Post Monday, 9th August 2021, 17:11

YAVP: 9-rune (including Tomb) VSIE of Wu Jian

http://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/dame ... 130725.txt

(Well, secretly, since I wrote my last YAVP, I did a 4-rune centaur with Okawaru:

http://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/dame ... 121149.txt

but there wasn't much to write about that even if the 4th rune was Gehenna.)

VSIE (and other VS Conjuring-y combos) are pretty painful at the start; once all your MP are cast away, you're almost as squishy as a kitty, and your slow attacks and low STR/DEX means refilling MP by biting works as badly as it ever will. After 14 games I'd sighted the Lair entrance once, and I was pleasantly surpised to get the 15th home.

Of course, "arrange to find a +8 whip {drain, *Drain rPois rF++ Str+4} on D:4" doesn't, perhaps, count as a very sophisticated strategy. I'd seen a WJC altar on D:2, the Temple didn't have many gods, and it seemed like time for a bit of melee. I'd stick using this for ages - of course, the way I couldn't wield-ID any other weapon kind of forced that.

On Lair:5 I found two manuals of Ice Magic in an Ice Cave which meant I developed a ridiculous amount of the skill compared to the amount I was using it (given my armour was too heavy for Ozo's); but on D:12 I hit a labyrinth getting +2 steam dragon scales with {Int +3} and was glad of the whopping spellpower on Ozo's then.

The rest of D had a +2 cloak with {rC+ MR++ Str+4}, my faithful companion for the rest of the game (except a bit using Starlight for rElec), and an exciting encounter with Louise and Roxanne together.

After Snake (Snake:4 was a bit hairy) and Shoals (Ilsiuw, likewise) I cleared Elf, finding a trove that wanted a +4 demon whip.

To Vaults, where I'd learn Aura of Abjuration, which came in incredibly handy in the extended game. I went straight to V:5 - I often do this these days if I think I can handle it and my kit seems good for Vaults, and in this case "immolation to start the ball rolling then mash up the entire level in one Heavenly Storm" seemed like a plan.

On V:5 I found a demon whip of electrocution. I fretted over this for a bit; I like troves, but it was very obviously an upgrade from the randart whip especially since I planned to do Crypt next and very little in there can be drained, so I kept it. However, this went out the window when I found the Captain's Cutlass on C:2 and went into Short Blades; I cashed the trove (getting nothing very exciting) and used the cutlass for the rest of the game.

(There can be few messages more joyous to read than "The captain's cutlass flashes! You lacerate Cerebov!! Cerebov's uncursed great serpentine sword {flame} falls to the floor!", especially since I closed him down with a Serpent's Lash so he never got to use his fancy sword at all.)

C:2 had a Khufu vault - much nastier than anything on C:3, and C:3 gave me a halfway decent rElec jewellery swap.

I cleared out Depths; with 3 runes in hand, I decided to do a bit of Pan spelunking. Cerebov came up first and went down pretty easily; second was holy Pan but on this character it wasn't too bad. Gloorx Vloq got pretty bad (curse skulls strike again), and I landed right on top of Mnoleg, but Heavenly Stormed them and all their mates, getting only one malmutation (blurry vision, sigh) which I rouletted out.

Lom Lobon was last; this was also pretty bad until I managed to get a few bites in and shut down their magic. I escaped through the Abyss... getting frail and dopey from a random cacodemon, which I was pretty vexed by especially after beating Mnoleg without any serious consequences but having to roll the dice several times to fix things up after this.

I've done Tomb a few times before, but never the conventional way with Necromutation; I'd been training up for it, and bought every available potion of brilliance. This worked like a charm on the Tomb:2 and Tomb:3 entrance fights combined with old faithful "mash everything up in a Heavenly Storm"; the corridor of bastards on Tomb:1 was worse in a way because greater mummies kept trickling in making it harder to know when the situation demanded one of my limited supply of Necromutation casts.

To Zot! Z:5 was mostly ancient lichen with a couple of orbs of fire, but either isn't really a problem if you can Serpent's Lash into them and bite them a few times. I ran into a pretty nasty very fast panlord on D:5, but I had plenty of holy words even after Tomb and could easily beat them when they were dazed.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.