• DayInTheLifeArchive
• Lisa Alexander, the Human Mindcrafter

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

Well, I seem to be having a rash of bad luck with characters dying here.

"You mean bad playing, don't you, Human?"

You know, Gathraka, I don't think you really want me mad at you. After all, I could send you back into the Spiders quest at, say, clvl 1, naked, unarmed, and with a Potion of Slowness in your belly.

"Yeah, and I could come up there and rearrange your nose so it fits up your–"

As I was saying… here I am starting Lisa over again, and I never really could decide which one to DitL anyway, and I am a glutton for punishment, after all, so why not do both? I'd better be careful with my Geomancer at this rate, or I might inadvertently end up with a trifecta here.

"Uh… could we talk about that?"

And so I give you… strange; she should have been here by now.

"You sense it too, then."

Wh–? Galadriel? What are you doing here?

"The same as you, I expect. Something is coming—a portent of some great significance, but I know not what."

Well, I imagine it has something to do with this interdimensional vortex that just opened up in front of us.

"As you say."

"Waaaagh!" *thud* "Ow. That was undignified." [sound F/X: vortex closing] "Hey–! Great, so now I'm stuck here—wherever 'here' is… Definitely not Mars Colony; gravity feels like Earth normal. Hey, you two, where am I?"

"We are not far outside the human town of Bree."

"Bree? Never heard of it, doesn't tell me anything. What planet am I on?"

"‘Planet’? I do not understand. This is Arda, the World, embodiment of the Great Music of Eru Ilúvatar."

"O-kaaay, she talks like a Minbari, but she looks like a Vulcan. You look human enough, you wanna help me out here?"

Oh, dear. This could be tricky to explain…

"Well, you can start with the three-foot tall guy over there with the waistcoat and the furry feet."

Ah, now that's a Hobbit.

"A Hobbit?! Are you telling me I've landed in the middle of some kind of dungeons-and-dragons¹ story?"

Well… actually, that's probably about as good an explanation as any other I could offer.

"That's nice. I'd like to go home now, please."

"That will not be a simple task, I fear. This magic that has brought you here, it bears the stench of Morgoth."

"Morgoth?"

Head badguy of the, um, story.

"Ah. So what does he want with me?"

"I fear you will have to confront him to learn his intentions—and to return from whence you came, it may well fall upon you to destroy him."

"Okay, fine, tell me where he is and I'll go tie his brain in pretzel knots…" [squints] "…or not. I can't read either of you. Jeez, don't tell me I've lost my telepathy in the bargain too."

Your psi powers will work differently in Arda; it'll take some time for you to regain them fully.

"This just keeps getting worse, doesn't it? So what am I supposed to do till then?"

"Do not despair; there is yet hope. See! that weapon there emerged also from the portal that brought you here."

"What, this mace? Yeah, I saw it as I was falling out." [picks up mace] "Thought it was gonna clock me on the head there for a minute. Hmm, there's some kind of symbol on it."

"That is the mark of Tulkas Astaldo, the Valiant. It seems he has taken you as his champion, and will aid you in your quest."

"Uh-huh. And Tulkas is…?"

One of the local gods, more or less.

"What? Hey, whoa, hold on, Elf lady, I didn't sign up to be some kind of fraggin' Joan of Arc here."

Can't be helped, I'm afraid; Mindcrafter is a subclass of Priest for no reason I can discern, so you had to have some god, and Tulkas seemed the best fit for my planned strategy.

"Terrific. So now what do I do?"

Well, Bree would probably be a good place to start.

(shrug) "Hobbitsville it is, then. Man, why couldn't this Morgoth guy have grabbed Mom instead of me? She could probably melt his brain from here without trying hard."

Which is probably exactly why he chose you instead… Anyway, as always, here are the technical details: maximize and preserve modes on, no non-main monsters, 49 random quests, and point-based stat allocation, netting starting stats 14,10,18/30,11,11,12. And my skill point plan, as generated by my tome-skiller script (and as always, We Apologize for the Shameless Plug™ ):

Based on generic Human Mindcrafter
  Used 245 of 245 points   [req. level 50]
    Combat                                         (34)  50.000 [0.700]
      Weaponmastery                                (70)  50.000 [0.700]
    Sneakiness                                      (0)   1.000 [1.100]
    Magic                                          (47)  50.000 [0.900]
      Magic-Device                                  (0)   1.000 [1.150]
      Spell-power                                   (0)   0.000 [0.600]
      Necromancy                                    (0)   0.000 [0.400]
    Spirituality                                    (0)   9.000 [1.000]
      Prayer                                       (25)  23.500 [0.900]
      Mindcraft                                    (55)  50.000 [0.900]
    Monster-lore                                    (0)   0.000 [0.500]

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

Basically, the plan is to max Mindcraft, Magic, Combat and Weaponmastery, buy both the Extra Max Blows abilities, and put just enough into Prayer to max it if I get all five relic quests—which will be my first time seeing Tulkas spells at full power. (Lisa's previous incarnation followed Manwe, but I concluded that there's just too much overlap between Manwe's Blessing and Adrenaline Channeling.)

Chapter 1: Midnight on the Firing Line

In what might be a bad omen, a Mangy-looking leper poisons me and takes me down to 0/12hp before the poison wears off.

*wheeze* "Good grief, they let people like that just wander the streets in this place? Don't they have hospitals or quarantines or something?"

Not really, no. Don't worry, though; before long you'll be tough enough that they can't hurt you.

"If that was meant to be reassuring, your bedside manner stinks. Hmm, well, for starters, if I'm gonna be stuck here long-term, I need a place to sleep."

