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• Trilogy, part 3

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Trilogy, the Half-Elf Geomancer, Part 3

Chapter 4

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

Well, there are three dungeons left that can have dungeon towns: Moria, the Illusory Castle, and the Sacred Land of Mountains. Of the three, Moria is really the only one we could reasonably take on now.

"Ah, still looking for Tomes. What's the big deal with them, anyway? Most of the ones I've got now you have stuck in the house.

We need to get your strength up some more before we start lugging around the full set. Which works out rather well, since early Moria is near the same difficulty level as late Mirkwood, so stat potions should be similarly common.

"Mm-hmm. Wait, Moria... that's that old Dwarven stronghold, right?"

Former Dwarven stronghold.

"Right, they woke up that Balrog down in the depths, and it drove them out."

"Which just shows, as I've always said, the folly of fussing about in those damp, dark, lifeless tunnels dredging up bits of shiny metal. Much safer up here, and much more pleasant. Heh, there are no Balrogs in the trees, after all, just birds—and very rarely do they try to kill you or drive you out of their wood."

Well, you're kind of unique among Dwarves, Vespa; most of them would go completely stir-crazy up here in the forest.

"Aye, more's the pity."

"Um… why does that dwarf have flowers in his hair?"

Her hair. Vespa is female.

"Riiiight. You have noticed that ‘she's’ a baritone with a three-foot beard, yes?"

"O ho! A common misunderstanding, milady. There are very few of us dwarf women, after all, and as you can see, our appearance is not so different from that of our menfolk. Indeed, outsiders often cannot even tell us apart—which has led many to speculate that there are no Dwarf women at all, and that Dwarves simply spring full-born from the stone. Ho ho! Imagine such a foolish notion!"

"Uh-huh. Interesting company you keep."

Anyway, if you'll excuse us, Vespa, we have some adventuring to do:

MoM 30

MoM 30; "You have a good feeling…"

"There's a line of Hill orcs staring at me down the corridor. Why again am I supposed to have a good feeling?"

Presumably because of how quickly you're going to mow them down with Noxious Clouds.

"Mm. So, this looks a lot like that Orc Cave where we recovered Thrain's wand."

Similar architecture, yes, but the monsters are generally tougher.

"Not judging from that lot."

Heh. Hmm… didn't I bring an Identify spellbook with me?

[slaps forehead] "And just when I was beginning to lose confidence in you…"

Well, we can get by on Listen to the Music for now. The level manages to be mildly interesting, with an orc pit near the early part. It nets an Elven Robe [+12] (+1) and a Potion of Charisma, not to mention the fourth relic quest when a pack of Stone trolls pushes us up clvl 33.

"Another ‘nightmarish’ one?"

Not likely, now that we have See the Music at full strength. We may go do it immediately, in fact.

"We are so doomed…"

Oh, ye of little faith. Oh, I have skill points to allocate: 2 to Geomancy and 3 to Spell-power.

The rest of the level goes fairly quickly, netting a few more saleable bits. Indeed, I'd forgotten how fast items pile up around here—a side effect of the high monster generation rate. In fact, I'm thinking it might be worth it to go back for that Tome of Knowledge:

Wilderness

Let's see, I believe Gondolin has the highest caps at the weapon and armor stores. Their black market also has Potions of Dexterity and Charisma to spend all my new cash on.

Actually, the next relic quest was near Bree, wasn't it? [checks notes] Yes, "quite some way west of Bree and a long way northwest of Minas Anor". Indeed, there it is, just past the Old Forest. Shall we, Trilogy?

"Why are you even asking? You're going to do it anyway, aren't you?"

That's the spirit.

Fourth relic quest

LTm -22, take 1; "This level can't be all bad…"

Not a repeat of our last quest, alas; the relic isn't here.

"Too much to hope for, I suppose."

Let's try this again:

LTm -22, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

A Baby blue dragon near my entry point; it doesn't survive long. No relic, though. Again:

LTm -22, take 3; "Looks like any other level."

More of a welcoming committee this time; an Imp to my north and Black orcs to my south (I enter on the east edge). With them dispatched, I light up the level and find… no relic.

"It's not the anticipation that gets you; it's the let-down."

Well, we can't be let down forever:

LTm -22, take 4; "Looks like any other level."

Uruks to meet us this time; they don't last long. And still no relic. Well, that can only mean one thing:

LTm -22, take 5; "Looks like any other level."

We enter in the middle of the south edge; the relic is near the northwest corner. Okay, same drill as last time, Trilogy: sneak around the edge of the level real quiet-like.

"Not a problem."

Hmm, there appear to be Crebains lurking just off the edge of sight; that could be bad if they wake anything up.

"I'd be more worried about all those icky things up ahead."

Indeed, there appears to be a Blue icky thing infestation in front of us as we start north up the west edge of the level.

"Not an infestation so much as an entourage, I'm thinking."

Yes, the Icky Queen just slithered onscreen. Between the Noxious Cloud carpet I was laying down for the Blue icky things and two Manathrusts to the face, though, she's history. And thanks to our Superb stealth, the rest of the Blue icky things sit still until I Cloud them to death. The Icky Queen's drop turns out to be a Silver Rod of Nothing. (shrug) Well, it'll come in handy for possible future use with a Rod Tip of Recall.

From there, nothing but some Rotting corpses stand between me and the relic, and they don't survive a single Fireflash. And in short order, the relic is claimed. Hmm, no up stairs nearby, so I splurge and use a ?oWoR to return to:

Wilderness

"Um… doesn't that screw up our recall into Moria?"

We were only down one level; we're not losing much. As long as we're in the neighborhood, I stop by Bree, where the black market has a Potion of Strength that jumps our STR from 15 all the way to 18!

