[PWMAngband] A necromancer in Middle Earth

[PowerWyrm]

I'm not sure why you're donating a lightning brand bolt. That will work against things like the Tarrasque, and it just takes a slot in the Quiver, not a full inventory slot.

Because the crossbow I have already has lightning brand.

[PowerWyrm]

The dungeon of Mordor is actually located near the Black Gate. We make a quick pit stop in Minas Anor and head north from there. We arrive at the Black Gate, enter Udun and recall down to 3200ft. Right next to Ulik... He's still asleep, but it won't last and if he hits us, we're in big trouble. He hits harder than a greater titan, so we need to take care of him from a safe distance. We phase away, he wakes up, and we use shoot and phase to kill him. We loot this shield from his corpse:

l) the Leather Shield of Sulos [8,+20] <+2, +1>
     Dropped by Ulik the Troll at 3200 feet (level 64).

     +2 intelligence.
     +1 light.
     Provides immunity to cold.
     Provides resistance to acid, shards.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants telepathy.

Cold immunity and full ESP is nice, but can we really replace Thorin? We don't detect anything interesting on the level, so we go down. This time, our trip will be short, since we're already at the bottom of the dungeon. The Mouth of Sauron is here, as well as Saruman. We spot an area filled with giants, but it's not a pit. We wait for our arkenstone to recharge and we activate it again. The Mouth is awake and already on his way, so we buff up and wait. Bad news: he resists lightning, cold and nether, so most of our attacks are hopeless. Stunning him with ice storm and shooting seems to be the best strategy still. Things go well until he decides to summon a bunch of greater demons. Each demon by himself is not a real threat, as our arrow can wipe over 800 hps worth of demons each round, but they continue to summon more demons and soon we have to teleport away. We land near Saruman, so we decide to kill him first. Of course, he summons some stuff and after a few rounds teleports us away. And now the Mouth is closer, so we switch targets again. We need to be careful, as one of his whirlpools of water brings us to heavy stun status. We clear the effect and resume shooting. He's now almost dead, but he decides to summon even more demons, and we have to retreat once more. We clear the demon pack, and then give the final blow to the Mouth. Time to collect some loot:

b) the Mithril Arrow 'Dailir' (3d4) (+10,+3)
     Dropped by The Mouth of Sauron at 3250 feet (level 65).

     Slays demons, dragons, undead.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Returns when thrown.

     Combat info:
     3 shots/round.
     Hits targets up to 120 feet away.
     Average damage/round: 550.8 vs. demons, 550.8 vs. dragons, 550.8 vs.
     undead, and 275.4 vs. others.

Could be useful vs dragons and undead that resist lightning.

o) the Metal Scale Mail of Nimar (-2) [38,+18] <+4, +2>
     Dropped by The Mouth of Sauron at 3250 feet (level 65).

     +4 constitution.
     +4 stealth.
     +2 searching skill.
     Provides resistance to cold, shards.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Speeds regeneration.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.

Not enough resists, so will be donated, even if it gives a nice CON boost.

s) the Mattock of Ibungwar
     Dropped by The Mouth of Sauron at 3250 feet (level 65).
                                                    
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.

     When activated, it cures 4d8 points of damage and neutralizes poison.
     Takes 118 to 129 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 92.6%

Lame. As we find out, we did fight the Mouth of Sauron right next to a golem pit, so we have to clear our way through a bunch of constructs before being able to chase Saruman again. We also get this crown from a random kill:

q) the Iron Crown of Guirech [0,+7] <+4, +1>
     Dropped by a black wraith at 3250 feet (level 65).

     +4 dexterity.
     +1 stealth.
     +4 searching skill.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, poison, dark,
     disenchantment.
     Provides protection from fear, blindness.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Prevents paralysis.

A bunch of resists, could be useful later when we rethink about what we'll equip for the endgame. We find Saruman again, fight a bit, and get teleported away... again. This continues for a while, with Saruman either teleporting away, or teleporting us away. Finally the hide and seek game ends, and we get more loot to collect. Unfortunately, the only item that doesn't get squelched in the process is this rapier:

t) the Rapier of Aelvas (1d6) (+8,+15) [+40] <+3, +2>
     Dropped by Saruman of Many Colours at 3250 feet (level 65).

     +3 strength.
     +2 constitution.
     +3 searching skill.
     Slays evil creatures, undead (powerfully).
     Provides resistance to fire, dark.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.
     Grants the ability to sense undead.
     Grants the ability to sense orcs.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 173.6 vs. evil creatures, 218.4 vs. undead, and
     158.8 vs. others.

Another crappy weapon... We're about to recall when we spot a down staircase in the area. Isn't this level supposed to be the bottom of the dungeon? We go investigate, ready to report another bug, but instead of a staircase... we bump into a stairway to hell. Of course it had to be a mimic... We go clear the room of chambers filled with giants and recall back to Bree. We drop more consumables and randarts in our house (starting to get a good supply of healing potions now), swap the Necklace of the Dwarves for a speed amulet again (our CON is maxed ithout it), and prepare for our next journey: the lonely mountain of Erebor.

[PowerWyrm]

Sign: "Welcome to PWMAngband 1.1.12 beta 7"

And more updates...

We recall somewhere between Mirkwood and the Heart of the Earth, head northwest and soon reach Erebor. We should be prepared to fight a lot of dragons in this mountainous dungeon, as our target is none other than their father, Glaurung. We recall down to 3250ft, and our goal here is 3500ft. Wyrms are now in depth, and there are two on this level, as well as a lesser vault. We clear the vault and kill the wyrms, but get nothing worth mentioning from them except some experience, enough for use to reach:

Lvl: 42, HP: 809, SP: 337

As a Thunderlord, we will now require massive amounts of experience to level up, so juicy wyrms are more than welcome to lower our burden. Next level has two lesser vaults, and of course more dragons. An ancient black dragon drops a scroll of deep descent, and we will read it once we're done here. From the first vault, we get a Tungsten rod (of Fire Balls) and this Elfstone:

q) the Elfstone 'Silin' [+10] <+3, +2, +4, +5>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3300 feet (level 66).

     +3 strength.
     +2 intelligence.
     +3 wisdom.
     +4 dexterity.
     +5 constitution.
     Provides resistance to acid, light, dark.
     Provides protection from fear.

     When activated, it allows you to randomly breathe fire or nexus for 200
     points of damage.
     Takes 516 to 756 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 92.8%

This amulet makes the poor Necklace of the Dwarves a pathetic joke. We'll store it for later use. On our way to the second vault, we spot what seems to be a pit, but we cannot sense anything inside. A spell of detection reveals that it's again a golem pit. We clear it for a bit of money, and then proceed to the vault which doesn't yield anything except a few useful potions. We read the scroll of deep descent and end up at the bottom of the dungeon. Glaurung is outside of a small permawalled vault, which should be a nice playground for the fight. Before we can approach the vault, we see a menacing wraith coming towards us... and it's the Witch-King of Angmar. We dispatch (quite easily) the chief of the ringwraiths, as well as a few major demons he summoned during the fight. For our efforts, we get:

p) the Black Ring of Power of Barnor <+2, +5, +1, +4>
     Dropped by The Witch-King of Angmar at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +2 strength.
     +5 intelligence.
     +1 dexterity.
     +4 searching skill.
     +2 speed.
     +1 light.
     Provides immunity to acid, lightning.
     Provides resistance to fire, cold, poison, dark, nether.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.
     Sustains wisdom, dexterity.
     Prevents paralysis. Aggravates nearby creatures.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.
     Grants telepathic awareness.

     When activated, it destroys a radius-15 circular area around you and
     blinds you for 10+1d10 turns.
     Takes 372 to 456 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 98.1%

Resists, stats, immunities and activates for destruction. Probably worth using if we find Deathwreaker or any other aggravating "must use" item.

u) the Blade of Chaos 'Hunger Strike' (6d5) (+32,+32) <+2>
     Dropped by The Witch-King of Angmar at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +2 strength.
     +2 dexterity.
     +2 speed.
     Slays evil creatures.
     Provides resistance to chaos.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Slows your metabolism. Speeds regeneration. Grants the ability to see
     invisible things. Prevents paralysis.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 390.8 vs. evil creatures, and 308.8 vs. others.

Here we go. We probably have our Morgoth-slayer weapon here. Looking at our current staff, we only use it for the disenchantment resistance it provides. We should be able to get that elsewhere and use that blade as our main weapon. Before we can get to the vault, Glaurung wakes up and comes at us. Since he resists the base elements, we use our dragon slaying arrow against him. He summons quite an impressive number of children, but we kill him and his offsprings afterwards. Ironically, he drops a multihued dragon scale mail of stealth. He also drops the following artifacts:

t) the Set of Gauntlets 'Pauraegen' [3,+14] <+1>
     Dropped by Glaurung, Father of the Dragons at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +1 light.
     Provides resistance to lightning, light.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis.

