NOTE: this file may contain comments or information that is considered SPOILERS, if you do not wish to learn this information pleace leave now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Screenshot ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ # #### ###################### ###### ###### # # # . .###..##.##. # . # #####.# ###. . # #.#### # # . # . ####.. # # # ## # # . ..# . ##..# . . ## . ## ## # # # # ##.## ## .# # ## # ### ..# .# .## ## ### # # . # # # #. #.. . ..### # # # # ##.# # .#. # . # ## . . ## .. # # ## .##. .# # # # # ## ### # ..#.## .# ## # # #...###.# # # # # # # # ### # ### .# # # # # #.# .## ## . ### # #.## # ## . ## # . # ### # .#...%##.# #. ## # ### ## . ## ###.. # ###..... # !#..###... ##.# # ###..#.# . # #. ##..## ##..#.#..#. ..##. # ##.## #. .. #.... # . . #...#.#....#..##. ### ..# # . #...# ##. #. #....######..#..##... .# #... #.#. .#.. #.. ### ....#..##.#.##.#.#..#.##..# # .## .#..# ##. .## ##..##..#..#....##..../... # .## #. . ##..#####.##.#....##.C.C.C.C.#C#@.C# ..# # . .#### #..#.#####.# #.. #. #jC.j.## ... #### # ####### ## ############### # ##### Analamus Rex St:44 Le:30 Wi:15 Dx:40 To:53 Ch: 1 Ap: 1 Ma: 1 Pe:57 N= DV/PV: 53/43 H:0(1120) P:0(198) Exp: 50/34974253 ChAoS Sp: 210 Blessed Invisible Satiated Berserk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ //Berserk is not my normal setting, FYI. When I realized how corrupted I was, though, and was out of scrolls, I was doing whatever I could to try and get him to a point I could kill him with the Trident. No such luck, obviously. //Mana was that low because of a marathon SoCR-writing before I came down here. Being as I was mostly physical and I read about how he gets faster, I didn't figure I'd use much Mana. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Background Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Analamus Rex Race: female Hurthling Class: Beastfighter Eye color: brown Hair color: blonde Complexion: light Height: 2'7" Weight: 1 pound Scars: 12 Age: 84 (old, 47 years of unnatural aging added in) Star sign: Book Birthday: 15/Book (day 45 of the year) //1 pound? Man, when they say 'light', they're not kidding. :D YOUR HISTORY: Your mother is a mighty enchantress. She is unmarried. Your father is living in the vicinity of your mother's tower. He is a humble shepherd. During your childhood one of your uncles taught you a lot of things about the history of your people. Your vast knowledge on the legends and the lore of your people made you very popular with your friends because of all the exciting stories you knew. During your youth you were very lazy. You slept a lot and didn't care too much for your duties and tasks. Your parents were not very happy with you. As a young adult you left your home because of trouble with your parents. They opposed your plans for the future without understanding your wishes. Thus you decided to live on your own. You wandered through the country for many years, growing older and wiser and learning many things. You decided to become a Beastfighter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inventory ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total weight: 10308 stones Carrying capacity: 14822 stones He: - //Needed every bit of 'to-hit' I could get, and the crown docks that. Should've had a stand-by helmet, but I never considered I might need it. Live and learn... Ne: uncursed necklace of rapid healing [2s] //Damned blue dragons... Bo: uncursed robes of resistance (-4, -4) [+3, +12] {To+5} [60s] Gi: blessed girdle of carrying [+0, +0] [15s] Cl: uncursed cloak of defense [+4, +0] [20s] //I don't know how you people manage to find such great cloaks! This was the best I could manage. Ever. RH: - LH: - //Yes, I know I have to be weilding the Trident Of The Red Rooster to kill him. Beastfighters, though, don't do well with weapons. Wanted to bring him down to 'killing' level before I whipped out the ol' Trident. RR: blessed ring of damage [1s] //The exact same ring I started with, for that matter. I never took it off. It brought me luck. Well... until now. LR: uncursed ring of slaying (+6 melee damage, +6 missile damage) [1s] Br: blessed bracers of war [+8, +4] {Dx+8} [10s] Ga: blessed rustproof gauntlets of strength (-1, +0) [+2, +1] {St+3} [40s] Bo: blessed seven league boots [+2, +0] [30s] MW: cursed long bow of accuracy (+9, +2) [30s] //It was blessed until he got his hands on it. Mi: bundle of 12 uncursed penetrating arrows (+0, 1d6+2) [24s] //Trying to do as much damage as possible. Tl: uncursed torch (815 turns of fuel remaining, lit) [10s] //Damned blue dragons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuff ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total weight: 10065 stones Carrying capacity: 14822 stones Helmets ('[') uncursed Iron Crown of Havlor (-6, -6) [+12, +12] {Le+4} [65s] //My helmet through most of the game. The armor was fantastic. I couldn't hit the Big Man at all, though, so I had to try taking it off. Gauntlets ('[') heap of 2 uncursed pairs of thick gauntlets (-1, -2) [+0, +1] [30s] uncursed thick gauntlets (-1, -2) [+0, +2] [15s] uncursed thick gauntlets (+0, -1) [+5, -2] [15s] //I never travel without backups. blessed gauntlets of eternal peace "Shezestriakis" (-15, -15) [+15, +3] //I actually wore these through most of L50. Needless to say, they were removed when I hit the ChAoS plane. Cloaks ('[') uncursed cloak of adornment [+1, +3] {Ap+5} [40s] //Backup. Girdles ('[') uncursed girdle of carrying [+0, +0] [15s] heap of 2 uncursed girdles of greed [+0, +0] [14s] //Just in case. Boots ('[') cursed seven league boots (+1, -1) [+1, +0] [30s] //Blessed until he got close. uncursed adamantium boots [+3, +6] [89s] blessed eternium boots [+0, +7] [55s] //Armored backups. I'll take the penalty in Dexterity for the adds in armor. But with the 7LB, mostly unnecessary. Necklaces (''') heap of 2 uncursed amulets of free action [6s] blessed pendant of mana {Ma+2} [3s] heap of 3 uncursed necklaces of rapid healing [6s] heap of 2 uncursed amulets of water breathing [6s] blessed amulet of order [3s] heap of 5 uncursed amulets of health [15s] uncursed amulet of teleport control [3s] uncursed amulet of order [3s] heap of 2 uncursed amulets of balance [6s] //I forgot to drop off my amulets when I did 'dropping'. Two-handed weapons ('(') blessed rune-covered trident (+6, 3d12+6) [+4, +4] {Dx+12} [80s] blessed Trident of the Red Rooster (+36, 6d12+18) [+12, +12] {Ma+24} Missile weapons ('}') uncursed light crossbow of accuracy (+9, +1) [70s] Missiles ('/') //<inordinate amounts of ammo snipped.> blessed curved throwing club (+0, 2d5) [30s] //I wish I could've found more of these. It was fantastic. uncursed throwing club of death (+0, 4d6+4) [40s] //Likewise with this. uncursed javelin of doom (+12, 6d6) [40s] //L49 propulsion, and a good backup weapon for when the Rune Trident didn't come back. Tools (']') //<snip stacks of keys> uncursed tinderbox (29) [3s] heap of 2 uncursed torches [20s] uncursed box with flint and steel (45) [5s] //Did I mention 'damned blue dragons'? heap of 5 blessed fireproof blankets [50s] //I was never at want for these. Had about 4 uncursed ones back in Dwarftown, too. blessed waterproof blanket [10s] //This was the only one of these, on the other hand. blessed magical writing set (2) [5s] //In case I found some more blank scrolls. Rings ('=') heap of 2 blessed rings of luck [2s] heap of 2 uncursed rings of see invisible [2s] blessed ring of regeneration [1s] blessed ring of ice [1s] uncursed ring of ice [1s] uncursed ring of luck [1s] uncursed wedding ring [1s] //They're light enough I didn't think about dropping them off. Wands ('\') //Snip MASSIVE number of wands, all 0 charges //No WoWi for me, though I found a couple WoWo. Got the 'mana battery' fairly early, though, and never removed it because I always forget wands anyway. Potions ('!') //<snip mostly useless stuff> //Drank all my Boosts in the ChAoS plane. And didn't have any extra PoCC. Damn it. heap of 5 uncursed potions of boost toughness [10s] //Well, except this one, apparently. Damn. How'd I miss those? Scrolls ('?') //<snip mostly useless scrolls> //Read all the ?oCR as soon as my feet hit the ChAoS Plane floor. 