[flexes muscles] "Okay, maybe I can carry one more spellbook…"

That's the spirit. Back home, then, to:

Lothlorien

where I pull my Fireproof Tome of Knowledge out of storage. And with our recent boost to Prayer skill, we can now cast Reveal Ways, which will save us time searching for doors.

"Whatever floats your boat up there."

Well, here's something for your boat: the black market has a Potion of Intelligence in stock. We're definitely getting close to maxing that; I'd say two or three more of those should do it.

"So, back to Moria, then?"

Next time.

MoM 30 (take 2) thru MoM 32

Having recalled out of the quest temple last time, we have to go cross-country again to get back to:

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

Well, that sounds ominous… [casts Sense Monsters] Lotta monsters in the next room over, but that's not likely to be it. It is likely to give my new Identify spell a workout, though.

"Yeah, this does seem to be cheaper to cast that Listen to the Music."

See? You should listen to me more.

"Uh-huh…"

The only mild annoyance currently is that Sense Monsters is still one level shy of gaining the temporary-ESP effect. Another point in Spell-power should pick that up, though.

"Yeah? Any chance of that happening any time soon?"

(shrug) You're about 90K exp from the next clvl—and at the rate monsters get generated down here, I don't think it's entirely beyond the realm of possibility to accumulate that much this time out. Ah, there's something you don't see every day: a Lesser wall monster. [checks notes] Not out of depth, so that's not likely our 'superb' feeling. Good thing we caught him before he started breeding, though.

"Breeding. As in, two slabs of wall, mating. Not an image I really needed in my head…"

Heh. Beyond that, the level passes without event.

"So… what was supposed to be so superb about this level?"

Well, we did get some good loot, notably including Arvedui and a Light War Axe of Westernesse. That could have been it, I suppose.

"*groan* You're gonna make me wear the fancy chain mail, aren't you?"

[checks notes] Nah, all that would really buy us is resist nexus and a STR boost, and we'd lose Thalkettoth's speed boost. It is kinda heavy, though, so we're gonna go ahead and recall out to:

Wilderness

and stow in my Bree house:

• The Chain Mail of Arvedui [+15] (+2), with +2 STR and CHA and resist acid, lightning, fire, cold, shards, nexus and disenchantment

Ah, resist disenchantment could be handy later.

"Joy…"

From there I swing by Gondolin to sell off loot, and then back home to:

Lothlorien

to restock and return to:

MoM 30, take 3; "Looks like any other level…"

Huh? Surely I was in one town or another long enough not to get that. Oh well, we'll just see how the level goes… enh, it goes fairly well. Not much of note, beyond having to surgically pick apart a pack of Ice trolls so as not to harm the Paladin in their midsts before I could Charm him. I do net a Lead-Filled Mace of Aman from a pack of Ogrillons about halfway through the level. Oh, and another Lesser wall monster in the very last room.

"Great. Are we gonna be running into these a lot in Moria?"

I haven't before with any other character. Besides, Moria is kinda out of their depth anyway. Anyway, let's move on:

MoM 31; "You have a very good feeling…"

Not with that pack of Dark elven warlocks staring me in the face in the entry room, I don't. Fortunately, a single Noxious Cloud takes them all out; even more fortunately, they drop a Potion of Dexterity and a Potion of *Enlightenment*.

"Whoa… so, why aren't you quaffing that last one?"

Among other things, it lights up the dungeon, like your See the Music spell, so I won't be able to keep track of where I've been. Remind me to quaff it when we finish the level, though.

"Ah. Right."

The level goes without a hitch. Some water streamers, just for a change of pace, but since my Ring of Lebreth confers levitation, I don't have to worry about drowning. Hmm, how did that get heavily cursed?

"I think that was that Black knight on the last level. Don't know for sure, though; I was kind of distracted by being almost killed…"

Actually, I think he only took you down to 113/184hp with that spell. Still more than I like to lose at once, of course. And this looks like the end of the level.

"You've got a potion to quaff, then."

Right. Say, I didn't know my Water skill was already high enough that I could breathe underwater… [checks notes] ah, we only needed skill level 30, not 35 as I had thought. Well. Maybe I will visit Numenor with this character.

"Numenor? Didn't that kind of fall apart and sink to the bottom of the ocean a long time ago?"

Yes, hence the need for water breathing to visit it.

"Have… I mentioned recently that I can't swim?"

Don't worry, we're going to finish Moria first at any rate. Ooh, one more Potion of Intelligence should max our INT. Anyway, our job here is done; let's move on:

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

A mostly tame level. I run into Angamaite about halfway in; he falls quickly, and drops a Ball-and-Chain (+3,+4) and 25 Bolts (+6,+3). And another pack of Livingstones not much further in.

"Okay, check me here: my Noxious Cloud works on these Livingstones; why didn't you use it on those Lesser wall monsters?"

Because according to my notes, Lesser wall monsters are non-living, and so would be unaffected by Noxious Cloud; Livingstones aren't—hence, presumably, the name…

"Always something, huh?"

As you say. Heads up, Araneas to our north, in the room we're about to enter—at least six.

"Not good; if they wake up, they'll have a straight shot down the corridor at us. We need to get out of here."

Hang on, I've got a plan.

"*groan* I was afraid you were gonna say that…"

Oh ye of little faith. I Grow a Barrier at the end of the corridor just inside the room, to give us cover to push in. Sense Monsters detects fourteen Araneas, formed up in a cluster to our north, and I don't think they've woken up yet. Actually, I take that back; as I poke a hole in the northeast corner of the barrier to begin my attack, an Aranea dives in for me.

"Oh, great. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"

The first Fireflash takes out eight of the Araneas; I step back to get a bead on another, taking a tenth with it. Hmm, did you cast a Noxious Cloud, Trilogy?

