One of those games :)

[Grotug]

So, per Derakon's advice, I'm playing a human warrior. So far it's going very well. Had an interesting 9-9 level recently (DL19). There was an animal pit with nothing in it but a ?remove curse. Then, lying on the floor somewhere else, unprotected, was a rod of speed.

And since I'm fascinated with how level feelings are generated, I'd like to conduct a little guessing game: tell me what treasure feeling you think the following items generated for me in my current game:

DL11 Rod of detection
DL12 ?Mass Banishment
DL15 Ribbed Plate Armor [66,+0]
DL29 Rod of TO

(pretty darn good start!)

[Pete Mack]

With TO and detection, you're well on the way to winning the game. Speed is just gravy.

[Grotug]

This has been the game of 30+ enchantments and extra attacks. Found an X4 bow with (+34); I'd say "too bad I'm not playing a ranger", but I'm doing 928 of acid and elec and 808 to evil and 689 to others with my (+33) Halberd (before buffs). Besides, my heavy X6 xbow (+23) is doing up to 444 per bolt to Sauron. And in case that wasn't enough damage, my helmet activates for ?Holy Prayer and I'm carrying with me !Berserk potions because the healing house isn't stocking enough !CCW (which I have wasted unwisely on foolish fights).

My con is only 790 but It'll probably be up to 900 with stat potions before I meet Sauron. And my weapon swap does a respectable 1400+ a round to undead and demons. I took down Kronos without pConf which was a little foolhardy and I didn't have enough con when taking down Atlas, who nearly killed me. I think he can crush for over 500HP, but in our fight I think he "only" did 400 per round at times.

I don't think I'd be doing as much damage as an HT Warrior since my DEX would not be high enough to reach 8.8 blows. The human warrior combo is pretty good. Been gaining levels very quickly. Maybe I'll remember to take note of how many turns it takes me to kill Sauron and M as it probably won't be too many.

ninja edit: already at 958 hp thanks to 3 !augmentations. Still 9 levels to go. ..and another Augmentation brings con to max last (after wis) and just flew from CL48 to CL50. 1027hp will be more than enough with this sort of dam output (still 9 levels to go, Carcharoth is next!).

Ooohh... DL93, no books in sight (!Enlightened level) and treasure feeling 9. What could it be??? There are no unknown rings. Ahh, found it; the ol' pdsm; not in the greater vault, but in a much smaller non permawall 'vault'.

Well, nice armor and all, but I need the <+3> STR, CON that my current one provides, so this nice piece of kit will probably remain where I found it.

Sometimes hairbrained plans work out incredibly well: I left a dragon slayer on one side of the level (almost 1400 to dragons) since there's only so many weapons a warrior can bother carrying around. On the other side of the level I met the Father of Dragons and sent him away. I then remembered I left the dragon slayer on the other side of the level so I dropped my ?Recalls to make room for it and ventured cross town to see if I could grab the weapon and slay the dragon. As I approach where I figure Glaurung will be I come across a pink Q down a hallway. 'I hope he doesn't teleport me away' I think to myself as I run on by.

Sure enough, I 'see' the dragon coming down a diagonal passageway I made to get into the greater vault and so I stopped to see where I put the weapon. I scan the list of items. Oh, look, it's right there one square in front of me. How convenient. So I fired some bolts at Glaurung (my weakest bolts do serious damage) and then pummeled him into dragon juice. Now.. how to get back to my ?Recalls? I think I'll walk down the passageway with the Nexus Q in it. Thank you kind sir, right back to the small vault where I left my scrolls.

It's not like anything can hurt me anymore, so I wasn't too worried about being teleported to danger. The list of dangerous Uniques is growing thin anyway (Radagast was the only one I let live).

[Sky]

DL11 Rod of detection lf:7
DL12 ?Mass Banishment lf:8
DL15 Ribbed Plate Armor [66,+0] lf:9
DL29 Rod of TO lf:6

(pretty darn good start!)

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

[Grotug]

Thanks for playing Sky.

DL11 LF was 6 for rod of detection
DL12 LF was 6 for ?Mass Banishment
DL15 LF was 7 for average Ribbed Plate armor
DL29 LF was 5 for rod of TO.

I agree, I would have thought all would have been higher (except for maybe the armor; 7 seems about right). That armor sure was handy early on haha.

Well, I won, but it was not a pretty victory. I messed up losing the +3 CON weapon I had that did nearly as good damage as my non-con one I ended up using. I had to sacrifice CON to get my base speed to 20 and ended up fighting Morgoth with 900 health, which is not very good as a warrior. He was summoning and blasting me every turn and I was quickly going through all my !CCW and !*healings. I only had one !healing to start the fight with, but I had 12 !*healing and 3 !Life and had been collecting mushrooms of emergency, which I had 8 of. They have the side benefit of rCold which was nice when Morgoth decided it'd be fun to have Huan join the party.

Seems every randart game I play I get immunity to fire.

I was becoming weary of the losing battle, summon, crush, mana, rinse repeat, so I TO'd Morgoth away and decided to take on Huan while I had the rCold, which was a dumb idea, as he just stripped me even more of my potions. He dropped me garbage loot to boot. Arien was there too but he didn't drop anything either. Morgoth came back and I realized I was gonna have to let my health drop below 600 if I was gonna have enough potions to finish the fight, but very strangely he stopped summoning, except at the very end with one purple * when he summoned one last time, which I ignored and finished him off. He also started doing less damage after I killed Huan. I was already level 50 when I entered the level, so I dunno, I guess he blew his load in the first half of the fight and didn't have much left.

[Grotug]

Well, it's been awhile since I got an OOD artifact drop. I misclicked on a trap door (was meaning to drop into it but disabled it) and then I stumbled upon Nar the dwarf who took me to 1 health (I ?phased and dropped to and I was poisoned for almost the entire fight). This was on level 18. He nearly killed me again, but my lightning branded dagger finally had him fleeing. He dropped the Zweihander Aelmarod (5d6) (+10, +11) Branded with acid, slays dragons (powerfully) and provides regeneration and protection from confusion. All last game I didn't have pConf. I'm playing half-orc warrior this time, not so much for the native rDark but for the good stats relative to the low exp cost. I start out with 4 blows per round! Looking for more "hmm!"s from my @ as more is discovered about this fine early find.

Just found a ring of the mouse (0, -5) which brings damage up slightly (especially for the slays). To acid is already over 100 now.

Couple early stat potions (2 STR, 1 DEX) brings me up to 227 vs non-acid-resisters, undead, 354 to dragons, and 100 to others; that's with a ring of dex <+2> and a ring of the mouse <+3>. Not bad for CL29 on DL34. Wand of TO and cap of seeing in the stores also super nice finds. Forgoing the ring of poison in the store, though, since I hate rPois in the ring slot. If it isn't a drolem that will get me, it will be a greater basilisk, though.

And now for another round of 'guess the Level Feeling for the following items' game:

DL24, a Staff of Speed, 7 charges
DL31, Heavy Xbow of Might (X5) (+11, +13).

I'll give a hint, both levels had the same LF.

This run keeps getting better and better: Lokkak dropped a cursed telepathy cap that has rNether but the curse doesn't seem to do anything; it says it makes it hard to hit anything but I'm hitting stuff just fine. He also dropped Caestus with <+2> STR and I just found a <+5> Dex ring to replace the ring of the mouse. A <+3> STR ring replaces the other <+2> Dex ring. Now we are doing a handsome 332 to non rAcid, Undead, Trolls, orcs and 486 to dragons. Talk about rapid gains of power! And I keep picking up ID scrolls, which I'm usually in short supply of. And this level has two vaults; the first one didn't have any improvements in gear. We'll see what the other one holds in store....

Well this is a cool vault. I'm not sure I've seen this one before. It's circular with a *bunch* of money veins in it, and some treasures as well.

[Sky]

hm.. i would guess, lf: 5 ?

[Grotug]

correct answer is 4.

