Contents

  1. Trilogy, the Half-Elf Geomancer, Part 6
    1. Intermission: Ring Hunting
      1. Part 1
      2. Part 2
    2. Chapter 7
      1. Ang 67 thru Ang 70
      2. Ang 70 (take 2) thru Ang 72
      3. Ang 73 thru Ang 78
      4. Ang 78 (take 2) thru Ang 83
        1. Chatter (2.4)
      5. Ang 84 thru Ang 88
        1. Chatter (2.5)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Latest segment
Latest character sheet (after this segment)

Trilogy, the Half-Elf Geomancer, Part 6

Intermission: Ring Hunting

Part 1

We Apologize for the Delay™; hardware problems. Anyway, time to go Ring-hunting.

"You said you had some leads?"

Yep. We'll be Thunderlording to most of them, since they're all at the bottom of dungeons and there's no point trawling all the way through them just to get to the bottom.

"And… you couldn't have had this inspiration, say, three or four levels into Moria?"

That was to build you up so you'd be able to survive the later stuff. You don't really need building up anymore. And just for that crack, we're going to start with the place I've been looking forward to the most.

"Oh, no…"

Oh, yes: ;)

Num 50; "Looks like any other level."

Somehow, I don't think so. ;)

[thrashes violently for a moment] [pauses] [breathes] "…Okay, why am I not drowning?"

Your high Water skill gives you the ability to breathe underwater.

"…You have got to be kidding me."

(shrug) Hey, I don't make the rules, I just take advantage of ‘em. ;) Now, I think we should light up this one.

"Right. Azarath metrion zinthos…" [looks around] "Amazing… it's like walking around inside history. Well, except underwater. So you figure, what, Sauron might have left his Ring here while he was Ar-Pharazôn's prisoner?"

In particular, we're looking for Ar-Pharazôn himself, who should have taken the ring for himself by now if it was here–

"Found him."

And here he comes, approaching our entry room from the south. [I should note at this point that I took the liberty of back-porting a small bugfix from 2.3 by adding the AQUATIC flag to Ar-Pharazôn in r_info.txt, so this isn't nearly as lucky as it would otherwise be.]

"How tough is this guy?"

[checks notes] 5000hp, speed +20, some pretty hard-hitting melee attacks that I don't plan to let him get close enough to use, and some annoying spells.

"Not as bad as the Necromancer, then. Think we have time to get these boots activated?"

It takes only six attempts to successfully activate Feanor's speed boost to buy us a bit of an extra edge, and then we step out to face him–

"Sand mites."

[slaps forehead] Okay, first we Cloud the swarm of Sand mites blocking our path out of the room, and then we step out to face Ar-Pharazôn.

"You! What pet of the hated Valar are you, come to mock me in my eternal torment?"

"Uhh… hi. You wouldn't by any chance have found a Ring lying around down here? Plain gold, ‘bout so big, extremely evil?"

"Begone! I have no words to say to the likes of thee!"

"I don't know why I thought that would work. Oh well. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"

And I just noticed that, despite his reputation, Ar-Pharazôn isn't actually evil, which means Fireflash isn't doing an awful lot of damage to him.

"*groan* Not again…"

Don't Panic™. Okay, we can't summon an Elemental Minion in the middle of the Cloud we just cast; we'll lead him back into our entry room where we have some room–

Odd, I wouldn't have thought that would work underwater…

[slaps forehead] "We're dead, aren't we?"

Not yet, we aren't; Fireflash will work just fine on these monsters. Good thing I brought some Potions of Restore Mana with me, though. That gives us enough time to get to a deep water square and minion it into a level-150 Water elemental. That lasts about a dozen or so turns against Ar-Pharazôn and his horde of summoned 'p's (which I helpfully pick off with Manathrust) and knocks him down to four stars before dying.

"You didn't really think this plan through, did you?"

What? It's working just fine; another of those should take care of him. Well, until Ar-Pharazôn teleports us away. X-( I toss back a !oRM and dismiss my Minion, just to be safe. We make a beeline back to the entry room—and the minute we get him in line of sight, he teleports us away again. X-( X-(

"Okay, this is getting annoying."

Note to self: bring the Anchor with you next time you face this guy.

"You're just making this up as you go along, aren't you?"

Not now, Trilogy. He didn't send us quite so far this time, and we're back quickly. He's still at two stars, where he was when he teleported us away the first time. Hmm, three Manathrusts might be enough.

"Uh… speed?"

Right, Feanor's speed activation has long since worn off, and they haven't finished recharging yet. One !oSpd, then. We drop another Cloud on Ar-Pharazôn's approach path as we wait for him to come back into line of sight… and two Manathrusts do the job. Most of his loot melts instantly when he drops it. And no Ring, alas.

