Well, not copied per se; this is my original write-up of the Parallel Bjorn DitL, from which I cut-n-pasted to post on the Forum. As with my other DitLs, all I've done is fix the occasional glaringly obvious mistake and translate the markup from phpBB to Wiki. [The hardest part of that last, BTW, was the smileys, as there is substantial non-overlap of smiley coverage between the two domains; if any or all of the smileys seem inappropriate for their context… well, that's why. We Apologize for the Confusion.™] -- ZizzoTheInfinite

Contents

  1. The Bogus Journies of Parallel Bjorn
    1. CHAPTER 6, redux
      1. Part 1 of 2
      2. Part 2 of 2
    2. INTERMISSION: Indiana Bjorn and the Last Relic Quest
    3. INTERMISSION: Hairy Punter and the Book of Bjorn
    4. CHAPTER 7: Because It Was There... And, Like, It Had Cool Stuff In It
      1. Part 1 of 9
      2. Part 2 of 9
      3. Part 3 of 9
      4. Part 4 of 9

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Character sheet

Okay, I think I've got enough material now to make a start on:

The Bogus Journies of Parallel Bjorn

As you probably don't recall from my original Bjorn DitL, ;) I had an earlier Bjorn that I retired so I could start the DitL Bjorn from the beginning. With the demise of that Bjorn, I brought the original out of retirement to see how far I could get with him before upgrading to 2.2.7 (since with that version's changes to bear form, the whole Beorning Warper strategy becomes redundant).

"Yeah, ‘cause Eru forbid you should play any of your existing characters once in a while. I mean, it's not like I've been sitting down here doing nothing for… [checks notes] going on three months or anything."

Yes, Gathraka, I know you're anxious to move on to the Spiders quest, but I need to finish writing up your backstory first, or no one will understand why you're doing the quest.

"So? Who cares if they understand?"

I do. It's a matter of artistic pride.

"Oh, great. So I'm stuck down here cooling my heels in Elf town while Monsieur Artiste is up there waiting to achieve enlightenment. grmbl mutter lul kok-ishi…

|) You see what I have to put up with. Anyway, now that I've gotten this Bjorn to the same depth as his predecessor, I've decided to try resuming the story at this point with the new/old Bjorn—a sort of non-continuation continuation, if you will.

And so, once again, I give you Bjorn, the Beorning Warper. Say hello to the nice people, Bjorn.

"Hey, dudes and—whoa, déjà vu! Do I know these people, dude?"

Well, yes and no. This is the audience from the original Bjorn DitL, and since you're sort of taking over for him, you inherit the audience. I don't plan to be too careful about thematic overlap between the two DitLs, which would probably explain your picking up stray memories from the original.

:\ "Dude, have you been sneaking mushrooms from that hobbit farmer guy's field?"

…Excuse me?"

"‘Coz if you've been bogarting those mushrooms, that is, like, totally not cool, dude."

|) Never mind, it'll make more sense as we go along—I hope. Anyway, we'll start with an executive summary of pertinent differences between this Bjorn (as seen here in the updated dump) and the original DitL Bjorn:

Not much else of note to this point; there were doubtless some interesting adventures in there, but my non-DitL notes are rather terse. Let's get this story re-started, then:

CHAPTER 6, redux

Part 1 of 2

We join Bjorn as he's entering:

MoM 47

"You have a superb feeling about this level." This will be a fateful level.

"What? That nice Elf lady didn't say I was gonna, like, die here or something, did she?"

No, but this is the level on which your parallel counterpart died; if you survive it, you will have surpassed him.

"Oh, that again. Whatever. Whoa, lots of Ogres. Halt, you evildoers!"

Some things don't change… ;) We enter in a two-wide section of corridor, and as Bjorn says, we're surrounded by Ogres; one Noxious Cloud, however, takes down the lot of ‘em.

Moving west from there, I encounter a pack of Araneas at the far side of the room I just entered, with an Ancient blue dragon smack in the middle of ‘em. Fortunately, they don't wake up as I back out… *whew*

"Man, I hate these things. One time this kung-fu guy, like, summoned up a whole bunch of them around me, and they almost killed me with their spell things before I… wait, that's not right…"

No, that happened to the other Bjorn. You're picking up his stray memories.

"Whoa." (scratches head) "Guess you weren't bogarting those mushrooms after all. Sorry, dude. But next time, stop me after two, ‘kay?"

|) We, and the room the Araneas are in, are on the northern edge of the level, so we'll need to back up and loop south and west for a better approach. The level seems to be annoyingly laid out, though; I may have to go around my proverbial elbow to get back to those Araneas. My stealth seems to be improving, though, as I sneak up to a sleeping Ancient bronze dragon—and it wakes up just as I get next to it and Essence of Speed expires… :\ No matter, though, he still dies satisfyingly quickly. >:>

Continuing the approach west through some Cave trolls and a flock of young and mature dragons (who drop a Potion of Charisma) finally brings me back to the Araneas from the southwest—but this puts me in the northwest corner of the level, and there appears to be no entrance from this angle. Well, they do seem to be awake now; maybe I can go back to the east approach and lure them out…

Mm, no, the east approach is down a long stretch of corridor, which they won't follow me into, and the nearest room I could lure them into is too far away for them to see me; I'd have to dive into the room and brazen out the whole pack. Hmm, I think there was a side room on the west approach that I couldn't get to; maybe if I could Phase Door into that…

"Uh, dude, do we actually, like, need to kill the spiders?"

