ToME WikiDayInTheLifeArchive - Jinxed: Chronicles of a Dunadan Thaumaturgist
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Jinx, the Dunadan Thaumaturgist
by TheremHarth
Janessa - Jinx, as she is known to most of her friends - started out as an annoying brat with a wild magical talent. A wild and uncontrollable magical talent, which managed to burn down part of an orchard and came close to doing the same for her family's house. Clearly, something had to be done; so off she was sent to Lothlorien for schooling, where she gradually learned to rein in her her wild magic - and earned her nickname through her magical tricks, variously entertaining and wicked.
And so life went by, until, a few days after her twentieth birthday, a messanger arrived at Lothlorien bearing ill news: her village had been razed by orcs, and her parents were among the casualties. That day summer day, a killing frost touched the Malorns; and as the Orcs moved closer to Lothlorien and friends failed to come back from scouting missions, fires broke out.
So Jinx got together her travelling gear, told her remaining friends to say some prayers for her, and rode out in the direction of Bree with vengeance on her mind and a band of orcs on her tail. Which is where we pick up...
Character Build
Okay, Jinx will be a Dunadan barbarian... Rats, looks like Dunadans can't be barbarians. Make that a "normal" Dunadan thaumaturgist. Tulkas as a god, because he gives me CON boosts, doesn't require much skillpoint spending, is in character, and most importantly is not annoying (I'm looking at you Manwe Sulimo). No modifications to standard options, and I need Fumble-Fingers for my skillpoint plan to work, so I'm going for all 98 sidequests (blech).
As usual, the autoroller is my friend... 10 STR, 20 INT, 17 WIS, 18 DEX, 18 CON, 0 CHR, which lands me with 11, 20, 17, 18, 18, and 12 for those respective stats. Grr, the age is wrong and the weight and height are ridiculous... Whatever, let's get going.
General Chatter
Section 1: Thieves
Jinx, you with us?
"Yup. Plus several brambles and assorted bruises, and minus my boots, my horse, and my lungs. Wait, who are you?"
Your other half. It's, uh, difficult to explain.
"I think I must be hallucinating."
*sigh* Get some rest, and then see what can be done to get the locals on your side, eh?
"Hey, the voice in my head is thinking the same thing as me. Maybe (*yawn*) hallucinations are useful for something."
So... Rest to recover the 19 SP I wasn't spawned with, and save the game. And shut off the annoying ingame help, and tweak the other options. Let's see: turn on smart_learn, center and hilight player, show XP needed for next level. Done. And now, off to the Mayor's office for...
"Wait just a minute, I need some cash. And some new gear. Hey, you're still in my head..."
It's better to wait on the gear. And this will help us get some cash. Let's see what the Mayor has to say.
"Sounds reasonable... Wait... are you a spirit guide? Did Tulkas send you? If he knows I want to go through with this... Maybe I'm not going bonkers..."
Uh, sure, I guess.
---
"... Thieves? After that band of orcs I escaped on the way here, these guys shouldn't be too tough."
Probably, but don't count on it. Move fast, and be ready to dodge stuff (read: tactics to coward/running).
"Thanks. Hey, wait a minute, do you mean stuff like - oww - "
---
"Okay, it's dark in here, I don't have my stuff, and I'm ticked off."
The door's got a rusty lock, and your stuff should be in a room down the hall.
"I must be going nuts, either that or I'm insanely lucky. At least these thieves don't seem very competent."
They did rig that trap over the stairs... Anyway, down the hall, get the equipment, wield the torch and the dagger, down the second and third halls to the door, which promptly explodes.
"I can't figure out whether I'm dealing with geniuses or idiots."
Maybe both. What spells can you use against them?
"I can confuse them or fire jets of boiling water at them, and that's about it."
Those should be good enough. Try the water bolts... And step back, here they come. Five paces away from the door, and the first two Novice Rogues come through. I try the water bold spell, and fail the first casting. Second casting whacks the first rogue for half his hitpoints... Oh, and I forgot to start praying. And both the bogies are running off.
"Come on and fight, you cowards!"
Two more novice rogues coming through... And one I didn't see hits me, knocking me down to 6/11 HP. Step back!
"Oww, stepping back."
Two water bolts kill the formerly unseen assailent, another two kill the one behind him and raise me to level 2. Five skillpoints to Thaum, one to Magic, 10 more thaum spells... Including a force beam, an ice beam, a wall destruction blast, and a confusion view spell. Wow.
"You know, I just had some great ideas about how I could clobber these dolts..."
Good, but for now we ought to recover SP. Back up to one of the alcoves in the first hall, rest for a spell, and presently a Novice Rogue is trying to sneak up on us. Step back to give us some space, and hit him with whatever you've got.
"Watch and learn."
The force beam sends the thief flying into a wall, instakilling him for five SP. I head for the second hallway again, picking up the ex-crook's dagger, and cautiously go through the short third hallway back to the common room... Ah, there's one. And there's the Bandit.
"Wow, nasty looking knife that guy's got."
Don't mind him for now... Force beam instakills the Rogue, and a second enters from the bottom left. Now let's get closer to that Bandit so our beam spell can kill him... There we are.
"Abra cadaver. Uh oh."
Failed the spell the first time. Not good, he's on top of us. Move back... And we have an extra turn!
"Bye, nice knowing you."
Instakill, and level 5. Thaum, Magic-device, and Magic all to 9, two skillpoints saved for Mister F.F.
"Really, I don't know how I got by with only two good battle spells for so long."
Wild magic has its benefits. Speaking of which, the second Novice Rogue falls to another force beam. And there's a big ugly guy with a big ugly club coming our way.
"Got him."
The force beam doesn't kill the Novice Warrior, but does slam him into a pillar and bring him down to three stars. Fall back to the hallway, here he comes with their Novice Mage... Oh, the "wizard" is going ahead of him. Fire at will.
"Just a second... Need more distance... There, they're lined up in front of me. Gotcha."
The mage crashes into the warrior and both die. Now to collect the gold, the loot (cord armor, Bandit's dagger, mace), and wipe out the last of these ruffians behind that door.
"Hey, how'd you know that? Oh look, two in a row again..."
The force beam stuns them, a water ball kills one.
"For some reason I can't seem to get these ball spells working right."
Ah, the Xd1 damage bug is still there. Looks like we're out of luck on ball spells. No matter, my water bolt kills the final warrior, and the quest is complete. Back to town we go. The Book of Beginner Cantrips gets sold; the general store is out of lanterns and oil, but I get 3 scrolls of ID from the alchemist, with which I ID:
- a dagger (+5, +3)
- a dagger (+0, +0)
- a mace (+0, +0)
All sold to the weaponsmith (Oglign the Dwarf, with a cap of 30,000, woot!), plus the dagger I spawned with; another scroll of ID identifies cord armor [6, +0], sold to the armoury (which for once also has a cap of 30,000). Another purchase from the Alchemist, 5 scrolls of ID (50% off) for later... And that raps up this installment. Next up: the Barrow Downs...
