ToME Wiki[Carried over from Ang93...]
What do you know? A *third* cloak of air, in a troll pit. And it's a slightly better Fur Cloak, so I'll keep it.
Ang93: 14 Time Hounds - piercing shots still work just fine. Reward: Thorongil. Pretty useless by now! A Great Bile Wyrn drops the palantir of Orthanc, and there's a GV nearby - this *is* a 'superb' level - containing Kronos among others. Carcharoth comes into view as I work through the GV.
A bunch of randart weapons - no interest. A bronze golem causes a moment of entertainment with some greater demons, one of whom drains my Stone Prison wand - annoying. Carcharoth goes down without a fuss to slingshots - drops a ring of speed (+9) but nothing interesting.
Kronos fires two rockets - painful! - and summons a bunch of Hrus, ditto; but goes down to the slingshots in the end. Nothing in the drop avoids squelch. Farm a greater draconic Q for a little while, but it's pretty boring 
- so on down. The wyrms dropped Orcrist, a double-immunity randart robe (kept that in my pack instead of Thorongil), and a potion of CHA that finally maxes out my last stat! Also, Vorpal Blade - pretty neat, and I might keep it as a swap in case Mormegil becomes too annoying and the teleporting of nomthanc is too big a handicap. Oh - and lastly, a randart bolt with +2 attacks. I'd seen these on oook characters, but this is my first. Cool! [I have to hunt around for a crossbow to wield before I can equip it, but it continues to work when I go back to the sling] An infestation of giant fruit flies has drained my noxious cloud wand, actually - so recall up before continuing. I'm leaving Orthanc's palantir behind, and I'm out of *ID* scrolls on this one level; probably the best in my ToME experience. One last parting shot - literally - takes down Ren, who's been hanging around, and he drops a randart sling (x4) that I'm anxious to investigate. I'd **really** like to find a Thrain sling one day soon...
Sling turns out to have one extra shot, but also +2 to speed and some stats (barely needed, but nice); going from 4 shots (x5) to 5 shots (x4) is likely a wash, but I like having the artifact so I'll keep it.
And... decide to pump summoning with the 68 skill points I have hanging around. I'd kinda like to go to the Void, and this seems the most likely to be useful there. Cheesy, maybe, but I'll take it.
Back to Ang93, toting Maeglin's corpse for extra kicks. Intended to head on down, but there are at least two large GVs in sight...turn out to be uninteresting. But, I do acquire Lisa and Sarko as companions (and start wielding the anchor to prevent them running away!). They rapidly die as I arrive on Ang94. Oy veh.
Various wyrms, and a giant pit: Lotharang, Crisdurian (I must be running out of artifact weapons soon, no??); neither compares to Vorpal Blade. The Cat Lord gives me a *very* good battle, summoning various spectral displacer beats and the like, but eventually goes down - I am thankful to have so many good sources of healing available. He drops a longbow of Lothlorien (x5) - typical for a slingmaster, huh? I actually forgot that I had a Princess quest until I noticed the quest room in my magic mapping - it's for Ungoliant, so hardly trivial! She goes down to slingshots, though, without even breathing once. Reward choices suck - mace, two-handed flail, and the longbow I take: Belthronding. Yeah, the RNG is playing with me. All I want is a sling... and Ungoliant drops nothing interesting.
Ang95 - which is 'nameless' and 'I sense a powerful artifact here' although I then get the message 'compacting objects'... - it's also a FF quest for 15 Horned Reapers. Magic Map prompts my memory - the artifact is PDSM, right? Honestly, I probably wouldn't wear it. And I'd planned to recall before realising it's a special level. Well, let's see what happens for a little while. Nimloth, a bunch of randarts - I'm out of *ID*. Just leave them all, alas. Nenya I do pick up, dropping my randart ring of speed (+7) for it.
And, yes, I pick up the MHDSM. but not the speed rings (up to +12) or the many randarts. FF gives.... magic. Whee. Nenya gives ESP - so I can swap that in for Narya (Flare already gives ImmFire), and then Elessar for the ESP amulet - giving me RPois in basic kit, finally!! On the down side - I dropped my climbing set somewhere. Oh well. not critical, I hope.
Ang96: Princess, 10 Plasma hounds. Pretty wimpy for Ang96! Fittingly, it just nets a squelched metal cap. On down - too many hrus and titans around for comfort.
Ang97: Princess, 14 Dreadlords. more reasonable! The reward choices aren't, though: rod tip of acid balls, cord armour, Tulkas' tome. Armour - why not? - and two GVs on the level to check out, although the multiple roaming packs of hounds (nether, water, and chaos) are kinda annoying. I never actually get to check the armour - a trapdoor drops me through. Time to go back for some *ID*. And - damn! - I lose 5 of my favourite artifact shots.
