I had a pretty good run with two Naga Transmuters of Che recently. The first go first found all the bookshops one could hope for, then stupidly died to a D:11 hill giant before finding the Mines and indulging in bibliophilia.

The other run managed to grab two runes. This was a long enough game to let me see a good bunch of the new content in a real game. Slime creatures, ugly things, I can’t remember a time I was glad to see one of either! While I didn’t get Shoals or Wizlabs, I did have a Treasure Trove. I think the trove itself had more gold than I paid for it though, that was strange.

I didn’t have a lot of trouble starting out. I think the key to getting a naga off the ground is to spit, spit, spit that poison. Transmuters might have a hard XL1, but the very first level gain unlocks Evaporate (and Sticks to Snakes, which I opted out of), which makes matters both easy and fun. A lot of the game was spent e’x'amining if the encounters had poison resistance or not.

I also found a flaming randart sling with AC+5, which I used quite a bit to conserve potions. I ended up with 7 whole levels of Slings skill, so I must have used it quite a bit indeed. I figured I could use it with a buckler, and with all the new ammo brands, that slings would make a nice sidearm. I didn’t find a huge amount of interesting ammo however – apart from a life-saving small stack of dispersal darts – so I regressed into unarmed brawling for finishing off opponents. Plus the poison spit. I can’t stress enough how useful that ability is.

Converting to Cheibriados in the Temple.

I converted to Che in the temple, and made one piece of ponderous kit quite soon – gloves I believe. Gaining piety was easy, thanks to nagas’ innate slowness. I ponderified a cloak later on, so I could be slow in Ice Form too, but didn’t go further. Will do so in a later game – wearing five ponderous items nets +15 to each stat! Not sure if I’d do that on a naga. Their racial slowness on top of that.. well, maybe it doesn’t really matter if you move an inch or two inches per hour. And the Slouch damage should be spectacular!

I decided to try Ice Form instead of Blade Hands because it involved more melding for testing purposes. It was actually pretty good. Slowing cold-blooded creatures, faster running speed, and more than decent damage – plus amphibiousness, which I was half expecting to kill me via careless autoexploration in Swamp.

Before Lair I got my first taste of the merging slime creatures. That was fun. You must remember I was moving quite slowly. So, I was frantically casting Ice Form to escape, and Dig to dig some room for them to split. I never was quite sure how to deal with them, but I did learn to exterminate any lone slime creatures as quickly as possible. What a great change to them. I never actually found them that boring as monsters. I think they’ve always had their distinct slot in the dungeon ecology (player killerology), but I don’t think they lose any of their old charm with the merging.

I also had some ugly things, but in retrospect I was far too cautious with them. I was careful about the brown ones (acid), but also thought that purple meant mutations, when it’s only sickness. Green ones would probably have been poison resistant – luckily I met none!

In Lair I found a book of necromancy, so I decided to branch into that properly. Dispel Undead! Who needs caster gods by the way, you’ll find plenty of books over time anyway, and acquirement can cover some of your needs. At least if you’re willing to adapt. Well, I find it fun.

On the bottom of the Lair I was running from a hydra in Ice Form with 11 HP or something like that, and totally panicking. Happily I did stop to think and recalled Che’s final ability: stepping out of time. It saved my tail. It also felt like a total panic button ability.. nothing wrong with that, and I guess it might be more spectacular if you had more monsters around you when you used it.

I got one of R1s new Hive endings. The map was very nice, but I still felt like an exterminator on a tedious day. Especially because of clearing the bees with Evaporation, he he. I also cleared Snake:1-4. I did fall down two shafts to Snake:5 with barely noticing. I really need to add “You fall through a shaft” into the force_more options.. I took a peek at the new Swamp too. While much prettier, I think I’ll still dive when it comes to Swamp. I often find it fun, too.

Dipping into Slime.

Around this time I had the great idea to do Slime while in Ice Form. Melded equipment doesn’t corrode, right? (Don’t trust me on that.) Plus I had both the mutation and corrosion resistance amulets. Well, between the time it takes to switch between them, a shining eye gave me teleportitis. Plus I didn’t really have the damage output, and the damage input from the rampant slime creatures was too much. At least I survived, and I had a fancy ring with teleport control (plus electricity resistance!) so it was mostly just embarrassing.

After that I was looking for something fun to do, so I decided to dive Vaults for the Crypt. You can unsurprisingly wipe the place with Dispel Undead. I did skip a Khufu encounter, but otherwise it was a breeze. The ending was new to at least me – and a lot of fun, with opponents varying from iron golems to liches and hell knights. This was a nice change of pace, as each required quite a different approach. For instance, I fell in love with Bend Time against the golems – they are slow to start with, and slowing them down more was quite effective.

Rocking the Crypt ending with iron golems.

In the Crypt loot I found a book with Bolt of Draining. I decided this “unlocked” Snake Pit for me. Nagas are poison resistant and slow, so my beloved Evaporate wouldn’t work. I had underutilized Slouch, but I thought nagas weren’t the best practice targets. Aizul was good for that though – I had previously skipped the fight on Snake:4, but it took maybe three-four shots and I didn’t get a scratch. Grabbing the serpentine rune was a surprisingly quick affair. I got the oldest ending, where the rune is rather exposed, and only fought one wave of defenders, plus a single lone greater naga before running off with the rune. Bolt of Draining did work though!

I did the Slouch thing in Swamp:5 instead. It was glorious! Practically wiped the rune chamber in few short turns (you can watch this on termcast with !lm * rune=decaying id=833617 -tv) . This was ridiculous fun, especially as I had near-fatal trouble with the hydras just before. I must have gotten cocky at this point. I forgot where Elf:7 would send me. Naga in the Abyss – you know how it ends. Should have tried to step out of time – the fiend was summoned, after all.

Dammit. I really would’ve liked to see Zot:5. I had Dispel Undead for the liches and Slouch would probably have worked wonders against orbs of fire and electric golems, both speed 20. I’m not quite sure, but poison and confusion clouds from Evaporate might have covered a lot of the rest. Would have been interesting to try at least.