ToME WikiDayInTheLifeArchive - Agrelaa, part 1 - /part2
Contents
Agrelaa, Male High-Elf Loremaster
Agrelaa is a High-Elf Loremaster in ToME 2.3.4. He follows the style of my previous character, Forewyth. My strategy combines Archery, Summoning and Symbiosis.
Goal - to reach and explore the bottom of the Barrow-downs
Prologue
My last character, Forewyth, knew the ways of Corpse-preservation. The green-icky thing left a corpse; she hacked it for ten raw meats. It was her habit to eat the meats of corpses in the Barrow-downs, to supplement her diet of food rations. She recalled how, while starving at BDw 1 and failing to find a way out, she saved herself by eating the meat of a white icky-thing. Now, she swallowed one of the ten meats of the green icky-thing. The acid quickly became far more painful than the attack of any monster. She died there on BDw 8, as a sudden victim of my flawed strategy.
Since I started playing ToME, I have used ttyrec to record my games, and I have left documentation at http://kernigh.pbwiki.com/ToME and upon the Angband ladder. Now I want a better plan. I now choose to log, for the first time, a day in the life of a character. This will also be a log of the activities of myself the player. Here is my strategy.
Health for Agrelaa - I will provide Agrelaa with an ample supply of food, cures for wounds, and methods of escape. This supply will typically contain food rations or scrolls of satisfy hunger, potions of cure serious or critical wounds, teleportation scrolls, and recall scrolls.
Respect for items - I will seek good equipment from the loot of Agrelaa. I will carry items from the dungeons or buy it in Bree. I will understand that I must identify or *identify* certain items. I will favor armour, then ammunition for my current launcher, then weapons. I will dump or destroy unimportant items to carry important items.
Experience points - I will kill hostile monsters. I will assign skill points to Archery, Summoning, Symbiosis, then to other necessities, such as to Magic when I need more mana.
Amendments to strategy - I will adjust this strategy to meet the requirements of ToME. I will note failures to implement this strategy.
My goal is to reach and explore the bottom of the Barrow-downs. Though the "Adventurer's Guide to Middle-earth" describes the Barrow-downs as "a fairly safe and simple dungeon", I have never reached the bottom during all my games of ToME.
Bree
This is the 43rd Yavie of the 2890th year of the third age. The time is 6:00 AM. The sun has risen.
Agrelaa begins with a Quarterstaff (1d9), a Sling (x2), a Hard Leather Armour [6] and 22 Rounded Pebbles (1d2). I move to equip them. He also has 3 Rations of Food, 4 Wooden Torches and a parchment of the Adventurer's Guide.
I rolled a CON of only 12, but my other stats are at least 15. Perhaps CON is the most important stat, but with only 12 there, Agrelaa still has 18 hp. Unfortunately, I do not expect to find any way to increase my CON.
Name : Agrelaa Age 118 STR: 15
Sex : Male Height 102 INT: 17
Race : High-Elf Weight 192 WIS: 15
Class : Loremaster Social Class 36 DEX: 18
Body : Player CON: 12
God : Nobody CHR: 20
+ To Melee Hit 2 Level 1 Hit Points 18/ 18
+ To Melee Damage 0 Experience 0 Spell Points 0/ 0
+ To Ranged Hit 2 Max Exp 0 Sanity 10/ 10
+ To Ranged Damage 0 Exp to Adv. 24
AC 6+2 Gold 100 Speed Normal
(Miscellaneous Abilities)
Fighting : Bad Perception : Bad Blows/Round: 1
Bows/Throw : Bad Searching : Bad Shots/Round: 1
Saving Throw: Fair Disarming : Bad Mel.dmg/Rnd: 1d9
Stealth : Fair Magic Device: Bad Infra-Vision: 40 feet
Tactic: normal
Explor: normal
I look carefully at the skills of the high-elf.
- Combat 01.000 [0.700]
. Weaponmastery 02.000 [0.700]
. Archery 03.500 [0.700]
. Barehand-combat 01.000 [0.700]
- Sneakiness 01.300 [0.700]
. Stealth 05.000 [0.700]
. Disarming 01.400 [0.700]
- Magic 00.000 [0.600]
. Magic-Device 03.000 [1.000]
- Spirituality 11.000 [0.700]
. Prayer 00.000 [0.500]
. Music 00.000 [0.300]
- Monster-lore 01.000 [1.100]
. Summoning 00.000 [0.500]
. Corpse-preservation 01.000 [0.700]
. Possession 00.000 [0.500]
. Symbiosis 00.000 [0.500]
. Mimicry 00.000 [0.500]
Experience points become important. As of now, Agrelaa has no skill in Summoning nor Symbiosis, and no mana. If Agrelaa could reach experience level 2, then I could enable Summoning and Symbiosis and put points in Magic.
Outskirts of Bree
I decide to let Agrelaa wander out of Bree without purchasing anything; I will save the 100 AU because I may need to buy more ammo later. Northwest of Bree, Agrelaa encounters his first opponent, a newt. Your ancestors have killed 22 of these creatures. A small, harmless lizard. But I know to be careful, I have suffered death-by-newt before. I decide to switch tactics to berserker, running and to use the sling.
