Contents

  1. Lisa Alexander, the Human Mindcrafter, Part 3
    1. Chapter 4: In the Shadow of Khazad-Dum
      1. MoM 30
      2. MoM 30 (take 2) thru MoM 31
      3. MoM 32 thru MoM 33
        1. Chatter (1.3)
      4. MoM 33 (take 2) thru Orc Town
      5. MoM 35 (take 2) thru MoM 37
        1. Chatter (1.5)
      6. MoM 38 thru MoM 40
        1. Chatter (1.6)
      7. Intermission
      8. MoM 40 (take 2) thru MoM 41
      9. MoM 41 (take 2) thru MoM 43
      10. Fifth relic quest
        1. Chatter (1.10)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Latest segment (in Part 6)
Latest character sheet (after this segment in Part 6)

Lisa Alexander, the Human Mindcrafter, Part 3

Chapter 4: In the Shadow of Khazad-Dum

"So, what's this Moria place like?"

A lot like the Orc Cave, but with a slightly tougher mix of monsters; you'll be seeing more giants and demons mixed in. And at the end of it, there's a Dwarven town called Khazad-Dum, which might–

"What the–? Oh, frag, don't tell me there are Vorlons in this place?"

Not that I know of. Anyway, we should prepare. Okay, with the Tulkas book now fireproof, we can ditch these Spellbooks of Divine Aim and Whirlwind… hmm, with all your new-found Prayer skill, you can now cast Stone Prison, and we just made room for another book. Wanna take it?

"Stone Prison, huh? Sounds ominous. What's it do?"

Creates a ring of walls around you. Mainly to keep monsters away, or to block their line of sight to you.

"Oh, like that weird barrier spell of Trilogy's?"

Exactly.

(shrug) "Okay, sure. Wait, aren't you gonna go get it fireproofed from that mage guy?"

Nah, it only has one spell in it. There's a Tome with this spell in it; if we find it, we'll fireproof that and start carrying it instead. In the meantime, we're off cross-country to:

MoM 30

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

And here's a chance to try Stone Prison: our entry room is apparently full of Earth hounds.

"Okay… ugh, this is tougher than it looks…"

Indeed; with a 50% fail rate, it takes two tries to get it off. I poke an opening out to work through—and get a Crebain shrieking in my face.

"That can't be good."

It isn't. I fire up Adrenaline Channeling and start carving through them and the Earth hounds… and some Black orcs… and some Ghouls…

"So when you said ‘tougher mix of monsters,’ you weren't kidding."

Well, Moria does have a rather high monster generation rate, but I think we just got unlucky here. The assault does push us over the top to clvl 35, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic, 1 to Weaponmastery and 2 to Prayer.

*slash slash* "Okay, is that the last of them?"

In this room, yes, but the next room to the north has the rest of the Black orcs and some Novice mages. Mm, I'd forgotten how mildly annoying it is fighting monsters hand-to-hand when you're invisible… Well, at any rate, all those juicy evil monsters pushed our piety up above 20000, for another +1 STR boost from Tulkas.

[flexes muscles] "Enh, okay, maybe the guy's not so bad."

Heads up, we've got Livingstones in the corridor to our east. While we're powering through those, a Paladin emerges into the far side of the room we just pushed into and starts cursing at me, and suddenly I'm down to 150/305hp.

"Hey, we gonna do something about that self-righteous twerp?"

The problem is that he's… oh, wait, that's right, you're not worshipping Manwe or Eru, we don't have to worry about killing good monsters. Would you care to do the honors, then, Lisa?

"‘Bout time." *WHUMP*

After that, I rest a bit—well, as much as I can, with Novice mindcrafters and Phantom warriors leaking in from the room to the north. And no sooner am I finally rested up than Acid Hounds start wandering in from the east entrance.

"Frag, what is it with this place?"

I think we'll dodge the Acid hounds for now; there are Black orcs and Ice trolls in the corridor out the south side. I fire up Adrenaline Channeling and Stone Skin and pile in. Hey, I just noticed, with that last STR boost, we're finally getting two attacks per round with Narthanc.

"Yeah, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this." *slash slash slash*

After that, the level calms down a bit. Back near the north edge of the level, I run into Angamaite. Hmm, I think I'll fire up Divine Aim for him.

"Hyurgh! Oh, don't you dare go messing around in my brain, you fraggin'… that's it, you're dead now!"

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about Angamaite's amnesia spell. I also forgot that I can just stun the so-and-so with Pulverize while I chop on him.

"Sheesh, thanks a lot, you stupid… uh… what was I doing?"

[whistles innocently] Angamaite's drop is all {good} stuff, which I don't bother identifying. Man, I can't wait until we get Mindcraft up to skill level 40…

"Why? What happens then?"

Your Psychometry Mindcraft power becomes an identify effect instead of just a pseudo-identify effect, which means you won't have to carry around all these Staffs of Identify.

"Ah. Cool."

And while I was resting up from the encounter with Angamaite, Moria's crazy monster generation rate was filling the nearby rooms with more trolls, orcs and ogres for me to plow through.

"*groan* No rest for the weary. Let's go."

The level is mostly uneventful after that, beyond getting a Potion of Charisma from a pack of Half-orcs, and finding a Potion of Dexterity in a room near the end of the level. I was hoping that would push us up to more than two attacks per round, but no such luck. [sound F/X: calculating] No, I'd need to either get my DEX up to 18/50 or my STR up to 18/40. Saaay, didn't I leave an Amulet of the Serpents lying around on this level?

"Yeah, back near where we came in. Wanna go try it?"

