Lost in the Abyss...

[DeathKnyte]

Hi all.

I was banished to the Abyss, while engaged by ogres and an ogre magi, monster. That was quite the surprise (!).

I'm kind of lost here - never even seeing most of the regular dungeon - let alone the Abyssal Plane of existence!

I'm posting here, because I kind of like this character, and would be curious as to the possibility of getting him out alive - or not.

I'm a Vampire species, with the Enchanter background. I'm character level 19, and my specialties are Hexes magic, and Stealth skill.

I have no experience with most things in the game, so if it will involve anything complex or intimate knowledge of game quirks, then I'll just try something else, I suppose.

Thanks for your time.

[bobross419]

While you're waiting for a reply (I'm a noob myself) maybe roll up a few Abyssal Knights to get a feel for the Abyss. Probably won't be able to do much damage, but will help you get an idea of what you're facing.

[Happy Corner]

Do you have Teleport Self, or a ring of teleport? Or a blink artifact? Being able to teleport will be immensely useful in survival, as you may get surrounded (or come to a dead end). Levitation will be useful, too, as there is deep water/lava in many places in the Abyss.

Whether you have those things or not, KEEP MOVING. Fight only when it will save time. Every turn you spend doing something other than moving is another turn away from finding the exit portal. Keep out of sight of the demonic hordes as much as possible, and be careful not to get surrounded. Watch out for Fiends, other greater demons, Angels/Daevas, and Liches/Ancient Liches - they DO sometimes spawn in the Abyss. Your stealth focus will come in handy there.

Hopefully you also brought potions of blood, or have good ways of healing while bloodless. Very few of the Abyss monsters leave corpses...

[jejorda2]

I've used spider form and levitation to escape the abyss before, and it seems like the vampire bat ability would be perfect, between speed, flight, and evasion.

Just pick a direction and run in bat form until you run into a corner or find the portal out. When you reach a corner that you can't turn away from because of enemies, teleport.

Teleporting takes forever in the abyss, so do it early.

[DeathKnyte]

The game has some documentation help, concerning this.

While in the game screen, press "?", then "Q", and finally "o".

The following is what it says...

  Code:

If you are in the Abyss for the first time, chances of getting out are slim. Still, here are a few general hints:

- You need to find a gateway leading out of the Abyss. These are rare!
- Don't stick around to fight; move as much as possible!
- The Abyss wraps around, so avoid going straight in one direction.
- If you have it, use defensive equipment (weapons of protection, etc.).
- Use teleportation to hopefully end up in a completely new part of the Abyss.
- Teleportation might take much longer to kick in than in the Dungeon.
- Consider switching your allegiance to Lugonu to get out of there.


So considering that it is my first time, things look bad...
Rare gateways out of here, implies much time spent looking for them.
I don't understand about this "wrapping", but I'll try and not travel in only one direction.
I currently do not have any weapons of protection, and frankly I rarely ever use them at all.
I don't have a means of teleportation, unfortunately. Besides, that spell is in Translocations magic, and my intended focus was Hexes magic, for this character.
I have no idea how Lugonu would be, for this character. I am rather quite content with Okawaru - even with his often bewildering choices of items to gift me.



bobross419:

That would be an idea, however, since I wasn't aware that ogre mages can send me there - I doubt I would learn much from a low level character dying there near instantly. Besides, it (the Abyssal plane) seems to change after a few turns. I can't get a map readout, it doesn't appear on the minimap screen either. I've fought a couple things there, and the screen has changed in mid-battle as well...


Happy Corner:

No, I have no means of teleportation at all, spell, scroll, wands, or rings. So that is a "no go". I might have one scroll of blink, though.
Levitation I haven't needed all game (I have used bat form when required to traverse impassable terrain), so have no means of that either.

I'll certainly endeavor in trying not to be noticed by any of those mentioned monsters - I have not encountered liches - ever. But from prior gaming experiences, am well aware that they are greater undeads (greater than vampires even).

I have only one potion of blood. I have gone nearly the entire game bloodless. I try quite hard not to get hit at all, and have for the most part, succeeded. Therefore, most of the time my blood potions will coagulate, and then completely rot away. To me, this was a waste of a corpses, so I just bottle one at a time when empty.

