Weirdest Minivaults

[Cragspyder]

Hello there. Just wanted to create a topic discussing some of the weirdest happenings that you've seen throughout the Dungeon. I've noticed these more often since 0.8, but then again, I've gone further then I have ever been post 0.8 (which still isn't very far, but getting off topic).

I was just curious what sort of odd generated mini-vaults the game has created for you. I figure they are non-random, but still unusual of course. Which are your favourite? Which, throughout your many games, have you never seen? Which ones do you get all the time?

Some of the starting vaults are quite odd, including:

The petting zoo (many monsters behind a locked door, with glass walls on the side you spawn on. Door warns you before you open it).
The gallery of horrors (many high level monsters behind glass walls in your starting zone).
The gallery of player races (one example of each player race behind glass walls).

Some of the god vaults:

A 4 by 4 tile enclosure, surrounded by lava, with a random altar, some loot and an escape hatch on it. I see this one a lot, especially early when you don't have teleport control.
The Kiku vault, with a trapped human who is killed and turned into a zombie.
The one where Trog explodes a spellbook as you run towards it.

Oddest one, where I was a Merfolk Berserker, and the game just happened to spawn a Trog altar out in the middle of a pool in deep water, so that only a Merfolk could reach....just seems too coincidental for me. Of course, I didn't need the altar anyways since I already worshipped Trog, but...

Also, some of the weirdest dungeon features I've seen:

A four room square, each room leading to the next, each filled to the brim with giant rats, and a single piece of cheese as the only loot at the end.
Several one-tile rooms, each behind doors, hiding giant rats, kobolds, or loot behind each one (a prison?)
Those large glass wall squares with a ton of loot behind them, TAUNTING YOU.

The weirdest one, which prompted me to create the thread:

Same game for both of these, Draconian Artificer. I encountered a wide open space, with plenty of small rooms filled with Gnolls, including unique-ish Gnolls like Gnoll shamans and sergeants, like some sort of barracks. First time I had ever seen those.

Finally managed to beat it. Next floor down, I open a door and was rewarded with an entire (maybe 9 by 10) room filled to the brim with kobolds and big kobolds. Cleared some of it out before retreating, only to die to massive amounts of poison from the darts they were shooting. Didn't use-ID healing in time.

Any other stories to tell of weird minivaults, that don't seem to be static features of the dungeon but nevertheless follow a set layout?

[thevogonpoet]

Yesterday my summoner went down some stairs to find itself in a vaguely circular space with lots of gargoyles in alcoves along the walls, which wake up and head towards me. So I checked the wiki, never having seen a gargoyle before, and it says that by the time you find them commonly in the Hells, they should not be too much of a threat. I found this room on D9 I think it was, and my summoner still hasn't found the lair. Yikes. Not so much weird as scary.

Back up the stairs I went. Hopefully the room isn't even attached to the rest of the level, or if it is, my summons will be able to take them on one at a time.

[mad]

My favourite was a starting vault I rolled once many moons ago - you were stuck on a tile with lava on either side.

You wait, hoping for a secret door when all of a sudden a kobold throws a dart of blinking at you and you're on the other side!

Haven't seen the dang thing before or since but it's still my favourite

[Nobody]

The one that consists of a 1-by-(2 or 3)-tile "room", inaccessible except for a single stairway, with stacks of staves that may or may not be magical.

[Stormfox]

Yesterday my summoner went down some stairs to find itself in a vaguely circular space with lots of gargoyles in alcoves along the walls, which wake up and head towards me. So I checked the wiki, never having seen a gargoyle before, and it says that by the time you find them commonly in the Hells, they should not be too much of a threat. I found this room on D9 I think it was, and my summoner still hasn't found the lair. Yikes. Not so much weird as scary.

Back up the stairs I went. Hopefully the room isn't even attached to the rest of the level, or if it is, my summons will be able to take them on one at a time.

The first time I got this vault, I was an EE with LRD. Hilarity ensued.

[mrbobbyg]

i really like the Zot vault with a neutral orb of fire surrounded by shallow water and neutral draconians. Worst. Beach. Ever.

[Cragspyder]

Another odd starting vault today. Three corridors of deep water of the left, three corridors of lava in the middle, a whole bunch of plants in the center and no way through except a stairwell down.

[dpeg]

Another odd starting vault today. Three corridors of deep water of the left, three corridors of lava in the middle, a whole bunch of plants in the center and no way through except a stairwell down.

