The long winded life of Kremlen, the High Elf Ranger.

[buzzkill]

Suggestions for improvement implemented in parts two and three...

DL19. CL14. Day 2, 13:33:17 - Arrived at a 'not very interesting/not very threatening' level. Descended into a lit, column filled room with an unknown scroll (of trap creation, squelched) just lying on the floor. Detect traps revealed nothing. Detect treasure showed just a couple of unknown mushrooms and a flail. I headed north, since everything lie to the north. Dropped a novice rogue and he dropped a shield. Found ID'd and ignored the 15 pound flail. Destroyed the recently acquired shield and picked up and stowed a mushroom of emergency. I found the last mushroom, of pot luck, and having a full pack, I ate it. It slowed me, I hope it doesn't last too long. I was still slowed when a brownie appeared, so I blinked away. A short time later, after a second escape blink, I resumed normal speed, and the brownie assumed room temperature. Detect animal showed light hounds to the west, so I turned about and headed back east (In retrospect, I forgot I had innate resist light). Spotted a sleeping umber hulk and took it out for CL15, max HP 134, max SP 23. As I moved further east I found a baby dragon blocking my path. I killed it and was rewarded with ~400 GP.

Wandering for a bit, bored, I finally came across a room of hill orcs and maybe some others too. I couldn't see very well in the dark. I blinked and fled, with one or two orcs on my tail. After finding the stairs and killing my lone pursuer, I was feeling frisky and unfulfilled, so I headed back to whack some more orc. I ate the mushroom of extreme irritability and went at 'em. They beat me around a bit, but nothing I couldn't handle, and in the end they all died. I did have to use a couple of CSW's and my wand of stinking cloud. Oops, I may have spoken too soon. During my clean up effort in which I was recovering my ammo and treasures I ran into and killed quite a few more orcs. While I was cleaning up that mess, who came to greet me but Radbug himself. I was certain that the cowardly Radbug had sent every orc he had at me before confronting me himself because he appeared to be alone. I had no potions of speed, only a couple of phase door, and was low on mana but decided to take a shot at him anyhow. The worst that could happen it that I would have to bail. Since he we all up in my face, I started out with a blink and a brief retreat to regen a little mana and HP. By the time he had closed on me, I had hit him with two shots dropping his life force by 40%. He also received an arrow in the back courtesy of one of his remaining companions. Apparently they are none to happy with the antics of their leader. I blinked again, and unexpectedly landed surrounded by hill orcs. There are obviously many more orcs remaining than I had anticipated. A phase, then another blink put me back into the well traversed corridor leading to the stairs. I used my staff of sleep monsters to halt my pursuers. On the way to the stairs I had to beat a swordsman to death, not an easy task for me. He dropped a junk sword, and a large chest. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, after finding and disarming the multiple traps, I found that it too held nothing but junk. I reached the stairs and rested up, all the way up, then went back for more.

Soon three more orcs were dead, and I picked up another mushroom of emergency. Not much later four more were dead, and another charge of sleep monsters used. At this point I was also beating back a clear worm mass that kept infiltrating my battlefield. More time passed, more orcs died and then Radbug showed his ugly face again, urging on his troops from the rear, sometimes shooting at them, no doubt for inspiration. Two more minions died and then he and I were face to face once again, this time he with only 30% life remaining. I delivered two blows with my scimitar and a shot in the rear ended his life. He dropped nothing more than copper and a shroom of first sight and second thoughts. As I was cleaning up once again, I tripped over a hill orc still asleep in the hallway. I tried to explain to him that I had slain the evil Radbug and that he was now free, but he wouldn't listen and inexplicably died somehow (ahem). I made back to the stairs, no problem. Feeling fine, going down.

DL20. CL14. Day 2, 17:33:47 - Having made it to dungeon level 20, I thought that this might be a good time to recap. My max HP's is 134, and SP's 23. Current AC is 34. My primary weapon is a scimitar (+3,+6) that delivers 1 blow/15 per blow. My current and arguably my best missile launcher is my sling (+5,+7) and combined with by best shots (+6,+5) it will deliver 25.3 per hit. I've got acid and fire resists covered with a swap to cover electricity and a native resistance to light. I also wear an amulet of alertness (+3). My most often used spell is 'detect animal', followed closely by 'blink'. There's a link to this character's dump in the first post of this thread.

This level is 'not interesting/rather safe'. I dropped into a wide passage, an intersection perhaps. DTraps revealed a tight cluster to the south, probably worth looking into. DTreasure confirmed this, but revealed nothing particularly tasty. DAnimal showed a pack of sleeping cold hounds (my lone missing basic resist) to the south-west, and a warhorse, but not much else. Since the rest of the dungeon looks entirely devoid of anything I'm going to head south and see what happens. I very quickly realized that it's a pit-type room, probably a checkerboard. Not wanting to waste time looking for a door, I used my STM to carve an entrance next to the nearest treasure, a dagger. Great, the first thing that I see, before I even get to the dagger is a hobglib, asleep. Lucky for me that the room was well lit. My spidey sense told me to get the hell out of there, but greed reared it's ugly head. There was a tight cluster of four items that I just had to have.

I grabbed the (useless) dagger, but then a merret (which I detected but assumed was sleeping) was upon me. I didn't know much about it other than it moves very quickly and that I don't. My fear, as it turns out, was well justified. Though I blinked away, it was on me again in an instant and I was 74/134 HP before it was dead. I quaffed a CSW and headed back. I read a scroll of holy chant, not only to make room in my pack, but I thought it might help with my saving throw should the still sleeping hobglib awake. Needing more room and to lighten up a bit, I dropped the moderately useful staff of light and picked up a rusty old sabre and a oddly cold javelin. Just one treasure left to get, just 10' away, but the warhorse was staring at me, looking upset at my presence. I could tell that he would move very quickly, and my battle with the merret had been a lesson to me. I used my staff of sleep monsters to put him to rest and grabbed the phoenix feather wand which turned out to be confuse monster, not worthless in DaJ. I blinked, so I could escape quickly, and ended up in the 'moat' and picked up a pair of gloves. I left the moat and headed back to where I started and came across some black ogres. I killed one with the wand of confuse monster and was working on the second when the door to the checkerboard pit bust open. I didn't want to know what might be coming for me and decided to TL and sank through the floor.

DL21. CL15. Day 2, 17:47:53 - I found myself in a north-south corridor with three doors, west, north and east, just 10' to the north of me. The usual detects showed, quite alarmingly, a pack of dark hound and wood spiders just beyond the doors, not much else. I took a step to the south and since none of the doors had busted open yet, decided to learn to spell 'find traps/doors' (9% fail). Casting it achieved CL16, HP 141, SP 25, but didn't find me any stairs so I headed for the trap door to the west instead. A wand of light would really come in handy. I'm tired of fighting in unlit passageways. I never did make any westward progress. The passage turned to the east and eventually I was breathed upon and blinded. I used my staff of sleep monsters to neutralize the hounds and a CSW to regain my sight. I continued east until I reached a room. I lit the room, careful not to wake the sleeping stegocentipede, then continued further east exiting the room and closing the door behind me. I made a right turn, heading north and ran into a grim. It, boosted my confidence by dying quickly.

