Fightless the full-casting mage

[kaypy]

In vanilla:head:spells1.c:project_p you have

	if (p_ptr->state.resist_pois)
	{
		dam = RES_POIS_ADJ(dam, NOT_USED);
		wieldeds_notice_flag(OF_RES_POIS);
	}
	if (p_ptr->timed[TMD_OPP_POIS])
		dam = RES_POIS_ADJ(dam, NOT_USED);

which is noticeably not exclusive in tests for timed vs equipment resistance- ie the RES_POIS_ADJ can be applied twice.

[fizzix]

In vanilla:head:spells1.c:project_p you have

	if (p_ptr->state.resist_pois)
	{
		dam = RES_POIS_ADJ(dam, NOT_USED);
		wieldeds_notice_flag(OF_RES_POIS);
	}
	if (p_ptr->timed[TMD_OPP_POIS])
		dam = RES_POIS_ADJ(dam, NOT_USED);

which is noticeably not exclusive in tests for timed vs equipment resistance- ie the RES_POIS_ADJ can be applied twice.

Ok, I've had this false impression for a long time. I'm pretty sure I commented on it in the past and no one corrected me. Oh well, the more you know.

[fizzix]

CL33 DL51
I land in a dark room next to a master vampire and a young multi hued. My first step is away from the vampire bringing a quylthulg into view. One acid bolt kills it. Rmon shows a treasure room full with energy hounds and mumaks to the north and nothing dangerous, so I decide to engage the vampire after moving away a bit.

A chest dropped by the Master Vampire has a !rmana which I happily take. I clear the energy hounds out of the treasure room, but not the mumaks. Rmon shows Akhorahil and Khim nearby sharing a room with an Ancient gold and a Great Crystal Drake. The drake is dangerous with my low HP, so I want nothing to do with that area, despite the new wand in their room.

I run into a room of forest trolls and use my last charge of –fire balls, and the wand is destroyed on the recharge attempt. Another Rmon shows Ariel and a dreadmaster, two more monsters to avoid. I get an it summons an undead adversary (grey wraith) and I Rmon to show the rotting quylthulg that just blinked away. I TO the quylthulg and the awakened Ariel. Now Ariel is awake somewhere on the level, so I need to be extra cautious.

I finally spot some stairs, but need to be careful because kavlax is nearby. I kill some orcs, rest, and make it to the stairs checking every couple steps to make sure kavlax hasn’t awakened. I make it there before he wakes up and down I go.

CL33 DL52
I land right next to a greater basilisk who immediately gets TOd. Rmon shows I’m in a 2x2 room. There’s a vampire lord in the room to the north. 8 dreads to the south of me. A bunch of ogres to the west, Bolg and escort to the northeast. This place is scary. I head out of the 2x2 room and northwards as quickly as I can, keeping an eye on the other doors, but none open. I make it to some downstairs and Rmon shows yet another pack of dreads to the north. Normally I’d go kill Bolg and his escort, but it’s not worth the risk of the dreads waking up, so I descend.

This level is a case where very high stealth was useful. Dreads wake up incredibly easily, and I'd usually be stuck reading an escape scroll or destructing.

CL33 DL53
Rmon shows an Ancient bronze and Rogrog + escort to the south. There’s an ethereal dragon to the northwest, but hopefully it’s far enough away that it won’t awaken. I get quite a few more recharges out of my dragon’s frost wand before it blows up in the battle with Rogrog's escort. It takes lots of phases and fire bolts to kill rogrog, but he’s finally dead and I get CL34. One of the trolls drops a crown of seeing, and I think this might be worthwhile to wield for rblind. An emperor wight drops a Solipsistic potion which turns out to be my first !Dex. I’ve been on this level too long, and I want to switch up gear, so I return to town.

CL34 town
Switching out to get regen and keep SI leaves me with only 219 HP. That seems too dangerous, so I stick with what I have. Why can’t I find “regen???. I get a !*healing* from the BM and that’s about it. Back down we go.

[PowerDiver]

CL34 town
Switching out to get regen and keep SI leaves me with only 219 HP. That seems too dangerous, so I stick with what I have. Why can’t I find “regen???. I get a !*healing* from the BM and that’s about it. Back down we go.

I'd switch to regen, right or wrong.

The RNG will give you "regen only after you switch to a defender weapon with stealth+4, so that you are blessed with the decision con+2 vs stealth+4.

[fizzix]

CL34 DL53
A dark elven mage that starts next to me drops a woolfy ring (acid, squelch). I detect a sleeping drolem and decide to head the other way, lest it awaken. I take the southern route along the bottom of the map past a jelly pit, failing once again to find any stairs. I spy a room of ogres and head over to take them out. All I get is a !speed for my troubles. I’ve made it all the way across the map and still no stairs. So I head north, and finally detect some stairs, but there isn’t an easy way to get to them. About 10 phase attempts brings me across a gap. Rmon shows that there are a couple ancient dragons that I’d like to kill, but kavlax is between me and them and I don't feel comfortable with him yet, so down I go.

CL34 DL54
Nothing dangerous on this level. A nalfeshnee is near, but I can handle it. I kill it, some uruks, some cave trolls, and pick up a wand of cold balls. I verify that there’s nothing else nearby to kill/pick up, and head to some nearby stairs, rest and descend.

CL34 DL55
Rmon shows Harowen and a death drake to my southwest. So I head east. I spy a !Dex and nothing dangerous nearby, so I head north to pick it up, grabbing a robe, and checking it for permanence or elvenkind (not either) and chucking it. A silent watcher summons trolls before I can TO it on the way to the stairs. I kill them and a Nether Wraith, I successfully TO the silent watcher, try out an infinitesmally infarcting wand on a rattlesnake (drain life) and get to the stairs, rest, descend.

CL34 DL56
Rmon shows a dracolich to avoid far to the north. I always felt dracolichs should be much deeper than they are, but oh well. I wind up in a room with a –drain life which I grab and an ancient green dragon which I kill. There’s a great crystal drake to the south of me and the dracolich is further south yet, outside of detection range. Bert and escort are also south. I decide to TO the drake and kill the escorts, but I need to be careful, a shards breath will kill me. I TO the crystal drake before it wakes, kill an ancient white, and dispel evil the trolls. There are orcs to the south in the room with the dracolich, but that’s pushing it. The only treasure from the trolls was a =Int +5 which replaces my =Int +4. Down I go.

CL34 DL57
I land north of a troll pit. Ren is south of the pit and nothing else of danger is nearby. The trolls are out of the pit before I can get near. Oh well, looks like I’ll have to do this the long way. Ren wakes up and I’m too low on SP to kill him so I TO him away. Troll pit nets me a !Chr, a !Con (270 HP, almost more than my SP!), and an !Int. I spy Ufthak to the west and kill him, one of his escrots drops a useless randart axe. I had to rest a couple times while taking out the pit, so that means it’s time to leave the level, down the stairs I go.

CL34 DL58
I land in a dark room near a pukelman on the far east of the map. Rmon shows a dracolich in the room with me, and I immediately TO it, and then the pukelman. Dstairs show none nearby, and –dobj shows nothing that I want. There’s a time vortex to the south of me, something else that I want nothing to do with.

Unfortunately, the northern path leads to a dead end and by the time I get back to where I started the time vortex has found me. Fortunately I TO it before it can breathe its nastiness on me. A level with an awake dracolich on it is a dangerous one, and I spam detection as I make my way across the top of the map. I spy some stairs, but in the same room are a bunch of air hounds, the dracolich and the time vortex. Ugh.

Luckily TO spell is at 0 fail, and I get both the dracolich and the time vortex as they round a bend. Another detection shows the dracolich to my southwest but it either doesn’t know where I am, or can’t find a path to me. Ren is to the south, and I’m rested enough to take him on. Unfortunately there’s no easy path to him, and I give up and take the stairs that I fought so hard to get to.

CL34 DL59
Ancient dragons all around, nothing I can’t handle. An ancient gold drops a new scroll (*enchant weapon*, squelched) None of the others drop anything, and I make my way to some stairs and go down some more.

CL34 DL60
Superb feeling. There’s a ‘rooms’ vault with Azriel to the northeast, an orc pit to the southeast, and ugluk and escort to the northwest. –dobj shows a new potion, but it’s to the west, away from everything, so I head towards that. The vermoulu potion is Augmentation (woo). On my way to the orc pit I TO a dreadmaster, and kill a nicely arranged line of stone trolls getting me a !Dex. One dispel evil is all it takes to eliminate the orc pit. Drops include a new Diffracted potion, (my first !Str).

