YAVP #2! High Elf Fire-Conjurer of Jivya ^w^

[SchwaWarrior]

Like a moth to the flame, boys. Your friend Schwa finally pulls off his second victory! Pull up a chair, because in my traditional fashion, I'm going to tell you the entire dramatic story.

First I want to say I have been using other builds besides High Elf Conjurer; though I wanted to score a win with a melee character next, I occasionally would go back to High Elf Conjurer because I still find it very very fun, and there were other styles of melee-casting play I wanted to play around with a bit. So I rolled this character up, and as always, just wanted to see how far I'd get.

The game begins and RIGHT AWAY I'm given a Ring of Invisibility, and an Elven Buckler. Hmmm, not too bad at all, I think. I'm familiar with Crawl though and I know that it enjoys my suffering all the more after it's given me delicious items just to take away by throwing D:2 Centaurs or something at me. So I try to play as cautiously as I can, never rushing to explore ahead, taking my time to kill all the foes I could at maximum distance with Magic Dart, using Mephitic Cloud on packs of Gnolls and Orcs and then closing the door to run away rather than picking them off in the chaos. Also, I'd use my Invisibility Ring sometimes along with Mephitic to take on the nastier early uniques like Sigmund, Dowan and Duvessa, etc. The only unique I left the fuck alone was Grinder, and I was able to sweep 90% of the level without waking him up. I'm learning how to do that kind of thing and be stealthy when I have to. :)

I also took Ashenzari at the Temple like usual; though I've been trying out different gods, this time it was actually the fact that I had an Elven Buckler and a ton of Curse scrolls already, I was thinking "this is definitely suited to be an Ashenzari game" and I went for it. The temple was at D:6 this time.

The real joy happened though at D:7 when I found a Scroll of Acquirement, used it and asked for a Weapon, and got a +5+4 Elven Quickblade, pre-cursed for my convenience. Holy jesus. And, sure it wasn't branded, but I just HAPPENED to pick up a Spellbook of War Chants in D:9, adding Fire Brand, Repel Missiles and Regeneration to my spell arsenal, AND what this meant was I could now brand my Quickblade to make it my ultimate weapon, with any brand I wanted, as soon as I found a Vorpalize Weapon scroll. All I had to do was make sure I cast Fire Brand first whenever I use-ID'd any of my scrolls.

After I found the Lair entrance, I didn't go inside yet. I kept exploring the dungeon. That's my strategy now. I try to go as deep as I can before things get too stressful, then turn around and go through the Lair. Things got "too stressful" in the D:11-12 range, where Hill Giants started showing up, along with Gastronok, along with Unseen Horrors that I couldn't see yet (only had two Ashenzari piety stars!), and I came as close as I ever had to dying so far. I decided I'm a fool if I want to keep risking my excellent game thus far, turned around at that point and set my stash up at the Lair. Other interesting things that happened: I got some pretty good mutations, but lost them soon after. (One thing you should know about me, I like to play the Mutation Roulette every time I have the chance, eating mutagenic meat, drinking potions of mutation, etc. until I manage to get "You Evolve" or even "You Rapidly Evolve", so in this case when I found and ID'd the Potion of Mutation I drank it immediately. The Cure Mutation potion was use-ID'd and that's why I lost my three good ones. Ah well...) I also learned the spell Conjure Flame down here, which was pretty handy and another one of my favorites.

Lair:1 had the Labyrinth. Interesting, I thought, as I headed inside. The battle with the Minotaur was insane and I just BARELY won, he almost two-shotted me in melee, but then succumbed to Mephitic Cloud and I was able to go distant and then blast him over and over with whatever wands I had. o_o It might have been the Regenerate and Swiftness spells that literally saved my life. And guess what the Labyrinth had for me? That Vorpalize scroll I'd been looking for! I knew when it happened because "Your weapon suddenly explodes into an inferno of flames!" *insert Legend of Zelda Item Get theme* So now I have a +6+6 (and counting) Elven Quickblade of Flame. Glorious. The rest of the Lair was a slaughter, even Spiny Frogs and Komodo Dragons couldn't stand against me, in MELEE no less (a few times I got hurt pretty hard and I resorted to spell support but mostly it was just STABSTABSTABDIEDIEDIEwinwinwin). At the bottom of Lair:8, I was confronted with an Ancient Temple of the Elephants setup... you know, the treasure stash being guarded by an Anaconda that, when killed, unleashes a stampede of Dire Elephants on the whole stage? That one. It took some doing, and some close calls against Death Yaks, but I managed to get the Anaconda out of the treasure room, teleport somewhere else, sneak inside and steal everything, without killing it and placing my player in a perilous pakiderm predicament. The spellbook thrown down there contained one of my favorite spells ever: Fireball. Definitely worth the trouble this time. :) Hilariously there was also a Quickblade with a couple nice enchantments (but no brand). I left it there, happy with the one I owned. On the way up through the Lair I took note of the two dungeons with Runes I would have to face later: Spider Nest and Swamp. Uh oh, I had never done Spider Nest before, I hoped I would be alright in there later. Mid-way through Lair, I learned the spells Blink and Summon Scorpions. VERY nice. No character should ever be without Blink as either a spell or an ability, spellcaster or not, IMO, and the Scorpions are my favorite summon, sorta like Butterflies only not so random.

I was a pretty good level now, and decided to do the Orcish Mines and MAYBE the Elf Halls. Waiting for me on Orc:1 were Knights and Sorcerers. Yiiiikes. Of course, I had my Invisibility Ring handy, and the Sorcerers were the only threat (they can see invisible) thanks to that, three Fireballs each would handle them perfectly fine. One of them summoned an Ice Devil and just to be a motherfucker I Fireball'd it to death too instead of stairdancing and waiting it out. The entire rest of the mines were basically Metal Gear Solid ala Dungeon Crawl. ^w^ Orc:4 was wild as usual, Invisibility didn't get me through the whole thing, and once I got a huge horde of Orcs and Trolls and Giants of varying types, Summon Scorpions came in HUGE handy, the poison crippled the HP of everything in sight while I slung Fireballs around to finish them off, and the only times I actually had to run away were when multiple Sorcerers and Priests showed up at once, summoning demons while smiting. Thanks to my Wand of Digging I could connect Orc:3's cut off areas and use the sets of stairs to sidestep the pursuing groups and appear behind them later while Invisible. It was a good fight, all in all, one of the times Crawl made me feel good about myself, like I earned the victory I worked for. :) The shops in Orc:4 didn't have anything too thrilling, but the Enchant Weapon III scroll was nice I guess, and it knocked my weapon enchantment up a few notches. Anything's better than nothing.

Then I decided to try out the Elf Halls because the Orc Mines went so well, and to just back out on Elf:3 if it was too much to handle. (Reminder, in version 11, Elf:3 is the final floor with the Demonologists and Annihilators and treasure, there is no Elf:4 or 5.) Elf:1 and 2 went by flawlessly. Elf:3 was tough, as always, but very luckily for me, one of the staircases put me right next to the treasure zone chokepoint where all the dangerous ones would come out, and Elf:2 had an Escape Hatch that would put me in the lower left corner right inside the treasure horde area filled with Blademasters and Master Archers and whatnot-- after clearing out most of the baddies the normal way I did manage to get some use out of it to sneak around whatever remained. Scorpions didn't help so well against the Elves though. Elves can blast through like eight Scorpions at once, Orcs can't. ^^;;

But this is what caught my attention, when a Mephitic-confused Elf hit his High Priest ally with an attack at some point: "GOOONNNGGGG!"