Just to the north, I lit a room and awoke the baby gray dragon within. I took it on, not fearing much and then it breathed and blinded me. I quaffed CSW, and when it happened again and I realized it wasn't the dragon breathing darkness, it was the dark hounds. They had found me. Despite my faux-pas, I was still in pretty good shape. I retreated and the dragon followed and died. I quaffed a CSW (to heal the graze) and waited to see what would happen next. Of course nothing happened. They were hound and I was standing in a hallway. As I retreated, one stuck it's head around the corner and I nailed him and sent it fleeing. Detect animal revealed he was alone so I gave chase and it soon died. Moving further north I found another (ugh) 5x20 room. There was a ordinary war hammer lying in the moat on the far side so I proceeded in that direction and secured it.

Not much inspiration on this level so I headed toward the quartz vein. My attempt was in vain as it was imprisoned in granite. I killed a few dark hounds as I forged a new route back to where I started from. I don't know why I was so afraid of them. I decided to learn the spell 'bug spray' just in case I needed it while dealing with the spiders. I tried using the 'bug spray' just for fun. It's pretty cool. It's got a big area of effect, but not quite strong enough to kill these spiders. Found a dull dagger. Moving to the west now, as I originally intended so long ago, I came to a large room containing a large wooden chest. The chest held my 3rd spell book 'Gifts of Nature', which contains the spell 'detect life' which I wasted no time in learning. It cost 5x the mana but it's undeniably more useful than 'detect animal'. This dungeon level seems useless, so I'm taking the trap door down. Wheee!

[buzzkill]

DL22. CL16. Day 2, 18:35:36 - Landed in a twisting passage on this 'fun' level. The usual detects showed mundane stuff. I'm heading off in the direction of the unknown ring to the north-east. I ran into a rabid wolf. It didn't look too tough but I didn't know it could drain strength. It can and did, but just a single point (STR 14). Woo hoo. I made it to the ring of FREE ACTION and feel a little better about my kit now. A mirkwood spider attacked and died but not before it poisoned me. The poison was very persistent, so I eventually quaffed my last CSW to cure it. Avoiding the rest of the spiders, I headed back west, toward the previously detected treasures. I found a deathly cold war hammer in a little treasure room. I keep hearing doors burst open but haven't divined the cause yet. I found the stairs but felt that I hadn't accomplished much on this level. Casting 'detect life' for the first time led me to believe that nothing I encountered here would be much of a threat, so I headed off in search of the large wooden chest.

Wandered into a room full of sleeping rothe and lemures. I killed a couple, but left most unscathed. A zhelung gave me big troubles. I ended up using both of my potions of neutralize poison, and all my mana to kill it. Feeling beaten down, I rested up to full health. I found a rubble filled room, an ancient vault maybe, and used my last charge of detect treasures to see what I could find. An unknown rod drew my attention so I STMudded my way in and was greeted my a stream of hapless novice priests. One of them dropped a squelched amulet of teleportation. An illusionist 'feared' me, so I killed him point-blank with my sling. When I finally breached the entrance I was greeted by a napping Sangahyando of Umbar, and a statue of Dirin the First. I still don't know what statues 'do' in DaJ other than sometimes block LoS. Sang awoke quickly. I tried to sleep him, but he was immune (of course he was, he just woke up). I tried to frighten him but he resisted. I didn't really want to fight him. I just wanted that rod so I blinked away. I landed to the west which is where I wanted to be, but that brought a few 'really mean firepower mercenaries' into view. I slept them all, not wanting to find out how they got that name, but then a few more came into view as Sang approached from the rear. To make matters worse, one of the mercenaries I put to sleep was standing on the rod I wanted. I came to the conclusion that this is a no win situation and TL'd the hell outta there. I sank through the floor.

DL23. CL16. Day 2, 20:34:04 - Arrived in an unlit room, but not for long. Picked up the spotted mushroom off the floor and added it to the already unknown mushroom in my pack. I'm all out of ID at this point, so ID by use may come into play though I'd really hate to do that with shrooms. I'm centrally located on the map and have exits to west, north and east. The usual detects don't yield much, and I'm all out of detect treasure, so I flip a coin and head east. It's not long before I hear a door burst open and decide, despite low mana (10), to detect doors/stairs. The only broken doors seem to be to the east, so I turn and head south into a dead end. I turn and head north, but it's another dead end, so I turn east, determined to conquer whatever the RNG has in store for me.

I shortly reached the first busted door without incident. Given another opportunity to do so, I turned south, but the passage quickly turned, heading dead east again. A fire vortex appeared behind me, it's flames making it plainly visible even in the darkened corridor. Two shots brought it down, but not before it breathed (?) fire twice. Luckily, my resist was strong, and nothing was destroyed. I found and read a scroll of monster confusion. We'll have to wait and see who the lucky monster is. I came to a large room containing an unknown potion and a great statue of King Theoden of Rohan. An ogre died, confused. I came across and disposed of a baby green dragon. The dragons lair seemed to occupy the north-east corner of the map so I turned and headed back west through uncharted territory. I almost bumped into a centaur barbarian. Now this guy could kick my butt in a straight up fight, so I was going to hope that he was alone, then I was going to have to get creative. My first thought was to confuse him, which failed. He attacked ruthlessly and brought me down to 118 HP. I was just inside of a large lit room, so I blinked, hoping to stay there, and I did. He advanced and I hit him with the confusion again. This time it worked. I shot him a few times, struck him a few times, and kicked him a few times after he was dead just to make sure.

It's worth noting here that my sling ammo is running dangerously low (7). In a room to the south I grabbed a scroll of TL. Finding good stuff is all the more satisfying when it's not previously detected. I encountered a raven and a guardian naga holding hands. The raven attacked me, but the naga seemed unaware and I wanted to keep it that way so I blinked. The raven soon caught up with me and died. Finding myself back where I started, I took off to the west, and soon found a mushroom buried under a pile of rubble. There was a giant beetle which I avoided and then STMined 266 GP. Finding myself at a dead end and my mana nearly recovered, I cast detect traps/doors/stairs again and it revealed several staircases nearby. I grabbed a dagger off the floor and hit the nearest staircase. I then wandered from the stairs, which proved to be a mistake. I was attacked by dark hounds which in and of itself wasn't a problem, but while blinded a hooded shade snuck up on me. I blinked a couple of times, downing a CCW and my mushroom of 'first sight and second thoughts' along the way, and finally got my ass back to the stairs. Killing a dark hound brought about CL17, max HP 144, max SP 26. Badly beaten (84), down the stairs I go.

DL24. CL17. Day 2, 21:53:52 - Popped into a dark room containing a brite sprite. The sprite died and I lit the room to reveal a pile of GP. I squished a acid vortex but not before it damaged my cap (2,+5), AC 33. Took down a brigand and hack-n-backed a stone golem. Wandered, not finding much of anything until I came across the stairs, a rod of illumination, and ring mail. I needed pack space so I quaffed an unknown potion of restore sneakiness, returning my dexterity to it's maximum (17). My first sight and second thoughts wore off and I took the stairs. Movin' on down the stairs.

DL25. CL17. Day 2, 22:33:26 - Dropped into a fight. Took out the novice ranger at distance as the orc shaman closed on me. He too dropped a moment later. As I picked up the rangers GP drop, I was attacked by a mage who dropped an unknown staff, but my pack was full, and a quick moving dark elf druid now crowded my personal space. I destroyed my staff of detect traps (1 charge) having already used it on this level, and grabbed the wych elm staff from the floor, and blinked away. I was close to, so I headed for the dead orc's loot. I almost had it when the druid caught up with me.

