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Well a first attempt at a direct tale of a descent. Maybe too much "in-@" and not enough game language, but it is a direct telling of each Dlev so far. Episode 1 is my first dive, which went longer than I had planned.
Started out with point based mage, 18/50 int, 7 Str, 13 con, leaving enough gold for each spell book up to m3f (identify) when the time comes.
Hopefully will be still in the dungeon when the time comes for that to be learned!
A dump follows in my own reply to this post.
For once I started this @ from birth rather than using a pregenerated version of Angmar. So this is a descendant of the Angmar who is on the ladder.
My starting money has been spent buying and selling back what little affordable consumables are on offer... no phase door to be found, but !clw has been bought and sold back, along with one !csw. With no !CCW on offer, I wait till nightfall hoping Farmer Maggot will make his way past me with some item of his fathers, before things get dangerous for a mage with only 8HP.
As I wandering the town, Maggot stays away. Upon my first descent the only concern is to get rapidly to 100' which I do, and while looking for an entrance to 150' Fang falls to my magic missile. Defeating this canine allows me to learn new spells, and having cast them I find myself eagerly anticipating learning to throw bolts of lightning at the next opportunity (gaining CL5).
Having gained the power of detection tap my quest becomes finding more light before being forced to retreat from the depths, while striving for the power to identify items (CL11).
With Fang dispatched I venture further down. At 150' I sense stairs quite close to the ones bringing me to the level, and barely pausing to kill passing vermin I continue on. At 200' I flee from a novice ranger, continuing headlong to 250', still waiting the opportunity to learn lightning bolt (only on CL4). I enter to a room with burning worm masses and run away, until I can rest up and sense the doors and stairs nearby. As luck would have it I avoid being forced to retrace my steps...
at 300' I sense Grip nearby, but in the opposite direction to the stairs. But the mazelike depths bring him within range and allow me to cast lightning bolt, and wishing for the dangerous power of teleportation, (at CL6) before leaving 300'.
350' finds me at a concerning shortage of light. I am forced into taking my torch off when resting to conserve the scant resources I have at hand, and even go wandering darkened corridors in search of stairs. But I make it to 400' in good health.
400' finds me in a level with stairs some distance away. So far, Grip and Fang have been the most ardent adversaries, and I am starting to worry about the load I am carrying. But nothing seems worth using my only ?id.
While 450 is uneventual, it is a long journey to the stairs. At 500' a pack of orcs forces me for the first time to flee back up the stairs I entered from, to a level which offers nothing. My second attempt at 500 is much better providing a clear path to the next level. In resting to prepare for the next level I am set upon by an orc shamen who forces me to flee downstairs poorly prepared, to face a superb feeling. Casting about from a central position, I sense an orc pit with uruks in the centre - much too fierce for my attention, with my quick rate of descent. At this stage I have descended three levels for every level of advancement, and have only just leared the spear of light which would help (briefly!) against the cave orcs should I wake them.
It seems that only a sleeping hippogriff - which I have no intent on waking - is between me and 600'. That is not to be, and I am set upon by an orc shamen - who it seems has nothing to do whith the camp to my west - and a Warg.Tunneling my way to the stairs I wake a fierce Yeti, and my magic leads him on a merry chase as I evade him.
I flee a mere Yeti to come face to face with a fire breathing dragon, and a cousin gnom7e mage who seems intent on taking the ring I am yet to identify from my posession. I notice some stairs descending even further into the depths, and ignoring some heavy weapons laying nearby I head that way. My gnome heritage tells its secrets as I tiptoe carefully less than 50' from the sleeping magical beast.
My first attempt at 650' finds me in a corner of a dungeon, no stairs within my ability to detect, and my most feirsome enemy to date in my path: Brodda. Further careful discovery reveals he is not alone in blocking my way, as Wormtounge is also nearby. As if these two are not enough, a troop of ogres block the stairs themself and I am forced back to 600', making my way back along my own tracks in darkness to conserve my dwindling supply of torchlight. Dispatching hapless vermin puts me beyond the grip of hunger as I master a spell with the power to satisfy that craving - so long as I have the light to read by!