'Is that... what I think it is?' I thought to myself. And as I looted the bodies afterward (as they picked up a lot of the treasure items to use against me), sure enough, it was the +6 Shield of the Gong! One of my faaaaaaaaaaavorite fixedarts ever, just due to the hilarity. Am I gonna pass this opportunity up? Especially since my only shield is still my unenchanted +0 Elven Buckler? NO WAY, THIS MUST BE FATE BABY

WOOOO SO NOW I GOT MY NEW GOOONG :D And with that, I head for the Vaults-- again, just to go as far as I could before it got too tough. This is what every floor was like: I go down stairs, find a horde of Ugly Things/Slime Creatures/Yaks/Ogres/Orcs/Shapeshifters/whatever else you could imagine, get in a fight with one using melee and Conjure Flame support, BOOONNNNGGGG EVERYTHING IN THE DUNGEON SWARMS TO THE CENTER AND FIGHTS ME :D :D and suddenly the game goes from Metal Gear Solid into Commando as I weave and duck around everything using Mephitic, Invisibility, Repel Missiles (oh my god the Centaurs and Stone Giants were firing right past me and hitting each-other and it was HILARIOUS), Conjure Flame and my awesome Fire Quickblade, occasionally slinging Fireballs left and right, and to top it off whenever an arrow or rock or giant spiked club here and there did land a hit on me it would trigger my "GOOOONNNNNGGGGG" and the whole horde would freak out even more and focus fire on a different spot, and not once did I ever fall below half HP during these massive skirmishes; did you know Shield of the Gong offers Spirit Protection now? I don't think it did before v11, maybe I'm wrong... anyway it helped. A lot. The worst of the Vaults were when I had to fight Iron Trolls, using my usual melee w/ Conjure Flame support they roughed me up bad (about 2/3 of my HP bar in a 1v1 battle), thanks to Regenerate I was able to pull through without things becoming an unfixable problem.

Unfortunately Vault:6 was where I drew the line. I killed the Sphinx that waited for me in there, heard "the tolling of a Bazaar bell" and decided I'd Invisi-sneak my way up to where it was (using my last Scroll of Mapping to help pinpoint it) while the horde centered in on the Sphinx corpse, and not press my luck any further. As I reached the Bazaar, I noticed I had about 2,000 Gold and I'm like, ":D!" and then I look in the shops and find a VERY NICE randart ring, "the Ring of Zeqijoh" offering bonuses to STR, DEX, INT, Accuracy and to top it off it acted as a "Ring of Fire" (e.g. resistance to fire, weakness to ice, bonus power to fire spells), for only 700-ish Gold! I thought, if I used that Ring, it would empower Fireball and Conjure Flame, but on the other hand, I had no Cold resistance to counteract the Ring's effect. Also for sale was an expensive Elven Chain Mail of Cold Resistance... but on the other hand, there was a Ring of Slaying as well, and out of those three items, I could only afford two. It was a tough choice, but I left the Ring of Slaying behind to get the Randart Fire Ring and the Elven Chain Mail. This was a good time to leave the rest of the Vaults for later, as things were becoming tough (four Stone Giant battles back to back is... disagreeable with my idea of a picnic x_x), and a quick CTRL+F pointed out every Enchant Armour scroll in the game I left in shops throughout the dungeon, and for the next couple thousand turns I journeyed back to each spot to use them all on my Elven Chain Mail.

Now I began to explore the rest of the main dungeon, all the way down to D:25. Everything was going great, except for D:24, which was a... Is D:24 the same setup every time? It feels like it is. It starts with all three stairs in the same spot, a short hallway with one downstairs nearby, a big open room with some lava pools and Fire Vortexes zooming around, and north is a HUGE deep river of water with probably HUNDREDS of monsters: Dragons of all types (even Gold!?), Giants of all types (Ettins, Frost, Fire, Titans @_@ oh god Titans), hordes upon hordes of Yaktaur Captains, Hell Knights, holy sweet jesus there was even a Lich among them ;_; and NOTHING to hide behind, also the river was inhabited by more Electric Eels than I've ever seen in one place ever. A bit north there were cells containing lots of common and useful items like Potions of Heal Wounds, Meat and Bread rations, Javelins (which I didn't use), minor enchanted weapons and armor, etc, but they took me a while to get to because of the TITANS x.x And in the middle of the dungeon map there was a massive square building with no way in or out (except Teleport traps), and inside that was four smaller buildings, completely surrounded by an entire moat of teleport traps (so the only way to ever get inside them were Teleport Control or Stasis-- fortunately I had the former, which I'd been using with Blink for quite a long time). Inside the smaller buildings were treasure hordes, which I helped myself to while taking a break from the shitstorm that awaited me back near the water. Among them I found a spare Book of Power, and learned Orb of Destruction with 24% fail rate-- not bad while wearing chain mail, eh! (I did blast myself with a miscast once. Scary to suddenly lose half my HP the moment a Tentacled Monstrosity shows up. Ah well, cast #2 worked fine, Regenerate and Conjure Flame and Fireball and some melee action to finish it off, wipe my brow, keep walking. I hate those things with a passion and I'm glad I was able to kill them more easily this time; you know what? I think it was the Quickblade. I've never done so well in melee against them until now.) Also discovered there were a randart Buckler offering bonuses to STR and DEX, figured it was good in case I needed to switch to a lighter shield for whatever reason, and the randart Ring of Brilliance, offering bonuses to STR and INT as well as boosted HP Regeneration. Kept it as a backup ring to switch to later on if I needed to.

I also got to explore a Wiz-Lab at around that time! Yaaay! Out of all the sub-dungeons, Wiz-Labs are my favorite because they are the most unique; though I will probably never encounter such a GOD DAMN AMAZING masterpiece that is Cigotuvi's Fleshworks, I was nevertheless delighted to be introduced to the Cloud Mages' Chambers and the Elementals residing inside. I was expecting Air Elementals to be harder to hurt than they were, sorta like how Shadows are very very hard for earlier characters to damage, but my Quickblade plowed right through them without many problems, though I really couldn't set down any Conjure Flames with all the wispy smoke everywhere. At the end waited Fobof the Cloud Mage, and I admit it was disappointing how easy it was to beat him. One Mephitic, Three Fireballs, done. :-/ I read on the Wiki he's apparently a lot more dangerous if he gets the first chance to attack. I guess I got lucky.

So, D:26 was a nasty surprise. All the sudden, Yaktaur Captains and Orc Knights and I got pegged about five times in one turn, almost half my health just, whoop, gone! Eep! I tried turning Invisible and slinging some spells around, but I quickly used up all my MP (note that I had Spirit Protection too so my MP bar was covering for some of my damage, depleting it even quicker), so my only resort seemed to be RUN AWAY DOWN UNEXPLORED HALLWAYS AAAAA WHAT AM I DOING ;_; And when I got cornered in front by even more foes looking for the source of the GONNNGGGG, just in time, Ashenzari detected a portal to the Abyss! It wasn't hard to get to thanks to my Wand of Digging, and in moments I was in the Abyss to take refuge.

Note to self. Don't use the Gonnngggg in the Abyss, ever, no matter how much I love the item. I used up like, what, 5 or 6 Teleport Scrolls running from a Hell Sentinel that just KEPT COMING BACK thanks to all the fights I got into. I tried fighting it at one point too, and that did not go so hot. (Well, it did, in the sense that I got my butt roasted on an open Hellfire over and over again, and that shit HURTS even with rF++ on hand.) In addition there were a LOT of Nexequecs, and sure I was able to kill them with one fireball each which was awesome, but I didn't always have MP handy since I was doing a lot of fighting and not much resting, and there were frequently more than one on-screen at a time, and they weren't always in Fireball range (Fireball's not exactly smite-targeting you know). Long story short, I did get the Abyssal Rune, but I also got mutated so bad I hardly even resembled the cute, spritely elf I started as. :'(

After getting the Rune I was prepared for the Knights and Yaktaurs waiting for me, turned Invisible, got the heck out of there, headed aaalllllll the way back up to my Stash in Lair:1. I knew exactly where I was going. After all, "very fast metabolism" and "heal slowly" and no Cure Mutation? That really rustles my jimmies, and I wasn't going to stand for it. But first, I un-learned Lightning Bolt in favor of Bolt of Magma, a spell I have never used before because I am not fond of Earth magic, but this time I was specializing in Fire spells so I wanted to try it. I also learn Animate Dead, even though High Elves are bad with Necromancy, because lately I've been playing around with Yredumul and melee characters, and it's awesome. I made a good call with this one because this quickly became one of my most frequently used spells for the rest of the game, and served me through some of the toughest battles in Zot later on. More on this later. And finally, the big one, Phase Shift. Tacking on 8 or 9 points to Evasion whenever I feel like it in a battle? Can't go wrong with it. It's another one of my favorite spells ever.

