YAVP: VowOfSilence, TrMo

[ackack]

I normally don't post YAVPs, but this one was cool and I feel like bragging.

Link to the CAO morgue file. A trimmed version:

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 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.13-a0-3165-gf095ba3 (webtiles) character file.

1624892 VowOfSilence the Wrestler (level 26, 314/314 HPs)
             Began as a Troll Monk on Sept 23, 2013.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 3 runes on Sept 25, 2013!
             
             The game lasted 07:37:16 (74611 turns).

VowOfSilence the Wrestler (Troll Monk)             Turns: 74611, Time: 07:37:17

HP 314/314       AC 20     Str 31      XL: 26   Next: 73%
MP  24/24        EV 36     Int  4 (6)  God:
Gold 1142        SH 26     Dex 22 (23) Spells:  0 memorised, 25 levels left

Res.Fire  : + + .   See Invis. : +     - Unarmed
Res.Cold  : + . .   Warding    : .   o - +2 fire dragon armour
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   y - +0 shield {reflect}
Res.Poison: +       Res.Corr.  : .   Y - +0 mask of the Dragon {MR+ Acc+3 Dam+3 SIn
Res.Elec. : +       Clarity    : .   C - +0 cloak of Starlight {rElec rC+ EV+4 Stlt
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   (gloves unavailable)
Res.Mut.  : +       Stasis     : .   (boots unavailable)
Res.Rott. : .       Flight     : .   z - amulet of resist mutation
Gourmand  : +                        q - +6 ring of evasion
                                     E - ring of protection from cold

@: mighty, agile, very slightly contaminated, hasted, very quick, very resistant
to hostile enchantments, extremely unstealthy
A: unfitting armour, claws 3, deterioration 1, fast metabolism 3, gourmand, -10%
mp, poison resistance, regeneration 2, saprovore 2, tough skin 2, AC +4, Dex -2
a: no special abilities
}: 3/15 runes: serpentine, barnacled, silver


You escaped.
You were not hungry.

You visited 7 branches of the dungeon, and saw 59 of its levels.
You visited 2 bazaars.
You also visited: Labyrinth, Trove and Volcano.

You collected 7002 gold pieces.
You spent 5860 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 b - a -1 orcish blowgun
Missiles
 B - 6 large rocks (quivered)
 L - 2 curare-tipped needles
Armour
 e - the +1 cloak of Beycon {Dam+5 SInv}
   (You found it in a treasure trove)   
   
   It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+5).
   It enhances your eyesight.
 o - a +2 fire dragon armour (worn)
 y - a +0 shield of reflection (worn)
 C - the +0 cloak of Starlight (worn) {rElec rC+ EV+4 Stlth-}
   (You bought it in a shop on level 3 of the Snake Pit)   
   
   It affects your evasion (+4).
   It protects you from cold.
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It makes you much less stealthy.
 O - the +1 wizard hat of the Engineer {rElec Dex+3}
   (You found it in a treasure trove)   
   
   It affects your dexterity (+3).
   It insulates you from electricity.
 Y - the +0 mask of the Dragon (worn) {MR+ Acc+3 Dam+3 SInv}
   (You found it on level 3 of the Vaults)   
   
   It affects your accuracy (+3).
   It affects your damage-dealing abilities (+3).
   It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
   It enhances your eyesight.
Magical devices
 d - a wand of heal wounds (4)
 j - a wand of teleportation (5)
 k - a wand of hasting (1)
 l - a wand of digging (6) {digging}
 m - a wand of teleportation (4)
 s - a wand of digging (9)
 u - a wand of invisibility (2)
 v - a wand of teleportation (0)
 R - a wand of disintegration (10)
 S - a wand of heal wounds (1)
Comestibles
 w - 3 beef jerkies
 I - 5 meat rations
Jewellery
 a - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
 h - a +5,+6 ring of slaying {probably sustab, maybe slay, unknown}
 q - a +6 ring of evasion (right claw)
 r - an uncursed amulet of warding
 z - an amulet of resist mutation (around neck)
 A - an uncursed ring of fire
 E - a ring of protection from cold (left claw)
 N - the amulet of Nivulynu {rCorr rC+ Acc+3 Stlth++}
   (You found it on level 1 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   [amulet of resist corrosion]
   It affects your accuracy (+3).
   It protects you from cold.
   It makes you much more stealthy.
Potions
 c - 5 potions of curing
 g - a potion of heal wounds
 n - 2 potions of cure mutation
 x - a potion of might
 G - 4 potions of agility
Orbs of Power
 f - the Orb of Zot
Miscellaneous
 F - a fan of gales
 W - a lamp of fire
Rods
 i - a +5 lightning rod (14/14)
   (You took it off a minotaur in a labyrinth)
 D - a +2 lightning rod (12/12)
   (You took it off a hell knight on level 5 of the Vaults)
 Z - a +2 rod of venom (9/9)
   (You found it on level 22 of the Dungeon)


   Skills:
 + Level 25.0 Fighting
 - Level 10.9 Throwing
 - Level 7.8 Armour
 - Level 15.2 Dodging
 - Level 1.1 Stealth
 - Level 9.0 Shields
 - Level 25.0 Unarmed Combat
 - Level 7.1 Evocations


You had 25 spell levels left.
You didn't know any spells.

Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (27/27)            Temple (0/1) D:6             Orc (4/4) D:6
   Lair (8/8) D:13         Shoals (5/5) Lair:3        Snake (5/5) Lair:6
  Slime (0/6) Lair:8       Vaults (5/5) D:15          Blade (0/1) Vaults:4
  Crypt (0/5) Vaults:3        Zot (5/5) D:27       
   Elf: Orc:3-4     

Altars:
Fedhas
Okawaru
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Beogh

Shops:
D:14 *   D:15 /(?   D:19 %   D:24 [   D:27 ?   Orc:4 *=[(   Shoals:3 (
Shoals:4 [   Snake:3 *+[+

Portals:
Hell: D:21 D:22 D:23 D:24 D:25 D:26 D:27
Abyss: D:22 D:24 D:25
Pandemonium: D:24 D:27

Annotations:
D:4 Menkaure, Prince Ribbit
D:16 exclusion: orange crystal statue, Josephine
D:19 exclusion: upstairs
D:21 exclusion: downstairs
Lair:3 exclusions: downstairs and oklob plant
Lair:4 exclusion: hydra
Snake:2 Lamia
Snake:3 exclusion: Roxanne, Roxanne


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You are too large for most types of armour.
You have claws for hands.
Your metabolism is lightning-fast.
You like to eat raw meat.
You heal very quickly.
You can eat rotten meat.
You are covered in fur (AC +1).
You have very tough skin (AC +2).
You are partially covered in rugged brown scales (AC +1, +3% HP).
You are partially covered in yellow scales (AC +2).
You are clumsy. (Dex -2)
Your body is slowly deteriorating.
Your magical capacity is low (-10% MP).
Your system is resistant to poisons.

Trimming off the action list to show the lack of reading, casting and invoking:

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Action                   |  1- 3 |  4- 6 |  7- 9 | 10-12 | 13-15 | 16-18 | 19-21 | 22-24 | 25-27 || total
-------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------++-------
Melee: Unarmed           |    88 |   110 |   256 |   887 |  1780 |  1587 |  1742 |  2048 |   698 ||  9196
       Rod               |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |    24 |       ||    24
 Fire:  Blowgun           |       |       |       |       |       |     1 |       |     1 |       ||     2
Throw: Large rock        |       |     3 |     9 |    27 |    40 |    89 |    41 |    28 |    17 ||   254
       Javelin           |       |       |       |       |     9 |       |       |       |       ||     9
Evoke: Wand              |       |       |       |    12 |     8 |     8 |     1 |    15 |    10 ||    54
       Rod               |       |       |       |       |    24 |    13 |    17 |     9 |       ||    63
       Miscellaneous     |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |     2 |       ||     2
  Use: Potion            |     5 |     2 |     3 |    11 |     6 |     3 |     4 |     7 |    11 ||    52
 Stab:  Sleeping          |     2 |     2 |       |    11 |    21 |    16 |     1 |       |       ||    53
       Distracted        |       |       |       |     1 |     3 |     6 |       |       |       ||    10
       Fleeing           |       |       |       |       |       |     1 |       |       |       ||     1


A while ago I posted an idea for an unrandart gsc Vow Of Silence. The reception was quite poor, and a recurring theme was "you'd have to be insane to use something so crippling." This inspired me to try a massively more crippling conduct, which was to play an entire game as if silenced. This means no scrolls, spells or active god abilities --- in fact, since "p" can't be done when silenced, you can have no god unless you start with one. This means that basically the only useful god you could have is Yredelemnul.

It turns out the hardest (really most annoying) aspect of this is the lack of remove curse and identify. This one-two punch means that you have a very hard time putting together a workable set of gear. Getting lucky and wear id-ing a +6 ring of evasion on like D:3 or so is a good start. The "probably sustab, maybe slay" (which I eventually realized was most likely slaying, though I had no idea it was that good) was another earlyish find and worn for a long time. The randart amulet in the bag I wore since early Lair; I knew about the rC pretty quickly, could tell that it was buffing stealth (this is actually visible on %, by the way, even unid'd) and happily discovered the rCorr the first time a yellow draconian splashed me. And best of all, I found fire dragon armour in an antique shop in a bazaar for 1500 gold. I had 1509 on me.

I would have liked to have known about the rCorr earlier, because Vaults:5 was very hard and nearly killed me. I was at 7 hp waiting for a teleport to go off trying to use a tentacled monstrosity to shield myself from a yaktaur and a crossbow wielding vault warden. That was fun. Other than that, the major close calls were Ilsuiw (her water elemental spam is really pretty excessive, especially considering she already starts with a pretty buff band) and an eyeball summoning pan lord on the orb run. I got lucky and avoided my first orb run splat, but man orb run teleports take a while to kick in.

[rebthor]

Other than the p command (which I'm not sure if it really is suppressed by silence), nemelex powers are all non-vocal to the best of my knowledge.