"Don't look at me."

(shrug) I must have fat-fingered one by mistake. No worries, though; it's taken out three more Araneas. The last one charges, and gets a Fireflash to the face for its troubles. See? That wasn't so bad.

"Okay, okay…"

And that's the end of the level. The end of the dungeon level, specifically; the next experience level, on the other hand, is tantalizingly close…

"*groan* Look, I'm getting really loaded down here…"

I know, we're almost there… and sure enough, at the rate Moria generates monsters, it's not long before I hit clvl 34, with skill points going 2 to Geomancy, 2 to Spell-power and 1 to Fire. And sure enough, that pushes Sense Monsters up to level 30, gaining temporary ESP. And now it's time to head home.

"‘Bout time…"

You see what I have to put up with:

Lothlorien

In that last push, I managed to accumulate a couple artifacts:

• The Tome of Elven Household Magic, activates for cure hallucination
• The Short Bow of Amras (x3) (+12,+15) (+1), with +1 INT, WIS, DEX, speed and might, resist lightning, fire and cold, slow digestion and extra shots
• The Whip 'Lasher' (+12,+15) (+3), with +3 DEX and attacks, poison brand, vorpal effects, slay orc and animal, free action, resist poison and sense orc

The black market has a Potion of Experience that puts me within spitting distance of the next level. A bit expensive, but I'll easily make it back and more by selling off all this loot in Gondolin. A quick swing by Bree on the way back to stow Amras and Lasher, and then back home to Lothlorien to restock and prepare for our next outing.

Intermission

Before we return to… hey, when did Lebreth get heavily cursed?

(shrug) "No idea; so many monsters have been cursing at us, I've lost track."

We should fix that. The temple, annoyingly, doesn't have any ?o*RC*'s, nor does Bree's, or Gondolin's, or Minas Anor's; Lothlorien's, mercifully, finally manages to dredge one up by the time I return.

"So, what was it that I saw you get out of the house when we were in Bree?"

One of our spare Amulets of Spell. Your current one has Noxious Cloud on it; I'm going to replace that with Charm, stow the Spellbook of Charm, and pick up our fireproof Tome of the Blowing Wind.

"And all this shuffling buys us…?"

Poison Blood, which will give you temporary resist poison that's cumulative with your poison resistance from Lebreth. Also Invisibility, which may or may not be useful. And once we get your Air skill a bit higher, we'll pick up Wings of Winds, which will let me get rid of this Ring of Flying I have stowed.

"Mm. Fair enough, I suppose. What about this other Tome, with the Water spells? Oh, right, it's not fireproof."

And we're about to go fix that:

Lothlorien Old Mage Quest

Under the circumstances, I think I can spare a Potion of Speed for this, just in case. I step forward just far enough to scroll the screen and drop Noxious Clouds on the two Chimaerae. The quest Essence is visible from here, about halfway between the monsters and the west side of the level. I move east, picking off the third Chimaera and a couple Red dragon bats as they come into range. The Hellhound will be our biggest challenge. [checks notes] Hmm, he's got 480hp; my Manathrust does 31d12 damage, averaging 201½, and Noxious Cloud does 159 base damage. Hmm, one Cloud and two Manathrust should do it.

"So, not really much of a challenge, then."

(shrug) I suppose I could have done this quest earlier, but we didn't really need it before. Thanks to my Superb stealth, the Hellhound remains asleep as we slip into range and drop a Noxious Cloud on his head. Ah, and I forgot the cloud effect; with that extra damage, it only takes one Manathrust and a bit of exposure to kill him.

"Ah, some annoying lava to cross. Or will we be making an army of Fire elementals out of it?"

Unnecessary; Call the Elements is much cheaper. Been a while since we cast this; I'd forgotten that it generates dark pits and ice now. That just means a bit more circumnavigation, though. And just for a bit of mild amusement, I find another Essence on the level, just a few squares away from the quest Essence. Good thing the relevant one is labeled. Our work here, then is done:

Lothlorien

I swing by my home and pick up my Tome of the Everrunning Wave before returning to the Wizards Spire to collect my reward.

"Aren't you going to fireproof the cantrips book too?"

Nah, it's cheap and easy to replace, plus the stores sometimes carry them fireproofed. We want to save our two remaining books' worth of fireproofing for Tomes.

"And… just for reference, how many more Tomes do you plan to have me lugging around?"

I think Fire and Earth should be enough to cover us; we've already got Air, Water, Divination and Eru covered, and Mana and Mind aren't going to get high enough to merit a Tome.

MoM 32 (take 2) thru MoM 33

For now, though, we should return to Moria:

MoM 32, take 2; "You have an excellent feeling…"

"That can't be good."

We'll see. As I mentioned last time, I was very close to the next level, and sure enough, a pack of Ice trolls in the second room takes me to clvl 35, with skill points going one each to Geomancy, Spell-power, Water, Air and Earth.

After that, the level is uneventful for a while.

"Um… why do I keep turning invisible?"

I think it's my macro settings. I've got two-key macros defined for most spells by now, and I've noticed that whenever I fat-finger a macro or the one-second timeout between the two keys expires, Invisibility gets cast. Apparently the macro system's failure mode just happens to correspond to the macro I defined for the Invisibility spell. In fact, now that you mention it, changing the macro for Invisibility might just fix it. [edits user.prf, saves and reloads] Yup, that seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks.

"No problem. Would you like me to point out any other mistakes I think you're making?"

Let me get back to you on that… Ah, a line of Elite uruk-hai charging down the corridor at me, exactly what I've been looking for.

"Um… why? We're just going to Cloud them, right?"

We've got another option now, and I've been waiting to try it out: the Geyser spell.

