Post Friday, 19th February 2021, 16:33

YAVP: 6-including-Tomb-rune 0.23ish HaFi of Gozag

http://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/dame ... 055858.txt

This is my third Tomb rune, and the first one I've got without special protection from torment; I've done one as a ghoul, and one when worshipping Kiku. Of course, a Gozagite with a lot of gold in hand is also very strong, but Tomb can chew up bribe money at tremendous speed.

It also served as a test of our new feature; Gozag will sell you ammunition, albeit at a healthy markup over ordinary shops. The intention is to make more gods useful for predominantly ranged combat; I used it only twice, partly because in the later game I was doing satisfactory damage with stones to most targets - in particular I was pretty smug when I one-shot an Orb Guardian with a stone.

Fortunately, the Temple (with Gozag) turned up early, on D:5; it's frustrating to want to test a particular god and have them not show up. Soon after I'd buy a +6 long sword with {elec, Str+3} which was good enough I started on Long Blades in Lair. On Lair:2 I found a +6 chain mail with {rElec rN+ Int+2} which served very well for some time, and on Lair:6 I got a +1 randart fustibalus of flaming.

I got the rare Orc:2 that has a lot of stuff you want to buy just when you have a lot of money. This included a manual of Armour (I had great luck with manuals this game) and one of Ice Magic. I learned Ensorcelled Hibernation in the hope of getting it online (basically pointlessly; I never really had the spellpower to affect much, and it came down to the old problem that I _could_ cast it, or I could just fire a sling bullet...)

I acquired the boots of the Assassin on D:12 - I was never _very_ stealthy, but they were enough to give me non-zero stealth even in heavy armour later, which was nice, and while I didn't get many stabs, the monster-vision is always nice.

I was Abyssed on D:14 - got out OK, but it seemed like D was getting too hairy and it was time to do the Lair branches. Swamp:4 was pretty bad; Snake was not troublesome at all. After that I finished D and went to Elf, where I was lucky enough to find the arc blade, which I'd use for melee all the rest of the game.

I went in a Desolation of Salt on E:2. I've never died in one, but until this game, it's always been pretty hairy; but this time was mostly fine. I got an amulet with {Faith +Blink rF+ Str+4 Dex+3} which I'd use all the rest of the game in spite of Faith doing nothing for Gozag, and also the cloak of the Thief - it was the unlimited fog which made me consider a crack at Tomb, although in the end I had plenty of scrolls.

Elf:3 wasn't too bad and yielded a ring with {+Fly Int+4 Dex+3} which I'd use on and off... and +17 gold dragon scales {rPois rF+ rC+ SInv Stlth+}! Well, I said to myself, spells are kind of overrated anyway. (I would get some low-level spells back online later, partly with the aid of a manual of Charms). It was this that produced the truly absurd AC: 62 I had when I won.

Vaults gave me a +3 helmet {Dex+4} which I'd save "for later", wearing a helmet of intelligence and then, when spell skills were high enough not to use it, forgettting it existed. Oh, well. I went straight to V:5 (I often do these days if I'm feeling confident, where I got a +0 shield with {rN+++}, which seemed to make it time to do the Crypt.

Crypt had a wizlab, Zonguldrok's Shrine, which was pretty easy. As ever, curse skulls were a pain, but at least I had Portal Projectile and could hammer on them no matter how many summons they had out. Next was Depths; not much to say about that, except that I killed XTAHUA.

Cleared the Vestibule of Hell, bought a ring with {Fire rPois rN++ Str-3 Dex+9} which was at least less inconvenient an rN source than the +0 shield, then worked down Slime and killed TRJ with immolation and Portal Projectile.

I was starting to feel pretty strong, and it's been a very long time since I've had a crack at a ziggurat (two years, on OgEE). I found the amulet of Cekugob {Ward, -Tele rElec rPois rN++ AC+1 EV+1} which I'd use when things got pretty hairy with summons on a mummy floor. However, on Zig:16 I decided I'd had enough, and if I was going to get killed of hubris I'd rather have it happen in a rune branch.

It'd also been a while since I'd given Ereshkigal a visit, and I was a lot less worried about silence on this character than on many; I don't remember Tartarus being particularly difficult, and there's nothing in the morgue to suggest otherwise.

Now, peak hubris: to Tomb. I bribed it on arrival, which was a mistake (the bribe got eaten up in no time), but I'd then bribe before descending for the first time to Tomb:2 and Tomb:3. On Tomb:2 I ran for one of the side rooms and then fought from there, and on Tomb:3 I made it out one of the side doors from the entrace and then used up a lot of fog to arrange to fight stuff in small chunks. I also used up a chunk of scrolls of holy word clearing tides of summons and dazing greater mummies.

It got pretty hairy at times - greater mummies are giant sacks of HP - but eventually monsters stopped trickling in and I could pick up the loot and the rune. This included a +2 cloak with {rElec rN++ Str+4}; I had plenty of scrolls of fog and those were just the resistances I wanted to not have to use suboptimal jewellery, so I ditched Thief and used it. I also got manuals of Armour and Slings - with an effective +8 aptitude for Slings, this is why I finished the game having mastered Slings.

I cleared Zot:1-4, although some draconian packs were a serious nuisance; I planned to bribe Zot:5 if things got hairy, but the only point where they did was when an alich petrified me heading into the lungs. (On reflection, I probably should not have rearranged jewellery in a way that left me with only MR++). However, I had already laid down a trail of flame from a lamp of fire, and pulled out a couple of box beasts when I started to petrify, and being petrified doesn't turn off your AC. I did end up fighting a huge tide of monsters including Tiamat in the entry to the orb vault; not sure what that was about.

The orb run was mostly uneventful (I thought the 2018 change to orb run spawns was meant to make it hairier, but mine recently have been pretty harmless); I saw one panlord with attendant nasties, but dazed it with one of my last holy words and fled. One Ice Fiend, but just read fog and ran away.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.