Right after we check out this very last room on the level—a pit-style room (the kind with the center-column mini-room with a monster in it), abutted to the south wall of the room I'm in, but with no corridors connecting from anywhere. Powering through the Manes (Maneses? Manii?) in that room pushes Narthanc up to level 27, without gaining a power.

"It's Earth realm we want this thing to get, right?"

More specifically, the extra-attacks flag from the Earth realm—and I think this means we're getting closer to gaining it. Anyway, back to where I left that Amulet of the Serpents, which turns out to be [+2] (-3). Oh well, so much for that plan… Hmm, I'm out of charges on my Staff of Identify; I suppose I'd better head back:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

Oh, right. Well, I could stand to do a shopping tour to stock up on more Staffs of Identify. Bree and Gondolin net me seven, which hopefully will hold me for a while. For now, then, back to:

Lothlorien

to sell off loot and stock up for our next push into Moria.

"‘Push’? We only got one level in."

We'll do better next time.

MoM 30 (take 2) thru MoM 31

Let's try this again, then:

MoM 30, take 2; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

In what may be an amusing omen for the level, the room directly north of the entry room contains a Wolf chieftain with an entourage of… Jackals.

"Heh. Chief of cannon fodder, pretty much. Buh-bye now. PAIN…"

Indeed. That second attack per round is really helping our combat prowess, as we plow through assorted packs of orcs and trolls without great difficulty.

"I still think you should be casting that deadly-aim spell more often."

Divine Aim. And that costs piety, which is not an easily renewable resource. Besides, we're doing just fine with Adrenaline Channeling and Tulkas prayer and… ah, I was wondering why I had a blank Amulet of Spell around my neck; I must have meant to copy Stone Skin onto it. :o

[slaps forehead] "Remind me again how a girl checks out of this chicken outfit."

We'll be okay for now; I'll fill that in next time we're topside. Ah, and I just found out what triggered the 'superb' feeling: a greater vault (Sierpinski) in the northeast corner of the level. Hmm, the population doesn't seem to be substantially tougher than ordinary dungeon denizens at this level; wanna take it on now, Lisa?

"What's a serpinski?"

Waclaw Sierpinski, inventor of the Sierpinski Triangle. There's one inside the vault.

(shrug) "Okay, let's go sightsee."

That's the spirit. ;) On the way to the vault, a Spirit naga is kind enough to drop a Potion of Wisdom for me. There's quite a swarm of monsters waiting to greet me as I punch through the wall, but none of them are terribly tough, and eventually I just Mind Wave them to get rid of them. They do leave me a Potion of Constitution, though. :)

"Okay, it's triangular. Am I missing the interesting part?"

Wait till we get inside. Now that I'm actually in the vault, Precognition is picking up more of the population, including Lokkak in the central chamber. I'll have to be sure to lure him out of the vault before using Pulverize on him; I'm hoping for more stat potions inside…

"Triangles in triangles in triangles. I get it now."

An infinite fractal. With a large open triangle full of orcs and ogres in the middle. :\ I wimp out and Mind Wave most of them, then fire up Divine Aim and start Pulverizing Lokkak. He falls in seven turns, and his drop gets lost among the piles of treasure on the floor. And with Divine Aim now up, I think I'll try my luck at meleeing out the rest of the vault. >:>

"We're gonna need more identifying staffs…"

Actually, most of it is armor and weapons that can be pre-filtered with pseudo-id. You are correct, though, in that by the time we finish the vault, our two Staffs of Identify are empty and we still have two {excellent} items left unidentified. We did net quite a bit of saleable kit, though, along with Elvagil, another Potion of Wisdom, and Potions of Intelligence and Charisma.

The rest of the level proceeds without incident, or as close thereto as you can get in Moria. I'd like to go on, but I'm not gonna get far without a source of identify, and I've got a nasty experience drain to patch up, and my pack is awfully full…

"We're never actually gonna get past this first level, are we?"

Patience, Grasshopper. First we return to:

Lothlorien

to sell off loot and *ID*:

The black market has a Potion of Dexterity in stock; still not enough to get me a third attack, but I can wait. Now, at the rate we're going through Staffs of Identify, I think I'm going to take three of our current stock of six with me. Oh, and it turns out I did have Stone Skin copied on that Amulet of Spell; it just got unidentified somehow, so it looked blank. :o

[sound F/X: forehead repeatedly striking wall] "I'd like to go home now, please."

That's what we're working on, remember? I'll go and get it *ID*'d by Galadriel so that this can't happen again. Shall we try again, Lisa?

"Who was it that defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result?"

*sigh* You see what I have to put up with:

MoM 30, take 3; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Lots of ogres and trolls in nearby rooms to kill as I enter the level.

"Gee, this all seems awfully familiar…"

That's quite enough of that, young lady. Stat potions, mercifully, are still trickling in, including a Potion of Wisdom from a Dark elven priest early on. On the flip side, though, we also find our first Amulet of Doom.

"Uh… why can't I drop this necklace thing?"

It's cursed. We'll need to get it uncursed next time we're topside.

"Oh, good grief, you're gonna go back again, aren't you?"

Nah, for now all it's costing us is an inventory slot and a smidgen of weight; we can wait to get rid of it.

"Oh… well, it's about time."

And with the level pretty much done, we can move on to:

MoM 31; "You hear the sound of a market."

"Riiiight. A shopping mall in the middle of this crazy dungeon. Why do I find this implausible?"

Well, Dwarves did live here once, after all; it's not terribly surprising that they'd have towns.