+ To Melee Hit 10 Level 1 Hit Points 18/ 18
+ To Melee Damage 12 Experience 0 Spell Points 0/ 0
+ To Ranged Hit 10 Max Exp 0 Sanity 10/ 10
+ To Ranged Damage 0 Exp to Adv. 24
AC 6+-23 Gold 100 Speed Fast (+4)
(Miscellaneous Abilities)
Fighting : Poor Perception : Very Bad Blows/Round: 1
Bows/Throw : Fair Searching : Very Bad Shots/Round: 1
Saving Throw: Bad Disarming : Very Bad Mel.dmg/Rnd: 1d9+12
Stealth : Bad Magic Device: Bad Infra-Vision: 40 feet
Tactic: berserker
Explor: running
After several shots, the newt dies, however a chaffinch approaches my high-elf as I recollect my ammo. I kill it with one shot. After recollecting ammo, I find that he has 2 experience points and 21 Rounded Pebbles. If Agrelaa hunts some more newts, then he should reach experience level 2. After a few more kills, including two giant black ants for 16 experience points each, Agrelaa receives six skill points. I advance Magic, Summoning and Symbiosis.
- Magic 01.200 [0.600]
- Monster-lore 01.440 [1.100]
. Summoning 01.000 [0.500]
. Symbiosis 01.000 [0.500]
North of Bree, Agrelaa kills some jackals and acquires a first totem, a partial totem of a jackal. I think that another totem might be useful, so Agrelaa watches some nearby giant white mice as they breed. However, he wanders too far to the north, and loses the entire population of mice! But he finds another giant white mouse, and it multiplies. Meanwhile, he reaches level 3.
- Combat 01.700 [0.700]
. Archery 04.900 [0.700]
- Monster-lore 01.880 [1.100]
. Summoning 02.000 [0.500]
. Symbiosis 02.000 [0.500]
Agrelaa watches as the enemy mice fill several sectors. Strangely, the mice decide to attack other monsters, and some 't' and 'B' and 'C' die. The mice do not fight themselves. Once they approach the wall of mountains in the east, Agrelaa starts a fight. Agrelaa summons mice, jackals and ants to fight the enemy mice. Because the enemy far outnumbers Agrelaa's forces, it is not possible to win the fight. Further, I notice that Agrelaa gains no experience whenever the summoned pets kill anything. However Agrelaa does accumulate 39 partial totems of a giant white mouse and 1 partial totem of a silver mouse from the dead corpses of the enemy. When the sun sets at 6:00 PM, I send Agrelaa back to Bree.
Bree
This is the 43rd Yavie of the 2890th year of the third age. The time is 7:00 PM. It is early night.
Agrelaa enters the black market of Tipo the Fair(Human). Agrelaa carries 263 gold, not enough to buy anything except for one or two scrolls of holy chant, which I do not want. Agrelaa announced himself to the shopkeeper. "My ancestors would sell surplus totems at the black market in Bree."
Tipo the Fair: "Totems are those things that Summoners use to summon monsters? I do not know much about them. However, I do buy totems. There is no legitimate store that purchases them."
So they negotiate, and Tipo agrees to buy totems for 28 gold each. Agrelaa retains one totem of a giant white mouse and one totem of a giant black ant, but sells the other totems. Agrelaa now has 1383 gold. I expect to equip Agrelaa well for the first trip into the dungeon.
Agrelaa's next stop is the mayor's office. Uldrik(Human) comments, "A quarterstaff and a sling? You might be an adventurer. Let me show you something."
Uldrik points toward a wall of posters. The first reads, "The Greatest of all the Human" at the top, but is otherwise empty. The next reads, "The Greatest of all the Half-Elf" above another empty space. "There is one poster for each race that is said to adventure," explains Uldrik. "However, the legends of Bree record only two adventurers, and both were high-elves." Upon the poster labeled "The Greatest of all the High-Elf", the list contained:
- Forewyth the High-Elf (Level 14)
- Bendatram the High-Elf (Level 2)
"I am Agrelaa the High-Elf," my character explains, "and I have reached level 3. Forewyth and Bendatram were my ancestors."
Uldrik: "When Forewyth was around, this town's shops had a supply of loot from the Barrow-downs. However, when he died in the dungeon, time began to flow backwards, and her accomplishments became undone. There are thieves robbing my people! They live in a small burrow outside the city walls, but they get inside the walls with a tunnel to a building here! That particular building was once the home of Forewyth, who had abolished Bree's last set of thieves. When she abandoned her home, a new group of thieves took the old hiding places. It is for this reason that I need your help. Your task is to go into the building and kill these ruffians. I wish that Bree would be safer again."
Forewyth: "It is my mission to go to Mirkwood, and to reverse the spells of the Necromancer in Dol Guldor. However, I will be training in Bree for a long time. Perhaps I will attack your rogues while I am here."
Uldrik: "Our town has a small economy, and no watchguard of its own. I have to rely on the people to keep the peace. May you be among the best of the high-elves."
