Last game was not very challenging, so I think it's time to try ironman again.
I'm rolling up an H/T Warrior again, since it's my favorite combo. This time I've added 4 points to CON, 8 points to DEX and 8 points to STR. Disconnected stairs and start with no useful gear.
There are 8 potions of speed in the black market. I could buy one or two. If two, I'll have 165 gold left over for ?phase etc. I think I should only buy one or none.
I kill a singing-happy drunk who drops me 24 gold pieces and I buy:
a shield [5, +1] for 36gp
Gauntlets [3, +0] for 6gp
Potion of Speed for 225gp
1 ration of food for 3gp
17 scrolls of Phase door
2 potions of cure light wounds
DL1
I descend into the dungeon and down a short corridor into an oval room where I pick up a main gauche, two scrolls, 5 potions of cure light wounds and a flask of oil. I kill a white worm mass and lament my decision to buy the whip (I had considered not buying any weapon since an H/T Warrior can do fine with his fists until he finds a suitable weapon). I leave the room and right away come upon the down stairs and I take them.
DL2
I don't go very far when I find a scroll and read it. Deep Descent, which takes my @ to level 2. Marvelous start. Actually, really good to get deep descent early, rather than later as a half troll warrior, although ideally after gaining at least a couple levels first. I now read one of the other two scrolls which is Blessing. The floor opens beneath you...
DL7
...and I suddenly notice I haven't put on any of my armor. I follow my nose to a black dragon fly and kill him in two rounds before the blessing wears off. Welcome to level 3. Welcome to level 4. My max HP is now 59.
I come to an illuminated rectangle room surrounded by corridors. I go right and blunder into a night lizard. It dies in one round. Welcome to Level 5 and 6. I'm at 20hp of 84. I walk around the room to regenerate the newly gained HP since I haven't rested yet and come to the door of the room on the opposite side, when a kobold shaman bursts through it... and dies. He drops me a torch. I kill 2 green kobolds inside the checkered room and another night lizard and gain level 7 (94hp) I continue exploring the room, kill a black harpy and stumble upon a spiked pit and drop to 26hp when a kobold archer shows up. I whack him, but he survives and then hits me, taking me to 21hp. Fortunately he dies before getting to attack again. I'm a little nervous about my low health and all the awake critters coming out of the woodwork and decide to backtrack, killing two blue wormmasses on the way back to the first room entrance and encounter nothing more in the room upon further inspection.
A passageway takes me to an oval room where I kill 3 acolytes and learn a staff of confuse monsters on them. I learn !heroism, ?Blindness, and ?satisfy hunger, and have two remaining.
A soldier and a couple cutpurses take me to level 8 and I learn !sleep.
I kill a dark elf and find soft leather armor [8, +5] (??)
So far I've given a complete account of everything I've done so far, and all the monsters I've killed, but obviously I will not be able to maintain this level of detail. In a short time I've already become comfortable to the depth I rapidly found myself at. The stairs are near where I came into the level, but I'll explore a little more as it has a 3 treasure feeling.
Sweet, I find a lantern. I avoid a silver jelly that will rob my light of oil. I find another downstairs so I take it.
DL8
a 4-2 level and I soon find a cap of regeneration [2, +1] I kill some more things, learn ?detect invisible and !neutralize poison and reach level 9 and hit the stairs.
DL9
I am perhaps being careless. I fail to disable a summon foe trap and I get a guardian naga, native to DL15. She's too strong for me but I try anyway. It's at first going okay but then she crushes me and I'm suddenly at 28hp, so I ?phase and heal up with a staff of cure light wounds.
The naga catches up to me faster than I expect, even though I move away from where we were fighting after I ?phased. No matter, she's on me again and she's missing a lot but I'm not doing much damage either, but then I get a graze, and decide to ?phase. She's at half health, and I heal up to 108/111 with my staff and then engage her again.