How about this beauty lying about on DL38:

Long Bow of Arnuinar <X5> (+8, +14)
Branded with Poison
Provides Immunity to Fire
rLightn, rAcid, rCold, rNexus, rDisench
Sustains CON
Disables traps, unlocks doors and reveals all secret doors in a given direction
Takes 136 to 151 turns to recharge at +14 speed.

This run is really quite something. DL37 saw a 10d4 Scythe of Slicing (which I didn't take) two rings of speed <+6>, <+7> and an amulet of acid immunity with <+2> speed. On DL37 I took from a chest artifact boots <+6> <+3> boots (speed, stealth). So, yeah.. it's my game to throw away.

Or on DL39 book of Holy Infusions?

I finally read the ?DD I've been holding onto and on DL54 Smaug drops a Cutlass 8d8 (+15, +15) that does 1300 to dragons and undead and a pair of <+11> speed, <+5> Stealth, <+1> STR sandals.

[Grotug]

Well, this has been an interesting game. No TO. I'm now on DL52, have raided several small vaults. Had to lure out an ethereal dragon at one point with activated boots of speed and ring of escaping for +14 temporary speed. It's very rare I gain power without TO. I have found some good artifacts despite not being able to TO dangerous things away. I'm doing 645 to demons and undead and 365 to evil among other slays.

At one point I was bopping all over a map with a hydra pit on it. I tried to lure a Death drake out of a small vault but I kept running into the Hydras so I ended up running around stone to mudding into the cubbies (it was a vault with 8 or 10 cubbies that you could move around in a smallish room) with the Death Drake right behind me. Fortunately I have been finding good enough artifacts and a helm of telepathy that I am able to somehow survive without TO. It was fun grabbing the boots of elvenkind and the the green dragon armor and hitting the downstairs before anything breathed on me.

In one vault I actually took on a great wyrm of thunder with a previous weapon that did 500 to dragons. I had 404HP and rSound at the time and +18 temporary speed, so....

EDIT: Note to self: EĂśl the Elf (DL49, 2400hp, very quick) is much easier than Gorlim the Betrayer of Barahir (DL41, 1600hp, quick). Do not let speed, health or native depth fool you! Phew, he is one nasty piece of work! I have heard tell of how dangerous he is, and always avoid him until I am very powerful, but since I had just wasted EĂśl without much trouble, I figured he'd be about on par with him, but, no, he is much more devastating. I wonder who he is on par with... Ar-Pharazon, who has 3X the hitpoints and is DL55?

EDIT: picked up a 'Ring of the Warrior' in a small vault on DL 55 (which is good, since I'm playing a warrior!)

The ring 'Boron' (+1, +2) <+3> <+5> <+1>

<+3> Strength
<+5> Dexterity
<+3> Searching Skill
<+1> Infravision
<+1> Attack Speed

Causes your melee attacks to slay Undead, Giants, Trolls
Provides rAcid, rLight, rDark, rSound, rShards, rNether, rDisenchantment

Speeds Regeneration
FrAct, SI

Fires electricity balls in all directions, each one dealing 150 damage. Takes about 300 turns to recharge at +8 speed.

Aaand I'm doing 574 to others on DL55. Guess it's time to read a ?DD or two.

EDIT: And I died to a room full of drujes. how dumb. All I needed to do was walk around the other way or strategically drill a hole in the granite.

Now I am trying to get a dwarven priest to survive beyond DL2, but I keep dying to soldiers.

EDIT:

What a strange game. For my Dwarf Priest I put all my stats on WIS except for 8 STR, but priest books so far don't have any damage spells save one, which is only good against evil. So I found a light xbow of accuracy (+15, +14) and am using a ring of accuracy (+16, 0) instead of a ring of damage (0, +9) because what's the point of bringing my melee from 19 to 28 when I do 53 with average bolts.

But I can't remember orange army ants ever being an issue in any game. I nearly just died from a pack of them and I was in a hallway. Very, very strange. 82 AC so I'm not sure why army ants are killing me? I guess because I normally would be meleeing them with one blow, and for the first time they survive my pitiful melee attacks.

I did quaff a pot of STR and am wearing a STR <+2> ring, but this brings me up to a whopping 1.1 blows per round with a blessed spear. I guess for now I will just try to pick my fights, ie, evil creatures. I did take down a 5 headed hydra, though; that felt good.

I probably should have put more points to DEX at the start, but hopefully I'll be able to make this work. Need to find a decent artifact.

[Grotug]

Well, I don't have the patience for weak classes so it's back to my favorite HT Warrior combo.

Quick question. What do you think the feeling level is for a ring of speed <+12> lying on the floor on DL30? Just curious what you all think. I'm pretty sure every single person who guesses will be wrong. How much does a ring of speed <+12> sell for anyway?

I really think the code for valuation of speed needs to be looked at. Remember the feeling for <+9> <+4> boots on an early DL30 level was? LF6. And this ring here? Go on guess, 7? 8? Should it be 9? What if I told you it was 3? Surely I jest?



I suppose there is a chance the RoS is a ring mimic.

[Pete Mack]

It's almost certainly a mimic. Ring of Speed significantly out of depth is usually a level 8 or 9 event.

[Grotug]

Ay it was. I think I am going to do an DAR for this @ like Sky's since I expect to win sans any foolhardy moves. I'll start where I am now, which is a well equipped Myrmidon Half Troll warrior on DL34, and add a little history up to this point. I am playing Vanilla 4.1.2. I am playing with forced descent, randarts, no equipment at start, no selling, and disconnected stairs. I've named my @ Strogg. At the start I added +6 to CON, +6 to DEX and +8 to STR.

Nothing much of note through DL32, other than finding a short bow of extra might (X3) (+11, +16) on DL11 and Orfax dropping Arkenstone on DL25, with no useful abilities <+3 INT>. Oh, and a blue orc unique (I believe) dropped me a {cursed} cap of seeing in the DLteens that was too high to break with a remove curse scroll (50 I believe), so I endured brief periodic poisoning and longer periodic episodes of hallucination. On DL29 an Illusionist dropped me a non cursed cap of seeing <+5>.

I was banging around with a +5 frost whip and a +7 slay giant main gauche for awhile. Found some brawn and nimbleness potions that brought me to 3.8 blows. Found a (+3, +3) [-18] reckless attack ring quite late and then shortly after replaced it with a ring of damage (+8) to go from 65-80 to 85-100. Even so, I nearly died to the orange army ants again on DL30! Brought down to 25 health. Too dangerous to ?phase so I try !CSW and I'm right back to 25 health again. I try a !CCW and again I'm right back to 25 health again. I quaff !CCW again and I'm at 35 health. I deliberate for a bit, and then decide to ?phase (_Teleport has like 15% chance to fail). Fortunately I don't ?phase next to anything and can self _Teleport away to a safe place.

I love it when I find straight upgrades. I was wearing a <+2> Infra amulet that got upgraded to a <+2> Infra amulet of Fire immunity, rAcid, rCold [+26] (on DL33).

I just bought a rod of TO in the BM (second time in recent games I found one early on) and was glad I took the time to take down some 4 and 5 headed hydras so I could afford it (I didn't know it was in the store, and saw it after ?recalling from killing the hydras). A Grey Wraith dropped a mace of Telepathy on DL33 as well, so DL33 and DL34 were quite good to me.

So basically I've gained a lot of power very quickly after being a bit weak and ineffective even for a warrior for 30 dungeon levels.

I am now on DL 34 and am CL28 with 381 HP and just found a {splendid} dagger (2d4) (+10, +12) <+2> Wisdom (??) that sustains STR lying on the floor at 1700'. I'm getting 4.1 blows a round with it and it does 178 to Undead, 157 to Evil, and 135 to others (5-5 level).

I also just bought a ring of strength <+4> when I bought the rod of TO and passed up a ring of poison in the BM (quite a lot of useful things to buy!) as I could not afford both rings and preferred the strength to rPois. I could have afforded a Ring of Strength <+3> that was also in the BM and the ring of Poison but what's the point if I'm not gonna wear the ring of poison anyway. I'd rather risk the Drolem and the Greater Basilisk soon than pass up the damage increase from <+4> STR. At some point I also bought a ?Mass Banishment. Just one of those games....

