Egoless ironman Hobbit Rogue

[PowerWyrm]

If you find "Weaponmastery will you swap it in for "Trickery?

Good luck!

In the end, you have to get at least +15 speed. Elven cloak is +1, trickery is usually +2 or +3, so you need a +11 or +12 ring to survive Morgoth. If you don't use trickery, you'll need a +14 ring. Not guaranteed, especially in an ironman game.

[PowerWyrm]

DL61: 5-5. Big pack of mumakil gets dispatched to reach CL39. And we kill Dwar and Waldern.

DL62: 7-5. Another hydra pit that we leave untouched.

DL63: 5-4. We find Kavlax, he breathes nexus and teleports us away. We go back and forget to recast Resistance... and after a frost breath we're left with 2/476 hps! We get out of LOS quickly, regroup and finish him off. I wonder if we can kill Eol, and indeed it works. Oh yes, since I dropped my ?PD now I start to waste my ?tele fat fingering the rest command... and we don't have many of these to waste. In fact, I'll soon be forced to drop another item if we find other mandatory items like MB8 or ?Mban, so those ?tele will probably have to go anyway... In fact I soon decide to drop them in favor of !restore mana, which will be needed later on when I'll have to recharge my wands during battle. Note to self: avoid meleeing stuff that can hit to confuse, since I don't have anything left to escape while confused. In fact, I decide to go back to the other side of the level and pick up _*destruction* and drop an empty dragon's flame wand to be sure to have a last escape button.

DL64: 6-6. Ji Indur Dawndeath spotted, and a skull vault. Some consumables detected, so I'll clear that vault. Green DSM replaces blue DSM (since I'd better have permanent rPois than just rElec...). Big problem: I get wrecked by a pack of time hounds on my way, and I have to use one of my recovery shrooms. Now I need to remember there's Glaurung and a couple of instagib nether breathing dracoliches awake somewhere on the level... In fact they're coming back so I leave the level immediately. Along the way, we've reached CL40.

DL65: 4-1 (!). Booooooring. I go kill Vargo, praying that he doesn't ruin too many flammable items, but that's it

DL66: 4-4. Another cavern level. There's an amulet of weaponmastery and Saruman... so I ditch the "resistance (can't dedicate one slot to that anymore, I'll have to get base resistance from the spell only) and pick up "weaponmastery. And I kill Saruman.

DL67: 7-7. A vault and a pit (golem). Chaos DSM sounds tempting, but not sure if it's worth it. I'll leave it behind.

DL68: 4-4. We kill a great swamp wyrm and reach CL41. We also kill Fundin and run from the Phoenix.

DL69: 5-3. We kill Castamir and find nothing interesting on the level.

DL70: 6-6. Tensers in a special room/vault. We need that for Greater recharging. We kill Lorgan for it and unfortunately we have to get rid of our amulet of weaponmastery. Seriously considered switching RoD for =CON, but at this point I still need the raw damage to kill stuff.

[PowerWyrm]

DL71: 5-6. Labyrinth level. I find nothing, I kill nothing (well the "6" level is in fact a squelched priest book).

DL72: 4-3. Another complete waste of time. We kill Quaker and continue on...

DL73: 6-6. Lesser diagonal vault... and there's a MHDSM inside! We have to get that... In a corner, I get ambushed by a greater draconic Q which summons wyrms. I teleport... to the other side of the level in a room with time hounds and of course teleporting again puts me back in the room with the wyrms. At this point, the only thing to do is to *des*, because teleport will simply put you in an endless loop between two places. Too bad, those wyrms were juicy exp We evacuate our frustration by killing Gorlim.

DL74: 6-4. P pit. We kill a few demons and dragons (but we now have to run from every unique) and reach CL42.

DL75: 6-4. Wand of annihilation from rubble (heh), otherwise nothing except a graveyard that we leave alone.

DL76: 5-4. Next...

DL77: 5-6. Potion room with 2 !exp. We reach CL43 There's another MHDSM, but we can't wear two, so we'll leave it behind

DL78: 5-3. We have a fun time killing a pack of chaos hounds, but that's it. Ah no, we also kill Khamul

DL79: 5-3. Some demon killing and potion gathering...

DL80: 4-3. Another lame level Just barely enough exp to reach CL44.

[PowerWyrm]

Ok this is not going well at all... I need GVs if I want to find big speed rings and a PDSM! I could theoretically win this with the wands I have and greater recharging spell, but probably not without the proper speed.

