Contents

  1. Gathraka the Tribeless, the Orc Barbarian Unbeliever, Part 3
    1. Chapter 4
      1. MoM 30 to MoM 34
      2. Orc Town
      3. MoM 35 (take 2) to MoM 38
      4. MoM 38 (take 2) to MoM 40
      5. MoM 40 (take 2) thru MoM 41
      6. MoM 41 (take 2) thru MoM 42 (take 2)
      7. MoM 43 thru MoM 44
      8. MoM 45 thru MoM 46
        1. Chatter (1.8)

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 3

Chapter 4

Well, Mirkwood's done; still in the looting-and-pillaging mood for Moria? ;)

"I dunno. I've been talking to Galadriel, and she seems awfully worried about that Necromancer guy holed up in his tower in Mirkwood. I'm wondering if maybe I should go try and do something about him."

A noble gesture, but you're not near tough enough to take on the Necromancer yet. You'll need to get a long stronger first, and get better equipment.

"So how do I do that?"

Well, for now I'd say stick with your original plan and do Moria.

"Yeah, the loot there should be better than Mirkwood, and my gear could use some upgrading. Hey, neat, I can loot and pillage and still be one of the goodguys." :)

As long as you stick to looting and pillaging the badguys… ;) Anyway, let's to it, then:

MoM 30 to MoM 34

MoM 30; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Considering there's a pack of Ogrillons right next to me as I enter the level, I'm not sure which way my luck is supposed to be turning…

*slash* *slash* "For the better, I'd say."

Indeed; they go down without a fight, few even waking up. The next few rooms are pretty straightforward, until a pack of Ice trolls pushes me over the top to clvl 35, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery.

After that, the level is mostly uneventful. I will note in passing, though, that Blink dogs are much less frustrating to deal with when you can disrupt the space-time continuum. >:> Oh, and there was also the rare but always interesting appearance of an Experienced possessor (soul).

"Possessor? That's one of those weird people that go around taking over dead bodies, right?"

Yep. I had a DeathMold once that did that.

"You'd think he'd pick a better body to take over than a Hill orc, though."

(shrug) He probably lost the body he was in, and was trying to find any body he could to repossess.

"Poor sap."

Indeed; if he'd tagged along behind us long enough, he could've scored the body of Mim, who we run into him near the end of the level. I toss back a Potion of Speed for this one, just in case, and he falls in three turns, dropping a Small Leather Shield [+2], a Small Sword (+3,+6), and a Halberd (+4,+2)—and his corpse, of course, hence the setup… ;)

Anyway, that's it for the level, so we move on to:

MoM 31; " This level can't be all bad…"

Mostly not noteworthy, except for finding Potions of Strength and Wisdom on the floor in the same room. Oh, and for some cursed randart Leather Scale Mail dropped by some Hill trolls near the end of the level, which I decide not to investigate further. And on that cheerful note, let's move on:

MoM 32; "You feel strangely lucky…"

Well, on reflection, I suppose I'm lucky that the rather large welcoming committee in the room with me as I enter the level consists of nothing worse than Cave orcs and Energy hounds; considering this is Moria, it could have been much worse.

"‘Could have been’? I was hoping for worse. This was no challenge at all."

(shrug) It'll get more challenging as we go further down. In the meantime, the early level nets a Potion of Constitution from a swarm of Bats of Gorgoroth. Hard to tell how close I am to maxing that, with my Seeker Bolts of Elebor pinning my CON at 18/***. Further in toward the middle of the level, a Greater Mimic leaves us a Potion of Charisma. One more of those should max our CHA… ;)

The rest of the level is mostly uneventful, apart from netting The Large Leather Shield of Celegorm and an Iron Helm of Water Breathing.

"You seem far too excited about that helm. You're not thinking of going wandering around underwater anywhere, are you?"

(shrug) Only Lil has ever even tried to go to Numenor and find Ar-Pharazon; I keep thinking I oughta try again.

"Yeah, funny, that, ‘cause I keep thinking I should keep my head above water and not go around trying to imitate a fish."

Heh. We probably won't go anyway; but these things are rare enough that I stow them when I find them, just in case. Anyway, that's the level done, and we're dangerously low on ?oID's, so what's say let's blow this joint?

"Fine by me."

Wilderness

As long as we're in the neighborhood, I stop by Bree and stow the Helm of Water Breathing in my house there. On the way, I pick up a fate to meet an Agent of the Black Market on level 18—unlikely, as I doubt I'll be visiting level 18 again. Ooh, the black market has a Ring of Extra Attacks (+2) that I can just barely afford. Hmm, I'd have to lose either resist fire or see invisible… wait a minute… [checks notes] that's right, Celegorm has resist fire. Bye-bye, Ring of Flames, hello, serious butt-kicking. >:> No *Identify* scrolls here, so I swing by Gondolin to *ID*:

Cool. Back home in Lothlorien, I restock and sell off the rest of my loot, giving me enough money to buy the Potion of Experience in the black market, which takes me to clvl 36; skill points go 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery.

Once more unto the proverbial breach, then:

Mkw 32, take 2; "This level can't be all bad…"

This time, the welcoming committee is a pack of ordinary Ogres. Well, ordinary except in that their Chieftain was apparently packing Limbslicer.

"Yeah, and was apparently too dirt stupid to know he should be wielding it instead of that stupid bludgeon."