Periodically I'll give updates to my stats. Right now they are:

Self: STR 18, INT: 11 WIS: 10, DEX: 18, CON: 16.
Best: STR 18/110, INT: 8, WIS: 8, DEX: 18/20, CON:18/30

Welp, I'm near the stairs so let's see what DL35 brings us. It's a cave level (4-6). I take a few steps south and take out some Barrow Wights and make easy work of the confuser brothers, one right after the other. They drop some handy FrAct (which I already have) boots of stealth <+2> and speed <+6> which replace unID'd boots of stability and a pendant of <+1> STR <+4> CON/INT rFire, rCold, rLightning, which I will keep at home and probably never use. I drop 4 mushrooms of Fast Recovery to make room for the pendant. They also drop me <+4> DEX, pBlind helmet which I will replace the seeing cap with since my dagger gives me SI. And one of those Barrow Wights dropped two !DEX! Quite the haul and increase in power for such little work! That brings my DEX to 18/112 and my BPR: 5.2 and dam 172 to 227. I'll ID the (??) on the new equipment when I get back from ski racing which I have to go to now.

Back from Ski racing, I decide to take the cap of seeing <+5> for the home, but I don't have space and kinda want to keep my Lembas wafers in for poisoning (though I have a rod of curing). I guess I'll leave it here and _TS to it after I've found the 6 feeling object (probably a book).

I quickly explore the level, having a major leg up with the newfound DPR and speed and and quaff a !nimbleness that makes me feel stupid and brings my dam range up to the range from 181 to 239. I find ?Ethereal Openings, but finish exploring the cavern as there's only a few more items. I find the Elfstone of Anarad and decide to ID it. I got poisoned on my way (but not from a clutch of green dragons that I made short order of) so my other new gear does not have rPois. The pendant IDs for rPois, and still has ??. I have three more ID scrolls but I don't feel there is any need to ID right now so I will wait a bit before using them. Now I have a dilemma between fire immunity and rPois. I feel at this depth, 1750', that rPois is more important than fire immunity, and drop the 5 lembas wafers and don the new Elfstone (??). The Elfstone has [+30] and pBlind. There are 4 unID'd scrolls which are safe to read now. I'm not too bothered if I lose the cap of seeing and a stack of 4 scrolls are unlikely to be a level ending event. They are ?recharging. I don't need them. I _TS and back at the cap of seeing. Time to drop some stuff at home. In order to pick up the cap of seeing (in case I'll need it later) I drop my ring of escaping, whose value is greatly diminished by a rod of TO. I could have dropped the two remaining ?Recalls, but $$ is still a scarce commodity.

The stores don't have much, but I buy a second rod of curing. In addition to the new pendants I drop castus of slaying I had picked up but had replaced with <+4> dexterity gloves of rAcid, rFire that also provide <+3> Tunneling, also given to me on DL34 from a snaga.

Back to the dungeon; typical maze layout. There are some Ogres nearby that I will slaughter for fun, and then _TS to a far corner of the map where there is a room with several items. I have kept the fire immunity amulet as a swap @3.

Instead I teleport near down stairs, read an unID scroll of protection from evil and out of boredom take the stairs before investigating the room with potential loot. I am suddenly too powerful for my depth and need more challenge.

Arkenstone reveals a small diagonal special room very close by. Castamir the Usurper is here, but chronicling my journey is changing my mentality toward play. Normally I am more reckless, wanting to take on every challenge, but now that I have an audience, I feel more compelled towards prudence rather than brashly rushing into battle. I probably will take on the Ancient Red Dragon, though, since I have fire immunity "swap. This is a 7-6 level.

Lokkak is also here, and KhĂŽm, son of MĂŽm and a Silent Watcher, so I will ?ID in hopes of revealing that I have rDisenchant. I decide to ID first the iron crown, which IDs for ... rDisenchant. It is fully ID'd so now it's onto the new Elfstone which IDs for rNexus and rDark, but not rChaos which is what I was hoping for. Xaren shows up out of nowhere and soon he is fleeing, hopefully not destroying anything. The Silent Watcher is first dangerous entity I encounter so I TO it. I don't bother backpedaling to recharge the rod, but instead enter the vault, but notice two unID'd potions just outside the vault, so I backpedal to them, and find that they are !healing. I now have Khim, a colbran and an elven priest upon me. ?Phasing is kind of boring move, but probably the correct one. ?Phase places me strategically at the top of a nearby vertical corridor just above the upper right quadrant of the vault. I open a door to my right and am in strategic hockey stick position for the suckers. The Colbran comes first and I decide to whack away at it at the risk of losing my Rod of TO. Often times the very first lightning strike from Colbrans and Storm Giants destroy an item of TO, but I am feeling lucky with all the loot I've been finding so I have a go at him rather than Teleporting away or phasing away until my rod recharges (quite a boring response to the danger). I shoot my best arrow (+5, +8) to start the engagement and the Colbran strikes me with electricity 5 times before falling after 3 or 4 quick rounds of combat. Some other lesser nobodies die by arrows before Khim shows up for his swift undoing. He puts up considerably less of a fuss than the Colbran. My rod of TO recharges just as traps are appearing all around me. Castamir the Usurper comes into view, but upon inspecting his abilities, I think twice about TOing him. I want to know what he's picked up. I don't think this is going to be a very dangerous fight, but I might lose a precious !healing. I have 3 !speeds and two !speeds at home. It will make the battle boring if I quaff the speed, but is probably the prudent thing to do in the event there is something dangerous that Telepathy or _Detect Evil will not reveal (such as a Drolem). But I'm not going to hasten myself, as given my luck I'll prolly get teleported away by a Nexus Q or something, rending my !speed wasted. I'll take my chances; much more exciting.

I shoot my best arrow, he casts a bolt of frost. I shoot another arrow that misses, he cackles evily about traps. Two bolts of fire he casts. As minor things in my inventory burn up, I begin to worry about my ?Mass Banishment. I'm saving it for something truly scary (Hopefully I'll get to ?DD soon). I dunno that I want to give up rPois for fire immunity, though, as my luck would have a Drolem show up just as I do. Instead, I am considering to ?phase, in hopes that we can re-engage in melee. Having moved down the corridor, there are now traps between me and him, so I cannot move towards him to melee. My ?phase is excellent, in the horizontal corridor that attaches to the top of the vertical corridor I was just in. Right after ?phasing I misclick '1' wielding my mace of Telepathy. This turns out to be a good move, as I can now see Castamir approach. I often misclick when I'm a little nervous about a situation. It's a very annoying habit of mine. >.<

I back up around a corner for a new hockey stick vantage point on Castamir. Now that I've got him to engage me in melee, he no longer casts bolts of anything, as I hoped, and cackles once or twice about traps during my quick dispatching of him. Thumping sounds as &s surround me. All junk, but I read two ?Holy Chants he dropped and reposition myself for a mature dragon that will be easy and safe, even without "swapping for fire immunity. There are 4 wrinkled mushrooms that might be second sight, but without rChaos, I am not willing to risk eating them. I smite the dragon and his attacks are ineffectual and mine are not. More pathetic nobodies and then the big red D appears.

I'm in good position will "swap for fire immunity as soon as I'm in position. I step back one square. Oddly, I trigger a summoning trap, even though I was just on that square and no trap was triggered. I now cannot step backward as there is a blue ant blocking my way. I guess I will ?phase. I still need to "swap. Once again, perfect ?phase, as I am shot 10 squares north, at the bottom of another vertical passageway. I'll "swap and wait mine fate. Soon he is upon me. His jaws find purchase, but my dagger glows as many blows pierce his hide. He rends 40% of my health before he falling before me. He drops no items, but some money. I do not bother healing or resting, and immediately march back toward the vault entrance. A stone troll falls so easily, I decide to step inside the vault, rather than wait outside strategically hockey stick positioning things that come out. A DL45 Demonic Q summons a bodak. I guess I should TO the Q. Though I see no poisoners and the bodak means to destroy more than ?Phase Doors and arrows no doubt, I do not "swap, but instead back up for position as I can kill the bodak quickly. He dies in two quick rounds and does not even get a turn against me. There is a Dwarven armor [38, +26] <+1> CON <+2> STR which is pretty sweet for its healthy enchantments. I ignore a lantern of True Sight.