I was unable to activate my staff of sleep monsters which gave the druid time to summon a black dwarf grag. My second attempt at activation went better, but this druid can't be slept. One turn later I learned he can't be confused either. I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't have enough ammo to take him down, so I blinked away and tried my unknown wych elm staff to no noticeable effect. Another novice mage had now joined the battle. I took on the mage and sent it fleeing. The druid took advantage, hitting me hard, dropping my HP by one-third (95/144). Teleport level dragged me through the floor. Oh my!

[will_asher]

Statues do nothing except add flavour, get in the way, and sometimes block line of sight. In later versions, there will be certain monsters which can mimmic statues.

Dark elven druids are tough for their level and native to L25.

This story of the game is interesting, thanks for writing

[buzzkill]

DL26. CL17. Day 2, 22:39:58 - Arrived in plus shaped room, no obvious exits. Rested up, and discovered that both my wych elm staff and ring mail were cursed. I tried using the staff again, still no effect. Detecting traps and doors revealed both the exit and a staircase. The path led straight north for several 100 feet, and continued further but I was distracted by a door leading west toward the stairs. It open into a room containing another amulet of alertness and a glass cat. The cat was unaware of me and the amulet probably wasn't any better than the one I already had so I exited to the south and secured the stairs. Suspecting that my mystery wych elm staff might be remove curse, I wielded the unknown dagger in my pack but alas, it's not deathly cold. I once again didn't really know what to do. I hate it when the game devolves to this. I wasn't in a great hurry to get deeper and I hadn't explored much of this level but didn't want to waste time just wandering without purpose.

Casting detect life revealed a short lived novice archer sneaking up on me but more interesting was Lotho-Sackville Baggins off to the west. I headed toward him. As I moved through the twisting corridors in search of Lotho, that dagger I was examining earlier pseudoed as excellent and was thus wielded. I turned at an intersection, heading north now, and shutting the door behind me. Something began to pelt me with minimal-damage fire. I advance toward it getting hit a bunch of times before a WoR was destroyed. It turned out to be a red dragon bat and it destroyed another WoR, leaving me with just one, and a TL before it died. The un-ID'd dagger was less than spectacular in it's combat debut. I found Lotho sleeping peacefully. I woke him with a shot to the head, and suspected that he may be a thief, so I confused him just to be safe. I didn't want him nabbing my last WoR. He dropped a fairly ordinary pike and once again I was less than impressed with the performance of my dagger. Tired of screwing around, I grabbed the CCW off the floor and read WoR. Yanky, yanky.

Town. CL17. Day 2, 23:29:32 - 8049 GP. I dropped my sling at home and grabbed my short bow and enchanted it up to (+5,+5), 13.1 dam per hit with average arrows. I dropped my wych elm staff of detect invisible and my 2 mushrooms of emergency at home. I dropped my dagger of slay dragons/giants as it's damage output was inferior to my standard scimitar in every situation. I bought 5 detect treasure, 5 WoR and 20 ID. ID'd a spotted mushroom of fast attacks, a wrinkled mushroom of sneakiness, and a glowing mushroom of good mood, squelched. ID'd and dropped the light crossbow from my home. I got 5 CCW's from the temple, bringing my total to 10. There wasn't much at the BM, so I picked up 5 more TL's. I had some cash left over and although I didn't need it, I bought a wand of magic missiles so I could learn the flavor. I restocked my arrows, refueled my lamp, quaffed 5 pints of wine (hic) and read deep descent. 3000 GP remaining.

DL27. CL17. Day 3, 0:17:41 - The RNG was kind landing me in a dead end corridor. Detect doors/stairs/traps reveals a door at my back and stairs to the north and west. Detect treasure showed two unknown scrolls and an amulet. Detect animal indicated no threats. I headed to the north and used my STM to secure the stairs. While making my way to the amulet, I encountered a sleeping white gnome. I ate my mushroom of sneakiness and crossed my fingers. The amulet looked pretty but was otherwise useless. I snuck past a troll skeleton and secured a scroll of recharging. Eventually the skeleton woke up, my sneakiness wore off, so I killed him and his brother. I ventured back to the stairs killing a few hill orcs along the way. On route to securing the other scroll (of satisfy hunger) I destroyed a few mordor orcs and then a few more with my mushroom of fast attacks. I took the other stairs low on HP (49).

DL28. CL17. Day 3, 1:27:51 - Dropped into an unlit room. I was hoping for a better starting location, but no, so I quaffed a CCW leaving me with 6. Lit the room to find a griffon and a red mold. Killed the griffon. Rested and cast 'natural vitality' to speed the process. Detecting TDS was a waste. I followed a passage far to the north and found a room containing two sets of stairs. Detect treasure shows two unknown staffs and a wand. I decided to stick around and headed due west toward the objects. As I drew near, a two cold hounds appeared. I dropped the first and nailed CL18, HP 157, SP 28. The second fell easily and detect animal showed that the third was the last of them. The first staff was magic mapping. I squelched the wand of clone monster. I got very close to the second staff when the vasp woke up. The next thing I know there are three of them and half my HP's are missing. I read TL and sank through the floor. The RNG must have great confidence in me as it drags me deeper into the dungeon every chance it gets.

DL29. CL18. Day 3, 2:08:23 - I found myself self surrounded by bees. I tried to cast bug spray but it failed. I blinked, but that only bought me a turn. I used it to neutralize poison, the poison inflicted by the vasps. Now the bees were poisoning me. I beat them back with my scimitar and eventually caught a break with only 28 HP remaining. A CCW brought me up to 63. Detect animal showed 19 bees remaining, luckily most asleep. I was ready to move on down the road, but I hadn't taken more than a step when the black knight showed up. He was already upon me. I had to TL. I sank through the floor, who would have guessed it.

[buzzkill]

DL30. CL18. Day 3, 2:11:13 - I was planning another recap for DL30, as I did for DL20, but it turns out that it's not really necessary. I have a ring of free action now. That's about all that has changed. I dropped into the center of an unlit room. Quaffed a CCW to get my HP up to 102. I grabbed the diamonds and sought to avoid the unaware dark elf ranger. I made it to a door, opened it, stepped through, and closed it. I used my staff of MM and headed for the nearby stairs. I though I was home free when the black eye blinded and confused me. It died soon enough costing me only a CCW. I pick up a shiny, but useless maul. I reached the stairs and rested until I was disturbed by a brigand, so I killed it. Detect treasure, detected crap so I set off to mine some nearby GP. Then the ranger found me. We had a good fight, but I was superior. I dropped him with the last charge of my wand of magic missiles as he fled. He dropped a good crossbow (I'll hold onto it for now) and a POTION OF WISDOM (14). It figures, I found my first stat potion before I found a branded weapon, or even a wand of light. A brief review reminds me how pathetic my equipment is. I think the dungeon is broken. I STMined 344 GP and then 481 GP. I was after more GP when I spotted a goblin. He appeared to be alone but caution told me to detect life. It turns out I was headed into a whole page of monsters that would surely kill me. There was even a dragon. I headed back to the stairs, maybe I'd pick off a few followers. I scored an ordinary mace off of one of the orcish corpses. I waited around for my HP's to recover, casting detect life to monitor the orcs progress but they were not cooperating so I headed for the stairs. Diving deeper.