[Pete Mack]

Did you get the MHDSM, or did it get *destructed* along with the Q? (Clearly the Q wasn't in the vault.)

[Grotug]

DL73: 6-6. Lesser diagonal vault... and there's a MHDSM inside! We have to get that... In a corner, I get ambushed by a greater draconic Q which summons wyrms. I teleport... to the other side of the level in a room with time hounds and of course teleporting again puts me back in the room with the wyrms. At this point, the only thing to do is to *des*, because teleport will simply put you in an endless loop between two places. Too bad, those wyrms were juicy exp We evacuate our frustration by killing Gorlim.

I also had the impression you weren't able to grab the MHDSM and had to destruct it along with the the Q and wyrms.

Why couldn't you ?phase out of the vault, TO the some of the wyrms and kill the others? It would be great if you could post some videos of your play.

[Pete Mack]

@Grotug--the Q cannot have been in the vault, or the teleport wouldn't have put him back in the same room. (If it had been, then yes: ?phase would clearly be the right choice.)

[PowerWyrm]

The vault with the MHDSM was in the middle of the level at spawn point, so I was able to grab it. The Q was at bottom left and I teleported to top right then back to bottom left, so it was clear that next teleport would bring me back to top right because it's coded that way (too big distance).

[PowerWyrm]

DL81: 6-6. Ariel again... no idea how to kill her at this point (hit to confuse + resistant to almost everything -- I guess I would need some mushrooms of the clear mind, but they probably don't drop at this depth anymore). Small vault with one more wand of annihilation. Another MHDSM (same AC).

DL82: 5-3. Another filler level. Rod of drain life replaces fire bolts. I also get rid of frost bolts to keep a free inventory slot for utilities (enlightenment, mban...).

DL83: 5-4. Small vault with another wand of annihilation. We kill Draugluin and reach CL45. Maeglin summons wyrms: we teleport, *des* Maeglin and go back to kill the wyrms.

DL84: 5-5. Potion of Life... can't dedicate a slot for it, so we quaff it to restore some drained stats. Otherwise completely boring level.

DL85: 4-4. We kill some random stuff and get a shiny RoS+13. I drop my old RoS+8, hoping I'll get a better one before DL100. I skip a gelugon (last encounter with such demon destroyed too many precious heals to be worth the xp). I note that if I start to flee from everything, we're probably not gonna make it all the way to CL50, which could be problematic for high level spells like Greater Recharging. Tired of fleeing from Pazuzu, time for next level.

DL86: 5-4. More high level uniques we can't kill. We kill a few time hounds and reach CL46. We find !*enlightenment* and quaff it to check the level. We go kill Draebor that is on the level and some more stuff for xp. No items of value unfortunately...

DL87: 7-6. First "7" feeling in almost 20 levels! Considering that we got feeling "8" only twice and no "9", we're pretty much on a boring game... We'll have to pass on uniques again, but mapping/detecting reveals some unusual rooms with items. We kill Ar-Pharazon, clear some stuff, get some supplies (and another wand of annihilation in the process). We detect a pit in the distance... and it's an ainu pit! Nice... My only concern is that the whole titan family is on the level, and those blue wizards can teleport away. But that should be a great source of supplies and xp. Indeed we reach CL47.

DL88: 5-4. Glaurung. Was considering killing him, but he can hit to burn and breathe fire for 500+ so maybe not... Another potion of *enlightenment* to get full knowledge of the level. Nothing helpful, except more supplies.

DL89: 8-6. GV right off the bat. However, detection doesn't detect anything really useful (mostly weapons/armor). Leaving the vault alone, checking the rest of the level. There are two pits, but both are graveyards. We kill some stuff, get back to the vault, TO the whole balrog family and grab a few items (some of the regular armor parts are now enchanted above +20, which would be nice for our AC if they were not immediately ruined by acid attacks).

DL90: 5-8. LV in a corner. I start clearing it, TOing the phoenix and some GWoB, walking on a RoS , clearing more stuff, err wait what???

u) a Rhodonite Ring of Speed <+24>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 4500 feet (level 90)

+24 speed.

O_O

Just like that...
Hell yeah!!!

First thing first, I won't need those mushrooms of terror anymore. Now I could probably put on a ring of CON to be on the safe side, but I'll keep the old +13 RoS just in case...