(shrug) They are ogres, after all. Immediately after the Ogres comes a gaggle of Dark elven warlocks. I was hoping for some stat potions out of their drop, but no such luck. Continuing this trend, the next room over sports some Hill orcs (boring) and a Nexus Q (not so much). The latter apparently tries to teleport me away several times, but with my antimagic field strength now at 82 percent, it wasn't getting any traction… >:>

After all that early excitement, the game finally settles down, and the rest of the level is straightforward. Well, relatively so; a pack of Snagas about halfway in drops Lasher. One of the disadvantages of being an Unbeliever, I suppose.

"You're not getting ideas about ditching my sword up there, are you?"

No, ma'am; if I weren't inclined to wield a Dark Sword, I'd be playing a Swordmaster or a Warrior instead of an Unbeliever. To cap off the level, in the very last room I encounter Lugdush, who falls in two turns and drops a Small Metal Boomerang (+2,+3) and a Dark Sword (+4,+3).

"Okay, this is weird. I've been seeing more of these swords like mine every so often, all the same size and shape as mine and all made out of the same strange ore. This can't be a coincidence, can it?"

(shrug) No idea. I think we should keep moving, though:

MoM 33; "You have a good feeling…"

I tend to disagree. The Algroths nearby don't worry me; the Dark elven warlocks at the far end of the room, far enough away to be outside the radius of my antimagic field, do. Fortunately, I arrive next to a door, so that I can step out of the room and out of their line of sight and wait for them. Between them, they net Potions of Intelligence and Charisma, which maxes my CHA at 18/20. And do to me what you will, I still say you're pretty cute. ;)

"Heh. Get me to the Necromancer and I'll forgive you for that crack."

Yes, ma'am. The rest of the level is uneventful, beyond getting Travak from a pack of Stone trolls. In short order, though, we move on to:

MoM 34; "You have a very good feeling…"

The "very good" part of the level appears to be a pack of Araneas that I encounter about halfway through the level. Fortunately, my randart Seeker Bolts are still taking them down in a single shot—odd, because Tactic is set to 'normal' this time, which means my bolts shouldn't be doing that much damage. There must be something else that's not reflected in the 'I'nspect screen. Ah well, I'm not one to look a proverbial gift horse in the mouth.

The rest of the level is relatively straightforward until near the end, when I find out what's actually "very good" about it: an orc pit, near the northeast corner. Over quickly, and it nets a Potions of Wisdom and Dexterity.

"We're running out of identify scrolls, Human. Shouldn't we be headed back?"

After the next level, we won't need those anymore.

"Actually, I'm thinking we might want to skip this next level…"

Huh? Why?

"Look at this inscription on the wall next to the down stairs: Utoturuk poshat hakali. ‘Orc Town down stairs.’ Sounds like we hit the mother lode. Could get messy."

Hey, we handled Deathwatch fine, we can do this too.

"All right. But you know if you get me killed down here, I'm taking you with me."

Let's go, then.

Orc Town

Oh, before we head down the stairs, you should wield your exploding bolts.

"Why?"

You'll see.

(shrug) "Whatever. If you think we can spare the hit-point loss…"

Hmm, yeah, we are gonna have to wean you off that eventually. In the meantime, here we go:

Orc Town; "You hear orc warcries."

"Oh, sha, Shriekers, all sides, I can't get them all before… wait a minute…" [fires exploding Seeker Bolt] "Okay, ‘fess up, Human, you knew those were going to be there."

(shrug) Seemed logical that they'd have Shrieker mushroom patches as alarms at the entry point.

"Yeah? Seems logical they'll have more, too; you know where they are?"

Roughly, but I'm not sure about our odds of hitting them before they fire off. When I last passed this way with Bjorn, I had the option of casting Noxious Clouds around corners; your bolts, on the other hand, actually have to hit something to get an explosion.

"So? Which way?"

For now, let's take the north door. A few orcs wake up as I approach, but I manage to pick off the first Shrieker to my west. I wait for all the stragglers to approach before stepping into position to splash the next batch of Shriekers to my east; that may have been an tactical error, as there's no longer an orc positioned in quite the right place.

"Messed up already? Lovely."

No worries; that Ogrillon that just woke up will move into the right place as he approaches. A few steps forward and a Cave orc poking his head out the door at exactly the wrong moment gives me the shot I need for the third Shrieker, which clears the alcove to the west for a head-on attack.

"Sheesh, more deadwalkers. Clearly I've been out of the loop too long; have orcs in general just been having a bad year or something?"

Heh. After that we get a lot more waking up naturally. Next up is the Shriekers at the north corners of the alcoves on both sides of the corridor—and apparently I still haven't worked out quite how to approach those… :o

"Skai! Idiot. Well, most of them were awake anyway. Hold on, this could get ugly."

And on the next attempt at an approach, I learn that apparently I don't have to hit something with the bolt to make it explode. That should improve my odds a bit. As we approach the north end of this corridor, we start getting overflow from the large troop room to the east, as expected. Before heading that way, though, we need to clear the approach to it.

"What do you mean?"

The approach to that room is down a corridor off the north perimeter of the level, and the south end of that corridor has a Shrieker behind glass as a guard. We can get to it, however, through a fake wall in the southeast corner of this alcove we just cleared of Shriekers. I switch back to the randart bolts for this, and one shot does the trick.

"So, the approach is clear, let's go get ‘em."

Careful; there are also Shriekers at the northwest and northeast corners of the perimeter, and we might not be able to pick them off so easily. For now, I'll keep luring them out and around the corner to us as long as they'll come. When that flow peters out, I stick my neck out and fire exploders left and right, picking off both Shriekers.

"What about those orcs on the other side of the lava?"

