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Angband 63 was mainly made up of two sets of chambers. The first contained demons and the second, white dragons. Both were cleared yielding Turmil, a rubbish randart crown and Ecthelion which was swapped in for Holhenneth. Psironic also hit the landmark of CL40.
On Angband 64, Psironic got herself half-surrounded by chaos hounds but buffed up to kill them all and gain another level (those things must be worth a lot of XP). She also saw off Rogrog and Adunaphel.
Angband 65 saw Psironic use her very first !Healing as she got confused in a battle with Ariel. She also slipped back into some sloppy play, when deciding to melee a shrieker mushroom rather than shooting it from out of LoS. It woke up a nearby Living Dungeon which chased her off the level.
Starting Angband 66, Psironic quickly became aware of a pack of Time Hounds behind a closed door at the end of her corridor. She was just plotting what to do, when a Legendary Hobbit Rogue (undetectable by telepathy) opened the door and the Time Hound behind it breathed leaving her less powerful than before... yes it massively drained every stat. Ouch. Despite the setback she was able to kill Akhorahil - who kindly dropped the Pearl, Eol and Quaker.
Angband 67 was a nasty level. It was divided into two halves, with chambers of Multi-Hued Dragons inbetween. She defeated Ren on the side she started on, however the downstairs were all on the other side! She tried to tunnel her way around the chambers, however she got tracked down by several of the dragons so had to risk a teleport. Thankfully it took her safely to the other side where she took out Evil Iggy. He dropped her first ?RuneofProtection. She also found her first two ?BrandMissiles which were gratefully used!
Angband 68 was Psironic's second superb level. A Clamour Drake dropped the Battle Axe of the Marches which as a massive 3d10 slay evil weapon was tempting. However with reduced blows compared to her other weapons, she had to leave it where it was. She then detected a Greater Forge Vault and sitting where a weapon should be was an unId'd ring - so it had to be an artifact! The Ring 'Imant' offered several resists as well as +3 speed - however, what turned out to be a bug, deprived it of rPois despite its poison cloud activation. That would have been really useful too... Lungorthin and the Defiler were also on the level - but they were avoided until she has a better chance of besting them.
That sees Psironic up to the point of the dump. As has been the case so far, Psironic is still progressing well today too!Comment
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Angband 69 saw the first sighting of the Phoenix. Psironic didn't feel confident so destructed it and she soon felt even less confident when wild magic consumed her _Speed. After killing Shelob with little effort, Psironic detected a Gold Dragon pit - easy prey with 73% rSound! This provided plenty of consumables and another _Speed. Nice.
Level 70 saw the deaths of Khim and Thuringwethil - the latter dropping Eglamoth. A demon pit saw a nice workout for Balli and yielded a very useful chest. As well as containing Carlammas (discarded), it was full of seeker arrows of various descriptions. Perfect!
Psironic had her second run in with the Phoenix on level 71, but this time had a batch of 1d11 seeker arrows which made all the difference! She won't be seeing it again. An Eldrak dropped the Short Bow of Wethil (x4) which also had a bunch of nice resists. She swapped it in, but the point of dex lost from the Ossiriand bow does cost her a melee blow. She really could do with something to boost her dex! She then stumbled upon an undead pit which caused her to flee the level.
Psironic got an excellent feeling on level 72 generated by another Greater Forge Vault. Another unId'd ring was a randart with rDis which would be a useful swap. Also in the vault were Baphomet and a Winged Dragon of Bile (Psironic's first battle with a winged dragon), both were shot down from afar. Other uniques killed on this level were Errata and Lorgan - the former dropping an awful randart amulet. Unfortunately a Plasma Hound burnt up her _Teleportation - just Colannon providing an escape now...
As Psironic stepped off the stairs of Angband 73, Tevildo blinked into view. Thankfully as well as slaying Demons, Balli has rBlind - perfect for the Cat Prince. Psironic also had her first go at the Defiler. Big mistake. Her barrage of arrows failed to even take a star off him as he got into dangerous breathing range and had to be TA'd. This made Psironic nervous as it can bore through walls and would no doubt be seen again! The superb level feeling proved to be from a Town vault. Crisdurian was found and left and a battle with Scatha yielded a weak randart ring. As expeted, the Defiler had to be TA'd for a second time before Psironic reached the stairs down.
