Contents

  1. Gathraka the Tribeless, the Orc Barbarian Unbeliever, Part 2
    1. Chapter 3
      1. Mkw 10 thru Mkw 14 (take 2)
        1. Chatter (1.1)
      2. Mkw 14 (take 3) to Mkw 22
      3. Mkw 22 (take 2) to Mkw 27
      4. Mkw 27 (take 2) to Mkw 31
      5. Mkw 31 (take 2) to Mkw 33
        1. Chatter (1.5)
    2. Intermission: Spiders Quest
      1. Preparation
      2. Attack
        1. Chatter (2.2)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Latest segment (in Part 4)
Latest character sheet (after this segment in Part 4)

Gathraka the Tribeless, the Orc Barbarian Unbeliever, Part 2

Chapter 3

So, where are we going now, Gathraka?

"Haven't decided yet. I've accomplished all of my short-term goals, and now I'm in the mood for some looting and pillaging."

Ah, some good clean fun, eh? ;)

"Back when I was a grufoshnu, there were two places that were popular for that sort of thing: that old former Dwarven stronghold under the Misty Mountains, and the forest where that Necromancer character is holed up."

Moria and Mirkwood, respectively.

"Right. I mean to clean both of them out eventually, of course, but I can't decide which one to hit first."

Ah. Well, Moria is the tougher of the two; I suggest doing Mirkwood first, as a warm-up.

"Mm. Makes sense. Let's go, then."

I'm almost afraid to tell her that this is going to involve a relocation to Lothlorien… :o ;) Actually, this presents me with a rather serious narrative dilemma: as detailed in Gathraka's backstory, she's supposed to do the Spiders quest immediately upon arriving at Lothlorien (how else does an Orc even get let into an Elven city, after all?); but (a) as a matter of game mechanics, I can't (have to do the Wolves quest first, if nothing else), and (b) I don't really feel ready to do the Spiders quest yet, with no Ring of Flying and fresh out of Potions of Speed. I've been trying to decide for a while how to deal with this conceptual difficulty, and I think I've finally settled on a solution: I'm going to blithely ignore the problem and brazen my way through it as though it didn't exist. ;) :o :\ I hope you, the Viewing Audience™, will indulge me in this bit of narrative jujitsu.

"*groan* You see what I have to put up with down here…"

Hey, that's my line. Anyway, before we leave, I think I should go ahead and *ID* that randart dagger I got back in the Thieves quest:

Not bad for an early weapon. Too bad she won't wield it, but it does sell for a nice chunk of change—enough that I decide to splurge and buy the Potion of Wisdom the black market has in stock. A quick sort through my house to decide what to take with me, and we're off to:

Lothlorien

where we immediately take the:

Wolves quest

in which my Bolts of Slay Animal get quite the workout.

*munch* "Mmm… Wargs is good eatin'."

As does my nausea medicine… *shudder*

"Heh. Wimp." >:> "Man, lotsa dead Elves here. I thought they were supposed to be all hotshot with bows ‘n arrows and stuff; you telling me they couldn't deal with a bunch of measly wolves themselves?"

(shrug) Who knows? Keep those Elf Skeletons, though; we're gonna take them back down to:

Maz 37

and see what kind of ammo we can forge out of ‘em.

"Why down in this crazy place again?"

I think dungeon depth affects the results of ammo forging. Can't hurt, at any rate.

(shrug) "Whatever…"

I don't think it helped much, either, though: I netted 20 Seeker Bolts of Venom (+6,+5), 15 Seeker Bolts of Frost (+8,+6), and two stacks of exploding Bolts. Not bad, but I'd really like to have gotten some artifact ammo to mitigate the ammo-breakage problem. Oh, I also netted a few stacks of non-ego Seeker Bolts of various enchantments; with a bit of enchanting and consolidating, they should serve as a long-term supply. To that end, we return to:

Lothlorien

where the Alchemy shop has exactly zero Scrolls of Enchant Weapon of either type. :\ The black market does have a Potion of Dexterity, though, and a Potion of *Healing* with which to start a stockpile.

Mkw 10 thru Mkw 14 (take 2)

And we're off, cross-country to:

Mkw 11; "What a boring place…"

And boring it is in spades: a 1x1 level, quickly over, and on to:

Mkw 12, Princess quest for 12 2-headed Hydras; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"What, Her Royal Whininess again? I figured she'd given up the whole ‘damsel-in-distress’ hobby."

Now, be nice, Gathraka.

"Why?"

:\ *ahem* Anyway, the level is an arena level, and I've barely started exploring it before the first of the hydras have found me.

"Hey, they want a fight? Let's go give ‘em one."

As you say. The quest room is a few screens to our north, and with the porous small-tree inner walls of the rooms in Mirkwood, most of the hydras are already coming out after me. After our experiences in the Orc Cave and the Maze, though, the hydras are no challenge. Our reward choices are a Small Metal Boomerang, a Fumes Trap Set (!), and Hard Leather Armor. Enh, the armor is unlikely to beat Thalkettoth, and the boomerang would likely sell for more; it turns out to be a Small Metal Boomerang of Power (+5,+22). The armor may have been a better bet after all… :\

A quick sweep through the rest of the level is far more productive, netting both Bullroarer and Wormtongue. The former drops a few {good} weapons that I don't bother identifying; the latter drops a Wooden Boomerang of Slay Orc (+1,+5) and The Morning Star 'Curumur' (+18,+10) (+5). That should sell for a bit. I've still got room in my pack, though, so let's move on:

Mkw 13; "What a boring place…"

Another small level, this time 3x3. Nothing of note; fast-forward to:

Mkw 14, Princess quest for 10 Ice skeletons; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"What? We barely spent any time at all on the last level; how did she even have time to get kidnapped again?"

