Wow. I thought that one up just by going to random.org, I didn't expect Ham to work out so well so far. Egh, it'd figure that the mysterious green gem turns out to be some kind of acid bomb or something.
Also, I wonder if a Lucky or Cursed status would affect the things that happen in pools?
(Lovin' this thread so far, by the way)
Let's play Ancient Domains of Mystery
Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk
It might. I always seem to get the Doomed intrinsic from pools that Curse me. (Doomed is like Super-Cursed. The corresponding good status is Fate Smiles.)
Chapter D2: Ham's Unremarkable Adventure
Here's my final haul from the ants:
- ruby
- turquoise (2)
- crystal of power (refills PP)
- heap of 4 green gems (I thought these were going to be worthless, but then I stumbled on a worthless piece of green glass, so they must not be!)
- brown gem
- aquamarine
- crystal of light (2)
- blue gem (6, in several different stacks)
- topaz
- white gem
- amber
- red gem
- green gem
- crystal of knowledge (magic map, +Le if blessed)
- red gem
(Items of different B/U/C status don't stack, which may be why there are repeats in the list.)
I left because I ran out of food; otherwise, I think I could've gotten a bit more.
I'm anxious to monetize these, and the only ways I know of are HMV and Dwarftown. Because I never learn my lesson, I'm going for an early dive into the unremarkable dungeon.
"Avoid killing things in the small cave." That was the idea, anyway, but I needed to lightning bolt some orcs that were blocking my way to the stairs. I'm fine with that; I made it through and I'm not planning on revisiting the small cave.
The first floor of the UD is remarkable indeed: there's a river, a shop, and a beehive. There's also a fire vortex near the entrance. Ham hotfoots it to the river, where he goes for a swim.
The bees are hostile! What gives? Fortunately, they're no match for my zapping skills. There are a lot of them, though, and a few of them plant their stingers in me. The Slow Poison spell probably saves me a lot of grief here.
I run out of food while fighting the bees and am forced to pray for sustenance. This shouldn't be a big deal; I had surplus piety. My PP regenerate way, way too slowly, though, and my strategy starts to become "let them sting you, then Slow Poison afterward." This turns out to be cheaper than zapping them, but I imagine I'm not getting much XP this way.
I'm forced to abandon my orcish spear: it had previously rusted and now is broken. I wield an adamantium warhammer that I picked up recently. It turns out it's a real bee killer.
I finally -- barely -- clear out the swarm. I head back and check out the store. It's a scroll shop. I don't see anything I need for now, but I keep a mental note of it.
I like my new weapon, so I run around and smack some things with it. I get stung by some leftover bees.
I finally make it to UD:2. I hit a hobgoblin chieftain with my hammer until he drops dead. That gets me level 9. I pour all my skill levels into Concentration because I am really sick of waiting for my PP to charge. I get the Iron Skin talent for another point of PV.
The hobgoblin dropped some bracers, which turn out to be bracers of toughness {To+4}. They give me an extra 18 HP, which is great.
On UD:3, I find a pool. The first sip generates water snakes which are, yes, hostile. I zap them. The second sip:
I kill a goblin while a blink dog hops around in the distance. Hey, wait... blink dog...
I always feel a little bad kicking the dog. This time, I feel extra bad because I manage to kill it in one kick. That was not the intent; I should've gone back to Coward first. Alignment drop and no teleport control.
A spellbook on UD:4 teaches me Acid Bolt. A nice non-bouncing alternative to my Lightning Bolt spell. While hammering some rats, I realize that I have weapon affinity with the hammer. It's in the same group as my starting weapon, the club. Nice. I also gain a level. We're just gonna keep pumping Concentration.
There's a forge and an altar on UD:5. Ham doesn't know Smithing, but if he ever learns it and finds an anvil and some raw materials, he's good to go here. A spellbook I find here teaches me the Know Alignment spell. This is an utterly useless spell, but I read the book to death to train Learning.
A dark elven priestess manages to hit me and paralyze me on UD:6. Teleportitis kicks in and saves my bacon. I mean, my Ham. I level up to 11 while fighting her pet spiders. She gets another hit on me; teleportitis does not kick in this time.
Was this death avoidable?
I wasn't equipped to fight the dark elven priestess. I should've kept my distance and fired off bolt spells. I definitely should have learned from the first close call enough to avoid the repeat.
I could also have cast Know Alignment to figure out that the dark elven priestess was chaotic...
Chapter D2: Ham's Unremarkable Adventure
Here's my final haul from the ants:
- ruby
- turquoise (2)
- crystal of power (refills PP)
- heap of 4 green gems (I thought these were going to be worthless, but then I stumbled on a worthless piece of green glass, so they must not be!)
- brown gem
- aquamarine
- crystal of light (2)
- blue gem (6, in several different stacks)
- topaz
- white gem
- amber
- red gem
- green gem
- crystal of knowledge (magic map, +Le if blessed)
- red gem
(Items of different B/U/C status don't stack, which may be why there are repeats in the list.)
I left because I ran out of food; otherwise, I think I could've gotten a bit more.
I'm anxious to monetize these, and the only ways I know of are HMV and Dwarftown. Because I never learn my lesson, I'm going for an early dive into the unremarkable dungeon.
"Avoid killing things in the small cave." That was the idea, anyway, but I needed to lightning bolt some orcs that were blocking my way to the stairs. I'm fine with that; I made it through and I'm not planning on revisiting the small cave.
The first floor of the UD is remarkable indeed: there's a river, a shop, and a beehive. There's also a fire vortex near the entrance. Ham hotfoots it to the river, where he goes for a swim.
The bees are hostile! What gives? Fortunately, they're no match for my zapping skills. There are a lot of them, though, and a few of them plant their stingers in me. The Slow Poison spell probably saves me a lot of grief here.
I run out of food while fighting the bees and am forced to pray for sustenance. This shouldn't be a big deal; I had surplus piety. My PP regenerate way, way too slowly, though, and my strategy starts to become "let them sting you, then Slow Poison afterward." This turns out to be cheaper than zapping them, but I imagine I'm not getting much XP this way.
