Contents

  1. Gathraka the Tribeless, the Orc Barbarian Unbeliever
    1. Chapter 1
      1. Thieves Quest
        1. Chatter (1.1)
      2. BDw 1 thru BDw 6
        1. Chatter (1.2)
      3. BDw 6 (take 2) thru BDw 10
    2. Chapter 2
      1. Orc 10 thru Orc 13
      2. Orc 14
      3. Orc 14 (take 2) thru Orc 16
        1. Chatter (2.3)
      4. Orc 16 (take 2) thru Orc 20
        1. Chatter (2.4)
      5. Intermission
      6. Orc 20 (take 2) to Orc 22
        1. Chatter (2.6)
    3. Intermission
        1. Chatter (3.1)

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

Well, the decision of which character to start a DitL for got made for me when my Unbeliever unexpectedly died to that most dreaded bane of all ToME characters, "Ahh, I can go one more level…" :o And so, without further ado, I give you–

"No. Absolutely not."

…Excuse me?

"You are not parading me around in front of a bunch of laughing hecklers like some trained cur."

No, no, these aren't hecklers, Gathraka, they're rooting for you, they want you to win.

"Yeah? Have they considered watching someone else, then? ‘Cause I saw that bit at the end with the Hellhounds. I mean, hello? Fire resistance, genius?"

:o Okay, that was a bit of an oversight. But it's been widely reported that doing a DitL for a character tends to improve its life expectancy, since it slows you down and forces you to stop and think. That should improve our chances this time out, yes?

"Yeah, I saw how well that worked with the shrimp."

"*ahem* That's 'Yeek', madam, not 'shrimp. (zizz)"

Okay, what about Bjorn, then?

"What, the mange-ridden furball? It still amazes me that you managed to get him as far as you did."

"Hey, dude is all right, you shouldn't be bad-talkin' him like that. And I'll have you know I've, like, never been ridden by anyone, much less this Mainj character of yours."

"And this is the company you expect me to keep?"

(shrug) Consider it a challenge; you'll be trying to raise the baseline.

"That's not exactly a challenge, Human."

Okay, let me put it this way: doing this run as a DitL will increase your chances of surviving long enough to get to the Spiders quest again.

"Hmph… all right, you talked me into it. I'm gonna hold you to that, though."

Dear gods, what have I gotten myself into… Okay, as always, here are the technical details: maximize and preserve modes on, no non-main monsters, 49 random quests, and point-based stat allocation, netting starting stats 18/70,4,6,18/20,18/20,3 (as you can probably tell, I pushed STR, DEX and CON at the expense of the other stats). And my skill point plan, as generated by my tome-skiller script (and as always, We Apologize for the Shameless Plug™ ;) ): 

Based on generic Orc Barbarian Unbeliever
  Used 245 of 245 points   [req. level 50]
    Combat                                          (4)  25.000 [0.800]
      Weaponmastery                                 (0)  27.562 [0.850]
        Sword-mastery                             (125)  50.000 [0.400]
        Axe-mastery                                 (0)   0.000 [0.400]
        Hafted-mastery                              (0)   0.000 [0.400]
        Polearm-mastery                             (0)   0.000 [0.400]
      Archery                                      (32)  20.200 [0.600]
      Antimagic                                    (76)  50.000 [0.650]
    Sneakiness                                      (0)   1.000 [0.900]
      Disarming                                     (0)   1.000 [0.900]
    Monster-lore                                    (0)   0.000 [0.500]

    Spread blows                                    (0)    (+)  [ 5]
    Tree walking                                    (0)    ( )  [ 7]
    Perfect casting                                 (0)    ( )  [ 6]
    Extra Max Blow(1)                               (0)    (+)  [ 7]
    Extra Max Blow(2)                               (0)    (+)  [ 7]
    Ammo creation                                   (8)    (*)  [ 8]
    Touch of death                                  (0)    ( )  [15]
    Artifact Creation                               (0)    ( )  [70]
    Far reaching attack                             (0)    ( )  [10]
    Trapping                                        (0)    ( )  [10]
    Undead Form                                     (0)    ( )  [15]

I'm particularly proud of this skill plan; it manages to maximize Antimagic and Sword-mastery with enough points left over to buy Ammo creation and get Archery high enough to forge crossbow bolts—and with a bit of judicious skill point allocation, it gets me strong weapon/armor pseudo-ID by clvl 9 and Ammo creation by clvl 10.

"Sheesh, don't sprain your shoulder patting yourself on the back up there, Human."

Well, it's just that I wasn't able to provide all of this for your predecessors, and I feel better being able to finally provide it for you.

"Right. Y'know, survival was another thing you weren't able to provide for my predecessors. And frankly, I'm not holding my breath."

You see what I have to put up with here… And on that cheery note, let's begin:

Chapter 1

"So explain to me again why I want a house in the middle of a town full of humans."

Well, you need somewhere to live, after all.

"Oh, yeah, and I'm sure the townsfolk will be just thrilled to have an Orc as a neighbor. Do wonders for their property values, it will. That was sarcasm, by the way; I know you humans have difficulty recognizing it sometimes."

Oh, not to worry, Gathraka, I have some small skill in the fine art of the sarcastic.

"Yeah, probably not the only thing small about you. Okay, let's get this over with."

*ahem* Yes:

Thieves Quest

You feel a vicious blow on your head…

Umm… are you all right down there?

"Sha… I can't believe I let one of those pathetic cowards get behind me and knock me out. And they got my sword, too. Oh, that's it, I'll kill ‘em with my bare hands now."

That… won't actually be necessary, Gathraka; all your equipment is in a room down the hall.

"Hmph. Unguarded, even. Cowardly and stupid. This should be fun." >:>

Careful, this next door is–

"Shut up, Human." *WHAM* "Tutasi! Vrasubatlatuk!"

Okay, you'll want to try for–

"Hey, do I tell you how to write your frickin' stories, Human?"

Well, I just thought you'd want to get the guy who clocked you.

"What, you saw him? Which one is he?"

The tall one with the fancy dagger.

"Well, you're not so useless after all, are you? You! Haubatlat maushat mabas proslat fut!"

*shudder* My plan is to kill the Bandit as early as possible, so I switch to berzerker/running and charge, dodging Novice rogues as I go. Only one manages to get in a hit on me, and he just teleports away with some pocket change. I end up in the doorway of the third north-side alcove off the main room, with the Bandit and two Novice rogues next to me on the south side. One turn, two hits, and the Bandit is dead—and I'm clvl 7. Whoa… :) Fortunately, the Bandit doesn't leave a corpse, so Gathraka can't make good on her threat. *whew*

"Heh. Wimp." >:>

After that, the battle is somewhat anticlimactic; nothing else survives a single blow. I'm clvl 8 by the time I'm done, with the 35 skill points going 19 to Archery and 16 to Sword-mastery. And in what has got to be an omen of some kind, the Bandit's dagger turns out to be… wait for it… The Dagger of Elebren (+9,+17) (+2). /!\

"You have got to be kidding me. How does a pathetic thieving coward like that rate a weapon like this?"

Probably stole it from some adventurer.

"Oh, well, yeah, if you want to look at it that way…"

I can't afford an *ID* scroll for it, but the weapon shop is offering 21249gp for it. And that's to an Orc with a 3 CHA. Or you could wield it, I suppose–

"No. You are not replacing my sword. You know what this means to me."

Indeed, I do. We'll stow Elebren in our newly-earned home for now, then; maybe we'll Mathom it later. Fortunately your Chain Mail sold for a bit, which gives us some shopping money. Not a lot—I won't have a ?oWoR for my first trip down—but it's enough to buy a full set of light armor and a Light Crossbow and ammo. It's tempting to sell off my starting Ring of Fear Resistance and depend on my Orcish remove-fear race power, but (a) the magic shop is only offering 108gp, and (b) the failure rate on the race power appears to be too high for now (it's targeted at a WIS of 8, and mine is 6…). Next time out, we'll take on the Downs proper.

