So: I have absolutely no idea what a DeathMold character does, nor about the ToME magic system, nor about being a Lost Soul... so why not try to find out?

Hence the travails of L.M. McMold (I know).

HoM 98: wandered up and down a couple of times at clvl 1 ("Can I take on a pack of Balrogs? Umm..") until I saw a cold vortex, which seemed like a potential candidate for first kill. And so it proved: manathrust held out and I knocked it off at 4/19 hp. Which took me right up to clvl 12, and I suppose the thing to do is pump some magic skill, hmm?

OK - so, both Sorcery and Magic up to 16.4. I wondered about also throwing points at magic device, but I'll wait and see whether spells themselves are enough, I think. On the other hand, not sure what else to do!

Oh, and hp went down from a max of 119 to 101 with that. "Help me, I'm s-h-r-i-n-k-i-n-g....."

Teleported my first object to me (cool power!): turns out to be a Staff of Identify. Has to be useful, if not exactly powerful. Rested up: nothing disturbed me (my stealth is legendary already, which has to help!).

Oh, and manathrust has gone from 4d2 to 19d7. Trying it out on a poor black ant is not healthy for the ant.

Hmm. Sensing Monsters shows a pack of high elven rangers apparently on my side, plus an ArchLich and GWoPerplexity. I wonder if we can take these guys down together? Let's find out!

Oops... apparently manathrust is a beam, not a target-specific effect; a couple of my new friends just got angry. Oh well. Let's hang around and see what happens. [I note that using DM powers is hugely costly in mana. Wow!]

Oops again... the ArchLich is down to one star, but when I try to manathrust apparently I can't see. Should have been wielding a torch, huh? Ack. Time to scram. Sorry, high elven ex-friends..

More stairs. Grab a couple of rings that come nearby. It is so weird to be playing this way!

Aha! A shardstorm, all alone - that's 3 manathrusts and clvl 15, pumping magic and sorcery again. I also see a group of 'z's - let's try those too... ...that was pretty easy, but not much in the way of xp. Also, I'm going to put enough skill points into Magic Device that the staff gives pack ID - could be right or wrong, but I want to max Prayer at some point too, so I have to watch those points.

Next level has a pretty big vault with permanent walls, so I take a chance and teleport just outside. One rotting human dies to a manathrust, and no-one else in sight; good. Grab a couple of mage staffs out of the vault. Still finding these special powers pretty damn cool. Grab a few rings, too, but then through the walls outside the vault come a couple of Hrus... time to scram once more. I don't leave the level, though - just go rest, using the vault as a Hru-shield, then come back to outside the opposite corner and continue item-grabbing. Incidentally, I'm only 13xp away from clvl 16, so targets of opportunity would be welcome! Still on HoM 98 - maybe I should move up in the world (sorry!) some time.

First full pack of rings and mage staffs: nothing great. A Ring of Free Action, one of Con +4, and rings of Acid and Ice are about the best. Staves are only +foo. Destroy most of this stuff, wearing the paltry best rings.

More stairs. I can see why this Hall-escaping, especially with this weirdo race, gets tedious.

...and tedium is probably why when I emerge next to a mature gold dragon, I decide to chance my luck. And that was not hard - four manathrusts later, clvl 18. OK, how about a Mumak? Sure - it got to hit me once, down to 134/205 hp, but then took me to clvl 21. Manathrust at 28d11, still pumping only Magic and Sorcery. HP back down to 189, alas..

***(indicating pause in play)

I guess I don't see how getting out of the Halls is going to be hard. Maybe I'll find out. In the meantime, another batch of ring-scumming from a vault gets nothing interesting. Yawn. Pick off a storm of unmagic - that's clvl 23 - and a vampire; the first kill that didn't give me at least one level! Manathrust still at 28d11, knock off a couple of mature MHDs, Xarens, assorted other unfortunates. Still think I must be missing something about any difficulty here. Maybe I should try to actually go up levels, but seems worthwhile to hang out at depths and try for some decent kit. Grabbing assorted potions nets INT, CON, and two *enlightenment* that I should probably keep for later.

A pack of dreads dribble toward me, falling to two thrusts each: clvl 25, manathrust now at 32d12. And boredom leads me to try taking on a small pack of assorted 'd's... they mostly die quite readily, but mana is drained before I get through them all. Hmm. Up to clvl 26, at least... oh, sure, I read that geno scroll I just picked up to allow me to pick over the loot. Not that it looks like much.

This may end in death by boredom!

Pick up a LB of extra shots - why not. No decent loot in several packfulls, though.

An aether vortex is surprisingly high xp, taking me to clvl 27. Manathrust update: 34d13. Maybe I should try to get some spellbooks and see what else I culd cast? :) Another potion of CON - now at 33, but hp still only at 271. Ah, the ravages of sorcery...