The orc pit has taken me directly below the vault. The only dangerous monsters are Azriel and an Ethereal dragon. A banshee drops a defender short sword, and I say bye-bye to my +2 Con from westernesse, so I can get regen. The vault gets me a !Int, a =Int (+6). There’s too many awake dangers on this level, so I recall after I finish clearing the vault.

CL34 Town
I swap out my randart helm for the crown of might. This brings my HP back to 270, but would leave me without rsound. There’s a robe of elvenkind with rsound in the armory, lucky day. I buy it and sell the randart robe. It’s incredibly nice to finally have regen. That’s all for town, time to go back. Should've made a char dump here, but I didn't. Sorry.

[fizzix]

CL34 DL60
I land in a dark room in the north of the map, nothing dangerous nearby. But I detect chaos drake and an ancient bronze that I’d like to kill. The chaos drake drops a =Con (+4) and I decide that it’s time to wield this instead of the escaping ring, bringing my HP up over 300, but leaving me with only +16 speed when hasted. HP is finally more than SP.

After killing the ancient bronze, RMon show a large pack of plasma hounds. More hounds that trip the 'avoid' sensor. Heading to the east I come across a giant pit with three lesser titans and 6 cyclopses. Too dangerous for me at this level, so I go south, where I find a down stairs. Ji Indur Dawndeath is to the south, and I think I can take him on. Alas, there’s no path to him, and I spy some more nasties I don’t want to fight (lesser balrog, drolem) so downstairs I go.

CL34 DL61
I land in a dark room, Rmon shows the 6 ethereal hounds in the room with me. They breathe dropping my life to 150 HP. I read my only scroll of TL, and sink through the floor.

CL34 DL62
I land in another dark room, but I’m wounded so my first action is to activate my _*destruct*. I then heal and kill some cave ogres to the south, but spy Azriel further south, so back north with me. I find some stairs, in a room with an Ancient bronze. I kill it (the dragon, not the stairs) and descend.

CL34 DL63
I land in a dark room, Azriel is to the north, he won’t leave me alone. There are some nearby stairs to the south so I phase over to them and we're cooking now.

CL35 DL64
I notice I picked up CL35 at some point. This is big because now I can cast Rift. And it only has a 3% failure rate. RMon shows a diagnoal vault, but also a bunch of time hounds to the north and medusa and others inside the vault. I pick up another staff of destruction and try to maneuver myself so I can destruct the the hounds and maybe a section of the vault with Saruman. I do manage to get both the hounds and saruman and a couple other nasties at the expense of 3/4 the vault. I get a useless randart right outside the destruction zone. If it was in the zone I wouldn't have picked it up. I try out rifting Quaker, who escaped the destruction blast, and it takes almost all my SP but I win the battle without getting touched.

There’s nothing else in the vault worth mentioning. I pick up a 4th destruction staff. Stairs are elusive on the level, and I'm traveling around quite a bit. At some point I find myself south of a graveyard with dreads already on their way towards me. I’m weighed down, and don't know where the stairs are, so I guess it’s time to recall.

CL35 town
I drop off 2 _destruct the rod of TO and the =escaping, recall is almost immediate.

CL35 DL64
Land in a dark room. Rmon shows medusa to the south and nothing else of danger. I play the rift game again with medusa, easily killing her. She drops a defender katana, but I’d rather carry the lighter sword. I wind up in a room with Eol, but a room isn’t a good place to try rifting people. Eol has too many dangerous attacks for me, and I TO him away.

There’s a GMM to the south, so I head to the stairs to the east. Eol is north of me, and I’m now in a corridor, so Rift is a possibility. I poke around but can't find my way to him. I don’t feel like running around too much, so I take the stairs down.

CL35 DL65
There’s a 2x2 room with Sanghayando, Vrocks and Itangast. There’s not much else dangerous that I can see, so I head towards it, attempting to take on Itangast. Itangast drops nothing of use, but costs me a –drain life which died on recharge. Vrocks drop a randart whip with +3 attack speed, but that’s useless to me, and +6 boots of speed, but those are worse than my current +7 boots. There’s nothing else nearby that I want to kill and there are stairs in the moat of the 2x2, so I descend.

CL35 DL66
Another dark room with stairs. A GMM is to the west. Nothing I want to kill, nothing I want to pick up, so I take the down stairs.

CL35 DL67
Another dark room with no interesting monsters nearby. Stairs to the southeast, so I head towards them. I kill a master vampire along the way, and down I go.

CL35 DL68
A dracolisk to avoid is to the north. so I head south and east. I kill a 7-headed hydra, but it blinds me 3 times during the battle, and I’m down to 2 CCW. I can’t find stairs, so I kill a storm giant and a mature blue and recall.

CL35 town
I refill on !CCW, sell the speed boots, and immediately head back, making a chardump because it’s been a while.

It's getting dangerous to be without telepathy, I've been going out of my way to pick up all headgear and weapons that I find to test for it. I've gone out of my way to pick up cloaks and bows just on the off chance of magi+telep or lothlorien+telep. Oh well, c'est la vie.

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

[fizzix]

CL35 DL68
Recall, nexus vortex nearby, and an orc pit guarded by an elder vampire to the northeast. I TO the vampire and clear the orc pit with a single dispel evil charge. No worthwhile loot. There’s a downstairs in the moat, so I take that.

CL35 DL69
I’m in a room with a nether wraith. Eol is nearby, if I can get him in a corridor, I’ll try fighting him with rifts. Another Rmon shows saruman, akhorahil and a horned reaper in a 2x2 room to the west. Definitely want nothing to do with that. Horned reapers wake up easily, so I give up on trying to fight eol and head east. After dealing with a large pack of inertia hounds, I kill a nalfeshnee, a bunch of stone trolls and hill orcs and go down the stairs.

CL35 DL70
Nothing dangerous, nothing to get, stairs to the north, down I go.

CL35 DL71
Two great swamp wyrms and a giant pit. !Int to the south. I cast rpois and go that way. I TO a swamp wyrm to get the !Int, kill some cave orcs and jump down a trap door.

CL35 DL72
Nothing dangerous at all. !dex at the top of the map to the east, so I head there, easily getting it. Still nothing of danger detected, and no stairs nearby. After going south a bit, I detect a gelugon further south, and the cat lord by some barbazus are to the east. I want to avoid the cat lord for sure and don't really want to deal with the fast moving gelugon either, so westward I go.

I'm happily going along and I use _dispel evil on some trolls in a room and I get an ‘it breathes fire’ knocking me down to 40 HP. This is dangerous, and I need to think of my next move carefully. I'm in the middle of a room that's 5 floor squares tall. There's a pathway down directly south of me, the 'it breathes fire' came from there. I could fire a TO down the passageway, but I run the risk of there a bend and missing whatever monster it was. This is a time that I would love either telepathy, WoD, or create doors ability, alas I have none of them.

I decide that my best chances of survival entail moving one square southwest. That will give me at least two turns to detect and plan the course of action. So that's what I do. I actually take two moving turns so I'm against the wall and can see whatever's coming out of the corridor.

Next I cast Rmon detect monsters showing a dracolisk (I also cast rfire, because I have some turns before it comes to me). I am lucky to have survived the fire breath. had it decided to go with nexus, I would’ve been (just barely) dead. This is a huge lucky break for me, the game very well could have ended right here.

I also realize what happened. While dispelling the troll I also hit the dracolisk who was just barely in my LoS to the south, waking it up. I should've known it was there though!

I TO the dracolisk, kill the trolls get CL36, and go to some nearby stairs, shaken a bit by my carelessness.

CL36 DL73
Wyrm of perplexity to the north. 400 confusion breath will kill me, so I head southwards. Dwar and a nightwalker are to the west, but so is an orc pit. Dwar isn’t that scary with my rift powers, so I rfire and head that way. The nightwalker I’ll TO.

Dwar has too many HP and eventually I need to TO him, drat. Dwar gets sent north of the orc pit, but there are gravity, plasma and nether hounds nearby. This looks to be a losing battle, but Dwar does find his way to me. Dwar gets a couple summons off, and it’s time to bail. I TO him and destruct. Dwar isn’t nearby anymore, and it looks like I’ll have to fight him another time. I go down the stairs.

CL36 DL74
I kill a storm giant and head down the stairs.