DL31. CL18. Day 3, 3:12:24 - An interesting/very challenging level. I dropped into a east-west corridor. Magic mapping showed the way to the stairs and detect treasure plotted the location of an unknown ring and mushroom. I picked up the mushroom of hallucination and a pair of (what would turn out to be a very nice pair of) gloves first as they were closer. On my way to the ring I made a bad decision. A black dwarf grag appeared, unaware of me, from across the room. I should have ignored him, or at least cast some sort of further detection. Instead, I decided to take him on, figuring that he was probably alone and that I wouldn't get a better situation to do so. I hit him with a couple of arrows at which time he cast darkness upon me. As I re-lit the room I was surprised to see another grag and a mind flayer were also after me. At this point TL became a certainty, but I wanted that ring, and it wasn't all that far away. I took a fleeing step toward the ring and the grag cursed me. Not you typical drain a few HP's curse, but a curse of misfortune. One that left a lingering "cursed" status at the bottom of the screen. I was unfamiliar this this type of curse and just hoped that it wasn't too severe and that it didn't require a remove curse to remedy. With my HP's still intact, I threw in the towel and read TL hoping to be drawn upward. I sank through the floor... again.

DL32. CL18. Day 3, 3:27:06 - I arrived in a dead end. Closing the door to the north sealed me in completely. Magic mapping revealed that there was obviously a secret door at my back, but no stairs. Detect treasure revealed a unknown wand and rod, nothing more. Detect animal showed energy hounds in my likely path of travel so I swapped my amulet of alertness (+3) for resist lightning, so I wouldn't forget later. Before I even reached the rod, which was close, I reached a vampire. He was fully aware of me and his breath stunk to high heaven so I phased away. I landed and within the same room and lit it. I pelted him with a few arrows then blinked and repeated. I was lining up my next shot when I fell through a trap door. Doooooogh!

DL33. CL18. Day 3, 3:33:36 - Landed in the center of an unlit room on this 'not very threatening' level. Without any treasure detection I just planned on killing what I could while hopping from staircase to staircase until I felt the urge to recall. Magic mapping showed me a couple of up-stairs and some easily mined gold. My curse wore off and the first bit of STMining yielded 1212 mithril. Woo Hoo! The second attempt at mining wasn't nearly as productive and the brite sprite dropped nothing. In a room just south of the up-stairs I found a mushroom of sneakiness, a useless chance magic book, and a previously unknown ring of accuracy (-7). While clearing away some rubble, looking for stuff, I happened to notice that the pair of gloves in my pack was an artifact. The mail gauntlets of Tinging [2,+9] (+3 DEX) (rAcid, rLight, rDark). Those replaced my gauntlets of agility (destroyed). While scanning my new resists, I noticed that I had forgotten to swap my amulet of alertness back in, so I did. A little later on I found a cursed staff of probing and a scroll of *ID* which I have no use for right now. I encountered some previously detected stone trolls and since all I knew of them is that they were light sensitive I decided to learn the spell 'ray of light'. It comes with a 35% failure rate and a high mana cost so I won't be using it very often, but it worked this time. I killed the first troll, grabbed it's gold and phased away... into the stone troll lair. I read recall and fled, away from the tolls but also away from the only exit. I got hit a few times but managed to find a pile of mithril in the corner. Two blinks later, and I was heading out the door, the trolls still in close pursuit. I took a moment to STMine some jade as I fled. I knew my escape wouldn't be easy. I would probably soon be surrounded. Suddenly recall kicked me hard in the head and I found myself back in town once again.

Town. CL18. Day 3, 4:43:31 - 10746 GP. Stopped by the house and swapped my armour of rAcid for the rElec. This allowed me to drop (the swap) amulet of rElec. Ate my mushroom of hallucination, it can't hurt me here in town and I need all the luck I can get (9% chance to increase luck). Nothing at the armory. Picked up 50 arrows and a WoR at the general store. Bought an unknown wand of slow monster at the magic shop. If I'm going to kill anything native to my current depth, I'm going to need some help. Nothing at the weapon smith. At the alchemy shop I enchanted my scimitar up to (+5,+6), and my bow up to (+5,+6). Also got 5 PD's and 6 detect treasure. I picked up 10 CCW's at the temple bringing my total to 13. It was a tough decision, but I ended up buying a ring of damage (+10) for ~5000 GP at the BM. This boosts my scimitars output form 15 to 25 per blow. I was hoping it would boost my archery damage as well, but alas. I also picked up 10 more TL's (left some at home) as I seem to be using them fairly quickly. Down the stairs.

DL1. CL18. Day 3, 5:08:04 - I was still hallucinating when I stumbled down the stairs, dodging greater balrogs as I went. The mushroom wore off. I picked a a scroll of detect treasure and some copper. Found the stairs and exited the dungeon. Upon arrival in town I read recall and hid behind some trees.

DL33. CL18. Day 3, 5:56:40 - Arrived in an unlit room on this 'very challenging' level. Mapping revealed a up-stairs, but it was a long walk away. Detect treasure didn't show much aside from an unknown potion. Detect life revealed that the path to the stairs was sparsely populated and traversable, even for me, providing that the air hounds didn't wake too soon. I grabbed the WoW from the floor and headed north. I hit the merret with the WoW, slowing it. I finished it with my scimitar. I learned the spell 'resist heat and cold' just in case (14 mana, 29% fail). Snuck past the dragon and grabbed the TL and unknown potion of restore brawn, which I quaffed to return my STR to 15, and ease my burden. I was alarmed to then see a spectator just 20' from me. He wasn't on my list. It took two blinks to get away, and then only to be greeted be the air hounds and the spectator once again. I couldn't risk it, so I read TL and predictably sank through the floor.

DL34. CL18. Day 3, 6:32:08 - 'I'm nearly paralyzed with fear'. That's just what I wanted to feel as I materialized in the center of an unlit room. As I used the staff of magic mapping, something mumbled. I illuminated the room and found Mim, unaware of me. Unfortunately there was also an unknown potion just 30' away. Of course I went for the potion. He wasted a turn healing his uninjured self and I lost sight of him in the shadows, but I got to the potion of enlightenment with no problems. I ate the mushroom of sneakiness, hoping to keep him unaware, but it was no sooner had I swallowed it than he noticed me. A quick probing showed that he had 1100 HP's, and that was really all I needed to know. He hit me with an acid bolt, but I was already going, going, gone. TL dragged me through the floor.

DL35. CL18. Day 3, 6:34:34 - The RNG seems to think that this level will be 'fun', but I don't quite trust it. I arrived in a alcove of a twisting passage. I recharged my staff of magic mapping and it revealed down-stairs to the north and a possible pit to the west. Detect treasure showed an unknown potion and scroll in and near the pit sized room. Detect life showed mostly trolls (to the east) and orcs, complete with Gorbag to the north, but the pit was surprisingly 'dead'. There was also an adult green dragon. now that's my definition of 'fun'. My sneakiness still in effect, I headed west and just as I about to crack the pit my stealth wears off.

Well, it's too late to turn back now so I opened the door, and everything is strangely quiet on the inside too, too quiet. Just to the north I open another door and there lies the potion, completely unguarded. This is too easy, I think to myself as I step forward to grab it and bump into something invisible. I phase away, landing in the moat, and quaff see invisible. Now, I'm close to, so I grab the scroll of holy prayer. I STM my way back into the pit and grab the shield lying near the wall. At the same time I spy a banshee. I phase again landing back outside the pit. I ID and destroy the cursed shield regaining full speed. I read holy prayer figuring I might decide to fight. I blink into another room. Lighting it I found a baby red dragon. Though it posed no real threat, I confused it anticipating the arrival of the banshee. It came at me through the wall and I failed to affect it with the WoW. Then, it teleported itself away. Maybe my luck is turning.

