The less-than-glorious adventures of the cowardly rogue Taurgan

[geoff_tewierik]

Interesting, Pike was snuffed by a elf pit last night too. I think it was the first time I'd seen one.

[Pete Mack]

Yeah. You could have had double rpois at your level, if you were lucky with the high fail rate. Going into a fight with a mass of summoners, full buffing (Including resists) is a good idea.
Since you are now diving relatively fast, it might be worth investing in a bit more CON at the beginning. Yes, it'll cost in early melee, but that is what magic devices and arrows are for.

[Sky]

i had ESP on my pike ...

i don't think rPois would have helped. I had about 160hp at the time and the drolem would likely have taken them all even with the resist.

[Grotug]

I see, but you didn't have rPois at the time? Seemed like that rPois weapon you found was decent.

[Sky]

the elves are difficult, but not deadly. i knew i would have to burn through some consumables, but i had 36 CCW, 7 !Spd, 4 mushrooms of clear mind, and i was ready to use them.
Neither the enchantress nor the drolem were there at the beginning. Something summoned the enchantress, and then she summoned the drolem. When i got breathed on, i had not seen it at all.

[Grotug]

DL32

DL34

a potion of STR, LF 4-6. A rod of drain life and an un-ID staff .. not sure what is affecting the LF.

A rod of Drain Life is probably native to DL70ish and certainly OOD on DL34.

So your game is a good example of why I play HT Warrior; I'd probably have had the CON to survive the drolem breath since you did have rPois (or did you?) Were you not using the rPois weapon you found as a swap from the Telepathy when killing dangerous things like Dark Elven Sorcerers or Enchantresses?

[Sky]

DL39

an elf pit. i decide to clear it, and it costs me 2 !Heal... 1 !Spd .. several CCW ..

so, what happens is this:

somewhere during my clearing stuff, a chain of summons (likely through a elven druid) winds up summoning an enchantress; the enchantress manages to summon a drolem.

you know the rest.

[Sky]

DL36

i take a few steps and see the LF as 4-3. I walk into a trapdoor.

DL37

Lorgan tries to engage me but i know better.
i wander around teh dungeon a bit (LF 5-3) and see a bunch of Mumaks, which will be next level up.
CL31, 292hp, 25sp. Not exactly "reliable teleport others".

meanwhile i made some cornbread muffins; they are just like corn muffins, but savoury instead of sweet.

DL38

a Colossus, which i accidentally melee, nearly dying. LF 5-3.

DL39 (after recall)

Omens of death!

From Detect Objects, i can see two vaults. When the LF returns as 9-8, i queff !Enlightment and see that it's a special room and a GV, the really big one that is completely open inside, and possibly the hardest one to clear, even for a high level character. For me, impossible.
That doesn't mean i won't try ..

For now, i explore the rest of the level, see if i can level up, as now my TO is at 50% fail.

Well, Ungoliant is in the vault, along with a whoole lot of stuff i can't take on. As i have found a new scroll, i move to the end of the vault to test if *fingers crossed* it's Mass Banishment, but instead of MBan it turns out to be *Destruction*. I just destroyed whatever of value was inside this vault, AND used a potion of enlightment to do so.

Time to recall.

[Sky]

DL32

i barely explore a quarter of the level, LF 5-2.

DL33

i kill Draebor, The Imp who drops me this very underwhelming artifact:

The Set Of Gauntlets of Andol [3,+12]

FA, sDig.

The LF here is 6-5, and although i find a tiny vault, there's nothing in it. It's possibly this new potion i found ..
I briefly start a fight with Uldor, The Accursed, but i try to ID a staff on him and it's a staff of haste monsters, so i bail out.

At least the BM has a potion of DEX, which brings me form 18/70 aaaaall the way to 18/101.

DL33 again

a potion of STR, lance of extra attacks (LF 4-5), not much else.

DL33

We start with a LF 9- which likely means a greater vault. Greater Vaults at this depth are great, the OOD stuff isn't terribly dangerous .. even though i don't have TO yet.
Yup, it's a GV allright. There's a Great Wyrm of Many Colours and a Skull Druji in it, both would need to be TO away.

Anyway .. i clear the rest of the level. The GV is one of those spiral inside square thingies, and i do not have TO. I know i can clear the first 2 external spirals so i do that, and a mindflyers drops me this:

The Scimitar 'Sarnar'

+3 Infra, slay troll, dragons, undead
cold brand, rFire rCold rPois. FA.

not bad and it almost triples my damage, but i would lose ESP.

I decide against committing suicide and recall.

DL33 again

nothing interesting.

DL34

a potion of STR, LF 4-6. A rod of drain life and an un-ID staff .. not sure what is affecting the LF.