CL36 DL75
Land directly east of an orc pit. A bronze golem is in the moat. I pick up a +2 dwarven lamellar armor, but I need a lot more strength before I can wield it. There’s a diagonal vault nearby and I want to check it out. I leave the heavy lamellar armor and go to the vault. It has mb8 in it, which is kind of useless for me and two unknown rods.

The monsters aren’t too dangerous, so I decide to clear it anyway, despite the unexciting loot. I get a !healing from some trolls, and lose my last _dispel evil on a recharge attempt. I get a new scroll (rune of protection) which isn’t terribly useful for me either. The Henry VII’s rod is drain life, Not useful unless I have 10 of them, I’ll never find that, so it gets squelched. Cyrus’s rod is acid balls. Truthfully, there aren’t too many rods that I want as a mage besides –detection.

I pick up another ?TL which is good because I was out of escapes. Tenser’s gives me one useful spell, greater recharging, and I have the inventory space to carry it around, so I guess I will. There’s nothing else here, and I want to unload the armor, so I pick it up and recall.

CL36 town
It’s time to stop carrying ?teleport. The spell is at 0% fail, and it’s really a very last ditch escape at this point. I drop off ?banish, !heal and the armor. The BM has a !Str which I happily buy. It also has a wand of drain life which I get as well. That’s all for the town, back down I go.

[fizzix]

CL36 DL75
I land in a dark room on the west. There’s a Qin Shi Huan’s rod nearby. It’s fire balls and gets squelched. Nothing dangerous nearby. Draebor is to the north along with a silent watcher and an ancient red. I head that way. Draebor is dangerous because of his teleport away abilities, but hopefully I can kill him before he decides to do that, let's see if that works...

Draebor teleports me away as soon as he sees me. So much for that. Luckily I'm not into danger. I make my way back to his lair. I get a new rod Ataturk’s from Draebor’s escort, but it’s just lightning balls. Draebor teleports me away a second time, and killing an Ancient black on the way back gets me a !Str. Draebor meets me halfway on my return and I kill him with one more shot. I also take out Ulfast with two charges of drain life. Neither drop anything. I kill lugdush and escort to the south and then take the stairs down. My pre-descending routine is to rest, and then cast haste and resistance immediately before descending

CL36 DL76
Eol and lagduf are nearby and I think I want to try a rematch with Eol. I position myself in a corridor and wake up Eol along with a lot of lagduf’s escorts. When he gets close I rift him away. A couple charges from drain life at the end are enough to end him. He drops nothing of use.

One of lagduf’s escorts drops MB7, and I very happily learn create doors, teleport level and word of recall. Teleport level is 0% fail, which is very nice to have. There’s not much else nearby. I could create stairs and drop to the bottom, but I feel that’s cheesy, so I don’t. I like earning dlevel 98.

I detect scatha to the north and head over to fight him. Scatha drops the star, which replaces my phial. Rmon shows maeglin to the southwest, I do not want to deal with him, but there are only upstairs nearby. I’m low on SP so I go back to where I started and continue from there. A cloud giant drops a !Str, and my stats are starting to look good. At the bottom of the map, I find some stairs, and that’s where I go, I rest, haste, resist and descend.

CL36 DL77
I land in a dark room and cast create doors, this will be the first thing I do on every level from now on, unless I land adjacent to a lot of nasties, in which case I will TL. I quickly find some stairs and nothing that I want to do here, so downwards again.

CL36 DL78
I land in a dark room, still hasted and resisting from the last level and create doors. There’s inertia hounds that I’ll have to fight through to get to the stairs. After fighting through them to the stairs, I detect some trolls I’d like to kill, so I do that before heading down.

After I kill the second group of trolls I see an ‘octagon’ vault to the east and a giant pit to the north. I also pick up a randart helmet that gives me Rblind, +3 Wis, Dex, Chr and Sinv. No telep though, so it’s not a wear for now. The vault has a !Con and I want it. A bile demon seems the only danger inside. I get to a sightline where I can TO it and send it off on its way.

I pick up a new Munch amulet, dropped by a mature blue. it’s devotion. better than my +3 Wis but not by much. I never did find Regen. The !Con potion bumps my HP up to 376. Another mature blue drop was a randart glaive. It’s pretty good, giving +4 speed, rnether, rdisen, cold immunity. alas, it has aggro. Another store at home.

An ancient red drops a !Wis. I pick up a elvenkind armor with rnexus south of the vault, but I’d rather have rsound, so this will also get stashed at home. I also find a cloak of the magi, but alas it has feather falling as its ability, so I don’t care for it. I get another !Str from a barrow wight, summoned by a rotting quylthulg who got LoS to me. There are some downstairs near the vault, so I take them, happy with the results of the fruitful level and glad that I detoured from the stairs to fight the trolls.

CL36 DL79
I land in the moat of a 2x2 room, one room is filled with nexus hounds, but I have the elvenkind rnexus armor with me from last level's vault so I put that on. There’s an rmana in one of the rooms and it’s worth trying to get to. I TO ar-pharazon, pick up the potion and recall, noticing that at some point I picked up CL37

CL37 town.
I drop off the hat, the rnexus elvenkind, and the !rmana. I sell the hat of seeing which is now obsolete and a randart battle axe that is also obsolete. I pick up a new MB4 since one got burnt. The BM has nothing that I want, so it’s about time to head back down.

CL37 DL79
I land in a dark room surrounded my novice rangers. Detection revels nothing too dangerous nearby. One drops a new Bohr staff, I’m hoping for Magi but alas it’s starlight, squelch. Later detection reveals a bunch of crebain, a time vortex and glaurung. They’re all to the south, but dstairs showed some doors to the north, so I try phasing across the gap. After two attempts I’m across and head northwards away from danger. I get to the top of the map and head east, but I stop dead in my tracks when I detect a jabberwock.

Westward is much better, I detect ulwarth and fundin and some down stairs. Ulwarth drops a magical robe. Fundin I leave for later. I rest at the stairs and descend.

CL37 DL80
I see an orc pit to the southwest. There’s a great wyrm of chaos who I hope not to wake and an archlich that I’ll have to keep tabs on. –dobj shows a !Int to the southeast and I go to pick that up first. Feagwath and escort are in a treasure room to the west of the orc pit. I clear the pit with cloudkill, and take a down stairs in the moat

CL37 DL81
I start by TOing saruman once he opens one of my surrounding doors. Among the monsters I don’t want to touch are a GWoB, an eye druj and a demilich. However, there’s a new Planck staff next to the eye druj in a treasure room. Luckily, the eye druj can’t move and I can StM the walls away to TO it. I grab the staff (holiness) and head to a nearby stairs.

CL37 DL82
This level seems calmer than the last couple, not much dangerous around. There’s a new Cassatt amulet to the northwest, and really almost anything is better than devotion, so I head over to it. Well, I thought anything could be better, but I’d rather have rlight than infravision. I take a roundabout route to the stairs, leaving Polyphemus in his slumber.

CL37 DL83
Azriel and a GWoC are here. I kill an Ancient bronze dragon and get a new Yukawa staff (banishment, 2 charges). The stairs beckon.

CL37 DL84
Atlas and ar-pharazon are within detection range. There’s a group of ogres just north of Atlas, so I may go after them if I can TO him. I have to be careful because Atlas has eat-wall, so he can show up again easily. Not having telep, I just have to detect often.

I do manage to approach form the south and I TO Atlas. I detect monsters and I thought there might be a vault, but no objects tells me it’s probably just a 2x2 room. I’ll avoid it. I move with many detections ensuring that Atlas doesn’t sneak up on me. I find some stairs north of a giant pit that I still dont’ think I can handle, and I go downwards.

CL37 DL85
Superb feeling. Nothing obviously dangerous nearby, a bunch of cave orcs that I’ll kill. I get +2 mithril dwarven chain mail from orcs, and that’s an improvement over the one I have at home because of weight. Going eastward I come across the likely cause of the superb feeling, a graveyard, back west with me!

I detect what looks like a ‘rooms’ vault to the northwest. Using the star, I discover that it’s in fact a ‘round’ vault, and it’s in the far northwest corner of the map. The most dangerous guardian is a ranger chieftan, so I TO him and get to killing the denizen trolls. The vault gives me a !heal and nothing else. The trolls give me nothing. I rest and drop down the stairs in the vault.