Knock off my first death mold, feeling rather guilty! Potions of healing, *healing*, life... but still no equipment. An eye of the deep takes me to clvl 28 and 35d14. Grabbed some Bronze Dragon Scale Mail to finally replace my robe, putting AC up to 125, not that I hope to need it. But still nothing impressive. I guess being 'unlucky' is bad..

Another set of stairs, another level (98 again, it turns out!). Another greater vault. Grab one tome - the Impenetrable Earth - and sit in a Stone prison grabbing items. Ho hum. An ethereal dragon comes through the walls at me, but does little harm before dying. The pack of balrogs that follow, though... I think I'll skip. No loot. The next vault is rather better - potions of WIS, DEX, STR, and Experience (clvl 29, thanks). Two more aether vortices on the next level take me to clvl 30 - levelling nicely, just not really advancing, I feel. An Entish Bark of protection and a Dragon shield have my AC at 147, which is nice, but not a single artifact yet nor even top-level ego stuff. I guess I'll head on up through the Halls, try to make it out, and see what happens. 37d14 Manathrust is now taking down e.g. revenants in a single strike, while a master vampire takes 3.

Hmm... grabbed a Tome of the Tree, but I guess growing trees doesn't work down here!

Rapidly (although not using the Teleport Level power, which seems just too cheezy) up to dlvl 87, nothing interesting en route. Hey, wait! Where did my staff of Identify go? [checks log: Right - an aether vortex chaos breath did for it. Argh.]

Skipping even playing with anything that has serious breath - GWoPerplexity, for example; or even the Bronze Thunderlord I just popped up next to.

A couple of WIS potions has that up to 33, and SP up to 339. Up to HoM 83 now. I notice that potions of CHA don't seem to have much effect! Up to HoM 78... if this is boring, it's because it's boring. Sorry.

***

Alright! Finally, at HoM72, somethings interesting: the Star of Elendil, a scroll of *Acquirement* AND a mage staff of Power +10. Manathrust goes to 47d18. This all from one greater checkerboard vault - which cost me my other scroll of Mass Geno to get into because of the Thunderlords hanging around on the edges. Worth it, though, I think. In fact... well, I don't know what happened, but this vault *also* contains the Ring of Flare (!!), a RoS (+8), the long sword 'Vorpal Blade' - not that I'm planning to use this, but it should get me some AU even at CHR 3 - and some polished Blue DSM. Wow. Keep on plowing through the loot - another staff of power (only +2), the cloak of Thorongil, the Phial of Undeath (pah!), and so on. CON is now at 40, thanks to a randart gnomish shovel also in this vault - oh, and Amrod also appeared. I've really never been some place so good on the loot, ever.

OK, so I just realised that keeping items to sell right now is not useful. Bye-bye, vorpal blade... and ditto Thorongil. CHR up to 8 now! :).

Up to HoM 70, take down my first Dracolisk - and that's clvl 31. Manathrust is now at 48d19 with my staff of power. Still putting points only into Sorcery and Magic; ideas welcome :).

Up to HoM69, and a potion of STR nearby persuades me to hack - ok, manathrust - through a few ethereal hounds and assorted 'H's.

***

HoM 67, a STR potion and another of CHR - I'm almost an attractive DeathMold! "Superb" feeling with no obvious cause.. but I spot a DEX potion and two !oExp in a clump, got to be worth checking out. Indeed - up to clvl 33, 50d19 manathrust.

Wandering up the stairs to HoM 64, another 'superb' - grab a ring that's a new type to me, and ponder grabbing the couple of junkarts that seem to be the only likely cause of superbness; but I only have 4 *ID* scrolls. Probably not worthwhile.

Carrying on up to HoM61, and emerge among a bunch of monsters I think I can take - a bunch of half-ogres, two mages, a couple of vortices. Discover - and of course abandon - the Crumpled Scroll. On up to dlvl 60. 'Superb' and at least one new scroll; the guarding monastic lich is kind enough to drop two scrolls of *ID* and a potion of CHA, too. He took five manathrusts, but at the lower level of 40d15 - I have a staff of mana (80%) that I've been wielding most of the time in place of the staff of power.

HoM59: large arena area within a more normal dungeon, no significant monsters and only a 'good' feeling. Grab a potion of CON and a mage staff to ID later, and on up to HoM 58. 'Superb' with a small vault close to my emergence in the midst of a pack of stone trolls who pose no threat. Grab a Tome of the Everrunning Wave (I am now carrying 6 Tomes plus the Cantrips - should consolidate, I think) and an un-ID'd potion, plus a couple of bunches of seeker arrows that I suppose I should wield as emergency backup. I can feel this descending into monotony again - so sorry, if anyone's actually reading.