Chatter (1.1)

ZizzoTheInfinite: Audience commentary, suggestions and questions will go in these Chatter sections; I'll put a new one at the end of each section as I post it and delete empty ones as I go. And here's a character sheet for Gathraka, as of the end of the Downs. Oh, and if any of my Orcish is wrong, it's entirely my fault, not Gathraka's… :-}

BDw 1 thru BDw 6

BDw 1

"You feel your luck is turning…" More interesting than usual for BDw 1, when I run into none other than Smeagol not far into the level. Wanna try him, Gathraka?

"What, this deformed runt? You're kidding."

He is a lot faster than you, and has pretty good hit points for a low-level monster.

"Pffft. Watch this."

I crank Explor up to running and get in a few decent hits—and then he scarpers off with most of my gold. So, do I keep watching or what? ;)

"Don't make me come up there, Human…" X-(

Don't worry, you'll get another shot at him. And sure enough, we run into him again about halfway through the level—and more or less the same thing happens."

"All right, I'm getting seriously torqed off here…"

This time, though, he didn't get very far; we find him again just a few rooms away, and this time we are victorious. ;)

"Oh, please, this smadobatni isn't worth a celebration. He was more annoying than anything."

Yes, but you'll find the annoyance was worth it. A quick sweep through the rest of the level, and we take Smeagol's drop back to:

Bree

where we learn that it's a Long Bow of Power (+6,+19). Hmm, tempting… but the crossbow seems more in character.

"Not a chance, Human. A bow is an Elf's weapon; I prefer my missiles to pack some punch."

As you say. We do at least get some shopping money out of it (3258gp, to be precise; not bad, considering), so I'll actually be able to take a couple ?oWoR down with me when I return to:

BDw 1, take 2

An arena level this time. Fortunately, I fixed the bug in 2.2.7 that caused arena levels to be always unlit. We're going to bypass it, though, having done this level already, and proceed directly to:

BDw 2: Princess quest for 12 Metallic red centipedes

"Looks like any other level…" Hmm, twelve means the lake version of the quest room, if I recall correctly. Up for a swim, Gathraka?

"Enh, I've crossed a river or two in my time; how bad can this be?"

The level is pretty routine, with only a few events of note: finding my first junkart (a Small Figurine), and… wait for it… gaining the grow-mold power from eating the very first Slime mold I find. :-? :))

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Hey, it'll probably come in handy later.

"I can't believe you even made me eat that disgusting thing."

Excuse me? Weren't you the one just a few levels ago bragging to that Bandit about how you were going to eat his flesh?

"Meat is one thing, Human; fungus is quite another."

Whatever… Hey, maybe we can take Symbiosis from Mr. F. Fingers and really have fun with this new power.

"Yeah, and maybe I can take your keyboard and stuff it up your–"

;) I'm just kidding, Gathraka; as an Unbeliever, you can't use Symbiosis anyway. Anyway, I have to search most of the level before finding the quest room, which is indeed the lake version. Not much challenge, but luckily I was close to a level change, and sure enough, the eighth centipede puts me over the top to clvl 9, with skill points going 2 to Archery (pushing Combat high enough to get strong pseudo-ID, right on schedule) and the other three saved to buy Ammo creation next level. The reward choices are Tulwar, Cutlass or Small Leather Shield; the weapons would sell for more, but I could use the shield. Decisions, decisions... enh, I'll take the shield. A quick sweep over the last few unexplored corners, and then onward to:

BDw 3

"You have a good feeling…" An entirely uneventful level; fast-forward to:

BDw 4: Princess quest for 6 Tengu

"You have a good feeling…" 6 means the reduced-'X' form of the quest room. Pretty quiet for a while; I run into my first orcs, a pack of Snotlings with a Shaman among them. Is this going to be a problem for you, Gathraka, killing your own people?

"What 'own people'? They're not my tribe and they're in my way. And besides, they're just worthless Snotlings anyway."

Well, that answers that question… The Snotlings push me over the top to clvl 10; I spend my eight skill points buying Ammo creation. I still can't make crossbow bolts yet, though; that'll have to wait until clvl 16, when I get Archery up to 20.

The quest room is on the far side of the level from there. Unfortunately, my Antimagic skill isn't high enough to prevent the Tengu from blinking around and being generally annoying.

"And whose fault is that, Human?"

Granted, Antimagic has taken a back seat while I was working on my early skill targets; but now that I've achieved some of them, Antimagic will be a higher priority. Anyway, beyond some annoying chasing around, the Tengu aren't too hard to kill; the fourth pushes me over the top to clvl 11, with skill points going 3 to Archery and 2 to Antimagic. The quest reward choices are a Metal Cap, Gauntlets, or a Flail. Hmm, again, do we go with money or potentially useful kit? Hmm, I could use the money, but that cap might be of Seeing… enh, I'll go for money next time; the Metal Cap it is.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Human."

Well, I'd say the {special} pseudo-ID on the cap bears me out on this decision… :-? B) That makes it either Thengel, Celebrimbor, or a randart—and the jump in WIS and CHR when I put it on would tend to indicate Thengel. Now, my inventory is getting kinda full of un-ID'd potions and scrolls to sell, but I think I've got enough room for a couple more levels, so on to:

BDw 5

"What a boring place…" A 1x5 small level, and thus over quickly, with little of interest beyond finding not one but two Everburning Torches. That should be a little cash, at least. Onward, then, to:

BDw 6: Princess quest for 5 Killer brown beetles

"You have a good feeling…" An arena level; I enter at the northeast corner, and the quest room is already in view. The first beetle takes me to clvl 12, with skill points going 2 to Archery and 3 to Antimagic; otherwise, the battle is straightforward and over quickly. The reward choices are a Trident, a Small Wooden Boomerang, or a Shovel. Ooh, a Shovel of Digging or a Magical Shovel would be useful in the Maze later on–

"Oh, good grief, what am I supposed to do for money if you keep doing this?"

You're right; I take the Trident. And now my pack is full, so we return to:

Bree

where I learn that the Trident is Shocking (+7,+3), the Shield is of Resist Acid [+4], and the Cap is indeed:

Hmm, it's daylight now, and we've got Smeagol's Ring of Invisibility; we could go do the Mushroom ques–

"No."

Oh, come on.

"No! I'm an Uruk warrior, for cryin' out loud; I am not gonna sneak around hiding from flea-bitten mutts and picking frickin' mushrooms."

Yeah, but there's the quest reward.

"What, a sling I'm never gonna use?"

And the Mushrooms of Cure Serious Wounds.

"Potions are more useful."

It would get rid of Farmer Maggot hanging around town whining about his dogs.

"Grr… I give you this much, Human, you know my weak spots. All right, let's get this over with."

As it turns out, I might have been better off skipping this quest; the trees are pretty thick, and as I'm winding my way through them trying to get back home before sunset, tragedy strikes, and with an inadvertent slip of the finger, Wolf falls dead. :o <:(

"So? It was just a mangy mutt anyway. Can I go kill the other two now?"

No. Show some respect, Gathraka.

"Why?"

X-( Farmer Maggot, needless to say, is not pleased to see us.

"So what? It got rid of him, and that was the goal, right?"

That's it, I'm gonna go run Lisa for a while before I do something I'll regret.

"Oh, try something, Human, and I'll–" *click*

Chatter (1.2)

MayLith: Yay, another DiTL. I'm loving it! :)

BDw 6 (take 2) thru BDw 10

[…some time later…]

*click* "–tear your… uh, what just happened?"

I went and ran Lisa for a while.

"And now you're back."

As you say.

"You're still mad about the dog thing."

*sigh* I'm mad at myself more than anything, really. It was a stupid mistake, and one that I've made before with your predecessors. You'd think I'd remember by now to unwield that blasted Dark Sword before trying that quest.

"I still don't see what the big deal was, frankly."

