Fightless the full-casting mage

[Pete Mack]

Since the giant can't summon me into the vault, I'm not afraid of teleport-to.

You are just lucky -- teleport-to near a GV is extremely dangerous. I have lost at least 1 character to this.

Something like:
< a Blink dog appears out of nowhere >
The Blink dog commands you to return--more--
Smaug breathes fire--more--
You die.

[fizzix]

shorter update, just one level. But it was momentous.

CL28 DL36
I land in a dark room on a superb feeling level. Rmon shows some uruks, a red dragon bat and a baby green in the room with me. A demonologist is north of me and not too far away. I frost ball the red dragon bat killing it, then take care of the rest of the monsters. The demonologist summons a tengu and teleports away before I can kill it. –dobj shows a greater vault (I later determine it to be a jigsaw) with at least two unknown potions, visible from my current perspective. I will either crack this one or die trying. Actually, I notice that one of the potions is outside the vault, so I’ll go grab that. The Ethmoidal potion is !Con, bring my HP up to a stunning 142. A grey wraith drops a new Whistler amulet but it’s teleportation (squelch).

The jigsaw vault is a greater vault. There's a moat going around the outside. The two entrances are at the center of the north and south walls. Inside there are 6 separate sections divided by granite walls.

I approach the vault and there are lots of things that can kill me including 3 nexus vortices and 4 ancient dragons (and more). The vortices are troubling because they could teleport me away from the vault where all the stuff I've TO'd can get me. I break into the southern entrance of the vault, because that looks to be the least dangerous. Some army ants come out and then a nether wraith (TO) and then a dread. The dread may have picked up some stuff, so it's worthwhile to kill if possible. I attempt to kill the dread with acid bolts but it moves out into the wall allowing a storm giant to exit.

Since the giant can't summon me into the vault, I'm not afraid of teleport-to. I kill the ants and then start on the giant, but I have to phase away a couple times. (again no fear of landing in the vault) I manage to kill the dread during this battle as well.

Eventually I land in a room south of the vault with a bunch of fire ants. The giant is blocked from proceeding, so I go to kill the young white dragon and some of the ants in the room, (rest a little) and then take care of the giant. It drops a potion of !Chr and so does the young white. A Will O' The Wisp comes at me and it annoys the hell out of me for the rest of the level. I can't hit it with anything but magic missiles and it teleports away at inopportune times. Also, it hits to hallucinate and confuse, and both of those are very dangerous when I need to be careful with what's around me.

I also get three new rods (Ptolemy’s, Hatsheput’s and Lenin’s) and they are disarming, acid bolts and lightning bolts. I don’t care for any of them so I discard them. Also, I believe during this battle, I lost my -light to a lightning bolt from the storm giant. But I'm not sure. I'll discover I'm missing it later.

Detecting monsters shows that somehow that nether wraith got back into the vault. There’s also an ancient gold roaming around outside, which I might be able to take on with some care, since I have rsound. The second dread to come out of the vault gives me CL29. I rest and go back to the vault, TOing that nether wraith.

After clearing the first section I haste myself and kill the ancient gold. I could survive a breath but it decides not to breathe. It’s drop is a lantern and some gold.

There’s still an awake nether wraith somewhere outside on the level that can easily kill me, so I need to try and avoid getting teleported out of the vault. I check very carefully for pass-wall monsters and there aren’t any besides a glutton ghost. I’m kind of hoping the ghost picked up some stuff in its path to my section (it didn’t).

The loot of the first section was a teleologically tessellating wand of acid bolts (dropped) a 'gwizzy conn' scroll of *destruction* (i liked the name gwizzy conn). An anemically analyzing wand of lightning balls (dropped). A gregariously Greenmailing wand of stone to mud, that thankfully did not poke a wall through to the next section when I stupidly test-used it.

I set myself up to TO everything that comes out of the next section (southwest), and stone to mud it. This section looks a lot less dangerous than any of the other adjacent ones. The first thing out is an Ancient Blue TO’d. Some wolves and trolls are bolted to death. I kill wormtongue who picked up a bunch of stuff and TO lorgan. Ulfast and a nexus vortex are the last guys out and they’re TOd.

I quaff an Unhinged potion that wormtongue brought out (Wis). I’m down to about 40 SP, so I need to rest before fighting some more. In the second section is a Mendelssohnian Ring of the Dog (squelched). And a randart elven cloak. The cloak is not as good as my current one, but I’ll hold onto it for now.

The next section (northwest) has the phial and MB6. I rest to full and then examine what’s in it. An ancient black and rogrog will be the first two out, and after that there isn’t much. Rogrog has picked up almost everything in the room that wasn’t nailed down, but I can’t kill him, so he gets TO’d along with the ancient black. I try and kill a lot of the trolls, but wind up having to TO some because they're coming out too fast.

At one point I have to quaff !rmana. When speed runs out I quaff !speed instead of trying to recast. I do manage to clear out the section and get the phial and MB6. I also get an artifact shield (Threst) that replaces my wicker shield. It gives me +1 dex, RDis, and can activate for Relec. I also pick up an artifact flail that gives +3 Str, dex and wis and activates for haste, but I can’t use that yet, because I need SInv.

The next section (North, center) has MB5. A fire elemental has destroyed a lot of the items in it. There's also a quylthulg, and an ancient green. The sections after that are considerably more dangerous and I think this will be my last one. I pick up MB5 and yet another artifact cloak (useful only to sell). There are two more sections but I don’t feel like attempting them. One has a master quylthulg in it that will get a summon before I'd be able to get LoS. That's a very high chance of death. There's also a nightwing and some other ancient dragons.

Now if I was lame I’d just destruct the vault and take the artifacts, but I refuse to do that. 2/3 the vault is enough for today, I recall.

CL29 Town
At home I drop off the flail, the better cloak, and sell the weaker one. I buy a scroll of banishment from the BM and stash it at home. I also clean out my inventory a bit. With MB5 I can take out Ancient dragons, so it looks like it’s time to go a bit deeper into the dungeon (not that I've been pulling punches on diving). There’s not that much gear change after the vault level, but there is some (namely the new shield). The big difference (and it is big) is the two dungeon books. Still no regen sadly.

[fizzix]

This one is a little long, hopefully it's not too much! I've taken to bolding the level breaks because of the extra paragraphs.

CL26 DL33
When recall kicks in, I'm 20 SP shy of full. RMon shows an Ooze elemental, a dark elven lord, and 5 vibration hounds to the south. The hounds make this possibly a region to avoid. 5 hounds are probably ok, but if there's more right outside my detection range, they could be trouble.

There’s a young gold dragon and a group of half orcs to the north and east (kill) and novice warriors to the west (kill). –dobj show’s Khomeini’s Rod to the southeast, I might try to pick that up also, if it's easy enough. The young gold drops a Kamerlingh-Onnes staff which gets ID’d as CLW (squelch). Khomeini's rod was trivial to get and is Illumination (squelch).

On to the halforcs. The orcs drop a Mozarty ring, wielded (Telep, squelch) and two weapons which are not splendid so not worth worrying about. Standing in the corner of the room I –dobj nothing worth getting, and head back towards the line of novice warriors. On the way I RMon Azog and 8 cave orcs to the north. He’s probably worth killing too, so I’ll get him after the warriors.