As I listen to this story-telling and quest-giving, I wonder what Uldrik really believed of adventurers. It may seem that an adventurer is a menace, who goes around town, murdering the beggars, drunkards, idiots, and the occasional shadowy merchant or mercenary to loot their gold. However, no one cares about that segment of the population. I am sure that Uldrik and others do not want to be drooled on or robbed of their gold as they walk around Bree. Uldrik had just asked for death of one group of thieves; Middle-earth seems to lack both courts and a justice ministry.
However, before I might tackle the thieves, I have a more immediate concern. I want to travel into the Barrow-downs and find a symbiote for Agrelaa. He would have to do some prepatory shopping. So I think about my strategy from the prologue of this document. Health for Agrelaa, respect for items, experience points, I recall. So I lead Agrella into the shops of Bree.
At The Prancing Pony, I buy 9 food rations.
At the General Store, I sell my torches and buy a lantern and a cloak.
At the Armoury, I trade 641 gold for a Metal Cap [3, +5]. I buy leather gloves and soft leather boots. I sell my hard leather body armour and buy a soft studded leather, to remove the (-1 to accuracy).
At the Weaponsmith, I sell my Quarterstaff (1d9) and buy a Tulwar (2d4), to free one arm for a shield.
At the Armoury again, I buy a small leather shield.
At the Temple, I buy 2 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds.
At the Alchemy shop, I buy 2 Scrolls of Teleportation.
At the General Store again, I buy a pick. I buy thirty iron shots. Agrelaa now has 107 gold.
Agrelaa rests at the inn, so that the shop inventories will change. After Agrelaa awakes at 6:00 AM, I finish my shopping.
At the General Store, I sell my two remaining rounded pebbles. I sell my pick and buy a shovel to save weight. There are no potions of oil, so I buy two more brass lanterns.
Agrelaa eats at The Prancing Pony.
- Agrelaa extracts a totem from a scrawny cat corpse and sells it to the black market. Agrelaa now has 41 gold.
This equipment gives me an AC of 22, using normal tactics. It should last through several dungeon levels.
Equipment: carrying 81.8 pounds (96% of capacity). Command:
a) | Wielding : a Tulwar (2d4) (+0,+0) 10.0 lb
d) } Shooting : a Sling (x2) (+0,+0) 0.5 lb
e) On finger : 0.0 lb
f) On finger : 0.0 lb
k) Around neck : 0.0 lb
m) Light source : 0.0 lb
n) ( On body : a Soft Studded Leather [5,+0] {25% off} 9.0 lb
o) ( About body : a Cloak [1,+0] 1.0 lb
p) ) On arm : a Small Metal Shield [3,+0] 6.5 lb
s) ] On head : a Metal Cap [3,+5] 2.0 lb
u) ] On hands : a Set of Leather Gloves [1,+0] 0.5 lb
x) ] On feet : a Pair of Soft Leather Boots [2,+0] 2.0 lb
z) Symbiote : 0.0 lb
{) { Quiver : 30 Iron Shots (1d4) (+0,+0) 15.0 lb
|) \ Using : a Shovel (+1) 6.0 lb
However, my inventory limits me to 2 potions of CCW, 2 teleportation scrolls, and no recall scrolls. It may not be safe to go below BDw 1.
Inventory: carrying 81.8 pounds (96% of capacity). Command:
a) , 10 Rations of Food 10.0 lb
b) ! 2 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds 0.8 lb
c) ? 2 Scrolls of Teleportation 1.0 lb
d) " a Partial Totem of a Giant white mouse 1.0 lb
e) " a Partial Totem of a Giant black ant 1.0 lb
f) ~ a Brass Lantern (with 7342 turns of light) 5.0 lb
g) ~ 2 Brass Lanterns (with 7500 turns of light) 10.0 lb
h) ? a Parchment - Adventurer's Guide to Middle-earth 0.5 lb
I have completed the chores of preparation. It is time to visit the Barrow-downs.
Barrow-downs 1 to 2
This is the 44th Yavie of the 2890th year of the third age. The time is 6:19 AM. Morning has broken.
I can only wonder at the construction of the Barrow-downs. They who built this dungeon had to construct many rectangular rooms amid a completely dark forest. I am very sure that they involved some magic, because a light falls from above into each room, even during the night. The corridors between the rooms pass through completely dark regions of tree trunks and stone blocks. Using a shovel, Agrelaa may dig a way through the trees, but the stone is completely impassible.
Agrelaa has heard rumours that the Barrow-downs began as a tomb of men during the first and second ages, but later fell under the evil of some follower of Morgoth. I am not sure of the truth of these rumours. If Agrelaan ever reaches the bottom of the Barrow-downs, then I may learn more of the truth.
For now, I must constrain Agrelaa to the top two levels, because he has no recall scrolls. So he enters BDw 1 to collect loot, then proceeds to BDw 2. Then he passes through BDw 1 to return to Bree. This part of the Barrow-downs receives only occasional patrols by kobolds, yeeks or novices. The greater part of the monster population consists of animals and fungi. If Agrelaa kills some of them, then he receives experience points. Agrelaa tries his tulwar, his sling and his totems. He reaches experience level 4, and I upgrade Summoning, Corpse-preservation and Symbiosis. This takes Symbiosis to level 3 and enables Agrelaa to charm never-moving pets, so that he would have pets to hypnotise and wear. When Agrelaa uses Summoning to kill monsters, that does not produce experience points for him. He can use Symbiosis, but that stops working whenever the grey mushroom patch or grey mold dies. Thus I find that it is sometimes best for Agrelaa to use the sling. It can be frustrating to sling the iron shots at a snake and miss repeatedly, or to have iron shots break apart or disappear into hiding places. Agrelaa entered the dungeon with 30 shots, and left the dungeon with only 5 iron shots. However, Agrelaa did not use any CCW potions or teleportation scrolls, so I retained 2 of each of those.
