Ironhide Ironman

[Adam]

DL39 LF: 5 No escape
...
Lorgan just had to summon a vampire lord. Now if I read the scroll and it's not destruction or teleport level, I will lose all the exp I've gained these passed two levels. I read a scroll and it's to-dam so my xbow takes it. Everyone misses me except for one hit by the Vampire Lord. And of course when you want it to be teleport level or destruction it's not. Well that experiment cost me 2500 exp. And I descend.

Good to read your story
One question to the above. IIRC if you read an unID-s scroll of to-dam, it first asks you which weapon to enchant. If you cancel reading it at that point, do you still lose your turn? Same for identify/banish/to-hit.
I would assume the answer is "no" in which case you could have changed your mind in the above situation.

[Grotug]

That's a very good question. I think you may be right that I would have not lost my turn. I changed my sig from "adventure to "misadventure" because I make so many avoidable blunders. =D I think some of my mistakes have made the adventure more exciting, though, if not a bit cringeworthy. Thanks for reading! I should probably take more time to edit my posts; at some point I'll probably go back and clean them up a bit. I apologize if the writing is a bit sloppy or unclear at points.

DL81 1:30AM
I'm a bit inebriated, so let's see if I cannot kill off my Ironman winner to be. Anndddd... I nearly kill my @. Forgot Omerax drains charges, figured that out after the second time he regained a bunch of hp. As it's getting sorta down to the wire he invokes a storm of darkness which takes me to 47hp. !*Healing* time.

Oh come on! Ball of frost shatters !speed, !CCW , !*healing* but he dies shortly after.

DL82 I intentionally walk on a trap of skin to stone since my speed is high enough that this trap is actually a benefit, not a curse. I then hit a teleport trap and seeing Glaurung decide it's a good opportunity to take advantage of the free 50AC boost. I haste self and 29 speed +50 AC is much better than 34 speed -50AC. Trust me on this. He isn't very effectual in melee and after he summons Law and Thunder drakes I have to move a couple steps before I can get them into TO view. He doesn't summon again after that. He departs this plane and I gain level 46. He drops me the Mace of Disruption Liollos <+2 attack speed> (5d8) (+14, +10) 441 vs others, 662 vs evil, non rCold. 803 vs demons/undead/giants. With +1 DEX I'd get 6.5 to 7.0 blows. I drop the Lochaber axe Tirmo and the short sword Elenor and I'll probably drop Galen, too. "Trickery may show up soon to get my dex to 200. This enchantable MoD frees up quite a few inventory slots, rendering my other weapons obsolte.

eight hours later

Sober again, I easily crush the the GWoThunder and GWoLaw and hit the stairs.

DL83 I come to a !Life and I drop Galen. I come across a pack of plasma hounds in a room and put on my high resistances ring setup (all resistances and protections except acid/cold immunities and rDark and rShards) and walk into the room and start attacking them like I would a clutch of sleeping trolls. They breathe like crazy and I kill about half of them before retreating into the hallway again with 700hp. I rest up to 732hp, fire a bolt, and reenter the room and finish off the rest in melee, which takes me down to 632hp. I drop a staff of speed I meant to only carry temporarily and pick up a ?banishment.

Fairly useless equipment shuffle quandary: I come across another very nice Elvenkind <+2> rPois armor, very similar to the first one I got, and consider dropping my =<+11> ring for it, but then remember I have used the ring to speed away from something I don't want to deal with rather than _TS or _TO (but that was before getting a rod of speed). My low AC shield is my only source of rPois. Actually, I change my mind. 34 temporary speed is all I need at this stage of the game. It's unlikely I'll find a shield that would favor this armor over my Speed/Chaos armor, but I don't really see any reason I should ever need this speed ring again. No, my current armor is too good. I'm keeping the = for now. Interestingly my shield is my only source of rCold. I almost wonder, with 4 rods of TO and very good power overall, if I should drop the wands of TO now instead of the =Speed. I leave the armor behind, it's a better shield of rPois I need, not to move rPois to my body armor. > Stairs.

DL84
I start next to a "Double Diamond" vault I've never seen before. Talk about vault starting advantage. I'm still hasted from the _Speed I dropped and have excellent stealth.