Never mind; just let me sell off the rest of your loot and we'll return to:

BDw 6, take 2; "What a boring place…"

Indeed. A pack of Novice mages takes me over the top to clvl 13, with skill points going 2 to Archery and 3 to Antimagic. And I just noticed I forgot to restock on ?oID's before returning to the dungeon. Oh well, I've got plenty of inventory space to carry un-ID'd stuff back up. Moving on, then:

BDw 7; "This level can't be all bad…"

A 1x3 arena level, and thus over quickly; fast-forward to:

BDw 8: Fumblefingers quest for 16 Cave bears; "This level can't be all bad…"

Oh, I think it could; it's a 1x1 small level, which means those sixteen Cave bears are likely to gang up on me. A bit of dodging around in corridors, though, lets me take them on one at a time, and they fall quickly. The quest reward choices are Magic-Device, Sneakiness, Mindcraft and Conveyance. Sheesh. I suppose I should be glad I've got one choice that isn't completely unusable…

"What a useless idiot. No wonder he lost his sword."

Now, don't be too hard on him; next time you run into him, he might be able to boost your Antimagic skill.. Oh, that reminds me, the Cave bears also pushed me over the top to clvl 14, with skill points going 1 to Archery and 4 to Antimagic. Anyway, let's move on:

BDw 9; "You like the look of this place…"

Sheesh, we're having a run of small levels here; this one is 3x1.

"Hey, can we watch it with the traps here? That last one was more than even my iron stomach could take."

Yes, Bowel Cramps traps are fairly annoying. Unfortunately, we have no source of trap detection until we get Antimagic up to level 25.

"So, get with it, Human."

Yes, yes… Onward to:

BDw 10: Princess quest for 5 Gnome mages; "You have a good feeling…"

Finally, a full-sized level for a change. Not far in, a pack of Phantom warriors takes me to clvl 15, with skill points going 2 to Archery and 3 to Antimagic. See, Gathraka? We're getting there.

"Yeah, yeah, spare me the ‘be patient’ speech, Human."

You see what I have to put up with… Since there are five Gnome mages, the quest room is of the the "open" form, with entrances to the inner chamber on the north and south; when I finally find the quest room, I approach along the south edge, letting the Gnome mages come to me one at a time. Between them, they push me over the top to clvl 16, with skill points going 4 to Antimagic and 1 to Archery—finally bringing me to Archery skill level 20, enough to make crossbow bolts. Lemme go find some junk to work on–

"Uh, genius? Her Royal Snootiness is trying to get your attention over here."

Oh, right the quest reward. Choices are a Bastard Sword, a Mace or a War Hammer. (shrug) Six of one, I suppose, since we can't use any of them; I go with the sword—and a Scroll of Identify graciously dropped by the last Gnome mage allows me to ID it as a Bastard Sword of Slay Undead (+2,+2). Enh, it'll sell for a bit.

A quick sweep of the rest of the level reveals nothing I can make ammo out of, so I take the express route back to:

Bree

"Hey, how'd you do that?"

What, returning to town by going downstairs from the dungeon? Quirk of the dungeon code, I assume. The loot from this run includes 4 Potions of Cure Light Insanity with which to start my stockpile, and a Potion of Restore Charisma that I needed after a run-in with a Black harpy. Ah, and the black market has a Dwarven Lantern in stock that I can just barely afford. As good a place as any to leave it this time out…

Chapter 2

With the Downs done, next up is–

"We're going north, Human."

Um… we are?

"There's an orc settlement in the foothills north of town—two or three large tribes living in a network of caves under the mountains."

Yes, the Orc Cave.

"Well, according to the stories I was told as a grufoshnu, a long time ago one of those tribes stole some magic relics from my tri—… my former tribe. Since then we… they have tried several times to take them back but never succeeded. Now I'm gonna go get them."

Well. Quite an honorable quest for an Orc to take on.

"What are you talking about, Human?"

Risking your life to recover those relics for your tribe–

"My former tribe can go buthar themselves. I want those relics for me."

I see. And this wouldn't have anything to do with any desire to exact a measure of vicarious revenge on your… *ahem* former tribe, by achieving something they've been unable to accomplish.

"Sheesh, Human, what is it with you and your… say, now that you mention it, I will be showing them up pretty badly, won't I? Well, well. You have your moments, Human. Not many, but you do have them."

I'll take that as a reluctant compliment… ;) Oops, I'm out of ?oID's; better restock on those before heading out. Also, as a Barbarian, I gained intrinsic resist fear back at clvl 10, so I can finally sell off the Ring of Fear Resistance for the paltry sum it'll fetch. And then off to the Orc Cave:

Orc 10 thru Orc 13

Orc 10; "You like the look of this place…

Well, I certainly like the look of that Parchment - Numenorean for Beginners (I) in the entry room, which finally nets me the "ure nimir" inscription.

"What? It's just a bunch of useless words and definitions. What's the big deal?"

I'll show you in this next room, which is unlit. Well, first you'll need to kill the pack of Hill orcs charging out of the room at us.

"No problem." [much killing later] "Done. Now what?"

Now go into the dark room and write 'ure nimir' on the floor with your finger.

"You're kidding, right?"

Seriously.

"O-kaaay. ‘U… re… nim… ir’—hey! What lit up the room?"

The floor inscription. You're essentially tapping magical energy from the floor to light the room.

"Uh-huh. And you didn't tell me about this trick before because…?"

Because it wouldn't have worked before—not until you found and read a Parchment that had the right words on it.

"That seems pretty contrived."

(shrug) That's game mechanics for ya. Oh, bear in mind, it takes several turns to write the inscription, and you can't stop in the middle. Which is why we had to kill the Hill orcs first; they would probably have killed you while you were stuck in the inscription.

"Yeah, that's nice, Human, but right now I'm not liking the look of that blob of dead stuff over there in the corner; it seems to be growing…"

Undead masses. Disgusting, aren't they?

"Yeah, and if you try to make me eat them, I'll kill you."

Don't worry, I don't think they leave corpses… ;) Those Hill orcs also dropped a Dwarf skeleton, from which I can forge my first crossbow bolts: 25 Bolts (exploding) (+1,+1), with explosion type nether.

"Not bad. I can use these on those multiplying bug swarms."

My thoughts exactly. Little else of interest on the level, except for the pack of Phantom warriors that push me over the top to clvl 17, with all five skill points going to Antimagic. [sound F/X: calculator] Hmm, at this rate we should have Antimagic high enough to detect traps by clvl 21—which is the earliest we could have done it in any event.

"More ‘be patient’ speeches, eh, Human?"

Hey, we can't get there any faster than we are. My next ammo-forging attempt yields 29 Bolts (+2,+5)—better than the (+0,+0) Bolts I was packing, but I was hoping for ego ammo. Maybe I need to get further down in the dungeon for that. Speaking of which, we move on to:

Orc 11; "You like the look of this place…"

where a pack of Novice paladins almost immediately takes me to clvl 18, with all five skill points going to Antimagic. My ammo-forging luck improves slightly, netting 25 Bolts of Slay Animal (+3,+7)—one of the less useful ego types, to be sure, but even the base damage is better than what I've got now.

Other notes of interest on the level include Padded Armor of Resist Fire [+4] dropped by a Bandit, and achieving clvl 19 from a pack of Snotlings, with skill points again going all five to Antimagic.

Near the end of the level, Mughash and company show up and put up a decent fight, but eventually fall.

"Like you expected otherwise?" >:>

Indeed. Mughash drops a War Hammer (+4,+5) and 24 Bolts (+4,+1)—and his corpse. ;)

"Nah, no thanks; raw kobold is too gamey, and we don't have any firewood to cook it properly.

*shudder*

"Hey, consider yourself lucky; over in my story, he makes voodoo dolls out of them and collects them."

"Heh. That figures."

Okay, okay, back to your own DitL, Trilogy… *sigh* You see what I have to put up with. Anyway, that was the end of the level, so we move on to:

Orc 12; "What a boring place…"

A 1x5 small level, and thus over quickly; fast-forward to:

Orc 13; "What a boring place…"

Another small level, 3x3 this time. And it's not as boring as advertised; the entry room is fairly wide open, and I quickly get surrounded by orcs of various types. Fortunately, a Phase Door scroll drops me in a narrow alcove, from which I can pick off the orc hordes; this takes me to clvl 20, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. And that's about all the excitement the tiny level can cough up, so we'll push on next time.