…You know, you're right. That kind of reckless heroics is exactly what got your counterpart killed. Leave ‘em be.

The rest of the level proceeds with little incident. A Dark elven sorcer drops a Potion of Dexterity, taking me from 18/75 DEX to 18/81. Nearby, a pack of Black orcs drops:

Enh; it'll sell for a bit. Finally, near the end of the level, in a four-subroom pit, I kill my first Undead beholder with this character. Normally, I avoid these guys like the plague, because they're annoyingly tough and have really annoying attacks, include a drain-charges attack; with my artifact wand, though, I threw caution to the proverbial wind and it fell in three turns. >:> Oh, I also pick up a Potion of Resistance, with an eye toward starting a stockpile.

"What do we need a potion for? That's, like, what this stupid bulky armor is for, isn't it?"

I'm planning ahead; we'll need them when we hit the bottom of Moria.

"Why?"

You'll see. And that's the level; onward to:

MoM 48

"You have a superb feeling about this level." Well, we did it.

"What? That wasn't so hard a level. Oh, you're talking about your perpendicular-me thing again."

Parallel. Never mind, let's see what's so superb about this level. Certainly nothing nearby…

Nothing much of interest happens for a while. A Monastic lich drops a Potion of Charisma; in bear form, I can't tell whether I'm maxed in CHA or not, but I drink it anyway. ;) Further in, an Ethereal dragon pushes me over the top to clvl 40, with skill points going 1 to Bearform-combat, 1 to Temporal and 3 to Spell-power. Essence of Speed is up to spell effect level 46, but my unhasted speed in bear form drops to -13, so my top speed drops to +24. And now that bear form has just expired, I can see that my CHA is in fact maxed.

And with the acquisition of Caspanion from a pack of Algroths and The Lochaber Axe of the Dwarves from an AMHD, my pack is starting to get overfull. I recall to:

Lothlorien

where I *ID*:

I stow Caspanion for possible future use and head to:

Bree

to sell off loot.

"Dude, we've got, like, a million coin or something. Do we need to keep selling stuff?"

Rings of Extra Attacks and Scrolls of Artifact Creation can be even more expensive than that, especially from Black Markets. We want to be able to buy stuff like that, right?

(shrug) "‘Kay."

My Bree house, though, is absolutely jammed full, and I need to put these two artifact weapons somewhere. Okay, looks like it's time to go to:

Minas Anor

and do the:

Haunted House quest

"Excellent! Haunted houses are cool. And it's not even Halloween yet. What's the occasion?"

Actually, this house really is haunted.

"You mean with, like, real ghosts and stuff? Whoa! Why are we going in there, then?"

Because if we can kill all the ghosts and undead in the house, we get to keep it.

"Three houses? Dude, we're gonna be on, like, Lifestyles of the Rich and Bear-shaped at this rate."

|) We just need the house for extra storage space; we won't be living here.

"Oh. ‘Kay. Hey, if I'm gonna be fighting stuff, shouldn't I, like, be in bear form or something?"

[slaps forehead] I keep forgetting about that. :o The quest goes quickly, netting my first Scroll of Mass Genocide and a Potion of Strength that takes me from 18/139 STR to 18/145.

I make a few trips between houses rearranging stuff, ending up back in:

Lothlorien

where I net 3 Potions of Resist Heat from the Black Market, allowing me to ditch the Potion of Resistance.

"Okay, so it's resist fire you're interested in. So we're gonna be running into some really nasty, like, fire thing down at the bottom of Moria, then."

Yes, good catch.

"Hang on, I've got a fire extinguisher around here somewhere…"

Um… yeah. We'll be returning to MoM 48 next time out.

Part 2 of 2

MoM 48, take 2

"You have an excellent feeling…" There are some Hezrou and Water hounds off to our north.

"Hey, that reminds me, what was supposed to be, like, so superb about that last level?"

(shrug) Beats me. After a bit of wandering, and dealing with those Water hounds, I finally get back around to those original Hezrou, who drop my first Potion of Augmentation. :D The rest of the level proceeds without incident, beyond collecting a few baubles:

The junkart is obviously useless, but the armor looks useful, so I'll take it back with me. Onward, then, to:

MoM 49

"You hear the sound of a market."

"Whoa, big dragon! Hey, back off, you!"

Itangast is right next to me as I enter the level. Fortunately, he falls in three turns; unfortunately, he drops nothing of interest. The dungeon town turns out to be in the "scattered" form.

"Dude, no mall? Major inconvenience."

(shrug) Blame the city planners, I suppose. The level is uneventful for a while, until I blunder across my first Hru.

"Who?"

