Let's play Ancient Domains of Mystery

[Mogri]

Chapter B5: Let's Get Crowned

The 10000 gold pieces are engulfed by grey mist and disappear. Issrecht seems very pleased with you.

The gods love to be bribed.

I'm carrying around more weight in gold than I am in hammers of gods. This is a problem easily remedied.

But I'm not above taking more cash. Dragons in ADOM will pick up gold and drop double that amount when killed. It's considered somewhere between a helpful tactic and a gamebreaking exploit, depending on whom you ask. I'm not above using it, though, at least not until I actually win a game.

The black baby dragon picks up the 44188 gold pieces.
You hit the black baby dragon and slay it.
89748 gold pieces are here.

No, that's not exactly double -- remember, the dragon always has his own stash of gold.

What can I possibly do with all this gold, you ask? I could buy out Waldenbrook several times over. (He restocks, so this isn't as bad an idea as it sounds.) But I have better ideas.

I buy the Smithing skill from Grod, the blacksmith. I may or may not ever use it; we'll see. I buy Strength training from Garth, the weaponmaster. Dwarftown is a wonderful place to rid yourself of excess cash.

Finally, I head to the altar and pay Issrecht my respects. (Get it? "Pay"?) After 20k, I feel spiritually invincible. After 40k, Issrecht seems very close to me. After all my money and the sword of Nonnak, Issrecht seems absolutely close to me.

This is my cue to pray.

You pray to Issrecht.
"Mortal, ye have done a great service to my cause."
"Hereby ye art crowned to be my champion!"
You feel prepared for the most chilling tasks.
Something is lying at your feet.
You pick up the blessed bronze amulet.
You pick up the rune-covered club.

The rune-covered club is Skullcrusher, an awesome weapon that deals double damage to humanoids. Considering most of the game's bosses are humanoids, Skullcrusher is one of the best weapons in the game. It's also one-handed. Excellent.

The "chilling tasks" message indicates that I was granted cold immunity. It's not the best immunity to have, especially when the AMW grants it so readily, but it's slightly better for a cold-blooded drakeling than it would be for other races.

It's time to proceed beyond Khelavaster. I don't have an amulet of life saving for him, so he'll need to die. I hate killing the guy off, though. I'm also loath to skip the rest of Thrundarr's quests, but in the end, perma-invisibility probably outweighs what I would've gotten.

You talk to Khelavaster, the dying sage.
Khelavaster looks in your direction.
"Aye, hero, at last some support."
"I have done what I could, but I ain't no warrior."
"Finally the forces of Chaos have overwhelmed me."
"Nonetheless I'll be able to give you some information that might help you in your quest."
"To defeat the threat of Chaos you will have to close the gate."
"The gate is protected by..."
"*Cough*"
"...mighty magick to prevent anyone from entering."
"Chaos corrupted the elements to fuel this magick."
"The keys to break this lock are five powerful orbs..."
"Oh, these pains!"
"Five elemental orbs --- once powerful artifacts of Balance --- now corrupted by Chaos!"
"These orbs are the keys to the lock preventing your entrance to the metaplane, where the gate is kept."
"Find those..."
"*Cough*"
"five orbs..."
"*Cough*"
"Four of them are kept under guard in four temples of elemental Chaos..."
"*Cough*"
"...in the levels below. You have to penetrate the walls to those temples..."
"*Cough*"
"...slay the guardian... evade or destroy the minions... take the orbs..."
"Last one... wilderness... hot..."
"*COUGH*"
"...careful... orbs very powerful... contain mighty magicks..."
"*COUGH*"
"...Chaos... danger..."
Suddenly Khelavaster steadies himself and seems to be strong once more.
"Farewell! May your fight be successful!"
With this, Khelavaster dies.
His body disappears.

*sniff* poor guy.

Now let's see what goodies he left behind!
- boots of sneakiness [+0, +0] {Dx+5}; nice bonus, trading off with the +4 PV I get from my other boots
- amulet of protection +2; strictly worse than the ankh
- wand of digging; very nice, since my other one got destroyed by steel golems
- potion of invisibility, haha
- some even more useless stuff

I'll wear the boots of sneakiness for now, bringing my Dx to 32. Incidentally, Newt has the best ability scores of any of the PCs I've played.

The first level beyond Khelavaster is the CoC graveyard. This is a level with a fixed layout that has a ton of undead. Notably, this is probably the PC's first encounter with liches, but regular liches aren't anything to get worked up about. (They do see invisible, though.) I'm pretty sure all of these guys are humanoids, so Skullcrusher gets a nice workout here.

Clubs and hammers are in the same weapon group, which I appreciate. Between hammer of the gods and Skullcrusher, my clubs & hammers proficiency is already at level 7, same as swords.

You hear a distant "Hurumph!"

This indicates that there's a Dorn Beast on the level. They are notable for being a strong enemy with paralysis attacks. I stumble into it and get paralyzed, which is death for an unlucky PC, but it can't really hurt me.

I realize that I've forgotten to report back to Thrundarr on the Griff Bloodax case. I can't get past this level without disabling the portal. Oops. Actually, the quest rewards are pretty good, so it's a good thing I went back for them.