Oh - duh. Why am I still carrying scrolls of satisfy hunger when I can cast Ent's potion? I guess that kind of stuff is why I am playing a spell-user for the first time.

Trekking on up and out.. nothing interesting until emerging on a small level at HoM 49. A pack of gravity hounds plus assorted insects.. OK, should be OK. Let's see. Could use a Fireflash tome, maybe, here. Use a tidal wave instead - and am again annoyed that neither this nor noxious clouds show up on the colour scheme for the Halls, even though they do in fact work. Still, no trouble from the hounds before manathrust takes them down.

Hmm. There's also a Balrog. Wonder if I'm good enough for him yet? Send up a Stone Prison as a small precautionary measure and try...short answer: yes. Not even breathing hard. Keep on moving up..

***

Browsing the oook ladder suggests that (i) I have done less then optimal scumming at the bottom of HoM (O well!), and (ii) I should pump spell-power as a third element of my skills. So I'll try that now... manathrust goes from 40d15 to 55d21, or average damage from 320 to 605. OK, pretty cool! However, I discover that I've wasted points pumping magic itself rather than doing spell-power :-(((. Ack.

HoM 46: a market! Potion store and forbidden library, but I've not been collecting AU so the potion of DEX is out of reach. A couple of very boring levels to HoM 43, where I clear out an orc pit for fun with noxious clouds. A potion of Self Knowledge tells me that I'm still unlucky :(.

HoM 41 is a 'superb' with three vaults in sight. A bit more looting, methinks. [Do other DM players really take the time to ID every piece of kit they find? That would drive me batty!] Nothing of interest beyond a couple more stat potions (hey, CHA up to 15! more important, WIS up to 38). I really wonder whether I am doing this 'wrong' - but I guess I will get to the surface and then play a more normal game, rather than starting out uber-equipped (and if this wierdo race can be 'normal'!). Other DM LostSouls on the ladder seem to have staves of wizardry and Vilya/Nenya from HoM 98 - that must be a lot of scumming! Not my style, alas. I did pick up the Demonshield of Gothmog, which I should probably abandon - I don't think I can wear the set, and it's not that useful. OK, dropping, farewell...

HoM 40 is another superb. Getting cocky, though - I teleport into a vault section with a storm giant, two old sorcerors, an ultimate mimc and a couple of lesser folk, and they all vanish to manathrusts without response. A colossus prompts me to wield the power staff - manathrust up to 65d25 in that case - but four thrusts later, it's gone. They are one of my nemeses with melee folk, so that's reassuring. More stat potions, mostly of CON which my equipment already maxes. Nothing else.

HoM 39... no, wait, 38. Oops. Go down and check in a moment, but this is another 'superb.' There are a bunch of '!'s that apear to be mimics within a small vault - I guess I can go check that out for laughs, but I'm not sure that a jelly/whatever pit is worth the trouble, really. indeed, jelly/mould pit. Too much like fratricide anyway. Let's go back and check on dlvl 39. No, no market; nothing special. Nor is the second version of 38.

Nor is 37, despite being 'superb.'

Nor is 36, although there's a STR potion.

35 brings a small pack of hill orcs as noxious cloud bait, but that's it.

34 is a small level, and a couple of assorted 'T's in close proximity don't require the power staff. Other than that, all that's visible are potions of Sickliness and Stupidity!

33 is even smaller and even less interesting.

[[I feel like an elevator. "Level 32, men's clothing and Stone Trolls." But moving into "I'm only here for the 5c tour" mode for a moment:]]

32 - a small pack of ice trolls takes me to clvl 34, but again that's about it for the interest department. Maybe I should pick up gold for something to do ??

31 - an INT potion but again nothing of note otherwise. Getting monotonous..

30 - another jelly pit and a new-to-me scroll. That's all...

29 - open level with zero of interest.

28 - nothing except an un-ID'd ring.

27 - 'superb' which makes a change (!). But it's only a Troll pit.

26 - nothing.

25 - nothing.

24 - nothing.

23 - a new potion type... that has to pass for excitement these days. Turns out to be Booze, O joy. And a new ring is a cursed of Weakness...

22 - nothing.

21 - well, a vault, but the best content is a CHA potion. Up to 17, woo!

20 - yes, another jelly pit.

19 - nothing.

18 - nothing.

17 - seems as though the Halls' denizens have stoppped even trying to make my passage back to life an easy one.

16 - nothing.

15 - aha! A 'superb' and greater vault. Let's see... one un-ID'd scroll (Enchant to hit!). And one un-ID'd staff (of Nothing!!!). That's the total...

14 - nothing.

13 (getting close now..) - nothing.