Precisely, which is why our first task is to take the:

Thieves Quest

You feel a vicious blow on your head…

"Ow." [rubs head] "Sheesh, first I'm some kind of crusader or something, now I'm law enforcement? Can we make up our minds here?"

Well, this is the easiest way to get you a place to live.

"Don't they have police or shirriffs or whatever they're called to handle this sort of thing? Nah, scratch that, if they had police, they wouldn't have poisonous people wandering the streets. Okay, with my psi powers shot, how am I supposed to deal with these thieves? They took all my stuff, so the bash-‘em-over-the-head option is out."

Actually, your equipment is in a room right down the hall.

"Unguarded? Not terribly bright, these thieves."

As you say. They did have the foresight, though, to put an alarm on the door you just opened.

"Yeah, so I noticed. Thanks for the advance warning."

Sorry. A quick switch to berzerker/running, and the first Novice rogue takes me to clvl 2; I throw all five skill points into Mindcraft.

"Hey, I think you were right; I can feel my powers starting to come back. Lemme try it on this next guy–"

Let's take a few steps back first, in case you don't get him in one shot.

"Yeah, good thinking. Okay, here goes: PAIN…"

Three Neural Blasts takes out the next Novice rogue. I'm down to 2/7 mana and the next rogue is only a square away; I give him another Neural Blast and then bash him over the head, as Lisa so delicately put it.

*huff* "I think I might have spoken too soon. I'm wiped here."

We need to back up to the north corridor and rest, get your mana back. That done, I lure out the Novice rogue who followed me and was stuck in the alcove; three more Neural Blasts in his face and I'm clvl 3—and Tulkas brings out the first relic quest, southwest of Bree and northwest of Minas Anor.

*wince* "Oh, terrific, so the Elf lady wasn't kidding about this god-champion thing?"

‘Fraid not.

"So what is this relic he wants me to go find?"

That can wait for a bit; we need to finish dealing with the thieves first. Skill points go 2 to Mindcraft and 3 to Magic, to give me a bit of mana to work with.

Back in the main room, I pick off the Novice warrior, send another Novice rogue fleeing, and lure the Bandit out into the corridor. Seven Neural Blasts later, he's dead and I'm clvl 6; the 15 total skill points go 3 to Mindcraft and 12 to Combat.

"So, you really expect me to fight my way through this, huh?"

Yes. You're going to run into monsters that aren't affected by your psi powers, and some that are too strong to be dealt with purely mentally.

(shrug) "Okay, I'm game. Who else we got in here?"

The rest of the quest proceeds without incident, and we return to:

Bree

The Bandit's dagger turns out to be (+1,+3). Normally I'd sell it, but it does better damage than the Mace, and it's a lot lighter.

"Yeah, I'll second that. This thing is like swinging a brick. I'm not trained for physical combat, you know. Gimme a PPG and I'd be much better off."

I'm afraid Arda doesn't have PPGs. Instead, I buy some light armor pieces and a few !oCSW's that are on sale.

"So now, what, we go get the relic thing?"

Not yet; I want to do a couple levels of the Downs first.

Chatter (1.1)

ZizzoTheInfinite: Audience commentary, suggestions and questions will go in these Chatter sections; I'll put a new one at the end of each section as I post it and delete empty ones as I go. And here's a character sheet for Lisa, as of the end of the Downs.

MayLith: Wow, I'm not sure which of these I'm enjoying more...

ZizzoTheInfinite: This is turning out to be an interesting challenge, actually; with three stories going, I've got three "personalities" to juggle, and I've got to portray them sufficiently differently that it doesn't sound like I'm telling the same story three times over.

BDw 1 thru BDw 2

BDw 1; "This level can't be all bad…

"Ooh, delightful decor…"

Indeed. Okay, now we can test some of your psi powers. Try Precognition; you should be able to sense any nearby monsters.

"Okay…" [closes eyes and focuses] "Yeah, there's a giant ant of some kind, that way."

A Soldier ant, specifically, in a room to our north.

[slashes dagger] "Eurk. I suppose I'll get used to this. Which is not a pleasant thought in itself… Hey! That swirly thing over there!"

You mean the Void jumpgate?

"It looks just like the vortex or whatever that brought me here. Maybe this one can get me home!"

Um, I wouldn't–

*whoosh* "Brr! What, that's it? It just took me to the next room over?"

Actually, it took you most of the way across the level. You'll find these scattered randomly throughout most of the dungeons: fixed wormholes through the Void, terminating in jumpgates on both ends. They won't get you anywhere outside the level.

"Mm. But that is exactly what the vortex that brought me here felt like when I was inside it."

Makes sense, I suppose. Morgoth probably created a Void wormhole between Arda and your world and pulled you through it.

"So all we've gotta do is make another wormhole that goes back."

(shrug) I don't know of any magic that can do that.

"Well, this Morgoth guy obviously has magic that can do it. I say we go take it from him."

That is the general idea—but you're not nearly strong enough yet to take on Morgoth. We'll need to build up your power a lot before then. Which is why we're here in the Downs, to get a start on that.

"Yeah, yeah, patience, I know. Ick! What's that?"

An apropos choice of words—it's a White icky thing.

"Yeah, that much I can see from here. What is it?"

No, that's literally what it's called.

"Ah. So the taxonomists in Arda are either mind-numbingly uncreative or have a very weird sense of humor. Well, it doesn't look friendly, so I'm gonna kill it. PAIN… O-kaay, I don't think that worked."