Preparations finished, I rushed straight down to the Slime Pits, ignored everything, sped down the stairs one after another, uncontrolled-Blink'd my way to the center of the Royal Jelly's pad, made a rushed apology to Ashenzari, and took up Jiyva the Slime God as my new deity for the rest of the game.

After looting the treasure hoards with the last of my Wand of Digging (in v11 the Royal Jelly's treasures are available instantly when you worship Jiyva, you don't need to max out piety first) and letting slimes consume all the things I didn't need or want, I went through all of Lair, letting my new slime friends suck up everything and anything, granting me piety in a hurry. Then I went all the way back through D:1 to D:9, and all of the Orc Mines and Elf Halls, letting the slimes take over every dungeon level until every item was savored and consumed. My piety was soon maxed out by this, and through Jiyva's gifts, my awful mutations fell away one by one, leaving only a cleansed and shining elf-shaped jelly with no physical imperfections. :'3 (Oh, and remember that sleeping Grinder I never woke up? I went in and clubbed him over the head while he was asleep and killed him in one hit. OH MY GOD IT WAS THE ULTIMATE FEELING AFTER ALL THOSE F*CKIN' TIMES HE MADE ME MISERABLE)

I was now ready to get the rest of the Runes. A quick stop to my Stash first (hilarious, a Jelly got real close to my Stash and that would have been really bad, so I hit it with the TELEPORT WAND :D) to restock, not to mention remove my Elven Chainmail that was now too heavy to cast in until I waited out Ashenzari's Wrath. I swapped it out in favor of the +3 Robe of the Clouds which I pulled out of the Wizard Lab. A quick note: that robe is epic! I thoroughly enjoyed littering the dungeon with pools of water wherever I walked, and I'm positive the slimes enjoyed it too. That being all done, I headed for the Swamp, and my third Rune.

I like how they changed up the Swamp in v11! Props to the devs. It feels a LOT nicer this time, like, the floors are more than just a blank level with the "randomize" button clicked a few times to scatter plants and trees and deep water and stuff. The levels have shape and substance now. Nikola and Agnes both guarded a chokepoint that I NEEDED to pass to proceed deeper into the Swamps, which wouldn't have been possible in the old versions of Swamps. I like that. It adds flavor and feeling-- makes Swamps actually feel like a dungeon the way the Snake Pits do. At the bottom of the Swamps I was given a Poison Dragon/Hydra nest to deal with, and things got rather rough when a random Teleport scroll landed me RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL OF THEM (I had removed Teleport Control for the time being in favor of Ring of Brilliance), so I sewed some chaos and damage and then used another Teleport to get the heck out, and Dragons stalked me for the rest of the Swamp sweep. Both Conjure Flame and Fireball were wonderful in the Swamps, both to attack with and to create obscuring steam at the same time so that I could back up from approaching danger, and Animate Dead was awesome too, getting dragon and hydra zombies to help is never a bad thing! In any case I nabbed the Rune without too much of a problem.

Last time I beat Crawl I did it with three Runes. So this time I wanted more. Off to the Spider Nest, a new dungeon for me that I've never been inside of until now. Right away I meet my new friends the Orb Spiders, wondering "oh geez what do these guys do" and then finding out when they start popping out MULTIPLE ORBS OF DESTRUCTION and I pause the game and my music all like WHAAAAAAT x///x But I come to my senses, put on my Teleport Control ring again, Blink my way into their melee range one at a time while bypassing their Orb attacks, slinging Fireballs at the last few survivors cluttered up together. Jiyva's Slimify ability turned a few of my foes into Acid Blobs and Azure Jellies, Animate Dead snagged me an army of spider zombies, and pretty soon I was cooking with power in even the nastiest fights, such as the ones with GHOST MOTHS in them. Three times down in the Spider Nest, I almost died. Two of these times were to a single Ghost Moth, the third was to multiple Yellow and Red Wasps all paralyzing, slowing and poisoning me at once. I also met the boss unique, Arachne. I was absolutely enamored. ^///^ I really have a thing for half-girl half-beast types of creatures, such as harpies and mermaids and whatnot, and so this Arachne took me totally by surprise and it was a WONDERFUL treat! (Though if it were up to me, Arachne would be the kind of girl I would take out on a date, not battle to the death. Ah well, it's Crawl, I know what to expect ^^) I wish they'd add Succubi as Tier-2 or Tier-3 demons next, with a Mesmerising ability like how Mermaids have, or something. Anyway, Yellow and Red Wasps guarded the Gossamer Rune, and though this dungeon took some getting used to, I fared fine. Having Robe of Clouds on was nice too, when I could Conjure Flame on the pools of water that kept popping up wherever I walked, and make a big steam-bath for the gigantic horde of spiders that protected Arachne. The zombies, jellies and Scorpions also helped. Felt kinda like Starcraft Zerg-on-Zerg action for a while. n_n

Four runes down, so I figured at that point I'd finish off Vaults and call it good! Ashenzari's Wrath still hadn't worn off. So, I decided to explore all of Crypt. (Found the entrance to Tomb as well. Went in, got a couple scrolls, went out and never came back. Was not in the mood to fight off six or seven Sphinxes or Mummy Priests at once like last time I visited Tomb.) The Crypt itself had several nasties, though, Mara being one of them. *sigh* Mara... You really can't just kill him leisurely, you have to make special arrangements and dedicate yourself to it. Last two times I killed Mara was using Freezing Cloud and melee support. This time I had Conjure Flame, which Mara is resistant to, not to mention it hits one space and not nine. There was no way to easily win this fight, so I opted to skip him for this game. (Guess I could have tried Slimify. No idea whether or not it would have worked! Shoot, next time I'll try it.)

Lower down I got to deal with Mennas, whom I have NEVER killed before. I was expecting to run away again like last time, but noticed I had a Wand of Teleport handy, so I decided "Hey, why not try fighting and winning? I still have this as an escape even while Silenced. Let's see how far I get!" I cast all the buff spells I can before he casts Silence, including Phase Shift, Regenerate, and Conjure Flame on the spot in front of me (for Mennas to stand in), then as I approach him and the Silence goes up I quaff Potions of Strength, Agility, Brillance, Speed, and finishing with Berserk Rage, and then lay into him. Sure enough it put a serious dent in him before the Berserk wore off; about 2/3 of his HP bar! But in return he's able to chip about half of mine down too. His Silence fades, I retreat a little with a Blink, put all my buffs back on at full power, start slinging Fireballs with the rest of my MP until the Silence goes off again, quaff several Potions of Heal Wounds in the few turns he closes the gap. Mennas died before he got to use Silence a third time, and I got this forboding message from Jiyva: "I was able to spare you from the Shining One this time, mortal." ...Yikes. Killing an angel is a pretty extreme thing to do I guess. But I DID IT. FINALLY. That may be the only time it ever happens, but now I can say that at least one time, I defeated Mennas. Yesssss!

The bottom of the Crypt had a treasure stash guarded by two Ancient Liches, which in turn were guarded by a Silent Spectre and a Curse Toe (eeeewwww!). I was pretty bummed out about that. I don't even remember what I did; I think I just ran in with a randomized Teleport, looted the good ones (spellbooks, rods, wands, gold) and got the heck out on foot due to the Spectre, with a giga-huge horde of undead following the whole way. There should've been some Benny Hill music to it. It was ridiculous.

Back to Vault:7 and 8, mostly 8, where the fifth Rune was! Still using my GOONNNNGGG, I go down the stairs, let the Vault Guards all rush in on me, Controlled-Blink to the south, go Invisible, and start slinging Fireballs and Mephitic at them. Every single one of them died. Then I cast Animate Dead to get an instant, well-equipped army, and got Jellies to devour whatever was left and gained a BUNCH of gift mutations for it, because there was a lot of food for them. GREAT start! The rest of Vault:8 went by easily, except for the part with Titans. But the most notable part was when I found the +5 Shield of Resistance. Okay, I love the Gong, but thinking ahead to what Zot would be like, I didn't want to attract every single Draconian on the level to fight me, and also, elemental resistances were a lot more important this late. This new Shield offered protection from Fire, Cold and Magic Effects, in addition to being a simply fantastic medium shield. I made the switch and felt like I averted a major future disaster. :) I think I found a nice Ring of Slaying down there too. I forget if it was there or somewhere else.