I have no other means of healing, other than potions of healing/heal wounds. Currently have two of each, but again, they don't work very efficiently on bloodless vampires.

I have tried very hard to create one of these "character dump" files to post here. But the game does not seem to want to make any on my computer. I will provide any other information you may need though, by looking at the game and typing it in here.


jejorda2:

Bat form is okay, but quite situational. Your strength becomes a "3" and consequently means you can't carry too much. Since the Abyss constantly seems to be in flux, I would lose quite a few items in my inventory, if I had to unload and be able to fly unburdened. I don't know if I could find a way to mark a depot area somehow, and come back to it to retrieve items, if I can stabilize the situation I find myself in, here.

[thevogonpoet]

Well if its a choice between a full inventory or death, sometimes one has to make tough decisions. Seriously, I only escaped the Abyss 1 out of 3 times I got sent there (with a level 12 KoBe who must have got lucky), and the key is definitely to keep moving. There is no stabilising, no crowd control, and certainly no chance to double back. Get into bat form, and run. Run for your unlife (in a gentle diagonal, as terrain allows - aim for something like 6 squares to the left, then one down, and repeat).

[slowcar]

the wrapping part is no longer correct, i think.
the abyss changes from time to time, as you already saw. you cannot make a stash there.

bat-form is nice because you can move faster with it. you can fight many enemies at your level, but some will be more powerful, or can mutate you etc.
the abyss can be a dangerous place for the most powerful characters due to its randomness, therefor it is best to just run for the exit.
to find an exit you just move in a direction, try to avoid monsters that you don't know or that are stronger than you.
as a vampire enchanter you should have excellent stealth, most enemies won't recognize you.

[galehar]

  Code:

- The Abyss wraps around, so avoid going straight in one direction.

This information is obsolete. It's been years since the Abyss don't wrap anymore. I've just removed it from the in-game FAQ.

[ilpalazzo]

I think your chance is not bad. Just get into bat-form and avoid enemies as you can. Most things won't be able to follow (especially over lava/deep water) + you have good stealth. I've got out of abyss with bat-form on XL3 once. You may pick up some good stuff if it doesn't look too dangerous (especially teleport-scrolls, ...). Watch out for executioners -> you won't escape them without teleport. Only chance: to kill them quick with every boost you may get (potions, spells, ...).

[Happy Corner]

I'd actually forgotten that vampires have bat form. Honestly, that's your best chance for escape, as you can outrun most of the Abyss's monsters that way. Yeah, having to drop some of your stuff sucks, but escaping alive is more important (especially if this is your best character yet). Stuff is a renewable resource, but your character's life isn't.

EDIT: Converting to Lugonu just to escape the Abyss is also a bad idea - unless you don't already have a god. If you do, you'll have to put up with your old god's retribution, and if you weren't ready for the Abyss, you're probably not going to survive that, either...

[DeathKnyte]

thevogonpoet:

Oh yea, I made some hard calls dropped everything I figured wasn't going to help me here. Survival now, so that I may be able to continue on later - no problem in that regards.


galehar:

Oh. You're a programmer for the game? Glad I could help bring something to your attention.

I have depended on a lot of the in game instructions and help documentation in order to try and retrieve the orb.

The Dungeon Overview (CTRL + O), I believe also has some miss leading information. It says for "Branches" to hit "?" + "B" for more information. But doing so brings you to the "Starting Screen" instructions.

Also, while you're at it - maybe the Religions ("?" + "J") section could use more explanations on the different gods. I was surprised to see that Okawaru uses Invocations skill (that has a bad aptitude for a Vampire).

Also, I find that the List of Character Backgrounds ("?" + "2") is pretty vague on which skills and equipment one starts out with.


ilpalazzo:

Thanks for the heads up on these Executioner things - It may have bought me an extra two turns...



Any ways, I played with all the attention I could here, in the Abyss. Like playing a game of chess, on a board which constantly changes everything around. <laugh >

I flew and avoided nearly every monster encountered. Some - believe it or not - just stayed with the little question mark next to their picture while I walked/flew by, even at the range of one square.