One of the warriors drops a new Callipygous potion, ooh! I’m not injured and I want to know if it’s !heal, so I ID it instead of quaffing. Alas, it’s !Neut Poison (squelch). A Haydenesque ring they drop gets wielded and is auto-ID’d as flames. An Orwellian ring does not get Auto-ID’d on wield so I ID it and it’s resist cold (squelch). The flames ring is worth selling and so is another =Escaping. Now to go off in search of Azog.

On the way DVis shows that the Vibration hounds are finally headed in my direction, so I need to be careful lest they find me. Azog drops some arrows and a non-splendid scale mail. Again I’m low on SP and there are no stairs nearby, so I’ll recall to town and back. I don’t mind this as I still have yet to find any !statgain.

CL26 town
I sell the =flames and the =escaping, I buy a –polymorph from the BM to learn flavor (Hypnotically Hyperbolizing, squelch) and a !Rwis from the Alchemist (Hermitian) But there's nothing else that I want.

CL26 DL33
I return once again a bit shy of full SP. There's a downstairs in this room, but I'd like to see if there's anything to get or kill. Rmon shows Ariel to the east, (OoD, definitely avoid, instant death). Ibun, a hell hound and some other weaklings in what I’m guessing is a 2x2 room. 2x2 rooms are the moated rooms with 4 smaller rooms, these rooms are usually very dangerous and are almost always to be avoided.

–Dobj shows !rmana near where Ibun is. I guess I can get this. 17 acid bolts are what it takes to kill Ibun. He drops a broad axe which I’m too weak to wield. However, I don’t mind lugging it around at all, because it's the first splendid weapon I've found. It’s a +1 westernesse, and will give me much needed SInv.

My -19 to-hit seems pretty spectacular I must say. The axe is so heavy that I’m slowed down to -9, but I’d rather have the SInv, so I'll deal with the burden. I TO the hellhound, and head back to the down stairs that were in my starting room. I rest to full and descend again.

CL26 DL34
I land in a corridor next to a door. Yet another superb feeling level, shame level feelings don’t actually mean anything. Or maybe it does this time, RMon shows a 'rock hard' vault very close by. The rock hard vault is the triangular one with the two single compartments in the souther corners.

There’s a beholder in one of the single rooms and shagrat in the other. In the middle is a werewolf, a wolf chieftan, a colbran and a bunch of blink dogs. Dangerous for sure but not impossible, especially with hasted +20 speed. However, -dobj shows absolutely nothing I want in the vault. There’s some heavy armor and heavy weapons and PB5 and an unknown scroll, but that’s it. There is one soft leather armor but it’s not in one of the key spots for splendid items. Therefore, it’s unlikely to be anything worthwhile, I decide to leave the vault be.

There are some down stairs nearby, but RMon shows a group of cave orcs. Further north there are cave ogres in a treasure room with a basilisk. The basilisk is very dangerous with his poison breath and my low HP, but he can't one shot me with poison breath (barely). There's also a water vortex around in the vicinity that I should be mindful of.

I head towards the cave orcs but the path leads me below them, I get a ‘it breathes acid’ as I'm approaching a room, and I think the water vortex has found me. However, it’s a largish pack of water hounds, that were outside my detection radius when I last detected. Some frost balls thrown into the room kills the pack, and I rest to full. There are some algroths in the room that the water hounds were camping out in, and I want to kill them also.

Meanwhile the cave orcs have awoken and are filing down towards me. I kill the algroths but they drop nothing. The cave orcs can’t get to me either, looks like I’m going to have to phase over their way. First attempt gets me there. I first kill the water vortex in their midst for CLevel 27.

I learn haste self and fireball, the fail rate for fireball is very high though, so I don’t see myself casting that much yet. I StM a hole in the treasure room and get 5 Fire bolts off before the basilisk breathes. By that point the poison only does 37 damage. The cave ogres drop a wicker shield of Racid which I swap for my equally useless wicker shield of Rcold, and what turns out to be a glaive of frost. Low on SP, it’s recall time.

CL27 town
I buy and squelch a _slow monsters from BM (schwarzschild) and buy and keep a –acid balls (abstrusely abstricting). Nothing else that I want, so back I go, this time full on SP, oh my.

CL27 DL34
RMon shows brodda and a mature white. I want to kill both. Brodda dies first and he drops the battle axe of Mogrome which I am also too weak to wield. It gives +2 Int and Con so it would be an upgrade to my Westernesse if it had SInv, which it doesn’t. It has rfear and rshards, but I don’t care about those too much. It’s definitely something to save for later though. The mature white drops only gold. Rmon in its room shows Mughash and a fairly large escort, so I head off in their general direction.

I kill all of the kobolds, but don't find anything interesting in the loot. It’s time to return for no other reason than to drop off the heavy battle axe, so I do that.

CL27 town
I have to pick up ?WoR from home, because I've bought out the alchemist and the general store. I’ll be careful to let a restock go before returning to town again.

CL27 DL34
I land in a dark room with a Kafkaesque ring nearby. RMon shows a mature white to my left. There’s a colbran in the way which I will TO. To the right is a 4-headed hydra and a ghost. –dobj show’s an unid’d Brahmsian ring to the west, but I’m not going to go out of my way for unid’d rings at this shallow depth since I already know =Int.

The Kafkaesque ring doesn’t ID on wield, so I cast ID (soulkeeping, squelch). The exit in the room is going the opposite way that I want to go, so I phase on the other side, noticing that there are doors not too far away. After two attempts I’m across the gap. I TO the colbran and kill the mature white, (both are in a pillared room).

This dragon had some stuff on him. I’m wounded so I can test-use the unID’d potion (!Int, woo) Another staff of teleport, which I don’t want because of burden. Another brahmsian ring that winds up being =Con (+1), which I leave. A bathetically banjaxing wand of frost bolts (leave) and a scroll that I ID as curse weapon. There’s a stairs in this room, so I take them down.

CL27 DL35
I land in a room with a ton of fire hounds, so I read ?teleport rather than risk the 1% fail of the spell. This lands me in a much safer corridor.

RMon shows a mature blue to the south and a young black and young red further off. –dobj shows a new wand and not much else. The blue dragon’s drop is weak, but a blue ooze drops a new staff (Rayleigh) which I ID as mapping. I use it once and leave it on the ground.

I hear a door burst open but the only thing awake is a nexus vortex far to my south. Nexus is weaker in my adapted version because stat swap is changed to +1/-1, instead of a full swap of stats. Still though, teleport away is an extremely powerful enemy attack that gives a chance at death, so I’ll want to avoid it. The vortex looks cut off from me though, so I’m not concerned right now, I'll just have to cast dvis a little more often.

The young black drops nothing of use and neither does the Angel it shared the room with, but there is a randart Halberd here. IDing it shows it is pretty weak. It does have regen though, so I’ll use it when resting for now, and then drop it off at home. The young red drops a helm that has +1 Int, but my current hat is better so I leave it there.