"Here goes nothing, then: Azarath metrion ZINTHOS! Mm, not bad. Ah, I get it, this is why you got the Water Tome fireproofed."

Precisely; it's perfect for long corridors, and assuming we don't need the cloud effect, it's slightly more efficient in the damage-per-mana sense.

"You just wanted to be able to knock down a whole line of monsters in one shot."

Yes, I did; what of it? The rest of the level proceeds without incident, until I encounter Uldor near the end. One Fireflash and a Manathrust take care of him; he drops a Spectral Small Sword (+7,+3)… and his corpse.

"Darn, I was hoping you'd forgotten about the voodoo doll collection."

Hard to; my one Fumblefingers gift of Summoning is the only reason the automatizer isn't destroying all these annoying corpses. Ah, the last room of the level, with a Potion of Strength on the floor.

"So, besides that, what was so ‘excellent’ about this level?"

Well, I did get some nice saleable loot—enough, in fact, that I really need to recall back to:

Lothlorien

to sell it off.

"Clearly this Moria thing is gonna take a while."

Unfortunately, that's not at all unlikely. On the way to Gondolin to sell this stuff, I swing by Bree to Mathom Uldor's totem. Gondolin's black market also has a Potion of Dexterity that I splurge on. Back home at Lothlorien, I return to:

MoM 32, take 3; "You have an excellent feeling…"

"Seems to be a lot of that going around…"

Indeed. A flock of assorted Young and Mature dragons in the room to the south of the entry room is a brief cause for concern, but a few well-placed Noxious Clouds take care of them, and one of them drops a Scroll of Acquirement. I wonder if that was the source of the excellent feeling…

"Well? Are you going to read it?"

Ah, yes. May I present… [sound F/X: drum roll] Hard Studded Leather of Resist Acid [+6].

"I'm underwhelmed…"

You and me both. The rest of the level doesn't net much that would be considered 'excellent', except for Gilettar. Oh, and a pack of Half-orcs nearby drop a Fireproof Book of Beginner Cantrips. See? I told you these weren't so rare.

"Whatever. Are we done here?"

Just about; just a few more rooms to check, and nothing of note in them, so we move on to:

MoM 33; "This level can't be all bad…"

I disagree; it appears to be a destroyed level, and Thrain's wand is down to 30 charges.

"Can't we just use Geolysis?"

Yeah, but it's kind of expensive, and has a nasty habit of leaving lava squares in our path.

"Which we can get rid of using Elemental Minion. And honestly, I think I can spare the mana."

We are up to 527 on that, aren't we? Okay, done and done. The level is mostly uneventful for a while, beyond getting Holhenneth from a pack of Elite uruk-hai. [checks notes] Hmm, I'd lose Thengel's confusion resistance, and I already have resist blindness and see invisible, but that +2 INT is awfully tempting… enh, I think I'll save it for later.

And after being uneventful for a while, the level… continues to be uneventful. Very little of interest happens, in fact–

"Uh, what's that up ahead in the water?"

• The Seahorse casts a mana bolt. *** LOW HITPOINT WARNING! ***

@#$%. That would be Moria's ubiquitous Always One More Monster™ rule kicking in, and kicking us down to 52/192hp. A quick Phase Door gets us out of danger.

"You're going to go back and kill it, aren't you?"

Not a chance. Why, did you particularly want to?

"No! It's just… well, color me pleasantly surprised."

In fact, considering that we're pretty much finished with the level anyway, I'm gonna take this excuse to recall back to:

Lothlorien

and *ID*:

• The Iron Helm 'Holhenneth' [+10] (+2), which activates for detection every 55+d55 turns and has +2 INT, WIS and searching, resist blindness and see invisible
• The Short Sword 'Gilettar' (+3,+7) (+2), with +2 attacks, slay animal, resist disenchantment, see invisible, slow digestion and regeneration
• Lloth's Ceremonial Dagger, which activates for remove fear and cure poison every 5 turns

And that's pretty much it; I didn't find any saleable loot this time. I think I'll stow Holhenneth in my home here and Gilettar in my Bree home.

"You just want an excuse to go look in their black market."

And considering it has Potions of Dexterity and Charisma in stock, do you blame me?

"Whatever…"

That's the spirit. A bit of restocking back in Lothlorien, and we're ready to return to Moria next time out.

MoM 33 (take 2) thru MoM 34 (take 2)

Let's see, Thrain's wand needs a bit of recharging—unless you want to start carrying a shovel around with all your newfound STR…

"Enh, maybe later."

We return, then, to:

MoM 33, take 2; "You have a very good feeling…"

Not that you could tell at first. Well, there is the group of Dark elven warlocks near the northwest corner of the level whose drop includes a Scroll of Acquirement. Shall we?

"Might as well. No reason not to."

We could save it for later and have a better chance of getting something useful.

"Ah… nah, it'd probably get burnt by then. Go ahead."

Hold on, then, for… Orchast.

"Not really an improvement, ironically."

Well, maybe this drop will cheer you up: The Ring of Finduros (+3), dropped by a Mindcrafter a few rooms further east.

"Depends on what it does."

Good point. It gets a bit more interesting after that; Ulwarth shows up a couple rooms in, and falls in a Noxious Cloud crossfire with some Forest trolls.

"So, not really that much more interesting, then."

Well, he did drop a Frozen Long Sword (+5,+4), and the Vampire next to him dropped a Potion of Constitution. One of the trolls drops an Iron Helm of Intelligence [+3] (+1), but that's a strict subset of Holhenneth, so I leave it.

Not much of interest after that, until Mim shows up near the south edge of the level. He's a bit tougher than Ulwarth, requiring a Noxious Cloud gauntlet and three or four Manathrusts, but eventually he drops 21 Arrows of Wounding (+9,+10) and a couple {good} weapons.