Oh sweet yes, there is another rod of speed ..to my west (not even in the vault). So the longterm plan at this point is to hopefully find a better shield that has rPois, increase consumables a bit, kill as many dangerous uniques as possible and leave the low level ones to make M fight go as smoothly as possible.

Fool! Fool of a Took! And after recently reading about the secret door bug, too. I start tunneling into the vault. Turns and turns go by, speed wears off, monsters wake up. What is going on? I step back, I step forward. "You have found a secret door." I open the door and a blue bat breathes all over everyone, then the Jabberwock breathes chaos, killing lesser things, then breathes again changing the injured Master Mystic I was killing into a green Q. I'm down to 465hp already. Time to _TS and find that other rod of speed. I back up one out of LoS of the Jabberwock and _TS.

I ID a rod of healing in a triad of tiny special rooms connected by secret doors in the northwest corner of the map. I TO Osse to get it, and head south to an undead pit at the SW corner of the map. The Jabberwock comes for me from the East, down the connecting corridor to the vault. He breathes on me as I'm stepping towards him for meleeing after he rounds the bend. I finish him off and I have to back up into a small room to TO an Arch-Lich while a black reaver bee lines towards me, but since I'm at ~400HP I flee north so I can regen/!CCW a little before smiting it. I then head south again to the Undead Pit these deep level undead came from.

I smite a bone Golem but soon find myself in a spot of trouble with two deep undead on me at 388hp. The map doesn't show the channel the Reaver bored so I'm quickly overwhelmed by deep greater Undead flooding me. I TO a nightcrawler and bone golem, fire Undead bolts at a Master Lich at short range who incants terribly, bringing me to 310hp. I smite a nether wraith, finish off the Lich with bolts, put on my ring of speed <+11> (!), pick up two ?Teleportations, 5 !CCW (39 total now) and flee for better strategic positioning and to quaff some !CCW.


I flee North, back to the Osee room...

--More later this afternoon--

[Grotug]

I dig a diagonal tunnel until I hit the map's border and wait. No one comes so I get bored and head south again. I see a bone golem in an oval room midway down and he commands me to him. Smiting him is easy enough and I gain level 46 (1113hp).

I kill a few more bone golems, one summons a Dracolich that I take out, another gives me a nasty cut but it's nothing too worrisome. I find some low bonus seeker bolts and am still above 700hp. I TO some drainers and a nightcrawler drains my CON to 170 and blasts me with nether (which I don't resist with the two rings I'm wearing) and my health is briefly below 400hp.

In the pit is Kelek's and a second rod of speed. That brings the total of powerful objects not in the vault to 3, which makes you wonder... what's in the vault? Let's go find out....

I meet a Lesser TItan in the corridor to the vault and he summons some things that block him from coming to me. While I wait, I tunnel some sniping/control corridors. I melee the titan easily back in the corridor and crush his summons. Inside the vault I TO queen ant (she'll be great later during the M fight if he is so foolish to summon her). I stumble upon Qzzlp and he summons greater undead. I fail to TO him and he summons more ringwraiths. Second TO succeeds and I =escape back into the control corridors. The Knight's move square I'm on is just out of the screenshot.



While waiting for more foes to vanquish I start tunneling into the hallway when suddenly a bunch of stuff rush down the corridor and the Terrasque breaths on me from favorable knight's move. He can breathe on me but I can't TO him. So I _TS to the Eastern side of the map (that I haven't been to yet) near a lower level giants pit. The pit could be profitable, and very safe.

Before proceeding I -Detect to see where the TO'd monsters are:


It's very hard to see because he's camouflaged, but the Qzzlp is 5 squares north of the Demi Lich. I drop my drainables, TO an approaching undead beholder and kill the Demi-lich. He drops a !Life and 2 ?Holy Prayers. I now have 2 !Life. I head to the pit and immediately kill the cyclops, nearly in one blow. I do 813 to giants with the ?prayers. I work my way into the center of the pit so I can quickly roundhouse everyone. A !healing and ?Massbanishment are my rewards.

I come back to the vault via the southern route and tunnel my way into my original V shaped control corridor and, forgetting the Terrasque would be coming down the corridor, he breathes on me. I consider putting on the speed ring and shooting bolts at him, but it's kind of a bad idea since I'll have to ?phase multiple times and I don't have frost immunity. So I TO him.



