The Diary of Pentaxis, Ironman Hobbit Mage

[Wanderlust]

This style of playing and keeping a diary was inspired by this thread by Moving Pictures. Thanks!

Pentaxis landed in the world of Angband 4.1.3 with randarts, ironman settings, and know all flavors on birth as a hobbit mage. 8 points went into STR and 6 points each into INT and CON. STR = 12, INT = 18/30, CON = 16. 7 HP, 2 SP. This is her diary.

L0. In town, I purchase a cloak, food, torches, a quiverful of 1d5 bolts, a copy each of the first 2 spell books, a wand of magic missiles, and a handful each of CLW potions and phase door scrolls. I learn my first spell: Magic Missile.

L1. 2-1. With no weapon, Magic Missile is my main attack. My first kill is a fruit bat, slain with a single magic missile. A large brown snake takes me to CL 2 (15 HP, 4 SP). I learn Detect Monsters and Phase Door. A small kobold takes me to CL 3 (18 HP, 6 SP) and I learn Light Area. I pick up a pair of [1,+0] leather sandals, doubling my AC.

L2. 2-?. I'm leveling up quickly now, gaining experience from kills and also from casting new spells. A large yellow snake falls to 3 magic missiles and brings me to CL 4 (26 HP, 8 SP). I learn Find Traps, Doors & Stairs, which now becomes part of my exploration ritual, along with Detect Monsters. A blubbering icky thing takes me to CL 5 (31 HP, 10 SP), and I learn Stinking Cloud and Confuse Monster. An acolyte takes me to CL 6 (39 HP, 11 SP); I learn Lightning Bolt. A [2,+0] wicker shield found on the floor doubles my AC again.

Grip, Farmer Maggot's dog, meets me in a large open room. 3 magic missiles and he's dead. In the room are two daggers: one is (+1,+5); the other is (+3,+2) with +1 wisdom and unknown runes. Both kind of useless, but I equip the second. At least I might learn a new rune. Just before leaving the level, a blubbering icky thing takes me to CL 7 (42 HP, 13 SP), and I learn Spear of Light, useful for preparing illuminated attack corridors.

L3. 2-1. At CL 7, I'm overpowered for this depth, but still exploring carefully in hope of collecting consumables for later, especially since I'm running low on food. Not much of use here, though. I swap my sandals for a pair of [2,+0] leather boots, which brings my AC to 5. A pack of cave spiders brings me to CL 8 (48 HP, 15 SP); I learn Disable Traps, Destroy Doors.

L4. 2-2. Fang is running around near my entry point here; like his brother, he loses his life to 3 magic missiles. I equip a (+5,+6) short bow found on the floor; too bad my quiver is full of bolts and pebbles only. There are 3 poltergeists haunting the area, they show me one of the runes on my dagger is slay undead.

A small team of soldiers and apprentices falls to a barrage of magic missiles, taking me to CL 9 (51 HP, 17 SP). I learn Cure Poison and Teleport Self. I find a pair of [1,+1] leather gloves of free action, but they're cursed with slow recovery and who knows what else. No good to wear them like this but I'll take them with me; maybe I can remove the curses later.

L5. 2-3. I'm running low on food, as I've only found a single ration since entering the dungeon. In a room near my entry point I kill a skeleton kobold and pick up a set of [8,+8] leather armor with unknown runes, raising my AC to 21. A blue jelly IDs the rune on my armor: resist cold.

In a room with a few snakes and kobolds, I find a lantern and achieve CL 10 (56 HP, 19 SP). I choose not to learn any spell in case I come across the third spell book which has the much-needed Satisfy Hunger spell.

L6. 2-3. There's only a single ration in my pack, so finding something to eat is my top priority right now. But as I'm fighting a group of gallants and scouts, I feel something touch me. I immediately read a scroll of Detect Invisible; it's a green glutton ghost and it eats my last ration before I can react. But the Great Goddess RNG provides. The next room is full of bats, eyes, icky things, snakes, and worms, and 4 rations on the floor.

Digging through rubble as I explore the last corner of this level, I find a pair of [1,+4] leather gloves of free action. I don this pair, discarding the cursed set. AC is now 26. As a final bonus, I find 23 (+8,+3) {??} arrows in an empty room. Now I have a decent non-magical ranged attack: these will do 23.2 average damage/round with my good short bow.

