Ironman H/O paladin diary
 

Start with industry standard, point-based half-orc paladin. Forced descent, no recall, know flavours (lost too many ironman entries due to deep descent)
Starting gear: 4 food, 5 torch, 10 ClW, 15 PD, 2 oil, 10 arrows, 12 iron shots; Whip; leather shield; leather sandals; leather gloves, leather cap, cloak.
Action begins before stairs: Mercenary attacks me; kill him, 7gp, turn into 7 more iron shots. They can be thrown for damage, even without a sling, so why not?
Which gets me to thinking – at early levels, why aren’t critical conflicts, like this, or the scruffy cat, worth at least some XP?

1: 1-1. Yer industry-standard kill-small-things-get-stuff level. Robe puts AC to a respectable 16. Jackals take me to CL2. Kill stalking wild cat, floating eye by throwing balls.

2: 2-1 Welcoming committee is Grip. That takes me to L3. Cutpurses take me to CL4, and one drops two PD scrolls. Merci. Yeek dies, coughs up Beginner’s spellbook. Merci.

3: 2-1. Boring/unremarkable. Beat up on a kobold shaman who dropped soft leather armour with a rune. Hope it isn’t a curse, put it on.

4: (forgot to record): My gamble to buy both arrows and iron balls proves fruitful. Pick up both a bow and a sling (neither of great note.) Also nab wand of MM. No memorable nasties – just the usual cutpurse and scout stuff.

5: 2-1. Not going to argue: another beginners, and Word of Wisdom. Knock off Bullroarer, who drops a rapier (+3,+5) and [1,+5] gloves at the cost of a CLW. Blue jelly nearby helps identify armour as +1, resist cold.

6: 2-3. Find a lantern, do the drop-torches thing. Encounter Smeagol, who takes money. Hah. It matters not, creature of evil. A healer dies, and behind him an amulet – infravision. A purple mushroom patch dies, enough to go to CL 11.

7: 3- 2. Wandered around a bit, ran into a bit of trouble with some lemures and a rot jelly. Burned through two CLWs. Was growing of the feeling it was time to move on, when a trap door helped the process.

8: 3-1: Wormtongue proved a bit of a challenge, and requires a pair of CLWs and a CCW to eliminate – and this after depleting a whole whack of charges from a pair of magic missile wands. Key find is a wand of slow monster. Leave at CL12.

9: 2-2: Nothing amazing here, other than a a room of various cutpurses and a gallant. I’m a bit careless here, and blow a few CLWs as a result. However, with hit points now 120, the usefulness of CLW is closing. There are a ton of “detect invisible” scrolls. I leave them, as I’ve got a staff of the same name. Both are near worthless anyhow. (Would that the staff/scroll versions of this last more than one turn!) Have backups in potions of true seeing and a pair of mushrooms of second sight. In truth, if things get ugly, I’m liable to use those instead.

10: 2-2 . No welcoming committee, but I do find a gift – Chants and Blessings. Merci. I am now juggling items. Have amulet of rElec, but also have amulet of +3 infra. I decide to wear the latter, since not many things are going to kill me with rElec at this point, but the +3 infra gives me a strategic advantage of 50ft infra total. I waste a ton of time trying to find the next stairs down.

11: 3-x Run into a herd of blue yeeks, and immediately think “Boldur” Sure enough, there he is. He takes a bit of work to eliminate, but now CL14. Drops an axe and a cursed cap of intelligence that saps brainpower (wisdom) Bad randart, bad. (+5,+4) longbow on floor, nab, and drop shortbow. Again, just as it seems boring, trapdoor.

12: 6-4 Hello, lemures. And wolves. Joy. Immediately launch into run-and-gun battle that chews up three PD scrolls, six or so CLW and a CSW to boot. Once the dust settles, a det evil shows some sign as to why this is a “6”: quasits, an imp, bunch of homonculi, a score of tengu and a pseudodragon in a locker. Nearby. That’s my cue to wander the other direction. My plan is to loot as desired, but at first contact with anything remotely above my capacity to handle, “portal” out and run like a coward, to the nearest stairs down. Which means – find stairs. This seems a wise time to burn through one of five magic mapping scrolls, too. Shortly after finding stairs, I see a cave orc. Then a tengu blinks me into a room of the blighters. Two more PDs bite the dust, along with a bunch of CLWs, but the reward is landing five xp from the next level. I remain conscious I only have 12 SP, and that I want to keep eight on hand for “portal” in case things go bad. And that spell, I fear, has a 25 per cent failure. (gulp). Pondering the idea of a bail here, a det evil pulls up Grishnakt. Hmm. He’s not far from a stair down, either. I figure the risk-reward is ok, so go orc hunting. It proves a bad decision. I burn through too many healing potions in exchange for a boring low-end flail. Not happy. I only have two CCWs left, now.
13: 3-2: Not much notable here. Gain a CLW (that’s like gold, now), and locate a scimitar that is (+6,+4) but has a rune on it. Hey, I have 11 rune scrolls. Burn one. Is slay orc. My +8,+5 dagger does more base damage per round, though, and is only a point off the per-round damage of the scimitar, so I leave it. Logic on IDing stuff on ground: once I know the rune, it’s good for the game, so burning the ID rune now gives me info for later use. I do not want to be packing around rune scrolls at level 50.

14: 3-1: I am now sure @ is hooped. Maze level, but full of orcs and wolves, that in numbers, chew away at hit points. I PD while stunned, and blow eight SP trying to heal, so have to chug potions. Now down to one CLW. Phase, phase again. Mugged at all corners, wolves, orcs, baby multi-hued. Manage to stem the tide, but at great cost of consumables. Down to 21 PD scrolls and zilch for healing. Dark elf dies, drops ROP +7. Woo. AC is now 30. Way pincushiony. I’m thinking I need a ring of acid/flames, or dragon armour, or something helpful. Heck, even a staff of slow monsters.

15: 3-5. Hummn. Follow rod of treasure location around, hoping for curing potions, or ... well, anything. Tackle guardian naga, who drops bastard sword artifact. Has rElec, slay orcs. Burn an id scroll. Rune of light. Right then, something touches me, and my dex drops. Frig. Quaff a true seeing, mangle a moaning spirit, but not before it saps dex again. Wield sword. Plus 4 to dex, pFear. Treasure detection. Slay evil. Not bad. Still unknown runes on sword, so burn another scroll. Rlight. I’ll take that. Find ROP +11, ok, will swap out ring of rCold and rHeat, as armour gives rCold. Realize I’m still lugging amulet of rElec, so dump as sword gives that now. Later on, a det evil reveals Lagduf. I am loathe to engage, but damnit, at this point, I need drops from uniques in the worst way. Oh, look Brodda. I clean him up, (two phases and a CLW). Before I get to Lagduf, wolves and a snaga soften me up. I engage, but lose HP, so portal away. Land next to dark elf, who dies fast, and coughs up a staff of confuse monsters. In nearby room, wand of lightning bolts. Nooooooow we’re talking. I run into an axe that has some new runes, and decide to burn a scroll now for future knowledge. Huh? I still have un-ID’s rune so the bastard sword? OK. Wow. Slay demon too? OK, now axe... what the what? MORE runes on the sword? Hold life. Wowzers. Now the axe ...No. No. Still more runes on the sword? Rchaos too? Ok, now to axe - +1 attack speed. I track down Lagduf, and he goes quickly under new sword. Lagduf’s drops are, natch, weapons that would have been nice a level ago, but are now “meh.” Downward ho, better equipped but still with burning need for healing potions and suffering from diminished PD arsenal.

16: 3-1. Yeah, it’s a 3-1, but it gave five CLWs, then four CSWs right off the bat, so no arguments. Can now cast spell for hunger, so drop copious wad of Satisfy Hunger scrolls. Find staff of mapping, so ditch scrolls of same. Ponder dropping rod of treasure location, as sword does this too, but decide otherwise: sword likely won’t be around in 25 levels, so ..... I do realize a scroll of remove curse I’ve had forever is no longer meaningful (spell ability of equal power) so drop that.