Digging through rubble discovers a Faurean ring of Dex, which I squelch. I get to the new wand and test it, it’s a gastronomically galavanting wand of lightning bolts, and it also gets squelched. I kill some more monsters getting nothing for my troubles. I can’t recall yet, because the town hasn’t restocked, so downstairs I go.

CL27 DL36
I wake up in one section of a 2x2 room. There’s a mage and two algroths in sight. Rmon shows a load of trolls and the queen ant. –dobj shows a new rod, a new scroll, and nothing else. I kill the algroths to pick up the Xerxes’s rod. It’s –light (finally)

Rods of light get autoinscribed @z1, showing the importance I place on them. However, I usually pick them up much earlier in the game. With my 190 SP, casting spear of light isn’t too much of a problem. Nevertheless, I'll hold onto the rod for now.

The forest trolls in the chamber below drop a !enlight which I immediately quaff. There are two unid’d amulets in another 2x2 room to the north. This is worth checking out. I leave the ants and the water trolls in the other chambers resting and go off in search of the amulets. I bump into angamite on the way. Acid bolts kill him but I have to use 1 !CCW when he confuses me. He drops a quarterstaff of westernesse (also +1). It’s lighter than my axe, but amazingly still too heavy to wield. It’ll be my weapon for now.

The other 2x2 room has a mature gold and an emperor wight. I need to be careful about the wight as it has two attacks that can almost, but not quite, kill me. The cause wounds spell, and the nether bolt. The mature gold is in the room with the amulets, so I haste self and attack it with acid bolts. It gives me CLevel 28, and I immediately heal myself to full, need to stay at full health unless the wight comes knocking.

Something opens up a door below in the chamber with the wight. It’s an illusionist though. The wight is still slumbering. I check out the amulets while waiting for the illusionist. The Matisse amulet is Inertia (squelch) The Lichtenstein amulet is searching (squelch). Drat, I was still hoping for “regen.

It turns out that what I thought was an illusionist was actually a demonologist. Acid bolts kill him before he can summon and he drops a new potion (ignominious). I ID it as Healing.

I leave and the Emperor Wight comes at me. I drop it to 2 stars before it decide to nether bolt me leaving me at 29 HP. I'm in the west side of the moat and I calculate that a phase has a negligible chance of landing me in LOS so I read ?phase and it drops me back into the chamber that I started in. I quaff !CCW and wait for its return. It’s not coming because it failed its path-finding algorithm.

I have to go to it, but a druid joins me in the moat. It gets killed with 2 acid bolts but not before its fire bolt kills a copy of my MB2. Finally I lure the Emperor Wight back into my temporary home and kill it. It drops a new Perpendicular potion for my struggle which I happily ID. (Rcon, ugh). It’s time to leave this level. I recall.

CL28 Town
I sell the axe of Westernesse and drop the Halberd off at home. I buy a !Int from the BM. I also by a Rousseauan ring of light which I squelch. There are no MB2s available in the magic shop. But I’m able to fully stock my depleted supply of !CCW. Not much else to do here, time to recall after making another dump.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[fizzix]

... and I'm learning about both your and my own play style. You seem to run more quickly than myself, often at the hint of danger. I like to encounter it (and be beaten back by it). Not a criticism, just an observation. It's probably got a lot to do with the low HP mage, and the fact that you actually beat the game every once in a while.

Criticism noted, I'll try to introduce more paragraph breaks.

And yes, I play extremely scared. The only alternative I see is to go slowly enough that I know I can handle everything around me.

What may not be clear from the updates is how much I spam detection. I try to know what's around me at all times. Even then, I still get surprised by monsters that spawn nearby while I'm busy fighting other ones. An example of this are the trolls on DL23 who were definitely not there when I started fighting the orcs.

Detecting right after resting is the most important, because you often don't realize exactly how many turns go by while you were resting. There will often be something dangerous on the level now. Another common mistake is to not detect while going back through a previously mapped section. This can also cause problems with spawned (awake!) monsters.

[buzzkill]

If your not opposed to it, try making your paragraphs even smaller. The three and four liners (when displayed full screen) are a breeze to read. It's something I've adopted with the latest installment of Onion, and am quite pleased with and plan to continue.

... and I'm learning about both your and my own play style. You seem to run more quickly than myself, often at the hint of danger. I like to encounter it (and be beaten back by it). Not a criticism, just an observation. It's probably got a lot to do with the low HP mage, and the fact that you actually beat the game every once in a while.

[SaThaRiel]

I've already stopped listing all the minor kills, except when they drop either useful or new stuff. But if it's lagging, I can speed it up by cutting out even more. Not sure what's best here.

Personally i really like to read details/ideas/options in the description of those adventures Its a good idea to write this down and show ppl like me how you Pros use to play.
Sure there will be differences in most playing styles but stuff like "The town has absolutely nothing for sale, not even stuff to learn flavors, so recall is almost immediate." are really interesting...i tend to travel through the town and hope that i missed something

I vote for the current (or maybe a bit more) detail All that can happen is that we learn something.

[fizzix]

I'm somehow disappointed at learning this. I don't know why. Still looking forward to the conclusion.

The main reason I waited, is that I didn't want to start writing simultaneously as your kremlen adventure. The only difference from your perspective is that I can't act on any suggestions you may make.

I've already stopped listing all the minor kills, except when they drop either useful or new stuff. But if it's lagging, I can speed it up by cutting out even more. Not sure what's best here.

[buzzkill]

edit: everything's already written. I just paste a section at a time....

I'm somehow disappointed at learning this. I don't know why. Still looking forward to the conclusion.

[fizzix]

CL23 DL30
I recall into a superb level in what looks like a dark pillared room. Dvis shows a bunch of cave orcs, some vortices, a white wraith and not much else to worry about. Frost balls, and a couple SCs kill the orcs, giving me nothing but gems. Well, they did drop a crossbow of extra shots, which I’d be delighted to have in any game but this. It's too heavy to carry to sell, so I just leave it. I kill a manticore for dlevel 24. I pick up a Becquerel staff, and use it in LoS of a red jelly but nothing happens. Further along, I detect and pick up an everburning lantern. This is my first game I've ever played where I never used a single flask of oil. After mapping half the level and killing monsters including two vampires and a young white, I take a downstairs after IDing the Bec staff as curing (dropped).