CL37 DL86
Another superb feeling. A giant pit with maeglin right outside is to my south. There’s also drauglin and some other dangers. There are stairs to the northwest so I run to them. There’s a workaround vault to the west of the stairs, Pazuzu and other dangerous monsters are inside. The only thing I obviously want is a !*healing* but it’s not worth the risk, I go down the stairs.

CL37 DL87
Cantoras is to the south of me, first time I’ve seen him. He moves much faster than me, so if he wakes, I need to get out of dodge. I kill some heffalumps blocking the stairs and descend.

CL37 DL88
I make a beeline for the stairs, that’s all there is to say about this level.

CL37 DL89
GWoMC is near my starting place. I TO it before it awakens. Khim has an escort of water trolls, and they get me another _holiness and a !Con bring my HP up to 400. Down the stairs before the horned reaper awakens.

CL37 DL90
I detect the phoenix in what looks like a 2x2 room. It’s to the east, I head west. A spy a pit of many colours further to the west. Nope, want nothing to do with that either. This level looks bad, no stairs in sight, I guess I’ll recall.

CL37 town
I drop of my !healing and the armor, check the stores to ensure there’s nothing I want, and head back down after making a new chardump.

Recap time.

I'm at dlevel 90, and clevel 37. Almost at the bottom. I do not have telepathy or a permanent source of rpois. I do not have rconf or rblind. In fact, I have no high resists except for Rdis. I have 407 Hp and 297 Sp. I have +7 base speed but am always hasted to +17. It has taken me 468k turns to get here, and that would've probably been about 200k more if I hadn't found those early speed boots.

[fizzix]

CL37 DL90
A superb feeling...probably from the graveyard I detect to the south. Yeah, I want nothing to do with this. TL, happy to sink through the floor.

CL37 DL91
A much calmer level. I detect Carcaroth in a cross room to the north. I had thoughts about picking up the ?*destruct* but not with him over there. There are Vrocks and Hezrous to the south and I think I’ll try to kill them. They drop a new Tokugawa’s rod (cold balls, squelch) I get an !rmana from the Hezrous. A quasi drops a Born staff (healing) And I take that and finally decide to stop carrying _teleport. I bump into Drauglin who must’ve spawned while I was recovering from the Hezrous and I TO him. I get a new Isometric potion (Life) from a storm giant, and head to the stairs.

CL38 DL92
Ancalagon and escort are closeby. Waldern and Adunaphel are having a tea party to the south. Adunaphel dies to my fire ball charges but not before she destroys one of my _destruct with a fire bolt of her own. I then kill Waldern with explosions since he resists everything else. There’s a new scroll but it’s near a pack of time hounds. Not worth it. A shadow drops a !heal. I’m pretty full on items, but I see a stairs, so I head down before recalling.

CL38 DL93
I TO thuringwethil and grab a !Wis before recalling.

CL38 town
Drop off !heal, !life and !rmana. Recall.

CL38 DL93
Tarrasque and Fundin are here. I head the opposite way. I detect some time hounds closing in and decide to cast TL, going up.

CL38 DL92
More friggin time hounds. TL again, again going up.

CL38 DL91
Making anti-progress here... _holiness makes short work of a troll pit. I get a !Chr and a !Con, maxing Con. I get a new Emersonesque ring. And it’s a nice speed (+10) Decisions decisions, dropping the Int ring brings me out of 0% fail. Dropping the Con ring takes off 80 HP. I pick up a new scroll *enchant armor* and also another ?banish. I decide to recall to make some gear changes.

CL38 town
I wear speed instead of Con and drop the =Con at home. I put on the +2 dwarven armor since my defender weapon has rbase. I lose rsound, but I’ll have to deal with that. I’m still a tad below 400 HP, but I want 0% fail. If I pick up something like an amulet of the magi, I’ll come back to swap in the =Con ring. In the meantime, I'll have to avoid sound, force and plasma breathers. Time to go back down!

CL38 DL91
Carcharoth is to the southwest, and shelob is to the west surrounded by elder araneas. There’s also an Ethereal dragon nearby. There’s a path to the north and east so I head that way. A mature black drops a new impractical potion. It can either be dragon breath or experience, luckily for me it’s experience. Down the stairs I go.

CL38 DL92
I land in the midst of gravity hounds, TL happy to go down.

CL38 DL93
This level looks calm. There’s a new staff to the east, so I head to pick it up. It’s a staff of power and I’ll keep that also for pit clearing. I head back to the south and west to look at a metal cap. I really really need telepathy. Alas it’s nothing. Detection shows Saruman and Azriel on this level. I pick up a !rmana and head down the stairs.

CL38 DL94
Troll pit to the north. Nightcrawler above it. Saruman to the southwest. Troll pit gets me a !Wis, and I TO the nightcrawler who awoke when I lit the pit. There’s a !Con also, but my Con is maxed, so I squelch the potion. Huan is to the west, so I go east. I make it all the way to the east of the map. There’s nothing else to kill or grab, so I take the stairs down.

CL38 DL95
I land with Saruman in sight. I should have created doors first and then TO’d him, but instead I TO’d him first. Small mistake but Luckily, nothing attacked me in my misplay.

There’s a black dragon pit to the west and nothing else nearby. I kind of want to kill as much as I can from the pit and go home to get some stuff. I mature green drops a new amulet! Alas, the Leonardo da Vinci amulet is only sustenance. I manage to kill off the first wave of the pit without using the !rmana, having to TO saruman and a horned reaper.

However, I lose both of my –drain life to recharging. I pick up a randart long bow from the bile worm that gives +2 speed and rsound. Also mithril gauntlets of agility replace my Free action gloves and 2 ?*destruct* are added to my pack for home storage. After most of the Ancient dragons are gone, I StM the side of the pit and discharge my staff of power and holiness emptying it quickly and getting me CL39. The _power is destroyed on recharge. I get a new Sagan staff, it is Magi, woot! I also pick up a !enlight for the next level. No stat gain at all though, drat. I take the stairs in the moat.

CL39 DL96
I land right next to kronos and his kronies. there’s stairs in sight, and I think I can make it, but it’s not worth it. TL, going up.

CL39 DL95
I quaff Enlight. There’s a new amulet in a square vault, and it’s worth checking out. I’m on the far east of the map and there’s nothing immediately dangerous. An Ancient bronze drops !Int, and it’s possible that I can now switch out my =Int ring for a =Con.

Feagwath is in the moat of a giant pit in the southeast corner, but with no black reavers in his escort, I’m not too worried about them waking. Nether hounds and Polyphemus are in the pit. It’s time to use my _Banish and kill the hounds. The Titian amulet is magi, much nicer than the devotion I was wearing. Rconf is big. I also pick up a +5 =Con from the vault. With the magi amulet I’m still at 0% fail, and this brings my HP up to 567, enought to survive almost anything except for an unresisted poison breath. Vecna’s close by and I want to drop off the Int ring at home, so I recall. I kill Nar while waiting for recall.

CL39 town
I drop off the =Int ring and the ?destruct. In the BM there’s a long bow of lothlorien, and I check to see if it has telep but it doesn’t. I spend quite a bit of money to learn the flavor of =Ice (Bachian).

I forgot to pick up a backup _destruct from home on my last trip, so I get that this time. I’m still low on HP so I wait a bit before returning. My notable holes right now are rpois, rblind and telep. My Con is 18/190 so I can max it by swapping my +5 ring with a +6 con ring. My cloak is obsolete, and I’d like to replace it with something better. Ok, recall time.

CL39 DL96
I land in the moat of an orc pit. It just takes a single charge of _holiness to empty it. The pit is devoid of useful treasure. I kill a dark elven sorcerer and the ologs it summoned, TOing an Osyluth when it got called.

Kavlax is to the north and I think it’s worth trying to fight him. A mature green drops !Aug and my Int gets maxed with it. Kavlax’s first breath is shards and I use _heal. 4 meteor swarms later he breathes nexus and teleports me to him. I phase away. His next breath is confusion, and after that he’s dead. He drops nothing of use.

I spy another !Aug to the north and go to grab it. It’s in a treasure room and the only real guardian is a GWoL who doesn't wake. Later Rmon shows Hoarmurath coming towards me, so I grab the !Aug and exit to the moat and prepare for battle. With my _Magi, I should be able to hold my own. I lose all three of my –fire balls to recharge failures. D’oh. I have to use _magi once, but Hoarmurath is dead. Again no useful drops. I head to the stairs.

