But not *really*....

[Monkey Face]

Btw, what's CHA stand for?

Charisma which used to be a stat like STR, INT, etc. that affected the prices in the shops. It was removed a few years ago. When it was still in the game, it also made drinking the +1/-1 potions safer since there was a 20% chance you would lose a CHA point rather than a stat you cared about.

[Grotug]

Charisma which used to be a stat like STR, INT, etc. that affected the prices in the shops. It was removed a few years ago. When it was still in the game, it also made drinking the +1/-1 potions safer since there was a 20% chance you would lose a CHA point rather than a stat you cared about.

Ahh, yes. I thought CHA was an acronym. I do remember the Charisma days. I used to swap amulets of CHA when shopping. Been playing since late 2013.

HWGA: I'm CL30 on DL42 in a simple (largish) rectangle individual cubby vault. Lots of DL80s in the vault (Pazuzu, Angmar). I have TO and ESP weapon swap. But I don't have pConf or rPois or pBlind. I have native speed +6 and I have 3 mushrooms of terror and a staff of speed (so I can get +26 speed, right?) So the question is whether I should stop exploring this vault when I reach an instakill cubby since I don't have pConf, hasten self and TO. My CON is 392 (416 w/Asdriag).

I don't know the treasure feeling, only that omens of death....

How come I'm the only one who posts During Adventure Reports?

I'm only 18K turns so far. Not even one rod of trap detection yet.

On further reflection Neither Angmar or Pazuzu have confuse in their descriptions. So I might just explore the entire vault, RNG willing. Actually, I only have 8 TO charges and 5 speed charges. There are more than 8 monsters in these cubbies I'm unwilling to risk trying to fight.

[Pete Mack]

Go for it, just leave the cell with Pazuzu alone (go at him from both directions to loot the whole vault.) Angmar isn't all that dangerous--he can't do more than around 350 damage in a single turn. Checkerboard vaults are THE most profitable variety, with a deep ego item or artifact in every other cell.

Just stay away from Pazuzu. He breathes electricity for 1600, 533 single resist, and he only has a handful of spells.

[Grotug]

Thanks Pete! I guess I've never been breathed on by Pazuzu. My info on him mentions nothing of a breath attack. So I guess my exploration of the vault will end at him. Although I forgot to mention I have a ring of escaping, too. So I could get +30 speed. Might be worth the risk. I dunno, not sure I'm feeling it. It seems that no matter what my speed is, after I'm done digging through a wall, the monster on the other side of it always has his turn immediately upon me breaking through the wall.

I've reached my first real challenge: a DL58 Eye druj. He can double shot me dead. So I will need to match his "very quickly" which I guess is +20 speed? I'd rather not use a mushroom of terror as I then have to wait for the effect to wear off. I'm thinking escaping plus haste self should be enough.

[Pete Mack]

Whoops , I am wrong, He only has spells. Ignore that advice and teleport him. DON'T melee him unless you have immunity he WILL destroy many rods and wands of TO. Have fun with the GCV. You'll almost certainly end up at speed > 10 and HP > 500.

Edit: watch out for that hydra. That thing breathes fire for 1600 and poison for 800, combined probability 2/9*1/3 = 3% chance of death for you.

[Grotug]

Whoops , I am wrong, He only has spells. Ignore that advice and teleport him. DON'T melee him unless you have immunity he WILL destroy many rods and wands of TO. Have fun with the GCV. You'll almost certainly end up at speed > 10 and HP > 500.

It's very rare I come away from these GVs with great gear. I still don't have enough charges to deal with everything in the vault. Hopefully I'll pick up another wand or rod soon. I just hope the eye druj doesn't stun me. EDIT: He summoned a skeleton ettin so I ?phased to above the vault. So I guess I'll be exploring it from the top now. Heh, I have 80 bolts total branded with all 4 elements.

