Tweet
So Psironic entered level 100, the very lair of Morgoth. She lit the level with the Necklace of the Dwarves and sure enough, there was the Lord of Darkness on his way to pay his regards. He was far enough away for Psironic to make preparations so she dropped Totila, her randart gloves and as many copies of her books that it took to remove her encumbrance and take her to +17 speed (note that Morgoth is +20 speed since FAA 034, but beefed up in other ways). She then read a ?RuneofProtection as an extra safety net, equipped the Torque of Boromir for the extra deadliness and buffed up.
It wasn't long before Morgoth burst in! Psironic let loose with her bow. Morgoth replied by summoning guardians. Of course having never even visited any of the other dungeons, the full complement duly arrived, so she banished Mim, Glaurung, Ungoliant, Sauron and of course the big M. It wasn't long before both Morgoth and Sauron reappeared. Sauron was TAd and Morgoth received another volley of arrows before he tried to summon guardians again. This time this brought a host of Winged Dragons! Psironic panicked a little, but was relieved when a banish evil charge removed them all - evidently the new winged dragons are all evil, unlike their wyrm counterparts! Then followed a session of rinse and repeat. Every time Morgoth came into LoS, he summoned guardians and brought another following of Winged Dragons which were then banished. However the signs were not good - too many of the arrows were missing and Morgoth was barely scratched by those that did find a mark. I checked her monster memory... rather that just being immune to poison, Morgoth was now immune to her acidic arrows. She switched to cold and then flame which confirmed her worst fears - since FAA 033, Morgoth has become immune to the elements! I thought back to my last ranger win at 034 which had been the easiest of wins against Morgoth. There I had 5 shots from a x5 bow per turn at +35 speed. Here I had 2.9 shots from a x4 bow at +27 speed...
...until on trying to recharge her _Speed it was consumed by wild magic leaving her at +17 speed and no means of hasting! She now had half the bow power at half the speed of my previous winner. As Morgoth continued to summon Winged Dragons (almost as soon as he entered LoS each time - it was *awful*) and Psironic kept banishing them, he was gradually eating away all the surrounding walls leaving LoS open in many directions and more and more of his summons started finding their way back. Life was getting more and more tricky. The most comical moment was when Morgoth summoned special opponents and Boldor and a load of yeeks appeared surrounding her. She killed Boldor instantly (not like she could shoot through him) and then Morgy mana stormed all the other yeeks in one go next turn!
However the funny side was soon lost on her as with her healing and recharging depleting and the surrounding area becoming more and more open, she realised she had only just knocked off Morgoth's third star - she could not continue with this form of attack. Therefore she retrieved Totila (for the slay evil despite the low skill) and planted herself on her glyph ready for melee. Morgoth was soon back and didn't take long to smash through her protection and thus started decimating the surrounding terrain - at least LoS was finally broken up! He continued his summoning frenzy, but life was tougher now, as Psironic found her _BanishEvil all drained whenever she came to use them. She had to risk a blink and then recharge her staves and hope she could banish as many of her pursuers at once as possible. This all under the pressure of each of the bad guys being faster than she was!
At this point, I must confess, I had given up all hope of guiding Psironic to the win. Morgoth seemed unharmed by the blows that actually hit and Psironic was almost out of recharging and was down to her last few healing potions having exhausted her 3 !Lifes. The first turning point was when Morgoth suddenly relented from summoning guardians (and getting Winged Dragons) and summoned Greater Undead instead. Rather than banish them, Psironic left them there to block available summoning squares and hacked away at Morgoth. Finally some stars were starting to fall!
Of course, that couldn't last and soon enough Psironic found herself surrounded by special opponents and most pressingly, Krotus the Dark Lord. Yet again, she found herself without charges to her _BanishEvil and down to few HP, so had to risk a blink, heal and recharge again. Still she fought on, banishing, TAing and plugging away at Morgoth.
Eventually Psironic found herself pinned against the bottom edge of the level, her last recharging used and no charges on any of her staves or wands. Death would be soon. Morgoth still had three stars and was looking far the more likely to prevail. Once more he summoned Winged Dragons and this time a Winged Dragon of Power also answered the call. Help! Psironic did the only thing she could and blinked. The WDoP tunneled towards her, so Psironic cast Teleport Monster taking her down to 6SP - the last time that spell could be used. Morgoth and his motley crew of Winged Dragons approached. This was it - the final stand.
This was the moment of the second turning point. A Winged Dragon of Chaos breathed at Psironic. Morgoth screamed as the breath took him down to two stars! A glimmer of hope! Psironic hacked away and Morgoth hacked back. He was down to one star! Despite her HP being down to just a couple of hundred, she could not risk wasting a turn quaffing a !Healing as Morgoth and friends could just as easily kill her before she got another move, so she tried to finish him off... disaster - too many missed blows and he was still alive... but somehow (don't ask me how!) so was Psironic. She took full advantage of this second opportunity and dealt the fatal blow to the Lord of Darkness. Her ultimate victory was also her ultimate sacrifice, as in that very same turn, a Sky Dragon obliterated her with a huge lightning breath (final screenshot).
