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Vaulting ahead
77: 8-7: Main feature here is a huge vault, has Ungoliant, Glaurung, Ormithrax, Witch-King and Radagast in it. Glaurung is the first to come out, and a toe-to-toe goes surprisingly quickly in my favour. I’ll spare the details of the mass melee that follows, but he drops an MOD of extra attacks that looks tempting, but I leave it as a “later” decision and focus on opening the section with Ungoliant. I do so,, then back off to the entrance, letting critters come one by each, to be taken care of likewise. When Ungoliant comes, I TO her, and go about plunder and slaughter. This goes well until I open the section with Ormithrax, and something sends me away – next to Ungoliant, in a monster big room. Earthquake it is, to minimize summoning, and thus begins a lengthy, unremarkable battle where I use one restore mana and a healing potion – that’s it for consumables– to whittle her 13,000 hp. Nothing dropped, but can’t win ‘em all. I go back to the vault, and Ormithrax meets me halfway. This is a nasty tussle, but the standard wail-and-bail battle plan – phase/blink out, heal, get back into action – is successful. Clear out fifth compartment of vault. Now to think about last section. Witch-king and Radagast, side-by-each with a few maias, blue wizards, etc. Witch-king drains xp on touches, Radagast summons and disenchants. Not going to tackle both. Plan, then, is to bore into the wall near Witch-King and then TO him, then tackle Radagast in confined quarters where he can’t summon, and maybe use summed nasties as a buffer to allow me to blow up Radagast with Orbs (backed by potions of restore mana).
Ever hear the military phrase, that no plan survives first contact with the enemy? So here’s what actually happened. Yes, I TO’ed WitchKing. Then all hell broke loose, because something told me to come hither, which, in fact, dropped me outside the vault. That meant Radagast and his minons flowed out of the vault into a hallway. He summoned a chaos hound, among other things. Grand. Fighting hallucinated ain’t fun… Something in the mix sucks back XP, and hp, so I phase. I heal, and then an ishtar sends me to a parallel hallway, where a waiting Greater Balrog tries to fry my butt. I heal, kill the balrog, and go back to the melee. Something – a quydamnthing teleports me into a corner. A corner with the witch king, who promptly zaps me a level of XP. I figure I’ve already lost a level, have to drink a restore, so screw it, beat the stuffing out of Witch King. Yeah, I get drained a ton, but one potion brings it all back, and Witch King isn’t coming back. Heal, teleport, track down Radagast, who has obligingly run ahead of his support crew. He dies, A quick go-over his drops shows nothing of any great interest, save a blade of chaos of Gondolin, which does put out better damage than my main weapon. I ponder it, but the support crew comes: Ishtars and Maias. I do not know which of the support crew had it, but one of the Ishtars drops maybe the best armour I have seen in a long time: the red dragon scale armor of Nielegion. (+6,+2) [24,+25] +4 dex, +4 Con, +3 speed resist acid, cold, elec, fire, poison, light, sound, nexus, nether (woo!) and disenchantment, along with pfear and sustain. Oh, and if activated, sends 150-dam lightning balls (balls!) in every direction. Can you spell “endgame ready?”
Oh, and I haven’t cleared out the Radagast/Witch-king corner of the vault. Let’s heal and go do that, shall we? Bah! Chaos hound breathes. That forces a decision. I teleport out, wait, then go and nab the blade of chaos for the next invasion, which is blandly not noteworthy, as are the drops in the vault. I have decisions to make, about rings, weapons and the like. Depending on how I shuffle, I can be anywhere from 24 to 33 base speed, 259 to 377 sp, and ac 234 or 250. I keep the scimitar (opting for reduced damage) but retain 32 base speed, and resists in all but chaos and stun.
77: 8-7: Main feature here is a huge vault, has Ungoliant, Glaurung, Ormithrax, Witch-King and Radagast in it. Glaurung is the first to come out, and a toe-to-toe goes surprisingly quickly in my favour. I’ll spare the details of the mass melee that follows, but he drops an MOD of extra attacks that looks tempting, but I leave it as a “later” decision and focus on opening the section with Ungoliant. I do so,, then back off to the entrance, letting critters come one by each, to be taken care of likewise. When Ungoliant comes, I TO her, and go about plunder and slaughter. This goes well until I open the section with Ormithrax, and something sends me away – next to Ungoliant, in a monster big room. Earthquake it is, to minimize summoning, and thus begins a lengthy, unremarkable battle where I use one restore mana and a healing potion – that’s it for consumables– to whittle her 13,000 hp. Nothing dropped, but can’t win ‘em all. I go back to the vault, and Ormithrax meets me halfway. This is a nasty tussle, but the standard wail-and-bail battle plan – phase/blink out, heal, get back into action – is successful. Clear out fifth compartment of vault. Now to think about last section. Witch-king and Radagast, side-by-each with a few maias, blue wizards, etc. Witch-king drains xp on touches, Radagast summons and disenchants. Not going to tackle both. Plan, then, is to bore into the wall near Witch-King and then TO him, then tackle Radagast in confined quarters where he can’t summon, and maybe use summed nasties as a buffer to allow me to blow up Radagast with Orbs (backed by potions of restore mana).
Ever hear the military phrase, that no plan survives first contact with the enemy? So here’s what actually happened. Yes, I TO’ed WitchKing. Then all hell broke loose, because something told me to come hither, which, in fact, dropped me outside the vault. That meant Radagast and his minons flowed out of the vault into a hallway. He summoned a chaos hound, among other things. Grand. Fighting hallucinated ain’t fun… Something in the mix sucks back XP, and hp, so I phase. I heal, and then an ishtar sends me to a parallel hallway, where a waiting Greater Balrog tries to fry my butt. I heal, kill the balrog, and go back to the melee. Something – a quydamnthing teleports me into a corner. A corner with the witch king, who promptly zaps me a level of XP. I figure I’ve already lost a level, have to drink a restore, so screw it, beat the stuffing out of Witch King. Yeah, I get drained a ton, but one potion brings it all back, and Witch King isn’t coming back. Heal, teleport, track down Radagast, who has obligingly run ahead of his support crew. He dies, A quick go-over his drops shows nothing of any great interest, save a blade of chaos of Gondolin, which does put out better damage than my main weapon. I ponder it, but the support crew comes: Ishtars and Maias. I do not know which of the support crew had it, but one of the Ishtars drops maybe the best armour I have seen in a long time: the red dragon scale armor of Nielegion. (+6,+2) [24,+25] +4 dex, +4 Con, +3 speed resist acid, cold, elec, fire, poison, light, sound, nexus, nether (woo!) and disenchantment, along with pfear and sustain. Oh, and if activated, sends 150-dam lightning balls (balls!) in every direction. Can you spell “endgame ready?”
Oh, and I haven’t cleared out the Radagast/Witch-king corner of the vault. Let’s heal and go do that, shall we? Bah! Chaos hound breathes. That forces a decision. I teleport out, wait, then go and nab the blade of chaos for the next invasion, which is blandly not noteworthy, as are the drops in the vault. I have decisions to make, about rings, weapons and the like. Depending on how I shuffle, I can be anywhere from 24 to 33 base speed, 259 to 377 sp, and ac 234 or 250. I keep the scimitar (opting for reduced damage) but retain 32 base speed, and resists in all but chaos and stun.
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