I take out Arhokil the Blind with my weakest bolts, since he is a pretty easy target (save the Undead bolts for black reavers and things like that).

Back inside the vault I drop my 5 !Speed now that I have two -Speed I shouldn't need the potions. I pick up a ?Banishment. Deeper in the vault I take on a lesser giant who summons a crystal drake and some other things; all the while I'm circling a sleeping G-Storm Wyrm who I bludgeon once the others are dead. I pick up another !*healing* and find seeker arrows of wounding (+24, +24). Man had those been bolts....

I start attacking a GWyrm of Law at 500hp when I see a ! and move onto it, figuring there's a decent chance it is something decent (another !Life). Nothing worse than !Life being breathed on. My health is now at 450 and I realize I don't resist sound and I'm not doing amazing damage vs dragons so I !heal (I have 17 of them). He falls without breathing but takes me down from 750 to 372.

Into the next chamber I restore my CON with a !CON and I see Fang. I TO him, feeling this is no place for pets. I bash in a G-Swamp Wyrm who drops a _Banishment. I only have 435HP so I have to TO Drauglin who wakes up. But I'll risk taking the bone golem. Two great hits and a *GREAT* hit crushes his bones, but he gets in about 100 damage in a last gas before crumbling.

Un*expletive*believable. This is just. Just wow. Straight upgrades, I just love them: a Mithril Shield of Elvenkind of high AC <+1>. I cross my fingers... I'm so hopeful, but why? The odds are one in nine, it's not like they are in my favor. But yes, yes it is. rPois. Tyvm. My dreams of being AC king may be realized yet, despite all my speed. Glad I did not keep the armor or drop my ring of speed! The ring is still useful for escaping Undead mobs and the like. The new shield adds +29 AC over the old shield bringing my total to 187. I use favorable diagonal line of the vault to soften up a black reaver before destroying it at sub-optimal health (570). And melee another one without incident and I believe I have secured the vault. Updates on any items after dinner.

[Grotug]

My AC is 187, not 177AC (I was berserk at the time).

There are some glittery artifacts here, but the Elvenkind shield upgrade was the only piece of equipment that was a benefit to me. I increase my ?Teleportation to 17 and ?Phase door to 25, I kill a draoclich which destroys a !healing but drops an !Exp and I gain level 48.

I drop my wands of TO and my =DAM (why I didn't consider dropping it earlier instead of the =Speed...). I had ID'd a staff of banishment while in the vault. I see Fang near the stairs and tell him to go home. I descend.

DL85
Great Storm Wyrm drops the shield Ecthael [12, +12] which is basically rDark Elvenkind without the stealth and with <+4> DEX/INT. Wearing it brings me to max blows with my MoD (7.2bpr) and 694.7 to evil. I still haven't ?*enchanted* the weapon and I still have my gloves of slaying in case I decide I want an extra 50+ damage to evil. I will drop my rods of curing to carry the new shield. I am maxed on !CCW (40). 2 *scrolls* bring my MoD to (+14, +11).

I see maeglin and I drop some weight in the lower left corner of the map and then go back to fight him. I decide to maximize my damage so I put on the gloves of slaying and the shield of +Dex. I'm now doing 755 to evil. We melee and there are no summons. I have 872hp when he falls.

I take down Polyphemus easily, he misses most of the fight and I don't drop below 1000hp. Nearby I pick up another rod of healing in an oval room.

Farther south I stumble into Qzzlp who summons some friends. That's Smaug, Tseklus and Carcharoth; Aether and Time hounds, too. I will kill them all, but for now it's _TS. I no longer have the _Banishment. Maybe I'll let Smaug live.



I head back and Carcharoth meets me with a breath of nether, stripping half my health to 587. I -Heal and get in 3 seeker bolts of frost and he's already down two * when we start meleeing. He's taking good damage throughout the fight as I get multiple superb, great and *GREAT* hits in. As he nears death (and I drop below 400hp) he summons hounds, one an impact that stuns me and moves me to his other side. It's no matter, though, a !CCW and a couple more rounds and I gain level 49. That level came surprisingly quickly (another recent !EXP didn't hurt). I move around the bend of the hallway to safely Knight's move the summons. He drops Adamantite Resistance armor with 101AC. Wearing it would bring me to 226 and it might be a good fit for the final fight but I don't want to lug it around until then. It also means I wouldn't be able to swap my current speed amulet for a good "Trickery amulet (which would bring me to 7.2bpr without needing the shield swap).