Orc 14

Orc 14; "What a boring place…"

A destroyed level; these tend to be fairly annoying. This one in particular has an additional annoyance: an infestation of Giant black lice in a dark room, which uses up almost all of my exploding ammo. To compensate, though, they push me over the top to clvl 21, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. And I can finally detect traps.

"Yeah, now if I just had some way of getting rid of them…"

Well, in another ten clvls, you'll be able to destroy traps too.

"Oh, good grief, not more ‘be patient’ speeches."

Enh, with your DEX, you should be able to hold your own till then. Hang on, we've got Master yeeks coming in from the south, probably advanced scouts from Orfax or Boldor.

"Friends of the shrimp, huh?"

"I take offense at that, madam! (zizz)"

Not now, Zizzo; one of those Master yeeks just summoned monsters—and it's The Rat King and company. We're pinned at the west exit of the room, and those Master yeeks are still casting stinking clouds.

"Okay, I'm thinking tactical retreat here. Get us out of here, Human."

Right… oh, @#$%, we're out of Scrolls of Teleportation.

"What?! You idiot!"

It's okay, we'll get out of here. A Phase door takes us… right into the middle of the room. And some of the Wererats in The Rat King's entourage seem to be doing some summoning of their own. And I'm still getting pelted with stinking clouds. Now I'm below 100/268hp and poisoned.

"If we survive this, Human, I'm gonna come up there and wring your fool neck."

Later. Another Phase Door scroll takes me to the north side of the room, and I have time to toss back a !oCCW. Not that it does much good; I'm still getting chewed on by rats and pummeled with stinking clouds—and now one of the Master yeeks has summoned Dark hounds. I need a break here… and I just got one: my next Phase Door scroll takes me to an adjacent room to the north. *whew*

"Don't get comfortable just yet, Human, we're not out of the woods yet."

Indeed, there are some White wolves in this room, but I've got a few turns before they get to me; time enough to quaff two more !oCCW's. A Master yeek pokes his head in at the south entrance—and I poke a crossbow bolt through his head. >:>

"All right, don't get cocky on me up there."

I toss back a Potion of Berserk Strength I picked up earlier on the level and crank up to berzerker/running. By now, though, the White wolves have caught up with me. I hit another Phase Door scroll, which, annoyingly, bounces me back into the south room, right next to the Rat King. A few hits and I'm below 50hp and poisoned again. Another Phase Door scroll bounces us back to the middle of the north room; I don't have long, though, before I'll be surrounded again.

"We can't keep this up forever."

I know, we need some cover… wait a minute, of course! You have the grow-mold power from that early slime mold.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears.

"Grr… I will wring your neck for this. Okay, how does this work?"

One small problem with this plan: the grow-mold power costs 6 mana and my max mana is 5, which means the cost comes out of my hit points instead. Fortunately, I have time to quaff another !oCCW while my new immobile friends fend off the wolves.

"Oh, jeez, I don't need you getting all lul kok-ishi on me up there."

Actually, I think it's time to bail. All we have to do now is hold out until the ?oWoR I just read kicks in.

"That may not be easy, Human; the Rodent of Unusual Ugliness just showed up again."

Indeed. I quaff another !oCCW while the Rat King is fighting its way through my defensive line; only one of those left. I can keep them at bay for a while by reactivating the grow-mold power to patch up holes as my pets are killed, but that's eating 6hp each time, and before long the Rat King breaks through anyway. Well, I'm covered on all other sides; might as well take a stand on this one. The Rat King falls in two turns, without even touching me.

Another stinking cloud from a Master yeek costs me my last !oCCW. It doesn't help for long, though, as a Wererat casts yet another stinking cloud at one of my molds, catching me in the splash. Now I'm at 44/298hp and poisoned, with no way to cure it.

"Grr… if you get me killed down here, Human, I swear I'm taking you with me."

Hold on… I cut down a Rock mole that penetrates the molds, but a White wolf comes in behind him and starts me bleeding. As if I need more hit point drain right about now… I Phase Door out again, landing in the southeast corner of the room, and lay down some more mold cover. This covers me long enough for the bleeding to stop, but I'm still poisoned. The Master yeeks have been busy summoning, though, including a Rust monster that manages to punch through the molds. I don't want to risk a fight, so I Phase Door out again, landing next to the west wall.

"This is not how I was planning on dying, Human…"

We're not dead yet, Gathraka; the poison just wore off, at 27/298hp. *whew* It costs me another 6hp, though, to refresh my mold screen as that Rust monster comes back for more. That doesn't hold for long, though, and one of the Master yeeks summons an Evil eye next to me. I poke a crossbow bolt into it, and then decide that chopping it down with my sword would be faster. A Blue ooze comes in behind it, but it doesn't last long. And suddenly:

You feel yourself yanked upwards!

And I'm sitting in the wilderness, at 23/298hp. *whew* Well, that was a close one– *WHAP* Ow! What was that for?

"What do you think, you glob búbhosh? For not bringing any teleport scrolls with us, for nearly getting us killed!"

It's okay, we made it out. For now, we need to head back to:

Bree

where, of course, the very first thing I do is go and buy some Scrolls of Teleportation... :o Fortunately I've got just enough money to finish the rest of my stocking up, since I don't really have anything to sell. Oh, I just remembered: I did tell you your grow-mold power would come in handy eventually, didn't I?

"Oh, don't even get me started, Human…"

;) Next time out, we'll be trying Orc 14 again.

Orc 14 (take 2) thru Orc 16

So, back to the dungeon, then–

"You've got teleport scrolls this time, right?"

Right here. In fact, why don't you do a check through the inventory and tell me if I'm missing anything?

"Not a bad idea, frankly. Okay, we've got escape scrolls, food scrolls, identify scrolls, healing potions… we could use some speed potions."

I agree, but we haven't found any in the dungeons so far, and the black market isn't selling any—not that we could afford them if it were.

"Mmph… all right, we can let that slide for a while. Let's see, armor's in decent shape, fire resistance is covered… how ‘bout some spare crossbow bolts?"

I've got this Broken Stick that a townsfolk dropped; I plan to forge ammo out of it when we return to the dungeon.

"Good enough… okay, I think we're ready."

If you say so… ;) Back, then, to:

Orc 14, take 2; "What a boring place…"

So it is. That Broken Stick, incidentally, produced 27 Bolts (+3,+7)—not great, but certainly suitable for backups. And I'm reminded again that I could really use some source of see invisible by assorted message of the form, "It blinks away" or "Your anti-magic field disrupts something's spell". Otherwise, nothing to write home about (and no one to write home to, in Gathraka's case–)

"Watch it, Human."

*ahem* ;) Anyway, we move on to:

Orc 15; "You like the look of this place…"

Not much to look at, really. A pack of Ogres pushes me to clvl 22, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery. Not long after that, we have an interesting encounter:

"Oi! Who's ‘at up there choppin' up my lads?"

"Your ‘lads’, huh? I'm not impressed, frankly. Who are you supposed to be?"

"That's Ufthak to the likes o' you, Captain of Cirith Ungol, and not someone you want to mess with."

"Cirith Ungol, eh? Has anyone told your boss you're playing hooky?"

"Har har, little missy. I'm ‘ere on orders from Lugburz, it just so ‘appens. Seems ‘is Evilness ‘eard tell of some shiny little trinkets these here particular Orcs ‘ave managed to swipe for themselves, and ‘e decided ‘e wanted ‘em for ‘is own Orcs, so ‘e sent me off to fetch ‘em."

"Is that so? Well, that's too bad; I saw them first, and I'm taking them first, and if you don't like it, I can arrange for you to stop not liking it first."

"Ooh, you'll not want t' be goin' up against Lugburz, now, little missy. Be very bad for yer ‘ealth, it would."

"Feh. Lugburz can go kurvan their own homi for all I care."

"Right, there'll be none o' that kind o' talk. Nothin' for it now but to kill ye, then. Have at ‘er, lads!"