I killed the dragon as my ability to see invisible things faded away. Something touched me, draining my XP. Then it did it again. I phased away, quaffed another see invisible, and made a bee line for and grabbed the potion of poison resistance. The banshee should be here by now, but no. After a while a shadow appeared and I eventually killed it, regaining CL18, but still down some XP. I headed for the orcs and as I approached, I fought and destroyed a grey wraith in brutal hand to hand combat. I must have been quite the underdog, because his death brought about CL19, max HP 171, max SP 29. I approached the room full of orcs, not intending to eradicate more than a handful of them. My rod of illumination was still charging and I was very low on mana so I just let rip with the WoW into the darkened orc lair.

The first explosion caused death and screams of pain and agony. The second and third were duds, but the forth killed another, and yet none had approached. A WoW induced poison ball caused more death and pain and suffering. Now my illumination lit the room and showed four orcs closing on me. Two arrows dropped the closest and then a cluster formed in the rear ranks. Two more charges from the WoW were ineffective and now it was time for the sword. Many died and then I was face to face with Gorbag. I didn't really plan on it coming to this but it wasn't a terrible opportunity to kill him. I probed him first, hoping for good news. After analysis I though that if I could slow him, then I might be able to take him down. But first I would need a lucky phase. The phase was perfect and so was the second. I hit that MF'er 5 or 6 time with my wand of slow monster and he resisted every one of them. I killed a few more orcs, then a blink sent me to the far side of the pit, putting some good distance between us. I used it to head further west and hopefully abandon the battle. However, rubble blocked my path, and I was out of STM. As I tried to clear the rubble, orcs approached. I killed three but Gorbag followed and I was trapped. With no phase door and the fact that a failed blink could lead to death (Gorbag hits pretty hard), I read TL. Oh my god!!! I rose up through the ceiling.

[will_asher]

I was on the edge of my seat! I even went back to the main page to check the symbol by the dump to make sure Kremlin wasn't dead before I read on.
Shagrat and Gorbag are second only to Azog as the toughest orc uniques.
EDIT: adding something: Since CHA affects the effectiveness of stuff like slow/confuse/scare, you have a better chance of succeeding than most characters of your level. Uniques are no longer immune to those things, but they are still significantly harder to affect with them than normal monsters.

I was about to check my telelevel code for a bug when finally you rose up through the ceiling.

BTW, you can usually climb rubble without any trouble as long as you have decent strength. ..But now that I check your dump, I see that your strength isn't that good, but still the worst that can happen if you try to climb over the rubble is you get paralyzed for three turns. If the orcs were several spaces away, it would've been worth a try and they probably would've taken longer to climb the rubble after you.
I tend to be stingier about ?TL until I have a lot of them, but I'm sure that's a bad idea on my part.

[fizzix]

I tend to be stingier about ?TL until I have a lot of them, but I'm sure that's a bad idea on my part.

IIRC DJA's BM is very nice about stocking ?TL and ?DD. Buy 'em and use 'em! Even if I only had one, I'd probably use it in all the situations that buzzkill did. edit: ok that made no sense. I meant in each situation, if I had only one I'd've used it (and probably died the next time)

Woo for starting a sentence with 3 abbreviations.

[buzzkill]

DL34. CL19. Day 3, 7:22:14 - The RNG, obviously not pleased with my limited success on the previous level presents me with 'not very interesting/difficult to survive'. I quaff a CCW, just to be safe, bringing my HP's back over 100. I find myself in a twisting hallway. Hmmm, magic mapping reveals three pit-type rooms, all to the west. One with a tiny central room, similar to the one on the last level, the second has the four sections/four doors, and the third has the three smaller rooms within. Luckily, detect treasure give me no (really, really) good reason to go explore them, so I headed off in the opposite direction. Detect animals, the only detect I can afford right now, shows nothing too dangerous in the direction that I'm heading. The first room I came to contained sleeping ice trolls and an old rusty pick. I bypassed the trolls taking the eastern exit but I could hear a troll trying to wake his comrades as I left. I climbed a pile of rubble blocking my path but a few turns later it was mysteriously removed. I picked my location and waited for what I hoped would be a single ice troll, but no such luck. There was a second, and then a third. I sent the first two fleeing and while fighting the third a noticed that the hatchet that I had been carrying for some time was in fact an artifact. My HP's were low, but I was not going to die now. I quaffed my healing potion and finished off all three trolls with impunity, achieving CL20, and then took the time to properly inspect my recently found salvation. The Hatchet of Eliennhil grants attack speed (+1) and feather falling. It activates for fire bolt, and slays orcs, trolls and giants. It deals 2 blows at 17.6 per blow vs. others, 26.8 versus it's slays. It's certainly better than my long held scimitar which I placed gently in a alcove so that it may serve another someday. Since it's a weapon of slay troll, I decided to do just that. I killed them all, using a few CCW's in the process, earning CL21, max HP 186, max SP 33. It felt good to actually be able to kill something for a change. After the slaughter I continued east and encountered a demonologist. A poorly executed blink gave it the chance to both cast a fire bolt (-1 WoR) and summon an demon who lurked in the shadows. Since they both now had LOS on me, I just bailed out. TL levitated me up through the ceiling.

DL33. CL21. Day 3, 8:02:22 - Arrived in a darkened room and the fire vortex soon died. Mapping revealed that I was in the north east corner of the map and this room had only one exit. The downward staircase was nearby. As I gathered my spent arrows the door burst open. The room was still dark as my rod of illumination was still charging, so I knew not what opened the door. Casting call light revealed an air hound and an axe. I quaffed poison resistance and went to work. A short time later three hounds were dead. As I killed the fourth, the rPoison wore off. Two more died and I found myself poisoned. Casting natural vitality helped a little. After stepping onto the confusion trap, a CCW cured all ailments. I stuffed the axe in my pack and picked up the rest of my arrows. Another hound died and I decided to learn and cast 'cure poison'.

I slammed shut the door, and rested a little. I noticed the axe was very nice indeed. As a matter of fact, a legendary weapon, The Broad Axe of Neglung. It slays trolls, giants, and evil. It provides rLight and the ability to see invisible things. It sustains STR and CON. 1 blow per round, 41.8 versus trolls and giants, 32.2 v evil, and 22.6 v others. It's damage is inferior to my hatchet, but it does have a few desirable traits. I walked to the stairs and picked up a 'ring of intelligence of warfare'. It's a nice item, but the straight +1's make it of limited value to me. As I grabbed the ring I was hit by a blast of cold from a passage leading south. Detect animal showed 5 cold hounds awake and aware. The hounds fell easily. Detect treasure revealed only a sword and a scroll of teleportation, but unwilling to go deeper I decided to stick around here for a while longer. Still heading south I noted that some of the earth hounds had begun to wake. Further south still and I picked up some gold. Before turning back I detected again and found the hounds right behind me. Three died without much trouble and the rest (5) still lie sleeping in the distance. As I approached their den I encountered a mummy, and of course while I was disposing of it the hounds attacked. I kept the battle manageable and killed three more for CL22, HP 197, SP 34. I killed the last two and cast natural vitality to aid the recuperation. Picked up the teleport and discarded the abomination of a sword.