I'm forced to abandon my orcish spear: it had previously rusted and now is broken. I wield an adamantium warhammer that I picked up recently. It turns out it's a real bee killer.
I finally -- barely -- clear out the swarm. I head back and check out the store. It's a scroll shop. I don't see anything I need for now, but I keep a mental note of it.
I like my new weapon, so I run around and smack some things with it. I get stung by some leftover bees.
I finally make it to UD:2. I hit a hobgoblin chieftain with my hammer until he drops dead. That gets me level 9. I pour all my skill levels into Concentration because I am really sick of waiting for my PP to charge. I get the Iron Skin talent for another point of PV.
The hobgoblin dropped some bracers, which turn out to be bracers of toughness {To+4}. They give me an extra 18 HP, which is great.
On UD:3, I find a pool. The first sip generates water snakes which are, yes, hostile. I zap them. The second sip:
This apparently starts the "frog quest," which isn't really documented well and which no one seems to really care about. Another sip gets me teleportitis; a fourth gets more snakes.A small frog pops up.
*CROAK*
Suddenly the frog talks to you...
"Ye are the boring kind, aren't ye?"
The frog disappears into the pool.
I kill a goblin while a blink dog hops around in the distance. Hey, wait... blink dog...
I always feel a little bad kicking the dog. This time, I feel extra bad because I manage to kill it in one kick. That was not the intent; I should've gone back to Coward first. Alignment drop and no teleport control.
A spellbook on UD:4 teaches me Acid Bolt. A nice non-bouncing alternative to my Lightning Bolt spell. While hammering some rats, I realize that I have weapon affinity with the hammer. It's in the same group as my starting weapon, the club. Nice. I also gain a level. We're just gonna keep pumping Concentration.
There's a forge and an altar on UD:5. Ham doesn't know Smithing, but if he ever learns it and finds an anvil and some raw materials, he's good to go here. A spellbook I find here teaches me the Know Alignment spell. This is an utterly useless spell, but I read the book to death to train Learning.
A dark elven priestess manages to hit me and paralyze me on UD:6. Teleportitis kicks in and saves my bacon. I mean, my Ham. I level up to 11 while fighting her pet spiders. She gets another hit on me; teleportitis does not kick in this time.
Ham comes in 9th place.Ham, the gnomish druid, was killed by a dark elven priestess.
He scored 26921 points and advanced to level 11.
He survived for 0 years, 7 days, 1 hour, 19 minutes and 57 seconds (10783
turns).
Ham visited 15 places.
His strength score was modified by +1 during his career.
His learning score was modified by +1 during his career.
His dexterity score was modified by +1 during his career.
His mana score was modified by +2 during his career.
He brought back joy into the life of a tiny girl.
He ended his adventuring life in an unremarkable dungeon on level 6.
317 monsters perished under his attacks.
He possessed the following intrinsics:
He was lucky.
He was able to teleport.
He had the following talents: Hardy, Iron Skin, Long Stride, Potent Aura,
Strong Magic, Tough Skin.
He had a final speed score of 95 (final base speed: 100).
He was a fervent follower of Berwyn.
He asked for 1 divine intervention.
He was neutrally aligned.
He was slightly tainted by Chaos.
Was this death avoidable?
I wasn't equipped to fight the dark elven priestess. I should've kept my distance and fired off bolt spells. I definitely should have learned from the first close call enough to avoid the repeat.
I could also have cast Know Alignment to figure out that the dark elven priestess was chaotic...
-
Spoonweaver
- Liquid Metal King Slime
- Posts: 6247
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:07 am
- Location: Home
- Contact:
Intermission
Let's take a look at my super-serious character. Elsa is a level 25 high elf wizard, currently on the 39th floor of the Caverns of Chaos. Elsa is the crowned champion of Ayssia, goddess of Balance. What does a late-game character look like?
Her DV goes up to 105 when in Coward, but she's got an impressive Polearms skill, so she tends to melee a lot of her less intimidating enemies. Her skill with the spear also gives her a base +12 to DV (amplified in Coward).
She's got a laundry list of handy spells:
You can see that her #1 spell is Burning Hands, a melee-ranged fire spell. The damage Burning Hands does increases rapidly early on, but it caps when your character reaches level 15. She's also extremely practiced with Magic Missile. As an experienced wizard, she gets big discounts on her spell costs. Cure Light Wounds at 2pp and over 1000 spell knowledge lets her cast it almost constantly if she ever needs to.
One of the keys to getting a character this far along is to get her stats to a good level. You saw Elsa's current stats above, but the story behind them is...
Let's take a look at my super-serious character. Elsa is a level 25 high elf wizard, currently on the 39th floor of the Caverns of Chaos. Elsa is the crowned champion of Ayssia, goddess of Balance. What does a late-game character look like?
Code: Select all
Elsa St:24 Le:21 Wi:22 Dx:23 To:22 Ch:17 Ap:19 Ma:28 Pe:17 N-
DV/PV: 66/26 H: 159(211) P: 314(324) Exp: 25/2274791 M: 78469She's got a laundry list of handy spells:
Code: Select all
Acid Ball : 160, 20pp (Effectivity: +8)
Acid Bolt : 130, 7pp (Effectivity: +16)
Bless : 849, 5pp (Effectivity: +1)
Burning Hands : 275, 4pp (Effectivity: +34)
Calm Monster : 420, 4pp (Effectivity: +10)
Cure Light Wounds: 1066, 2pp (Effectivity: +10)
Darkness : 1714, 3pp (Effectivity: +1)
Death Ray : 259, 60pp (Effectivity: +3)
Farsight : 959, 11pp (Effectivity: +3)
Fire Bolt : 201, 5pp (Effectivity: +16)
Fireball : 143, 10pp (Effectivity: +14)
Frost Bolt : 755, 6pp (Effectivity: +21)
Invisibility : 696, 6pp (Effectivity: +3)
Knock : 1171, 8pp (Effectivity: +3)
Light : 1397, 1pp (Effectivity: +8)
Lightning Ball : 146, 17pp (Effectivity: +7)
Lightning Bolt : 84, 6pp (Effectivity: +13)
Magic Map : 650, 24pp (Effectivity: +1)
Magic Missile : 726, 4pp (Effectivity: +25)
Slow Monster : 675, 5pp (Effectivity: +1)
Slow Poison : 871, 4pp (Effectivity: +2)
Strength of Atlas: 606, 6pp (Effectivity: +4)
Stun Ray : 920, 5pp (Effectivity: +2)
Teleportation : 596, 13pp (Effectivity: +6)
Web : 831, 8pp (Effectivity: +4)One of the keys to getting a character this far along is to get her stats to a good level. You saw Elsa's current stats above, but the story behind them is...