12, 11, 10, 9 - nothing.

8 - *two* new potion types: Sleep (!!) and Resist Cold...

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - nothing. I mean really nothing - I didn't even see a single monster through these levels. And I'm out! I don't think I'll be bothering with LostSouls again for a while - that was *boring*, in all honesty.

***

[Actually, and to finish this small DitL, I think I'm going to try a second iteration of this, without messing up the magic skill point stuff, and trying for a bit more scumming down at 98, perhaps, for some better kit. If I don't get too bored.]

***

And so I am. L. M. McMold Jr. (!! ok, ok) is now in residence at the base of HoM. My feeling that this is still a *great* place to start as a character is reinforced - loot just as good as the bottom of Angband but the monsters seem a lot less difficult. That could be an effect of the character difference with the DM sorceror, though.

Anyway, fairly small amounts of wandering between 98 and 97 have brought some goodies, with the two most notable being Vilya and my first ever staff of wish (!!) which had two charges - I spent them (greedy me!) on Polished PDSM of Immunity and an Elven Cloak of Air (should maybe have been of the Magi but I've never been to the Void, so I might as well start planning now). The PDSM is ridiculously cool - resists everything except fear and blindness. Another possibility was a mage staff of Wizardry - I have one of power (+10) but my mana is not that great, especially wearing the PDSM. Anyway, that's what I took. So I'm wearing Vilya, two RoS (+8 each) and a RoINT +4. And still looking - the PDSM gave acid immunity, so getting Flare and/or Nenya would be great. Boots of Speed, of course, are not an option for a DM - but I just (!) noticed that I can cast essence of speed for +23. Which should solve any problem there. I really need to find something with mana boosts, though, and max my stats (which is what I'm mostly doing now). Charisma up to 8, woo-hoo! :).

Just got hit by a storm of unmagic - ouch! My unsustained stats - INT, WIS, CHA - all take a hit. That's what I get for deciding to stay on a level where the staircase I came in on is in the middle of a greater demon pit, and that's the only other one... right next to the storm, as it turned out. One manathrust disposed of said storm, but a tad too late. Incidentally, at clvl 33 manathrust is at 65d25 :-). The stairs take me to an open level, which normally I avoid, but in this case there're no dangerous monsters in sight and a vault with potions of CHA, CON, and two un-ID'd types... too tempting. Grabbing them turns out uneventfully.... and they turn out to be Blindness, Weakness, and CLW. Oh well!

The game feels a bit like a treasure hunt at the moment. A pack of Ologs takes me to clvl 34, aided by a potion of Experience, and the level has two potions of Dex to make it worth staying, as well as a !oRestore Mana. There's also a Fur Cloak which I may as well investigate, although my wish-cloak makes this less needful than it used to be. I think if I were worshipping Melkor, for Genocide, this would get *really* silly! The cloak turns out to be of enveloping, while a =oS was -10 and a =oINT was -3... sigh :). Oh, and popping over to investigate the cloak brought in a GWoMany Colours. Perhaps too foolishly, I decided to see whether I could take this down - and indeed I did, some eight or so manathrusts later, with the GW 'only' taking me down to 112/436 hp. I think that was probably dumb, but I survived. And so back down to 98. A potion of restore INT is handy but nothing else of interest. [I'd really like to get an Earth Tome for Stone Prison, but haven't seen one yet, btw.]

Emerging in a pack of Time hounds is not my idea of fun. Try that again. Back into a few air hounds, but there are at least two visible vaults with interesting stuff, so I think I'll stay... and I was right to do so, because the first thing I grab is the Ring of Flare! Yey!! [On a different note, I just notiched that I can now cast banishment, which is probably as good or better than genocide. I really do feel like there's no challenge right now. We'll see whether that pride precedes downfall...]

...and I'm about to teleport into a greater vault, so it may! In fact, the room I was aiming at only had one enemy I was really worried about - greater demonic Q - and he fell to two manathrusts without an action. So *should* be ok... and: Nenya!!!! So that's all four immunities covered. Albeit, at the cost of not wearing a speed ring, at least until I can max out INT and take off my =oINT. Still, I'm a happy man! I do need some scrolls of *ID* though, to work out what my actual holes are now. Heck, I can even consider actually hitting something with my staff :-)).

Oops. Forgot that Eru does not like me knocking off 'good' guys before I Noxious Clouded that pack of priests.... piety only at 600. The Angel pit I just came in next to will have to be skipped... still knocking back and forth between 97 and 98. Not sure what else I might need, though - a scroll of *ID* tells me that Nenya fills in RBlind. And I find an Earth Tome - I think I have a pretty complete tome set, and should probably dump some; I use Air, Water, Time, Knowledge and Magical Energy, but some of the others still seem useful. I guess with unlimited ID there's no reason to worry about pack space just yet. Hey! I have Greater ID now! COOL!