     When aimed, it shoots a beam of lightning that inflicts 6d6 points of
     damage, which your device skill increases by 93 percent.
     Takes 25 to 44 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.5%

A bit late for such crap.

v) the Great Axe 'Mirnin' (6d6) (+18,+11) <+4, +1>
     Dropped by Glaurung, Father of the Dragons at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +4 intelligence.
     +1 infravision.
     +1 light.
     Slays evil creatures, trolls, giants, demons (powerfully), dragons
     (powerfully).
     Branded with poison.
     Provides resistance to chaos.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Makes you fall like a feather.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     When activated, it cures blindness and grants or extends the power to see
     invisible for 12+2d6 turns.
     Takes 210 to 233 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 95.0%

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     3.8 blows/round.
     With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 398.5 vs. creatures not resistant to poison, 307.2
     vs. evil creatures, 398.5 vs. trolls, 398.5 vs. giants, 581.3 vs. demons,
     581.3 vs. dragons, and 216.1 vs. others.

Impressive. Also from one of his summons, we found:

q) the Kolla of Teindon [3,+21] <+1>
     Dropped by a great bile wyrm at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +1 strength.
     +1 wisdom.
     +1 dexterity.
     +1 constitution.
     +1 light.
     Provides resistance to acid, cold, shards.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains strength, dexterity, constitution.

Less impressive. We're quite overloaded now, and we didn't even touch the vault, so we quaff a potion of enlightenment and drop some minor consumables to carry all these artifacts. We clear the vault and discard a book of prayers (Wrath of God), identify an Ivory amulet (of Weaponmastery) and a Platinum wand (of Dragon's Flame). We also find Hammerhand, but we're full and Dwar has decided to pay us a visit. Before anything else, we must fight him. We get rid of him and make more room in our inventory to get the following:

l) the Black Ring of Power of Vaneleb <+5, +3, +1, +2>
     Dropped by Dwar, Dog Lord of Waw at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +5 strength.
     +3 intelligence.
     +5 wisdom.
     +3 constitution.
     +1 searching skill.
     +2 speed.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, cold, light, dark, nether.
     Provides protection from fear, blindness, confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.
     Speeds regeneration. Grants the ability to see invisible things. Prevents
     paralysis. Aggravates nearby creatures.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.
     Grants the ability to sense giants.
     Grants telepathic awareness.

     When activated, it cures 500 points of damage, cures all stunning, heals
     all cut damage, neutralizes poison, and cures blindness, confusion and
     amnesia.
     Takes 421 to 518 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 98.1%

As good as the Witch-King's ring. Still not worth aggravating for now.

s) the Steel Helm of Hammerhand [9,+20] <+3>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3500 feet (level 70).

     +3 strength.
     +3 dexterity.
     +3 constitution.
     Provides resistance to acid, cold, dark, nexus.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Prevents paralysis.

A super crown of might, but not worth carrying around. Since we probably won't use a +3 amulet of speed in the long run, we discard it in favor of the weaponmastery amulet and equip Hunger Strike. We find a Steel wand (of Annihilation), but waste charges on a lich and a hellhound to identify it, and since it's empty now, we leave it behind. We also leave behind a potion of augmentation, since our stats are maxed and not drained. What a waste...

With this, we're done with Erebor. We recall back to Bree, where we have a bit of inventory/house management to do. We buy a bigger house, transfer our randarts in it and drop the ones we don't need from our inventory. We now have 30 potions of healing stored in our house, so we can start carrying some for harder fights. We take a quick rest and then prepare for our next destination: the Sacred Land Of Mountains.

[PowerWyrm]

Our destination... is the home of the Thunderlords! Our home... We have a recall point close to it, so we recall there and go west until we reach the Sacred Land Of Mountains. In our absense, a rebel Thunderlord has usurped the throne of our land. Our throne... He must be punished. We recall to 3500ft, and our goal is 3600ft. Here's Osse, but for now we skip him. We clear a minor vault and we find a ring of speed +11, an Aspen staff (of Banishment), a Hickory staff (of Healing), and a book of magic spells (Mordekainen's Escapes). Finally we decide that it's time to take down Osse once and for all. During the fight, we have to empty our healing staff and use four out of the five healing potions we were carrying, but we finally get rid of the annoying Maia. And all we get for our effort is this lance...

r) the Lance 'Angar' (3d10) (+15,+12)
     Dropped by Ossë, Herald of Ulmo at 3500 feet (level 70).

     Slays evil creatures, undead (powerfully).
     Provides immunity to acid.
     Provides resistance to poison, nexus.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.

     When aimed, it shoots a bolt of magical energy that inflicts 150 points
     of damage, which your device skill increases by 83 percent.
     Takes 279 to 341 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 96.8%

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     3.3 blows/round.
     With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 250.7 vs. evil creatures, 442.2 vs. undead, and
     187.1 vs. others.

Pretty average weapon. We descend to an uninteresting 3550ft, but our telepathy cap detects the Learnean Hydra in the distance, so instead of taking the stairs immediately, we go say hello to the big lizard. On the way, we kill a great crystal wyrm and reach...

Lvl: 43, HP: 831, SP: 345

And now we have three spells we cannot learn. We kill the Learnean Hydra easily, and take the closest stairs to 3600ft. Two minor vaults, a hydra pit, and Trone, the Rebel Thunderlord are on the level. But the first thing we find in the room we landed are these boots:

s) the Pair of Iron Shod Boots of Eondorien [4,+16] <+10>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3600 feet (level 72).

     +10 speed.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains intelligence.

Basically boots of speed +10, but still a straight improvement over our current boots. We kill a Gelugon guarding the rest of this vault and loot this necklace:

q) the Necklace of Doron <+3, +4, +1>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3600 feet (level 72).

     +3 wisdom.
     +4 dexterity.
     +3 constitution.
     +1 light.
     Provides immunity to fire.
     Provides resistance to chaos.
     Sustains strength.
     Prevents paralysis.

     When activated, it cures 500 points of damage, cures all stunning, heals
     all cut damage, neutralizes poison, and cures blindness, confusion and
     amnesia.
     Takes 444 to 546 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 94.1%

Could be useful. In fact, we're currently using an amulet of Weaponmastery only for the disenchantment resistance, and our hat only gives fire immunity. So we could free the hat slot if we find disenchantment resistance elsewhere. We start to play with a great storm wyrm and a great ice wyrm, but soon we are surrounded by a bunch of dragons. We have to phase away and use one potion of healing when they all start to breathe at once. In the end, we earn a nice amount of experience, and this shield:

r) the Mithril Shield of Nibunin [16,+28]
     Dropped by a great bile wyrm at 3600 feet (level 72).

     Provides resistance to acid, fire, cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Makes you fall like a feather. Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.

Well not all artifacts are meant to be useful... Next is the hydra pit. Unfortunately, we misjudge how the hydras would come at us and we're quickly in sight of the whole pit. We teleport away, kill a gelugon, and get a new potion. Since we're badly wounded at this time (courtesy of the hydras' poison breaths and plasma bolts), we quaff the potion for identification purposes, but it's not a potion of Life... it's a potion of Experience. We head back to the pit and clear it this time. Then we head for the second vault, but it has nothing interesting inside. We ask an archlich to stay still, too bad we don't have our last spellbook, as such an ally would have been great for the fight against Trone. Our main concerns about Trone and his minions: they breathe time and can abuse the teleport other spell. But they don't resist lightning and we can shoot them to death. In the blink of an eye, we regain our throne. And a bunch of artifacts. Clearly at this point, it's an artifact... backpack that we would need. We have to leave many things behind to be able to carry them all...

m) the Amulet of Carlammas <+1, +3>
     Dropped by a blue Thunderlord at 3600 feet (level 72).

     +1 strength.
     +3 constitution.
     Provides resistance to fire.

     When activated, it grants or extends protection from evil for 129+1d25
     turns.
     Takes 723 to 1440 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 94.1%

Clearly with randarts activated, this will never be used. See the Necklace of Doron for comparison...

o) the Augmented Chain Mail 'Nienegion' (-2) [42,+15] <+3>
     Dropped by Trone, the Rebel Thunderlord at 3600 feet (level 72).

     +3 constitution.
     Provides immunity to acid.
     Provides resistance to fire, light, dark, sound.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Slows your metabolism.

Would be great if we didn't have Thorin and Incanus.

p) the Soft Leather Armour of Scarlet Order [8,+20] <+2>
     Dropped by Trone, the Rebel Thunderlord at 3600 feet (level 72).

     +2 strength.
     +2 dexterity.
     Provides resistance to lightning, fire, cold.
     Provides protection from confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis. Sustains your life force.

Midgame stuff, can't compare with most artifacts past 2000ft.

v) the Quarterstaff 'Eriril' (1d11) (+13,+15) <+4, +1>
     Dropped by Trone, the Rebel Thunderlord at 3600 feet (level 72).

     +4 intelligence.
     +4 wisdom.
     +1 light.
     Slays evil creatures.
     Provides resistance to light.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.

     When activated, it detects all treasure and objects in the immediate area.
     Takes 163 to 320 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 96.8%

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 210.8 vs. evil creatures, and 184.4 vs. others.

Same problem... great midgame item, but has now passed the point of usefulness. We recall out of the dungeon and back to Bree. Our next destination will be south of the Mirkwood forest: the tower of Dol Guldur.