DL35

i kill Smeagol for some branded bolts.

DL36

likely a defender weapon, LF 4-5. i recall to sell.

[Sky]

DL26

i kill Azog and Shagrat, and receive nothing for my efforts, but further in the dungeon i find:

The Amulet of Amalduath

+3 STR, rFire rDark rPois, FA sDige sDEX.

which would be my 4th source of rDark, but will likely be slotted in later on when i need rPoison.

i leave with a ton of generic drops, ID some more stuff, and the recall.

DL26

i find a scroll of Teleport Level

DL27

Level Feeling 7-4. I go down.

DL28

LF 3-4, yet i find a Blue Dragon Scale Mail of Stealth +2, which solves the problem of my encumberanc epenalty to mana; i go from 11sp to 23sp with not much of a dent in my AC, now at 110. I'm at 50k gold, but the BM doesnt have anything useful.

DL28

special room, where i kill Ulfast, Son of Ulfang, no drops. I have to fight a colbran that does as colbrans do and breaks my rod of mapping. Well, you don't need mapping when you got tunnelling.

DL29

LF 4-1.

DL30

another colbran and another 4-1. I got some potions i want to ID.

They turn out to be !toughness and !nimbleness, and i drink the latter, losing 1 point of INT and gaining 1 point DEX; i also buy a ring of strength +5 from the BM bringing my adjusted stats to: 18/175 STR, 12 INT, 6 WIS, 18/70 DEX, 10 CON. It's gonna take a looong time to raise that CON up to decent levels.

DL30

LF 4-2, i get ready to leave. My pike still does only 117 vs orcs and 78 vs others, it's not like i'm really ready for DL40.

DL31

i kill a sleeping Golfimbul and right next to him Bullroarer (that hobbit was always hanging out with the wrong crowd) and i get no drops. I also kill a basilisk without talking too much damage, but then i see the LF is 5-4, despite a special room. As i am about to leave, i spot Gorbag, The Orc Captain, who is more generous with his drop, and lets me have his rapier:

The Rapier of Calrondel 3d6 +10,+10 (167 dps)

+1 STR, pConf. A: phase

not exactly the best artifact ever, but pConf will likely be my next slot-in when i find another source of ESP ..

DL32

LF 4-5, which i immediately find out is a Plate of Resistance, which i go sell for a whopping 9k gold. Ok, so it's not really that much, but DL32 is relatively harmless when you got decent gear.

DL32

tired, getting ready for bed. LF 7-6, and a small vault. Inside i kill a neflashee, some adult dragons, and other non-dangerous stuff, and make away with some sellable drops. I also have a set of seeker arrows of slay evil and i learn some more brands. Finally, i sell a scale mail of resistance for 11k gold, and wear a shield of elvenkind (rNether).

CL28, 261hp, 22sp. time for bed.

[Sky]

DL19, DL20

i kill Grishnak at the same time as a 2-headed hydra, which isn't terribly difficult due to having a pretty darn good AC for my level, but i do have use a couple CCW.

DL21 LF7-5

a special room. i clear it easily, only a couple minor mobs. not sure either what the 7- is, so, either there's another vault, or it's a single grossly OOD monster somewhere on the level.

Or, you know .. a jelly pit. *sigh*

Ok, the pit yields the Phial of Someguy, which does +3 light and rDark, so now i have 3 sources of rDark.

Killing stuff i reached CL24, 230hp, 17sp.

in town, i ID my first potion of brawn. It eats one of my WIS points, but the payoff is +2.9 points of STR.
I now do 89 dps with the pike, and would do 115 with the shovel. AND i can tunnel with the pike, as well.

DL21 i see Bolg, Son Of Azog, who is fretting for an ass-whopping. He drops me a simple chain mail that cuts my mana in half.

DL22

LF 5-1, and a bunch of hummerhorns everywhere, so i leave.

DL23

a bunch of illusionists and other minor stuff, but enough for CL25, 233hp and (for now) 9sp.

DL23

I find a ring of +3 INT which helps me finally cast Identify. LF 4-5, let's see what i can find.

Ok, so i first find Boldor and Orfax, and for some reason Boldor does not teleport away as he always does.

Boldor drops me

The Pendant of Ohtanglar

+2 DEX, +3 Stealth, rNexus, rAcid, rSound, rCold. A: mushroom of stoneskin.

While Orfax drops nothing. The level -5 feeling was probably a magical lochaberd axe.
I did say i was gonna invest in !Brawn, but since i'm doing quite well, i see no reason to, even though there are two of them in the BM. I also buy 1 !Heal and 1 *Heal.

