The great adventures of Nimlorn

[Sky]

40th recall .. probably my last or second to last.

DL94:

i'm starting to think this greater vault thing will not happen. I fight Ulmo and get my XP drained, i zap my rod of restoration and when he's down to 1 star he manages to drain me again. i kill him but make no XP.

DL95:

i fail 3 out of 5 castings of a 9% fail spell.

DL96:

Balrog Pit. Huan jumps me as i rest from the MBan, and i start a terrible fight, involving all my Heal, both rods, and about 10 CCW. No drops.

I head to the Sainsbury to buy some coffee.

[Pete Mack]

I repeat: Huan is not that hard an opponent in current V. Fight him from at least 10 squares away. Even 5 squares makes a significant difference. Use TO, Rune, and Rift to keep your distance.

[Sky]

41st recall: i foolishly head down with only two Heal ...

DL96:

The Mouth Of Sauron. Caught in a vault without a lot of space, i slow him three times and melee him from inside a rune, blink twice, cast 2 more runes, and he finally dies, having summoned a single Black Reaver.

No drops.

DL97:

i descend right in the Tarrasque's face, and Tele Self. There are still a bunch of uniques alive that i don't feel like taking on just now.

DL98:

level feeling 4-6, just passing through.


INTERMISSION


see, normally i would just keep recalling until i find most of the artifacts, through greater vaults, or until i find enough uniques stuck in greater vaults. It's much easier to kill, say, ancalong, when he's got impassable walls all around him.

For this occasion only, i will risk it and go for the kill.

DL99:

a decently sized vault, which i can see because i blow a !Enlight because i dont want to waste time when Sauron is around.

And sure enough, he shows up, but i teleport him away.

I get to the vault, MBan, and Glaurung shows up. I Haste and then walk past him (he's awake and chasing me), hide into a recess, so i dont have to fight his summons, and rune down.
I land a stun with my first Shock Wave, and maul him good. He breaks my run, i re-stun him and lay another one.

He starts doing the dance, every other step moving out of sight, and i quaff a CCW every time. I land two more stuns, and he still hasn't summoned anything.
And while i'm fighting him, Ancalong (who was sleeping in the vault) joins his .. dad?

I melee him once more, and lay a third rune, which costs me a !mana. I TO Ancalong when i have a chance, and finally "The Father of Dragons" dies, having summoned 1 great wyrm, 1 ancient dragon, and 1 ethereal dragon.

I start going through the items in the vault, when Carcharoth shows up. I lay a rune, fight him a little, when he breathes first fire, which breaks my rune with a pool of fire, and then he breathes a massive breath which forces me to TO him.

Ok, whatever i needed to do here, it's done. I recall and prep for the last two fights.

I dont need to kill these guys .. Huan, i don't know how it went so easy. generally, he rips me apart. But Tarrasque, Carcharot, Vecna, are all morgoth-level fights. Sauron is much easier than any of these.

[Sky]

42nd recall ...

i'm still missing something. I want to get my dangerous resists covered, but can't because my pieces do not fit together.

I also have no weapon over 400 dmg for Sauron, and even worse, 290 dmg vs Morgoth.

I make an epic decision, swap out my bow of lothlorien for the crossbow, and i bring in the ring of archery pwng i found earlier. My DEX drops to 150 but everything else is fairly high.

Also, i have no bolts at all ..

i recall, and it's a cave level. No bolts at all. No mobs.

i chicken out and recall again.

43rd recall:

i just pray and return to the dungeon.

DL99:

i find THE ARTIFACT i have been waiting for. A scale mail with two major resists that i need .. i might be able to do this, after all.

but no bolts ...

44th recall. really, i need some bolts. is it too much to ask for? not like Holy Might or anything, just some plain old bolts ..

DL99:

finally a nice big vault. i find some bolts, and realize my ring of +2 Shots does not do much with my 4x crossbow.
i swap back to my bow.

last recall for sauron.

DL99: two vaults, i plan to raid them both before i take on The Sorceror.

The first vault, isn't a vault, but a graveyard. i MBan it, but nothing there.

I make my way to the greater vault, and find Cantoras, The Skeletal Lord, sleeping.
I lay down 4 runes, and prepare to rest and wake him, but Sauron shows up .. i TO Sauron, and test my 700 dmg/ round bow on him. It goes decently well.

I have to TO out The Phoenix and Vecna, but eventually i clear the vault .. nothing much in it.

Well, i find a Balrog pit, MBan it, and Sauron shows up .. no time like today, uh?

I lay down 4 runes and buff myself, then quaff a !mana. Here we go.

First good news, Sauron CAN be stunned. pfft, weakling. He fights me for a short while, then blinks.