It's going well, and looks like I'm gonna get her, despite her erratic movements causing me to.. umm.. miss literally, as in step where she was standing. She crushes me again and suddenly I'm down to 15hp.
Naga's health bar
I ?phase, _CLW, ?bless, use up the last two charges of _CLW and wait. I finally send her fleeing and give chase. She brings me to 45 health before dying, and to level 10 (130hp).
I rest up a little and then continue to a room with three gray potions, a healer, 4 cave orcs, a snaga and a gallant. I sneak up to the healer and kill him in one round, and then move to the cave orcs. I damage each one just enough that as one wakes, another falls or flees. The gallant is then on me, and fortunately he dies in just two blows, allowing me to finish off the other orcs before I'm overwhelmed. The snaga remains asleep through all this.
I kill the snaga and quaff one of the gray potions. It confuses me, and I rest until I see a badly injured orc return. 'Forgot about him. The confusion wears off as he approaches and then something 'touches me'. I read a ?detect invisible and kill a glutton ghost and the orc and gain level 11 and gain 3HP to 133.
Not encountering anything else except stairs I descend.
DL10
I come to a room with GrishnĂ*kh and his guard. This is a little ambitious, but I'm feeling spunky.
I decide to check the areas around the room first, before recklessly attacking the hoarde head first, but I hit a teleport trap. I explore the map some more and come across 4 shimmering potions. Mmm, cure critical wounds. I kill some more things, such as an elven warrior who I need to finish off blind after sending him fleeing and then stumbling upon a trap.
I eventually make my way back towards the orcs after picking up a second wand of stunning (first one I id'd on a rat before meeting the guardian naga). As I approach the room a hill orc comes towards me in a nearby room and I change course to map out some other surrounding rooms and passageways before waiting for him to catch me.
He approaches me in a passageway alone and dies easily enough. I continue to map out nearby areas and come upon a Brigand who steals my potion of speed. I kill a raven and nearly kill an illusionist, at which point another hill orc comes behind me and the fleeing, nearly dead illusionist conjures up weird things and I am confused. I attack the orc, confused, and my head clears after a couple rounds and he dies. The illusionist returns, quickly dies, and I am welcomed to level 12 and 149hp.
A couple steps further along a special alternating corridor/room near the teleport trap I find a (+4, +5) spear on the ground, good for 35.4 dpr, compared to 20.6 for the gauche. Some soldiers come for me and I kill them. One drops 5 metallic red potions and as I suspect it's cure serious wounds, at which point the brigand returns, doesn't enjoy my spear and I take back what's mine. The 'alternating corridor' room is surrounded by a rectangle corridor. I approach a black mamba and 'something mutters.'
I return to the orc room and as I do a lone snaga meets my spear. The wolves here are very clever. As I move away from the room they disappear, but then they rush in from the other side and suddenly I'm surrounded. I was not expecting this.
One of the wolves is almost dead, and since they have much fewer hitpoints than the orcs I try to take them out first. It works great, and I am able to retreat into a passageway nearly unscathed. The many connecting passageways here means it will be very hard not to get 'burned' at both ends by the hoard.
I'm thinking my best bet is to scoot up, across the room above me into the hallway. As I cross the lit room I see GrishĂ*kh only four orcs behind me in a line.
I stop where I think ?phasing will be most strategic and then I engage in battle.
Two hill orcs fall easily and I gain level 13. Two more fall and now one square of floor separates me from GrishnĂ*kh. I'm at 131/165hp. I could !speed, which seems like a bad idea as I only have one. Or I could !CLW, but I only have seven of them. I could do... nothing and see how it goes first. I decide to wait for him to approach and then engage. I'm about to hit the 5 key, but, wait! Perfect time to use my wand of stun! Or my staff of confuse. I always forget to use these things. I decide to _Confuse since there is a whole line of baddies in the hallway. I have two charges remaining and 13 stun charges. GrishnĂ*kh still hasn't advanced so time to stun! Wow, it works! He takes me to 65 health, but I slay him in the end without needing to heal or phase. I kill a wolf, a hill orc, put on a pair of ethereal slippers [0, +5] GrishĂ*kh dropped and now my health is at 53.