CL39 DL97
Jabberwock to my west, avoid it and go east. I detect a ?banish and grab it. I keep hearing doors burst open, but detection reveals nothing. I use another charge of _magi to kill Dwar. I can’t find anything else to do on this level, and I’ve managed to traverse almost the entire boundary, so downstairs I go.

CL39 DL98
Now I’m searching out monsters to kill, pretty much anything with a drop. An ancient red knocks off one of my _holiness. Nothing else to kill or get, I take the down stairs to the bottom.

CL39 DL99
Ar-pharazon is in the room with me in the far east of the map. I don’t want to fight him on DL99 because he could tele-away me right to Sauron. I detect a new Rodan amulet in a small cross vault and head over to check it out.

The amulet is a randart giving +2 Str, Dex, Con, Chr and regen. The Con boost brings me up over 600 HP, but it’s at the cost of 0% fail and rconf, so magi will be the amulet for now. Mim is in the northeast corner and I go kill him after rejecting the rest of the loot in the vault. Mim destroys another _destruct, leaving me with one here and one at home. The reward for mim is non-existent. I rest and take the up stairs.

CL39 DL98
Akhorahil, nexus hounds and a time vortex. The star shows I’m disconnected from them. I kill ariel and TO saruman. I tried to wake up just Ariel and not Lorgan who was next to him, but unfortunately I got a beam instead of a bolt. Oops. I rift away lorgan, kill Ariel. Then I TO saruman again, and kill Lorgan, TOing the dracolisk he summoned.

A grave wight drops !enlight and drinking it shows a crown which is pretty much the only thing worth getting on the level. I go get the crown, and it’s useless. Oh well. it was in a corner of a 2x2 room and there’s a !Chr and some ice trolls in another chamber, I kill them and feel cuter. I kill a GWoT for Clevel 40, and it drops two hats, but neither are telep. DL 40 is big because it gives meteor swarm a 4th meteor. There are no stairs nearby, so TL it is, upwards this time.

CL40 DL97
A 2x2 room has a lot of guys to kill, including Bolg. But first I TO a GDracQ and a GWoL. I cast resistance and take out a AMHD and it’s MMHD son and get myself another _banish. A mage drops a purpure mushroom of debility. These are just as good as !rmana, so I hold on to it. Mushrooms for breakfast indeed.

I had to physically leave the game at this point, like get up and go do something in the outside world. I don’t like returning to a level without remembering what’s around, so I TL, going up again.

CL40 DL96
Lots of monsters including a blue dragon pit. Shelob and Drauglin are nearby along with an AMHD. I staff of power is in Shelob’s lair and that’ll help with the blue dragon pit. I grab the staff without waking up Shelob. I pick up a dagger with rpois, but it leaves me without rfire and regen. perhaps I can work it in somehow. Loot of the pit involves, another debility, a _magi, a !Exp, !Chr, elvenkind shield with rsound, !Dex, !Wis, -speed (which i don’t need). My holiness staff is destroyed on the recharge attempt. I pick up the elvenkind shield and the dagger, and head home to think about whether I want to change up gear.

CL40 Town
I find it difficult to keep 0% fail and improve my gear. I need something else. I’m not even going to bother carrying the dagger as a swap. Nothing I want to buy in town and I recall to dlevel 99

CL40 DL99
I destruct some multi-hued hounds. TO sauron, take out a great hell wyrm. Water trolls drop nothing but I pick up another _destruct on the ground, I take the up stairs.

CL40 DL98
A giant pit with dreads in the moat. If I can TO the Titan, I’ll destroy the pit. A sorcerer summons Shelob, I resist and join battle casting explosions over the summons. I use _healing after a gas breath. Killing shelob takes me down to zero mana, and I run around gaining a little bit back at a time and acid bolting some dreads in the meantime.

A dread drops !Exp giving me CL41. Another drops an !rmana. Another drops !Wis. It takes a while to lure all the dreads and kill them all. I rest to full and prepare to tackle the giant pit. I find another _holiness before getting to it and my _power survives two recharge attempts. The greater titan summoned me outside the moat before I could TO it. I was expecting that from either him or the storm giants. I fight my way back and _power the pit. The pit yields no treasure beyond a !enlight which I will use on the next level. I get to the down stairs, rest and descend.

CL41 DL99
Excellent feeling, create doors, !enlight, rmon. There’s a planet X vault with a new Vermiers amulet. No headgear at all. There are quite a few dangerous monsters including Uriel, a greater titan, a demilich, and some nether hounds. But only the demilich is in the section with the amulet.

Sauron is off to the northeast, and I need to check to make sure he doesn’t have a path to me. A nether wraith drops a second unknown Rembrandt amulet. The first amulet is weaponmastery, which has limited use to me. The rembrandt amulet is a randart. It has +3 wis, dex and provides resistance to fear and disenchantment. In other words, pretty damn useless. The vault also has another magi cloak, but with only +1 int and the ability of feather falling, it’s also not worth it.

I take out two more sections leaving the one with the nether hounds alone. I get two more _destruct, and an !rmana. I had to TO the titan and Uriel and with the titan went the storm giant who picked up most of the stuff in his section. I head back to town.

CL41 town
I drop the 2 !rmana (up to 6 at home) Two _destruct and the fairly useless randart necklace. I buy a !*heal from the BM and it goes at home as well. Farmer maggot is here, this is by far the latest I ever came across him in a game, and I don’t feel like killing him for his almost guaranteed useless drop, so I let him live. These trips are quick as there’s not much I want to buy, back down I go.

CL41 DL99
I phase into a room with Akhorahil. Sauron and dragulin are nearby and so is a shimmering vortex that can wake everyone up, I'll be careful that it doesn't get LoS to me. Akhorahil dies easily.

Snagas drop an !Exp. There’s a green dragon pit to the south, and I’ll probably hit that up in a bit. I kill a great storm wyrm with my wands of cold balls. I find a hannibal’s rod (probing, squelched) Loot from the pit is: !Chr, ?banish, !heal, !enlight, a crudely crucifying wand of dragon’s flame, a +2 magi crown with Sdig as its ability, and a rod of TO. I have stuff to send home, so this is a quick recall.

CL41 town
Drop off !heal, 2?banish. I finally decide it’s time to switch out gear replacing rconf with rpois. I have 90% saving throw, so provided I’m smart enough to not get hit by titans, It might be ok to be without Rconf, I dunno, both are ugly. This is what I went with though. So I wield the randart dagger, the new magi hat, and the amulet with +2 Con. I’ll keep the magi amulet as a swap in case I want to take down a big conf breather. I note that somehow I’ve came across CL42.

CL42 DL99
Enlight shows absolutely no treasure worthwhile on this level. There’s a red dragon pit, but I don’t want to risk losing my staff collection. I head to nearby stairs and go up.

CL42 DL98
I kill ugluk and his escort, and then go back down.

CL42 DL99
many colored pit. ugh. Go straight to the stairs after –dobj shows nothing worthwhile, back up.

CL42 DL98
I swap in “magi to kill an Ancient bronze who drops a !Exp. I use dragon flame wand to kill a GWoT, and it successfully recharges twice. The tarrasque is awake and on my tail. I resist and prepare to TO it. I send it off and take out the cave trolls in a tresure room, and then skedaddle because Dragulin’s escort of wolf chieftans has awakened.

CL42 DL97
Vecna is nearby. I try to get a new scroll, but I get an It summons Ancient dragons, so I destruct rather than risk getting breathed on by Ancalagon. I have to use a charge of _magi to kill the cat lord. In the southeast corner I take out a giant pit. Loot is !life, !rmana. None of my staves blow up on recharge, so I need to return to drop off the loot.

CL42 town.
drop off loot and prepare to return.

[fizzix]

CL42 DL99
Cave ogres drop a new Tchaikovskian Ring. Alas it’s not an artifact, just =lightning. I come into a corridor and something summons demons behind me. I don’t know who or what it is (probably a Q), so I TL out of there.

CL42 DL98
I create a sanctuary of doors and rest. Superb feeling. Carcharoth is nearby. Luckily he can’t find his way outside of the inner section of a moated room. There’s a rock hard vault with a !Exp inside. There’s another lesser vault next to it. I kill Tom inside and TO the Mouth of Sauron. Nothing is useful besides the !Exp. I accidentally bump into an Algroth killing it, oops. Every other monster so far has been killed with spells, excepting the few invisible ones that I bumped into at the beginning.