I id three wands, two are cold balls, and one is TO. I decide I'll discharge the cold balls on some more ineffectual humans, then change my mind, deciding to save it for Lokkak whose nearby location is shown to me through my mace of telepathy (TeleMace) which is now doing decent damage in its own right, 142. At the bottom of a corridor Lokkak takes balls of frost. He is almost at half health when I start thrusting my dagger into him and he only takes 22% of my hitpoints before dying. Even mumaks in the parallel vertical column of this "window" shaped special room cannot effect much damage through my thick armor (160AC).

There are three unID'd scrolls but I do not have space to carry them all. When I return next time I will try to see if I can figure out how to read all these scrolls. No doubt at least one of these will be changing the level I'm on or destroying everything nearby. Unfortunately none of them are ?DD as I've already read it.

[Grotug]

I need to work on writing concisely. I drop the -cold balls and pick up some unID scrolls. I can't carry them all so I risk reading one. It's door destruction. The second one I read from the floor is Teleport Level.

Level 8 feeling. And 4 treasure feeling. Stairs are nearby and time to read a stack of two unID'd scrolls of enchant armor, kill some ologs to give my Arkenstone time to recharge and hit the stairs. Kavlax is 10S,11E from me in a small, oval room. I have 431HP but will leave him for now. Like Gorlim, his native depth doesn't reflect his true danger level. I head for the stairs, but hit a teleport trap as I approach them. I take out Boldor and his cohorts, and then Lorgan summons me to him. We're in a two width corridor and he has some champions with him so I ?phase. I kill a black knight, a mumak, and ?phase again as I'm in the middle of a room with Lorgan approaching. I stumble upon a trap door. Lorgan can die later.

6-6 and I head straight for a tiny non-perm vault like room and hit a teleport trap as I enter it. Two Storm giants but nothing else of note inside (that I can perceive). I _TS back to entrance. I decide my dam output is high enough to take the two storm giants, since they pick up stuff. ?Ethereal Openings and a battle axe of westerness with low enchantments are all that are here, and a necklace <+5> CON. I take the necklace, drop a +13 shovel of digging I had been lugging around despite having a ring of digging, and recall to town.

Nothing in town, back to the dungeon. I leave my _Detect Evil at home since (I think) Telepathy makes it a bit redundant. I'm CL31 now and have 444hp.

DL41, danger feeling 7. I start out in a special room on multihued dragons and Ologs which all die with little fuss. Above me is a lesser Hydra/naga/snake pit. Should be easy. Water trolls join the fray and the whole affair is way too easy. 160AC is too good for this depth. But my boredom is rewarded with an upgrade to my current boots with the same speed and stealth and add +4 to wisdom, sustain CON and have rPois to boot. Fire immunity is mine again.

The stairs are nearby so I leave the rest of the level unexplored.

DL42 is danger level 5 so I head to the nearest stairs (out of boredom, not fear). Orange army ants are harmless now and a barrow wight drops another two potions of Dexterity. Unfortunately the two potions only increase my Dex by 1, so I am 1 dex away from 5.8 blows.

DL43 is 7 danger feeling and a small permavault in far corner of map. I attempt _TS to it but wind up on opposite end of map in a largish room near a special room. A ranger chieftain and a sorceror are near me. The chieftain wakes up first and I get in position for some melee practice, but the sorceror shows up first and dies quickly, but not before summoning a chaos drake and Xaren is coming at me from the walls. I step forward to the drake and start smiting him while Xaren gnaws on me and then Ranger Chieftain joins the fray. But I don't need to ?phase; my AC is king. I finish the drake, take out the Xaren, and then turn to the chieftain who falls with little fuss. Fool, his parting fire bolt upon fleeing fizzles upon contact with me. A dropped smoky potion is *!healing*.

I start toward the special room, but after a few steps I stumble and am floating down to the next level.

Arkenstone is still charging. Light hounds and then fire hounds descent on me. I yawn. 4-6 level. The nearby Ancient blue dragon wakes up and tries to scare me. I guess I'll push my luck a little more as he only has 633hp and I have a 75% chance of hitting him. I'm on a cave level so I ?phase for better melee position and 3 short rounds of it put his ancientness quickly to rest. Yay, he drops two ?DD. It's a 4-6 level, though so I feel like I should explore it. I drop my ring of escaping and pickup the scrolls.

I Arkenstone and immediately find a ring of damage (+12) and realize that I do not need the ring of strength for this dagger, and so replace it. My other ring of dam got upgraded to +11 on DL37 so I am now 253-311 for dam output.

With my high HP and AC I do not bother wielding TeleMace while exploring the cave. Fully mapped cave levels are nice to explore.

Mim and Ibim die, and a dropped elvenkind shield is an upgrade to my resistance shield with <+2> stealth and rSound, though it has 7 less AC. I also ID that my boots have pConf. I haven't had this smooth a dungeon run in a long time. I actually wonder if I want to sacrifice the AC for the sound resistance. I guess I do.

I reach one end of the cavern and a Dreadmaster drops an Indigo potion which turns out to be !CON and I find a cloudy potion nearby which is !STR. My dam range jumps to 265-322.

I _TS to the other side of the dungeon to finish exploring. A Nether Wraith robs me of 5k EXP but I decide to save my !Restore Life levels for future horsemen.

A nearby cyan potion augments me. I check the last few nooks, TO a colbran and right after come upon an Ancient Yellow Dragon in a short connecting corridor blocking my short distance to the stairs. Easy pickins. He claws a whopping 20HP from me.

DL45 is a small quare maze level. I don't care for these. Bert, on the way to the stairs, is little more trouble than the dragon. A sleeping AMHD has 3X the hitpoints of ancient dragons so I TO him as he is blocking my path. The only problem with quick exiting of a level is I enter the next level with no object detection or mapping. TeleMace reveal Tom and Bill nearby as well as an ethereal dragon. I have 5 !speed, but I think I will risk taking on the ethereal without speed, since I'm +6 natively and resist both light and dark.

A shardstorm shows up right behind the dragon after I start smiting it and he is quite the troublesome little devil. He breathes like crazy and his damage is not negligible. He also keeps me from regenerating since he wounds me. The drake doeesn't breathe on me, though, and dies easy enough, but between his jowls and the shardstorm, I am down to 162HP and need to quaff a !CSW to bring up my HP and cure the bad wound. An !Enlightenment reveals nothing of note and I'm near the stairs and will kill off Tom and Bill before descending. I still need to read my ?DD. Until next time.

Bill and Tom drop a leather armor with pBlind, hLife, rNether, rNexus and three base resists but it's total AC is 28 so it will remain on the dungeon floor. I stand on the down stairs and look at the objects on the level again. An unID'd rod is unlikely to be useful and a scroll of 'co cane' will have to be read another time.

DL47 looks juicy: a Nalfanshee, some green dragons, an ancient gold dragon. All these targets have good possible drops and are easy pickins. There's a small vault in the lower left corner of the map, too, I'll pay a visit to. At some point I really need to read one of these ?DD, though.

I'm in the middle of the map and there is window shaped special room on the other lower corner, so I _TS since it will take me to one of the treasure rooms. I land next to the window'd one. Kavlax is inside, and a pot of speed is just a few steps away. I'm getting itchy fingers.... The !speed is a mimic, but I still have enough !speeds to use one on Kavlax. Well that was careless. I was still holding the hLife armor and a netherwraith came, but I did not bother swapping armors. Now I'm down 11k exp. Silly. Kavlax comes out into the outer corridor and I actually change my mind about taking him on. I just don't need to. I'm not desperate for drops and it's really just an unnecessary risk. So I _TS. I'm near the vault and Akhoril shows up but I decide to TO him. A colbran destroys my =Digging. Oh well, don't really need it anyway. I'm confused: It says my ring of digging was destroyed but I am wearing it on my finger. I didn't have two rings of digging. Odd.