Bree
This is the 45th Yavie of the 2890th year of the third age. The time is 3:43 AM. It is early morning, but still dark.
Agrelaa arrives in Bree to sell loot. I start by selling the unidentified potions and scrolls. Mauser the Chemist(Half-Elf) runs the alchemy shop. As I sell scrolls, Mauser identifies them and yells "Darn!" or glares at Agrelaa. As Agrelaa sells the last scroll, Mauser whispers, "How dare you! I will not buy that!" Agrelaa replies with a reminder that Mauser agreed to pay 17 gold for this last scroll. After Agrelaa takes the gold, Mauser notices that he has bought a scroll of darkness. "Arrgghh!" I try to repair the relationship by having Agrelaa drop 300 gold for 5 identify scrolls. By the light of the lantern, I identify three {good} items and two staffs.
- a Morphic Oil of Mouse
- a Staff of Disarm[1|10] (21 charges)
- a Staff of Disarm[1|10] (20 charges)
- a Catapult Trap Set (+7,+1) [+2]
- a Fumes Trap Set [+5]
Agrelaa returns to the black market of Tipo the Fair(Human). "More totems?" inquires Tipo. Perhaps Tipo recognises Agrelaa as the sort of low-level adventurer who will sell but who cannot afford to buy.
Agrelaa: "Here are the totems, and I also have some trap sets."
Tipo: "I can certainly buy trap sets. Bree does not have a trap store yet, so you should always bring those here." Agrelaa sells the totem first, and the last one is a partial totem of a boil-covered wretch. Tipo leans closer to Agrelaa and whispers, "You have no more Black Potions of Death."
Agrelaa: "So I killed one resident of Bree. If you drool on a high-elf then you can expect consequences!"
Tipo: "Are you selling the trap sets?" Agrelaa sells the sets. The catapult set yields 243 gold, while the fumes set yields 129 gold.
Agrelaa looked over at a great length of rope, accompanying a small pick and some assorted screws and hook. It was on sale for 122100 gold. "Why would anyone pay a hundred thousand gold pieces for that?"
Tipo explained, "See that is a Climbing Set. You hook that rope to a small cliff, and you should be able to climb up or down. It would be essential if you wanted to explore the mountains east of Bree. Actually I checked at the mayor's office earlier today, and it seems that this town has never encountered an adventurer that would be wealthy enough to buy it. Last time you came in here, you did not have most of the armour on you, but you seem to be not elf enough to pay for this set."
"Yes, the only ones on the list were Bendatram and Forewyth, and they were my ancestors," Agrelaa disclosed, referring to the lists at the mayor's office. "The mayor has set up a line of posters, with one of each race, as if an ent or maia would ever come to Bree."
"Well, I have this theory," Tipo injected. "You never bought anything from the shop, but I will tell you this for free. I think that the mayor's office is trying to turn Bree into a destination for new adventurers. They think that the Barrow-downs are a tourist attraction."
Agrelaa: "Well if I am the only surviving adventurer so far, then who have you been selling to?"
Tipo: "I trade with, well, you should be leaving. I have to be making more space on my shelves."
Agrelaa seemed interested in Tipo's inventory, but finally departed from the shop and returned to the dark avenues of Bree. There was some other shopping to do. I led Agrelaa to the general store, to purchase some oil and a Cloak [1, +4] from Lyar-el the Comely(Elf). The proprietor of the magic shop was one Luthien Starshine(High-Elf).
Luthien: "It is not easy to find other high-elves out here. What are you doing in Bree? You do not look like a shopkeeper."
Agrelaa: "I am an adventurer. I have made it my goal to eventually go over to Mirkwood and deal with that Necromancer!"
As I said before, my goal as a ToME player was to explore BDw 10. I am liable to lose Agrelaa to death before that happens, and long before he would reach Mirkwood.
Luthien: "I gave you a good price for those staffs of disarming. May I interest you with some rings or amulets?"
I saw that Luthien only had one ring. It was a Ring of Searching (+1). Of the four amulets, the most interesting one was an Amulet of Acid Resistance. I remember that when I played Forewyth, I met acidic things like green worms and green icky-things in the Barrow-downs. If my strategy includes health for Agrelaa, then I might want acid resistance while I could buy it. I would not expect the amulet to let Agrelaa eat green-icky thing meats, though. When I killed Forewyth that way, she held a dagger that granted acid resistance. I wonder, maybe acid resistance does not work if the acid is in your belly.
So I instruct Agrelaa to reply to Luthien: "I might buy an amulet. First I will do some other shopping in Bree."