Section 1 Chatter
TheremHarth: My first DitL. Thanks to ZizzoTheInfinite for inspiring this ripoff, and Kernigh for giving me some clue as to what a DitL page ought to look like. Current char dump is available here.
Section 2: Barrows
Barrow-Downs 1-2
"So, what's on our list?"
Scrolls of WoR and trap detection, potions of CCW, lantern, oil, pick.
"Pick?"
Your stone-eating blasts won't handle trees.
"Point conceded."
Unfortunately, I can't afford the trap detection scrolls, and the general store is still out of lanterns and oil. Ah well, five torches it will be, along with 2 ?s of WoR, 5 of ID, and 1 (one!) potion of CCW, and here's to hoping we don't run into floating eyes on the first level. Thus equipped, with shiny new pick in hand, off we go to
Barrow-Downs, lv 1
Where we have... An FF quest for 20 skeleton orcs! Yes!
"Wait, skeleton orcs? As in undead? That is not good."
Might as well get to know our undead "friends" sooner rather than later.
"I'd say 'over my dead body', but with undead lurking about, I don't want to push my luck."
Let's just take this level carefully and -
"Elbereth!"
Down the path in front of us and straight into a Skeleton Orc. I turn on prayer, and the SO hits me, taking me down.. to 41/47 HP. Hey, that's not so bad.
"Get away from me!"
The ex-Orc is lifted up and smashed to pieces somewhere outside our field of vision, pushing me up to level 6. I love that force beam spell... One point each to Thaum, Magic-device, and Magic, gaining me 2 more Thaum spells - a poison ball and a nexus beam.
"Urgh."
Hey, you made a career of dropping spiders in elf-maidens' hair when you were a kid in Lothlorien. You'll get over it.
"Spiders are harmless. And alive. And don't hunger for your lifeblood."
Not all of them, unfortunately, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Read to move on?
"Yes."
Anyway, further along we spot a Small Kobold -
"Carcass."
- yeah, that didn't last very long. Pick up the 30 gold it dropped, move on... And here's another Skeleton Orc. I try a light bolt on it, but that only takes it down four stars; it hits me, but doesn't accomplish a lot. The force beam, which I'm rabidly becoming a great fan of, does it in. A shot while and one more Small Kobold later...
"Hey, there's another path you missed."
And I need to compress my narrative a bit, I think. The grey mushroom patch blocking the path gets boiled, but... It's a dead end with a stair leading out. Another side path proves to be blocked by mountains, so there's one way to go... North, into a third Skeleton Orc, which takes two force beams to kill and pushes me to level 7. The new spells are another light bolt... And Area - Arrows! Woot!
"You know, I just had this great idea about how to improve my ball spells..."
Yeah, that's what I said. The pick soon comes in handy, removing some rubble from another branching path, and we proceed to a room, containing a void gate and a white worm mass, which dies quickly. Through the gate?
"Sure. Just stop recording every little detail, okay? It's getting irritating."
The gate lands me in a room with two Skeleton Orcs and a sleeping Jackal. Both Orcs go down in three turns; a third marches in, but fails to fall to my force beam. And more Jackals are coming... And I forgot scrolls of phase door. Oh no...
"Don't worry, I'll have it covered."
Another force beam kills the Orc, and I move towards the hall it originated from, away from the Jackals. And run into a dead tree. Rats. South, into another room... Rest...
"Just a second, I need to try something. Freeze!"
There's a burst of heat, and a column of air freezes into flying, jagged crystals, killing two Jackals. Now that wasn't very efficient.
"But it gave us information about the spell, and it didn't cost us much."
Still, let's conserve our mana. A water bolt handles a third Jackal, and another Skeleton Orc marches in and gets killed by our force beam. There, let's go back to get that "gray bottle" on the floor, and... Uh oh, more Jackals. Luckily, the Confusion view spell takes them all for 2 SP. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much.
"Don't get cocky. You're supposed to be a spirit guide, not a spirit cheerleader."
I guess you could say that. Get the junkart, kill some more Jackals, go down the hall they came from, find another staircase. In another room, there's a White Icky Thing (dead) and some cash. And another Skeleton Orc comes running in and dies, pushing us to level 8. Again, 1 point each to Thaum, M-device, and Magic. A Giant White Mouse bites the dust -
"Does the mouse really matter?"
No, not really. *sigh* I must learn to tune down the detail level. Soon another Skeleton Orc finds us, misses us, and dies. And another shortly thereafter... Halfway done with the quest now. Another one walks through a secret door a bit later, and again dies quickly. And another void gate... Teleports us to a room with two more Orcs and a couple other monsters, which all die fast, plus another junkart. And two more Orcs come in while I'm getting the junkart (an eyeball), and push me up to level 9.
Let's see... There's a scroll on the floor, I guess I'll keep that and ID it in town... Another dead end... Another... A way to the next level, cool. Back past the last Void gate I came through, into another room. More dead ends, and another Skeleton Orc, which gets squished by one chaos bolt. And another, which dies to a force beam. Only three more.
Some twisty paths, a soldier ant, more jackals. Come on, I need to find those skeletons... There's one, and there it goes. There (and gone) is the 19th... Now where's the last one... Getting hungry, eat my last rations of food, hack some meat off a Jackal corpse. There are some leather gloves, and a fortune cookie...
"Whoah."
And a huge pack of Jackals, which all die in one turn. Some time later, I encounter more Jackals...
"Forgive me, but I have to try something new once in a while."
Bursts of phantom arrows rain down, skewering everything in the room. Hey, that looks like a pretty good spell. Anyway... Past two more mice, and finally, here is the last Skeleton. One force beam later, FF offers us... Mimicry, Stealth, Magic-Device, and Spirituality. Eh, I'll take Spirituality. And down we go to...
BDw 2
Princess quest for 10 Baby Green Dragons.
"It had to be something that breaths poisons."
Hey, we've got a potion of CCWs and plenty of nasty spells, we can take them. But first, let's get those free potions and scrolls, and kill that Novice Priest. And... Oy, that quest room is straight ahead. Start praying.
"I didn't need convincing."
Around towards the entrance, and... All the dragons are clustered right there in front of us.
"Here goes nothing."
The area spell didn't do much good. Need something better... Nexus view spell! Nothing...
"Hey, did that princess just die and get up again?"
They do that. I guess it's some kind of magic.
"As in Necromancy? Drat, get off me you stupid lizards..."
View-confusion kills a couple dragons and pushes me to level 10 (+1 to Thaum, M-device, and Magic). Another nexus view spell finally gets most of the baby dragons. Uh oh, here comes another one an we've only got 2 SP, fall back!
"Falling back... Here he comes."