[Wanderlust]

L7. 9-1. Omens of death haunt this place, and it might have something to do with the ogre pit near my entry point: 20 ogres and 35 black ogres. Avoid. I earn CL 11 (61 HP, 20 SP) in battle with a small team of cave orcs and snagas in a small room, learning Hold Monster. Smeagol is here; I hit him with a magic missile and 2 charges from my wand of wonder, but he steals a few coins and disappears before taking any real damage.

L8. 3-?. I spot Wormtongue sleeping in a large room with a rat and a jelly. Unloading all 8 charges from my wand of wonder barely scratches him, but when I try my bow, I discover the arrows I'm carrying are arrows of venom that do 58 damage/round. 3 arrows ends Wormtongue's life. He drops a pair of cursed [1,+6] leather sandals of free action. They have chilled to the bone and other unknown runes. I decide to wear them anyway for at least a bit. A giant white dragon fly is my ticket to CL 12 (68 HP, 22 SP). I soon discover another curse on my sandals: poison.

Bullroarer the Hobbit meets me in a hallway. I try to get a little distance with phase door but my cursed sandals prevent me; they have teleportation ban to. Plan B: I blast him 5 times with magic missiles from close range; he scores a few hits before he dies, dropping a new pair of [1,+4] {??} leather sandals (for which I swap out the cursed ones) and a (+4,+5) {??} tulwar that doesn't seem worth the bother.

L9. 3-1. A mixed team of cave orcs, hill orcs, and snagas is waiting near my entry point. Killing them takes me to CL 13 (69 HP, 24 SP); I learn Frost Bolt. I meet Smeagol again; this time I hit him with 7 frost bolts, 2 arrows of venom, and 5 magic missiles, which finally kill him. He drops only a scroll of treasure detection, which I add to my pack.

L10. 3-2. Grishnakh is camped out near my entry point with 11 snagas and 8 hill orcs. Engaging his party takes me to CL 14 (77 HP, 26 SP). 4 arrows of venom and 2 frost bolts take care of Grishnakh, who drops only a useless war hammer, but takes me to CL 15 (85 HP, 28 SP). I pick up a [+12] ring of protection, which raises my AC to 41. Just for the heck of it, I learn Wonder before going down the stairs, thus completing my knowledge of the book Conjurings and Tricks.

L11. 3-2. Wandering around, I pick up some junk: an amulet of resist acid {??}; a main gauche (+6,+10) {??} to replace the dagger I found on L2; and a ring of the mouse (0,-11) <+4,+2>, which raises my stealth rating to "excellent".

L12. 3-3. A small band of black orcs and snagas takes me to CL 16 (91 HP, 29 SP). My frost bolt spell is now down to 5% fail chance, my maximum level of mastery at this point, so frost bolt becomes my main attack. I find a long bow of power (x3) (+3,+15); my arrows of venom now do 62.1/124.2 damage/round. Finding a stack of Identify Rune scrolls, I learn my sandals are slow descent. With 12 STR, I can't carry too much. My main gauche is useless anyway, so I drop it to lighten my load by 3 lb.

[Pete Mack]

I dunno about dropping that dagger. Did it have See Invisible? That is hugely important.

[Grotug]

I'll give you my +4 INT Bastard Sword of Bregol for your main gauche. Ohh... nevermind, I forgot my Half-Troll Warrior died to a poison attack by a 7 headed hydra.

[Wanderlust]

I dunno about dropping that dagger. Did it have See Invisible? That is hugely important.

Good point! I hadn't considered that, because I just assumed that if I couldn't immediately detect the effect of the rune, then it couldn't be very important for a non-melee @. Now I see dropping the dagger was a mistake ... one of many, I'm sure.

[Wanderlust]

L13. 3-?. A cave bear takes me to CL 17 (94 HP, 31 SP). There's a staff of mapping in the bear's room, so I drop my shield to carry it without a speed penalty. I could really use a little more STR at this point, 12 just isn't cutting it.