Gorlim and AMHD are inside the vault. Gorlim disappears, and I guess so will the AMHD after a short rest. But I don't ?phase away, instead I walk around the vault and start whacking away at Queen ant. Then AMHD comes at me and so I ?phase. I run away from him and he follows. He breathes acid on me before my -TO recharges. TOing fails 3X and my health is down to about 200 from 477. I return to the vault and finish off the ants. A cyclops engages me and I have to phase when he removes 50+ health from me in a round. I ?phase near a colbran. I ?phase again, appearing in a small, wide rectangular room with two more colbrans. I phase a couple times around the room, and then near the mouth of the room where I can kill one of the colbrans easily. And then the Cyclops, but I'm at 116 health. I guess that's what all these curing potions I've been collecting are for. There is nothing here, so not sure what is giving the 5 feeling. Welp, time to read the ?DD. Nothing doing on DL52; DL53 is another square maze level. There is an awake Vampire Lord, Di Injur and Lorgan. I will try to isolate Lorgan, but these small levels are dangerous. It's a 4 feeling, so there are probably no nasty surprises waiting for me. The VampLord cannot get by the sleeping Vampire.

I ?phase and use my TeleMace to kill some MHDs. The VampLord can now get to me and I TO him away only to have Ji Indur drain my life. Lorgan is a few monsters away, but I will have to _TS. I decide to ?phase instead. Ji Indur is after me again. I pick up a !*healing and _TS. I trade STR for !Nimbleness and my DEX is maxed. Well, you can't get stupidity and naivite every time.

Ji Indur finds me again and I send him to the other side of the level. I kinda wanna kill Lorgan. I'm face to face with Ji Indur again. He disappears again. Yay, Lorgan finds a path to me. Lorgan is taking longer than I expected. And then I see why. Still wearing the ring of Digging (useful for these maze levels). ?Phase, !CSW, swap in =Damage and re-engage him. He summons a MH hound. I ?phase again and fail to disable a hellhole trap that I could see. Swap in a <+3> DEX ring to take out a summoned Death Quasit that summons me to him. Ji Indur will be back soon. I finish off Lorgan, Ji Indur casts a ball of acid and a bunch of stuff melts, but my ?MBan is not destroyed.

I step back one so that Ji Indur can push pass an Algaroth and I can TO him again. It's time to leave this level, but I do not have anymore ?DD and the stairs are at the other end of the level. I pick up some cash drops and then _TS away from Di Indur to the wrong side of the level. I _TS again a few squares from the stairs, and stone to mud through the wall to them.

DL53 is exact same level, even the feeling (4-5). This time with Wren the Unclean and Scatha the Wyrm. There is a relatively straight path to the stairs, but can I get to them quickly? I can; nothing blocks my path; I kill a few things near the stairs and inspect some junk and...

DL54 (6- ) I start to explore the cavern and Ariel casts a bolt of lightning so he disappears. I'll have to bumble about a bit until Arkenstone recharges (takes on average 120 turns at +6 speed). I read an unID'd ?*Destruction*.

There is a Lava H room here and Baphomet and a Dreadlord. I do not like these H rooms lined with lava, but with fire immunity, and some careful planning, I can use the lava squares as permanent runes of warding against certain monsters. We'll see if there are any suitable targets for such a scheme. First, to secure this H room. A dread gets off two bolts of nether while fleeing, and the dreadlord drains some exp when TO fails the first time so I guess I'll quaff a !restore exp as I'm down 15k. I read two unID'd scrolls of *enchant* weapon and bring my TeleMace from (+7, +7) to (+9, +8).

An elven sorceror casts a bolt of acid, but my ?Mban is still intact. He cannot come to me because of the lava in front of him, so I'll go around and approach the H room from below. On my way down I TO a drolem. I find a good position to take on the room but someone is blocking the elven sorceror from being able to leave his position and come to me. So I just shoot him with arrows along with his friends; I can see him, but he can'€™t see me. I shoot a bunch of things from the safety of favorable LoS, until the Sorceror moves so he can see me and blast me with a bolt of acid. I retreat, but someone is still blocking him from pursuing me; I resume my position and finish him off; as he doesn't move to see me again. I'm going to have to go around again to enter from the top to TO Baphomet. With him out of the way, the H is secured.

The Cloak of Valronath, the first cloak I am seeing all game (!). This isn't an upgrade; I am not wearing anything on my back; it provides rNether, +1 CON, +4 Stealth. [1, +19]. I also find here an Elven Cloak. Hmm.. I guess I'll wear the artifact cloak for now. And I find a cap of Telepathy. I kill a mature dragon; last bastion of the H room, and reach CL 33, and have 499hp.

I think I'll wear the Telepathy cap and leave the mace at home, or on the floor. Losing rDisenchant and 4 dex from my current crown will be a bit of a bummer, though I only drop from 5.8 to 5.5 blows. I take last looks and see an Elfstone I overlooked. It provides +1 shooting speed and some unID'™d resistance, which could be shards, chaos or pStun. Maybe I'll hold onto it as a swap for whenever a favorable shooting position is established. I drop the TeleMace and pick up the Elfstone.

I recall to town and drop everything I don't really need at home, including the Elfstone, and the ring of dex <+3>. I'll save the Elfstone for later in case I get fire immunity elsewhere or a really powerful launcher.

[Grotug]

I buy a spear of extra attacks <+1> from the smith even though the price indicates it will not be <+2>. It does marginal better damage to others than my dagger. DL56 drops me above a special room that looks like two roofs of a European mountain chalet. Inside I use the spear to defeat Vargo.

I start to explore the rooms, but fall through a trap door after collecting some loot from a mature dragon. I'm no longer uber powerful for my depth. I haven't found a weapon representative of my depth, so I will not fight Ren the Unclean who is right around the bend from me. There are a lot of giants here.

I _TS and find myself near some weak dragons that I dispatch. I Arkenstone, and nearby find the sword of Dolardos 4d5, (+17) but it only does 270 dam, which is the same as my dagger to others, but the sword has no slays. I guess I'll keep it for when I run into more stat gain. Hopefully it has a brand I haven't id'd yet. Nope. Maybe pStun? It does have rSound, rDisenchant rFire, and pFear. I encounter a grand master mystic who summons some mostly harmless animals. I let him come to me to see if the weapon has pStun and receive heavy stun, so I ?phase and !CCW. I make my way back to the giants and Ren, and there are a lot of storm giants here.

I TO a lesser giant, ?phase, but I'm in a somewhat big room and have trouble ?phasing out of the room; lightning is hitting me; so I _TS.

The lesser giant approaches again so I TO him again. While I'm clubbing a clutch of Vrocks Ren returns, but my TO has not recharged and he's not a big enough threat to warrant a TO from my wand. I deliberate for a bit and then decide to ?phase. I get lucky and am back in the hallway that leads to the room I was in with the Vrocks. I head up the passageway and start to kill a Cyclops; when Ren returns my TO has recharged.

Nothing interesting here so I head to the stairs and TO Ren again right before descending. DL58: Itanigast is near, yay. After putting him to rest I explore one area of the map and then hit the stairs.

DL59: I stone to mud into a room with 3 objects, one is a staff of speed and another a ?Recharging. I take these and _TS to the stairs. Upon arriving on DL60, I illuminate the level with a potion. There is a rod of TO 14 squares south. A bit later a Knight Templar drops a rod of detection and in the room is a shield of Preservation, nice. But if I wear it while wearing the Dwarven armor I will not have rElectricity. Nothing interesting left on this level so will ?recall, leaving behind my -Curings since the only malady I suffer is stunning.

Well, I guess this is that one in a hundred (500?) time where keeping some old mediocre weapon actually pays off. I have a battle axe of lightning in my home. It actually does decent damage, on par with my dagger and allows me to upgrade my shield and keep my dwarven armor, thus upgrading my overall AC, too. This axe has been in my home since DL16.

The BM has some useful stuff, another ?Mass Banishment, another _Speed.

This is quite rare: I only have one resistance/ability covered more than once; and that's FrAct. All my other resistances are only covered once. I can't remember if Preservation shields can have pStun, but it's that or rShards or rChaos in addition to its other base properties. My AC is now a cool 178.

