Returning Player

[tprice]

Well for a medium sized vault that didn't have any real nasty monsters in it i sure got a lot of artifacts out of it AND my 2nd dungeon book as well as a spare of the one i already had. Unfortunately a hell-hound's breath cost me my staff of speed.

I need to take a good hard look at my equipment and probably juggle things around a bunch. Any advise from the peanut gallery?

[fph]

my 2nd dungeon book as well as a spare of the one i already had.

A spare? Aren't those fireproof?

[Nick]

A spare? Aren't those fireproof?

But not theft-proof.

[Carnivean]

By the time that you're collecting them, the dungeon book's weight is relatively insubstantial. Carrying a spare, then squelching the rest (I inscribe !d!k on the ones in inventory), reduces the risks at a very minimal cost.

[tprice]

I sorted through a lot of the artifacts and dumped many of them for space and did some rearranging of gear. I was able to free up a ring slot when i realized i could get resist poison on my armor. That came extra handy when my next trip down found my second RoS (I was running a Con ring until i found it).

I'll keep working my way lower collecting consumables and upgrading gear slowly...

[tprice]

So after breaking for dinner i recall down to DL55. "Omens of death haunt this place" and i see a grid pattern of monsters on the screen from my telepathy... I do my detection spells and it looks like a medum sized vault with double path of 1 space cells of monsters separated by stone walls. I think i just found my first checkerboard vault at least a lesser one. I'm "live blogging" my way through this since I'm bored

Lets look around and a lot of easy to medium difficulty monsters with Ar-Pharazon the Golden (an unique but not out of depth), hmmm a Dreadmaster( i've not fought before but I'm 10 levels deeper than they normally show up so shouldn't be THAT bad), a Gelugon (14 levels out of depth, i think THATS going to be a TO target), a Great Wyrm of Thunder (also 14lvl OOD, another TO target), a Greater Demonic Quylthulg 16 lvlOOD, (aaaah, I didn't know they had a Greater version! TO TO TO!), hmmm that Earth Elemental might let stuff loose but easy to kill, Saruman of the Many Colours (he could be a challenge but only 5lvl ood, better TO), the Lesser Balrog will be a doable challenge, a Nightwalker (18lvl OOD and sounds scary, TO him!), the Aether Vortex will be annoying (5lvl OOD), Hmmm a Magma Elemental needs to die quick before it destroys the loot, and a Grand Master Mystic rounds out the other end of the path (only 2lvl OOD but i remember hearing bad things about them...)

I think my first thing to do is clear the rest of the level for safe places to teleport to. Oh this is going to be interesting, there is a 2nd lesser vault across the map and one loopy corridor with a couple tiny rooms connecting them. Well i better clear out this graveyard on the way to the lesser vault, clear it THEN tackle the larger one. OOD kills off the undead quickly and what do i find on the floor of the graveyard but the Arkenstone! That is an obvious upgrade from the Star of Elendil i've been using for a while. I wonder what I'll find in the vaults if the general floor is this good.

Hmmm I spot Dwar, Dog Lord of the Waw has come out of the lesser vault, only one level OOD, and the only other unique in it is Gorlim who should of shown up 14 levels ago. none of the rest of the inhabitants look that bad. Time to start tackling this!

Well i was right the inhabitents of that smaller vault were easy to deal with, a few things that might be useful later, the battleaxe Lotharang would be great if i was a Melee character but I'm going to drop it for now. the boots of speed were not as good as my current ones but the staff of speed could be VERY useful in the larger vault!.

Ok Ar-Pharazon is being anoying with all this Teleport Away but i got him after a while I think I'll swap to these Ethereal Slippers of Speed he dropped instead of my Iron Shod Boots of the same speed. I loose 5 armor but save weight and can't be hurt by Acid.

Bother, iits getting late and i do a stupid thing and get killed by the Gelugon. I will admit to save scumming when i do tired stupid things and restart to a save just before i open the larger vault. this time Ar-Pharazon is much easier to kill since he never sends me away. I remember to TO the Gelugon. I take a chance at speed 30 and probe the Great Wyrm of Thunder and realize i can take him! it takes a few phase doors but the Wyrm goes down!. not a lot of great loot as i easily make my way through most of the cells. OK, the Broad Axe Barukkheled is another 'nice if i was Melee' artifact. The Greater Demonic Quylthulg stands still long enough for me to Probe it before it phases away, i suspect it will be an anoyance. i dig through a bunch of other easy monsters to Saruman of the Many Colours. Before i release him I realize its after midnight and i should stop before i open up his cell. I'm blinking a lot and to tired to make smart moves anymore... (i should have just TO'd the Q instead of Probing it for example...)

