Vaults Vanquisher
Posts: 431
Joined: Friday, 30th September 2011, 01:00
Wednesday, 4th April 2012, 14:40
YAVP : SchwaWarrior, HECj of Ash, 3-rune first victory!!
I won.
I freaking. Won.
...
I won Crawl.
I WON CRAWL.
*paces around the house at 4 AM in absolute shock and estacy*
*returns to laptop to post it all up*
OKAY! Hi guys. This would be my first victory ever, a modest 3 runes with my favorite character type, High Elf Conjurer of Ashenzari, at juuuuust baaaarely over 100k turns! Of course I've posted my log file below, but seriously, I'm too hyped to simply let a log file be enough, so you guys are getting a full-fledged story of my adventure's highlights! Take a seat and have some coffee while I entertain you for a while.
So, very first thing that happened this game was I got a +4+4 Ring of Slaying, a +3 Ring of Protection and an Elven Dagger of Venom on the very first few dungeon levels, and immediately I was like "okay holy crap now watch this game is gonna throw something impossible and horrible because it does that when you find awesome stuff", so I took it cautious right from the get-go, hesitating when I'd find groups of Orcs instead of recklessly Mephitic Cloud spamming so that I wouldn't run out of mana. Crazy Yiuf showed up as early as D:2 so I went in and beat him up, getting some decent Exp. I was tempted to use his Staff again that I love so much, but I decided no, my Dagger gets the job done and the +2 Short Blade aptitude was probably important in the early game anyway. Ashenzari can move stuff around later anyway so if I really wanted to I could play a Staff based second half of the game.
Be right back. *goes to boil some water to start some coffee* 'k hi, where was I...
I'm trying to think; I forget whether it was Crazy Yiuf or somewhere else that I got the amazing Cloak of Darkness that allows you to turn invisible, but that was a relatively early find too. And the difference this time is that I actually used it, a lot, through the entire game, instead of forgetting about it. When I found the Orcish Mines, instead of my usual Mephitic spam, I used the cloak to go invisible and one-shot Orc after Orc in melee as they slept away. ^^ I never imagined playing as a Stabber could feel so satisfying, even though my character was really just pretending.
I have newfound respect to those who main Stabber characters. Anyway I didn't get far; I cleared out all of Orc:1 this way but there were Sorcerers on Orc:2 and I almost died when one summoned a Sun Demon and it pinpointed my invisible location amazingly well, chasing me up the stairs until I barely got the Teleport to work in time. x_x Not dealing with that for a while.
I can't remember where it was I picked up the weapon that would become my trusty blade for the remainder of the game, but since I officially switched out (de-cursed the Dagger, switched weapons, re-cursed the new weapon) once I found the Lair, 'cause that's always where I put my entire stash, I assume it was around there that I picked up an Elven Short Sword of Protection, and it was a very hard decision but I decided to go for it and let the +5 to AC stack with my +3 Ring, and if I needed to poison stuff or do massive damage I couldn't do in melee, I'd just use spells. Right away I was able to use my saved-up Scrolls to enchant the Short Sword to +3+3. But I couldn't explore too much of the Lair yet, because I had yet to find any half-decent spellbooks, so all I had was Magic Dart and Mephitic Cloud (which doesn't work against half the Lair monsters-- damn you Spiny Frogs and Black Mambas, laugh it up while you can!), and Lightning Bolt which was a noisy hunger monster and horribly unreliable and I wasn't going into the Lair relying on it. I went out and explored the Dungeon some more.
I made slow but steady progress, taking out every unique I found, including Nikola, amazingly. Thank God I had a Potion of Resistance. A couple floors later, I found a Scroll of Acquirement, wished for a Book, and I got an Artifact Book that taught me Conjure Flame AND Mystic Blast! Can you believe it!? Perfect, absolutely perfect! With that prayer answered, I went back to the Lair and swept L:2 through 8 like a madman, slaying everything in sight, and along the way I picked up a ton more books, gaining access to Summon Scorpions, another one of my favorites, along with Flight, Poisonous Cloud and Freezing Cloud. (Later I would remove Poisonous Cloud from my spell arsenal because I discovered I only needed one or the other, and anything it couldn't kill, Mystic Blast would. The six costy Spell Points would be better off used on other more-diversifying avenues.) Thanks to my Cloud spells, I wrecked Lair:8 and took out every single Death Yak on the floor, and trust me, there were a TON of them because I wound up with that Catoblepas cavern where they shoot stone-breath attacks at you x_x It was so satisfying to be able to take out every last one for once. Usually I'm forced to run away. (Also Gastronok on Lair:6 gave me a workout, but I won and I took his +2 Hat of Intelligence which I used through the entire game. Did you know Airstrike does frightening extra damage if you're Levitating? @__@ I almost threw up.)