17: “Omens of death haunt this place.” Joy. Mission now is simple: find a stair down, and take it, unless the “9” proves some way the heck outta depth unique in a vault. DE shows Ufthak, trolls, baby dragon, but nothing matching the 9. Mop up the trolls, dragon, druid. Had to use one charge out of the wand of LB, but meh. Treasure level 3? Yeah, stairs it is. OK. Maybe I will tackle Ufthak first. No, prudent to flee now, I figure – and two steps later, black orcs, with Ufthak in tow. Alright. A speed potion, one charge off a “slow monster” wand and a CSW take care of him, and his followers. I poke about cautiously, liberally using det evil, and eventually conclude that the only reason for the L9 is Boldor, who is off in a corner with a few yeeks and a baby red dragon. Can only presume there’s some non-evil thing ((hydra? Bears? Wolves? Hounds more likely) waiting to kill some moronic adventurer. Not going to risk it. I bail on the level.

18: 3-3: Waiting master yeek donates his soul to his/her god, and a CCW to me. Dumbass that I am, I only just realize I’ve been carting around three “boldness” potions while wielding a weapon that offers pFear. Duh. Nothing of interest here, though I do pick up some arrows and a staff of CLW. I had a mana restoration potion, but dropped it. Heck, only have 17 points, and I’m not relying on spells for much other than det evil and portal at this point.

19: 6-3: Buncha trolls are the welcome. One drops leather scale mail of resistance, which boosts my AC and covers the vacant pFire spot. Thing is, this is all in a big cavern with a bunch of black ogres at the other end. I play with them a bit, then portal away. It’s time to invoke the wail-and-bail, methinks, as a primary strategy. In new section, det evil shows a reasonable array of trolls, ogres, orcs. Or, in other words, relatively low-risk experience points. Let’s go hunt. During this exercise, I go back to that big cavern, mug a few nasties, then retreat into a hallway, before dumping a few charges out of the ol’ wand of lightning bolts. I figure it’s not going to be much use as the nasties get nastier, so use it now... A series of uninteresting conflicts follow, all of which do, in fact, add up to a lot of XP, and minimal loss of consumables other than the intentional depleting of wand of lightning bolts. Now CL 23.

20: 4-3 Welcoming committee is a sabretooth tiger. It dies. Gift nearby is a ring of flames. Finally, a decent ranged magic boom-boom. Nearby find a ring of free action. I’m at that level where frAct is kinda important. Is it worth 11 AC points lost by taking off a ROP? Find a cloak +6, which is just dandy since the last one was dropped gosh-knows-how-many-levels ago, rendered useless by some acid—spewing critter. I also have to make another critical decision on what stays and what does not. Find some iron balls, which I need, as arrows are growing rare. But no space. What to drop? A ring of digging? A ring of escaping? I take a bit of a gamble, and drop the ROP +11, wear the Ring of FrAct, dump the ring of digging, and keep the ring of escaping. Run into Gorbag, who creates problems – after his demise. He drops a flail that has frAct and see Invis, and does reasonable damage. I hate carrying weapons as swaps, esp heavy things. I gamble, leave it behind. I will rely on potions for see invis until spells make the potions redundant.

I don't understand why you're burning so much !CLW. Is your fail rate that high?

Good writing, man! Kind of inspires me to start a paladin ironman game myself.

"Can only presume there’s some non-evil thing ((hydra? Bears? Wolves? Hounds more likely)"

For that level 9 danger feeling, my guess would be an insect or animal pit.

At that point, spell points way low, and fail rate ... not friendly, plus also wanted to keep 8sp on standby for a "Portal."

21: 3-2. Catacomb level, nothing remarkable other than the first umber hulk encounter. Well, that and a ranger who summoned things, backed up by some dark hounds. Did the wail-and-bail, but did not use any consumables, save for a CSW when confused and blind. Best treasure is a potion of enlightenment. Will keep for suitable use later.

22: 5-4. Not a clue do I have of what it was I was fighting as the welcoming party– suspect some dark elf mage? Fought while blind, confused. Drank a CSW to clear it, blind/confused instantly. Killed something in the dark, and then I felt (how?) a rod of curing. Merci. Crack open a minivault, which proves troublesome. Have to portal away and come back twice, but net a rod of lightning bolts and a decent shield of resist acid.

23: 4-5 Lots of orcs/snagas floating about, in numbers that require a bit of finesse. Find a CON potion lying on the floor. (Gulp). Merci. Scroll of Acquirement gives better leather scale mail of resistance (merci) and I snag a second rod of lightning bolts, and an amulet of Wisdom (+2). Doesn’t do much (adds 5 sp to a total of 25), but every little bit helps.

24: 6-5: Welcoming committee is a pack of air hounds. Alert observers will note the lack of rPois at this point, so they are troublesome … despite void in rPois, I manage to dust ‘em off without going into consumables. That’s the goal, now: Gain XP and loot without using consumables if at all possible. Lugdush shows up, dies with no consumables expended, drops nothing of real worth other than a weapon that’s not as good as the artifact. Wander around mopping up uruks, orcs, half-orcs. I find a small vault, but ... granite and no digging ring, because I dropped that. Det evil shows me Nar the Dwarf there, a few other baddies. Inaccessible, right? No worry. I have Earthquake. Fire that up a few times and voila, I’ve cracked open a vault to find pre-damaged inhabitants. Burn through too many consumables for not enough reward. Nar drops diddly. Blast. I am just about to go down stairs, after a tussle with trolls, and see Ibun. Huh? He never came up in any of my det evil sweeps.... I then do exactly what i didn’t want to: burn through consumables on a gamble of a drop, but he has just a suit of armor with no resists. Dang, stupid. Not worth a healing potion and two phase doors.

25: 3-3 Great, Khim is the welcoming committee. Not going to be fooled twice, I portal away. I find Ulfang, knock him off. What the heck? Is this the unique family level? Get the Umber brothers, portal away. OK, not good. Time to find a stair and leave. CL 26 now, but low on consumables. Have to remember I now have enough spell points that I can at least heal thyself, paladin.

26: 5-3: Troll priest is welcoming committee. I wander about, looking for useful consumables. Several times, bail mid-battle facing trolls, bats of gorgoth. Running out of iron balls, too. This is where my dumb play from two levels ago is going to come back to haunt me: low consumables and few missiles means few options other than melee. Feagdor the half-Orc paladin is a goner unless the winds of fate change a bit. No sooner do I finish writing that sentence, than a lone forest troll dies politely and coughs up a ring of accuracy. I’ve not used such things before, but ... hmm. A pair of Enchant Armor scrolls and new boots (with stealth) counteract what Ibun disenchanted. Still wearing a totally useless cap that was acid-bathed on level five or six. That has to go. Chased by a wereworm to Level 27.

