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annathepiperIn which our heroine takes down Medusa, cleans out the Castle, and cuts a swath through Gehennom; and in which she acknowledges that Jack Aubrey may not be a good fighting icon for a female Chaotic elf wizard, but hey, it's the only fighting icon I have!
I came back into this round of playing up by the altar on level 3, and decided that just for giggles, I was going to clean out Sokoban. Part of this was because I wanted to implement the strategy of using Sokoban as a place to dump a stash--and I didn't want to worry about any randomly placed boulders or holes in the floor. Part of it was because I also wanted to just see if any random rings of levitation were lying around. I was able to ditch enough crap there that I didn't have to worry about ditching the spellbooks, yay!
A handy #invoke of the Eye got me back down to Ludios on 20, cutting my trip down to Medusa considerably. A green dragon on 25 gave me another set of souvenir scales (I like to collect 'em, though they are purely ornamental and not worth carrying around, I grant). Didn't bother with the leprechaun hall I found on 26.
On 27, I finally found that ring of levitation I'd been hoping for, and didn't even have to blow a wish on it.
Medusa turned out to be living on 28. However, the entire question of how to get across the water turned out to be moot--because the titan had a wand of digging and dropped down to the next level before I could even leave the initial room. In the middle of taking out a fire giant and a red dragon, I fell through the damn hole myself. Oops. That, of course, led to the next step being finding the stairs, blindfolding myself, and immediately scampering back up to insta-stone the Gorgon with my shiny sparkly armor.
Once I did that, I headed down again to take out the titan on the Castle level at 29. And shortly thereafter, the Castle drawbridge went down, too. Castle highlights:
And then, the Valley of the Dead! Actually found another magic marker in there, which in this game didn't surprise me in the slightest. Got a couple of wraith corpses, and that did surprise me. But I quite happily munched 'em to bump myself up to experience level 20. Went through most of the Valley and decided that I'd better dump more extraneous crap. So, back up to Sokoban!
Had to come back the long way, though, as I'd #invoked the Eye too much. On the way back down, I consoled myself by converting the altar to Ptah on level 10. (He wasn't using that altar anyway.) And, back in the Valley, I picked up a couple more spellbooks: detect monsters and wizard lock.
Gehennom kicked in at level 31. Very easy first level, with the stairs right near each other. I started breaking out the wands of digging and magic mapping scrolls--the scrolls made since although I did have the magic mapping spell, my initial value at it kind of sucked. Didn't take long to burn through those scrolls, though--and in some cases, literally. Stupid fire traps.
Nor did it take too long before I started finding demon lords.
Juiblex was a snap, and his level was my first real opportunity to break out the ring of levitation. I was very pleased to see only from afar the green slime on the level, which let me kill it without it getting anywhere near me. Standard Juiblex-killing strategy applied here: let him engulf me, hit him with a wand of digging, zap myself with the unicorn horn, then poke the demon once with Magicbane and we're done.
Asmodeus was on level 35, and he was a spry bugger, scampering up two levels to Jubie's lair before I finally nailed him. That got me a potion of gain level, though, which took me up to experience level 21.
Baalezbub was on 36, and he tried the stairs trick too. He wasn't as spry as Asmodeus; he only made it up a level before I got him.
The top of the Wizard's Tower showed up on level 40, which confused me, given that I hadn't found Vlad's Tower yet. A bit more hunting found the Vlad staircase down on 42, though. And, as anyone who's gotten this far in the game knows, Vlad's a pushover; this time was no exception. His tower was almost more notable for giving me another wraith corpse, bumping me up to experience level 22.
However, the throne there messed with my constitution, and that was what made me realize I'd lost my unicorn horn. AUGH! Out yet again, this time back to Ludios to try to recover another horn from the Ghost Loot on 23, but I wound up having to just kill the white unicorn wandering around Fort Ludios to get its horn. But on the way back into Gehennom, I took down a gray dragon that gave me a potion of gain level--up to experience level 23! And, finally, took out the black dragon on the Castle level as well.