I did Lair:8, but didn't do any of the Runes yet. I wanted to level up some more. So I headed to the Vaults, which I have only recently become able to survive in, and gave it a shot. I visited the Crypt hoping for some fun Exp, because last time Crypt was a total haven for me and I found nothing stressful, but as soon as I entered I was rushed by like thirty dudes and I'm like "OKAY NUH-UH", and never went back for the rest of the game. Then I tried Hall of Blades, and whaddya know! Oh hi Saint Roka! o_o I proceeded to have an absolutely menacing battle with him, and if it weren't for my Scorpions backing me up I likely would have died! Then I sweeped Hall of Blades completely, destroying every dancing weapon there was. I was THIIIIIIIIS CLOSE to switching my weapon to a Scimitar of Distortion, but decided no, better not do anything unreliable because I'm actually doing well this time. The rest of the Vaults had to be cut short when, and I'm not joking, Boris, Mara and Margarey at the SAME TIME on Vault:6. It was one of those record-scratch-halt-the-music moments when they all showed up on the screen together. Slowly I backed out, then ran as fucking fast as I could back up the stairs and all the way to my stash at Lair:1 before I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
After that catastrophe, I decided to go back to the Orcs and finish wiping them out along with the Elven Halls. The problem was that I had no Negative Energy resistance-- just Ice by this point. (I had found two more Scrolls of Acquirement, and you know what they gave me when I asked for Armor? An ORDINARY +0 Buckler. And then an artifact +2 Buckler of -4 INT and +2 DEX. XDD I wasn't mad though, the +0 Buckler was my first shield in the game and I was quite pleased.) By now I have the spell Deflect Missiles, which is odd because I normally just stick with Repel Missiles for the low mana cost, but this worked just as well if not better. ^^ Things didn't go too bad at all, I found another Scroll of Acquirement and this time it gave me an Elven Shield of Fire Resistance, and I decided to wear it and get Shields all the way up to 15 to benefit from it. (It worked PERFECTLY later on by the way. ) But my adventure met with a shocking twist the moment I met Louise.
"You have been cast into the Abyss!"
Faaaaaaantastic. And I don't have too much perma-food with me, either. So I thought maybe I was in a bit of a jam. o_o But spell-wise I was pretty set! Deflect Missiles, Flight, Freezing Cloud, Mystic Blast and Conjure Flame was an extremely versatile moveset, and the only spell that caused hunger by this point was Freezing Cloud, and on top of that I had a Wand of Fire and a Wand of Cold with me so I was able to inflict instant damage on something dangerous that I didn't want to spend mana on. So, I decided to make my stay in the Abyss my Abyssal Rune run. Excellent decision. Permafood showed up so I didn't starve, I replenished my healing potions, found a Scroll of Amnesia and un-learned Poisonous Cloud, and guess what else? Hahaha, check this out:
This was the most fun I ever had. And it rewarded me with an Artifact +0 Cloak of Poison Resistance. Handy to have! I figured I could switch it out in the Swamp among other places that I didn't need to be invisible during. This Abyss run was also the first time I squared off against Tier-2 Demons without running away and I won tenaciously, including Tormentors, Reapers, Hellions and a Blizzard Demon. ^^ A Pit Fiend, Tier 1, also showed up, but I didn't press my luck THAT far. I'm glad it didn't see me.
But the Abyssal Rune itself was the most incredible battle of my life on this game. It was guarded by ANGELS. IN AN ANGEL TEMPLE OF THE SHINING ONE. Thankfully Ashenzari's Scry power helped me discover the Rune was in there, otherwise I wouldn't have even chanced it. For the first time ever, I squared off against an Angel that was not hiding behind glass walls for once, barely won with 1/3 of my health left, and got his freaking awesome Holy Scourge whip as a trophy (which I put in my Stash and didn't use XD). After that, two Ophanim, which were thankfully easier and I could take them out with Mystic Blast spam and Deflect Missiles to stop their holy fireball attacks. Then the last room. Two Cherubs. And they had Bows. x_x Once again Deflect Missiles came in handy here, but they were still hitting me very hard. I was able to use the Scorpions to distract them, seperate them, take out one with Mystic Blasting all of my mana at it, then use my last Magic Potion, a Potion of Might, Brilliance, and Agility to wound the other one and finish him off in hand-to-hand.
I won. And then this message:
"The Shining One: 'Martyrs shall be remembered forever.'
You are blasted ferociously by The Shining One's Cleansing Flame!
Ouch! That really hurt!"
Whoever put this in the game is a mastermind. Fuckin' PROPS. I picked up that Rune and high-tailed it out of the Abyss first chance I got. Then I went back and whallop'd Louise upside the head as hard as I could and it felt fantastic.
