Post Saturday, 19th November 2022, 13:07

YAVP: 5-rune (with Tomb) MfGl of Gozag

https://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/dam ... 114142.txt

My fourth merfolk, and technically a one-and-won although I don't know that MfGl is that different from MfFi. Another one of those "terrible MR all game" games.
I found a Kiku altar on D:2. Didn't fancy that much with Mf's lousy apt, but there was a faded altar, let's see what turns up. Kiku.

Menkaure was the most effective monster this game, getting me to 3/62 HP on D:4.

On D:5 I found a Gozag altar and thought maybe the free Potion Petition would help me weather Kiku wrath, which panned out either by luck or judgement. I'd also seen the Robe of Augmentation in a D:4 shop and thought Gozag might let me buy it before too long. On D:6 I found a +0 kite shield with {+Fly Int+7} which would be a vital part of spellcasting later, although I'd mess around with a randart glaive and a bardiche for some time before acquiring Wyrmbane.

Appeased Kiku on Lair:1 - some of the wrath was pretty hairy. On Lair:3 I got the gold for the Robe of Augmentation. On Lair 5 I IDed acquirement getting manuals of Charms and Fighting - pretty well ideal on this character, and the Charms let me get Insulation, See Invisible, and Deflect Missiles online relatively quickly.

The Orc shops sold me a bardiche and a book with OTR, one of my favourite spells. D:15 got pretty hairy but I lived and went to Shoals - found a scroll of acquirement in a shop and got Wyrmbane. Snake was worse than the log reflects.

Down Vaults (learned Irradiate and Blink; we have the bcrawlism that Irradiate spam is controlled mainly by it giving Sap Magic, not Contam) to V:4 - Sojobo's pack was very troublesome - to find a trove wanting 12 heal wounds. Normally that would be insane, but perhaps not on a Gozagite who would usually be Potion Petitioning for hitpoints in an emergency?

Down Depths, learning Yara's, Statue Form (albeit it would take me a while to get the latter online), and Ozo's Armour. A horde of caustic shrikes and juggernauts gave me a nasty moment on U:3, but I got the last heal wounds and cashed the trove... exchanging a stack of useful consumables for a different stack of useful consumables (but since Gozag doesn't sell scrolls, I probably came out ahead?)

To the Crypt, having bought a ring with {+Inv rPois rN++ Slay+2 SInv} and with Statue Form coming online. Nasty moment with a curse skull on C:1 but otherwise seemed fine; hit Tomb of Dorothy on C:2 but I was fast enough to dig out almost all the tombs and tackle them one by one. The main loot from Tomb of Dorothy was another acquirement which turned into a book with Aura of Abjuration. With my other spells working well, I wanted to see if I could get Dragon's Call online, and this would mean the Summonings wouldn't be trained for nothing.

Vaults:5 but this was no more than a matter of strolling out of the initial ambush and hammering away in a convenient spot. Bought a scarf of warding (which is rN+, MR+, and wards away summons), finally solving my horrible MR problems; I'd wear this until snagging the dragonskin cloak in Zot.

I had rCorr on a ring of the Octopus King so I tackled Slime, which posed no real problems; I had a lamp of fire and a lightning rod and enough Evo I could just bake TRJ with those when it retreated from melee. I got the ring of Robustness ({HP+10 AC+6} in Stoat Soup) which was nice to have.

Not I had less-terrible MR I tackled Elf, finding and learning Shroud of Golubria. Then a trip to Hell to kill Geryon. Finally, I wanted at least one extended rune; with Statue Form and a huge stack of scrolls of immolation, I resolved to tackle Tomb.

The Tomb:2 ambush was surprisingly well controlled; I could just walk out into a defensible spot and hammer away. The same can't be said for Tomb:3 where I'd teleport a few times and spend Potion Petition money like water; I maybe should have Bribed Branch but that's less of an option once you're spewing immolation flames everywhere. Tomb gave me +0 gloves with {rElec rF+ rC++ Int+3}; I thought 2 AC was worth the intelligence and getting an extra pip of rF, especially since I'd just quaffed a lot of my potions of resistance.

Zot:1-4 were pretty uneventful aside from Tiamat's pack. Zot:5 served up 2 orbs of fire, 1 orb of fire, 3 orbs of fire, and then _four_ orbs of fire in a neat little group, with a light seasoning of ancient liches, but by this point I could easily cast Dragon's Call with brilliance and OOFs still cannot deal with being covered in dragons.

The orbrun had four panlords, but I evaded three and the other one was no trouble; two seraphs one of whom buried me in angels and reminded me that it's hard to abjure away TSO summons, oops, but I blinked to the downstairs and came up another way.

The RNG decrees that I will attempt DsGl next. The RNG really loves giving me gladiators.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.