[PowerWyrm]

This time, we have an evil necromancer to kill. We recall into the Mirkwood forest and head south. We make a small stop at the town of Lothlorien, then go east to the tower of Dol Guldur. We recall at 3600ft, with nothing really noticeable except a huge starbust room where the stairs down are. But we won't need to go there, as a dread kindly drops a scroll of deep descent for us. We read it and end up at 3750ft, where we detect the evil Necromancer of Dol Guldur... along with Thuringwethil, Cantoras and a pit fiend. A nasty vault it seems... We wait for our arkenstone to recharge, and reveal the layout of the level. The Necromancer of Dol Guldur is alone in a gorth room. Thuringwethil is also alone in another room. Cantoras and the rest of the nasties are in a lesser vault in a third part of the level. We'll do it one by one. First, we kill a sorcerer and reach...

Lvl: 44, HP: 850, SP: 353

More hps is always better. Now we need over a million experience to level up again. But it's fine, we have more dungeons to visit. Our necromancer friend doesn't find a path to us, he's probably blocked by the pools of water we can find in the dungeon. We'll engage combat at range then. He completely forgets he can cast nasty spells and just creates traps, and launches a few nether balls we immediately cure with life drain. Hell... the nightwalker he summoned at the end (which we didn't manage to convert to friendly) did a better job at trying to kill us. We don't get any drops from him (he dropped some spellbooks that were squelched), but in the gorth we find this:

p) a Scythe of Slicing (Holy Avenger) (8d6) (+15,+18) [+3] <+3>
     Found lying on the floor of a special room at 3750 feet (level 75).

     +3 wisdom.
     Slays evil creatures, demons, undead.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Sustains intelligence.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Blessed by the gods.
     Grants the ability to sense undead.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     3.3 blows/round.
     With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 357.9 vs. evil creatures, 464.2 vs. demons, 464.2
     vs. undead, and 251.4 vs. others.

Switching around equipment to gain that extra dex point, damage increases to 302 vs all and 430 vs evil. Amazing endgame weapon, even slightly better than our current artifact sword against evil. We'll store that in our house in the case we decide to use it later. Next is Thuringwethil, and it seems she's also blocked by water (she forgot she could fly apparently). We start shooting again, but this time, she puts up a good fight and keeps summoning waves of vampires and undead. One of them drops a new Crimson potion, and since we're drained and wounded, we quaff it to see if it's a potion of Life this time. And it is. We resume the fight and soon she falls. She drops one of our spellbooks that we already have, and these boots:

p) the Pair of Leather Boots 'Elemenen' [2,+21] <+6>
     Dropped by Thuringwethil, the Vampire Messenger at 3750 feet (level 75).

     +6 speed.
     Provides resistance to disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.

Alright, that could be one source of disenchantment resistance, but would cost us 4 points of speed. We'll see when we recall back to our house. Finally, we go clear that lesser vault. Not sure if we can cope with Cantoras at this point, so we'll leave him alone for now (he's in a closed part of the vault). Instead, we clear the rest of the vault, which means killing more high demons and wyrms, but we only get this as reward:

f) the Rock 'Crusher' (3d6) (+10,+10)
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3750 feet (level 75).

     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Returns when thrown.

Great if you find it at 500ft, pointless at our level. We also find a Brass wand (of Dragon's Breath), and decide finally to take on Cantoras. We retreat behind some water, and again Cantoras forgets he can levitate and just sits there spamming all sorts of elemental spells while we shock him with our arrow. He doesn't even summon any help before dying. His loot consists of a lot of trash egos, and this sword:

t) the Zweihander 'Arion' (3d8) (+8,+16) <+3>
     Dropped by Cantoras, the Skeletal Lord at 3750 feet (level 75).

     +3 tunneling.
     Slays evil creatures, animals, orcs.
     Branded with cold.
     Provides resistance to cold, light, chaos.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.
     Grants the ability to sense giants.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     3.8 blows/round.
     With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 329.4 vs. creatures not resistant to cold, 502.2
     vs. creatures susceptible to cold, 271.8 vs. evil creatures, 271.8 vs.
     animals, 329.4 vs. orcs, and 214.2 vs. others.

More crap to donate. We pick up a few scrolls of deep descent for later use and recall back to Bree. We can now discard our wands of teleport other, as we have seven rods. I decide to equip the necklace of Doron, the crown of Numenor and the boots Elemenen, which makes us drop from +24 to +20 speed (which is still more than enough for now), but we gain pStun and it frees up an inventory slot. Our stats are now amazing: 18/*** to all except wisdom, which is at 18/210. We do 400 vs evil with our weapon, and 600 vs non lightning resistant monsters with our shooter. Our next destination will be the Paths of the Dead, and although we don't have Anduril with us, I'm sure we can still beat Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer.

[PowerWyrm]

Dump is here: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=14664.

Note: this overwrote an old char, the comments about an ironman sorceror are now irrelevant.

[Derakon]

What on earth is a gorth room?

[Pete Mack]

It seems to me that if all your stats are at 18/220, there is something wrong with randarts generation...

[Derakon]

PowerWyrm mentioned wielding an Amulet of DOOM, so I believe they're taking advantage of a rare effect in ToME-alikes, where uncursing a cursed item has a small chance to flip the pluses on it. Amulets of DOOM impose large penalties to all stats, and they can re-curse themselves when uncursed, so you can just sit around, uncursing the amulet, until its stats flip, and suddenly you have an amulet of e.g. +5 to all stats.

[PowerWyrm]

What on earth is a gorth room?

This is how everyone was calling the room that has an inner room with 4 compartments since I started playing MAngband. Fifth room hardcoded in build_large().

[PowerWyrm]

It seems to me that if all your stats are at 18/220, there is something wrong with randarts generation...

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=8481

In a word, yes. Basically, every randart ring/amulet gives +3 to +5 to all stats now, so it's easy to get maxed stats.

[PowerWyrm]

For our next destination, we'll have a bit of walking to do. Our closest recall point is the Illusory Castle, then we need to go south for a while. Then east through the Gap of Rohan. And we reach the entrance to the Paths of the Dead. We recall to 3750ft, our goal being 3850ft this time. Our ESP hat detects Harowen and Khamul in the distance. Harowen is already heading towards us. We get rid of him easily and pick up his loot:

m) the Set of Gauntlets 'Lastelome' (+5,+5) [3,+19] <+5>
     Dropped by Harowen the Black Hand at 3750 feet (level 75).

     +5 strength.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis.

Nothing more than gloves of power...

n) the Pair of Witan Boots of Seven League [10,+16] <-2, +4>
     Dropped by Harowen the Black Hand at 3750 feet (level 75).

     -2 stealth.
     +4 speed.
     Provides resistance to lightning, cold, light.
     Provides protection from stunning.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Makes you fall like a feather. Prevents paralysis.

Good protection against thunder effects, but not enough speed to consider using them. While we check these drops, Khamul is already on his way. He's dead before he realizes it, and then we dispatch his summons. Then we examine HIS drops.

) the Black Ring of Power of Tircholir (+8,+5) <+3, +2>
     Dropped by Kham&#251;l, the Black Easterling at 3750 feet (level 75).

     +3 strength.
     +3 dexterity.
     +2 constitution.
     +3 infravision.
     +3 tunneling.
     Provides resistance to lightning, poison, dark, chaos.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.
     Sustains wisdom, constitution.
     Slows your metabolism. Makes you fall like a feather. Speeds
     regeneration. Aggravates nearby creatures.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.
     Grants telepathic awareness.

Still not probably worth aggravating...

p) the Short Sword 'Sting' (1d7) (+7,+8) <+1, +3, +2>
     Dropped by Kham&#251;l, the Black Easterling at 3750 feet (level 75).

     +1 strength.
     +1 dexterity.
     +1 constitution.
     +3 speed.
     +2 attack speed.
     +1 light.
     Slays evil creatures, animals, orcs, undead.
     Provides resistance to light.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Prevents paralysis.

     Combat info:
     6.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 223.8 vs. evil creatures, 223.8 vs. animals, 250.2
     vs. orcs, 250.2 vs. undead, and 198 vs. others.

Too light for us, even with two extra blows. We find stairs near and we take them to 3800ft. Our arkenstone reveals a huge Curlicues vault to the east, and our ESP hat detects Tselakus along with all sorts of high undead, but the area should be manageable. And we are a necromancer anyway... And to add to our options, we even find a scroll of mass banishment on our way to the vault. One of the two hardest undead on the level, a dreadlord, isn't even in the vault. We kill him for:

q) the Pair of Iron Shod Boots of Gimli (+5,+5) [4,+30] <+3>
     Dropped by a dreadlord at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +3 strength.
     +3 searching skill.
     +3 infravision.
     +3 tunneling.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.