I just realize that my current kit does not have SInv. This was a big error on my part. Although I detect often, I could have had a dreadlord or something sneak up on me. This is blunder no. 2 for the game, 1 being wake up the basilisk.

I’ll have to wear the “magi I'm carrying with me and deal with the lack of HP. Ugh. A dracolisk burns one of my Magi staves. It dies, but the magi staff burning was a big loss. I take the stairs up.

CL42 DL97
Superb feeling. Whatever is making it superb isn’t near to me. Baphomet is though, and I decide to try to take him out. I kill him entirely with cold balls from my wands. woot. Had to use several _heals (recharged successfully) and all recharges of the wands were fine until after the battle. There’s a three titan giant pit to clear here. The loot is another _heal, 2 !Chr, _banish. I kill a GWoT, get CL43, and return to drop off loots.

CL43 town
!rmana from BM, up to 8 at home.

CL43 DL99 A Hell wyrm kills both my staff of power and holiness (ugh) as well as a _banish and MB3. That was so not worth it. The latter three were in a single breath.

CL43 DL98: Planet X vault. Get my _power back and nothing else. Exploring brings me to a graveyard in the northwest. Take stairs up.

CL43 DL98 Ji Indur kills MB2. I now am using backup copies of MB2, MB3 and MB4 having lost MB4 on this most recent trip. 2 new amulets and the arkenstone are dropped by Ji Indur. The degas amulet is a randart and has +4 Str, Chr and regen. not even close to worth keeping. The Dali amulet has +3 speed, dex, rshard, rdis and cold imm. Maybe worth keeping as a swap. The arkenstone has rlight, rdark and rnether and no stat boosts. Bleah. I’d rather keep the star for magic mapping and just avoid nether breathers.

CL43 town
no MB4 in magic shop, but before I buy it out I check BM and woohoo, one is there, no consumables to drop off, back down I go.

CL43 DL99
Ar pharazon is here. I decide to try my luck. He teleports me away, and I decide not to go back. I immediately create doors after teleport and rmon and sauron is nearby.

I’ll wait until he opens and then TO him. There’s a white dragon pit and I have a Im cold swap item handy, so that’s where I head. Loot from the pit: a randart +3 Str, int, con, speed. but only rdark. !Wis, -cold balls. _magi and MH DSM. Might want to keep that as I’m not finding many sources of rpois. I could wield the cutlass and the MH DSM but that leaves me without regen. I still have the same problem wearing the necklace at home of having no SInv. Quick trip home to throw away some stuff and drop off the MH DSM and the new cutlass. Soon I’ll find a piece that makes everything work!

CL43 DL99
there’s a diagonal vault with a !Str which I’d like to try and get. There are a lot of dangers inside though. Witch king, Khamul, Maeglin, Huan. There are actually 3 !Str here.

I banish U, v and Q, C (hellhounds) and D and use a charge of _Magi in the vault clearing. I also get 2 _holiness. I finally find the Escher amulet of regeneration, now that it’s of no use. Str is maxed with the potions and I get yet another magi hat with SDig as it's ability.

There’s yet another diagonal vault nearby. It has !life, !Dex and a new amulet and a new ring (!). Definitely want to get at this. Chaos hounds get banished. Tarrasque gets TOd. Lungorthin’s escort was already eliminated from banishing the last vault. I get !Dex, !Wis. The ravelish ring is a randart, putting it on gives me +4 Str, Dex, Con, Int and Chr. It gives me S inv, rnether and rconf. This will really help me switch things up. The Renoir amulet is an amulet of ESP, my first source of ESP all game! Things are looking up. The second !Dex maxes my dexterity. I get another rod of TO. I drop MB1 to pick up a !life meaning to get another one from the magic shop, and go back to town.

CL 43 gear change
I wear the amulet of ESP, the randart ring and the crown of might giving me 600+ HP but drat, no regen. I’ll carry the randart amulet with regen as a swap. I have to buy out the magic shop twice to get MB1 back. Now the only real gear I’m missing is MB9.

CL43 DL99
I land in a room with great hell wyrm and a troll pit to the north. Cold balls take care of the hell wyrm; two charges of power take care of the pit. Pit loot is just !life. Algroths give me !enlight which tells me there’s nothing else to do on this level, besides pick up a _heal from a treasure room to the north. I do that and then go up. Char dump since I forgot to in town.

[fizzix]

CL43 DL98
There's a zoo to the northwest. New wand to the south, I go for that. Rudimentally Ruminating wand of scare monster, squelch. I'm still getting used to the joys of ESP, it's weird how much of a change it makes in your paranoia when you can detect all the big dangers. I detect !Exp further south. It's my new goal and it's easily obtained since there are almost no monsters around on this level. I clear out the east side of the map and find no stairs, so I TL.

CL43 DL99
I'm on bottom of the map, Gothmog to the northwest. Take out an orc pit with last charge of _power, recharge successful. Only loot is +3 Int crown of magi, but ability is feather falling. Return home to drop off !life I picked up.

CL43 town, nothing I want, back down I go

CL43 DL99
TO gothmog in treasure room to get a !rmana, I don’t wake the greater balrogs. Wander around a bit, -dobj and rmon show nothing, take stairs up.

CL43 DL98
Room with Huan, castamir and 16 heffalumps. Immediate create doors, haste, open, TO Huan. I then kill Castamir who drops a +9 speed ring (useless) and MB8, (oh so close). I detect Khamul close by and calculate that it’ll take about 25 rifts to kill him. I start out in a corridor and the first couple rifts work well.

At one point Khamul resists rifts enough times that he’s next to me and I have to phase, unfortunately landing in a room. I create doors around me and rift him away when he opens one. Gabriel joins halfway through the battle and, I’m low on mana so I have to use _magi. Gabriel summons angels before I can TO him. And then a cherub summons monsters including a GWoP, ugh. Some clever phasing is needed along with opening and closing the many doors I have littered the room with.

Eventually a phase lands me in a corridor. I create doors on either side and wait to see who will come first. I TO the wyrm and an archangel and kill a black knight, a young gold and an angel in between waiting for khamul to come back. I manage to kill him without using another _magi charge and get Clevel44. Khamul drops a useless randart broad sword. The black knight dropped a randart helm (+3 wis, speed, rlight, nether, chaos, dropped) I put on my regen amulet, hide in between my closed doors and regen. I find some stairs, verify that there’s nothing to get nearby and go down.

CL44 DL99
I start nearby to both Huan and Carcharoth and TO them both. I want MB9 before I try to kill them. Ancalagon, saruman and maeglin are in an octagon vault and there’s a !Exp there that I want. I want to kill saruman just like Khamul, but not in this terrain, so I TO him.

Ren is also in the vault and he wakes up. There’s not much else of danger left after TOing maeglin, Ancalagon and a Draolich. There is a dracolisk, but I would have liked to kill it if the opportunity presented itself, alas it wakes up too soon and I have to TO it. There are some dreads who have the annoying habit of hiding in walls where I can’t hit them with spells, I feel that you should be able to hit monsters in walls with ranged attacks. Or if not, they shouldn't be able to hit you.

Ren dies but I have to use a charge of _magi. I decide to see if saruman is close by to try and kill him also. I’m up to 600 HP wearing the ESP amulet which is just enough to survive a Sauron mana storm if he gets a turn on me.

The dracolisk is conveniently the first monster to come after me. I haste, rfire and prepare. I kill the dracolisk with –cold balls. But phasing away a couple times led me to a heavily populated 2x2 room. Fundin is to the south of me but stuck behind a MMHD. There’s a stream of ologs in the moat. The most dangerous monster around is a skull druj. The most dangerous mobile monster is a pushover AGD. Saruman is to the north of me but does not have a path to get here. Neither does Ancalagon to the east.

I get to a place where I can rift Fundin and TO anyone else that I deem dangerous. Nothing interrupts the battle besides a couple mirkwood spiders. I use another _Magi and fundin is dead as well. While I’m eliminating the Ologs, Maeglin finds me and I TO him again. Maeglin just won’t leave me alone. I kill the Ologs and make a coccoon of doors and rest. Maeglin hasn't come back and I'm tempted me to try for Saruman.