"And all the invading orcs and trolls and other badguys just left it all standing, and the shopkeepers stayed to sell them stuff."

Well, now that you put it that way… Anyway, the shops include a Common Shop, a Hafted Smith, a Scribe, a Soothsayer, a Footwear Shop, a Recaller, a Library, and a Polearm Smith. The Library has some Tomes, including a War Tome of Tulkas, but no Tome of the Impenetrable Earth. I think we'll be coming back here every so often to look for one of those.

"Oh, good grief, we're never gonna get to the bottom of the dungeon at this rate…"

We're getting there. Now we just need to pick off the edges of the level. To my surprise, Narthanc gains level 28 from killing a Wererat—and gains the acid-brand flag.

"Aw, rats."

Yeah, and it'll be that much longer before it gets to the next level, too.

"Okay, why is the wall attacking me?"

A Lesser wall monster just pushed out of the corridor into the room, behind the Acid hounds we were picking off as they entered the room. Wait, this corridor runs to another room just a couple squares north. I've got a bad feeling… yep, we've got the start of a Lesser wall monster infestation.

"All right, we've got chunks of wall running around in the middle of the room and dividing like amoebas. You haven't been sneaking Dust into my canteen, have you?"

You think this is bad? Wait till you see Greater wall monsters… Anyway, we manage to get ahead of them with Adrenaline Channeling and contain the outbreak. And to make up for our trouble, a Dark elf and a Spirit naga a little further in drop Potions of Wisdom and Strength (respectively) for our troubles. I think I'm getting close to maxing WIS; two more potions should about do it. And my STR jumps from 18/20 to 18/55—which, if I'm not mistaken, means… yep, that buys us our third attack per round.

*slash slash slash* "Yeah, I'm definitely getting the hang of this now. How much better can we do?"

We can get up to four attacks per round just from increasing STR and DEX; to get up to six, we'll have to spend skill points on the two Extra Max Blow abilities. In fact, I think it's time to start saving up skill points toward those.

The rest of the level is fairly straightforward, netting a cursed randart Thunderlord coat with a -80% life modifier that I decide to leave behind. Apparently we've been on the level long enough for the Library to turn over some stock; they have a few more Tomes, but still not the one I want.

"Please tell me you're not gonna stay here and wait for them to get the one you want."

(shrug) Okay, I'm not going to stay here and wait for them to get the one we want. We are about out of space for this outing, though, so I'll leave it here. Next time, more Moria.

MoM 32 thru MoM 33

When we last left Lisa, she was about to take the stairs to:

MoM 32; "This level can't be all bad…"

Well, considering it's an arena level, it can't really be all that great, either. Some Ice trolls and War bears clustered near my entry point give me a chance to work off my frustrations. >:>

Not much excitement on the level, beyond the usual never-ending flood of monsters that's pretty much Moria's trademark—and thanks to Narthanc's invisibility flag, that typically means chasing the blindly wandering stragglers from a pack of orcs or trolls halfway across the frickin' level.

"Yeah, this does get annoying after a while, doesn't it? Any chance I could do the old Claude Rains ‘Invisible Man’ trick and wrap myself up in mummy bandages or something?"

No such luck, alas. We do get a Potion of Constitution from a Grave wight fairly early on to mitigate the annoyance. I also get spooked by the appearance of Lisa's first Mystic.

"What, some kind of martial-arts fighting guy? This ‘spooks’ you?"

"Hey, don't underestimize those kung-fu guys, psychic babe. One time, one of those guys smacked me around so hard, I didn't wake up for, like, a week."

Well, actually, Bjorn, that was a Grand master mystic, which are a lot more dangerous. But ordinary Mystics still have the potential for the same sort of chain-stunning effect, I believe; they're also fast and can summon animals or spiders—which, at this depth, would probably be Araneas.

"Oh yeah, I had one of those kung-fu guys do that to me, too."

"So what are we waiting for, him to kill us? Let's take him down, already."

As you say. I Pulverize him a few times for good measure, but he doesn't stay stunned long, and actually manages to heal himself almost completely with a spell before I can get to him to chop him down with Narthanc. He does leave me a Potion of Wisdom for my troubles, though. Hmm, apparently I'm not as close to maxing WIS as I thought; maybe another three or four potions… He also leaves a ring which turns out to be Lisa's first Ring of Extra Attacks—and it's (-1) {cursed}. :\

"What, was that bad? good?"

It would have been very useful if it weren't cursed… Anyway, the rest of the level goes quickly, and nets nothing of interest. Nngh… okay, just this once:

MoM 31, take 2; "You hear the sound of a market."

"I knew it! We're never gonna get past this level with the book store on it!"

Just one last check, I promise. Well, as soon as these @#$% Algroths stop pestering us… X-(

"Rrgh… Move it or lose it, ugly! PAIN!"

Indeed, for the sake of efficiency, I resort to Mind Wave to clear out the onslaught. Now then, fingers crossed… darn, no Earth Tome. I do manage to pick up a few Scrolls of Reset Recall, though.

"‘Reset recall’ What, as in changing where these recall scrolls take us?"

Yep, though restricted to places we've already been.

"*groan* We're gonna keep coming back to this level forever, aren't we? We're never gonna get past it."

Okay, okay, we're leaving right now:

MoM 32, take 2; "You like the look of this place…"

"Hey, ya know that funny-looking shield we picked up from those Algroths? I'm getting a weird vibe from it."

What, the Demonshield? That's probably because… [zaps Staff of Identify] yup, it's the Demonshield of Gothmog. [checks notes] Hmm, interesting.