Failed on first try against Fundin, but he missed a lot and didn't cast any spells. and he disappears on 2nd TO attempt.
Grr.. nothing but bolts in almost every cell. Quite a few empty cells, too. I TO'd the Gelugon which coulda one shotted me with shards.

Why are there so many empty cubbies? More seeker bolts.... So far it's been full plate armors and bolts. That's it. And a robe, and the shovel I'm digging with. Oh, and a non-useful artifact weapon. Great; my next cubby is Lernean Hydra (1500 fire) and I have gained no power since I began this vault. So it's that or go back to druj and use up another speed charge. Think +10 speed is enough to try to TO the eye druj?

[Pete Mack]

You should be able to TO the eye druj now, especially as you can dodge out of LOS to heal if he really hammers you. Shame about all the bolts; do keep the best ones for when you find a good xbow. They can do massive damage then.
Edit: there's a whole lot more vault to explore. Don't give up hope!

[Grotug]

Haha I am trying not to. Well, I do have a heavy Xbox (+12) so the bolts are certainly useful but I have weight and slot issues (trying to keep my speed at +10 with escaping) and one or two would be enough . There have been at least 6 bolts now.

I could stash some things; load up on bolts; terror; kill the the things I otherwise would melee with bolts to maximize terror for more than one cubby

So I wasted a TO charge not realizing there was a range limit on it. I walked down the hallway; he came into sight and raw magic'd me but it didn't do much damage. I risked TO at that point, since I don't want to go through that all over again. I did this at +10 speed. TO worked. But I only have 3 TO charges left. :-/ Man, hoping I walk away with at least one really good item.

Guess, I'm gonna have to stash my staves and wand for Master Lich. Can't really afford to TO him since he isn't that dangerous for me to fight at +16 speed.

I've never seen so many empty cubbies. I'm at the Lich, didn't find anything digging to him. I really don't want to use a speed on him. I only have 2 left. He causes Confusion; I TO'd him. One charge left. But a lot of cubbies I can kill coming up. Will any of them have anything? WTH, Lich's cubby also empty. ... More empty cubbies ... is this vault cursed? Harowen The Black Hand already ransacked it?

Okay, so the center of the vault has the really good items. Not sure if I'll be able to get there. Did get two !CON from a mature green dragon, though.

Pazuzu and Catlord are guarding the center of the vault. Doesn't matter which side I enter from. Either way it's LOS Boom.

Out of TO charges. Picked up an elvenkind armor of rPois ... and a white dragon scalemaile of <+2> speed. Prolly not gonna keep it as I need rPois.

Man, I am careless. Tunneled into the Pazuzu chamber, not realizing I was at the end of the safe chambers. So inside is an Ancient Blue Dragon, a bunch of Ogres, then Pazuzu, then Catlord. Catlord immediately summoned me to her, which brought me to the safety of the row below her. So, basically it's time to leave.

I wonder if I could play some luring games with Terror and staff of speed, to try to lure them out of the vault, ?phase to stay out of LOS, and then reenter the vault with them out of it. HMMMmmmm... probably a terrible idea.



These branded bolts are no joke. Only the Ancient Blue D followed me. And I squished him with 3 frost bolts. hahaha.

I could tunnel under the vault and lure them to the bottom and then out, without ever being in danger. The tricky part would then be getting them to clear the lower entrance, and then sneak back in. If I teleported away after luring them out, I could then work my way towards the vault again. Prolly too dangerous, though, since I have no more TO charges.

I went back to town. Dropped off my bolts (I took almost all the bolts). And then killed a AncGold Dragon on the next level and he dropped me a ring of speed. Consolation prize for the bum vault. :P --- Just found a rod of Detection before I ever found a rod of trap detection. Amazing.

[Pete Mack]

My bad. That isn't a GCV after all. The good stuff is mostly in that middle section with multiple monsters. And an item feeling of 9 means there are more than bolts and a few armors somewhere in the vault.