Not 'who', Hru. They do nasty melee damage, but they're only speed +10, so I can probably hack-n-back it. I Phase-Door out into a nearby room to set it up—and find another Hru approaching. Urk. Okay, let's see how this works. Hmm, the stunning effect of my bear-form attacks tends to screw up the rhythm. I try hanging in the fight, hoping he stays stunned; he doesn't of course, and smacks me down to 256/596hp before I teleport out. Okay, then, this will take strategy…

On the way back to the Hrus, a pack of Ghouls with an Ettin in the middle drop:

Man, my Hobbit Summoner could use that sling…

"Oh, that's alright, luv. I've got the babies, they do most of the ‘eavy liftin', if you take my meaning."

Sheesh, what is this, cameo night or something?

"Oi! and what's wrong wit' a lady wantin' to see what she's got to look forward to? I've only just got past Orc Town meself, y'know. And yer bear friend looks to be havin' quite the time of it. Could stand a bit of a trim, though, ‘e could…"

"Uh, dude, keep the spooky hobbit lady and her scissors away from me."

Okay, break it up, you two. Ah, here are the Hrus again. This time I'm more careful: I time my attack on a turn they miss, and then step back and wait for them to approach me before attacking again. They do occasionally get two turns in a row at our current speed differential, so I have to be a little careful, but otherwise they go down fairly easily. (Oh, I should probably mention another tactic I've adopted recently: adjusting Tactic up to 'berzerker' for fights that I expect to be tough, like these.)

After that showdown, the rest of the level seems rather boring. The stores I found were an Axe Smith, a Polearm Smith, a Footwear Shop, a Rare Footwear Shop, a Scribe, and a Recaller; nothing of interest, really. Now, though, it gets interesting:

MoM 50

"You have a superb feeling about this level." Not really, considering the room I enter into is full of Ogrillons and Water hounds. I teleport out immediately, into a different room with assorted trolls and a 3-headed hydra. Much better. ;)

"So, like, where's the big nasty fire thing?"

Well, Sense Monsters doesn't detect him anywhere nearby; let's go looking for him… Uh-oh, he just walked into the room we're in. Okay, Bjorn, here goes…

"Right. Halt, you very hot evildoer!"

I toss back one of the !oRH's and dive into the fray… and it's over in three turns, and he only took me down to 542/596hp.

"Dude, that was, like, totally lame."

I agree, Durin's Bane was way oversold; he didn't even have a demon escort, as my notes predicted. He did have some interesting bits in his loot, though:

Well, mildly interesting, at least. And as long as I'm *ID*ing, stuff, there's this junkart I picked up earlier:

"What a waste, dude."

Well, there is a large and rather nasty-looking vault below us, near the southwest corner of the level; maybe it'll have something interesting in it. Let's check the rest of the level first, though… okay, here's another vault, near the center of the level.

A quick sweep of the rest of the level nets a randart Thunderlord Coat and pushes me to clvl 41, with skill points going 1 to Bearform-combat, 1 to Temporal, and 3 to Spell-power. Essence of Speed is up to spell effect level 48, bringing my top speed back up to +25, and I now have 13 attacks in bear form.

Okay, back to the second vault, which appears to be a lesser vault (temple of sety)—and already there's a Lesser Balrog tunneling its way out to me. It falls without too much trouble, since I had a chance to prepare for it; there's another one in the vault, though, which I lure out and take down as it wakes up. There's nothing else dangerous in the vault, and no interesting loot, beyond a Ring of Damage one point higher than the one I'm wearing.

Back to the first vault, then, which, now that I look at it, doesn't actually appear to correspond to any of the vaults in lib/edit/v_info.txt. It's a large maze structure, lined heavily with traps. Here's what it looked like after I cleaned it out: 

#^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^...}|){}(^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
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Shadowfax is already emerging out of the entry at the north; I teleport him away. Nasty monsters in the vault include a Lesser Balrog, two Master mystics, and a Nycadaemon, who summons another Master mystic. Fortunately, since it's a maze, there's usually a corner I can lure them around to ambush them. The Nycadaemon has me worried for a bit, though; it seems even tougher than the Lesser Balrog, and by the time I kill it, it appears to have done about 150hp of damage just from the fire-aura effect of me hitting it. /!\

In the end, though, I am victorious. ;) Net from the vault includes a Potion of Wisdom, two Potions of Constitution, and:

Oh, and that randart armor from earlier:

/!\ :D I think we can make use of that. Oh, the vault also nets a Mithril Rod of Nothing and a Rod Tip of Recall, which would make a useful emergency backup for my Recall spell. Now to find some down stairs…

"Uh, I thought this was the bottom, dude. How are we gonna go down from here?"

Remember I said Moria had two exits? Well, one of them is at the bottom.

"Oh… whuh?"

Here, let me show you:

Wilderness

"Whoa, dude, we're on top of the mountains! Wait, how did we get way up here by going down in the dungeon?

Umm… let me get back to you on that. We proceed south to:

Khazad-dum

"Weird, a town way up here in the mountains. Hey, is this, like, a ski lodge or something? Dude, let's go check out some snow bunnies." ;)

Sorry, no snow bunnies; this is where the Dwarves that work in Moria live.

"Oh… were there dwarves working in Moria while we were in there?"

We must have missed them.

"Sneaky little short dudes… Hey, maybe there are dwarven snow bunnies."