     When activated, it maps out a portion of the level around you.
     Takes 153 to 300 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 96.6%

Problem: we didn't start to clear the vault, and we're already down to three free inventory slots. And we find a scroll of banishment on our way. Since there's no way we'll be able to recall with it and since there are stuff like grand master mystics/grand swordsmasters on the level, we decide to read it to banish the "p" race on the level. And while we clear some dreads along the way, we get two more artifacts:

t) the Halberd of Vorie (3d7) (+17,+14) <+5, +2, +3>
     Dropped by a dreadmaster at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +5 strength.
     +5 wisdom.
     +2 dexterity.
     +3 constitution.
     Slays evil creatures, demons (powerfully).
     Provides resistance to sound, chaos.
     Provides protection from confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration. Grants the ability to see invisible things. Blessed
     by the gods. Aggravates nearby creatures.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 251.6 vs. evil creatures, 414 vs. demons, and 197.6
     vs. others.

u) the Morning Star of Bellothil (4d6) (+13,+32) [+11] <+2>
     Dropped by a dread at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +2 infravision.
     +2 speed.
     Slays giants, dragons, undead.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains wisdom, constitution.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants the ability to sense giants.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     When activated, it restores all stats to maximum.
     Takes 356 to 478 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.1%

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 412.8 vs. giants, 412.8 vs. dragons, 412.8 vs.
     undead, and 286.8 vs. others.

Inferior to what we currently use. And we're now down to a single free inventory slot... We still decide to see what's in the vault, even if it means leaving many things behind. If we have to, we'll leave a few crap randarts behind, they'll reappear later under another form. First spiral of the vault has nothing. Second spiral has Tselakus, so we lure him away. And he too forgets he can cast threatening spells, so we pelt him with arrows and even finish him off in melee. First thing we find in the pile of trash he drops is a scroll of wilderness mapping, so we read it and learn the area at 31 south 37 east. That's near the Sandworm Lair, and we don't plan on going there anymore. Next is a potion of enlightenment, so we may as well quaff it. Nothing new on radar, but there's a mace of disruption in the vault, which could be good. We also see two necromancer books, but that's the two we already have... we'll probably have to go deeper to find our last spellbook (its native depth is 4500ft). From Tselakus drops, we find this interesting artifact:

p) the Iron Helm of Knowledge [7,+20] <+1>
     Dropped by Tselakus, the Dreadlord at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +1 light.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Identifies all items for you.

     When activated, it detects all treasure, objects and monsters in the
     immediate area, and maps out a small portion of the level around you.
     Takes 114 to 222 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 95.1%

Much less useful as it used to be when items had to be identified one by one. And we've pretty much identified all runes and flavors already. Nothing in the second spiral, the various undead must have picked up the items and dropped them near Tselakus' loot pile. We kill a nightwalker (hardest enemy in the vault), and reach:

Lvl: 45, HP: 875, SP: 361

That's roughly half the experience required to advance to level 50... but we'll get there eventually. The third spiral is cleared, and we continue splattering more undead. Unfortunately, the mace of disruption in the fourth spiral is only magical. It does over 500 vs undead though... All is left now is clear the right part. And the first thing we find could be useful...

v) the Mattock of Náin <+4, +6>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +4 strength.
     +4 searching skill.
     +4 infravision.
     +6 tunneling.
     Provides resistance to dark, disenchantment.
     Grants the ability to sense orcs.

     When aimed, it creates a line of rock remover, inflicting 20+1d30 points
     of damage to susceptible monsters, which your device skill increases by
     48 percent.
     Takes 5 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 93.4%

That should allow us to wear those +10 speed boots again. Unfortunately, a nexus quylthulg teleports us away, and we have to make our way back to the vault. By doing so, we kill a nightcrawler and get a Silver rod (of Cold Balls). Since we won't have the room to recall with the scroll of mass banishment we have found, we read it to get rid of the annoying quylthulg and the remaining monsters in the vault. We pick up more artifacts and recall.

n) the Set of Leather Gloves of Ekkas [1,+8] <+2, +6>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +2 strength.
     +2 constitution.
     +6 mana capacity.
     Provides resistance to cold, dark, shards, chaos.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.

     When aimed, it shoots a bolt of magical energy that inflicts 150 points
     of damage, which your device skill increases by 97 percent.
     Takes 252 to 308 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.8%

More suited for a sorceror than a regular spellcaster.

v) the Sling 'Helin' (x2) (+21,+14) <+3, +1>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3800 feet (level 76).

     +3 strength.
     +3 constitution.
     +1 shooting speed.
     Provides resistance to acid, sound.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains strength.
     Speeds regeneration.

Decent sling, but can't compete with our current bow. Back in Bree, we drop that sling (it's better than the one we have stored) and get back our +10 speed randart boots as we exchange Erebor for Nain. We unload our backpack and recall back to the Paths of the Dead at 3800ft. Nothing except a pit in the distance, and our ESP hat shows us that's an undead pit. If only we had the last spellbook... As we make our way to the stairs, we find out that there's a pool of water in the bend of an U-shaped corridor leading to the graveyard. We take advantage of the terrain and obliterate all the non passwall undead from the graveyard, just having to deal with the dreadlords and archliches in melee. One of them drops a new potion, a Copper Speckled potion (of *Restore Mana*). Soon only remains a lone druj in the pit. We kill it and look for loot, but there's nothing except a new rod, an Aluminium rod (of Drain Life). We go back to the nearby stairs and go down to 3850ft. No special features there, and Feagwath stands in the middle of the level with his escort. We feel something worthwhile on the level though and decide to explore a bit. And we find this in the corner of the level:

s) the Glaive of Pain (9d6) (+0,+30)
     Found lying on the floor at 3850 feet (level 77).

     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 354.

That would be an amazing weapon if we had the proper gloves with slay evil. We'll carry it for a while in case we find such gloves (in the meantime, we can use all scrolls of enchant weapon we find on it to improve its to-hit). We pacify a black reaver (here again, it would have make a formidable ally for the upcoming battle if we had our last spellbook), and approach Feagwath to wake up his dread army. We get rid of the various dreads, lords and masters, then manage to kill Feagwath with stopping only once to heal a manastorm (I love mana resistance). From his unlife-less corpse, we pick up:

q) the Band of Haeredil <+4, +3>
     Dropped by Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer at 3850 feet (level 77).

     +4 strength.
     +3 intelligence.
     +3 dexterity.
     +3 constitution.
     It brands your melee attacks with lightning.
     Provides resistance to lightning, dark, sound, disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.
     Sustains constitution.
     Sustains your life force.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.

Definitely something we can store for later use, an off-weapon brand is always nice to have. We're done here, so we recall back to Bree. Before taking on Sauron and Morgoth, we have one dungeon left to clear... and it's the volcanic area of Mount Doom. Since it's probably easier to navigate in a normal dungeon, we will finally make our way to Carn Dum and settle our base camp there. We will dive in Angband, until we're ready to take on Sauron's most powerful minion: the Balrog of the Sammath Naur.

[PowerWyrm]

Time to say goodbye to Bree. We collect everything that was stored in one of our houses and sell that house. We recall to Carn Dum, go south to the closest suburb area and buy the biggest house we can afford. It takes us many trips from Bree to Carn Dum, but we manage to move everything we own to our new house. We sell the second house we had near Bree and say goodbye to the area. Back to Carn Dum, we reorganize our house and pick up consumables for the next dive. Including scrolls of deep descent to skip floors until 4500ft, where we hope to get our last spellbook. We try to recharge our staff of healing but fail, so we take a few potions of healing for emergencies. We enter the town, check the shops and recall in the dungeon. We don't get distracted by the two dragon pits on the level and immediately read three scrolls of deep descent to dive directly to 4600ft. We are immediately aware of Carcharoth, Draugluin and Ungoliant. And soon we also spot Maeglin, which is awake and heading for us. At this depth, he's able to summon very nasty stuff... and he does. Soon we have to deal with an ancient shadow wyrm, and since we don't want more ancient wyrms around, we teleport him away. While we do this, Carcharoth sneakily moves in sight and starts breathing darkness at us. That's bad. We phase away, and since we land closer to Carcharoth, we simply also teleport him away. We retreat in a corridor to leave the summons behind and start bashing Maeglin with our sword again. Soon he flees, but instantly summons a pack of liches. And his summons are back. But before we can act, a crypt thing teleports us away. This will give us some respite. Soon Maeglin has found us again, but he's down to 10% of his health and dies in a few rounds. Draugluin has followed him, but we need some rest before we can take him down, so we teleport him away. We look at Maeglin's drop, which consist of a +13 speed ring (we replace our old +11 one), and this crossbow:

r) the Heavy Crossbow of the Goblins (x5) (+10,+22) <+1>
     Dropped by Maeglin, the Traitor of Gondolin at 4600 feet (level 92).

     +1 shooting power.
     Slays demons, dragons.
     Branded with cold.
     Provides resistance to disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration.

We're not a goblin, and this won't be as good as our current bow. Now Ungoliant has awoken too, and we need to get rid of her. We'll throw her in a corner of the level. We kill a great swamp wyrm and reach...

Lvl: 46, HP: 897, SP: 369

Looking around on the level, we also find an Amber amulet (of the Magi), some spellbooks for other classes, and this DSM:

o) the Green Dragon Scale Mail 'Green Heart' (-2) [20,+25] <+2>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4600 feet (level 92).

     +2 speed.
     Provides resistance to poison, time.
     Makes you fall like a feather.
     Grants the ability to sense orcs.

     When aimed, it allows you to breathe poison for 150 points of damage.
     Takes 175 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 93.4%

We find Draugluin and kill him, but don't get any loot. Now the level is dangerously filled with a lot of ancient wyrms and other nasties, so we simply leave it via the closest stairs. Next level doesn't feel risky, and we find out it's a cavern level. We pick up a second ring of speed +11 while moving around, and also:

q) the Beaked Axe of Théoden (2d8) (+8,+10) <+3>
     Found lying on the floor of a cavern at 4650 feet (level 93).