[Grotug]

No worries. Now on DL48, 5-9 feeling. Quaffed an !Enlightenment. Cleared the level but never found any good items. Very odd. Checked squelch; nothing. Paurach only artifact I found. There are some things I didn't ID such as a staff, some missiles, some {worn} amulets and some {tried} scrolls.

Thank you Smaug, the Weaponmastery will be useful seeing as I just ?DD and it frees up Free Action ring for [+10] Dam ring. Thank you Ulfang for the ToW. Now will I find anything in the small vault? Of course not, but since the Uniques hook me up, it matters not.

EDIT: Holy crikey I'm a lucky fool. Swapped out Thalkettoth for Isildur for the pConf (and rSound). Forgot to check my FrAct. Been wandering around DL 60s without FrAct for several levels (granted, I'm mostly diving atm, so not that many turns). Just picked up Narya just outside the top of a vault on DL69. Oh, look, got my FrAct back. BTW, this was on DL69 9-8 feeling. So even at this relatively shallow depth, Ring of Power doesn't trigger 9 feeling.

31K turns, 809dam vs Undead. This is turning out to to be not so bad a run. Accidentally just read ?DD while collecting goodies in a vault. Had just cleared one half of the heart; but prolly for the best as the unique Q will for sure summon before I can get a TO off, though I can get up to 29 speed. Fortunately I was able to grab a dwarven necklace, Ingwe, and Celembrimbor off the floor before the DD set in (though prolly won't use any of them).

Haha, that was awesome: Saw Osse some distance below me in the cavern level ?DD just dropped me into. Since he can one shot me, I ?Recalled, then ?Phased to see if I could jump cavern areas to see if I might grab something on the way out. It took me closer to Osse, and as I rounded the corner to go up towards the red * he awoke and started chasing me (just out of LoS). My native speed held his distance and the red * revealed itself to be a ?*Destruction* so I read it and bye bye Osse. So I canceled ?Recall (but only have one remaining now, a bit risky). Only a 6 treasure feeling, but Osse is one of only a handful of monsters right now that can one shot me. My CON is up to 519. I don't mean to linger long, but it was kinda fun to get rid of him like that. That's not the first time a *Destruction* on the floor was handy.

And immediately found 4 ?Recall.

[Grotug]

Hey, I found a 9-9 homogenious cubby vault. On my way to the vault, picked up wand of TO and rod of TO (I had none, the other wand died on backfire).

Wow, found a silly good sling of buckland: (X4) (+21, +26) <+2><+5> ( shooting speed, DEX) and 17 pebbles of wounding for 561dam a round. This is a Morgoth Killer for sure. The question is, do I keep this and drop my Light Xbow Haradrim (+14, +19) <+1> shooting speed and all my really good xbow ammo and hope to find some branding pebbles? I mean, keeping the sling means I'll have a use for all those ?*weapon enchantments. Also, the sling has <+5> DEX. I think i have to go with the sling.

This vault is turning into embarassmant of riches. Let's start with Gothmog dropping Soulkeeper, Cubragol, Colannon and Thandruil. Then there's Tulkas, Ringil, Belthronding and Elvenkind boots <+4, +9> in the vault. Pazazu will not only not be stopping me from exploring the vault, but he will now taste Ringil. Sauron beckons and I'm only at 46K turns. :P

Killed Pazazu after some Greater Demon summons with only one rod of TO to use.

[PowerWyrm]

Don't be fooled by the name "sling". A Buckland (x4) is actually a long bow, and you're a Ranger now. Find some mithril shots of holy might, and Morgoth will fall like Goliath in front of David.

[Derakon]

Yeah, use the sling. I'm pretty sure that's the best missile weapon I've ever seen, beating even Cubragol.

[Pete Mack]

Yep, +26 (+2) Buckland is the best possible missile launcher in the game (neglecting silly powerful randarts. The only thing that does a bit more damage is an x5 longbow in the hands of a level 40+ ranger.

[Sky]

If you are a ranger, the +1 shor bonus applies to all missile weapons, or just to bows?