Vecna, seeing his buddy in trouble, join in and stays behind. I find that my bow works very well and i nuke him.

I move around the dungeon and Suron shows up again. He has an uncanny healing speed, and on top of that, when he's down to 80% he summons. Now, Sauron knows how to summon, not like Glaurung or whatnot. He summons The Tarrasque and Huan. i TO the Tarrasque, but Huan breathes fire (i am immune) and .. they get stuck. I blink, but they do not follow me.

I lay down more runes than it's reasonable, and dig a hole to them.

He fights me for a while, i dump a ton of arrows into him, and he finally blinks.

Huan realizes he's supposed to be fighting, and tries to attack me, but i say no and teleport him away.

i walk around to entice Sauron, and he comes at me in a corridor .. i think maybe this is a good time. i dump all my arrows of Holy Might in him, and finally, with my LAST arrow, he screams an unearthly scream, and explodes in a million fragments.

[Sky]

DL100:

As soon as i touch the ground, Morgoth, The Enemy, show up. I bully him twice with my Teleport Other spell, as i want to see if there is anything around i can use to my advantage.

I see two vaults, one is a HUGE greater vault, completely open on the inside. Not a good idea.

The second seems smaller, and probably has a place where i can hide.

My gear for the final fight.

The Mace Of Disruption 'Kelthunth' (5d8)(+8,+12). +3 DEX, +12 Speed. Thank you Sauron.

a stack of CCW
15 Heal
18 *Heal
4 Life
25 Mana

i am at +47 base speed. 824 HP and 329 SP. CL45.

I make my way to the smaller vault and it's perfect. 8 small rooms of impassable walls, perfect for me to hide in.

I clean it, and i need to TO Morgoth many, many times. I can't imagine the state of the dungeon, after all his pass-wall.

i prep, put down 3 runes, and buff.


He doesn't show up after one too many TO, and i lay down EVEN MORE runes. I hold him back at 1-rune distance, and shoot my 700+ damage arrows. Keeping the best for last.

omg, this fight lasts forever.

i really did not have enough ammo, i finally ditch the idea of hiding in a corner and lay down a corridor of runes. i TO him whenever he shows up.

I then stay back, and shoot whatever arrows i have at him. 1110 damage / round vs evil.
i swap to bolts and crossbow when i run out of arrows.

i then TO him, go out .. and gather my ammo.

finally i have him down to 1 star, i break out my Rend Soul, and i nuke him like no mob has been nuked before. Morgoth tries his best, dishing out ridiculous mana storms, and massive summons, but finally, after an exausting battle, a scream erupts from his dark form, as the hand of Iluvatar himself tears his immortal soul from his body, and forever unmakes him.

Morgoth ceases to exist.

[Pete Mack]

Yeah, at cl 45 Mana Storm really isn't great. I usually keep Wands of Annihilation if I'm playing mage. They do something like 380 damage a shot for a high level mage. Use Mana storm if there's a mob of relatively weak monsters in the way.

[Sky]

i was curious, what is it that you do, aim wand, drain the whole pack, then Greater Recharge? do you use rods of drain life as well?


because .. aside from the fact i thought morgoth was not drainable .. he's not really "living", as in biological, anyway, doesn't this process destroy a few wands here and there?

also, you are carrying 1 more book, a stack of wands, possibly two (drain life + annihilation), maybe rods .. !healing, *healing, restore mana, mapping, heal rods, you don't really have much slots left .. for anything.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Sky

i was curious, what is it that you do, aim wand, drain the whole pack, then Greater Recharge? do you use rods of drain life as well?


because .. aside from the fact i thought morgoth was not drainable .. he's not really "living", as in biological, anyway, doesn't this process destroy a few wands here and there?

also, you are carrying 1 more book, a stack of wands, possibly two (drain life + annihilation), maybe rods .. !healing, *healing, restore mana, mapping, heal rods, you don't really have much slots left .. for anything.

Yep, use wands until they're empty, then recharge 'em. They'll blow up sometimes, so you need a backup, but they're a great source of damage while they last.

And why would you need space for stuff? You're not planning on picking up any loot, are you? It's the final fight!

[Pete Mack]

Yep, use them until there are fewer charges than the number of wands in your stack, and recharge. (You don't have to go to zero.) I don't bother with rods because you rarely get enough to make a significant difference. And Morgoth is neither elemental, demon, golem, nor undead, so he is vulnerable to drain life. (Is Gandalf alive?) You'll usually get a stack of around 5 annihilation, and a dozen or so drain life. The latter's only useful if you are really low level; it only does around 250 dam/turn, which is worse than the average spell damage of Chaos Strike at cl 43.

[Malak Darkhunter]

very fun read!