27: 6-8: I land practically in bed with a crap-ton of orcs, Ugluk, a mindflayer and a manticore. I look at the layout, and figure it’s a reasonable risk-reward to go in. Alas, det evil does not pick up the vibration hounds, who stun me. It takes three tries to portal away… which justifies, to some degree, the intent of keeping spell points for portal. Now, det evil picks up ghouls. On goes ring of frAct, off goes Ring of Accuracy. Beat up on ghouls, along with a stray vibration hound. Quaff Enlightenment (I have six) to figure out what that “8” might be. Nothing leaps out, but some arrows- yeah, would be nice to get the bow back in action. The Gorgimera guard falls easily enough. Hmm. +5/+13 slay demon, 36 of ‘em. I start sneaking back (I sneak like tank) to Ugluk. Incoming Umbar brothers. I chisel away at one, portal out, rest. Only one comes after me, meaning I can quaff a speed potion, hit him with a slow monster, and feed a steady diet of cold bolts from a wand. Angaiwhatzits drops a flail. I then go after Ungiwhoever, burning a few PD scrolls and charges from the slow monster wand. He drops a randart set of gauntlets that have +4 wisdom and sDig, plus ... i dunno, because there’s still a rune on it yet seen. Strangely enough, around the corner are three rune scrolls. One goes, to reveal ... rPois. Oh, thank you, it’s been too long without rPois. I go hunting for Ugluk, knock off some orcs and wait... and wait. He doesn’t show. I walk around, and realize DE has picked him up, but he’s stuck inside a mini-vault. And I now know how to open those, albeit crudely. This takes a bit, a ton of spelll points on Earthquake (rest to full if it didn’t open the vault). Once a path is made – four tries, if I recall - some more wail-and-bail (a colbran proves troublesome) reveals a wand of TO (timely, off goes Khim into timeout) and a neat scimitar that offers +1 STR, +4 wis, +2 stealth, +6 speed, immunity to lighting, rcold, rfear and [16] AC, and a bunch of slays. It is not weilded. Why? Because lantern go poof, and other sword gives light. Gracious.

28:4-5. I enlighten the level, hoping for oil or a lamp. Also find a mystery amulet that turns out to be a randart, +2 Int, +3 Wis, +2 speed, frAct. Instantly up to +8 speed. No real nasties, except for a Colbran who fries the wand of TO before dying. Only after this do I find oil for lamp (Sigh) and swap in scimtar that has iElec. Seems like this was as bit of a re-organization level.

29: 7- 3. The “three” comes right quick. Mission: find stairs and get out of Dodge. Possible reason: bughouse in corner (with scorpions and beetles and the like.) Engage portal, keep looking for stairs, but now less worried. If that’s the reason for the 7, maybe not such a dangerous spot, since I know where it is. I successfully scrounge for a few goodies, with relatively little resistance (save a few int points loaned to a mind flayer) then leave.

30: 4-3. No notable foes. A few dragons, but nothing unmanageable. Moved through and down, quickly.

You can see me, but I can't see you
 

31: 5-8. This turns out to be juicy level, quite quickly. A special room has Khim and Ibun. OK, Khim has chased me through at least three out of the last eight levels or something, so it’s time to deal with the guy. I manage to lure Khim away, and burn some PD scrolls to avoid the disenchantment effects. Also burn through some balls and arrows, before victory. Ibun proved a bit harder. The room they were in features a potion of Experience, and a staff of slow monsters. Also pick up a magic lantern that is only +2 light, but offers iCold. Now level 31with some buffs to wisdom (11!) giving 52 spell points. That’s a bit of flexibility - ‘fact, used Orb of Draining on Khim when there wasn’t enough time to recollect shots on the ground. That, and a mind flayer was close on Khim’s heels, and I figured an Orb would do some damage to both.

32: 5-2: Engage in a rollicking cross-dungeon gun-and-run with Lokkak, who dishes out some nasty melee damage a few times, so I stick with the Phase-and-attack-from-afar plan until he croaks and drops the Main Gauche of Rungon. Hefty item, packs +4 Con. But not worth giving up more damage and +6 speed for 39hp. Not interested in beating up trolls and ogres, which is about all that’s left.

33: 5-4 Amazing what some hit points and rPois will do for you. A basilisk is the welcoming committee, and lasts about as long as a politician’s promise. At this point, the “sense surroundings” spell is sufficiently viable, mana-wise, that I decide to dump the staff of mapping I’ve been hauling around since forever. A healing potion – awesome. Also two ‘restore mana’ potions, and some pebbles for the sling. I am still carrying two launchers... and that original randart bastard sword that was so amazing not that long ago. Getting time to think about paring the gear. Now up to five rods of lighting bolts, but their effectiveness is diminishing as opponents grow nastier. They may be the next to go. And I can’t see using the randart sword in the future. I will take it one more level, and then see.
34: 6-5: Despite its danger rating, this level never felt anywhere near nasty. A minivault proved problematic, mind you, because of a few stone giants and a golem, but nothing a little wail-and-bail didn’t solve. Did use the rods of LB some, so will keep. Ditched randart bastard sword. Think it’s time to think about a new launching system. Sling gives 33pt per round, arrows 22. I take a bit of a gamble, drop 30-odd iron balls, pick up a heavy crossbow (0,0) in the hopes i can transition to something with more ooomph on the launcher side.

35: 8- 3 Huh. So six danger wasn’t tough enough, apparently, and Angband always has more. Up to eight it is. Oh, and that room right-freaking-next-door? Big, way open space stacked with giants, trolls, ogres, that of thing. Obligingly clear the entire lot – a good 40 – by luring them in bunches into hallways, softening ‘em up with lightning bolts then skewering a line of six or seven, then going back in, softening up the next round with acid ball (rod) ring of fire ring of ice, then retreating into the hall to reprise the lightning bolts. Much XP gained, no consumbles lost. A timely det evil picks up a ghost, fire up a see invisible spell, kill it before it can do any draining. Det evil really paying dividends: picks up some beholders and evil eyes in what looks like locker. Det evil not long after picks up three dreads, in a corner. Not interested in playing with either of those. However, dreads and ghosts really brings into focus the urgent need for a full-time det invis, at least, or ESP, ideally.

36: 7-3 :Merrily chewing through some low-level kobolds, I gain a bit of insight into the seven – inertia hounds. Try to take out two, get hit hard, have to portal out.... det evil. Banshee right there. Four dreads. Back to the need for invis, or ESP. Oh, also landed right on top of a room with night mare. Not my favourite critter. There is no way to get out of this area save by digging out or portaling. I choose the latter. Bit of finagling, find a corner that I can work from that has a stair down. Bail. After months of steadily playing this addictive game, I’m starting to gain a sense of when to simply move on.

37: 5-1. Ugh. Find queen ant in a room that came up empty in DE. Again, the need for ESP is proving rather urgent. Portal out, find orcs and Shagrat. Figure worth a poke. Knock Shagrat down, nothing of interest. Play a little run and gun with Queen ant, but in the midst of this, smack a dark elf that drops a reasonable pike with see invis on it. Pick that up as a swap. I continue the run and gun with Queenie, and I engage with the idea I will continue the battle but play it cautious, and abandon conflict if I start edging into consumable terrain. Why? Heck, it’s about time one of these uniques gave me something .... and after variations of the chase-me-into-the-hall and use of rods of LB to rid myself of her summed fire ants (who, interestingly, seem smarter than giants in the “chase guy down straight hall and get fried” department), I knock her off, and ... voila, law dragon scale mail. Puts AC to 145, and I don’t care about dropping the leather mail of resistance, as I have the four biggies covered off (and two as immunities, as you may recall.) Oh, and somewhere in that maelstrom of death, CL 32 came along. I never noticed when.

38: 5-1. Welcoming committee is a bunch of cave orcs, and Bolg. Bolg is first to feel the output of the new armour. Wander about, but not much here so move on.

39: 5-3: skulk about using DE liberally. Keeps me on top of a vampire, which is killed at range easily. Ditto for a lich. Mature gold dragon is an interesting tussle, and she helps ID a rune on the dragon armor as rSound, which I kind of suspected. She drops two Enchant-to-Hit, which I use on the longbow I’ve been carrying around since forever. (level 11). In fact, I realize I’ve use it as a dump for a lot of enchant scrolls: it’s now +9,+5. Still, not much for this kind of level.