Um, bear in mind that dwarven snow bunnies tend to have two-foot beards.

"Oh." *shudder* "Never mind, dude."

|) None of the stores have anything interesting, and the weapon store has a 10Kgp cap, so I don't want to sell any of my loot here. Shame, my pack is bursting here. Oh well, we return to:

MoM 50

"You have a good feeling…"

"Uh, dude, why are we back in the dungeon?"

We have to recall from the dungeon to get back to Lothlorien. If we'd recalled from Khazad-dum, we'd have lost the link to Lorien, and we would've had to climb all the way back out of Moria the hard way.

"Oh… why?"

Because Moria has two exits. Remember the map bug coming out of Lothlorien after recalling from Moria? It's related to that.

"Oh. ‘Kay. That'll make it kinda hard to come back, though, won't it?"

Yeah, but we probably won't be coming back very often. Anyway, I kill off a few nearby monsters and ID a few items on the floor of the room where I enter—and one of them is The Demonhorn of Gothmog. /!\ That's the very last scrap of space in my pack, though, so I recall back to:

Loth^W^W^W^WWilderness

Ack! Maybe we did lose the link to Lorien. Oh well, at least we came out at the top exit, near:

Bree

where we sell off loot and *ID*:

The randart Ring Mail is pretty much useless, so I sell it (and to confirm my judgment, it only goes for 7722gp); the potentially useful stuff I stow here, leaving Gothmog and Calris to stow in:

Minas Anor

Back in:

Lothlorien

the Black Market has some Athelas, which I buy to augment my stockpile.

"So now where to, dude?"

Next we have some quests to pick off…

INTERMISSION: Indiana Bjorn and the Last Relic Quest

First off, we're going to do the fifth and final relic quest.

"Uh, dude, I thought we weren't doing any of those Manwe god dude quest things anymore. Remember, really fast See-through hounds? Butt-kicking by mushrooms?"

That wasn't you, that was the other Bjorn.

"Oh, right… whuh?"

Besides, this time we've got an edge. Our spell effect level for the Vision spell is high enough to map and light the entire level—which also reveals everything on the floor of the level.

"Oh, I get it. So if the relic thing is there, we know right where to go to get it. And if it's not there, we don't have to search the whole level to find out, we can just, like, go right to the stairs to the next level."

Even better: remember, the quest code attempts to place the relic every time the level is generated. So if the relic isn't on the first level of the temple, we just climb back out to the surface and go back in again to regenerate the level and try for the relic again.

"Whoa, totally devious! Dude, is that legal?"

Well, no doubt there are some who would consider it cheesy; under the circumstances, though, I'm prepared to live with it. ;) [Editor's note: I'm actually taking some literary license here; in fact, I already used this trick for the third and fourth relic quests, following the suggestion from Atarlost and Quixote.]

Now we've just got to find it. Let's see… [consults map] "quite some way to the south-west of Bree and a long way to the north-west of Minas Anor" looks like it works out to somewhere south of the Old Forest, near where the Greyflood hits the sea.

"So, Manwe god dude still isn't one for road maps, eh?"

As you say. Since we're going to be wandering around near deep water, I'm gonna turn off the shimmering effects for a while. We acquire a fate while we're looking; remind me to check that when we get back home, Bjorn.

"‘Kay."

And it looks like my map-reading skills need some work; I eventually find the temple in the mountains southwest of the Old Forest, about halfway to the Sandworm Lair. :o Okay, here we go:

LTm -25

"This level can't be all bad…" Nope, no relic here; let's try again:

LTm -25, take 2

"Looks like any other level." Oops, Clear hounds next to me, and I'm not ready. They get in a couple hits on me as I power up and cast Vision; luckily the relic isn't on this level, so I can just bolt and try again:

LTm -25, take 3

"Looks like any other level." The level is a 3x5 small level; I enter into an unconnected tiny room, and the relic is in another room nearby: 

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(I've taken the liberty of replacing the relic on the map with my preferred circle-R symbol so that it can be distinguished from all the pools of water.) Hmm, I could just Phase Door out of here, but that might land me in line of sight of that Quasit with his teleport-level spell. I wonder if the relic is in range of my Recall spell… nope. Okay, let's try using it to swap positions with that Young spirit off to our southwest… ah, much better. A short hop later and the relic is in our… um, Manwe's grasp.

"So that's it, huh? That's all the pieces of this relic thing?"

Yep. I think this is the first time I've completed all five relic quests with a character.

"Man, that was downright anti-climatical after that mushroom butt-kicking incident."

Um… yeah. Now let's go back home and see what I can do with all this Prayer skill…

Lothlorien

"Dude, don't forget to wind your watch… uh, I mean, check your fate. ('Wind your watch'? Man, where'd that come from?)"

;) Right, off to Galadriel to learn that… I'm fated to find a Scroll of Door/Stair location on dlvl 27. |)

"Dude, would it be wrong of me to say that the nice Elf lady is hot?"

Well, I wouldn't say it to her face. Or to her husband's.

"Aw, man, the hot ones are always taken."