By the time I FINALLY finished clearing Elven Halls, I now had the wonderful spells Abjuration and Blink in tow, FINALLY, which made me very happy, as well as a sweet Artifact amulet that was Resist Mutation Plus Electric Resistance in an adorable little bundle, and I removed the Amulet of Conservation in favor of it for the remainder of the game. By now I had Shields up to like 13 or 14, and yes, Ashenzari's boosts helped TREMENDOUSLY I think, and my big bad Shield-that-is-totally-awesomer-than-a-Buckler was stopping almost every attack when I had Deflect Missiles up with it. I hardly ever get to play as a Caster with a full-sized Shield, so this was a major treat here.
I did Swamp and Shoals, it went by like a breeze. Shoals:5 was scary though; I came as close as I ever had to dying so far, because I didn't realize the stupid Javelineer had a Distortion weapon until he'd Critical Hit me with the "horrible space warps" like four times already. x_x After that I just decided to run in and spam the Scorpions and grab the Rune and teleport the fuck outta there without pressing my luck any more than it'd go. Ilsiyu or whatever her name was gave me a rough time too, thank God I finally could Abjure the elementals she kept pumping out. Nothing even remotely noteworthy happened in Swamp though. Oh, I killed a Vapor I guess. And Snorg. OHHH. Right. There was a Tentacled Monstrosity down there and I do hate those fervorously, but I killed it swiftly with only moderate damage sustained. I guess I was glad to have some warm-up before Zot later on, since those enemies were easily the worst things down there, even moreso than Orbs of Fire last time I played. (Squishy Casters, man. You Minotaur Beserker mains are wusses, sorry to say it; try dealing with something that can kill you in six turns if you ever let it get in melee range unless you have Blink and tell me how it felt. ;P)
With three Runes, I decided to simply make a beeline for the Realm of Zot and get this adventure in the bag. I was heavily leveled, I had all the equipment I wanted minus some Negative Energy resistance, I had lots of wonderful spells, so yeah, decided I was ready. I said goodbye to my Stash for the rest of the game, taking everything with me, and to top it off, I learned two Epic-level spells that were in the Uberbooks: Demonic Horde (I un-learned Scorpions to do so) and Chain Lightning. Then I was off to Zot!
The rest of the dungeon was a breeze until D:25. Amazingly, I found a gigantic, elaborate Arcane Temple of Magic in the upper left corner, FILLED with Ogre Mages, Elf spellcasters of various kinds, Wizards, Necromancers, Vampire Wizards, and LICHES! (Orb of Destruction was the scariest thing ever when I WASN'T the one casting it for once. o___o) The decorations were astounding too, there were fountains and flowing water in amazingly complex and nice-looking pathways; whoever designed this vault, props man! Total props.
People here are way too talented at level design! I'm super impressed.
D:26 had a Wizard Lab. I did not stick around once the walls all suddenly vanished and there were a dozen high-level demons all over the room. Was not even remotely funny. x__x I smoked two Lorocyprocas that followed me out though. Defeating intimidating opponents that I never used to be able to beat is always very encouraging.
Then I'm in D:27, where the entrance to Zot was, and guess what was down there? In addition to the Draconian encampment around the Gateway to Zot, there was also a fortress, with a moat of lava, FILLED with Draconians! It was like the occasional Orc, Gnoll, or Goblin fortresses that can generate earlier on in the dungeons, only it was Draconian-themed and the moat was lava. I had NO REASON to do this other than Exp, but I went and cleaned out the entire place just because I am a perfectionist.
I was rewarded for my tremendous effort going through there with the first Potion of Water in the game! YAYYY! *glug glug glug* "This tastes like water!"
Finally, after every Draconian on D:27 is cleared out, I set up a makeshift Stash right outside the Gateway to Zot, my intent to grab the whole pile and high-tail it once I had the Orb in tow. I even used a Wand of Digging in advance to clear a beeline path for the closest upstairs so I wasted no time circling around the dungeon; I had never actually touched the Orb before, but I had heard the dungeon goes batshit crazy Planet Zebes style once you start to ascend so I was thinking ahead.
And the INSTANT I entered Zot:1... FIFTEEN DRACONIANS SURROUNDING ME. "OH HI GUYS." Cue panicked Blink spam as they chip my health down to half in twelve turns. D: But I lured them into the hallway and took them out with Freezing Cloud while distracting them with Demonic Horde (which is AWESOME, by the way, a ton moreso than Chain Lightning which I found is just okay). I explored Zot, mindful of all the dragons everywhere, even more mindful of Tentacled Monstrosities which I went out of my way to kill if I saw one roaming; I did NOT want those things on the loose for long. Surprisingly, not a single Orb of Fire showed up! Instead I got to experience CURSE TOES! Personally... I'd have rather fought the Orbs of Fire. I had even prepared my equipment in advance for it, but as we all know, Crawl will put you in your place if you try to be cute like that. I ran like a madman away from those Curse Toes every time I found one after the first encounter.