Golfimbul and Lagduf are both here, with teams of hill orcs and snagas respectively. Golfimbul falls to 3 arrows (sadly, he resists venom) and 4 magic missiles, dropping a spear of slay demon (useless to me), a heavy crossbow of power <+4> (+10,+17) which is tempting but it weighs 20 lb so no, and a long bow of accuracy (+15,+10) which might be an interesting alternative to the long bow of power I'm wielding now, considering how I seem to miss as many times as I hit. Well, there's no substitute for experience, so I trade bows just to find out which one is better. I test it out on the remains of Golfimbul's hill orc team and the bow of accuracy hits a lot so I keep it. The hill orcs drop a ring of lightning [+8] which I swap for my ring of protection, which drops my AC down to 35, but in compensation it gives me an 85-damage ball attack.

Lagduf falls to 2 arrows of venom and 3 magic missiles, dropping only a useless cutlass, but one of his snagas drops what I'm sure must be a lantern of true sight, since it grants pBlnd and see invisible, the latter especially very welcome right now.

L14. 3-2. I kill a whole row of cave orcs in a hallway with 2 spears of light, and they drop an amulet of infravision <+1>, which I choose to wear instead of my amulet of resist acid. Fighting cave orcs, I gain CL 18 (99 HP, 33 SP).

On the floor in a chessboard room, I find a copy of Incantations and Illusions, the 3rd spell book. I learn Satisfy Hunger, Turn Stone to Mud, Polymorph Other, Identify Rune, and Slow Monster.

L15. 3-4. I reach CL 19 (102 HP, 35 SP) while fighting Orfax, son of Boldor's yeek entourage. I hit Orfax with 4 frost bolts and he dies, dropping a See Invisible scroll and a pair of boots, neither of which interest me.

L16. 3-3. I wander around, learn Fire Bolt, and go down the stairs.

L17. 3-1. A small pack of light hounds bring me to CL 20 (109 HP, 37 SP). I spot Nar the Dwarf sleeping in a large room with various dungeon vermin. He wakes up at an awkward moment and I teleport—landing right next to Ulfast, son of Ulfang and a small team of easterling warriors. 10 frost bolts kill Ulfast, who drops a set of gauntlets of agility [3,+10] <+2>. Nice, but I'm sure the gloves of free action I'm wearing are better.

I find a leather shield of resist fire [8,+4] and equip it. To manage the weight I drop my 4th copy of Magic for Beginners and all my remaining phase door scrolls.

Fighting a nest of forest trolls, I reach CL 21 (114 HP, 38 SP). Before leaving the level, I re-engage with Nar, but I quickly realize I can't seem to damage him fast enough to kill him before he heals himself. I teleport away and hope to meet Nar again later, when I have more power.

L18. 3-?. On the floor I find a ring of the mouse (0,-11) <+1,+4> and wear it as an upgrade, discarding my old ring of the mouse. This improves my stealth rating to "superb". A cutpurse drops a robe of resist cold [2,+7] and I take it as a swap over my leather armor of resist cold, which drops my AC 6 points to 37, but also frees up 6 lb of carry capacity.

I spot Brodda the Easterling squatting in a corner and dispatch him with 6 frost bolts. He drops a pair of steel shod boots [7,+5] but they're heavy and I don't really need AC.

L19. 4-2. A team of black ogres takes me to CL 22 (120 HP, 40 SP). My fire bolt is now down to 6% fail rate, ready to use. I learn Reveal Monsters, which I'll begin using, especially on more dangerous-smelling levels.

L20. 7-4. I meet Mughash the Kobold Lord with his support squad. Mughash dies after taking 4 frost bolts. His drop is a quiverful of (+5,+1) bolts, useless to me. As I explore this level, I don't see much to explain the dangerous feeling until I come across an ant pit, which I avoid. A brigand takes me to CL 23 (124 HP, 42 SP). Fire bolt now becomes my main attack, with 5% fail rate.

L21. 7-7. I spot a naga pit near my entry point and decide it looks like a worthwhile target considering nagas drop treasures and are hurt by cold. I kill a bunch of nagas until things get out of hand, then I get chased around the level by a couple spirit nagas until I teleport away—landing right next to Ufthak of Cirith Ungol and his support team consisting of 8 black orcs and 5 cave orcs. 7 fire bolts kill Ufthak, who drops nothing worth mentioning. Finally I return to finish off the naga pit. One of the nagas drops a potion of intellect, which tragically reduces my strength to 11. Another drops a pair of leather gloves of free action [1,+8], which I take as a slight upgrade to the similar gloves I'm wearing. A ninja takes me to CL 24 (128 HP, 46 SP).