"So… how again was Ar-Pharazôn breathing underwater?"

His amulet. Here, I'll show you, back in:

Lothlorien

where we *ID*:

"Ah."

Tempting to wear, but as we've just seen, there are non-good, non-evil monsters that we need to be able to see, so this can't replace our randart amulet's telepathy; we'll stow it at home for now.

"So, that lead was a dud. Where to next?"

Well, this next one should be pretty easy:

MoM 40, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

"*groan* Not again…"

We're not staying here; this is just as far as the Thunderlords could take us. Fortunately, lighting up the level with See the Music reveals a nearby stairs to:

SWC 32; "Looks like any other level."

[splashes boots in water] "Noticing a theme here…"

We'll be passing through quickly. To my surprise, we actually enter the level standing on another down stair to:

SWC 33; "Looks like any other level."

where Reveal Ways reveals another nearby down stair. A quick hop across the mountains thanks to our Climbing Set ;) and we push on to:

SWC 34; "Looks like any other level."

The Watcher is in range of Sense Monsters off to our south. I think we'll light up the level again for this one. Probably wasn't necessary with our mountain-climbing ability.

"Well, that's unpleasant. Can I kill it?"

I encourage it. [checks notes] And at 2700hp, speed +10 and evil, it should be easy. Though it does have an annoying teleport-to spell, which it demonstrates to us the minute we walk into its line of sight. Two Fireflashes to the face teaches it the depth of its mistake. >:>

"That was too easy."

And no Ring, either. The only thing of interest it nets is a {cursed} randart ring that I don't bother taking back to:

Lothlorien

"So, not really panning out so far, these leads of yours."

Maybe we'll have better luck with Shelob:

CUg 50; "Looks like any other level."

[eyes nearby webs] "Lotta spiders down here, apparently."

Particularly Shelob, who's already in telepathy range to our south, and just a quick hop over the mountains away (man, I'd forgotten how much fun that is…).

"Can we focus? Big spider."

Not so big: [checks notes] 3500hp, speed +10, evil, not even any spells. The only even slightly tricky part is maneuvering her into a clear space off her webs so that our three Fireflashes do full damage. Still no Ring, and she drops another {cursed} randart ring just to mock us. Bah. Back, then, to:

Lothlorien

"You understand, my confidence in you is wavering ever so slightly here."

You see what I have to put up with. Anyway, our last two possibilities are the tough ones, so we'll leave them for next time.

Part 2

"So, the ‘tough’ ones are next, eh?"

Well, c'mon, none of the first three were really that tough, were they?

"And of course you saved the worst for last."

(shrug) I was hoping we'd get lucky with the easy ones.

"Right. So, how's that working out for you so far?"

That's quite enough of that, young lady:

PoD 70; "Looks like any other level."

[casts Sense Monsters] "This is bad, isn't it?"

Could be worse. I think we will be avoiding the monster pit off to our east with the two Greater Rotting Qs and the Master Q in it… *shudder*

"*whew*" [casts See the Music] "So, do I want to know who we're looking for down here?"

Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer.

"Never heard of him."

I don't think he's a Tolkien monster; probably a D&D hold over from the Angband days.

"Then… what makes you think he has the ring?"

I don't know for certain he has it, just that he might.

"Well, that's reassuring…"

You see what I have to put up with. The level has lots of pockets of deep chasms, which I use as shortcuts via flight from Flare's ring to bypass groups of tougher monsters that I don't want to tangle with.

"Got him."

There he is, in a room on the east edge of the level.

"How tough is he?"

[checks notes] Pretty tough: 6000hp, speed +20, nasty melee damage, and lots of really nasty spells.

"He's on to us."

And Feagwath is awake and moving. Hmm, there's a large chasm to the south of the room he's in; let's position ourself in that and use Geolysis to open up an approach.

"Boots?"

A mere two attempts is enough to get off Feanor's speed activation. And here goes nothin'… ooh, the far end of the Geolysis tunnel is a chasm square, blocking off Feagwath's approach, since he doesn't fly.

"Azarath metrion ZINTHOS! Uh… this isn't working."

Odd; my Fireflashes aren't doing nearly as much damage to Feagwath as one would expect. Even more oddly, I can't target Feagwath across the chasm squares either. I wonder if they're blocking the spell…

[slaps forehead] "Not again…"

Not a problem; we'll just move over a couple grids and Geolysis up another tunnel. This one has no chasm squares, but it does have a shallow lava square at the end, which is just as good for blocking Feagwath, since he doesn't resist fire.

"You got lucky."

I'll take it. ;) Three more Fireflashes later, Feagwath is fleeing; we chase him across the tunnel and finish him off with one more Fireflash. And still no Ring.