(But to be honest, she could use a few more points of Willpower and Toughness!)Her strength score was modified by +13 during her career.
Her learning score was modified by +3 during her career.
Her willpower score was modified by +6 during her career.
Her dexterity score was modified by +2 during her career.
Her toughness score was modified by +14 during her career.
Her charisma score was modified by +8 during her career.
Her appearance score was modified by +5 during her career.
Her mana score was modified by +10 during her career.
Her perception score was modified by +1 during her career.
Last edited by Mogri on Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Chapter P1: Justice, Troll-Style
Thrag already know Healing. Thrag want to learn plants. Talk to green man, he want Thrag kill person. Thrag is amicable to killing people. Thrag probably kill green man later.
Thrag go to green man's dungeon. Thrag get lost and end up in small cave first, but eventually find dungeon. Kill goblin. Goblin had spellbook. [s]Someday Thrag learn how to read.[/s] Thrag already know how to read somehow but too dumb to read spellbook. Hold on to spellbook for now. Thrag kill more things, carry corpses around. Thrag someday learn to take better care of corpses. Thrag kill all things, Thrag not care. Thrag an equal opportunity killer.
Thrag finally gain level. Thrag find huge rock, weigh 1000s. Rock make good throwing weapon for Thrag. Thrag gain nother level. Learn Mighty Strike, make things deader.
Thrag could have survived if Thrag had not gotten double-turned by ogre lord. Next time Thrag pay better attention to out-of-depth monster warnings.
I think troll paladin is such a bizarre race/class that I have to do it. This edition of LPADOM will be roleplayed.You are born in the month of the Tree.
Game effects: It's generally hard to change alignment, +5 to initial Willpower.
Thrag take starting talents Basher and Powerful Strike. Justice of Thrag will be administered via heavy blunt objects. Thrag's 32 St will help heavy blunt objects kill things.You are born to be a male troll. You have red hair, black eyes, and a ruddy complexion.
Thrag already know Healing. Thrag want to learn plants. Talk to green man, he want Thrag kill person. Thrag is amicable to killing people. Thrag probably kill green man later.
Thrag go to green man's dungeon. Thrag get lost and end up in small cave first, but eventually find dungeon. Kill goblin. Goblin had spellbook. [s]Someday Thrag learn how to read.[/s] Thrag already know how to read somehow but too dumb to read spellbook. Hold on to spellbook for now. Thrag kill more things, carry corpses around. Thrag someday learn to take better care of corpses. Thrag kill all things, Thrag not care. Thrag an equal opportunity killer.
Thrag finally gain level. Thrag find huge rock, weigh 1000s. Rock make good throwing weapon for Thrag. Thrag gain nother level. Learn Mighty Strike, make things deader.
Thrag rather surprised to find ogre lord in druid dungeon. Thrag not make high score list.The ogre lord hits you. The ogre lord hits you. You die...
Thrag could have survived if Thrag had not gotten double-turned by ogre lord. Next time Thrag pay better attention to out-of-depth monster warnings.
KittenMaster
Bacon
Eggs
Ham
Thrag IYou're missing Bacon and KittenMaster.
Chapter P2: Revenge of Thrag
Unlike old grandpop, his St is a measly 22. Actually, his stats look worse all around the board. I'm not sure what gives here.
Like his ancestor, Thrag III goes straight for the druid quest. I even forgot to stop by the small cave. Thrag's armor sucks, so he's going to take it off and fight true berserker style. He'll get some pretty significant bonuses for doing this, definitely bigger than the +2 PV that he was getting from the armor.
Thrag finds some armor on the trip down, but decides to stick with the no-defense-whatsoever approach, since that's working well for him. He reaches level 4 upon arriving at the bottom of the dungeon, but an exploding door and an acid-spitting giant slug force him to retreat a floor. While healing, he is beset by a blink dog. He manages to eat one of the dog's friends. Fine dining for an adventurer hopeful.
Keethrax uses darkness against his opponents. This makes the fight tricky, and at first, Thrag is afraid that he'll go the way of his granddad a little earlier than he'd hoped. But a bit of blind stumbling manages to destroy the druid, and -- oh, wait. That wasn't the druid after all.
Next: Drakish barbarian
Chapter P2: Revenge of Thrag
I have to admit to enjoying Thrag. Today, his grandson steps in to avenge him. His grandson is also named Thrag, naturally.You are born in the month of the Dragon.
Game effects: 10% increased effects from tactical settings, -3 to initial Willpower, +2 to initial Strength, +1 to initial Toughness, costs to increase weapon skills are reduced by 10%, combat magic is 10% cheaper in power points.
"Fully learned" in this case refers to the trollish learning capacity, which is why he was able to achieve it in nine years. Thrag gets Basher as his starting talent, just like old grandpop.At the age of 9 you end your apprenticeship. You are now a fully learned paladin.
Unlike old grandpop, his St is a measly 22. Actually, his stats look worse all around the board. I'm not sure what gives here.
Like his ancestor, Thrag III goes straight for the druid quest. I even forgot to stop by the small cave. Thrag's armor sucks, so he's going to take it off and fight true berserker style. He'll get some pretty significant bonuses for doing this, definitely bigger than the +2 PV that he was getting from the armor.