Icky things are mindless. See, I told you you were gonna have to fight your way through some of this.

"Yuck. Okay…" [slash] "Ick ick ick… okay, I guess I see where they get their names from."

Indeed. We spend the rest of the level getting Lisa acclimated to the general travails of the dungeon, and then proceed to:

BDw 2: Fumblefingers quest for 13 Green icky things; "This level can't be all bad…"

"Great, that's more of those things I can't kill with my mind attack, right?"

‘Fraid so. Precognition is sensing one not far to the north; might as well have at it.

"Oh, joy…"

Hmm, apparently there were more than one of them in the immediate vicinity. The second one pushes me to clvl 7; I assign skill points 2 to Mindcraft, 1 to Combat, and 2 to Magic, which gets me strong weapon/armor pseudo-ID and the Pulverize Mindcraft power. This should work better against the Icky things, Lisa.

"Okay, I'm game. Let's try it on this next one…" *WHUMP* "Hey! That was a telekinetic attack. That can't be right, I'm not a teek."

I told you, your powers will work differently in Arda.

"Wow. Can I hypnotize monsters and make them fight each other?"

Eventually, yes, but not for a while.

"Cool. I could get used to this place…"

That's the spirit. A little further in, an ill-planned run-in with a pack of Cave spiders gives us an excuse to try out Minor and Major Displacement.

"Okay, wait a minute, teleportation doesn't even qualify as a teek power. How did I do that?"

Hmm… can I get back to you on that? The fifth Green icky thing takes me to clvl 8, and the tenth takes me to clvl 9; skill points go 2 to Mindcraft and 8 to Magic. Hmm, I hadn't really planned on leveling up this much before taking on the relic quest; I might have to bail early and go do that.

"Why? What's the deal?"

Well, ideally, I'd like to get all five relic quests out of the way while you're still fairly low level, so they'll be easier.

"Five? This guy's got five relics for me to go hunt down?"

Well, five pieces of the same relic. Also, if we leave it too long, we might not get all five quests, and my skill point plan is built on the assumption that we will.

"Space your skill point plan, I'd like to live long enough to get home."

Rest assured, Lisa, I'm doing everything in my power to ensure that. Anyway, as is common with Fumblefingers quests, I pretty much have to walk the entire level to find the last Green icky thing.

"Figures the last one of those disgusting things would have the stupid sword. Wait a minute, this looks like tempered steel. Do they have that kind of tech here?"

Not to my knowledge.

"Ah, my sword! Thank you for finding it."

"Gaah!" *gasp* "How did you sneak up on me like that?"

"Oh… well, without my sword, I had to get good at avoiding monsters just to stay alive."

"Uh-huh…"

Anyway, the reward choices are Monster-lore, Combat, Divination and Necromancy. Hmm, most of Divination would be duplicated by my Mindcraft powers; Monster-lore is of no use, and Necromancy would be out of character. Combat it is, then—which will allow me to move three planned skill points out of Combat to some other skill.

"I don't care how sneaky that guy is; I'm a teep, I should've been able to sense him coming. Something's not right here…"

We'll have to worry about that later; after a quick sweep of the level, I return to:

Bree

With no quest loot to sell off, shopping is a bit constrained, but I think I'm ready to go looking for the relic quest next time out.

First relic quest

The quest entrance is not far from Bree, a straight shot south from the Old Forest. Hold your breath and here we go:

LTm 2, take 1

"This level can't be all bad…" Okay, Lisa, keep your eyes peeled; we have to search every square inch of this level for the relic.

"Mm. And this all-knowing Tulkas guy can't give us a hint or something?"

Well, he did get us to to the temple.

"What, ‘southwest of Bree’? This you call big help?"

You know, this is a god you're trash-talking here. You're not worried?

"Nah, if he could zap me for blasphemy, he'd be more than capable of recovering his own fraggin' relic."

An interesting theory… In the meantime, a few Kobolds push me over the top to clvl 10, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic, 1 to Prayer and 2 to Weaponmastery. And there appears to be no relic here, so we bounce on the stairs and return to:

LTm 2, take 2

"Looks like any other level…"

"Wait, didn't we already search this level?"

We're exploiting a quirk of the quest code: it tries to place the relic every time a new level is generated, even if it's one you've already been on.

"Mm. But why couldn't we have just gone down the stairs to the next level?"

Because relic quest levels get tougher faster with increasing depth than normal levels.

"Ooh, someone's gunshy…"

Well, you did say you wanted to survive long enough to get home, yes?

"Mm, point."

Besides, I follow the Zaphod Beeblebrox precept that discretion is the better part of valor and cowardice is the better part of discretion. No relic here either, so we try again:

LTm 2, take 3

"Looks like any other level…" A 1x3 small level, so the monsters are a bit tighter packed; I have to pick off half a dozen Novice rogues before I even leave the first room. This takes me up to clvl 11, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft, 2 to Prayer, and 2 to Weaponmastery.

"Sheesh, how many more times are we gonna have to search this level?"

None, it turns out—we just found the relic.

"Ah, so this is what all the fuss was about. Mm, frankly, I was expecting something more… I dunno, transcendent."

Well, what about the reward of Prayer skill? Not transcendent enough for you?

"Enh, I'm more of an agnostic, really."

Okay, so I'll only cast Divine Aim half the time, then.

"Huh?"

I'll explain later; right now we should return to:

Bree

and restock in preparation to return to the Downs next time.

Chatter (1.3)

MayLith: Lovin' it. Thanks for the bedtime story!