The last one dies, pushing me to level 11 and finishing the quest. The rewards are... A wooden boomerang, a rapier, and a small leather shield. Eh, I'll take the rapier, I need cash. Now careful walking towards those stairs, there are traps here... Argh, hit one, a temporary Wisdom trap. And a temporary Intelligence trap. Bleh.
"Ow my head hurts. Look, I think I can see how these are arranged... Let's try going around them."
Yeah, they cover alternate squares. Secure in that knowledge... Oops, maybe not, there's a paralyzing trap. Good thing there weren't any monsters around. Okay, we've got the rapier, and we're out! Oh wait, we're not, I accidentally read a scroll of WoR instead of ID. Darn! Uh, here's the ID scroll...
Reward: a Rapier of Slay Orc (1d6) (+1, +4). And back to town we go...
"Geeze. Did those traps get to your head instead of mine?"
I think so. 
Ah, there's our Wisdom back. And the sword gets us 2551 gold at the weaponsmith's. Now let's ID some other stuff... Various harmless scrolls, ordinary leather gloves, etc. There's only one *ID* scroll available, which IDs the eyeball as decreasing Wisdom... Bleh. Mathomed. The potions, predictably, turn out to be Cure Light Wounds, Resist Heat, and Salt water. Meanwhile, we sell the useless scrolls, by some of trap detection and a couple more of WoR, and exchange our Jackal meat and remaining torches for 99 strips of venison, a lantern, and some oil. 8 more potions of CCW, 5 more scrolls of ID, and we're ready for the next trip.
"I think you forgot something..."
Right - skill point allocation, which gets us two more Thaum spells, including a sound beam. And that's it for now...
Barrow-Downs 3-6
Back with us?
"What? Nothing happened."
Never mind. Let's see, check once again... Yes, we've got everything we need. Back down to BDw2 via WoR, wield that lantern, and start looking for a staircase down... There.
BDw 3
And what greets us, but another FF quest! For - wait for it - 16 Green Molds.
"He has to be messing with us. *sigh* At least this won't be hard..."
Yeah, you take what you get. Which includes three of the molds in a room to the north of us, and another random potion. Needless to say, they don't do so much as 1 HP of damage.
"Oh come on, they're molds. Are you also recording how many blades of grass we step on?"
Alright, point taken... Anyway, things go smoothly until the tenth mold, which pushes us level 12 and gets us our first God Quest.
"No."
Eh?
"No way. Let one of his priests do it. One more day here, then we go north and bring the fight to the orcs; I don't have time for an archaeological dig."
If you say so. Tulkas is easy to please, and we're not investing any points in Prayer; it's not like we needed the quest. Anyway, I allocate the skill points, 1 each to Thaum, Magic-device, and Magic, and go on, killing molds and eventually netting my first mage staff from a Boil-covered Wretch of all things.
"*shudder* Don't bother, it's cursed."
Indeed it is. Eww. Moving on, we nip a louse infestation in the bud, and soon find the last mold... And the reward is a choice of Mimicry, Combat, Monster-lore, and Archery. Bleh. I guess I'll take Monster-lore. Down we go to...
BDw 4
FF quest again! For... 18 Dark Elven Mages. And there's one right in front of us.
"Got him!"
But our spell fails, and he casts a stinking cloud, poisoning us!
"*cough* Not now you don't..."
He drops a violet potion, which we pick up. Down the hallway to the left... And there's another.
"Chaos-bolted."
He drops another potion. And there's a way out behind him. After that, nothing of interest...
"Hey, I smell orc. There, to the north! Die!"
The force beam kills a Snotling shaman and some others immediately.
"Freeze! Oh no, wrong spell..."
Wow, a wrong keystroke and the whole room is full of rock. That's thaumaturgy for you. It's not a great impediment, though; the rock-eating spell goes right through the granite. We proceed to clear the room out, and - hey, that's another Elf.
*BOOM*
No more. There's another... Dead. And another, instakilled by a force beam. And, a bit later, another, which pushes me to level 13. Immediately followed by yet another Dark Elven Mage, again instakilled. I think these guys are feeling a bit suicidal.
"It would go with the black robes, the haircuts, and the heavy chains..."
Hey, a bit of tolerance?
"Uh, no? They are trying to kill me."
Indeed they are; as we run past a corner, another mage fires another stinking cloud in our direction.
"*hack* *cough* Argh!"
A force beam flings him across the screen in a rather impressive manner.
"He's getting away... Get back here!"
He casts another cloud at us before dying, along with some other critters in an unexplored tunnel; we're in bad shape, but not bad enough that a CCW and some rest can't fix it. Annoyingly, we've still got another 10 to kill.
"*gag* *cough* Oh Eru, that stuff is horrible. Hey, what's this parchment?"
Oh, we'll want to read that. It shows you how to summon a friendly dwarf with a floor inscription.
"I'm not even going to ask how that works."
I wouldn't know. There's another mage, who, predictably, throws a poison cloud at us after taking two force beams. Next is a Snotling, and then the group it came from. And another Dark Elven Mage... and another. And two more.
"Oh good. Freeze!"
Both stunned; a force beam kills them. The next mage takes a single force beam. Another mage behind a door poisons me again before biting it, and another behind him dies instantly a chaos bolt. Another pushes me to level 14, and that's the quest.
"They certainly do have the buddy system down."
Not that it's helping... The choices are Mimicry, Magic, Summoning, and Monster-lore. Magic it is. And down we go to
BDw 5
And a Princess quest for 12 Black Harpies. The room is right to the northeast, and in short order I've saved the princess. Ball-and-Chain, Rhino Hide Armor, or a Broad Sword... Eh, broad sword, we need the cash. Yes, it's a Broad Sword of Slaying! And down to...
BDw 6
Princess quest for Boldor, King of Yeeks.
"I have one word for this, and I think you know what it is."
We'll know shortly, as a Void gate takes us right into the Princess chamber. And the Yeek King opens the door... A sound beam dazes him, a force beam...
"Where'd he go?"
It looks like the beam smashed him through the wall. That's a bug if I've ever seen one... We duck outside the room and hit him with a chaos bolt, confusing him and causing him to mouth off at us.
"Feel lucky, punk?"
"Actually... yes I do."
Another force beam crushes him ("Everyone dances with the Grim Reaper"), and the Princess offers us a long bow, a mace, and a long bow; we choose the mace. There are also two cleavers that Boldor dropped. The mace is a Mace of Gondolin; the cleavers are both enchanted, but not ego items. Down to
BDw 7
And an FF quest for spotted jellies, then back to...
Bree
It's dark out, but everything's open. I sell...
- Potions of Invisibility, Clumsiness, and Boldness.
- A Mace of Gondolin (2d4) (+8,+10) (+3) for 30,000 gold.
- A Broad Sword of Slaying (4d5) (+2,+7) for 5152 gold.
- The two cleavers for ~600 gold each.
- A wand of Tidal Wave.
"Wow. I think we're good for a while, with that money."