I rest up and take on Tseklus next. He falls easily after summoning some silliness. I decide to take on Smaug because I have a feeling he may drop something useful. He does: a decent shield, but it doesn't have rPois. <+1> Light/Dex, <+2> CON, rBase, rNether, rChaos. However, it will complement "Trickery nicely as it will allow me to still have max CON and adds rNether to my well fleshed out character.

I don't bother resting up after Tseklus and Smaug and Thurngwethil falls pretty easily. I'd sorta like to take on Kronos. I may screw around with Qzzlp in the hopes he summons me some more high target uniques. I destroy Waldern without any losses. He summons Drauglin, Osse and Mim, all of whom I TO. He summons Faegweath who raw magics me to 149hp. I !Life since two Arch Liches and Faegweth drained my dex quite a bit (I have 3 left). I kill some other deep non uniques and finally Qzzlp summons Kronos, along with Mughash, The Phoenix and Castamir the Usurper. I TO Mughash. I put down my _TS earlier to avoid draining, so I run away after TOing mughash but The Phoenix breathes light bringing me to 436. I will have to run some distance before I regen enough to fight Kronos. I should have TO'd the phoenix.

I don't end up having to run very far and The Pheonix catches up with me at about 780hp. Drauglin will reach me from the other direction about 5 turns later, probably enough time for me to kill The Phoenix before immediately taking on Drauglin. I don't think I want The Phoenix alive.


He bolts me a lot with plasma, using up some !CCW, but my seeking frost bolts destroy him just as Drauglin steps in front of me. Perfect timing (and I forgot to -Haste). I -haste and start the fight with 528hp and finish Drauglin with 437hp. He summons some very low level monsters (except for a death knight). He drops me a cloak with +3 DEX which I may wear for the final fight instead of the current <+2> speed, hLife. I'll be back later to take on Kronos.

[Grotug]

DL 85 continued...
Kronos breathes fire. Kronos breathes Frost (there goes half my health). !Heal. Kronos summons piddling things and a Ranger Chieftain. He falls at about 360hp and I gain level 50 1181hp.

I rest up a little and return to Qzzlp and find Smeagol sneaking so I TO him. I kill some black reavers and arch-liches and the level starts to become dangerous. I lose another !*healing* to a young white dragon and decide it's time to stop screwing around. I quaff a !DEX and hit the stairs.

DL86
I lose less than 200hp taking out a GWoChaos that drops me a "(+4, +5) <+3> Weaponmastery. It's "Trickery I really need, though. Still, I hate to leave behind such a high slay "Weaponmastery, so I drop some lesser bolts to make room for the amulet.

[Grotug]

Well, it finally happened. Found an item that has {curses} that makes the item more powerful than an identical non-cursed counterpart would, since I'm immune to the bad effects of the curses but not the good effects. My current helm of Telepathy was 7, +13 and the one I just found is {cursed} with [9, +15]. So +4AC improvement, but also rShards (I have no idea why) and it makes me conduct electricity but harder to hit (so maybe that translates to rShards?) At any rate, the resistant sheet shows the helmet gives me rShards as well as an extra 20 free AC. Since I'm immune to electricity and hallucinations, the curse ends up being a win-win instead of a win-lose. Basically the cursed helmet is effectively artifact power. I've been wanting to find such an item for many games now. =D

When I swap out my hLife cloak for <+3> Dex cloak my AC goes to 221 and I get max blows. Now that is the ultimate combo: almost all resistances, sweet damage, great AC and very good speed. The only thing my @ lacks now is body sustains (I have none).

This level is boring despite having a vault, which had in it !*healing, two !healings, and another ?Rune of Protection.

DL87
Mmmmm, another straight upgrade in a small vault: current elvenkind boots are 2, +12. <+1, +8>. New ones are 4, +16 <+3, +9> That's a health increase of [+6] AC. The Beefy warrior-type with superb stealth, heroic AC, superb speed and heroic damage. Sauron will fall soon.