BDw 2 (take 2) to BDw 6 (take 2)

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

An arena level. Man, am I glad I fixed the 2.2.7 dark-arena-levels bug. I've already done this level, though, so I only give it a quick once-over—and good thing I did, as a Kobold Captain drops Travak. Otherwise mundane, so we continue to:

BDw 3; "This level can't be all bad…"

An entirely forgettable level; fast-forward to:

BDw 4: Princess quest for 14 Cave orcs; "You have a good feeling…"

"Man, goblins and damsels in distress and everything, huh? This is one lame ‘story’ I've landed in the middle of."

(shrug) Don't look at me…

"And I guess that makes me the clichéd knight in… um, padded armor. Is there a dragon for me to heroically slay too?"

Dragons come later, actually.

"I knew I shouldn't have asked. So, let's go find the fair maiden, then."

The level is uneventful for a while, until I run into my first orcs, a small pack of Snotlings.

"Enh, these don't look so tough. So where's the princess?"

Um, these aren't the orcs guarding the princess—and Cave orcs are tougher than Snotlings.

"I should hope so; those guys were pushovers."

Indeed. A bit further in, a pack of Cave spiders pushes me over the top to clvl 12, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic, and 3 to Weaponmastery.

I finally find the quest room near the northwest corner.

"You're right, these orcs are kinda tough."

"Oh, brave warrior, save me!"

"That's what I'm here for, ma'am. I'll have you out of there in a second. Now, let's see, where's that mace those Snotlings dropped… ah, here it is. Cover your eyes, Your Highness."

Um, that's not–

*WHANG!* "OOkkaayy, tthhaatt wwaass ssuurrpprriissiinnggllyy iinneeffffeeccttiivvee."

The glass walls are magical. You have to kill all the Cave orcs to open them.

"Ah. And speaking of clichés…"

Yes, yes. The quest reward choices are a Broad Sword, a Light Crossbow, or a Rapier. Hmm, this would give me a chance at a decent weapon; the sword would do a bit more damage, but it weighs a lot more… I'll take the Rapier, which turns out–

"Hey! Did you see that?"

See what? Sorry, I was looking at the Rapier.

"That princess—I think she just got sucked into hyperspace!"

It's normal for the princess to vanish after the quest is finished. That's probably what you saw.

"Excuse me, I know a hyperspace jump point when I see one, mister."

Hey, you could be right; I never really figured out these quests anyway. Anyway, as I was saying, the Rapier turns out to be a Frozen Rapier of *Slay Dragon* (+2,+5) (+1)—a most suitable weapon for the early game, and it'll sell for a decent price when I find something better. A quick sweep of the last few bits of the level, and onward to:

BDw 5; "You like the look of this place…"

Unremarkable for a while. I hit clvl 13 not far in; skill points go 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic and 3 to Weaponmastery. The rest of the level is uneventful; fast forward to:

BDw 6: Princess quest for 11 Tengu; "You have a good feeling…"

Oh, I forgot, I wanted to head up and sell off some of these un-ID'd potions I've been accumulating.

"But what about the damsel in distress?"

She's not going anywhere. Back to:

Bree

where I discover too late that one of those un-ID'd potions was a Potion of Wisdom…

"What, did we want that?"

Yeah, but we'll find plenty more later. Since I don't anticipate using it, I'll go ahead and Mathom:

• The Rounded Pebble 'Travak' (3d6) (+8,+5), with acid, lightning, fire, frost and poison brand

And to my embarrassment, I just noticed I wasn't actually wielding the Rapier from the princess quest…

"Sheesh, can I get a new… narrator? What are you, anyway?"

‘Narrator’ is close enough. And no, you're stuck with me. Hmm, the princess quest was for 11 Tengu, which means the lava form of the quest room, so I pick up a Ring of Fire Resistance from the magic shop before returning to:

BDw 6: Princess quest for 11 Tengu, take 2; "You have an excellent feeling…"

Hmm, that's a higher level feeling than when we were here the last time. Must be something interesting here this time—and indeed, Precognition picks up Smeagol not far off.

"Eugh! That's not a pleasant image, whatever it is. Is it a badguy?"

Yes.

"Good, let's go get him, then."

That's the spirit. Unfortunately, by the time I get to him, Precognition's see invisible has worn off, and Smeagol gets close enough to steal some coin and escape.

"Figures; even fantasy worlds have pickpockets. Now, where'd he go?"

Not far, as it turns out; Precognition picks him up again lurking in a small tree streamer as I head west from the room he was in. Hmm, now why can't I still see him… wait a minute, stupid, temporary see invisible doesn't mean temporary ESP for invisible creatures, you still can't see him if he isn't in line of sight. Okay, I'll just have to lure him out of the trees into the corridor and Pulverize him the old-fashioned way… He eventually drops his ring and a Spectral Scimitar (+5,+4). That'll sell for a bit. Even better, a Novice priest a bit further in drops a Blessed Small Sword of *Slay Demon* (+3,+5) (+4). I'd better head back with these after I've finished the level.

Speaking of which, not far from there, I catch the Tengu leaking out of the quest room. I manage to kill one before the second teleports me away.

"Wh–? All right, now I'm annoyed."

You think that's bad? On the way back, one of the escaped Tengu teleports me straight into the quest room, where the remaining six bounce me around a few times.

"Oh, that's it! Eat teek, jerks!"

Would that it were so simple. These Tengu are annoyingly tough, apparently taking several Pulverizes each to kill, during which time I'm getting bounced around the room and dropped on lava and getting scrolls burnt. By the time I finish off another three, my mana's almost gone; I have to teleport out to rest up.

