Contents

  1. Parallel Gathraka, part 2
    1. Chapter 6 (cont.)
      1. TDG 67 (take 2) thru TDG 70
        1. Chatter (1.1)
    2. Intermission
        1. Chatter (2.1)
    3. Intermission: Ring Hunting
      1. Part 1
      2. Part 2
    4. Chapter 7
      1. Ang 67 thru Ang 70
      2. Ang 70 (take 2) thru Ang 74
      3. Ang 74 (take 2) thru Ang 78
      4. Ang 78 (take 2) thru Ang 83
        1. Chatter (4.4)

Part 1, Part 2
Latest segment
Latest character sheet (after this segment)

Parallel Gathraka, part 2

Chapter 6 (cont.)

TDG 67 (take 2) thru TDG 70

"So, you calmed down up there, Human?"

Yes, ma'am. :o ;)

"Good. I got a Necromancer to talk to. After I bounce his head off the floor a couple times, mind you."

Let's get back to it, then:

TDG 67, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

Any other 3x3 small level, in particular. A Great Bile Wyrm greets me early on, taking six turns to kill. I think I'm gonna have to start swapping Mormegil in for this sort of thing more often.

"Suits me fine."

Like for this Great Storm Wyrm in the next room, for instance. ;) Three turns under Mormegil's wrath; much better. The earthquake effect is still annoying, though…

"Hey, don't knock it, Human. That lizard got bopped in the head by a chunk of ceiling in the middle of the fight; that's always good for a laugh." >:>

[re-reads messages] So it did. After that, nothing of particular note–

"Hey, Human, can you make out what this scroll says? I think it's Elvish, but I can only read a few bits: something about ‘great power’ and ‘imbue’?"

*blink* A Scroll of Artifact Creation. Whoa… Hmm, since we've got fire immunity from Trone's coat, I'm gonna risk not taking a detour back home and stowing this for safety.

"Well, that's always good to hear. But what does it do?"

It turns an ordinary item into an artifact—hence the name.

"Ooh, you mean I could take an ordinary sword and turn it into something like the big sword?"

Well, I doubt we'd get something as powerful as Mormegil, but yeah, that's the basic idea. In the meantime, though, I thought you were in a hurry to go face off against the Necromancer.

"Right, gotta keep our priorities straight here."

As you say:

TDG 68; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Bit late with that revelation… ;) A 3x1 small level, with absolutely nothing to recommend it. Fast-forward, then, to:

TDG 69; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

A 1x3 small level; telepathy from my amulet is picking up a Bile Demon nearby, which probably accounts for a fair chunk of the "superbness".

*slash slash slash* "Don't see why."

Well, four turns to kill isn't exactly chicken feed. Of course, that was without Mormegil or berzerker tactic…

"Precisely my point."

Yes, ma'am. ;) There's nothing else obviously superb on the level, though, so that must have been it.

"Bleh. How much further, Human?"

We just arrived:

TDG 70; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

[squints] "I don't see him."

No, nothing on telepathy yet. The level is 3x3, though, so he can't be too far off.

"Got anything about him in those notes of yours?

Yes, I do: [checks notes] 8200hp, speed +20, decent melee damage, including blindness and disenchantment attacks, which could be a problem, since we don't resist either of those. Also a whole raft of really annoying spells that we hope he won't be able to get off.

"‘Bout as bad as Trone, then. Yeah, I can take him. Come on out, ya coward!"

As expected, the Necromancer turns up fairly quickly, in the northwest corner of the level.

"All right, gimme the lay of the local geography here."

A quick swap-in of our Feanorian Lamp of the Ethereal Eye gives us a magic-map of the immediate vicinity. And it looks like the Necromancer is pinned behind some rubble, just south of the empty monster-pit-shaped room coming up to our west. Well, not exactly empty; there are a few Black orcs and an Ethereal dragon in it, which I finish off first so they don't interrupt us in the middle of our fight.

"Heads up, Human, here he comes!"

The Necromancer is awake, and has found another corridor into the room we're in—and has also found a secret door in the outer ring, and has popped through, right next to us… :o

You are… earlier than I had expected. Though if you defeated Trone, I suppose my tower presented little challenge to you.

"Well, I was in something of a hurry, after all." And speaking of being in a hurry, :o I hurriedly switch to berzerker/running and toss back a !oSpd, during which the Necromancer gets a blindness hit on us. "I mean, who wouldn't be anxious to meet their creator?"

Ah, yes, that. The Necromancer gets in another round of attacks as we swap in Mormegil, bringing us down to 1188/1336hp. Trone was… confused on that matter. The copy you saw we created as a fallback, after you… went rogue.

"‘Went rogue’?" Our first round of attacks knocks the Necromancer down one star, and heals us back up to 1288/1336hp. And the earthquakes apparently woke up a Gelugon in the room to our south. Hopefully I'll be done here before it gets to me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

You… escaped our influence. The Necromancer wastes a turn trying to cast a spell as we activate Hammerhand's berzerk power. We did not expect you to abandon your tribe so soon.

"Their idea, not mine." Ah, much better; our second round of attacks knocks the Necromancer down two stars, and his return attack only knocks us down to 1313/1366hp. "And just for reference, who's ‘we’?"

Surely you must have guessed by now. Another attack takes the Necromancer down to five stars, and us down to 1268/1366hp. Did not Galadriel send you?