40: 5-5: I get a bit careless with the walk-20-steps-use-DE ritual, and it results in a “something touches you and you feel your life slipping away.” Damn. Swap in the pike, see invis on it reveals a ghost. One hit, one kill, it drops Exorcisms. I have no room, but wait: have restore life levels potion packed around for three levels. Use it to clear inventory spot. I don’t find Exorcisms that useful as a book, but what the heck. Room of red dragons proves interesting: I lose chunk of HP and one of four chants and blessings to breath but gain an amulet of +5 wisdom, which is kind of useless, as I have a bunch of boosts already, including an amulet that gives +3 wis, +2 speed and is the only frAct I have. Find heavy crossbow, figure it’s time to drop longbow. Kill young dragon, it drops potion of Wisdom. Det evil pulls up Intangast nearby, not a critter I feel like dealing with. Start to clear out a locker of nagas/snakes. Wakes up Intangast, and that’s my cue to depart. Even with resist fire/cold over top of a static rFire, a tussle with that critter is not going to go well. I can’t push out 2000 hp of damage in a hurry, not yet. Thus begins an interesting game of tag, wherein I try to find stairs down, and Intangast attempts to create an evening meal of half-orc flambe. This rather deadly game is marked by a moment where the aforementioned fire drake cashes in on a bit of incautious play: from 305 to 53 in one instant. Yike! Plan B is to “portal” about in frantic search for stairs down, never letting a resist fire/cold spell lapse: that’s the proof against a spell-failure mishap leaving me at the mercy of two successive breaths. This proves remarkably beneficial, as I find a path to stairs down that includes two Wisdom potions and a *healing. I ponder my inventory, decide to drop 10 CSWs for the *healing and move on. (I have 23 CCW at this moment, so I figure it’s worth the trade: as Intangast proves, I am moving into the realm of big damage-dealers.)

Lovely AAR, and good strategy. Ibun and bro are indeed lousy targets. Their drop rarely outweighs their damage to equipment and consumables. Mim is a better target IF You have good archery. DROP_GREAT is worth a little risk.
You'll be able to handle Itangast soon enough: a good bow, and some branded arrows or bolts. Those mid-level D's are righteous targets.

Ask enough questions, Angband will give you the answer, a casket, or both.
 

41 5-8: This level begins with what at first seemed like a reasonably swift mugging of Castomir, made a bit ugly by the appearance of a Maia. Chew through a Healing and CCW to make it work. Drop a dozen Mumak, bump to CL33. I never did figure out what the “8” feeling was: best I could guess was an artifact scale mail that has a decent con boost and +1 speed, pBlind and sustain. Thing is, I figured it was not worth dropping dragon armour (and losing 21AC and 230hp output in sound/shards for the extra 30hp. Was just about to leave when I realized one section of the floor was unexplored. Went over, killed black dragon, found potion of Con.

42: 4-3: Unremarkable, save for landing a ring that detects invisible. It goes on finger pronto. Save scroll of banishment for future use.

43: 5-3: Kind of boring. A Night Mare, bunch of dreads. I foolishly landed in a mess with an Emperor wight, lost XP, and then landed in trouble with a pack of dreads before bailing.
44: 7-2: I spent way too much time playing hide-go-seek with a beholder and black dragon, never quite able to make a clear dash for stairs down. Result? Bad draining, not from the beholder but a black wraith that I landed next to.

45: 6-5: It’s about time to find a few key mid-game necessities, like ESP. DE pulls up a death drake, and, thus forewarned, can skulk about a bit before pulling the portal-out routine. Keenly conscious of the fact that I can’t keep hitting the stairs every time the going gets tough, I work through a routine of chiselling away at the nasties, portalling out, resting as needed, and going back in. This nets a few good kills, and an artifact cloak with a few buffs, two dex potions, and a lot of tense moments- like being taken to 6hp by a nether-casting vampire left over from a dead necromancer’s summoning. Starting to think rNether might be a need in the next while.

46: 6-5. Remove Bjorn, and a bunch of bears, mumak and fire giants to go to CL 34. At this point, the acute lack of CON (zero magic buffs at all) is becoming acutely obvious. 14 isn’t cutting it. Much of the reason I’m bouncing around like a rubber ball is that 300hp vanishes quickly at this level. On a whim, enlighten – find a potion of con in a corner…. Fight there, run into Lorgan, bail. Teleport … right next to the room with con potion. Decide the dozen Hellhounds guarding it are too many and too tough, so use a scroll of banishment picked up ages ago to dispense of them. Quaff CON potion. Then rest, go back, dust off Lorgan in a nasty battle. He drops Dwarven bar chain mail, bail. Instant step forward. Don bar mail, buff con. Mail has frAct, so I can dump amulet that gives same, and wear other amulet saved … two dozen levels? Up goes DEX by a bucketload, and with it, damage output. Later – after teleporting away from a vampire lord left over from Lorgan, land into room with various critters in it. Clear that, find potion of toughness. CON natural is 15 – yeah, worth it. Drains dex, but not too worried. That will even out in time, and buffs really give solid dex (18/107) so worth bringing CON to natural 16 or buffed 18/20. HP now at 362 – 60 or so more than when I landed here.
Now, about that big special room with a buncha stuff in it… I take a bit of a gamble that a bow outside the open special room (should have taken screenshot) is something funky. It is. I bash through a dark elf and young white dragon to find a solid longbow: x5, (+7,+22) with +3 con and +1 light. I have kept arrows, and now use them to push out way more damage than shots gave. Only baddie in the room of note is Eol, who is TO’d. Heavy melee, including one dicey situation where HP falls low, invoking Portal. Chew through the mess, though. Nothing amazing shows up, other than a Toughness, which I drink. Poking about the remains, I find a set of gloves that boost dex, apparently dropped by Smeagol. Huh, I was pushing arrows out one after the other, and never noticed I’d killed the critter. But then, open two chests. One spits out a a cap that gives see +4 int, +6 Wis, frAct, see invis and iAcid, and the other a leather shield [8,+39] that gives iFire along with +1 Wis and +1 Infra. Also shoots 64-point lightning ball. End result? Immunities across all the four major elements. I make a calculated decision, now, and reclaim the Law Dragon scale mail. I lose a bit of AC and a few hit points, but get 220 hp ranged attack that isn’t often resisted, and rSound. I’m at that point where I feel a lot of heavy hitters require ranged attacks, and that stack of lightning bolt rods… their time is limited.

47: 7-6: The gains made from the level before make this an easy level. Knock off a master vampire with ease, and even an ancient multi-hued dragon seems …. less challenging. (pick up a pretty decent crossbow, drop old sling). Something keeps ‘porting me, presumably a quilythhwhatiz. Crack open a vault, defeat a storm wrym with little more than a CCW to end blindness. TO Quaker and a lesser balrog. Gain mithril arrows and a ring of +2 con. Don the con ring. HP go to 400. Just as I ponder the merits of taking on Quaker, it/he/she comes after me, so I figure what the heck. I know it drops nothing, but it’s one less unique and a bit of a test of the new toe-to-toe setup. Quaker drops after only one cautionary CCW. I decide to go balrog hunting, but find instead a death drake. It wasn’t there before? A bit more of a challenge, this, requiring a portal and heal before a re—engage, but at least it drops some magical crossbow bolts. Then I stumble on a gold dragon DE hadn’t picked up before. Only then to I have the Ahah moment …. A draconic quiltythingie. I’m a bit slow today. Back to balrog hunting, I find it … and it breathes when I come into sight, killing the draconic qulithgiveitaspellablename in the process. Sweet! Dumb that I am this morning, I forget the balrog can level drain. He sucks all but one charge out of my wand of TO before dying.

48: 5-3: What a difference the stuff from 46 makes. Now ancient red dragons are mere inconveniences, even if tag-teaming with a pair of gold dragons. Yaaaawn. From hunted to hunter – actively seeking out ancient reds and other nasties is a joyous relief from the skulk-and-run routines of just a few levels ago. Shadow drake falls in a heartbeat, drops potion of STR. Onward ho!