I'm a little nervous about running away to regenerate as I might run into something nasty, though I'd be running in a direction I've already explored (which was the whole point of exploring the map before taking on the orcs, and maybe to find some gear, too). I run west and stop at 90hp in a good, strategic position. I am now 23 North and 46 west of the original entrance to the orc room.
I kill the pursuing orc who drops a lantern, but, oddly, no one else comes. My only guess is that the wolves retreated and blocked the orcs. I rest up before returning to kill the rest of them. I soon meet one lone wolf, but there is only one orc and three snagas left and they are all still in the original orc room. I waste them and wander back over to the 'alternating corridor' room where 'something mutters' and 'tries to cast a spell, but fails' and mutters some more as I blaze new ground eastward. I come to a dead end at a small room with cave and hill orcs and no extra care is needed now; I just waltz in and slaughter them, and gain level 14. I return to where I heard muttering and suddenly 'you hit something.' 'You have killed it.' Beneath my feet I'm very happy to find 18 rounded pebbles (+7, +10) (??).
I head south to new territory and Grima Wormtongue poisons me. I don't really have enough AC to take him on and I'm not sure I really want to throw these pebbles at him. Though I suppose I'm doing enough damage to take him. I continue exploring the map and he touches me, I protect my money pouch, he makes obscene gestures and disappears in a puff of smoke.
I wander around, still discovering new areas to the map and find (+4, +4) [-17] ring of reckless attacks which I wear. I stumble on a blinding trap in a small + shaped room with a cubby in the center. I go into the cubby blind, feel a long bow and equip it. I come out and someone touches me and my purse feels lighter.
I've just about explored the entire level, so I read an unID'd scroll of light and walk into a trap door.
Stay tuned for the next update soon!
I'm rolling up an H/T Warrior again, since it's my favorite combo. This time I've added 4 points to CON, 8 points to DEX and 8 points to STR. Disconnected stairs and start with no useful gear.
There are 8 potions of speed in the black market. I could buy one or two. If two, I'll have 165 gold left over for ?phase etc. I think I should only buy one or none.
I kill a singing-happy drunk who drops me 24 gold pieces and I buy:
a shield [5, +1] for 36gp
Gauntlets [3, +0] for 6gp
Potion of Speed for 225gp
1 ration of food for 3gp
17 scrolls of Phase door
2 potions of cure light wounds
DL1
I descend into the dungeon and down a short corridor into an oval room where I pick up a main gauche, two scrolls, 5 potions of cure light wounds and a flask of oil. I kill a white worm mass and lament my decision to buy the whip (I had considered not buying any weapon since an H/T Warrior can do fine with his fists until he finds a suitable weapon). I leave the room and right away come upon the down stairs and I take them.
DL2
I don't go very far when I find a scroll and read it. Deep Descent, which takes my @ to level 2. Marvelous start. Actually, really good to get deep descent early, rather than later as a half troll warrior, although ideally after gaining at least a couple levels first. I now read one of the other two scrolls which is Blessing. The floor opens beneath you...
DL7
...and I suddenly notice I haven't put on any of my armor. I follow my nose to a black dragon fly and kill him in two rounds before the blessing wears off. Welcome to level 3. Welcome to level 4. My max HP is now 59.