The level after the portal is the water temple. The left half of the level is full of chaotic water baddies and I have to dig to get there.

The boss of the water temple is the Snake from Beyond. It has a powerful melee attack that corrupts and poisons. The poison is probably the real killer in this battle. If you can fight him at a distance, you can get away unscathed, but that's easier said than done. It can't penetrate 54 PV, though, so Newt gets to melee it dead.

The prize for killing the Snake from Beyond is the water orb. When held, it gives +10 Willpower; when used, it fully heals the PC and corrupts him.

The next floor has an ancient scythe. This is the artifact scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle." Dipping it into any potion turns the potion into a potion of raw chaos, and dealing damage with it corrupts the PC. Needless to say, a dangerous artifact to mess around with. It's also very powerful. This artifact is guaranteed to show up a few levels after Dwarftown.

There's a potions shop on this floor, too. Newt buys oil of rust removal for his helmet, which was rusted by a water grue, a potion of quickling blood, which permanently increases his Spd, and a potion of insight, which reveals the following information:

You are fire resistant (enhanced through items).
You are poison resistant (enhanced through an item).
You are cold resistant (gained through items).
You are lucky (enhanced through an item).
Fate smiles upon you (enhanced through an item).
You are sleep resistant.
You are able to control teleportation.
You are invisible.
You are stun resistant (enhanced through an item).
You are resistant to death rays.
You are shock resistant (enhanced through items).
You are immune to acidic attacks (gained through an item).
You are immune to ice attacks.
You are able to resist confusion attacks (gained through an item).

You naturally heal one hit point every 28 turns.
You naturally regenerate one mana point every 50 turns.

Nice set of resists.

A few floors later:

This whole floor seems to be filled with emotions of terror, sorrow, pain, and death...

Next: The Banshee!

[Momoka]

So, in order to stop Chaos from controlling the world, you have to collect the four elemental orbs? Hm...

[Mogri]

Five, but who's counting. (The last temple is elemental mana, which is where my last great PC died.)

Chapter B6: Calm Before the Firestorm

The banshee is either a complete pushover or an instadeath. This depends on how prepared the PC is and whether the player knows it's coming. The banshee is highly broadcasted: besides the level message, there are corpses scattered all over the level. Newt finds a quickling corpse and eats it for another speed boost.

In Newt's case, the banshee is a complete pushover. Her main attack does nothing if the PC is deaf. The most reliable source of deafness is to stick beeswax in your ears. (Do drakelings have ears? Investigate this.) You can also use a potion of deafness, but you have no idea when that will expire, whereas beeswax lasts until you clean it or you're attacked with fire.

I reach level 18 sometime around here. This gives me my next class power, the tremendous blow. It's like the mighty blow, but triples the damage instead of doubling it. It's also a very slow action. I get another talent, and I can't really figure out a good one to take, so I take Healthy (heal 20% faster).

A few levels later, the stairs are blocked by a wall of fire. That means that it's time to prepare for the Tower of Eternal Flames, where the next orb lies. The ToEF is the dividing point between the midgame and the late game. It's what separates the chaff from the wheat. It's hard. More on why later.

On my way back up, the potion shop has restocked. I clean out the more useful ones, but the only really good one is a potion of troll blood, which will increase my HP regen. I'm going to bless it first, though.

At this point, by the way, I'm making religious backups of my saves. I'm not planning to save scum, but the game doesn't make backups for you and I've lost a reasonably powerful character due to a power outage.

There's an altar on the way back to Dwarftown, so I use it for my religious needs. I'm going to sac Moon Sickle, since I have no use for it. You can use the potions of raw chaos it generates for polymorphing your items, but it's a somewhat risky strategy that I don't really feel like trying.

A little fun with the potions I've accrued gives me some handy stat increases. My adjusted Toughness is 41, and blessed carrot juice brings me to 22 base Perception.

While wandering around the Dwarven Halls, I acquire another corruption:

You feel corrupted.
Suddenly a great anger takes control of you.

The effect:

You rage (DV: -9, +6 melee damage)!

Another nice one for this character. My DV sucks anyway.

The rest of the ascent isn't noteworthy. I get to the top in short order, and it's time to prepare for the Tower of Eternal Flames.

The name is appropriately ominous: the tower is wreathed in flames that cause it to be extremely hot. Merely wandering around the tower causes several points of fire damage per turn. This can be circumvented via fire resistance, but you need a lot of fire resistance. Moreover, your carried items will catch fire from exposure to the heat. Fire resistance does nothing for this; you need to get around it in other ways. Finally, fire resistance notwithstanding, drakelings take some damage each turn because the extreme heat boosts their metabolism into overdrive. On the plus side, they also get an enormous speed boost.

Topping it all off, the boss of the tower, the Ancient Chaos Wyrm, is a very dangerous foe. It gets several attacks per turn and can use powerful ranged breath attacks in addition to confusion and healing. My wizard defeated it by bouncing ray spells from around a corner. Newt won't be so lucky.