"Oh, good, I needed a workout." >:>

Ufthak, for all of Gathraka's trash talk, is a tough old bugger; he has me down to 140/290hp by the time I get him down to five stars. A quick Phase Door away to rest up, though, and I go back and chop him to pieces. He drops an Iron Helm [+6] and a Broad Sword (+2,+2).

"Pfft. Big talker had nothing but trash."

Actually, I think his entourage was holding out on him; a Black orc Shaman dropped The Bastard Sword of Olvoron (+17,+14). You won't wield it, of course, but it'll sell for a bit. A bit further in, I run into Brodda, who turns out to be a wimp compared to Ufthak; he drops Leather Scale Mail [+3] and a Dagger (+4,+7).

Other than that, nothing interesting, besides finding a Ring of Spell that might sell for a bit. Onward, then to:

Orc 16; "You have an excellent feeling…"

"Excellent? I don't think so, Human; I smell a lot of Orcs nearby."

Indeed, we appear to have landed in the northwest corner of an orc pit. After getting a bit tangled up in them at first, I manage to extricate myself and position myself just north of the west-facing inner chamber door, where I can pick off the advancing hordes with near impunity. I say "near impunity" because I don't always manage to kill an approaching attacker in one hit, especially the Uruks and Elite uruks, so before too long, I'm down to 146/304hp (oh, did I mention I hit clvl 23 during all this?). Fortunately, though, there's a conveniently placed Void jumpgate just south of the stairs and just north of my current position, which takes me most of the way across the level to a lightly-populated room, where I can rest up before returning to the fray. Oh, and I take the opportunity to allocate my recently acquired skill points 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery.

Once more unto the proverbial breach, then—and this time I manage to slaughter the lot of them. Net from the pit includes Gauntlets of Slaying (+2,+4) [+7] and The Broad Axe 'Orchast'. And we're only getting started. ;)

"Ahhhh…" (stretches) "That was a good workout."

Indeed. Annoyingly, the only corridor out of this pit is blocked by traps after only a short distance, and I don't feel like pushing my luck disarming them. Instead, I bounce back through the Void jumpgate and continue exploring from the other end. I almost immediately run into a swath of Small kobolds, and sure enough, Vort isn't far behind.

"Feh. Kobolds. Wanna-be Orcs, nothing more. Hey, you dog-faced kurv, your mate's already dead at my hands; wanna join him?"

[whistles innocently] ;) Vort drops Paper Armor [+5] and a Light Crossbow (+2,+4). Which reminds me, I should've been enchanting up the one I had. This will do nicely for a start, though. Or at least it will as soon as I can uncurse the one I'm currently wielding… :\

"Oh, yeah, one of the Shamans in that earlier batch got it. Forgot to mention it in all the rush."

‘Sokay, we can fix it later. And I just found a better one anyway: a pack of Uruks drops a Light Crossbow of Extra Shots (+8,+8). :D The Uruks also push me to clvl 24, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. And with that, we're getting kind of low on ?oIDs, so we return to:

Bree

where I stow Orchast and sell:

I have to go to Gondolin to find a Scroll of Remove Curse for my old Light Crossbow; their black market also has an Amulet of the Serpents [+1] (+4), which costs most of the money I've made selling off loot. Back in Bree, the alchemy shop has one and only one ?o*ID*, with which I can ID that junkart I picked up early on:

which might actually have been handy, except that (a) it'd probably be much too difficult for me to activate as an Unbeliever, and (b) I already have resist fear as a Barbarian and resist poison from the Amulet of the Serpents I just bought. Oh well, at least the magic shop will buy it for a few coin. And the black market finally has some Potions of Speed in stock. A good point at which to leave it for next time.

Chatter (2.3)

MayLith: Those remove fear/cure poison junkarts always irritate me: by the time I've found one, I've almost always already got those covered, or the weight is enough that I make do with CCW for cure poison instead. But a very early find.... fantastic, so long as you don't get poisoned about 5 times in a row. (I think I died that way once... darned recharging junkart!) ;-) Fun read... I've never tried an Unbeliever.

Orc 16 (take 2) thru Orc 20

A quick inventory check, and then back into the fray:

Orc 16, take 2; "You have a good feeling…"

A pack of White wolves is present to greet me…along with a Magic mushroom patch, who fails three times in a row to do anything annoying, thanks to my anti-magic field.

"Overpowering a frickin' mushroom impresses you? No wonder you hang out with the shrimp."

"Hmph. Responding to such childish taunts is beneath me. (zizz)"

Heh. ;) A point of mild interest in the early level is The Leather Scale Mail 'Silda' [+7] {cursed} dropped by a pack of Cave orcs.

"Eurk. Looks like their shamans were trying to make some magic armor and botched it badly. I got stuck with a few of those in my time, but none that felt this bad."

Indeed, it pseudo-id'd as {terrible} before I id'd it; whatever it's got, I don't think I'm interested. A bit further in, a pack of Black ogres pushes me over the top to clvl 25, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery. I also gain the spread-blows ability, which I was wishing for with those wolves back at the start of the level.

"Bah, those mangy mutts didn't have me worried for a minute. This feels nice, though." *swish-swish*

One of those Black ogres dropped my first Amulet of Spell… :\ It'll sell for a bit, at least. Oh, and did you notice that those ogres' Priest couldn't get a spell off either? Maybe that'll impress you more than a mushroom… ;)

"Yeah, but these orc shamans are still slipping through."

True, you won't have perfect coverage for a long time. Not much more to the level after that; just as I'm about to leave, though, Boldor charges in sans entourage and gets in a couple hits.

"Hey, isn't he the shrimp that got us into all that trouble a few levels back?"

Him or his son, most likely.

"Close enough. Tutasgajarpan! Shigog shapag na kordhana!"

Heh. With no backup, Boldor falls in a gratifyingly quick two turns, during which time he manages to get off a single summon—of a Giant brown bat. >:>

"Sheesh, and this pathetic shrimp had us on the ropes? You're slipping up there, Human."

Me? I seem to recall you were there too.

"I'm not the one who forgot to bring teleport scrolls."

Yes, yes… :o Boldor's drop was a Battle Axe (+5,+1) and a Small Wooden Boomerang (+2,+3). And a quick check in the direction he came from reveals no entourage at all. More fool him, I suppose. Let's move on:

Orc 17; "This level can't be all bad..."

An early mishap creates some annoyance as a failed attempt to disarm a Trap of Silent Switching drops a {cursed} Lucerne Hammer into my weapon hand.

"Sha! Get this thing out of my hands, Human!"

Don't worry, Gathraka, as soon as we finish the level, we'll go back up and get a ?oRC.

"Finish?! How am I supposed to fight through this level with a frickin' carving knife strapped to a pole?"

I'm sure a skilled warrior like you can manage… ;)

"Oh, don't make me come up there, Human."

Actually, not much further in, I encounter another Trap of Silent Switching, which gives me an idea… >:> After dropping everything else I could wield or wear and temporarily turning off the 'Automatically disarm traps' option, it only takes a couple trips of the trap to put my sword back in my hand. B) The cursed polearm, of course, is promptly destroyed.

"Well. Not bad, Human."

;) Not much of interest happens on the rest of the level, so we move on to:

Orc 18; "This level can't be all bad…"

Hmm, ‘scuse me for a sec… *click*

[…]

*click* There.

"What was that all about?"

I tweaked my automatizer file so as not to destroy Scrolls of Trap/Door Destruction when Antimagic is greater than zero and less than 35. After that run-in with the Trap of Silent Switching, I think we should start carrying some.

"Now you reach this conclusion?"

(shrug) I figured your relatively high DEX would carry us through until we could get trap destruction from Antimagic. Now, though, I'm more inclined to play it safe.

"*groan* You're gonna get me killed at this rate, you know that?"

Ah, always the optimist… ;) Highlights of the level include Ulfast, son of Ulfang, who drops absolutely nothing. :\ Well, "include" may be something of an exaggeration; that was the highlight of the level. Moving right along, then:

Orc 19; "What a boring place…"

I assume that was meant to be a sick joke, considering I'm immediately mobbed by Uruks and Mongbats as I enter the level. Fortunately, thanks to the cavern layout, they're only able to take me on a few at a time; still, I'm down to 171/335hp by the time I've killed them all.