"Yeah, she said– sha! Where'd he go?" Oops, there goes the Necromancer, teleported away by Mormegil's chaotic effects. I thought I wasn't going to need to turn on teleport jamming for this fight, since the Necromancer resists teleportation. Fortunately, he didn't get far, and he turns up again quickly, down to three stars and trying to find a way through the earthquake carnage around us. We end up having to dig our way through to him, long enough for our !oSpd to wear off. We toss back another before punching through the last wall to let him in—after turning on teleport jamming this time…

"You finished running, coward?" The Necromancer wastes a turn casting a spell at us as we swap Mormegil back in, and our next attack knocks him down to one star. And the Gelugon apparently followed him in, and has punched through by another route and gotten next to us.

Yes, I am through running and hiding. And if Galadriel did not tell you who I really am, then you can tell her! One more round of attacks is enough to finish off the Necromancer, pushing Mormegil up to level 29. I am Sauron, the Sorcerer! You think you have won some great victory, dispatching my mortal shell? Ha! I am beyond your power to destroy, even with the sword of Túrin Turambar! Go and tell Galadriel her end is nigh!

"Well, someone's certainly full of himself." I swap out Mormegil to finish off the Gelugon, so as not to destroy any of the Necromancer's loot, which turns out not to be terribly impressive. Speaking of Mormegil, it appears not to have gained a power this level, just more to-hit/to-dam bonuses, up to (+4,+2) now. "Ah, skai, I forgot to make him tell me who ‘we’ was before he got away. Ah well, if he's still kicking, I can just track him down again. Any idea what that whole ‘Sauron’ business was about?"

Yes, and Galadriel will definitely want to hear about it. Let's head back and tell her, in fact:

Lothlorien

We *ID*:

Hmm, I suppose I could use Durin's ring to monetize high-value loot; I'll stow that here, along with the Scroll of Artifact Creation—which requires Mathoming a few artifact weapons to make room… :o

"So are we actually gonna use that scroll you were so excited about?"

I have to decide what to use it on first…

Chatter (1.1)

ZizzoTheInfinite: And an updated character sheet through Dol Guldur. And as always, I'm open to suggestions about what to use the Scroll of Artifact Creation on. I've actually still got Gathraka's original starting Dark Sword, which would be nicely symbolic, but I don't think it would disenchant back down.

Sirrocco: Well, I don't know much about the particulars of Artifact Creation, but it occurs to me that you could do worse than to buy a normal amulet of telepathy from the Royal Jeweller and enchant that. Other than that, though, why *wouldn't* it disenchant back down? (given what it's replacing, it would be both symbolic and useful.) Is disenchant resistance so prevalent in dark sword artys? Also, I think Artifact Creation maintains old plusses. If it does, your ring of slaying might work out well. If it doesn't, you might try one of your rings of speed.

ZizzoTheInfinite: Well, artifacts resist being disenchanted in general, yes? Actually, I take that back, I think I have had artifacts disenchanted on me, so it could be done; I just don't know if her patience would hold… :o Ooh, problem, though: if it picks up any pval-based bonuses, I'd have to push the to-hit/to-dam negative to get back to net zero enchantment, and that's probably not possible. The Amulet of Telepathy thing makes sense, though; I'd completely forgotten I had access to the Royal Jewelry Shop. I was actually considering the Ring of Slaying, though I'd rather replace it with a higher-powered Ring of Damage.

Sirrocco: Actually, looking at the spoilers, it looks like pval has no effect on antimagic, and the artifact resist is only about 72%. So, it would only take you 4 times as long.That's not *so* bad, is it?

ZizzoTheInfinite: What's your source for this? My own investigations (the relevant function, I believe, is apply_flags() in src/xtra1.c) seem to indicate that pval is in fact counted against antimagic field strength, along with the to-hit/to-dam/to-AC bonuses. That's how I've got it written up in my own spoiler.

Sirrocco: Huh. I was going off of the wiki skill spoiler page. Quite possibly I (and they) are wrong. Sadly, I have no source-diving fu, and cannot check for myself.

Intermission

"Hey, Human, I just got through talking to Galadriel. She wants us to go off looking for some ring. Apparently it's the granddaddy of all the rings the Big Uglies keep dropping. Problem is, she had no idea where to look, and neither do I."

I've got a few ideas. First, though, I'd like to go get something to use that Scroll of Artifact Creation on.

"Oh, right, that."

"Mm. Graagh not impressed with great-making scroll. Not make Graagh's fighting ring very great."

My mistake in your case, Graagh, was that I read your ?oAC while I was still in town, thus limiting its effect. This time, I intend to go back into Dol Guldur first, which should give me a better result.

"So what're we gonna use it on?"

Well, first we have to do another quest to get to it. And this one is going to involve a lot of fighting.

"You say that like it was a bad thing." >:>

Well, you'll see:

Nirnaeth Arnoediad

[looks around] "What, trolls? Pfft. You had me worried for a minute there, Human."

Well, still, there are an awful lot of them, and I've never taken a combat-oriented character through this quest. I'm gonna take a !oSpd, just in case.

"You're kidding, right? Most of these globuk aren't even awake."

Indeed most of the first couple rings of trolls don't even wake up before I kill them. The first two Hru, on the other hand, have me down to 582/1336hp by the time I'm done with them. Good thing I brought my small stash of three Potions of *Healing* with me; I'm starting to worry that they won't last the fight.

"No sweat. We're faster than they are; we just have to outrun them and hit them when they can't hit back.

Easier said then done, as our !oSpd wears off and the next two Hru have us back down to 654/1336hp. And we're too close to our entry corner now, with Eldraks closing on us. Let's see how far we can get on one of our ordinary !oH's.

"Here comes another one."

Once I get the rhythm down (three 'backs' to one 'hack' at our speed differential), I manage to take out the fifth Hru without serious damage. I don't really have time to rest, alas, before the sixth Hru heaves into view, but now that I've got the timing down, he isn't too much trouble—well, except for running out of speed in the middle of it… :\

"Sheesh, we need some longer-lasting speed potions here."