To Be Continued

[AnonymousHero]

Bother, iits getting late and i do a stupid thing and get killed by the Gelugon. I will admit to save scumming when i do tired stupid things and restart to a save just before i open the larger vault.

You should of course play the way you find most enjoyable, but I tend to find that savescumming encourages bad habits. For example, taking on high-level monsters when you could just TO them and grab the loot they're sitting on .

[mushroom patch]

Higher quality loot generates on the floor of graveyards. If you've got it, mass banishment makes vaults quite a lot less taxing...

[tprice]

I used to play a LOT of Vanilla and Zangband back in the late 90's during college but since then usually only every 2-4 years for a couple of months until Life Happens.

I'm actually usually being very cautious this game as i figure out all the changes (Most of which I like a lot by the way, the new squelch system is a wonderful thing!). I think i've had to actually save scum from death 4 times so far this game, all while playing to late. I take it as a sign i should REALLY go to bed and play when I'm awake.

Folks answers to my questions and semi random browsing of the forum, both vanilla and dev, have helped a lot as i get caught up and the rust knocked off my *band skills. I hope to take my next character much deeper much faster once I've found my metaphorical feet. I have never really tried the DIVE DIVE DIVE play style so that should be a very interesting if nerve wracking adventure.

Now on to the 2nd half of that vault!

[tprice]

Well the rest of the vault was a bunch of really low level monsters and a few very OOD monsters that I used TO on immediately, I really am not ready for something over 30lvl OOD! picked up a few more nice artifacts and i'm going to update my dump with them in my pack. I find the Ladder's Dump format handy for looking at all my current item options at once when doing a big change in my gear.

[tprice]

I'm having to do some end of year stuff at work that has a lot of click for 5 min, wait for 30 minutes this afternoon. Not enough brainpower to juggle all those artifacts and playing smart on Stumpy so I decided to start a second character of a completely different style and try to dive.

Thog, the HalfTroll Paladin!

His first attempt ended VERY quickly after meeting Bullroarer the Hobbit while still lvl1 and less than 2K turns into the game. The NEXT version of Thog has just revenged his older brother. An early lucky find of a magic whip helped him kill Grip and Fang on his first trip down along with a sling of extra attacks. Once he was full of un IDed potions and scrolls he popped back to the surface then returned to the depths were he found an ego Main Gauche that turned out to be a Slay Evil once he had used it enough. 3.3 blows a round let him slaughter Bullroarer just now who dropped the Phial.

Just bashing right through monsters, drinking un IDed potions (now that i have decent hitpoints) and taking just about every down stairs i see is an interesting change so far. I need to get around to carrying priest books for him one of these days now that he actually has enough SP to cast something ;-)

[tprice]

Poor late lamented Thog the 2nd. He made it down to DL 23 and CL21 before finding out WHY you need Free Action. That was quite fun actually. Time for Thog the 3rd!

[tprice]

Poor Thog the 3rd had the same fate after reading an unknown scroll of deep decent and getting paralized by a bunch of p's he had just barely made double digit character levels and hadn't even found enough gear to fill up all his armor slots there on his first trip into the dungeon. Both Thog's found the Phial though!

[tprice]

Thog the 4th didn't last long either. But Thog the 5th seems to have the blessing of the Random Number God.

DL5 made him nervous but her found this nifty Rapier inscribed with the name Forasgil sitting on the floor. When he was already hungry Thog ran into a line of insects coming out of a room one of which was from DL12. Smoke came out Thog's ears as he thought REALLY HARD and decided that discretion was the better part of valor and recalled while running away and chugging !CLW as fast as he could to survive to reach town again...

I was able to buy a LongBow (x3) to fire the magic arrows that Farmer Maggot had dropped before i had ever entered the dungeon so I've got a bit of ranged going as well.

Time to dive in again

[tprice]

Yah Thog the 5th worships the RNG and the RNG likes him back, take a look at that Ladder Dump. Bullroarer dropped an Amulet of Trickery!

A few other nice drops in that last level like a longbow of power, Gauntlets 'Paurnen' and now that i look at the dump i can ditch the armor of resist acid for the better protection of the Mithril Plate and give myself a Enchant Armor target. I was able to BM a Lantern of Brightness as well. I also picked up a few useful staffs so i have ID and Teleport to get out of tricky spots.