49: 7-4: Poking about, I soon gain the impression the place is … quiet. Too quiet. No critters to speak of, other than a cytoplasm and an orc captain with a few wargs for much of the first few hundred turns. Pair of blue dragons die, Int potion from one, dex from the other. What’s the seven? Where’s the nasties? I think it might be Waldern (not picked up by DE), who loses a lot of HP before a better answer emerges over his shoulder: a bronze golem, also not picked up by DE. Portal away before it gets ugly… well, no. I portal away after it got ugly, because it got ugly in a far-too-rapid hurry. Those things are nasty. I re-asses. Seven is not from the master vampire, who dies in several arrow blows and drops a potion of INT; Nor could seven be due to the two demons who guard the CON potion and the +4 con ring. I poke about, liberal use of DE. Something makes me blind, then bites me after three failed uses of the rod of curing. Fourth try is the charm and ooooooh. Ask enough questions, Angband will give you the answer, a casket, or both. Pardon me, my good drolem, but I have an urgent appointment somewhere – anywhere – else, ideally a place next to a set of down stairs.

50: 5-3: Potion of Aug in room with mages makes my day. Medusa proves a relatively easy challenge, although I played a bit riskily and let hit points drop a wee bit too low. Thank giggidy for the CON ring. Ancient Red Dragons are meh, now. Have to be cautious about being over-confident.

That Balrog got you good. Ouch. Your lovely new bow should help with charge drainers.
What do you have in the way of dungeon books at this point?

And no ESP or full detection. Are you carrying light rods? I find those more useful than lightning rods.

Yeh, books came late. Exorcisms didn't show up until 40, iirc. Etherial was the first dungeon book and you will read about it in the next dump shortly.

51: 5-7: Early mugging of an Ancient blue drops a +6 Dex ring. I don’t usually use such buffs, but this time, what the heck. It’s worth losing the 15 AC and ranged attack from the ring of lightning to give it a shot. Wander about, find ring of Therudel: +3 STR, Dex, Stealth, +1 light, bunch of resists including rPois. That frees up the glove spot (which had rPois) for the artifact gloves smeagol dropped: thing is, now the +4 wis buff from the mithril gauntlets of Naewe becomes a deal-breaker. Decision time: do I keep the blasted gloves of +3 dex? I think maybe not.

52: 5-3: Harowen the Black hand is the welcoming committee. He sucks back some scimitar damage then bails, leaving me with Ren the Unclean, who proves a remarkably easy kill. I’m having issues with evaluating my strength at this point, but I did not realize it until reflecting after. Ren drops a Potion of Augmentation, which just tastes like more, please. Beat up on a few minor monsters, then begin chase with Harowen, during which another Aug shows up. The eventual demise of Harowen is a bit anticlimactic: his drop of goodies includes three randart weapons, but nothing I want or need.

53: 9-5. No welcoming committee, so I go introduce my sword to a law drake and some demon brought to the world by a qullpleasenameitbetter.. Big vault. Crack open, mow down row of mumak. Eol only obvious baddie there, and falls quickly, although HP whittled. Heal and forge ahead Augh! Wolfhound. Thankfully, immunities help, but bail, heal and return. This time, Wolfhound is TO-ed out of there.

54: 7-6. Things moving along now. Etherial Openings … the first dungeon book. Gorlim – easy pickings. Drops nice cutlass, save as swap, and potion of Aug. Find Scatha, easy pickings also. It drops four (!) artifacts, three weapons, but none more useful than what I have. Demilich donates con potion. Leave Cl39, 725 hp. What an improvement in such a short time.

55: 4-3: This level does not require much time. Other than a lesser balrog – blink spells make it an easy battle – not much happened. Drolem went down in easy melee. Notable find: mushroom of vigor. Yawn.

56; 5-5: Unremarkable level. Bumped to cl40 killing demons summoned by dark elfin sorcerer.

57: 6-5: The foes seem … less challenging. Al-Pharazon summons a few things, but earthquake, a portal (wail and bail) ends his tenure; a lesser Titan also falls. One of them coughed up an Aug – can’t remember which.

58: 5-5: explored, found little of interest other than some nether hounds (bah). Left quickly.

59: 5-6: Anorahkil the blind is the welcoming committee, after a drolem Both go. Law drake drops Aug potion, which can only help int, wis, con as others are maxed already. Ifire makes a lava-filled special room an easy process. Find band of Eledas - +1STR, +3CON/Dex, +4 Wis, with some tunneling and light, +4 infra and iFire. I now have two sources of iFire.

Late in the game, you'll find DEX more useful than WIS, I suspect. Useful WIS maxes at 18/150 for a Paladin, but DEX is useful all the way up, with heavy weapons like MoD (HA), which is pretty ideal for the class.

60: 3-6: maze level, unremarkable. Even Bill, Bert and Tom are now “oh, did I kill a unique?” which means I’m above where I wanted to be. Not going to complain. I do make a decision here, to drop the set of gauntlets that give +4 wis and switch in Smeagol’s gloves that give +3 dex and moreover, +3 speed. Base of 10, but down one due to overweight (28 PD scrolls, can probably pare down) and the spare backup weapon. I have held onto those gauntlets with the +4 wis boost for a long time, and I debate dropping them. I just have a bad feeling that I will regret the decision, but do so anyway.

61: 4-3: Might have been the shortest visit of any level so far. Zipped around, found few critters, ate a mushroom of second sight which I couldn’t carry, and hit the stair down.

62: 5-6: ESP shows Kevlax as waiting committee. Guzzle potion of speed and get to work. Kevlax drops a decent shield with some buffs, but more importantly, the Band of Morathie, with +11 speed, +4 STR and +1 wis. That goes on a finger, immediately.
I move on to a catacomb room with lava and find Dwar, one of two uniques (the other is RogRog who died quickly). Dwar proves more of a challenge than Kevlax, but doesn’t give much. Room does have Godly Insights. Away go the rods of treasure location.
Now a word of self-reflective wisdom. Which is also an admission of bonehead stupidity. Funny thing about this game, it penalizes the kind of “this is getting easy” sentiment I’ve been expressing, in often deadly ways. It also penalizes non-thoughtful play. This comes to me when I’m taking on an Ancient multi-hued, and all of a sudden, I’m losing hit points in a hurry and I am not yet engaged in melee. Don’t get it. I have immunities to four out of five of what this thing breathes, and the …. oh. Crap. …. I have made an error. I have no rPois. It was on a ring I dropped to put on the band of Morathie! Frantically go back, get it. I look over my gear and my resistances, and discover my current “I nearly died” is tied to a blunter made many levels ago when I dropped the gauntlets that had +4 dex and …. rPois. So that +11 speed ring is utterly useless until I find a non-ring source of rPois. I can go fast, or go with CON, but not both. CON it be.
Just when I digest it all, and move on, Angband throws me another challenge. Now, det evil picks up Osse. And Shelob…..both, just west of the catacomb room. Sleeping for now, but … I can’t take two shots of nether from Osse, or ickybad from Shelob. I pause to realize I was just twenty moves away from Shelob when the ancient multi-hued exposed my lack of rPois. Shelob could have instakilled. I take care of Shelob, and bail on the level before a TO-ed and PO-ed Osse finds me.

63: 5- 5 Welcoming committee is Uvatha, and The Phoenix. I chug a speed, down Uvatha with almost no trouble. The Phoenix breathes fire (immune, remember?) and dies, dropping Holy Infusions. Nearby is a crown – an artifact. With rPois, rDis and +3 wis. Agh, but the cap I’m wearing gives pBlind and pConf. Ditching those gauntlets is now going to really hamper my game. Essentially, I need rPois from something else. I leave the crown: it’s no use to me. (And drops AC a ton). I poke about, feeling daft, quaff a Wis potion (ironic) and bail after an eye druj beats the tar out of me. I take solace in the fact 800 hp and +9 speed is still decent.

64: 6-6 finally find my first ESP item. A whip of “doesn’t squat for damage.” Draconic quiltingbug summons two wryms. I have to blink-heal-re-engage. >Find rod of TO, drop rod of acid bolts to clear space. Potion of XP drives me into L43. I find an amulet of ESP, take off the one that gives +2STR/+6Dex, but drop four banishment scrolls to make room. Find second rod of TO, blow up Ariel Queen of Air, (who destroys an Aug potion nearby, but all I’ve got left now is Int/Wis, so not a huge worry.