7 of them, one after the other. Still wasn't enough. Oops. heap of 24 uncursed scrolls of power [48s] heap of 2 blessed scrolls of power [4s] //I actually had stockpiled these for this very place. And I never got the chance to use any because I was confused so often and because he drained the MP at a phenomenal rate, anyway. heap of 2 uncursed scrolls of peace [4s] //I never figured where I should use these at. heap of 54 uncursed scrolls of identify [108s] heap of 8 blessed scrolls of identify [16s] //Had quite a collection going of these. :) Some people collect Holy Water... heap of 3 uncursed scrolls of increase melee accuracy [6s] heap of 2 uncursed scrolls of increase melee damage [4s] //Pretty much useless for a Beastfighter. Books ('"') uncursed spellbook of Darkness [100s] uncursed spellbook of Greater Identify [100s] uncursed spellbook of Magic Missile [100s] uncursed spellbook of Magic Missile [100s] uncursed spellbook of Remove Curse [100s] //Books I either didn't bother reading (Magic Missile) or ones I got on the dive and didn't want to waste the time (Remove Curse). Food ('%') //<snip lots of lizards and a few herbs> heap of 4 uncursed cooked displacer beast corpses [456s] //I keep these as emergency teleports. It might be uncontrolled, and you might be confused for a few steps, but sometimes it gets you out of a tight spot. Gems ('*') heap of 7 uncursed crystals of power [7s] heap of 3 uncursed crystals of darkness [3s] blessed crystal of fire [1s] heap of 3 blessed crystals of knowledge [3s] uncursed worthless piece of green glass [1s] heap of 2 uncursed crystals of fire [2s] heap of 2 uncursed crystals of knowledge [2s] heap of 12 uncursed crystals of health [12s] cursed crystal of knowledge [1s] //Should probably have used the Knowledge, but by that time, I was in the final dive and didn't think it'd come into it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Skills ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Melee weapon Lvl Hit Dam DV Level Required marks --------------------- --- --- --- -- ------------- -------------- Unarmed fighting 14 +12 +10 +10 Mastery 11598 //Beastfighter; I used this for pretty much the entire game. Daggers & knives 4 +3 +1 +0 skilled 13 //A Phase Dagger I used for a little bit on especially tough stuff. Pole arms 11 +12 +7 +14 Mastery 1315 //... then I got my Eternium Spear Of Penetration, and sold the Phase Dagger. Needed to level this up for ToTRR. Even levelled up, though, it wasn't as good as fists for a Beastfighter. Missile weapon Lvl Hit Dam Ra Level Required marks --------------------- --- --- --- -- ------------- -------------- Slings 0 +0 +0 +0 unskilled 5 //Never use 'em as a Hurthling. Throwing the rocks is even more effective (unless you can get the right sling). Bows 7 +14 +10 +2 skilled 99 Crossbows 8 +16 +12 +2 excellent 242 //For the slaying ammo. Should've worked on them more. Thrown rocks & clubs 11 +22 +16 +3 Mastery 726 //Hurthling, using rocks and that curved throwing club for a lot of the game. Thrown spears 10 +20 +15 +3 excellent 151 //The Rune-Covered Trident, mostly. Awesome missile weapon. I'll use it again. The Javelin Of Doom was used a lot, too. Shields Lvl DV Level Required marks --------------------- --- --- ------------- -------------- Shields 0 +0 unskilled 15 //Beastfighters like their hands to be free. :) Damage caused with your melee weapons: -------------------------------------- Right hand: +221 bonus to hit, 1d36+111 damage //As opposed to +30 to hit and 6d12+20 with ToTRR. Checked my backup (which I'm deleting rather than making another run) just to compare damage. Now you see why I went at ChAoS with my bare hands. Damage caused with your missile weapons: ---------------------------------------- Ammunition: 12, base range: 21, +95 bonus to hit, 1d6+60 damage //Not too bad, but could've been better if I'd leveled it up. Lessons learned. Lessons learned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Skills ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appraising ................100 (superb) [+1] //PoE Archery ...................100 (superb) [+1] Athletics .................100 (superb) [+2d4] Backstabbing ..............100 (superb) [+1d5] //Can't remember if this was PoE or Gladiator. One of the two. Climbing ..................100 (superb) [+2d4] Concentration .............100 (superb) [+1d3] //Wish. Cooking ...................100 (superb) [+1d3] (mr) Courage ...................100 (superb) [+1d5] //Barbarian Quest Detect item status ........100 (superb) [+1d5] //Wish. Dodge .....................100 (superb) [+2d4] First aid .................100 (superb) [+2d4] Food preservation .........100 (superb) [+1d5] Gardening ................. 85 (great) [+1d3] Haggling .................. 51 (good) [+1] Healing ...................100 (superb) [+2d4] Herbalism .................100 (superb) [+2d4] Listening .................100 (superb) [+3d3] Literacy ..................100 (superb) [+1] //Dwarf Quest. Smithing .................. 58 (good) [+1d5] //Dwarf. Never used it. Couldn't find a free forge. Stealth ...................100 (superb) [+2d4] Survival ..................100 (superb) [+1d5] Swimming ..................100 (superb) [+2d4] Tactics ................... 50 (fair) [+1d3] //Gladiator. Two weapon combat ......... 53 (good) [+1] //Gladiator. //Note the lack of thiefly skills. Damned guild. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spells ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acid Ball : 251, 28pp (Effectivity: +0) Acid Bolt : 506, 12pp (Effectivity: +2) Bless : 613, 6pp (Effectivity: +6) Calm Monster : 680, 7pp (Effectivity: +2) Cure Critical Wounds: 15, 22pp (Effectivity: +0) Cure Disease : 748, 7pp (Effectivity: +0) Cure Light Wounds : 796, 4pp (Effectivity: +1) Darkness : 1486, 3pp (Effectivity: +0) Destroy Undead : 196, 7pp (Effectivity: +0) Fire Bolt : 359, 8pp (Effectivity: +0) Frost Bolt : 1066, 10pp (Effectivity: +2) Greater Identify : 193, 80pp (Effectivity: +0) Heal : 8, 61pp (Effectivity: +0) Identify : 221, 60pp (Effectivity: +4) Invisibility : 524, 8pp (Effectivity: +0) Knock : 182, 10pp (Effectivity: +0) Know Alignment : 801, 8pp (Effectivity: +1) Light : 1090, 2pp (Effectivity: +1) Lightning Ball : 142, 24pp (Effectivity: +0) Lightning Bolt : 567, 10pp (Effectivity: +1) Magic Lock : 621, 7pp (Effectivity: +0) Magic Map : 257, 32pp (Effectivity: +0) Magic Missile : 1746, 7pp (Effectivity: +2) Mystic Shovel : 540, 80pp (Effectivity: +0) Remove Curse : 1204, 40pp (Effectivity: +2) Slow Monster : 696, 6pp (Effectivity: +0) Slow Poison : 381, 5pp (Effectivity: +0) Stun Ray : 615, 7pp (Effectivity: +0) Teleportation : 556, 18pp (Effectivity: +2) Web : 13, 18pp (Effectivity: +0) //The library was fairly kind to me. Also had quite a few Potions Of Wonder and random book finds. No bookstores, but all three shops I robbed had a book in them. So for a Beastfighter, I was a pretty fair mage. //That being said, another lesson learned: I should've used what I had more often. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Effects of Corruption ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your close attunement to corrupted astral space allows teleportation. Your antennae explore the details of your environment (Ap: -4). //These were my first two corruptions. I kept them gleefully. They were fantastic for me. You look somewhat apish (St: +3, Le: -1, Wi: -1, Ch: -2, Ap: -3). //Hated this one. I actually had a pretty good learning going. I lost a _lot_ of ground through it. Even though the strength bonus was nice, obviously. Ended up with something like 10-11 'changes'. You have grown a total of 12 eyes (Ap: -6, Pe: +6). You have become extremely thin and nimble (1/2 weight, DV: +6). You rage (DV: -9, +6 melee damage)! Your skin is covered by tough scales (PV: +8, Dx: -6, Ap: -4). //From here... You are a living mana battery. You have grown a bulging cranium (Le: +6, Wi: +4, Ap: -6, PV: -4, To: -3). Your feet have been transformed into hooves (+8 kicking damage, Dx: -6). You are surrounded by an unholy aura (Ch: -10, DV: +6). Your corrupted tissue seems to heal much faster. You exhale sulphur (Ch: -4). You have become very light (1/10 weight, St: -6, Dx: +4, To: -6, Ap: -6, +20 speed). Poison drips from your hands. Your muscles have stiffened slowing you down (base action cost: 1500 energy points; PV: +4, St: +2). You have grown thorns (3d3 melee damage, Dx: -2, Ap: -3). You have grown horns (+3 melee damage, Ap: -4). //... to here, I ended up getting while on the ChAoS Plane, which is what ended up killing me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Her achievements during her adventures: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analamus Rex, the hurthling beastfighter, was transformed into a chaos being. //What a disappointment. She scored 3286374 points and advanced to level 50. She survived for 1 year, 2 days, 21 hours, 34 minutes and 9 seconds (298961 turns). //Quite a while past the 90 day mark, here. ;) 2 companions were killed during her adventures. //One Cave Lion and one of the critters I summoned in the portal. Analamus Rex visited 151 places. Her strength score was modified by +28 during her career. //Mostly from the apish. And sadly enough, this is _after_ I lost points from stat-drains. I was up to natural strength of 48 for a while. Strong hurthling! Her learning score was modified by +7 during her career. Her willpower score was modified by +3 during her career. //Too many Killer Bugs. Her dexterity score was modified by +2 during her career. Her toughness score was modified by +37 during her career. //Apish, and a ton of natural gaining. Not to mention the fact that I don't think a single stat-drain ever took any. I did well in being tough. Her charisma score was modified by +10 during her career. Her appearance score was modified by +12 during her career. Her mana score was modified by -8 during her career. //Scolls Of Chaos Resistance writing. Her perception score was modified by +39 during her career. //Love carrot rooms. She was unnaturally aged by 47 years. She was the champion of the arena. She was the head of the thieves guild. //Since he wouldn't give me his skills... She brought back joy into the life of a tiny girl. //I don't manage this often, though I try it a lot. She killed the emperor of the ancient minotaur race. //NEVER AGAIN! NEVER! AGAIN! She defeated the arch enemy of a mighty karmic wyrm. She stopped the generation of nasty bugs. She saved Khelavaster from certain death. She ended her adventuring life in the palace of Andor Drakon. 12812 monsters perished under her attacks. The following 33 artifacts were generated during her adventure: the si the scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle" //It took me longer to find this than usual. I finally managed it, though. //Ratling. the potion of literacy //Hoped I could do it with a Dark Sage, but never managed it. the golden gladius "Death's Sting" the Iron Crown of Havlor //Blue Dragon vault (I think I found it on the Great Blue Wyrm) the Chaos Orb of Elemental Water the Chaos Orb of Elemental Air the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire the Chaos Orb of Elemental Earth the lead-filled mace "Big Punch" the gauntlets of eternal peace "Shezestriakis" //Uselessness gift. I think I would have rather had Thunderstroke. Although admittedly, I probably would have used them if I'd had them earlier in the game (what with the +220 to-hit I carried around mostly). the rune-covered trident //Almost regretted not killing Blup. And then I started using this as a missile. No regrets. the sword of Nonnak //Ratling. the elemental gauntlets the ring of the High Kings the phial of Caladriel //Ratling. the crown of science the ancient mummy wrapping //Ratling. I had Red Dragon scale by the time I got to Chaotic. the ankh //Ratling. the boots of great speed //Left them alone. the Crown of Chaos the Sceptre of Chaos the black torc //Ratling. the Medal of Chaos the bracers of war //Crowning gift. the Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana the black rune-covered dagger "Needle" the black rune-covered dagger "Sting" //Wanted an Assassin Prince in my kill list. the robes of resistance //Casino. the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite" //Casino. Left it there. the Trident of the Red Rooster the weird tome the axe of the minotaur emperor //Didn't miss a one of them, either (other than the ones I deliberately missed). No complaints here. She possessed the following intrinsics: She was fire resistant (enhanced through an item). //Many various fire creature corpses. Who knows which one gave it to me. She was poison resistant. //Natural Beastfighter. She was cold resistant. //White dragons. She was acid resistant (enhanced through an item). //Black dragon. She was lucky (enhanced through an item). Fate smiled upon her. //Karmic lizard threat room and a couple Karmic Dragon corpses. Yum yum. She was sleep resistant. //Pool She was able to teleport. //Pixie. Also the corruption. She was able to control teleportation. //Blink Dog. She was invisible. //Pool. She was stun resistant (enhanced through an item). //Natural. She was paralyzation resistant. //Pool. She was resistant to death rays (enhanced through an item). //Pool. She was shock resistant (enhanced through an item). //Lightning lizards, or maybe blue dragons. She was able to see invisible things. //Invisible stalker corpse. She was immune to shock attacks. //Blessed lightning lizard. She was immune to acidic attacks. //Giant slug. She was immune to ice attacks. //Crowning. She was able to resist confusion attacks (gained through an item). //Even with this, I was still being confused. Wish I could've gotten an immunity! Or enhanced a natural resistance! She had the following talents: Affinity with Rocks & Clubs, Affinity with Thrown Spears, Alert, Brawler, Careful, Charged, Eagle Eye, Far Shot, Good Book Learner, Good Learner, Good Shot, Healthy, Keen Shot, Miser, Porter, Potent Aura, Strong Magic, Strong Thrower, Treasure Hunter. //I almost regretted getting the magical stuff, but once I got Concentration, I figured I should try getting some magic. She had a final speed score of 210 (final base speed: 215). //Yummy quicklings. And a couple Killer Bugs. She was a messiah of Auroree. She asked for 1 divine intervention. //And it was fairly early on. I didn't have to ask for a lot of them. She was a holy champion of Balance. She was severely tainted by Chaos. //I don't think 'severely' is the word here. :) The following monsters were vanquished: //List not snipped, because I'm proud of it. ;) I was trying for the 'full set'. 7 acid vortices 12 air demons 13 air elementals 30 air grues 4 ancient black dragons 45 ancient blue dragons 1 ancient blue wyrm 1 Ancient Chaos Wyrm 3 ancient karmic dragons 1 ancient karmic wyrm //Well, see, once I killed the Ancient Blue Wyrm... 47 ancient minotaurs 25 ancient red dragons //Threat room of them. Unpleasant! 1 Ancient Stone Beast 19 ancient white dragons 11 animated armors 42 animated trees //Took my phase dagger into the forest for a bit to gain some weapon marks. And because I wanted some logs for arrows. 8 ankhegs 11 annihilators 25 annis hags 75 assassins 1 assassin prince 4 balors //I feared these more than just about anything, to be honest. 