Really outsmarted myself

[malcontent]

I was positive I have found a Defender trident from the various clues - stealth bonus, feather falling, Free action. It was on level with a treasure feeling of 7. I was right about the trident - but I had also convinced myself that the soft leather armour with unknown runes I found near the triden had the four base resistances. I hadn't learned any of the resist cold/fire/elec/acid runes yet.

I was wrong, and this is how I found out:

[Last Messages]

> You have learned the rune of teleportation ban.
> Your Soft Leather Armour prevents you teleporting.
> You have learned the rune of anti-teleportation curse.
> Teleportation forbidden!
> You have 16 Scrolls of Phase Door (i).
> The stegocentipede bites you (4).
> *** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
> The stegocentipede bites you (6).
> *** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
> The stegocentipede stings you (5).
> *** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
> The stegocentipede bites you (5).
> *** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***
> The stegocentipede bites you (2).
> You die.

Luckily this was not a very advance character, but darn.

[PopTart]

I hold a special place in my heart and memory for monsters that have killed off old characters. Black knight, greater basilisk, ancient multi-hued dragon, homunculus, and yes stegocentipede.

[Estie]

Might well have been a resistance armor; the giveaway is an unusually high +AC enchantment.

[Glorfindel]

I hold a special place in my heart and memory for monsters that have killed off old characters. Black knight, greater basilisk, ancient multi-hued dragon, homunculus, and yes stegocentipede.

I feel the same way. Each time I lose, I come out of that game with a new lesson learned, and a new grudge held. My first serious game where I got anywhere to speak of taught me to get free action as soon as I could, and made me a determined killer of ghouls. Even the grudge can have its bonuses; As I was always going after ghouls, I learned that they had pretty good drops compared to the creatures around them on their initial levels, and since they came in substantial groups, I got some pretty useful equipment out of them.

My biggest grudge was against the Balrog of Moria, who, together with his summoned demons, killed my stat-maxed dwarf warrior who had been sailing along with Anduril and the Dragon Helm, and had just found the Golden Crown of Gondor. I also started my next game with an extra grudge against greater demonic quylthugs, as a grossly out-of-depth one had brought the Balrog to Level 43 in the first place. My lesson there was that depth had to wait on experience gain, and not to get too dependant on potions of Cure Critical Wounds. Also, no matter how good the loot is, never to drop my source of teleportation to pick it up.

[Pete Mack]

Once you have TO, you shouldn't have to worry about Balrog of Moria, independent of stat gain. Just quaff !rFire and zap him away. He can't do more than ~100 damage vs. double resist. )