Adventures of Ethyliel, the Sorceress

[Ycombinator]

Ethyliel II is a dunadan mage currently exploring the deepest levels of Angband. During the last trips to the dungeon she encountered a number of powerful summoners, and none of these fights ended well...

First one was with the Witch-King. He was in the vault with Feagwath and Ungoliant, but Ethyliel managed to lure him out. Almost immediately he summoned greater demons including Pazuzu. She banished and tried to separate two uniques, but a few turns later Pazuzu summoned greater demons once more. Searing flash shatters the rock of the dungeon. The sorceress decided not to take the risk.
Then she met Uriel. "It can't be too hard with fire immunity. Netherbolt him to death!" He answers with mana bolt and summons a bunch of angels including Gabriel. "Hm, that's not good, but look at this nice line of angels. Rift!" Voices of pain filled the dungeon and lesser angels were scattered around, but two uniques stood their ground. And one of them summons Azriel. Ouch. All three unique angels in front of her, and she lacks rNether. "Sorry, guys, see you next time!" Destruct.
The third fight was with the Great Wyrm of Chaos. Ethyliel needed ~10k exp points to reach lvl 42, and all she saw with her greedy eyes was a big, sweet bag of experience. She decided to kill the dragon with crossbow. "Seeker bolts of venom, 700 damage/hit, it will die fast." She rearranged some jewelry to get chaos resistance, casted haste spell, quaffed !Heroism and charged. The problem became evident when the dragon was hit only by fourth or fifth bolt. Her shooting skill wasn't nearly as good as required to hit such a heavily armored beast. Ethyliel fired a few more bolts in hope for series of consecutive hits, but RNG was clearly on the dragon's side. Huge angry dragon was only slightly wounded and approached quickly with unfriendly purpose. "I still have some magic for you. Rift!" But the dragon apparently had some elemental power for her too: chaos breath hits hard despite resistance. Use _Healing, rift again. Great wyrm disappears, but returns soon. It walks around the corner and immediately summons ancient dragons... including Glaurung and Ancalagon. Exponential summoning, huh? That's interesting, but the pits of Angband are not the best way to stumble upon mathematical concepts. She teleported away the great wyrm and uniques. One big 'D' remains round the corner. Who's that? Great Wyrm of Perplexity? Oh, come here. Poor dragon put up a good fight, but he was no match against the sorceress. Finally she reached much wanted lvl 42 and immediately tried out mana storm on sleeping killer beetle nearby. And who wonders why angels and Huan seek to destroy @? Our heroine retains the spirit of proudest kings of Númenor (this didn't help Ar-Pharazôn to avoid death from her hands, though), and seeks nothing but the establishment of the new world order. She also wants to avenge the death of Methyliel, another sorcerer from The Fellowship of Benzene Ring who rose against the world, but was slain by the mindless beast.
So Ethyliel went further just to find a crowd of roaring big cats. Gravity beams ripped them apart making wide corridor to the strange creature in the center. Smiling tenderly, Ethyliel literally withdrew the soul of the Cat Lord casting nether bolts with menacing frequency. (Actually, she likes cats and suffers from the need to exterminate them. Can we have a command to stroke little 'f's in town? And give them PURR attack, please!)

[Ycombinator]

I'm sorry, but it's hard to keep up this third person style when nothing spectacular happens in the dungeon.

Witch-King, Pazuzu, Uriel and Gabriel were all caught alone and brutally killed. I guess they forgot to pay The Angband Transportation and Teleportation bills.
Gothmog decided not to summon too. Well, relying on breath against @ with fire immunity was a big mistake.

Khamul apparently has cruel enemies in the dungeon. I found him in this position:

#########
@     :W#
#########

Or is it just some tradition of wraiths, to bury themselves in rubble? Anyway, he woke up with mithril bolt of lightning sticking in his side, and soon was put out of his misery.

Finally I've taken my precious *Healing* potions and started the hunt on mana stormers. After killing The Mouth of Sauron and Vecna on one level I decided it's time for semifinals. I returned to the town, took all healing, switched from =CON+5 to this aggravating artifact ring for its huge to-hit bonus, and descended to dlvl 99.

The Ring of Naudhweno (+16,+5) (+3)
     +3 strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, 
     charisma, infravision, tunneling.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, fear, 
     blindness, sound.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Sustains intelligence, wisdom, dexterity.
     Prevents paralysis.  Aggravates creatures nearby.  
     
     When activated, it brands bolts with fire, in an unbalanced fashion.

Obviously, I planned to use mostly bolts of acid. Sauron teleported himself a lot, and I had to search for him in the dungeon over and over. I feared that regeneration can kick in, but his HP decreased steadily. I teleported myself only once, when he summoned uniques including Kronos, Ungoliant and Carcharoth. Taking two turns to teleport Sauron first and then destruct could be deadly. Finally, the last bolt of acid hits fleeing Sauron in his back... magical staircase appears... What's that, single object lying on the floor? Pick of digging?! The most disappointing drop *ever*. I wished I can inscribe it {of Sauron} and sell to the local museum as an artifact.