47 bandits 1 banshee 124 barbarians 42 barbarian leaders 411 battle bunnies //Got a bit out of hand, they did. :) Didn't spawn any mutated, either, which saddened me. 53 berserkers 15 berserker emperors 17 berserker kings 47 berserker lords 20 berserker princes 22 big dogs 5 black baby dragons 9 black dragons 1 black druid 44 black hurthlings 3 black slayers 6 black unicorns 25 black wizards 43 blink dogs 62 blue baby dragons 50 blue dragons 1 bone golem 12 brown bears 56 brown worms 45 bugbears 10 bulettes 1 bunny master 19 carrion crawlers 1 cat lord //I *tried* not to kill cats! 22 cave bears 102 cave fishers 16 cave lions //Mostly after the Cat Lord was killed. Two of them were before, though, as evidenced by the death in my list. 37 cave lizards 14 cave tigers //All after the Cat Lord was killed. 46 cavemen 1 Chaos Archmage 25 chaos brothers 34 chaos eyes 46 chaos knights 25 chaos lizards 41 chaos mutants 62 chaos plague bearers 33 chaos rats 129 chaos servants 44 chaos sisters 15 chaos spawns 18 chaos spiders 14 chaos vipers 10 chaos warlords 2 chaos warriors 12 chaos wizards 49 claw bugs 22 clay golems 1 cloaked ratling 13 cobras 5 cooshoos 54 corpse fiends 19 corruptors 1 crime lord 16 crystal statues 22 cutpurses 17 cyclopes 25 dark elven archers 25 dark elven lords 21 dark elven priestesses 20 dark elven princesses 28 dark elven warriors 17 dark elven wizards 40 dark orcs 17 dark sages 7 death oozes 25 diamond golems //Threat room of these deep in the ID. Made for good XP! 136 dire wolves 38 displacer beasts 47 dopplegangers 3 doppleganger kings //No corpses. Was going to see if another race can eat them if you're starving. 26 doppleganger lords 33 Dorn Beasts //Scumming the wilderness for Quicklings and time, I found a lot of these. They're no problem when you're paralyzation resistant. 1 dragon turtle 10 dwarves 1 dwarven artificer 50 dwarven chaos knights 40 earth elementals 2 emperor liches //I actually had surprisingly little trouble with these. Had more problems with the Lich Kings. Of course, that's probably the difference between being level 20ish and level 45-50. 1 emperor moloch //He was actually surprisingly easy. Didn't have a lot of HP compared to the armor, I suppose. 27 ettins 17 eyes of destruction 3 fairy dragons //I had a heck of a time finding my first one of these. Finally got one in an ID dive. The other two showed up on their own. 1 farmer //One was enough. 97 fire beetles 9 fire demons 32 fire drakes 9 fire elementals 37 fire giants 6 fire giant kings 13 fire grues 58 fire lizards 28 fire vortices 22 flesh golems 19 floating eyes 13 fomorian giants 33 frost giants 16 frost giant berserkers 4 frost giant jarls 26 gargoyles 20 gelatinous cubes 301 ghosts //Seriously, does anyone need to find *11* Ghost Tension Rooms?! ... yes, 11. I counted. 13 ghost bats 7 ghost kings 57 ghost lords //Lots of them summoned by Lich Kings. Or Master Liches. I don't recall which one. 150 ghuls 4 giant ant queens 48 giant ant warriors 46 giant ant workers 96 giant bats 2 giant bee queens //Only two bee hives. I had no luck with them. At least I got one before the Banshee, though! 38 giant bee warriors 17 giant bee workers 4 giant boars //Two of which gave me skulls. Including the first one. 47 giant centipedes 1 giant dragon turtle //Took me a while to find for my collection. 3 giant eels 42 giant frogs 46 giant lizards 11 giant raccoons 122 giant rats 18 giant rust monsters 3 giant sharks 39 giant slugs //Threat room in the CoC. Cost me a lot of stuff, but got me a corpse. 80 giant spiders 2 giant turtles 22 gibbering mouthers 59 gnolls 9 gnoll chieftains 197 goblins 18 goblin berserkers 35 goblin chieftains 128 goblin rockthrowers 101 goblin slavemasters 5 gorgons //Every single one of them gave me a corpse, too. Didn't eat a one, for some odd reason. 43 gray oozes 6 gray slayers 5 great blue wyrms //Found an amazing number of these, between the vault and the Blue Dragon caves. 1 great karmic wyrm //Library. I killed it because I could. Still amazed I could. :) 1 great water dragon //Yay darkness! 3 great white wyrms //Two vaults and one wandering the ID. 16 greater air elementals 69 greater chaos servants 47 greater claw bugs 6 greater daemons 1 greater earth elemental 1 greater fire elemental 63 greater mimics 4 greater molochs //Once I got the RCT, these were fantastic. Good XP, too slow to catch up. 67 greater mummies 2 greater titans //No corpses, though. 9 greater water elementals 28 green blobs 20 green hags 36 green slimes 43 green worms 95 gremlins //Had a rather easy time in the cave. 13 griffons 24 grizzly bears 2 half-orc bouncers 36 harpies 63 hell hounds 122 hill giants 14 hill giant chieftains 14 hill orcs 20 hill orc sergeants 49 hippogriffs 154 hobgoblins 16 hobgoblin chiefs 37 hobgoblin leaders 1 holy slayer //Took a while of hunting, but I found one. 22 homunculi 39 huge bats 10 hydras 25 hyenas 13 ice vortices 22 imps 7 invisible stalkers 7 iron golems 252 jackals 2 jackal demons 25 jackalweres 8 karmic baby dragons 8 karmic dragons 20 karmic lizards 2 ki-rins //Found one of them in a vault in the UD. I squealed like a little girl. The second was in the Scintillating Cave. I killed it for the sole reason of its rarity. 60 killer bugs 9 king cobras 126 kobolds 41 kobold chieftains 22 kobold shamans 144 large bats 76 large dogs 28 large gnolls 22 large jackals 83 large kobolds 85 large orcs 31 large rust monsters 31 large snakes 236 large spiders 22 least daemons 6 lesser daemons 31 leucrottas 16 liches 3 lich kings //These did more damage to me than the Emperors, honestly. Probably let them get too close. 44 lightning lizards //Threat room and holy water. Yum. 6 lightning vortices 12 living walls //Mostly in the minotaur maze. Sort of funny to have a 'dead end' chase you. 74 lizard men 1 mad doctor 9 magebane eyes 6 magedoom eyes 11 margoyles 50 master assassins 21 master liches //Spot the gravedigger. :) 18 master mimics 1 master necromancer 1 Master Summoner 44 master swordsmen 6 master thieves 33 mimics 6 mimic hiveminds //With paralyzation resistance, these weren't all that bad. 34 minotaurs 1 minotaur emperor 1 minotaur king 36 minotaur lords 8 minotaur mages 12 minotaur mazelords 22 minotaur mazemasters //OhGod. Never again. Not without some sort of trap detection. //I learned to fear the mages. They were nasty. 16 molochs 1 mugger 1 multi-headed chaos dragon 43 mummies 1 mummy lord 25 necromancers 29 ochre jellies 247 ogres 15 ogre emperors 17 ogre kings 58 ogre lords 31 ogre magi 1 old barbarian //I liked his cabin. 275 orcs 4 orc butchers 33 orc chieftains 70 orc scorchers 22 outlaws 20 outlaw leaders 35 owlbears 147 pit vipers 6 pixies 5 pixie archers 30 purple worms 32 quasits 158 quicklings 1 quickling bard 4 quickling kings 114 quickling lords 8 quickling queens //The tree was delicious. Not to mention the raiding parties I scummed up in the wilderness. 16 rabid dogs 44 raiders 108 rats 38 ratling archers 24 ratling duelists 29 ratling fencers 19 ratling master thieves 50 ratling thieves 16 ratling warlords 37 ratling warriors 5 rattlesnakes 10 red baby dragons 27 red dragons 19 red worms 4 revenants 82 rust monsters 116 shadows 24 shadow centipedes 14 shadow lords 17 shadow trolls 2 shadow wyrms 28 shambling mounds 1 shark 2 shopkeepers //*whistles innocently* 29 silver wolves 4 skeletal kings 54 skeletal warriors 255 skeletons 32 slow shadows 1 Snake from Beyond 88 spectres 28 staring eyes 34 steel golems 3 steel horrors 16 steel zombies 45 stone giants 14 stone giant lords 16 stone golems 29 stone grues 5 stone oozes 9 stone snakes 33 stone statues 8 swamp hydras 42 swordsmen 66 tarantulas 55 thugs 9 titans 30 trolls 48 troll berserkers 20 troll chiefs 17 troll kings 1 undead chaos dwarven berserker 34 vampires 44 vapor rats 16 vipers 4 wall beasts //Ditto with the living walls. 13 water demons 13 water elementals 33 water grues 67 water snakes //Lots gained from pools. 