"*whew* That was a workout I didn't need."

Well, at least the Uruks were courteous enough to leave behind 20 Bolts of Lightning (+2,+8) to compensate for your troubles. ;) The level turns out to be a 3x1 small level, with only two small caverns—which makes it all the more surprising when a pack of Ogrillons shows up behind me in the room I just left, and their Chieftain has me down to 180/335hp again.

"I need some speed here, Human."

Indeed. I Phase Door away, toss back a Potion of Speed, and then render it completely moot by taking down the Ogrillon Chieftain with a single Bolt of Lightning. Oh well, at least it makes the rest of the Ogrillons easier to finish off… They push me over the top to clvl 26, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. And with that done, we move on to:

Orc 20; "You like the look of this place…"

Not really; an infestation of Giant white lice gets away from me fairly quickly in the first room I enter, and I have to abandon it. Another Ogrillon Chieftain catches me by surprise; I have to crank up to berzerker/running to push through him. Behind him is Nar, who as usual drops nothing.

As a further sign that this is going to be an annoying level, a Lizard king meets me at the door to the next room; fortunately, he wasn't as tough as the Ogrillon Chieftain. Unfortunately, the minute I step into the room, a pack of Phase spiders yanks me all the way into the room and right into the middle of a Half-orc ambush.

"Oh, great. Get us out of here, Human."

Indeed. I Phase Door out, hoping for better position, and land half a dozen or so squares south of the onslaught; good enough for now. Fortunately, the Phase spiders fail in their attempts to pull me back in, giving me time to bring up my Antimagic teleport-jamming power.

"Hey, this is handy. You didn't tell me we could do this. Wait, this is gonna keep us from teleporting out too, isn't it?"

Yes, it's a bit of a tactical risk; I figure as long as we can take out the orcs at range with our Bolts of Lightning, the Phase spiders shouldn't be any trouble.

"(nod) Okay, I think I can swing that. Let's do it."

Fortunately, the plan goes off without a hitch: the front line of Half-orcs fall to my missile barrage, and by the time the rest arrive, I've chopped up most of the Phase spiders, enough to risk dropping the teleport jamming and finishing them off the hard way. Once that's taken care of, I explore the room and find a Feanorian Lamp in the corner. :)

And that's the southern half of the level; to get to the rest, it looks like I'll have to punch through that original insect-infested room. This quickly proves unworkable when I get surrounded and blinded by Giant fireflies, so I read a Scroll of Teleportation, hoping to land in an unexplored area. And I do—a cavern full of Ogrillons and Elite uruks, who quickly gang up on me.

"See? I told you you were gonna get me killed."

Well, you may have given up, Gathraka, but I haven't. It takes a couple Phase Doors to get me to get close enough to one of the room's exits to slip out into the corridor, re-wield my Bolts of Lightning, and crank back up to berzerker/running. I make my stand here, and it only takes a few !oCCW's to finish off the lot of ‘em. And just to prove the RNG doesn't completely have it in for me, that green ',' that I thought was a mushroom turns out to be a Shambling mound—which, instead of shrieking and really ruining my day, simply lines up with the rest of the monsters to be slaughtered.

"*groan* Man, I'm gonna need a rest after this level…"

You and me both. After clearing out that room, another pack of Ogrillons jumps us from behind a pile of rubble—with another Shambling mound at the front of the line, which again doesn't get off a shriek before dying. These Ogrillons drop The Amulet 'Haleb' (+1). Well, that should be interesting… Mercifully, the rest of the level is comparatively uneventful, and we recall to:

Bree

I have to go to Gondolin for a Potion of Restore Strength to clean up behind some Flying skulls; while there, I *ID*:

Enh, I'm not impressed; I sell it back in Bree, where the black market now has a Potion of Dexterity in stock. A bit of restocking, and a convenient Broken Skull from a hapless townsfolk, and we're ready to finish off the Orc Cave next time.

Chatter (2.4)

ZizzoTheInfinite: All three of my DitLs are getting big enough to start thinking about splitting off onto new subpages, so I thought I'd solicit some audience input.

So far we've had two DitLs with splits, Zippy and Braya. Zippy's DitL had two splits, both at about 70-75k characters; Braya's split was closer to 20-25k characters, but there was an obvious thematic reason for that one. As for my own DitLs, Gathraka's is currently around 50k characters; her future write-up runs about 7k characters through the end of the Orc Cave, and another 9-10k in a side trip. Trilogy's is in a similar state: about 60k characters currently, with another 10k or so to finish the Orc Cave and another 5k or so in a side trip. Lisa's is the worst off, with 55k characters currently and another 16k in future write-up—and she's not even through the Orc Cave yet…

So: If audience consensus is that the 75k-character cutoff point is a good target, then I know where to split Gathraka's and Trilogy's DitLs, and I'll have to figure out something for Lisa's…

MayLith: Well, my $0.02 goes like this:

Oh, and I'm looking forward to reading more! :)

ZizzoTheInfinite: Then perhaps now would be an opportune moment for the following brief diversion: ;)

Intermission

Back to… now, where'd she go?"

"There you are! C'mon, you're late. Everyone else is already at the Pony."

Lisa? This isn't your story; what are you doing here?

"Looking for you. C'mon, the party's probably already started without us."

Party? What's the occasion?

"Didn't you hear? Lil finally beat Morgoth."

Um, yes, I know, I was kind of there. No one told me about a party, though… [enters Prancing Pony]

"Hey, ‘bout time you showed up, Human."

What? No one said anything about a party to me. I tell ya, I get no respect around here. Anyway, where's the guest of honor?

"Over there at the bar, surrounded by her adoring entourage. You can't miss her."

Uh-huh…

"(zizz) Congratulations, Milady; a truly exceptional accomplishment. If you'll forgive my saying so, though, your necklace… well, it could be construed as being in poor taste."

"‘Cheeky’ is what I was thinkin'. I mean, yes, he was a totally evil git an' all, but did ye really ‘ave to go an' string bits of ‘is John Thomas ‘round yer neck after ye killed ‘im?"

(shrug) "They were a necessary alchemy component; it was the only way to add the auto-identify power to my amulet. I agree, though, it does look awfully tacky. Maybe I can have a locket or pendant or something constructed around them to cover them up."

"Oh, good, then there is a reason for that. I thought maybe you were just doing an impression of a militant man-hater or something."

"Nah, nothing like that, hun. I may have to fight the men off with a stick sometimes, but I'm not that vicious about it…" ;)

"Hey, this isn't gonna screw up me getting home, is it?"

"Yeah, I was just wondering if this violated Dad's prophecy."

Nope, you each have your own Morgoth to defeat.

"Yup, that there is the nature o' Zen, right there: her Morgoth ain't your Morgoth, and your Morgoth ain't my Morgoth, and ain't none of ‘em anyone's Morgoth—Morgoth simply is, and he simply ain't, and y'all will find him by not seekin' him. And at that moment the student was enlightened." *buuuurp* "Barkeep! ‘Nother beer down here!"

"O-kaaay, I think I'm frightened now."

(shrug) Joe Bob gets like that when he's had a few. He's harmless, though.

"*ahem*" [taps wineglass] "Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen—and DeathMolds, of course! (zizz)" *scattered laughter* "A toast, if I may, to our esteemed and honored colleague, Lilella II, slayer of Morgoth, Lord of Darkness!"

"Cheers!" [sound F/X: mugs and glasses clinking] "Speech! Speech! Speech!"

"Oh. Oh, dear. Um… *ahem*" [room falls silent] "Well, I certainly can't take all the credit myself; I couldn't have done it without the help of our common co-conspirator over there in the corner—who apparently decided to be fashionably late to my party." *laughter and applause* "And frankly, I blame him for some of these crazy artifact names." *laughter*

Okay, I give up… [bows] So now I guess the question is, now that we've got one winner on the board, who's gonna be next?

"Graagh accept challenge. Will slay mighty evil one!"