DL61 has a Hydra Pit (gonna get rich!) and a chambered special room shaped like a stop sign packed with treasures. The Hydra pit is on the way to the special room, so I guess I'll take it on first, though I'd rather take the chambered room first. I could _TS but I only have 2 charges left, so I think I'll just take the pit. About 25% of the pit slayed and my health is down below half, so I think I will _Haste. Suddenly the 11 headed hydras are just firing one plasma bolt after another. I'm now at 111 health. I deliberate half a minute and decide to !heal. I use more than half my !CSW; my haste wears off with only 3 9 headed hydras and one 11 headed hydra left. I should be fine. There are 6 useless treasures inside the pit.

At the chambered stop-sign room I TO Learna Hydra and kill everyone else. Only thing of note are Gaunlets of Lightning immunity. I think I prefer my <+4> DEX gloves and not sure I'd ever downgrade my damage output for lightning immunity. So I think I'll leave them behind. I take out some hellhounds and head for the stairs.

DL62
I see Learna in a room by itself so I _haste self and have to !heal and ?phase after it breathes poison. It summons and I ?phase again, and am able to deal with them all in a corridor. The summons take me to CL36. Learna falls soon after, but not before summoning some more 11 headed hydras that take me to 206 of 595hp.


Shortly after a mystic drops an artifact armor: [48, +19] +3 INT, +2 Speed, +1 Light, rAcid, rSound, rPois, rNether, rShards, rDisenchant. I have all these resistances already and so I keep the slower dwarven for now.

Next to the small chambered vault is a golem pit. Turns out I never did drop the gauntlets of lightning immunity, and I wear them now so as not to have to worry about the colbrans. I take on 4 silent watchers in the center, but don't prioritize the Chimera it summons, and it destroys seeker arrows, the only thing worthwhile in the pit, but I learned rChaos on the gauntlets. The Chimera also burned up a longbow just as I was about to look at it. Nothing in the chambered vault, but stairs.

Another small maze level; I think I'll recall and decide which armor I'm gonna wear. I actually decide to explore the level a little. I pick up a second wand of TO. I find a <+6> CON ring but don't pick it up. Fundin comes for me and I use an unID'd staff and cause an earthquake, which doesn't deter him. I TO him away and swap back to my DEX gloves. Just as I see what I think is Osse come into my field of telepathy something causes me hallucination. I guess I'll swap the gloves back and hope the hallucinations wear off before Osse finds me. I think it was a chaos vortex.

I shock the thing and it's a chaos vortex. I shock it again and it dies. But something is still where he was. I think maybe it's loot so I try to move onto the square. ~You hit Osse, Hearld of Ulmo. <3X> Osse, Hearld of Ulmo casts a bolt of raw magic.~ I don't know how he got to me so fast, this being a maze level. Well, I'm still at 492 health. I think I will ?phase and then _TS. Though I could try to TO Ulmo. I feel like ?phase is the safer move, given the layout of the map. Not a terrible ?Phase. I think I can fail once on the _TS, but given my speed disadvantage, even one fail could be bad. I dunno, maybe I should _TS, and then just ?phase until the hallucinations wear off. There are stairs on the other end of the level; maybe _TS will land me near them.

_TS lands me 8 north and 2 west of the stairs with a clear path to them. I'm no longer drugged. No time to recall; heading for stairs. Fundin is very fast, though, and is on me again, he tries some stuff but I get to the stairs in pretty good shape, though somewhere in my gear shuffling I lost pBlind; I think one of my weapons had it.

Shelob is not far below me in a maze level. I think I'll head instead in the direction of some low level humans. Arkenstone recharges: there's a small square vault with rectangle chambers, but it only has 6 items. Connected to it by a medium length horizontal corridor is another small nondescript square vault with lots of treasures. I guess I'll investigate. Medusa, the Gorgon, Harowen and Shelob are here. I'll TO Medusa and Shelob, and maybe I'll fight Harowen. I get up close to the vault and _Detect. The only other noteworthy enemies in the vault are an emperor wight and two death molds next to each other. There is a Dracolisk next to the other rectangle vault, so I will have to pay attention he doesn't wake up while I'm dealing with the first vault. Shelob and Gorgon disappear without incident.

Inside the vault I quaff an unID'd potion of experience and am welcomed to CL37 and I pick up a !*healing*. I TO away the death molds after inadvertently moving next to them. I kill everything else in the vault, including Harowen who drops the Mithril shield of Luilmo, [16, +28] which provides the base resists, immunity to cold and resistance to dark which I don't have. Maybe I'll wear the artifact armor and this shield so I can have rDisenchant and cold immunity. In the vault is an amulet of trickery. Time to recall, and I don't think I'll bother with the other vault.

Back home I decide fire immunity is worth the sacrifice in speed, stealth, rNexus and damage output that "Trickery would give me. I also swap out my rNether and stealth cloak for the elven cloak for its +1 speed. I swap out the dwarven armor for the artifact armor with all the resistances. And I swap out the shield of preservation for the cold immunity shield, bringing my AC up to 193. I'll stick with the lightning battle axe and hold onto the lightning immunity gloves as a swap. I am now missing rNexus, rChaos, pBlind, pStun, hLife, and see invisible. Having cold and fire immunity is pretty sweet, though. My speed is at +9 now.

I wonder when I'll find a good weapon. This battle axe of lightning is (+5, +8). I still don't understand how it does better damage than the artifact 4d5 broad sword (+17). Well, it only does marginally better vs lightning (303) whereas the broadsword does 288 vs everything. Soo... I'm actually going to go with the spear of extra attacks that does 296 vs everything.

DL65 is boring but a grave wight dropped a !*healing and an !EXP was hanging out near the stairs.

DL66: Wondering if I should kill smeagol whom I see before me. Perhaps I should have pity on him. What would Bilbo do? I decide to let him live. Before I hit the downstairs on this boring level I try an unID'd staff. I fail the first few times and am wondering, maybe it's not *Destruction*, maybe it's healing. Then it destructs the area. Sorry Smeagol.

DL67 has a medium-small vault. Probably the closest thing to a real vault I've encountered all game. It's a 19X17 vault, the biggest vault I've seen all game.

I start at the top left corner of the level in a long vertical corridor that leads all the way down to the bottom of the level where the vault is. I cruise on down and -detection reveals only 3 dangerous foes: Jabberwock (who killed me in my last game), a bone golem and EĂśl the Elf, whom I may try to kill.

A !Enlightenment tells me the vault, unfortunately, has too many deep books, including WoG. Gonna check it out anyway; not very dangerous. And I find the ring of Ethith. Resistances are base plus light, dark, shards, nether, chaos, disenchantment and hLife. Grants SI, provides FrAct. Activates for 120 dam to everything you can see. <+3> STR, DEX, INT. <+2> CON. <+1> Light. <+5> WIS. I replace my (+0, +11) ring with Ethith. It drops my damage to 232 from 296. I put the ring of damage back on.

EĂśl was very active, but I have a lot of CON these days and he fell without too much trouble. But he blasted me most turns, first with a ball of acid, destroying more unID'd arrows, some jackals and some of my inventory (the ?MBanishments are at home). He then proceeded to scream DIE! at me twice in a row, which had a noticeable effect on my 600+ HP. He then fully healed; and followed up with lots of elemental attacks. He blinked a couple times, summoned some help, but nothing very menacing. In the end, he was dead without a great deal of trouble. He dropped the spear of Telen, among other things. It does marginally better damage than my spear, but provides lightning immunity. He also dropped a cloak of <+5> Stealth and pConf. Useful for when I find better boots, since my current ones provice pConf. A black wraith dropped me a sling of buckland <+2> <+4> (+9, +10).

Before ?recalling with all the loot I read a scroll of 'co cane' on the vault floor: ?Banish.

At home I buy a ?Acquirement and a ?DD. Back in the dungeon, not much doin so I ?DD. On DL73, a vault and a special room; so I _TS to get closer to both, since there is nothing in my vicinity. I guess I'll read the ?Acquirement now: Bastard Sword Niend, (7d4) (+8, +13). 308 vs others. 486 vs Undead, Giants. Resistance to light, sound, hLife and pStun. I take down a Dreadmaster with ease. A giant drops a heavy xbow of power (+25). This is better than my sling, except I need the dex for my weapon.