Ghost Moths were a horrible problem for me last game. But this time I knew a trick: if you turn invisible, they can't drain your Mana! Thanks to whomever mentioned that in a thread somewhere, you probably saved my life.
Zot:5 was where it all hit the fan. I had taken out a couple Liches in the main dungeon, but Ancient Liches is where I draw the line. Used up all my Mana fighting just one and it was only half health. So I use a Teleport scroll to retreat and regroup.
It puts me two squares away from the Orb of Zot. SURROUNDED by Orb Guardians. And six Mana.
In no time at all I'm almost dead and I have no way out other than to hope Teleport kicks in in a couple more turns. My last six Mana gets me a Demonic Horde, it distracts about half the monsters in the tiny enclosed room, one of them moves off the Orb just in time for me to GRAB IT, and then Teleport #2 kicks in three turns later, with me having a quarter of my life left and no more healing potions. Now I am holding the freaking Orb of Zot on Zot:4 and it's GO TIME!
Using this music on repeat, I ran. My hands were trembling trying to hit the keyboard keys. Things kept warping in and I'd sidestep God-knows-how from rabid demons left and right with split-second Wand of Digging detours, and the six Hell Hounds that jumped in on all sides in an ambush fell down when I Blinked behind them and lured them into the tunnel with the Freezing Cloud trap setup. Tier-1 Pit Fiend Hellfire made me SCREAM in distress; Fire Resistance and it still took out a quarter of my life! If I would have fought I would have died; Ashenzari's skills helped me to the bitter end as it allowed me to scan for its position behind the walls and craftily sneak around his half of the dungeon with my recharged Wand of Digging. I'm so glad I brought that with me. Nothing worse than the Pit Fiend showed up; I heard there were Pandemonium Lords that can spawn and they're your worst nightmare or something, but I didn't see even one.
D:2, right before I went up the stairs, a Tormentor warped in again and took out half my health in one shot. I blasted him with Mystic Blast and beat him in one hit. It felt godlike.
Right in front of the final exit, where I would beat the game, the only thing left to stand in my way was a Midge. I feel bad for having killed it. Maybe I should have brought it out of the dungeon with me and treat it to coffee. ^^;;
And that's how I beat the game, at long last, with my beloved High Elf Conjurer, finishing as an excellent Melee-Spellcaster hybrid!
- - -
I want to give a huge shout-out to anyone who's given me advice in the past, and a DOUBLE-HUGE shout-out to all the FANTASTIC developers and content-contributors, ESPECIALLY the uber-talented Vault Designers, who have worked in their spare time simply because they enjoy it no other reason to make this glorious game that is DCSS. I also want to give a big double-middle-finger followed by a hearty playful laugh and a bear-hug to all the people who told me I "couldn't do it" or am "playing the wrong way", because oh hey look at what I just did! I beat the game the way I want to. It's like how they say in some competitive Pokemon battling circles; "true champions win with their favorites". To make a statement and whatnot. I would like to encourage and inspire everyone reading this that yes, advice on the forums is great, but play the game your way, number one. I could have never won if I had played to win. Instead I played because I love Crawl, and ended up a winner. That's how it's done, guys, and that applies to real life too, you gotta do what's you!
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this novel-sized post about the adventures of Schwa. My next mini-project will be to write this up as an actual fanfiction for posting in Diary Of A Crawler, which has been one of my major motivations for playing Crawl from start to finish almost ever since I've been playing it. I admit it's hard to remember some of the details, such as where I found some of my weapons or spells, as the logs didn't seem to catch every tiny thing, only the "major" ones, which is fine I suppose. There needs to be room for freeform creativity anyway. ^^
Now that I have the Orb, and its limitless power at my disposal, I think I'll use its power to open up a fantastic coffee shop on the surface world, where anyone no matter what species can come to relax for a change. I've got an entire family of Imps of various kinds-- Iron, Dark, Crimson, you name it-- who followed me home after all my Demonic Horde spamming in there and are already excited over getting coffee, so I think it'll be a pretty worthy investment. Definitely the best use of the Orb of Zot's power imaginable! <333
Here's the Log File for my game below. I have to put it in a double post because of how gigahuge this post is, I hit the character limit long ago. XDD Peace out you guys, have a fantastic rest-of-the week, and "love what is, don't hate what isn't"!
--Schwa, High Elf Conjurer forever
I freaking. Won.
...
I won Crawl.
I WON CRAWL.
