The Tavern

I have a Gnoll Skald of Yredelemnul, hitting things with axe but mostly just watching my Profane Servitor with Demon Whip of Electrocution murder everything for me.
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/Forti ... titudo.txt

I'm in vaults 3 and Mara appears at the edge of my vision. Ideally I want to enslave Mara, thereby adding 3 more demon weapons of electrocution to my murder squad. But the risks are high!

I have rF+++ (but my army doesn't).
I only have rElec in the form of Staff of Air, but as a Gnoll I can use it moderately competently as a weapon.
At my current Invocations level I have about 11-12 turns to enslave something. I might struggle to get the job done in 11 turns, but my army could if they could get to him and focus just him.
If I cast Enslave Soul on Mara before he splits, all 3 Maras will be enslavable for 11-12 turns, but killing an illusion Mara will not kill the others (then it's 1 Mara + me vs 2 Maras).
If I cast Enslave Soul on Mara after he splits, I can only cast it on the real Mara, thereby divining which is the real Mara, but only having one enslavable target and 2 distractions.
There is a solid chance Mara could clone my Servitor instead of me, which would also be pretty dangerous.

I could also just teleport immediately, recall allies, and write off Vaults 3 for a good long while in the hopes of executing this plan more successfully later/never.

Any advice?

My take is that the decision you're talking about is not that consequential. Whether you have a Mara enslave soul guy for a while should make no difference in the outcome of the game.

I don't see why you couldn't kill Mara with this character, particularly if you're willing to burn a might potion to move it along faster. I notice that you have summon mana viper available but you're not using it. This is a mistake. It would help in this fight and most others.

I thought Mara would be a good candidate for the slot of enslaved soul in my army, since it would be like adding 1-3 more demon weapons of electrocution to the mix (and my spectral ogre magi keep dying quickly), but you're right, I suppose I mostly want to do it for fun.

I didn't notice that I had Mana Vipers at a low fail rate now, thanks for pointing that out, I suppose my best bet is to disengage with teleport, learn the spell, then come back and make my attack.

I followed the plan, ambushed Mara, he split, I tagged the real Mara and commanded the mana vipers and everything else to take him down, and they did! With no casualties.

Spectral Mara is fun to have, on top of 3 blinking demon blades, enemies get phantom-mirrored often, sometimes more than one enemy at once, and the clones stick around ages, enough to clear half a level.


Edit: Mara died silently off-screen to something in the Hall of Blades, haha. I wield his demon blade of electrocution with vengeance in my heart!

I remember nurturing Nergalle around for a long long time during one of my Yred games, was sad when she finally bit it.

That seems to be the fated end of all loyal soldiers in Yred's army. My favourite lieutenant, Profane Servitor with a +8 demon whip of electrocution, got ruthlessly banished by The Enchantress' distortion rapier. I thought I could recall her, but she was gone, and her beautiful weapon too...

Soon afterwards I roamed deeper in the Depths numb with loss, drew the whole floor into the battlefield, and had to flee as my army's ranks collapsed.

I chose Yredelemnul to see me through Gnoll's mediocre midgame, but it seems my undead are starting to struggle. Perhaps it's time to switch.

Don't forget to abuse Drain Life. It is incredible if there are lots of enemies on the screen, such as in the situation you're describing.

The enchantress (spriggan) is a pretty good enslaved critter, you pick up mass confusion and she doesn't die that easily.

I had an Enslaved Mara once with Yred, and he was a very effective minion - and V:3 is still at the point where, with some caution, I expect the murder katamari to be able to take anything down. I'd go for it.