You're telling me. All that chasing around brings me close enough to the seventh and last Hru to wake him up. I don't seem to have this timing quite right, but it's close enough to take care of the Hru without serious damage.

"*whew* I think that's the worst of ‘em for now. Lemme rest a bit."

My thoughts exactly; we sit in the corner for a while and let the trolls come to use for a while. With our hit points restored, we push back in for more, until Ulik wakes up and starts mouthing off at us.

"Hey, I think I've heard of him. He's supposed to be a nasty one. Got anything about him in those notes of yours, Human?"

Indeed I do: [checks notes] 3500hp, speed +20, and vicious melee damage (notably two 20d12 shatter hits).

"Mm." [draws crossbow] "I think this one could use some softening up."

Another !oSpd first, since our last wore off while we were resting. Hmm, Ulik resists lightning, so the Seeker Bolts of Lightning are out; that leaves our randart bolts. Six of those have him down three stars has him down three stars by the time he reaches us.

"Hey, wait a minute, you said he resists lightning? That's what my sword does, isn't it?"

That's right, our Shocking Dark Sword isn't going to do much good against Ulik, is it? :o I quickly crank Explor up to running, which gives us enough of a speed advantage that only three steps of backing up gives us a free turn to swap in Mormegil.

"So, is this the great and mighty ‘Dark Sword’ I've been hearing so much about? Pah. You don't look so tough."

"No?" One round of attacks has Ulik down four more stars and confused. "Whaddaya think of me now, ugly?" Another round of attacks teleports Ulik away. "Sha, that is getting annoying…"

You're not kidding. We swap out Mormegil, which by now has woken everybody up, and slash our way forward until Ulik comes back into view, still at three stars where we left him.

"Rrr… too many trolls in the way, I can't get a clear shot… wait, there!" Three more bolts to the face is enough to finish Ulik off.

The rest of the trolls, of course, fall quickly. Even the Ancient green dragons are pushovers, falling in a single turn each.

[stretches] "Well, that was a decent workout, at least. So, lotta loot from those trolls. Which of these things is it that you want to use the scroll on?"

Oh, none of these. We just needed to do the quest in order to open up the Royal Jewelry Shop, where we'll buy our actual target, an Amulet of Telepathy.

[slaps forehead] "I'm already wearing one of those, you idiot!"

Yes, but it's Indestructible, so the scroll won't work on it; we needed an ordinary amulet for it to work.

"Suuure we did. I think you just forgot."

You see what I have to put up with… :\ Anyway, from here we swing back to:

Lothlorien

to pull our ?oAC out of storage, and then hop the express elevator back down to:

TDG 70, take 2; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

After clearing out the entry room occupants (notably a Great Wyrm of Perplexity, which drops a randart War Hammer), we whip out our scroll and our amulet and combine them to form: [sound F/X: drum roll]

*blink* "…That's it?!"

And I thought I had the artifact-naming code fixed so that it would default to your name if I didn't enter anything. Oh well, an empty name actually suits this anemic thing, I think. :\ We return disappointed to:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

"Well, that was a complete waste of time. Any more wild goose chases you'd like to send me off on, Human, or can we go looking for that ring now?"

Next time… :o

Chatter (2.1)

JackLohman: Enjoying this and all your other DiTLs. Keep it up, can't wait to read what happens next.

Intermission: Ring Hunting

So, ready to go Ring-hunting?

"Well, this oughta be good for a laugh, at least."

…Huh?

"The half-elf's been feeding me stories. Let's just say she's not impressed with your leads so far."

*blink* O-kaaay, my characters are conspiring against me now. This has gotta be a bad sign… :\

"Yeah, whatever. Let's get a move on, already."

(shrug) Okay, do you want to go easiest first or hardest first?

"Coming from you, that probably means ‘least fun first’ or ‘most fun first’. I choose most fun."

Hardest it is, then. Get your Climbing Set out of storage and we're off to:

Part 1

Ere 60; "You have an excellent feeling…"

"Mm. Pretty big caves. Echo!" (echo) (echo)…

Uh, you want to wake up all these dragons?

"Pfft. Bring ‘em on."

No time for that, actually; we're going to be power-diving to the bottom of Erebor. Which would be a lot easier if we had some means of wizard-lighting the level. :\ I manage to get by for the most part with Gathraka's Feanorian Lamp of the Ethereal Eye and its magic-map power. Nothing much of note happens, until:

Ere 65; "You have an excellent feeling…"

Not particularly, I don't, considering that sitting on the stairs is Gathraka's third ever Grand master mystic.

"Yeah, and I don't remember the first two causing me much trouble. Just because one of ‘em killed you pet surfer bear doesn't mean they're actually a threat or anything."

I'll ignore that. ;) Fourteen of our randart Bolts finishes him off; just to keep things interesting, he drops the Demonshield of Gothmog.

"Yeah, yeah, we done here, Human?"

Yes, ma'am, from here we'll push on straight to the bottom:

Ere 72; "Looks like any other level."

A Potion of *Healing* next to the entry stairs is encouraging, though it brings me up to only three.

[peers northwest] "Ooh, big dragon. Any chance that's what we're here for?"

Yep, there's Glaurung showing up on telepathy. Another magic mapping hit reveals that he's flying in a small blob of abyss squares hanging off the south side of a corridor to our north. We'll have to hope that means he can't fly over mountains…

"I assume you've got something about him in those notes of yours?"

Yep. [checks notes] This is the toughest opponent you've ever faced by far: 12000hp, +20 speed, nasty melee damage, serious fire, poison and sound breaths, and some nasty spells that he shouldn't be able to use on us.