This is an old one of mine (the layout can differ a lot). You should have been able to get to the rest of D:1 by cutting down some plants. If I remember correctly, you always have to cut down at most one actual plant, the other are fungi (this assumes you plan ahead).

[Cragspyder]

After hitting the 1000 turn OOD limit the game before this and getting one shotted by an Orc Warrior at level 2, I didn't want to spent 400 turns cutting down plants as a level 1

[dpeg]

After hitting the 1000 turn OOD limit the game before this and getting one shotted by an Orc Warrior at level 2, I didn't want to spent 400 turns cutting down plants as a level 1

Should be less than that for most builds. But I can relate and that's why I added the staircase for convenience

[evilmike]

Another odd starting vault today. Three corridors of deep water of the left, three corridors of lava in the middle, a whole bunch of plants in the center and no way through except a stairwell down.

This is an old one of mine (the layout can differ a lot). You should have been able to get to the rest of D:1 by cutting down some plants. If I remember correctly, you always have to cut down at most one actual plant, the other are fungi (this assumes you plan ahead).

People actually starve in this entry vault, because they can't kill the plants/fungi fast enough (and they don't think to take the stairs). Other entry vaults also have starvation deaths, but this one has more than twice as many as the next highest one, if I remember correctly.

[dpeg]

Another odd starting vault today. Three corridors of deep water of the left, three corridors of lava in the middle, a whole bunch of plants in the center and no way through except a stairwell down.

This is an old one of mine (the layout can differ a lot). You should have been able to get to the rest of D:1 by cutting down some plants. If I remember correctly, you always have to cut down at most one actual plant, the other are fungi (this assumes you plan ahead).

People actually starve in this entry vault, because they can't kill the plants/fungi fast enough (and they don't think to take the stairs). Other entry vaults also have starvation deaths, but this one has more than twice as many as the next highest one, if I remember correctly.

Somewhat funny
I don't want to add fruits in the central chamber, as that'll just leed greedy players to chop even more. Perhaps a better ratio of plant types? I need to look at those starvation deaths... it is higly unlikely that you cannot get through there faster. Perhaps some players are not aware of what plants are fast/slow to take down?

[galehar]

People actually starve in this entry vault, because they can't kill the plants/fungi fast enough (and they don't think to take the stairs). Other entry vaults also have starvation deaths, but this one has more than twice as many as the next highest one, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, but come on.. there's the stairs. If people can't even think of diving to D:2, I say lesson's learned. Hack or dive, what's wrong with starting with a choice?

[evilmike]

People actually starve in this entry vault, because they can't kill the plants/fungi fast enough (and they don't think to take the stairs). Other entry vaults also have starvation deaths, but this one has more than twice as many as the next highest one, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, but come on.. there's the stairs. If people can't even think of diving to D:2, I say lesson's learned. Hack or dive, what's wrong with starting with a choice?

Well, diving to d:2 presents its own risks, since d:1 is a lot safer. I'd say if you are able to hack through the plants/fungi, you probably should do that rather than dive... even if it takes a few hundred turns. Roles that start off with a weak weapon (or no weapon) don't really have that option though, and should dive right away.

My opinion on this vault is that it could be a bit lighter on the plants and fungi. Adding a high chance of toadstools being in there would be good, since they are a lot quicker to destroy. This isn't so much because of starvation though, but because it's boring to start the game spending bunch of turns killing plants (and as I noted, you probably should do this if you are able to kill them). I should also mention, I don't have a particularly strong opinion about this vault. I only pointed out the starvation thing because I find it amusing.

[fnwc]

I find it strange that an adventurer would even go into a dungeon without *some* kind of weapon, even if it's a club.

[XuaXua]

I find it strange that an adventurer would even go into a dungeon without *some* kind of weapon, even if it's a club.

I find it strange that the adventurers eat and get sick, but never have to go to the bathroom.



Ran into a great vault today that I was saving but a monster opened both doors. Was filled with fire elementals and I just happened to have bolt of cold and took 'em all down and found the named efreet in the middle and got an awesome custom tiled artefact flaming sword from him. Then I got my ass handed to me by Agnes on the next floor.

[eharper256]

I find it strange that an adventurer would even go into a dungeon without *some* kind of weapon, even if it's a club.

But then, no-body starts with any shoes, either, which begs the question of how they even walked there without some mighty calluses.

[Grimm]

They drove.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Or were teleported here by their leaders as a punishment or a final test of might.