Just a few more rooms and the level is done, and we push on to:

MoM 34; "You have a good feeling…"

A pack of Black orcs in the entry room drop my first Staff of Genocide. That could be handy in the future.

"Uh… doesn't that spell do damage to me for each monster it kills?"

Yes, which is why we won't be using it until you've got plenty hit points to spare.

"And that will be…?"

After we've got your CON maxed, at least. The rest of the level is mostly boring, with the exception of a Potion of Strength dropped by a Basilisk near the end. Hmm, I'd like to take on Orc Town with as light a load as possible… I think I'll head back up and sell off loot:

Lothlorien

This also gives me the opportunity to *ID*:

• The Ring of Finduros (+3), with +3 INT and WIS, sustain CON, resist sound and disenchantment, and see invisible

Not bad. The +3 INT is particularly tempting. We'd have to swap out the Ring of Spell with Fireflash on it, though, so you'd have to start carrying the book.

"Hmm, we left that back at Bree, didn't we?"

Yeah, but we're headed that way anyway to sell off loot at Gondolin. We also stow here at Bree:

• The Broad Axe 'Orchast' (2d7) (+20,+14) (+4), which activates for detect orcs every 10 turns and has +4 DEX and searching and slay orc

Back home to Lothlorien, then, and back down to:

MoM 34, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

*blink* Surely I was topside longer than that? (shrug) Oh well. The level is mostly boring until about midway through, when a pack of Black ogres pushes me over the top to clvl 36 and Eru gives us the fifth and final relic quest.

"So much for getting past this level this time out…"

Actually, I was kind of reluctant to start Orc Town now, with us halfway through the segment. We'll finish up this level first, of course. Let's see, the quest is "a very long way to the south-east of Bree, and quite some way to the north-east of Minas Anor", which puts it in a long but fairly narrow strip from just west of the Sea of Rhûn to the eastern reaches of Mordor. Oh, and I have skill points to allocate: 2 to Geomancy, 2 to Spell-power, and 1 to Fire.

In the room just beyond the Black ogres, I find a Potion of Dexterity. Not bad—and it picks up a bit as I cross to the other side of the level and a pack of Dark elven warlocks drops two Potions of Charisma. I think I'm getting close to max on that. And pushing further west and south, I find a room containing not one but two Potions of Intelligence. Too bad I only needed one more to max my INT at 18/190…

"You almost sound disappointed. Wait here, I'll go find a Potion of Stupidity–"

That won't be necessary, Trilogy… Anyway, that's pretty much the end of the level, so we return to:

Lothlorien

where the black market has a Potion of Charisma in stock. Looks like I'm close to maxing CHA, too; one more potion should do it.

[examines self in mirror] "I'm still not seeing it."

Well, never mind that for now; we have a quest to take.

Fifth relic quest

I think I'll pick up a few of my stock of Potions of Healing before heading out to find the quest temple.

"Uh… I think that's it over there."

Indeed, the temple dungeon is on a wilderness square I'd already explored, and so it's immediately visible as I enter wilderness mode, almost exactly halfway between Rhun and the Sacred Land of Mountains. A quick cross-country trek and we're there:

LTm -24, take 1; "This level can't be all bad…"

Indeed, I'd have to say the level is pretty darn good; one cast of See the Music and the relic appears, about half a screen from my entry point. The worst thing between me and the relic is a level-15 Green glutton ghost, who doesn't survive a single Manathrust.

"Well, that was pleasantly anticlimactic."

Indeed. We tiptoe back to the exit stairs and return cross-country to:

Lothlorien

"So that's the last of the relic quests, then."

Yep, and our Prayer skill level is up to 19.500, as high as it's likely to get, barring exceptional luck with Mr. F. Fingers. That's enough to push Identify up to level 28, though, gaining floor identify.

MoM 34 (take 3)

And I think we've got just enough room left this segment to do one more level of Moria:

MoM 34, take 3; "Looks like any other level."

An annoying side effect of our easy relic quest. No matter.

"I'm liking being able to identify stuff without picking it up here."

You and me both; I've just got to get into the habit of using it… The level is entirely boring, except for a lesser vault (Minor Boss Vault) near the end with a Sorcerer in it. Even that isn't so bad; I toss back a !oSpd to match his speed, poke a hole in the wall, and drop a Noxious Cloud gauntlet as he steps out. One Manathrust and he blinks away, and one quick chase-down later, he's dead. And all the vault netted was a Cleaver (+7,+7).

And that's pretty much the end of the level. By the time I get to the stairs, though, Moria's Always One More Monster™ rule has kicked in again—this time to my benefit, though, as some Dark elven warlocks leave me a Potion of Charisma to max my CHA at 18/150.

And we'll leave it here, at the stairs leading to Orc Town.

"‘Orc Town’, huh? Sounds inviting…"

You'll find out next time.

Orc Town thru MoM 36

When last we left Trilogy, she was about to descend to:

Orc Town; "You hear orc warcries."

"Uh oh, shriekers. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"

Good reflexes.

"Enh, lucky shot. Good thing they were all close in. So, four doors. You wanna pick or shall I?"

Let's go north from here. And be careful, there are gonna be more Shrieker mushroom patches that we'll need to catch before they see us and wake up the house.

"I… take it you've been here before."

Once or twice… Trilogy's exceptional stealth helps out in the sweep up the north corridor; in many cases, the orcs haven't even gotten around to opening a door as I pass it, allowing me to position myself optimally to take out the fungi with Noxious Clouds. This first sweep nets a suit of Law Dragon Scale Mail and:

• Mordekainen's Pocket Magician, which activates for mass genocide every 1000 turns

(I had a Scroll of *Identify* left over from the previous level.) That could be handy later; we'll hang onto it.