And what's more, we've got two staves of Disarm, so the trap situation's covered. Now for supplies: more *ID* scrolls (one IDs Benetar's Portable Plague, activates for high XP loss - Mathomed); ID, WoR, Phase Door, Teleport, and potions of CCW. And the Black Market's got an unechanted Mage Staff, 1024 gold...
"Taken. *twirl* Nice."
Now to stow a few things in our home, and then to the Inn, to sleep the night through.
Barrow-Downs 7-10
Okay, out the door, past Melinda Proudfoot, and Recall back too...
BDw 7
and the quest for the Spotted Jellies.
"Don't even bother logging this one."
I don't think I will. The only thing remotely interesting about this place is that it's an arena level. Oh, and I find a parchment (Numenorean for Beginners (II)), exactly the wrong one for this level. I soon reach level 15 and allocate my skillpoints, gaining a disenchantment view spell and another ice beam. The last Jelly is soon squashed, and FF offers us... Spirituality, Symbiosis, Stealth, and Mimicry. Spirituality it is. On to...
BDw 8
Princess quest for 14 War Bears.
"Easy."
The room is directly northeast of us, and the bears are soon dead, pushing me to level 16 (and getting me another ice beam spell, plus a water LoS spell). The princess offers a lucerne hammer, a broad sword, or a small sword... I'll take the hammer, it's probably Turmil. No, It's just a Shocking Lucerne Hammer. Dang.
BDw 8
Princess quest for 5 Giant Tan Bats.
"I think somebody is trying to bore us to death."
The princess's room is hard to find this time. However, the bats are flying about... And I meet Brodda the Easterling, who proves much tougher than his level would lead me to expect.
"I've been looking so long for you; you won't get away from my grasp."
"... You're a total creep, you know that?"
"I thought you liked me."
"I might have if you hadn't gone for my throat! Now DIE!"
"I don't care. I have a scroll of Raise Dead."
And with those words and a water bolt to the face, Brodda is finished; leaving me with zero mana, and a couple crypt creeps taking slugs at me. Run away?
"Only as far as I have to. By the way, you forgot to mention that Snaga Shaman."
Yeah, I did. I don't think he'll be a problem. Okay, one Crypt Creep gone... And the second... And the Shaman. Oh no, there are more Creeps...
"Don't worry, I got them all."
I have to say, this level proved more interesting than I would have thought... Now let's go look for those bats. Ah, there's the cell, and there are the bats.
The princess offers a mace, a flail, and a basilard. Sigh... I'll take the mace, which turns out to be a Mace of Slay Orc.
BDw 10
Princess quest for 5 Illusionists. Hey, there's one. And another. And the there's the room.
"Way ahead of you. Uh oh, one got away. And another is unaccounted for..."
Bah. Oh, there's the one that tried to run... Looks like we'll have to comb the level for the other though.
"Wait, there he is, right down that path. Bye! Oh, wonderful..."
Sigh... Guess not. I flub a chaos bolt and he blinks away. The chase is on.
"If by 'chase' you mean 'short, plodding walk', then yes. Okay, that's quite enough of that..."
The rewards are an arrow trap set, a spider web, and a mace. The spider web is the obvious choice; it turns out to be a Spider Web of Immolation, so I promptly wear it.
"Good choice, that. Hopefully it'll help keep the orcs at arm's length."
Hopefully. Meanwhile, we head back to...
Bree
I sell:
- A Mace of Slay Orc (2d4) (+4,+4).
- A Shocking Lucerne Hammer (2d5) (+6,+5)
I then hit the sheets at the Inn, stow some loot in my home, and by a few last-minute supplies.
"We'll trek north, where the vermin that attacked my village came from. There are caves up there in the mountains, you say, where they breed and build armies?"
Yes, they pretty much control those caverns.
"Let's see if a little magic can't change that."
Let's see...
Section 2 Chatter
LordEstraven: Latest char dump here. Thalkettoth and Cammithrim will be a welcome addition to my kit... In fact, I think just about anything would. :P
Section 3: Orc Territory
A short trek across the plains north of Bree brings us to a small mountain range, and the entrance to a chain of caverns.
"Looks like we've found what we're looking for."
Orc Caves 10-22
Orc 10
A large gray snake and a staircase down. Moving on to...
Orc 11
"Yeugh!"
Another skeleton orc, right next to us; it of course falls quickly. Through some winding passages, into a room with a giant slug... Uh oh, better get that thing before it breaths.
"Gotten."
Unfortunately, we stumble into a temporary Wisdom trap. Serves me right for not using our detection scrolls. Bleh. Moving on -
"Umm, dancing sword over here? Slashing at me?"
- and stumbling into a Deathsword lurking around the corner. I'm feeling so lucky today... Fortunately, it can't move, and two turns later it's gone.
In another room, a Scruffy-looking Hobbit tries to rush us near a down staircase, and gets plastered to a wall. Down?
"Better not to linger."
Orc 12
A destroyed level, with a group of War Bears nearby. They last one turn. A Killer Brown Beetle suffers a similar fate. There's a stairway down nearby.
"Get that staff first."
Right, an elm staff of... Sense hidden! It reduces my speed a bit, but hey, +3 ought to be enough. Barely. Down?
"Down."
Orc 13
Arena level! And we've got Black Orcs on one side and Snotlings on another!
"Got them... Nope, I don't. Let's give it a second try..."
That doesn't work either. And we don't have enough mana left for that LoS spell... Try a less powerful one?
"Sure."
But that fails too. We really need something to boost our Int. Uh, let's see... Looks like we might have to run. And there are even more Orcs around the corner - Hill Orcs. And we're backed up against a pillar of rock... Wait for them...
"Here they come."
The confusion LoS spell kills most of them, but there are still some nearby. Ready to run?
"Only as long as I have to."
Argh, there's a Hairy Mold around the corner. Keep going, I don't think it will hurt us... No, it doesn't, and the Panther tailing us breaks off and starts chasing itself in circles. Better keep moving.
"Looks like the cat's back on our tail."
It is, but a force beam takes care of it. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of Orcs, including a Shaman. Through that door to our right?
"Dead end."
Let's get out of here... Keep moving... Hey, a Void gate!
"Let's try it."
It gets us away! And into a corridor full of orcs, with a down staircase.
"Wait, we've got a point to fall back on now. Let's do a bit more damage."
A trip down the corridor gets a good number of orcs, and pushes us to level 17. New Thaum spells are an acid beam and a chaos ball.
"This hallway keeps going..."
And it ends in a wall, which we tunnel through.
"Whoah!"
Yeah, it looks like some kind of party. A bunch of Cave Orcs including three Shamans, plus a tiger, a giant ant, and a Dark Elven Warrior. A view LoS spells take most of them; the rest I lead out into the hallway, and dispose of with force beams.
"What's that amulet?"
Lightning resistance... Meh. To the east is a Green Mold, which I won't even bother with. Activate prayer, and down it is to:
Orc 14
Whoah, ogres all around us! View spells!