OK, so I'm still missing RFear. I'll work on it. Not sure how... hmm. I don't have any handgear yet - I wonder if there are gauntlets or cesti that provide RFear?

Down stairs, pause to refresh mana when I'm surprised by a bunch of Hrus from the nearby troll pit (I'm not wearing Nenya normally, which would give ESP, because it interferes with grabbing loot!). Teleport away fast! Discover a scroll of Craftsmanship - but trying it on my mage staff fails. And that's another level - so back up to 97... take down the Nalfashees I come in next to, grab a potion of Restore Mana, and am approached by a Great Storm Wyrm. With ImmElec, I think this should be OK...

...indeed. 5 thrusts and death. Nothing in the drop looks interesting, though. Maybe I should have wished for a staff of wizardry - I've seen very few staves.

Jump back to the stairs, and there's a new Great Ice Wyrm. I'll take him out also. That takes me to clvl 35. [I wonder what happens if I hit 45 here. Does the Gondolin quest still kick in??]

I think it's probably time to head for the surface, if I can find a wizardry staff or something that boosts mana. I guess I'll wait for decent handgear and then go.

Back on 98, next to a hellblade/coin pit, but two other vaults to go play in. And I see a Great Rod Tip of Home Summoning - I've *heard* of this, have no idea what it does, but I'll grab it anyway as I am sure that it's cool :). I also find a potion of invulnerability, which also has to be good, right? :))

This is kind of fun, kind of dubious-feeling - I mean, this mold is basically wandering around casually stealing stuff in the lowest levels of the netherworld! Still, I'm enjoying it for now. Next on the entry list: my first Greater Balrog. 7 manathrusts (and one summoned Dracolich) later, no problem. And the dracolich drops the Anchor, which I guess I will hold on to.

Well, OK, a slight problem - that seems to have been the first of a wave of greater demons coming from a nearby pit. Time to bug on out. I guess that is the big difference from melee types - arms do not get tired, in the game, but mana is fragile :).

Emerge next to *another* greater demon pit. But I want to check out a checkerboard vault, so I'll hope they don't get to me for a while if I blip over there. Find and discard the crumpled scroll - not that it would do anything right now! Potion of Experience again for clvl 36. I do find a staff of wizardry (yey!) which is +60%, +3, so I'll wield that normally and go to the staff of power for tough monster manathrusts, perhaps. Pack is getting pretty full, and I may have to purge soon. Tough choices if so - I already threw out the two =oS (+8) and am wearing one +10. Scrolls and staffs of ID will be first to go, but still a lot of stuff I'd like to keep. Two more (!!) potions of experience for clvl 37. Manathrust (with wizardry staff) currently at 63d25; goes to 70d28 with power staff (so ~800 to 980 damage). Find something called the Blood of Life, which I believe from forum to be good... so quaff it. No noticeable effect but self-knowledge now tells me that it's running in my veins. OK then. And finally my first potion of Wisdom!

***

All the ID stuff is now gone - I am having a ton of fun with the abilities of the sorceror vs. previous melee/archer characters! Enter 98 again, look around - an un-ID'd scroll turns out to be... of artifact creation (!!!). Another first for me. Time to go to the forum for some hints! Hmm.. boots don't work for a DM, amd apparently ego items are out (so my current gauntlets for instance are of Agility). Right now the best option seems to be the ring of speed - so maybe I'll wait until I find another, in case something bad happens. Or wait for some {good} gauntlets and try that. Or actually, maybe a =oINT. Or... well, actually, if I got a digger that gave INT bonuses, that would be pretty stellar also, as I should find e.g. Eol's gauntlets at some point, and I don't need a pick! I think I might try that.

One thing I did see in the forum is the suggestion to use scrolls of craftmanship on mage staffs of wizardry. I'll keep that in mind ;).

INT is the first of my stats to get maxed out, and is at equipment-enhanced 39, so I need a *slight* further boost from current. Other stats have to be approaching max, I think.

Pack is getting *very* full, mostly tomes. I think I have to drop the Eru tome - not useful until I get out anyway - in order to pick up the potion of life I just found. Maybe I should use that artifact scroll sooner rather than later! I guess this is one disadvantage of being a sorceror. On the other hand, I should be able to do one of the Old Mage quests and get a few spells combined into one tome, some time in the future. And I would only be toting around wands/rods/whatever anyway.

Find a Dwarven Shovel, and try out the scroll. Cool! +3 to STR, INT, DEX, CHA, tunneling, *and* attack speed! Good deal - that almost (39) maxes out my INT even if I swap out the +5 INT ring for Nenya, giving 0% fail rates. And I have seven blows/round now; maybe I should think about toting an actual weapon at some stage!