They can't get to us or hurt us; leave them for now. As I move east toward the second corridor, I get more leakage; I'd rather not have their drops pile up on the lava, so I lure them back into the first corridor and kill them there. A couple more repeats of that and I make it to the second corridor. This is gonna be tricky; I'm not sure I can get the Shrieker at the southeast corner of this room before it fires off. My +3 speed saves the day, however, giving me one turn and a clear shot, which is all I need.

"Don't get too cocky, there are probably Shriekers in the other corners."

Yeah, but the room seems mostly empty by now, so I don't think it'll be a problem. With that room clear, we return to the entry point and push west. The alcove on the north side of this corridor is already empty; apparently all its occupants already leaked out during the last attack. Makes it easier picking off the Shriekers… >:>

One more exploding bolt to pick off the Shrieker at the southwest corridor of the perimeter, and we advance up the west side. The Shriekers in this next alcove are going to be tricky; and indeed, one of them gets away from me. Fortunately the alcove was mostly empty by then, and the rest of the sweep goes cleanly. As a last step, we hop across the lava to pick off the Cave orcs trapped on the edge of the perimeter.

"Well, that wasn't so bad… wait a minute, does that wall look fake to you?"

Indeed, we're not done yet. We enter the southern half of the level through the fake wall on the east side. The fight at the entry pushes me over the top to clvl 37, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. Now, we have to be careful on our approach to this troop room in the southeast corner; it's got Shriekers at the south end. For now, I'm going to lure out everyone I can through the north exit (netting a Potion of Intelligence in the process… :) ), and then slip in at the south entrance to get the Shriekers once I'm reasonably sure the room is empty. And we're already getting leakage from the other identical troop room in the southwest corner; let's go clean that one too, while I'm thinking of it.

That done, I push north up the west-side corridor to the inner section. There's two rows of monsters just behind this fake wall, separated by glass, and a Shrieker right next to me as I enter to wake them all up—or alternatively, in range of a bolt to die before I enter. >:> I can't get to the lower row of monsters from this side, so I jump the east/west void gate to the other side and repeat the same trick, this time clearing both rows of monsters thanks to the conveniently placed fake wall.

Next up is the alcove with Bolg. I toss back a Potion of Speed as he approaches, which ultimately turns out to have been unnecessary; with my 11 attacks per round, he's down to one star after a single turn, and dead in two without laying a hand on me. That should be just about all of the monsters on the level, so I'm not too careful about the Shriekers in Bolg's alcove as I push through to get at the monsters on the west side that I couldn't get to before.

There's one more treasure hidden on this level, so we punch through the wall hiding the north/south void gate and chop down the last two Uruks in our path to the Stone of Lore. And as I discover to my frustration, I can't actually activate the Stone without identifying it, and I used up my last two ?oID's earlier in the level… :o

"*groan* I knew we couldn't get through this place without some kind of serious screw-up."

This is hardly a serious screw-up; we'll just have to go through and pseudo-ID all the leftover loot to decide what to take back with us. For starters, Bolg's drop is staying behind, because it's just {good}.

"Yeah, but there was a bunch of stuff we were already stockpiling to take back with us."

Ah, yes, the {excellent} items I'd been collecting back near the entrance. For them, we'll just ditch everything we can replace back topside and load up as much as we can. We're thus carrying a full load when we return to:

Lothlorien

notably including:

plus enough loot to make it all worth my while, including a Ring of Damage (+14) for possible future use.

"What's ‘perilous identify’ mean?"

(shrug) Nothing serious; minor hit point loss, chance of being confused. We won't want to use it if there are monsters nearby, but otherwise it's not a problem. Now, the temple is out of ?oRC's, and we should really Mathom Travak anyway, so we head to Bree–

"Whoa, wait a minute, weren't we just in Lothlorien? Why'd we come out at the entrance to Moria?"

Bug in the map code, caused by Moria's two entrances.

"Two? Where's the other one?"

We'll get to it eventually. Meanwhile, Bree's temple doesn't have any ?oRC's either, so after stowing stuff, we head to Gondolin, which finally obliges. Oh, we also picked up a fate somewhere in early Moria: to maybe find a Rod Tip of Frost Bolts on level 15. :\ On the way back to Lothlorien, I pick up two more fates: to maybe find an Amulet of Nothing on level 8, and to find something special on level 1. On a lark, I decide to go pick off that last one, and in short order I'm the proud owner of:

"Was that trip really necessary, Human?"

Well, by the time we get back to Lothlorien, we've acquired another fate, to find an Iron Shot on level 1.

"Don't even think about–"

No, Gathraka, we won't be going back for that one; for now, we'll just settle in and prepare to return to Moria next time out.

MoM 35 (take 2) to MoM 38

MoM 35, take 2; "You have a very good feeling…"

So… you're not going to ask where Orc Town went?

"Are you kidding? In a place like this, it was probably stripped bare and looted down to the floorboards five minutes after everyone was sure we were gone."

(shrug) Fair enough. Our welcoming committee as we enter the level includes a few Water trolls, a pack of Ogrillons, and a lone Hill giant Chieftain who drops a Potion of Strength. Oh, and a Broken Skull I picked up from a hapless townsfolk forges into… 15 Seeker Bolts of Venom (+10,+8). Interestingly, I already have 10 Seeker Bolts of Venom (+6,+8); that'll be a bit tricky to combine, but I'm not complaining about having more good bolts.

The level is fairly interesting to start, netting not one but two artifacts in the first half-dozen or so rooms. After that, the level settles down to a more normal Moria level, meaning monsters crawling out of the woodwork every time I turn around and mostly unremarkable treasures piling up around me. I do encounter my second ever Green Thunderlord near the end of the level—and as a measure of my improvement since the first one, it only takes me three turns on normal Tactic to kill this one.