By the way, I hate Shadow Dragons. They're sooo hard to kill and their draining attack isn't even fully resistable. For the rest of the game, I just Slimified every one I met. I killed the Golden ones though, even THEY weren't as bad. I'm not a fan of Titans anymore either and I started Slimifying them too once I found my fourth one in Vault:8.

So! That's five Runes. And as great as this character was, I didn't think I was well equipped enough to take on Pandemonium or the Hells. So I headed for Zot and decided to finish this game off with no regrets!

In the Realm of Zot I was thrilled to learn that I could kill anything I met with melee + Conjure Flame support, with hardly any trouble! The exceptions were the Orbs of Fire I faced, but by now I had Orb of Destruction running with a low fail rate, and three hits with as much distance as I could were enough to destroy them. Curse Toes (eeeewwww!) were the other problem, and OoD worked on them too, only one or two hits each. Any Mutations the Orbs of Fire laid on me were removed thanks to Jiyva. I would have trouble if several Draconians ganged up on me at once, but whenever I was able to isolate them, I performed like a well-oiled machine.

Once I cleared Zot:4 though, I changed my plans a little, and I walked ALL the way through the whole dungeon back to my Stash in the Lair. I wanted to revise my spells and equipment for the Final Battle about to be had. I made a bit of a newbie error here and scrapped Animate Dead in exchange for Death Channel, thinking it was the same thing only with ghosts instead of zombies. Turns out nope! Death Channel is a buff you use on yourself that makes whatever you kill in that time it's active turn into a ghostly ally. Well, it's nice that I learned something new! I'd been trying Ring of Flames too, but twice I had killed a Jelly with it by mistake and angered Jiyva, so I scrapped it. The spells I did take with me were Mass Abjuration (thank god finally!) and Summon Greater Demon, a change of pace for me since I normally run with Demonic Horde in the endgame instead, and finally Agony, as I wanted to test out how effective it was, now that I had plenty of levels in Necromancy this time. (Turns out, it's probably one of the greatest spells ever. I was able to kill Draconians about ten times as fast, using it to support my melee + Conjure Flame assault. From now on it'll be a spell I have my eyes out for when I play casters.)

I went back to Zot:5 and began the finale. Melee + Conjure Flame and Phase Shift were all I needed to kill the Orb Guardians, as long as I had a corridor to queue them in. Three Ancient Liches showed up next to spoil my fun; one of them was killed in a hurry as I fired off three Orbs of Destruction at it back to back, retreating via random teleport to recover my MP for the next two. (The teleport put me only one room away from the Orb's resting spot! But last time I won the game, it was by ninjaing the Orb with a random teleport just like that. This time I actually wanted to kill everything protecting it.) The second Ancient Lich found me as I was fighting off a horde of Draconians-- I used Summon Greater Demon twice and ran for the nearest teleport trap, landing halfway across the dungeon; I heal up, the Lich finds me soon after with half its health missing and I blow it up with another Orb. Third Lich was in a corridor; it summons a Hell Sentinel and Blizzard Demon, I Abjure them both and get into a melee + Conjure Flame battle with it, taking two point-blank Orbs of Destruction and barely winning against it, down to 1/10th of my health! Thank God. The rest of the threats protecting the Orb were Orbs of Fire and Killer Klowns, the latter of which were a good canidate to Slimify, the former were targets for my Orb of Destruction. And then in the final final final room there were a bunch more Orb Guardians, same old strategy, get them back to the corridor and defeat them one by one.

It felt much more satisfying to win the game this way, clearing out all of Zot:5 and then picking up the Orb of Zot, rather than leaping in and grabbing it and running out like a shoplifter in Wal-Mart. This character was simply so much more superior than my previous High Elf Conjurer! Perhaps I am getting gradually better at the game, and it's not my imagination? Anyway I say superior because after grabbing the Orb, I kinda goofed around on the run back to the surface, stopping to fight many of the demons that popped up left and right. XDD I also paid my Stash in Lair:1 a final visit and grinned as I called in the Jellies to GOBBLE IT UP! Those are some seriously intelligent Jellies now, 'cause I had like what, close to thirty Spellbooks in that Stash. Seriously those Jellies are totally going to Harvard now just watch 'em o.o

Also in this run: Pandemonium Lords galore. In my other run I didn't meet a single one. In this run, I met like five. I know that everyone SAYS you're not supposed to fight them and you're just supposed to run to the surface as fast as you can. But I wanted to try my luck against the one that was "vulnerable to fire" since there were upstairs handy nearby anyway. Guess what? I made the kill! It was crazy resilient because even with a weakness to fire, four Fireballs weren't enough to kill it. But my Fire Quickblade was while it stood inside Conjure Flame. >:) I felt wonderful knowing I could top off this run with something so satisfying as a slain Pandemonium Lord on the way up, tallied on to all my boasts.

Better still, the final floors past the Lair and going back to D:1 were completely stress-free, thanks to me going through earlier with Jiyva and collecting as much piety as I could! There were jellies everywhere I looked and they were only too happy to impede and wound the demons that approached me without looking where they were stepping.

At the very very last few moments of the game, one final Pandemonium Lord appeared right in front of me and the Exit. I decided I'd go for a second kill and fired two Orbs of Destruction, but it only took half its health out. It closed the gap, I stepped around it and ran for the Exit, and as it followed me, while standing over the Exit I began attacking it in melee to see if I could kill it as the very last boast of the game. It struck me twice and I noticed that "space warps horribly around you!", and it dawned on me that if I risked fighting this thing for much longer its Distortion attacks would probably teleport me to the other side of D:1 or get me sent to the Abyss right when victory was in my grasp.

Thus, I made my move, and chose to win Crawl. :) (The half-health Pandemonium Lord healed over time and they BOTH LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE END!)

Whew! Looong story. It almost took me as much time to write this as I did to play this game through! Anyway, I hope it was enjoyed by someone. I know someone told me "Nice job winning with three runes, now go for fifteen", but I made it with five, so sorry to let you down, but at least I beat my old record. ^^ This is also my first win with Jiyva, and I also feel a LOT better about this win, if not just because I actually did the dirty work which was expected of me in Zot:5 and the win feels like more of a victory than the other one.

Like before, I want to thank everyone for the advice I've been given that has helped me! A huge thing that helped me was that this time I was more careful on the way I trained up my Skills. Having higher levels in fewer things is indeed a lot more effective than having low levels in lots of things.

I'm really tired now, so I'm going to bed soon. Writing this huge post was a nice way to relax tonight. :3 Goodnight everyone!

Here's the log for my character-- it was too big to fit in the post, so only the character info is here, not the turn-by-turn diary. Let me know if you want to see that part too and I'll put it up.

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.11.0 (tiles) character file.

2005305 Schwa the Pyromancer (level 27, 181/196 (198) HPs)
             Began as a High Elf Conjurer on Oct 19, 2012.
             Was the Champion of Jiyva.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 5 runes on Oct 20, 2012!
             
             The game lasted 12:53:18 (148284 turns).

Schwa the Pyromancer (High Elf Conjurer)          Turns: 148284, Time: 12:53:18

HP 181/196 (198) AC 34     Str 17      XL: 27
MP  30/46        EV 24     Int 29      God: Jiyva [******]
Gold 1328        SH 34     Dex 21      Spells: 13 memorised,  3 levels left

Res.Fire  : + + .   See Invis. : .   a - +8,+9 elf quick blade (flame)
Res.Cold  : + + +   Warding    : .   C - +7 elf chain mail {rC+}
Life Prot.: + . .   Conserve   : .   v - +5 shield of Resistance {rF+ rC+ MR}
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : +   y - +2 hat of the Alchemist {rElec rF+ rC+ MR}
Res.Elec. : +       Clarity    : +   L - +0 cloak {MR}
Sust.Abil.: . .     Spirit.Shd : .   s - +2 pair of gloves {Dex+3}
Res.Mut.  : .       Stasis     : .   u - +2 pair of boots {run}
Res.Rott. : .       Ctrl.Telep.: x   d - amulet of the Four Winds {Clar rN+ MR}
Saprovore : . . .   Levitation : .   f - ring of Brilliance {Regen Str+2 Int+4}
                    Ctrl.Flight: .   z - +4,+5 ring of slaying

@: very slightly contaminated, quick, almost entirely resistant to hostile
enchantments, very unstealthy
A: horns 1, +10% hp, electricity resistance, spit poison 1, translucent skin 1,
AC +7, Str -1, Dex +1
a: Spit Poison, Request Jelly, Slimify, Cure Bad Mutation, Renounce Religion
}: 5/15 runes: decaying, slimy, silver, abyssal, gossamer


You escaped.
You worshipped Jiyva.
Jiyva was exalted by your worship.
You were very full.