So far in my wanderings I continue to come across heavy weapons I have no hope of carrying yet alone swinging in my defence, while I am still carrying the dagger I left my village with so long ago.
random experimentation however shows I have found a wand that can anialate doors and even traps. Hardly the thing to make Brodda or his brethren quake in their boots, but still a handy thing to have, even if only for trading for more useful supplies!
My second attempt at 650' reveals a tempting discovery: orcs, includig Ufthak, trapped in what seems to be a well built prison. Those are too much for me to take on. But in an adjacent chamber, some rangers are also locked. Surely they are wild with grief by now and will attack me if I free them, but perhaps their prison holds something more useful than a dagger barely fit to eat with? Or even - another torch so I can continue my journey!
Making my way to that prison I pass over two handy stairs leading further down. It is always good to have an escape plan if these rangers in their number are too tough for me. Also in getting there I overcome some more enemy - a zombie, and some overgrown beetles - and in doing so discover my own strength will now allow me to identify the items I have found.
Standing on some stairs, in readiness for what is to come, I identify my posessions.
In all my wanderings, the most valuable thing found so far is the wand - and possibly, the contents of the cell I was about to breach?
in freeing the rangers - who fall beneath my spells - I also unlock some unseen spirit. Hastily I snatch up the treasure and flee even further into the depths. Somehow I feel sure I will see Ufthak again, closer to his master perhaps?
Burdened by my treasure, I am pleased that 700' brings me to a large room with two stairs leading further down. One entrance is blocked by some past cave-in. No monsters are nearby to disturb me as I identify what I have discovered. Wolves wonder the corridors nearby, unable to find a way to me, as I puzzle over the runes and other hints. It seems my "luck" as it were is holding still: I am approaching dangerous depths indeed with scarecely an enchantment about me, beyond the power of my own learning. At this depth I feel near naked, relying upon one of two enchanted necklaces to protect me from either acid or lightning as the case may be, and a ring which can protect me only from falling.
Feeling that any corner or stair may be my last I descend further. Lack of decent equipment has slowed my journey, so I am pleased to come upon a room empty of enemies, with treasure strewn around and more stairs leading down in the corner. Sensing more giant wolves nearby, I hastily gather the pages strewn about, and descend again.
16 levels below the village stairs, I at last find a weapon I can wield, which leads me to discard my mundane blade. This one seems to enliven my eyes, and it seems that any already dead enemy I meet will be quickly sent back to their grave as I thrust it about.
However, I find no ready path deeper, so I journey back up - however briefly. Or so I intend, until I sense a certain feeling in the air.It seems I have found the reason for my wand: a great area brimming with traps, and it seems, enemy beyond my abilities. Potions, wands, staves and rings, of varieties I have never seen before, are scattered around. Guarded by huge houds, unmber hulks (able to destroy walls and confuse the unwary), and Boldor, King of the Yeeks, with a small retinue. It seems he is discussing the course of events with a fiend from the very depths of hell, a Nalfeshnee, the like of which I am not expecting to see so early in my journey.
deciding against this risk is a hard choice - the rewards would certainly be great! - but the dragon, hounds and umber hulk would each be a worthy challenge for me individually. So I instead return down the stairs I had come up on - and just as before they lead me to a new destination.
Immediately I am set upon by Wargs, and it seems, an elven sorcerer who commands them. Back to the stairs I flee, fully expecting to find the umber hulk or mighty boar-demon I had left behind. But no, it is some new tunnel I have never seen before, where a hippogriff sleeps not far from me. I rest until it wakes, then flee again,headlong back down the stairs to emerge yet again in some strange new place. These confounded stairs! Never once can I retrace my steps correctly. But at last, I can rest, having dispatched some innocent looking red frog. Only habit forces me to destroy it as it hops about innocently - but we all know that nothing good comes from animals showing the dangerous colour of red.
The frog it seems is the least of my concerns. Again, an umber hulk seems to taunt me: blocking the south-east which is surely where I would be able to find more stairs leading down.
Again I return to 750', only to recover my composure and descend back to 800'. Where it seems that with luck I will only have to force my way past a hapless yeek to gain my way further down, if I can avoid his calls waking a clutch of Uruk-hai.