Okay, next step is the side corridor down to the northeast chamber. Of course, as anyone who's been here before knows, you have to slip through the fake wall to preemptively remove the Shrieker at the end of that corridor behind glass.

"Kinda takes all the fun out of it when you know all the tricks…"

Would you rather I let the Shriekers wake up the level?

"Mm… nah, you knock yourself out up there. Me, I'm entertaining myself by watching these stupid orcs charge headlong into my Noxious Clouds, after having watched their buddies die doing exactly the same thing."

And an excellent entertainment choice that is… I poke my head out the end of the north corridor and launch a Cloud west to catch the Shrieker in the corner… and it stops about two-thirds of the way there. Hmm, range problems. I'll have to be careful here. Meanwhile, monsters are already leaking out of the side corridor—which is more entertainment for Trilogy.

"Simple pleasures are the best, they say."

Indeed. Now, we need to creep east here, just far enough to Cloud the Shrieker in the northeast corner, but not close enough to wake it up… got it. [sights back along wall with thumb] And that was eight squares off from the corridor end; remember that for when we hit the other corner.

"Right."

And now down the side corridor. [checks map] There are Shriekers in all four corners of this next chamber; it's gonna be very tricky catching them all. We Cloud a few advance scouts leaking out the door, slip into position… *whew* Our +10 speed also works to our advantage, giving us a turn in plain sight of one of the Shriekers, which is more than enough time to take it down. Feeling cheeky now, I push on into the room, catching the Shriekers in the other corners before they make a peep. Hmm, either I'm getting very lucky with my speed or I'm stealthy enough that I'm not even waking these fungi up.

"Oh, he's getting cocky up there now. We are so doomed."

Hmph. A quick Cloud carpeting takes care of the rest of the inhabitants, and a sweep through the loot nets a Pike of Westernesse. As we come back up the side corridor, we discover more orcs approaching around the outer rim from the east. We catch most of them with a Cloud as they come around the corner, then round the corner ourselves to pick off the stragglers. And as long as we've come this far, let's continue down the east rim to pick off the ones that didn't get this far. This time, though, I underestimate the distance to the Shrieker at the next corner, and it gets me from offscreen before I can get it.

"So much for the stealthy approach."

Look at it this way: now the orcs are all primed to dive headlong into your Noxious Clouds.

"Enh, I'll take what I can get, I guess."

That's the spirit. From there, we take the east corridor in to the entry stairs and sweep up the west side, now being less cautious about the Shriekers. The orcs under the west corridor net a Potion of Constitution; the orcs in the west chambers, not so much… And this is the point at which I need to cross the lava ring to get to the next level—and for the very first time with any character, that's absolutely no problem.

"So… where's the fire elemental we were supposed to have just created?"

Probably no room to create it. Doesn't matter, though, we just wanted to get rid of the lava. We cross at a point on the north side, where the orcs there had dropped some Arrows of Venom. And from there, around the edge to the entrance to the southern portion of the level.

"Again, really dampens the fun when you know where all the secret passages are. No, I'm not complaining, just making the point."

Consider the point made, then, as we poke through the wall with Thrain's wand and drop another Cloud in the path of the advancing orc hordes. Now, there's usually an out-of-depth or otherwise tougher than usual monster somewhere in this mix, and Sense Monsters suggests it's that Bodak in the glass-wall area nearby.

"Is it me, or is my Noxious Cloud affecting monsters on the other side of that glass wall?"

(shrug) Semi-permeable glass, I suppose. Very energy-inefficient. Ah, seems I was wrong about the Bodak; the level's obligatory nasty turns out to be an 11-headed hydra. He takes a few Manathrusts to the face to kill, getting in a couple minor hits in the process, but nothing serious.

"So, this whole level isn't as tough as I was afraid it was going to be."

Well, the Noxious Cloud spell makes it a lot easier. This next chamber has Bolg in it.

"Bolg? Son of Azog? Not going to be pleased to see me, I imagine."

Actually, he doesn't really survive long enough to object one way or the other. Nor does anything else in the room, for that matter. Bolg's drop was… [shuffles through loot] enh, nothing worth noting.

"So, that's it, then?"

Not quite; there's still the southwest section to clear out. To get to that, we hop this void jumpgate behind this wall, which you will no doubt complain about me already knowing about.

"Nah, I already made that point."

Never mind, then. The rest of the level clears out fairly quickly, leaving us one last hop through the other jump gate to pick up the Stone of Lore back topside.

"Ah, I was wondering what that glassed-off section was for. So now we're done?"

Now we're done. And we have a little more space in this segment, so I'm going to break tradition and push on to:

MoM 36; "You like the look of this place…"

Downright anti-climactic after Orc Town. One pack of Snagas early on does manage to cough up the Trident of Ulmo, but other than that–

"Um… why is that ghost on fire?"

Oh, that's Fire Phantom. [checks notes] Let's see, 1000hp, speed +10, decent melee damage–

"He's dead."

Huh?

"I shot a couple Manathrusts at him while you were digging through your notes. Four, I think. He wasn't that tough, really."

Oh… um… good job. Did you check his drop?

(shrug) "Couple Mage Staffs, neither of them particularly good."

Well, then let's move on, then.

"Hold on, I think we've got spiders incoming."

Indeed, Sense Monsters is detecting Araneas in the corridors outside this room, and some are leaking in. As long as they're coming in one at a time, I can pick them off with Manathrusts. That catches the first few, but the rest are lurking out in the corridors. We're gonna have to lure them in.

"*sigh* Heeere, spider, spider…"

It turns out the rest of the Araneas are stuck in the next room to the east. A bit of judicious juggling (and the occasional fire bolt to the face… ) lures them out into my devastating Cloud/Manathrust one-two punch.

