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YAVP: MiFi of Hepliaklqana, first 5-rune game

PostPosted: Wednesday, 30th August 2017, 23:08
by damerell
http://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/damerell/morgue-damerell-20170829-091537.txt
  Code:
2938600 damerell the Invulnerable (level 27, 245/245 HPs)
             Began as a Minotaur Fighter on Aug 26, 2017.
             Was a High Priest of Hepliaklqana.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 5 runes on Aug 29, 2017!
             
             The game lasted 12:36:32 (81579 turns).

damerell the Invulnerable (Minotaur Fighter)       Turns: 81579, Time: 12:36:33

Health: 245/245    AC: 51    Str: 35    XL:     27
Magic:  29/29      EV: 25    Int:  7    God:    Hepliaklqana [*****.]
Gold:   4166       SH: 35    Dex: 21    Spells: 26/26 levels left

rFire    + + .     SeeInvis .   a - +7 broad axe (freeze) {Blink, idiot}
rCold    + + .     Gourm    .   y - +2 large shield
rNeg     . . .     Faith    .   r - +6 gold dragon scales
rPois    +         Spirit   .   j - +2 hat
rElec    .         Reflect  +   v - scarf {repulsion}
rCorr    .         Harm     .   O - +2 pair of gloves "Cewaom" {+Fly Int+2 Dex+4}
MR       +++..                  s - +2 pair of boots
Stlth    ..........             I - +4 amulet of reflection
Regen    0.5/turn               A - ring of Robustness {AC+8}
MPRegen  0.3/turn               B - ring of Cowardice {rC+ MR+ Str+4 Dex+4}

@: repel missiles
A: retaliatory headbutt, reduced essence, horns 2, talons 1, fire resistance 1,
high mp 1, sense surroundings 1
0: Orb of Zot
}: 5/15 runes: decaying, serpentine, slimy, silver, abyssal
a: Recall Ancestor, Ancestor Identity, Transference, Idealise, Renounce Religion, Evoke Flight

You escaped.
You worshipped Hepliaklqana.
Hepliaklqana was extremely pleased with you.
You were not hungry.

You visited 11 branches of the dungeon, and saw 57 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 1 time.
You also visited: Trove, Ice Cave and Wizlab.

You collected 8477 gold pieces.
You spent 4311 gold pieces at shops.


I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment; I only had to play two MiFis after my last win to get this one home. I lost the first one (who went Uskayaw) to stupid belief in my own invincibility; I kept bashing away on Orc:2 as my hitpoints dropped, and that was that. This made me a bit more circumspect this game, although I did nearly lose it on Zot:5 when I failed to notice a situation developing with an OOF, golden dragons, and orbs of fire until it was nearly too late and was reduced to chain-quaffing heal wounds until my teleport kicked in - frustrating with a bag full of clever tricks but unable to take a turn to try any of them out without risking dying.

The ancestor was very effective; besides doing damage ordinarily, she saved me a few times from being paralysed through my MR (which was lousy for most of the game), and made an effective speedbump while retreating from panlords and other menaces. Best of all, though, were Transference shenanigans - bring a spellcaster to me for convenient murder, yes, but also swap the ancestor with a distant monster in the direction I wanted to go and then swap myself in that direction. It's as close to a controlled blink as you'll get in Zot, and the draining is an added bonus. I was very glad I took the knight - the hexer and battlemage might be more effective in some ways but Judy the knight's robustness kept her around for when I wanted to do these tricks.

In the past, after my first win, I've not cleared Zot because at that stage you generally have what you need to win and it's just full of bad stuff. I'm starting to think that's a mistake - as soon as something gets sticky on the orbrun, you go up an unexpected set of stairs (or nearest hatch) and find yourself tangling with draconians on top of your other problems.

This was my first 5-rune game. I was Abyssed on Elf:3 (because of lousy MR), wasn't really finding the Abyss too bad, and only found an exit on the outskirts of a rune vault, so figured I might as well collect it while I was there. After that, IRC pointed out the character was plenty buff enough for Vaults:5, so I picked that up; and in my previous heavy armour win, I'd not found Slime to be too bad, so I thought I'd give that a go and indeed it was pretty straightforward.

In the very early game I'd wield-ID a *Contam spear, get deterioration, and mutroulette it out into clarity and inherent blink (this is why my weapon is inscribed "Blink, idiot", to remind me I could do it). Hooray! However, this bit me later when when I got deterioration again on Slime:5 which I didn't mutroulette out in order to keep clarity. In the crisis on Zot:5 I then lost a bunch of stats to deterioration - nearly Int zero, although I had a +6 Int ring with me for just this problem. After getting away from that crisis I saw sense and mutrouletted again, getting rF+ - good timing for it.

On D:6 I stupidly wield-IDed a cursed falchion with *Noise, having forgotten I had no remove curse. I learned nothing and got a cursed -1 war axe stuck to me shortly afterwards, and had to go through at least half a dozen levels desperately searching for a remove curse. "ceb", who was watching the game, thought this was hilarious. However, if you're going to do that, doing it on a character with a good aux attack and an Auntie Murder ally is the time to do it; I kept flailing away and managed to survive the experience.

I hit a trove on D:10 that wanted a 1,050 gold book; with plenty of gold and no prospect of spellcasting, I took it, secretly hoping for remove curse. No joy, but I did get a large number of potions of haste which were extremely useful on uniques and the orbrun. I could weather ordinary hydras with a combination of the ancestor and retaliatory attacks, but I did back up from Swamp:4 when the Lernaean Hydra showed up. Instead I went to do Snake... but Bai Suhzen turned up on Snake:3, and I'd got unstuck from the war axe and got a flaming broad axe, so Judy the knight and I went back and made short work of Lernie, then came back to Snake and polished off Bai Suhzen and the rest of Snake. I'd use Bai Suhzen's scales for some time, but hung onto my enchant armours in the hope something better would turn up (always annoying if you do that and then the something better is an artifact), and I did eventually get the gold dragon scales I finished in.

I found the obsidian axe on Elf:3, I think, but resisted the urge to use it. I also rather regretted not using the +4 executioner's axe "Esiezo" {flame, *Noise Str+3 Int+2 Dex+10} but was heavily in Shields and I thought the noise would cause trouble. I finished with a broad axe of freezing - I had about half a dozen scrolls of brand weapon, so rebranded the axe of flaming I'd used almost all game in order to polish off OOFs faster. I had a +1 antimagic broad axe, but it didn't really prove worth it when I could mash up most spellcasters in 2-3 hits of my ordinary weapon.

There's not much else to write, not the usual essay - aside from the sticky situation on Z:5 it was mostly pretty plain sailing after surviving being Abyssed. I saw five panlords; killed one while waiting for a teleport, and escaped the rest with a combination of ancestor speedbumps and scrolls of holy word.