36 wererats 40 werewolves 9 werewolf kings 33 werewolf lords 65 white baby dragons 29 white dragons 1 white unicorn //A white unicorn *threat room*. Nine or ten of them. All hostile. Just unnecessary. I only killed the one, and watched my alignment plummet. Decided to teleport away from the rest. 88 white worms 99 wights 4 wild cats //Killed one in the arena battles and the rest after the Cat Lord was dead. 12 will o'wisps //I could swear I remember someone saying these were hard to find. They were all over the place for me. 133 wolves 131 wraiths 35 writhing masses of primal chaos 16 yellow oozes 170 zombies Analamus started out as 'Respite'. That's what she was: a little respite from my serious gaming. A Hurthling Beastfighter. An amusing diversion that I didn't figure would go too far. Finding that I was unable to do damage on the enemy after wandering to the upper levels of the Puppy Cave, I checked my physical damage. That's when I learned (or at least guessed correctly) that the ring I had was a cursed ring of Damage. That's when I was sure that Respite was going to die early. So I dove the cave on berserk. Might as well give it a try if I was due to die anyway. I named Respite as 'Rat-spite', after her first kill: a rat. That's when I discovered that while I couldn't really hit the enemy, they couldn't hit me either, because of my high DV. Ended up making it to the bottom at only level 2 or 3. Got the puppy and ascended, getting out without a hitch. Dropping that off, I felt that maybe I could make it after all. But at my present damage level, there was no way I could handle the raider. So, a dive back into the Puppy Cave to get my level up to 5. Unfortunately, an orc patrol caught up to me before the Outlaws could, and in fighting them (since I couldn't quite escape), I gained the critical level 6. So no Kranach for me. Diving to the first level of the UD (running through the Small Cave and not even bothering to look for the blanket), I found myself a pool. Drinking from it twice got me invisibility and a wish. Still feeling I couldn't do all _that_ well with the character even though it was invisible, my wish was for Detect Item Status rather than anything seriously game-winning (like, oh, AoLS). Then I left the pool behind, continuing on to the High Mountain Village. Where I made my critical mistake #1: I started picking up items to move in the shop the way I always do (so they have room to repopulate). The first grab or two weren't noticed, because I was invisible. So I got off scot-free with a couple useless items (I don't even recall what they were). A quick run around the village revealed something I had never seen happen before: a caveman had been generated in the jail, and had smashed his way out of the door. The hostile monsters had damaged the Ogre to the point where he'd apparently retreated; he was standing over at the far southwest corner of the map, and is probably still there to this day. I spent some time slaying the monsters that had come out. Except for the cave tiger, of course. Rearranged the shop, sold off some stuff (including the shop's own things as I recall), and grabbed the potion in the side-path. Then I headed for the Barbarian's Glade for the Courage quest. My next trip was into the CoC. There, I was to find a vault of orcs which I cleaned out, gaining several levels. By this point, I was actually doing fairly good damage, as Beasthunters will. And then, on the next level, I found the neutral altar. A few sacrifices of roast orc got me to neutral, a few more to 'very pleased' with my new god, and a potion of water became holy water. Suddenly, I was equipped with a *blessed* Ring Of Damage on my right hand. Combine that with the second Ring Of Damage I found in my quest on my left, and you've got a darned good damage Hurthling. Suddenly, the chances of winning didn't seem too far away after all. So I continued to dive. A rather uneventful trip got me down to the Dwarftown, where I swapped off my stuff and asked about the quest. One large kobold later and I could read. Reading a blessed Scroll of Identify helped tell me what I had. Mostly junk, a couple of fairly good outfits of clothing, a rather nice horned helm, a collection of potions, scrolls, and wands... ... and an Amulet Of Life Saving. It was at that moment that Rat-spite turned into Analamus Rat. She'd earned a more proper name. Because if she was that lucky, then there was a chance her luck would bring him all the way through. Checking my levels, I realized that I was now at level 14. I'd apparently missed the creation of the Papyrus Scroll earlier (or had just ignored it, thinking I wouldn't manage the Pyramid). So since I had a couple levels to get skill points for it, I decided to head back to HoleInTheWall since I was neutral now and get myself Pickpocket. That's when I discovered the critical mistake in robbing the shop. I couldn't get Pickpocket from him... or anything else, for that matter, until I had robbed enough shops to suit him. So, I went for the Puppy Cave where I'd seen a scroll shop. While I was there, a pixie assaulted me. I slew it and, without thinking, cooked and ate the corpse. 'You feel jumpy!' .... oh dear. Fortunately, there were blink dogs in the cavernous level, and I didn't really care about my alignment at that point; I had an altar that I could use to change it back. So I slew a few and got myself a corpse, thus gaining the very thing I used to rob that scroll shop, since they already knew where I was. ... and the Black Market. ... and the High Mountain Village. But alas, not a single one of those gained me enough points in the Thieves' Guild's eyes, and I was hovering at level 16. So I went for the Pyramid without trap detection of any kind. Just as a note: this is a breeze, when one has Teleportitis and control. Just sit still, wait for it to kick in, and hop to the stairs. I did this on both levels, and easily got up to the top level. Thrown rocks did a good job on the Mummy Lord and his folks, and I was fairly quickly able to clear the level and get my goods. Analamus Rat checked with the Barbarian and found he hadn't killed quite enough basic rats yet. So I decided to go for the Druid Quest. This will henceforth be known as 'Mistake #2' on my part. Not because the quest was all that difficult (punching him to death was mighty satisfying, really), but because among the creatures that were spawned were a great many basic rats, helped along by some upper level wererats. Fortunately, this meant that I was able, when I finished, to go and complete the Barbarian Quest. So I had Courage good and early for me. I didn't really bother to check how many rats I'd killed. I just knew I had enough, and anyway, I was still only dully thinking 'Ending', rather than 'Ultimate Ending'. The Dwarven Halls were hosting a Lich King. I decided, for the moment, to do it the fast way: I locked myself in a room, read a scroll of Magic Map, and teleported to the stairs. The dying sage was on the level below the fork, and I easily doled out my amulet and turned back around to finish exploring the level. There, I found myself another pool. Gleefully, I drank at the pool, and got *another* wish. My wish this time was for Red Dragon Scale Mails, knowing that I would need the fire immunity for the ToEF, and that my present armor, a +3/+1 robe, was going to get outdated very quickly (I didn't use the Mummy Bandage because of the Appearance penalty; I wasn't being hit all that much, and the price of the stuff I was selling seemed to be high because of appearance). A couple more experimental drinks ended up losing the Acid Resistance that I gained at the hands of the ants and Doomed me. I decided I didn't want to experiment any more. The Gremlin Cave was to be my next location. However, on the journey there, I happened to bump into a Giant Boar in the wilderness. On killing it, it left... *a skull*. That is when I decided that this game really _was lucky, and that I could actually go for an Ultimate Ending. A trip up to my hoard netted me everything I needed... except the farmer corpse. So I figured that I'd just get that at the High Mountain Village and be done