I add to Agrelaa's inventory, reaching 10 Food Rations, 5 Potions of Cure Critical Wounds, and 5 Scrolls of Teleportation. Decado the Handsome(Dunadan) of the armoury sells me a Pair of Soft Leather Boots [2, +2] for 250 gold. Ludwig the Humble(Dwarf) of the temple sells me two recall scrolls for 354 gold. When I return Agrelaa to Luthien's shop, he has only 308 gold. I buy the amulet of acid resistance for 275 gold.
I forgot that I need ammo, and ammo is an important part of my strategy! I run Agrelaa to the weaponsmith and spend 32 gold on 16 iron shots, bringing my quiver to 21 shots. That leaves 1 AU in the purse, not enough for a meal at the Prancing Pony. I now go to the Barrow-downs entrance; I plan to recall out, not in.
Barrow-downs 1 to 3
It is the 45th Yavie of the 2890th Year of the third age. The time is 4:39 AM. It is a strange time.
Agrelaa enters the Barrow-downs again and explores BDw 1 for the third time.
The staircases of the Barrow-downs are actually in very good condition; Agrelaa walks them easily. Each level has many staircases up and down, leading in many different directions. Thus I may not explore all of the staircases, but I must choose a single staircase when departing each level. The other staircases may lead to better loot, or to boring places, but Agrelaa will never know. The size of the Barrow-downs is effectively infinite.
They, who built the Barrow-downs, constructed corridors between the rooms, and to link the rooms to the staircases. These corridors tunnel in darkness through the trees and the stone. Some of the corridors are very straight, and form good connections between the rooms. There is sometimes a room with only one entrance, and only one corridor leading to the entrance, and because of the lack of other corridors around such a room, exploration is more difficult. Some of the corridors bend left and right, as if to bypass unknown obstacles. In some places, a corridor will reach a clearing in the dark, probably a natural feature that the exploited to reduce cost of construction. Then I do not know why they sometimes built two redundant corridors that run parallel before intersecting; sometimes Agrelaa uses a shovel to dig an obvious shortcut. Then there are those corridors that leave a room, only to form a loop back to the same room. I do not know why such corridors exist, but I only guess that such corridors supported the construction of their adjacent rooms.
Doors control either the entrances to the rooms, or those three-way or four-way junctions of the corridors, but a few doors hide behind trees or disguise themselves in the stone. The hiding of the doors serves no apparent purpose. Sometimes they only conceal shortcuts, around which Agrelaa may follow other corridors. Many times does Agrelaa wander to the end of a corridor, or to a two-way junction controlled by a door, and it is an obvious place to search for a hidden door to another room or corridor. The primary obstacle is not knowing the locations of the doors, but exposing them. Often I must switch Agrelaa to slug-like tactics to search for a door. I conjecture that in the past, the hidden doors concealed entire sections of the dungeon, but this is not now true because wandering monsters or other causes exposed more of the doors.
Agrelaa advances from BDw 1 to BDw 2, where he gains experience level 4. As is my habit for each new experience level, I assign 2 of the 6 skill points to Summoning, and 2 to Symbiosis. For level 4, I assign 2 points to Archery.
- Combat 02.400 [0.700]
. Archery 06.300 [0.700]
- Monster-lore 02.980 [1.100]
. Summoning 04.000 [0.500]
. Symbiosis 04.000 [0.500]
Then upon BDw 3, Agrelaa hears a shout. "Leave me alone, stupid Rotting corpse" The quest is to kill eleven rotting corpses and rescue a princess. I have not played a princess quest since October of 2006 (it is now September of 2007) but I recall that there will be no staircases down to BDw 4, except for the one that will appear after I rescue the princess.
Agrelaa begins to explore BDw 3, at first using the tulwar, the sling and the iron shots to fight. Agrelaa finds a yellow jelly, his first symbiote to have more than 2 hp. The yellow jelly has 41 hp and will not die as quickly as his previous several symbiotes.
Agrelaa finds the first rotting corpse in a corridor. He begins summoning blue yeek simulacrums. More rotting corpses appear. As blue yeeks die, Agrelaa summons more blue yeeks and moves back through the corridor. However, as a reader of DayInTheLifeArchive/Andrea of the Valley would know, Agrelaa's pet blue yeeks may not defeat the walking corpses.
In the in-game help for new players, in the section about exploring the dungeon, it states, "Pets, companions and co-aligned creatures cannot deliver killing blows to uniques or quest monsters. You must do this yourself!" I can exploit this to the advantage of Agrelaa, who may deliver the killing blow and claim the experience points. However, until I decide to deliver the killing blow, any almost-destroyed rotting corpse may kill an infinite number of pet blue yeeks in endless battle. So, I set tactics to berserk and instruct Agrelaa to shoot the first rotting corpse in the corridor. It dies, and Agrelaa reaches experience level 6; I assign 2 points to Magic. After some more shooting and summoning, Agrelaa kills a total of 3 rotting corpses, but 3 more chase and follow him into a room. I need Agrelaa to regenerate his mana, so he reads a Scroll of Teleportation.