As luck would have it, some strangely hard to see hounds evade even my magical senses - which I vow to improve if I have a chance! - and force me to find and alternative pass. which for once, is easy enough to find.
holding my final two torches together I finally make my way to 850'. Although I have oil, without a lantern it will not light my way. Unless I find more light soon, I will be forced to flee the depths back to the town. I am thankful for the scroll I was able to leave my home town with, which will wisk me back - as long as danger is not too pressing.
Harassed by hounds which mock me by stealing the very light from the air, I flee for my life scarecly 400' to a new set of stairs leading deeper. In my haste I trample straight over a whip: I hope it to be not worth returning for because sightless I cannot hope to stand against the night-black hounds that endanger me.
Blind, I am powerless as I reach 900' below the village. Having only just gained the strength of mind to hurl mystical jets of acid at my enemy, some might question the depths I have found myself at. Yet it is by journeying ever deeper that I am continuing to find strength... if only I can outwit and evade those foes I have no need to meet up with.
Trembling, I outwait my blindness. after a seeming eternity it is over, with no blast from the unseen overpowering me, or blows from enemy unknown. I find myself still at the bottom of a staircase, it seems in a room, with a magical staff lying on the floor next to me. Discarded for what purpose is my only thought? moving away from the passage nearby to investigate the runes engraved on the shaft, I am interrupted by the elven mage who it seems may have left it in haste to flee my descent. He is quickly dispatched, and I now find I have more goods than pockets and pouches.
With my burdens, I risk only a fleeting reconitoire of my surrounds before taking the stairs I had so recently descended in haste. Hopefully, as my journey to date has shown, I will emerge some place distant from the dark hounds that so recently persued me.
Relighting my rapidly depleeting torch, I ascend.
Half the depths must have reverberated with my clambering because I am immediately set upon, so I flee back down. Sleeping it seems in a barracks, not 50' from the exit of the stairs, are hill orcs: and my mystic sight reveals they are the front guard of the powerful chief, Golfimbul, wiht his shamen and lesser orcs in tow.
Even more dangerous though, is the dark hounds which it seems have tracked me through the depths. I retreat, yet again, to a level like any other - except it seems, inhabited (near the stairs at least) by the reanimated remains of those who have died before me. I put them to a more final rest, and descend again.
It seems that before I reach 1000' I must meet with Brodda, for again he is before me at 900'. However there is another stairway, and near it a room.
My quest for more light pulls me off my direct path, into a room where a baby fire-breathing dragon guards a grimoir of powerful magic written by Kelek. Seeing this I become overjoyed, and rapidly dispatch the dragon with icy bolts. While they strangely do him no further damage than they would any other beast, at least they are effective - unlike my usual firey blast which I know would have bounced off with no effect.
It seems I am less than ready for Keleks great writing, but I will carry it with me.
I overcome a pitiful novice human ranger. Yet even with his weak human eyes, it seems he has bested me in that he is able to wander the depths casting spells without the use of a light of any kind. And so I descend, within 50' of the thousand feet I am striving to meet.
950' finds me in an area with only a lesser demon - a tengu - nearby. to the south I detect stairs leading to my initial goal. But with no real danger to the northwest I take the opportunity to seek better equipment.
1000' finds me in a room with stairs and a scroll that promises a great posession, the likes of which I cannot make out without first invoking the magic the scroll contains. And to my north, a winding room contains a vile poisonous dragon - mightier than the babies I have so far encoutered - along with a vampire, Nar the fallen dwarf, Ugluk, and a mighty lycanthropic bear.
With my dwindling light, I take this chance to read the scroll. It reveals armour emblazoned with protections against fire: while useful, hardly the stuff of legend I had hoped for. Nonetheless, I take it up, vowing to either wear it - or if it proves too heavy, offer it in trade for something more suited to my frame and trade.
Leaving the mazelike pit to the north, and a trice-headed hydra to the south, I read the scroll which will return me to the village where I have claimed an empty house which sits in wait of the treasure I will return with. My first descent has yielded some money, but most importantly the book of Kelek and some treasure which may yet provide me with the means to journey deeper still.