Here's the battle plan:
- Ditch all non-essential, non-artifact items. I'll store them in the CoC right next to the entrance.
- Wear a ring of ice. This protects most items from burning.
- Sources of fire resistance: intrinsic, Ring of the High Kings, elemental gauntlets.
- Immune to Pain should reduce residual damage significantly. I also have a huge stock of healing items.

This is pretty solid preparation, I think. Let's find out.

Next: The Tower of Eternal Flames

[Momoka]

Is there any way to undo corruption, or are you stuck with it? Isn't too much corruption hella bad?

[Mogri]

(edit - see this chapter for some answers to your questions, which I completely forgot about)

Chapter B7: The Tower of Eternal Flames

Have I hyped this enough yet?

Newt's Spd slowly creeps up as he walks around the tower. Around 242, he starts feeling dizzy due to the extreme heat. This means he's taking periodic damage. It keeps climbing, though.

And so does Newt. I don't want to spend any longer here than I have to.

It doesn't take long to reach the top. There are dozens of enemies here -- I'm completely surrounded -- but I only care about one of them. Only a few of them can see me anyway.

Upon reaching the top floor, I rub down with some spenseweed to get back to full life. I dig through to the right, then clear a path to the center, where I see my target.

This enormous creature is more than a dragon, and less than it: the enormous reptilian head and the great scaled torso give it distinct draconic features, yet it looks as though it never had grown wings and it only has one pair of legs close to the head. As you look closer, it looks less and less like a dragon: the legs are thin and bony, almost like those of a bird, and as you watch, the shape and features keep shifting. Parts of the skin suddenly grow hair, which then transforms into feathers, then into a weird crust, then into translucent smooth skin, then into the surface of a dark slimy liquid... and the collar behind the head grows and absorbs snakes' heads, tentacles, long trembling spider legs, stiff thorns and leathery strings lashing at the air. You realize that the wyrm must be at least in part a creature of chaos itself and probably part of it always resides in the realm of chaos. Although it might be impossible to kill it outright on this world, you're determined to make it give up its abode on this plane.

Creepy.

As long as there are monsters between us, the Ancient Chaos Wyrm won't use its breath attacks on me. I take advantage of this to fire off a few blasts from a wand of stunning until one manages to hit it.

I get into melee range and apply a tremendous blow. The first one misses; the second instantly slays the Ancient Chaos Wyrm. (Wow.) What was I worried about again?

I still need to escape, and there are a few rooms full of fire elementals and fire demons in my way. The Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire gives me +10 St while held in my tool slot, so it replaces the water orb there. The extra power helps me plow through the bad guys, and I descend the Tower of Eternal Flames, never to return again.

That wasn't so bad, was it? I mean, granted, the ring of ice turned out not to be as foolproof as I hoped and I lost my bow and a few other things, but overall, I rocked that joint.

I have the cooked corpse of the Ancient Chaos Wyrm and I know someone who wants it. I dash back to Terinyo (it's been awhile!) and give it to Guth'Alak, the druid.

"Thanks to ye for bringing this corrupted thing to me."
"I will care for it."

He drops an unidentified potion, which I happen to know is a potion of cure corruption. These things are really rare, so it's worth it to bring the corrupted corpses to him if possible. I won't drink it yet, since I happen to like my current corruptions, but I'll definitely hang on to it.

Speaking of corruption removal, I hop by the High Mountain Village on my way back. With my teleport capabilities, I can access the hidden enclave that contains a scroll of chaos resistance. These are even better than the potions for removing corruption, although the potions have a secondary use. (My speed has only now returned to normal, by the way.)

Checking the clock, I've been adventuring for 50 days. At 90 days, corruption increases. Adventurers are well-advised to finish within that limit.

Time to go back to the CoC. I might not surface again before closing the chaos gate.

There's a greater undead vault on D:25. This is potentially very dangerous: emperor liches are some of the nastiest nasties -- and yes, liches see invisible. I go for it anyway, and my [bravery|foolishness] is rewarded with another scroll of chaos resistance.

The next floor, D:29 (don't ask), contains the Eternal Guardian, who bars further progress unless the PC has the Ring of the High Kings. You know, the one we got two chapters ago. It's possible to slip past him without the ring, but it's not easy, and if you screw it up, you can possibly have multiple hostile Eternal Guardians after you. Players lucky enough to have an altar on the same level as the Eternal Guardian can get a lot of experience from saccing him. As for me...

You talk to the eternal guardian.
"You may pass."
The eternal guardian disappears.

The next level is the casino. The casino has a ton of slot machines as well as an enormous gift shop. You can't sell stuff to the gift shop and the prices are jacked up beyond belief. The only way to afford them is to play the slots (which are a source of infinite gold for the savvy player). I grab everything I don't recognize, then ID it all in one go.

There are a couple of nice items in the lot, so I decide to play some slots. I leave a C battery on the enter key and go to the grocery store. When I come back, I have nearly 9 million gold. That should be enough...