Thrag finds some armor on the trip down, but decides to stick with the no-defense-whatsoever approach, since that's working well for him. He reaches level 4 upon arriving at the bottom of the dungeon, but an exploding door and an acid-spitting giant slug force him to retreat a floor. While healing, he is beset by a blink dog. He manages to eat one of the dog's friends. Fine dining for an adventurer hopeful.
Keethrax uses darkness against his opponents. This makes the fight tricky, and at first, Thrag is afraid that he'll go the way of his granddad a little earlier than he'd hoped. But a bit of blind stumbling manages to destroy the druid, and -- oh, wait. That wasn't the druid after all.
Thrag III reaches 66th place.He was blasted with magic missiles by Keethrax, the black druid in a sinister dungeon on level 7.
Next: Drakish barbarian
Chapter B1: Lizard Spit
Fact: You get more points for immediately leaving the Drakalor Chain than I have earned on some serious character attempts.
Aaand what do we have here? Newt already knows Herbalism, so we'll go with the carpenter quest. He's completely naked and armed with a heavy spear. Pretty much nothing else in inventory.
We'll drop by Lawenilothehl first for a change. Oops, that was a bad idea. Killed by the first outlaw who laid eyes on him.
Okay, this time, we'll follow our SOP. Chat elder, chat tiny girl, visit small cave, get attacked by wild dogs, run away, go to village dungeon. First kill is a giant rat.
Since Newt has no armor whatsoever, there's little reason not to be true berserking. As a barbarian, he'll eventually get bonuses for true berserking*, but they come at a point in the game when armor is very much recommended, making those bonuses of dubious value.
In two floors of dungeon, I find two neutral altars. Newt becomes religious.
I find a small shield. I can wear a shield and still true berserk. It's (+2, +0), which really doesn't help much, but I'll take it.
The one thing to watch out for when true berserking is that you no longer receive confirmation when trying to attack something that's friendly. Newt becomes chaotic as a result of killing everything. I don't really care about this in the big scheme of things -- it's the barbarian way, after all -- but I do want to be non-chaotic until I can learn Healing from Jharod. Hopefully, finishing the quest gives me the boost I need.
Yrrigs almost kills me! I end up equipping all my accumulated armor and two shields. You get a speed boost while in Coward if your health is low enough, and this probably saved me. Sure enough, leading Yrrigs to Jharod bumps me up to N-. I learn Healing. In gratitude, I offer up some corpses and a huge manual I can't read. Issrecht is pissed that I went chaotic, though. Sorry about that!
Newt is level 6 now. He can deliver mighty blows! These take a lot longer to execute, but deal double damage -- before armor is taken into account. So they're a good deal versus armored opponents.
Next: Your Newt A Splore
*if he should survive so long
Screw that. I'm not playing a Treeborn barbarian.You are born in the month of the Tree.
Fact: You get more points for immediately leaving the Drakalor Chain than I have earned on some serious character attempts.
Salamander is a pretty bad barbarian sign, too, but my long-lost brother could make this a more interesting run. We'll try it. He'll start with Hardy so he can go into the PV line. Warrior, I dub thee Newt.You are born in the month of the Salamander.
Game effects: Fire magic is 20% cheaper in power points, +1 to initial Charisma, +3 to initial Mana, +20% to power points (always).
On the night you were born your long-lost brother showed up again.
Aaand what do we have here? Newt already knows Herbalism, so we'll go with the carpenter quest. He's completely naked and armed with a heavy spear. Pretty much nothing else in inventory.
We'll drop by Lawenilothehl first for a change. Oops, that was a bad idea. Killed by the first outlaw who laid eyes on him.
What is the deal with my starsigns.You are born in the month of the Book.
This is not a bad starsign. I'll go with it.You are born in the month of the Cup.
Okay, this time, we'll follow our SOP. Chat elder, chat tiny girl, visit small cave, get attacked by wild dogs, run away, go to village dungeon. First kill is a giant rat.
Since Newt has no armor whatsoever, there's little reason not to be true berserking. As a barbarian, he'll eventually get bonuses for true berserking*, but they come at a point in the game when armor is very much recommended, making those bonuses of dubious value.
In two floors of dungeon, I find two neutral altars. Newt becomes religious.
I find a small shield. I can wear a shield and still true berserk. It's (+2, +0), which really doesn't help much, but I'll take it.
The one thing to watch out for when true berserking is that you no longer receive confirmation when trying to attack something that's friendly. Newt becomes chaotic as a result of killing everything. I don't really care about this in the big scheme of things -- it's the barbarian way, after all -- but I do want to be non-chaotic until I can learn Healing from Jharod. Hopefully, finishing the quest gives me the boost I need.
Yrrigs almost kills me! I end up equipping all my accumulated armor and two shields. You get a speed boost while in Coward if your health is low enough, and this probably saved me. Sure enough, leading Yrrigs to Jharod bumps me up to N-. I learn Healing. In gratitude, I offer up some corpses and a huge manual I can't read. Issrecht is pissed that I went chaotic, though. Sorry about that!
Newt is level 6 now. He can deliver mighty blows! These take a lot longer to execute, but deal double damage -- before armor is taken into account. So they're a good deal versus armored opponents.
Next: Your Newt A Splore
*if he should survive so long
Last edited by Mogri on Sun Aug 22, 2010 6:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
FnrrfYgmSchnish
- Metal Slime
- Posts: 721
- Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:37 am
- Location: Middle of Nowhere, VA
Don't forget... it's Friday the 13th, so every character you start up today is born cursed. XD
I was messing around with the game a bit last night and got a little confused that all of my characters kept turning out cursed for no apparent reason... figured it out after I noticed that it had only started happening after midnight, when it was technically the 13th already.
(Being Friday-the-13th-cursed seems to give some weird dungeon layouts, though. On the lost puppy cave I once got anthills on two floors in a row, and then couldn't find any stairs leading down... and Karmic Lizards kept showing up everywhere.)