--Angmar, Gnome Illusionist.--
Started out with point based mage, 18/50 int, 7 Str, 13 con, leaving enough gold for each spell book up to m3f (identify) when the time comes.
Hopefully will be still in the dungeon when the time comes for that to be learned!
------------------------------------------------------------
A dump follows in my own reply to this post.
For once I started this @ from birth rather than using a pregenerated version of Angmar. So this is a descendant of the Angmar who is on the ladder.
------------------------------------------------------------
My starting money has been spent buying and selling back what little affordable consumables are on offer... no phase door to be found, but !clw has been bought and sold back, along with one !csw. With no !CCW on offer, I wait till nightfall hoping Farmer Maggot will make his way past me with some item of his fathers, before things get dangerous for a mage with only 8HP.
As I wandering the town, Maggot stays away. Upon my first descent the only concern is to get rapidly to 100' which I do, and while looking for an entrance to 150' Fang falls to my magic missile. Defeating this canine allows me to learn new spells, and having cast them I find myself eagerly anticipating learning to throw bolts of lightning at the next opportunity (gaining CL5).
Having gained the power of detection tap my quest becomes finding more light before being forced to retreat from the depths, while striving for the power to identify items (CL11).
With Fang dispatched I venture further down. At 150' I sense stairs quite close to the ones bringing me to the level, and barely pausing to kill passing vermin I continue on. At 200' I flee from a novice ranger, continuing headlong to 250', still waiting the opportunity to learn lightning bolt (only on CL4). I enter to a room with burning worm masses and run away, until I can rest up and sense the doors and stairs nearby. As luck would have it I avoid being forced to retrace my steps...
at 300' I sense Grip nearby, but in the opposite direction to the stairs. But the mazelike depths bring him within range and allow me to cast lightning bolt, and wishing for the dangerous power of teleportation, (at CL6) before leaving 300'.
350' finds me at a concerning shortage of light. I am forced into taking my torch off when resting to conserve the scant resources I have at hand, and even go wandering darkened corridors in search of stairs. But I make it to 400' in good health.
400' finds me in a level with stairs some distance away. So far, Grip and Fang have been the most ardent adversaries, and I am starting to worry about the load I am carrying. But nothing seems worth using my only ?id.
While 450 is uneventual, it is a long journey to the stairs. At 500' a pack of orcs forces me for the first time to flee back up the stairs I entered from, to a level which offers nothing. My second attempt at 500 is much better providing a clear path to the next level. In resting to prepare for the next level I am set upon by an orc shamen who forces me to flee downstairs poorly prepared, to face a superb feeling. Casting about from a central position, I sense an orc pit with uruks in the centre - much too fierce for my attention, with my quick rate of descent. At this stage I have descended three levels for every level of advancement, and have only just leared the spear of light which would help (briefly!) against the cave orcs should I wake them.
It seems that only a sleeping hippogriff - which I have no intent on waking - is between me and 600'. That is not to be, and I am set upon by an orc shamen - who it seems has nothing to do whith the camp to my west - and a Warg.Tunneling my way to the stairs I wake a fierce Yeti, and my magic leads him on a merry chase as I evade him.
I flee a mere Yeti to come face to face with a fire breathing dragon, and a cousin gnom7e mage who seems intent on taking the ring I am yet to identify from my posession. I notice some stairs descending even further into the depths, and ignoring some heavy weapons laying nearby I head that way. My gnome heritage tells its secrets as I tiptoe carefully less than 50' from the sleeping magical beast.
My first attempt at 650' finds me in a corner of a dungeon, no stairs within my ability to detect, and my most feirsome enemy to date in my path: Brodda. Further careful discovery reveals he is not alone in blocking my way, as Wormtounge is also nearby. As if these two are not enough, a troop of ogres block the stairs themself and I am forced back to 600', making my way back along my own tracks in darkness to conserve my dwindling supply of torchlight. Dispatching hapless vermin puts me beyond the grip of hunger as I master a spell with the power to satisfy that craving - so long as I have the light to read by!