I come to an illuminated rectangle room surrounded by corridors. I go right and blunder into a night lizard. It dies in one round. Welcome to Level 5 and 6. I'm at 20hp of 84. I walk around the room to regenerate the newly gained HP since I haven't rested yet and come to the door of the room on the opposite side, when a kobold shaman bursts through it... and dies. He drops me a torch. I kill 2 green kobolds inside the checkered room and another night lizard and gain level 7 (94hp) I continue exploring the room, kill a black harpy and stumble upon a spiked pit and drop to 26hp when a kobold archer shows up. I whack him, but he survives and then hits me, taking me to 21hp. Fortunately he dies before getting to attack again. I'm a little nervous about my low health and all the awake critters coming out of the woodwork and decide to backtrack, killing two blue wormmasses on the way back to the first room entrance and encounter nothing more in the room upon further inspection.
A passageway takes me to an oval room where I kill 3 acolytes and learn a staff of confuse monsters on them. I learn !heroism, ?Blindness, and ?satisfy hunger, and have two remaining.
A soldier and a couple cutpurses take me to level 8 and I learn !sleep.
I kill a dark elf and find soft leather armor [8, +5] (??)
So far I've given a complete account of everything I've done so far, and all the monsters I've killed, but obviously I will not be able to maintain this level of detail. In a short time I've already become comfortable to the depth I rapidly found myself at. The stairs are near where I came into the level, but I'll explore a little more as it has a 3 treasure feeling.
Sweet, I find a lantern. I avoid a silver jelly that will rob my light of oil. I find another downstairs so I take it.
DL8
a 4-2 level and I soon find a cap of regeneration [2, +1] I kill some more things, learn ?detect invisible and !neutralize poison and reach level 9 and hit the stairs.
DL9
I am perhaps being careless. I fail to disable a summon foe trap and I get a guardian naga, native to DL15. She's too strong for me but I try anyway. It's at first going okay but then she crushes me and I'm suddenly at 28hp, so I ?phase and heal up with a staff of cure light wounds.
The naga catches up to me faster than I expect, even though I move away from where we were fighting after I ?phased. No matter, she's on me again and she's missing a lot but I'm not doing much damage either, but then I get a graze, and decide to ?phase. She's at half health, and I heal up to 108/111 with my staff and then engage her again.
It's going well, and looks like I'm gonna get her, despite her erratic movements causing me to.. umm.. miss literally, as in step where she was standing. She crushes me again and suddenly I'm down to 15hp.
Naga's health bar
I ?phase, _CLW, ?bless, use up the last two charges of _CLW and wait. I finally send her fleeing and give chase. She brings me to 45 health before dying, and to level 10 (130hp).
I rest up a little and then continue to a room with three gray potions, a healer, 4 cave orcs, a snaga and a gallant. I sneak up to the healer and kill him in one round, and then move to the cave orcs. I damage each one just enough that as one wakes, another falls or flees. The gallant is then on me, and fortunately he dies in just two blows, allowing me to finish off the other orcs before I'm overwhelmed. The snaga remains asleep through all this.
I kill the snaga and quaff one of the gray potions. It confuses me, and I rest until I see a badly injured orc return. 'Forgot about him. The confusion wears off as he approaches and then something 'touches me'. I read a ?detect invisible and kill a glutton ghost and the orc and gain level 11 and gain 3HP to 133.
Not encountering anything else except stairs I descend.
DL10
I come to a room with GrishnĂ*kh and his guard. This is a little ambitious, but I'm feeling spunky.
I decide to check the areas around the room first, before recklessly attacking the hoarde head first, but I hit a teleport trap. I explore the map some more and come across 4 shimmering potions. Mmm, cure critical wounds. I kill some more things, such as an elven warrior who I need to finish off blind after sending him fleeing and then stumbling upon a trap.
I eventually make my way back towards the orcs after picking up a second wand of stunning (first one I id'd on a rat before meeting the guardian naga). As I approach the room a hill orc comes towards me in a nearby room and I change course to map out some other surrounding rooms and passageways before waiting for him to catch me.
He approaches me in a passageway alone and dies easily enough. I continue to map out nearby areas and come upon a Brigand who steals my potion of speed. I kill a raven and nearly kill an illusionist, at which point another hill orc comes behind me and the fleeing, nearly dead illusionist conjures up weird things and I am confused. I attack the orc, confused, and my head clears after a couple rounds and he dies. The illusionist returns, quickly dies, and I am welcomed to level 12 and 149hp.