     +3 wisdom.
     +3 constitution.
     Slays dragons.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Slows your metabolism.
     Grants telepathy.

     When activated, it inflicts 120 points of damage on a single creature
     that is not undead, a demon, a golem, an elemental or a vortex.
     Takes 140 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.1%

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 244 vs. dragons, and 164 vs. others.

We don't stay more than we need and go down to 4700ft. Here we can see a graveyard and an ethereal dragon pit which has five ancient ethereal wyrms. Since we find a potion of enlightenment, might as well see if there's something interesting to grab on this level. There's a new rod inside the graveyard, we can probably get it. First, we kill a wyrm and get:

q) the Pike of Vientir (2d7) (+16,+16) [+8] <+5, +4, +2>
     Dropped by a great hell wyrm at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +5 wisdom.
     +4 dexterity.
     +2 constitution.
     Slays animals, demons.
     Branded with acid, cold.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, nether.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains wisdom, constitution.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Blessed by the gods.
     Grants telepathy.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 257.6 vs. creatures not resistant to acid, 257.6
     vs. creatures not resistant to cold, 364 vs. creatures susceptible to
     cold, 222 vs. animals, 257.6 vs. demons, and 186.8 vs. others.

That's a supercharged version of Theoden. While we're clearing the graveyard, we become aware of a monster we didn't detect earlier... the Tarrasque. It's far away and asleep, so we'll leave it alone for now. Without pools of water to help us in this dungeon, clearing a graveyard takes way more time. One of the dreadlords inside picks up the Pewter rod, and we identify it as a rod of Speed. We pacify two bone golems, which will be used as barrier to shoot non passwall undead from afar. Soon, only the drujs remain in the pit. And one of them teleports us right next to the dragon pit... Since we don't really want to deal with five ancient etheral wyrms, we cast Word of Destruction to get rid of the threat. Oh yes, the Tarrasque is now awake and has already found a path to the pit, so we retreat a bit and prepare for the fight. With three healing potions, there's not much hope (our stack of 40 CCWs has been reduced to 8 thanks to all the undead from the pit). We are immune to fire and cold, which reduces by 2/3 the chance of getting badly hurt, and the Tarrasque doesn't resist lightning, so we can deal a good amount of damage, but we'll have to be lucky it doesn't decide to go on a disenchantment rampage. Well during the fight, the Tarrasque seems to have fun creating pools of lava and then breathing cold to turn them into rubble. We take advantage of the created rubble to heal twice from disenchantment breaths, and when it breathes disenchantment for the third time, its health is low enough for the damage to be negligible. We collect the loot, which is a bunch of crap and:

o) the Band of Tulkas <+4>
     Dropped by The Tarrasque at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 strength.
     +4 dexterity.
     +4 constitution.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.

     When activated, it grants or extends haste (+10 to speed) for 75+1d75
     turns.
     Takes 604 to 1200 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 92.1%

We also discover this artifact, from a random drop:

u) the Great Hammer of Andil (8d1) (+13,+21) [+13] <+4, +2>
     Dropped by a dreadlord at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 dexterity.
     +2 constitution.
     Slays evil creatures, undead, demons (powerfully), dragons (powerfully).
     Provides resistance to acid.
     Provides protection from blindness.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 247.2 vs. evil creatures, 283.2 vs. undead, 355.6
     vs. demons, 355.6 vs. dragons, and 211.2 vs. others.

We are killing a lot of things on this level. And soon, we reach...

Lvl: 47, HP: 921, SP: 377

We finish off the few drujs remaining in the pit and collect more loot:

g) the Shuriken of the Black Ninja (5d6) (+15,+5)
     Found lying on the floor in a pit at 4700 feet (level 94).

     Slays orcs, trolls, giants.
     Branded with poison.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Returns when thrown.

But we're not a ninja...

p) the Soft Leather Armour 'Gillaian' [8,+42]
     Found lying on the floor in a pit at 4700 feet (level 94).

     Provides resistance to nexus.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.

Too bad all the power went into supercharged AC... Our pack is now full, so we recall to drop and donate some things. We compare the three xbows we have and keep the best one, which still cannot compete with our current bow. We also restock on cure critical wounds, as we have used most of our stack. We recall back down on a level with a couple vaults and many uniques. Our goal now is to reach 4900ft, kill as many uniques as we can without consuming too many resources and find our last spellbook. First on the list is Ithaqua. We try to get to him without waking up too many monsters, but unfortunately we wake up Atlas. No chance fighting that guy in melee with our weak AC, we'll have to shoot him from a safe distance. But first we need to find a safe area for shooting, and the level is quite crowded with nasties. Unfortunately, Ithaqua summons some demons, and one summoned horned reaper manages to stomp over Atlas before we manage to finish him off (how's that even possible eludes me). We resume the fight with Ithaqua, but he decides to call for more help and brings Vecna to the fight. We teleport him away and pacify a monastic lich to slow down the horde of summons. Ithaqua crushes our poor lich, but we have time to shoot him to critical. He starts to flee, we wait for him to turn back and finish him off. And his summons. Now we're standing in a sea of loot. We pick up some healings, quaff a couple potions of experience, and collect the following artifacts:

n) the Cloak 'Himogron' [1,+16] <+3, +4, +2>
     Dropped by Ithaqua the Windwalker at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +3 intelligence.
     +4 constitution.
     +2 stealth.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis.

Still didn't find a decent cloak (our current one doesn't help with anything at the moment), and this one won't help either.

p) the Set of Leather Gloves 'Soul Grip' [1,+19] <+4>
     Dropped by Ithaqua the Windwalker at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 wisdom.
     It causes your melee attacks to slay undead (powerfully).
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense undead.

The undead slaying gloves. We need the evil slaying ones... Note that if we equip them, we do 920 damage against undead with the Glaive of Pain. Impressive.

r) the Great Hammer of Falion (8d1) (+10,+18)
     Dropped by Ithaqua the Windwalker at 4700 feet (level 94).

     Slays evil creatures, animals, giants, demons (powerfully), dragons
     (powerfully), undead (powerfully).
     Branded with weak lightning.
     Provides immunity to lightning.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 232.8 vs. creatures not resistant to lightning,
     232.8 vs. evil creatures, 232.8 vs. animals, 268.8 vs. giants, 340.8 vs.
     demons, 340.8 vs. dragons, 340.8 vs. undead, and 196.8 vs. others.

Another neither good nor bad random weapon. We kill a knight templar and get this bow:

t) the Long Bow of Aglaur (x4) (+10,+19) <+4, +1>
     Dropped by a knight Templar at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 stealth.
     +1 shooting power.
     Provides resistance to fire, chaos.
     Provides protection from confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains constitution.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     When activated, it turns your skin to stone (a bonus of +40 to AC, and a
     penalty of -5 to speed) for 60+1d40 turns.
     Takes 147 to 162 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 89.3%

Extra power, but no extra shots... And Vecna is back. He resists lightning, so we switch to our second arrow. We bring him down to half health and he teleports away. We clear the summons, wait for him to come back and give him the ultimate death. And here's his drop:

p) the Dracolisk Scale Mail of Arosgalon (-2) [32,+31] <+1>
     Dropped by Vecna, the Emperor Lich at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +1 light.
     Provides immunity to fire.
     Provides resistance to poison, dark, nexus, chaos.

     When activated, it allows you to randomly breathe fire or nexus for 200
     points of damage.
     Takes 200 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 91.6%

Nice set of resistances. Next is Carcharoth. He can be shocked. We have to teleport him away once to destruct some hounds he summoned, but after finding him again, we finish him off. We get the following artifacts from him:

o) the Robe of Piety [2,+15] <+4>
     Dropped by Carcharoth, the Jaws of Thirst at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 intelligence.
     +4 wisdom.
     Provides resistance to fire, cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration.

A bit late for that...

r) the Iron Helm of Eardar [7,+36] <+5, +3, +1>
     Dropped by Carcharoth, the Jaws of Thirst at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +5 strength.
     +3 wisdom.
     +1 constitution.
     +3 searching skill.
     +3 speed.
     Provides resistance to dark.
     Provides protection from blindness.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Slows your metabolism.

Quite nice, but I'll stick with Numenor for the pStun. We kill a death knight and he drops a new staff (Mulberry staff of Holiness). We approach the first vault on the level and clear its outer rooms. We find a nice long bow of Lothlorien (x5), another ring of speed +13, and this staff:

t) the Quarterstaff of Ilost (2d11) (+14,+12)
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4700 feet (level 94).

     Slays evil creatures, giants, demons, undead (powerfully).
     Branded with weak poison.
     Provides resistance to chaos.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense undead.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.
     Grants the ability to sense giants.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 238.8 vs. creatures not resistant to poison, 238.8
     vs. evil creatures, 292 vs. giants, 292 vs. demons, 397.6 vs. undead, and
     186 vs. others.