"I was right; this is gonna be fun. Okay, gimme the works, Human. And I'm thinkin' the big sword this time."

Right: berzerker/running, !oSpd, Hammerhand berzerk, Mormegil, teleport jamming (since Glaurung apparently doesn't resist teleportation), a Potion of Resistance I found on the way down just in case, and here goes nothing…

"So, the rumors were true; the sword of Túrin Turambar has indeed returned from the mists of time. I knew it would find its way back to me." Glaurung doesn't get a move as we emerge from the mountains next to him.

"Okay, that's it, who is this touring tambourine guy everyone's so impressed with?" Our first round of attacks knocks Glaurung down one star, and he wastes the turn trying to cast a spell.

*chuckle* "Do not fret overmuch, little Orcling." Second round knocks Glaurung down another two stars, and he does surprisingly little damage in retaliation, only knocking me down to 1320/1366hp. "Had he succeeded in defeating me, I would have been impressed; but as you can see, he failed."

"He impressed you enough that you recognized his sword." Third round knocks Glaurung down another star and confuses him; he wastes his turn wandering away, and we spend the next turn waiting for him to return.

"It is the only sword that has tasted my flesh." Fourth round of attacks knocks him down another two stars. He seems to still be confused, as he merely wanders again this turn, still in reach of my attacks. "Túrin son of Húrin, a prince among his people, is the only mortal who has even come close to slaying me—and where such a one as him failed, how can you hope to succeed, little Orcling?"

"Uh, I'm not the one taking all the damage here, lizard face." Fifth round of attacks takes Glaurung down another star, and Glaurung misses this turn.

"You use the sword well, I grant you that, mortal." Sixth round knocks Glaurung down to one star and sends him fleeing. "But it is a fickle blade. It will betray you, as it did its previous wielder."

"You let me worry about that." We follow Glaurung out into the abyss (thank you, Trone's coat and its flight ability) and let him position himself over a floor square created in the middle of the abyss by Mormegil's earthquake effects. "You worry about meeting this Túrin guy in the afterlife and having him laugh at you for getting your butt kicked by a ‘little Orcling’." One more round of attacks finishes Glaurung off, and pushes Mormegil up to level 30; it gains a power in the process, which turns out to be… [checks notes] regeneration. Not that you'd notice, what with Mormegil's chaotic effects so frequently manifesting as vampiric healing.

"*whew* Now, that was a fun fight. Let's see what he had on him."

No Ring, alas. I swap out Mormegil immediately and turn off teleport jamming, and settle in to paw through his drop. Nothing terribly impressive; the most interesting bits are a Ring of Speed (+9) and a randart Mage Staff, for which I managed to grab a ?o*ID* on the way down:

"Enh. I figured a big brute like him would've managed better than this."

You're spoiled by this point, I think… ;) I pick up a couple trinkets that look like they might sell for the most and recall back to:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

*ahem* And return from there to:

Lothlorien

where we *ID*:

"Ugly hunk o' metal, now that I see it in the light of day. Think we could palm it off on that museum guy back in Hobbitsville?"

Yes, we've already Mathomed Gothmog's Demonblade and Demonhorn; this will complete the set. ;) This also gives us the chance to sell off the Ring of Speed (+4) we had stowed in our Bree house and replace it with the (+9) one we just found.

"So the half-elf was right about you and your ring leads, eh?"

Now, be fair; that was only one of the places we can try.

"Aw, I'm teasin' ya, Human. You found me a good fight, so the trip was certainly no loss. What worries me, in fact, is you say the rest are gonna be easier."

True, Feagwath is a fair step down from Glaurung. I don't think we've got room for him this time out; we'll take him next time.

Part 2

"More Ring hunting? You are a glutton for punishment, aren't ya, Human?"

*groan* I suppose you've been talking to Trilogy again. Just because Trilogy didn't get the Ring from any of the alternate carriers, that doesn't mean you won't.

"Whatever. I'm just worried that it's gonna get boring from here on out, if the big dragon was the worst of it."

Well, Feagwath isn't exactly a pushover:

PoD 70; "Looks like any other level."

[looks around] "I knew it. It's dead as a tomb down here."

[slaps forehead] Unintentional pun notwithstanding, that's because most of the monsters here are undead or non-living, and so don't show up on telepathy. Which means we're gonna have to search the hard way for Feagwath.

"Ooh, two distinct and separate categories of boring. How do you do it, Human?"

Don't speak too soon; turns out Feagwath does show up on telepathy, and he turns up early, in a corridor off the far side of the room we just entered.

"Enh, he doesn't look so tough."

[checks notes] 6000hp, speed +20, nasty melee damage, and lots of annoying spells that we hope he won't be able to get off.

"Pfft. Pushover. Power me up, Human."

Right: you're still on berzerker/running from Glaurung, and we add Hammerhand berzerk, a !oSpd, and finally Mormegil (with teleport jamming; Feagwath resists teleportation, but I've seen Mormegil's chaotic effects teleport monsters through that). Feagwath gets his spells jammed a few times as we open the door and punch through the lone sleeping Homunculus that was blocking him.

"Yeugh. What's holding that walking carcass together, spit and bailing wire?"

Nothing, once we get through with him. >:> Feagwath actually knocks me down to 1203/1366hp in one turn as we close to fight him, and even gets in an (ineffectual) exp drain.

"That impresses you? Watch this." *slash slash slash*

First round of attacks knocks Feagwath down three stars; he retaliates, knocking us down to 1104/1366hp. That's nastier melee damage than I'm used to…

"Oh, you cannot be panicking up there already, Human."