CL24 DL31
I land in a dark room with a guardian naga nearby and nothing else of immediate concern. –dobj shows a Chandrashekhar staff nearby. I kill the naga, but have some trouble navigating to the staff as the path curves around it. Later detection shows 14 air hounds camped out in the middle of the level. These are dangerous if I can’t get them one by one and fruitful kills if I can. I get the staff and ID it as dinvis. Not worth the weight so I use it once and leave it here. I then see what I can do about the air hounds. It looks like rubble is blocking their path to me. North of them are 18 stone trolls, also things I’d like to kill. The stone trolls cross my path first, and I light the room purposefully waking a few of them. There’s a young bronze in the room with the trolls, and It drops a x2 stack of unknown scrolls. Some frost balls and MMs kill the trolls and I get CL25 with their demise. I ID the scrolls as trap creation (squelch). The hounds are not that far from me but apparently can’t find the path to me. The mace that the trolls drop is acid, and I guess I’ll lug it back to town to sell. I want to start building up enough money to buy stat gain potions when they appear. Exploring south lets me know that the air hounds are in the inside section of a moated room, and they just couldn’t find the door. I go back into the room that the stone trolls came from and go far enough west so that they find the door, and then let a couple out, kill them, rinse, repeat. After the air hounds are dead, I Fire bolt a black knight and pick up the main gauche and bastard sword it was guarding. A shambling mound wakes up but I kill it before it can shriek. Neither weapon is splendid so I leave them. Further westward exploration brings me to a pack of earth hounds. With convenient terrain these are more easy XP. After I pick off the hounds, I kill a troll priest, test-wield a lucerne hammer (squelch) and decide to take the down stairs. So far my foray into stat-gain has not been too productive from the stat-gain point of view. Oh well, nothing to do but forge along.

CL25 DL32
Another dark room and another superb feeling. I one shot fire-bolt the dragon fly that I share the room with, and dvis shows nothing else of danger. –dobj shows Washington’s rod in the room with me and a Compton staff not far off to the east. I pick up Washington’s rod and try it, but nothing happens (it’s probably curing) ID shows that yes indeed it is curing, the most useless item in the game. Well, it’s worthwhile to sell at least? I test-wield and squelch a glaive on the way to the staff. I pass through a pillared room with an upstairs and kill a paladin in it. IDing the staff shows that it’s Devil, again not worth carrying around. A helm next to it is infravision and it is left behind. (my +3 INT, rsound hat is pretty damn good, but telep would be better.) There’s an unknown Sibeliussy ring up north, and I’ve got nothing better to aim for so I decide to head for it. I light up a room with a novice priest gathering and frost ball them, keeping an eye out for dropped potions (there are none) They drop another ring of escaping, but I’d rather have the =Int at this point than a second escaping ring. Still, I pick it up in case it’s useful in the future. A saber-tooth tiger comes at me but this time it’s a piece of cake to kill. I kill a mind flayer in the room with the new ring. There’s also a cloak here but I destroy it after confirming that it’s not an artifact, or magi+telep. Some white wolves interrupt my treasure gathering so I take them out. I finally get around to wielding the new ring and it has no obvious effect. I ID it as damage (squelched). -dobj shows MB4 northwards and Louis XIV’s Rod southwards. I get the book first and then get the rod and promptly zap a beetle who doesn’t fall asleep (rod squelched). I finally find some stairs but –dobj near them show yet another unid’d rod (Mao Tse-tung’s) so I head for that keeping an eye out for the pukelman nearby. I have to take a roundabout route to the rod, and I have to TO the pukelman when he wakes up. The rod is –dstairs (squelched.) I’ve decided that I have had enough of this level and recall back instead of taking the stairs, because I need more inventory space.

CL25 town
I sell the mace and the curing rod, buy a wand of stinking cloud for flavor (empirically empoisoning, how apt, I think that’s the second time that stinking cloud got that flavor) At the BM I buy a mushroom of terror for flavor (niveous) =Open Wounds for flavor (Hardyesque) and =Delving for flavor (Joycean). I consider a rod of frost bolts, but it won’t be too helpful to me at this point. Only one ?WoR in the alchemist and the general store (l have some extra at home). I read one and drop off the escaping ring at home and realize that I forgot to use my enlightenment potion last trip. oops.

Before I descend, it is time to reflect and give thanks on the bounty I have received. At this point I have rbase covered, +11 speed, 18/150 Int, and a permanent source of FA. I have 108 HP which is admittedly pretty puny, but 163 SP, which makes me a powerhouse that can kill almost anything. All in all, far beyond what I was expecting. My inventory contains two –TO (17 charges between them), 2 –dobj, _teleport, mb1-4 and an assortment of potions and scrolls. This is far beyond what I was expecting by this point. The only slots that could use obvious improvement are the amulet slot, where “regen would be most appropriate, and the weapon slot, which is currently empty. The best for that would be something light with SInv (or telepathy, dare I dream.) Anyway, off we go.

CL25 DL32
Swigging enlight shows a new ring (Dickensian) and a new amulet (Warhol) and sadly no new potions. Both are far away, I’m in the southwest corner, the amulet is in the north middle and the ring is in the northeast, but getting the new amulet is worth checking out. Since I have enough SP and dreads will show up soon, it’s time to start casting Reveal Monsters instead of DVis, and it shows nothing of danger. A bunch of gnome mages block the path to the amulet, and killing them gives CL26. One of the gnome mages drops a Gauguin amulet, wielding it shows it’s WIS (+2). It replaces my RAcid amulet, at least for a couple turns. Another drops Mandela’s rod which does nothing to the wall. The warhol amulet, doesn’t do anything when worn, I ID it because I don’t want to wait to learn RElec if it’s that, (it is). Oh well, time to backtrack and make my way to the ring, because sadly, getting from the middle north to the northeast requires going back through the center. Nothing really bugs me on the path to the ring, and wearing it does nothing so I ID it (Rfire) and squelch it. There’s also a sling in the room, which get’s pseudo’d as a sling of power. It’s light enought to carry and sell, so I’ll do that. I also find body armor that is not splended and therefore squelched. Lastly, there’s conveniently a downstairs in this room, so I rest to full and descend. Still no stat-gain found yet.

CL26 DL33
RMon shows a couple bats nearby and golfimbul and a large escort to the southeast. I’ll go kill golfimbul after taking care of the bats. –dobj shows !Rstr and !Rchr, so nothing of use. The spoils of golfimbul and escort unfortunately contain no unknown potions. They do leave a Dostoyevskian Ring (ID’d, bodykeeping) Golfimbul drops an Executioner’s sword of Slay Undead, and instead of resting to regain my low SP, I’ll recall to town to sell stuff and back. This will actually be a habit with me. When low on SP, I'll recall to town instead of resting. Or at least it'll be a habit until I pick up a source of regen. I wonder how long that will take?

CL26 town
The town has absolutely nothing for sale, not even stuff to learn flavors, so recall is almost immediate.

No new dump this time around. I'll try to get to the next chardump point on the next update, but it's a ways away. Might have to split it into two updates.

