So far this game: You will notice that I have no spells that deal any type of direct damage to a monster. And if you think that I fight with my sabre with anything more threatening than a quokka, then you're under a different impression than the one I am trying to convey. Unless a monster is either asleep or in some manner incapacitated, I don't go next to it (exception in the Tomb of Ancients, but I will explain that below). I still use the same principals outlined in the original post, up top, under "Play Style". If I deviate from that, it will be mentioned.
Hell Notes:I was character level 20, when I killed Geryon. Didn't look much different than what you see in the morgue a few posts above.
There's a portal to hell, on level 8 of the Lair, and since the time I discovered it, I was always thinking of a way to get into there. I know that I can't defeat Geryon in a slug match, nor do I have any intention of getting near him if he is awake. Besides, his summoning of hell beasts will make such an adventure near impossible. But now I think I have thought of a good plan, so I cast Invisibility on myself, and entered the portal...
I started heading towards him, hoping to maybe get in a sleep stab, and "that would be that". But he woke up when I was at range two - and sure enough, he started summoning his beasts. It's a shame he awakened when I was so close. Oh well, time for plan B.
I took a step back, to put myself at range three from him. Although Geryon can see invisible, the summoned hell beasts can not, so they just stood there next to him. Then I started casting Enslavement, one hell beast at a time. Every time Geryon called a new one, I enslaved it, or took a step so that I could have a clear line of sight to the newly summoned one. Soon after, I had eight of them under my control, the whole pack - and Geryon got trampled to death - by his own summonings.
Elven Halls Notes:This was incredibly easy. I did the usual 'stealth & stab' on all the levels, killing everything so quickly and efficiently, that it felt like I was back playing the early game in the dungeon.
For the special stone walled area on level 3 (I remember that The Elven Halls used to have 5 levels, no?), I used Dig to expose a path all around it. Then I transformed into bat form, invoked Ashenzari's astral vision ability, and flew around the entire perimeter. That gave me an exact location of everything (monsters and their equipment, items on the floor, and terrain) within those walls. Two invocations of scrying were all that was needed, since bat form is so fast on movement, compared to time going by, for the entire complex. Now that I have the knowledge, time to formulate a plan.
I dug out two "kill zones", one East, and the other West, of the entrance. I was going to lure the inhabitants, one at a time, into one, and dispatch them safely and quietly. Everything was working well, using Corona to draw out the individual deep elves, without waking any others, luring them into a maze and eliminating each one with the help of Confuse, and Ensorcelled Hibernation. Then some wandering deep elves spawned near the entrance, and made some noise.
Damn. I was half-way done, and really wanted to finish this section of the dungeon. I know that I said in my first post to be patient, wait for everything to go back to sleep, then come back and finish the job safely. However, I know that those deep elves which are now awake inside the complex, will be picking up the loot and carrying it with them all over the level. I did not feel like going through an already cleared area, to make certain that I don't miss out on anything that may now have been brought there.
Ah well, guess it's time to learn a "big gun" spell. I flew to my depot, and memorized Silence. I tested it, and saw that the initial radius was range 5, before diminishing after I think it was 6 turns (can't remember exactly now). Any ways, I knew what to expect, that's what is important, so flew back to the area at Elven Halls 3, now prepared to handle whatever came up, due to a new weapon in my arsenal.
Somehow, I stepped on a yet undetected Zot trap and got paralyzed. Remember what I wrote about Traps & Doors skill earlier? I should have followed my own advice...
So I'm waiting for the paralysis to wear off, and a deep elf something or other, comes along, chuckles at my predicament, and sends me to the Abyss. Man, I should really follow what I advise...
Not that I can't handle the Abyss, but I just didn't "feel" like handling the Abyss at this time. Oh groan, what a fraggin' major drag. Now, remember what my big reason was why I wanted to get Elven Halls level 3 finished right away? Yes, that's right; I manufactured a big excuse, because I really was "in a hurry", and attempting to play against the grain of this build. Now look at where that got me...
I found a portal out of the Abyss, maybe an hour or two later. Very upset with myself, more than anything else...
So now, what do I see? But a wandering deep elf summoner, at range eight, within the complex, as the first opponent. Well, since it's already awake, Corona and luring would work, but I decided to Enslave it instead, and have it just start walking towards me. Cause after all, I did not consider him dangerous, compared to what else was left. This is when events took a surprise turn...
So I cast Enslavement, and instead of him walking towards me, he cast a spell and some demons appeared near him. They were all friendly to me as well, because a little heart appeared next to their pictures. Okay fine, I thought to myself, this might prove to be amusing. So I started stepping back towards my kill zones, but instead of anything following me, they all stayed and started fighting, casting, gesturing, etc. So I stopped and started to watch.
That summoner, just kept on casting, and summoning demons, every turn. I was amazed, as my view range was just filling up more, and more, with all these friendly demons. And some would start calling in demons themselves. Turn after turn this went on, and I started getting messages of "you feel a bit more experienced".
Wow, too cool. And the turn that Enslavement finally wore off, that amazing summoner died the most horrible death imaginable, amongst a storm of smites, steam balls, mutating effects, and what not! But all the summoned, and their summoned, demons - remained friendly to me. How many there were all together, I can't say, as I saw just the ones at the edge of my view range. I did not dare to go inside the complex to see what was really going on.
Eventually, the friendly demons started filing out of the complex, and moving towards me, so I suppose that meant that whatever deep elves had remained, were now all dead. When I finally did venture in, only two remained, which were in adjoining rooms, and I dispatched them easily enough. There were corpses, items, weapons, armour, and ammunition strewn all over the place. What a fight it must have been. This, all for the cost of one casting of the Enslavement spell!