"You're just making up these ‘leads’ as you go along, aren't you?"

*groan* Apart from Doomcaller, which we were expecting, Feagwath also nets Theoden's axe and Gothmog's axe.

"Detecting a theme here."

Enh, let's take them back to:

Lothlorien

and *ID* them:

Bleh. These go to my Gondolin house, the last one that isn't full.

"I'm almost afraid to ask where your next ‘lead’ is taking us."

We've only got one shot left: down into Erebor, to face Glaurung.

*blink* "Glaurung. Father of all dragons."

This one is not gonna be easy.

"You don't say…"

[slaps forehead] Come on:

Ere 60; "You have a very good feeling…"

"Riiight…"

Well, at least mountain climbing from your Climbing Set and flight from Flare's ring will let us dodge most of the monsters.

"Why are we going the long way this time?"

The Thunderlords can't take us into Erebor. We'll have to power-dive:

Ere 66; "Looks like any other level."

Well, it does at first, as we're trying to sneak our way across to the entry room to some down stairs; then:

"Uh… help?"

One ?oTele coming right up, dropping us in the midst of a much less intimidating pack of Acid hounds.

"We're gonna die down here, aren't we?"

Gathraka survived this; I see no reason you can't too.

"Right. Not at all worried now."

*groan* Let's just keep diving:

Ere 72; "Looks like any other level."

Oh, dear gods, it's an arena level…

"So, that's pretty much me dead, then."

Not necessarily. The stairs we're on aren't a shaft, so we can just bounce on them to:

Ere 72, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

which is not an arena level. *whew*

"And… what if Glaurung was in that last level?"

He'll be here again. Quirk of game mechanics.

"Uh-huh…"

And indeed, it takes just a bit of mountain-hopping to find Glaurung.

"I don't really want to know how bad this is, do I?"

[checks notes] Well, it ain't good: 12000hp, speed +20, powerful breaths of fire, poison and sound, unpleasant melee damage, and some annoying spells, most notably summoning ancient dragons.

"And you're sure he's got the Ring. No, don't answer that…"

Good thing I still have those Potions of *Healing* and Restore Mana I took to face the Necromancer. Now, let's see, if I duck through the mountains around the corner of the corridor he's in: 

^..^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^...... 
^......................^^^^^^^^...... 
^..................D...^^^^^^^^....d. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^............^^'' 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^............^^'' 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^h^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
###########^^##^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^.. 
###########^^##^^^^^^..^^^^^^^^^^^^..

that should give me time to fire up Feanor's speed activation (a single attempt this time), slip out into the corridor and drop a Stone Prison around myself to limit Glaurung's summons.

"I've got a very bad feeling about this…" [casts Dig to open Stone Prison]

"Well now. It is an honor to finally meet The One."

"Enh, that's just a sideline, really." First Fireflash knocks Glaurung down one star, and he summons dragons, including a Great Wyrm of Chaos right next to me.

"Oh, I don't know." Second Fireflash knocks him down another star, and he breathes sound, knocking me down to 1037/1218hp. "I mean, that is why you're here, isn't it? Because you've heard the rumors that I possess a certain trinket misplaced by our mutual acquaintance Sauron?"

"*groan* Let me guess: you don't." Third Fireflash knocks him down another star; he doesn't apparently move, but the GWoC next to me claws me down to 959/1218hp, and the Death drake phases through the Prison walls to get next to me.

"Now, now, that would spoil our little game." Fourth Fireflash knocks Glaurung down another star; he breathes poison, knocking me down to 692/1218hp and killing one of the dragons he summoned. I risk a turn to toss back one of my Potions of *Healing*, and no one does anything, except the GWoC, who fails to cast a spell.

"I'm glad you think this is fun…" Fifth Fireflash knocks Glaurung down two stars; he summons more dragons, including a Great Wyrm of Law.

"I just want to see how good you are." Sixth Fireflash takes Glaurung down to three stars; he approaches, and the dragons next to me claw me a bit, down to 1134/1218hp. "If an opponent of my caliber is beyond your power, after all, then you have no hope of defeating Morgoth and fulfilling the Prophecy."

"Like I said, that's a sideline." Seventh Fireflash takes Glaurung down to two stars; he summons more dragons, and the dragons next to me claw me down to 1066/1218hp, including an exp hit from the Death drake. "I'm just here to find the Ring and destroy it." I'm down to 108/832 mana by this point; I risk taking a turn to toss back a Potion of Restore Mana, and nobody does anything that I can see.

"Oh, I think the Prophecy will not be denied." Eighth Fireflash knocks Glaurung down to one star and sends him fleeing; he casts a useless fear spell, and the dragons claw me down to 985/1218hp. "Whatever your intent, you will end up fulfilling it—or more likely dying in the attempt."