Eventually, I came to an area that had some mauve tiles. I was hoping this would be the exit, as most everything else is a shade of red. However, something that eventually noticed me, and just kept on summoning critters, came from there, and no matter how hard I tried to circumnavigate the tide of incoming demons, I couldn't get any closer to see what those mauve tiles were actually about.

Finally I had to bee-line out of there, as was nearing being surrounded. I flew on some more, trying to head in an off center diagonal path, when another of those blue summoning things came down, noticed me, and screeched (shouted), then an orange thing, and then another orange thing. I was in an open area, no chance of flying in and around covering terrain. Then something else which throws fire, and some little imp guys. I felt my available paths, and options to continue my flight, receding very quickly...

Then something called an Executioner showed up. I immediately veered directly opposite of his direction, figuring that I'll take some passing hits from anything else instead of that thing. Then another showed up - on the edge of my vision of my new direction. I'm stuck - going to have to make a stand. I stopped playing and went to sleep...

The next day, I played 4 turns the entire day. Before hitting any buttons or taking any actions, I would go through my entire inventory, and review all my spells. Trying to think on what would be the best thing I could possibly do. I'd then do that, look at the results and how the various monsters reacted, and then think for a few hours. Then I'd make a decision, and play another turn. Every time I did a turn, I could sense that things were getting progressively worse every time...

I pulled out of bat form, and the original executioner was on top of me as soon as I did - they're incredibly fast! Then he he attacked me 6 times in one turn, and connected twice (missing four times). That took 1/4 my life. The game says it is "extremely resistant to enchantments", so that means that my "go to in emergencies" spell (Confuse) will likely not work at all. I've made up my mind that I won't even bother trying it.

Reading a scroll of fear - total and complete failure: All 12 monsters on screen (or that I can see) all resisted.

I haven't played today, as I figure I have 2, maybe 3, turns left before I die. I'm just kind of going through what my final actions should be, in my head.

I'll ask Okawaru to make me a hero, that takes one turn right there. It improves many combat and defensive skills at once, but I'm not designed to duke it out, I've used it in the past to get out of bad situations and make an escape. Here though, I don't have that luxury. Then, maybe the Abyss God will decide to change everything and I'll be transported somewhere else and out of this predicament. If not... I dunno. Maybe I'll just leave him in suspended animation on my hard drive.


Thanks to everyone for their advice. Much appreciated.

[slowcar]

bad luck with the executioner, they are one of the few enemies that are faster. unless you have teleport (or blink, which sometimes acts as teleport in abyss) there is not much you can do.
heroism is a good choice, maybe try to kill him, they don't have that many hitpoints. no powerful wand at hand?
otherwise: better luck with your next character

[galehar]

Post a dump of your character (# key) so other players have more information to give you advice.

[DeathKnyte]

galehar:

I can't. The game tells me where it is created, but when I search the path, my computer doesn't have the directories specified. However, I did find where the Crawl program is located, and there are several files there, but none called "Morgue". In fact, I have no idea where any of the information on characters are stored, as there is no "Saved Characters" file either (?). Beats me how the game stores information. I'm certainly no computer wizard, but I asked my computer to search my entire hard drive for anything called "morgue", and/or anything with the names of any character (.txt files I assume). That took over 2 hours, and none were found.




So then, after not playing the game for a couple days (was different going Crawl-less for a bit), I decided to settle the issue with this guy - one way or the other. I had mostly spent my time away from the game, contemplating which other character species/background combinations I should likely attempt next (this demonstrates how much hope I had of extricating this guy).


So I loaded him up, looked over the situation again, and came to the same conclusions as before; I asked Okawaru to grant me the power of a mighty hero (which succeeded). The executioner hit me once that round - but attacked 9 times. I won't bore you with the amount of times all the other things attacked me, but there were 12 enemies on screen. One was shooting flaming stuff, another was shooting cold stuff, and yet another was shooting exploding stuff. Sometimes I had to hit the "--more--" a couple times to get all the messages for a particular round (!).

The next round, after carefully looking at how much my defenses had improved, I tried moving tactically, buying time on figuring that he might use up some attacks keeping up with me - the executioner was 0 for 3.

The round after, I resisted three (whatever) spell attacks, I tried a wand of cold on the executioner (no effect), and he was 3 for 9 in his attacks.