*paces around the house at 4 AM in absolute shock and estacy*
*returns to laptop to post it all up*
OKAY! Hi guys. This would be my first victory ever, a modest 3 runes with my favorite character type, High Elf Conjurer of Ashenzari, at juuuuust baaaarely over 100k turns! Of course I've posted my log file below, but seriously, I'm too hyped to simply let a log file be enough, so you guys are getting a full-fledged story of my adventure's highlights! Take a seat and have some coffee while I entertain you for a while.
So, very first thing that happened this game was I got a +4+4 Ring of Slaying, a +3 Ring of Protection and an Elven Dagger of Venom on the very first few dungeon levels, and immediately I was like "okay holy crap now watch this game is gonna throw something impossible and horrible because it does that when you find awesome stuff", so I took it cautious right from the get-go, hesitating when I'd find groups of Orcs instead of recklessly Mephitic Cloud spamming so that I wouldn't run out of mana. Crazy Yiuf showed up as early as D:2 so I went in and beat him up, getting some decent Exp. I was tempted to use his Staff again that I love so much, but I decided no, my Dagger gets the job done and the +2 Short Blade aptitude was probably important in the early game anyway. Ashenzari can move stuff around later anyway so if I really wanted to I could play a Staff based second half of the game.
Be right back. *goes to boil some water to start some coffee* 'k hi, where was I...
I'm trying to think; I forget whether it was Crazy Yiuf or somewhere else that I got the amazing Cloak of Darkness that allows you to turn invisible, but that was a relatively early find too. And the difference this time is that I actually used it, a lot, through the entire game, instead of forgetting about it. When I found the Orcish Mines, instead of my usual Mephitic spam, I used the cloak to go invisible and one-shot Orc after Orc in melee as they slept away. ^^ I never imagined playing as a Stabber could feel so satisfying, even though my character was really just pretending.
I have newfound respect to those who main Stabber characters. Anyway I didn't get far; I cleared out all of Orc:1 this way but there were Sorcerers on Orc:2 and I almost died when one summoned a Sun Demon and it pinpointed my invisible location amazingly well, chasing me up the stairs until I barely got the Teleport to work in time. x_x Not dealing with that for a while.I can't remember where it was I picked up the weapon that would become my trusty blade for the remainder of the game, but since I officially switched out (de-cursed the Dagger, switched weapons, re-cursed the new weapon) once I found the Lair, 'cause that's always where I put my entire stash, I assume it was around there that I picked up an Elven Short Sword of Protection, and it was a very hard decision but I decided to go for it and let the +5 to AC stack with my +3 Ring, and if I needed to poison stuff or do massive damage I couldn't do in melee, I'd just use spells. Right away I was able to use my saved-up Scrolls to enchant the Short Sword to +3+3. But I couldn't explore too much of the Lair yet, because I had yet to find any half-decent spellbooks, so all I had was Magic Dart and Mephitic Cloud (which doesn't work against half the Lair monsters-- damn you Spiny Frogs and Black Mambas, laugh it up while you can!), and Lightning Bolt which was a noisy hunger monster and horribly unreliable and I wasn't going into the Lair relying on it. I went out and explored the Dungeon some more.
I made slow but steady progress, taking out every unique I found, including Nikola, amazingly. Thank God I had a Potion of Resistance. A couple floors later, I found a Scroll of Acquirement, wished for a Book, and I got an Artifact Book that taught me Conjure Flame AND Mystic Blast! Can you believe it!? Perfect, absolutely perfect! With that prayer answered, I went back to the Lair and swept L:2 through 8 like a madman, slaying everything in sight, and along the way I picked up a ton more books, gaining access to Summon Scorpions, another one of my favorites, along with Flight, Poisonous Cloud and Freezing Cloud. (Later I would remove Poisonous Cloud from my spell arsenal because I discovered I only needed one or the other, and anything it couldn't kill, Mystic Blast would. The six costy Spell Points would be better off used on other more-diversifying avenues.) Thanks to my Cloud spells, I wrecked Lair:8 and took out every single Death Yak on the floor, and trust me, there were a TON of them because I wound up with that Catoblepas cavern where they shoot stone-breath attacks at you x_x It was so satisfying to be able to take out every last one for once. Usually I'm forced to run away. (Also Gastronok on Lair:6 gave me a workout, but I won and I took his +2 Hat of Intelligence which I used through the entire game. Did you know Airstrike does frightening extra damage if you're Levitating? @__@ I almost threw up.)