In the vault, which I haven't reached yet, is a ring. On the ring is <+6> Dex. Not bad. Oh, sorry, I'm not done. *Fire, *Elec, <+2> Speed, rNexus, light, dark. Dex is what I need.

Getting my hands on the precious is proving to be a thing. I get in there, actually took down a lesser titan no problems. Had to ?phase out, though, when I was trying to fight a greater basilisk, some other things, and Adunaphel then vies for my attention while chaos hounds are breathing and changing things. I have a ?banishment, maybe I should get rid of these chaos hounds. I have rChaos in a swap of my gloves, though. The Chaos hounds killed a bunch of stuff between me and TOing Faegwath, which was good and took some skin off of Adunaphel. A nexus vortex breathed on me after I ?phased and then I was next to a druj, so I _TS and then I was next to an undead beholder and a draconic Q I had TO'd. I disappear the undead beholder and the Q disappears at the same time. There is a !CON here which is why I didn't _TS again.

Darn, Faegwath again. I can't TO him because I'll probably TO him to the vault; actually; that'd be fine; just TO him again when I'm back at the vault. Oh well, I _TS to the undead beholder. Moving with all haste back to entrance of vault. I'm temporarily hasted, though, so I leave the beholder in the dust, and even Faegwath can't catch me on my way. Fortunately, Adunaphel is in pursuit of me and meets me alone in the cool clock style door room above the vault where I easily dispatch of him. I TO the undead beholder again as he did follow me. He drops a nice upgrade to my cap of telepathy; the Jewel Encrusted Crown of Uiltan. pBlind, FrAct, Telepathy. +3 WIS.

Back in the vault, I come upon the nexus v again, and he breathes on me, ?phasing me from above him to below him, but the message reads "you avoid the effect!" and I experienced no stat swapping. I finish off the chaos hounds that have come to meet me, but they strip my health pretty quickly and I have to drink a lot of !CSWs. Then the rest come, but I'm not paying close enough attention and I'm 2/3 down the corridor when they come around the corner; so I'm sunk. If I ?phase, I'm back at the bottom of the vault, where I will likely get blasted by some dangerous TO victim. I could haste self, heal up and just fight them. I do have 34 !CCW, so prolly not a big deal if I burn through 15 of them. The greater Basilisk is coming, too, though. I want to save my ?banish for ... I dunno, I guess I save them for Time hounds or plasma hounds or Aether hounds. These chaos hounds move fast, though. I quaff a !speed (rather than fussing with the staves) and there is now 4 in the corridor. I have 268 health, and a resisted breath can do over 100 damage. Fighting these hounds will take me to CL40 if I don't die. I could banish them and reach CL40 with less trouble by some other means. Actually, if there was anything really dangerous below the vault where I will land if I ?phase I'd see it below me and telepathy indicates there are no monsters there.

I ?phase and quaff a few potions, bringing me back up to 436 and then I proceed cautiously. I have to TO Faegwath again. Two chaos hounds come up to meet me in the clock-like special room above the vault and I kill them easily, but their breaths make me nervous. Damn, a pink Q TO's me away. 3 more Chaos hounds, but I'm in hockey stick position this time. Knights move to the hounds tyvm. Greater Basilisk is with them, but he's still wounded from earlier. I should be able to kill the Erinyes behind me before the Chaos Zs arrive. I always forget how pathetic Erinyes are.

Even in favorable position these chaos hounds bring me to half health, but I level up and my HP is now 718. There's one more as I start walking down the corridor again, but I pelt him with mithril shots and he dies before breathing. I kill a Dreadmaster following who drops a second ?Banishment and a whole bunch of collected junk. Finally, I'm in the heart of the vault where my precious lies. ~The cutpurse tries to pick up a ring <+4, +3, +6, +2, +1>, but fails~. The cutpurse tries to evade my bastard sword, but fails. The ring of Einelmare (+1, +4) is mine!

That's more like it: 341 to others, 563 to Undead, Giants. Diagonally next to the ring I notice the telepathy cap of Darch, sDEX, rDark, SI. I shall take that, too. Bolts of wounding, too, but I guess I won't take them, but I will take the xbow (+25) in case I ever don't need the dex from my sling.

Going back for ammo in the upper part of the vault, I get TO'd by the pink Q again. I can't see him but I know he is there. Arien and Kavlax are near me. I guess it's time to kill Kavlax. He falls easily, dropping garbage weapons. I go up a corridor and hear things appear nearby, an ancient White dragon appears. I move into the room and a mature white dragon appears next to the draconic Q I TO'd earlier. I don't bother TOing him this time. I just walk up to him and kill him.

Now that my new shiny ring frees provides fire immunity, I have 5 amulets to choose from back home. I have an amulet that provides rChaos and +2 CON but I think I'll wear "trickery and some gloves of slaying I've been saving and keep the rChaos gloves as a swap. Maybe I should have kept those bolts of wounding to combine with the amulet of extra shots, but I find playing ranger to be a bit of a hassle. Actually what I probably like least about ranger is the miss rate. It's of course targets that it really matters that are hard to it. I hate missing over and over. This sling, even with +2 might and shots is pretty puny at only (+9, +10). If I get a *really* powerful launcher with no extra shots on it, I will switch to the amulet of extra shots. I dunno, I wish I had taken those bolts of wounding (+22, +23).

I grab another ?DD from the BM and forget to bring with me the rChaos swap gloves (no biggie). I enter DL74 near a 4-window-shaped special room. My base speed is +13 now. I sustain Con, Dex, Int and Str and hold life. Medusa the Gorgon falls with great ease. I am pleased with my equip setup. The other thing I don't like about playing ranger is that summons block the main target. Medusa didn't have a chance to summon.

I _haste self to fight Ji Indur and my wimpy sling takes almost half his health with mithril shots and he falls quickly in melee. I take nearby stairs.

Radagast is near and I have all the equipments to take him on (immunities, pStun), but not sure it's worth it. My native speed is still kinda low and my dpr isn't great, especially for a warrior. There is another small square vault with different sized rectangle chambers inside. On my way to it I encounter a sleeping Ar-Pharazon in a small + shaped room. I just quaffed a !heroism and read a ?Protection from Evil so I guess I'll _haste and see if I can take him. Having swapped amulets my AC is now 169. Maybe I should wear the other amulet [+30] since AC is king. I take him to half health, but he takes me to 286 so I ?phase. Although I guess the grave wight he summoned incanted terribly which also contributed to my health depletion. I quaff 6 !CCWs which turns out to be excessive as I am able to get in considerable damage with the mithril shots as he approaches me, he dies in melee doing no more damage to me. Maybe this sling isn't that puny after all. 3 shots per round is pretty boss. Two ?*Enchant Weapon* scrolls bump my sling to (+11, +12). Ar-Phar also drops +10 boots of speed, 4d6 morning star of slay evil (458 vs evil), and a crown of serenity. Saruman meets me at the entrance to the vault and I don't bother _hasting as I am now at +16 speed.

With the Wraiths dead, first item of note in the vault is a cloak of Telepathy. Always looking for off-helm telepathy.

[Grotug]

Saruman falls easily enough and I reach CL41. He drops a morningstar (2d6) (+6, +15) of extra attacks <+2> good for 418 dam per round against others and 539 vs dragons. level 41. I return to town where I am greeted by Farmer Maggot, who drops me (+2, +3) bolts of slay undead. I reshuffle my gear and now have 180AC, very good stealth (up from bad, thanks to an artifact cloak I got earlier that provides pConf since my new, faster boots do not).

I start out in the center of DL76 *right* next to the same kind of vault that held the Einemare ring in it.