I was messing around with the game a bit last night and got a little confused that all of my characters kept turning out cursed for no apparent reason... figured it out after I noticed that it had only started happening after midnight, when it was technically the 13th already.
(Being Friday-the-13th-cursed seems to give some weird dungeon layouts, though. On the lost puppy cave I once got anthills on two floors in a row, and then couldn't find any stairs leading down... and Karmic Lizards kept showing up everywhere.)
I ran a few ill-fated characters yesterday, forgetting that they were Cursed. No wonder!
Chapter B2: Killing Things for Fun and Profit -or- Newt's Pool-Sipping Adventures
Newt heads to the outlaw village and picks up Pick Pockets. While there, he kills some criminals and brings their corpses back to Terinyo's sheriff, who pays Newt a small bounty.
Newt's next stop is the puppy cave. On the first floor, there's a wand shop. Cool. The selection there is really bad, but there are a lot of wands of digging. I'll keep this in mind in case Newt lives long enough, because you need to do a lot of digging in order to win the game.
There's a pool on PC:1, too. The first sip causes an outpouring of vipers. None of them is able to hurt Newt. The second, third, and fourth sips both cause temporary invisibility. The fifth gives Newt the Lucky intrinsic. The pool dries up after that. A good sipping run. The invisibility wears off before I've even left the floor, but Lucky persists.
Another pool on PC:2. I get snakes and then the pool dries up.
Another pool on PC:4. I get death ray resistance, Lucky (again?), stun resistance, a frog, bleeding ears (ow!), bleeding ears again (ow!), shock resistance, lost fire resistance, and Strength training. Really nice haul except for losing fire resistance. I can get that back without too much trouble, though.
An encounter with a necromancer on the cavernous level leaves me surrounded by hordes of weenie undead. In the process of clearing them out, I get level 9 and Steel Skin (+2 PV). I also get a mithril broadsword from the encounter. I've got a good enough polearms score that I'm tempted to stay with my current weapon, but I decide that cross-training can only be good for Newt.
The cute dog is dead before Newt arrives, of course. Well, that's fine. We weren't here for the dog anyway. The vault here is orcs, and none of them can scratch Newt. There are some good winnings, too; most notably, a chain mail that gives +7 PV (+2 more than your average chain mail). I apparently had no body armor before, so this is a huge bonus.
On the way out, I pick up a wand of digging from the wands store.
Newt takes the long way around to the Caverns of Chaos before I remember that he did in fact visit the small cave. I decide to take a peek in there. The stairs are a room apart, goody.
UD:1 has a pool! Snakes, snakes, poison, temp invis, sleep resist (I have never once had a problem with sleep), permanent invis. Intrinsic invisibility rocks, except you can't enter the arena while invisible. I will need some potions of visibility if I'm going to do the arena.
Blink dog and fire beetle corpses on UD:2. I have tele control and maybe fire resistance again. There's also a ring shop here. I buy a ring of damage. YOU CAN NEVER DO TOO MUCH DAMAGE. It increases my melee output by four points.
UD:3 has herbs. I get a few good ones. (15 morgia roots! Score!)
UD:4 gives me an elven chain mail. It's like the chain mail that I was wearing, except it weights 2.5% of what the other one did and it doesn't have any DV or to-hit penalties.
UD:5 has more herbs, and they're all stat-boosters. Excellent.
UD:6 gives me a mithril spear, so we're back to spears. My sword skill is the same as my polearms skill, but I like polearms better for the defensive boost.
UD:7 has a vault of lesser undead. I get some ridiculously lucky armor drops: an orcish helmet [+1, +5] (average is [+1, +2]) and a mithril girdle [+0, +5] (average is [+0, +2]), and a cloak of protection [+0, +3]. My PV is 29. Nothing is going to scratch me without fully piercing that armor.
On UD:8, fight of the century: an ogre magus goes invisible and we flail around for awhile, unable to see each other. Also, a ring of speed [+0, +3] (+5 Spd). Ridiculous PV. I don't equip it yet because one of my rings is cursed. Also, a writhing mass of primal chaos! These are really powerful little blobs for this point in the game. They can show up literally anywhere, too: anything that runs into a corruption trap enough will become one eventually (including the PC). Corruption plays a big role later in the game, and we'll talk more about it if someone gets that far.
High Mountain Village: Rarely, there will be a stone giant lord guarding the village. He is ridiculously powerful for this point in the game: you may not die to him, but you'll also have a hard time scratching him. He's generated neutral for me this time; otherwise, I'd try taking him on.
Next: Newt vs. CoC
Chapter B2: Killing Things for Fun and Profit -or- Newt's Pool-Sipping Adventures
Newt heads to the outlaw village and picks up Pick Pockets. While there, he kills some criminals and brings their corpses back to Terinyo's sheriff, who pays Newt a small bounty.
Newt's next stop is the puppy cave. On the first floor, there's a wand shop. Cool. The selection there is really bad, but there are a lot of wands of digging. I'll keep this in mind in case Newt lives long enough, because you need to do a lot of digging in order to win the game.
There's a pool on PC:1, too. The first sip causes an outpouring of vipers. None of them is able to hurt Newt. The second, third, and fourth sips both cause temporary invisibility. The fifth gives Newt the Lucky intrinsic. The pool dries up after that. A good sipping run. The invisibility wears off before I've even left the floor, but Lucky persists.
Another pool on PC:2. I get snakes and then the pool dries up.
Another pool on PC:4. I get death ray resistance, Lucky (again?), stun resistance, a frog, bleeding ears (ow!), bleeding ears again (ow!), shock resistance, lost fire resistance, and Strength training. Really nice haul except for losing fire resistance. I can get that back without too much trouble, though.
An encounter with a necromancer on the cavernous level leaves me surrounded by hordes of weenie undead. In the process of clearing them out, I get level 9 and Steel Skin (+2 PV). I also get a mithril broadsword from the encounter. I've got a good enough polearms score that I'm tempted to stay with my current weapon, but I decide that cross-training can only be good for Newt.