Here's what I'm getting:
- helm of water breathing (for a certain quest that I may or may not undertake)
- 2 crowns of regeneration (I may not actually use these)
- amulet of free action (can be very useful)
- bracers of regeneration (more useful than the crowns)
- ring of slaying (+damage is always good)
- wand of death (0 charges, but I can always recharge it)
- 2 potions of wonder (they teach me spells that I'll probably never cast, woo)
- potion of education (teaches a random skill, potentially very useful)
- potion of quickling blood (increases Spd)
- potion of visibility (I'll probably never finish the arena, but...)
- scroll of increase melee accuracy (I'm not sure these work on artifacts)

The scroll of increase melee accuracy fails. The potions of wonder teach Lightning Bolt and Know Alignment. The potion of education just trains my existing Swimming skill. Now I have 7 million left over for the next time I find an altar...

On D:31, I find what appears to be an abandoned shop. This is really a room full of mimics. I lost a good character to one of these once. With an amulet of free action, though, they are really not very threatening.

On D:32 is a staircase leading up into Darkforge. It's a good shortcut back to the surface if you don't mind the steel golems. Newt is powerful enough to kill them in numbers now, so he takes a detour to grab Darkforge's crown of science, yet another artifact he'll never wear. It's a great item if you don't mind being Cursed, though.

There's another greater undead vault on D:33. Nothing exciting, though.

The next level is the battle bunny level. This is much more frightening than it sounds. Battle bunnies reproduce at an alarming rate until you defeat their master, Bugs. The quickest way to do this is to dig straight down and attack him immediately. This is highly recommended. If any significant number of battle bunnies remains after defeating Bugs, it may not be safe to stay. This is largely due to the enemy experience mechanic: the more of an enemy you defeat, the stronger that species becomes. ADOM players know this as the "Uberjackal effect," named for a very common monster with an unfortunately low experience curve.

Two levels later, "this level seems to be somehow removed from the rest of the world." This is the cat lord's level. He rewards heroes that have abstained from killing any cats with the Ring of the Master Cat, probably the best ring in the game. Newt has, um, not abstained. The cat lord will be hostile and there will be no ring.

The ADOM guidebook has the following to say about the cat lord:

If the PC has killed cats, the Cat Lord will be hostile. He is a very difficult opponent, and becomes more difficult each time a cat is killed. Consequently he is worth many experience points.

Some players consider the cat lord the hardest opponent; others think he's a pushover. He is, regardless, a very powerful opponent in melee. So don't melee him.

The cat lord is invisible. Having a method of seeing invisible is therefore highly recommended. Newt only has the Ancient Mummy Wrapping, so he'll be wearing that.

The down stairs are right next to the entrance. Worst case, I'll be able to make a hasty retreat.

No kidding, that guy is tough! I think I burned three or four blessed potions of extra healing on him, not to mention a ton of wand charges. I leveled up twice after killing him, which also got me a new talent. I took Sixth Sense, which makes it easier for me to evade traps.

I am now going to kill cats with impunity.

Next: The Air Temple

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

ADOM players know this as the "Uberjackal effect," named for a very common monster with an unfortunately low experience curve.

Funny, I never noticed jackals getting all that overpowered... yeah, they seemed to get a much bigger boost than goblins, orcs, or rats, but still usually not enough to be a problem unless you're a non-fighter and get surrounded by them. Usually the "common, but not common enough that it doesn't power up quickly if you kill a lot of them" monster that gives me the most trouble are the spiders (especially tarantulas.)

Bees, though... they get really, really scary if you clear out several hives and then find another one. One of my recent characters, a dwarf barbarian, needed four or five hits to kill a single giant bee warrior after wiping out two whole hives of them and just happening to find a third... and he had around 30 strength, "Mastery" in two-handed weapon skill, and Vanquisher.

[Mogri]

[insert "BEES" image here]

The reason why jackals are so prone is because they are summoned in numbers by werejackals. Newt has 56 jackal kills without even trying.

Spiders are prone to this too, since dark elves summon them, but they're split up between several races, so the effect isn't as pronounced.

And the number one species killed by Newt so far? Zombies, at 177 kills.

Chapter B8: More Fun With Orbs

Stormy winds howl throughout these tunnels. There is a staircase leading up here.
The air reeks of ozone!

The air temple is a nasty place for a couple of reasons:
- Item destruction. The further into the temple you go, the more you get struck by lightning. There's no way to protect against the destruction this causes. Leaving your items somewhere safe is recommended.
- The boss of the place: Yulgash, the Master Summoner. Yulgash earns his title due to his ability to summon literally any non-unique monster in the game, up to and including great wyrms and ancient karmic dragons.

Newt only stops briefly in the air temple. The idea was to drop his more destructible stuff off in D:41, but D:41 turns out to have a greater vault of giants. Exciting stuff! While wandering around here, Newt acquires the super-annoying Poison Hands corruption. I don't mind it for now, but I'm going to remove it after I clear the vault.

Here's a list of goodies I got from the vault:
- phase dagger, notable for penetrating PV.
- a couple ranks of Shield skill
- the rune-covered sling "Whirlwind" (+12, +12)
- the iron gauntlets "Ironfist" [+1, +3] {St+7}
- a necklace of rapid healing (to add to my pile of regeneration equipment)
- level 24 (two more levels from the vault)
- Shield Specialist talent (+1 DV)

The sling is great; too bad it's a sling. I've been training bows. The big problem with slings is the lack of decent ammo. I have all sorts of slaying arrows, but aside from rocks, which are all mundane, sling ammo is hard to find, and special sling ammo is really rare. I'll give the sling a try for now.