"On it."
Superheated steam rises from the floor, and everything except an Ogre Mage drops. A force beam kills the Mage one turn later, pushing me to level 18. Skill point allocation gets me... A Destruction spell, and another LoS spell (pure dark). Nice.
"Uh, black opal ring?"
Protection [+9]. Worth wearing, I guess. And there's a Void gate... Ah, more Ogres on the other side, and a gang of Black Orcs. The new LoS spell kills a bunch of things out of LoS, but doesn't do a very good job on the Orcs and Ogres. The water spell works better, and the last monster standing - a Black Orc Captain - gets force beamed. We pick up the dropped gold, and set off along the cave wall to the southwest. Ah, there's a hallway... And a room full of Black Orcs and war bears, which all bite the dust quickly, pushing me to level 19. Let's see... another disenchantment LoS spell, and a fireball. Meanwhile, there are more Orcs coming in from an adjacent corridor. Force beams dispose of them.
"Hmm. Sycamore staff?"
1 ID scroll left... Let's use the staff. *crosses fingers* Nope, no idea what it is. And that opal ring over there is... A cursed ring of teleportation. Bleh. Down the nearest staircase we go.
Orc 15
You have a very good feeling...
"Sure I do. Let's see if there's anything good here, else we move on."
Well, the illusionist around the corner doesn't really count. However, Wormtongue and Bullroarer make themselves seen a few turns later. A water LoS spell toasts Bullroarer and a group of 'p's, and takes half of Worm's hitpoints; force beams and chaos bolts take the rest.
"Hey, what was that?"
A multiplication trap. Look out... Uh oh, we just stumbled into a clumsiness trap, but we can avoid the other traps easy enough. Meanwhile, let's take that iron helm that Wormtongue dropped, and the pink potion. A short walk away is a hall full of Snagas, with Ufthak of Cirith Ungol among them. A force beam does a number of the snagas, but doesn't do a thing to Ufthak.
"Let's up the ante."
The first casting of the acid beam fails, but the second wipes out all the snagas in the hall. It only brings Ufthak down two stars; however, with the hall clear, a force beam can hurl him quite a distance and actually do some damage. Another force beam doesn't do so much, but Ufthak starts running away. A chaos bolt brings him down to one star, and confused. A final force beam finishes him. He doesn't drop anything that looks like a potential artifact, unfortunately. However, he has led us into a room with a cell at the center, containing... A giant red scorpion. Oh well. Leave?
"It seems like - wait, there are bogies outside."
Mostly Ogres, which don't last.
"And I'm getting a bad feeling about this iron helm."
It's cursed but can't be destroyed. Either a cursed randart or Gorlim. I'll hang onto it in case it can sell for something uncursed. Meanwhile, the last of the Ogres die, and we're down to the last of our food... Better see if there are any more of those bears around. Oh, wait, here's a down staircase.
Orc 16
You have a good feeling...
I sure don't, it's an arena level again. And sure enough, there are Phantom Warriors right around the corner. And *lots* of Orcs.
"No problem."
An LoS spell kills them all, pushing me to level 20. I'm soon set upon by another Phantom Warrior and a baby bronze dragon; in an unfortunate turn of events, the dragon is polymorphed into a Dark Elven Mage by a chaos bolt, and proceeds to cast nasty spells at me. And I'm almost out of SP.
"Give me a few seconds..."
A force beam deals with the Mage. I wait for my SP to regen so I can take the Phantom Warrior, but my Cloak of Immolation gets it first.
"I knew that cloak was a good idea."
And there's the next staircase down.
Orc 17
A group of Black Orcs goes down in one turn. A hallway leads away to another staircase.
Orc 18
You have a good feeling...
An acid beam wipes out the ogres filling the hall in front of us. Past the door on the other side, there is... A huge line of kobolds, which drop like flies. Oh, and there's Mughash, the source of the "good feeling."
"Ahh, my eyes!"
One of the spellcasters seems to have blinded us. No matter; the next turn, we can see again, and everything except Mughash is dead. Two chaos bolts handle him. Say, that pick might be good.
"Oww... Again. Wonderful."
It was a dark hound, not a spellcaster. The hounds are disposed of, the pick... turns out to be completely ordinary. Further down the hall, there are a bunch of orcs, which pose no trouble, and a Griffon, which poses very little. Then we have the bad luck to run into a magic mushroom patch, which promptly does its annoying thing.
"Oh Elbereth, what are those things? I can't seem to focus on them..."
Now you're hallucinating. And confused. Get away from the mushroom patch... Wait a minute, we've got the potions to handle this, quaff a CCW. Bleh, confused again. No HP loss, quaff another... Confused again! Another CCW! Now we're slowed, but we've got a turn and we're not confused any more! Kill those mushrooms!
"You mean that thing that looks like a ghost... mold... thing? Okay, I think it's gone."
I double back down the corridor to sleep off the hallucinations. Something, presumably the Griffon, attacks me several times and gets burned. Okay, we can see clearly again.
"No wonder the elves told me to avoid magic mushrooms... Say, I can clearly see a naga shaman coming our way."
A fight ensues, but it blinks away before I can do much. Something breaths on me and blinds me; a few LoS spells later, I can see again and it's dead, whatever it was. Oh, and there's the naga again; I flub force beam twice before managing to kill it.
Down another hallway, I run into a bunch of rotting corpses and a skeleton orc, and pick up a metal cap, which is hopefully good. A bit further... The last of the dark hounds. Good. No, not the last. I kill the latest hound, refuel my lantern, and keep going. Let's see, there are bunch of ogres... and a bunch of orcs.
"I'll lead them out into the hall and force-beam them."
This works quite well... Moving onward, I pick up a scarab amulet for later ID. And there's a dead end. No, wait, there's another hallway. A Void gate takes me to a room with an Umber Hulk, which pushes me to level 21; the new spells are another chaos bolt and a meteor bolt... Oh, and I picked up a shard bolt spell at some point, which is good to know. Back through the Void gate; back down the hall; and into an invisible monster, which drops a ring of invisibility. Looks like that was Gollum.
"I'm glad I never got to know him better."
So am I. And finally, there's a staircase down.
Orc 19
You feel your luck is turning...
Well, I do flub an LoS spell twice, but the third time wipes out the groups of orcs and Novice Mages hanging around the stairs. A group of Ogrillions and a Dark Elven Warrior also buy it. A bit further on, we meet our first Fire Spirit, and a force beam throws a Jumping Fireball into a group of Uruks, causing much mayhem. The Uruks are soon dealt with as well. And there's Ulfast son of Ulfang. A casting of force beam fails; the second casting sends him off down the hall. A chaos bolt confuses him, but doesn't do much damage.
"Where'd all those armored guys come from?"
Someone summoned a bunch of Novice Paladins around us; an LoS spell wipes out them and Ulfang, who drops nothing of interest. And there's the staircase down.
Orc 20
You have a superb feeling about this level.
