+9 speed ring at dl 23!

[Pete Mack]

So I was a little bummed to see a +7 speed ring in the black market for 64K gold, at dl 20. But soon enough, it was obsolescent:
c) Speed Ring (+9)
Dropped by a Blackguard at 1150 feet (level 23)

[Grotug]

Morgoth isn't going to sleep well tonight!

[Pete Mack]

Morgoth isn't going to sleep well tonight!

OK, that's a little extreme. But a little later:

l) A Pair of Steel Shod Boots of Speed [7,+3] <+8>
Found in a vault at 1500 feet

[VeritasAequitas]

think morgoth needs to have a word with his nasties, stop them from wandering too far off with his special items

[Pete Mack]

Yeah, I am running around 30 pounds overweight, but who cares? Not much difference between speed 17 and 15.

[Pete Mack]

And now, the first good artifact:
k) On hands: the Set of Leather Gloves, 'Cambeleg' (+8,+8) <+2>

Best gloves in the game, and I hadn't seen that in a very long time.

And as a lagniappe: a Sling of Buckland <+4,+0.7,+2>
Unfortunately the enchantment is only +10.

[Pete Mack]

Managed to post this character with lynx text browser. (Boy is it bad, and I don't mean because it is text-only. The interface sucks even for what it is.)

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=23174

4.2 Mage is a lot of fun, though I do miss being able to stun every monster with Ice Storm, followed by melee. Stun monster wand is a big step down. Just looted a cryptic (four square rooms) vault, and found Trident of Wrath, which is a big step up from Lotharang. Fast casting is insanely powerful--I hardly ever bother to use _Speed (though surely base speed 19 is part of that.)

I still need CON, but otherwise this character is in some sense ready for the endgame.

[Pete Mack]

Hahaha, Qzzlqthup. Sucks to be you.
In a vault:

# ##
## ##
 ##@#
  #Q#
  ###

[Pete Mack]

Well that was fun. I had been teleporting Gothmog multiple times on seemingly every level since 85. The same thing happened on DL 90. Then i see Huan, coming near the far end of a looong corridor. Aha. I have Nenya, so the worst he can do is 500 shards damage. (I have 792 HP as a HE mage.) And that is at close range. So I start blasting with mana bolt, till he breathes. Teleport away and rest for mana. He has essentially infinite senses, so he always comes back from the other side of the dungeon, just when I am sufficiently rested. Rinse and repeat. Finally take him the last few rounds in melee

You poison Huan, Wolfhound of the Valar.
You have slain Huan, Wolfhound of the Valar.
On the floor:
a) the Ring of Fire 'Narya' (+2,+2) <+2,+5>

Then a little later I loot a lesser vault with a long passageway down the middle. That makes a nice corridor that Gothmog can't break... so the same thing works on him. Total consumables used, in both fights: 6 !CCW.

[Pete Mack]

Fun vault here:

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=4674

Easiest GV ever, since most monsters can't get to me after Lungorthin turned the entrance into lava. Harmless for me with IM_FIRE, but everything else is suffering: they occasionally breathe, and I occasionally step aside to rest.