65: 6-5: This place is crawling with undead level drainers: liches, dreadmasters, dracoliches. Upon discovery, a few portals, a TO (of a dracolich near a potion of healing) and, realizing I am not going to find stairs, use teleport level to get out.

66: 8-6: Despite the level feeling, this goes well. Another catacomb room, with Adunaphel the Quiet. I ask her out for a date, but she proves rather high-maintenance and quite possessive, which is to say, she triggers a surprisingly lengthy and wide-ranging game of chase-the-half-orc. A liberal use of spells to keep distance proves the difference. She drops an etherial cloak with rPois, allowing me to shuffle rings, keep rPois and gain a natural base +20 speed from (finally) putting on that artifact ring with +11 speed.

67: 8-5: The 8 comes from dozens of undead and demons. I try to pluck some XP from a few of the less-dangerous ones and find it quite easy to defeat Hoarmorath with blink, orb and arrow. Hoarmorath dumps Purifications, so I drop the three rods of curing to make space. A dustup with a Titan suggests taking the +11 speed artificat ring off, because the other ring gives pBlind and pConf. This lesson comes at the cost of three or four CCW potions. Various critters and just-on-the-floor finds produce four (!) WIS potions. I leave with Wis pegged at racial max. CL 43. The level of nasty here, including various druj characters, merits a quick departure.

68: 4-5: catacomb level. I ponder blowing an Enlightenment to expedite decisions, but figure old-school works. Fundin Bluecloak is here, but he’s easily defeated with a pre-emptive “earthquake” to limit his summoning. A few heal spells mid-battle, and he dies. Disappointing (as in squat) drop.

69: 4-6: Smaug and Polyphemus are the uniques here. >Former goes down easy, latter not so much. Not much in the way of stuff here, so I move on.

70: 4-5: Great storm wrym drops mithril-shod boots of +10 speed. That’s a welcome boost. Osse is here, and that’s not good news, as I still have no nether resistance, and he’s quite fond of such things. It’s becoming clear that I may have to sacrifice an immunity to get rNether and some boosts to CON and STR. I TO Osse, clean up some gold dragons, and have a delightful tussle with the Balrog of Moira. Orbs at range and melee take care of it – have more problems with a summoned Gelugon. (I find those and Pit Fiends nasty things.)

71: 5-6” Time for some assessments here. Last night’s sloppy play has made things a bit difficult, but not insurmountable. The four immunities are nice, but I have to think of abandoning one (iElec, likely) to get something else. Holes: rNether. Need con, str buffs, better weapon. CL is decent, I have 28 levels to make up seven char levels. Let’s go find some vaults, shall we? I have enough enlightenmment potions to drink one almost every level, so that becomes the standard procedure, now. I enlighten, grab some Healing and *healing potions, quaff an Augmentation (which is really only +INT now) and move on quickly.

72: 7-6 Ah, juicy. Special room (one of those diagonal jobs) with Saruman and Uldor. Plan of attack seems simple: TO Sarumon and then get down to killing and pillaging. This works well (a Horned Reaper also joins the TO team.) Swap dragon mail for Dwarven mithril armor, pick up a helm that has no real properties, but has a staggering +44 AC. Nearby, Lernaen hydra, who desperately tries to turn half-orc into lava, but iFire makes battle easy. Still juggling resistances. If I could just find pBlind pConf somewhere, that big ring could get into action and base speed would be 30. Baphomet dies, with just one PD scroll and a mid-battle healing spell. A Maia/Ishtar locker proves the answer. One of them drops the ring of Tunaleng, which has +3 CON, pBlind,Pfear, pConf, +3 speed, iCold. Shuffling things around brings me to a base speed of 33, and 929 hp. All I need now is to boost damage output, reallly. Wandering about leads to a chance to tussle with Saruman. I do, and oddly, he doesn’t teleport away. He dies, with nothing interesting as drops, but his summonings include some pretty nasty uniques. Later, perhaps, fellahs. Teleport Level it is.

73: 5-6 No welcoming committee, but someone left a potion of Experience. Maybe they went to the latrine, whoever they were. I will go find them. Crack open a minvault, TO Khamul, pillage. Disappointing. Khamul finds me, dies quickly, drops a niiiiice set of caestus. +4 dex, (5,+11), which boosts damage output nicely.
74: 4-5: Catacomb level. It has one thing I want, one I do not. The first is a potion of experience and the second is Osse. I had to don iAcid cap to whack a bile demon barring access to the potion, and had to TO Osse. I come out at Level 46. Well, after losing a level to a time vortex, and using restore potion to get back. I hate time vortexes.

75: 5-3: Mission here is simple: enlighten, find desired loot, pillage and vanish. Snag *healing, two scrolls of banish, four PD scrolls, a few CCWs, and go down.

76: 4-5: In, out, nothing, move on.

Vaulting ahead
 

77: 8-7: Main feature here is a huge vault, has Ungoliant, Glaurung, Ormithrax, Witch-King and Radagast in it. Glaurung is the first to come out, and a toe-to-toe goes surprisingly quickly in my favour. I’ll spare the details of the mass melee that follows, but he drops an MOD of extra attacks that looks tempting, but I leave it as a “later” decision and focus on opening the section with Ungoliant. I do so,, then back off to the entrance, letting critters come one by each, to be taken care of likewise. When Ungoliant comes, I TO her, and go about plunder and slaughter. This goes well until I open the section with Ormithrax, and something sends me away – next to Ungoliant, in a monster big room. Earthquake it is, to minimize summoning, and thus begins a lengthy, unremarkable battle where I use one restore mana and a healing potion – that’s it for consumables– to whittle her 13,000 hp. Nothing dropped, but can’t win ‘em all. I go back to the vault, and Ormithrax meets me halfway. This is a nasty tussle, but the standard wail-and-bail battle plan – phase/blink out, heal, get back into action – is successful. Clear out fifth compartment of vault. Now to think about last section. Witch-king and Radagast, side-by-each with a few maias, blue wizards, etc. Witch-king drains xp on touches, Radagast summons and disenchants. Not going to tackle both. Plan, then, is to bore into the wall near Witch-King and then TO him, then tackle Radagast in confined quarters where he can’t summon, and maybe use summed nasties as a buffer to allow me to blow up Radagast with Orbs (backed by potions of restore mana).

Ever hear the military phrase, that no plan survives first contact with the enemy? So here’s what actually happened. Yes, I TO’ed WitchKing. Then all hell broke loose, because something told me to come hither, which, in fact, dropped me outside the vault. That meant Radagast and his minons flowed out of the vault into a hallway. He summoned a chaos hound, among other things. Grand. Fighting hallucinated ain’t fun… Something in the mix sucks back XP, and hp, so I phase. I heal, and then an ishtar sends me to a parallel hallway, where a waiting Greater Balrog tries to fry my butt. I heal, kill the balrog, and go back to the melee. Something – a quydamnthing teleports me into a corner. A corner with the witch king, who promptly zaps me a level of XP. I figure I’ve already lost a level, have to drink a restore, so screw it, beat the stuffing out of Witch King. Yeah, I get drained a ton, but one potion brings it all back, and Witch King isn’t coming back. Heal, teleport, track down Radagast, who has obligingly run ahead of his support crew. He dies, A quick go-over his drops shows nothing of any great interest, save a blade of chaos of Gondolin, which does put out better damage than my main weapon. I ponder it, but the support crew comes: Ishtars and Maias. I do not know which of the support crew had it, but one of the Ishtars drops maybe the best armour I have seen in a long time: the red dragon scale armor of Nielegion. (+6,+2) [24,+25] +4 dex, +4 Con, +3 speed resist acid, cold, elec, fire, poison, light, sound, nexus, nether (woo!) and disenchantment, along with pfear and sustain. Oh, and if activated, sends 150-dam lightning balls (balls!) in every direction. Can you spell “endgame ready?”