"Speak for yourself. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!" Ninth and last Fireflash finishes Glaurung off—and still no Ring. Well, crap, that ruins the narrative structure I'd been sketching out.

"How terrible for you. Can we go now?"

Well, I'm idly curious to see what Glaurung dropped. We duck back into the mountains and cast another Stone Prison between Glaurung's drop and the summoned dragons to seal them off. Well, except for one Ancient black dragon, who was almost dead from Fireflash backsplashes anyway. And it's a good thing we stayed to check; Glaurung's drop includes fully half a dozen artifacts, including the randart he was going to drop anyway.

"Now can we go?"

Yes, we're done here; we recall back to:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

*ahem* Well, that's just as well; we'll need to stick most of these in my:

Gondolin

house anyway. Now, let's see what we've got here:

Feh. I sell the randart cloak and stow everything else. Back home, then, to:

Lothlorien

to stow the extra potions—including the Potions of Resistance I took with me specifically to face Glaurung and never used… :o

[slaps forehead] "Why am I not surprised?"

Well, we survived, didn't we?

"And achieved nothing. All of your leads were duds. Now what?"

Now there's only one place left to get the ring: from Sauron himself…

Chapter 7

Now, this is the part I've been dreading.

"And there goes my confidence soaring again…"

You're not helping here, Trilogy.

"Look, you said we had to go find Sauron. Well, since we kicked him out of Dol Guldur, he's presumably gone back to Mordor, right?"

No such luck, alas. He's down at the bottom of Angband now.

"The Pits of Angband."

Yep.

"Morgoth's fortress."

The same.

"The prophecy." [slaps forehead] "Mom is gonna kill me. If Morgoth doesn't first. And that's assuming we even survive that far into Angband."

You're really not helping here… :\ Okay, I'm gonna pull some of my stock of Potions of *Healing*, Restore Mana and Resistance out of the house—and I think by this late date, we should really have long since ditched the !oCCW's. :o And finally the long cross-country trek to:

Ang 67 thru Ang 70

Ang 67; "You have a very good feeling…"

"I'm glad one of us does."

Don't look at me. All right, I'm in no mood to hang around in this place any longer than necessary, so I use the magic-mapping power from Trilogy's Dwarven Lantern of the Magi (too bad our Prayer skill isn't quite high enough to cast Vision…) to make a beeline for the first down stairs I can find to:

Ang 68, Princess quest for 6 Great Hell Wyrms; "Looks like any other level."

*blink* "…You cannot possibly be serious."

Don't look at me, I have no idea. Telepathy reveals a treasure pit to our immediate south, and magic mapping mercifully reveals the quest room not far to the east. An underground river has punched a hole through the inner pit wall to the north; just to get an idea of how much trouble I'm in, I fire off a Tidal Wave to see how well it works. The results are not encouraging: some of the Hellblades, for instance, actually take two Manathrusts to kill, even after punching through the wave. :\

"You just did that for fun."

Not my idea of fun… Pushing on, we find Acid hounds milling about in the quest room along with the wyrms. Thank Eru for fire and acid immunity from my randart shield. The wyrms themselves, fortunately, aren't actually that far out of depth, and so only take three Fireflashes each. On the other hand, Fireflashes are awfully expensive in mana, so I have to take them in stages. The princess offers us an Awl-Pike, Ring Mail or a Cleaver for our troubles; we take the ring mail, just for giggles, and it turns out to be Ring Mail of Resist Lightning [+12].

"Seriously underwhelmed here."

You're spoiled by now, I think. To wit, we actually leave a Ring of Speed (+9) from one of the wyrms on the ground, since we have better at home. By this point, we're not really interested in anything beyond the occasional seriously rare and powerful kit. Maybe we'll find some on:

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

Quickly passing through to:

Ang 70, Fumblefingers quest for 13 Hand druj; "Looks like a forgotten crypt…"

Oh, @#$%, I forgot about the special levels in Angband… :o

"We are quite definitely going to die down here, aren't we?"

Not now, Trilogy. [checks notes]Hmm, the Crypt contains the Shadow Cloak of Luthien… which isn't really actually that much better than Holcolleth, now that I look at it. It does give invisibility, though… which I'm getting from my Dwarven Lantern of the Magi already. We do have Flare's ring, though, which would let us get to it without a great deal of risk…

"*groan* Just go get it already."