"Oh, I'll give it a go, I s'pose. Say, Lil, luv, I don't s'pose I could talk ye into poppin' back down to the bottom of Angband and bringin' me back a couple o' juicy corpses or summat?" *laughter*

"Hey, you dudes and dudettes knock yourselves out. I'm retired, ‘member?"

"Hoom, well, I still mean to win, but I doubt I'll be the next; I don't like to rush these things, you know."

"Yes, you've told us. Several times now."

Actually, Mossbark, you are my last active 2.1.2 character now; it's awfully tempting sometimes to restart you in 2.2.x or 2.3.x, where you'd at least have access to the Boulder-throwing skill.

"Hoom! Now, let's not be hasty here…"

;) [looks around] Say, where'd Gathraka go? [exits Prancing Pony] Ah, there you are. Leaving early?

"Enh, the air was getting just a bit too sacchariney in there for me."

I see. Not jealous, I hope?

"Of that stuck-up kurv? Please… well, alright, granted, killing Morgoth is a really impressive achievement—but come on, if I had crazy-powerful equipment like hers, I could chop Morgoth up into ribbons without breaking a sweat. And I don't care what kind of mumbo-jumbo alchemy explanation she's giving out, stringing the twerp's thos up on her amulet is just lording it up."

Mm. Well, there's still those magic relics you're looking for in the Orc Cave. They're not as powerful as Lil's stuff, of course, but they're something.

"Now you're talking my language, Human. Let's go!"

As you say. ;)

Orc 20 (take 2) to Orc 22

Once more unto the proverbial breach:

Orc 20, take 2; "What a boring place…"

Strange definition of 'boring'; Gorbag and company are clustered very close to my west.

"Oi, Cap'n! It's ‘at ugly kurv what hacked up Ufthak's lads!"

"What did you just call me, you pushdug? That's it, you're all dead now."

Oh, this won't end well… >:> Gorbag and crew are bloody smears on the floor in short order; Gorbag's drop was a Broad Sword (+3,+6).

"Feh. Where are they getting these incompetent captains these days?"

Indeed. Oh, that's right, I was gonna forge ammo out of this Broken Skull—and I net 23 Seeker Bolts of Slay Dragon (+5,+5). Not bad.

"This is an awful lot of ammo, Human."

(shrug) We can sort through it next time we're topside if you want, and maybe leave some in the house. In the meantime, let's keep exploring the level.

"Yeah, okay, whatever."

The rest of the level is fairly straightforward. Near the end, a pack of Black orcs pushes me to clvl…27, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery. And here goes nothing:

Deathwatch; "This level looks filled with evilness."

"Whoa, slow down, Human. I think we just stumbled into one of their barracks. We could run up against some stiff competition here."

Um, haven't we been facing some pretty stiff competition?

"Stiffer than that. Watch yourself. And now that I think about it, it's a good bet that this is where they've got at least one of those relics stashed; keep an eye out for them."

Yes, ma’am… ;) The early level isn't so tough, actually, with Lagduf falling in two turns and dropping an Iron Helm [+3] and a Bastard Sword (+3,+3). On a note of mild interest, one of the Snagas in Lagduf's crew was a Zombie.

"I hope that wasn't one of their captains, because he was utterly incompetent. Spreading your troops out like that just means they can be picked off one at a time. Probably lost more than his share, too, if he had to have his shamans reanimate corpses to staff his squad. Hmm, that pile of rocks looks just a bit too carefully placed; check behind it."

And indeed, there's Thalkettoth. Seems you were right.

"Yeah, and if their front line is any indication, they might just be stupid enough to have them all here in this barracks."

Indeed. Grishnakh and company aren't much further in.

"Hmm, now this one I've heard of. He's supposed to be pretty good. No, I take that back, he's got a deadwalker in his squad, too. They must be desperate for recruits down in this rathole."

Heh. Grishnakh also falls in two turns, and drops a Mace (+3,+6) and a Wooden Boomerang (+5,+4).

"Skai, what a bunch of Snotlings. I could train a squad better than that, and I've never done it before. That looks like their sleeping holes off to the north; they've probably got another of the relics up there."

And indeed, Maedhros is right where it's supposed to be. Last up is Golfimbul and crew, down in the southwest corner.

"Idiots. That's the first thing they drill into your head when they put you in one of the regular fighting squads: never chase your target into a tight corridor, or he'll pick off your whole squad one at a time."

Heh. Golfimbul drops a Long Sword (+1,+6) and a Three Piece Rod (+5,+4). And Cammithrim is just a bit further in, right where it's supposed to be.

"Sha. If my former tribe couldn't fight past this worthless rabble to get their relics back, I have all new lack of respect for them."

;) And we punch through the one granite wall in our path and continue on to:

Orc 22; "You like the look of this place…"

Okay, now I'm curious. You've got the relics you were after; why keep going?"

"Because now I've got them mad at me. If I don't cut them off at the root, they'll just keep hunting me down trying to get these relics back until the day I die."

Ah, of course.

"It should be enough to kill their leader, an Uruk named Azog. Nasty character, supposed to be very tough, and quick on his feet."

And I think we just found him.

"Well, well. Is this how low the Uruk-hai of the Gray Mountains have sunk, that they send their exiles and rejects to retrieve their baubles for them?"

"Yeah, yeah, spare me the… what did you say?"

"Oh, aye, I know who you are, little girl: Spellbreaker, Elf-whore, wielder of the foul Black Sword. What, did you think you could come here and beg us to take you in after they threw you–?"

"If you know who I am," Gathraka interrupts icily, brandishing her sword, "and you know what this is, then you know how much it's gonna hurt when I lop your thos off with it." An evil grin spreads across her face. "Or maybe it won't hurt at all—lul thos-ishi, I'm thinking."

Azog scowls and adjust his loincloth obscenely. "Strong words, little girl. I guess I'll just have to come over there and show you what's in my–"

Hey! can we keep this PG-rated down there, at least?

"And what's it ta you, ya flower-blooded son of an Elf maid? You keep your filthy Human nose out of our business, or I'll come up there and–" *thok* "Ow!"

"That's my Human, Snotling. No one threatens him but me."

Gosh, I'm touched… I think… ;) Azog is at the other end of a fairly long straight corridor, which gives me a chance. I toss back a Potion of Speed, wield my Bolts of Lightning, and take him down from range before he even touches me. >:> Apart from Thrain's wand, which is useless to us, he drops Rhino Hide Armor [+5], a Ball-and-Chain of *Slay Orc* (+6,+11) (+1), and 2 Flight Arrows (+4,+1). Hmm, with Azog dead, maybe you could step in and take leadership of the tribe.

"Hmph, you don't know much about Orcs, do you, Human? They'd never follow a female. Besides, I'm not interested in being head of a tribe; too many schemers trying to gain power by killing you."

There is that, I suppose. The rest of the level is fairly straightforward, if cumbersome thanks to a burgeoning pack. Having achieved our goals here, then, we recall to:

Bree

We have to go to Gondolin to *ID* the Deathwatch loot:

She won't wield Maedhros, of course, but the rest is a no-brainer to wear.

"Whoa, hold on, Human; you swap out my armor, I lose fire resistance."

No problem, I've got backup from two sources: a Ring of Fire Resistance, and a Dwarven Metal Cap [+7] (+1) that I intend to swap in for Thengel.

(nod) "Fair enough."

Back in Bree, I Mathom Thrain's wand and buy a Dwarven Shovel (+4,+9) (+3) from the black market. To compensate for the extra weight (Dwarven Shovels weigh 12lb for no clear reason), I stow my 44 Seeker Bolts (+3,+4) for now. Oh, and I acquired a fate down in the Orc Cave: I may find a Scroll of Summon Monster on dlvl 26. Whee… :\

Chatter (2.6)

ZizzoTheInfinite: Oh, I forgot, I do have an updated character sheet for this point in the write-up… :o

Intermission

With the Orc Cave done, next is–

"We're going south, Human."

Okay, where are we going this time?

"There's a catacomb south of town; townsfolk say it's laid out like some kind of maze. We're gonna search it."