He’s in a moated room 2 walls north of the one I’m in. I StM into the moat of his room and join battle there, rifting him at all times. He teleports away at one point, but DVis shows he hasn’t gone too far, so I wait for him to return. Saruman drops a randart war hammer that has +2 Int, Wis, Dex, speed, SInv and Racid. not terribly useful. If it had a Con bonus I might keep it, I chuck it. That’s it for this level. I managed to kill Saruman without having to use _magi and I’m proud of that fact. I could probably kill Sauron in the same manner, but killing him with 600 HP seems risky. Ancalagon has twice as many HP as saruman, I’m not inclined to attempt him yet. Up the stairs I go.

CL44 DL98
Cantoras, a GWoMC, and a GWoC, a greater balrog and some aether hounds greet me on this level. –dobj shows nothing really that I want, and I’d rather not run around on a dangerous level like this, so I TL, rising.

CL44 DL97
Tselakus is the first monster I come across. 6500 HP and some brutal summons combined with pass wall make me not want to fight him. Maybe with mana storm, but not before. I find some downstairs, but detect what seems like a vault to the west. It’s a turnabout vault and the most dangerous monsters inside are omarax, a GSW and a drolem. A detection closer to the vault shows a Planet X vault to the northwest. Carcharoth is inside and Gothmog is nearby, already heading towards me. The Balrog of Moria is also on this level, not far to the southwest. I would like to kill him but that would require banishing U, because I’m not taking on his escort of lesser balrogs. After waiting and TOing gothmog and a nearby bone golem, I get into the roundabout vault and TO omarax. Normally I’d kill the swamp wyrm, but in this case TOing seems better, so I do that.

OH CRUD. I just realized that I left my dagger on the previous level and am now wielding the useless war hammer. Good thing that swamp dragon didn’t breathe on me (I TO'd it before it woke) as I was left without Rpois. I slam head into desk in disgust. This was my third blunder of the game. And the fact that I've survived all three mean that the RNG must really like me.

I detect yet another turnabout vault next to the planet X one. There doesn’t seem to be any loot I want in it, so It’s time to recall to town and salvage my gear now that I left that randart dagger. Damn, I wanted that.

CL44 town
I decide to wear my good ole westernesse spear and the MHDSM to get Rpois. The only real loss is Rnexus, still have 0% fail. I verify that there’s nothing I want in town, drop off my !heal and my !rmana and go back down.

CL44 DL99
White dragon pit to the north, I wanna take it on. Among the loot is: elvenkind armor (rshards, don’t care for), cloak of magi with regen, (replaces my artifact cloak despite only +1 Int) –dragon’s flame (4), rod of magic mapping (might be worth having) !2 heal, A new monet amulet (resistance, squelch). I recall.

CL44 town not much to do in town. Drop off the amulet I’ve been using as a swap for regen and the +3 int cloak chucking the randart hat with +3 int to make room. I also pick up some more !CCW since some got killed in the frost pit.

CL44 DL99
Vargo kills a staff of healing in a 2x2 room. I also take out beorn in the same room and a couple other weaker denizens. I get a !Chr for my troubles. I go up the east side of the map, and spy Azriel near the front center. I decide to take him on. I create doors in a corridor. A nether breath brings me down to 150 HP, so I close the door and use _heal and !CCW.

A mana bolt also damages me and I continue closing the door until I get an extra turn to use _healing again. This is a cheap trick I use with open door monsters that I'm faster than. I can keep on closing doors while they open them and eventually I get an extra turn to heal. I'd that open door monsters attempt to bash a door if their last two turns were spent opening a door.

Anyway, the next rift takes him away from me and I can heal again. This battle will be painfully slow. Another nether breath at 6 stars takes me from full to 188, I must’ve gotten a bad roll on the rnether resistance on that one. At one point Azriel manabolts me when next to me taking me down to 300 HP. Since he's next to me, I can't close the door, so I phase into an adjoining corridor, create doors and heal. I have to use my last charge of _magi and luckily don’t fail the recharge. When Azriel is at 4 stars he summons Uriel. I manage to separate them and TO Uriel.

Azriel is at 3 stars the next time he breathes and I only drop to 431 HP. At one star Azriel summons Gabriel and escort. Luckily he goes on the next rift and I can TO gabriel and the first archon to come. Finally ending Azriel gives me Clevel 45, and his drop is one weapon that gets squelched on wield. I pick up a randart leather shield on the ground that gives +5 Con and speed. Damn, if only I had picked that up before Azriel! I lose rfear, rdark and rdis. but gain 127 HP. Also, I can swap out westernesse for a different weapon at home. I decide though that I want to try and track down the other two angels. I find gorlim instead, bypassing Huan to get to him. He dies pretty easily. A cherub’s fire bolt kills a _banishment and I decide that that’s enough of him. I decide to stop the hunt for the other angels and to head back to town.

CL44 town
Gear change. I swap out the crown of might for the minath crown that gives rfear, rdark and rblind. And the westernesse spear for the cutlass with +3 Con maxing my Con. I throw away the =Int at home and drop off the shield just in case I want Rdis. I also carry the amulet with Rdis and Imm cold as a swap now. My gear's looking good, but I'm still looking for MB9.

I'll probably reach the end in two or three more episodes.

[fizzix]

Almost at the end!


I’ve stopped carrying MB2 for now. The only spell I was using in it regularly was spear of light. But with ESP that’s less necessary. I'll carry it again against Morgy for teleself.

CL45 DL99
Nothing dangerous, nothing to get, but I explore some. I kill a gelugon with meteor swarms and some rifts. A marilith summons an osyluth and I have to TO the osyluth. A troll pit gives me another –dragon’s flame and absolutely nothing else. I accidentally kill a creeping silver coins with my sword, stupid mimics. I get a _healing from a dagashi. The osyluth is coming back, and I decide to try and rift kill it. A dracolisk burns up a _magi. drat. I TO a nightwalker because I’m low on mana and up I go.

CL45 DL98
I get a !*healing* from an orc pit. Level is boring otherwise, back down.

CL45 DL99
Vrocks give me MB9 !!!! woohoo. I drop MB1 to pick up a !healing and go back to town.


Banishment has 0% fail which makes me happy. I take my stack of healing and my stack of rmana, buy MB1 and decide to hunt down Sauron.

---------------------------
Sauron battle
---------------------------


Sauron is to the north of me. There’s a vault with gothmog in it, I’ll worry about that later. I activate the star to see what's around and Sauron does not have a path to me, that’s good because I started in the middle of a room and I’d much prefer to fight sauron in a corridor so I can TO nasties that he summons.


I stay in a corner of a corridor and Sauron is now headed my way. I haste and cast resistance. Mana storm does 270 damage per turn accounting for the fail rate, that’ll be my main attack with rifts thrown in when he’s 3 squares away or more. First encounter was 3 manastorms all successful and then, three rifts, sauron TOed on the third. He wasted his attacks.

Second round he summons Lungorthin, barbazus, pit fiends, Ungoliant and cantoras. He’s at 7 stars, but this is no time to worry about that. It’s time to TO him and track him down elsewhere. I TO Sauron and lungorthin at the first beam, letting the barbazus attack my back. Next turn TOs Ungoliant and a pit fiend. Then a turn to banish U, then TO cantoras.

Sauron is quick to find me and I duck into a corridor south of the room I started in. I’m at 71 SP so it’s time to fill that up. I cast haste and resistance again and use _magi. Sauron invokes a darkness storm that takes away half my HP on his first attack. I close a door and heal. He casts a mana bolt, I close again and heal. When he opens the door my rift fails to teleport him and he steps next to me. I phase, landing back in the center of the room.

I create doors around me and wait for him to knock. He casts a nether ball and I’m forced to heal again to get back up above 600. I play the door closing game a lot waiting for the extra turn and using it to heal when I get it. An ice bolt kills a !rmana and a darkness storm forces me to close the door and reheal.

My rift fails to teleport when he reopens, but luckily my phase takes me into a corridor this time and not back into the room. He’s down to 4 stars when he next darkness storms me and I’m forced to retreat and heal again. At 3 stars, I have to use my last charge of _magi. He’s down to 2 stars when he summons the Balrog of Moria and escort. Moria isn’t in LOS so I banish the escort. I try rifting and sauron finally gets rifted away, but he’s still in the corridor behind me (and behind the closed doors). I take the time to TO Moria. He’s down to one star and I have to banish D when he summons them.

One more phase one more create doors and unfortunately forced to quaff !rmana. The next mana storm kills him. He drops a pike that has lots of resistances including poison. I may want to swap this in. I drop down to Dlevel 100 and recall.