"Oh, good grief, you're gonna make we wear it, aren't you?"

Well, its only real downside is the invisibility, and we're getting that from Narthanc anyway. Well, that and the auto-cursing, which just means we'd have to uncurse it if we wanted to take it off.

*shudder* "A shield made of demons, and a dagger that's half-alive and requires blood sacrifices. Great, I'm stuck in Freddy Krueger vs. The Hobbit down here."

We'll hold it for now and decide later, then… We were already getting close to the next level as we entered, and sure enough, a Mind-Waved pack of assorted hounds pushes me over the top to clvl 36, with one point finally taking me up to Mindcraft skill level 40.

"What about the other four skill points?"

I'm saving them to buy one of the Extra Max Blows abilities next time. Right now, though, you've got a new toy. Try your Psychometry ability again.

"Why? All it does is tell you… whoa! It's an identify power now?"

Yep. We can finally ditch those Staffs of Identify, and still be able to identify this {special} cap in the next room as Thranduil. [checks notes] Hmm, I'd lose see invisible from Holhenneth, and gain sense orc, troll and evil. On the other hand, I think that may no longer be necessary…

"Hey, I think I'm getting my mojo back here. I can't tell what the monsters are thinking, but I can definitely sense their minds. Oh, yeah, the babe is back!"

;) Yep, you also gain full telepathy at skill level 40. Anyway, the level is generally uneventful, netting only Lugdush to break the monotony. He does manage to cough up a Broad Axe of Gondolin, though. Let's move on, then:

MoM 33; "You have a good feeling…"

"Uh, pack's gettin' kinda full here. Don't you normally go back to Lorien when it gets this tight?"

Normally, yes, but I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't get you past MoM 32.

"Okay, I give, let's just do this place."

Yes, ma'am. ;) This level starts out a bit more interesting than the last, netting an Amulet of Brilliance (+6) from a chest. Hmm, I'd have to swap out the Amulet of Spell with Stone Skin on it; I'll save it for when I finally find that Tome of the Impenetrable Earth. This will probably be the highlight of the level, of course–

"Hey, check out this sword. Looks like it used to be a really fancy one before it got broken."

Uh… Lisa? That's Narsil.

"Narsil, huh?" [examines sword critically] "So it was really hot stuff, huh? What a way to go, I guess."

You misunderstand. We need to get this back to Aragorn at Minas Anor. Might as well finish up the level while we're here, though. And it looks like the level's not done with us either; here comes the Icky Queen.

"Yeah, that's gotta be about the ickiest queen I've ever seen. Can I kill her?"

I encourage it. >:> It takes only three turns, and nets us a Ball-and-Chain of Slay Orc. Enh, nice, but not worth it. Say, where's her entourage? (shrug) Maybe it was too deep in the dungeon to generate any icky things.

"Maybe she traded them in for those trolls behind her."

I'm sure that's just a coincidence of placement. The Hill trolls do manage to cough up Skullcleaver, though, so they're not to be sneezed at. And now my pack is really bursting at the seams… Fortunately, the rest of the level doesn't turn up anything interesting, except a Potion of Dexterity that can be quaffed from the floor. And now let's get out of here.

"‘Bout time."

You see what I have to put up with:

Lothlorien

where I finally manage to get a Scroll of *Remove Curse* to get rid of that Amulet of Doom I got stuck with last time. Now, let's see what we've got here:

"What about this Narsil thing?"

That we're going to take to Minas Anor and have Aragorn turn it into:

"Whoa… not bad."

Indeed. This will be a good backup in case Narthanc doesn't level up well.

"Okay, now you're scaring me again."

Hmm, that reminds me, I am kinda running out of space in our two houses.

"Huh? How does being scared remind you of that?"

You'll see, when we do the:

Haunted House quest

"Oh, joy. Sign me up for the Ghostbusters next, why don'tcha?"

Now, it's not that bad. The worst part turns out to be two Night mares, the toughest monsters in the quest, especially since I'm awfully low in !oCCW's to counter their confusion attacks. I eventually resort to Divine Aim to finish them off. The quest nets two Potions of Healing and a Potion of Strength, plus:

That could be handy in the future. I stow it in my new home, along with Anduril, Thranduil, Skullcleaver and Gothmog.

"Oh, good, you decided not to wear the demonic shield thing."

Enh, it has regeneration, so I'd have to uncurse it and take it off every time I went town-hopping. It's just not worth the annoyance. Let's just buy this Potion of Charisma from the black market and head back to:

Lothlorien

to restock for our next outing.

Chatter (1.3)

DarkGod: Lol I love the starting part about vorlons ;)

MoM 33 (take 2) thru Orc Town

Now, where were we? Oh, yes:

MoM 33, take 2; "You have an excellent feeling…"

Nothing in the early level to reflect that. Well, there is this Wooden Boomerang of Westernesse dropped by a pack of Cave trolls about halfway through. Ooh, I could use those stat boosts, and all I'm packing in that slot now is Farmer Maggot's sling.

"Yeah, why are we wielding that sling, anyway? I mean, we've never even so much as thrown a pebble at anything. We should really just give it back to him."

I imagine he'd be offended, actually. I mean, that's sort of like rejecting a heartfelt gift or something.

"*groan* Whatever… You're right, though, I'm liking this boomerang thing."

Especially since the stat boosts just jumped us up to four blows per round. ;) Other than that, though, nothing of note happens on the level. Oh, I do run into Ulwarth, actually, but he falls quickly and drops nothing of note. Oh, and there is the Potion of Constitution dropped by some orc near that. Oh, and the randart Broken Dagger with +2 attacks… :\

"Hey, maybe we should take this to that King Aragorn guy and see what he can make out of it."