Ah, to be young and hormonal again… ;) The Black Market has a Potion of Strength that takes me from 18/130 STR to 18/136. Hmm, must be getting close to max on that one.

Okay, now it's time for some spell review. My Prayer skill level is now 15.000; I've got 28 spare skill points in my skill plan aimed for Prayer (it was previously 25, but I got a Fumblefingers boost to Conveyance), which at a multiplier of 0.500 would increase it to 29.000. I'm currently getting a +17 boost to spell effect level from Spell-power, which will increase to +20 once I've maxed that skill.

Now, let's check our Holy Tome of Manwe Sulimo. Manwe's Blessing is currently at spell effect level 32, so it now has all the effects, including the temporary luck boost and hold life; an increase in spell effect level would only buy me increased duration. Wind Shield is currently at spell effect level 23, so it too now has the full shield effect, including retaliatory damage; an increase in spell effect level would buy me increased duration and a slight increase in AC bonus and retaliatory damage amount. I'm close to being able to cast Manwe's Call, and with this allocation, it will max out at spell effect level 30, summoning level-62 Great eagles—which, by my calculations, should average +35 speed, 468hp, 185AC, and nearly doubled attack damage. Not bad, but I'd have to adjust my "friendlies" strategy. Avatar, alas, is out of reach.

Then there's the side schools for Manwe. 29 in Prayer is equivalent to 19 in Air, which would net me the Poison Blood and Invisibility spells. Invisibility is probably useless; the temporary resist poison from Poison Blood would be useful at times, but its poison brand effect only works with weapons. Actually, I'd get Wings of Winds too, with my high Conveyance skill, but I'm already getting levitation and flight from Manwe prayer. Oh, and we can't forget Noxious Cloud, currently at spell effect level 25—only five levels away from doing 'unbreath' damage.

Let's see, we also get Meta and Conveyance from Prayer with Manwe. Conveyance I've already got more than adequately covered; for Meta, I get an effective skill level of 9 from 29 Prayer, which would only me the Recharge spell. Actually, I can already cast that at my current skill level; I should try to pick up a spellbook for that.

As for my "normal" schools, I've already got all the spells in Divination and Temporal, though I'm currently only using Essence of Speed from the Temporal school. Wonder if there's anything else useful there… hmm, Banishment doesn't really buy me anything that I'm not already getting from Teleport Away, Slow Monsters is probably redundant since I'm already faster than most monsters (and the ones I'm not faster than are probably the very ones that would resist the spell anyway), and the glyphs of warding from Magelock don't really fit into my playing strategy. In Conveyance, I've got every spell but Probability Travel, and I'd only need five more skill points to pick that up. Hmm, I hadn't originally planned on picking that one up, but I do have the skill points to spare; I wonder how useful it would be. Opinions from the audience?

INTERMISSION: Hairy Punter and the Book of Bjorn

Next we're going to do the Library quest in Minas Anor.

"Yeah, I know all about that, dude. Every time I go to the library, it's like some major quest just to find the book I want."

|) Not that kind of quest. There's an Old Mage in Minas Anor whose library has been invaded by monsters; we're going to go clear them out.

"Oh. We aren't gonna get to, like, keep the library afterward, are we?"

No, it's not a house quest. Instead he'll make a custom spellbook for us.

"Aw, bogus, man, not another spellbook to carry around…"

Don't worry, it'll replace one of the books you're carrying. Besides, you've got it better than the other Bjorn; he didn't have nearly the luck with Tomes that you've had. He was carrying seven books when he died, and didn't have nearly as many spells as you did.

"Yeah, yeah, and he had to hike five miles to the dungeon through waist-deep snow, uphill both ways. Seen it, taped it, taped over it, dude."

Sheesh, young'uns these days… One last thing to do before I head out: I use my last bit of fireproofing from the Old Mage quest to fireproof the Holy Tome of Manwe Sulimo I've been saving up.

"What about that Time Tome you were saving?"

I won't need it after the quest. That done, we proceed to:

Minas Anor

Just for the variety, I made a cmovie of the quest, which turned out to be rather pedestrian. I picked up one junkart in the quest:

For the custom book, I went with Manathrust, Globe of Light, and Essence of Speed.

"But dude, you've already got the speed spell on that necklace thing."

Yes, but I'll almost certainly want to swap in another amulet eventually; the Amulet of the Magi's bonuses are nice, but the to-hit and to-dam penalties are annoying. With that taken care of, we return to:

Lothlorien

to prepare for our next outing.

"So, where to next, dude?"

Either Mordor or the Sacred Land of Mountains; I haven't decided yet.

CHAPTER 7: Because It Was There... And, Like, It Had Cool Stuff In It

Part 1 of 9

"So, have you decided where we're going next?"

I think we'll go with the Sacred Land of Mountains.

"Whoa. What's sacred about ‘em?"

(shrug) "Dunno. That's just what they're called.

"So why are we going there first?"

Well, Mordor's got a lot of lava streamers in it, and there's a guaranteed source of fire immunity at the bottom of the Land of Mountains.

"But all our spellbooks are fireproof now, right? Well, except the one with the be-nice spell in it, but we don't use that one much anymore."

True, but the lava will still do damage to us.