And with this level done, we proceed to:

MoM 36; "You have a good feeling…"

An average level overall. Well, average for Moria, at least, in that practically every time I turn around I find my self with an inventory full of unidentified loot and a floor full of unidentified loot dropped by the pack of orcs/ogres/trolls/whatever I just got through killing. Were it not for the Stone of Lore, I'd be swamped. I wonder if that's why someone decided to put it there in the first place?

"C'mon you stupid rock, talk to me!"

Poor Gathraka, of course, is my only character ever to have any trouble at all activating the thing. :o Generally, though. little of note happens on the level, beyond finding another Potion of Strength on the floor. Oh, I do run into Fasolt hear the end of the level; he makes a (failed) attempt to nick some of my gold and vanishes.

"Heh, poor stupid glob; he didn't get anything, and I still have to go kill him now, just on principle."

Indeed. Fortunately, he didn't get far; we find him a few rooms north of our previous encounter, and a few well-placed crossbow bolts rule out the possibility of him trying again. He drops a Hard Leather Cap [+5] and a Guisarme (+3,+7).

I should know by now, of course, that with Moria's monster generation rate, there's always one more pack of monsters between you and the stairs, as demonstrated by the Olog-hai that leave me a Potion of Wisdom and another saleable weapon—enough to convince me that it's time to head back topside and offload:

Lothlorien

where we *ID*:

Surprisingly, even with the brands and the extra attacks, Guind doesn't do much more damage than my original Dark Sword, except against demons.

"What's surprising about that? I've spent all this time training and gaining experience with my sword; what makes you think I'd do better with some carving knife on a stick?"

You are, of course, correct. ;) The alchemy shop has some Scrolls of Enchant Weapon To-Hit in stock; not enough to get my two stacks of Seeker Bolts of Venom to stack, but close. It takes a full shopping tour around all four towns to finish it off, but now I've got one more free inventory slot to work with, and a nice stock of high-damage Seeker Bolts.

"If you're done patting yourself on the back up there, Human, can we get back to the looting and pillaging?"

Yes, ma'am:

MoM 36, take 2; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Which way it's turning is not immediately clear, as there's a pack of Cave ogres right next to me as I enter the level, with an Angel garnish at the top. For the better, I suppose, as they all go down without touching me.

"You worry too much, Human. Now, c'mon, you stupid Phial…"

Yes, my characters tell me that a lot. Anyway, even with the extra inventory slots, the onslaught of loot to identify is still tough to keep up with. On a positive note, a Priest near the middle of the level drops a Potion of Dexterity for me. Of course, with all my stat-boosting equipment, my STR, DEX and CON are all pinned at 18/***, with none of them maxed.

After that the level is mostly boring, netting a Potion of Constitution from the floor; see stat notes above, although I think I'm finally close to maxing CON, since this potion took it from 18/206 (sans Hammerhand) to 18/209. And from the Mildly Amusing Occurrences Department™, near the end of the level I encounter (and kill) a Demonologist who drops a Potion of Corruption. I suppose he must have been a Swordsman originally, trying to get the Demonology skill by way of the demon corruptions… >:>

"You are weird, you know that, Human?"

Yes, ma'am, I do. ;) And on that note, let's move on:

MoM 37; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

Well, I don't think these Half-ogres in the entry room cover the 'superb' part.

*slash slash* [sound F/X: Half-ogre corpse hitting floor, in several pieces] "I'll second that."

Well, let's go see what we're up against, then… A Cloud giant in a four-subroom pit drops a Potion of Intelligence, but that's only moderately superb, despite raising my INT from 14 to 16. Another subroom sports Draebor and company; he drops a Golden Crown [+8]. [checks notes] Hmm, 1881hp, speed +10 some pretty tough melee damage and lots of spells, but somehow I don't think he'd make the level 'superb'.

"Uh, Human? I think that weird-looking plant over there is eyeing me…"

Hm? What plant? Oh, that's a… Giant Venus Flytrap? [checks screen] No, I'm not hallucinating. [checks notes] Well. It's a genuine monster. Not flagged as standard Angband, Cth, Z-like or joke, though one would expect it to be one of the latter two. It's only level 15 and not very tough, so I doubt it's the source of the superb feeling.

And without fanfare, the level is over.

"So did I blink and miss the ‘superb’ part of the level?"

You and me both. Well, I did make clvl 38 from a pack of Air hounds in that last room, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery; but that's only slightly superb…

"Yeah, this used to happen to me and dude all the time. We were, like, all up and down Moria and the Righteous Mountains, and every level was all, ‘You feel very superb and stuff.’ It was totally bogus, lemme tell ya."

Bjorn has a point; it's certainly not as though this is the first time this has happened.

"Oh great, I'm reduced to taking exploring advice from a squid-brained surfer with fur."

"Whoa. Folk are totally right about you; you are all pre-menthol or whatever."

"…What did you say?"

Bjorn? Run.

"Bah. Mange-ridden furball's not worth the effort. C'mon, let's go."

Yes, ma'am:

MoM 38; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"Told'ja, orc babe.

"*groan* Let's just go, Human…"

Well, we do run into a Patriarch, an Emperor wight and a Crypt thing in rapid succession.

"That's hardly ‘superb’…"

Well, how about Medusa a bit further in? She's pretty tough, and takes several turns to kill, but our antimagic field blocks all her summoning attempts, and she only gets one drain-exp hit on me. She drops all {good} stuff, nothing interesting.

"See? That doesn't fly either."