Um… remind me later and I'll explain why we can't do that. In the meantime, let's move on:

MoM 34; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

Not with a pack of Bats of Gorgoroth right next to me as I enter, I don't. Fortunately, I still had Adrenaline Channeling running from the previous level.

After that, the level gets boring again.

"Man, if this is what they call a ‘superb’ level, I'd hate to see what they call a crappy one…"

Well, it does appear to be a reasonably superb level, considering that so far it's netted a randart Rhino Hide Armor and Celegorm—which, considering we're currently shieldless, I wear immediately.

"Oh, good, a shield that isn't made out of demons."

*groan* You're never gonna let go of that Demonshield of Gothmog thing, are you?

"Hey, I'm a teep, these things are significant to me. I don't need a shield that has daydreams about eating my arm."

Uh-huh… Any-way, the rest of the level is the usual Moria slogfest, netting nothing of interest beyond Fasolt and Fire Phantom, neither of whom drop anything worth noting.

"Actually, this bow looks kinda interesting."

Ah, that's The Long Bow of Bard, which turns near the end of the level. Too bad you have no Archery skill. Hmm, the next level is Orc Town. I usually try to give that one its own segment, but we haven't gotten very far into this one…

"Uh, would you like to fill me in on this big ominous secret?"

(shrug) Here, I'll show you:

Orc Town; "You hear orc warcries."

Quick, Pulverize the Shrieker mushroom patches.

"Huh? Oh, right." *WHUMP* "Good catch. Waaait a minute… you were expecting those, weren't you?"

Uh, yeah, I, um, ran Gathraka and Trilogy through this level recently, so I'm still pretty familiar with it… :o

"Oh, good, I'll take any advantage I can get." [squints in various directions] "So, I'm guessing this is pretty much where they actually make the orcs and stuff."

Close enough. Take the north door from here, and be careful; there are more Shriekers hidden in strategic places all over the level.

"But you remember where they all are, right?"

Um… yeah, mostly. Actually, I'm surprised more of the orcs haven't woken up as we creep cautiously up the north corridor, considering our Stealth is only Fair. Ah, here come some of them at last. Still, they come slowly enough that most of the corridor doors remain closed as I arrive at them, giving me optimum positioning as I carom Pulverizes off assorted orcs to get at the Shriekers.

"Yes! High five! You da man."

Interesting; Trilogy felt that knowing where all the pitfalls are on the level removed some of the fun.

"Yeah? Well, she can have her fun; me, I'd kind like to fraggin' survive down here. Speaking of which, what's up next?"

Well, we come out of this corridor at the north edge of the level; there are Shriekers at the northeast and northwest corners. We're also getting some leakage of orcs from the northeast chamber.

"That standing-room-only one over there to the right?"

The same.

"Should we clear that one out next?"

I recommend it.

"Sounds like a plan. Urk, lava. I'm gonna turn on the cloak, if you don't mind."

Go ahead, I was going to recommend Colluin's temporary resistance activation. A careful Pulverize at the northeast Shrieker, and I brute-force my way down the side corridor to the northeast chamber—where my luck runs out, and one of the Shriekers wakes everything up before I can Pulverize it.

"This is bad, I take it."

Not great, but nothing we can't handle, I think. We'll just have to be more diligent about keeping Adrenaline Channeling up. From there it's just a matter of patience and attrition to whittle the chamber down to empty one orc/ogre at a time. By the time we've finished, orcs are already leaking up along the east wall. Let's take them next, Lisa.

"I'm game."

We swing around and slip down the east edge of the level, reactivating Colluin as a precaution, and Pulverizing the Shrieker in the corner as we approach. Amusingly, a Tengu tries to teleport us to it, and gets the dreaded "No teleport on special levels…" message. ;)

"‘Scuse me? That thing was bipping around all over the place a minute ago. And so were those orcs with the witch-doctor masks, for that matter. You mean they can teleport, but we can't, and they can't teleport us either?"

(shrug) I don't make the rules, I just follow them… Anyway, with the east side cleared out, we need to push west past the entry stairs and clean up the west side. I make it most of the way without a Shrieker getting away from me, but I slip up going up the west edge of the level.

"*groan We are keeping in mind the whole ‘not-dying’ thing, yes?"

Sorry. But even this isn't putting you in any real danger.

"Feels real enough down here, buster." *slash* "Okay, that's that." [peers southward] "Now, how do we get to those monsters in the south end?"

Ah, yes, there's a secret passage down here on this wall to the south. For a small change of pace, I enter the south part of the level on the west side this time. I push into the southwest chamber through the fake wall at the south end, catching the Shriekers with Pulverize just in time.

"Um…" [squints eastward] "is that a really big dragon I'm picking up over there?"

Yup, an Ancient blue. This level usually has one or two really tough monsters down in the south end; I think I also spotted an Ancient green dragon earlier on the east side.

"Oh, frag, I was really hoping I was imagining that one…"

Don't worry, we'll manage. In the middle of clearing out the southwest chamber, I hit clvl 37, with skill points going seven to learn Extra Max Blow(1), one to Mindcraft and one to Weaponmastery.

*slash* *slash* *slash* *slash* "Um, I'm still only getting four attacks per round down here. I thought we just bought another one."

No, we bought an extra max blow. Before, we were stuck at four blows per round no matter how high our STR and DEX got; now, we can get five if we can get our STR and DEX high enough.

