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

[Sky]

i was getting ready to boast of three wins in a row, when i lost a CL35+ half orc paladin to the Learnean Hydra massively OOD at DL36, then a dunedain mage CL33 to a breather, then a human rogue at CL29 discovered that gorgimaeras can paralize, and i thought "heck, only overpowered class-race combinations can win this blasted game", and thus i present you with:

Taurgan - the level 1 half-orc rogue.

this will be a mana-less build, with 18/20 STR, 10 INT, 7 WIS, 18/20 DEX, 10 CON, by putting 12 points into STR and 8 into DEX.

I've previously had success with doing 6 STR 6 DEX 2 INT and 6 CON, which gives me Identify around CL19~20 (normally CL18). And as i was running a paladin - a class which i profoundly detest - i was dreading the thought of making a dunedain and needing to grind endlessly for XP, so i decided on a half orc for the STR bonus. And why not, it's not like the paladin can rely consistently on spells during the early levels. SO, instead i played it as a somewhat weaker warrior.

This rogue will be an experiment, following the previous - 2.7 blows starting , will invest heavily in potions of brawn and nimbleness, and no mana at all until .. not sure, but it will be a while.


In Town: i buy 4 !Ph, 6 CLW, 1 CSW, 2 extra food and 2 extra torches. I briefly contemplate selling my Mage1.

there will be grinding.


DL1

i find and kill Fang, which immediately bumps me up to CL4, 43hp, 0sp. I also in the same room find a sling +2,+1.

I now could go down, but i want to ID first !Spd and ?DD, the first to use for any Uniques, and the latter to avoid getting dived when i'm around DL10 or so, still underlevelled.

It's grinding time; i run DL1 twice and ID !blind, !pois, DD, Spd (by selling, and i then buy it back), and i find a new sling +3,+4 and a dagger +4,+4.

I hit CL5 and a streak of luck brings me to 58hp, 1sp. I find a Sling of Accuracy, not the best ever at +15,+6 but still decent, and decide to look for stairs.

[Sky]

DL2 - i find another DD and decide to read it

DL7

i kill some acolytes and reach CL6, 63hp, 2sp, then kill some kobolds for CL7, 71hp, 3sp, then a grape jelly for CL8, 76hp, 3sp. Luck has run out.

DL8

i find right away a lantern just sitting on the ground, and i kill a couple harmless mobs for CL9, 86hp, 4sp and learn Light Area.
I then find a single Red Worm Mass and kill it for CL9, CL10, CL11, CL12, and CL13 (it wouldn't die, what can i say), 112hp, 7sp.

I find a bundle of 5 potions, which obviously are !Conf. This really should be avoided, because when it's a whole bunch of potions, like 4 or 5 or 6, it's always a bad potion.

DL9

i discover my dagger is Slay Dragon, and squelch all normal weapons. A cutpurse kindly drops me some gloves of FA, which too hard for the game to drop to my previous rogue, uh?

DL10

i ID some more stuff, and recall to sell my first (tiny) haul.
Or not; as apparently something along the road burned my one ?Recall.

Oh well, i'm a rogue, i got Detect Stairs. Shouldn't take me long.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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]

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]

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.

[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]

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]

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

[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.