The cute dog is dead before Newt arrives, of course. Well, that's fine. We weren't here for the dog anyway. The vault here is orcs, and none of them can scratch Newt. There are some good winnings, too; most notably, a chain mail that gives +7 PV (+2 more than your average chain mail). I apparently had no body armor before, so this is a huge bonus.
On the way out, I pick up a wand of digging from the wands store.
Newt takes the long way around to the Caverns of Chaos before I remember that he did in fact visit the small cave. I decide to take a peek in there. The stairs are a room apart, goody.
UD:1 has a pool! Snakes, snakes, poison, temp invis, sleep resist (I have never once had a problem with sleep), permanent invis. Intrinsic invisibility rocks, except you can't enter the arena while invisible. I will need some potions of visibility if I'm going to do the arena.
Blink dog and fire beetle corpses on UD:2. I have tele control and maybe fire resistance again. There's also a ring shop here. I buy a ring of damage. YOU CAN NEVER DO TOO MUCH DAMAGE. It increases my melee output by four points.
UD:3 has herbs. I get a few good ones. (15 morgia roots! Score!)
UD:4 gives me an elven chain mail. It's like the chain mail that I was wearing, except it weights 2.5% of what the other one did and it doesn't have any DV or to-hit penalties.
UD:5 has more herbs, and they're all stat-boosters. Excellent.
UD:6 gives me a mithril spear, so we're back to spears. My sword skill is the same as my polearms skill, but I like polearms better for the defensive boost.
UD:7 has a vault of lesser undead. I get some ridiculously lucky armor drops: an orcish helmet [+1, +5] (average is [+1, +2]) and a mithril girdle [+0, +5] (average is [+0, +2]), and a cloak of protection [+0, +3]. My PV is 29. Nothing is going to scratch me without fully piercing that armor.
On UD:8, fight of the century: an ogre magus goes invisible and we flail around for awhile, unable to see each other. Also, a ring of speed [+0, +3] (+5 Spd). Ridiculous PV. I don't equip it yet because one of my rings is cursed. Also, a writhing mass of primal chaos! These are really powerful little blobs for this point in the game. They can show up literally anywhere, too: anything that runs into a corruption trap enough will become one eventually (including the PC). Corruption plays a big role later in the game, and we'll talk more about it if someone gets that far.
High Mountain Village: Rarely, there will be a stone giant lord guarding the village. He is ridiculously powerful for this point in the game: you may not die to him, but you'll also have a hard time scratching him. He's generated neutral for me this time; otherwise, I'd try taking him on.
Next: Newt vs. CoC
In this chapter, Newt breaks into new territory! He is now our most successful LPer.
Chapter B3: Dungeon Diving
Newt discovers another pool on D:1. The first sip abuses his St and To. The next sip makes him ill. Yeah, I'm done with this pool.
The upside to being sick is that some of your stats are lowered temporarily. Emphasis on "temporarily." I can use herbs to raise the stats back to the herb-stat-caps, then remove sickness for an all-around stat boost. The downside is that you take large amounts of damage each turn you're above 50% HP. It also lasts a really long time.
D:9 has a spellbook shop. I'm unlikely to be able to learn any spells -- probably ever -- so I dump off the ones I've collected. I also reach level 12 here, granting me a new talent, Immune to Pain, and my next class power: reduced energy cost for movement. This essentially means I walk faster. A great ability.
Thrundarr assigns me the task of killing a giant rat. Excellent. I'll be literate in no time.
I revisit a vault of lesser undead that I had bypassed. I get an adamantium spear there, a bit better than the mithril one I was using. I get my Toughness to 25, the most I can get from herbs, then cure my sickness. Now my natural toughness is 30. I equip bracers of toughness, bringing it to 34. My PV is now 38. I am now fully rocking.
I also get a giant rat during this trip, so I return to Thrundarr and get ready for the next quest. While diving down to the animated forest/dwarven halls, I run into another vault (again of lesser undead -- I don't know why they keep being lesser undead). This one has a beehive in it. Odd. I get some potentially really nice stuff here. I'll have to ID it all to figure it out.
The first stairs I go down lead to the dwarven halls. Normally, I would not go near this place, but I'm invisible, so I figure I'll be okay. There's an altar on DH:1, which is really great luck. The super-tough monsters here that I can't beat? I'll sac them for huge piety. My first target is a frost giant berserker, but she won't step on the altar. Some monsters aren't stupid. An attack from a living wall cuts my visit short. Those guys are nasty!
It's back to the animated forest. This place isn't nearly as bad when you're invisible. This was my easiest trip through ever.
Coming out of the animated forest, I see the sage Khelavaster surrounded by chaos servants. Khelavaster is the one who foretold the incursion of chaos into Ancardia. Tragically, he is about to fall to those same forces. His wounds are fatal; there's nothing Newt can do to save him now. Unless...
An amulet of life saving could do it.
Rescuing Khelavaster isn't necessary. Only those attempting an ultra ending are required to do it, and it can be one of the bigger roadblocks to the ultra ending. Amulets of life saving are very rare. It isn't uncommon for players to use a wish to get one, which says a lot about their relative rarities.
I've saved Khelavaster once. It's also the only time I've ever seen an AoLS; one happened to be generated in the black market in the outlaw village. He'll give you stuff whether or not you save him, but the stuff he gives you is better if you pull it off, plus he takes up residence in Terinyo thereafter, ready to give you more goodies later on.
Khelavaster won't die today. I'll leave him alone and return later.
Thrundarr gives me a wand of fireballs for my troubles. His next quest for me is to genocide an ogre tribe that's been giving them trouble. The stairs to the ogre tribe magically appear in Dwarftown.
This is not one of Thrundarr's more difficult quests. He rewards Newt with 5000 gold. Nice, but not earth-shattering. The next quest is to become champion of the arena (20 wins).
Four fights between the two of them. Well. This might be trickier than I thought.
Next: ???
(this is more indicative of my lack of a plan than anything)
Chapter B3: Dungeon Diving
Newt discovers another pool on D:1. The first sip abuses his St and To. The next sip makes him ill. Yeah, I'm done with this pool.