This level also has two mini-vaults, both lightly guarded and easily cleared. The first mini-vault contains a mattock of earthquakes that grants +2 strength, but it weighs 25 lb, which more than offsets the bonus. The second mini-vault contains a spear of *slay troll* (+12,+9) <+1> which I wield, as it gives a very slight net bonus to carry capacity after all is said and done.

[Wanderlust]

L22. 2-2. On the floor I find a long bow of power (x3) (+7,+15), which I take as an upgrade to the long bow of accuracy I've been using since L13.

L23. 5-3. A potion of intellect found on the floor raises my INT to 18/50 and pings my DEX. SP rise to 49 and minimum spell fail rate drops to 4%. An easterling champion drops a potion of toughness, which increases my CON to 17 and reduces my DEX yet again, which I don't mind at all. HP rise to 134. Yet another potion of intellect lowers my CON back to 16, dropping HP back to 131, but increasing INT to 18/89 and SP to 76. Before descending, I learn the remaining spells from Incantations and Illusions: Lesser Recharging and Acid Bolt (now down to 5% fail, making it quite practical). An elven priest takes me to CL 25 (131 HP, 76 SP).

L24. 5-?. Carry weight is a major annoyance at this point; I'm discarding CLW potions one by one as I find new items. Camped out near the entrance are Angamaite and Sangahyando of Umbar, and separately Lugdush with a bunch of uruks, orc captains, half-orcs, wargs, and other nasties. I also find a rod of treasure location on the floor of a double-cube room near my entry point; exploration will be a lot easier now.

Lugdush is encamped in a complicated special room and I work my way in, killing his minions as I go with bolts of frost, fire, and acid. Along the way I find a stack of CCW potions and I discard the last of my CLW. Now I'll have to find something else to throw away unless I want to be slow. A few well-placed stone to mud enchantments open a corridor between me and Lugdush; he takes 11 acid bolts in the chest as he runs toward me, then he drops junk only. I foolishly awaken Angamaite before recovering SP, so I teleport into an empty room at the opposite corner of the level.

Angamaite meets me in a hallway as I'm working my way back. He confuses me twice, but 2 phase doors and 13 acid bolts later he's running for his life and I finish him off with a single magic missile. He drops a scythe and a good iron crown, but these items are useless for me.

Back to the room where Sanghayando is still hanging out; 1 phase door and 15 acid bolts kill him. He drops only junk.

L25. 4-2. I find a scroll of remove curse and remove the worst of the 3 curses on the sandals of free action I've been carrying since L8. Are they still worth keeping? I think so, because I might need another source of free action in case I find better gloves. A team of black orcs are my ticket to CL 26 (133 HP, 79 SP).

Khim, son of Mim is in a strangely-shaped room. I open a corridor toward him with stone to mud and blast away. It takes 27 acid bolts to kill him because he keeps healing himself, but he can't hurt me except for one disenchant attack on my spear. His drop: junk.

Mim's other son, Ibun, is waiting nearby. He hits me with 2 fire bolts, but I hit him with 16 acid bolts and he's dead, dropping a pair of good boots, which I don't need.

To save on weight, I drop the sandals of slow descent sandals I've been wearing. Those cursed sandals of free action are still in my pack.

L26. 4-1. My 4th spell book, Sorcery and Evocations, is found lying on the floor. Its contents are mostly too advanced for me right now, so I add it to my pack without actually learning the spells, except Haste Self, which will be useful even with a 47% fail rate. To compensate for the weight of the book, I drop my long bow and its ammo.

[Adam]

Although it's boring, but you can stash some of your items somewhere and explore the level carrying less stuff to avoid speed problems. Then pick up the rest before taking the stairs. You probably don't need all the copies of the books, all the staves of mapping, all potions etc. This also makes them safe from burning/shattering. Items with unknown runes are also worth carrying down if your inventory is not full (at your level you already have the spell, so not relevant for this game but in general). The risk is that you fall into a trap door or a monster teleports you from the level so don't leave critical objects on the floor.