"Man, that was embarrassing."

Say, maybe we should swap in the Blessed Short Sword of *Slay Demon*; it has sense demon, so we can see the Tengu coming.

"Oh, that feels much better. And you're right, it looks like we've got company."

Indeed, one of the Tengu that teleported away earlier is nearby, lurking around in the trees. I dispatch him quickly and return for round three. The remaining six Tengu leak out of the quest room after me as I approach, but with my newfound ability to track them, they aren't hard to dispatch. The quest reward choices are a Broad Sword, Gauntlets and a Pike; I've got plenty of saleable weapons for now, so I think I'll go with the Gauntlets. Oh, and in all the excitement, I didn't notice that the Tengu took me to clvl 14; skill points go 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic, and 3 to Weaponmastery.

"Darn it, she got away before we could get back and watch her go."

Don't worry, we'll have plenty more chances. The Gauntlets turn out to be of Free Action [+3], exactly what I was hoping for. And as promised, we recall immediately to:

Bree

to sell off loot. I think I'll keep the Blessed Small Sword of *Slay Demon* as my main weapon for now; it has +4 INT and WIS, which is useful for a Mindcrafter, plus resist fire and chaos, so I can sell off the Ring of Fire Resistance, and, as I discover when I *ID* it, full telepathy.

"I knew I was picking up something from that sword. Oh, yeah! The Babe is Back!™"

Indeed. And now that we have Smeagol's ring, we can do the Mushroom quest.

"Uh… nice doggie… Man, if I had my teep back, I could just put the poor things to sleep or scare them away or something."

Hmm, now that you mention it, we should try your Domination attack; it should scare them away without hurting them.

"I'm game. Okay, focus, and, FEAR… um, it's not working."

Hmm… [sound F/X: source diving] Ah, never mind, uniques are immune to that effect.

"Okay, now I feel inadequate…"

‘Sokay, we can still sneak past them. The quest nets, as always:

• The Sling of Farmer Maggot (+20,+0) (+2), which activates for terrify every 10+d50 turns and has +2 searching, infravision and shots.

I think I'll wield it, just for giggles. Next time out, we return to the Downs.

Chatter (1.4)

DarkGod: Lisa ? Shouldnt it be Lyta ?

ZizzoTheInfinite: Have you read the Character Background on Lisa's character sheet? That should answer your question…

DarkGod: Ah right

BDw 6 (take 3) to BDw 10

BDw 6, take 3; "What a boring place…"

Indeed. A 1x1 small level, and thus over quickly.

"Hey, this place wasn't so small last time we were here, was it?"

Now, it's a different BDw 6 from the one where we killed Smeagol and those Tengu.

"Same dungeon, same depth, different level?"

Yep. Dungeon levels in ToME aren't saved permanently like they are in some roguelike games; it'd take up way too much memory and disk space.

"Weird place, this Arda…"

As you say. Anyway, let's move on:

BDw 7; "You like the look of this place…"

An arena level.

"Ah, another one of these, huh?"

Indeed. I make my first successful test of Mind Wave.

[kicks Jackal corpse] "Not bad, with the area effect and all, but it doesn't really pack the punch of my teek attack."

It'll get stronger as you gain experience—and eventually it'll affect everything in line of sight.

"Ah. Cool."

Of course, for this pack of Snotlings we just stumbled across, even lowly Neural Blast is enough… Further in, I find a room with a pack of Wolves clustered around a Hard Leather Cap; the Wolves push me to clvl 15, and the Cap turns out to be Dwarven [+1] (+1).

"So what did the Wolves want with this thing, anyway?"

Prob'ly they'd just finished eating its former owner…

"Ew, gross! Find me some other helmet to wear."

We'll have it sterilized next time we're topside, I promise. Oh, I allocate skill points 2 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic and 2 to Weaponmastery. Nothing else of note on the level, except a small pack of Undead masses that managed to give me a CON hit.

"Okay, that was even more disgusting than the deformed shrimp guy with the invisibility ring."

Be glad I don't have CthAngband monsters turned on; there's some really disgusting stuff in there… Anyway, let's move on:

BDw 8: Fumblefingers quest for 18 Dark elven priests; "You like the look of this place…"

"What, this guy again?"

Yes, we'll be seeing him again fairly often. You didn't say anything about the princess appearing again.

"What, was that the same princess? I never really got a good look at her, what with those teleporting demon things bouncing me all over the room like a fraggin' volleyball. So what is the story here, then?"

(shrug) No idea; I've pretty much given up trying to figure out the random quests. Anyway, one of those Dark elven priests is in telepathy range as we enter the level—and here comes another one.

"They're fast."

Yes; shame you don't have Adrenaline Channeling yet. With a bit of strategic ambushing, though, the first two fall in short order. Hmm, looks like there are another three off to our west, along with Bullroarer, who just woke up.

"‘Bullroarer’? Kind of an ambitious name for a hobbit, isn't it?"

He is actually pretty tough. We won't see him in action immediately, though; one of the Dark elven priests just got around the corner to me, and after three Mindcraft failures in a row, I finally manage to teleport to safety, with 21/91hp left.

*gasp* *wheeze* "Okay, now I really feel inadequate."

You understand, of course, this cannot go unanswered… While resting up from that rout, I have to fend off a horde of Rotting corpses, who push me over the top to clvl 16, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic and 3 to Weaponmastery. And Precognition just gained magic-mapping ability.

"Weird… it's like telepathic sonar or something."