The inner room of the vault contains Eol and Fundin... and a drolem. Fundin is not evil and resists lightning, so we nether bolt him to death. Eol is evil and living, so we simply cast Shadow Touch/Shield and melee him. Nothing useful inside the inner vault, but we get these from Fundin (Eol was not generous at all):

i) the Crystal Dragon Scale Mail of Laquenya (-2) [20,+23] <+4, +3, +5>
     Dropped by Fundin Bluecloak at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 intelligence.
     +3 constitution.
     +5 speed.
     Provides resistance to sound, shards.

     When aimed, it allows you to breathe shards for 150 points of damage.
     Takes 200 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 93.6%

Wow, this was made for a spellcaster. We're definitely gonna store that in our house, even if there's low chance it'll replace mana resistance for the big fights.

p) the Set of Alchemist's Gloves of Galmaedh (+10,+11) [0,+14] <+3>
     Dropped by Fundin Bluecloak at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +3 dexterity.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.

Supercharged gloves of slaying. Will make a good donation.

q) the Mage Staff of Aregrinin (1d1) (+0,+0) <+2, +1>
     Dropped by Fundin Bluecloak at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +2 strength.
     +1 intelligence.
     +2 searching skill.
     Provides immunity to cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.
     Grants telepathic awareness.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 84.

Ah mage staves... Pretty much useless except for sorcerors.

u) the Pick of the Elven Ranger <+2>
     Dropped by Fundin Bluecloak at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +2 strength.
     +2 intelligence.
     +2 searching skill.
     +2 tunneling.
     Sustains intelligence, wisdom.

At this point, we have dropped most of our supplies and basic spellbooks to pick up all the artifacts found on this level. There's a second lesser vault identical to the one we cleared, but we don't have room for more items. We'll just check if there's nothing new... We kill a dreadmaster that picked up a few items and identify a new scroll (of *Acquirement*, which brings forth a ring of speed +10 and some squelchable items). In the outer area, we also find a Muddy potion (of *Enlightenment*) and a Zirconium rod (of Healing). The inner room has Ungoliant (which we teleport away) and some vibration hounds. There's also an artifact inside, and at this point, we have to drop our CCWs to get this ring:

h) the Ring of Firmament of Erethlon <+4, +2, +3>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +4 strength.
     +2 wisdom.
     +3 dexterity.
     +4 speed.
     Provides immunity to lightning, cold.
     Provides resistance to sound, disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.
     Sustains intelligence, dexterity.
     Slows your metabolism. Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis.

     When activated, it attempts to magically enhance a weapon's to-dam bonus
     1 time(s).
     Takes 656 to 960 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 89.1%

Very nice. Our current ring of Fire gives us nether resistance and pConf, but if we can get those elsewhere, we can definitely use this one instead. Time to recall then. We clear our inventory and restock on everything we had to leave behind in the dungeon. We recall back to 4700ft on an unremarkable level. We kill some random stuff while going to the closest down stairs. And we get this random drop:

n) the Main Gauche of Haldal (1d5) (+12,+10) <+2, +3>
     Dropped by a young crystal drake at 4700 feet (level 94).

     +2 strength.
     +3 speed.
     Slays dragons (powerfully).
     Provides protection from stunning.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 187.6 vs. dragons, and 136 vs. others.

Our arkenstone has recharged and we go down to 4750ft. We spot an ainu pit, with Huan and Tiamat close. With Thranduil, we also detect Gothmog, Lungorthin and Polyphemus in the distance. And a strange room filled with high undead (Deep Crypt). Of course, one of the ainur immediately send us to the opposite side of the level, so our first targets will be Gothmog and Huan now. Both come to us at the same time, so we'll have to teleport the first one we see to deal with the other one. Huan it is. He resists lightning, so our arrow won't do much. We start with nether bolts, then switch to melee, while healing with drain life and shadow touch, until his sound and shard breaths bring us to critical health. We use a potion and resume hitting until he finally dies. Without dropping anything particuliar. Next is now Tiamat, since Gothmog hasn't returned yet, and she comes with a whole pack of wyrms. We start clearing the pack, but a great wyrm of many colours summons an ancient wyrm, and we have to move back to get rid of the problem. Also Tiamat is awake. She's also faster than her minions, so she comes first and we can fight her in melee in an antisummon corridor. Although we shielded ourselves and our AC is now 200, she still claws and bites us for 200-300 damage a round, so we have to use our precious healing potions. We get rid of her and her (non-ancient) wyrm escort, and collect our rewards:

n) the Cloak of Thingol [1,+18] <+3>
     Dropped by Tiamat, Celestial Dragon of Evil at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +3 dexterity.
     Provides resistance to acid, fire, cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis.

     When activated, it tries to recharge a wand or staff, destroying the wand
     or staff on failure.
     Takes 252 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 98.3%

Lame.

p) the Mage Staff 'Cobalt Focus' (1d1) (+0,+0) <+3>
     Dropped by a Great Wyrm of Many Colours at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +3 strength.
     +3 intelligence.
     Provides immunity to cold.
     Provides resistance to lightning, mana.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration. Grants the ability to see invisible things.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 84.

Here's your source of mana resistance if you're a pure spellcaster.

r) the Long Sword of Tirumbar (3d5) (+22,+14) <+2, +3, +4>
     Dropped by a great swamp wyrm at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 strength.
     +3 intelligence.
     +4 wisdom.
     +3 dexterity.
     +2 constitution.
     +3 stealth.
     Slays trolls, demons (powerfully), dragons (powerfully).
     Provides immunity to lightning.
     Provides resistance to poison, disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Sustains your life force.
     Blessed by the gods.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 264 vs. trolls, 344.4 vs. demons, 344.4 vs.
     dragons, and 183.2 vs. others.

Impressive... if you don't plan on using it for the damage. Also, while fighting all those wyrms, we reached:

Lvl: 48, HP: 945, SP: 377

The Deep Crypt simply has no items, so we destruct it along with all the undead inside. We open a chest... for a copy of Kelek's (*sigh*) and the shield of Gil-Galad!

o) the Mithril Shield of Gil-galad [16,+20] <+5, +1>
     Taken from a chest found at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +5 wisdom.
     +1 light.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, dark, disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Sustains wisdom, dexterity.

     When activated, it fires a line of light in all eight cardinal
     directions, inflicting 10d8 points of damage on creatures caught in one
     of the lines.
     Takes 350 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 92.5%

Getting our last spellbook from a chest would be awesome, but that's just a dream... We destroy more stuff we don't want to fight, mainly ancient wyrms, and get ready for our next target, Lungorthin. With our demon killing arrow, it doesn't take long before we have another dead unique on our list. We pick up a staff of banishment from one of the demons, and this weapon:

t) the Cutlass of Dalduren (1d8) (+10,+16) [+2] <+3, +5, +1>
     Dropped by Lungorthin, the Balrog of White Fire at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +3 wisdom.
     +5 constitution.
     +1 tunneling.
     Slays undead.
     Provides resistance to nether.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Slows your metabolism. Blessed by the gods.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 209.6 vs. undead, and 170.4 vs. others.

More crap to donate. We make our way towards the ainu pit again, only to see that Gothmog has been teleported next to the pit. As the first ainur start to make their move towards us, Gothmog surely follows. Soon he's back and we shoot him to death. We collect this bow from his corpse:

v) the Short Bow 'Tunglan' (x2) (+9,+26) <+4, +2>
     Dropped by Gothmog, the High Captain of Balrogs at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +4 dexterity.
     +2 shooting speed.
     Branded with weak lightning.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, disenchantment.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.

With the higher to-dam, this bow is as good as our current one vs non lightning resistant monsters, and even slightly better vs demons, but worse vs others due to the x2 multiplier (also meaning shorter range). Time to clear the ainu pit for consumables. And the first one we kill drops these gloves:

p) the Set of Gauntlets of Berchod (+8,+11) [3,+20] <+3>
     Dropped by a Maia at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +3 constitution.
     +3 tunneling.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains intelligence.
     Grants the ability to sense giants.
     Grants telepathic awareness.

     When aimed, it shoots a radius-2 frost ball that inflicts 48 points of
     damage at the centre, which your device skill increases by 61 percent.
     Takes 260 to 288 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 94.8%

More slaying gloves... The only problem with those ainur is the frequent teleporting away from the blue wizards. But they drop a lot of potions, and in no time we have a full stack of 40 potions of restore mana, as well as a larger stack of healing potions. One of their summons also drops this sword:

t) the Blade of Chaos of Aendronde (6d5) (+11,+11) <+3, +1>
     Dropped by a maulotaur at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +3 dexterity.
     +1 attack speed.
     Provides resistance to chaos.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants telepathy.

     Combat info:
     5.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 263.5.

Would have been great with slay evil and higher to-dam. At this point, the ainu pit is pretty much cleared, and while we chase the remaining ainur around, Polyphemus finally manages to catch up on us. We need to be careful, as we dropped our first spellbook to make room for that last artifact, so we don't have access to phase door anymore. And Polyphemus hits hard. Fortunately, he's also slower and moves a bit erratically, so we can keep a safe distance, just having to deal with his ice and water bolts. We eventually dies, and we have to drop two more spellbooks to pick up:

j) the Balance Dragon Scale Mail 'Mediator' (-2) [50,+25]
     Dropped by Polyphemus, the Blind Cyclops at 4750 feet (level 95).