Angband 74 was notable for a demon pit which yielded an Elvenkind shield with both rDisenchant and rChaos. She swapped this in for Haleth, meaning she could free up the inventory slot for her rDis ring and she can dump Colannon when/if a better cloak comes along.
On level 75, Psironic took out a couple of the big hitters. Firstly she used Feagwath like a pin cushion and he kindly dropped Tulkas. Then in a vault containing Lungorthin, a black wraith dropped a RoS(+8)! However Psironic decided to wear Tulkas for the extra blow, read her ?RoP, buffed up and meleed the White Balrog. He fell eventually, but I get the feeling that I should have let Psironic use the extra speed from the ring for that battle.
Angband 76 was dull. The highlight being a Master Q summoning Krotus, the Dark Lord. Psironic was not prepared for that battle yet.
On the next level, Psironic made a great discovery, the Rod of Delving, in the middle of a vault. No more worries about -StonetoMud! She also finally found another _Teleportation - though she hoped never to use it due to how dangerous teleportation can be at this depth!
Entering Angband 78, Psironic detected one of the huge new vaults (Sphere). As she approached, a pack of Plasma Hounds burst out and burnt up her _BanishEvil - Aaarrggghhhh (going to need to find another one before the end!). In the vault she could see Cantoras, Gothmog, Krotus, Wiruin, Pazuzu etc etc and that is where I left her for the dump...
Progress has been slow since, but Psironic is still alive for now
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I've never played FA, but your tale makes for some fantastic reading. Keep it up
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You should give it a go... and thanks
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This is wonderful. Exactly the kind of writeups that I was hoping to appear in AAR section here on forums. Too bad these kind of things have no tradition in Angband land - other game's forumii are full of them.
See the elves and everything! http://angband.oook.czComment
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Yep, ToME's got quite a few - except they've got rather more of a role-play "Look, I'm an Elf" feel to them...Comment
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Yes, some do, but not all.
I think you have bigger chances of finding non role play ones in the learning competition section.Comment
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So there Psironic was outside the giant Sphere vault having just killed off a pack of Plasma Hounds. She tentatively made her way in, killing what she could quickly kill and TAing anything else. She managed to find Elessar (finally a better rPois swap than her ring), an ImmAcid randart ring and Aranruth. She was tempted by the latter for the +4 Dex, but as a frost brand, it couldn't replace either of her two current weapons (Balli and Totila). Psironic then quaffed an !enlightenment to discover all the stairs down (this is ironman remember!) were on the opposite side of the level. At this point she rather regretted TAing Cantoras, Gothmog, Krotus and many other fiendish opponents out into the open level! How was she going to reach the stairs in safety? She decided to try and tunnel her way from the vault to the nearest staircase in the hope that none of the above would find the entrance. Unfortunately there was a Grand Master Mystic on the loose, who kept blinking into the tunnel whenever he was TAd! Therefore Psironic made the tunnel zigzag, to prevent him getting LoS on her directly after a blink (unless he landed adjacent). By taking a careful route she managed to lose all the uniques before crossing a path on the way to the stairs. However just as she was approaching freedom, a gnawing bug infestation broke out, but she reached the stairs before it created LoS to anyone and everyone! Screenshot here.
Level 79 saw a keep vault, but despite battling hordes of Legendary Hobbit Rogues (how I hate them with their, speed, stealing and blinding), little of practical use was found. The artifact haul was Belegennon and Hithlomir, but she needs any armour to cover Nether at present. Psironic then progressed to Angband 80, but that yielded nothing at all of note.
Psironic was greeted by a welcoming committee of Hounds of Tindalos on level 81. Not sure if these are in V, but they are very fast, pass through walls and breathe disenchantment and time! Another pet hate of mine. On lighting the level, Psironic noticed an Hourglass vault which could potentially be a profitable venture, so she took on the hounds... and prevailed. Phew. She took out Hoarmurath of Dir and found the Ring of Barahir in the vault, but was prevented from clearing it by another pack of Tindalos Hounds, who would have had an easy breathing opportunity given their position.
On level 82, Psironic decided to take on a Winged Dragon of Ice (basically a Great Wyrm of Ice on steroids) and was glad she did when it dropped the Necklace of the Dwarves (which is a bit special in FA)! This give +3 to all stats and can enlighten the whole level - including *all* monsters.
