It's payback time...

[JonnyOThan]

All I know is one of us is going down.

[JonnyOThan]

Ahh balls, I just noticed Scatha is in there too.

I really don't want to just walk away from this. But I also don't want to die. Advice?

[Timo Pietilä]

Ahh balls, I just noticed Scatha is in there too.

I really don't want to just walk away from this. But I also don't want to die. Advice?

Hah. You have seen it breathing poison. Period. Tough luck for that guy.

Double-resist against Scatha. And that AMHD. I don't see your equipment, but you do have Resistances, so double-resist solves that.

However, I also see there a green "D". If that is Dracolich, don't fight it. It'll kill you. That light brown "D" is also a question for you. Do you resist it?

Other nasties are time vortex (one of those can REALLY screw your char when stats are below 18/xxx), Archlich (more dangerous than all others except that Dracolich), nexus vortex, which can mess your stats and one black "W" which can be all kinds of extremely nasty things. And couple of grids that should have a monster but are not visible here, so they contain something you don't detect. Invisible monsters, probably major ghosts "G", so those can also be rather deadly.

[buzzkill]

No guts, no glory. Full HP, SP. What are you waiting for?

[ewert]

Leeeeeeroyyyyy Jeeeeeennnnnkiiiiiiiiinnnsssssss!!!

[Tiburon Silverflame]

I agree there are several critters in there that would worry me...but...

The vault shape should greatly help; the fights should generally be sectioned off. I'd probably try it, but with the plan to TO as needed. The other risk with the nexus vortex would be, once you start TOing, you risk getting sent out and having to face the nasties you sent away.

A lot would depend on how good your weapon is, as well as how good a bow/ammo you have. You might try coming in just below where the vibration hounds start, near the hummerhorn or fruit fly is; they should give you a good test, to see if you'd just be way overmatched. If that goes...just OK...maybe you can cherry-pick other sections, like where the cold hounds are.

BIG QUALIFIER HERE: Teleport Level would be a *huge* safety net here. This is one *very* nasty vault, because it's during stat gain. Therefore, BE PREPARED TO FLEE!

[UniqueName]

Entrance to Divisi is in the corners. NW and SW corners seem safe enough but we can't see the entire vault. With no escape, limitted teleport other, only 12 decent arrows, I don't think you'll be going very much further than that. Maybe you can crack the middle also but dInvis or dAll to make sure there isn't anything that can bore or pass wall. The blank sections without monsters are mostly traps.

[JonnyOThan]

Great Success!

Keeping a log of my exploits!

uniques:
Scatha
Akhorahil
Ulwarth (hah! 9 levels deeper than normal)
Queen ant
cat lord (yikes!)

scary:
AMHD
death mold
dracolich
Archlich
Marilith
nether wraith
draconic Q

Bummer: purifications & healing and godly insights are here but the only spellbook is resistances, which I already have

Tackling the diagonals first - doesn't look too bad.

Cold hound shattered a !Wisdom. My only stat <18.

I've cleared out the diagonals...gathering loot. This is the first time I've just destroyed items without picking them up. Found dethanc and holcolleth right off the bat. Not useful to me though. This is the 3rd artifact cloak I've found this game! And I'm still using a crappy shield of resist fire

Nether wraith is coming after me! Two arrows of lighting and it's done. Didn't touch me.

Clearing the south vertical corridor. Easy peasy. No artifacts

Clearing north vertical corridor. Shardstorm at the top hurts, but still pretty easy.

Clearing NE corner. Blink dogs in vaults are annoying, and I could see this going very badly if they teleport me into the wrong spot.

Uhoh - archlich has started moving! Doesn't seem to know where I am though. Or can he not move through permarock?

NE corner going well, killed the ancient bronze dragon pretty easily. Colossus and inertia hounds together are putting the hurt on. I teleport away.
Round 2 - isolated the colossus, much easier this time. No good loot but 2 !Charisma and a sorely needed wand of teleport other. Haven't gone into the inner rooms quite yet.

Tackling NW corner next - dark hounds and half-trolls. not a problem - but no good loot here. Akhorahil is guarding the inner rooms - not a chance!

SE corner next. Phase spiders and mumaks. Archlich is moving closer...I think I'm going to tackle some of the inner rooms down here. This is where the prayer books are, dangit. But I did find a slightly better sword of westernesse to replace forsagil.

starting on the west side. Ancient bronze dragon blinds me (I don't have rBlind or rConf!) but I still beat him easily while hasted. He drops the glaive of pain! Leaving it on the ground for now; I think the +2 CON is more useful for this fight.

Finished up the west side except for the chamber where scatha is.

Starting on the east side. sorcerer is right at the entrance. He drops a !INT. Found 17 arrows of frost (+9, +7) - useful! 5-headed hydra gets the drop on me while not resisting poison. Not too bad though. Ulwarth drops nothing. Finish up the east section, and on my way out a ranger chieftan summons animals. Embarrassing.