Speaking of training, I've stopped berserking in order to train my shield skill (as noted in the vault rewards). Shield skill is probably the biggest single boost to DV that a PC will get. Each rank of Shields gives 2 DV, to a maximum of twice the PC's shield's DV. So a shield with 10 DV (like what Newt's carrying) can give 10 shield ranks, for a total of 30 DV (20 from Shields plus the 10 the shield gives).

The air temple is not actually hard at all. Yulgash summons easy monsters and dies in a few regular hits. I spend a little extra time cleaning up the place. I lose a few wands in the process, but nothing important.

In removing my poison hands corruption, I also accidentally remove the rage corruption. Oops. Oh well.

Two levels after the air temple is already the earth temple. I really want to find an altar, though, since I'm sick of carrying around millions of gold pieces. (It's also a little dangerous: if my girdle of greed gets cursed, I'll be crushed by the weight of the gold I'm carrying.) A few levels up, there's a lawful altar, which I convert to neutral before sacrificing most of my possessions. I don't get another crowning from it, which indicates that my level is too low relative to the number of artifacts that have been generated. That's fine. It was nice to get rid of 70,000s of gold (not to mention 79 sis that had accumulated).

Here's the thing about the earth temple: a lot of its monsters walk through walls and most of them can see invisible. They also have PV on par with my own. I'll be switching to my phase dagger for this portion of the game. Even with zero dagger proficiency, the phase dagger is still more powerful than my artifact weapon against the earth monsters. (This might not be true for mighty/tremendous blows, but those are risky when there's a crowd.)

I get another corruption in the earth temple: it's my rage corruption again. Lucky!

The strategy for clearing out the earth temple is to lure monsters to the stairs a couple at a time, then fight them on the next level. This keeps you from being overwhelmed by huge waves of wall-walking monsters. The result is that you end up having to fight most of the monsters in the temple, but they're all worth lots of experience, so it's not a bad thing. Newt reaches level 25, and it's time for another class power:

You now gain +1d4 hit points per advancement.

Not earth-shattering, but not a bad power all the same.

The guardian of this place is the Ancient Stone Beast. He's slow, he's not too powerful, but he's built like a tank. He's got over 1000 HP, plus he regenerates quickly. The phase dagger ignores his 60 PV, but it still takes a couple dozen hits to down him. Killing him takes Newt to level 26.

Only one orb guardian remains -- the one that killed my wizard.

Next: Nuurag-Vaarn, the Chaos Archmage

[Mogri]

Chapter B9: Srraxxarrakex and Nuurag-Vaarn

The lower levels of the Caverns of Chaos are very corrupting. While wandering around D:46, Newt sprouts antennae from his temples! This is another harmless corruption. Newt's Appearance takes a small hit, and in exchange, he'll periodically detect a wide area around him.

The stairs to the unreal cave, home to the mana temple, are found on D:46. I continue to D:47, which is home to another greater vault. This one is fire-themed. I lose some good items to ancient red dragons before retreating. I also gain a level in the process.

I gain another corruption on D:46. Very corrupting area. This one gives me +6 Perception and -6 Appearance.

The unreal cave is full of nasty enemies. It's also home to a late sidequest, which I will take. Sharad-Waador, the ancient karmic wyrm, wants me to kill his longtime enemy, who dwells in a cave full of blue dragons. I accept his quest, treading into territory that is new to me.

I receive another corruption while fighting a balor on the second level of the dragon caves: I now exhale sulphuric clouds. This lets me do the acid spit, but as a drakeling, Newt was already spitting acid. Useless. Killing the balor gains me a level, though.

A blue dragon here drops the jet-black battle axe "Executor." It's another powerful artifact that curses its wearer. No thanks.

The third level of the caves has a very large number of diamond golems. I could take two, maybe three of these guys on at once. Yeah, they see invisible, too.

I'm beginning to think I'm in over my head -- I decided this around the time the red great wyrm showed up.

DL:4 brings me salvation in the form of a neutral altar. Now I have an escape from the scores of dragons that want a piece of me. I sacrifice a few of them before moving on.

DL:5 brings me face-to-face with a great blue wyrm. He's not quite as fearsome as the red one, since I'm already immune to his breath attack. I try leading him to the altar on DL:4 when I hear a giant *THUMB*. This can only be bad: it indicates that a titan or greater moloch is on the level now. I also gain the Unholy Aura corruption, which is nice as long as you don't go near any towns.

The great blue wyrm doesn't behave. I return to DL:5 and find another one there. I'm going to have to kill one of these guys sooner or later if I don't want to keep running all the time, so I go for it. I kill him without too much trouble, then I notice about six more on the level. Wandering around in the level eventually brings me into view of Srraxxarrakex, the ancient blue wyrm and my target for this quest.

Srraxxarrakex is the toughest opponent I've faced so far. He has a crapton of HP, natural regeneration, and three attacks per round -- and those attacks can be healing spells. I end up switching to the phase dagger, since my tremendous attacks with Skullcrusher take too long to execute and miss too often. My first attack with the phase dagger finishes him off.