No, no, keep going. Second round of attacks knocks Feagwath down another three stars, and he misses this turn thanks to our +6 speed advantage. Third round knocks him down to a single star, and he flees—or tries to; Mormegil's earthquake effects have collapsed the corridor behind him. >:> He attacks again instead, knocking me down to 1016/1366hp.

"Feh. Too easy." Fourth round, of course, finishes him off; no Ring, alas, and not even anything particularly interesting in his drop, apart from the expected Doomcaller. We recall, then, to:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

"And that was the second toughest after the big dragon? I was right, this is gonna be boring."

Well, maybe a change of scenery will perk you up. ;) Let me just pull your Helm of Water Breathing out of mothballs and we're off to:

Num 50; "Looks like any other level."

"Blegh, salt water. I suppose you think this is funny, Human. I promise you, if my sword or any of my armor gets rusty down here, I'm comin' up there and takin' it out of your hide."

I don't think it works that way… ;)

"Okay, there's some wacko with a crown laughing at me over there. Mind if I kill him before we go off looking for your Ring in all this mess?"

Actually, Ar-Pharazôn, who shows up almost immediately after we enter the level, should have the Ring himself if it's down here.

"Oh, good." >:>

[checks notes] Hmm, now that I look at it, Ar-Pharazôn actually does worse melee damage than Feagwath; he only has 5000hp, though, so I think I'll try taking him out without Mormegil, which would just wake up this pack of Hezrou near me. Hammerhand's out, too, so we'll just settle for berzerker/running and a !oSpd to match Ar-Pharazôn's +20. Fortunately, he's already inside our antimagic field, so his annoying summon and teleport-away spells are neutralized.

"And he's gonna be neutralized in a minute."

Hmm, I don't think this is going to be as bad as I'd feared; Ar-Pharazôn only knocks us down to 1241/1336hp in the first round, as we knock him down two stars. Three more rounds of that and he's down to one star and fleeing, and we're only down to 1093/1336hp. One more round finishes him off, sans Ring. We pick up what bits of his drop we can before it all gets destroyed; most of it, annoyingly, gets caught by the automatizer anyway by the time we recall back to:

Lothlorien

"Feh." [wipes face with towel] "Don't ever do that to me again, Human."

Don't worry, we have no reason to go back to Numenor now. Hmm, I think I should swing by Bree to Mathom Doomcaller and:

"I suppose it gets worse from here?"

Well, true, the last two aren't going to be nearly as challenging. At least they aren't underwater, though. ;)

"You aren't nearly as funny as you think you are, Human."

Sorry:

CUg 50; "Looks like any other level."

[bats spiderwebs away from face] "Sheesh. I guess this is an improvement over walking around underwater. Not by much, though."

Good thing I'm still packing the Climbing Set I took into Erebor; it makes getting around all the spiderwebs a lot less annoying. Fortunately, Shelob turns up after only a minimal amount of wandering around.

"Big spider? Pfft. Dime a dozen."

[checks notes] 3500hp and speed +10; heck, we can take that cold.

*slash slash slash* "Hmph. Barely worth the effort."

Four turns and Shelob's down, and still no Ring. Nothing interesting in her drop except the expected randart, which I happen to have a ?o*ID* left over from Erebor to use on:

[checks resistance grid] Hmm, that might actually be useful; it'd cover resist shards and nether, and all I've got there now is Boots of Free Action, which is also covered by Thorin's shield.

"Yeah, whatever. We done here?"

Yep:

Lothlorien

And as long as we're here, we'll *ID*:

"I'm starting to think the half-elf had it right."

Well, we do have one more chance:

MoM 40; "You have a very good feeling…"

"Didn't we do this place already, Human?"

We're just passing through; this is as far as the Thunderlords could take us.

"Wait a minute, now that I think of it, I remember some weird-smelling stairs when we came through here last time."

Yes, and magic-mapping power from your Feanorian Lamp of the Ethereal Eye makes it much easier to find one and descend to:

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

"Uh, I thought we were avoiding large bodies of water, Human."

We're avoiding being under water. This is only knee-deep; just don't lie down and you'll be fine.

*sniff sniff* "Yeah, but the air still reeks of brine. I'm still taking it out of your hide if my armor rusts. I hope these new boots you were so excited about are waterproof."

;) As with Trilogy, there's a down stair right under us as we enter, so we descend immediately to:

SWC 33; "Looks like any other level."

And a bit of magic-mapping and mountain-hopping gets us quickly to another down stair to:

SWC 34; "Looks like any other level."

"How far down do we have to go in this muck?"

This is the bottom—and the Watcher is within easy telepathy range of our entry room.

(guffaws) "You've gotta be kidding me. A tentacle monster? Against a warrior with a nice big sword? Want any calamari after I'm done with it?"

[checks notes] You probably won't be impressed; only 2700hp and speed +10, so–

"You done checking your notes up there, Human? ‘Cause I'm done down here. Three turns, piece o' cake."

(shrug) I said you wouldn't be impressed. As with Ar-Pharazôn, none of the Watcher's loot survives the acid-level/automatizer combo except the expected randart, for which I have one last ?o*ID* saved from Erebor:

[fishes around in water] "So was there supposed to be a ring in all this mess?"

Apparently not, more's the pity. Let's go back to:

Lothlorien

and *ID* this stray junkart:

"So, all told, total waste of time. Any more plans, genius?"

There's only one place to get the Ring now: from Sauron himself. As I recall, though, you still have some business with him anyway.

"I do? Wait, that was the guy in the tower, right? Yeah, I've still got a few questions I wanna make him answer. So where is he, so I can go bash his head in?"