with it. I still needed more artifacts, anyway, after readying the Ankh, the Bandage, and the Black Torc for the Ratling. I hadn't found the Scythe yet; I figured I'd missed it for good. So on to the Dwarven Graveyard. The Graveyard at the level I was at? A pushover. I cleaned it out completely, ate several corpses for toughness and alignment drop, and grabbed the Gauntlets. Dug up the Sword of Nonnak, then decided while I was in the neighborhood that I'd dig up the rest of the graves and see what I could find. Nothing of particular interest, though I learned a very strong respect for Lich Kings when I disturbed a couple of them in that dig-session. No Emperors. I was lucky, honestly. Anyway, happily C-, I went back to the Ratling and fed it four artifacts. The fifth was plucked out of the Gremlin Cave with a minimum of trouble, although I decided not to sacrifice any of the others I'd gained just yet. The Ogre Cave gave me a nice gift: an obsidian altar right beside the stairs. So even while I was C-, I could actually get myself holy water. I didn't sac to a point where they loved me, of course. Just to 'very pleased' so I could keep the holy water flowing while I was forced into my evil status. Cleaning out the Ogre Cave was easy, and I got myself the next adventure: the champion of the arena. Being invisible, there was no way I could do it, so I went on without for the moment. Diving deeper in the CoC, I was surprised to come across the scythe on D16 (or 17; it was a step above the graveyard). Lower than I've ever found it, that's for sure. I backed out and fed the Ratling. Once that was done, it was off to Gaab'bay to hand over her goodies. On the way, I stopped to kill the farmer in the High Mountain Village... ... and found there wasn't one. He'd apparently gotten killed when the monsters broke out of the jail and went on their little rampage. So the only place to find farmers? Terinyo. And I was invisible. I couldn't lure one off the level. Nor did I have Scare Monster to try and get him nervous. Frustrated, and noting there was no one on the screen except for him, I decided there was only one way to get him to follow me. I kicked him. He didn't survive it. Fortunately, when he died, there was a corpse left behind, and I hadn't heard any alarm bells rung. Feeling self-assured, I picked up the corpse and went to satisfy Gaab'bay, pausing on the way to go on a killing spree in HoleInTheWall while I was already evil. I'd taken out Hozenplotz earlier and gotten my amulet, so I didn't feel too worried about destroying everything but the beggars. ... in retrospect, I should've destroyed a beggar, too, so I could've added to my kill list. Ah well. That being done, I went back to my early CoC altar and started sacrificing gold to my god to try and calm it down. Unfortunately, I used a little too much: the altar changed. Whoops! So off to Dwarftown to do the same, this time with smaller amounts: one coin at a time. It took forever (probably contributing to my game-time problems and corruption), but I finally got to NC. I paused there, because I'd become so bored with sacrificing. Instead of getting Crowned just yet, I went for another dive. Figured I'd end up losing alignment if and when I did some digging and eating down there. I did, too. Nowhere near as low, but I cracked into C again. Dove down into the water temple and pretty much tore it apart, between the rocks I was throwing and the damage I did with my bare fists. I also ended up with my first corruption thanks to the aid of the Grues and Demons: teleportitis. Having teleport control, this did not bother me in the least. I didn't even bother to try clearing it up. I just headed back to the surface and got myself Crowned neutral. Bracers Of War. That's when I knew for a fact that I *was* going to be able to go the distance, and Analamus Rat was renamed to Analamus Rex. Feeling proud, I went back toward the city to hand in my Snake From Beyond. ... I'm sure you know where this is going. When I arrived, I discovered that while most of the people weren't ticked off, there were three who were: the Sheriff, the Elder.... and the Druid. Who would no longer give me potions for things like the Snake From Beyond. Well, what do you know? Apparently I'd discovered 'Critical Mistake #3'. So I fled rapidly from their wrath, instead sacrificing the Snake on his own altar after I converted it to Neutral. Suddenly, Scrolls Of Chaos Resistance were going to be much more needed, I realized. So were Potions, but you can only do so much with those, and there aren't a lot of places to find them with the Druid gone. With that in mind, I headed for the Rift. The fall was surprisingly painless (Hurthling weight helped, maybe?), though I lost a lot of things... not including my Climbing Sets, fortunately. This is a very good thing because the ratling was already a corpse by the time I spotted him. I would've been screwed. The Library itself was filled, as usual, with a bunch of fun stuff. One of which was a Great Karmic Wyrm, which I slew simply because I could. It hurt. A lot. But I actually managed to take it out between the Curved Throwing Club and the number of Sling Bullets Of Slaying I'd saved for just such an occasion. Giving the librarian a handful of cursed scrolls of Identify for the blessing helped, too, I'm sure. I spent my time healing and being good and quiet, then picked up the Strange Tome and delivered it for my payload. Then, it was off to make Blup a happy baby dragon and check his Mom's treasure. To be honest, she had nothing worthwhile, so I decided to leave her alive for the moment. Told Blup about Mom, then went on to prepare for more adventures. I was still too low of level to attempt the Assassin's Quest, and had no Rings Of Ice with which to dare the ToEF. So instead, I went to pester the Darkforge. The first time I ever came down to the Darkforge was with a Druid. Needless to say, physical attacking was completely pointless; I did about a point or two of damage every five or six strikes, and this was with a druid who was well-trained in physical attacking. I figured that I might have some trouble with the Beastfighter, since physical was all I had (other than rocks and clubs). But I figured it was still worth the try. So I engaged the first Steel Golem with my fists in the air. Whack. Slightly wounded. Whack. Slightly wounded. Whack. Moderately wounded. Whack. Moderately wounded. Whack. Critically wounded. Whack. Dead. Add in the misses, and it only took nine attacks to take down one Steel Golem. I think that's the first time I actually *checked* shift-W. And saw that I was doing nearly a d20 (if I recall right) worth of damage with my fists alone. Beastfighters. Rock. Cleaning the place out wasn't a problem at all. I left the Smith alive for the moment and cleaned out the inner areas, gaining my second corruption: the antennae. Good *lord* are those things useful. The loss of Appearance is *NOTHING* compared to the gain those things give you. Also took a couple drinks from the pools, gained and lost some intrinsics, got Doomed... and lost Invisibility. Used that to become the champion of the arena... and then because I had already handled a Karmic Wyrm in the library, decided that I could clean the arena out completely. So I did. And _then_ I went up to the Dwarftown to drop my stuff off and get my rewards. Beating the Greater Demon was a cinch. After punching out Steel Golems, pounding on it was effortless: four punches or so, and it went down, finishing off the quests. I then turned around and went right back to the Darkforge to drain pools some more. Somewhere in the drinking, I lost the Doomed status, gained another wish (Concentration please!), and finally got Invisibility again. At that point, I left the rest of the pools alone and headed out. The Tomb Of The High Kings was next to fall. I simply took my brand new Frost Bolt spell (I'd paused to read