Glad to have that over with.

You talk to Sharad-Waador, the ancient karmic wyrm.
"Very well done."
"You indeed are powerful."
"Ye shall be rewarded!"

Let's see.

The most notable reward in the pile is the artifact dagger "Needle." Combined with its sister artifact "Sting," it becomes the most powerful weapon in the game. Sting is found elsewhere, though, and I'm not likely to acquire it in this game.

The two real rewards from that quest, then, were the levels I gained (plus Shield Master talent) plus the demonstration of the game taking its gloves off. I almost died in there several times!

Time to tackle the mana temple.

The mana temple is completely surrounded by a huge amount of traps. If you don't have Detect Traps, you're going to take some major damage on the way in. Fortunately, I do...

Nuurag-Vaarn takes notice of me earlier than I'd like. He can cast confusion magic from afar, making it a pain to deal with the minions. I retreat out to the corridor, where he won't be able to see me. He also summons darkness. This guy is a real pain, and he'll only get worse once we're able to attack each other.

I get corrupted a little more, and my feet turn into hooves. This corruption is no good. It lowers my Dx in exchange for increased kicking damage -- a really bad tradeoff.

Nuurag-Vaarn finally gets into melee range. We trade shots, but mine hurt a lot more, and he is vanquished. I gain a whopping three levels and the Basher talent (+1 to hit and damage). I also get my next class power at level 32: a +3 bonus to St and To. Nice.

That makes five orbs. Time to stop chaos?

Next: Newt's Journey Ends

[Baconlabs]

A blue dragon here drops the jet-black battle axe

[Mogri]

Chapter B10: To Win or Die

Turns out there was a potion of cure corruption in my pack! I guess Sharad-Waador gave it to me? I get rid of my hooves.

I had forgotten about the greater vault of fire-things. I bless a ring of ice and wear it to prevent equipment loss. I could probably bypass this area, but this is my last real opportunity to beef up before the big battle. It's shades of the blue dragon caves all over again, except this time they breathe fire. Drakelings love the heat, though -- remember?

While fighting, I acquire another corruption: the dreaded Mana Battery corruption. This means that I'll drain power from my wands, making them unusable. This would be better if I used PP, but it would still suck.

I gain a level then decide to move on. There's too much corruption to hang around for long.

D:48 is home to the five elemental anomalies. Here, the hero must deposit the five elemental orbs. Once this is done, the stairs change direction. There is no escaping anymore.

D:49 is completely frozen. It's impossible for the PC to navigate; to move, he must throw something in the opposite direction.

I get the hooves corruption again here. The real danger on this level is the cold itself; drakelings will often arrive on D:50 with 25 speed as a result of the exposure. Newt gets lucky and survives with his speed intact.

This level is very strange... the walls are hard to see, everything seems to blur, and you feel slightly dizzy.

This is it: the last level. The last level has a lot of monsters.

While I'm fighting the chaos mutants, I acquire my next corruption. My skin is covered by tough scales. I'm not sure how this is different from the normal drakeling experience, but it increases my PV and decreases my Dx. My Dx is now at 19, really low. I also get to level 35 at this time.

From the writhing masses of primal chaos, I gain the thorny hands corruption. Slight hit to Dx, good boost to melee damage. None of these monsters is any trouble, by the way -- the biggest danger now is that I'll become fatally corrupted.

While fighting my way to the bottom, I run into a scroll of familiar summoning. I bless it and read it, summoning a greater earth elemental. He tanks for me awhile before finally being killed by some chaos wizards.

The goal here is to close the chaos gate. To do this, I need to hit levers on the extreme northwest and southwest corners of the map (where there are balors). I've just managed to do the one on the bottom when I get another corruption: horns. This increases melee damage by 3 at the cost of some Appearance (which has already hit bottom anyway).

I head up to the top and do the same thing there. The balors grant me a level each on defeat. I flip the second switch and...

You push the lever. It starts to brim with magical energies. You hear an angry scream in the distance. Suddenly the incursions of chaotic energy seem to disappear. It seems that you have succeeded in your quest!

The author has a sense of wry humor. I know better. Not long later:

You suddenly feel a surge of corruption washing over the level...
...as if someone or something had reopened the gate!

The demons on this level aren't stupid. They know how to handle a lever as well as I do. While fighting the balor that came to check on the levers, I gain the bulging cranium corruption.

I close the gate again, but again it's opened. This time, the balors are pissed. They start teleporting to me and attacking. And... it looks like I've attracted the attention of Fistinarius, the greater balor.

I contract the stiff muscles corruption. This one's a killer: everything I do is 50% slower. The good news is that with all of these balors I'm killing, my level is skyrocketing. I'm level 46 when I close the gate for a third time.

After closing the gate a fourth time, I kill something invisible that I think may have been Fistinarius. I gain three levels from whatever I killed, so Fistinarius is a good bet.

Except it wasn't Fisty! After closing the gate for a sixth time, I encounter him on the way back to the levers. Of all the creatures on this level, Fistinarius is the one that's a match for me. While fighting him, I acquire the poison hands corruption. Killing him takes me to level 50, the highest level in the game. I close the gate for a seventh time.