Indeed. Heading back to the scene of my previous embarrassment, I find a Rod Tip of Trap Location. Man, why can't Trilogy find one of these? Ah, here's another Dark elven priest to take down, plus another one a bit further back which makes four so far—and there are the four clustered near Bullroarer. I lure them out around another corner, and this time they fall quickly.

"Yes! Still got the touch."

Well, we've got ten more of those guys to ‘touch’, and they don't appear to be anywhere nearby. Ah, here's one further in, stuck behind this pack of Manes. Which reminds me, I keep forgetting to pray to Tulkas while I'm killing evil monsters. From there, we swing back and take on Bullroarer; two Pulverizes and he's down.

"‘Bullroarer,’ huh? I'm not impressed, short-stuff."

Heh. He drops a Light War Axe (+5,+2), a Cutlass (+4,+2), and a Pike (+4,+5)—and it took my last three ?oID's to find that out. We'll probably have to back to Bree and restock after this level.

"And get this dead guy's cap sterilized."

Yes, yes… The twelfth Dark elven priest pushes me over the top to clvl 17, and Tulkas gives me the second relic quest, west of Bree and northwest of Minas Anor. Hmm, that means the relic dungeon will be dlvls 11–15, and the monsters will be leveled to level 22 at the top and 30 at the bottom. *shudder* Definitely not until we've got Adrenaline Channeling, at the very least.

"You keep going on about this Adrenaline Channeling thing. What's it do?"

You'll see. As usual, I have to search the entire level to find the last Dark elven priest. Quest reward choices are Magic-Device, Disarming, Summoning and Magic. Hmm, there aren't any monsters Tulkas doesn't like me killing, so I don't need Summoning for a "handler" monster; I don't plan on disarming traps manually in the long term, and I can pump Magic-Device on my own time…especially if I pick Magic, which gives me three free points to reallocate in my skill plan.

"A-ha! I knew there was something fishy about that guy."

What?

"I was watching him in the reflection on my sword when he left. He didn't just slip back into the shadows, he vanished into thin air."

(shrug) Maybe he put on a Ring of Invisibility.

"Maybe, but if he had one of those, why did he need me to get his sword back for him? And I don't know what an invisibility ring looks like in action, but I have seen black-light camouflage suits in action, and they look exactly like what that guy just did."

Could be, I dunno. At any rate, I've changed my mind; I think we've got enough inventory space to push on to the end of the Downs before having to come back up to ID stuff. Oh, I forgot to allocate the skill points from that last level gain: with the recent boost to Magic, I can put 1 to Mindcraft and 4 to Weaponmastery. Now, as I was saying, we push on to:

BDw 9; "What a boring place…"

Ah, I just noticed that Pulverize is now radius-1. I'll have to be careful about shattering potions now. Otherwise, the level is as boring as advertised; fast-forward to:

BDw 10: Princess quest for The Rat King; "You feel strangely lucky…"

A 1x3 small level, and the quest room is right on screen. Before I can get there, though, a Hill orc Rogue pushes me over the top to clvl 18, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft and 4 to Weaponmastery. Hmm, one more level before we get Adrenaline Channeling; I might go do a level of the Orc Cave before trying the relic quest.

"Yeesh. I hope it's as big as its advance billing makes it out to be."

Whatever. I do a quick sweep down to the south end of the level, and then come back to… um, Lisa, were Vort and her entourage here when we passed this way before?

"No, I think I would've noticed that many kobolds."

Quirk of the monster generation algorithm, I suppose. Shall we, then?

"Hey, I'm game."

That's the spirit. The first wave is Small kobolds, which I can chop up with my sword to save mana—remembering this time to pray to Tulkas while I'm doing it. Vort comes in behind them, and I let the Small kobolds get in a few measly hits while I hit Vort with three Pulverizes to take her down, also catching one of her Large kobold entourage directly behind her. The rest of the Large kobolds are behind her, and I use Pulverize to daze them long enough to chop them up with my sword.

"So, we've got a queen of kobolds and a king of rats. I don't suppose the icky things have any royalty?"

The Icky Queen doesn't show up until later, actually.

"I knew I shouldn't have asked…"

Anyway, we have more mysterious monster appearances to deal with: while we were cleanup up the loot from Vort's gang, a gang of Novice mindcrafters just materialized back where we were exploring the south end of the level.

"Sheesh, where do these monsters keep coming from?"

Beats me. And the Rat King just burst out of the quest room. He gets in a bite on me, poisoning me, and takes five Pulverizes to kill.

"Well, that was certainly a rodent of unusual–"

Just don't… Quest reward choices are Arrows, a Basillard, or a Lead-Filled Mace; we'll want to stick with this weapon, I think, and the arrows will probably sell for more.

"Darn, missed her again."

Poor luck in quest room geometry, I suppose. Anyway, with that done we return to:

Bree

where we learn that Vort's drop was a War Hammer (+1,+4) and the quest reward was 30 Arrows of Slay Dragon (+2,+4). The alchemy shop doesn't have any restore-CON potions, so I take a side trip to:

Gondolin

to pick one up. I also buy a Spellbook of Divine Aim from the temple and a Rod Tip of Illumination from the black market; fortunately, the magic shop has a Wooden Rod of Nothing to go with it. Oh, and it appears I have an unchecked fate: to find Narthanc on level 20.

"What's Narthanc?"

A magical dagger, potentially quite powerful. Back in:

Bree

I restock ?oID's and !oCCW's. Hmm, I'm about halfway to the next clvl; I think I'll stick with my plan to do a level of the Orc Cave and then go do the relic quest.