[Ang98 is FF for GWoChaos. Back in a second.] Not many ?o*ID* available even after two tours. Oh well. Grab Fundin as a companion, but he does not keep up with the summons of combined D and U pits, and has to be dismissed. And Maeglin's corpse, which I toted down for the past three levels, is out of meat. Guess I need to find out how to use totems, huh?
Anyway, huge numbers of wyrms and greater demons. Lots and lots of hack and slash. And some slinging, but I run through all 100+ of my artifact shots and have to go back to Vorpal Blade. And.... Yes! A pit fiend finally drops the Sling of the Thain! Of course, when I go to wield it i find that my randart sling is currently heavily cursed - but that's OK, it'll wait :). YEY!!
A bunch of randarts, of course. And, I take partial totems of a Sky Drake and GWoMC. Among the junk on the floor - a *lot* of junk - is the Blood of Life :-). OK, so this was a better level than 94... also left behind, the Harp of Maglor, a randart sword with +2 attacks (not Sting!), a heavy lance also with 2 extra attacks, the usual junkarts. I find another climbing set, which might be useful, and here come *another* bunch of greater demons. OK, let's try out this sky drake totem. Hey, that worked well! Even the beholder hive-mother accompanying the demons, one of my least favourite opponents, goes down without too much trouble. Marilith curses take some chunks off me, but not below 1000hp. Drops from this skirmish include the shield of the Haradrim, a randart mage staff, and the ring of Tulkas.
Hey - a potion of Self Knowledge reveals that I have Black Breath. How did that happen? Oh well - I was going to recall anyway. [Mind you, I still have 5 of 9 GWoChaos to track down for FF.] So off to clean the level, then recall before heading down to Sauron (for which I'll tote down a bunch of extra kit, too.) Oh, look: *another* GV :-). During the clearing of which I discover that potions of Life break the hold of the Black Breath. Cool. Grab a GWoP as a companion, also. Laughing at me, FF gives Summoning as an option, but only +0.400, +0.100. Still, better than Mimicry, Necromancy, or combat. And we're done with the quests - only the two big boys remain.
OK, I find it a bit amusing to be wandering around towns followed by Great Wyrms, who do things like breathing disintegration at harmless-looking merchants...
Back to Ang98. Forget to wear the Anchor and get teleported by my companion's gravity breath! Still, the vampire nest I fall into is not too tough, and I pick up Anarion (actually, I leave it on the ground). Gandalf pops up - timely; wonder if he has any updates on where the One is?
OK. Down to 99. And there's Sauron, charging across the level at me (and the two GWoPs). I opt for the cheesy approach - taking him down with slingshots would just be too much like the easy time I had with my archer - and so let some dragons do the heavy lifting, before stepping in with the final blow. He does, indeed, drop the One. So it must be time to head off to Mordor and Mt. Doom, I guess. Both of my GWoPs gain a level during the fight, which is kind of cool J. Other drops from the fight: Seeker arrow of Bard. That’s it – nothing else made it through squelch. Still, the fight didn’t require a single potion or scroll from me. Good sign.
Then I get a surprise – i didn’t expect ever to replace my double-immunity Black Dragon Scale Mail; but a Dracolisk drops a randart set of White Dragon mail that offers ImmElec (the only one I don’t have elsewhere, all the same resistances, *and* adds shard resistance and reflection! Wow!
I would lose sustaining of STR and DEX with the switch, but I think unless I get into melee with Morgoth that’s a good deal. OK – we’re done, so time to recall and head off to Mt. Doom. Getting close…
MtD85: nothing interesting, really. Ji ‘dies’ and we head on down.
MtD86: a *tiny* level, one circular room of diameter 9. Packed full, but nothing overly scary and the two GWoPs help out. Tempted for a short while by some 40% hp leather armour with ImmElec (and ImmFire), but it’s (-17, -36) (and no useful resistances). Beruthiel is here (whoo!), and Anguirel (tempting, but left).
MtD87: very boring; just a few gargoyles.
MtD88: open level. Again basically unoccupied. The GWoPs find something to go chase out of my detection range, but don’t seem to be the worse from it when i go on down to
MtD89: normal-looking level. Gothmog shows up with a small escort, so I should go take care of him. Nar-i-vagil drops en route amid a bunch of randarts. OK, that escort was not so small – just not all visible…but they go down, after a *long* battle made tough by the narrow corridor leading in and the non-tunnelability of lava. Turns out that summoned animals from totems can often come in ‘behind the flanks’ of enemies, though, which helps. Celeborn’s plate maail, Scale-piercer, now-usual randarts. One is a bolt with +3 attacks, which can replace my currrent +2 once I can find a crossbow to allow wielding it.