I wandered slowly, recouping my energy, when a few orcish stragglers, prompted me to detect life. Oh my, an orc pit, and no orc uniques to hassle me, and as a bonus a tribe of novice priests. It's clobberin' time. I killed a bunch and needed room in my pack, so I used the last charge of magic mapping and ate the shroom of second sight. The second sight was wonderful but you can't read ID when blind. I eventually a quaffed a CCW just to shut it off so I could cast detect traps and ID some stuff. I didn't want to fall through a trap door with all the loot still on the ground. The battle was a cake walk, no healing, and no danger of dying. The only scary moment was when I bumped into something not detected by the second sight, but it died quickly.

After all were dead and done, I had ID'd a few bad potions and squelched them. I earned a ton of gold! I picked up two rods of light which should make my life a *lot* easier. Also found some other nice drops, like a second ring of damage, a staff of charm animals, a wand of drain life and a wand of lightning balls. Sadly, no stat potions. I guess the biggie was The Leather Gloves of Hisir (+3,+2) [1,+14]. Grants FA, and has an rCold activation. I'm wearing them for now because of the FA. Not having to wear the ring of FA means an extra ring of damage (+7) or something even more useful should I find it. With 2 RoD's equipped, the hatchet now deals a respectable 2 blows/35.8 per versus orcs/trolls/giants, 28.6 v others. For the first time in a long time I'm going to recall, not out of fear of death, but for convenience. I need to lighten my pack a little. I read recall and dispatched a lightening rogue before he could steal any of my precious treasures.

Town. CL22. Day 3, 10:43:17 - 13068 gold. I dropped The Gauntlets of Tinging at home. Traded my armour of rElec for rAcid. Traded my amulet of alertness for one of rElec. I also dropped a lot of my wands and staffs and picked up a few other items. For ~500 GP I increased my AC by about 20% by buying leather boots (2,+5). I enchanted my hatchet up to (+2,+5) and my bow up to (+5,+7). Despite it's low enchantment, the hatchet failed many attempts leading me to believe it's very hard to enchant an artifact. Picked up 5 scrolls of recharging that I suspect will be used mostly on the wand of drain life. I bought a potion of restore life levels (at home) to learn the flavor, and 20 CSW's as there were no CCW's. I got 10 more TL's and 5 unknown scrolls of protection from evil from the BM. I then struggled to reduce my burden before recalling to the depths once again. I'm still carrying the axe as an SI swap, that seems to be what is weighing me down.

[buzzkill]

DL35. CL22. Day 3, 11:38:40 - I dropped into a darkened room with a tight knit group of forest trolls. I lit the room, grabbing their attention and then let them chase me down a corridor. After a short distance I turned on them and let my rods of lights shine bright. The trolls were in agony as the light fell upon them. I marched on them, hacking them apart with ease. A pack of wolves came to investigate, but their curiosity cost them their lives. There were no even moderately useful drops. I cleaned up the scene and took the only exit, the bloody passage to the south. It opened in a room with a steel chest containing almost 1000 GP. Detect animal showed nothing to worry about. Detect treasure showed only a cap, so I headed for it. I encountered the first of the energy hounds and destroyed it. I continued to advance and killed three more, before lighting the room to find the owlbear and Nar the Dwarf. I was kind of happy to see Nar. I suspected that my wand of drain life would make short work of him. I was right. Three drains sent him fleeing and a arrow in his chubby dwarven thorax dropped him on his face. It was right at that moment that more energy hound began to stream into the room, and as soon as I has finished with them, the owlbear came for me. He held me tightly, and nibbled on my neck. I know it sounds romantic but I, Kremlen was having none of it, and I had no choice but to hack it's arms off. "Chew on those, ya bastard." I ignored the cursed cap and quaffed the POTION OF WISDOM (15) that Nar had dropped. In addition to the WIS boost, Nar provided for CL23, 212 HP, 36 SP. Now if I could only find some useful stat potions.

I recharged my wand of drain life and cast detect TDS and found a stairway to the north and headed for it. A pooka tried to sneak up behind me but the drain life stopped him dead. I've decided that the drain life will probably be my way of dealing with most fast moving unknowns. Found the stairs and a sleeping guardian naga. My first blow glanced off of it, not even waking it, but then I beat it to death. It dropped some nice GP and a useless cap. It seems that my ability to psuedo identify items may have improved. I detected some sleeping ogres nearby, including Ulbandi, so I took a whack at them. Ulbandi and a single escort were cut off from the main pack by rubble. Ulbandi is one tough son of a bitch. I hit him with drain life countless times, I peppered him with arrows and even took a few swings with my trusty hatchet. He fought more bravely than I, but I was the victor. At one point he had me down to 56 HP, so I had to use my mushrooms of emergency, and then my second MoE to recover after the battle, followed quickly by a shroom of clear mind. He dropped a good gladius and broad axe, both useless to me. While I was resting a troll zombie awoke and I killed it. While I was resting some more, it reassembled itself (WTF), so I killed it again. I then returned to deal with the rest of the ogre horde. Without their leader, they were easy. One dropped a cloak which I wielded un-ID'd. It eventually ID'd as average. I came across a sleeping lich and decided it was time to leave this place. I retreated and took the stairs down.

DL36. CL23. Day 3, 13:55:42 - Another 'difficult to survive' level. I found myself in the center of a darkened room. Throwing caution to the wind, I lit it up and found a pack of energy hounds. They all came at me at once, but I stood my ground and hacked them to pieces without talking too much damage. Killing them all gained my CL24, max HP 213, SP 37. I'm in the north-west corner of the map and detect treasure is telling me to head south. I'll try to stick to the edges and see how far I get. Detect TDS didn't show any stair cases, but detect life once again revealed Gorbag and that made me smile. I killed most of his escorts and then softened him up with the wand of drain life. The rest of the battle consisted of successful blinks and a score of hits with (+3,+7) arrows. Gorbag, once fearsome, died without ever touching me. He dropped three {good} items, chain mail, lead-filled mace and a great sword, and some arrows (wielded, un-ID'd, eventually shown to be good also). I returned, and mopped up his remaining companions, one dropped a weapon of Morgul, destroyed.

I wandered for a while and cast detect treasure again, revealing two unknown rings. The sound of a broken door led be to detect life and boy was there a lot of it. A mass of novice rangers, hummerhorns, a chaos hound, Lorgan and others. I sprinted for the first ring (of STR+2) killing a few nuisances along the way. I wielded my new ring, replacing the ring of damage (+7). No longer burdened, I continued on. The rangers were streaming at me now, and I was mowing them down as fast as they came. Then a skeletal ettin joined the battle. I hit it, but it hit back harder, incredibly hard as a matter of fact, so I blinked away into the rangers guild. I was surrounded but the wand of lightening balls loosened things up a little. But soon the ettin was back, and a centaur barbarian, and a yellow skeleton. I killed them all, not that it was easy.