Uh… right. Now, I dunno if magic-mapping will work in here… wait a minute, See the Music does wizard-lighting now, doesn't it? :o

[slaps forehead] "Not saying a word…"

Right, so let's see what we're up against. [casts See the Music] Hmm, one of our friend Mr. F. Fingers's Hand druj (drujes? druji?) is nice and isolated and well to our southeast—but I can't swap with it. [checks notes] Ah, druj resist teleportation. No problem, there's a Mature gold dragon near it that I can swap with—which turns out to be in line of sight of another of the druj.

*flinch* "I assume they can do worse than cast fire bolts?"

Yeah, we got lucky there. Hmm, most of the other monsters in the area around Luthien's cloak resist teleportation too… let's hit one of the Master vampires in the alcove just north of Thuringwethil's alcove.

"Thuringwethil. Morgoth's vampire messenger."

You've heard of her, then. It looks like we'll have to get past her to get to Luthien's cloak.

"And this would be the ‘great deal of risk’ we were going to be avoiding."

She's not too bad: [checks notes] 5000hp, speed +20, some annoying spells. Let's try activating Feanor's boots… fourteen tries later, no luck, and things are starting to wake up around me, notably the Master vampires in this alcove, who I quickly Fireflash. And I think that gives me a potential in: with stuff awake in Thuringwethil's alcove, one of the Master vampires therein is positioned close enough to Luthien's cloak that I might be able to make a dash for it.

"I've seen that movie. That trick never works."

They don't have movies in Arda. And just for that, after a quick !oSpd (having given up on Feanor's boots), we're going in.

*wince* "Ouch."

Yes, with everyone casting cause-wounds spells at me at once, we're already down to 820/1218hp before we can even move: 

##########zzzz#....#VVVV#zz.+########## 
##########zVVz#....#VVVV#zz..########## 
##########zzzz#.$$$#VVVV#zzzz########## 
################$]##################### 
##########~~~L#$$$/#V...#....########## 
##########~~~+#-?!!#V.V.#e.e.########## 
##########~~~L#..V!#VVV.#....########## 
##########################++########### 
##########....#zzzVVVVV~#....########## 
##########+..eVzz.zVVhG(#....########## 
##########....#zzzVVVV#~#..L>########## 
####################################### 
#######################################

For reference, that's Thuringwethil immediately to our northeast (the 'G' to our east is the glass wall that originally wasn't distinguished in the dumped map except by color, which wouldn't help us here). We duck southeast through the illusion wall immediately south of the glass wall, and nobody does much of anything (except the Undead beholder, who casts a harmless fire ball). One step up northeast, and Luthien's cloak is ours—and mercifully, no one else casts any more spells at me, though Thuringwethil gets in a few hits and drains our exp a bit. We quickly swap back out via the Master vampire we got in on and toss back a !oH to heal up.

"And this was all worth it, I presume."

Come on, that wasn't that bad, was it?

"*groan* Can we go home now?"

Yes, since neither the up stairs or the down stairs are easily accessible from here, we'll recall back out to:

Loth^H^H^H^HWilderness

Right, I keep forgetting that. Works out just as well, though; we'll need to swing by Gondolin to stow Holcolleth after we swap in:

"Doesn't look that bad on me, actually. I hope Luthien would approve."

I'm sure she would. Let's take it back to:

Lothlorien

and rest up for next time.

"It's going to be this bad all the way down, isn't it?"

Probably worse.

"*groan…*"

Ang 70 (take 2) thru Ang 72

We Apologize for the Delay™; software problems. Notably seemingly random occasional desktop freezes when I open or close a window. I'll have to remember to save often, so I don't lose any of your progress in the event of a restart.

"Well, that's comforting…"

Indeed:

Ang 70, Fumblefingers quest for 13 Hand druj, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

"…Didn't we just leave this party?"

Well, we didn't complete the quest when it overlapped the Crypt, so we've still got it left to do. Maybe I'll get lucky and finally get that hit to Magic that I need to top it off.

"This won't end well, will it?"

I think we'll be okay. Of minor amusing note in the early level is the pack of Air hounds that charge into the entry room as I'm headed out. Finishing them off with Noxious Cloud is somewhat ironic, although some of them are moving so fast that I have to add an extra Cloud to keep them from escaping the area of effect before dying.

"‘Amusing’. Right."

Okay, the first druj is in a room off to my southwest, along with a Grand master mystic, only Trilogy's third. [checks notes] And my notes on how she handled the first two are slim to non-existent. Hmm, The approach is along a longish east/west corridor straight into the room, with just enough time for me to seal off the corridor behind me with Stone Prison and drop a Cloud on the corridor before he moves into line of sight. After that, seven Geysers to the face takes care of him and his summons.

Now then, back to the druj, who's positioned on the north edge of the room—perfect setup for me to run Geolysis just north of the room, poke through with Dig on a dog-leg to the druj, and Fireflash it to death with impunity. >:> [checks notes] And since they have 600hp and can't level up much from their native level of 57, one Fireflash apiece will be enough.