[Sandman25]

Wow, that's cool.
Too bad you couldn't worship Ash, she would be extremely useful to the character.
I didn't know rMut IDs when it blocks a mutation. Trying different amulets/rings vs different monsters should have been annoying...

[rebthor]

Also, why would you start as a monk when there is absolutely, positively no reason to do so if you think that "p" breaks your self imposed conduct. Literally almost any other fighting background would be better. TrHu, TrGl, TrFi, TrBe, TrDK, TrAs, TrAr and probably TrWn are all better. You won't get benefit from Trog except perhaps weapon gifts if you branch into throwing, and it's extremely unlikely you'll end up in penance from lack of killing things.

[ackack]

Other than the p command (which I'm not sure if it really is suppressed by silence), nemelex powers are all non-vocal to the best of my knowledge.

I wizmode tested it to be sure, and it is. mikee raised the possibility that Beogh conversions in trunk might still work, but I sorta doubt they do and it doesn't get you that much
different from Yred anyway.

Wow, that's cool.
Too bad you couldn't worship Ash, she would be extremely useful to the character.
I didn't know rMut IDs when it blocks a mutation. Trying different amulets/rings vs different monsters should have been annoying...

If you could somehow get Ash with lots of piety, yes, it would be extremely helpful. However, even if you could worship her, without the ability to read scrolls you're either not going to generate piety or you're going to lock yourself into ass gear. I believe the god most worth worshipping that you can't because of the restriction is Makhleb.

Wear id is for the most part something I would recommend doing early if anybody feels like trying this. If you are lucky you can find some of the nastier pieces of jewellery in shops and id them that way, but with rings in particular it's hard because there are so many that curse upon wearing (stat rings, protection, evasion, teleport, hunger). The amulet of resist mutation I bought in a shop somewhere.

Also, why would you start as a monk when there is absolutely, positively no reason to do so if you think that "p" breaks your self imposed conduct. Literally almost any other fighting background would be better.

TrHu probably is better for the early rocks. TrDK is useful for obvious reasons, but with no recall and no "t" Yred is not as good as usual. I kinda doubt any of the other backgrounds are. The advantage of TrMo is that Mo has the best starting dex of any troll, I believe. That said, since at the beginning of the game you're a troll and everything is LOL anyway (I think most of my TrMo efforts that didn't make it to Lair were quits because I got impatient and wore something cursed) the choice of background is not particularly important.

[Siegurt]

Hm, Thinking about the gods you can start with (Lucy, Trog, Yred, Evy, and Xom) In a completely silent conduct, I think Xom might be the most useful of them.... I'm not sure how I feel about saying that. Too bad Jester isn't an actual starting kit, as a Nemlex *would* be an excellent silent god, if you could take him.

[Siegurt]

Actually, now that I think on it, it'd be a royal pain to get your piety up with no 'p' for nemlex (I mean you get piety for using cards, but you usually run out before you get your second deck, you'd have to wait until you *found* a second deck in the dungeon)

[and into]

Very impressive, ackack!

Your victory post inspired me to post a modified proposal for the "Vow of Silence" unrandart you described, over in GDD.

[defen]

Wouldn't Trog be a strong option, if only for the nearly-guaranteed antimagic weapons?

[and into]

Wouldn't Trog be a strong option, if only for the nearly-guaranteed antimagic weapons?

Trog wouldn't be worst option, but piety would be somewhat slower to gain, and you'd have to wait a while to get the returns on taking Trog. Ackack is correct I think that death knight would be best background.

[sanka]

I do not really understand. You say that identifying is annoying, but how is it even possible? You give every item to goblins, to detect if they are cursed, or what? Or limit yourself to shops?

Anyway, congratulations.

[ackack]

I do not really understand. You say that identifying is annoying, but how is it even possible? You give every item to goblins, to detect if they are cursed, or what? Or limit yourself to shops?

Early on you can wear-id as you're only losing a few minutes of game time if you stumble on something cursed. I pushed the envelope a bit in this game, since I found a trove requiring 12 scrolls of teleportation (which I was able to id in a shop). It was a cloak, wizard hat and robe trove, and I got quite lucky trying things on in there.

Later on, yes, shops are the main source, although occasionally you get uniques like Gastronok or Nikola who I think aren't going to give me cursed items. If you can eliminate the potentially cursed jewellery, eventually identifying most jewellery is possible by wearing it and seeing what happens. Wands or potions of paralysis and confusion can test for stasis and clarity, monster attacks will get the protection from foo stuff identified. Unfortunately it's very difficult to actually get all of the possibly cursed regular jewellery identified, so my compromise was wearing stuff early to pick out safe things and then just doing my best with what was known.

[BlackSheep]

Do you just run screaming at the first sight of a mummy?

[ackack]

Do you just run screaming at the first sight of a mummy?

Yep:

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Annotations:
D:4 Menkaure, Prince Ribbit

[damiac]

Well, he can't run screaming, now can he? Maybe running away waving his arms madly or something.

[rchandra]

if you can eliminate the potentially cursed jewellery

How do you do this?

Very cool conduct, I wonder how MiBe would be? feel like at some point I'd get trapped by cursed armour looking for some artefact with positive enchantment.