I look around a bit more and realize I can sneak by the marilith in the inner rooms in the NE corner. Disappointed at lack of good loot, I decide to take on the Marilith anyway. Not too bad, and almost 10k exp!

Next up, I finish off the SE inner rooms with a death mold and ancient bronze D. There are seeker bolts here and high level prayer books; not that useful to me.

Now I'm really not sure what to do. There are 3 chambers left - one is a set of inner rooms guarded by Akhorahil, but these rooms also contain the cat lord and a dracolich. I'm not sure I'd ever go in there. Another chamber contains Scatha and a AMHD. I think I'd be OK in here if I teleport scatha away. The last chamber is the entire SW section, roamed by the archlich. There's a bunch of trolls and mid-level things I could handle if I teleport the archlich.

I think I'm going to go after the AMHD. That's why I'm here in this vault anyway. Vengeance.

Resist up. Quaff speed. Stone to mud. Scatha's away. Sit still for one turn and now I'm face-to-face with the dragon that killed my ancestor. Well, a dragon that looks just like it at least.

I'm sticking to melee fighting and it's going well. He breathes lighting once and then flees. I kill the white wolf that took his place and move forward. One more hit and he's gone.

I'd better get my loot and scram before Scatha comes back.

I mop up the rest of the monsters in here - what's this? A young bronze dragon dropped a scroll of acquirement! Could there be a better place to read it? (maybe, I really don't have much experience with these things). It nets me the boots Dal-i-thalion. Nice!

And with that, I'm outta here.

Before:

Name   Durondil                                 Self  RB  CB  EB   Best
 Sex    Male         Age             32   STR:  18/55  +0  +2  +0  18/75
 Race   Half-Elf     Height          63   INT:     17  +1  +2  +3  18/50
 Class  Ranger       Weight         139   WIS:     14  -1  +0  +0     13
 Title  Explorer     Social  Role model   DEX:  18/89  +1  +1  +3 18/139
 HP     382/382      Maximize         Y   CON:  18/53  -1  +1  +0  18/53
 SP     61/63                             CHR:  18/24  +1  +1  +3  18/74


 Level               33   Armor    [19,+95]     Saving Throw         65%
 Cur Exp         330119   Fight   (+11,+14)     Stealth           Superb
 Max Exp         330119   Melee   (+23,+33)     Fighting          Superb
 Adv Exp         385000   Shoot   (+28,+12)     Shooting       Legendary
 MaxDepth   1800' (L36)   Blows      5/turn     Disarming            66%
 Turns          2148942   Shots      2/turn     Magic Device      Superb
 Gold            187022   Infra       60 ft     Perception        1 in 8
 Burden       154.8 lbs   Speed           9     Searching            45%

After:

Name   Durondil                                 Self  RB  CB  EB   Best
 Sex    Male         Age             32   STR:  18/55  +0  +2  +2  18/95
 Race   Half-Elf     Height          63   INT:  18/26  +1  +2  +3  18/86
 Class  Ranger       Weight         139   WIS:     15  -1  +0  +2     16
 Title  Explorer     Social  Role model   DEX! 18/100  +1  +1  +5 18/170
 HP     446/446      Maximize         Y   CON:  18/70  -1  +1  +2  18/90
 SP     61/97                             CHR:  18/48  +1  +1  +3  18/98


 Level               34   Armor   [23,+102]     Saving Throw         67%
 Cur Exp         468330   Fight   (+16,+16)     Stealth           Superb
 Max Exp         468330   Melee   (+34,+30)     Fighting          Superb
 Adv Exp         490000   Shoot   (+33,+12)     Shooting       Legendary
 MaxDepth   1750' (L35)   Blows      5/turn     Disarming            71%
 Turns          2197141   Shots      2/turn     Magic Device      Superb
 Gold            233706   Infra       20 ft     Perception        1 in 8
 Burden       153.6 lbs   Speed           9     Searching            45%

[Timo Pietilä]

Ancient bronze dragon blinds me (I don't have rBlind or rConf!) but I still beat him easily while hasted. He drops the glaive of pain! Leaving it on the ground for now
...
And with that, I'm outta here.

I really hope that you remembered to pick up that Pain. It's easily one of the best weapons in entire game, especially with combination of some branding ring.

[Adley]

This is the 3rd artifact cloak I've found this game!

Oi, i've never found more than one (yet)

Uhoh - archlich has started moving! Doesn't seem to know where I am though. Or can he not move through permarock?

He can't. Nor can any monster, nor can you. Even morgoth is stopped by those.

Before:

 MaxDepth   1800' (L36)

After:

 MaxDepth   1750' (L35)

????

[Timo Pietilä]

That maxdepth is actually your recall depth, so it can change if you go up and then cast recall (and accept the level change).

[Pete Mack]

Scatha's a pathetic target for a character like yours. Against +9 base speed, double cold resist, and machine-gun-level archery, he doesn't stand a chance.

The Glaive is a nice weapon, especially with a branding ring(!), but it's not quite so useful for a ranger with lower hit points and insane archery skilz.