the books from the Library once I got Concentration from the pool) and made myself a little bridge, walked out, and opened the door. Then I scurried back onto dry ground and started chucking stuff at the Skeletal King. Once he was on said dry ground, out came the fists and down went the skeleton. Easy peasy. The ring was mine. ... but I hadn't even managed to get past the wall of fire yet. Still. No Rings Of Ice, and I didn't want to risk my stuff in the ToEF. Time to step back and do some thinking. I was at level 27 (or thereabouts). I couldn't get the Unicorn Quest. I didn't feel ready to do an ID dive for the Sceptre yet. Too early to go to the Stone Circle. It was past the 90 day mark, so scumming the CoC would be a bit hazardous, and I wanted to go places that I'd never been before, anyway. Looking at the color map, I noticed... hey! Ruined city! And it closes at level 30! ... well, why the hell not? I learned very quickly 'why the hell not'. AKA, henceforth known as 'Mistake #4'. The minotaurs themselves weren't a problem. I easily cleared my way through most of them and kept going. The maze wasn't too bad: antennae and Magic Map helped me find stairs and let me teleport down to them with Teleportitis. It was the *traps* that smashed and tore and destroyed me. Never again without Alertness and/or Detect Traps. *NEVER* again! I was immune to almost everything that hit me damage-wise... but there's far too many corruption traps, and acid traps still took their toll. Total losses: Cloak Of Protection, Amulet Of Balance (I had spares), 3 basic arrows, 2 scrolls of Identify, a ring of see invisible, and a Scroll of Dark Predictions. I got lucky; my SoCR that I was carrying didn't get blasted. This was very important considering I had to read one in order to get through, after it decided to hand me the 'stiff muscles' corruption. No Sir, I didn't like it. The Minotaur Mages weren't much fun, either. But the worst part is when I finally got through the mages, started toward the Emperor... and he disappeared. Just up and vanished. He'd hit a teleport trap. So he was *somewhere* in the maze, and I had to track him down. .... sob. Fortunately, I did, and before I ended up getting corrupted any further. Back up to the surface, all the while whining badly. Never again. Never again. Never again... The worst part was that it hadn't gotten me all that high in level. This meant that the dive seemed like the appealing idea after all. So, into the ID I dove, after dropping off a bunch of things that I didn't think I'd need behind... leaving most of my fireproof blankets behind and only taking one. Henceforth: mistake #5. An acid trap destroyed the one blanket I had. Not a worry, I thought.... until I discovered the Threat room of *ancient red dragons* between me and the staircase down. I took them out handily, because I was immune to fire at the time. Gave me lots of good treasure, but it didn't replace the loss of the Girdles Of Greed, 7LB, multitude of good arrows, several wands, pair of good gauntlets, and almost all the scrolls I was carrying. Somehow, the SoCR I had for the trip back up weren't among them. Are these things indestructable, or am I just lucky? Down on level 66, I trashed the Chaos Knight much less handily than other creatures. Getting up close to melee her was a mistake; I assumed she wouldn't be much more dangerous than the average one. Oops. She gave me a heck of a headache, though I finally managed to get back far enough to throw stuff at her and take her out. Snagged the Sceptre and ran triumphantly for the surface. Gained a corruption or two that I didn't like (don't remember which), so I read the SoCR I was carrying. Unfortunately, this left me without a cure when the Apish hit. At first, I was delighted. Soon enough, though, I was watching my Will and Learning go down with alarming frequency, as well as Dexterity. The Toughness and Strength was worth it, but it still stung at the time. Dropped that off in the Old Barbarian's Glade with my medal, and IDed my stuff. One of the things I had was a Ring Of Djinni Summoning. Amazingly, I had yet to find a *single* Ring Of Ice. So it was with heavy heart that I called the Djinn out and asked it for the rings. Finally properly armed with my rings and fire protection, I entered the ToEF. ... after spending a few days scumming the trees in the Living Forest for logs, so I could hack out some arrows, only to discover that you *need* Fletchery to do it and not just a Fletchery set. Oh well. At least my Phase Dagger got some practice. I hit level 36 while I was in the temple. It was several rounds after that I realized, 'Hey! Isn't Blup's Momma supposed to send me the trident by now?' .... and what good timing: several steps after that, the water elemental showed up. In the middle of the ToEF. That amused me, I must admit. Taking the Rune-Covered Trident up, I took a hint from one of the folks on RGRA and equipped it in the missile slot. Then I set out to kill stuff. Alas, with only two spaces of range with it, I decided that throwing the Trident wasn't worth it, here in the heat. I'd train with it later. So I simply punched things to death until I got to the Wyrm, then used dragon-slaying ammo on it. Bye-bye dragon, hello Orb. I hurried on out, pausing only to sacrifice the Wyrm on the neutral altar that had been generated in the lower levels. With the sphere in hand, I could finally descend further and get to the Casino. The first time I'd ever made it there. A bunch of gambling later, and I had enough cash that I had to kick the pile over to a safe place, drop a bunch of stuff, and then hoist it up so I could do my buying. The Emerald Dagger wasn't worth anything to me, so it got left behind. The Robes Of Resistance, on the other hand, were a sure buy. With my new armor on, I ditched the heavy dragon plate and headed onward. A quick side-trip brought me back into the Ironforge, where I killed off the dwarf. That felt awfully good, and gave some great XP. The Battle Bunnies level was surprisingly easy... at first. I killed off all the bunnies I saw, then smashed Bugs. It was really nothing too bad. I was, at first, wondering what people were so worried about. Then I heard the popping sound. By the time I'd backtracked, the upper hallway was already full almost end to end with Battle Bunnies. There was simply no clearing it at the point it was at. So I did the next best thing: I cleared a space, and sealed the area off with some closed doors. Dug down to the stairs, did the same thing again, and my Battle Bunny level now looks something like this: +----------------------------------------------------------------------+------ | + | | + | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+- -- | | | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+- -- | + | | + | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+------ Much shorter path, that. :) Anyway, I let them breed to their little hearts' content, and just used my shortcut from then on. Down past a rather angry Cat Lord, who gave me two levels all by his lonesome, and I took on the Air Temple. Being Lightningproof was nice. No damage at all, though I had quite a few items get shredded or smashed. The Master Summoner didn't get a chance to call anything on me. I was on him before he could blink, and the Rune-covered trident and my fists of fury made short work of him. By this point, I had hit the big 4-0 or therabouts. So I stopped my diving and made a run back to the surface to get my stuff checked and prepare to poke at the Karmic Wyrm, figuring that when I was done there I _should_ be at 45. Among the items was an Eternium Spear of Penetration. 