So with her new find, Psironic lit up Angband 83 to see what was around. She spotted the Emperor Quylthulg and then promptly forgot he was there by the time she entered his room. Oops. He summoned greater demons, which completely surrounded Psironic. This was a big help! Balli loves demons and there was no more room for the Emperor to summon to! Psironic cut a path through the hellish horde and out of the room, finished off the pursuing demons and then tunneled around to where the Emperor had blinked to. Then being horribly abusive, she shot him to death from out of his LoS... sorry. Psironic then fled the level with Gothmog chasing her to the stairs.
Lighting up level 84 revealed a Dungeon City Vault (here is an example from a hallucinating friend). However it was filled with hounds of the Tindalos, Aether and Time varieties! Psironic had found a ?Genocide on the level - if only creatures in vaults weren't protected in FA! Reluctantly she left well alone and made her way to the staircase down, stopping to pick off Vargo on the way.
Level 85 contained the huge, and I mean *HUGE* cracks of doom vault. However there is no way in except across molten lava. Psironic was not worried for herself, despite being an Ent, because of her fire immunity, however this does not protect your inventory in FA and she could not risk losing her consumables! She had to content herself with destroying the Phantom of Eilenel and finding and discarding the Boots of Hithlum.
On entering level 86, Psironic detected some leather gloves. She was hoping for agility, but to her surprise they were the randart gloves, "Dauntless". These had some good reists and combat abilities, however they also came with a 25% vulnerability to poison - not ideal when she had no rPois to start with! Still they were a definite improvement, so Psironic vowed to keep casting her Resist Poison spell... Also on the level, Psironic brought down Tselakus and Smaug, the former dropping Cammithrim and the latter, Mablung (think Thranduil), Belangil and the Stone of Lore. Unfortunately none of that was of any use to her.
The only thing I have noted about level 87 was the word 'dull'! Psironic was getting nervous. Not many levels to go before she needed to be 'Morgoth-ready'...
Thankfully Angband 88 came to her rescue. The welcoming committee of Aether Hounds was destructed along with the sleeping Pazuzu, being careful to avoid Vecna, who was Psironic's next target... She lined him up at the end of a corridor, buffed up and began to let rip with her ever-dwindling supply of Seeker Arrows of Flame (why does she keep finding poisoned arrows - the most useless brand at this depth!). The battle was progressing nicely until he teleported her to himself. She blinked herself away and found herself at the other end of the corridor... which is when Vecna decided to Mana Storm destroying all the arrows that now littered that end! Aaaarrrgggghh. The battle continued until when at two stars, Vecna teleported away. How infuriating! With the Necklace still charging she couldn't use that to track him down quickly, so she had to start a careful hunt before he could regenerate. Annoyingly she also detected an undead pit, which she really wanted to avoid, but didn't want to lose Vecna after the cost in getting him down so far. She doubled back to make sure he wasn't in the corner of the level before trying to navigate around the undead... for once Psironic got lucky and there he was, trapped near the edge of the level, but of course there had to be yet another pack of Aether Hounds around! Psironic positioned herself in such a way that she could destruct the Aether Hounds whilst preserving Vecna (again!). It worked! Psironic then blasted through to Vecna with the Rod of Delving and the battle continued. The last two stars did not take long to knock off and Psironic was delighted with the reward! Firstly a randart crown that superceded Ecthelion (and therefore reduced encumbrance) and better yet in the circumstances, the Cloak of Thingol - another +3 to Dex (hooray!), useful resists and a recharge activation!
That takes Psironic up until where I took the dump. She is still going too, but could really do with some big arrows soon - or some ?BrandMissiles.Comment
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I can't wait for the description of the final battle. Looks like it was really impressive.Comment
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Man, they've got him. We'll never learn the true story, except that one stray photo...Comment
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Excellent! You write awesome AARs for these game!Dungeon crawling is a messy affair. Which is why it is way better to do it digitally!Comment
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Great work getting an ironman through (esp. with a ranger - I'd be too worried about running out of arrows). A simultaneous death / victory sums up the kamikaze ironman ethos perfectly, IMHO.Comment
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Angband 89 featured a Greater Forge Vault containing a Storm of Unmagic with a pack of Hounds of Tindalos before it and a pack of Plasma Hounds after it. Psironic took the next available staircase down! Storms of Unmagic are probably my most feared monsters in the game. A maximum speed, wall eating, whirling dervish with disenchantment, chaos and time breaths. Get close enough and they drain all your stats, charges and disenchant your equipment too. Pure evil. Except they are not evil of course... you know what I mean.