DL23, DL24

i use another !brawn, just after saying i wouldn't. I lose a point of INT and my STR climbs to 18/145.
I don't stay long as i find enough loot and also there is the biggest swarm of blink dogs ever and i don't want to spend 20 minutes trying to kill them. Seriously, like 15+ blink dogs in one spot.

DL25, DL26

i kill Angmanite and his buddy, and Kim, Son Of Mim. On the next level, i kill Ibun, Son Of Mim. They drop just generic stuff, which however is worth 10k gold. After recall, i am now CL26, 242hp and 14sp - my SP value keeps going up and down due to armour penalties.

[Pete Mack]

ESP is a big deal. Use a keymap to make swapping easy. You can also inscribe it to forbid attacking, but it turns out not to be useful, as there are a lot of monsters that you just swat out of the way that you can attack with your swap. But usually it's the shovel you inscribe this way...

[Sky]

after recall, i find that the very last drop i picked up is a pike +2 ..must be Slay ... something? Animals? Demons? Fish? It's +2 Dex so ... slay giant? Nope, it's Slay Orc.

Anyway, it's got ESP, but i only do 33 damage base. It's HALF as much as the shovel, and at this stage i'm not sure it's worth it. I will try carrying it as a swap, but dang, its 16 Lbs.

DL17

a generic 4-2 level. I do find a "mysterious" cloak (rShards, and a whopping +16 AC). I kill a troll and reach CL19, and then i kill one or more Giant Fleas that at my CL are worth 3.1 XP each, thus reaching CL20 .. ermm .. i mean CL21, at the cost of 5 CLW and 10 CSW, and a few seconds of holding a key. Pls nerf.

DL18, CL21, 196hp, 14sp, and Mugash right in front of me. I find a ring of strength +2 (more for the sustain than anything) and some generic junk.

DL19

orc pit, i clear it but no drops, so i explore a bit more. I kill some tarantulas at the cost of 2 CSW because they can easily deal 200hp of DoT poison.

I see Boldor at the edge of the screen and decide to end this run with him, but an Imp decides to Teleport Level on me.

recall.

[Sky]

DL14 (i must have missed a level somewhere)

An armor [16,+0] {??} totally not cursed.

DL15

Ochre jelly that doesn't move, seen this before. Level Feeling 4-6, let's go hunt.
Yup, it's a Potion of Intelligence. Called it.

DL16

Looking for some See Invisible now. Instead, i find Wormtongue, who kindly drops me a Shovel Of Digging 1d2 +7,+15 !! which bumps my damage up considerably and also allows me to dig granite.

DL17 and CL18, 156hp, 12sp. I recall to sell.
Recalling every second will slow down as i start finding egos but for now i need all the money i can find.

[Sky]

as i head back to town, i hit CL14, 128hp, 8sp.

.. ok, so. i'm at DL1 and i kill one miserable "small kobold" standing in my way, and he drops me:

The Leather Sandals 'Tharn' [1,+25]

where the AC bonus would be enough, but these give me +5 STR, +1 light, rDark (don't need it, i'm a half-orc) and Detect Objects (again don't need it, i'm a rogue), plus something still not ID.

Farmer Maggot kindly drops me a magical weapon that i don't need, and i sell it.

I let curiosity get the best of me and i buy 4 ID scrolls from the Black Market, and i discover the above artifact has pFear, rCold, rFire, Feather Falling, and at least 1 more.

I also ID Slay Evil from some arrows i picked up and some other minor things. I pick up several Recall, a ton of CSW (no CCW at the temple), and sell *some* of my CLW. I spend 1800 more in the BM to get 3 CCW, and prepare to go back down. I have 1000gp left.

DL10

i kindly murder Lagdulf The Snaga, who drops me a magical maul (1k GP), and ID mushrooms of Clear Mind.

DL11

i kill a night lizard and reach CL15, 137hp, 8sp. The level feeling is 2-5, so there's got to be something nice here, and i go look for it. I've way above the CL minimum for this depth, so i can pretty much zoom through the dungeon.

In the end it's a rod of mapping, which is good, but not amazing. I decide to recall to ID stuff just as soon as i go down the stairs.

Not much of interest in the loot bag, but i do go back down with 7000 gold.

DL12 - OMENS OF DEATH HAUNT THIS PLACE

So it's probably a jelly pit, level feeling 9. I celebrate by killing a lizard and reaching CL16, 146hp, 9sp (3 castings of Detect Objects).

The level feeling turn out to be 9-1. Now, if i was a warrior, and it was a kobold pit, i would totally go look for it. If it was a jelly pit and i was a Mage, i would also go look for it. But as i am both a rogue and a massive coward, i will leave.