This allows Agrelaa to rest, and to explore more of the level. Eventually, I return to the corpses and resume the battle. Agrelaa reaches experience level 7; I assign 2 points to Corpse-preservation. Agrelaa has destroyed a total of 6 rotting corpses, so 5 of them remain.
- Magic 02.400 [0.600]
- Monster-lore 04.080 [1.100]
. Summoning 06.000 [0.500]
. Corpse-preservation 03.800 [0.700]
. Symbiosis 06.000 [0.500]
Agrelaa finally sees and enters the room with the princess. I look at the scene through the colors of my terminal emulator, Konsole, and I see the princess yellow 'p', in a cage of glass blue dots, amid a circle of purple dots representing deep lava, those amid a larger cricle of red dots representing shallow lava.
A green ooze, in the room of the princess, damages my boots and my cloak, before I kill it. My cloak drops from [1,+4] to [1,+3], and my boots from [2,+2] to [2,+1]. The green ooze drops a scroll on a dot of shallow lava. I marvel how the scroll does not burn, and think it safe, but as Agrelaa moves across the lava and grabs the unidentified scroll, the heat burns and destroys some of the Flight Arrows in my inventory. (Agrelaa later dumps the Flight Arrows to carry other loot.) Now I am more wary, and Agrelaa has a problem.
o) ( About body : a Cloak [1,+3] 1.0 lb
x) ] On feet : a Pair of Soft Leather Boots [2,+1] 2.0 lb
The five remaining rotting corpses are across the lava, and I dare not walk across the lava to reach the five. Neither I nor the five will cross the lava. I cannot summon across the lava, and pet novice mages will not shoot the five. My shovel does not tunnel through granite wall. For my sling, I have only 3 Iron Shots plus 13 Rounded Pebbles; I judge that this not enough to kill five walking corpses, and I do not attempt shoot the five. I have uploaded a screenshot of this situation to oook.
Thus I abandon the princess and the quest. I instruct Agrelaa to complete the exploration of the other parts of this level, to gather the remaining loot from this level, and to unroll and read a Scroll of Word of Recall, in full view of the princess. Agrelaa had entered the Barrow-downs with exactly 1 gold piece, but as the scroll yanks him away from the imprisoned princess and toward Bree, he carries 741 gold plus loot.
Bree
This is the 45th Yavie of the 2890th year of the third age. The time is 11:56 PM. It is late night.
I find Agrelaa at the entrance to the Barrow-downs. He takes the path into Bree and visits the shop of Mauser the Chemist(Half-Elf). Agrelaa offers to sell 5 Scrolls titled "tue zun ha" {cursed}, and after a brief negotiation, Mauser agrees to pay 85 gold. The policy of most shopkeepers is that they will never buy cursed equipment, but scrolls are not equipment. However, once we identify the scrolls, the shopkeepers will never buy other scrolls of that type. My exploit is to sell all five scrolls at once, before the shopkeeper identifies them.
As Agrelaa takes the 85 gold, Mauser glances at the scrolls, then begins yelling. "You moron! These here are five worthless Scrolls of Summon Monster! You may be a high-elf, but that does not give you permission to sell your junk in my shop!" To support the argument, Mauser destroys the five scrolls, and the shreds of paper fall behind the counter.
Agrelaa reveals two more scrolls, and asks, "Will you buy two more scrolls? These do not come in a stack, so the risk to you is less."
Possibly because of Agrelaa's 20 charisma, Mauser calms down long enough to agree to buy each scroll for 17 gold. The scrolls are a Scroll of Object Detection, and a Scroll of Light. Agrelaa sold too high for Mauser to profit, because Mauser puts them on the shelf with a sale price of 17 gold. The shopkeeper resumes yelling. "This is what you bring to my shop? Next time, identify your scrolls before you labour to carry them to my shop!"
"Then you will sell me some scrolls of identify?" Agrelaa requested. I needed to identify Agrelaa's other loot. To Agrelaa, Mauser sells three identify scrolls for 180 gold.
Agrelaa steps out through the door of Mauser's alchemy shop, and by the light of his lantern, he identifies the loot:
- a Wand of Slow Monster[1|20] (7 charges)
- a Staff of Summon[1|25] (4 charges)
- a Dagger (1d4) (+0,+0)
The dagger is a recent find, and I had hoped that it was a good dagger with not enough time in the pack to pseudo-identify, but it is an average dagger. I do not identify the two small wooden boomerangs in the pack.
Agrelaa enters the weaponsmith of Arndal Beast-Slayer(Half-Elf) to sell the weapons for a small amount of gold. Next he visits the temple of Ludwig the Humble(Dwarf) to sell potions, both identified and unidentified. As I hand over three Coagulated Crimson Potions {cursed}, Ludwig drops a hint, "A good item will not corrode." As Ludwig identifies the three worthless Potions of Blindness, Ludwig utters, "You moron!", but the dwarf does not seem so angry as Mauser. Ludwig does not like some of my other potions, but blurts "Cool!" when Agrelaa sells an unidentified Potion of Resist Heat.
At the general store, Agrelaa buys more food an oil from Lyar-el the Comely(Elf). He also buys a Cloak [1,+6] for 663 gold and sells the Cloak [1,+3].