You visited 14 branches of the dungeon, and saw 80 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 1 time.
You visited 1 bazaars.
You also visited: Labyrinth, Ice Cave and Wizlab.

You collected 8338 gold pieces.
You spent 7030 gold pieces at shops.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 a - a +8,+9 elven quick blade of flaming (weapon)
Armour
 g - the +2 cap of Makhleb's Displeasure {+Rage +Inv Str+3}
   (You found it on level 3 of the Elven Halls)   
   
   It affects your strength (+3).
   It lets you turn invisible.
   It lets you go berserk.
 m - the +3 hat of Pondering {ponderous, MR MP+10 Int+5}
   (You took it off Gastronok on level 12 of the Dungeon)   
   
   It affects your intelligence (+5).
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
   It affects your mana capacity (+10).
 s - a +2 pair of gloves of dexterity (worn)
 u - a +2 pair of boots of running (worn)
 v - the +5 shield of Resistance (worn) {rF+ rC+ MR}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Vaults)   
   
   It protects you from fire.
   It protects you from cold.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
 y - the +2 hat of the Alchemist (worn) {rElec rF+ rC+ MR}
   (You acquired it on level 8 of the Vaults)   
   
   It protects you from fire.
   It protects you from cold.
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
 C - a +7 elven chain mail of cold resistance (worn)
 L - a +0 cloak of magic resistance (worn)
 S - the +6 shield of the gong {Spirit, rElec rN+ MR}
   (You took it off a deep elf high priest on level 3 of the Elven Halls)   
   
   It insulates you from electricity.
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
Magical devices
 l - a wand of heal wounds (4)
 I - a wand of digging (18)
Comestibles
 j - 2 pieces of ambrosia
 o - 7 honeycombs
 A - 16 meat rations
 B - 2 royal jellies
Scrolls
 r - 7 scrolls of teleportation
 J - a scroll of identify
Jewellery
 d - the amulet of the Four Winds (around neck) {Clar rN+ MR}
   (You found it on level 6 of the Lair of Beasts)   
   
   [amulet of clarity]
   
   It protects you from negative energy.
   It increases your resistance to enchantments.
 e - an uncursed ring of teleport control
 f - the ring of Brilliance (right hand) {Regen Str+2 Int+4}
   (You found it on level 24 of the Dungeon)   
   
   [ring of regeneration]
   
   It affects your strength (+2).
   It affects your intelligence (+4).
 z - a +4,+5 ring of slaying (left hand)
Potions
 b - 2 potions of levitation
 i - a potion of curing
 k - a potion of magic
 n - 3 potions of brilliance
 w - 2 potions of berserk rage
 x - 8 potions of restore abilities
 G - 4 potions of resistance
 U - 3 potions of speed
 W - 5 potions of invisibility
Orbs of Power
 c - the Orb of Zot
Miscellaneous
 h - a bottled efreet


   Skills:
 - Level 12.0 Fighting
 - Level 16.0 Short Blades
   Level 2.6 Long Blades
   Level 2.2 Staves
 - Level 3.0 Throwing
 - Level 9.0 Armour
 - Level 20.7 Dodging
 - Level 7.0 Stealth
 - Level 5.6 Stabbing
 - Level 15.0 Shields
 - Level 10.4 Traps & Doors
 - Level 10.1 Unarmed Combat
 + Level 16.6 Spellcasting
 + Level 17.6 Conjurations
 - Level 10.0 Charms
 * Level 13.3 Summonings
 * Level 9.2 Necromancy
 - Level 10.1 Translocations
 * Level 22.2 Fire Magic
 - Level 15.2 Air Magic
   Level 4.9 Earth Magic
 - Level 2.0 Poison Magic
 - Level 4.0 Invocations
 - Level 6.0 Evocations


You had 3 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Mephitic Cloud        Conj/Pois/Air  #######..    1%          3    None
e - Swiftness             Chrm/Air       ########..   1%          2    None
q - Phase Shift           Tloc           #######...   1%          5    None
r - Regeneration          Chrm/Necr      #######...   1%          3    None
s - Conjure Flame         Conj/Fire      ########.    0%          3    None
w - Repel Missiles        Chrm/Air       ########..   1%          2    None
x - Agony                 Necr           #######..    2%          5    None
z - Fireball              Conj/Fire      ########..   1%          5    None
A - Blink                 Tloc           N/A          1%          2    None
D - Death Channel         Necr           #######...   17%         6    ###....
Q - Mass Abjuration       Summ           ########..   2%          6    ###....
S - Summon Greater Demon  Summ           ########..   14%         7    #####..
Z - Orb of Destruction    Conj           ########..   2%          7    #####..


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (27/27)            Temple (1/1) D:6             Orc (4/4) D:8
    Elf (3/3) Orc:3          Lair (8/8) D:13          Swamp (5/5) Lair:5
 Spider (5/5) Lair:3        Slime (6/6) Lair:6       Vaults (8/8) D:14
  Blade (1/1) Vaults:4      Crypt (5/5) Vaults:2       Tomb (1/3) Crypt:2
    Zot (5/5) D:27       
   Dis: Hell:1         Geh: Hell:1         Coc: Hell:1         Tar: Hell:1

Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
the Shining One
Beogh
Jiyva
Lugonu

Shops:
D:7: ?+*+  D:19: ?(  D:23: *  Orc:2: (  Orc:4: *[(  Elf:2: !/+  Vaults:1: +  Vaults:8: %%!?%???  Abyss: ((

Portals:
Dungeon: Abyss
Hell: D:21 D:22 D:23 D:24 D:25 D:26 D:27
Abyss: D:21 D:23 D:25* D:27
Pandemonium: D:23 D:24

Annotations
D:20 1 exclusion
D:23 1 exclusion
Elf:2 1 exclusion
Lair:8 1 exclusion
Swamp:4 Agnes
Vaults:5 2 exclusions
Vaults:7 1 exclusion
Blade 1 exclusion, Aki's ghost, mighty TeMo
Crypt:2 exclusion: curse skull
Crypt:3 exclusion: upstairs, Mara
Crypt:5 exclusion: curse skull
Hell Geryon
Zot:1 2 exclusions
Zot:2 3 exclusions, Tiamat
Zot:3 2 exclusions


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You have a pair of small horns on your head.
You are partially covered in rough black scales (AC +4, Dex -1).
You are partially covered in rugged brown scales (AC +2, +3% HP).
You are partially covered in slimy green scales (AC +1).
You are agile (Dex +1).
Your muscles are flexible, but weak (Str -1, Dex +1).
You are robust (+10% HP).
You are resistant to electric shocks.
You can spit poison.
Your skin is partially translucent.


[Jabberwocky]

rF doesn't help against hellfire.

[rchandra]

Great report. I can't imagine using GOONNNNGGG for as long as you did, at least you listened when crawl said "no, really, you should win instead." with Resistance.

Fighting pandemonium lords on the way up cost me a win the other day when a second one joined right after I killed one.

That change to Jiyva is interesting, I'm getting more tempted to try a good god -> Jiyva game.