Dammit - found a cloak of Air! Should *definitely* have wished for one of the Magi. O well, seems a little whiny to complain! Yet another potion of experience for clvl 38, requiring my first use of banishment for a bunch of summoned 'U's. The remaining Barbazu drops a scroll of *Acquirement* for my trouble, though. It produces... the Phial of Undeath!!! Ye gods. Actually, the RNG is playing with me - shortly thereafter I find Galadriel's Phial, which I definitely wield for the luck if nothing else (plus I can use Vision and so have no need for magic mapping). I really hope to get out of being unlucky at some point!

***

Potion of SelfKnowledge: yep, I'm now *officially* lucky!

Enter a small level on 97. Decide to take on the local Sky Drake. He summons ancient dragons... including Ancagalon! OK, *now* we have a fight. Teleport out of my poor location to prepare, and I think I'll be wielding the power staff for this one :). Oh, and another Sky Drake plus two GWoLaw, too, just for fun. Lead Ancagalon ahead of the pack with a couple of targetted teleports, end in a corridor, and manathrust; it takes a potion of restore mana, but down he goes (and that takes me to clvl 39; time to think about getting out of here). Following up are the Sky Drakes, one of whom summons a mature bronze whom I actually kill by hitting it with my staff! Taking down both Sky Drakes requires a second - my entire supply - of Restore Mana potions, alas. Hope they dropped something useful.

Well, the drop included Anarion, Arvedui, and Rorhirrim - all useless to me; a flail of Aman, which would have been potentially interesting except that I am apparently uncomfortable with it (don't know why; it's hafted, so Eru should be OK; must be a sorceror thing?); a two-handed sword of gondolin (similarly useless); Aranruth (also makes me uncomfortable despite again being blessed. Hmm. Oh... checking spoilers, *anything* other than a mage staff is useless. Well, that makes it simple, at least!); Amulets of Ingwe and Resistance (yes, also useless...); Beruthiel (!!!!!); assorted ego stuff; a shield of Reflection (useless..); a pretty decent randart mace (see other weapons..); and a Light Crossbow of Extra Might (x7) (+23, +24) that I can actually wield (does more damage in one shot than the XB of Extra Shots I had did in two!). So I can hardly complain about the quality, just the specifics!! 6 truearts of zero value to my character. It does amuse me to have Ancagalon as the only unique in my known list.

Interesting - I accidentally 'summoned' a Drum to me, and found it was indestructible. A Drum of the Sky - plus 2 to speed among other stuff. Likely more useful than the Xb, so I'll wield it, even though it does not appear to have the description-promised activation. [It does contain spells, but I don't know the music schoool, it seems.]

Find the Ring of Tulkas, which is the last decent trueart ring to be findable here (and not that great when I've got Flare/Vilya/Nenya/RoS to wear already!). Really just looking for some top-flight handgear, maybe scrolls of craftsmanship. I'm being approached by two GWoB and a sky drake, and I should probably decide not to sightsee, but they had good drops last time...

...and they were easy. Also, I'm now level 40 ad it's time to get out of here, handgear or no. In the drop: the Star of Elendil (probably never to be used, but I do have one spare pack slot), a Defender Trident, Nauglamir (useless), the Arkenstone of Thrain (OK, that replaces Elendil in the spare slot), and a bunch of foo. Wait - why is my piety down to 200-odd? Who did I kill?! Ack. I may have to go for this corpse-lugging trick!

Another Sky Drake, and a Great Swamp Wyrm: 6 and 4 manathrusts respectively. A nearby Death Drake came in and only took three (almost two). With the power staff, I'm at 74d29 now, or average of 1073 damage. That's still a lot of thrusts for Morgy. The drop did contain Pauraegen, so my wish for handgear came true, but that's not as good as the Gauntlets of Agility I currently have. Orcrist was also dropped - useless, of course, but I am churning through the artifacts now. Sky Drakes seem to have *very* good drops.

OK, I've decided: time to head on up out of the Halls. I'm a little low on hp - only 501 even w/ CON maxed - but only missing RFear (don't care, Ent's potion will fix that if needed) and really all I can use is a boost to Mana, I think. So Eol's gauntlets seem to be the thing, as I can't wear the Blue Stone.

96: pack of ologs on emerging go down to a Tidal wave (just about my favourite spell), dropping Gothmog's shield for which I have neither space not inclination. A staff of power (but only +7) on the ground; nothing else of interest.