"Hey, aren't you forgetting something?" [points to top of head]

Oh, right. Decado the Handsome looks at us funny, but he obligingly washes down the Dwarven Hard Leather Cap that those Wolves were manhandling.

(sniff) "Well, that's got most of the smell off of it; I guess I can live with it now."

Adventurers these days… And now we're ready to take on the Orc Cave next time.

Chatter (1.5)

MayLith: Ahhh... another bedtime story! I'm looking forward to seeing how Lisa fares at deeper levels. I've played many characters who got Mindcraft from FF, but never a pure Mindcrafter.

Chapter 2: The War Prayer

As promised, we'll be doing a bit of the Orc Cave first:

Orc 10 thru Orc 12

Orc 10; "What a boring place…"

It certainly lives up to its advertising at first. I am somewhat concerned, though, about the number of Pulverizes we're having to throw around to take out even a relatively small pack of Cave orcs. I may hold off on the relic quest until we've got Mind Wave up to line-of-sight levels.

"Hey, whatever. This place doesn't look too hard, I'm all for hanging around here for a while."

Heh. Not far in, I kill Brodda, who drops a Quarterstaff (+4,+1). Hmm, looks like we've got a Giant fruit fly infestation starting up in this next room.

"No prob, I got it covered." *WHUMP* *WHUMP*

Careful, don't overexert yourself.

"Ah, come on, what's the worst that could—wait, something's wrong, it's slipping, I can't control it!"

Ouch, the mind-storm side effect of Mindcraft failure. It drains my mana and paralyzes me; by the time I recover, I'm surrounded by insects and down to 18/112hp and 11/111 mana. Time to beat a hasty retreat, I think… Major Displacement drops me on the other side of the level, in a three-way corridor intersection.

"Sheesh, no one is safe around you, are they? You gonna get all your characters killed like this?"

*sigh* This time, Gathraka, it wasn't my fault.

"Somehow I doubt that, Human."

Shh, I think Lisa's coming around.

"*moan* What happened?"

You lost control of your powers. That happens occasionally; you seem to have caught about the worst possible combination of side effects at the worst possible moment.

"Figures. I'm gonna just take a nap here for a bit, then…"

‘Fraid not; we've got incoming. I can already sense Rotting corpses approaching down the north corridor and Cave orcs approaching down the east corridor. With your mana levels this low, we're going to have to depend on combat for a while. I fire up Divine Aim and take on the Rotting corpses, who have already reached me.

*slash* "Wow, down in one hit. Maybe this Tulkas guy is good for something after all."

Indeed. Unfortunately, at Prayer level 8, Divine Aim doesn't last very long; by the time the Rotting corpses have been cleared out, I've had to go through two !oCCW's to stay unpoisoned. By this time, though, I've got enough mana back to try taking down the Cave orcs with Neural Blast. Fortunately, with them all lined up in a straight corridor, Neural Blast's occasional beam effect works to maximum effect, and soon the orcs are down.

"*whew* I take it back about this place being easy. Can we go back to that Barrow Downs place for a while?"

I think we should be okay for now. Those orcs just got us to clvl 19, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft and 4 to Prayer.

"So do I finally get to see what this Adrenaline Channeling thing does?"

Sure, let's take it for a spin.

*whoosh* "Gah... whoa! It's like everything's moving slower."

Actually, you're moving faster.

"It's kinda like those synth-adrenal stims they used to use in some of the underground boxing tournaments on Mars Colony—jacks you up for a few minutes of serious fighting, but when it wears off, you just crash."

Something like that, except that Adrenaline Channeling doesn't "crash"; it's 100% all-natural, no harmful side effects.

"Okay, wait a minute, how does this qualify as a teep power?"

Well, Neural Blast basically works by stimulating the pain receptors in the target's brain, right?

"Actually, that's a serious oversimplification, but okay, we'll go with it."

Similarly, Adrenaline Channeling works by stimulating the fight-or-flight response handlers in your own brain.

(shrug) "Okay, so I can see where this would be useful in a fight. So, we gonna go do the relic quest now?"

Not yet; the failure rate on Adrenaline Channeling is still way too high, and it's only a few more clvls to the switchover point for Mind Wave; I think we'll hang here a bit longer.

"Works for me."

The Giant fruit fly room is a lost cause by the time I get back to it. At the end of the level, though, I manage to regain most of the piety I spent on Divine Aim earlier by clearing out an Undead mass infestation. Hmm, I'm getting a little low on !oCCW's, but I think I can survive another level or two:

Orc 11; "What a boring place…"

I disagree; arena levels are rarely boring. At least it's a 3x5 small level, which cuts down on the danger a bit. A pack of Snotlings pushes me to clvl 20, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft, 1 to Magic and 3 to Prayer. A quick sweep of the rest of the level reveals nothing of interest, so we move on to:

Orc 12; "You like the look of this place…"

I like its look a little better after I've cleared out the pack of War bears near my entry point. After that, things go relatively smoothly; notable events include finding an Everburning Torch of Illumination, which will come in handy later on, and encountering Nar, who takes a lot of Pulverizes and some dancing around with Minor Displacement to kill. Nar takes me over the top to clvl 21, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft and 4 to Prayer. With Mindcraft at level 25, your Mind Wave should be much more powerful now; let's try it out on these Cave orcs at the north end of this cavern.

"Enh, it better have gotten a lot more powerful, because I don't remember it doing much before. Okay, here goes: PAIN… Whoa. I agree, that is quite an improvement."