"Yeah? And how high is ‘enough’?"

Prob'ly we need to get at least one of them over 18/100. We seem to have been having bad luck with stat potions, though; I don't think I've ever gotten as far as Orc Town without having at least one stat maxed.

"Terrific." *slash* "Okay, that's this room clear; now we have to go take on the big scary dragon, I suppose."

Not quite yet; I don't think we can get to him from this side.

"Oh yeah, there he is, stuck behind that glass wall. How do we get to him?"

There's a void jumpgate behind this wall.

"There, now, see? That's the sort of thing you couldn't have known without having been here before—and where's the fun in not knowing it? More like frustration than fun, if you ask me."

(shrug) Hey, take it up with Trilogy; I've got my hands full just writing all this up. Now, with this approach, we're pretty much going to have to face the Ancient green first… no, I'm wrong; the Ancient blue slipped through on the underside corridor, and he's stuck in a corner just nearby.

"Mm. Now, I know you don't like parting with this precious piety of ours, but–"

Yes, Lisa, I've already fired up Divine Aim, along with restarting Adrenaline Channeling and Stone Skin and reactivating Colluin's temporary resistances. And as we step out of the void jumpgate alcove, the Ancient blue comes barreling around the corner straight for us. And man, Divine Aim is a potent spell when your attack speed gets up there; I chop seven stars out of that Ancient blue in a single turn.

"Keep going, we've almost got him!"

Indeed, one more turn and he's down. Hmm, and the Ancient green is stuck just on the other side of this dog-leg; as long as all our spells are up, Lisa, I think we should go ahead and take him down too.

"Go do it, now, before the adrenaline rush wears off and I come back to my senses."

That's the spirit. ;) I push forward to the corner and wait for the Ancient green to come around it to me. He's tougher than the Blue; the first turn only costs him five stars. He still falls next turn, though. >:>

"Wooooo! All right! C'mon, gimme some more dragons to kill!"

*ahem* Well, there's a Mature multi-hued a little further around the corridor; it falls in another two turns. And as long as we've come this far, we should push on all the way around and clean out the southeast chamber.

"*whew* Yeah, I think I could do with something a little less intense for a while…"

Indeed… ;) The southeast chamber is straightforward to clear out, netting a Potion of Charisma. And that leaves one last major push: the central chamber of the south end.

"Wait, you mean the one south of where we came in, behind that glass wall? The one with that big ugly orc that kept making faces at me and flipping me the bird?"

Ah, that would be Bolg, son of Azog.

"Uh… didn't I kill Azog back in that orc cave place?"

Yep, and now you get to kill his son.

"Lucky me. C'mon, let's go shove that finger up his nose."

That's the spirit. >:> So, back through the winding corridors and up to the central chamber. It doesn't take long for Bolg to stick his nose out, and even less time for Lisa to relieve him of it—three turns, I believe. The rest of the chamber is just more attrition, eventually netting Elven Rusty Chain Mail for my troubles; Bolg's drop, as usual, is junk.

"Hey, what's this thing that looks like a circle of black cloth?"

Oh, that's a Portable hole.

"Really?! You mean like in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons, where you can go right through a wall with one of these things?"

Alas, no; it's a leftover from the long-deprecated Merchant class, and now does absolutely nothing.

"Oh. Darn." *yawn* "Man, I am wiped after all that. Can we go back topside now?"

Just one more thing to pick up, through this other void jumpgate: The Stone of Lore.

"Ooh, pretty. What's it do?"

Nothing that'll be of use to us; we just picked it up for the souvenir value. That done, we return to:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

The sad part is, the randart broken dagger actually does more average damage than Narthanc…

"Yeah, but that's just because of its extra attacks. Once Narthanc gets its extra attacks, it'll leave this thing in the dust, right?"

Assuming we get that lucky… That randart armor might actually be useful in the future with its acid immunity and hold life; I'll stow it for now. For completeness, I swing by Bree to Mathom Maggot's sling and stow Bard and the Stone of Lore; the black market there mocks me with a Tome of the Tree. :\ Back home to Lothlorien, then, to give poor Lisa a rest before our next assault on Moria… ;)

MoM 35 (take 2) thru MoM 37

[stretches] "We ready for more?"

That's what I was about to ask you.

"Let's do it, then."

That's the spirit:

MoM 35, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

[shakes head] "As many times as I see it, I still don't get it: where'd that whole elaborate level go?"

It's presumably still there, somewhere else; we just landed in a different portion of level 35 this time.

"And we just happened to land in the elaborate place the first time?"

(shrug) I don't claim to completely understand game mechanics. C'mon, let's get to exploring the level.

"Whatever…"

To set the tone for the level, we get our memory wiped by a Memory moss in the second room of the level. Nothing Precognition can't restore, but still annoying.

After that, the level is kind of samey; the primary annoyances are Araneas cursing my stuff and Cherubs summoning stuff around me, notably Shadowfax at one point. I find Potions of Dexterity, Intelligence and Constitution (one each). I also find:

Hmm, would be nice, but I've already got resist confusion from Celegorm, and Holhenneth is currently my only source of resist blindness. Hmm, Narthanc apparently gained level 29 at some point; can't tell if it gained a power…

Back to the Cherubs, then, who are annoyingly tough. [check notes] Ah, yes, 1000hp, speed +10 and a heal-self spell will do that. I eventually have to start casting Divine Aim to take them down.

"Wait, am I supposed to be killing angels? Aren't they the goodguys?"

(shrug) I've never understood the whole good-monster thing. If you were worshipping Manwe or Eru instead of Tulkas, you'd be taking a piety hit every time you killed a good monster—even the ones that were trying to kill you.

"Well, that bites."

Indeed. To my surprise, Narthanc gains level 30 shortly after that; no sign of it gaining a power… actually, now that I look at it, I don't think it had the sense-giant flag before. (shrug) We'll persevere with it, in the hopes of eventually getting some extra attacks.

"Yeah, does that always take this long?"

Dunno, I've never gotten any of the ‘thancs leveled up this high before. As a consolation prize, at least, the monster that gained Narthanc its level also left us a Potion of Charisma. ;)

And speaking of persevering, we continue on through more Cherubs (I think they were all in a group at first, before I scattered them to the winds with Major Displacement), and a Sorcerer who drops Potions of Intelligence and Constitution. Oh, and a Spirit naga not far from there who drops the Star of Elendil.

"Cool. We gonna use it?"

Well, our primary loss if we swap it in would be the Phial's light-room effect; we'd have to dig one of your earlier sources of that out of mothballs. We might swap it in later. For now, though, let's move on to:

MoM 36; "You hear the sound of a market."

"Another one? Now I know we'll never make it to the bottom…"

Actually, this town doesn't look terribly impressive; it has a Recaller, a Common Shop, a Polearm Smith, a Master Archer, and four copies of an Axe Smith.

"Four copies?"

Well, more like four entrances to the same store.

"Ah. Makes sense, I guess. I mean, Dwarves are the big axe-wielders, right? He probably does enough business that he needs the floor space."

I suppose. The stores aren't selling anything of interest, and a sweep through the rest of the level yields nothing of note, except Potions of Strength and Charisma from a Master vampire. And the pack is getting kind of heavy, so I think it's time to head back:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

"Okay, wait, the earmuffs make food?"

No, they just act like a Scroll of Satisfy Hunger.

"And I just bet you're gonna make me wear them."

You don't have to wear them to get the effect. And you won't have to buy any more scrolls, either.

"Mm, fair enough. Oh yeah, why didn't you tell me I'd picked up a new teep power?"

Hm?

"The one you've been using instead of that Stone Skin spell for the last few levels."

Oh, that. It's not a new power, I've just been neglecting it. Character Armor combines a temporary AC boost similar to Stone Skin with temporary resistances similar to Colluin's activation.

"Ah. Cool. Wait, ‘neglected’? Okay, ‘fess up, Chief, how long could I have been using this?"

Well… it didn't reach full power until recently, but it would have given you temporary resist fire at Mindcraft skill level 15.

"So I could've used it walking across all that lava. Gee, thanks."

:o Hey, look at the bright side—now we can swap out our Amulet of Spell for this Amulet of Brilliance (+6) I've been saving for just such an occasion. [checks resistance grid] And speaking of swapping, since everything Cammithrim's giving me is now covered, I can swap in these Gauntlets of Agility [+10] (+4) I picked up back on MoM 36—and now you have five attacks per round.

"Mm, not bad."

Let's see, I'll stow Cammi, Thengel and Elendil here, and the weapons down in our Minas Anor home. Ooh, the Minas Anor black market has a Potion of Experience in stock, taking me to clvl 38; skill points go 1 to Mindcraft and four saved to buy Extra Max Blow(2) next level. Let's see, I think Bree has the best armor store cap; I'll sell off the randart armor there. Back home to Lothlorien from there, to return to:

MoM 36, take 2; "You hear the sound of a market."

Moria does seem to be a ripe source of artifacts; a pass through this level nets Gorlim, Careth Asdriag, and a randart Rhino Hide Armor.

"Ick. This helm isn't another of those things made of demons, is it?"

Nah, Gorlim's evil in its own special way. Anyway, nothing else interesting happens on the level, and the stores aren't selling anything I'm interested in (although there was a Potion of Charisma just lying on the floor there). Let's move on, then:

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

"Now, I can't remember, is this good or bad?"

Depends on the cause of the superb feeling. Let's go see what it is, what say?

"Okay, now I'm worried."

;) Well, we do encounter Draebor a few rooms in. I fire up Divine Aim for the occasion and take him down in five turns; he drops a Glaive of Slay Troll and something I've been waiting a long time for: a Golden Rod of Simplicity of Nothing.

"This? What's the big deal about this?"

I can stick that spare Rod Tip of Disarming on it, and you'll have a much easier time using it than your current Rod of Disarming.

"Oh, I was wondering why you kept that rod tip."

Well, now you know. But that's probably not the source of the superb feeling. This might be, though: a Phial lying on the floor in an empty room. And since I've already found the good one…

"Ick ick ick ick! Are we gonna keep running into these creepy things?"

I'm pretty sure there's only a limited number of them; we just have to work our way through them.

"Riiight. Well, can we take these back topside and dump them in that Mathom place like all the rest?"

Eventually, yes, but we're not even finished with this level. That goes rather well; a pack of Hill trolls not much further in nets me a Potion of Strength. And it turns out I didn't need to save that spare Rod Tip of Disarming; a Bodak (I think) near the end of the level leaves me another one, so I can put the Rod of Simplicity to work right away.

*zap* "Yeah, this is much better."

The only downside is that you can only get off two shots between recharging with this one, as opposed to four with the Golden Rod of Cheapness. I may keep that spare rod tip anyway, holding out for a Rod of Simplicity with a bigger charge reservoir. It's too bad Rods of the Istari don't have the easy-use flag. And to top things off, Narthanc gains level 31, and gains access to the realm of… Air. :\

[sound F/X: forehead repeatedly striking wall] "Oh, great, now how long is it gonna take to get the stinkin' Earth realm?"