[Psieye]

Conjure flame and a quickblade of fire all the way into Zot:5? I appreciate IT'S A QUICKBLADE AND IT'S BEEN WITH ME ALL GAME, but I feel it's a missed opportunity to have gone quickblade of PAIN - I know, HE not good with necromancy but it's that rare to get a quickblade early. Makes me wonder what you will write when you win a HECj 15-rune, with a more optimised character (spells, skills and items). Namely, when you have a HECj with (for example) long blades, bows and a Lv9 spell or two with mana reload mechanics. It's a pity you didn't get to try out OOD as a Chain Lightning conduit before this became impossible in the latest version - it was OP, but it was fun.

[Skrym]

Brilliant!!

I simply can't wait for your next win, as your Victory Post's reading is always a long and happy moment, sitting back at my desk with a cup of coffee and enjoying your writings.

Congrats for your win and writting skils

[SchwaWarrior]

rF doesn't help against hellfire.

That it does not. Having a lot of Hit Points does though. ^^ Anyway I'm still trying to decide what the best way to fight a Hell Sentinel would be, for next time. Apart from Holy weapons, I suppose Orb of Destruction would work; if it can kill Ancient Liches in three hits it's bound to be worth a try.

Great report. I can't imagine using GOONNNNGGG for as long as you did, at least you listened when crawl said "no, really, you should win instead." with Resistance.

Fighting pandemonium lords on the way up cost me a win the other day when a second one joined right after I killed one.

That change to Jiyva is interesting, I'm getting more tempted to try a good god -> Jiyva game.

Shield of Gong is my favorite shield just due to the shenanigans. It's like how I enjoy Crazy Yiuf's weapon so much. Shield of Resistance is just solid awesomeness though, so given the choice I'd pick that over Gong. Besides, Gong seems a lot better suited for melee characters... Guardian Spirit for one thing, attracting the whole horde to you for another thing; I suppose it would've worked well with Freezing Cloud too and lure everything in sight into gigantic icy vapor traps with repeated casts... Ah well. It worked super well in Vaults while I had it. Not so well in Abyss. I'm learning.

Yeah and I was afraid of that happening with the Pan Lords too :-/ I took my chances on the first one because stairs were nearby, and it was weak to Fire, and I felt I could kill it with my enhanced fire spells (and I was right!). I took my chances on the one right before the finish line because, well, I was right next to the finish line. :p But then seeing its attacks were Distortion branded I decided it wasn't worth the risk if it could teleport or banish me at the last second. I wouldn't make fighting them a habit. Actually running in Pandemonium would be another story though, since I like to clear out the floor before moving on.

Jiyva is one of my favorite gods just because I love slimes so much. ^^ They're just so cute! I feel like when I'm using Jiyva, it's like I'm nurturing and taking care of all the slimes that are like little children and helping them grow big and strong and protecting them from all the nasty things in the dungeon that want to hurt them. I know it's goofy, but then again, so is my adoration for Crazy Yiuf's quarterstaff and Shield of the Gonnnggg. I don't play Crawl to win, I play it for the atmosphere and experience. If I had to pick a favorite god just due to how good it is in the game, it was Ashenzari for a long time, but now it's starting to be Yredumul. (Last night I got a Tengu Monk to XL 18 and I had a Profane Servitor and Louise's soul running with me!! It was AMAAAAAZING. And then a Lich summoned a bunch of crap in the Abyss and killed me. Ah well. Doing better and better.)

Conjure flame and a quickblade of fire all the way into Zot:5? I appreciate IT'S A QUICKBLADE AND IT'S BEEN WITH ME ALL GAME, but I feel it's a missed opportunity to have gone quickblade of PAIN - I know, HE not good with necromancy but it's that rare to get a quickblade early. Makes me wonder what you will write when you win a HECj 15-rune, with a more optimised character (spells, skills and items). Namely, when you have a HECj with (for example) long blades, bows and a Lv9 spell or two with mana reload mechanics. It's a pity you didn't get to try out OOD as a Chain Lightning conduit before this became impossible in the latest version - it was OP, but it was fun.

I didn't know Pain could be branded to items via Vorpalize, same as Distortion. Otherwise yes I might have. I was also considering Poison, since I already had fire spells galore, and Poison on a really fast-hitting weapon that could poison things over and over would've been amaaaazing. Stone Giants, Fire Giants, Titans, Storm Dragons and Shadow Dragons were some of the thickest walls to have to deal with the whole game and I think they're all vulnerable to poison, except maybe Shadow Dragons? Not sure. (Also I have decided poison is the best possible way to deal with Death Yaks mid-game. Anything else is as scary as it is hassling.)

When I finally manage to do a 15-rune win it will probably have to span several posts. :p

Bows on a Conjurer? I never thought about that before. I always figured, since I have my magic spells I don't need a projectile weapon also. But actually, I could forego all my projectile spells in favor of various charms, hexes, cloud spells (Freezing Cloud, Poison Cloud, Fire/Ice Storm) and try to get some high level summons or necromancy, which means I'd probably pick Vehumet or Kiku instead of Ashenzari, and make something like that work. For now though I'm focusing on winning as a Tengu Monk-- like I said, I got really far last night. I think I'm experienced enough at this game to finally win with melee (and I know I could do it with Minotaur Beserker, but I am morally against that, the same way I am morally against shopping at Wal-Mart or McDonalds, or buying any video games made by EA Games or Blizzard).

I never thought about OOD and Chain Lightning either; I actually thought that if I attacked my own OODs it would destroy them early, so I never did. Actually at some point I want to try Conjure Ball Lightning instead of OOD just for the novelty of it, even if it's not quite as good. (And maybe do it on Webtiles just to "shock" someone with that player ghost. GET IT? AHAHAHA)

Brilliant!!

I simply can't wait for your next win, as your Victory Post's reading is always a long and happy moment, sitting back at my desk with a cup of coffee and enjoying your writings.

Congrats for your win and writting skils

Awwwwwww! :'D Thank you brother! That makes me want to win even more, JUST so I have more stories to write, if people here enjoy them so much. You don't know how much you just made my day, man :')

Tengu Monk of Yredumul will be a lot more interesting to read if I win with one. I guarantee it. I'll get right on it-- we'll say 5 runes or higher will be my goal.
On that note, not once have I ever managed to defeat Geryon in the Vestibule of Hell; during this High Elf run I stopped in to see if I could, because I wanted to try at least ONE of the Hells just to see how far I got, especially since I had rF+++ and rC+++ at one point, but I could barely even scratch him-- there were way too many super powerful enemies and my Invisibility did not help one bit for the majority of them. What's the strategy? Stairdance them out a bit at a time and thin the crowd? It will be a glorious day indeed when I can manage to get my first Hell or Pandemonium rune, and if I ever want a 15-rune win it's a hurdle I will have to defeat at one point or another. x.x Ayayay...

[Jabberwocky]

That and my burning love for Jellies has nothing to do with my orientation. n_n It's hard to explain, but... the thought of their thick, gelatinous form melding to my shape to grip me firmly, combined with the burning heat from the acid... it just gets me so excited.

A explanation for the jelly love.

[SchwaWarrior]

That and my burning love for Jellies has nothing to do with my orientation. n_n It's hard to explain, but... the thought of their thick, gelatinous form melding to my shape to grip me firmly, combined with the burning heat from the acid... it just gets me so excited.

A explanation for the jelly love.

That, and this to help explain further:

I also met the boss unique, Arachne. I was absolutely enamored. ^///^ I really have a thing for half-girl half-beast types of creatures, such as harpies and mermaids and whatnot, and so this Arachne took me totally by surprise and it was a WONDERFUL treat! (Though if it were up to me, Arachne would be the kind of girl I would take out on a date, not battle to the death. Ah well, it's Crawl, I know what to expect ^^) I wish they'd add Succubi as Tier-2 or Tier-3 demons next, with a Mesmerising ability like how Mermaids have, or something.

I'm a xenophile. I'm okay with admitting it, maybe even proud. There's just something exotic and wonderous about the affection of something extremely non-human, that bypasses all of the social barriers or rules, in a way that you feel it with your entire heart and being, and the element of fear and uncertainty present in confronting something so different from us with affection and gentleness adds to the experience. Makes it meaningful.

Besides, jellies are just soooo cute. ^_~

[Psieye]

I didn't know Pain could be branded to items via Vorpalize, same as Distortion.