Agrelaa stop at the shop of Tipo the Fair(Human) to sell my surplus totems, then returns to Arndal's weaponsmith. Neither the weaponsmith nor the general store carries more ammo for my sling. My strategy holds armour to have more priority then weapons, so I move Agrelaa to the armoury of Decado the Handsome(Dunadan). Here I buy a Small Metal Shield [3,+4] for 544 gold, to replace my Small Metal Shield [3,+0]. Agrelaa's purse is down to 189 gold, and shopping may soon be over.
I check my inventory again, and remember that Agrelaa has not sold all of the loot. Agrelaa needs to sell the wand of slow manster and the staff of summon to Luthien Starshine(High-Elf). At the shop of Luthien, the wand of slow monster yields 2023 gold, while the staff of summon yields 1170 gold. I regard that this yield is well, because in other games I would not find wands and staffs in such shallow parts of the Barrow-downs.
Agrelaa: "How is it that you can pay 1170 gold for a staff that summons hostile monsters around oneself? At the alchemist shop, I sold some unidentifed Scrolls of Summon Monster to Mauser, and he said that they were worthless, and destroyed them, and yelled in anger!"
Luthien: "I know more than the alchemist. I have heard tales of adventurers who use the scroll or the staff to summon enemies and slay them for the experience and treasure. Tales also tell of heroes who evaded stronger enemies by summoning weaker enemies to block the path, or to fill the area. For this purpose, the staff is better than the scroll. Unlike the scroll, the staff has a spell level. The staff that you sold me contains a level 1 spell, though increases for those with a magic device level above 5, up to a maximum of level 25. The low level allows one to summon weaker enemies."
While listening to Luthien's explanation, I wonder about how true is it. I know of one tale of an adventurer who read summon scrolls for the experience, and that adventurer was myself, playing Martin's Dungeon Bash. My doubts come as Luthien explains the concept of spell level, and its relationship to the spell of Summon. Perhaps later I may read some spoilers, or consult the source code of ToME, to learn the truth.
Agrelaa has a different reason to doubt Luthien's explanation. He responds, "I am Loremaster, and I know the way of summoning pets from a totem. I have no use to summon enemies to block the path, if I may summon pets to defend me."
Luthien only provided, "There is a market for Staffs of Summon; you need not feel concerned."
So Agrelaa held 3162 gold pieces, and I turned my mind from selling things to buying things, and I instructed Agrelaa to ask, "Do you have anything that provides levitation, to cross lava or water?"
Luthien: "I only stock what I find, and I have found a Ring of Levitation for you. It costs 220 gold, and I am sure that you can afford it now. I would be wary of crossing lava, because of the fire damage, however, this ring may help convey you across water, ice or pits."
So I instruct Agrelaa to buy the ring, because that item is the first thing that would allow him to levitate, and pass the rivers and streams of Middle-earth; one cannot ford rivers in all places. The ring may even help with shallow and deep lava, if Agrelaa encounters more lava while at the second attempt at rescuing the princess from BDw 3, or during some later quest.
Now instead of recalling to the Barrow-downs, I direct Agrelaa back to the weaponsmith of Arndal. I need ammo, and if I cannot have ammo for the sling, then I must purchase a different ranged weapon. Arndal stocks short bows, but Agrelaa purchases a long bow and thirty arrows.
Arndal asks, "Do you think you can shoot this?"
But Agrelaa boasts, "I am a high-elf! I know how to use a bow!"
I recall that Agrelaa has yet to clear the thieves quest. Agrelaa is level 7 and with a symbiote, so I decide that he is ready. Then, "You feel a vicious blow on your head." The thieves take Agrelaa's inventory and remove his equipment, so it is strange when I read, "You carefully drop the poor monster on the floor. You were wearing a Yellow jelly (41 hp) (`)." Somehow, Agrelaa carefully drops the yellow jelly. "You wake up in a prison cell. All your possessions have been stolen!" Actually Agrelaa retains one possession. "You are on a Yellow jelly (41 hp)"
Then comes an unexpected tragedy. I am restarting ToME. When I try to load the save file, I receive the following message and ToME quits.
tome: Too many spell effects
My save file is corrupt. Unless I can recover the save, Day in the Life of Agrelaa must come to an end.
Recovering a corrupt savefile
I use the ToME -mgcu interface with the Konsole terminal emulator. I also use the ttyrec program to record my games. This causes technical problems that I have mentioned at my http://kernigh.pbwiki.com/ToME page.
One of these problems is that Konsole above OpenBSD sometimes sends an unexpected error EAGAIN to the program running in the terminal. This bug in Konsole typically causes programs, such as the pager less(1), to quit suddenly or to mess their output. It causes ttyrec to fall off the terminal. Thus it came to pass that during 2 September 2007, while playing Agrelaa, ttyrec fell off the terminal, and ToME continued running. I then sent a SIGHUP signal to ToME to trigger a panic save. Because my panic save file is also corrupt, I take a break from ToME to program a permanent workaround to the bug in Konsole. My result is a pair of new programs called "wouldscript" and "wouldtty" that should put an end upon my problems with Konsole.
UserPageKernigh: I later learned that my savefile was corrupt because I saved while inside the thieves' quest, as the two-year-old ToME BugReport314 describes. My problem with Konsole ( KDE bug 149932) was the cause of my having to save while inside the thieves' quest. KDE bug 149932 did not corrupt my savefile; ToME BugReport314 corrupted my savefile. -- UserPageKernigh 2007-12-20 01:18:12
Now it is two weeks later, 16 September 2007. I attempt to repair my corrupt save file. For this task, I have the assistance of several tools:
- Adie, the text file editor
KHexEdit, the binary file editor
- gdb, the debugger
- grep, to search the ToME source code
I have a copy of the source code to ToME 2.3.4, and this means that I can grep for error messages. My ToME binary contains debugging information, so gdb is useful.
First, I grep for the error message "Too many spell effects" and find it at line 2751 of loadsave.c source file, in the do_dungeon function. Then I open loadsave.c in Adie and read parts of the file, so that I may somewhat understand the way of loading save files. I gain enough knowledge to set breakpoints with gdb. As I attach gdb to ToME and stop at the breakpoints, I can print the values of variables. I open the save file with KHexEdit. A "print *fff" command (to gdb) lets me peek at the stdio buffer and guess where to look in the save file.
I learn that ToME has failed the sentinel check at line 2725, also in the do_dungeon function. It expects to read the number 324, but it instead reads 24345. Within the save file, 324 would appear as 0x4401 while 24345 would appear as 0x195f. A search for 0x195f in KHexEdit shows that my save file has multiple occurences but all of them are in the same region, near an apparent list of strings like "__ingame_help_activated_0". There is an obvious problem here; the list of strings appears twice! It seems that ToME had streamed two copies of the list instead of one. Each list begins with 0x195f, and after a second list is 0x4401. If I delete the second list, then I would have 0x4401 in position to match the sentinel.
The backtrace from gdb shows that the call to do_dungeon is from do_savefile_aux, at line 3518 of loadsave.c source file. Preceding this call is an instruction to read the length of the list into tmp32u. This length is 47 or 0x2f in the save file. ToME will process a list of 47 keys before calling do_dungeon to read the sentinel. ToME does not know that my save file actually contains 2 * 47 = 94 keys.
I now use KHexEdit to delete the second list (starting at 0x195f) from my save file and to move the sentinel 0x4401 into position.
Now I try to load the file. "You wake up in a prison cell. All your posessions have been stolen!" I see Agrelaa in the prison cell, standing upon a Yellow jelly (41 hp). I have recovered the game without losing data, and I may now pursue the thieves' quest.
Thieves' quest
This is the 45th Yavie of the 2890th year of the third age. The time is 12:49 PM. It is late night.
It is possible to exploit berserker/running tactics and to clear the thieves' quest with a character at experience level 1. This way, a player can finish the quest and earn a house in Bree at the start of the game.
For this game, I refrained from sending Agrelaa into the thieves' quest until now, when he has experience level 7. His normal AC is 33; at berserker/running his AC is 8. The quest is very easy. Agrelaa grabs his inventory and proceeds to the south of the quest level to trigger the alarmed door. By swinging the tulwar, shooting arrows, and letting the yellow jelly help, Agrelaa easily kills the novices. As the bandit dies, Agrelaa reaches experience level 8. I spend 2 points toward Magic.
The magic hiding the stairs is now gone. Agrelaa emerges at the entrance of the building in Bree, and walks to mayor's office. Uldrik tells Agrelaa, "Thank you for killing the band of thieves! You can use the hideout as your house as a reward."
Agrelaa accepts the house. I want to use the house to store the Adventurer's Guide to Middle-earth, so that Agrelaa need not carry it around the Barrow-downs. Agrelaa leaves the mayor's office and does not go directly to the house, because he has loot from the quest.
As Agrelaa enters the number-five alchemy shop of Mauser the Chemist(Half-Elf), the shopkeeper seems worried. However, when Agrelaa asks to buy two scrolls of identify, Mauser seems happier.
Mauser explains gleefully, "Buy as many as you want!" I see that he has five identify scrolls at 60 gold, six identify scrolls {25% off} at 45 gold, and 3 identify scrolls {50% off} at 29 gold. The most discounted scrolls sell first, so Agrelaa buys two of the {50% off} scrolls. Mauser seems very content.
Outside the shop, Agrelaa brings the scrolls into the lantern-light and identifies a Dagger (1d4) (+2,+2) and a mundane Soft Studded Leather [5,+0].
Before I forget, Agrelaa returns to Mauser's shop and sells a third piece of loot, an unidentified Scroll of Detect Invisible. Mauser exclaims "You fiend!" as Agrelaa dashes out of the shop with 17 more gold.
Agrelaa then visits other shops to sell off the leather, the extra totems, and also his tulwar. Though the dagger only does 4.5 damage (the tulwar does 5 damage), the dagger raises to-hit from 3 to 5 and it weighs 8.8 less pounds. Agrelaa sells all totems except for one partial totem of a novice warrior who died in the thieves' quest.
At the temple of Ludwig the Humble(Dwarf), Agrelaa buys two more recall scrolls; I had only one. Then he eats at the inn and recalls into the Barrow-downs. He still carried that Adventurer's Guide.
Continue to /part2