[fizzix]

CL18 DL23
I land in a dark room with a Quylthulg in sight. I immediately fire bolt it killing it for dlevel 19. Dvis shows grishnakh with a ginormous escort to the west and not much else. I light the room and there’s no westward exit. Without my –light, I can't take on a lot at once, we’ll see if the dungeon allows for taking on only a few at a time. –dobj shows an acerous potion to the north and I head to get that. As I close in, dvis shows a flock of crebain to the north. They’ll get to the potion before me so I decide to rest and see if they enter the room I’m in. A few SP regained later the first shows up and I start hockey-sticking them to death. After a while the flow stops and dvis shows them lined up behind a locked door. Ufthak and escort are in a cross room to the east, so I’d prefer if they don’t shriek. I pick up the potion and decide to head back to the room I started in, and try the other exit, and see if it gets me closer to grishnakh. It does, and I break into grishnakhs room. I fire some lightning bolts into his escorts killing the ones lined up in front of the door. I decide to retreat before attempting to take on any more. At full SP, Grishnakh goes down easy. He drops a cloak which is not splendid so I destroy it. I try to get close enough to wake up a bunch of orcs with a stinking cloud so I can line them up in a corridor and lightning bolt them to death, but they keep coming at me individually. Eventually after several retreats, rests, LBs and MMS, I’ve destroyed the escort. About halfway through a group of forest trolls have spawned near the escorts, oh boy, more dumb monsters to kill. At one point I let a cave orc hit me to try out the acerous potion (!Chr, I feel cute!). A baby black joins the battle coming in behind some trolls and melts some wepons that were lying on the ground and damages my speed shoes. The loot is meager. A potion of true seeing, some gold, and two weapons which I ID as a +5 +5 lance and a slay giant glaive. I decide to return to town to sell these and see if I can find a _teleport. There are no stairs nearby and I’ve been on this level for way too long, and the town inventory has switched over. At some point during the battles I gained CL20 (61 SP)

CL20 town
Alas still no _teleport. The only spell I can learn in MB4 is frost ball, and it’s just not worth it yet. BM has a +4 =Int (score!) It replaces my ring of accuracy which I must’ve ID’d at some point by bumping into a townsman. My SP skyrocket to 101, things are looking up. BM also has a –TO for cheap so I get that as well. I also buy an Amulet of Adornment to learn flavor (Picasso) Some potions for flavors (Rdex, Rstr, Rchr = Tintinnabulary, Nitpicky and Pneumatic) Some scrolls for flavors (Ench to-dam,squelch, Ench to-hit squelch, and recharging.) Happy with this quick shopping spree, I decide to return once again.

CL20 DL23
I drop into a dark room. My goal now is to get to stat gain as quick as possible. dvis shows a couple vortices nearby but nothing else to be afraid of. I pick up a ?teleport in the room and eat some slime molds lying on the ground. I find the stairs and kill a master yeek that wakes up nearby, netting me a seccond –dobj. I rest to full and drop down again.

CL20 DL24
A dark room with a mess of novice rangers. Dvis shows precisely 17 of them and a tengu in the room. I fire a bunch of SCs in the general direction of the rangers before lighting up the room. I kill them and the tengu easily, rest and check the loot. I get two more ?teleport, an unid’d scroll that I can test anywhere (I’ve already gotten rid of the two summons.) Some useless rings and some weapons I don’t care for. –dobj shows nothing nearby so I rest and read the scroll hoping for DD. It’s acquirement. I seem to always discover these with id-by-use. It drops a robe which I immediately wield. It’s the artifact Hyarveril, what a lucky draw. I Id it, it gives rbase and only rbase and provides +6 to hit and to dam. A robe of resistance is pretty good for me at this stage and I’m delighted with the find. I set off looking for stairs. Dvis shows a water vortex nearby, I want to try and kill it before it breathes if possible. A –dobj later shows a gauss staff and a zonliy zombifying wand. I want both if possible. I fight through some light hounds and the vortex, pick up the wand and the staff. I prepare to jump down a trap door but a hill orc approaches. I test out the wand (sleep monster, useless) and the staff _teleportation, glad to have one. In my new location there are no stairs nearby. I group of yeeks to the south means a unique is nearby, because they otherwise only travel solo. I’m not too far from where I teleported from, so I trudge back. At this point with 101 SP, the –MM aren’t too helpful so I chuck them. Similarly the –WoW probably won’t do much for me so I get rid of that also. I get back to the trap door, the hill orc is still asleep and I ignore it and drop down.

CL20 DL25
Dark room, I see a sleeping brown beetle. Dvis show’s no real dangers nearby. I kill the beetle, light the room, and drop down the stairs that are conveniently located in it.

CL20 DL26
Another dark room, zombified human and a giant red scorpion are in sight. The zombie drops a =Str (+2) that replaces my free action ring (superfluous with the gloves) The scorpion gives me CL21 (106 SP). Dstairs show none nearby, -dobj shows only weapons. Some aimless wandering later I detect some stairs and nothing I want to fight or pick up. I phase into the room with the stairs. I rest and then descend once more.

CL21 DL27
I land in a room with blink dogs, not wanting anything to do with them, I teleport. This brings me into another dark room with a displacer beast in sight. Dstairs shows a set nearby to the east. –dobj shows a new ring, 2 new wands and a new potion and a shield. One of the wands is in the room with me so I grab it and FB the displacer beast to death. I then go south to pick up the other wand. I wield the ring and it's escaping (Mahlerian) and the shield. My pack is full so I test out the salaciously sandbagging wand, it gives a white beam but doesn’t destroy the wall. I already know TO, so I test it on a trap, trap-door destruction. No need for it, squelched. Lastly I head east, injure myself with a beetle and try the rhyming potion in the room. It does nothing, so it’s probably one of the 3 restores I haven’t ID’d in town yet. On the stairs I cast ID on the numerically nucleating wand (disarming, squelch) and the wicker shield I picked up. Rcold, wield. At speed +11 with the escaping ring, I descend again.

CL21 DL28
Dark room. dvis shows nothing dangerous. Dstairs shows some to the west. –dobj shows just a flail. I straight shot to the stairs, killing an energy vortex on the way, and descend.

CL21 DL29
Dark room, 10 cave ogres in sight, golfimbul and escort to the north, and a umberhulk nearby as well. I want nothing to do with this section of the map, so I teleport. I land in another dark room that dvis shows me sharing with a scorpion. Sanghayando is to the south and some algroths are further south. Dstairs shows no stairs, not even any doors. Dobj shows a stack of 3 scrolls near the scorpion (probably darkness or something) I kill the scorpion and ID the scrolls, just in case they’re curse armor. They’re aggravate and are squelched.

The only path is taking me south towards Sanghayando, I can probably take him on if the hallway leads to him. However, the path goes past him, and I don’t mind skipping the fight. dstairs still shows nothing, dvis shows the algroth group is larger than I expected, and certainly larger than I can handle. The passageway snakes to the west and finally dstairs shows me a destination stairway. Dvis shows nothing dangerous in the path. –dobj shows another strength ring, and a tried rhyming potion on the way. I pick up the potion, grab the strength ring which conveniently stacks with the one in my pack, and get to the stairs.

CL21 DL30
I drop near a young green and a down stairs on this superb level. I'm at stat gain depth, so now is the time to try and kill anything with a drop. Dvis shows a white wraith also in the room, a young blue to the north and forest trolls to the south. I wallop the wraith with two fire bolts and it drops a manifoldly masticating wand. I drink the !rpois I’ve been lugging around and go to kill the young green with fire bolts, except I find I’m surrounded by clear hounds. I read ?dinvis and there are 16 of them. I SC most of the clear hounds to death in time to fire bolt the young green before rpois wears off (it doesn’t breathe anyway) It drops an adjectival potion which I immediately try hoping for !stat (!rmana). I mop up the remaining clear hounds that flew to the corner getting dlevel 22 in the process.