Next round, I did another tactical move, trying to position an undead underneath my position (executioner was above me), and he went 0 for 3 against me. Now I saw, that if I were able to move, it was taking away 2/3's of the executioner's attacks.

Even so, this new round, I tried a wand of fire on him (no effect either), but got lucky, as he went 1 for 9 in his attacks.

Next round was interesting, because both myself and the executioner (which surprised me), cast spells. I did a Control Undead, to get the mermaid zombie below me, and the (some type I never knew existed - was bone or ivory) dragon skeleton. next to me and the executioner, converted to my side - while I have no idea what the executioner tried on me, cause I resisted whatever it was.

Next round, I swapped places with the (now friendly) mermaid zombie, so the executioner attacks were reduced to 0 out of 3, as it had to move an extra square to get next to me. By this time, I was starting to wonder what happened to the other executioner I had spotted earlier (?), but since I was concentrating on just surviving one round at a time - I have no idea where it went.

Now then, for the next round, my plan was to either drink a potion of heal wounds, or zap the wand of lightning - both options I didn't like, and forced myself to instead Enslave this smoke demon that was either steaming or smiting me all the while. If his attacks were not resistible by me, maybe they weren't by some of these other things surrounding me as well. And, anything taking attention away from me - was a good thing, or so I figured. I hit the spell targeting button and...

The Abyss fluxed!

I was now alone - save for a blue summoning thing (I think called a noexque, or something). But he was in an area where lots of walls were around him, so any of his little cronies could be confused and he would soon get the little "?" next to his picture. That meant I could transform into bat form and fly, fly, fly away!

My health was 28/146 after that stand against the executioner horde - I needed to feed. I caught sight of a wizard, and shadowed him into an area where we were alone. Back to humanoid form, confused and then stabbed him. I drank his lifeless body dry. Back to bat form, and flew in the complete opposite direction to which way I was traveling - whenever the Abyss fluxed.

Every scroll and potion found along the way, which could be used - was used. I enchanted my shoes, helmet and a short sword (which was a God Gift). I drank potions of might, agility, speed, etc. No use saving anything, as there was no tomorrow. < laugh >

I didn't hesitate to ask Okawaru to grant me the powers of a great hero, cause even though my *'s were falling with him, I'd figure I could make it up to him - as long as I lived. I directly attacked a few things, but only if I figured it was best to eliminate them right away, instead of entering into any protracted games of "cat and mouse".

Finally, at some point, I found a gate out. They're single tile grey structures, just like the ones for entering a labyrinth. It brought me right back to the stairs on the level I was originally on with that ogre magi. Of course, there was a yaktaur captain and his accompanying herd right behind him - just two tiles from me - but obviously nothing I couldn't handle, since I'm writing this up now. They became a bloodletting feast - for a starved vampire hexer. < wink >


Thank you to everyone who offered ideas and/or advice. This is one escapade I will certainly remember through my Crawl career!



Specific Questions:

- What is the difference between a Runed and a Glowing weapon? I found some of them to have -1, +0 attributes, while an ordinary weapon can be +3,+3.

- If I use a scroll of acquirement (I have several), can I ask for a spell book with Hexes spells?

- I have so many (Okawaru) God Gifts. Some I am very happy with, but some are somewhat lacking to what my character could possibly use (like the +2 platemail, weapons with negative modifiers, etc.). Will he be upset if I ditch and/or leave some behind?

- In the List of Memorized Spells (Command "I"), sometimes some have different colors associated with them, other times they are white and/or grey. What do these different hues signify?

- My HP are displayed as 146/146 (150). I took some degenerative hits while in the Abyss. How can I restore these to full potential?


Thank you.

[Happy Corner]

Congratulations on escaping what looked like certain death! Awesome.

Now for your answers:

"Runed" and "glowing" just mean an enchanted weapon, nothing more. I don't think one is always better than the other - the designers just chose two different words for flavor reasons.

If you use a scroll of acquirement to get a book, it's a totally random book. It MAY be influenced by what magic skills you already have, but I'm not 100% sure. Other than that, you do not get to specify what school or spells it contains.

Okawaru (and all other gift-giving gods) couldn't care less if you keep their stuff or not, so feel free to throw away any trash he gives you.