Holy hot Helenas, don't think I've ever seen a shield with so much AC before (except maybe on a rare artifact). Presenting the Mithril Shield of Preservation: [16, +42] rLite (oh well). But this is still a huge find. I will likely wear this in the final fight, regardless if I find rPois elsewhere or not. Rpois isn't that crucial anymore. More like ... it's convenient to have it. Now if I wear the <+3> DEX cloak and this new )Preservation I get Legendary AC (when AC is greater than 240). 241AC.

In other news, I now have 38 ?Phase Doors.

DL88
Dang, forgot one of my rings of power activates for restore stats! I keep getting stat drained regularly but only just now used my ring to restore them.

Too bad I don't slay dragons:



Swapping gear around between dragon types I make swift work of the hoard. An AMHD takes me down to 344 at the very end from 618 or so as I had put on the Preservation shield and dex cloak to maximize damage and hold-life against all the death drakes and dracoliches. But if I had looked beneath my feet after vanquishing each foe I could have put on the "Trickery the Horned Reaper dropped right before I met with the AMHD. Heh, no matter, at least I noticed the bolts of slay dragon beneath my feet that I couldn't fit in my quiver. Firing bolts from the floor was a nice little bonus. This "Trickery is a good one, too. <+4, +2, +6, +5, +3> Now, normally on this amulet, the 2 is speed, and the 3 is stealth. But today those two values are reversed. Searching is 6 and dexterity is 4.

Time for bed. Next time, figuring out what to drop and what to keep; and then onto the vault.

[PowerWyrm]

I could be wrong, but I think resistances and vulnerabilities stack. So if you're immune to lightning (res:3) and at the same time vulnerable to lightning from a curse (res:-1), you're actually not immune anymore, but just double resistant (res:3-1=2). I need to check that in the code...

BTW you should really consider using a new post each time you update your story... it's hard to follow when you edit the same post to add stuff.

[Nick]

I could be wrong, but I think resistances and vulnerabilities stack. So if you're immune to lightning (res:3) and at the same time vulnerable to lightning from a curse (res:-1), you're actually not immune anymore, but just double resistant (res:3-1=2). I need to check that in the code...

No, immunities stay regardless of vulnerabilities:

	/* Now deal with vulnerabilities */
	for (i = 0; i < ELEM_MAX; i++) {
		if (vuln[i] && (state->el_info[i].res_level < 3))
			state->el_info[i].res_level--;
	}

[Grotug]

Yeah, I regret posting the way I have. I wish each post was shorter and that the thread was broken up into multiple pages at this point. I have been trying to make the posts shorter with my recent updates.

I decide to drop the Elvenkind shield and head to the vault, where I pick up a third rod of speed. Now I'm pretty sure with three rods I will always be able to haste self even if I haste self as soon as the last one wears off. I test this theory and I am wrong.



These are always nice. The challenge is to pick up valuable scrolls before they get burned up. The pit sees me to 40 ?Phase Doors, 20 ?Teleportations.

I get tired of TOing Scatha every level (and returning) so I kill him and he drops the ring Cirin (+4, +6); activates to completely map the level and detects all objects. Stats aren't quite as good as the ring it would replace and I would lose pBlind and rSound, and it aggravates, but it also has Lightning immunity like the =Marie. This might be useful in the final fight as I tend to lean towards pure damage to end it as quickly as possible. More later today.

[Grotug]

I leave behind the "Weaponmastery and elvenkind rPois shield since I feel it's unlikely I will not wear the "Trickery in the end, given its speed, rPois and dex.

On the way to the stairs I find a heavy xbow (+16, +17). I find this interesting because it's not an xbow of power; it's just an xbow.

DL89
Next on my hit list is Lungorthin. He is near an undead pit, though, so things may get interesting....


Or not. Lungorfin dies easily; and the only undead that pursue me are the Gs. Everyone else seems very content to take their time to investigate the superb stealth interloper.

DL90 Vecna is next on my list, inside a medium non-permanent rectangle vault. Two potions of life are here. Vecna falls easily and drops me a better "Trickery: <+5> DEX instead of<+4>. Shortly after I attack a Black Reaver who raw magics me to 272hp, so I ?phase to an entrance on the other side of the vault, since I have 40 of them now. This is a very favorable landing. I heal up with a rod and finish him off with bolts from knight's move position. My speed and the shape of the vault meant this ?phase was relatively safe, even with 272hp.


DL91
I start out near Ugluk, and need to be careful not to kill him. The level seems boring and I soon come to a ?Teleport Level.