A couple steps further along a special alternating corridor/room near the teleport trap I find a (+4, +5) spear on the ground, good for 35.4 dpr, compared to 20.6 for the gauche. Some soldiers come for me and I kill them. One drops 5 metallic red potions and as I suspect it's cure serious wounds, at which point the brigand returns, doesn't enjoy my spear and I take back what's mine. The 'alternating corridor' room is surrounded by a rectangle corridor. I approach a black mamba and 'something mutters.'
I return to the orc room and as I do a lone snaga meets my spear. The wolves here are very clever. As I move away from the room they disappear, but then they rush in from the other side and suddenly I'm surrounded. I was not expecting this.
One of the wolves is almost dead, and since they have much fewer hitpoints than the orcs I try to take them out first. It works great, and I am able to retreat into a passageway nearly unscathed. The many connecting passageways here means it will be very hard not to get 'burned' at both ends by the hoard.
I'm thinking my best bet is to scoot up, across the room above me into the hallway. As I cross the lit room I see GrishĂ*kh only four orcs behind me in a line.
I stop where I think ?phasing will be most strategic and then I engage in battle.
Two hill orcs fall easily and I gain level 13. Two more fall and now one square of floor separates me from GrishnĂ*kh. I'm at 131/165hp. I could !speed, which seems like a bad idea as I only have one. Or I could !CLW, but I only have seven of them. I could do... nothing and see how it goes first. I decide to wait for him to approach and then engage. I'm about to hit the 5 key, but, wait! Perfect time to use my wand of stun! Or my staff of confuse. I always forget to use these things. I decide to _Confuse since there is a whole line of baddies in the hallway. I have two charges remaining and 13 stun charges. GrishnĂ*kh still hasn't advanced so time to stun! Wow, it works! He takes me to 65 health, but I slay him in the end without needing to heal or phase. I kill a wolf, a hill orc, put on a pair of ethereal slippers [0, +5] GrishĂ*kh dropped and now my health is at 53.
I'm a little nervous about running away to regenerate as I might run into something nasty, though I'd be running in a direction I've already explored (which was the whole point of exploring the map before taking on the orcs, and maybe to find some gear, too). I run west and stop at 90hp in a good, strategic position. I am now 23 North and 46 west of the original entrance to the orc room.
I kill the pursuing orc who drops a lantern, but, oddly, no one else comes. My only guess is that the wolves retreated and blocked the orcs. I rest up before returning to kill the rest of them. I soon meet one lone wolf, but there is only one orc and three snagas left and they are all still in the original orc room. I waste them and wander back over to the 'alternating corridor' room where 'something mutters' and 'tries to cast a spell, but fails' and mutters some more as I blaze new ground eastward. I come to a dead end at a small room with cave and hill orcs and no extra care is needed now; I just waltz in and slaughter them, and gain level 14. I return to where I heard muttering and suddenly 'you hit something.' 'You have killed it.' Beneath my feet I'm very happy to find 18 rounded pebbles (+7, +10) (??).
I head south to new territory and Grima Wormtongue poisons me. I don't really have enough AC to take him on and I'm not sure I really want to throw these pebbles at him. Though I suppose I'm doing enough damage to take him. I continue exploring the map and he touches me, I protect my money pouch, he makes obscene gestures and disappears in a puff of smoke.
I wander around, still discovering new areas to the map and find (+4, +4) [-17] ring of reckless attacks which I wear. I stumble on a blinding trap in a small + shaped room with a cubby in the center. I go into the cubby blind, feel a long bow and equip it. I come out and someone touches me and my purse feels lighter.
I've just about explored the entire level, so I read an unID'd scroll of light and walk into a trap door.
Stay tuned for the next update soon!
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