95: 'superb' and two visible small GVs. A !oSTR guarded by some algroths (another tidal wave). Then teleport over to beside the next vault, and find a Greater titan in the open - OK, that's a challenge. We'll see: Essence of Speed takes me to +47, wield power staff, and thrust.. oh, that was easy. 4 thrusts and kapow. And a !oCHA maxes me out on that at 25. Not so ugly ;). There's a potion of New Life, but having been spoiled on this I'm pretty happy with the 115/100 I achieved last time on hp.

94: 'excellent.' Cute randart ring, but not much else.

93: 'excellent.' Really?

92: 'superb.' But I see a mimic pit, so that's probably it. On the other hand, I see another wandering Sky Drake, so let's take him down (as well as a local hell knight, but he only took two weak thrusts). Yielded only a scroll of mass geno for the stack (now up to 5) but that's OK.

91: 'superb.' But only a jelly pit and an Angel pit. Piety slowly creeping back up - now at 465. But if I want it in the 100,000 range - wow, that'll take a while!

90: 'superb.' Two GVs visible. Three (!) staves of power, but all only +5; a set of cesti of combat (! not for a sorc!); a randart crossbow (x4) with extra shots and +1 to INT and speed is likely better in general than the drum, so I'll take it and discard both drum and current XB - leaving a pack slot!

[Current dump, for interest:

Skills (points left: 35)

Abilities

a) a Mage Staff of Wizardry (1d4) (-16,-12)(60%) (+3) d) The Light Crossbow of Helegyth (x4) (+16,+18) (+1 to speed)

e) (nothing) f) The Ring of Flare (+3)

g) The Ring of Power 'Vilya' (+12,+12) (+3)

h) a Ring of Speed (+11) m) The Phial of Galadriel (+4) n) Polished Power Dragon Scale Mail of Immunity (-3 to accuracy) [40,+23]

o) an Elven Cloak of Air [4,+10] (+3 to stealth)

p) a Shield of Deflection [10,+19] u) a Set of Gauntlets of Agility [2,+11] (+3) z) (nothing) {) 34 Silver Bolts of Slay Undead (3d5) (+15,+14) |) The Dwarven Shovel of 'L.M. McMold Jr.' (+12,+11) (+3 attacks)

a) a Tome of Magical Energy b) a Fireproof Tome of the Eternal Flame c) a Tome of the Blowing Wind d) a Tome of the Impenetrable Earth e) a Fireproof Tome of the Everrunning Wave f) a Tome of Translocation g) a Tome of Knowledge h) a Fireproof Tome of the Time i) a Tome of Meta Spells j) a Tome of the Mind k) 16 Potions of *Healing* l) a Potion of Life m) a Potion of Invulnerability n) 5 Scrolls of Mass Genocide o) The Great Rod Tip of Home Summoning (75 Mana to cast)

p) a Staff of Healing[5|32] (8 charges) q) a Fireproof Staff of Mana[5|30] (4 charges) r) The Ring of Tulkas (+4)

s) The Ring of Power 'Nenya' (+9,+9) (+2)

t) The Arkenstone of Thrain (+3)

u) The Anchor of Space-Time v) a Mage Staff of Power [Summon Animal] (1d4) (+6,+3) (+10) w) (nothing)]

Back on 90... ignore the revenant pit, I think.

89: 'superb.' An ethereal dragon close by takes three low-power thrusts; a bunch of hill trolls along the corridor fall to a geyser. But only a !oWIS for loot in the 2 GVs visible. Pah! :)

88: 'superb' again. I see a !oSTR nearby - gulp - but a set of Law Dragon mail seems to be the only other interesting (to some) find. A Black reaver takes 4 thrusts, as it happens; a beholder only two, but a hive-mother catches me for a small sanity blast before vanishing.

87: yes, 'superb.' But I see nothing of interest - press on. [Oh, OK. Moving to the stairs reveals a greater undead pit. Press on indeed.]

86: CON, INT and CHA are maxed thus far. STR and WIS are already at 40; Dex at 38. Not bad. Oops - "looks like any other level.' And any other boring level at that. Pressing up...

85: Small level, 'superb.' Which must be the pit in the middle of 3 rooms. Orc pit - may as well clear, I suppose. Noxious clouds away. And onward.

84: Another small level, 'very good.' I get cocky and take on the assorted nasties - greater titan, vampire lord, nightwing and great crystal drake. None get in a hit :). However, none drop anything interesting :(.

83: 'Superb.' No visible reason why, and it's only a 6 room small level. However, there is an un-ID'd scroll... of Rumour!

82: 'very good.' Another small level, and boring. I seem to have hit a patch of boredom in the levels. An AMHD provides brief diversion.

81: boring. 80: 'superb.' Hey, Smaug is here! This is the first non-summoned unique I've seen - I was assuming they couldn't exist in HoM. He only takes 3 low-power thrusts. His drop is uninteresting, though.