Having fled the previous level, the Necklace had not recharged so Psironic had no way to light level 90. She started next to a serious of chambers containing Winged Dragons of Fire. These are a more dangerous version of Greater Hell Wyrms and have the deadly dragonfire breath attack - a strong mixture of fire and poison which has also left my characters hallucinating before (is there chaos in there too perhaps?). Psironic ran in the opposite direction and TA'd any pursuers. She then hit a pack of Aether Hounds that she took on one by one and killed. A detected Demon pit looked like a good opportunity for some consumables - until she also detected a Winged Dragon of Fire nest next door to it! Time to leave the level...
On level 91, Psironic was surprised by a Storm of Unmagic tunneling through the wall next to her (one of the other great things about them is that they are not detected by telepathy...). She managed to TA it before anything more horrid happened. She picked up her 3rd !Life sneaking into a Script 'L' vault and took out Mughash who had found himself a little out of depth! Psironic stumbled across the Staff of the Kelvar which she decided to activate. This revealed a butterfly vault on the other side of the level. As the staff does magic mapping around animals, the vault was no doubt full of hounds, so Psironic did not bother investigating (and did not want to run into the Storm of Unmagic again!).
Lighting level 92, revealed a set of chambers filled with Winged Dragons including several Winged Dragons of Power. Not feeling like dying just yet, Psironic stayed well clear. These last few levels were getting hideously dangerous!
On sensing her surroundings, Psironic thought she had hit a GCV on level 93. Sadly it turned out to be a Chest vault - all the danger and virtually none of the reward of the famed checkerboard! No point in her taking it on as she could not afford to use up consumables at this stage of the game. A Petty Dwarf Wizard dropped a ?BrandMissiles which coated her 1d11 Seeker Arrows with acid - hooray! Pongo also put in an appearance on this level - he is usually far too strong for you when you meet him at depth, so it was nice to turn the tables for once!
On level 94, Psironic detected the Lord of Flesh in a stars vault. She felt quite sorry for him knowing that given the make up of the vault he would never acually see who killed him! After a barrage of arrows, he kindly dropped Soulkeeper which was swapped in at a huge mana expense. Psironic then made her way over the huge Mazer vault and decided to investigate it (first time I've been in one of these). Nothing useful was found (Dethanc was in there), but a pack of nearby dreads dropped some cesti of agility (+5) - she'd have prefered Fingolfin, but she decided to hang on to these for the final fight.
Angband 95-96 were very boring. Nothing of note found or fought.
Level 97 saw the death of Brodda - he didn't last long. Psironic also spotted her second cracks of doom vault and it contained an unId'd ring amongst other things. This time she decided she had to venture in. She dropped everything that could burn (but just one copy of each town book) in a safe place and made her way across the lava. Unfortunately the ring was just an Eregion with +7 to speed and telepathy - in many circumstances this would be great, but with telepathy already and the other ring slot having a +8 speed, there was no point keeping it (with hindsight maybe I should have swapped for her randart ring, but that may have left her skill too low). There was also a Demon pit on the level, so again she ditched all her burnable kit and then fought the demons. Thankfully nothing appeared to steal or crush her stash! Psironic hit the landmark of CL50 before descending the stairs.
Angband 98 saw Psironic picking up her randart chainmail from a drop in an octogan vault. As it was so much lighter than Soulkeeper and she wasn't planning on meleeing Morgoth she swapped it in gaining her a load of mana and another point of speed (she'd lost two points due to her burden).
On level 99, Psironic couldn't see anything worth exploring (mainly because of a Storm of Unmagic in the only interesting area on completely the opposite side of the level) and besides, she actually felt ready for Morgoth(!). So she took out a Winged Dragon of Storms (who dropped the Cloak of Valinor) on the way to the stairs and headed down to Angband 100...
To be continued...Comment
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