Way down at the bottom of Angband, where we'll be heading next time…

Chapter 7

[We Apologize for the Delay™; this run took several sittings, since Gathraka insisted on doing the Crypt the long way…]

"So, we going after this Sauron guy or what?"

Yep. Better pick up the Ring of Flare on the way out; we're likely to need it.

"You know something you're not telling me up there, Human?"

Well, I did take Trilogy this way recently, and I'd like to avoid the mistake I made with her. :o

"Oh, lovely. This oughta be good for a laugh."

*groan*:

Ang 67 thru Ang 70

I pick up a fate on the way to Angband. Since I happen to be near Bree anyway, I duck in and learn that I'm fated to find a Potion of Cure Light Insanity on level 12.

[slaps forehead] "And what good does knowing that do us?"

Well, mainly I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a death fate on:

Ang 67; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

Now, I'm assuming you're in a hurry to get to Sauron, Gathraka, so we're going to be diving quickly through Angband; a few shots of magic mapping with our Feanorian Lamp of the Ethereal Eye finds us a down stairs.

"Wait a minute, you're not skipping me past a good fight, are you, Human?"

Oh, I assure you, we'll be running into plenty of those on the way down. In particular, we're likely to find one on:

Ang 68; Princess quest for 14 Master Quylthulgs; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

[guffaws] "Oh, this is too rich! Her Highness is back into the kinky stuff again?"

Um, I did mention the whole PG-rating thing, yes?

"Yeah, and I'm still trying to figure out what that's supposed to stand for. ‘Pretty graphic’?"

[slaps forehead] Never mind. Anyway, just for a change, I actually do feel pretty superb about this quest—by my calculations, your antimagic field should have a radius of 16 now, plenty to cover the entire quest room and keep the Master Qs under control.

"Okay, I must be losing my touch or something; these trolls should not be pacing me here, not with all my magical speed-boosting stuff."

That's monster leveling in action. Monsters in Angband are leveled to between half the dungeon level and the dungeon level, with concomitant increases in speed and toughness. These trolls, for instance, normally with levels in the 20s or low 30s, are being leveled up to between levels 34 and 68, which works out to about a +10-15 speed increase versus your +10.

*blink* "Could you translate that to Common, Human? Or preferably Orcish?"

(shrug) Angband is Morgoth's fortress, so he probably keeps the toughest monsters here, and breeds them to be even tougher.

"Ooh, so I am gonna find some good fights in here then." (rubs palms together in anticipation)

Indeed. This particular batch of trolls appears to have been coming from a troll pit, which nets nothing of interest. And immediately to the east of said pit is the quest room.

"Oh, wait, I remember the lumpy things. They summon stuff at me when I'm not close enough."

Yup. But with the quest room arrangement, they can't see us until you're close enough. Which means we can chop them up with impunity. >:>

*slash slash* "Hmph. So much for a good fight, then."

Oh, I assure you we'll see worse. In the meantime, the newly freed princess offers us Sheaf Arrows, a Fur Cloak, or a Katana. Enh, nothing likely to beat what we've got; I take the cloak, on the off chance that it's a randart… no such luck: a Fur Cloak of Stealth [+10] (+2).

"Pfft. She's slipping. Time was, she could do better than that."

You're getting spoiled, I think. In the meantime, we'll punt the rest of the level and push on to:

Ang 69; "You have a good feeling…"

Well, we do get to start with an amusing cameo… ;)

"Oh, good grief, what're you doing down here, furball? You are so far out of your league, you can't even see your league from here."

"Hmph. Mind yer own beeswax, ya Orc, I've got business with Morgoth. Seems my idjit grandson done come out of retirement again, and he's got it in his fool head he's gonna take out Morgoth. So I figger if I get rid of ‘im first, maybe the idjit won't get hisself killed."

"*snort* Yeah, sure, gramps. And while I would love to hang around and watch you try just for the amusement value, I've gotta go see a man about a dog. Outta the way." [I dismiss Beorn] "A wonder he's still alive down here."

Indeed. Down stairs turn up after a bit of wandering. And if I'm not mistaken, right about here is where we run into:

Ang 70, Princess quest for 10 Lesser titans; "Looks like a forgotten crypt…"

"Exactly what I was about to say. Works out just as well, since all these monsters are about to die here anyway." >:> [squints in various directions] "I don't see any titans, though."

No, the princess quest room won't get placed on a special level; I still haven't figured out why we even get the message. And somehow I doubt you're going to let me Flare-swap you through this level, are you?

"What, and skip out on all this good fighting? Not a chance, Human."

Didn't think so. To my surprise, everything appears to be asleep, giving me time to detect traps and magic-map part of the level. They start waking up pretty quickly, though. Now, I haven't done this level cold since Lil, and that was years ago, so I don't promise I'll get everything perfect.

"Pfft. I never expected that from you anyway."

:\ For instance, an early Undead beholder manages to smack my sanity down to 379/430 before I can finish him off.

"Ah, the perfect mood setter." ;)

*groan* We venture a short ways into some of the immediate alcoves branching away from the entry stairs, mostly letting things come to us. I'm not encouraged when an early Osyluth smacks us down to 880/1336hp. Fortunately, one of the Ghouls drops a Potion of *Healing* to patch that up. Another potion turns up before long, and almost immediately gets used to patch up behind a Drolem that knocks us down to 735/1336hp. Still want to hang around down here, Gathraka?

"Are you kidding? I haven't had this much fun since the big dragon."

Well, I think I've just found you another one: Lungorthin, down at the end of one of the "spokes" stretching southeast from the entry stairs. [checks notes] 8000hp, speed +20, pretty nasty melee damage, strong fire and plasma breaths, and lots of spells that he shouldn't be able to use. I wish I'd noticed him before he woke up and got next to me…

"Pfft, he's mostly fire, I can take him. Power me up."