Just as I finished cleaning up, Lorgan came. Once again he was fast and I was not. I lacked the resources to deal with him effectively, so I TL'd. Well, I should have TL'd. Instead I blinked hoping for a fortunate landing location, but no. Lorgan summoned and commanded me to return. Though his summons weren't terribly fearsome, there was no point in sticking around, so I TL'd, this time fer sure. Well, not quite. While looking through my pack for the scroll of TL, I found a scroll of teleportation. I read that instead, followed by a WoR. I was out of ID and my pack was full. The air about me became charged. I'll see ya back in town. While waiting for recall, I encountered "the soul-eater", a "minor god" shaped like a particular number. The description was frightening enough that I didn't need to know more. Not wanting to risk a (33% fail) portal, I instead read TL and rose up through the ceiling.

DL35. CL24. Day 3, 15:19:46 - I had time enough to kill a baby black dragon, yielding a couple of hundred GP before being yanked away.

Town. CL24. Day 3, 15:22:56 - 14008 GP - I ate my mushroom of hallucination and proceeded with my in town restocking ritual. There are still no CCW's at the temple so I picked up more CSW's instead. Bought a staff of magic mapping. I had to buy phase doors from the BM, the only place that sold them.

DL1. CL24. Day 3, 15:49:06 - Wandered for a bit making at as far deep as DL2 and finding a scroll of phase door before being able to see clearly again. Climbed on out and read WoR.

[buzzkill]

DL36. CL24. Day 3, 16:22:28 - Mapping showed me the stairs and DTreasure led me by the hand. I knocked off a gaggle of winged monkeys and found an unknown staff of sleep monsters. I killed a gargoyle and it dropped a potion of healing. I needed one of those as I had no big healing sources with me, an oversight on my part. Another dropped a potion of CHARISMA (18/50). I hacked my way through them all and arrived at the room I was seeking. I added the dungeon book 'Druidic Lore', which has some nice detections, to my library and also picked up a ring of DEX (+2) (which I held for a long time but have since discarded). I read my three scrolls of protection from evil to make room in my pack. Now to find something evil, and not too tough, to fight.

Detect life showed a troll lair, complete with Tom, so I headed in that direction. Killing a few trolls gained me CL25, HP 226, SP 39. Tom came at me in the midst of a slowed pack. He pushed past them all and met the fury of drain life. It wasn't long before he tried to flee. He dropped two broad swords, one good, and one of slay (creatures of) light. Appropriate for Tom, but useless to me. As has become the custom, after killing Tom I returned to the troll's home to finish off the rest. A rod of fire bolts now aided me in this quest. After killing many more I found and swapped a ring of strength of warfare (+2's) for my ring of strength. I finished off the last of them and headed for the stairs.

As I drew close a spotted a crystal drake, asleep. I contemplated leaving it alone, but then figured if I wasn't willing to take it on while it's alone and I at full strength, then I wouldn't be much of a ranger would I. I hit it with the rod of fire bolts and then with the fire bolt from my hatchet and then a stream of arrows. It closed quickly not bothering to cast much or breathe at all. I beat it to death without too much trouble. OTOH, it's a good thing that there weren't two of them. I soon realized that killing it was the right thing to do. It dropped a CCW and waybread to aid my recovery and a legendary crossbow, The Light Crossbow of Elorwe. Not a great launcher by any means (power +1, sustain STR), but probably better than my short bow.

I was prepared to take the stairs, when a room to the south caught my attention. As I approached it a black dwarf attacked me. He died easily but then there was another, and then there was Blaygorm. My wand of drain life failed me, and so did my blink. It landed me in the dwarven lair complete with mind flayer. I portaled (27% fail) the heck out of there landing in a previously explored section of the dungeon. I of course, the brave soul that I am, headed right back into battle. Blaygorm charged at me, and I drained 10% of his life away. He healed and hasted himself and came at me even faster. That pissed me off, because haste is the one thing that just might save his life. He continued to close and I continued to blink away, using my staff of slow monsters on him every chance I got. Eight charges later he was still hasted and I was ready to throw in the towel and fight him another day. That's about when a fortunate blink separated us and gave me a pack as algroths to feast upon. I killed them all and many black dwarves as well, as I was still in their territory. After a while Blaygorm made his way to me again, and seizing upon his own strengths, hasted himself to an even greater degree. I was going to TL, but since I had a free turn before he reached me, I cast portal instead (failure wouldn't cost me anything). The portal was successful, landing me to the east, in uncharted territory.

The whole reason I'm even bothering to stick around on this level is because of a couple of unknown wands that were dropped back in the dwarf's lair. I'll be heading in that direction. That is, I'll be heading in that direction if a can ever catch a break. This level is over populated. As soon as I landed there were novice rangers, really mean fire-power mercenaries, skeletons, orcs, The Great Goblin, ice trolls and even a mature dragon. I wound my way back to the black dwarves but was turned away again as a black dragon now aided their cause. I TL'd, and worried about the things I was missing. The mind flayer, who recently died, dropped a large chest and a long bow. Oh well, I sink through the floor.

DL37. CL26. Day 3, 20:08:58 - I found myself in an east-west corridor. Moments later I stand upon the down staircase in a well lit room having already secured a stack of gold coins. DT showed an unknown staff so I headed for it it, but ran in a mass of centaur barbarians as I drew close. I eventually killed them all including the chieftain, but it required a lot of blinking and even a retreat to the stairs to rest. I finally made it to the coveted staff of darkness and a potion of CCW. Casting another round of detects didn't give me a a compelling reason to stick around on the level, so I headed back to the stairs and boogied on down. I thinking, at the moment, that I may just hit DL40 as fast as I can.

[buzzkill]

DL38. CL26. Day 3, 22:14:22 - I descended into an unlit room, a scroll of ID to my left and a pair of boots to my right. I grabbed the scroll and ID'd the average boots, then lit the room. Mapping revealed stairs to the near north, and a destructed area to the west. I proceed to the north, securing the stairs, then to the west as there was no other way to go. My travel was impeded by a five headed hydra, which I would have preferred to avoid. I had to fight to continue on, so I backed up a little and started with ranged attacks. It was tough, but I killed it. Thank god it didn't resist fire. It turned out to be worth it too. That hydra dropped almost 3500 GP (though only 700 XP). The sound of rocks being moved prompted me to detect creatures. There were gravity hounds to the south-east, but they couldn't reach me. There were also some other creatures that I did want to kill. As I approached and detected treasure, I noted that the tasty targets were inside what appeared to be in some sort of lesser vault, only half of which I detected the first time. As long as the shambling mound remains asleep, everything will be all right. The mound was soon dead and silent. As I drew even nearer and better evaluated the vault contents, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing in it that I had to have. This feeling was confirmed was a undetected mystic put his moves on me. I TL'd immediately. I sank through the floor.

DL39. CL26. Day 3, 22:46:05 - This wasn't the entrance I would have chosen so I quaffed my only potion of healing before doing any thing else. I was in a darkened room, a wereworm and ettin zombie visible in my torch light. I used my staff of mapping to get a feel for my surroundings when something off in the darkness hit me with an acid ball, waking both of my neighboring enemies. I blinked, trying to buy enough time to cast portal successfully (27% failure). I nailed the blink and the portal on my first try and ended up far to the south, very very far from the unknown ring far to the north. I traded my staff of detect treasure for another with more charges.

While dealing with some acid hounds, a crystal drake breathed upon me, inflicting serious damage. I blinked, then portaled (on the second try) into a different room of acid hounds. This room was far to the north, and contained the ring (of sustain sneakiness) that I was seeking, so I stayed and fought. I hit the first hound with drain life, killing it, and then it was up to the hatchet. It performed well, but the battle was somewhat costly to my armour. I discarded my acid washed cloak. Not much else on this level interested me so I sought the stairs. Something hit me with a breath of force, luckily only a grey dragon bat. I moved on, eventually coming to kill all of the creatures of my starting location. The crystal drake too died. I was at the stairs a moment later.