The final battle is near. I need to farm some healing and maybe level up a bit. I won't risk shooting at Morgoth. The floor of the dungeon will be scorched by mana storms and chaos strikes, and only one will survive.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Ycombinator

The Ring of Naudhweno (+16,+5) (+3)
     
     When activated, it brands bolts with fire, in an unbalanced fashion.

Did it really say that? "in an unbalanced fashion"? Someone writing code has already noticed that branding is unbalancing.

[Ycombinator]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

Did it really say that? "in an unbalanced fashion"? Someone writing code has already noticed that branding is unbalancing.

Yes, it does. I wonder what is the reason behind including this activation effect and describing it like this. It's not used on any standard artifact.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Ycombinator

Yes, it does. I wonder what is the reason behind including this activation effect and describing it like this. It's not used on any standard artifact.

Maybe it is remnant of Cubragol activation. It used to have brand bolts activation instead of having brand as feature of the shooter.

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

Maybe it is remnant of Cubragol activation. It used to have brand bolts activation instead of having brand as feature of the shooter.

Correct. It's the old Cubragol activation, which no longer appears in the standard game. It can appear on randarts, like any other activation - but it has a high power rating, so it doesn't appear often.

[Ycombinator]

It was too boring to scum for !*Healing* and I decided to try it with limited healing supply: 6 !Healing, 2 !*Healing*, 2 !*Life*, 1 _Healing (4 charges, recharged many times). One thing I had abundant was !RMana: 13 of them or so, plus 2 _Magi. It was usual "chaos stirke -> summon -> banishment/mass banishment -> mana storm -> healing" cycle, but at some point I understood that I'm really running out of healing. And with one emergency !*Life* I employed the following tactics: teleport self after mana storm and spam CLW spell. Morgoth regenerated a bit while traveling from one corner of the dungeon to another, but stars disappeared one by one nevertheless. And finally he bites the dust.
This is my first mage winner and my fastest winner so far.

P.S. I killed Huan without rSound and rShards, and also killed Carcharoth and Azriel without rNether. That was kinda fun :-)

[Ycombinator]

I laughed a bit at the artifact spoiler. RNG managed to come up with thematic artifacts.

The Small Metal Shield of Rogrog (+15,+2) [4,+20]
-------------------------------------------------
+3 intelligence, dexterity, charisma, stealth.
Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, poison, fear, chaos.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Slows your metabolism.  


Min Level 43, Max Level 127, Generation chance 1, 6.0 lbs

Too bad it wasn't dropped by Rogrog himself, this would be really fun.

The Set of Mithril Gauntlets of Arwen (+3,+3) [5,+20]
-----------------------------------------------------
+3 strength, infravision, speed.
Provides immunity to fire.
Provides resistance to lightning, fear, disenchantment.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Sustains intelligence.
Slows your metabolism.  Speeds regeneration.  Aggravates creatures nearby.


When aimed, it allows you to breathe confusion for 120 damage.
Takes 132 to 242 turns to recharge.

Radius 1 light.

Min Level 42, Max Level 127, Generation chance 1, 2.0 lbs

Wow, it looks like the daughter of Elrond was quite skilled in combat...

The Large Metal Shield 'Beria' [8,+18]
--------------------------------------
+4 intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, speed.
Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, chaos, disenchantment.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Feather Falling.  Prevents paralysis.  


Min Level 45, Max Level 127, Generation chance 1, 13.5 lbs

This one is missing activation for banishment (I hope no one is offended by bitter historical humor here.)

And this one is simply the big-dice super-weapon:

The Cutlass of Calohtar (7d8) (+21,+28)
---------------------------------------
+3 strength, wisdom, constitution, charisma, tunneling.
Slays evil creatures, orcs, trolls.
*Slays* dragons, demons, undead.
Branded with flames, venom.
Provides resistance to acid, light.
Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
Blessed by the gods.  Prevents paralysis.  Grants the ability to see
invisible things.  

When aimed, it creates a lightning ball with damage 64.
Takes 90 to 162 turns to recharge.


Min Level 52, Max Level 127, Generation chance 1, 7.2 lbs

[Derakon]

Holy cats, my priest could use that scimitar. 60 base damage/hit not counting external damage bonuses, and more than half of that is dice damage for some massive slays.

But nope, instead he found the Mattock 'Dildo'. Not even kidding.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Derakon

But nope, instead he found the Mattock 'Dildo'. Not even kidding.

Good thing I'm at home this time so no one was watching me laughing like a crazy person.

Seriously, though, that name should not exist. Kids play this game and if they google for "which character has this name" they end up looking at rather dubious pages...