"*groan* Give it a rest up there…"

Well, if you want a rest, we are getting close to the end of the segment. Let's see, a Potion of Strength from this Lesser mimic down here, an uneventful sweep through the rest of the level (remarkably uneventful, actually, for Moria), and we return to:

Lothlorien

where we *ID*:

• The Stone of Lore, which activates for perilous identify every turn and has radius-1 light
• The Trident of Ulmo (4d8) (+15,+19) (+4), which activates for teleport away every 200 turns and has +4 DEX, slay dragon and animal, immunity to acid, free action, hold life, resist nether, underwater breathing, see invisible, slow digestion, and blessed

I think I'll stow these in Bree.

[shoves Trident into tight space] "Kinda running out of space here…"

Yeah, we're gonna have to get more storage space soon. In the meantime, we swing by Gondolin to sell off loot, and return home to Lothlorien—where, just to mock me, the black market has a Tome of the Everrunning Wave.

"We've… already got one of those."

Right, hence the 'mocking' bit; they could, after all, have had one of the Tomes we don't yet have. Anyway, we'll restock here and leave it for next time.

MoM 36 (take 2) thru MoM 38

Before we return to Moria, I believe you were complaining about lack of space?

"Well, we've still got a little room here, but my place in Bree is just stuffed."

And we're going to take care of that by going to Minas Anor and completing the:

Haunted House quest

"A haunted house. How almost quaint."

I'd think you've run into enough ghosts and assorted undead up to this point to take this seriously.

"They haven't even managed to break out of this house yet. How seriously am I supposed to take them?"

Well, ghosts can't phase through permanent walls.

"Which just makes them that much easier to take care of."

Well, in fairness to Trilogy, the quest isn't even remotely a challenge. It nets a few minor ego items, but nothing of note. After selling those off, we return to Lothlorien to recall to:

MoM 36, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

The down side of doing the quest. Well, it doesn't look like it's going to be much of a level anyway; it nets nothing of interest except a randart Heavy Crossbow.

"Oh, I dunno, those look kind of interesting…"

'Those' would be a pack of Barrow wights that I discover at the far end of the room when I light it up. One of them gets off a spell, taking me down to 154/193hp.

"Yyyyeah. You realize, of course, that you have to die for that. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"

One Fireflash takes out the lot of ‘em.

"So, still pretty much nothing interesting, then."

Well, we do manage to score a Potion of Dexterity from a Mind flayer. Oh, and I also hit clvl 37 by killing a Lesser wall monster who mercifully hadn't woken up yet; skill points go one each to Geomancy, Spell-power, Water, Air and Earth. But other than that, yeah, nothing to write home about. Maybe we'll have better luck on:

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

"Not really the kind of luck I was hoping for…"

Ah, c'mon, where's your sense of adventure?

"Back at home, in a cabinet. Right next to my common sense, now that I think of it."

Well, to segue briefly from superb to surreal, early in the level a Young red dragon drops a randart amulet named… The Amulet of There.

"Uh-huh. I'm thinking kind of an existential thing here…"

Well, we won't know until we can take it back topside and *ID* it. Which may happen sooner than I was expecting, as an accidental stop across a stray lava square burns up my Spellbook of Fireflash.

"Shoulda' got it fireproofed…"

I'm holding out for a Fire Tome. In the meantime, we pick up yet another randart, a spear dropped by a pack of Snotlings. I think we've hit our quota of those for a while–

"Okay, this is getting silly. Look what that Ogrillon just dropped."

A randart Brass Lantern. Yep, that's silly. And so is another bit of trivia I just noticed—all five of the last five ego weapons I've found have been Spectral. I think the RNG has got a screw loose or something. Prob'ly just as well we're heading back to:

Lothlorien

where we *ID*:

• Mordekainen's Sneaking Eye, which activates for cure fear
• The Amulet of There (+4), with +4 searching and infravision, sustain CON, resist fear, fire, poison, light and nexus, and telepathy
• The Brass Lantern 'Ormen' (+2), with radius-5 temporary light, +2 searching and infravision, resist light and see invisible
• The Spear 'Guluthil' (+15,+8) (+3), with +3 CHA, frost brand, chaotic effects, vorpal effects, slay troll and blessed
• The Heavy Crossbow 'Echelomen' (x6) (+11,+7) (+2), with radius-1 light, and +2 INT, WIS, speed and might

Hmm, the amulet might be useful in the future; I think I'll keep it. The rest, of course, is sell-off fodder, and Gondolin is the best place for that. While I'm here, I should swing by Bree; my spare Ring of Spell with Fireflash on it is stowed there—and it looks like we're gonna need it, because none of the town stores have the spellbook we need.

"So what now, boss?"

Hmm. We'll swap out Lebreth for the Ring of Spell, and get resist poison back by swapping in There.

"In where?"

Don't start… This arrangement loses us resist blindness and the Charm spell; I don't think we'll be needing the latter in Moria, though. Speaking of which:

MoM 37, take 2; "You have a very good feeling…"

Yes, I do, considering there's a Potion of Experience in the far corner of the entry room… My Fireflash ring gets a workout immediately, beating back an Undead mass infestation a few rooms in.

Otherwise, an entirely unremarkable level; fast-forward to:

MoM 38; "You like the look of this place…"

Not really; not with a cluster of Uruk-hai and Cave trolls right next to me as I enter the level, and a Shardstorm off in the unlit portions popping off shard blasts at me. A Noxious Cloud and a few Manathrusts later, though, I'm liking the look of this place much better… Especially considering that one of those Cave trolls dropped Elvagil.

After that promising opening, the next bit of excitement pops up around the two-thirds mark, when a Death knight (as I later learn it is) manages to surround me with Fire ants and curse me down to 122/200hp from offscreen before I can properly respond.