2d8+11, bypassing PV. Oooo. Goodbye, Phase Dagger, *hello* Spear! I didn't bother to use it in the caves, though; I needed all the damage I could throw, and that meant me with my low marks in Spear wouldn't make it worth the while. The Blue Dragon caves were fairly uneventful. Mostly because I didn't linger in them. I just spent what small amount of time I could, whacked the monsters, then turned and ran as soon as I'd taken out the Blue Wyrm, pausing only to pick all the treasure up. When I got to the surface, after getting my reward, I put on my Amulet Of Balance and punched the Karmic Wyrm in the face. Was sort of hoping he'd leave his corpse. No such luck, but at least I added to my kill-collection. Checking the 'calendar', I decided it was far too early to go for the Stone Circle since it was only early Oneweek. So I scummed in the Big Room for a good many days, gaining myself weapon marks in spear and thrown spear, and headed for the Assassin Tunnels. Putting the Rune weapon away *very* carefully so I wouldn't accidentally ring the alarm by instinctively throwing it, I meleed my way through to chat with the Assassin Prince. Once I had his quest, I turned around and chucked the trident at something. I didn't want to have to kill him when he was neutral, after all! As I headed for the ID for my Filk-dive, I pulled out the kill list to check it. 88 rat kills. 88. Even before I'd started my dive. Remembering how hard even *66* were, I was already weeping. But I decided that I'd come this far, so I wasn't going to let a big number scare me off. Readying myself and grabbing some SoCR to help me through, I dove. And dove. And dove. 88 levels worth. And immediately ran in and slugged Filk three or four times before I noticed the warning that 'You feel like this was a bad idea'. ... oh yeah. He *is* a Karmic, isn't he? Probably technically a Mistake, but nowhere near a critical one. Fortunately, I'd found a Scroll of Luck in the dive. That helped clear the Cursing. Back to my altar, some sacrifices got me back to Lucky, and a stored Scroll Of Luck got rid of the Doom. So while I hadn't got my Fate Smiles at this point, I at least was out of the hole. I was also, thanks to several powerful monsters (including an entire Threat Room of diamond golems), all the way at level 50. Back on the surface, I headed to the Mad Minstrel and got the location of the Scintillating Cave. Knowing that the dive would be extremely corrupting, I didn't linger at all. I was already at level 50, after all. I just grabbed my SoCR and made the run on the cave, never pausing to look other than things that were in my path. Down on the Emperor Moloch's level, I ran up and melee'd him with my new pet spear. In retrospect, I should have smacked him and led him to the stairs, but he was slow and I was impatient. Probably technically Mistake #6 since I earned at least two corruptions there. Anyway, I managed to take him out fairly quickly, grabbed the crumpled scroll, and surfaced. Praying that Khelvaster wasn't aggressive, I headed into the city. Fortunately, he wasn't: I got my trident. Immediately equipping it, I set about getting the last few areas. The Earth Temple fell so easily that it's hardly worth mentioning. The Mana Temple, on the other hand, was an absolute agony. Once more, I say: NEVER AGAIN WITHOUT TRAP DETECTION. When I finally got around to the entrance, I was already limping, injured, corrupted, and without the magic to heal myself. I didn't bother with the fancy stuff, just dropping the Red Rooster to pound the Archmage into the ground in the dark, picking up the sphere, and running like a scared girl. After these, I had only one more place I needed to go: The Stone Circle. And it was still fairly early. So I wandered the plains, playing 'stalk the monster' for a number of days. During that time, I plastered many Dorn Beasts, killed several dog and jackal packs, destroyed herds of rust monsters, and happily gobbled down quickling raiding parties. Finally, it was time, and I went into the Circle. A few rounds of Dragon-Slaying Ammo later, and the crown was mine. I then decided that all things considered, I needed to at least *attempt* BugTown, because I was going to need all the Chaos Resistance possible. And so, I headed in... and was shocked to find that at level 50 and invisible, the place wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Oh, make no mistake, they tore into me more than a few times, but it only took two good hits to kill Greater Claw Bugs, and three or so for a Killer Bug. As long as they didn't surround me, I could dodge most of their attacks. I was able to pretty quickly make my way through the path, get into the statues, and smash them all down. The items sold for a pretty penny. Finally, it was time for the final dive. I wasted my Mana in writing SoCR, drank all my stat potions, and read the interesting magic books. Then I said a quick prayer to my god, sacrificing all my money (some 97000 gold worth) for luck (got back to 'very close'), and dove. On my way down, I met an Ancient Blue Dragon. Not wanting to bother with it and end up even more corrupted, I put myself on 'Coward' and scooted by. It breathed on me a few times, smashing a few objects, but doing no damage to me. SoCR were still fine. None of my worn stuff was destroyed. Bows were still there. Cheerfully, I continued down. Hit D48 and immediately double-checked my stuff. Boosts all blessed? Check! Ultra- and Extra- Healing all blessed? Check! Spenseweed blessed and ready? Check! Amulet Of Light to put on for the ChAoS Plane? Ch-.... wait a minute. Where are my Amulets Of Light? .... oh crud. Ancient Blue Dragon. Item destruction. No PoEX, and two PoRC that I don't dare risk dipping *JUST IN CASE*. Not at this point in the game. Fortunately, I had a handful of torches, a tinderbox, and flint and steel I'd sold in the Dwarftown. Locked the Trinity in a room in d48 and headed back for the stairs, praying that nothing would find them and make me fight for them. I took the shortcut up and through, and lost as little time as possible, with getting as little corruption. All I can think is 'thank goodness I checked'. Still, mistake #7: not immediately checking what had been shattered. L48 was easy. Three of the five openings were in the very first room, and the Chaos Wizard was in a nice small room, without much room to do summoning in. I quickly sealed the holes, re-grabbed the Trinity (which had indeed been left untouched), and headed down. Uselessness gift was a pair of Gauntlets. 'YAY!' thinks I. 'IRONFIST!' So I put them on. Gauntlets Of Eternal Peace. I will not hear *any more complaints* about your uselessness gift because of this; I would have rather had True Aim or Thunderstroke! Blessed them using holy water and went onward, grumbling. And FYI, yes. They are 10s in weight, and described as 'Gauntlets'. Indistinguishable from normal gauntlets when you find them, in other words. d50 was fairly easy and quick. I got to the hallway and flung a bolt from a drained Wand of Far Slaying right into their midst. Suddenly, I had Balors teleporting all around me, including The Fist. Perfect! Quickly teleported myself, landed myself right in the middle of the monster horde, and simply started slaying until I was 'very corrupted'. At that point, I switched places a few times (Beastfighter power: a lot of fun), made my way to the Gate, and hopped in after donning the Trinity and casting Remove Curse on the pendant. Entered, removed the items and dropped them, took off the Gauntlets Of Eternal Peace, chugged myself some boosts and read my scrolls, put on my torch (mutter mutter mutter) and then set off to kill the ChAoS God! ... only to find that I couldn't hit him with my missiles, and when I did I was doing horrible damage. I tried my best to keep my distance, but just couldn't do enough. It was taking too long. When I hit 'very corrupted', I did the only thing I could and went in fast and hard, threw myself on berserk, put the Trident away, and started punching. ... he was only down to 'Moderately Injured' when the change happened. Apparently, I wasn't quite ready for him. :) Anyhow, now you've got the long story.