I'm sure we'll find it… Oh, here's something at least pretty good: a Potion of Experience dropped by a pack of Mountain ogres in the next room over. After the exp drain from Medusa, it's only enough to bring me back up to clvl 38, but that's good enough.

"Still not impressed."

Well, here's another Potion of Dexterity from an Archangel.

"Nope."

Hmm, we're kinda running out of level here, and my pack is getting full… hey, there's Lorgan!

"Skai! Always while I'm busy. Hey, ugly, get in line behind these Algroths, I'll kill you when it's your turn."

I… don't think he's gonna wait. [checks notes] He's speed +10; you'll probably want a Potion of Speed for this one.

"Grr… right, c'mere, ugly!"

Heh. Lorgan falls in five turns and drops nothing of interest. And I really gotta go unload stuff:

Lothlorien

Now, that was a load of loot; we're up to 600Kgp.

"So, is it okay to like having all this money if I'm a goodguy?"

Hey, we're gonna need all this money for better equipment to eventually face the Necromancer. For instance, the black market has another Potion of Dexterity. Ooh, I think we're getting close to maxing DEX too. Oh, and we have a couple junkarts to *ID*:

Enh. A bit of restocking, and we'll hit Moria again next time.

MoM 38 (take 2) to MoM 40

MoM 38, take 2; "You have a good feeling…"

Nothing interesting at first. A Phantom drops a Potion of Constitution, maxing my CON at 18/210 (sans Hammerhand), though at the cost of a drain-exp hit. And in further firsts, I encounter this character's first Silent watcher about halfway through the level.

"Yeegh. I had no idea Dwarves had such poor taste in statuary.

I don't think it's Dwarven, actually; it has a bit of a Morgul tinge to it.

"Mm, so it does, now that you mention it. And I don't like the way it's eyeing me, frankly. Let's see how well Morgul stone stands up to good old-fashioned crossbow bolts."

Fairly well, apparently; after taking two of my randart Seeker Bolts to the face, the Silent watcher is only down three stars. What say we try good old-fashioned steel next?

"Way ahead of you."

Heh. Frankly, Silent watchers aren't terribly impressive inside an antimagic field. >:> Further in, an Angel drops a Potion of Wisdom—and I must be close to max on that front too, since my WIS only increased from 18/102 to 18/104. And in the same room, from the Mildly Amusing Monsters Department™… a Spectral Grey mushroom patch.

"Okay, even I'm calling silly on that one."

Hey, I don't make ‘em up, I just write ‘em down… A couple rooms over from there, a Dread drops another Potion of Wisdom. Yeah, that's definitely getting close to–

"Calculate your potions later, Human; we've got a bug problem down here."

Indeed, a Firefly infestation appears to have gotten away from me. Fortunately, there's only one exit from the room, but no door to seal it off… I know! I can use your grow-mold power to leave a rearguard of sorts.

"Sha. I was hoping you'd forgotten about that."

;) And it's not far from there to the end of the level, so we push on:

MoM 39; "You have a very good feeling…"

And there's a pack of Olog-hai in the entry room for me to share that good feeling with. >:> The likely source of the good feeling turns up quickly: a lesser vault (overlap) as the very second room I encounter. It nets a randart boomerang, which I suppose qualifies as reasonably very good.

"You're not gonna try and make me wield this thing, are you?"

No, your crossbow is much more useful; but this should sell for a bit. And that seems to have been the entirety of the level's very-goodness. I do hit clvl 39 about two-thirds of the way through the level, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. That's pretty much it, though, and we're soon off to:

MoM 40; "You have an excellent feeling…"

"Ah, so this level might actually be mildly interesting?"

We can hope… My antimagic field is at least getting progressively stronger, as evidenced by the Shamans among the pack of Uruk-hai who greet me in the entry corridor, who repeatedly fail to get any spells off.

*sniff sniff* "Something weird down these stairs, Human."

Yes, those stairs go to the Small Water Cave. We'll be skipping that for now. The level is pretty same-y for a few rooms, and then I find the apparent source of the 'excellent' feeling: a pack of Cave ogres in a tiny cavern in the northwest corner of the level drops Anarion. [checks notes] Hmm, a close trade-off between this and Celegorm—sustain stats and sense evil from Anarion versus resist light and dark from Celegorm. Well, for now I've got the most important sustains covered with Hammerhand, so I'm going to stick with Celegorm; I'll definitely be keeping Anarion handy as a future swap-in, though.

"I don't think the level is finished being ‘excellent,’ Human. I smell trolls ahead, a lot of them."

A troll pit full of them, to be precise, with a Blue Thunderlord blocking the approach. A step up from the Green Thunderlords we've encountered so far; it falls in five turns and drops nothing of interest. The troll pit itself, naturally produces a lot of loot, but none of it is worth keeping.

"Pffft. Amateurs. That's the best loot they can find in a place like this?"

(shrug) They probably aren't the adventurous type like you are. ;) The level's surprises aren't done, though, as a pack of Novice mindcrafters further in drops Rilia. After that, though, the level is boring for a while–

"Uh, Human? Dragon. Very large."

An Ancient green dragon, to be precise, my first Ancient dragon with this character.. I spy him as I step out of a room into the corridor; fortunately, there's an intersection nearby that I can duck into to stay out of his line of sight until he approaches. Fortunately we have resist poison from our Amulet of the Serpents, or I'd be more worried.

"That thing looked like it was moving pretty fast."

Yes, +10 speed; for our first encounter, I'm going to go ahead and quaff a Potion of Speed, just to get a feel for how hard they are to kill. The actual fight is not as bad as I'd feared; the dragon falls in two turns, without getting a hit on me.