Oh, and I haven’t cleared out the Radagast/Witch-king corner of the vault. Let’s heal and go do that, shall we? Bah! Chaos hound breathes. That forces a decision. I teleport out, wait, then go and nab the blade of chaos for the next invasion, which is blandly not noteworthy, as are the drops in the vault. I have decisions to make, about rings, weapons and the like. Depending on how I shuffle, I can be anywhere from 24 to 33 base speed, 259 to 377 sp, and ac 234 or 250. I keep the scimitar (opting for reduced damage) but retain 32 base speed, and resists in all but chaos and stun.

78: 5-2: Two healing potions. No major baddies. In, out, done. Two minutes play time, if that.

79: 6-7 : Land east side of dungeon, Enlighten suggests southwest might have something. Random teleport and … wouldn’t you know: land right there. Ancalagon is there, breathes fire (hah). Should I take him/her/it? I mean, I have immunities to four of five of what he breathes. Of course I will. Ancalagon goes down easy. His summoned buddies, various wryms of law and chaos, … well the chaos wrym and great wrym of balance … both breathe chaos, back to back, taking me to 12 (gulp) hit points. I do not have rchaos. For the second time in this game, failing to heed a gap in resistances almost gets me killed. It should have, in truth. Gulp a *healing, bail, and play a bit smarter in terms of chiselling away at each, individually. That puts me to level 48, with 1022 hit points. I eventually get to Ancalagon’s drops. They are hefty artifact weapons, but again, nothing that makes me want to give up on the scimitar I am using now. Its +6 speed really buys it a lot of leeway…. Even over a big hammer with +2 attack speed. Down we go. My wish list is short: Wrath of God, mbans, *healing potions. Anything else, save potential end-game weapon in a vault, maybe, is just a distraction.

80: 5-6: Only thing of interest here is Faegwath, stuck in a comfy little four-critter vault with a pair of demiliches and a snake. Do I? Yeah, I do. He drains my dex, but dies. I restore it using magic. An artifact flail with 10d6 base damage looks nummy, but … but it’s not that great, surprisingly, even with its +1 attack speed. I do receive a valuable reminder from some plasma hounds that iFire doesn’t help against plasma.
81: 5-5: Nab potion of restore life levels, beat up on a wrym of law guarding stairs down, take stairs down. Quite the contrast in style: first levels, was going to every corner, trying to pillage xp. Now? Gimme the escalator, baby.

82: 5-4 No, actually, I do not feel nervous about this place. I do ponder the merits of a rod of speed over potions thereof, however. I mean really, I don’t need speed now, if I wanted to be really minimalist, but I have to think Morgoth and also the possibility that I will find a better main melee weapon at the expense of the +6 speed the scimitar offers. I then clue into something: I do not need Beginners. There is nothing in that book I need any more. Out go books, in comes rod. Problem solved for space…. I portal about, land in a room of orcs with Azog. I will let him live: the idea of one fo the big two summoning uniques and landing Azog and Farmer Maggot amuses the heck out of me.

83: 4-4: Wrym of many colours, dies; Draughlin in an easy tussle follows. Potion of healing to the good. In, out, done.

84: 6-5 Enlighten shows a rod of healing and a mithril shield. I don’t think I need a rod of healing but the shield might be something useful. I encounter four storm wryms, who contribute some XP, and a master mystic, who summons a jabberwock, who in turn dies and drops a potion of experience. OK. Nothing else merits attention.

85: 4-6: Enlighten shows nothing that grabs my attention. Mouth of Sauron is welcoming committee. Zap him with a rod of slow, speed self, drop several orbs. TO a summoned vampire lord, and engage in melee. He goes down, with disappointing drops. It’s not them, it’s me … I’m just picky. No idea what the “6” was. Found a potion of intelligence, drank it. Maxed on all racial limits now.

86: 6-6 I see a corner with a bunch of interesting items. En route an undetected Vargo jumps out and tries to make life miserable,which fails spectacularly. He dies, and I am almost at full hit points: it’s that kind of lopsided. Great wrym of many colours tries the same. At least it/he/she whittles some 280 hp before dying and dropping a potion of experience. Beat up on its neighbours, bump to 50. 1063 hp, 252 ac, base speed 33, 376 sp. All I need is Wrath to down Morgoth *or* a stack of destruction scrolls. Oh, and survive long enough to get there. I have 12 levels to find what I need.

87: 6-6: I decide to go go after Cantoras, in hopes he has something worthwhile. He does – an ethereal cloak that is a bit better than the “artifact” one I have, with rChaos. AC increases to 258, with only pStun and pShard missing. Elsewhere in the level is a locker of nasty level-draining undead. I figure it is not worth it to dry to defeat them.

88: 5-7: Do not let the “5” fool you down this deep. It means folks like Pazuzu waiting for you. (Kaput, zero consumables). Mop up, and find a trident that does respectible (better) damage versus demons. Ponder use, but here comes Atlas. His donation to the cause is a blah mace of distruption and a chaos dragon scale mail artifact that is a bit bulky, and doesn’t offer the speed the current model has. Kronos – his time is up. Mess of summoned demons from a balrog produces a nice longbow, however. +5 STR and a boost to wisdom pushes spell points to 401, and pegs strength, upping melee damage. Arrow damage drops but let’s be honest, at this moment, arrows are not the primary means of doing damage. So … a step up. I will keep trident as a swap weapon. I think my dream weapon would be am MOD of Slay Demon with extra attacks. Please? Right, next level …
89: 6-6 Land right next to a locker of all kinds of blue dragons, and …. Osse. Hmm. Osse. (think, think, think) Let’s teleport elsewhere, and ponder longer. Land next to a draconic quiltingcushion. Mop up, move on, find Maeglin. I get all excited when he drops a blade of chaos, even more excited when it’s an artifact, and … that’s … that’s it … when it’s identified. No major slays, no major buffs: just a fire brand. I poke about, and not much. So… Osse. So here’s my thinking. I have 11 levels to find something functionally better as a weapon. I have healing potions galore, speed, teleports. Let’s get at Osse. Battle goes well, with no consumables. He brings in a few ishtar and maia, but leaves this world quite quickly … and leaves …. nothing? Nothing? I killed Osse, and I didn’t even get a freaking t-shirt? Dragons go away quickly enough. I have, now, enough xp that I don’t care about level draining, so jettison the restore life levels potions I’ve been carting around.

A tatoo, then ? I killed Osse, and I never even got a lousy t-shirt. Talk about no ragrets.

Good read as usual :)

I suspected you'd regret dropping the ordinary banishment scrolls. Those are pretty useful against about 1/3 of Ma's summons (D and U, even the occasional W.) That character is way overpowered at this point, with 4 immunities and all major resists. rDark doesn't matter much for a Paladin. (Actually, not many resists do, with 5% heal backed up by over 1000HP.)

Oh where oh where can my spelllbook beeeeee.....
 

90: 5-4: Nothing of interest. Dump some phase door scrolls, as 40 is heavy and not needed. Not even sure I need more than a handful, to be blunt.

91: 5- 4 Ah, I have been waiting for this unique. The Tarrasque. Big test…. It blows disenchantment several times, forcing heals, but ultimately falls with only one speed as a consumable. Grab a *healing and move on, ignoring the locker of various multi-hued dragons and wryms of many colour.

92: 6-7: Clear out an under-staffed,and under-stocked vault, but ignore the locker of liches and vampires and move on.