–dobj shows some heavy armor that I’ll ignore. I kill the young blue to the north after lighting a corridor with spear of light and waking it with stinking clouds, but it drops nothing of interest. I really would like some Con before descending too far, because 94 HP will get me one-shotted fairly soon. We'll see how likely I am to get this (hint: not anytime soon, it will be a long time before my HP are higher than my SP). I decide that the forest trolls to the south would make for good killings so I go seek them out. I spear of light them and wind up waking a mature red in the process. Uh-oh, this is a monster that I may not be able to handle. Its fire breath won’t kill me with my resistance cloak, so after I spear of light a bunch of trolls to death, I let the dragon into LoS and acid bolt it (CL23). It winds up not breathing at all, or doing much of anything besides advancing into my onslaught of acid bolts.

Dvis further down shows a mature green in what looks like a 2x2 room, now that is something to avoid. The mature red dropped two items, one is an iron helm which identifies as the artifact bereth. Wielding it gives me +3 Int (Yes, I’ve been insanely lucky, I know) Bringing my SP to 150. I ID the halbert it drops (flame) and decide to sell it. –dobj shows nothing I want nearby, so I decide to recall.

CL23 town
IDing the manifoldy masticating wand I picked up from the wraith shows me clone monsters, squelched. I pick up another –TO from the BM and a !enlight (for knowledge mostly). I ID the rhyming potion as Rint. and ID the randart helm (rdark, rsound). I decide to buy MB4 now that frost ball is definitely castable, and buy a 2nd MB3 while I’m there. I learn frost ball, TO, and reveal monsters. I’m a little overweight, but I have +10 speed still, so I don’t mind. I make a dump and prepare to recall.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[fizzix]

The advantages of speed for this character in order of importance (to me):

1 can TO monsters without them getting a turn (will be important when I can do this)
2 can move faster so that monsters don't get woken up as easily
3 makes it easier to kill monsters with dangerous ranged attacks (less healing required)

2 is somewhat mitigated because I have to rest so much to regen SP (spawned monsters are always awake)


I thought about going gnome instead of hobbit, the only reason I didn't is because of the EXP penalty.

edit: everything's already written. I just paste a section at a time, cut out boring sections, add anything that describes how I approach the game, and then edit it so that it makes sense. I could paste the whole thing now, but that'd be overkill, just a section like this a day, trying to jump between all the chardumps I made along the way.

[ewert]

Lucky sandals. How would you rate the +speed has affected your character in a "power" sense (as in killing ability, staying alive ability)? Cause that's what 2x RoE is like. Btw, hug the RNG, or it might turn nasty. =P

I started a gnome mage (melee/archerless of course) myself, dunno why but I really like mages nowadays. Went max str/int. Played a few hours, it's in stat gain now with 130ish hp and 130ish sp (one int ring found yey). Don't remember clvl, but tested a RoE to see the fail%, and I already had frost bolt at min fail too, I think fire bolt would have needed a couple levels more to be min-fail.

Keep on writing, I'm sure lots of people are reading.

[fizzix]

CL13 DL16
I land in a dark double wide corridor. Dvis shows some light hounds and some cave orcs in a treasure room to the north. (Treasure rooms are the moated checkerboard rooms.) I can only see the top half of the treasure room, but I want to explore. I kill grip on the way north. Dvis further north show 8 light hounds, 18 cave orcs and a dark elven mage. This seems good for my level. I find it hard to get there, but I kill a griffon on the way for CL14 (29 SP). I go into a room and something breathes fire, but luckily nothing gets burned. I’m down to 10 SP so I rest but it doesn’t chase me into the corridor. Dvis shows it’s a giant salamander. It wasn’t chasing me because it was blocked by something unmoving. I MM the something and then kill the salamander. I pick up a Xerophytic potion, and head towards the treasure room. An orc is blocking the door preventing the hounds from escaping. I MM the orc to wake it, and run out of the moat and kill it and the first light hound that appears. I rest to full. The hounds are in the moat, and I go out and MM them, retreating into the corridor to rest when blinded. I get CL15 (SP 31). –light and MMs help take out the cave orcs. The dark elven mage comes out and a frost bolt and MM kill it. He drops and un id’d scroll. The treasure room has an un id’d ring (saint-saensian), a ?RC, and both up and down stairs. I read the unid’d scroll from the mage over the down stairs (teleportation). I slog my way back to the treasure room and return to the stairs and wield the unid’d ring (no effect) and test the Xerophytic potion (rpois).

Down I go

CL15 DL17
dvis shows bolg, an orc captain and a bunch of half and hill orcs to the north. That’s a definite avoid. Not much dangerous to the south so I head that way. I find an upstairs on the bottom left corner of the map, I don’t take it, but it’s good to know it’s there. I also find a hippogriff and Nar near the downstairs. Not much else is nearby so I take out the hippogriff and rest up for Nar, feeling that I have just enough SP to take him out. The first time Nar heals himself, I realize that I forgot he could do that. I usually wind up killing Nar so late in the game, that I never really knew what he could do. I have no choice but to bail 1/3 of the way through the battle and take the down stairs.

CL15 DL18
A pack of manes and some black orcs to the south. I kind of want to blast the black orcs with the remaining charges of my light wand, but I don’t think I can with the manes in the way. I quickly find some downstairs and use it as a safe spot to rest. Dvis senses nothing so I decide to explore a little. My Saint-saensian ring IDs as slow digestion, and I find another with a ?dobj in a room. I don’t like how far I’ve been going from the stairs, so I return and descend.

CL15 DL19
I land near a giant grey rat and I kill it. Dvis shows 5 white wolves and a pack of gnome mages. Both seem worthwhile to kill. After dispatching the closer white wolves I read dobj. I see a Millikan Staff, a Pneumatic potion and a cloak nearby, and no monsters. I pick up the staff and it drops me to +6 speed. I drop a 3rd copy of MB1 that I picked up somewhere, but still burdened. A tengu approaches and I try the staff (it’s identify). I kill the tengu and try the potion (no effect). I backtrack to get the cloak but I get to a deadend. Phasing lands me in the room with the cloak. I pick it up and it’s the randart Angothith. It gives +3 Int, what a boon! Dvis shows a gelatinous cube nearby, but I can outrun it. I phase back to my corridor and ID the cloak. All it has is +3 Int and sustain dexterity, but hey, that’s pretty big for me at this point. My SP are a whopping 46. I rest to full before going to tackle the gnome mages. I dvis along the way. The gnome mages are to the north of me. Further north is ufthak, bullroarer and escort. South is gorbag and escort. I definitely can’t take gorbag on, but ufthak is a possibility. I pick off the mages with frost bolts (and an MM if that doesn’t finish them) I get CL16 along the way, 49 SP. At some point I go back to rest and a black orc from gorbag’s escorts has found me. I hit it with –light and there’s none but him behind it. I kill it and a gnome mage that awakened and try resting again, but a large kobold has came near, so I kill it also. At this point a second black orc is coming, it’s time to get out of here. There’s a stairs nearby but the mages are blocking it in a room, so I got to continue westward. I come across a second set of down stairs. And with the safety of the stairs accessible, but I try to kill some of the monsters that have been chasing me. Dvis shows most of the mages are still asleep and there’s a lone black orc from gorbag’s group. I light an intersection and kill it when it enters. I’m at SP 15 and in a safe place, so I rest a bit waiting for the gnome mages to awaken. The first one approaches when I’m at 29. One drops a Chagall amulet and another drops a wand of MM. Among the gnome mages is smeagol, oh boy. So many fun things on this level. Smeagol takes forever to steal and run away and I keep on blasting it with –MM charges, eventually killing the gnome mage and a cave orc behind it with beams. However, an umber hulk must’ve spawned nearby, and it burrowed through the wall to get next to me. I’m low on SP, so it’s time to go down the stairs, smeagol will have to wait until later.