     Provides resistance to sound, shards, nexus, chaos, disenchantment.
     Slows your metabolism. Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis.

     When activated, it shoots a radius-3 lightning ball that inflicts 150
     points of damage in all eight cardinal directions, which your device
     skill increases by 16 percent.
     Takes 165 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 88.4%

k) the Soft Leather Armour of Barnin [8,+11] <+1>
     Dropped by Polyphemus, the Blind Cyclops at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +1 stealth.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, poison, sound.
     Provides protection from fear, blindness, stunning.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains strength.

Both nice for protection and resists. We have to drop our CCWs again when a blue wizard drops another artifact:

j) the Full Plate Armour of Belkaist (-3) [62,+10] <+2>
     Dropped by a Blue Wizard at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 constitution.
     Provides resistance to cold, sound, chaos, disenchantment.
     Provides protection from stunning.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Makes you float just above the floor. Grants the ability to see invisible
     things.

     When activated, it attempts to put to sleep all monsters around you.
     Takes 208 to 230 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 94.3%

Makes you float just above the floor??? Asking our dungeon master what this is, it happens to be the power of levitation, which now replaces feather falling. Nice. Seconds later, another blue wizard drops Celebrimbor, and it's harder and harder to drop something to pick up these artifacts. Well the lone potion of *Healing* we carry has to go, I hope we won't miss it.

n) the Metal Cap of Celebrimbor [3,+18] <+2, +3>
     Dropped by a Blue Wizard at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 intelligence.
     +2 dexterity.
     +3 searching skill.
     Provides resistance to acid, fire, shards, disenchantment.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.

Last thing to check on the level is a minor vault, which we loot quickly to get a potion of experience. Then it's time to recall and sort out all the artifacts we picked up. And restock on stuff we dropped behind.

[PowerWyrm]

We recall back to 4750ft. We have a thunder dragon pit, a minor vault with Ungoliant inside, and a larger vault that could have goodies inside. Thranduil also reveals Pazuzu inside the larger vault. Since there are ancient wyrms inside the pit, it gets promptly destroyed. We kill a grand master thief and get a Gnarled staff (of the Magi). Not really useful now that we have over 40 potions of restore mana, the stack will probably last us for the rest of the game. We approach the large vault and enter it from the top, without noticing a mandragora in the corridor below us. And soon the shriek it makes wakes up everything in the vicinity, including of course everything in the vault. Fortunately, we have 11 rods of teleport other now. We'll have to be careful though, as there is a true believer in the vault, and he can easily disrupt our spells. We wait a bit, and he finds the way to us. Since he's far away in the corridor, we prompty tell him to go elsewhere so we can use our spells and clear the vault. Next in line is Pazuzu, and we make good use of our demon slaying arrow. He doesn't drop anything that isn't squelched though. The rest of the vault doesn't pose any problem, but except a few artifacts, we find nothing useful inside.

m) the Augmented Chain Mail of Caspanion (-2) [42,+20] <+2, +3>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 intelligence.
     +2 wisdom.
     +3 constitution.
     Provides resistance to acid, poison.
     Provides protection from confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.

     When activated, it destroys all doors around you.
     Takes 33 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 96.2%

p) the Lance 'Kemnor' (2d10) (+14,+21) <+4, +3>
     Conjured forth by magic at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +4 intelligence.
     +3 dexterity.
     Slays demons, dragons (powerfully), undead (powerfully).
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis. Sustains your life force.
     Grants the ability to sense undead.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 332.4 vs. demons, 435.2 vs. dragons, 435.2 vs.
     undead, and 229.6 vs. others.

Oh yes, there was a scroll of acquirement in the vault, and it gave that...

q) the Lucerne Hammer of Hirch (4d5) (+18,+19) [+1] <+2, +3, +1>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 intelligence.
     +3 dexterity.
     +1 constitution.
     +1 light.
     Slays dragons, undead, demons (powerfully).
     Provides resistance to acid, sound.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Slows your metabolism. Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants telepathy.

     When activated, it cures 60 points of damage, cures all stunning, heals
     all cut damage, neutralizes poison, and cures blindness, confusion and
     amnesia.
     Takes 240 to 267 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.3%

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 324.8 vs. dragons, 324.8 vs. undead, 431.6 vs.
     demons, and 218 vs. others.

r) the Maul of Carinath (6d4) (+13,+16) <+3, +4>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +3 strength.
     +4 speed.
     Provides immunity to fire.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 221.2.

More random weapons not better and not worse than anything this far. Really at this point the only thing we really look for is our last spellbook. Better cloak and gloves would not hurt, but the book is top priority, so we can switch from shooting to melee and get useful undead slaves. We go see what's inside the other vault, and since we're wounded after battling some wyrms, we teleport Ungoliant away. And after some more killing, we reach:

Lvl: 49, HP: 968, SP: 393

Just one more level to go! The vault is now cleared, and we have picked up more stuff.

p) the Katana 'Ranor' (3d5) (+11,+18) [+37]
     Dropped by a great storm wyrm at 4750 feet (level 95).

     Cannot be harmed by acid.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 199.2.

Wow, all power into supercharged AC. Not even a single ability...

q) the Dark Sword of Ivint (3d7) (+6,+12) <+2>
     Found lying on the floor of a special room at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 strength.
     It causes your melee attacks to slay evil creatures, demons (powerfully),
     dragons (powerfully), undead (powerfully).
     Provides resistance to lightning, fire, shards.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Sustains dexterity, constitution.
     Speeds regeneration. Blessed by the gods. Creates an anti-magic field.
     Grants the ability to sense evil.
     Grants the ability to sense dragons.

     Has a 50% chance of suppressing magic.
     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 236 vs. evil creatures, 391.6 vs. demons, 391.6 vs.
     dragons, 391.6 vs. undead, and 184 vs. others.

An unbeliever would do decent damage with this, but it's pointless to us. Since we have 12 potions of healing for this dive, we may as well try to remove Ungoliant from the list of living threats. She can be shocked, but instead we choose to buff ourselves and fight her in an antisummon corridor. Since she can also be stunned, we use ice storm here and there to lessen the melee damage while we strike with our sword. She tries to flee, but her path is blocked by some mountain ogres that wanted to see the fight. After all, we didn't even have to quaff a single healing potion during the fight, putting a vampiric brand and using drain life was enough to maintain our hps high enough. We pick up two more artifacts and recall.

o) the Steel Helm of Lorlach [9,+40] <+5, +2, +3>
     Dropped by Ungoliant, the Unlight at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +5 intelligence.
     +2 wisdom.
     +3 dexterity.
     Provides resistance to nether.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.

u) the Morning Star 'Arand' (2d6) (+26,+20) <+2, +4>
     Dropped by Ungoliant, the Unlight at 4750 feet (level 95).

     +2 intelligence.
     +4 wisdom.
     Provides resistance to acid, nether.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things. Prevents paralysis. Blessed
     by the gods.

     When activated, it enchants you with an aura of confusion that causes
     your next attack to confuse the target.
     Takes 208 to 230 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.4%

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 202.4.

More stuff to donate. As always, we clear our inventory and restock. While running around in town, we also kill someone who drops some Light Brown potions (of Poison) we never saw before. Back to 4750ft, we detect Baphomet, who shouldn't be a problem to kill. There's an ethereal dragon pit on the level, but as always at these depths we have to leave it alone. Baphomet actually puts up a good fight, but we shoot him to death. We collect nothing valuable from his corpse though. Finally, we can take some stairs down to 4800ft. No uniques on the level, and nothing really interesting. Time to go down again. We just kill a small pack of ethereal hounds for the experience and wait for our arkenstone to recharge. On 4850ft is Atlas and a couple gorth rooms, but again no vault or pit. This time, no horned reaper to save the big titan. Good old shoot and phase strategy, stopping a few times to heal from boulders with drain life, and we have one less unique to care of. We pick up a good sling from his corpse:

p) the Sling of the Halflings (x3) (+20,+25) <+3, +1>
     Dropped by Atlas, the Titan at 4850 feet (level 97).

     +3 dexterity.
     +3 stealth.
     +1 shooting speed.
     +1 shooting power.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains dexterity.
     Speeds regeneration. Grants the ability to see invisible things.
     Grants the ability to sense animals.

Still having those artifact shots and pebbles, we check the damage we could make with that sling. It is similar per shot to our bow, but we have only two shots per round with the sling instead of three. We clear a pack of nether hounds, again for the experience, and finally take the stairs to 4900ft. This is as deep as we can dive before the endgame. No uniques, but the level looks promising, with a big vault in the middle. No enlightenment potion or mass banishment yet, but we have our trusty bow and stack of teleport other rods. We start to clear the vault, getting the Balli Stonehand axe as first reward, when suddenly some demons and dragons are summoned around us. It's the Emperor Quylthulg calling for help. We dispatch (or teleport away) the annoying Ds and Us and attempt to wipe Mr Q from a corner with our ice storm spell. After a lot of castings and mana restoring, we hear a scream of agony. We pick up the seeker arrow of Gondor and some mithril arrows of slay evil, which could be useful against lightning resistant evil monsters. We clear the vault thoroughly, find some more spellbooks, but still no book 6. More artifacts to donate:

b) the Seeker Arrow of Gondor (4d4) (+10,+0)
     Dropped by a troll chieftain at 4900 feet (level 98).