Search it for what?

"I, uh, heard there's a magical relic at the bottom, one that would be useful to me."

I see. Say, did I see you talking to Melinda Proudfoot a few minutes ago?

"I don't want to talk about it, Human."

Ah… ;) Well, let's go, then:

Maz 25; "What a boring place…"

We don't need to search this level, of course, since Mert– uh, the magic relic isn't here. We do run into Ibun, who drops Soft Leather Armor [+3] and an Iron Helm [+6]. After a bit of aimless wandering, I finally find the stairs down to:

Maz 26; "You feel that you will meet your fate here. You like the look of this place…"

Fate? [checks notes] Ah, to find a Scroll of Summon Monster on dlvl 26. I'm underwhelmed. :\ Now, since I have no telepathy and no means of detection, I have to resort to a methodical search pattern, digging back and forth across every row of the maze. I'll be doing this every level, though for conciseness I won't bother mentioning it. Early in, continuing the theme of the previous level, I run into Khim, who drops a Light Crossbow of Extra Shots (+11,+5)—after disenchanting the one I'm currently wielding down to (+6,+7). Hmm, when I get topside, I think I'll enchant up the to-dam on this new one and sell the old one.

It's pretty boring from there; a Killer white beetle pushes me over the top to clvl 28, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery. Fast-forward, then, to:

Maz 27; "What a boring place…"

Nothing to note, beyond an incipient Blue icky thing infestation that I have to fight back. Moving on:

Maz 28; "What a boring place…"

Khufu drops a Fauchard (+6,+5). I continue to:

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

Sangahyando drops a Dark Sword (+2,+4), a Fauchard (+5,+2) and a Heavy Crossbow (+5,+2).

"Hey, this sword is made of the same kind of weird ore mine is! Did this come from the Gray Mountains? Or is this ore found in other places too?"

(shrug) No idea.

"Mm. Something feels wrong about this one, though…"

Yes, its enchantment lowers the effectiveness of its anti-magic field. We'll be sticking with your sword for now.

"You're durn right we will."

;) We run into another Blue icky thing infestation, this time as part of the Icky Queen's entourage; she drops a Cloak [+4]. Near the end of the level, I have my first run-in with a Trap of Drop Everything. *shudder* The sooner I get to clvl 31, the better… Anyway, fast-forward to:

Maz 31; "You like the look of this place…"

This level, to my surprise, has a Green Thunderlord on it. Enh, my supplies have been taking a beating anyway; let's take this opportunity to bail and return to:

Bree

to restock.

"Hey, what if the kid was on that level?"

Then he'll still be there when we return. And I thought you didn't want to talk about it.

"Huh? Oh, sha…"

;) Let's see, first order of business: my sanity has taken a small hit, probably from a Mind flayer I remember fighting. One !oCLIns fixes that. Loot so far includes a Spectral Dark Sword (+8,+9), Metal Shod Boots of Jumping [+8], and… wait for it…

Whoa… That one sells for the full 30Kgp cap. ;) Also a couple junkarts:

Hmm, that latter is reputed to be useful against Nazgûl; I'll stow it for now. The black market has an Amulet of the Serpents with a DEX bonus one higher than my current one. And I think I'll keep the Spectral Dark Sword for now and try my luck with it back on:

Maz 31, take 2; "This level can't be all bad…"

After a couple trials, I quickly determine that the wraithform effect doesn't last long enough to be useful, and the recharging period (while draining hit points) is annoyingly long. Back to the old-fashioned way, then… I run into Uldor, who drops a Long Sword (+2,+5) and a Battle Axe (+5,+4), and pushes me up to clvl 29, with skill points going 1 to Antimagic and 4 to Sword-mastery. I have to abandon the level halfway through to an out-of-control Giant black louse infestation, alas, so we return to:

Bree

to pick up a few more ?oWoR, and then dive back in:

Maz 31, take 3; "What a boring place…"

"I'm getting sick of this level."

You and me both—not least for having just discovered the joy that is the Trap of Scatter Items… X-( I do manage to find my first Potion of Wisdom to offset the annoyance, though. And Acid hound snipers continue to do a number on my equipment. Maybe we'll have better luck on:

Maz 32; "What a boring place…"

And it is, apart from a Potion of Charisma from a Spirit naga that finally pulls my CHA above 3. Playvillain magazine, here we come! ;) ;)

"Don't make me come up there, Human…"

*ahem* Anyway, we proceed to:

Maz 33; "This level can't be all bad…"

Not far in, a row of Dark elven warlocks surprises me from behind a pile of rubble; one of them confuses me, and by the time I get straightened out, I'm surrounded, with no way to duck out of line of sight. I Phase Door out—and who do you suppose I land next to? :D

"Ah! Leave me be, or I'll slay you!"

"Whoa, calm down, kid, you don't look to be in any condition to slay anything. You Merton Proudfoot by any chance?"

"Wha– how did you–"

"Your mother sent me to find you. Come on, I can lead you out of this place."

"But I cannot follow you, my leg is broken."

"Sha… I can't carry you; I'm gonna need both hands to fight our way out. Didn't you bring any Word of Recall scrolls with you?"

"Yes, I had one, but an Ogre Mage burned it."

"Heh. Lesson number one of adventuring, kid: always bring spares. Well, I've got some, but I don't know if these things will move two people at once… wait, what am I thinking? Here, will this take you somewhere safe?"

"Yes, this should take me home. But what about you?"

"Like i said, spares. Go on, I won't be far behind you."

"Thank you, noble one." [reads ?oWoR and vanishes]

*whew* "Okay, I know what you're about to say, Human, and I don't want to hear it."

Awww… ;) Shall we go, then?

"We're not finished here, Human. Did you think I was kidding about that relic at the bottom?"

Ah, of course. After a bit of wandering, we find the stairs down to:

Maz 34; "What a boring place…"

And without the need to search the entire level, it doesn't take long to find the stairs to:

Maz 35; "You feel that you will meet your fate here. This level can't be all bad…"

[checks notes] No idea what my fate was supposed to have been; nothing spectacular, apparently. Takes a bit longer this time to find the stairs down to:

Maz 36; "This level can't be all bad…"

A quick jump to the stairs to:

Maz 37; "You feel strangely lucky…"

Bottom of the Maze; the Minotaur of the Labyrinth should be here. [checks notes] 1500hp, +10 speed, nasty melee damage… this one will be tough, Gathraka.

"Feh. Bring him on."

Indeed. A pack of Barrow wights takes me to clvl 30, with skill points going 2 to Antimagic and 3 to Sword-mastery.

It takes a long time to find the Minotaur, as I'm loath to dig through the walls for fear he'll jump out right behind me. After a lot of wandering, though, I suddenly spy him. I quickly crank Explor up to running, toss back my last Potion of Speed, and wield my Bolts of Lightning (which I probably should have done earlier to save time… :\ ). I get in one shot before he's next to me; four turns later, he's dead, and I'm only down to 318/403hp.

"See? Nothing to worry about."

Indeed. We return to:

Bree

to meet a happy Melinda Proudfoot.

"I didn't have the heart to tell her I can't use this rod-tip thing…"

Doesn't matter; a good deed is its own reward.

"Okay, okay, don't get all lul kok-ishi on me up there, Human."

;) Our loot from the Maze includes:

Obviously a matching set… ;) Hammerhand is, of course, a no-brainer; between it and the Metal Shod Boots of Dwarvish Endurance [+10] (+2) I also found in the Maze, my CON is 18/70 and my hit points are 448, and with the extra STR from both, I'm now getting 7 blows per round. :) Belin would be tempting, except for the huge to-hit-penalty; Gothmog I think I'm gonna Mathom. Oh, and I have another fate: I may find a Potion of Wisdom on dlvl 17. Now, that's more like it… ;)

Chatter (3.1)

ZizzoTheInfinite: And that just about tops off Part 1; we'll start Part 2 next time out.

DayInTheLifeArchive/Gathraka the Tribeless, the Orc Barbarian Unbeliever (last edited 2007-12-07 05:14:25 by ZizzoTheInfinite)