Wielding the pike and the dwarven mithril mail gives me 5 more SP, so that’s what I do. WoD has 0% fail so I ditch _destruction, both from my pack and from my home. I keep the scrolls though, those might be useful. I was gonna rebuy MB2 from the store, but it’s not there. I don’t care enough to buy it out until the Morgy fight, so I recall.

CL45 DL 100
Morgoth to my southwest, Carcharoth near him. I get close enough and destruct both of them. I’m not ready to deal with morgoth yet. I spy a dracolich and decide that it’s time to kill one of these buggers.

I phase into the room with the dracolich, wield my IMcold amulet and kill it with mana storms. I pick up an Alexander’s rod (-id, squelch) The tarrasque is to the north, and I decide to kill it. Why not? I wield my Im cold amulet, and cast rfire and join battle. Unfortunately for me the tarrasque really wants to breathe disenchantment a lot, luckily for me the amulet with IMcold also has RDis.

I’m stuck playing the door closing game quite a bit, having extra speed sure is nice. I finally manage to kill it, although constant phasing eventually brought me into a room with a sleeping Ancalagon. I had to banish escort, and TO him before retreating into nearby corridor. Killing the tarrasque gets me CL46. The only loot worth keeping is a large metal shield of elvenkind with rpois. I’ll keep that. I only had to use 1 _magi in the battle, and I mostly cast chaos bolts. I also decide that I dont’ want to fight Ancalagon yet, so upstairs I go.

CL45 DL99
Lots of trolls on this level, including a pit. A novice ranger lets me max out Chr. I get !Wis from the troll pit, and a cap of telepathy. This may prompt a gear swap. I lose my _power on recharge but I get a _dispel evil from Hezrous. I’m going home soon to drop off stuff anyways, I’ll pick up the holiness from my home. Hezrous also give me another copy of MB9. I kill a GWoT with mana storms. and spy Polyphemus and decide to kill him also. An acid ball from polyphemus dstroys a _healing. I kill polyphemus but not before he tramples a GWoP that I wanted to kill. I want to wait a little more before returning so the stores change. I spot Huan, and decide that it’s time to end this pup’s life. I have to use _heal after two shards breaths, but get through with only one charge of _magi. I go down the stairs.

CL45 DL100
Vecna is here, don’t want to fight him yet. I destruct Morgoth again. I take out another orc pit and get a new Irreducibly Irrupting wand. It’s annihilation, and that’s worthwhile enough to keep. I get a !Exp from the ground, but it’s not quite enough to get me to CL47. I’ll explore 99 once more and then the stores should restock. Or I thought I would, but I accidentally recalled instead of TLed, oops, I recall back down to 100

CL46 DL100 - town
I pick up a randart longsword from a troll pit with +3 Int and Str, might be worth keeping. A mature gold drops a _power, so I ditch my _dispel evil. 600k turns, the stores have restocked, I return. I pick up -mapping, and drop off some of the stuff including the westernesse spear. I decide that I don’t really want any gear changes.

CL46 DL100
I drop nearby to the balrog of moria, ancalagon is also visible via telepathy. Moria has a Nalfeshnee escort, so I throw manastorms over the pack at him. I get surrounded by Barbazu on the turn that Moria dies (and I gain CL47), but I decide to unload on _power instead of banishing, I lose a point of Con but it doesn’t affect my HP. I forgot that I no longer have sustain Con. I pick up a +3 crown of might, apparently from one of the barbazus and a cloak of magi with telepathy (woot!), and max the last of my stats (wisdom)

CL47 town
I make some gear changes and throw out some stuff including the old shield, the arkenstone, the magi cloak with regen, and the +2 crown of might. I make a chardump.

Next time the thrilling conclusion!

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

[fizzix]

CL47 DL100
I Land next to gothmog surrounded by his bile demon escort. “this place looks uninteresting” yeah right. Immediately destruct. Not much else on this level, I grab an !enlight and go up.

CL47 DL99
This level looks kind of boring also. I get a !healing from snagas and a !*healing* from an ancient white. I find a +2 sling of buckland, I never find these. useless to me though. I break into a giant pit but my _power is destroyed on recharge. I return to town, drop off the healing potions and pick up the holiness staves, back down.

CL47 DL100
Morgoth, Gothmog and Pazuzu are nearby. I successfully get morgoth in the destruction zone without getting gothmog. I get into a long corridor and hit gothmog with chaos bolts. Gothmog summons Lungorthin and I banish U. Gothmog is at half health, I can survive a double breath from Gothmog and Lungorthin, so I continue chaos bolting him, eventually killing him.

I use the last staff of magi. Luckily I recharge successfully and continue hitting Lungorthin with chaos bolts. Lungorthin burns up an MB3. I check out the drops, but there’s not much there. I go to hunt down Pazuzu now. Pazuzu drops easy, don’t even need a recharge. He kills a –TO, but really, who cares about that. Again the drop is useless. A AMHD acid breaths both of my _holiness, drat. I spy cantoras and decide to attack him as well. I have to use _magi, but Cantoras is dead. A gnome mage manages to summon Ar-pharazon, and I retreat to the corridor I fought Cantoras in to kill him also, enough of the level. I recall.

CL47 DL100
I bought !enlight from the BM. I use another _Magi to kill Maeglin, and recharge is luckily successful. Maeglin gave me CL48. As usual I destruct Morgoth. I kill a GWoB and a dracolich, and go to check out two things that look like pits on the far east. I decide Uriel is not worth fighting because I don’t wanna lose _magi. One of the pit-looking things was an orc pit, and I get !enlight from it. I TL and use it.

CL47 DL99 I take out a troll pit and successfully recharge _dispel evil. Aether hounds have me banish Z. Killed some dragons, nothing else exciting.

CL47 DL100
Land near a graveyard. Not worth hassling with, TL.

CL47 DL99
Grab a nearby !Exp, go down.

CL47 DL100
I destruct Morgoth and kill Feagwath. He drops a useless randart sword. And I make sure to leave the correct weapon behind this time. A mature gold drops another !Exp. I go back up.

CL47 DL99
Glaurung kills _Magi, well that’s all of this unique killing then. Time to fight Morgoth. I go grab all my consumables and head down.


I’m in the southeast corner. I have to create or close doors anytime Morgoth drops me below 600 HP, which is fairly often. His first summons are demons and I ?banish them, his second summonses are weaklings and I continue mana storming through them, the third is a bit of trouble and I have to phase away and eat my first ,debility and mass banish them.

I’m fighting in a room with lots of doors everywhere. Morgoths next summonses include Ungoliant, Drauglin, omarax, the mouth, and harowen. I teleport everyone away, suffering a gas breath to Ungoliant. When morgoth is back he’s at 9 stars again. His next summon is greater undead including Thuringwethil, but they’re mostly weaklings so I continue manastorm them. One dies leaving a !rmana, and I TO Morgoth to pick it up. Thuringwethil comes back before Morgoth and I kill her, TOing morgoth again.

Morgoth’s next summon is Qlz*( TOed) shagrat and a bunch of orcs. The next turn Morgoth summons a nightwing and a nightwalker, so I read ?banish and get rid of W. I only get a couple mana storms in before I’m drowned in more unique summons. Gabriel and escort notably, but also the Lernean Hydra. I'd like to close door to banish but a cherub has parked his fat butt in it blocking me from doing it.

It looks like both the Hydra and Gabriel are out of RLoS, so I think the best bet is to banish A and then TO Morgoth. I do that.

Morgoth nether balls me and the hydra breathes fire on me and I die. Having the hydra in LOS means that my best move was probably to teleself, trusting to the odds of not landing in side of more than 1 TO'd unique. Kind of annoying that I screwed up the line of sight though. I guess it's payback for the lucky breaks I had earlier.

At first I was really annoyed that I died in the final battle. However, in retrospect, this makes a pretty good Angband story. There are plenty of stories out there of victories, but here's one that got oh so close, only to lose it all on a poor decision at the end. So, in actuality, it's a 'perfect' ending.

I'll write an epilogue tomorrow with interesting randarts that I didn't find. Thanks for reading!

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

[ewert]

Can monsters with breaths or ball spells cast them next to you without LoS? Felt like that sometimes, of course could just be the knight-jump LoS.

Nice story, and shows how getting rid of the uniques really is a worthwhile thing. =P

[Fendell Orcbane]

Dying when you are so close to winning sucks. But things like this are what make Angband different than most of the games out there...and worth playing. You are never too powerful to be killed, which makes it a challenge no matter what your character has.