This time, I make it back to the stairs without the gate reopening.

I've closed the chaos gate, so I no longer need to worry about corruption. It's time to go home.

This time around, Newt's speed does tank from the cold. By the time he gets to D:48, his speed has dropped to 10.

Somewhere in this mess, I missed a corruption. I acquired the apish corruption before poison hands. Newt is a real mess.

Newt ascends to D:47, where all the fire things are. They warm up his blood and get him back up to speed. Thanks, dragons!

Newt escapes through Darkforge, taking his revenge on some steel golems on the way out. He wanders his way back to where he started, then takes his leave of the Drakalor Chain.

What will become of Newt? Will his people give him a hero's welcome? Will he live in the lap of luxury for the rest of his life?

After he leaves the Drakalor Chain he is welcomed by his people with great honors. They acknowledge his noble deeds, his valor, his cunning and his great skills that helped to prevent the complete destruction of the world he knows. His severe taint by the forces of Chaos prevent him from ever leading a normal life. He always remembers the glorious deeds that took his life away. His sacrifice is remembered in the stories of his people, but not in their hearts. He ends his life in loneliness and isolation.

No! Because he's butt-ugly! There's a life lesson here, kids. (And yes, if I had been able to remove my corruptions, I would've gotten a better ending.)

The dirty details:

Code: Select all

Newt          St:43  Le:15  Wi:28  Dx:15  To:42  Ch: 1  Ap: 1  Ma: 8  Pe:27 N-
DV/PV: 63/65     H:1120(1120)  P:182(182)    Exp: 50/25357312   DrCh  Sp: 119
Blessed Invisible
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Background Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Newt                Race: male Drakeling      Class: Barbarian
Eye color: amber          Hair color: bald          Complexion: light blue
Height: 5'7"              Weight: 167 pounds
Age: 22 (young)
Star sign: Cup            Birthday: 7/Cup (day 247 of the year)

YOUR HISTORY:
        Your father was an accomplished hunter and warrior. You were
 well-respected and comparatively wealthy.
        As a child you were very active and imitated the hunters and
 warriors of your tribe at all opportunities.
        In your youth you strived very hard to become the best warrior in
 your tribe. You watched, learned and became very strong and nimble.
        As a young adult your family was killed in a raid. You became
 embittered and filled with the desire for revenge.
        At the age of 22 you left your tribe.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Inventory
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total weight: 7355 stones                Carrying capacity: 14382 stones

He: uncursed orcish helmet [+1, +5] {Pe-2}                           [100s]
Ne: blessed ankh                                                       [3s]
Bo: uncursed eternium plate mail (-1, -2) [-1, +13]                  [240s]
Gi: blessed girdle of carrying [+0, +0]                               [15s]
Cl: uncursed cloak of protection [+0, +3]                             [20s]
RH: blessed rune-covered club "Skullcrusher" (+12, 3d6+2) [-3, +0] {St+4}
LH: blessed large mithril shield (-1) [+10, +2]                       [96s]
RR: blessed ring of ice                                                [1s]
LR: blessed ring of the High Kings [+2, +3]                            [1s]
Br: blessed rusty bracers of regeneration [+0, +0]                    [18s]
Ga: uncursed thick gauntlets (-1, -2) [+0, +4]                        [15s]
Bo: blessed eternium boots (+2, +2) [+2, +8]                          [55s]
MW: uncursed short bow (+1, +0)                                       [20s]
Mi: bundle of 5 uncursed arrows of undead slaying (+3, 2d4+3)         [10s]
Tl: -


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                Weapon Skills
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Melee weapon           Lvl   Hit   Dam   DV   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Daggers & knives        10   +10    +6   +3   excellent            1652
Clubs & hammers         13   +14   +10   +4   Mastery              1217
Swords                   7    +5    +3   +2   skilled              81
Pole arms                9    +9    +5  +10   excellent            573

Missile weapon         Lvl   Hit   Dam   Ra   Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---   ---   --   -------------  --------------
Slings                   4    +8    +6   +1   skilled              32
Bows                     6   +12    +9   +2   skilled              120

Shields                Lvl   DV               Level          Required marks
---------------------  ---   ---              -------------  --------------
Shields                 10   +20              excellent            1885


Damage caused with your melee weapons:
--------------------------------------
Right hand: +118 bonus to hit, 3d6+44 damage


Damage caused with your missile weapons:
----------------------------------------
Ammunition: 5, base range: 11, +69 bonus to hit, 2d4+24 damage