Labyrinth Notes:All right. I discovered that labyrinths could spawn in The Elven Halls (first time I ever had that happen), as I got the "You hear the sound of a distant snort." when I entered level 3. Ashenzari provided the coordinates of the portal, so I was there, and completely ready (dropping all unnecessary junk on the floor) within 140 turns.
Wonderful - I love labyrinths! A vampire lives forever, and the longer we go without blood, the more we thirst for some of that warm, delicious, fresh minotaur blood to be had in the center. Not to mention all the loot, mind you.
Ashenzari magic mapping, and some Passwall spells, got me through it lickety-split.
Vaults Notes:Okay. So since the vaults are so deep, and so wide open, I usually explore them till I find the entrance to the Crypt. Then I start working on the Crypt, and come back here for some blood, when I run out. Then I do the same for the Tomb of Ancients, in this type (silent assassin) of game.
If too many monsters are awake in the Crypt, I'll go to the main dungeon for a while, in order to preserve the monsters in the Vaults, for Crypt and Tomb blood. Makes traveling between areas not take as much time, I find any ways.
Concerning the Vaults themselves, the same basic principals apply, except that Passwall kills are virtually non-existent, due to the composition of the walls here. But by this time, my stealth skill is maxed, so combined with some Invisibility, and a little bit of shrewd exploration patterns, it is quite manageable to maintain the stab killing game.
Crypt Notes:Haven't found the spell Control Undead yet, so had to rely on my current spell set and my dependable stealth skill for this area.
Okay, this may sound weird to some of you, but I'm going to say that I got lucky on level 4 of the Crypt because, there was a greater mummy crony, hanging around with Khufu. Khufu I quietly stabbed, but the greater mummy I considered a wonderful opportunity to test some things on - because I know there's going to be a convention of these guys, when I go to visit the Tomb of Ancients. So I purposely left it alive, woke it up, and proceeded to test how easy (or hard) it was to destroy it, with my current spells and gear.
Remember what I said about that sabre of flaming, concerning undead earlier? Well, against mummies, it's like... uhmmm.... It's like a sabre of flaming against a mummy (lol). Try it one time. It works great! And Silence solves all the crap associated with a greater mummy, except for it being able to hit you. Any ways, I still consider the game had been nice to me, in spawning one here, so I could play with it, and give me confidence for the Tomb. So it's all a perception thing, when you think of the randomness programmed into DCSS.
On Crypt level 5, I had a map that had a central (castle perhaps?) complex, some adjoining buildings, a graveyard, some woods, pathways, and a genuine feeling of discovering a haunted mansion, after my car had broken down on a lonely road at night. To whoever designed that level - nice work!
Found an artefact long blade called; the +8, +8, Autumn Katana, in the central complex. I don't remember ever seeing something like that before. When I finished clearing the Crypt, I unbound my weapon hand, so I could train some long blade skill, and toddled around with this weapon for a bit. Nice weapon, not good for stabbing, but definitely good enough for slicing anything I tried it on. (I wish my VpBe had found something similar to it in his game, would have certainly unstalled him.) I'll keep it at my depot. Maybe have a use for it later on in this game.
Oh ja, I better mention something in general about the Crypt. This area (and the Tomb of Ancients too) must have some kind of special echo, or an amplification system, because if you make any kind of noise here - it's like an alarm trap going off. If you don't have uncanny stealth and/or Silence for potential noisy fights - then be prepared to get mobbed from half-way across the level. With Ashenzari monster detection, you can test how bad this can be. Just cast a spell like Sure Blade, on the other side of a wall from a sleeping monster. If it starts moving, then your casting woke it up, and Sure Blade is defined as "quiet" by the game!
Tomb of Ancients Notes:There was a little snag, due to a Zot trap, after I had cleared the central area of level 1. You can see what I mean here:
Trap Snag in Tomb.
(While waiting for a response there; I went to the main dungeon, enslaved a shadow dragon for a bit, and tried out some different things with it. Mainly to see if I could position and control it's breadth attack satisfactorily. In the back of my mind, I'm trying to think of how I will eventually be handling The Royal Jelly, should it be awake.)
When
crate provided the logical answer, I flew back to the Tomb, and proceeded to clear out the different levels.
I had to go through that Zot trap, looks like 5 times so far from reviewing the game notes, when I needed to replenish my blood supplies during the process of clearing everything out. Going to have to go through it a 6th time, when I eventually go to pick up the rune.
Oh yes, better point out the following: When I went down the stairs to level 2, I didn't come back up - until I needed some blood. I cleared out near the entire level in one go. And thanks to my crappy Traps & Doors skill, I took way more damage from blundering onto traps then any monster down there. Same thing for level 3. No stair dancing at all! I kept control of the entire situation through quiet stabs, Corona luring, and silent melee dispatches in secluded areas. I was near amazed at how well it went, myself.
So to sum up quickly how to safely clear the Tomb of Ancients with this character: Stab everything that is asleep - draw out lesser threats from greater ones with Corona - Quietly kill them with Corona, Sure Blade, and Confuse (might require Silence if you haven't lured far) - Use Silence on greater mummies and mummy priests if awake - When low on life and/or blood, go replenish. That's how I did it here, and quite possibly one of the easiest Tomb clearings I have ever done.
I did the Tomb area early, for two reasons; #1. It is safe and easy with Silence, and because of that, #2. The experience gains are very good for this point of the game and my characters' skill development.