"Um… help?"

I'm thinking tactical retreat here. A hasty Phase Door drops me into a nearby corridor, where I manage to rest most of the way back up to full health before the Death knight rounds the corner, summons more monsters, and casts a hallucination spell on me to add insult to injury. This time, however, I have the advantage: he and all his minions are lined up in a nice straight line, and thus perfectly amenable to a Geyser in the collective face. Would you care to do the honors, Trilogy?

"With pleasure. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"

That little encounter pushes me over the top to clvl 38, with skill points going one each to Geomancy, Spell-power, Fire, Water and Air. And after that bit of excitement, the rest of the level is fairly tame. Oh dear, I just noticed that Thrain's wand is down to its very last charge—literally.

"I was wondering when you were going to notice that."

Well, why didn't you say something?

(shrug) "I assumed you knew what you were doing."

Don't assume that—I mean, do assume that in general but not… oh, never mind, let's go get that fixed:

Lothlorien

After getting that straightened out, we *ID*:

• The Long Sword 'Elvagil' (+5,+7) (+2), with +2 DEX, CHA and stealth, slay orc and troll, levitation, see invisible, and sense orc and troll

We can stick that in our empty Minas Anor home in the process of doing another quick shopping tour looking for a Fireflash spellbook. No luck on that front but Bree's black market does have a Potion of Constitution that takes my CON from 14 to 15 and my hit points from 207 to 226. Which is, I think, a good place to leave the story until next time.

Chatter (1.10)

ZasVid: Ho hoom... you want to fireproof a Tome of Fire when you get one, right? Don't worry about that. Tomes of Eternal Flame are innately fireproof.

ZizzoTheInfinite: Yeah, I know. That was sort of my point, in fact: instead of wasting fireproofing on the Fireflash spellbook, I wanted to hold out for something that was already fireproof.

MoM 38 (take 2) thru MoM 39

Still no Fireflash spellbooks in the stores. Well, maybe we'll get extremely lucky and find one on:

MoM 38, take 2; "You have a good feeling…"

"Hmm, now, was that optimism or sarcasm?"

Can I plead the Fifth on that? Telepathy from my randart amulet–

"From There, you mean?"

Man, that's a weird randart name—and an annoying one for narrative purposes, as you can see. Anyway, telepathy There-from picks up Draebor in a room to the south of the entry room, with naught but a Bodak to guard him. He usually has a much bigger entourage. Surprisingly, the Fireflash with which I'd expected to kill both does only two stars of damage to Draebor (the Bodak, of course, is toast); it takes another five Manathrusts to finally get him to stop moving. He drops nothing of note except Metal Brigandine Armour of Resistance, which I decide is too heavy to cart back up and sell.

It calms down a bit from there. Well, except for finding Celegorm in a chest dropped by some Cave trolls in the very next room… [checks notes] Hmm, all it'd buy me is resist dark; I might wear it later.

"Um… does that giant look odd to you?"

That would be Fasolt, just a couple more rooms further in, rounding the corner into the corridor I'm in. I was wondering why there seemed to be a rather large number of giants in the vicinity. Okay, forget what I said about a "calm level." I toss a Fireflash in his face and it takes him down to two stars, enough for one more Manathrust to finish him off. [checks notes] Sheesh, he was +0 speed, no challenge at all. He drops Rhino Hide Armor of Resist fire… and his corpse.

"*groan* Not saying a word…"

One souvenir totem later and I'm off to finish off the rest of Fasolt's apparently rather anemic entourage. After that, the level actually does calm down a bit. I finally get an opportunity to use my Poison Blood spell, as an emergency buffer before facing my second ever Ancient dragon, an Ancient green, in the northwest subroom of a four-subroom pit. Turns out to be unnecessary, though; the wyrm falls to a single Fireflash in the face.

"Man, if it wasn't for that whole annoying lava business, this would be a really useful spell."

No kidding. We need to find you a source of fire immunity. In the near term, though, we have more immediate concerns: the southwest subroom immediately below us has an Ancient white dragon in it, and we have no source of temporary resist cold.

"And just when I was beginning to lose confidence in you…"

(shrug) Not much I can do, really; I'd have to push Prayer all the way up to 30 to be able to cast Elemental Shield from the Mana school, and you don't have that many skill points to spare. Don't worry, we just have to take it out with the first shot.

"Uh-huh."

Oh, ye of little faith… That goes off without a hitch, and the rest of the level passes without incident—well, except for the Potion of Dexterity and Gondricam. Let's move on, then:

MoM 39; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

"Good or bad?"

Not so bad, I'm thinking; Sense Monsters is picking up what looks like a troll pit off to our east, which is probably the source of the superb feeling. In fact, let's go take care of that, what say?

"Am… I supposed to be impressed here or something?"

Well, your Noxious Cloud spell makes it a lot easier; in fact, a few casts of that and a little patience as the entire brigade charges out to their death is all it takes. It does net a few pieces of saleable kit to keep from being completely boring.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much ‘superbed’ out of my skull at this point."

Well, here's something a bit more exciting: there's a pack of Dark elven warlocks at the far end of the room we're about to enter—and from our line of approach, we're going to have to step all the way into the room, into line of sight of all of them, to get off a Noxious Cloud on them. [sound F/X: drum roll] *foosh* And they're down. Man, I love having Superb stealth–

• The Death knight casts a nether bolt. You keep hold of your life force!

"Brilliant plan."

It's okay, we're only down to 122/226hp, and we can get back out of his line of sight quickly by ducking back into the corridor. Fortunately, the Gnome mages that I had to punch through to get this far left me a Potion of Healing. A few more steps back into the corridor, wait for the