"Yeah, okay. So what's this Land of Mountains like?"

Like Moria, but tougher. Mostly flying monsters—dragons, demons, stuff like that.

"Cool. Let's do it."

That's the spirit. On the way overland to LoM, though, I get a fate. Mm, should I go back? If I don't, Murphy's Law says it'll be a death fate on the level I'm about to enter. Oh well, back to:

Lothlorien

where I learn that I'm fated to find a Scroll of Door/Stair Location on dlvl 27. |) Let's try this again, shall we? This time I actually make it all the way to:

LoM 45

"You have a superb feeling about this level." What, just for a change? |) The level is boring for a bit, until I run into Quaker. Hmm, he's tough, but he's only normal speed. I back up and fire up Manwe's Blessing and Wind Shield (I think I'm gonna like this new addition to my arsenal… ;) ) and pummel him down in four turns. Hmph, he seemed pretty stunned for a monster that's supposed to be resistant to stunning.

"Well, hey, we are the power team, right, dude?"

Indeed. I get an opportunity to try one of my other new spells when a Drolem shows up… oh, that's right, I can't cast Poison Blood yet. :o Remind me to push Prayer my next few clvls, Bjorn.

"‘Kay."

Doesn't matter, though, the Drolem dies quickly enough. A bit further in, I get a reminder of why one doesn't approach an AMHD head-on down a straight corridor; one lightning breath drops me to 395/625hp. Not to worry, though; I just Phase Door out and lure him into an ambush. >:>

"Dude, my hair's gonna be standing on end for a week. Bummer."

You think that's bad? Take a look at these two rings dropped by an Ancient black dragon further in:

"Whoa, totally heinous. You win, dude."

|) Maybe we'll have better luck on:

LoM 46

"You have an excellent feeling…" Not with that AMHD right down the corridor, I don't. Hmm, it seems to be asleep, let's see if I can sneak up on it… slam dunk! And it takes me over the top to clvl 42.

"Dude, you wanna push–"

Prayer, right; specifically, 3 to Prayer, 1 to Bearform-combat and 1 to Temporal. One more of those and I should be able to cast Poison Blood. To continue the positive swing, I find a Potion of Dexterity in a nearby room, taking me from 18/100 DEX to 18/103. Hmm, I'm getting quite a few stats close to max.

The level turns out to be a 1x3 small level, and thus goes swiftly, netting another Potion of Dexterity (and 18/106 DEX thereby) and:

Hmm, tough call between this and The Long Bow of Gured that I'm currently wielding; I'd lose a point of STR, DEX and CON and gain a point of INT, WIS and speed. I'll take it with me for later consideration. In the meantime, the level is done, and we proceed to:

LoM 47

All together now: "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"You know, it kinda loses its impact after a while."

It does indeed—especially when there's nothing noticeably superb about the level. Well, I did get this from a pack of Cave trolls:

but I wouldn't call that superb.

"Dude, I'd call that heinous."

I agree wholeheartedly. We'll try again on:

LoM 48

"You have a good feeling…" Kinda slow for a while, until I run into Kavlax. He wakes up and gets in a lightning breath as I'm bringing up Manwe's Blessing and Wind Shield, taking me to 453/635hp. Hmm, he's got some nasty breaths, including sound, which I don't currently resist, and gravity, which AFAIK I can't; should I bolt?

"No way, dude, this guy's messed up my hair again. Kick his butt!"

Your command is my wish, Bjorn. Kavlax falls in two turns and drops nothing of interest. Further exploration reveals that the level is a 1x5 small level, so it passes quickly, netting a Potion of Wisdom from a Shade. Onward, then, to:

LoM 49

"You hear the sound of a market."

"Whoa, there's a mall way up here in the mountains? Looks like a dump, though."

Well, supposedly there used to be lots of towns up here; this looks like the ruins of one of them.

"Ruins, huh? Has anyone told the shopkeepers?"

Speaking of which, the shops in town include an Expensive Black Market, a Soothsayer, a Hafted Smith, a Polearm Smith, a Footwear Shop, a Common Shop, an Axe Smith and a Recaller.

"Dude, don't trust those mall fortune tellers. They're all fakes."

Heh. Nothing of interest in the stores, besides a Potion of *Healing* from the Expensive Black Market for my stockpile. The rest of the level is fairly straightforward, beyond a Draconic Q that summons a Death drake. First Death drake since… *shudder* This time, though, I have resist nether—and more important, I'm mobile. >:>

"Yeah, that's what you get for killing me… I mean, killing my… uh… dude, can you explain it to me again?"

;) One more point of interest: a Potion of Strength dropped by a pack of Vrocks. I think one more of those will max my STR. Oh, and on the way to the stairs, an AMHD drops:

"Uh… it's a hat that sings?"

Yeah, but it's got great armor class. If our equipment slots weren't so restricted, it might be worth it.

"Yeah, but dude, it sings. That's as bad as those bogus animatronical talking fish things."

Mm, I hadn't thought of it that way. Anyway, let's move on to:

LoM 49

"You have a superb feeling about this level." Yeah, I've heard that before. Although this toy dropped by another Death drake isn't bad:

Good potential as a future swap-in. Ah, this must be the source of the superb felling: a vault. Looks like a small one, though. We'll come back for this.