Ooh, three Void gates. Let's see where they go. One leads to a wide open space and a Zombie Novice Mindcrafter; another leads to the third. So much for that. Down the nearest hallway... A group of air hounds. And a psi-bolt trap, which has the useful side effect of detecting the rest of the hounds - which push me to level 22. New spells: arrow beam and fire LoS. And further down the hall is a mature gold dragon. This is going to be interesting.
"Let's go for it."
Stone to mud destroys the wall it's hiding behind. The water LoS spell damages it and kills the orcs around it. A shard bolt cuts it badly. A force beam knocks it back; another shard bolt brings it down to one star, and a third finishes it.
"Hey, I don't think wands are supposed to attack me."
That's a lesser mimic; two force beams kill it.
Down another hall, a group of light hounds and a forest troll prove to be a pain in the neck, but push me to level 23; I get a plasma bolt and an ice LoS spell. Wait... make that several forest trolls. And I'm running short on SP again. Uh, let's hold back and let the cloak handle the weaker monsters so we can focus on the trolls.
"Sounds like a good idea."
No, that's not working... Better get rid of that Earth Spirit and run.
"I'm taking damage here..."
Ugh... Phase door time. There, that got us out ahead of all the monsters, now we can take them one at a time and fall back as needed... There - all gone. And there go the last of the light hounds (hopefully).
"Whew. That was too close."
All the more reason to get to the next level ASAP.
"Anything significant there?"
The orcs' main stronghold. It's well guarded, but it shouldn't have hounds or trolls lurking about.
"Let's get a move on, then."
First we'll have to tackle these phase spiders (and a stray light hound). Through that first Void gate again, down this hall - oogh, there's another group of light hounds, and something else I missed. Fortunately, view spells handle everything. Hmm, this is a dead end, double back... More air hounds, lovely. And the pink potion in by backpack is {terrible}.
"Forest trolls again."
A plasma bolt instakills the first... Oh no, more light hounds! Blinded again!
"Is this ever going to end?"
CCW! Run! Poisoned again, it's another air hound! Yes, got enough mana to use a confusion LoS spell, take that trolls! Now into this hallway to wait... Argh, flubbed a shard bolt again, fall back... Yes, a long straight section! A force beam takes out two trolls! And there goes the third one, and... I think that's that. And further down the hall, *finally*, is the staircase down.
"I never, ever want a repeat of that."
I'm with you. Rest up while you can... And down we go.
Deathwatch
Okay, door to the north, go through the one on your left and get that orc, then the snaga past the second door to the north, and any more that come through...
"I don't need continuous instructions, alright?"
Okay, okay. The orcs fall very quickly to force beams and the occasional chaos bolt; we get to the first large room, but after several spell failures have to fall back, taking an Uruk on the way which pushes us to level 24. (New spells: ice ball, acid bolt.) A short while later, we head back for the room; a water LoS spell kills all the visible orcs except Lagduf, who takes a force beam and another LoS casting.
"You said something about powerful artifacts here?"
Yeah, first one's to your north, in the northeasternmost room in that area. It's a suit of leather scale mail.
"Gotcha."
First we open the way to the north chambers, then we wait by the doors, recovering mana and killing any orcs that come through. When our mana is restored, we head north and east, disposing of orcs we encounter using as little SP as possible. The light bolt spell proves very valuable.
"Okay, this looks like the right room. Where do I go?"
Through the eastern wall. There, that's the artifact - we should probably put it on.
"It increases my speed and agility? Nice."
Yeah, we'll probably be using this one for a while. Okay, I'm a bit foggy on the location of the next one... Uh, try going back to the central room and taking the most obvious route.
"First the orcs in the other rooms here... Okay, next artifact."
Umm, west, not south... There, we're meeting resistance, that's a good sign.
"This is resistance?"
Hey, let's not get too arrogant... Keep an eye out for ogre elites and orc officers.
"Speaking of ogres..."
Yeah, here come some Ogrillions. The arrows area spell takes them out, but now we're out of mana. Fall back...
"I'm getting a bit too used to this falling back."
Nonetheless, back we go, leading some orcs into a narrow hallway and force-beaming them. Alright, mana recovered. Wow, lots of orcs there.
"No problem."
What about the Ogrillion priest?
"Sound beam?"
That stuns him, and a force beam almost kills him, but he recovers and blinks away. Ah, here he comes again, and there he goes. Another bunch of orcs shows up and are defeated; we rest up and move on.
"West or north?"
Orcs to the west first, then check out the north, and double back if there's nothing there... Okay, looks like it's the barracks to the north, and I think there's an artifact to be found here. Ick, we're running out of mana again, rest up... And it should be past the east wall in the northeasternmost cell, again.
"A knife?"
It used to belong to a famous Elven warrior. Not useful to us, but worth getting for the money. Okay, south and east again, and I think this will lead to our final artifact. We might have some tough fighting though.
"I'm ready for it."
Half a dozen orcs later, we run into a large group of black orcs and Ogrillions. Luckily, area and LoS spells (and force beams) make it easy.
"Maybe not..."
Yeah, we're running out of mana again... Fall back to the exit and take them as they come.
"*sigh* Falling back. Wait, that's not an exit! It's a trap!"
Yeah, I goofed. On the other hand, the enclosed space will amplify the effect of our area spells. Stand by, and let 'em have it as soon as they get close.
"Letting them have it... Now."
That squashed the Ogrillions very effectively. Now go east to that big room, and there's the final artifact past that door.
"Are those gloves glowing?"
Yeah, they're heavily enchanted. Best to wear them now.
"Wow. These things are like torches."
They can also fire magic missiles for pest control. Let's see, back the way we came... Again the force beam and arrow spells prove quite handy.
"Another dead end."
Great. Double back again... Wait a minute, that wall behind the cell with the gloves is different.
"Yeah, granite. There it goes. Huh, that's weird, there are just lots of empty cells here, and the hallway goes back to the main room."
Maybe it's a trap to keep would-be invaders from getting out.
"Very reassuring."
Let's try going east again and see if we missed anything... Yes, there's more granite in the southernmost room. And there's our way out. Ready to take on Azog?
"Better sooner than later."
Orc 22
You have a good feeling...
Well, we're in a rectangular room with a bunch of doorways, and I'm definitely not feeling to good.
"Nothing but white wolves so far."
And elite uruks.
"They're not affected by light bolts."
Yeah, and we're burning SP fast. Fall back again... More elite uruks, and now black ogres. As usual, force beams are *useful*. Okay, they're done, now down the hall -
"What's that shrieking?"
Whatever it is, we better silence it fast. Which an LoS spell does, pushing us to level 25 in the process. (Spells: meteors LoS, arrow bolt.) Okay, lots of orcs down that hall to the south, and there's Lugdush too. We might need to retreat again.
"Not yet."
A few turns later the hallway is cleared except for Lugdush. One turn after that, Lugdush goes flying offscreen. Shortly he comes back, snickering and taunting.