So far in my wanderings I continue to come across heavy weapons I have no hope of carrying yet alone swinging in my defence, while I am still carrying the dagger I left my village with so long ago.
random experimentation however shows I have found a wand that can anialate doors and even traps. Hardly the thing to make Brodda or his brethren quake in their boots, but still a handy thing to have, even if only for trading for more useful supplies!
My second attempt at 650' reveals a tempting discovery: orcs, includig Ufthak, trapped in what seems to be a well built prison. Those are too much for me to take on. But in an adjacent chamber, some rangers are also locked. Surely they are wild with grief by now and will attack me if I free them, but perhaps their prison holds something more useful than a dagger barely fit to eat with? Or even - another torch so I can continue my journey!
Making my way to that prison I pass over two handy stairs leading further down. It is always good to have an escape plan if these rangers in their number are too tough for me. Also in getting there I overcome some more enemy - a zombie, and some overgrown beetles - and in doing so discover my own strength will now allow me to identify the items I have found.
Standing on some stairs, in readiness for what is to come, I identify my posessions.
In all my wanderings, the most valuable thing found so far is the wand - and possibly, the contents of the cell I was about to breach?
in freeing the rangers - who fall beneath my spells - I also unlock some unseen spirit. Hastily I snatch up the treasure and flee even further into the depths. Somehow I feel sure I will see Ufthak again, closer to his master perhaps?
Burdened by my treasure, I am pleased that 700' brings me to a large room with two stairs leading further down. One entrance is blocked by some past cave-in. No monsters are nearby to disturb me as I identify what I have discovered. Wolves wonder the corridors nearby, unable to find a way to me, as I puzzle over the runes and other hints. It seems my "luck" as it were is holding still: I am approaching dangerous depths indeed with scarecely an enchantment about me, beyond the power of my own learning. At this depth I feel near naked, relying upon one of two enchanted necklaces to protect me from either acid or lightning as the case may be, and a ring which can protect me only from falling.
Feeling that any corner or stair may be my last I descend further. Lack of decent equipment has slowed my journey, so I am pleased to come upon a room empty of enemies, with treasure strewn around and more stairs leading down in the corner. Sensing more giant wolves nearby, I hastily gather the pages strewn about, and descend again.
16 levels below the village stairs, I at last find a weapon I can wield, which leads me to discard my mundane blade. This one seems to enliven my eyes, and it seems that any already dead enemy I meet will be quickly sent back to their grave as I thrust it about.
However, I find no ready path deeper, so I journey back up - however briefly. Or so I intend, until I sense a certain feeling in the air.It seems I have found the reason for my wand: a great area brimming with traps, and it seems, enemy beyond my abilities. Potions, wands, staves and rings, of varieties I have never seen before, are scattered around. Guarded by huge houds, unmber hulks (able to destroy walls and confuse the unwary), and Boldor, King of the Yeeks, with a small retinue. It seems he is discussing the course of events with a fiend from the very depths of hell, a Nalfeshnee, the like of which I am not expecting to see so early in my journey.
deciding against this risk is a hard choice - the rewards would certainly be great! - but the dragon, hounds and umber hulk would each be a worthy challenge for me individually. So I instead return down the stairs I had come up on - and just as before they lead me to a new destination.
Immediately I am set upon by Wargs, and it seems, an elven sorcerer who commands them. Back to the stairs I flee, fully expecting to find the umber hulk or mighty boar-demon I had left behind. But no, it is some new tunnel I have never seen before, where a hippogriff sleeps not far from me. I rest until it wakes, then flee again,headlong back down the stairs to emerge yet again in some strange new place. These confounded stairs! Never once can I retrace my steps correctly. But at last, I can rest, having dispatched some innocent looking red frog. Only habit forces me to destroy it as it hops about innocently - but we all know that nothing good comes from animals showing the dangerous colour of red.
The frog it seems is the least of my concerns. Again, an umber hulk seems to taunt me: blocking the south-east which is surely where I would be able to find more stairs leading down.
Again I return to 750', only to recover my composure and descend back to 800'. Where it seems that with luck I will only have to force my way past a hapless yeek to gain my way further down, if I can avoid his calls waking a clutch of Uruk-hai.