"Hmph. Kinda wimpy for such a huge hulking thing."

Actually, I think you're just deadlier than we previously thought. The dragon's loot includes a Robe of Resistance and a Golden Crown of the Magi; sadly, I don't think they'll sell for enough to be worth dragging back.

"You mean I'm punking a dragon in the treasure-collecting department? Man, I'm good…"

>:> A nearby pack of Snagas drops The Small Metal Shield of Erenarth [+4] {cursed}, which I politely decline. And I appear to be having good luck with dragons, as a Young blue drops Paurhach.

And that's the end of the level, and my pack is pretty full; we should probably head back–

"Oh, sha, spider, six-o'clock."

Uh-oh, Moria's Always One More Monster™ rule just threw an Elder aranea at me. Luckily, it approached from outside the room I'm in, and around a corner, so it gets only one (blocked) spell attempt off. It falls in two turns.

Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted–

"More spiders, Human."

Oh, good grief. A pack of Araneas this time, which drop The Demonhorn 'Helenel' [+6]. Which leaves me just enough inventory slots left to pick up the Robe and Crown that Ancient green dragon dropped.

"I thought you said they weren't worth carrying around."

Yeah, but we're headed back anyway:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

Huh? Why'd we come out here? (shrug) Oh well, Bree's weapon store has the best cap anyway. The armor store's cap sucks, though, so I swing by Gondolin to *ID*:

Hmm, Gondolin's armor store has a 10Kgp cap; I think I'll try again at home, after stowing the rest of the artifacts in my Bree home.

Lothlorien

Bleh, I should've gone with Gondolin's armor store; Lothlorien's has a 5Kgp cap. Ah well, we'll restock and leave it here for next time.

MoM 40 (take 2) thru MoM 41

"Hmm, these boots are getting kinda beat up."

Are they? [checks equipment] Indeed, my Metal Shod Boots of Dwarvish Endurance are down to [6,-4]. I hadn't noticed before, because the name is so long that the AC bonus is pushed off the screen. No problem, though; the alchemy shop has six Scrolls of Enchant Armor to patch that up. And now back to our Moria dive, already in progress:

MoM 40, take 2; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"Now what?"

(shrug) Dunno; let's go find out… Well, this probably isn't it, but I get to the entrance of a largeish room and:

"Skai. Now of all times for my jamming to fail."

Consider yourself lucky; she tried to summon another dragon, and that one did get blocked.

"Another? How fast is this crazy lady?"

+20, almost three times as fast as you. [checks notes] Hmm, she's got 520hp, and my average damage per round is 572; I could probably take her down in one turn, but that'd give the dragon two turns of attacks on me. On the other hand, though if I take the turn to quaff a Potion of Speed, both of them will get an attack, and the Enchantress might get another dragon.

"Make up your mind up there, Human."

Okay, skip the speed potion; we've got poison resistance, so we should be able to survive the dragon. One turn of attacks and the Enchantress is fleeing. The Ancient green takes two more turns to get rid of, and one more for the Cave ogre Archer that showed up just for fun. And now, of all times, a Memory moss in the room tries to get off a mind-blank spell, and is blocked.

"Heh. Stupid fungus." *thok*

By this time the Enchantress is back, at one star, and her attempt to summon another dragon is blocked. Needless to say, she doesn't last long. >:> And among her drop, I find a Tome of the Eternal Flame.

"So? What am I supposed to do with this?"

Sell it; it should go for a decent amount—especially considering that it's Fireproof. Man, if only I could find one of these with Trilogy… Oh, and more in your department, Gathraka, the Ancient green dropped a Ring of Damage that's a point higher than the one we've got at home.

After that, the level is uneventful for a while, beyond coughing up another Ancient green dragon, this one apparently native. It's also deep asleep, apparently, since I manage to sneak up on it and chop it to bits in two turns.

Oh, and I think I've found the source of the level's superb feeling: a vault off toward the southeast side of the level. Now, with Trilogy or Lisa, I could map out the vault and get some idea what to expect; here, I'll be going in blind…

"You worry too much, Human. Let's do it."

Yes, ma'am. And to set the mood for the vault, the very first thing to pop out of the vault is Rogrog (well, second, after one of his Cave troll escorts); he falls in three turns. After that, most of the first wave is assorted trolls and ogres, with the occasional Hill giant or Energy vortex just for the sake of variety. Once those clear out, I push in to find Wood spiders and Giant fire ants that never bothered waking up to come find me—and one Mature white dragon trapped among the ants who manages to coat half the floor with ice before I can get my Keystone-Kop dance over to him and put him out of my misery.

"At least he didn't get this." *glug glug*

That would be the Potion of Dexterity with which I just maxed my DEX. Oh, and just for reference, the vault is a lesser vault (nethack, tiny castle), and Rogrog's drop is a couple {good} weapons that I don't bother identifying.

And in a variant of Moria's Always One More Monster™ rule, there's another unexplored portion of the level in the southeast corner that was blocked off by the vault. It has an Ancient blue dragon to offer, but that's about it.

"So are we gonna be running into these big fast dragons a lot now?"

Yeah, we're getting into their depth now. And that's the level done, so we should move on–

"Hold on…" *sniff sniff* "Yeah, these stairs are okay."

Then let's take them:

MoM 41; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

Not really, not with a pack of Nexus hounds clustered near me in the entry room. [checks notes] Ah, but I've got resist nexus from Hammerhand. Never mind, then; have at them, Gathraka.

"With pleasure." *slash slash*

After that, contrary to the level's promised superbness, I get smacked in the head by some Vibration hounds, losing some WIS and apparently some sanity too.