"I'll bet your innards would taste real sweet..."
"I'll bet yours are rotten."
A few more force beams and he goes down, dropping nothing. Another hallway branches off to the west; there are more rooms, and another line of Uruks. And there, alone in a hallway to the west, is Azog. He grins nastily at us.
"I love being psychotic!"
"You know, I really don't see how I can top that one."
"Now, I strike a blow for *our* side!"
I've underestimated his speed - in one turn he steps straight up to me and hits me several times, though he only manages 8 HP. A force beam sends him flying down the hall, but doesn't do much damage. Azog gets up, still showing of his psychotic grin.
"What is it with that grin?"
A shard bolt takes him down two stars and has him bleeding, but only for a turn. Another takes him down one star.
"Come on! Stop smiling and fight me!"
I flub a plasma bolt. Not wise, using a high-level spell.
"I shall torture you slowly."
Fall back!
"You'll die quickly."
Two turns and he's one space from us. A force beam throws him back. Another crashes him into the far wall. He's at 5 stars, I'm at 185/188 HP, but I've run through a quarter of my mana.
"Don't sweat it. You! Get back here!"
He comes back, of course, shouting and hawking at us.
"You're not so tough, loser!"
Another force beam. Failed! A second casting. There we go! And it looks like there are more monsters down the hall... No, it's just Azog leaving LoS. He comes back for another round, and an arrow beam brings him to 3 stars. Another force beam throws him back and reduces him to 2. He keeps charging back at us.
"I'll bet your innards would taste real sweet."
"Lugdush used that one already. Do you orcs carry around an insult compendium or something?"
In fact, yes they do, after a manner of speaking. Again, Azog takes a force beam, and this time he decides to run.
"Oh no you don't!"
But he's back for more a couple turns later. Another force beam brings him to one star, and scared again. No, here he comes... Now he's fleeing. A final beam drops him.
"Hey, what's that?"
The phial in his hand? It's... the Phial of Undeath. Eww.
"Let's leave it."
I'm leaving it. You'll want to take the wand, though... Now let's get out of here.
A short overland journey later...
Bree
Stay at the inn for the night, then refurbish my supplies in town. I *ID*...
- The Iron Helm of Gorlim
- The Wand of Digging of Thrain
- The Main Gauche of Maedhros
- The Leather Scale Mail 'Thalkettoth'
- The Set of Leather Gloves 'Cammithrim' (which got cursed at some point)
I sell Thrain and Maedhros; Gorlim gets Mathomed.
Section 3 Chatter
TheremHarth: Updated ladder entry to reflect most recent changes.
Section 4: Forests
"Guide, I need your opinion on something. Remember the phial that Azog was carrying?"
Yes...
"That was some seriously dark stuff, wasn't it? Didn't the scroll say something about an ancient Morgothian curse? And back in Lothlorien, I kept hearing talk about a dark sorceror in Mirkwood - the Necromancer of Dol Guldor. Do you think he, or she, might have been up to something with Azog and the orc tribes?"
It seems likely. An assault on Dol Guldor would be unwise at this point... However, an expedition to Mirkwood might be in order.
"Sounds like a good idea. On the way we can drop by Lothlorien again, and pass the news to Celeborn and Galadriel."
First we need some supplies, though. At the General Store I trade my pick for a Shovel of Digging (+6); from the Alchemist, I get a potion of restore Charisma to finally take care of my Chr loss, and another 26 scrolls of ID, plus 6 scrolls of trap detection; and at the Magic Shop I sell my staff of Sense Hidden. 99 strips of venison from the Inn...
"Okay, that's enough. Let's go."
22 strips of venison later, we're at Lothlorien, and night has fallen.
"Hey, let's check the black market for stat potions before we head for the Inn, I've had about enough of being too weak to carry all this stuff. And I've got to talk to Galadriel."
Unfortunately, there's nothing in the BM. After a short and rather disturbing conversation with Galadriel, back to the Inn we go.
Lothlorien
"You know, we're going to need a place to store things around here."
Well, Celeborn says there's an empty house where wolves gather.
"Wolves? The orcs must have left Lothlorien very short on soldiers."
At any rate, the house quest is no problem, thanks to LoS spells. Our reward collected, we make another trip to the BM, which reveals nothing of interest... So I guess it's time to get a move on.
Mirkwood 11-18
Mkw 11
Princess quest for 5 elite uruks.
"No problem."
Very shortly, all the uruks are dead, and the princess gives us a choice of a Tulwar, a Short Sword, or Soft Leather Boots. Boots it is, we need footwear. Now where's that princess room...
"Those orcs' torches aren't going out."
Indeed, three snagas were toting Everburning Torches; I swap one in to replace my lantern. Ah, there's the room, and the boots are... Soft Leather Boots of Levitation [2,+6]. Good enough to wear.
Mkw 12
Princess quest for 14 Giant Red Scorpions. Early on, I test a steel wand on a psuedo-dragon; it turns out to be a wand of Fireflash, so I pocket it for later use.
"There's the room."
Yep, that's it... And the choice is mage staff, metal cap, or arrow trapset. Ugh... Mage staff or metal cap... Staff or cap... I guess I'll take the cap. Yes, it's the Cap of Thengel! Oh wait... That's the one that boosts Wis, not Int. @#&%!
"Hey, easy on the Orcish."
Mkw 13
Princess quest for 14 Lizard Men. When I finally find the buggers, they don't last long; the reward is a Short Bow, a Magic Trap Set, or a Ball-and-chain. I'll take the bow on the off chance that it's an artifact. No, it's a Short Bow of Power; I won't even bother taking it.
Mkw 14
Princess quest for 11 Air Hounds.
"Why oh why..."
Hey, it could be worse. I find a ring of Slow Digestion on the floor, which replaces my ring of Invisibility.. Oh, and there are the Air Hounds. Reward choice is Hard Studded Leather, a Set of Gauntlets, or a Basilard... I'll take the Gauntlets. Grr, the lava around the staircase destroyed one of my *Identify* scrolls... But the gauntlets are Paurnimmen! +4 Con! Can't wear them yet though, my only source of FA is Cammithrim. >:( Bah!
Mkw 15
Princess quest for 10 Blue Dragon Bats, and a superb feeling.
"I can tell this is going to be a pain..."
Well, there's a junkart (a tiny doll), which will hopefully be something good like Satisfy Hunger. And then something we can't see mutters about Bagginses stealing his precious.
"I thought we killed this guy already?"
I guess not. He keeps muttering stuff at us while we fight off a group of white wolves... Hey, there he is! He just picked up that sling!
"A view spell should do it."
It does. He drops a Morning Star of *Slay Undead*, which I pick up for later sale, plus his ring. And there's the princess room down a hall. Choices are an Iron Helm, a Dagger, and a Small Leather Shield... Helm it is. Nope, just an Iron Helm of Beauty.