I did Lair:8, but didn't do any of the Runes yet. I wanted to level up some more. So I headed to the Vaults, which I have only recently become able to survive in, and gave it a shot. I visited the Crypt hoping for some fun Exp, because last time Crypt was a total haven for me and I found nothing stressful, but as soon as I entered I was rushed by like thirty dudes and I'm like "OKAY NUH-UH", and never went back for the rest of the game. Then I tried Hall of Blades, and whaddya know! Oh hi Saint Roka! o_o I proceeded to have an absolutely menacing battle with him, and if it weren't for my Scorpions backing me up I likely would have died! Then I sweeped Hall of Blades completely, destroying every dancing weapon there was. I was THIIIIIIIIS CLOSE to switching my weapon to a Scimitar of Distortion, but decided no, better not do anything unreliable because I'm actually doing well this time. The rest of the Vaults had to be cut short when, and I'm not joking, Boris, Mara and Margarey at the SAME TIME on Vault:6. It was one of those record-scratch-halt-the-music moments when they all showed up on the screen together. Slowly I backed out, then ran as fucking fast as I could back up the stairs and all the way to my stash at Lair:1 before I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
After that catastrophe, I decided to go back to the Orcs and finish wiping them out along with the Elven Halls. The problem was that I had no Negative Energy resistance-- just Ice by this point. (I had found two more Scrolls of Acquirement, and you know what they gave me when I asked for Armor? An ORDINARY +0 Buckler. And then an artifact +2 Buckler of -4 INT and +2 DEX. XDD I wasn't mad though, the +0 Buckler was my first shield in the game and I was quite pleased.) By now I have the spell Deflect Missiles, which is odd because I normally just stick with Repel Missiles for the low mana cost, but this worked just as well if not better. ^^ Things didn't go too bad at all, I found another Scroll of Acquirement and this time it gave me an Elven Shield of Fire Resistance, and I decided to wear it and get Shields all the way up to 15 to benefit from it. (It worked PERFECTLY later on by the way.
) But my adventure met with a shocking twist the moment I met Louise."You have been cast into the Abyss!"
Faaaaaaantastic. And I don't have too much perma-food with me, either. So I thought maybe I was in a bit of a jam. o_o But spell-wise I was pretty set! Deflect Missiles, Flight, Freezing Cloud, Mystic Blast and Conjure Flame was an extremely versatile moveset, and the only spell that caused hunger by this point was Freezing Cloud, and on top of that I had a Wand of Fire and a Wand of Cold with me so I was able to inflict instant damage on something dangerous that I didn't want to spend mana on. So, I decided to make my stay in the Abyss my Abyssal Rune run. Excellent decision.
Permafood showed up so I didn't starve, I replenished my healing potions, found a Scroll of Amnesia and un-learned Poisonous Cloud, and guess what else? Hahaha, check this out:This was the most fun I ever had. And it rewarded me with an Artifact +0 Cloak of Poison Resistance. Handy to have! I figured I could switch it out in the Swamp among other places that I didn't need to be invisible during. This Abyss run was also the first time I squared off against Tier-2 Demons without running away and I won tenaciously, including Tormentors, Reapers, Hellions and a Blizzard Demon. ^^ A Pit Fiend, Tier 1, also showed up, but I didn't press my luck THAT far. I'm glad it didn't see me.
But the Abyssal Rune itself was the most incredible battle of my life on this game. It was guarded by ANGELS. IN AN ANGEL TEMPLE OF THE SHINING ONE. Thankfully Ashenzari's Scry power helped me discover the Rune was in there, otherwise I wouldn't have even chanced it. For the first time ever, I squared off against an Angel that was not hiding behind glass walls for once, barely won with 1/3 of my health left, and got his freaking awesome Holy Scourge whip as a trophy (which I put in my Stash and didn't use XD). After that, two Ophanim, which were thankfully easier and I could take them out with Mystic Blast spam and Deflect Missiles to stop their holy fireball attacks. Then the last room. Two Cherubs. And they had Bows. x_x Once again Deflect Missiles came in handy here, but they were still hitting me very hard. I was able to use the Scorpions to distract them, seperate them, take out one with Mystic Blasting all of my mana at it, then use my last Magic Potion, a Potion of Might, Brilliance, and Agility to wound the other one and finish him off in hand-to-hand.
I won. And then this message:
"The Shining One: 'Martyrs shall be remembered forever.'
You are blasted ferociously by The Shining One's Cleansing Flame!
Ouch! That really hurt!"
Whoever put this in the game is a mastermind. Fuckin' PROPS. I picked up that Rune and high-tailed it out of the Abyss first chance I got. Then I went back and whallop'd Louise upside the head as hard as I could and it felt fantastic.
By the time I FINALLY finished clearing Elven Halls, I now had the wonderful spells Abjuration and Blink in tow, FINALLY, which made me very happy, as well as a sweet Artifact amulet that was Resist Mutation Plus Electric Resistance in an adorable little bundle, and I removed the Amulet of Conservation in favor of it for the remainder of the game. By now I had Shields up to like 13 or 14, and yes, Ashenzari's boosts helped TREMENDOUSLY I think, and my big bad Shield-that-is-totally-awesomer-than-a-Buckler was stopping almost every attack when I had Deflect Missiles up with it. I hardly ever get to play as a Caster with a full-sized Shield, so this was a major treat here.