     Slays evil creatures.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Returns when thrown.

     Combat info:
     3 shots/round.
     Hits targets up to 120 feet away.
     Average damage/round: 457.5 vs. evil creatures, and 274.5 vs. others.

Nice, but no to-dam at all. We can slay undead, demons and dragons with our artifact missiles, so for regular evil critters, we'll simply use ego slay evil arrows.

p) the Iron Helm 'Holhenneth' [7,+10] <+2>
     Dropped by a water troll at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +2 intelligence.
     +2 wisdom.
     +2 searching skill.
     Provides protection from blindness, confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.

     When activated, it detects all treasure, objects and monsters in the
     immediate area, and maps out a small portion of the level around you.
     Takes 196 to 385 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 97.4%

q) the Battle Axe of Balli Stonehand (3d8) (+8,+11) [+5] <+3, +1>
     Dropped by a shade at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +3 strength.
     +3 constitution.
     +1 stealth.
     Slays orcs, trolls, demons.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold.
     Provides protection from blindness.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Makes you float just above the floor. Speeds regeneration. Grants the
     ability to see invisible things. Prevents paralysis.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 310.8 vs. orcs, 310.8 vs. trolls, 310.8 vs. demons,
     and 190 vs. others.

We recall to clear some inventory space, and resume the hunt for our last spellbook. We recall back on a vaultless level, which contains a graveyard and an ainu pit. Many blue wizards inside the ainu pit, which means clearing the graveyard first. We get sent away by a crypt thing, which makes us discover that Kronos has spawned on the level. Since he's next to the ainu pit, he'll have to wait a bit. We pacify a nightcrawler to slow the other undead while we shoot them. We clear the pit except for the drujs and a few nightwalkers that we have to teleport away. Unfortunately, we can't kill the drujs without having to enter the pit, which means being in sight of five of them. If we want to check the loot, we'll have to use a scroll of mass banishment we got from one of the undead. And the scroll is wasted, as there is nothing of value remaining inside. Except that we find this just outside of the pit:

u) the Lance 'Stormspire' (3d10) (+20,+30) <+1>
     Dropped by a dreadlord at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +1 constitution.
     +1 attack speed.
     Slays evil creatures, animals, orcs, trolls, demons (powerfully), undead
     (powerfully).
     Branded with lightning.
     Provides immunity to lightning.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense undead.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.

     Combat info:
     This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
     5.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 571.5 vs. creatures not resistant to lightning,
     473.5 vs. evil creatures, 473.5 vs. animals, 571.5 vs. orcs, 571.5 vs.
     trolls, 767 vs. demons, 767 vs. undead, and 376 vs. others.

This is clearly our best weapon by far, and we equip it at once. We lose a bit of speed, but we now have all four immunities. We lure Kronos away from the ainu pit. He resists lightning, so we'll use some arrows of slay evil on him. We must avoid his deadly melee attack, as we don't have scrolls to lay down protective glyphs. We get an interesting fight when he starts breathing shards and sound, and summons a few titan friends. We heal the damage and teleport away the nastier titans, and soon Kronos also flees away. We rest until he comes back and finish him off. We collect the following artifacts:

m) the Bar Chain Mail of White Ore (-2) [45,+15] <+3>
     Dropped by Kronos, Lord of the Titans at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +3 intelligence.
     Provides immunity to cold.
     Provides resistance to nexus.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Sustains dexterity.

o) the Battle Axe of Dain Ironfoot (4d8) (+18,+25) <+4>
     Dropped by Kronos, Lord of the Titans at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +4 strength.
     +4 constitution.
     Slays orcs, trolls.
     Branded with fire.
     Provides immunity to fire.
     Provides resistance to light, dark.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains strength, constitution.
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense orcs.
     Grants the ability to sense trolls.

     Combat info:
     4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 441.6 vs. creatures not resistant to fire, 688.8
     vs. creatures susceptible to fire, 441.6 vs. orcs, 441.6 vs. trolls, and
     277.2 vs. others.

We start clearing the ainu pit, and one of the ainur drops a scroll of *acquirement* that gives us two more artifacts, and even a third artifact himself.

n) the Metal Scale Mail of Turind (-2) [38,+20] <+2, +3, +4>
     Conjured forth by magic at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +2 strength.
     +3 intelligence.
     +4 wisdom.
     +4 dexterity.
     +2 constitution.
     +3 stealth.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, light, dark, sound,
     nexus.
     Provides protection from blindness.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Prevents paralysis.

     When activated, it restores 500 mana points.
     Takes 262 to 320 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 95.0%

Good AC, big stat boosts, nice set of resists, and a great activation. Definitely will store that in our house. We must remember that killing Morgoth will strip us of all our true artifacts, so we will need replacements for them.

p) the Leather Scale Mail of Naromir (-1) [20,+8]
     Conjured forth by magic at 4900 feet (level 98).

     Provides resistance to lightning, poison, nether, chaos.
     Provides protection from confusion.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Sustains intelligence, wisdom.
     Prevents paralysis.
     Grants the ability to sense demons.

The randart counterpart to Himring.

r) the Set of Elven Gloves of Amirya (+7,+5) [1,+19] <+1>
     Dropped by a Maia at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +1 wisdom.
     Provides immunity to fire.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
     Speeds regeneration. Prevents paralysis.

More melee gloves. We storm (literally) the pit with Shadow Touch and our Stormspire lance, but we have to come back frequently, as the blue wizards keep teleporting us around. We watch our experience increase slowly, and finally we reach:

*** Lvl: 50, HP: 982, SP: 401 ***

The pit is finally cleared, and we recall to donate all the artifacts we won't need. Back inside the dungeon, we find the Cat Lord and process to kill him. The only thing he drops is this crap sword:

m) the Bastard Sword of Honamar (3d4) (+8,+17) <+2, +5, +4>
     Dropped by The Cat Lord at 4900 feet (level 98).

     +2 constitution.
     +5 searching skill.
     +2 infravision.
     +4 speed.
     Provides resistance to cold, poison, dark.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.

     Combat info:
     3.5 blows/round.
     With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
     Average damage/round: 168.5.

At this point, we don't care about experience, so the only things left to do are find that damn last spellbook and clear the unique list. Seems that only Omarax and Ancalagon are left, if we don't count uniques on the surface (like Farmer Maggot... we'll get them eventually) and the Icky Queen. We decide to go down to 4950ft and stairscum from there to generate the last uniques, or a juicy vault. After all, we just need to avoid Sauron for now, though I'm sure we could take are of him with our new lance. We get an Engraved Gold rod (of Restoration), and this helm:

q) the Iron Helm of Tuleb [7,+22] <+2, +3, +5>
     Dropped by a hezrou at 4950 feet (level 99).

     +2 intelligence.
     +3 wisdom.
     +5 dexterity.
     +3 constitution.
     Provides protection from blindness.
     Cannot be harmed by acid.
     Grants the ability to see invisible things.

After a few tries, we generate a vault at 4950ft with Omarax inside. First thing we pick up in the vault is this ring:

r) the Ring 'Haetham' <+4, +3, +2, +5>
     Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4950 feet (level 99).

     +4 strength.
     +4 intelligence.
     +3 wisdom.
     +2 dexterity.
     +3 constitution.
     +3 searching skill.
     +5 infravision.
     It causes your melee attacks to slay trolls, dragons.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, shards, nether,
     disenchantment.
     Provides protection from fear.
     Cannot be harmed by lightning.
     Sustains strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity.
     Prevents paralysis. Aggravates nearby creatures.

     When activated, it completely lights up and magically maps the current
     level, sensing all objects.
     Takes 702 to 1029 turns to recharge at your current speed.
     Your chance of success is 95.1%

Oh my... that's an insane ring. Too powerful, so it had to aggravate. We lure Omarax outside the vault and kill him. We go back inside and clear the rest of the vault, but we don't get anything special except a few consumables. We recall, clear our inventory, decide to take a day off from diving, and go back to Hobbiton.

[PowerWyrm]

Interlude -- Hobbiton

Back where we started... We are hit with nostalgia, as we recall to Hobbiton. We cannot enjoy our stay for long, as we are quickly harassed by a troubled hobbit.

"Farmer Maggot mumbles something about mushrooms. Farmer Maggot wants his mushrooms back".
Okay, but I didn't see any mushrooms of stupidity in a long time.

"Farmer Maggot tells you to get off his land."
Sorry, you didn't pay your taxes last year, so this land now belongs to the government.

"Farmer Maggot looks for his dogs. Farmer Maggot asks if you have seen his dogs."
Do the three canine skeletons in my inventory count?

"Farmer Maggot says 'Did you kill my Fang?'"
Nope, it must have been someone else's dogs.

"Farmer Maggot seems sad about something."
Lemme put you out of your misery, friend.

And as we deliver a tremendous blow with our lance, the poor hobbit is relieved from his trouble. He was carrying a spear of slay troll for whatever reason... While we're at it, we go to the Brandywine Bridge and get rid of the Sackville-Baggins family. We spend the rest of the day wandering around in the Shire, and when the sun sets we recall back to our house in Carn Dum, as another day will wait for us in Angband.