Hmm, or maybe this is the superb bit: Smaug's sitting in the middle of a room not far from the vault. All right, Bjorn, power up and let's head in.

"Right. Oh, mighty god dude Manwe, grant me your protection…"

Well, our stealth must be improving, because we sneak right up on him. He gets in a couple good hits, including a cause-wounds spell, but he falls in three turns and drops, among other junk:

Not bad, but now my pack is full. Well, let's see how much more of the level I can do.

Not much further without making some decisions, it seems; a troll pit nets:

Urk. Okay, I can put Bullseye in the quiver, and ditch this Sprig of Athelas…

The rest of the level finishes without incident, so I return to the vault, which appears to be a lesser vault (Minor Boss Vault) with nothing but a Silver mouse and a Quarterstaff of Slay Evil in it. Talk about anticlimactic. And I really need to get out of here:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about that. Let's see, first let's go to:

Lothlorien

to stow some stuff. Hmm, I can sell off this Ring of Poison Resistance now, since it's a strict subset of what Landel's got. And speaking of selling stuff, next stop is:

Bree

to sell off the one bit of saleable kit I managed to get out of the dungeon with (a Frozen Broad Sword of *Slay Demon*) and offload some of these artifacts—at least the ones that'll fit; the rest have to go to:

Minas Anor

Man, I miss the large Mathom-house… Back in:

Lothlorien

I restock and prepare to return to LoM 49 next time out.

Part 2 of 9

LoM 49, take 2

"Looks like any other level." Man, my stealth must really be improving; I just waded through an entire pack of Vrocks, and not one of themem woke up. A few rooms further in, I find lying on the floor a Mongbat raw meat. Presumably dropped there just to squick me. *shudder*

"Eww, that is totally…" *sniff sniff* "Saaaaay…"

No. I've heard enough horror stories about eating pieces of the wrong monsters and getting blown up or something.

"Aw, man…" *sniff* "Ugh, on second, thought, maybe you're right. Being in bear form does weird things to my appetite."

Nothing much to report for a while, until I find myself entering a rather large dark room, with a Time vortex nearby and a white 'p' off on the far side. Okay, the human I can probably ignore for now; the Time vortex definitely has higher priority–

The Ranger chieftain magically summons monsters!

And I'm surrounded by Hill trolls. Oh. Okay, that's mildly annoying; now I have to fight through the trolls to get to the Time vort–

The Time vortex breathes time. You feel life has clocked back. The Ranger chieftain magically summons monsters!

And now, along with the trolls, the vortex and the increasingly annoying Ranger chieftain, I'm looking at two Qs, a Vampire bat, and a Dreadmaster.

"Uh, dude, maybe we should get out of here."

No, not us; I think everyone else should go. One Teleport Away spell later, all that's left (briefly) is a single Hill troll that got stuck in one of the corridors entering the room, just out of my line of sight. Kinda feels good teleporting a Nexus Q away for a change… >:>

Well, I guess I should go hunt these twerps down. The Nexus Q, speak of the devil, didn't go far; he's in a corridor not far from the room I'm in, perfectly positioned at a corner for me to sneak up on him and SMACK him very hard… >:> The rest seem to have been scattered to the winds. The one guy I didn't want to run into, of course, was the Knight Templar I teleported away earlier to avoid taking the piety hit for killing him; naturally, that's exactly who I blunder into and smack around while not paying attention across a screen change. I teleport him away again, but alas, the damage is done, and he bleeds to death somewhere offscreen.

"Aw man, too bad. Guess we need to go kill something really nasty to make up for it, huh?"

Ah, the inveterate optimism of youth… ;) The trolls and the Vampire bat apparently ended up loosely bunched in the area of a few adjacent rooms; individually, they fall quickly. And apparently the Time vortex was right offscreen from them, as it has just wandered in to play. I warn you, though, we play rough… >:>

More searching… and look, here comes Scatha to play with us. [checks notes] Hmm, he's almost as tough as Smaug, but not quite.

"*snort* Smog wasn't so tough. Let's do it. Halt, you very cold evildoer!"

Heh. Scatha, like Smaug, turned out to be a three-turn wonder (once I remembered to crank up Tactic, that is); he drops:

Ouch, not with that huge damage penalty; let it lie. Hmm, just north of here, near the northwest corner, there appears to be a vault of some sort. We'll come back for that… hmm, no, actually, it looks like I have to go through the vault to get to the rest of the level. It turns out to be a lesser vault (Little League Treasure Hoard)—and "little league" turns out to be an apt description of the "hoard" therein, too.

In a large room/cavern a short hop to the west of the vault, I finally find that annoying Ranger chieftain—and he's bought a friend this time. But this time, I've got a corridor corner to lure him around. >:> Hmm, looks like he also brought some of the trolls and the Dreadmaster from the original gaggle, not to mention a Vampire lord, who had the courtesy to drop not one but two Potions of Dexterity. And my DEX is now maxed at 18/110. :D :D

And that finishes the level. Onward, then, to:

LoM 51

"You have a superb feeling about this level." Mm, nearby monsters are interesting, but not superb. Let's see what we've got here… well, here's something kinda superb from that Ancient black dragon I saw coming in:

Well, maybe not superb per se, but not bad.