DL92
My Star of Mapping is recharging so I !Englighten (I have 8) and navigate through the boring level to a !healing, ?Rune and !Enlightenment, and stumble upon an almost useful helm that I'll lug around for a bit and drop the Lightning immunity helm I've been holding onto for awhile. The Steel Helm of Megormen [9, +19] has <+3> speed, rPois, rShards, rNether, and SI. I'm mostly interested in it for its speed as I will not be able to make 30 with a gear setup that maximizes melee damage at the expense of high resists.

Actually, thanks to the extra point of DEX there is a setup where I can get 820 vs evil and all I have to give up is a little speed (I will need to drop 23lbs. to get back to 20 base speed), rSound, pBlind and *Fire. I may try this setup in the final fight, and maybe against Sauron, too.

One of the !Lifes was a monster, but I have 5 now.

DL93 > stairs >

DL94 I nonchelantly saunter over to cantoras who does 400 dam to me before falling. He drops PDSM of Stealth [60, +28] <+1>

Now If I switch back to my speed/con amulet <+6, +2> and my cloak of DEX/AC I get 200 dex again (so max blows) and 267AC. That is insane. It also brings my HP back up to 1181 from 1106. I think this is the setup. I think 712 to evil is enough, and with this kind of AC, Morgoth should be missing a fair bit. I'm actually curious if there is a cap to AC's efficacy (is it 255 or is there no cap?) Darn, swapping in the DEX/AC cloak loses me two speed bringing me down to 28 hasted. Will this be yet another game where I find PDSM and don't wear it??

The Multihued hound breathes frost: one of each !healing !*healing, !Life is destroyed. One breath. Oh, it bristles me! I resist the element!

In a vault I pick up a Longbow of Lorien <+5> <+1> (pBlind). The dex means I can wear the speed amulet with the power dragon armor and keep the speed cloak for 30 speed while twice overweight <-2>. This setup gives me one more resist (rDark) and brings my AC to 260. Or, for one less speed (since I can get below 30lb overweight) I can wear an elven cloak of Aman [6, +28] <+1> that brings my AC to 273. I need to find a heavy hitter to test 273AC on.

[Grotug]

As if in answer, as I'm leaving the vault, I run into two Greater Balrogs. I lure them back into the vault, and they summon greatest demons, though and their plasma breaths force me to ?phase. Only the Greater Balrogs pursue me, though, and when they stick to melee, the damage is very negligible. Same goes for the rest of the Horned Reapers when I return to the vault, but they summon greater dragons (nexus, sound) in a hallway at the bottom of the vault, so I have to TO one of the horned reapers, but I kill everything and I'm not sure 20 speed with super high AC is better than 25 speed with really good AC, but maybe against Morgoth it will be good. M does do a lot of devastating melee, so the AC may be worth it.

DL95

I come to a very cool and wild looking lava cavern:


I decide to take on Ungoliant and a couple breaths require me to use a charge of -Healing, but otherwise she does very little damage in melee. Moments before fighting Ungoliant a Greater Titan did no damage to me in melee.

Ungoliant drops a shield of speed <+8> but it has relatively abysmal AC. Still, makes me wonder about my decision to drop "weaponmastery (+4, +5). I pick up the shield and leave the shield of rNether, <+2> CON and <+1> Dex.

I follow the lava stream into the cavern and see Atlas sleeping nearby. I slay giants, he only has 6000HP and we'll see how often he can shatter (13d13) me with 273AC. I pick up a ?Rune Protection and a RoS <+15> first, crush the various occupants of the cavern and then I flatten Atlas. He stuns me once and quakes the earth, but he can only effect about 270 damage on me in the entire fight. Maybe the speed penalty for AC is worth it. He drops the third trickery of the game; all of which have had +3 speed.

DL96
Here's a mark of a great game: I have an insane amount of hours into Angband over a relatively short amount of time (5 years I suppose), and yet the game still surprises me. A level that is one giant vault, with a smaller side vault, and then a cool special room at the end of a *really* long hallway.