[Wanderlust]

you can stash some of your items somewhere and explore the level carrying less stuff to avoid speed problems. Then pick up the rest before taking the stairs.

That's exactly what I should have done, but I never thought of it because in both life and Angband I tend to ignore short-term optimization strategies. Thanks for pointing this out, next time in a situation like that I'll just stash the bow and ammo next to the stairs, the same benefit without actually losing the stuff.

[PowerWyrm]

I never do that because 1) there are trap doors and 2) you can ID by use Teleport Level and 3) sometimes you need to bail out of dangerous situations without having the time to go to stairs and 4) I would probably forget what I drop half of the time

[Wanderlust]

L27. 4-3. A mage drops a potion of brawn, STR goes up to 13, WIS suffers, lucky.

L28. 5-5. A small and weakly-defended vault takes me to CL 27 (136 HP, 82 SP). Interesting treasures inside: a pair of randart amulets and a pair of Arkenstones, each set with partly overlapping properties.

The first amulet: the Jewel of Alfindair grants +3 STR, +2 infravision, +1 light, resists lightning, fire, cold and sound, slow digestion, and free action. 16 STR will help a lot with my weight problems. The second amulet: the Amulet of Eredrie with +3 intelligence, +4 wisdom, acid immunity, resist fire and free action. Interesting choice. Boiling it down, at the moment I need strength, but in the long run +3 INT might be worth more. I wear Alfindair and put Eredrie into my pack.

Next, the Arkenstones. the first is 'Ciredhron', which offers 3 light, +3 constitution, resist fire and has a great activation which maps the whole level, sensing objects. Next to it is the Arkenstone of Aranen, which gives 3 light, +3 wisdom, sustains STR, and has the exact same activation. Well, WIS does very little for me while +3 CON increases my HP almost 20% to 163, so Ciredhron goes around my neck while Aranen remains on the floor where I found it. Only problem is, by switching light sources I can no longer see invisible. So I keep my true sight lantern in my pack. This "mini-enlightenment" activation is going to make exploration a lot easier and safer from now on, and free up inventory.

After the dust settles, I learn Teleport Other, which is now down to 33% fail rate, low enough to be useful in some situations.

Beorn the Shape-Changer is hanging out with a bunch of grizzly, cave, and were-bears, but I meet him as he runs to greet me while I'm exterminating a room full of black ogres and lemures. 1 speed potion, 1 fire bolt and 31 acid bolts kill him. He drops only a useless lochhaber axe.

Before leaving, I take advantage of my increased strength by picking up a short bow of power (x2) (+3,+15) to replace the long bow I dropped 2 levels ago.

L29. 3-6. This is a mini-maze level and Boldor, king of the yeeks, is hanging out near my entry point with a squad of master, brown and blue yeeks. I back into a corridor to minimize the yeek summoning and dispatch Boldor with 7 fire bolts. He drops the set of leather gloves 'Niangion' (+1,+2) [1,+11], which give +1 light, and resist light and poison. They'd be great, but they seem to mess up my casting a little too much, so on the floor they stay.

L30. 9-7. Omens of death haunt this place; Alfindair's activation shows why: 2 decent-sized vaults on this level.

The smaller vault consists of 4 independent chambers. The toughest monsters inside are a doombat and a young red dragon, so it looks like easy pickings. Inside I find studded leather armor of resistance (-1) [12,+5], which I put on since rAcid hasn't been covered until now, and a potion of toughness that raises my CON to 18/20 and HP to 170 while pinging WIS.

On the way to the larger vault, I find a brawn potion on the floor: STR now 17, WIS pinged again, down to 8.

The larger vault has a wide open area and 8 small chambers. 4 nexus hounds guard the entrance, so I open a side entrance. The hounds die to acid bolts. In the process they manage to breathe on me several times, but nothing really bad seems to happen. How dangerous are these things really? I have no clue. Is permanent nexus stat scramble still a real thing in Angband?