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Skills
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Alertness ................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Athletics ................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Climbing .................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Courage ..................100    (superb)       [+3d3]
  Detect traps .............100    (superb)       [+1d3]
  Dodge ....................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  First aid ................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Food preservation ........100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Haggling ................. 57    (good)         [+1d3]
  Healing ..................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Herbalism ................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Listening ................100    (superb)       [+3d4]
  Literacy ................. 81    (great)        [+1]
  Music .................... 77    (great)        [+1d5]
  Pick pockets ............. 62    (good)         [+1]
  Smithing ................. 76    (great)        [+1d3]
  Stealth ..................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Survival .................100    (superb)       [+2d4]
  Swimming .................100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Two weapon combat ........100    (superb)       [+1d5]
  Woodcraft ................ 84    (great)        [+1d5]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Effects of Corruption
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your close attunement to corrupted astral space allows teleportation.
You rage (DV: -9, +6 melee damage)!
Your antennae explore the details of your environment (Ap: -4).
You have grown a total of 12 eyes (Ap: -6, Pe: +6).
You exhale sulphur (Ch: -4).
You are surrounded by an unholy aura (Ch: -10, DV: +6).
You are a living mana battery.
Your feet have been transformed into hooves (+8 kicking damage, Dx: -6).
Your skin is covered by tough scales (PV: +8, Dx: -6, Ap: -4).
You have grown thorns (3d3 melee damage, Dx: -2, Ap: -3).
You have grown horns (+3 melee damage, Ap: -4).
You have grown a bulging cranium (Le: +6, Wi: +4, Ap: -6, PV: -4, To: -3).
Your muscles have stiffened slowing you down (base action cost: 1500 energy
points; PV: +4, St: +2).
You look somewhat apish (St: +3, Le: -1, Wi: -1, Ch: -2, Ap: -3).
Poison drips from your hands.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
              His achievements during his adventures:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newt, the drakish barbarian, saved the world with his brave efforts while
saving himself 7 times.  // This means that I saved my game 7 times. //
He scored 28003928 points and advanced to level 50.
He survived for 0 years, 64 days, 12 hours, 1 minute and 19 seconds (69336
turns).
1 companion was killed during his adventures.
Newt visited 110 places.
His strength score was modified by +9 during his career.
His learning score was modified by +4 during his career.
His willpower score was modified by +10 during his career.
His dexterity score was modified by +14 during his career.
His toughness score was modified by +22 during his career.
His charisma score was modified by +7 during his career.
His appearance score was modified by +4 during his career.
His mana score was modified by +4 during his career.
His perception score was modified by +9 during his career.
He was a member of the thieves guild.
He defeated the arch enemy of a mighty karmic wyrm.
He left the Drakalor Chain after completing his quest and became a famous hero.
3764 monsters perished under his attacks.
The following 26 artifacts were generated during his adventure:
  the si
  the scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle"
  the potion of literacy
  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 sword of Nonnak
  the elemental gauntlets
  the ring of the High Kings
  the crown of science
  the ancient mummy wrapping
  the ankh
  the hammer of the gods
  the rune-covered club "Skullcrusher"
  the Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana
  the black rune-covered dagger "Needle"
  the rune-covered sling "Whirlwind"
  the jet-black battle axe "Executor"
  the medium obsidian shield "Protector"
  the sapphire amulet "Preserver"
  the dwarven pick axe "Hammerhead"
  the iron gauntlets "Ironfist"
  the shining long spear "Soaker"
  the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite"
  the rune-covered halberd "Wyrmlance"
He possessed the following intrinsics:
  He was fire resistant (enhanced through an item).
  He was poison resistant (enhanced through an item).
  He was cold resistant (gained through an item).
  He was lucky (enhanced through an item).
  Fate smiled upon him (enhanced through an item).
  He was sleep resistant.
  He was able to control teleportation.
  He was invisible.
  He was stun resistant (enhanced through an item).
  He was resistant to death rays.
  He was shock resistant (enhanced through an item).
  He was immune to ice attacks.
  He was able to resist confusion attacks (gained through an item).
He had the following talents: Aggressive, Basher, Hardy, Healthy, Immune to Pain, Iron Skin, Long Stride, Mighty Strike, Porter, Powerful Strike, Quick, Shield Expert, Shield Master, Shield Specialist, Sixth Sense, Steel Skin, Tough Skin.
He had a final speed score of 119 (final base speed: 119).
He was a messiah of Issrecht.
He asked for 8 divine interventions.
He was a holy champion of Balance.
He was severely tainted by Chaos.

The following monsters were vanquished:
// Note: this list has been trimmed significantly //
     20 ancient blue dragons
      1 ancient blue wyrm
      1 Ancient Chaos Wyrm
      4 ancient minotaurs
      4 ancient red dragons
      1 Ancient Stone Beast
      2 ancient white dragons
     10 balors
      1 battle bunny
      2 berserker emperors
      1 bunny master
      1 cat lord
      1 Chaos Archmage
      1 crime lord
      1 death ooze
      7 diamond golems
      1 doppleganger king
      1 doppleganger lord
      4 Dorn Beasts
      2 gorgons
      3 great blue wyrms
      1 great red wyrm
      2 greater air elementals
      1 greater balor
     68 greater chaos servants
      2 greater earth elementals
     16 greater mummies
      2 greater water elementals
      1 living wall
      1 mad doctor
      2 master assassins
      1 master lich
      2 master mimics
      1 master necromancer
      1 Master Summoner
      1 minotaur lord
      1 moloch
      1 mummy lord
      1 skeletal king
      1 Snake from Beyond
     27 steel golems
      1 stone giant lord
      1 stone statue
      1 undead chaos dwarven berserker
      1 will o'wisp
     70 writhing masses of primal chaos
    178 zombies

Thanks for reading! I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.