(shrug) Not sure; at a guess, another five levels at least. But look on the bright side; the Air realm has some useful flags too, like boost-WIS and boost-speed. Maybe we'll get lucky.

"Yeah, right, if I had that kind of luck, I wouldn't be in this crazy place to begin with. Okay, that's the level done; can we go back topside and get rid of these creepy artifacts already?"

Enh, we've got plenty of supplies and plenty of pack space to go a few more levels.

"*groan* Figures…"

So we'll leave it here, then, at the stairs down to the next level.

Chatter (1.5)

JulesBean: Elendil does have light-room. The main advantage of the Phial over Elendil is the luck bonus, but for some chars magic map is nice.

GreyCat: But Elendil's recharge is far too slow to use it for room lighting. It's just barely long enough to be useful for magic mapping, occasionally, if you're normal speed. If you're fast, just forget it. (And it's even worse if you don't have magic device skill.)

IMHO, Galadriel ought to grant the power of illumination, and Elendil ought to grant the power of magic mapping, like the dwarven lantern of the magi (quest reward) currently does.

MoM 38 thru MoM 40

And over Lisa's sotto voce objections, we continue down the stairs to:

MoM 38; "You have an excellent feeling…"

"Can I get a second opinion on that?"

;) Our entry room has clusters of Manes and Uruk-hai right next to us; the only problem this causes, of course, is chasing them all down to kill them with Narthanc. That's the one downside to Narthanc's invisibility flag. I almost miss NetHack's trick of using mummy wrappings in the style of Claude Raines to make oneself visible again.

"You expect me to walk around this crazy dungeon wrapped up like a fraggin' mummy? I've gotta get out of this place…"

No worries, Lisa, that trick doesn't work here. After that level is pretty typical Moria fare for a while, netting Potions of Constitution and Charisma and a randart amulet. Nothing of note otherwise.

"No? What about that angry-looking guy over– waaaagh!"

That would be Lorgan and his teleport-to spell. [checks notes] 1800hp, speed +10, can summon monsters, but most of his punch is in melee. Let's back off and power up: a Phase Door scroll throws us a short distance back up the corridor Lorgan just yanked us into, giving us just enough time to fire up Adrenaline Channeling and Character Armor and start praying to Tulkas before he yanks me back in.

"Hey! You ever heard of personal space, creep?" *WHUMP*

One Pulverize stuns Lorgan long enough for me to step back a bit and start up a full-bore barrage. After a half-dozen or so of those, Lorgan summons monsters, notably a Mind flayer and a Spectator on either side of me.

"Okay, we can do it the hard way if you want. PAIN!"

A Mind Wave takes out the Mind flayer, and some Half-orcs and Olog-hai in a room at the end of the corridor; the Spectator, alas, is immune to Mind Wave, though less so to Narthanc… >:> Just as I finish chopping through the rest of the summoned monsters, Lorgan pulls me back in and summons Dreads. It takes three more Mind Waves to get rid of all of them, by which time Lorgan has beat me down to 451/535hp—but the third knocks him down to two stars and sets him fleeing.

"Oh no, you're not goin' anywhere, mister."

By the time I catch up with Lorgan, it only takes one turn of melee to finish him off. He drops a few {good} weapons and a Ball-and-Chain of Life (+9,+9)(20%). From there, I push through the monsters Lorgan summoned while he was running, along with the orcs and trolls that are finally leaking out from their room; between them they leave me a Potion of Intelligence.

And that's pretty much the end of the level. And I think the pack is starting to get annoyingly full.

"‘Bout time."

No respect, I tells ya:

Lothlorien

Going through our accumulated artifacts, we *ID*:

Hmm, the double-immunity armor could be useful as a future swap-in, as could Careth Asdriag; the amulet would, too, except for the anti-teleportation.

"What about these other creepy ones? We're gonna get rid of them, right?"

Yes, but first we we need to get a Scroll of *Remove Curse* to uncurse Narthanc. We should also check the stores—and good thing; the black market has a Potion of Experience that takes us to clvl 39, with skill points going 7 to Extra Max Blow(2), 1 to Mindcraft and 1 to Weaponmastery. Then it's off to Bree to Mathom Gorlim and the Phial of Undeath. Say, as long as I'm here…

Maz 25; "What a boring place…"

"Okay, why do I suddenly have this feeling like someone just walked on my grave?"

Well, your immediate predecessor did die in the Maze.

"Oh, great, and now you're sending me to join her?"

Oh, don't worry, you're much stronger than she was. She had only gotten halfway through the Orc Cave when I made the mistake of trying to take the Merton quest; you've already seen monsters tougher than what you're likely to encounter here.

"Somehow I'm not encouraged."

Well, how about this Potion of Dexterity we just found on the first level, which finally brings you up to six attacks per round? Does that encourage you?

"Enh, I'll take it."

You see what I have to put up with. Anyway, Merton can't be on the first level, so we fast-forward to:

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

No Merton, but another Potion of Dexterity. Moving right along:

Maz 32; "What a boring place…"

[squints northeast] "Hey, I think that's the kid over here."

Yep, with a swarm of Livingstones not far to his south.

"Ooh, those things'll overrun him. We'd better get him out of here fast."

That's where the Gnomish Shovel (+2) comes in handy. ;) Our rescuing duties done, we recall out and return to Bree to claim our reward. See, Lisa? No problem.

"Okay, okay. Nice lady, though. Now we just need to