Does anyone even try to come down the mountain without ImmFire? If so, I doubt that they get very far! And it would be a *lot* easier if I had some mechanism of *ID*. Just *so* much stuff dropped.
Back to town for a crossbow momentarily; then back down to Ang90. Smallish level, low population. The GWoPs are up to lvl 96 
and 88. No action here – shaft down to
MtD92. Again, very low population. Open level, just a single pit fiend to play with.
MtD93. ‘Normal’ level. A bunch of iron liches as a welcoming committee, but no real interest. Like, 75!! Iron liches. Hack, hack, hack… Bloodspike, Thunderfist, nothing of interest.
MtD94. Ignore the GV I emerge next to – getting bored and/or tired, just trying to get through. Ignore, too, the randart Amulet of Doom! Run down through this, and MtD95, to 96.
No real fun here either. Fundin shows up, and does so again on 97 – persistent! Still diving. 98 looks boring; can’t even be bothered with the huge piles of loot that dragon – demon battles generate.
And….. the top of Mt. Doom. The start room seems to be locked in, so I think I need a means of digging lava, maybe? Gandalf’s here. Hope Sauron is too. And, no, there is a secret door, revealed by the approaching hell knight. OK, good – Sauron is indeed on the scene, so if I am smart I can use Flare to drop in the One first, then again to get back to companions. OK. Down the left side; the group of balrogs poses little obstacle, not summoning anything. Sauron is approaching from above. The bottom-left room is not very threatening, but the next corridor contains several druj and a bone golem (yuck). Again, though, no summons – any reason? – and we make it through untroubled. Sauron is now one room away overhead; time to go for the Flare plan. Crossed fingers (and lightspeed)…
…ok; mostly. Ring-dropping went just fine, with nothing even getting a hit in on me – so the One is GONE. But… all of the friendlies apparently resist teleportation, so swapping back to safety is not working. Instead, I go to the alcove-room just to the left of the Great Fire and I’ll have to hack my way out. Actually, no: this strikes me as a perfect time for Mass Geno. Hope it only works on the other side, though. No, wait – this is a special level. Oh well, so much for that plan J.. Hack it is.
Actually, after some hacking, there’s a plasma hound that’s at the rear of the line of Us facing off against my line of Ds back on bottom left. One quick switch, and now I’m playing the role of flanking troops – the Us are quickly vanquished. Sauron then comes around the corner – but gandalf summons grand master mystics who summon greater hellhounds to fill all the space, and after that it’s just a matter of yet more hacking until the purple p vanishes and the yellow text invites me to go after Morgoth..
Loot: *nothing* from Sauron. Other: Stone-biter, no fewer than twenty-three rings of Speed – and, wow! The Long sword of the Dawn! Never seen this. Sentient? Fits. Maybe I should try levelling this for Morgy – it has ‘slay evil’ already, and is +20, +20 to begin. On the other hand, that ‘clone monster’ flag is interesting. Hmm.
The activation doesn’t seem to work – too bad, summoning the Legion of the Dawn would have been pretty cool for this Moorcock fan! Still, I think I will try Erebor for a moment and see what the clone stuff is about. Can’t Thunderlord there – so try Mordor instead.
Well – so it would probably be worthwhile to level it, but I honestly can’t be bothered. Time to go hunting Morgoth.
Takes 3 levels, down to Ang 102, before I see the signature appearance of a tunnel forming straight toward me. Summon a few sky drakes, give my companion GWoPs a pep talk… (one odd note: recalling from Mt. Doom duplicated my companions, so I currently have 6 GWoP companions. I resisted the temptation to abuse this ;-).
The final battle: Morgoth goes down two stars before he summons: greater undead, but no Nazgul appear. Nothing to be concerned about. Then he tries to summon monsters, but no space, I guess. Too many dragons. Down four stars. Then he gets into melee – has to be an error. Down six stars. The Ds begin to go down, but down another star. A second summon of greater undead, this time including Dwar, but down to only two stars remaining. Then one… and a summons of a *roomful* of water demons. Which go down faster than I expect. I even kill one myself on the way to get next to Morgoth. And then.. it’s done, and the green winning text. Definitely going to try for the Void with this one.
***
Apologies for getting bored with the DitL, but I doubt anyone was reading anyway. Just to finish off by noting that we made it through to god status: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=4312 . That Nether Realm... &%$*%#*^%#.