(shrug) I've pretty much given up trying to figure out the random quests, frankly. The level is mostly uneventful, beyond receiving another fate; gotta remember to check that next time we're topside. Oh, and there is that Large steel chest in which I find… wait for it… The Player corpse.

"Ack! Okay, what kind of sick joke is this, Human?!"

Hey, don't look at me; I've never run into this before.

"Well, it's far too close a likeness to be a coincidence. Looks like someone out there is just begging to have their spleen removed by way of their eye sockets…" X-(

Yeah, okay, for now let's just keep moving, what say? *shudder* The quest room is not much further in… hmm, that's odd; there are only nine Ice skeletons in the quest room. Oh, wait, I did trigger an earthquake trap in the near vicinity of the quest room, and there are a few squares of new wall inside the room proper; I guess that must have hit and destroyed the tenth one.

"So, we still killed it, didn't we? Why isn't the princess free now?"

Quirk of game mechanics. We're gonna have to bounce on the stairs and regenerate the quest room.

"Oh, great. grmbl mutter…"

There's an up staircase nearby, and we return to:

Mkw 13, take 2; "This level can't be all bad…"

and quickly back to:

Mkw 14, Princess quest for 10 Ice skeletons, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

No, actually, it looks like a 3x5 small level. This time we have to walk most of the level before we find the quest room. At least all the Ice skeletons are here this time, though. The reward choices are Tulwar, Lead-Filled Mace and Wooden Boomerang. Enh, six of one; I take the tulwar, which turns out to be a Tulwar of Aman (+6,+7) [+4] (+2). Not bad. And now my pack is getting kinda heavy, so we return to:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

Okay, we return by way of the wilderness to:

Lothlorien

On the way back, I pick up a second fate: I'm fated to find an Essence of Confusion and Nimthanc, both on dlvl 1. Sheesh, why do I always get ‘thanc fates with characters who can't (or won't) use them? I also ID a couple junkarts dropped by those Ice skeletons:

"Ooh, this looks promising…"

It isn't really; it's only guaranteed to generate {good} stuff, not {excellent}. We'll take it down with us next time so you can see. In the meantime, I think I'm going to swing back by:

Bree

and Mathom The Player corpse.

"Yeesh, and you call me disgusting, Human?"

Well, I admit, the look on old Will Whitfoot's face was rather amusing… >:> On the way, I picked up yet another fate, to find a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds on dlvl 1. As long as I'm here, ;) I'll go pick that one off, along with the useless essence and:

which I stow in my Bree house. I also take the opportunity to sell off some loot, including:

And the Bree black market has an Indestructible Ring of Flying in stock—for 101640gp. Oh, man, that would take me down to ~30Kgp… but come on, this is practically karma. Back in:

Lothlorien

I stow the ring and restock to return to the dungeon next time out.

Chatter (1.1)

PeterWiersig: Keep in mind that Lothlorien and Minas Anor have a Ranger guild where they rip you off your gold to enchant arrows and bows.

ZizzoTheInfinite: Yeah, but they don't do crossbow bolts. I tried to get Gathraka to use a bow early on, but she wouldn't; she said it was too Elvish.

PW: And I read that a second time before posting and completly missed the "bolts" in your texts. Sheesh...

Mkw 14 (take 3) to Mkw 22

Mkw 14, take 3; "This level can't be all bad…"

An entirely boring level; fast-forward to:

Mkw 15; "You feel strangely lucky…"

Another boring level, notable only for the appearance of a lesser vault (round). And that was only notable because it involved the disconcerting at first glance appearance of granite walls in an otherwise all-trees level. Ah well, maybe the next level will be more interesting:

Mkw 16, Princess quest for 14 Giant red scorpions; "You have a good feeling…"

Or maybe not. :\ I find the quest room about halfway through the level, immediately preceded by an Undead mass infestation. I'm pretty sure that's an omen; for good or ill, I can't say… The scorpions themselves are no challenge, of course. The reward choices are Arrows, a Lead-Filled Mace, and Metal Shod Boots. Hmm, most of the ego or artifact boots I could get aren't terribly useful (except Thror or Boots of Speed, both of which are unlikely), and the Arrows will probably sell for more.

"Fat chance, Human. Take a look."

The arrows turn out to be 23 Arrows of Slay Undead (+8,+5). *sigh* Ah well, we can always console ourselves with the knowledge that the boots would almost certainly have been even more useless. I don't even bother checking the rest of the level, instead pushing directly on to:

Mkw 17; "You like the look of this place…"

Wait, didn't I have a fate here? [checks] Right, I may find a Potion of Wisdom on dlvl 17. Hmm, ya know what? I'm gonna be persnickety about this; after a quick sweep through the level (which I only bother with because it's a 1x1 small level), I bounce back up to:

Mkw 16, take 2; "What a boring place…"

and back down to:

Mkw 17, take 2; "You feel that you will meet your fate here. Looks like any other level."

That's better. ;)

"Sheesh, was that really worth it, Human?"

Well, here's your Potion of Wisdom; you tell me.

*glug glug glug* "Enh, I'll live with it."

A wise choice. ;) Oh, I forgot, we were going to try your acquirement junkart, weren't we? A quick zap, and we're the proud owners of… Cord Armor [+4].

"That's it?"

‘Fraid so. It might do better at deeper depths–

"Nah, it's not worth the hassle. Chuck it."

As you wish. And apart from that bit of excitement at the beginning, the level continues the rather depressing trend of being no challenge at all. I'm tempted to start power-diving at this point.

"What, you're in some kind of hurry to get back to those Hellhounds?"

Only as long as you keep carping about them. X-(

"Ooh, I'm not hitting a sore spot, am I?" >:>

You see what I have to put up with… Anyway, let's move on:

Mkw 18, Princess quest for 10 Rangers; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Not noticeably; the level is still boring. I find the quest room about two thirds of the way through the level, and the Rangers are already coming out to meet me.

"Suits me fine. Sooner I can splatter them across the far wall, sooner I can get rid of Her Royal Bondage-Maiden-ness in there."

Um… we are trying to keep this at a PG rating here, you know.

"Oh, come on, this has gotta be how she gets her kicks, or she wouldn't keep letting herself get caught like this."

I'm not goin' anywhere near that one...… Quest reward choices are a Small Wooden Boomerang, a War Hammer, and a Mage Staff. Enh, the hammer will probably sell for the most—the more so since it turns out to be a Venomous War Hammer of Slay Giant (+3,+4). Hmm, my pack is getting kinda cramped; let's return to:

Lothlorien

and sell off some stuff. The Arrows of Slay Undead, in particular, manage to net 14766gp, which is better than I had feared. I also ID a couple junkarts:

Feh. A bit of restocking and we're back in the thick of things:

Mkw 18, take 2; "What a boring place…"

Well, it's getting better; the conjunction of a group of Gnome mages and a pack of Blink dogs about halfway through the level provides a bit of excitement. It also reinforces an important strategy for Unbelievers: when faced with a spell-casting monster, close ranks to get it inside your anti-magic field. [checks notes] By my calculations, my field currently has radius 10 and strength 71 percent; not bad.

That's it for the level, though; we proceed to:

Mkw 19; "What a boring place…"

‘Bout the same as last level. Another pack of Gnome mages shows up (this time sans Blink dogs, mercifully), and once again, my anti-magic field saves the day. Hmm, the last room on the level has another Slime mold in it… >:>

"Don't you dare, Human. I'm still excreting fungus from the last one of those you made me eat; my luck, another one will turn me into a frickin' plant."

:D No worries, Gathraka, there isn't anything else useful we can gain from Slime molds anymore, so I'm inclined to let them be. Anyway, let's move on:

Mkw 20, Princess quest for 10 Vampiric mists; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Well, that doesn't bode well for any hopes of the level being more interesting… I do find a few useful trinkets, notable among them my first Ring of Damage (+11). It'd be nice to swap this in, but right now I can't spare either my Ring of See Invisible or my Ring of Fire Resistance. I'll stow it for later, I suppose. I also found another Potion of Charisma, taking my CHA from 4 up to 6, ;) and my first Potion of Intelligence, taking my INT from 4 up to 6. I'll have you casting spells before long at this rate…

"You'll have me up there wringing your fool neck before long if you don't watch it, Human."

;) The quest room turns up at the very end of the level.

"Captured by fog. Come on, Human, tell me she's not doing this on purpose."

Hey, as I've said all along, I don't claim to understand the random quests. Anyway, the quest reward choices are a Two-Handed Sword, a Sling or Sheaf Arrows. I think I'll try my luck with the arrows again…

"You're not very good at this, are you, Human?"

And I'm the proud owner of 23 Sheaf Arrows of Slay Evil (+4,+7). Enh. The Slay Undead arrows didn't turn out too bad. Maybe we'll have better luck on:

Mkw 21; "What a boring place…"

Or maybe not… :o Absolutely nothing of interest happens on this level; fast-forward to:

Mkw 22, Fumblefingers quest for 13 5-headed hydras; "This level can't be all bad…"

"What, this idiot's back too? And he lost his sword again? He really is a glob nar shatru, isn't he? Say, maybe he's supposed to be Her Royal Helplessness's guard, and that's why she keeps getting captured."

(shrug) Who knows? This level finally has some potential, though; 5-headed hydras are the first reasonably tough monster we've encountered in quite a while. Case in point: you may recall that I hit clvl 30 at the bottom of the Maze. Well, thanks to all the wimpy monsters Mirkwood's been throwing at me, it isn't until now, with the third hydra, that I finally reach the all-important clvl 31, and with 4 skill points going to Sword-mastery and 1 to Antimagic, I can finally use the Antimagic destroy-traps power.

"‘Bout time. I was getting sick of your ‘be-patient’ speeches. Wait, there isn't anything else important I'm gonna have to wait for, is there?"

(shrug) Only a full-strength anti-magic field when we get Antimagic maxed. Oh, and extra blows from Sword-mastery, I suppose. Nothing whose current lack is a particular annoyance.

"Finally. Okay, let's go off the rest of these snake-headed stink-breathers."

Indeed. Poison resistance from my Amulet of the Serpents is much appreciated herein. The hydras themselves are pretty tough, typically taking three or four turns apiece to kill, but turn out to be less of a threat than expected, as they seem to have difficulty actually hitting me. With the last hydra slain, the quest reward choices are Symbiosis, Magic, Monster-lore and Mindcraft.

"Don't even think it, Human."

Don't worry, Gathraka, I already told you that Symbiosis is unusable with Antimagic. In fact, I think the only one the game will even let me choose is Monster-lore, which is utterly useless to us.

"Sheesh. Remind me again why we didn't just kill the nitwit."

Game mechanics; there isn't any way to kill him. A quick sweep over the rest of the level nets nothing of interest, so we return to:

Lothlorien

Those Sheaf Arrows of Slay Evil fetch 18040gp, which again is better than I had feared. I also ID a junkart:

A quick test indicates that it doesn't recharge nearly as quickly as advertised. I think I'll junk it. And this looks like a decent stopping point.

Mkw 22 (take 2) to Mkw 27

Before we head back down, I think I'll stow the Seeker Bolts of Slay Dragon we've been carrying; unless it's a multi-hued dragon, our Seeker Bolts of Venom or Frost will do at least as much damage.

"Suits me fine. I always said we were carrying too much ammo."

As you say. Back to the dungeon, then:

Mkw 22, take 2; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Not much of note happens at first. It is certainly nice being able to destroy traps now, though. I get lucky forging ammo and create 25 Seeker Arrows of Acid (+6,+6).

"Uh… what am I supposed to do with these, genius?"

What–? Oh, I made arrows instead of bolts. Sorry, it takes me a minute to get back into character sometimes. :o

[slaps forehead] "Oh, great. Grmbl mutter zabrazum kok-ishi…"

Now, there's no need to be rude about it… Near the end of the level, I run into Ugluk and company. We approach his room from the east down a connecting corridor, and some of his crew have already leaked out to meet us. And behind them all, in the dark room, I can just see… a Giant flea.

"And I think it just woke up. This is not good."

Indeed; unlike with a cloud-effect spell, I can't shoot my exploding bolts past the orcs in my way—and by the time I get into the room, exploding bolts would destroy all the stuff the orcs dropped.

"So stop yapping and get me in there fast, before those bugs get out of control."

As you say. With a headlong charge through the orcs, we manage to get into the room with only about a half-dozen or so Giant fleas, and a hurried volley of crossbow bolts manages to clean them out. After that, the remaining orcs are just exercise. >:> Ugluk drops a Dagger (+2,+2) and a Tulwar (+6,+2).

And that's the level; let's move on:

Mkw 23; "You like the look of this place…"

An uninteresting level for a while; then we run into Orfax and crew.

"Hey, isn't he the shrimp that caused us all that trouble back in the Orc Cave? No, wait, we killed him, didn't we?"

Yes, this is his son.

"Close enough. Hey, pipsqueak! Come over here and let me show you just how out of your league you are."

>:> Orfax drops Double Ring Mail of Resist Fire [+7].

"Not bad for a little shrimp. Musta' been holding out on daddy."

(shrug) Who knows how Yeek politics works? Interestingly, on the floor of the room Orfax's crew was in, we also find 28 Bolts of Venom (+8,+8). My Seeker Bolts of Venom do more damage, of course, but these should sell for a tidy sum.

The rest of the level is fairly boring, so we push on:

Mkw 24, Fumblefingers quest for 17 Vampires; "What a boring place…"

"Hmph, figures. Prob'ly ran screaming from the weakling bloodsuckers, the coward."

Who knows? Judging from the level feeling, I don't suppose they'll be too much of a challenge. And since Vampires can fly and Mirkwood is all trees, most of them find me. I still have to walk most of the level to find the last one, though. The quest reward choices are Spirituality, Stealth, Necromancy and Weaponmastery. Hmm, my skill point plan doesn't have any points allocated to Weaponmastery, and a boost there would certainly be a good thing. There, see, Gathraka, he's not so useless after all, is he?

"Yeah? What kind of weapon-master loses his weapon as often as that guy does?"

He still managed to teach you a few things.

"Okay, he's got some skill, I give him that much."

The rest of the level is over quickly, and we continue to:

Mkw 25; "This level can't be all bad…"

This time, the Vampire that comes charging at me as I enter the level is just a random denizen. ;) The level is mostly boring; I do run into Angamaite of Umbar, who drops Hard Studded Leather [+3], an Awl-Pike (+5,+4), and a Glaive (+6,+4).

"Can I just say I'm singularly unimpressed by what these so-called tough monsters manage to cough up?"

Yes, you can, and you just did. I also get my experience points clocked by a Banshee while I was fighting some Cold hounds. Of course, the Banshee is appropriately punished for this infraction… >:> I don't think the loss is bad enough to merit an immediate return to fix it. And good thing I don't go, too; near the end of the level, I find my first Potion of Constitution.

"Now, that's what I'm talking about…"

And on that positive note, we move on to:

Mkw 26, Princess quest for 12 Mages; "You have a very good feeling…"

Twelve means the lake version of the quest room. Well, I feel at least reasonably good about that… ;) I also feel pretty good about getting a Spectral Cutlass (+7,+10) from a pack of Cave ogres near the start of the level. After that, encountering Ulwarth is only mildly entertaining; he drops a Metal Cap [+2]. And the quest room is apparently nearby, as two Mages wander in while I'm finishing off Ulwarth.

"That's it? Man, Princess Whinefest has sunk to an all new low."

Well, to be fair, they're probably a bit more impressive when they can actually cast spells… Indeed, they demonstrate as much when I finally find the quest room; it's to the east of the room I'm in, down a long corridor—long enough to put them outside the range of my anti-magic field.

"Not a problem; they're stupid enough to come chasing me if I wait here. I've just got to duck out of sight and let them come to me."

You're getting too cynical down there. Good girl. >:>

"Don't push it, Human."

And the ten remaining Mages walk right into our trap (though the last two keep me waiting long enough to get me to peek around the corner to make sure they were really coming). From down at the other end of the corridor, the Princess offers us a Wolf Pelt, a Halberd, or a Leather Jacket. Hmm, the weapon would sell for the most, but my current cloak is kinda lame… we'll try the Wolf Pelt. And one of the Mages was courteous enough to leave us our first Potion of Strength.

"Now, this is more like it."

We're getting closer to the levels where stat potions become more common.

"I like the sound of that."

Indeed. The quest reward turns out to be a Wolf Pelt of Protection [+8]. Yeesh, and I already have resist shards from Thalkettoth.

"You're not very good at this, are you, Human?" >:>

*groan* My pack is getting kinda full; I think we can go one more level before heading back:

Mkw 27; "This level can't be all bad…

Not worth it, really; nothing of interest happens, and keeping my pseudo-ID rate ahead of my rate of item accumulation gets to be be annoying at times. And near the end of the level, a Neekerbreeker infestation gets away from me. I'm going to take that as a sign to go home.

Lothlorien

I've got quite a few junkarts to identify:

Feh. Hmm, my crossbow is still cursed; I thought I read a ?oRC on it.

"I think it got hit a couple times, actually."

Hmm, guess we'll need a Scroll of *Remove Curse* then. And the temple's fresh out. Sounds like the perfect excuse for a shopping tour… ;) Bree has what I need, and some Scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Hit to use on my crossbow bolts. Nothing interesting in Gondolin; Minas Anor's black market has a Harp of Power, but I can't wield it with my crossbow.

Back in Lothlorien, I pull out some of the non-ego Seeker Bolts to use the ?oEWTH's on; only one takes, but it's enough to make them stack with the ones I'm wielding—which was the goal, as I was running kinda low… Anyway, with luck we'll finish Mirkwood next time out.

Mkw 27 (take 2) to Mkw 31

Let's try this again, shall we?

Mkw 27, take 2; "You feel your luck is turning…"

A 1x5 small level.

"Man, I dunno where they're getting these ‘elite’ uruks from, but someone's handing out titles way too freely."

Well, one of them did have a Long Sword of Westernesse; that's at least a bit elite.

"Whatever."

The level isn't entirely boring; it nets our first Mushroom of Restoring. (Hey, whaddaya know? I'm a poet and wasn't aware of it… ;) )

*groan* "Let's just go, Human."

Everyone's a critic… The level is over quickly, and we move on to:

Mkw 28, Princess quest for 11 Ooze elementals; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

A 1x3 small level and an arena level, and the quest level is a mere dozen squares to our east as we enter. [checks notes] Hmm, 13d10hp, speed +0, acid bolt and acid ball spells, moderate melee damage… okay, I'm a bit less worried than I was a minute ago.

"Heh. Wimp." >:>

There's a small pack of Cold hounds just outside the quest room on the near side, which I pick off with Seeker Bolts. In retrospect, this wasn't such a great idea, as the Ooze elementals immediately barge out and destroy them on the ground before I can retrieve them.

"Hey! Those are my bolts, you bag of slime! Oh, you're gonna get it now…"

I manage to lure them around the bolts on the floor as I approach, minimizing my losses. Otherwise, the battle is over quickly, and the princess offers me a Glaive, Ring Mail or Paper Armor. Enh. Prob'ly safest to go with the weapon.

"What, aren't we gonna go get it?"

I want to explore the rest of the level first; I'd rather not cross that lava lake more than once if I don't have to. Exploring the level is fairly quick, but I get a bit sloppy and forget to check for traps, as I discover when I run into a… Trap of Neutrality. Oh, dear.

"WHAT–?! Oh, that's it, lemme up there, Human, I'm gonna show you exactly what this feels like!"

Calm down, Gathraka, all we have to do is find a Trap of Femininity and we'll have you fixed up good as new.

"Calm down?! I oughta come up there and…"

*gulp* A quick sweep of the rest of the level finds no suitable traps. Let's go get our quest reward (which turns out to be a Venomous Glaive (+3,+3)), and try again on:

Mkw 29; "This level can't be all bad…"

That depends entirely on whether you have a pissed-off neutered Uruk breathing down your neck… :o The level is small again, 1x5 this time, which doesn't help my chances of getting the trap I need. I do find another Trap of Neutrality, just to add insult to injury. In the very last room of the level, though, I find two unknown dark red traps. Well, here goes nothing… The first one is a Hallucination Trap; the second is a Poison Needle Trap.

"This is not funny, Human."

You don't hear me laughing, do you? Maybe we'll have better luck on:

Mkw 30, Fumblefingers quest for 18 Young red dragons; "You like the look of this place…"

[checks notes] Hmm, 300hp, speed +0, moderate melee damage, plus the fire breath, of course. Not much tougher than the Ooze elementals, I'd say, plus since dragons can fly, most of them will come to me—indeed three of them have ambushed me before I even get twenty steps into the level. And finally a full-sized level, which means we won't get piled up on.

My immediate concern, of course, isn't the dragons so much as finding a Trap of Femininity for Gathraka. The early part of the level, annoyingly, doesn't seem to have any traps at all. On a brighter note, the twelfth Young red dragon pushes me over the top to clvl 32, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. Another level and I should get my first extra blow from Sword-mastery.

As usual, I have to walk the entire level to track down the very last Young red dragon. Mr. F. Fingers offers us a choice of Spirituality, Magic-Device, Thaumaturgy or Antimagic. Ah, finally, an Antimagic boost; this will give me three skill points I can allocate to Weaponmastery or Archery, and in the short term it will allow me to push Sword-mastery more aggressively. There, see, Gathraka? He's not entirely useless.

"Yeah, whatever. Just find me that trap that's supposed to fix me."

She is nothing if not single-minded… Unfortunately, that's the end of the level, and it had very few traps to choose from. On a somewhat brighter note, one of the dragons did drop a Quarterstaff of Life (+5,+10)(20%). But back to the trap searching, which we continue on:

Mkw 31; "You have a very good feeling…"

Well, at least it looks like this level might have a few more traps than the last—most notably when I take a single step outside my trap-detection range and land right on a Nexus Ball Trap. :o

"Idiot…"

To further set the tone of the level, just a couple screens in I'm ambushed by a flock of Young and Mature dragons, mostly bronze but with a few greens mixed in. I'm down to 258/509hp by the time I finish off the last of them. They did leave us quite a pile of loot to sort through, though, including my first Potion of Resistance. A couple rooms over, a flock of Bats of Gorgoroth leave us a Potion of Charisma.

Further in, I get a preview of things to come, as I run into my first swarm of Araneas. I quickly learn that my Seeker Bolts of Venom are useless, as Araneas resist poison; my Seeker Bolts of Frost, on the other hand, do seem to function well as one-shot takedowns. I'm down to twelve, though, which doesn't bode well for my future hopes of doing the Spiders quest.

"Hey, yeah, when are we doing that?"

Well, I was hoping to do it after finishing Mirkwood, but assorted run-ins with Cold hounds and Ice trolls have beaten our hard-won small stash of Potions of Speed back down to one. Your anti-magic field did do a good job of jamming them, though; I think only one of them got a fire bolt spell off.

"Well, I'm getting impatient down here. But find that trap first."

Yes, ma'am… :\ The rest of the level yields no Trap of Femininity, but I do get a Potion of Intelligence from an Acidic cytoplasm.

"Here, I think you need this more than I do."

*groan* Anyway, we're low on ?oID's, and my pack is getting kind of heavy, so we return to:

Lothlorien

My loot sells for a nice chunk of change, enough to put me above 200Kgp for the first time. Let's take this money on a shopping tour… ;) Minas Anor's black market has a Potion of Dexterity, and their alchemy shop has a ?oEWTH; Bree's alchemy shop has five more of the latter. Nothing tickles my fancy in Gondolin, but back home in Lothlorien, the black market has a Potion of Wisdom that I decide to splurge on, and one more ?oEWTH. And with all seven of these scrolls, I cook up another 23 Seeker Bolts that will stack with the ones in my quiver. I restock my quiver up to 30 bolts and stow the rest.

Hmm, didn't quite finish Mirkwood this time; next time out should do it.

Mkw 31 (take 2) to Mkw 33

A bit of restocking and we return to:

Mkw 31, take 2; "You like the look of this place…"

An early pack of Black orcs drops a Ring of Flying. Hmm, I think I'll stow this one for the Spiders quest and sell off the Indestructible one. Traps seem to be sparse, and none of even the right color are showing up. [As you may recall from last time, I'm desperately trying to find a Trap of Femininity to correct a… slight lapse of diligence, before Gathraka loses patience and replicates the effect of the Trap of Neutrality on me. :o ]

The rest of the level is boring; an Illusionist drops a Potion of Dexterity, and a large pack of assorted trolls drops The Trident of Forie (+15,+4) (+1). No trap, though. We'll try again on:

Mkw 32, princess quest for 10 Mature red dragons; "You have an excellent feeling…"

Indeed I do; ten means the trap-filled quest room, which gives me several chances at getting the trap I need. The quest room is a few screens up from the entry stairs, near the center of the level; none of the right color traps, but there is a pack of assorted Ogres on the north edge of the room and spilling out into the corridors off the north side—and Lokkak shows up in the middle of them.

"Mm, now this guy is annoyingly tough."

Indeed, after two turns of melee, I've only taken him down one star, and he's taken me down to 446/509hp. [checks notes] 1545hp, speed +10, 100 AC, and pretty nasty melee damage. And like an idiot, I left our last Potion of Speed at home last time we were topside, for fear it would get destroyed by cold.

"Brilliant thinking, genius…"

Gimme a second here… okay, first we switch Explor to 'running'. Hmm, pushing Tactic up to 'berzerker' would give me 84 points more damage per turn, but would reduce my AC by 25, which would give Lokkak… [sound F/X: source diving] about a 1-in-8 better chance of hitting, which would on average mean about 10hp more damage per round. I'll try it for a few turns and see if it pans out.

"Less calculating, more killing."

Well, "more killing" is hopefully exactly what we're about to achieve. Next turn of melee, I take two stars off Lokkak and he drops me to 403/509hp. Another turn, and Lokkak's down another star and I'm down to 374/509hp. Hmm, I may need to step back and heal here in a minute. One more turn, I take off another star, and I'm down to 320/509hp.

"Okay, let's fall back a bit, Human; we need to get out of this swarm of ogres around us."

Indeed. A Phase Door scroll bounces us into a room north of the quest room—where the rest of Lokkak's entourage is… :\ Well, that at least gives me a chance to dive for the west exit of the room and get into a corridor, where the ogres can only get at me one at a time.

"Here he comes. Okay, if I time this right, I might get one clean shot at him before he closes. Gimme the cold ones."

Right. I wield the Seeker Bolts of Frost and chop down the last Cave ogre between me and Lokkak—and he doesn't move that turn. I get in one shot, taking him down to three stars, and he closes to melee range, not getting a chance to attack this turn.

"This ends now, Ugly…"

Indeed, three more turns, with Lokkak barely getting a hit on me, and he's down. And that looks like a Phial he dropped… I'll come back for that; first I should crank back down to normal/normal and finish off the rest of Lokkak's crew. They leave me a fair amount of loot to sift through, including another Potion of Wisdom. Lokkak's drop is a Dagger (+6,+1), a Quarterstaff of Slay Troll (+7,+7), and… wait for it… The Phial of Galadriel. :D :D

"Whoa…"

Indeed; we'll be wielding that right away. And apparently Lokkak's crew were holding out on him, as their combined loot includes a Venomous Wooden Boomerang (+5,+3) and The Cutlass of Ollimborn (+15,+13) (+4). Oh, and a Potion of Speed. :\

*groan* "Well, there's timing for ya."

Indeed. As long as we're here, wanna try our luck with the dragons?

"I'm game."

The dragons manage to break through the double door as I arrive; I lure the first few back west along the north edge of the room, hoping not to get too badly double-teamed. I take out the first three that way at berzerker/running, then edge back to the doors, luring them out two at a time. The seventh one pushes me up to clvl 33, with all five skill points going to Sword-mastery. And there's my eighth blow per round, right on schedule. With the last dragon down, the Princess offers me a choice of a Khopesh, a Glaive, or a Tome of the Impenetrable Earth. Want a spellbook, Gathraka?