CL16 DL20
dvis shows mughash and close to 50 kobolds to the west. Not much else scary though. I rest to full (I was at 3 SP) and head away from Mughash. I see a scarlattiesque ring in a room with a skeleton kobold. The ring is the mouse, not worth wielding, but I would if it gave a stealth bonus. The chagall amulet does not id when wielded. There are a bunch of white wolves lined up in a corridor. 3 lightning bolts kill them giving me Clevel 17 (52 SP) Further south, there are 7 forest trolls blocking my path to the stairs. I don’t know how many of them I can handle. But I rest after the first two (one dropped a !hero) They don’t seem to have good pathfinding as I manage to rest again during the battles. The last one gives me Clevel 18 (55 SP). I reach the stairs, but there are some more things to kill nearby. There’s a gnome mage in the center of a plus room (guarding a treasure I assume) It summons a green naga and both die. My chagall amulet has ID’d as slow digestion, and the naga drops another. But there’s also a Tolstoian ring that was guarded by the gnome mage. I wear the ring to no obvious effect. There’s a tengu, a master yeek and a stone golem in a moated room. Seems like fun, so I take them out (except the tengu who blinked away). In the moated room there’s also Garibaldi’s Rod which I immediately test and it’s –dobj. It get’s inscribed @z3. I detect ?teleport nearby and it's not difficult to get, so I grab it and head back towards the stairs. This was a productive level, and down I go.

CL18, DL21
Looking at my damage spells. Magic missile does 6d4 damage or 15 dam/sp and 15 dam/turn. Frost bolt does 8d6 or 12 dam/SP, 36 dam/turn. SC does 19 damage at center, so 9.5 dam/SP. Lastly lightning bolt does 5d6 damage, 4 dam/sp and 17.5 dam/turn. MM is still the most cost effective damage, frost bolt is to be used when I’m fighting something with dangerous ranged attacks, and SC or LB are for multiple enemies.

Anyway, I land in a darkened room next to a gnome mage. Dvis shows a line of snagas nearby. I FB the mage and pick up the silver it drops and then head toward the snagas. I kill them with MMs and LBs getting an Industrious potion, a dastardly dandifying wand, and MB3 (!!). I learn acid bolt, fire bolt and lesser recharging. I rest to full and dvis. There’s a 3 head hydra that’s awake and to the north of me. I’ll want to avoid that. There’s not much else nearby except for down stairs. Dvis by the down stairs shows a dark elven mage, so I go to kill that. It poisons me and I try out the industrious potion after it dies (Berserk Strength, useless) It drops boots which I don’t care for unless they are an artifact, (they are not). I’m on the far west edge of the map, and there’s nothing else nearby, so I head back to the stairs and recharge my –light (back to 4 charges). I rest and head down.

CL18, DL22
I land in a corridor, dvis shows a sabre tooth tiger to the south. It’s going to get to me, but I can probably kill it with the amount of SP that I have. I wait a bit and it seems to have found a path towards me, I duck into a small room nearby, -light the corridor that it’ll arrive from and wait. 4 FBs and 2 MMs and it’s dead. I try resting and something wails at me and I’m terrified. It’s probably a moaning spirit, and with my gloves with sustain dex, I don’t mind if it touches me. I cast an SC centered around me. It screams in pain, and then presumably runs away. I rest until it wails again. Another SC finishes it off and I rest to full. A bunch of snagas to the south look like worthwhile targets, so I head there. Two charges from –light shrivel 8 of them, and net me a !rpois. I recharge –light, and kill 4 more around the bend. There are 7 more in a room, so I send some SCs in. 4 SCs and 2 MMs kill the remainder. The loot is another _Sleep monsters and pitiful amounts of copper. Going westward, the only monsers are a novice ranger and an icky thing. Dobj shows a lucerne hammer and some copper. Another dvis shows 6 cold hounds, that I can't get to, so I head to a nearby downstairs.

CL18, DL23
I land in a lit room with a multi-hued baby dragon, lugdush and 50 escorts, and an awake potion mimic. Good times. I teleport and land in a room with at least 8 cold hounds. More good times. Teleport again, this time reading the scroll I picked up, because a failure here could be bad since I don't know how many hounds there are. This teleport lands me in a twisty corridor. Dvis shows monsters all around, orc shaman to the north, pseudo dragon to the south. Yeti southwest with bullroarer farther and a 3 headed hydra far north. This level is dangerous. Dstairs show an up stairs to the south past the pseudo dragon. I discover that the dragon is inside a moated room and the yeti is outside it. –dobj shows a Manet amulet to the north, that I won’t go after for fear of the hydra, and a Superfluous potion inside the moated room. 5 MMs take care of the yeti, and I grab the superfluous potion without waking up the dragon. I leave the room and Bullroarer wakes up and finds me, so I ?phase landing me in a nearby corridor. I –light in the direction that I think he’ll come from, and dvis show’s that I’m right. 5 MMs are enough to waste him. He drops two shields and a morning star. I’m feeling that it’s time to head back to town so I ID all three. I try out that wand I’ve been lugging around for a while on a centipede (wonder) and drop a wooden torch to pick up the morning star. Then it’s recall time!

CL18 Town
I Id and sell the excellent morning star for 5000 gold and the _Sleep and –confuse for 2500 more. Useless for any of the monsters I’m now worried about. I’m annoyed that there’s still no _teleport in the magic shop. I let a mercenary hit me to try out the superfluous potion (true seeing). I decide to spend my money on gloves of free action from the BM. I drop off my ?RC and my _ID at home. I have lots of money left so it’s time to buy a bunch of things for flavor knowledge. ?Magic mapping, detect stairs (squelch), monster confusion (squelch), and ID from the alchemist, there’s just restore dex for potions there. I don’t see myself needing that for quite a while so I pass on that. I buy 8 more !CCW from the temple (up to 10). I get “Chr (manet, squelch) and “Resist acid (wield) and =Searching (Hugoesque, squelch) from the magic shop. I’m not deep enough to worry about _Devil or _Dinvis so I let them be. I get !RLL (Disheartening) because it's very hard to ID-by use, and drop it off at home. I pick up three torches from the general store. I get 7 ?WoR from the alchemist and 2 ?dinvis and drop 4 of the ?WoR off at home, carrying 4 with me. I try recharging –light and it blows up, damn. I’m a bit overweight, so I drop some of the !CCW at home, If I run out, I’ll return. If I need to drop more weight, my useless armor will go, It’s not doing much besides blocking acid. Speaking of that I decide instead to sell the leather armor that I’ve been wearing and replace it with a robe. I make a char dump just shy of 180k turns and it’s time to drop back down.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[fizzix]