The upside to being sick is that some of your stats are lowered temporarily. Emphasis on "temporarily." I can use herbs to raise the stats back to the herb-stat-caps, then remove sickness for an all-around stat boost. The downside is that you take large amounts of damage each turn you're above 50% HP. It also lasts a really long time.
D:9 has a spellbook shop. I'm unlikely to be able to learn any spells -- probably ever -- so I dump off the ones I've collected. I also reach level 12 here, granting me a new talent, Immune to Pain, and my next class power: reduced energy cost for movement. This essentially means I walk faster. A great ability.
Thrundarr assigns me the task of killing a giant rat. Excellent. I'll be literate in no time.
I revisit a vault of lesser undead that I had bypassed. I get an adamantium spear there, a bit better than the mithril one I was using. I get my Toughness to 25, the most I can get from herbs, then cure my sickness. Now my natural toughness is 30. I equip bracers of toughness, bringing it to 34. My PV is now 38. I am now fully rocking.
I also get a giant rat during this trip, so I return to Thrundarr and get ready for the next quest. While diving down to the animated forest/dwarven halls, I run into another vault (again of lesser undead -- I don't know why they keep being lesser undead). This one has a beehive in it. Odd. I get some potentially really nice stuff here. I'll have to ID it all to figure it out.
The first stairs I go down lead to the dwarven halls. Normally, I would not go near this place, but I'm invisible, so I figure I'll be okay. There's an altar on DH:1, which is really great luck. The super-tough monsters here that I can't beat? I'll sac them for huge piety. My first target is a frost giant berserker, but she won't step on the altar. Some monsters aren't stupid. An attack from a living wall cuts my visit short. Those guys are nasty!
It's back to the animated forest. This place isn't nearly as bad when you're invisible. This was my easiest trip through ever.
Coming out of the animated forest, I see the sage Khelavaster surrounded by chaos servants. Khelavaster is the one who foretold the incursion of chaos into Ancardia. Tragically, he is about to fall to those same forces. His wounds are fatal; there's nothing Newt can do to save him now. Unless...
An amulet of life saving could do it.
Rescuing Khelavaster isn't necessary. Only those attempting an ultra ending are required to do it, and it can be one of the bigger roadblocks to the ultra ending. Amulets of life saving are very rare. It isn't uncommon for players to use a wish to get one, which says a lot about their relative rarities.
I've saved Khelavaster once. It's also the only time I've ever seen an AoLS; one happened to be generated in the black market in the outlaw village. He'll give you stuff whether or not you save him, but the stuff he gives you is better if you pull it off, plus he takes up residence in Terinyo thereafter, ready to give you more goodies later on.
Khelavaster won't die today. I'll leave him alone and return later.
Thrundarr gives me a wand of fireballs for my troubles. His next quest for me is to genocide an ogre tribe that's been giving them trouble. The stairs to the ogre tribe magically appear in Dwarftown.
This is not one of Thrundarr's more difficult quests. He rewards Newt with 5000 gold. Nice, but not earth-shattering. The next quest is to become champion of the arena (20 wins).
The good news is that I have two potions of visibility. I don't know how long they'll last, but let's find out.You talk to Dak, the arena master.
He seems to regard you suspiciously (despite your invisibility!).
"Sorry, we've hired more than enough invisible stalkers. Look for a job elsewhere or come back when some of yer pals are used up."
Four fights between the two of them. Well. This might be trickier than I thought.
Next: ???
(this is more indicative of my lack of a plan than anything)
Last edited by Mogri on Sun Aug 15, 2010 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree. My high elf wizard kept hers in the 20's, and she was an endgame character. Oh, um, Newt has 43 PV now. Anything that could do that much damage would be impossible for him to kill anyway. Is this ridiculous? (Y/n)I don't think I've ever seen a character get a PV any higher than 15 or so. 30+ seems insanely high...
Chapter B4: I Have a Plan -or- PV to the MAX
Newt departs the Caverns of Chaos. There's nothing he can do there for now unless he wants to proceed past Khelavaster.
The itinerary now is to proceed to the dwarven graveyard, then to the pyramid. The dwarven graveyard is the site of one of Thrundarr's quests, available at any time by asking him about "gate" or "portal." It has some pretty nice rewards, although it can be tricky due to large amounts of undead.
On the way there I make another pass by the old barbarian's glade. I didn't mention my first visit there, but the old barbarian is the guy who asks you to kill 20 more of the first monster you killed. I'm apparently not there yet. Checking back, I see it was a giant rat.
The dwarven graveyard is located south of the outlaw village and appears on the map once the quest starts. The graveyard exterior is extremely easy for an invisible PC. The interior is full of traps, and as usual, I've forgotten to train Pick Pockets so that I can learn Detect Traps. I pick a lot of undead pockets before heading to Yergius to learn Detect Traps.
My alignment's a little low, so it's time to kill the outlaw chief. I screw something up along the way and fall into chaotic for a bit :( The good news is that the sheriff rewards me with an amulet that draws my alignment towards L+, so alignment won't be a problem anymore.
There are two bosses to deal with in the graveyard underground. One is Nonnak, the master necromancer. The other is his servant Griff Bloodax, the undead chaos dwarven berserker. Of the two, Griff is the tougher opponent, but there's a trick: you can instantly destroy Griff by pouring holy water on his grave. This can be infeasible since his grave is actually located in the middle of a bunch of monsters, but invisibility to the rescue means that Newt pulled it off. Nonnak is chiefly dangerous on account of his ice blasts, but none of these ever hit Newt thanks to his perfect Alertness skill. I had cold resistance equipped just in case, though.
There are also two artifacts to find here, both hidden. The big one is the elemental gauntlets, which give resistance to all elements. They're guarded by a bone golem, easily dispatched. The other one is the sword of Nonnak, which has been buried in Griff's grave. To get it, you need to dig for it. It's a pretty great weapon, especially compared to my nonartifact weapons, so I switch up. Newt's new equipment brings him to 46 PV.