This level turns out to be quite the supply depot. Tons of potions, I now have 17 *Healing, but only 3 !Life as another one got destroyed along with each of my !others in a single resisted breath. My ?RoP is now up to 7. It also has each deepest book, a =Damage +15, two haradrim xbows, a short lorien bow <+5> <+2> of Telepathy, which allows me to swap in the rNether speed helm. Still I wonder, 273AC is amazing. Maybe the speed and rNether aren't worth dropping to 257AC. I'm gonna finish scouring the level, maybe take on Huan with a high damage setup and stash the 3 !Lifes. I suppose I have enough of the others to sacrifice a few to killing him. Or I could just TO him when M or Sauron summons him.... There is a ?DD on this level, so I will be reading it once I'm done scouring the level. More later.... Sauron and M very soon.

[Grotug]

DL99

I stash my alternate setup gear in a safe, twisty tunnel and go for the setup that is 822 vs evil, no pBlind, no *Lightning, no pStun, no *Frost, no aggravation but all other resists and immunities. I'm going into the fight with 30 !heal, 17 *!heal, and 4 !Life.

I bungle the anti-summoning corridor as I'm making it last second as Sauron approaches and I'm following a magma vein so he hits me with plasma, whirlpool, ice, one after another from his favorable knight's move before I even get a chance to start meleeing. I use up a !CCW and !healing before I've even taken my first blow.



The first half of the fight Sauron is very active, but he never does the full 595. Nevertheless I'm using up a fair bit of !healings and finally have to use a !*healing.



He summons Gothmog with two red * left who I ignore while finishing off Sauron. There's no reason to ?phase or heal after Sauron falls. I immediately start crushing Gothmog as its 1024dpr to demons. My health is still about 700hp after he falls. I start working on a greater balrog when Huan starts trampling over everything in his path to me. Since I'm standing on lava I decide, oh what the heck, I'll take on Huan, who I do 822 to since I have an animal slay. Not a terrible decision. He doesn't breathe frost until he is about half dead. That means no potion destruction for half the fight. Breathing frost freezes the lava, though, at which point his melee attacks that get through my 257AC are frosty. Breathing frost means I need to !*heal, though. But he isn't too !destructive and before long he is also in a heap beneath my feet.

He only shatters 1 !Life and after the fight my potion stocks are: 31 !CCW, 23 !Healing, 15 !*healing, and 3 !Life. Not at all shabby. I will explore the level a bit, pick up my alternate equipments and M will be along very shortly now.

[Grotug]

I pick up a another rod of speed in a small vault, slaughter a green dragon pit and head for DL100.

DL 100

M is nearby and I wonder if I can get into fighting gear in time without having to TO him. I decide to record the fight. I play pretty sloppily, but my careless overconfidence is not punished and M falls after some rather inelegant and somewhat inefficient play.

I'll post a youtube video of the fight later this morning, but basically, I'm never in a good position for fighting him; runes get broken too quickly, ?phases are never terribly helpful; whenever I tried to tunnel an anti-summoning corridor he'd be back after I'd get through only two bricks of granite, and there weren't many walls that weren't granite. I did not carry any ?*Destructions during the game or for the final fight; partly, I guess, to make it a bit more challenging, but more so because I couldn't be hassled to make an inventory space for them. He did summon a lot of weak uniques I had saved for the fight, which was nice, including fang, smeagol and mughash. The video is now up here

The audio quality is quite lousy. It was early in the morning and I just wanted to finish the game, so I'm rather mumbling throughout. The fight took about 24 minutes.

[Grotug]

Sorry, I had to leave for work before the video was ready. If I do this type of chronicling again, I will fight the bosses earlier to make it more exciting. Final fight

[PowerWyrm]

At 3:20 your speed wore off and you didn't recast Haste immediately... could have been the end there if Morgoth decided to double move and cast two nasty spells.

At 5:00 I don't see why you equip the ring of speed and start running away... nothing dangerous was summoned there.

At 6:20, you use heal at 400 hps when in LoS of Morgoth and a Great Crystal Drake, who can both cast manastorm and breathe shards/sound for probably over 700 hps.

At 7:00... "I'm bored with the fight, let's teleport and go kill some nether hounds!" LOL why not just *destruct* the area to make a good playground for Morgoth?

At 10:30, I love when Morgoth summons Fang

At 11:30, I note that you don't have any scrolls of *destruction*... my bad. Usually it's a good idea to carry some for the final fight. That would have been a good solution to clear the mess there.

At 23:40... congrats was fun to watch