Right: berzerker/running, !oSpd, and Mormegil for starters, during which Lungorthin knocks me down to 1173/1336hp. Now, let's see how bad this is gonna be… enh, could be worse, considering Mormegil's chaotic effects teleport him away during the first round of attacks.

"Hey! Come back here, ya coward!"

He couldn't have gotten far, I'm sure we'll run into him again. We swap in our regular Shocking Dark Sword to finish off the rest of the monsters in the immediate vicinity and start heading back to the center—and sure enough, here comes Lungorthin again, down from the north, and down two stars.

"You gonna stand and fight this time?"

This time we have enough lead time to swap Mormegil back in and add Hammerhand berzerk and teleport jamming to our power-ups, which is enough to fell Lungorthin in five more turns.

[stretches] "Pretty good. Not great, but good."

Among other interesting bits, he drops a Dark Sword of Slaying (5d8) (+12,+11). [checks notes] Hmm, that would be better than my current Shocking Dark Sword if it has poison brand (a 20% chance); we'll take it with us.

Now, with the regular spokes explored, it's time to start trying some of the jumpgates. First, the one from the tip of the southern spoke to the tip of the northern spoke, where lurk a couple Master vampires, and an entirely neutered Rotting Q and Dark elven warlock. >:> They do net a randart Basillard that I think I'll leave behind. Next the one from the tip of the northeast spoke to the lava alcove on the southwest, to be double-teamed by a Dracolisk and a Greater titan, who knock me down to 725/1336hp before I can retreat back through the jumpgate.

"Well, that was embarrassing…"

Indeed; I think I'll toss back another !oSpd and fire off Hammerhand before trying that again. Fortunately, the titan can't cross lava, so when I return I only have to take them on one at a time. And the titan leaves me a Potion of Enlightenment to finish lighting up the level, along with a Potion of Life, which I'm likely to need at this rate…

"What? This isn't so bad."

Whatever. We push up along the west side and into the western alcove with the vampires behind glass, wherein we find our first Potion of Detonations.

"Oh, cute, it blows up in your stomach? Who's the brilliant alchemist that invented this, so I know not to invite him out for drinks?"

Actually, you're supposed to throw it at other monsters and let it blow up on them instead. I generally prefer your crossbow, though. Hmm, the jumpgate at this point leads down into the southern maze area. Most of the rest of the monsters in this part of the level are pretty boring; wanna skip ‘em?

"There something tough where you want to go?"

[checks notes] A couple Black reavers, and Thuringwethil; they're pretty good.

"Okay, let's do it."

[Mainly I just wanted to skip the northeast alcove, which has another Undead beholder in it. Don't tell Gathraka… ;) ] A quick hop, and we're in the maze portion of the level.

"What, the whole thing is made out of fake walls? Great. I hope you've got a map up there or something."

No worries. And telepathy is showing the reavers already moving into the maze after us. [checks notes] 5000hp, speed +10, lots of mercifully neutralized spells, and disenchantment attacks, which means we'll be swapping in Mormegil to fight them. The first reaver falls in three turns, and actually pushes Mormegil up to level 31; no flags gained, apparently. The second one actually gets polymorphed into a Gelatinous cube in the first turn of attacks, and falls quickly after that.

"Okay, vaguely amusing, but I'm not impressed so far."

Well, the room at the end of the maze has the jumpgate to get to Thuringwethil's room. [checks notes] 5000hp and speed +20, so I think I'll add a !oSpd on top of everything else. Annoyingly, telepathy is picking up yet another Undead beholder; amusingly, it's pinned by the massing hordes onto the other end of the jumpgate we're about to use, so it neatly gets swapped out of the way as we swap in. ;)

"Now, there's an ugly dame. She's the one?"

Yup. We just have to fight through the hordes to get to her. Said hordes are actually substantially less frightening inside Gathraka's antimagic field, fortunately. As another point of amusement, one of the Master vampires actually drops two Scrolls of Dispel Undead; I manage to get one of them read before Thuringwethil arrives next to me.

"Uh, Human? Where did that mold behind me come from?"

[checks message history] I'd have to guess it was Mormegil's 'ancient foul curse' that summoned that Grey mold behind us, considering it also just tried (and failed, thanks to full sustain-stat coverage) to drain all of your stats.

"What?! You never told me the big sword could do stuff like that."

It's a very low probability every turn you're wielding it. I probably should've swapped it out while you were fighting through the nameless hordes. :o

[slaps forehead] "Lovely. Well, never mind that now, here comes Queen Fang-face."

Thuringwethil holds out slightly longer than the reavers, dying after four turns. Her loot isn't terribly impressive either: a few tomes that we can't use, and assorted low-grade {excellent} weapons.

"That's it?"

Yep, that's probably the worst the Crypt can throw at us. Oh, we should pick up Luthien's cloak.

"What, this one? Ooh, fancy. Now, the stairs are on the far side of this wall, as I recall…" *tap tap* "Sha, the walls are magically reinforced. How far am I gonna have to backtrack to get to the stairs?"

Actually, we should probably recall back up anyway and patch up that sanity hit.

"You're no fun, you know that?"

Yes, so you keep telling me. ;)

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

Right, I keep forgetting that. As long as we're in the neighborhood, we drop by Gondolin and *ID*:

Surprisingly, that's actually less useful to us than Colannon, which we're already wearing, since the speed boost is lower and the other stuff isn't particularly useful to us. And the Dark Sword of Slaying doesn't have poison brand or vorpal effects, so it doesn't beat our current Shocking Dark Sword; sell it. And now we return to:

Lothlorien

where 4!oCLIns out of our stash of 34 puts us back to full sanity.