93: 5-5: Vecna and Arien are the welcoming committee in a massive catacomb level. I drop an earthquake to minimize open areas, but that doesn’t stop Vecna from a ton of summoning. Arien fades after a long toe-to-toe. Lose Vecna, though, and decide I don’t want to melee his summoned friends, so teleport out to heal. Used one healing when things got dicey. And things got way dicey after that, with summoned nasties left right and centre. Used an Mban scroll to level the playing field, knocked offArien quite easily. Vecna was a bit of a tussle – again, hand-to-hand the best wayy of taking care of the guy. But he summoned Theringq… the vampire messenger critter and Gothmag. Used a hefty number of earthquakes, and burned three or four phases to keep space, trying to keep them apart. TO came in handy (rod and spell) several times. No amazing drops, but now there are a lot fewer heavy-hitting uniques for the big guns to call on. This would have gone much easier with a weapon that put out more damage …. Used a teleport level to bail, as all the TO-ed nasties were clogging the works.

94: 6-4 Hit 94 Enlighten…. wrathofgod wrathofgod …. bah. Nope. Huan, yes, something useful no. Nab a *healing, and move on

95: 7- 5 Enlighten…. Wrathofgod… wrathofgod…. Huh. A rapier, three phase doors, a fur cloak, a sword, three boxes of bellybutton lint. Huh. Oh, several roving bands of Horned Reapers, who of course, summon this, that and everything else. Place is soon swarming the various balrogs, lesser balrogs, the whole works. Teleport Level out….

96: 5-6: booooring. No major nasties, and nothing for loot and pillage. Move along rapidly. Starting to think how I can tackle the big two without a big stack of Runes or the Destruction from Wrath of God.

97: 5-5. Again, Enlighten shows me squat. Deathknight drops a special book! Yea.. crap. Insights. One more level to load up before the big guys.

98: 7-7. That’s more like it! A vault! Surely, there must be something juicy here. No uniques, but a few nasties. Cracking it open, there are a lot of traps – so blend in “unbarring ways” during the mayhem. A greater balrog is native: maybe it/she/he is carrying something. Of course, there are summoned nasties, and they get out of hand as they are wont to do. Phase away, heal, return. With a little time, they all go down, and the looting can begin. Problem with playing at way too late in the night, however, is that the brain … becomes less sharp. Which is why, right a the tail end of the looting (nothing of use) a small detail (that unbarring ways has lapsed) leads to a trapdoor and well, damn, now I guess it’s Sauron for breakfast.

99: 5-5. It takes a while to lure Sauron into conflict. First engagement is melee, in a hallway. Hit him with a rod of slow, quaff speed, a few Orbs, and then hand-to-hand. He summons Carchorath,, and I send the beast into TO time out. What follows is a surprisingly boring cycle of whack once, heal once. I really don’t want to falll below the 800-point threshold, because that’s trouble. Then again, three out of four elemental immunities mean I don’t have to worry about the ranged attacks other than Suaron’s mana storms. Somewhere in the mess, poor, brave, dumb Azog charged to engage, and died horribly due to a blast of fire from a multihued dragon and a mana storm from Sauron. (shrug). Drops were bland; heck, an emperor wight at least dropped an artifact maul. I go back to where battle began and find a Quouldwenamethethings better, who vanishes me into the time—out corner where I find Carchorath. Oh, breathing fire. How quaint.

100: I land right next to a locker full of all sorts of devils and demons. I do not wish to engage, and move 20 steps east when … big guy. Speed potion, prayer, and one of two runes. Morgoth summons liches, and takes one round to smack through the rune. Instantly, something drains almost every stat I have and takes me to 514 points. I read a PS scroll, and get out of there. I do not like how this begins. I feel pressured to quaff one of four “life” potions, then drop an earthquake on Morgoth, in part to limit summoning spaces. Engage, get hit hard with mana storm, PD out, heal to full. This time, I hit M with two bolts of slow monster. He summons liches, and while I am beating on M, they suck stats – again. Down instantly to 445 hp. I PD out, “restore” spell to return stats to where they were, two heals. I figure I have more restore mana potions (39) than potions of life. (3). Check speed – still at 38. Morgoth re-engages. Hit him with an Orb, then orb fails twice. (Gaugh). Melee, now. He smacks me with Grond, which does meagre damage. I’m OK with that. I poke him a few times. He is now down three stars, I’m in decent health, albeit surrounded by various undead. Ponder options.
Another round of combat, and now the hp and stats are looking suckky. Not sure what creature is doing this – no, it’s Mortgoth. New trick, I guess. Suffer a moment of “yiike” when portal fails, but suffer only a bit of damage before next turn (and that, folks, is why 38 speed is good). Portal away, do the restore-stat/heal thing. He comes back, we re-engage (after a speed potion to keep moving). He hits me, down go stats again. CON drain caps hp ceiling. I PD out, full heal. Undead now, I drop two dispel evils, waiting for Morgoth to come in range. Somewhere in here, I make a blunder, and I will never know what it is: a Great Wrym of balance breathes shards and I’m dead.
Just like that, over.

M has always had an attack that drains all stats. I wouldn't think it matters much for a Paladin with a large stack of ?PD and !rMana (assuming you did.)
And ? Banishment would have solved your little D problem there at the end... I always keep both kinds of scrolls. They are a lot more reliable than Banish Evil spell, which can suffer from the Tarrasque (etc), and from LOS issues from M's earthquakes (and that's assuming you find Wrath.)

Bugger, that's a bit shit.

I'm guessing you've had sustains in previous fights & just missed that he drains stats.

That's a valid conclusion... makes planning a bit different for future such escapades.

Never found Wrath. Had PDs up the tailpipe, and 40 rMana, so no issues there. I was watching hit points like a hawk, but I think I must have just lapsed a round, which you can't do against the big guy. I had mass banishment, which I had used twice, and had two left. I had a few game plans, one of which included using Rune - I've done that successfully before, and had the rune hold for several rounds. But I only found two ?rune, so that didn't work.

The lesson here: build a defensible plan based on *what you have* somewhere around 80, and do not alter that unless something better comes along. That said, I did have a reasonable plan: with forty rMana in the tank, the wail-and-bail, as mindlessly boring as it might be, ought to have been successful.

The other factor: never found a solid up front heavy-damage weapon. I went in doing, IIRC, 350/rd. I could have had a trident in hand that did 450, but that would have sapped 6 speed and a hundred mana points, as a main WIS buff came from that scimitar. A MOD of Slay Demon was on the wish list, let's say - but nope. Maybe going for the 32 base speed was the wrong plan?

Thing is, I made so many goofs on this trip, I was probably lucky to get as far as I did. Putting on that big ring and leaving rPois vacant,... But I guess that's the challenge with an ironman, right? Jugglin options without being able to leave the juicy backup items back home for the "just in case." Had that been available, the gauntlets that gave rPois and +4 wis would never have been abandoned.

I struggled with inventory spots for much of the last 35 levels. Only late did I realize that Beginners wasn't being used. The thing is, I was using one spell from the other books, frequently (portal, heal, TO, Tself, restoration)

What's needed is a packmule option for ironman players. Or a pack mumak: they have more hit points.

350 is adequate against Morgoth. It's not great, but the fight's absolutely doable especially with a class like paladin where you can just stand in melee indefinitely...so long as you can deal with Morgoth's stat drain and charges drain, anyway. :)

Had zero charged items, and the stat drain was easily solved with a "restoration" spell, so that was "meh."

350 dam/turn is terrible for a Paladin. 450 is more usual, and not all that hard to get.

A nice run! Ironman is fun. I use destruction vs M's summons at times. But then you MUST tele M away first. Not ideal if your dpr is low.

See my closest adventure below. Melee w less that 300 dpr. A shield of preservation vs stat drain would have been nice but left me with other vulnerabilities.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=21185

Oh. One thing more. I would never have survived the final fight with graphics. For that I need full visibility quite far away. Ascii and small font or big screen really helps in the final bout with P and his summons.

I have a pretty big screen, and truth be told, can't play ASCII. Old fart, I guess. I cropped the image for easy posting.

Oh, I guess I should do this, too, which shows the blunder in grand style.

You didnt need to carry 38 !mana.