RIP Psironic.
I guess I was wrong
Thanks for reading!
It wasn't long before Morgoth burst in! Psironic let loose with her bow. Morgoth replied by summoning guardians. Of course having never even visited any of the other dungeons, the full complement duly arrived, so she banished Mim, Glaurung, Ungoliant, Sauron and of course the big M. It wasn't long before both Morgoth and Sauron reappeared. Sauron was TAd and Morgoth received another volley of arrows before he tried to summon guardians again. This time this brought a host of Winged Dragons! Psironic panicked a little, but was relieved when a banish evil charge removed them all - evidently the new winged dragons are all evil, unlike their wyrm counterparts! Then followed a session of rinse and repeat. Every time Morgoth came into LoS, he summoned guardians and brought another following of Winged Dragons which were then banished. However the signs were not good - too many of the arrows were missing and Morgoth was barely scratched by those that did find a mark. I checked her monster memory... rather that just being immune to poison, Morgoth was now immune to her acidic arrows. She switched to cold and then flame which confirmed her worst fears - since FAA 033, Morgoth has become immune to the elements! I thought back to my last ranger win at 034 which had been the easiest of wins against Morgoth. There I had 5 shots from a x5 bow per turn at +35 speed. Here I had 2.9 shots from a x4 bow at +27 speed...
...until on trying to recharge her _Speed it was consumed by wild magic leaving her at +17 speed and no means of hasting! She now had half the bow power at half the speed of my previous winner. As Morgoth continued to summon Winged Dragons (almost as soon as he entered LoS each time - it was *awful*) and Psironic kept banishing them, he was gradually eating away all the surrounding walls leaving LoS open in many directions and more and more of his summons started finding their way back. Life was getting more and more tricky. The most comical moment was when Morgoth summoned special opponents and Boldor and a load of yeeks appeared surrounding her. She killed Boldor instantly (not like she could shoot through him) and then Morgy mana stormed all the other yeeks in one go next turn!
However the funny side was soon lost on her as with her healing and recharging depleting and the surrounding area becoming more and more open, she realised she had only just knocked off Morgoth's third star - she could not continue with this form of attack. Therefore she retrieved Totila (for the slay evil despite the low skill) and planted herself on her glyph ready for melee. Morgoth was soon back and didn't take long to smash through her protection and thus started decimating the surrounding terrain - at least LoS was finally broken up! He continued his summoning frenzy, but life was tougher now, as Psironic found her _BanishEvil all drained whenever she came to use them. She had to risk a blink and then recharge her staves and hope she could banish as many of her pursuers at once as possible. This all under the pressure of each of the bad guys being faster than she was!
At this point, I must confess, I had given up all hope of guiding Psironic to the win. Morgoth seemed unharmed by the blows that actually hit and Psironic was almost out of recharging and was down to her last few healing potions having exhausted her 3 !Lifes. The first turning point was when Morgoth suddenly relented from summoning guardians (and getting Winged Dragons) and summoned Greater Undead instead. Rather than banish them, Psironic left them there to block available summoning squares and hacked away at Morgoth. Finally some stars were starting to fall!
Of course, that couldn't last and soon enough Psironic found herself surrounded by special opponents and most pressingly, Krotus the Dark Lord. Yet again, she found herself without charges to her _BanishEvil and down to few HP, so had to risk a blink, heal and recharge again. Still she fought on, banishing, TAing and plugging away at Morgoth.
Eventually Psironic found herself pinned against the bottom edge of the level, her last recharging used and no charges on any of her staves or wands. Death would be soon. Morgoth still had three stars and was looking far the more likely to prevail. Once more he summoned Winged Dragons and this time a Winged Dragon of Power also answered the call. Help! Psironic did the only thing she could and blinked. The WDoP tunneled towards her, so Psironic cast Teleport Monster taking her down to 6SP - the last time that spell could be used. Morgoth and his motley crew of Winged Dragons approached. This was it - the final stand.
This was the moment of the second turning point. A Winged Dragon of Chaos breathed at Psironic. Morgoth screamed as the breath took him down to two stars! A glimmer of hope! Psironic hacked away and Morgoth hacked back. He was down to one star! Despite her HP being down to just a couple of hundred, she could not risk wasting a turn quaffing a !Healing as Morgoth and friends could just as easily kill her before she got another move, so she tried to finish him off... disaster - too many missed blows and he was still alive... but somehow (don't ask me how!) so was Psironic. She took full advantage of this second opportunity and dealt the fatal blow to the Lord of Darkness. Her ultimate victory was also her ultimate sacrifice, as in that very same turn, a Sky Dragon obliterated her with a huge lightning breath (final screenshot).
RIP Psironic.
I guess I was wrong
Thanks for reading!
Comment