DL40. CL26. Day 4, 0:35:18 - I arrived in a darkened room, soon lit, at the northern end of the map. The only exit was to the south. Detect treasure revealed a few unknown items to the west, so I tried to head in that direction. Although I dutifully detected doors, there seemed to be no way of reaching the westward items. Magic mapping at last showed the way, but it was blocked by a glass golem. I didn't feel like fighting it, and almost read WoR, but eventually was able to blink past it. I moved west, and back north now as my long legged journey had taken me all the way to the southern extreme of the map. I had secured two of the three items I was seeking. The first a useless potion of restore intellect. The second a cursed ring of accuracy. The third, an unknown staff, was guarded by Klavax. He was asleep so I approached quietly, or so I thought. He nearly sharded me to death. I, having already read WoR, read TL. I sank through the floor and was greeted by an inertia hound, thankfully asleep (because you don't always get first move in DaJ). I couldn't risk a single turn here, so I TL'd again. I sank through the floor. Though not entirely uneventful, I did managed to survive here on DL42 long enough for recall to kick.

Town. CL26. Day 4, 1:32:01 - 24000 GP. It's good to be back. At my home I dropped the excessive and seldom used spell books and kept only the first three. I was able to evaluate my new crossbow with some average bolts and found is damage output to be surprisingly superior to my short bow. It deals 63 per shot with unenchanted bolt (vs. 16.6 with my short bow). That should make missile combat dramatically more effective. I picked up a score of bolts at the general store. Stocked up on ID and CCW, sadly still no phase door. I hit the black market with 20K in my pocket but the only item I really wanted, the dwarven armour, cost 30K. Instead I bought an unknown mushroom of CSW and an unknown ring of CON (+3). I swapped my hatchet of extra attack for the broad axe with SI (enchanted up to +4,+4). Also swapped the ring of damage (+10) for CON (+3). It gained me only a few HP and weakened my melee a bit, but I think I'll try to focus more on archery this trip down (probably a mistake in retrospect). Enchanted my bolts up to (+0,+2). I'm beginning to feel like I may be getting in too deep again (and so I was). 13671 GP remaining.

DL42. CL26. Day 4, 2:12:43 - Superb feeling. Quaffed enlightenment (this would make a lot more sense as a scroll than a potion). Detected 40 items, 9 of which were unknown flavors. Aside from what I already mentioned, blue dragon scale mail seems to be the crown jewel of the loot. A two-handed sword of *slay undead* was my first find in the starting chamber (WIS +2, 91 per blow vs. undead). Shortly thereafter I encountered a phantom who blinded me then zapped away about 4000 XP (who I'm fairly sure the new found slay was innefective against). I eventually killed it, but not before it blanked my memories and drained another 5000 XP. After that Sangahyando awoke and appeared unto me with a nexus hound companion. I portaled away but soon encountered the loudly shrieking shrieker mushroom patch and a nine headed hydra. I was tempted to take a shot at it, and it's friend, but I TL'd instead. I rose up through the ceiling. Read WoR and awaited the trip to back to down. In town, I quaffed restore life levels, dropped the two-handed sword at home and picked up a staff of teleportation. WoR and wait.

DL42. CL26. Day 4, 3:16:23 - I checked into an unlit, centrally located, room. There was a steel chest. Nervously, I held it in my hands as I ID'd it for traps. I set it down and stepped away so that I might disarm and open it. It was at that moment that Adunaphel appeared next to me, coming right through a wall. I blinked away and so the process continued. I managed to reclaim the chest and teleport away. A bit later, I found a moment and opened it only to find some junk inside. Casting detect life showed me Azog, Alatar and Beorn, all on screen. Adunaphel was all over me a moment later so I TL'd.

DL43. CL26. Day 4, 3:29:32 - A darkened room, a black knight, a bunch of algroth, and a few others. Luckily the stairs were right there so I took them, unfortunately down (It was right about here, that I realized that I spent most of my time running for my life, rarely killing anything, and certainly not finding any item of great value to me).

DL44. CL26. Day 4, 3:30:33 - Another unlit room, this time a rod of door/stairs location in view, now in my pack. An unknown staff and ring lie just to the north so I headed for it. Something summoned a bunch of mirkwood spiders and so I began to deal with them. I had halved their numbers and still the summoner was unseen. I was getting worn down and had to teleport away to heal. Snuck past a vampire lord and killed a nexus vortex for CL27, max HP 269, SP 42. I found a pair of and killed one of the barrow wights before his friend feared me. When the nether wraith appeared, I TL'd.

DL45. CL27. Day 4, 3:49:57 - Arrived in an unlit room, ironically full of light hounds. Less ironic was the unseen enemy who kept breathing darkness, blinding me, my only true hindrance. In a short amount of time I had killed all of both the light and dark hounds. I was feeling relatively safe, dealing with a griffon and an acid vortex. I blinked when my bow failed me and they both managed to get adjacent to me. I landed just to the south with my back to an 11 headed hydra. I never moved again. It just savagely ripped me apart, barely killing me (HP -4). An end to the mighty Kremlen.

[nullfame]

DL38. CL26. Day 3, 22:14:22Quaffed enlightenment (this would make a lot more sense as a scroll than a potion).

Indeed.

Sorry to hear you go. Thems the breaks. I've been thinking about doing something like this since I kinda keep a journal right now, but not this detailed. Do you find it makes you play differently than normal? I would guess more careful, despite this outcome (not much you can do when blink lands you in hot water).

[fizzix]

I think the main problem was one you mentioned. When you are not killing anything and find yourself having to use your last-ditch escape (TL and portal) very often you are too deep, or not doing a good enough job of detecting often. The only way to survive is to 'escape' before you are in danger. I know DJA has more monster density than Vanilla, so diving has to be a bit slower, of course I have no way of determining exactly how fast you dived since turncount is replaced with time.

One other thing, once you teleport away from awake dangers on the level, you should not teleport again unless you have no choice. TL if you need to escape a second time. This is somewhat mitigated if your teleport spell has a large range and the monsters you escaped were in the middle of the level.

Anyway, you've inspired me to do a similar log, which I guess I can post the first chapter of tonight.

[buzzkill]

Do you find it makes you play differently than normal? I would guess more careful, despite this outcome (not much you can do when blink lands you in hot water).

I was indeed more careful, in many situations, not just in terms of keystrokes, but also short term strategy. I couldn't possibly play (and take notes) while distracted. I did however manage to become very comfortable with blinking around. The vortex and the griffon were no real threat to me. I just thought I could deal with them more slightly more effectively with the blink and the bow. I failed to factor in the risk.

[buzzkill]

I know DJA has more monster density than Vanilla, so diving has to be a bit slower, of course I have no way of determining exactly how fast you dived since turn count is replaced with time.

Anyway, you've inspired me to do a similar log, which I guess I can post the first chapter of tonight.

The monster density is indeed greater (or at least it seemed to be), and more in-depth. Not so many weaklings waiting to be slaughtered. I wasn't diving particularly fast, at least I wasn't try to. TL was a cruel mistress, dragging me deeper on almost every occasion (and there were a lot of them).

Toward the end I considered walking back down from the surface, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.