The next several druj fall to similar tricks. One minor annoyance I encounter in this process is Geolysis's occasional tendency to populate the edges of its tunnels with things like ice walls (undiggable) and trees (immune to the Dig spell), which occasionally forces me along another route. [This can also be fixed, I later discover, by using Grow Barrier to change the offending wall to something more suitable.] Of slightly less esoteric annoyance is the monster pit full of 'd's near the south edge of the level; strategically place Firewalls along approaching corridors and a bit of patient luring takes care of that.

In relatively short order, then, Mr. F. Fingers is offering us Thaumaturgy, Antimagic, Conveyance or Sneakiness. Still no Magic… :\

"Not having much luck with this guy, are we?"

Well, at least another Conveyance hit gets Conveyance high enough to cast Teleportation now; we'll pick up your Tome of Translocation next time we're topside. In the meantime, we hop the nearest down stairs (not nearly as near as I'd like…) to:

Ang 71; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

I haven't felt superb since I stepped into this crazy place. :\

"Tell me about it."

We don't want to hang around here any longer than we have to, so we hurry to the nearest down stairs (through an annoying pack of Impact hounds who have me down to 990/1218hp by the time I get through them) and push on to:

Ang 72, Fumblefingers quest for 17 Master mystics; "Looks like any other level."

"Well, that's another chance at your Magic hit, at least."

Yeah, that's the upside; the downside is, it's Master mystics. [checks notes] 1100hp and speed +20 at their native depth of level 50, which means some of them will probably be faster than us. Not to mention their annoying summoning spells. Which means we'll be emPrisoning ourselves immediately, since one of them is just a few squares southeast of me in the entry room.

"And now the minute we open it up, he's on us."

At least it gives us a chance to rest and top off your hit points and mana. As for our target's proximity, I'm going to try pushing your Explor up to running and using Strike to push him back.

*WHUMP!* "Interesting. Why haven't we used this spell before?"

Well, it doesn't do much damage, especially compared to its mana cost, and I haven't really had much use for pushing monsters away before. Anyway, the same trick works on the second Master mystic, who's lurking just outside our entry room, right on the other side of the wall from me. He drops a !oRM and not one but two Scrolls of Acquirement, which net… [sound F/X: drum roll] a Thunderlord Coat of Resistance [+20] and a Spectral Club (+10,+10).

"Not terribly impressed, frankly."

Me neither. Now, the third mystic is lurking in a room to my east; for him I'll use Geolysis to tunnel to the room and… get my Geysers blocked by a chasm square left behind in the Geolysis tunnel. :\ No matter, I've got room to try another tunnel, and this one works. Hmm, this one is a lot harder to kill than the first two… oh, this one is leveled up to level 72. [checks notes] And since Master mystics' hit dice are 11d100, they gain a lot of hit points when they level; this twerp is probably closer to 3000hp than 1100.

"This is bad, isn't it?"

It ain't good. The next four fall to similar tricks. Bogie #8 is going to be tricky, though; he's in a vaultish-looking room off to our west–

"Incoming."

Never mind, here come two more up from the south. A little more dancing along the same lines takes care of them, and we can return our attention to the vault room, which doesn't appear to have a corresponding entry in v_info.txt: 

#-##############.#########.######################%%#%. 
##.#############.#########.#!VUUUUU.h.!(........-!.... 
~;#}~...########.#########.###qU##U##############%%### 
##=~#...########.#########.###sU##.###########.%%%%.## 
###~....########.#########*###MU##*###########=####.%# 
##...;..########.#########.###UU##=#....*q]...!d....## 
##.~.;..########.#.........+##UU##G#########%%#####??# 
##.;..#.########.#########.###UU##R########%%%%####|## 
##.~.h..########.#########.###UU##*#......."[.!..!.=## 
####~###########.#########.###UU##.######%##%#%####.## 
####.###########.#########.###UU##e#####%%#%#######.## 
####.###########.#########.###UU##"#.......?...=e...## 
####.###########.#########.###Wz##m#Pn...d.\....d...## 
####.###########'#########.#zzz*zp!#%##%%############. 
####.###########.'..........#####z#*#%%%############## 
####.###########+#########.###'#####%%#%%####.######># 
##.'<###########.#########...G.......?............?... 
%%.%'%%#%###%###.############....###.###############~# 
##.#.%%%%%%#%##%.#%##########.##%%%%a#....##########~#

Further exploration with Sense Monsters reveals another Master mystic not shown here, on the east edge of the room. Oh, and that westernmost 'e' is a Beholder hive-mother. :\

"This is going to hurt."