"Bah, this is nothing. A serious Uruk warrior does crazy by nature; that's why we always win in battle."

Okay, now I'm worried… Beyond that, the level is pretty samey for a while, until I run into Castamir about halfway through the level.

"C'mon, you wanna piece of me, ugly?"

Now, for this one I recommend a Potion of Speed–

"Way ahead of you." *glug glug*

Castamir gets a turn on me while I'm doing this, and he wastes it trying and failing to cast a spell. And thanks to my additional +3 speed from Thalkettoth, I get two turns in a row on him, enough to take him down clean. He drops Leather Gloves [+4] and a War Hammer (+2,+5).

Pushing on from there, I find a Potion of Wisdom to take care of my WIS problem; I'm getting pretty close to max on that one, I think. And after getting my experience drained repeatedly and pushing back through it the hard way at least two or three times over the last few levels, I finally make it to clvl 40, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery.

And continuing the theme from the previous level, this level's superb feeling also stems from a vault, this time a lesser vault (Miniature Cell) with a Marilith, a Master vampire, a Young gold dragon and (of course) a Shrieker mushroom patch. They're not too hard to finish off, though, and the loot is worth it—two artifact weapons, a randart Ball-and-Chain, and… the Phial of Undeath.

"And this by you is ‘worth it’?"

(shrug) It could've been worse. My pack is getting kinda full, though, so we should probably sweep the last few bits of the level and head back up.

"I don't think it's gonna be that easy, Human. I smell orcs. A lot of ‘em."

Indeed, true to form, the very last room of the level is an orc pit. Mostly tedious to clean out, and it nets nothing of interest. Let's blow this joint, then:

Lothlorien

One Potion of Cure Light Insanity takes care of my sanity problem.

"Feh. Buzzkill."

;) I have quite a pile of stuff to *ID*:

"Quite an impressive haul, actually, for so much of it to be so utterly useless."

Well, some of it will sell for a bit. You're right, though, most of it we're just gonna stow. In particular, I swing by Bree to Mathom Anguirel and the Phial of Undeath and stow the other artifacts in my house there. Oh, and that Fireproof Tome of the Eternal Flame goes for 16Kgp; probably not worth carrying back up.

"I could've told you that, Human."

Yeah, yeah, you can tell me next time…

MoM 41 (take 2) thru MoM 42 (take 2)

A quick bit of restocking and we return to:

MoM 41, take 2; "You have a very good feeling…"

I beg to differ: lighting up the room reveals a pack of Aquatic hounds clustered in a water streamer cutting through the entry room a few squares away from me. Doesn't sound so bad initially, until you remember that my only real option for lighting rooms as an Unbeliever is the 'ure nimir' inscription—leaving me sitting helplessly and anxiously through half a dozen or so iterations of, "Your anti-magic field disrupts the Aquatic hound's spell." *whew*

"Uh… Human? What about this silly bottle of glowing liquid I've been lugging around all this time?"

Oh, that's right, I forgot we were wielding the Phial… :o

*groan* "Glob vrasubat Gath ashdautas…"

Now, that was unnecessary… :( [checks notes] Okay, Aquatic hounds don't have a breath attack, just ice bolt and water bolt spells, and with luck we'll block most of those. Okay, Gathraka, go to it.

*slash slash slash* "Well, that was a good warmup, at least. Now let's go kill something more interesting."

Yes, ma'am. ;) The level is apparently going for bitter irony, as I find Narthanc a few rooms in. This after finding Nimthanc as a fate early on. *sigh* Not that all sentient artifacts are useless to me, of course… (hint, hint to the RNG)

"What are you mumbling about up there, Human?"

Oh, nothing important. An Ancient black dragon pops up a few rooms later, in an attempt to keep the excitement level from dropping; it fails miserably, falling in two turns.

The level is pretty much uneventful after that, except for losing some experience to my first Monastic lich. Wait, I take that back; there's one last corner of the level we haven't explored yet, and knowing Moria, there's bound to be something interesting in it—in particular, a pack of Hezrou and the Potion of Intelligence they leave for me. :) Moving on, then:

MoM 42; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"So that's, what, another of those vault things?"

Dunno; let's go find out. Hmm, I just noticed that I've already pushed back through the exp drain from that Monastic lich on the last level. Of course, I only notice when a Master vampire hits me with another one. :\ Right behind him is a Knight Templar, who drops a randart katana. Hmm, I wonder if that counts toward the superb feeling…

"Less wondering, Human, more exploring."

Yes, ma'am. Not much further in, a Phantom drops a Potion of Strength. I think I'm getting close to max on STR… :) And I think I may have found another contributor to the level's superb feeling: Waldern gets the drop on me out of the corner of a four-subroom pit about halfway through the level. [checks notes] Hmm, 2500hp, speed +20, respectable melee damage, and some spells we hope he won't be able to cast. In our first turn of combat, I take him down two stars and he takes me down to 928/976hp.

"Sha, now my armor is all waterlogged. Hey, Human, gimme a speed potion down here."

Done and done. Waldern gets in a few more hits while I'm doing this, taking me down to 916/976hp. It takes another four turns to finish him off, leaving me at 879/976. Not bad.

"‘Not bad?’ I'm practically swimming down here. I don't suppose you've got a towel or something up there?"

I'll go get you one. In the meantime, we suffer yet another exp drain from a Phantom, this time with an INT drain chaser. It drops a chest, in which I find a Flail of Earthquakes—my first encounter ever of this ego type, I think.

"What's it do?"

Wrecks the nearby dungeon every so often when you hit something with it.