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Human. You still haven't found that trap that's supposed to fix me."

*ahem* Yes. I choose the glaive, which turns out to be a Shocking Glaive (+6,+10). The dragons also left us a lot of loot to sort through, including Hithlomir. Hmm, here's a trap that might do what we want… odd, it doesn't do anything. [sound F/X: source diving] Could be a Trap of Sliding or a Trap of Decay; those don't appear to be implemented.

Another surprise this level is my first Green Thunderlord. Well, first with this character; looks like one of her ancestors killed one. I crank up to berzerker/running and take the Thunderlord down in five turns.

The rest of the level is relatively boring, with no further traps of the right color. My pack is getting very full, but there's only one level left:

Mkw 33; "You like the look of this place…"

"Heeere, Hellhound, Hellhound…" >:>

Yeah, maybe this will at least get you to stop with that line… X-( Here, here are some Fire hounds, close enough?

"For now."

:\ The early level nets three more Potions of Wisdom, taking my WIS up to 17. You're going to be quite the philosopher before this is all over.

"Just find the trap, Human."

Ah, yes… :o While I'm looking for that, a run-in with some Dark elven warlocks nets Potions of Strength and Intelligence. Hmm, another trap that might help us… and it's another dud. Oh well, there's a Potion of Charisma nearby. ;)

"Focus, Human."

Yes, ma'am. The rest of the level, alas, doesn't pan out, though I do net some more stat potions: two of Charisma and one of Constitution. And now my pack is absolutely bursting at the seams, so I return to:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

Hithlomir's resists might be handy later if I can find other sources of speed; I'll stow it for now. Hmm, and now would really be the time to do another character sheet, but I'd really rather not before I've fixed the whole neuter screwup… [checks notes] Okay, I think I've got a plan.

"I'm worried already."

According to my notes, Traps of Femininity start appearing at level 10. Now, trap creation is primarily constrained by minimum allowed dungeon level; the lower (numerically) the level, the fewer kinds of traps can appear–

"So our best chance of finding this blasted trap is on level 10."

Precisely. And the most easily accessible dungeon level 10 is the top level of the Orc Cave.

"Fine, let's go."

As you say:

Orc 10, take N (as N goes to infinity)

I won't bore you with the details, as they would… well, bore you. Suffice it to say that I spend several fruitless levels searching for traps, and finding half the other dark-red trap types, until I finally find a Multiplication Trap.

"Why are you so excited about that? All that does is create more traps to trip you up when… ohhhhh. Not bad, Human."

I take the compliments where I can get them. ;) I dig out a couple adjacent walls to maximize yield, take a deep breath… and generate a Trap of Femininity on the very first shot. :D

"‘Bout bloody time. Let's go home, I'm sick of this boring searching."

No argument there. Oh, I almost forgot: Notice how we weren't killed by Hellhounds at the bottom of Mirkwood this time? >:>

"Beginner's luck. Don't go getting all full of yourself up there."

No respect, I tells ya… On the way home, I stop by Bree; the black market has three Potions of Speed and a Potion of Strength, all 25% off. Good, !oSpd's are what we need most for the Spiders quest. In fact, while I'm in the neighborhood, I should check Gondolin too… ah, they have another !oSpd in the black market. Back home to Lothlorien, where I *ID*:

And the black market has four more !oSpd's and a Potion of Dexterity. I wonder if I should take this as a sign and try the Spiders quest next time out…

Chatter (1.5)

ZizzoTheInfinite: Gathraka's character sheet is now updated through Mirkwood. And I'm increasingly tempted to try the Spiders quest next time out; I welcome thoughts and advice on that front.

ZasVid: Well, I wouldn't try that. It seems quite suicidal. Gathraka's is slow, noisy and vulnerable to chaos effects (don't take offense to that, Gathraka :p). While she may keep curses off with anti-magic, elder araneas are deadly in other ways too, especially when they will be all awake. Though with a ring of flying you can get as fast as you can to the aranea cluster and find out if you keep up with them.

ZizzoTheInfinite: I think I can handle the speed problem with lots and lots (and lots) of Potions of Speed, and the hallucination and mind blast attacks with lots of Potions of Curing. Bad stealth shouldn't be a problem, since as you say, everything is gonna be awake anyway. And as you say, my primary strategy is going to be tree-hopping with the Ring of Flying.

Intermission: Spiders Quest

Okay, I've decided: we're going to do the Spiders quest.

"Finally. Let's go."

Whoa, slow down there, young lady.

"‘Young lady’? Do you want me to come up there and rearrange your face?"

Do you want to survive the Spiders quest this time?

"Is that a threat, Human?"

Then sit down and help me plan.

Preparation

"Grmbl… Okay, those big spiders we ran into weren't that bad, but it took the cold crossbow bolts to take them down quick, and we're running low on those."

Yeah, I've got some junk to try forging more ammo. And you haven't seen Elder araneas yet; they have three times the hit points of ordinary Araneas and do more than twice as much melee damage, plus they have hallucination attacks and sanity blasting spells.

"Great, what do we do about that?"

Well, chaos resistance would block the hallucination effect, but we don't have any source of that. [sound F/X: source diving] Potions of Curing will clear that up, though. They also cure sanity, so that'll do double duty.

"Okay, so where do we get some of these Potions of Curing?"

We're gonna go fountain hopping.

"Huh?"

You'll see. One more thing I'm thinking about: we'll need to swap out one of our current rings to wear the Ring of Flying, and I'm hoping it won't have to be the Ring of Fire Resistance… [check notes] okay, there are no invisible spiders, so we can afford to stow the Ring of See Invisible for the quest. Hmm, actually, I do have that Ring of Damage (+11) collecting dust at home. I'd have to swap in Hithlomir to keep fire resistance covered, losing Thalkettoth's +3 speed… I'll think about it.