"Hey, dude, do you hear fighting nearby?"

Well, let's go check. And look who's here again: Beorn, fighting a Vampire lord—and not doing well, considering that the Vampire lord is as yet unharmed. A Cloud giant is sleeping nearby; must be a heavy sleeper.

"Aw man, is he crazy or something? Get us in there, dude, we gotta bail him out."

As you say. We cast Recall to swap places with Beorn and take down the Vampire lord.

"Wh– hey! I had him, ya crazy cub!"

"Gramps, you weren't even hitting him. Now I better take out this Very large electric guy, just in case."

"Oh, no ya don't, ya whelp! I'll handle that. Mizzleflam!" A Killer brown beetle appears next to the Cloud giant—and misses him.

"Ooh, yeah, good shot. Here, I'll–"

Let him take this one, Bjorn.

"Why?"

It might help get you back on his good side.

"Rgh… oh, okay. But that giant bug's not gonna cut it." We cast Recall to swap Beorn back into place. "There, Gramps, you want him, you got him." Two turns later, Beorn takes down the Cloud giant—after summoning another pack of Giant army ants to help and losing half his hit points in the process, but we'll overlook that.

"And that's how you kill a giant. Run along now, friends." The insects scatter off into the dungeon. [Actually, I dismiss them. -ed] "Hmph… well… you're looking fit, lad. That bulky chain mail doesn't suit ya, though."

"Yeah, I keep telling dude that, but he says I gotta wear it."

It's our best source of resist poison for now.

"Ah… yes, well, poison resistance is important down at these depths."

"Yeah… so…"

"Yes, well… you, you watch yourself down here, lad. It's dangerous at these depths. Believe me, I know." And Beorn wanders off. [Yes, I dismissed him again, but that doesn't write up as well. -ed]

"Dude, did that just happen?"

It did.

"He didn't insult me, or call me an inexperienced kid or nothing. Wait, this whole parallel business couldn't have accidentally swapped him with a cool Grampa Beorn from some alternate dimension, could it?"

Not to my knowledge. He may actually be developing some respect for you.

"Whoa…"

Awww… ;) The level proceeds with incident for a while, until I run into the Queen Ant a few rooms further in.

"Wait, haven't I already killed her? No, wait… was that, like, the other me?"

Very good, you're getting the hang of this.

"Dude, I have gotta lay off those mushrooms…"

Or not. |) Her Antness is, alas, awake as I enter the room, and summons Giant fire ants around me. I drop some Noxious Clouds in the area to clear a path, and the Queen Ant makes the mistake of charging me instead of summoning more ants. She falls in two turns, and what's left of her entourage doesn't last much longer. She drops nothing of interest.

The level is rather boring for a while, until I find an innocent looking pit-style room, the kind with the tiny "pillar" room in the middle. Well whatever is in that pillar-room has a summon-monster spell, as it demonstrates by summoning Crebains and Half-trolls at me from around the corner—at least, I think it's in there, but it's not showing up on Sense Monsters. After clearing out the rabble, I finally make it into the room to find that the cause of my troubles was a Greater mimic. At least it has the decency to leave me a Potion of Strength in recompence. ;) And that maxes my STR at 18/160. :D :D

And just as I think I've finished the level, Thranduil's sense evil picks up a pack of ancient dragons, including two AMHDs (one a Zombie), two Ethereal dragons, a Dracolisk and a Dracolich. /!\ Okay, first I need to find a corner to set up the ambush…

Well, that wasn't too bad. The toughest, of course, were the Dracolisk and the Dracolich, taking four turns each. In most cases I could finish a dragon before the next one came around the corner, but even when I didn't, the extra dragons made the mistake of not breathing on me. Between them, they dropped:

/!\ Oh, man, are the +3 attacks worth the chaotic effects? We'll try it for a while and see what happens.

"Right. *rrg rmph* Uh, dude, it won't go in the quiver."

That's because we're currently wielding a Long Bow. Let's see, there's gotta be a crossbow somewhere in this pile of dragon loot… @#$%. We'll have to go find one. [scans map] Oh yeah, there's one in that long corridor along the south edge of the level, back where we took out a pack of Water trolls. Some Light hounds seem to have taken up residence in the corridor now, but they're quickly evicted, and with a bit of equipment juggling, I'm now the proud owner of 16 attacks per round and 700 hit points, without Manwe's Blessing active. :D :D

And after that, the last few bits of the level are downright anti-climactic. We continue to:

LoM 52

"You have a good feeling…" I'm only 5000 or so exp away from the next level, and sure enough, a pack of Multi-hued hounds pushes me over the top to clvl 43, with skill points going 1 to Bearform-combat and 4 to Prayer. I can now cast Poison Blood—and I do, in case any of these hounds gets a breath in on me.

The level turns out to be a 1x3 small level, and interestingly, there's a room on the north end that appears entirely inaccessible—and according to Sense Monsters, it's swarming with Greater wall monsters: 

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