I did Swamp and Shoals, it went by like a breeze. Shoals:5 was scary though; I came as close as I ever had to dying so far, because I didn't realize the stupid Javelineer had a Distortion weapon until he'd Critical Hit me with the "horrible space warps" like four times already. x_x After that I just decided to run in and spam the Scorpions and grab the Rune and teleport the fuck outta there without pressing my luck any more than it'd go. Ilsiyu or whatever her name was gave me a rough time too, thank God I finally could Abjure the elementals she kept pumping out. Nothing even remotely noteworthy happened in Swamp though. Oh, I killed a Vapor I guess. And Snorg. OHHH. Right. There was a Tentacled Monstrosity down there and I do hate those fervorously, but I killed it swiftly with only moderate damage sustained. I guess I was glad to have some warm-up before Zot later on, since those enemies were easily the worst things down there, even moreso than Orbs of Fire last time I played. (Squishy Casters, man. You Minotaur Beserker mains are wusses, sorry to say it; try dealing with something that can kill you in six turns if you ever let it get in melee range unless you have Blink and tell me how it felt. ;P)
With three Runes, I decided to simply make a beeline for the Realm of Zot and get this adventure in the bag. I was heavily leveled, I had all the equipment I wanted minus some Negative Energy resistance, I had lots of wonderful spells, so yeah, decided I was ready.
I said goodbye to my Stash for the rest of the game, taking everything with me, and to top it off, I learned two Epic-level spells that were in the Uberbooks: Demonic Horde (I un-learned Scorpions to do so) and Chain Lightning. Then I was off to Zot!The rest of the dungeon was a breeze until D:25. Amazingly, I found a gigantic, elaborate Arcane Temple of Magic in the upper left corner, FILLED with Ogre Mages, Elf spellcasters of various kinds, Wizards, Necromancers, Vampire Wizards, and LICHES! (Orb of Destruction was the scariest thing ever when I WASN'T the one casting it for once. o___o) The decorations were astounding too, there were fountains and flowing water in amazingly complex and nice-looking pathways; whoever designed this vault, props man! Total props.
People here are way too talented at level design! I'm super impressed. D:26 had a Wizard Lab. I did not stick around once the walls all suddenly vanished and there were a dozen high-level demons all over the room. Was not even remotely funny. x__x I smoked two Lorocyprocas that followed me out though. Defeating intimidating opponents that I never used to be able to beat is always very encouraging.
Then I'm in D:27, where the entrance to Zot was, and guess what was down there? In addition to the Draconian encampment around the Gateway to Zot, there was also a fortress, with a moat of lava, FILLED with Draconians! It was like the occasional Orc, Gnoll, or Goblin fortresses that can generate earlier on in the dungeons, only it was Draconian-themed and the moat was lava. I had NO REASON to do this other than Exp, but I went and cleaned out the entire place just because I am a perfectionist.
I was rewarded for my tremendous effort going through there with the first Potion of Water in the game! YAYYY! *glug glug glug* "This tastes like water!"Finally, after every Draconian on D:27 is cleared out, I set up a makeshift Stash right outside the Gateway to Zot, my intent to grab the whole pile and high-tail it once I had the Orb in tow. I even used a Wand of Digging in advance to clear a beeline path for the closest upstairs so I wasted no time circling around the dungeon; I had never actually touched the Orb before, but I had heard the dungeon goes batshit crazy Planet Zebes style once you start to ascend so I was thinking ahead.
And the INSTANT I entered Zot:1... FIFTEEN DRACONIANS SURROUNDING ME. "OH HI GUYS." Cue panicked Blink spam as they chip my health down to half in twelve turns. D: But I lured them into the hallway and took them out with Freezing Cloud while distracting them with Demonic Horde (which is AWESOME, by the way, a ton moreso than Chain Lightning which I found is just okay). I explored Zot, mindful of all the dragons everywhere, even more mindful of Tentacled Monstrosities which I went out of my way to kill if I saw one roaming; I did NOT want those things on the loose for long. Surprisingly, not a single Orb of Fire showed up! Instead I got to experience CURSE TOES! Personally... I'd have rather fought the Orbs of Fire. I had even prepared my equipment in advance for it, but as we all know, Crawl will put you in your place if you try to be cute like that. I ran like a madman away from those Curse Toes every time I found one after the first encounter.
Ghost Moths were a horrible problem for me last game. But this time I knew a trick: if you turn invisible, they can't drain your Mana! Thanks to whomever mentioned that in a thread somewhere, you probably saved my life.