[PowerWyrm]

I want to finish this as soon as I can, so here we go...

DL91: 5-4. I paste some demons and Medusa. Nothing else worth mentioning.

DL92: 7-5. Two minor vaults. Room full of ps. Checking =CON+4, and it only gives an extra 100 hps, not sure if it's worth it. Another ainu pit for more supplies (including =CON+5). Finally I decide to kill Glaurung, and he drops RoS that is not better than what we have Oh and we reach CL48.

DL93: 6-3. Just one pit on the level, but it's an ainu pit again, so we'll go clear it.

DL94: 8-7. Starting right outside... an ainu pit of course! I also discover one of those absurd GVs (Hellpit) after being TOed away by a blue wizard. Detecting only reveals WoG and some good but non essential stuff -- no PDSM for example Oh and there's Qzzqzzlup right in the middle of the big open area. We decide to go the other way and take stairs (after clearing the ainu pit of course)...

DL95: 7-7. Two vaults at spawn point. We detect WoG inside one... and Kelek's. We clear them just to squelch the two books (we learn Bedlam and cast it once first). And we find a better "trickery. We detect another pit... could it be? Yes, ANOTHER ainu pit lol. We clear it and reach CL49. This means 100% saving throw.

DL96: 7-7. More pits, this time a graveyard and a red D pit. We skip both (the second would have been nice, but not without immunity to fire).

DL97: 5-3. Except a few Ds and a !exp, nothing to report...

DL98: 4-6. Last level before the big fights. We kill Ariel (this time with speed and 236AC she's not confusing us). Feeling is a tensers and a weak RoS.

[PowerWyrm]

DL99: 6-6. Crown vault in a corner. We *des* most of the level, clear the vault, drop all our heavy stuff and prepare to face Sauron. We'll use our 22 wands of drain life with 94 charges against him. He doesn't know what hits him and soon finds himself dead.

At this point, I drop everything I won't need against Morgoth. This means: shooter + ammo, RoS+13 (I'll use the +5 CON just to stay safe if I make a mistake), extra book copies, extra wands and staves, "trickery (got enough speed). We'll use our 15 wands of annihilation with 36 (initial) charges against Morgoth.

Note: I was lucky to find a +24 RoS, but since I've also found a +13 and a +11, the only thing I get from it is an extra +5 CON (720 vs 597 hps). Would be perfectly fine to use 2 RoS instead.

[PowerWyrm]

DL100: 4-2. Perfect... a completely tame level. While waiting for Morgoth to show up, we kill some random stuff, get a !exp and finally reach CL50. We ditch our =dam and put on the =CON. 740 hps vs 615. And the fight starts...

Strategy:
- align Morgoth along an horizontal or vertical axis
- target him safely from out of LOS
- use annihilation
- phase and repeat
- avoid being caught in LOS and deal with 5% PD failures
- recharge -annihilation when empty with Greater Recharge (20% fail)
- note: we have 28 !restore mana, some scrolls for banishing and enough heals (30 normal/13 big) to allow some mistakes

The fight:
- we miss PD, Morgoth uses mana storm, we *heal* and phase, Morgoth at 80% health
- we miscalculate LOS, Morgoth summons Feagwath and Maeglin, we TO everybody and wait for Morgoth to come back, Morgoth at 70% health
- we miscalculate LOS, Morgoth summons Carcharoth and Gothmog, we TO everybody, Morgoth at 60% health
- initial charges are now depleted, we need to recharge our wands periodically
- we miss PD, Morgoth casts a nether ball, we heal and phase, Morgoth at 30% health
- we phase in LOS, Morgoth summons ringwraiths, we banish W
- we miscalculate LOS, Morgoth summons ringwraiths, we move out of LOS, wait for Morgoth, TO him away and *des* (since Maeglin comes back all the time and I'm tired of TOing him every time), Morgoth at 20% health
- we miscalculate LOS, Morgoth summons demons, we banish
- PD puts us away from our *des* zone, we use Create Doors to break LOS, Morgoth at 10% health, Morgoth sneers
- Morgoth scowls
- Morgoth bellows in rage
- Morgoth dies... and we gain the only two artifacts we're gonna see in this game

[Derakon]

Congratulations on the win! That's one hell of a challenge.

[Pete Mack]

Well done.

[MWGE]

That's remarkable. Well played.