You can't - I'm saying I'd have been tempted to switch out of Ash, into Kiku just to run around with quickblade of pain in Zot. Not practical I know, unless I wanted to go extended with deep necromancy. Yeah, poison would have been the best choice with a vorpal scroll, distortion after switching to Lugonu.

Bows on a Conjurer? I never thought about that before. I always figured, since I have my magic spells I don't need a projectile weapon also. But actually, I could forego all my projectile spells in favor of various charms, hexes, cloud spells (Freezing Cloud, Poison Cloud, Fire/Ice Storm) and try to get some high level summons or necromancy, which means I'd probably pick Vehumet or Kiku instead of Ashenzari, and make something like that work.

Play like a normal conjurer and get fireball, poison or freezing cloud online. Then start training bows, as by then you'll have a good choice for the launcher and enough ammo. Be sure to have Inner Flame for efficient explosions, preferably also portal projectile so you can shoot past (allied or hostile) obstacles. Personally I prefer crossbows but HE are made for bows and dispersal is a useful brand.

And yes, you'd need Vehumet or Kiku to take advantage of this fully.

(And maybe do it on Webtiles just to "shock" someone with that player ghost. GET IT? AHAHAHA)

Gah, this one time I was a melee and hit berserk as I charged into a known layout of Cocytus:7 as I knew it was an open space with lots of demons that needed killing quickly. Out comes my old AE ghost (who drowned because of a stupid tornado stunt) who blinked close to me. When berserk, all your escape tools are not available except running away... 2 turns is not enough for a 230+ HP character to run away from chain lightning ghost... I bowed down to the might of player ghosts. Now I know what all those monsters felt like when I electrodynamically deconstructed them with that AE.

Uh back on topic: yes do go conjure ball lightning. You seem the type to enjoy the hilarity that will ensue. Be sure to have rElec.

On that note, not once have I ever managed to defeat Geryon in the Vestibule of Hell; during this High Elf run I stopped in to see if I could, because I wanted to try at least ONE of the Hells just to see how far I got, especially since I had rF+++ and rC+++ at one point, but I could barely even scratch him-- there were way too many super powerful enemies and my Invisibility did not help one bit for the majority of them. What's the strategy? Stairdance them out a bit at a time and thin the crowd?

Am I the only one who does the Vestibule as soon as I hit D:21 after clearing half of Vaults? It's a portable stash for the last 3rd of the dungeon and in convenient reach from extended/Zot, how can I pass up on taking it ASAP?

Stair dancing only helps with the permanent denizens of the Vestibule, the real challenge is Geryon's summon spam - and in recent versions he's smart enough to hide behind them. That those summons trample you to mess up your positioning further complicates matters. But he is a hurdle that every extended player must face, so he's built to have several solutions of killing him. It's like... invisibility is the ONLY thing that doesn't stand a chance against him.

I'm a xenophile. I'm okay with admitting it, maybe even proud. There's just something exotic and wonderous about the affection of something extremely non-human, that bypasses all of the social barriers or rules, in a way that you feel it with your entire heart and being, and the element of fear and uncertainty present in confronting something so different from us with affection and gentleness adds to the experience. Makes it meaningful.

Ok, at some point I 'mandate' you do an extended game with Summon Horrible Things and Malign Gateway (not necessarily using the latter IN extended, but in lategame). With smite-targetted spells like Poison cloud and fire storm. Vehumet is the obvious choice, but also have the crystal ball and a channeling staff at hand. Don't forget to haste your allies. Use staves as your melee skill so you can abjure for free with the staff of summoning (and lajatangs for everything else).

[crate]

Ash wrath is by far the worst god wrath in the game btw, switching away from ash is really awful. If you're starting at 6* ash piety it's like -9 or so to all your skill levels that were boosted by ash, and you cannot just wait it out. I would almost never switch from ash, and certainly never just to brand a quickblade.

[SchwaWarrior]

You can't - I'm saying I'd have been tempted to switch out of Ash, into Kiku just to run around with quickblade of pain in Zot. Not practical I know, unless I wanted to go extended with deep necromancy. Yeah, poison would have been the best choice with a vorpal scroll, distortion after switching to Lugonu.

Distortion Quickblade. *drools* I might have done the same thing. I don't have much experience using Lungou... I played around with an Abyssal Knight once and Touch of Corruption was pretty insane. Isn't he more of a melee god though?

Play like a normal conjurer and get fireball, poison or freezing cloud online. Then start training bows, as by then you'll have a good choice for the launcher and enough ammo. Be sure to have Inner Flame for efficient explosions, preferably also portal projectile so you can shoot past (allied or hostile) obstacles. Personally I prefer crossbows but HE are made for bows and dispersal is a useful brand.

Crossbow Bolts seem to be better than arrows, since they can not only be elemental branded, but Silver, Steel or Penetrating as well. But then again, Longbows are godlike weapons among all the launchers. And then Slings are good because they're versatile, they can be used with Shields and by low-STR characters. They seem to all have their merits. Often when playing a Tengu I have no idea which one to go with since he has +1 in everything XD

Gah, this one time I was a melee and hit berserk as I charged into a known layout of Cocytus:7 as I knew it was an open space with lots of demons that needed killing quickly. Out comes my old AE ghost (who drowned because of a stupid tornado stunt) who blinked close to me. When berserk, all your escape tools are not available except running away... 2 turns is not enough for a 230+ HP character to run away from chain lightning ghost... I bowed down to the might of player ghosts. Now I know what all those monsters felt like when I electrodynamically deconstructed them with that AE.

Uh back on topic: yes do go conjure ball lightning. You seem the type to enjoy the hilarity that will ensue. Be sure to have rElec.

I do like hilarity, but I also like tearing apart the mightiest opponents. Seems like OOD is best for 1v1 battles and Ball Lightnig is best against large hordes of foes, right? Hmm, maybe it would help in the Vestibule. They can't ALL have rElec, hopefully?

Am I the only one who does the Vestibule as soon as I hit D:21 after clearing half of Vaults? It's a portable stash for the last 3rd of the dungeon and in convenient reach from extended/Zot, how can I pass up on taking it ASAP?

Stair dancing only helps with the permanent denizens of the Vestibule, the real challenge is Geryon's summon spam - and in recent versions he's smart enough to hide behind them. That those summons trample you to mess up your positioning further complicates matters. But he is a hurdle that every extended player must face, so he's built to have several solutions of killing him. It's like... invisibility is the ONLY thing that doesn't stand a chance against him.

Ohhhh. No nonense, then, no sneaking around or anything-- counter his summons with my summons (two or three casts of Scorpions, Shadow Creatures or Demonic Horde if I have it), Potion of Might + Agility + Brilliance + Speed + Resistance + Phase Shift, Semi-Controlled Blink past his summons, set Freezing Cloud on top of him, lure him next to me inside the cloud, Potion of Beserk Rage, lay into him, back up, finish him off with Mystic Blast or OOD. Aw yeah, I'm lovin' it-- badda bap BAP BAH!

Ok, at some point I 'mandate' you do an extended game with Summon Horrible Things and Malign Gateway (not necessarily using the latter IN extended, but in lategame). With smite-targetted spells like Poison cloud and fire storm. Vehumet is the obvious choice, but also have the crystal ball and a channeling staff at hand. Don't forget to haste your allies. Use staves as your melee skill so you can abjure for free with the staff of summoning (and lajatangs for everything else).

I've always REALLY wanted to try Summon Horrible Things but have never gotten my skill high enough (and High Elves have a -2 in Summons so it's no wonder)! During this 5-rune game, I had Fire Storm's fail rate at like... 60% or so, but that was with Elven Chainmail on. I took off my Chainmail, put on a Ring of Wizardry, and the fail rate was 25%-ish I think. Seemed too excessive just for that one spell, but it's as close as I've ever come to getting it running.

The only time I ever had a working Level 9 spell was Chain Lightning, during my previous victory (the 3-rune one), and before finishing the game I used Amnesia to remove it. It was pretty great, but my melee w/ casting and summoning support was easier and more effective for that character.

As for Malign Gateway, as awesome as it appears to be, I imagine it's a bit gimmicky too. Wouldn't I be better off with traditional high-level summons, like Horrible Things, Greater Demons or Dragons?