As luck would have it, some strangely hard to see hounds evade even my magical senses - which I vow to improve if I have a chance! - and force me to find and alternative pass. which for once, is easy enough to find.
holding my final two torches together I finally make my way to 850'. Although I have oil, without a lantern it will not light my way. Unless I find more light soon, I will be forced to flee the depths back to the town. I am thankful for the scroll I was able to leave my home town with, which will wisk me back - as long as danger is not too pressing.
Harassed by hounds which mock me by stealing the very light from the air, I flee for my life scarecly 400' to a new set of stairs leading deeper. In my haste I trample straight over a whip: I hope it to be not worth returning for because sightless I cannot hope to stand against the night-black hounds that endanger me.
Blind, I am powerless as I reach 900' below the village. Having only just gained the strength of mind to hurl mystical jets of acid at my enemy, some might question the depths I have found myself at. Yet it is by journeying ever deeper that I am continuing to find strength... if only I can outwit and evade those foes I have no need to meet up with.
Trembling, I outwait my blindness. after a seeming eternity it is over, with no blast from the unseen overpowering me, or blows from enemy unknown. I find myself still at the bottom of a staircase, it seems in a room, with a magical staff lying on the floor next to me. Discarded for what purpose is my only thought? moving away from the passage nearby to investigate the runes engraved on the shaft, I am interrupted by the elven mage who it seems may have left it in haste to flee my descent. He is quickly dispatched, and I now find I have more goods than pockets and pouches.
With my burdens, I risk only a fleeting reconitoire of my surrounds before taking the stairs I had so recently descended in haste. Hopefully, as my journey to date has shown, I will emerge some place distant from the dark hounds that so recently persued me.
Relighting my rapidly depleeting torch, I ascend.
Half the depths must have reverberated with my clambering because I am immediately set upon, so I flee back down. Sleeping it seems in a barracks, not 50' from the exit of the stairs, are hill orcs: and my mystic sight reveals they are the front guard of the powerful chief, Golfimbul, wiht his shamen and lesser orcs in tow.
Even more dangerous though, is the dark hounds which it seems have tracked me through the depths. I retreat, yet again, to a level like any other - except it seems, inhabited (near the stairs at least) by the reanimated remains of those who have died before me. I put them to a more final rest, and descend again.
It seems that before I reach 1000' I must meet with Brodda, for again he is before me at 900'. However there is another stairway, and near it a room.
My quest for more light pulls me off my direct path, into a room where a baby fire-breathing dragon guards a grimoir of powerful magic written by Kelek. Seeing this I become overjoyed, and rapidly dispatch the dragon with icy bolts. While they strangely do him no further damage than they would any other beast, at least they are effective - unlike my usual firey blast which I know would have bounced off with no effect.
It seems I am less than ready for Keleks great writing, but I will carry it with me.
I overcome a pitiful novice human ranger. Yet even with his weak human eyes, it seems he has bested me in that he is able to wander the depths casting spells without the use of a light of any kind. And so I descend, within 50' of the thousand feet I am striving to meet.
950' finds me in an area with only a lesser demon - a tengu - nearby. to the south I detect stairs leading to my initial goal. But with no real danger to the northwest I take the opportunity to seek better equipment.
1000' finds me in a room with stairs and a scroll that promises a great posession, the likes of which I cannot make out without first invoking the magic the scroll contains. And to my north, a winding room contains a vile poisonous dragon - mightier than the babies I have so far encoutered - along with a vampire, Nar the fallen dwarf, Ugluk, and a mighty lycanthropic bear.
With my dwindling light, I take this chance to read the scroll. It reveals armour emblazoned with protections against fire: while useful, hardly the stuff of legend I had hoped for. Nonetheless, I take it up, vowing to either wear it - or if it proves too heavy, offer it in trade for something more suited to my frame and trade.
Leaving the mazelike pit to the north, and a trice-headed hydra to the south, I read the scroll which will return me to the village where I have claimed an empty house which sits in wait of the treasure I will return with. My first descent has yielded some money, but most importantly the book of Kelek and some treasure which may yet provide me with the means to journey deeper still.
--Angmar, Gnome Illusionist.--
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