Mkw 16
Princess quest for Nar, the Dwarf. A white wolf pushes me to level 26 (spells: meteor bolt and cold ball). Later on, I find the Ring of Hyarthoth, based on a cursed ring of Teleportation, on the floor; I pick it up for later *ID*, and inscribe it !w in case it turns out to be really bad. Ah, there's the quest room. An accidentally casting of disenchantment ball does nought; a sound beam stuns him, a force beam slams him into the glass for three stars, a chaos bolt confuses him and brings him down to five. A meteor bolt brings him to one star, and a final force beam finishes him off. Reward choice is a Dagger, a Pair of Metal Shod Boots, and Arrows... Pretty obvious. Unfortunately, the boots turn out not to be artifacts, but Boots of Speed (+1)... Bah, forget it.
Mkw 17
Princess quest for 6 displacer beasts... Hey, it's an arena level. And there's the room. Apparently displacer beasts are invisible, because I can't see any, but all of them die to one view spell; choices are a Silver Amulet, a Katana, and a Ball-and-chain. Again, I take the obvious one, which turns out to be... an Indestructable Amulet of Telepathy!
"If that's not divine intervention, I don't know what is."
I wear it immediately; with a bit of luck, it may make this forest a bit less interminable. First I get rid of the Imp creeping around to my northwest, then down...
Mkw 18
Princess quest for 10 Forest Wights. A hexagonal wand turns out to be a wand of Ice Storm, which I keep. Alright, there are the Wights... And it's a choice of Trident, Fur Cloak, or Cloak. Cloak it is. Hmm, randart, Cloak of Hadir. And we're out of ID scrolls.
Mkw 19
Recall, and back to...
Lothlorien
Galadriel *ID*s...
* Mordekainen's Pocket Magician (a). Those objects are only known of by rumours. It is said t activated for great or strange effects... It can be activated for mass genocide every 1000 turns. You found it lying on the ground on level 15 of Mirkwood.
I generally dislike geno, but I think I'm keeping that one. >:D Also...
* The Ring of Hyarthoth {cursed, !w} (n). Rings are fine pieces of jewelry, usually imbued with arcane magics. This ring will uncontrollably send you to different places at its whim. You can use its power once at your will, but it will destroy the ring. It can be activated for teleportation and destruction of the ring if it is being worn. It makes you invisible. It sustains your intelligence. It provides resistance to electricity and nexus. It speeds your regenerative powers. It induces random teleportation. It is cursed. It cannot be harmed by acid, cold, lightning or fire. You found it lying on the ground on level 16 of Mirkwood.
Okay, that'll be uncursed and worn in place of my Ring of Protection. And...
* The Metal Cap of Thengel * An Indestructable Amulet of Telepathy * A Morning Star of *Slay Undead* * A Pair of Soft Leather Boots of Levitation (which also give nether resist 
)
The stuff I don't need gets sold and the stuff I do gets worn, but unfortunately I can't wear the gauntlets yet... Wait a minute... Where'd they go?!
"Someone invisible could have nicked them, a ghost maybe. Speaking of which, why can't I see myself?"
That artifact rings gives invisibility, but we don't have See Invis; luckily, character highlighting mitigates potential issues. The Black Market tempts me with an Indestructable Ring of See Invisible, but I don't really need that. One last inventory check, then to the Thunderlords for recall.
Mirkwood 19-20
Mkw 19
Princess quest for 14 Half-ogres, and it's an arena level. Shortly, the princess room appears. Unfortunately, the half-ogres prove surprisingly tough; and just when I think I've got them under control, a large group of Fire Hounds shows up.
"Wonderful, just wonderful. Don't worry, I can handle them."
The invisibility is proving to be a bit more annoying than I would have thought, but it's not too bad. What is bad is failing several different spells about six times in a row, courtesy of the shoddy RNG. Nonetheless, all the ogres are soon defeated; the princess offers me another Metal Cap, a Katana, and a Robe. Metal cap it is. Hey wait a minute, I think we forgot something...
"Yeah. *slaps forhead* ID scrolls."
Drat. Down to
Mkw 20
And back up...
Lothlorien
This time I remember to get the scrolls. Alright, back down again...
Mkw 20
Another princess quest for 14 Forest Wights, and a superb feeling. Oh, and like an idiot I forgot to *ID* the new cap back in Lothlorien - it's a Dwarven Metal Cap. I guess I'll sell it, unless there's something very special about it.
"So when's that sword guy going to show up again?"
I have no idea, but the sooner the better; we need utility spells.
"Hey, what are those masses of monsters? Orcs and ogres lined up..."
Might be small vaults or pits, I don't know. Yeah, the top one looks like some sort of pit. I go in, but the RNG doesn't like me, and I'm failing low-level spells a silly number of times. Fall back...
"I thought we were done with that? Oh, very well, falling back. I've had it with this ring though."
So much for electricity and nexus resist and sustain Int, but it's nice to see that '@' again. After leading out the ogres and killing them, we go back to the "pit" and tackle the various monsters in it, but find nothing interesting. Meanwhile, the orcs from the southern... uhh, barracks?... are coming at us.
"I've got them."
But it looks like there wasn't anything interesting in either of the rooms. Wait, there's a mage staff... Cursed. Bleh. And still no sign of the princess room.
"Hounds."
This place is getting very annoying... I get rid of the cold and dark hounds, but not without losing some CCW potions.
"Wait a minute, I think I can see - sense - those Wights."
Finally! Only we have to fight off some suicidal wolves first. Alright, the choice is Leather Scale Mail, Wooden Boomerang, or Cloak. Cloak it is. And there's another mage staff to the north. (+3,+3), what the heck, I'll take it. And the cloak is Colluin. Whew... Down we go.
Mkw 21
Princess quest for 11 Mind Flayers.
"Look, why don't we get some magic mapping scrolls to help us with this? For all we know, sword guy might never show his face."
Good idea. Back to
Lothlorien
The Alchemist doesn't have any. Bah!
"I'm tired of this. Let's try Bree."
Bree
Not here either. They do have ID and *ID* though, so I get some of those, and...
"Wait. Think the mayor might have a job for us?"
Indeed, there's the Wight Grave quest. That's level 30, you sure you can handle it?
"I've handled Wights before, haven't I?"
Yeah, but these might be... Oh, never mind.
The Wight Grave
Wow. Lots of undead here... You *sure*?
"The gates locked on the way in. No going back now."
A bunch of forest wights buy it immediately, courtesy of an LoS spell; one drops a potion of Chr, which is also consumed immediately. Through a Void gate, drop two more wights, rest, turn on prayer, through another -
"Elbereth!"
Down to 95/191 HP. Luckily, a disenchantment LoS spell takes out everything in one turn. Let's see, one dropped a mage staff (+4,+4) which replaces my current one; and there' a rod tip of trap location, which I might as well grab; and through another gate we go. *crosses fingers*
"Okay, we got the drop on them this time!"