79: Open level, 'superb.' Revealed to be due to a green dragon pit - yuck. No, thanks. [This seems to be the biggest disadvantage of sorcery vs melee, as noted above - lack of ability to deal well with *large* numbers of ranged-attack foes.] Head to the stairs on up. Piety over 1000, woo! [Need to think about working on that sometime, too.]

78: *Tiny* and 'excellent' two room level. Nothing of interest; a =oS (+7) probably gave most of the level feeling, as the *only* monsters were a red jelly and a giant tick!

77: 'superb.' But not really.

76: 'superb' destroyed level. Potion of DEX for 37. But the only 'superb'ness seems to be a huge number of chaos hounds :(. Moving on...

75: 'superb.' But again, nothing of interest.

74: tiny 'superb' and crammed with monsters - 59 immediately visible, including inertia and nether hounds (yuck). No loot, though.

73: yet another 'superb.' Not.

72: and again, 'superb,' although at least this time I can see some monsters to make it possible :). No-one of interest, though. Another potion of *healing* - stack now up to 17 - and three pits. A Light XB of the Haradrim is tempting, but I think I'll stick with the randart: slightly lower plusses to hit and dam, but stat and speed tiny boosts. And there's a suit og Gold Dragon mail that I feel the need to investigate, taking down an emperor wight to do so, but it's just standard. The wight drops a potion of DEX as a bonus, so a good diversion. DEX is the only non-CHA stat below 40 now, at 39, and not yet maxed.

71: once again 'superb.' An adjacent pack of Dreads dislike being fireflashed. And - oops! - an ancient red takes me to clvl 41. I'm going to have to resort to level scumming for the god quests, I guess. Finally acquire a Tome of the Tree, although that tree-growth power seems unuseful yet. I pick up a potion of Cure Light Insanity - I took a 10-point hit a while back from the beholder hive-mother. And onward - there's a vault over to the right to check out, but a potion of STR and a climbing set are the only loot items. If I happen to find another artifact creation scroll, I'm going to try it on the climbing set (if there's still pack space for it) although it's much less useful with a Mold than it would be otherwise, I guess.

70: only 'excellent.' No visible reason to hang around.

69: 'superb.' And a small visible greater vault, *plus* a potion of life (only my second). Nothing in the vault.

68: 'superb.' (sigh) Gothmog's blade is left on the floor where I found it (only ID'd to avoid it cropping up again, really). A bunch of morhpic oils have been cropping up on the past few levels, but I have been ignoring them and assuming that Flare will allow me to get around the no-teleport problems on special levels. I could be wrong, of course!

67: merely 'good.' No reason to stay.

66: 'superb.' The pack of halfling slingers who greet me do not like my return noxious-cloud greetings (can't imagine why not) :). Probably to indicate this, they drop a cursed randart ring which lowers all stats by 2 ;). I do pick up a Mage Staff (+0, +0) as I think I may try my first trip to the Void with this guy... I mean, girl, blob, thing... The staircase up is just outside a P pit, containing two greater titans and their friends, so no hanging around here.

65, therefore: 'like any other level.' Open level, my least favourite. A great Storm Wyrm is nearby, so let's take him down...that took four powered-up thrusts (at 76d30, or an average of 1178 damage). Hmm. Still going to take a lot of thrusts for higher monsters.

64: small level, 'superb.' Can't see *any* reason why, but a death knight drops a potion of WIS which maxes that out. Also, I've been sitting around to boost piety, and it's cool to see mana increase. Now up to 818.

63: 'superb' again. A Set of Cesti in a vault... of Combat (!). :( Two pits also visible, turn out that one is a 'kennel' that I have no desire to play with. Up again..

62: got here too fast, so no level feeling. Three more pits but no obvious reason to stay.

61: 'very good.' No visible reason, but the stairacse out turns out to be in a checkerboard pit and next to a few blood sprouts *and* a Great Ice Wyrm. Power-up... but also only 4 manathrusts, no big deal. It drops Carlammas, which is of course useless to me.

60: one of the tiny 3-room levels, 'excellent.' Nothing of interest, though.

59: 'superb.' And a largeish GV present. But only a potion of DEX to show for it.

58: also 'superb.' Not.

57 onward - I'm going to run through these, as this is getting pretty boring to read, at least, so I'll only note something of interest. A bunch of time hounds breathe me briefly back to clvl 40, which I have no objection to :). And hit all my stats, which I do :-((. But - wait! That Tome of the Tree allows me to cast Recovery :-))) - not that I realise this until about ten levels later, but still...

DEX gets maxed - the last stat to do so - and so I'm all at 40 bar CHA. (dlvl 42 from a GV).

DayInTheLifeArchive/Get me out of here! (last edited 2005-03-04 21:12:31 by EwanMcNay)