"And this is a good thing?"

(shrug) Well, if you need to break line of sight from some spellcasting monster, it could be handy. I'm gonna leave it, though. After that, the level is rather boring for a while–

"Uh, Human? I think we just hit the mother lode."

Indeed, quite a lot monsters nearby all of a sudden, mostly Black ogres. A vault? No, just Moria's usual practice of throwing obscene amounts of monsters at you. I fight my way through a seemingly unbroken swath of Black ogres, Uruk-hai and Forest trolls (with the occasional Yeti or Catoblepas to break up the monotony) spanning three rooms, and leaving in my wake piles of loot, mostly useless—except for the Long Bow of Bard. :) You know, it's not too late to switch from a crossbow to a bow, Gathraka…

"Yes, it is. Trust me. You're right, though, it is a nice bow. I bet Galadriel would be interested in it."

Well, let's go find out; the level is finished and my pack is getting annoyingly–

"Incoming, nine o'clock."

*groan* This time, Moria's ubiquitous Always One More Monster™ rule throws Gorlim at us. Fortunately we're in a corridor, so I have a chance to duck around a corner and prepare. [checks notes] 1600hp, speed +10, pretty serious melee damage (and it's disenchantment damage, so our armor is likely to take a beating), and a couple nasty spells that we hope to be able to block.

"Enh, we can take him."

I tend to agree, though I think we should quaff a Potion of Speed as a precaution. I shoot a crossbow bolt at him as he rounds the corner—and miss. :o He take four turns to take down, during which time he gets a total of four successful hits on me, with no obvious disenchanting effects.

"See? You worry too much, Human."

Yes, so everyone says… Gorlim's loot is pretty much junk. And on that note, we return to:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

We stow Narthanc and Bard, sell the randart, restock a bit, and return to:

MoM 42, take 2; "You have a good feeling…"

Well, reasonably so, given that the entry room is relatively quiet. So is most of the early level, in fact.

"Shhh! You hear that grinding noise, Human?"

That's a tunneler somewhere. Hopefully not a Lesser wall monster infestation… Whatever it is, it's not in this room or the next one. Some Nexus hounds a few rooms over, though.

"Hey, wait a minute, that corridor didn't dead-end behind us a minute ago."

Ah, there are the culprits. Fortunately, corridor walls are undiggable, so we just have to track them back to their now-denuded starting room—which, fortunately again, has only one exit, allowing us to contain and eventually clear the infestation.

"I'm learning to hate this place. Even the walls fight back."

You're lucky we weren't someplace like Angband, where those LWMs could have burrowed through the corridor walls too. The level is uneventful for a while, until an Ancient red dragon drops Elvagil. As it happens, some Dark elven warlocks in the previous room left me a Scroll of *Identify* (but not the !oRLL I need after that @#$%ing Night mare…), allowing me to *ID*:

"I know what you're thinking, Human, and don't."

No, I know better than that; no point in playing an Unbeliever if you're not gonna wield the Dark Sword, after all. Just a shame there are so many artifact swords and only one artifact Dark Sword. More seemingly unending waves of monsters after that, and very little to show for it, beyond a now useless Potion of Charisma. Let's see, where haven't we been on the level…

"Hey, wait a minute, that room was empty when we left it a minute ago. How can it be full of trolls now?"

Moria's insane monster generation rate in action.

"I'm learning to really hate this place…"

Well, it did just net us the Metal Brigandine Armor of the Rohirrim.

"I'm not impressed."

(shrug) We can always try again on the next level. In fact, we're just about out of room for this segment; let's just leave it here, at the stairs to the next level.

MoM 43 thru MoM 44

Now, where were we? Oh, yes:

MoM 43; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"Again?"

Hey, ya never know, it could be something really good this time.

"Uh-huh. I think I'm gonna stick with my pessimism, Human; it's served me well."

(shrug) Whatever. The very early level is a study in contrasts: a Patriarch gets off a spell on me from a distance and curses my Dark Sword, but when he finally gets close enough to kill, he drops a Potion of Restore Life Levels that I've needed for the last couple levels.

"Well. Nice of the jerk."

After that, the level calms down for a while. I'm even starting to get used to the Ancient dragons popping up every now and then—this time an Ancient blue.

"Heh. The ma-plakrim in my former tribe used to tell us foshanim these horror stories about great flaming dragons that would come eat us if we didn't obey them." *slash slash* "I bet those tutasim would lose their lunch if they ever met up with one of these babies."

Indeed. Oh, and I think we just found the likely source of that superb feeling: a giant pit near the west edge of the level.

"Hmph. It's a decent workout, but I don't think I'd go so far as to call it ‘superb’."

Well, this one was notable in netting a Potion of Intelligence (one more to max INT, I think), as well as my first Scroll of Genocide and my first Potion of Self Knowledge.

"What is this supposed to tell me that I don't already know?"

Orcs aren't exactly given to introspection, I suppose. Wasn't it Sun Tzu's The Art of War, though, that said, "To know your enemy, you must know yourself"?

"Wasn't it me who said, ‘shut up and let's keep moving, Human’?"

No respect, I tells ya… ;) The halfway point of the level is marked by another encounter with Lesser wall monsters, mercifully brief this time.

*shudder* "I still say that's not natural."

So? Neither is half the stuff we've run into down here.

"Yeah, but at least most of it has blood and bones, and walks and eats and breathes and sleeps and–"

Okay, we don't need to go there. The rest of the level finishes quickly, netting Cambeleg from a pack of Hill trolls. And my pack is getting kinda full here…

Lothlorien

Let's see what we've got here: