic missile
twice, which he does. Three hill orcs are downed, and Egar finds a
scimitar, crude dagger, a sling, and 2 orcish helms. The choice
between more orcs here or the jackals upstairs while having 5 hit
points and no power is obvious. The jackals upstairs are in a
corridor and can be taken out 1 by 1. Dagger skills save Egar this
time and give him some jackal meat to chow on. He makes it to the
store, sells weapons and is able to buy the athame back. After a few
more kills he has money to buy studded leather armor and elven boots.
Then he locates the leprechaun in an unmapped corridor along with a
hobbit an a gnome. Egar salutes them with some magic missiles, and
gets 320 zorkmids from the leprechaun. Then he is able to buy back
the cloak of magic resistance from Apikalapi. Now he is able to even
smile a bit and continue his journey for the mysterious amulet...
Epilogue:
Egar cleared the first level of gnomish mines, converted an altar on
the level below Apikalapi's store, sacrificed some hill orcs, and
got killed by a gnome mummy while fainted from lack of food. He might
still be working his way down had he not prayed when trying to get
rid of the cursed gauntlets.
--
* Miikka Taponen *
* JMT 3 B 242 * "I always shoot perfect from the line.
* 02150 Espoo * They just don't always go in."
* 09 - 468 2506 * -Shaquille "Diesel" O'neal
Kevin 'Evinrude' Bartlett
>Thanks to all who have posted, BTW. If I use your anecdote I will
>let ya know.
I posted the following in Oct 1997. I'm sorry it's a little long
winded, but I get that way sometimes...
-------
This is my first YASD post, but certainly not my first stupid
death...
The stage is set in minetown. Evinrude-V made a stop there on his
way back up after getting the luckstone. The temple was coaligned
and I had plenty of food, and so I got into the habit of sacrificing
just about everything I could. This habit later came back to haunt
me, but at first it was a good thing: my first boon was a blessed
Mjollnir (woo hoo!), and so I was itching to find some GoP. I had
come across a wand of polymorph in cleaning out the mines, and I had
several identified (and fairly useless) scrolls, wands, and potions,
and there were several types which I hadn't found yet and wanted to.
So, I took my BoH and collected all the possible items of interest
from all levels of the mines. I was able to collect a pretty
reasonable stash of armor, and several other likely candidates for
polymorph, and so I set up my poly-piles.
After the first zap, I was able to identify some GoP, as well as
speed boots, and so naturally I was pretty happy. There were also a
couple of helmets I wanted to identify, and neither was cursed, so I
wanted to just try them on. Well, the first was a helm of opposite
alignment. I had no holy water or ?oRC, and I wanted to avoid
angering the guards by dipping in the fountains, because I had
telepathy and my pet was invisible (the result of identifying a wand
that I had thought was teleport-- d'oh!). Well, it took me a while
remember that a wand of cancellation (I had one) will do in a pinch
for this situation, so I set about sorting through all the items I
had and deciding which I wanted to set aside, so they wouldn't get
cancelled, including plussed armor and such.
In the meantime, some large monster wandered in (not extremely
difficult to kill, just a nice sacrifice), so I dispatched it and
sacrificed it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my HoOA. My luck was
faily high, and the altar was converted to Lawful. Of course, the
priestess didn't like that, and she came after me. It's times like
this that I really love speed boots... Anyway, I was able to kill
her, partially because of speed, and partially because I had just
read a b?oConfMonster to identify it, and she got confused. So it
wasn't the end, but I did lose my telepathy. So from now on, you
must imagine me constantly stepping on my invisible pet (a large cat,
by now), every 20th move. That adds a bit of humor to the story...
I eventually removed all blessed and plussed items from my knapsack,
and zapped myself with the /oCancellation to get rid of the cursed
helmet. Whew. So I picked all my stuff back up, and searched around
for something I could kill which would convert the altar back to
neutral, which I eventually did. Then I tried on my second hat,
which (of course, cf. Murray) was a dunce cap. So I went through the
now-familiar rountine, and zapped myself with the /oC, and got it
off. So having identified all the armor items which interested me, I
returned to my original armor, intending to start another polypile.
Unfortunately, I only dropped the dunce cap in the pile, not the
HoOA, which ended up back on my head because it was earlier in my
inventory than my desired helmet (a blessed +4 iron helm I found).
D'oh!
So now, I try the cancellation again, except... it's out of charges.
I tried the trick of repeated zapping, and I "wrested another charge"
out of the wand. Except, all the wand did was glow and fade. My
office-mate suggested that I accidently hit ^A when it prompted me
for a direction, and so wasted the spell, but I thought I remembered
having to hit the space bar after the initial "you wrest another
charge" message. Does this not work for wands other than wishing, or
did I blow it somehow?
Anyway, in this whole process, another monster wandered in, and
giving further proof that my brains were addled at the time, I
sacrificed it on my recently re-converted-to-neutral altar, and
re-re-converted it to Lawful. D'oh-D'oh!! Man, I just could do
nothing right.