Well, the nearest mystic we can dog-leg as we approach along the southernmost east/west corridor; he takes a bit of pummeling, but he goes down. Hmm, the Beholder hive-mother doesn't seem to be coming toward us as we approach; it's just wandering randomly. Oh, wait, we've got invisibility from Luthien's cloak now, don't we? >:>

"*whew* Thank you, Luthien…"

Okay, let's follow the corridor east under the south side of the vault– oops, here comes bogie #11, behind some Earth hounds. Fortunately, he's unleveled, so he falls quickly. Now, bogie #12 is going to be trickier; he's in the southeast corner of the vault, clustered in among a few other nasties, notably a Great Swamp Wyrm. We position ourselves immediately south of him and fire Geolysis north—and it branches northwest almost immediately, letting everything out.

"Not good."

Focus on the mystic for now; we can survive a couple Wyrm breaths. Indeed, we eat one almost immediately, dropping to 951/1218hp. The mystic falls quickly, though, allowing me to Fireflash the Wyrm at my leisure.

[casts Sense Monsters] Okay, the next two mystics appear to be to the north of the vault. There's a Demonic Q on the east side, though, so we'll want to approach up the west side, picking off a few of the Vrocks as they leak out–

"Uh… help?"

Oops, one of the two was onto us and already headed down the corridor, and I didn't see him until the screen rolled. :o Fortunately, he only got one hit on me and didn't stun or paralyze me. I use Strike to knock him back a few squares back and Geyser him to death.

"And to think I was starting to lose confidence in you…"

:o Bogie #14, fortunately, is well back to the northeast as I round the corner around the vault, giving me plenty of time to set up and take him out.

"How many does that leave?"

Three. I think one was near a troll pit off to our southwest… yep, there he is. He wanders in as we're letting the pit leak out into a strategically placed Firewall, and falls quickly; the trolls, meanwhile, net Vorpal Blade for my troubles. Bogie #16 is a couple rooms further west, near the southwest corner of the level; he falls just as quickly.

"And then there was one."

Who, after some wandering, turns up on the east side of the level, pinned behind an Ancient gold dragon in a long east/west corridor. Hmm, there are Barbazus in my path if I go around the long way… ah, I'll just Geolysize myself a path in from a side room. He's one of the leveled ones, so he takes a bit of pummeling, but he finally falls, and Mr. F. Fingers appears on cue to offer us Thaumaturgy, Stealth, Divination or Summoning. Still no Magic… :\

"You're really not very good at this, are you?"

Well, Divination is redundant with Eru, and Thaumaturgy and Summoning are pretty much worthless at this late stage; I suppose one can't have too little Stealth. And there are no down stairs near us. Let's try our luck with this void jumpgate.

"Famous last words…"

Fortunately, it takes us back to the vicinity of the troll pit, and more importantly the vicinity of some down stairs. Hmm, and we're out of room for this segment, and I don't see a pressing need to head back up; let's leave it here till next time.

"Great place to take a nap…"

You'll be fine. ;)

Ang 73 thru Ang 78

"Oh, good, so you haven't forgotten me."

What? You didn't think I'd leave one of my star characters stranded in Angband indefinitely, did you?

"You don't really want me to answer that."

No respect, I tells ya… ;) Anyway, we were just about to descend to:

Ang 73; "You have a superb feeling about this level."

No, in fact I have a very bad feeling about an arena level, lit though it may be, especially not with some sort of unidentifiable vaultish-looking room just offscreen to my south with Ethereal hounds leaking out of it. Fortunately there are downstairs just a screen's-width sprint to my east. Maybe it'll be calmer on:

Ang 74, Princess quest for 11 Plasma hounds; "Looks like any other level."

"So much for that plan."

And telepathy is picking them up immediately to the south of the entry room, and they're already headed for me. [checks notes] Hmm, not too bad; level 51 natively and 60d10hp, so even leveled, they won't be too bad.

"Good, let them come to us."

And a couple strategically placed Firewalls finishes them off. Quest reward choices are Rod Tip of Cold Balls, Bolts or Guisarme. Meh. Bolts, I guess; they turn out to be 17 Bolts of Slay Dragon (+9,+12).

"Not seeing the same quality of princesses these days."

You're spoiled by now. Anyway, let's push on:

Ang 75; "Looks like any other level."

No, it doesn't; it looks like another arena level, this time an unlit one, and only 1x1. Fortunately, there's a shaft down right next to me to my north, allowing us to skip ahead to:

Ang 76, Princess quest for 10 Demiliches; "Looks like any other level."

"Short shaft."