"Yeah, speaking of that, those spiders were faster than us, weren't they? You think we got enough Potions of Speed to do this?"

Not even close. We'll be collecting those on our fountain tour too. Speaking of which, on the way out of Lothlorien, we buy 99 Pints of Fine Wine.

"Uh… Human? I'm not saying orcish beer is particularly good or anything, but when you have to chew the ale, I don't think you can really call it 'fine'."

(shrug) It's just a quirk of game mechanics that you have to eat the ale to get the empty bottle out of it. Anyway, our first stop is the Maze, where a bit of recall juggling leaves us at:

Maz 37

"Back here again? Oh, right, you like making crossbow bolts down in the bottom of a maze for some odd reason."

Well, it doesn't pan out this time; my best net is 17 Bolts (exploding) (1d5) (+5,+3). Maybe we can try again later; for now, I return to Bree, where on a lark, I upgrade my Ring of Fire Resistance to a Ring of Flames [+14] from the black market. From there we hit:

BDw 1

"Well, this brings back memories. Mostly bad ones. What are we doing here again?"

Looking for fountains. I thought we'd covered this.

"Fountains? Wait, these things? The holes in the floor that spew colored water? These are useful for something?"

That's potion liquid. That's what all these empty bottles are for.

"Oh, so this is where we're getting those Potions of Curing you were talking about."

Actually, we're going for Potions of Speed here; we'll go somewhere else for the Potions of Curing.

"Uh-huh… Just for reference, how long is this gonna take?"

Umm… can I get back to you on that?

"*groan* That's what I was afraid of…"

I hate to admit that Gathraka has a point, but a dozen or so iterations through BDw 1 and BDw 2 later, I've found maybe half a dozen fountains total, none of Speed. At least the Bree black market has a Potion of Curing… :o And we got some more ammo fodder that we can try again in:

Maz 37

And here my luck takes a bit of an upward turn. Still nothing that will be useful against the Araneas, but I do score this:

"Whoa…"

‘Whoa’ indeed. In fact, this inspires me to try my luck on:

SwL 22

"Mm… lotta breeders ‘round here…"

Yes.

"Maybe you haven't noticed, Human, but my stealth's not so great. We're gonna be waking some of these things up, and they're gonna breed."

That's why I kept the exploding bolts.

"I think we're gonna need a few more bolts to take on that swarm of bugs."

Okay… well, in the face of uncontainable breeding, we can always run. :o

"*groan* This is gonna be a long day…"

It's not so bad. On the first few levels alone, I manage to find a Potion of Healing, a Potion of Intelligence, and a Potion of Wisdom. After that, it gets kind of samey again. I am nothing if not persistent, though, and after a long and frustrating search, I'm the proud owner of 16 Potions of Curing and 24 Potions of Healing—less than I'd hoped for, but I think I can get by on this. The venture wasn't a total loss, though; along the way I accumulated three Potions of Constitution, one of Dexterity, one more of Wisdom, and nine of Charisma. Oh, and an Elven Cloak of Stealth [+8] (+3).

*shudder* "Do I have to wear this?"

What? You've been living in a city of Elves for the last… well, however long.

"Yeah, but that's different… well, sort of…"

See, this is the problem with that bit of narrative jujitsu I did back when we entered Mirkwood. Technically, I suppose she should be having the same problem with the Phial.

"My only problem with this thing is that it's a pain in the homi to activate."

Oh, that's just because your Magic Device ability is Bad; that can't be helped. And completing the Spiders quest will clear up the narrative problem. Oh, before I forget, I also found a Potion of Experience, which takes me to clvl 34, with skill points again going all five to Sword-mastery. And a few things to *ID*:

Hmm, two genocides. I'll keep them, though as noted above, they'll probably be too difficult to use anyway. I think I'll keep the Demonshield for now; being invisible might just make the Spiders quest easier. Hmm, looks like I have a fate too: to find a Blubbering idiot on level 1. Well, as it happens, I was headed back there anyway:

BDw 1

"Oh, good grief, not again…"

Unless you think we can do this quest on six Potions of Speed, we need to accumulate some more.

"Grmbl…"

That's the spirit. ;) This pass goes much better; after finding three fountains of Speed on the same level, I'm the proud owner of 44 Potions of Speed, which should be plenty. Also a few more junkarts to *ID*:

And since my ammo supplies took something of a beating from being breathed on by dragon worms, I made sure to collect lots of ammo fodder to take back to:

Maz 37

Not so much luck this time; I net some more Seeker Bolts (exploding) to replace the ones I used up in the Sandworm Lair, and some Seeker Bolts of Slay Animal which aren't quite powerful enough to take down an Aranea in one shot, so I leave them behind.

"So are we finally done here?"

Yes, I think we're reasonably prepared now. We return to:

Lothlorien

with our hard-earned spoils. Next time out, we'll finally be taking on the Spiders quest.

"You've been saying that since halfway through Mirkwood, Human."

You see what I have to put up with…

Attack

Okay, this is it, Gathraka, we're going in. Time to swap in the Ring of Flying and… did we ever decide whether to go with the Ring of Damage?

"Mm, remind me, what was the trade-off on that? +88 damage versus +3 speed?"

+99 damage, actually; as a subclass of Warrior, you just gained another attack when you hit clvl 34. Add in the +108 damage with Tactic at 'berzerker' and you come pretty close to killing an Elder aranea in one turn.

"And we're gonna be running anyway, right?"

Yes, I'll have Explor at 'running' before we even enter the quest.

"All right, let's do it, then."

[checks notes] Okay, the map shows 21 Araneas and 11 Elder araneas. Hmm, we might should've held out for more Potions of Curing, but too late