Anyway, I then had to figure out another way to get the curse off,
since the cancellation didn't work. Of course, I could have tried
dipping it in the fountains then, since I had already killed the
priestess and lost my telepathy, but no, I can't think of the _easy_
way... (*sigh*) Anyway, I searched through my poly-piles, hoping to
find a ?oRC. No luck, but there was a clear potion... So, in high
hopes I dropped it on the altar, hoping it was blessed, to no avail.
But then a thought occurred to me that I hadn't prayed in a long
time, and I could probably pray and have my deity bless the water.
Of course, not only did he bless the water, but he removed the curse
on my helmet, thus removing my need for holy water. But that's not
the clincher.
He crowned me the Hand of Elbereth.
I, as a neutral Valkyrie with a HoOA on, just got crowned as the Hand
of Elbereth. Which had me rather confused. Of course, it was a
_good_ thing, because now I could see my poor pet before I stepped on
him. But now I'm scared to remove my helm. What happens to my
status as the "blessed paragon of holiness" when I'm all of a sudden
neutral again? Does my deity get mad, or does the lawful deity get
mad? Or does no one care? Will I still get crowned the Envoy of
Balance eventually, or do I no longer have to worry about it? If I
remove the helm, will I lose my telepathy, and as a result,
eventually lose my invisible pet (in all likelihood)? How about the
other intrinsics, and the prayer timeout?
Well, eventually my curiosity got the best of me, and I removed my
helm. As far as I could tell, nothing happened. I could still see
my pet (when in range), and no bolts of lightning fried me. So I
went merrily on my way.
I just realized that the bulk of the stupidity in this post really
has nothing to do with the death. I was killed, not 100 turns after
this whole fiasco, by meeting some grey elves in a long hallway, one
of whom had a wand of sleep. I got slept once, and the first guy in
line pounded on me until I was down to about 1/2 my hp. Which was
rather odd, because I am used to being awakened by combat-- not so
this time... Anyway, when I awoke, I only had one turn before I got
zapped again (by an elf 3 or 4 squares down), and kicked the bucket.
It kinda sucked.
Anyway, does anyone have any insight into the whole Hand of Elbereth
thing? I suppose the same question comes up if a character is
crowned and _then_ puts on the HoOA. It's just a little weirder if
you're crowned when you're not your normal alignment. Well, ok:
_significantly_ weirder.
Kevinrude
Erik Andersson
>
> I just realized that the bulk of the stupidity in this post really
> has nothing to do with the death. I was killed, not 100 turns after
> this whole fiasco, by meeting some grey elves in a long hallway, one
> of whom had a wand of sleep. I got slept once, and the first guy in
> line pounded on me until I was down to about 1/2 my hp. Which was
> rather odd, because I am used to being awakened by combat-- not so
> this time... Anyway, when I awoke, I only had one turn before I got
> zapped again (by an elf 3 or 4 squares down), and kicked the bucket.
> It kinda sucked.
>
> Anyway, does anyone have any insight into the whole Hand of Elbereth
> thing? I suppose the same question comes up if a character is
> crowned and _then_ puts on the HoOA. It's just a little weirder if
> you're crowned when you're not your normal alignment. Well, ok:
> _significantly_ weirder.
>
> Kevinrude
I'm suffering the dillusion that crowning is supposed to grant
sleep-res! So you couldn't really BE crowned then, am I right? Though
your telepathy seemed to remain - fishy.
What's your ver on THE GAME? There always seem to be code-wrestlers
longing to solve puzzles such as this one!
erik
Herbert Xu
>
> I'm suffering the dillusion that crowning is supposed to grant
> sleep-res! So you couldn't really BE crowned then, am I right? Though
> your telepathy seemed to remain - fishy.
No, crowning does not grant sleep resistance.
--
Debian GNU/Linux 2.0 is out! ( http://www.debian.org/ )
Email: Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <her...@gondor.apana.org.au>
Home Page: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/
PGP Key: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/pubkey.txt
jdwe...@nospaminficad.com
dlevel 10, armed with the blessed Orcrist. Entering a new room, he
steps on a poly trap, and becomes...Zufnail the Freezing !@#& Sphere!
And, of course, "You find you are forced to drop your weapon!"
Zufnail is now on dlevel 10 with 20 hp, naked, and without hands to
hold a weapon with. But what's this? A second poly trap in the same
room? _Anything_ must be better than a freezing sphere... He steps
on it and shudders violently. Nothing else.
A barrow wight enters the room. "The barrow wight picks up
the blessed Orcrist. The barrow wight wields the blessed Orcrist!"
I'm dead now, say I, may as well charge him, as he'll kill me
anyway... But amazingly, he doesn't. "You hit the barrow wight! You
explode!" And I'm back to human form, still naked, but with a spare
weapon in my pack...and I made it out of there. (Zufnail later bit it
when he stepped on a sleep trap and a mumak came over and stomped him
while he was asleep.)
JD
When steganography is outlawed, only steganographers
will...oh, look, a picture of a duckie.
Gabriele Neukam
> (Zufnail later bit it
>when he stepped on a sleep trap and a mumak came over and stomped him
>while he was asleep.)
>
Poor guy. Next time eat an elf first, this made me "feel wide awake".
Gabriele Neukam