As you say. Mind Wave is going to be your workhorse attack against groups for some time. Oh, and your Minor Displacement power just got improved, too; try it.

"Okay…" *WHOOSH* "Hey! It's one of those vortex things. Did I do that?"

Yep. And before you ask, no, you can't get home with this; the other end of the Void wormhole must be somewhere nearby on the level, but you can control where it's placed.

"Yeah, but still, I can see where that would be useful for tactical stuff."

It also means that we'll need to start carrying Phase Door scrolls for emergency short-range escape, since we can no longer do that with Minor Displacement. In fact, we're mostly done with the level now; let's finish up quickly and return to:

Br^H^HWilderness

Oh, right, I keep forgetting that part. Okay, from here we'll return to:

Bree

to sell off loot and restock. We have to go to Gondolin, though, to find any Phase Door scrolls, not to mention a Potion of Restore Wisdom to undo the damage from that mind-storm effect. The Gondolin black market also has a Ring of Damage (+13), which will hopefully be useful soon. Back in Bree, the black market has a Sprig of Athelas in stock, which I buy to start my stockpile. And from here I think I'm ready to try the relic quest next time out.

Second relic quest

And with some trepidation, I head out to find the second relic quest dungeon.

"Trepidation? Come on, the first one wasn't that bad."

Relic quests get tougher very quickly as you go up in level, particularly Tulkas relic quests.

"Yeah, Trilogy was telling me she had some major trouble with her second one."

Trilogy's misfortune was that her second relic quest dungeon started at dlvl 8, and was thus primed to have both Mughash's and Vort's groups. Your relic quest dungeon starts at dlvl 11, so you won't have that particular problem; but monsters in Tulkas quests are leveled more aggressively than in Eru quests, so they're likely to be very tough—almost twice as fast and probably more than twice as many hit points.

"Yeah, I remember on, like, my second Manwe god dude quest, I nearly got my butt kicked by mushrooms. That was seriously humiliating."

"Ah, you must be the Bjorn guy Trilogy was telling me about."

"The one and only, psychic babe."

"Have you told him that surfboards haven't been invented in Arda yet?"

I haven't had the heart… "West of Bree", in this case, leaves us with a quest dungeon not far to the northeast of the Sandworm Lair. Here goes nothin', folks:

LTm 11, take 1; "You have a good feeling…"

No, I don't; there's an Owlbear two squares away from me, and I don't have my lamp wielded. Fortunately, it doesn't move while I wield it; unfortunately, Mind Wave does only one star of damage to it, and it immediately moves right next to me. A Phase Door scroll takes me to an adjacent room to the north, where the Owlbear (and the three Rotting corpses detected by Precognition that I didn't see at first) can't get to me for now. *whew* This should give you some idea of what we're up against, Lisa.

"Riiiight. How does a girl check out of this chicken outfit again? No, wait, never mind, I've got a plan."

Lisa's plan is to form a Void wormhole from this room to a strategic location in the first room far away from where they're clustered trying to get to me, bounce back in and Pulverize them until they fall. An excellent plan, and it works.

"See? We'll be fine, we've just got to be clever about it."

Well, it's refreshing to have a character more optimistic than I am… We reuse this strategy frequently—perhaps a bit too frequently; the immediate vicinity is peppered with Void jumpgates.

"Hey, better part of discretion, right?"

As you say. A group of Cave orcs takes me to clvl 22, with skill points going 1 to Mindcraft and 4 to Weaponmastery. About halfway in, we detect Wormtongue nearby. He's in a room to the south of the one we're in, and he and all the other monsters in the room are awake by now, which allows me to employ a strategy I'm starting to really like: lure all the monsters as far east as I can, then form a Void wormhole to the west side of the room and Mind Wave them as they approach, then jump back out to safety when then get too close.

At least, that's how it was supposed to work… Unfortunately, one of the monsters in the room was a Tengu, who promptly teleported me to him, off the critical jumpgate. And even with Adrenaline Channeling active, Wormtongue manages to get off two stinking clouds in the same turn. And to make things worse, another of the monsters is a Baby blue dragon, who starts breathing on me. I hang around just long enough to pulverize the Tengu for good measure, then make a mad dash back to the jumpgate; by the time I escape, I'm down to 61/141hp.

"Sheesh. That'll teach me to get cocky…"

You and me both. This time, when I jump back in, I Pulverize Wormtongue first to stun him, and keep Pulverizing him till he's dead; the rest of the monsters fall to Mind Wave. *whew* Wormtongue's drops are a Broad Axe of Slay Demon (+6,+5) and a Beaked Axe of *Slay Dragon* (+9,+2) (+1). They're kind of heavy between them, though; I'll have to leave them in this room and remember to come back for them.

"I can see this is gonna get old real quick…"

As you say. I carry this trick through the entire level, finding no relic, so I head back to pick up Wormtongue's drop, picking up clvl 23 on the way from a pack of Blue icky things; skill points go 1 to Mindcraft and 4 to Weaponmastery. We recall from there to:

Wilderness

and return to:

Bree

to sell off our loot.

"And we might have to do that four more times."

Indeed. The temple has a discounted Spellbook of Whirlwind, which I pick up for possible future use. And with increasing trepidation, we recall back to:

LTm 11, take 2; "You feel strangely lucky…"

No, I don't; there's a Large kobold right next to me as I enter the level. [examines Large kobold] Hey, wait a minute, it's not leveled. [examines other nearby monsters] And neither is anything else. Well, this will make my life easier, but I don't get it.

"And ‘not leveled’ means…?"

That the monsters aren't any tougher here and now than in normal dungeons.