I enter the vault and fail TO on Radagast who then surrounds himself with animals. I ?phase because I don't want the firebreathers Radagast summoned to destroy the ?Teleport Level. I TO Radagast and kill his summons and the Death drakes. I kill three Crebans before they have a chance to shriek, and then ?phase before the remaining Crebans shriek. Unlike the vault with Einemare, this one conveniently ?phases me right by its entrance. I kill some more stuff (mostly DL45 Ds) and two drop ?*Enchant Weapon* scrolls bringing my sling up to (+12, +13). Air hounds wake everything in the bottom row of the vault when they breathe poison, so I retreat to Knight's move position and wait for them. For some reason, though, an injured panther does not pursue me. Since I forgot my ]rChaos swap again, I do not want to venture into the corridor again to try to encourage him, as there is a chaos vortex there. Nought else to do, I enter the coridor and see a sleeping undead skeleton that resists poison. So I kill it and the panther with my trusty sling and retreat to position again. When the vortex shows up 4 shots kill him before he can move into LOS of me. I -Detect and see that there are no threats left in the vault; only Thuringwethil who I kill.

The vault holds two items of interest: =Speed <+9> and a buckland sling (X4) (+18, +23) <+3, +1, +2>

I read a ?Teleport Level on the floor in the vault; DL77 seems like a tame, sheltered place, I see a staff of mapping on the way to nearby stairs and take it.

DL78: Nearby Smaug drops me the Ring of the warrior 'Umhabarm. <+2, +5, +1> +2 STR/INT, +5 CON, +2 Attack Speed, +1 Light. Immunity to Fire, hLife. I'm now doing 575 to evil with one weapon and 764 to undead/giants with another. Hoarmurath of Dir drops me Sarnanaxe, a weapon I was hoping would be Ăźber with such a cool name, but it is very average, though it does have <+4> STR/CON. The dropped short bow (X3) (+5, +31) Ornorn is a bit more interesting <+5, +3, +1> +5 DEX, +3 CON and activates for Haste, for 20d+20 turns. This may become handy, but for now I think my Ăźber sling will suffice.

A Great Wyrm of Law approaches and just before I finish him off he summons a great wyrm of balance, death drake and ethereal drake. I kill them all; none of them breathe on me and I gain CL42. I'm near the stairs, but I decide to _TS to investigate two special rooms, even though the level only has a 7-6 feeling. One room is a Greater Undead Pit. I decide to take it on. Half way through I reach level 43 and now have an impressive 1075HP. On my way over to the Undead pit, I see a Nalfanshee slightly out of my way and decide to kill it on the off chance it will drop something useful: The Tulwar of Lomen, (4d4) (+16, +15) [+9] <+3> CON, slays the Unholy Triumverate Powerfully, giants, trolls, orcs, animals, evil, branded w/cold, provides Acid Immunity. It's on par with my other weapons against Undead/Dragons and the *Acid, CON and AC are welcome. While wielding this weapon I have 197AC (one of my rings activates for *enchant armor*).

While I'm only doing 741 to Undead, Two Black Reavers (255AC) fall without fuss. I'm at 37,100 turns now. I've done the last 32 dungeon levels in 13K turns.

I finish killing the pit, and ?banish all the drujs inside as there is like 7 of them. The Undead were guarding a Mace of Disruption (5d8) (+9, +16) of *Slay Evil* <+2> WIS. It does 876 to Undead, 682 to evil and 489 to others. It is better than every artifact weapon I have found up to this point vs Undead, Evil and others, and by a good bit, too. This tangent has paid off a lot better than I was hoping. I figured I might find something minor, like better gloves or some potions. My other ring has ring of acid activation, so I'm not sure how necessary this |Lomen is. I'll drop the Morningstar that no longer serves any purpose, but I'll keep the Tulwar of Lomen for now, for the CON if for nothing else.

I'm 5 points away from !STR and 17 from !CON and my DEX has been maxed for awhile. I read a ?DD. Angband is not responding; I hope I don't have to replay the Undead pit (not that it was very difficult or time consuming). But I probably will.

Replaying DL78 GWoL didn't summon any dragons so I'm still CL42. I read two ?DD after finishing off the Undead pit and now I'm on DL88 near a 4 chambered rectangle room. My Mace disrupts Charcharoth's day and with his demise comes CL43. He drops me the Ribbed Plater Armor Berie [66, +20] rNexus, rPois, rSound, rDark <+3> Stealth. Sustain Dex. Wearing it loses me rNether, but gains me 19 AC; I'll wear it for now and swap it when needed. I also traded pBlind for SI with a telepathy helm dropped by a black reaver that has 17 more AC than my pBlind crown. He also drops me a telepathy crown with +2 speed and rChaos that I will wear for now and drop the pblind helm, as pBlind is not very important anymore.

Now some adventurers in this situation would read ?Banishment, but for my @ this is a garden of exp and drops to be harvested.



As my health drops below 500 I !CCW blindness, read a dropped scroll of prayer and luckily ?phase to the other entrance to the room (as opposed to the middle of the room).



The great Wyrm of Thunder breathes sound so I ?phase bringing my health to a dangerous level.



Too bad I'm out of ammo, I could go to that far right corridor and pelt from there. No matter, I can drink a bunch of !CCW from there while I wait for the hoarde.

Here they come!


The GWoLaw summons more dragons right before dying, including Scatha on the other side of me, whom I can ignore since I have 233AC. GWoLaw mithril shots of wounding. Tyvm! There are two GWs-o'Thunder which is a bit troublesome.



The dragons all die, bringing me to CL44. 233AC rules supreme (and 750 to dragons per round is also useful). I did use up a good 8-10 !CCW, though, but still have 16 left.

As I was rounding my shots for to read two *Enchant weapons* on I come across the rapier of Nivrin (7d6) (+11, +6) which does 1300 to demons and 870 to non rFire dropped by Glaurung.

There is a wide rectangle cubby vault with all the treasures in a horizontal line in the center. I get to Tseklus and start on him; he summons 4 wringwraiths, including Witchking; I ?Phase and witchking is the quickest to me; he brings me to CL45.

I finish off Tseklus, but not before he summons another wringwraith. I don't get lucky on the ?phase in an open room, so I _TS to regen some HP. I have superub stealth now, which is good, because Atlas is in one of the cubbies; and if he wakes up he will not stay put like everyone else.

I'm gonna drop my _drainables and crush that line of Us as well as Lungofrin and Gothmog. My Nivrin is already up to (+11, +9).

The description of greater balrogs indicates they do various things like most monsters; but in my experience all they do is breathe plasma over and over and over. These two greater balrogs are as formidable as many deep uniques I've fought so far and I'm doing 1300 dam per round to them! Now I am low on !CCWs, 8 left, but finally defeat the second one. The trouble has been worth it. He drops a rod of speed.

The minor scare the Greater Balrogs gave me has me thinking I'll deal with those other unique demons at a later time; also, I have a lot of new loot I need to sort through and figure out various gear wearing options. At the center of the vault is the armor Ventaurion [58, +10] <+3> Stealth, DEX, CON, Searching <+1> INT. rDisenchant, rChaos, pConf.

Time to take stock of my inventory: I have 8 of each !CCW, !healing, !*healing*, 3 rods of TO, 5 rods of detection, rod of speed, 14 ?Teleport, one ?banishment.

I buy 15 !CSW from the shop as there are no !CCW. I end up not changing my gear around. While fighting a GWMC My rod of speed fails about 5 times in a row; when it finally kicks in the Wrym of Chaos he summoned breathes on me bringing me to 400. I ?phase but it's a cross shaped room and there is no easy way to get into a good position so I start shooting GWoChoas and a GWoThunder with mithril shots. Fortunately they don't breathe again and even though the shots feel like they are missing more than hitting, I do a great deal of damage to them from range and gain level 47. The GWoThunder drops a staff of healing. I pick up a cursed long bow of Lorien <+5, +2> with pStun and _TS to the stairs.

Not paying proper attention, Creban in my LoS immediately start shrieking. I move out of their LoS into a corridor and start doing 1310 dpr to a Pit Fiend. But I guess he's hasted by the creban as he summons a lot of greater dragons.

I _TS away and see that it's a 7-8 level, so I !Enlighten and see on the opposite end of the level:



I heal up via Regen while killing some things and then _TS right next to the vault. Next update around 5pm New York time.