I started blowing enchant weapon scrolls as I found them on the new unicorn horn--and you would of course know that once I got back into Gehennom, I found the first horn I'd lost on 38, where I'd dropped it for some reason. Figures.
Orcus was on level 43, and like Baalzebub, only made it up a level before I pegged him and got his wand of death. Killed my first balrog on his level as well. Didn't bother to investigate any of the haunted shops.
Then there was nothing for it but to find the way into the Wizard's Tower. That's what prompted me to finally blow the last (regular) wish out of the wand on a spellbook of dig--because I'd exhausted all the wands I'd found and I did need to get into the center bits of the tower levels. However, it is to be noted that a wizard at level 17 or greater with ability to shoot magic missile and fireball does not have to worry about sea monsters. She just needs to aim for the numbers. Muah.
I am having bad luck with pissing off peaceful ogres with some of these spells, though. Grf. Hope this won't count against me.
On the way through the Tower, though, I picked up a second wand of death. And it was this that I used to take out the Wizard. There was an Elvenking parked on the square with the Book of the Dead, though--so since I didn't want to kill him, I had to actually fix one of the squeaky boards so he had a way out to move himself.
Then I got the Book.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is tonight's save point. Tomorrow: assault run down to the vibrating square and to see if I can storm Moloch's Sanctum!
I came back into this round of playing up by the altar on level 3, and decided that just for giggles, I was going to clean out Sokoban. Part of this was because I wanted to implement the strategy of using Sokoban as a place to dump a stash--and I didn't want to worry about any randomly placed boulders or holes in the floor. Part of it was because I also wanted to just see if any random rings of levitation were lying around. I was able to ditch enough crap there that I didn't have to worry about ditching the spellbooks, yay!
A handy #invoke of the Eye got me back down to Ludios on 20, cutting my trip down to Medusa considerably. A green dragon on 25 gave me another set of souvenir scales (I like to collect 'em, though they are purely ornamental and not worth carrying around, I grant). Didn't bother with the leprechaun hall I found on 26.
On 27, I finally found that ring of levitation I'd been hoping for, and didn't even have to blow a wish on it.
Medusa turned out to be living on 28. However, the entire question of how to get across the water turned out to be moot--because the titan had a wand of digging and dropped down to the next level before I could even leave the initial room. In the middle of taking out a fire giant and a red dragon, I fell through the damn hole myself. Oops. That, of course, led to the next step being finding the stairs, blindfolding myself, and immediately scampering back up to insta-stone the Gorgon with my shiny sparkly armor.
Once I did that, I headed down again to take out the titan on the Castle level at 29. And shortly thereafter, the Castle drawbridge went down, too. Castle highlights:
- The tone was CDGCG. Uncursed wooden flute from my original inventory ftw!
- Took out an air elemental simply by poking it a couple times with Magicbane. Not as big a bang as clobbering it with Mjollnir, but this doesn't suck, either.
- Tinned me a troll and an Olog-hai, but accidentally pissed off an ogre king by bouncing magic missiles. Oops.
- The throne gave me another point of charisma. Woot! Shenneret the Wizard may be a genocidal bitch (at last count, 12 species genocided so far), but at least she's cuter.
- Partway on the hunt for the chest with the wand, I realized DOH, I'd gotten rid of all my keys. Not wanting to risk Magicbane on trying to pry open the chests, I popped back out to the store on 15 to get a key. On the way back down, I stopped at the anthole on level 27 and finally got fire resistance off a fire ant.
- Much consulting then took place with
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risu about what to blow the wand wishes on. I decided on 2 blessed scrolls of charging, a blessed +3 rustproof helm of brilliance, blessed +3 fireproof gauntlets of dexterity, a spellbook of magic mapping, and another magic marker. - Worked on getting some of the new armor enchanted up. Overenchanted the speed boots, doh! But actually had an extra pair, courtesy of the Massive Waves of Ghost Loot. This took my AC down to the perfectly ridiculous value of -32.