Inside the vault, a young multi-hued dragon drops a potion of STR which brings my STR to 18/21. Now we're talking. A potion of brawn takes my STR up to 18/44 but pings INT, lowering SP to 68. A chaos drake drops the leather gloves of Aragon [1,+24], which give +2 WIS, +4 DEX, and rElec. Honestly I prefer my gloves of free action, so I leave these. The toughest defender of the vault is Thuringwethil, the Vampire Messenger. I haste self, line up, teleport him away. In his chamber is a large metal shield of Elvenkind [12,+13] with +1 stealth and resists to all 4 base elements and nexus; an excellent upgrade to my shield of resist fire.

When the dust settles, I realize somewhere along the way I achieved CL 28.

L31. 8-6. I enter right next to a a large "crown-shaped" vault filled tough things like an AMHD. Avoiding this for now, I check out the rest of the level. A young blue dragon drops a potion of strength, which takes my STR to 18/62.

The vault actually isn't so tough; I'm able to kill everything with a combo of haste self and various elemental attacks except a cloud giant and the AMHD, which I teleport away. In the vault:

a) the jewel 'Siandi': +4 constitution, resist light and poison, protects from fear and blindness. I'd leave it here since I already have 2 more interesting randart amulets, except for the fact this is my only source of rPois right now. In the pack it goes, along with the other.

b) a fur cloak of the Magi [3,+11], +1 and sustains intelligence, +2 stealth. Wearing this brings INT to 18/89 and SP to 85; stealth is still superb. A keeper.

c) a morning star of *slay animal* that grants +2 intelligence, which I swap in place of the *slay troll* spear I've been carrying around; SP now 113.

d) a copy of Resistances of Scarabtrices. I learn Resist Cold, Resist Fire, Resist Poison, and Resistances.

e) a robe of resistance [2,+18] which is a straight upgrade to the studded leather armor of resistance I picked up just upstairs.

f) a short bow of power (x2) (+9,+25) which is a nice upgrade to the one I picked up a few levels ago, along with some arrows of venom (+8,+10). These arrows can now do 75.7/189.3 damage/round, my most powerful attack.

[Sphara]

Nice Wanderlust! Keep it going! I like reading these journals. Your diary here inspired me to write one of my own.

I did choose Kobold Mage, added semi-aggressive diving to ironman challenge and started writing. Oh, and I did it in current developing version, where Mage has a somewhat different spell set.
Died in 2500 ft to a neekerbreekered master mystic, 100% my own fault, though bad luck was involved. My character was nowhere near as strong as yours. After like 2000ft, I could barely kill anything anymore. Just dive deeper and see how things turn out. Well, it ended to a master mystic's fist

You do have a great character there. Two Arkenstones by D:28! Even one of those artifacts basically nullify a need of any detection items besides for monster location (and for that you do have spells).

[Wanderlust]

Nice Wanderlust! Keep it going! I like reading these journals. Your diary here inspired me to write one of my own.

That's great! I hope you have a great time with it. So far this has been making my experience with Angband more fun and rewarding, though slower.

I did choose Kobold Mage, added semi-aggressive diving to ironman challenge and started writing. Oh, and I did it in current developing version, where Mage has a somewhat different spell set.
Died in 2500 ft to a neekerbreekered master mystic, 100% my own fault, though bad luck was involved. My character was nowhere near as strong as yours. After like 2000ft, I could barely kill anything anymore. Just dive deeper and see how things turn out. Well, it ended to a master mystic's fist

Too bad! When you could barely kill anything at 2000 ft, you dove deeper quicker? That's exactly when I would probably have been exploring every nook and cranny, looking for any little edge.... Is that kind of a "double or nothing" strategy?

[Wanderlust]

I'll give you my +4 INT Bastard Sword of Bregol for your main gauche.

Well, I had to drop that main gauche, although it was a nice one ... would you be interested in a morning star of *slay animal*?

Ohh... nevermind, I forgot my Half-Troll Warrior died to a poison attack by a 7 headed hydra.

Ouch! Hydras can be really dangerous.

[Grotug]

I had 193hp so I guess he *just* killed me. I often forget how dangerous 7 headed hydras are. I've died from that monster many times. You'd think I'd learn!

Things are certainly looking up for your mage, there! If I's was you, I'd swap in the +4 CON/rPois amulet over the +3 STR one. Do you become overburdened if you do that? Dying to Drolems, AMHDs and Greater Basilisks is a thing you know. :P