The pyramid's up next. Most guides will recommend you wait as long as you can before the pyramid, but I have never had a problem with it personally.
The pyramid is home to a lot of goodies. On the first floor, you can find a climbing set, a pick axe, and thieves' picks -- useful items that are otherwise hard to come by. The third floor houses the boss, who holds two really nice artifacts.
The pyramid is also notable for its overabundance of traps. They can be the most dangerous aspect of the pyramid. Newt loses a few scrolls from water traps, but is unaffected by most of the traps.
The third floor is really interesting. When you arrive on the floor, the down stairs change position. The level is full of monsters, and as soon as you attack any of them, Rehetep wakes up and attacks. (Spellcasters are oddly advantaged here, since spellcasting doesn't wake Rehetep.)
The rights to Newt's skin are hereby released under the GPL sharealike license.Rehetep, the mummy lord, rasps in a thundering voice:
"Greetings, hero!"
"Permit Us to welcome thee in these chambers."
"We have waited a long time for thee to arrive."
"Thy skin will make a nice new wrapping worthy of Us."
"Prepare to release the rights to thy skin!"
There are a lot of monsters here! Rehetep himself is kind of a wimp, though, and nothing else is any match for 46 PV. He yields the ancient mummy wrapping (abbr. AMW), which is a good armor that grants the intrinsics see invisible, death ray resistance, sleep resistance, stun resistance, and cold immunity. It's common for this to be the best armor for a PC at the time he gets it. It's not quite as good as Newt's armor, although I'd equip it anyway if I didn't have most of those intrinsics already from pool-sipping. (They do stack, though, so I'll be using the AMW eventually.)
He also drops the ankh, which gives a slight defensive boost as well as giving loads of luck. Newt equips it, bringing his PV to 48.
Newt's next stop will be Darkforge. Darkforge has a lot of really good stuff, but it's all very heavily guarded. There's one steel golem on the first floor, and it's a good benchmark because there are about fifty on the second floor. It can't really hurt Newt, but Newt has a hard time hurting it, too. Change of plans.
Newt detours to the nondescript cave, where he'll find a wand of teleport. There's a wererat here who has summoned a roomful of his brethren. This brings me to 20 giant rats and I conclude the old barbarian's quest. He teaches me the Courage skill, which will reduce the penalties I get for being surrounded by enemies.
Back to Darkforge. I do a little saccing with the altar that's here. My foray into chaotic has made Issrecht newly angry with me. (For those wondering, the steel golems can't be sacrificed.)
I screw up with the teleport. I had meant to go directly to Darkforge's armor room. In the process of killing steel golems to get to my intended destination, I reach level 15. I've gotten all of the PV talents already, so I take Porter for +10% carrying capacity.
While the golems can't hurt me without a critical hit (and those DO hurt), their fire breath is destroying my inventory. I read a scroll of charging to get my wand of teleport back in order, then make another attempt at the armor room.
It is a testament to the frightening nature of the golems that Newt is knocked down to 50 HP. He finds a black dragon scale mail in the armor room, which gives +11 PV and acid immunity. Newt now has 52 PV.
A cadre of golems bursts into the room, and Newt quickly teleports to the weapon room. The thing to do here is to pick up every weapon in the room, then read a blessed scroll of identify to figure out which weapons are good. Here's what I find:
- knife of endurance {To+4}; I can't see myself ever using this, though
- hammer of the gods, a heavy but powerful artifact weapon; two-handed, though
- quicksilver quarterstaff (+20 Spd); it's got pretty good damage, too, but it's two-handed
- poisonous iron-shod quarterstaff; poisonous is a great attribute, but again, it's two-handed
- another quicksilver quarterstaff, not as good as the first
- adamantium two-handed sword (+12, 3d5+12)
- adamantium spear, slightly better than the one I had
I keep the hammer of the gods, both quicksilver quarterstaves, and the adamantium spear (ditching my old one). I'll sell one of the quarterstaves.
I teleport back to the upstairs, where I am surrounded by three steel golems. If I'd gotten unlucky, I would've died here. I go up and teleport again. No need to take chances.
I take a pitstop at the High Mountain Village to sell off my useless stuff. I have accumulated over 50 sis, among other things.
Well, if you insist...Leggot, the human shopkeeper, mumbles, "I'd offer 15000 gold pieces for yer heap of 50 uncursed sis."
The quicksilver quarterstaff, meanwhile, sells for 150 gold. Something is seriously wrong with this economy. Leggot doesn't even have enough money to pay for the hammer of the gods, not that I'll be selling it. I'll try wielding it for a bit.
Next stop in our exotic locations list will be the Tomb of the High Kings. We'll get another artifact here, the Ring of the High Kings, that we'll need to have a long way down the road. It's also generally a very nice ring.
The hammer of the gods is awesome. 7d6+8 damage totally makes up for the 400s weight. I am OHKOing everything.
The lower levels of the ToHK are all cavernous. They are a pain to navigate under the best conditions, but these are not the best conditions. There's a river on the second cavernous level that I need to cross.
A corruptor on the other side of the river hits me a few times and gives me my first corruption. Corruptions can be awesome or awful. This one gives me teleportitis; a good one.
The bottom level of the ToHK is a special level: a small room surrounded by a lake of chaos piranhas. They will eat you alive if you fall in. I'm not sure if it's an instant death or just a ton of damage, but I'm not going to find out.
I drop everything I'm not wearing except a wand of cold that I bought in the HMV. I use the wand to create a bridge. My item-free weight is low enough to step across the bridge.
There's a boss fight coming up. The scariest part of this boss is his tendency to use confusion attacks. A confused PC can easily wander into the lake. Otherwise, the skeletal king isn't too tough. A few of the barbarian's trademark mighty blows send him packing.
I replace my ring of damage with the Ring of the High Kings. Besides giving me various useful resistances, it also gives me [+2, +3].
Teleportitis gives me a quick escape from the dungeon. It's time to go back to the Caverns of Chaos.
Next: Orbs