And then, the Valley of the Dead! Actually found another magic marker in there, which in this game didn't surprise me in the slightest. Got a couple of wraith corpses, and that did surprise me. But I quite happily munched 'em to bump myself up to experience level 20. Went through most of the Valley and decided that I'd better dump more extraneous crap. So, back up to Sokoban!
Had to come back the long way, though, as I'd #invoked the Eye too much. On the way back down, I consoled myself by converting the altar to Ptah on level 10. (He wasn't using that altar anyway.) And, back in the Valley, I picked up a couple more spellbooks: detect monsters and wizard lock.
Gehennom kicked in at level 31. Very easy first level, with the stairs right near each other. I started breaking out the wands of digging and magic mapping scrolls--the scrolls made since although I did have the magic mapping spell, my initial value at it kind of sucked. Didn't take long to burn through those scrolls, though--and in some cases, literally. Stupid fire traps.
Nor did it take too long before I started finding demon lords.
Juiblex was a snap, and his level was my first real opportunity to break out the ring of levitation. I was very pleased to see only from afar the green slime on the level, which let me kill it without it getting anywhere near me. Standard Juiblex-killing strategy applied here: let him engulf me, hit him with a wand of digging, zap myself with the unicorn horn, then poke the demon once with Magicbane and we're done.
Asmodeus was on level 35, and he was a spry bugger, scampering up two levels to Jubie's lair before I finally nailed him. That got me a potion of gain level, though, which took me up to experience level 21.
Baalezbub was on 36, and he tried the stairs trick too. He wasn't as spry as Asmodeus; he only made it up a level before I got him.
The top of the Wizard's Tower showed up on level 40, which confused me, given that I hadn't found Vlad's Tower yet. A bit more hunting found the Vlad staircase down on 42, though. And, as anyone who's gotten this far in the game knows, Vlad's a pushover; this time was no exception. His tower was almost more notable for giving me another wraith corpse, bumping me up to experience level 22.
However, the throne there messed with my constitution, and that was what made me realize I'd lost my unicorn horn. AUGH! Out yet again, this time back to Ludios to try to recover another horn from the Ghost Loot on 23, but I wound up having to just kill the white unicorn wandering around Fort Ludios to get its horn. But on the way back into Gehennom, I took down a gray dragon that gave me a potion of gain level--up to experience level 23! And, finally, took out the black dragon on the Castle level as well.
I started blowing enchant weapon scrolls as I found them on the new unicorn horn--and you would of course know that once I got back into Gehennom, I found the first horn I'd lost on 38, where I'd dropped it for some reason. Figures.
Orcus was on level 43, and like Baalzebub, only made it up a level before I pegged him and got his wand of death. Killed my first balrog on his level as well. Didn't bother to investigate any of the haunted shops.
Then there was nothing for it but to find the way into the Wizard's Tower. That's what prompted me to finally blow the last (regular) wish out of the wand on a spellbook of dig--because I'd exhausted all the wands I'd found and I did need to get into the center bits of the tower levels. However, it is to be noted that a wizard at level 17 or greater with ability to shoot magic missile and fireball does not have to worry about sea monsters. She just needs to aim for the numbers. Muah.
I am having bad luck with pissing off peaceful ogres with some of these spells, though. Grf. Hope this won't count against me.
On the way through the Tower, though, I picked up a second wand of death. And it was this that I used to take out the Wizard. There was an Elvenking parked on the square with the Book of the Dead, though--so since I didn't want to kill him, I had to actually fix one of the squeaky boards so he had a way out to move himself.
Then I got the Book.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is tonight's save point. Tomorrow: assault run down to the vibrating square and to see if I can storm Moloch's Sanctum!