And I'm not so sure about Staves... Latajang is great, but I like to be able to use a Shield. It would depend on what the game gives me I guess. I'm still getting used to switching weapons on the fly, since I normally play an Ashenzari melee-caster and my single weapon is always cursed, no launchers or backup-weapons or anything. Usually when I have the backup weapons I forget to switch to them even when the situation calls for it, somehow I win anyway, then later I notice the other weapons and think "Dangit why didn't I just use that? I have the skill trained up and everything!" I guess it just takes practice. I've gotten better at the way I train up skills, so I can get better at this too.

Ash wrath is by far the worst god wrath in the game btw, switching away from ash is really awful. If you're starting at 6* ash piety it's like -9 or so to all your skill levels that were boosted by ash, and you cannot just wait it out. I would almost never switch from ash, and certainly never just to brand a quickblade.

Mine were -4. Yeah it's tough going for a while, but at least it's consistent. With Okawaru or Trog, you might be in the middle of a tough fight and then punishment happens and a bunch of high-level foes join the battle and it makes the battle suddenly far, far worse. With Ashenzari, you're able to realize your limits, and if you can last enough battles with that consistent penalty then you're free to go. There aren't any extra surprises to stress you out. That's something.

[rchandra]

Ash wrath is by far the worst god wrath in the game btw, switching away from ash is really awful. If you're starting at 6* ash piety it's like -9 or so to all your skill levels that were boosted by ash, and you cannot just wait it out. I would almost never switch from ash, and certainly never just to brand a quickblade.

Mine were -4. Yeah it's tough going for a while, but at least it's consistent. With Okawaru or Trog, you might be in the middle of a tough fight and then punishment happens and a bunch of high-level foes join the battle and it makes the battle suddenly far, far worse. With Ashenzari, you're able to realize your limits, and if you can last enough battles with that consistent penalty then you're free to go. There aren't any extra surprises to stress you out. :) That's something.

The reason it's like -8 or -9 is the boost you used to have, that you were counting on. For example perhaps you had 7 Charms, which has become 12 with cursed jewellery, now you have 3 and Haste is a long way away.

I agree that the consistency is nice.

[Psieye]

Distortion Quickblade. *drools* I might have done the same thing. I don't have much experience using Lungou... I played around with an Abyssal Knight once and Touch of Corruption was pretty insane. Isn't he more of a melee god though?

Uh, technically by an insignificant degree by lategame (i.e. you'd have more HP)? Think like a Warper - it's silly to melee as a warper when the entire style is about distance abuse.

Ohhhh. No nonense, then, no sneaking around or anything-- counter his summons with my summons (two or three casts of Scorpions, Shadow Creatures or Demonic Horde if I have it), Potion of Might + Agility + Brilliance + Speed + Resistance + Phase Shift, Semi-Controlled Blink past his summons, set Freezing Cloud on top of him, lure him next to me inside the cloud, Potion of Beserk Rage, lay into him, back up, finish him off with Mystic Blast or OOD.

Do tell how it goes once you do it. From my perspective, you'll be changing that plan on the fly when you actually do it.

I've always REALLY wanted to try Summon Horrible Things but have never gotten my skill high enough (and High Elves have a -2 in Summons so it's no wonder)! During this 5-rune game, I had Fire Storm's fail rate at like... 60% or so, but that was with Elven Chainmail on. I took off my Chainmail, put on a Ring of Wizardry, and the fail rate was 25%-ish I think. Seemed too excessive just for that one spell, but it's as close as I've ever come to getting it running.

The only time I ever had a working Level 9 spell was Chain Lightning, during my previous victory (the 3-rune one), and before finishing the game I used Amnesia to remove it. It was pretty great, but my melee w/ casting and summoning support was easier and more effective for that character.

As for Malign Gateway, as awesome as it appears to be, I imagine it's a bit gimmicky too. Wouldn't I be better off with traditional high-level summons, like Horrible Things, Greater Demons or Dragons?

And I'm not so sure about Staves... Latajang is great, but I like to be able to use a Shield. It would depend on what the game gives me I guess. I'm still getting used to switching weapons on the fly, since I normally play an Ashenzari melee-caster and my single weapon is always cursed, no launchers or backup-weapons or anything. Usually when I have the backup weapons I forget to switch to them even when the situation calls for it, somehow I win anyway, then later I notice the other weapons and think "Dangit why didn't I just use that? I have the skill trained up and everything!" I guess it just takes practice. I've gotten better at the way I train up skills, so I can get better at this too.

The Hell branches are a great source of EXP. Uh, that last sentence might send many players to their deaths because they don't go in prepared, but once you get used to Hell (and its utter lack of loot until the bottom) it's a nice place to convert your SURPLUS consumables into EXP.

Btw Chain Lightning is Lv 8. Tornado is the Lv 9 Air spell.

Note I did say "and" when I mentioned Malign Gateway. Never ever rely on it as your only summoning spell.

Your summons are much better shields than a Shield will ever be. In my view, they are for high EV characters who don't have summons - extra insurance for those few occasions where you fail the EV roll.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Have a few more thanks. Not only you managed to succeed again, but you spent quite some time telling us about it.

Please share your way of recalling everything that happened in details.

[SchwaWarrior]

Have a few more thanks. Not only you managed to succeed again, but you spent quite some time telling us about it.

Please share your way of recalling everything that happened in details.

Oh thank you!

Hmm, how do I remember everything? Part of it is that I'm great at remembering really techy details, such as things about this game. My brain is... heh, I'm wired so that I can do things like remember entire scenes from movies I watched over ten years ago (I either crack people up or piss them off when I start quoting Rafiki from The Lion King perfectly and out of the blue in public), or how to reprogram SNES games in Assembly code and hexidecimal manipulating, and then on the other hand I have no idea how to operate a cell phone or TV remote. ._. My memory is very narrow but intense I guess. They say that's normal for Aspergers though.

The other part is that I used the game notes in the .TXT file to remind myself about key points, i.e. when I came back and got my sweet revenge on Grinder, or which uniques I fought multiple of at a time, or which times in the game I must have come back to my Lair stash to learn or un-learn various spells, etc.

I did leave out a lot of details, you know, which I remembered later. One of the big ones was that one of the dungeon levels in the D:17 to D:19 range, I THINK, was completely filled with lava and inhabited by countless Gargoyles, Lava Bats, Efreets (not summoned ones either!) and Hell Hounds, and patrolled by occasional Dragons and Fire Giants. In the middle of the stage, completely surrounded by lava and inaccessable by anything other than flight or teleporation, was a steel castle CHALK FULL of Fire Giants, Iron Golems, Hell Hounds and Hell Knights with demon blades/tridents/whips. Even late game I never opted to go in and defeat them all-- instead I used potions of Haste, Agility, Invisibility, etc. and blazed past them as fast as I could to loot everything in sight that looked half decent, taking hits all the while, before finally Teleport-Scrolling out after I couldn't carry anything else and my health was down to 2/5ths. When I looked over the loot I found nothing good-- the best were just spellbooks I already had or didn't have any use for, as well as a little bit of gold I picked up. There was some randart plate armor I think but for obvious reasons I just left it there.

You know, if you want to remember your games better, you could always scribble some notes as your character makes it through various notable areas. On that note I sorta wish there were an easy way to record my games on video, so I could re-watch them and help myself improve by saying "I did this this and this wrong, I should've done this or this".

[Dingbat]

Man, you really know how to spin a tale! The enthusiasm you experience during play is so blatantly made apparent in your victory posts -- they tend remind me of one of the primary reasons Crawl's utter lack of backstory appeals to my desire to interact with the game on a conceptual level: it's up to the players to enact their own narrative and hence construct their own accounts of their exploits.

Thank you, Schwa.

[SchwaWarrior]

it's up to the players to enact their own narrative and hence construct their own accounts of their exploits.

I love this so much. Thank you, and your welcome!

Reminds me, I finally had Win #3 recently, first one as a melee build. I still need to get onto writing it up... it was 10 runes and a Ziggaurat so there's a lot of work to do, but I did promise I'd write it so I better stop putting it off...