CL12 DL12
Dvis shows a couple tengus but otherwise not much. I see a wand of slow monsters and go to get it (mostly to sell) in a room full of jackals. En route a shrieker patch shrieks. It was way far to the north of me and I’m amazed it had LoS to me. This wakes up the tengus and one chases me into a room, to the south, but I’m able to kill it. I rest in the room and kill the shrieker on the way out. There’s a Proustian Ring to the northwest and down stairs close by. I’m tempted to get the ring because it could be teleportation, about the only useful ring at this depth. I’m blocked off from the room, but I manage to phase in on the second attempt. The tengu sitting inside wakes up and blinks away. I pick up the ring and test-wield it, it’s not teleport, but it’s not cursed either. Dvis shows that the tengu blinked back into the room I came from. There’s not much dangerous nearby so I decide to explore further. Normally I’d just dive at this point, but I still don’t have enough ability to kill much so I need to be careful. ?dobj shows a ?WoR I go to get it. A green jelly blocks my way to the scroll, so I MM it to death and then rest. Further exploration still shows nothing I want, so I go back to the stairs and descend.

CL12 DL13
I land in a lit room. 5 gnome mages to the south. A tiger and some other stuff to the east. The tiger scares me the most, so I head away from it. Dvis later shows the tiger is out of sight, but one of the mages has awoken. There’s also a dark elven mage and two black orcs, a dangerous level (for me). dstairs shows a down stairs close to the black orcs. dobj shows a shovel and leather gloves, both likely useless. I head towards the dark elven mage, a frost bolt and a magic missile kill it, it drops leather sandals which I pick up. I wield the sandals, and uh, ok, this is kind of nuts, but we'll roll with it. They are speed +7. This feels incredibly cheesy, but don't look an RNG in the gift-horse mouth...or something. (It also makes all the hubbub about escaping rings very humorous) I also wield the hat I pick up earlier. Another dvis shows a whole bunch of orcs and lagduf. I want nothing more to do with this level, so I descend.

CL12 DL14
I land in a lit room with a black mamba and 7 novice warriors. I walk towards an exit. I SC the warriors 3 times and then finish the remainders with MMs. The mamba awakes but a couple MMs kills it off also. Loot from the warriors is a Kelvin staff, an Aesopian Ring, a Fuliginously Fulminating wand, and a nonsplendid flail. I wield the ring (cursed, strength -1, who cares). Dvis shows an orc pit to the west, that I certainly can’t handle. None have exited the pit yet so I’m guessing the exit is on the far side. I take the time to rest, since SP are low and head east. I head south to a group of cave orcs (5) and start MMing them. It takes 5 MMs to drop one. I kill 1 and then retreat and rest. 9 MMs kill two more, retreat to rest. One awakens and I kill it. Finally I kill the last one. I read my last ?dobj but I find nothing. A black harpy awakens and it is a good target for my unknown wand. It’s –light and I have 6 charges yet. Light is probably the most useful early game wand and I’m glad to have it. I kill the Harpy and a dark elven warrior for CL13. SP is at 5, so I rest. The dark elven warrior dropped 1 ?dobj. I detect some stairs and head towards them, killing a baby gold along the way. Rest to full SP and down I go.

CL13 DL15
Empty room, dvis shows a priest, a baby blue, and a lone white wolf a distance away on 3 sides of me. Only door is up, so I head in the direction of the baby blue. ?Dobj shows only a set of 3 unid’d scrolls. Baby blue dead after a bunch of MMs. Another dvis shows a cave bear and a griffon. 3 MMs take out the bear but I need more SP before thinking about the griffon so I retreat and rest to full. It will be my most difficult kill yet, but will give me a good chunk of XP. The griffon is around a bend so I use a stinking cloud to wake it up, wait three turns and then start MMing. 3 turns are because I’m at speed plus 7. After 10 MMs it's at three stars and right next to me so I ?phase. 5 more kill it and I rest again. I’m hungry so I read a ?SH. I head off east in the direction of detected stairs. I reach the stairs but there’s nothing in the vicinity that’s dangerous, so I decide to head towards the previously detected scrolls picking up some silver along the way. A red naga meets me, it’s awake, so I have to ?phase. It lands me in a room with an awake tengu and the naga near the entrance. I frost bolt and MM the tengu and it blinks away. Then I start MMing the naga. 6 MMs kill the naga, and it drops some more unknown scrolls. The tengu meets me near the stairs and hits me a couple times before MMs kill it. Wounded on stairs is a good time to try out the Kelvin staff (no effect). I rest until full, and then try the scrolls. The first one is monster summoning, and I run down the stairs.

CL13 DL16
Land in a dark room. A guardian naga is nearby, I don’t want to fight it. I head off to the east, find an exit and a Peripatetic potion. A large kobold meets me and I decide to MM it. It takes 6 MMs to kill. There are 11 manes to the north and a tengu. That’s still better than the naga, so I head that way. The tengu awakens and summons me into the room with the manes. I’m low on mana, so I don’t want to risk running out while fighting them, and teleself immediately. I land in a room of sleeping back orcs. I decide to try and escape but I first read my ?WoR, It’s time to get off this level. None of the orcs awaken, and dvis shows some uruks and another mess of orcs elsewhere. WoR yanks me back to town to my delight.

CL13 Town
I first buy 4 ?phase. and 2 ?WoR (have to get them from general store) I consider selling stuff for _teleport but there is none in the Magic shop. Instead I buy =FF for knowledge and ?RC allowing me to take off the cursed ring. I wield =FF (why not?) I test the staff again (sleep monsters) and test read Summon undead, that’s no good. I don’t see anything, but who knows what invisible things I summoned (in retrospect, it was probably just a single lost soul or poltergeist, my panic was unwarranted). So I phase and head to the stairs. I’ll waste time trying to find the stairs up. It doesn’t take much time at all and I’m back in town soon. The proustian ring I had before has been pseudo’d with [+9], so it’s protection. I wake a veteran to hit me so I can test the Peripatetic potion, it’s Intellect, and it saps Wisdom, woohoo! RNG has been exceedingly kind to me. That brings my SP up to 27. My burden is high so I sell the staff of light and the rod of trap detection. I check out the BM and to my delight I am able to buy =FA (schubertian) from the BM. I sell my =Prot and buy a –MM (Uproariously upholstering). No ?dobj for sale unfortunately. Taking stock, I’m at CL13, I have 54 HP and 27 SP. I have +7 permspeed. I have no resists covered. and I’m at 134k turns.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10402

[fizzix]

packs aren't bad at all if they have group AI. Then they won't leave a room and chase you into a corridor so you can snipe them one by one, or cast ball spells at them. SC can kill a group of wolves easily, provided you don't mind resting. Groups of monsters like novice mages, priests, warriors that don't have group AI are more of a problem. Orcs and trolls will be the problem in the midgame. Unless I'm lucky enough to pick up some wands and rods.

After MM the next best elementless spells for damage are explosion and rift in MB6. But that's a long ways away. Gotta just avoid what you can't kill until then.