Zot:5 was where it all hit the fan. I had taken out a couple Liches in the main dungeon, but Ancient Liches is where I draw the line. Used up all my Mana fighting just one and it was only half health. So I use a Teleport scroll to retreat and regroup.
It puts me two squares away from the Orb of Zot. SURROUNDED by Orb Guardians. And six Mana.
In no time at all I'm almost dead and I have no way out other than to hope Teleport kicks in in a couple more turns. My last six Mana gets me a Demonic Horde, it distracts about half the monsters in the tiny enclosed room, one of them moves off the Orb just in time for me to GRAB IT, and then Teleport #2 kicks in three turns later, with me having a quarter of my life left and no more healing potions. Now I am holding the freaking Orb of Zot on Zot:4 and it's GO TIME!
Using this music on repeat, I ran. My hands were trembling trying to hit the keyboard keys. Things kept warping in and I'd sidestep God-knows-how from rabid demons left and right with split-second Wand of Digging detours, and the six Hell Hounds that jumped in on all sides in an ambush fell down when I Blinked behind them and lured them into the tunnel with the Freezing Cloud trap setup. Tier-1 Pit Fiend Hellfire made me SCREAM in distress; Fire Resistance and it still took out a quarter of my life! If I would have fought I would have died; Ashenzari's skills helped me to the bitter end as it allowed me to scan for its position behind the walls and craftily sneak around his half of the dungeon with my recharged Wand of Digging. I'm so glad I brought that with me. Nothing worse than the Pit Fiend showed up; I heard there were Pandemonium Lords that can spawn and they're your worst nightmare or something, but I didn't see even one.
D:2, right before I went up the stairs, a Tormentor warped in again and took out half my health in one shot. I blasted him with Mystic Blast and beat him in one hit. It felt godlike.
Right in front of the final exit, where I would beat the game, the only thing left to stand in my way was a Midge. I feel bad for having killed it. Maybe I should have brought it out of the dungeon with me and treat it to coffee. ^^;;
And that's how I beat the game, at long last, with my beloved High Elf Conjurer, finishing as an excellent Melee-Spellcaster hybrid!
- - -
I want to give a huge shout-out to anyone who's given me advice in the past, and a DOUBLE-HUGE shout-out to all the FANTASTIC developers and content-contributors, ESPECIALLY the uber-talented Vault Designers, who have worked in their spare time simply because they enjoy it no other reason to make this glorious game that is DCSS. I also want to give a big double-middle-finger followed by a hearty playful laugh and a bear-hug to all the people who told me I "couldn't do it" or am "playing the wrong way", because oh hey look at what I just did! I beat the game the way I want to. It's like how they say in some competitive Pokemon battling circles; "true champions win with their favorites". To make a statement and whatnot. I would like to encourage and inspire everyone reading this that yes, advice on the forums is great, but play the game your way, number one.
I could have never won if I had played to win. Instead I played because I love Crawl, and ended up a winner. That's how it's done, guys, and that applies to real life too, you gotta do what's you!Anyway I hope you enjoyed this novel-sized post about the adventures of Schwa. My next mini-project will be to write this up as an actual fanfiction for posting in Diary Of A Crawler, which has been one of my major motivations for playing Crawl from start to finish almost ever since I've been playing it. I admit it's hard to remember some of the details, such as where I found some of my weapons or spells, as the logs didn't seem to catch every tiny thing, only the "major" ones, which is fine I suppose. There needs to be room for freeform creativity anyway. ^^
Now that I have the Orb, and its limitless power at my disposal, I think I'll use its power to open up a fantastic coffee shop on the surface world, where anyone no matter what species can come to relax for a change. I've got an entire family of Imps of various kinds-- Iron, Dark, Crimson, you name it-- who followed me home after all my Demonic Horde spamming in there and are already excited over getting coffee, so I think it'll be a pretty worthy investment. Definitely the best use of the Orb of Zot's power imaginable! <333
Here's the Log File for my game below. I have to put it in a double post because of how gigahuge this post is, I hit the character limit long ago. XDD Peace out you guys, have a fantastic rest-of-the week, and "love what is, don't hate what isn't"!
--Schwa, High Elf Conjurer forever
--Schwa, your local muse forever and long-time High Elf fangirl ^_~
(also the master of Quadri-Birds)
TheProvocateur: I like how we're sprinting at a pile of greater mummies
(also the master of Quadri-Birds)
TheProvocateur: I like how we're sprinting at a pile of greater mummies
- For this message the author SchwaWarrior has received thanks: 19
- Dingbat, dpeg, duketide11, mageykun, MyOtheHedgeFox, rchandra, Stormfox, TehDruid, Un67, XuaXua and 9 more users
Ah wells~