I'm not sure what the colors for spells means on that list... someone who plays spellcasters more than I do will have to answer that.

If your HP has been rotted away like that, you need to drink healing and/or heal wounds potions while your HP is full. These will cure the rot a point or two at a time. A healing wand should also work.

[galehar]

I can't. The game tells me where it is created, but when I search the path, my computer doesn't have the directories specified. However, I did find where the Crawl program is located, and there are several files there, but none called "Morgue". In fact, I have no idea where any of the information on characters are stored, as there is no "Saved Characters" file either (?). Beats me how the game stores information. I'm certainly no computer wizard, but I asked my computer to search my entire hard drive for anything called "morgue", and/or anything with the names of any character (.txt files I assume). That took over 2 hours, and none were found.

You have to display hidden files to find the directory manually. Or just do run/execute and type %APPDATA%. Then you'll see the crawl folder with morgue and save files.

- What is the difference between a Runed and a Glowing weapon? I found some of them to have -1, +0 attributes, while an ordinary weapon can be +3,+3.

No difference between runed and glowing, it's just cosmetic. But it is different from plain ones. More likely to be enchanted and can also carry a brand (which plain ones can't).

- In the List of Memorized Spells (Command "I"), sometimes some have different colors associated with them, other times they are white and/or grey. What do these different hues signify?

Dary grey means you can't cast it. Either because you don't have enough MP or because the spell doesn't work when bloodless for example. See this link for a list of all the colours meaning (list which really needs to be included in the in-game help).

Also, nice survival story.

[mad]

I just have to say this point by point saga of your escape from the abyss is one of the greatest things I have read about in a very long time. Especially the happy ending!

[Zicher]

DeathKnyte, your story is one of the best lying around on this forum.
Congratulations on your escape, and all thumbs up for not giving up, and utilising all you had at your hands (including a little luck ).

[XuaXua]

DeathKnyte, what is your operating system?

For some reason, at one point (and I could be mistaken) my morgue files were generated in my Windows Documents folder.
They no longer are, and I chalked it up to a glitch with the system/version/method of launching the game, but your file could be there.

You can search your hard drive for a file named after your character; it is charactername.txt

[DeathKnyte]

I should have gotten to responding here earlier, but time and real life...

Happy Corner:

Thank you for the replies. They have been put to good use.

Healing did not work, but heal wounds recuperated the lost life and am back to full potential.



galehar:

I have no idea how to display hidden files but; your instructions on typing in %APPDATA%, I figured out how to do that. I have to hit the START button and type it in the "RUN" box. Then the computer gives me a directory from which I can select Crawl, and when I go into it... There's a "morgue" file!

Thanks for clearing up the colors in the spells screen. Yes, including it in the game help, would be good for people like me.



XuaXua:

Windows XP. But galehar, in all his wisdom, has shown me how to get there.



To all who rooted for my vampire hexer, I thank you. He is currently on hold, due to finding that further progress is extremely hard now - I find any ways. Many monsters are now immune to hexes, as well as very difficult to sneak (stealth) through various parts of the dungeon. And with little combat ability, near every situation seems very hazardous. However...

If you enjoy some story telling, along with how I think and or approach playing the game; I have a new guy going which can be found here: https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2414

Regards,

[DeathKnyte]

My old computer died, so unfortunately this character is lost to the netherworld...

However, I learned a lot on a certain play style, namely sneaking around and stabbing. The stealth aspect was truly wonderful, and combined with the assured "one hit kill", made for an incredible potent combination. I could scout entire dungeon levels, without waking anything up, and then plan my "hits" at will. If sometimes I failed in a particular mission, I had the hexes branch of magic to fall back on. Corona, Ensorcelled Hibernation, Sure Blade, Confuse, Enslave, and Invisibility (all from the starting spell book), were wonderful tools that lent themselves extremely well towards this approach of the game.

This character was with the god Okawaru, which the game recommended as a good god for any character. I found he worked well, as he increased some important skills; Fighting, Short Blades, Armour, Dodging, Stealth, Shields, Stabbing, and Traps and Doors. I have since experimented with other gods, as well as emphasis on either magic or meleeing, so this combination has proven to be versatile and adaptable to different approaches and play styles. Eventually culminating in my first win...