"Well, all told, not bad so far. How deep we gotta go to find this Sauron guy?"

Another 29 more levels.

"Ooh, plenty of time for more good fights."

*groan…*

Ang 70 (take 2) thru Ang 74

"C'mon, let's go, Human. I'm in the mood to kill."

*groan* Yes, ma'am:

Ang 70, Princess quest for 10 Lesser titans, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

Indeed it does, which is something of a relief after the Crypt. :o ;) Some Dreads to greet us as we enter the level.

"What, the titan guys again? I thought Princess Bondage was doing them in that Crypt thing."

*ahem* Double entendres notwithstanding, we couldn't complete the quest last time we were on this level, since the quest room was never placed; this time, the titans are actually here.

"Good. Let's go kill ‘em."

Your command is my wish. ;) We end up having to search most of the level for the quest room; it's surprisingly uneventful for Angband, or else Gathraka is just stronger than I thought… wait, when did we take the sanity hit?

"That giant lobster thing, I think. I was hoping you wouldn't notice." >:>

Yeah, yeah… [checks message history] Oh, Murk dwellers hit for sanity. Ouch. Well, we can leave that for now, I guess.

"Oh, goody." (rubs palms together in anticipation)

Which isn't to say I won't take advantage of this Potion of Curing to patch it up… ;) Uh… wait a minute, how are we on Ang 68?

"You went up the stairs after something, I thought."

Huh? [checks message history again] Oh, I think I fat-fingered the go-up-stairs command trying to light up the entry room. :o Okay, we hop the next down stairs we find to:

Ang 69, take 2; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

And annoyingly, there are no down stairs within immediate magic map range, and some Air hounds and Ethereal hounds make pests of themselves in the entry room. Fortunately, some down stairs turn up quickly; unfortunately, there's a Beholder hive-mother between us and them, which leaves my sanity once again slightly docked as we return to:

Ang 70, Princess quest for 10 Lesser titans, actual take 2; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"So this time we find Her Highness, yes?"

Well, first we find Polyphemus, not far away from our entry point. [checks notes] Yikes, 6500hp, +20 speed, massive melee damage, including two shatter attacks.

"Ooh, sounds fun. Gimme the works, then back off some so I can soften him up."

Right: berzerker/running, !oSpd, Hammerhand berzerk, back off a few paces down the corridor I'm in, then briefly swap in Mormegil to wake him up. And I think I'll swap in our Seeker Bolts of Lightning as he approaches.

"Here he comes."

…Well, that was anti-climactic: ten shots and he's down.

"Pfft. Boring. What else ya got, Human?"

Well, here comes Dwar up from the south.

"What, one of the Big Uglies? Wait, didn't we kill him trying to rescue that dwarf prisoner guy you dropped a rock on?"

:o They're bound to Sauron's ring, the one we're trying to find and destroy; they can't be finally killed until then.

"Well, that promises to be annoying."

Okay, I'm gonna toss back one of the 2!oEnl's we found on the preceding levels to get the lay of the land… hmm, he's in a pit-style room, which limits our ability to get range on him. Ah, but if we loop around and approach the room from the south… and nine more Seeker Bolts of Lightning takes care of him. He nets a spare !oEnl to replace the one we just used, and a ?o*ID* for:

"He even got a replacement ring. Cute. Maybe I'll start a collection."

Done and done. ;) And in the meantime, we passed close enough to the quest room on the way out to get the Lesser titan's attention, and they're waiting for us on the way back. Without their spells, though, they're not terribly impressive, and they fall quickly, leaving the princess to offer us Double Chain Mail, Chain Mail or a Ring of Speed. Well, that's a no-brainer, and in short order we're the proud owners of an Indestructible Ring of Speed (+6), along with Thunderfist as dropped by one of the titans.

"Enh, not impressed."

Well, maybe we'll find better on:

Ang 71; "You feel your luck is turning…"

Actually, we're only here long enough to magic-map our way to another down stairs to:

Ang 72, Princess quest for 12 Great Swamp Wyrms; "Looks like any other level."

"Incoming, seven o'clock.

An ad hoc monster group of 'L's, including three Archliches and a Black reaver. Not good. I'll give this one berzerker/running and Hammerhand berzerk to start, and swap in Mormegil for the reaver. Between them, I end up using up 3?oPD and 7!oH, along with a !o*H* I picked up on the previous level.

[stretches] "Ah, not a bad fight." [squints westward] "Ooh, and here comes Her Royal Bondageness's dragon friends."

Hmm, I'll have to be careful with these, with only single poison resistance. A quick power-up and in we go… yeah, I was afraid of this; I have to pull back and rest after the first two knock me down to 628/1336hp.

[wipes blood from face] "Time for the big sword, I think."

Indeed, the next four fall to Mormegil in a much more orderly fashion.

"Sha! Where'd the coward go?"

The seventh, annoyingly, gets teleported away by Mormegil's chaotic effects. X-( Teleport jamming, then, for the rest. >:> Number nine (not counting the one that got away) puts Mormegil up to level 32, gaining (+2,+1) enchantment and no powers.

*slash slash* "That takes care of them. Which just leaves the other one."

Fortunately, our escapee didn't get too far, and in short order the princes is offering us a Guisarme, Rhino Hide Armor or a Mage Staff. Enh, six of one; we take the guisarme, which (after digging back out through the earthquake from Mormegil's very last blow) turns out to be a Chaotic Guisarme (*Defender*) (+5,-2) [+2] (