Yeah, that didn't go nearly as far as I'd hoped. Might be an Angband thing. Anyway, this level is at least full-sized and non-arena. We enter near the middle of the north edge of the level; the quest room (thanks to a quick See the Music) is on the west edge, near the northwest corner, not too far of a hop.

"Trolls."

A troll pit just south of the quest room. Not a problem; we're entering the quest room from the north, so we can just drop a Firewall down the west side of the quest room and let the first wave of trolls come to us, and once they're taken care of, another Firewall down the connecting corridor to the troll pit takes care of the rest of them.

"Now, what about the Demiliches?"

All awake by this point, of course. [checks notes] Hmm, speed +10 and 3500hp; that's 35d100 dice maxed, so leveling could hurt. They're native to level 54, though, and it looks like only one of them is leveled much past level 60, so it shouldn't be that bad.

"Famous last words…"

Firewall won't cut it for these puppies, of course, and they'll need at least three Fireflashes each; we'll have to do this in stages. We position ourselves at the southeast corner of the room and let them punch through the doors to come to us.

"Aim for the door; let the blast catch the ones coming out."

That will lower the damage to the ones that are already out, though, since they're not likely to come straight out the door for us.

"We're faster than they are; they'll get bunched up at the door."

So they will, it seems. That takes out the first three of them with seven Fireflashes before our mana runs low and we have to bolt. Two of them get out the door before we can get far enough to pin the rest, and we have to circle more than halfway around the quest room to pin them in a corner long enough to rest our mana back up. Three Fireflashes and three Manathrusts takes care of them.

"Okay, I think this will be manageable."

A repeat of the trick again takes out three of the remaining five Demiliches (along with an Erinyes one of them summoned). Only one of the last two gets out the door to chase us this time, and he's weakened enough to fall to two Fireflashes once we've gotten ahead of him and rested up. The last one falls just as quickly, and the princess offers us a Metal Boomerang, a Morning Star, or a Whip. Enh, six of one; we take the whip, which turns out to be a Whip of Slaying (2d6) (+16,+12). The Demiliches, in the meantime, netted the Amulet of Ingwe, and that troll pit actually managed to score a randart Whip, which I don't bother picking up.

"So, I think Angband is calming down a bit."

Don't jinx it:

Ang 77; "You have a very good feeling…"

Quick hop to a nearby down stairs to:

Ang 78, Princess quest for 11 Pit fiends; "Looks like any other level."

[slaps forehead] "I had to say it…"

Not my fault this time, at least. ;) [checks notes] Ouch: 6000hp and speed +20. They're native to level 77, at least, so no leveling up for them.

"*whew* Thank Eru for small favors."

Very small; the quest room is almost immediately to our southwest from our entry point, and they're already coming out after us.

"Can we use an Elemental Minion to soften them up?"

I wouldn't recommend it; they've got nasty summoning spells, plus it would get caught in our Fireflashes.

"Here they come."

The first two have a substantial lead over the rest, so we won't get too crowded starting out. No time to drop a Stone Prison to block summons; we'll just have to hope we get lucky.

"I feel safer already. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"

Six Fireflashes and two Manathrusts for the first two, then we duck back around the corner to rest. By now, of course, they're all bunched up in the corridor waiting for us: 

#############################################
####............Z.###########################
####............Z.###########################
####...+.........Z###################........
####.............Z###################........
####............Z.###################........
####.............Z###################........
####..............###################........
####...................h..<...#######P.......
####..............###########...|(###########
#################################|###########
#################################(\+..#######
###..............U#######UUUUUUU[|/##.#######
###...............#######U###########.#######
###...............#######.###########.#######
###......p........#######.###########.#######
###...............'.......###########.#######
###...............###################.#######
###.+.............###################.#######
###.........................:....####.#######
###...............##############.####.#######
################################.####.#######

Hmm, maybe we could lure them out one or two at a time.

"Into a nice long corridor with plenty of room to use those summoning spells."

We can Dig an anti-summoning closet into the wall a little closer to the corner.

"Too close."

Hmm, three is more than I wanted to lure out at once–

"Four."

This is definitely not working out well… :\ The first takes fully five Fireflashes to finish off, leaving me without enough mana for any of the next three. Okay, plan B: Flare-swap into the room to the west with the Fire hounds and seal off the corridor at our end with Stone Prison.

"We're going to die, aren't we?"

Not if I have anything to say about it. Our Prison happens to be perfectly positioned to carve out another anti-summoning alcove for the next two (the last of the four is stuck in our first anti-summoning closet). And with them bunched up closer, it only take six Fireflashes and a Geyser to finish off both of them and the last of the Fire hounds.

"Now what?"

Well, with almost half of them down now, our original anti-summoning closet should be safer. First we pick off the one that's still in it (four Fireflashes). And with the corridor to our south substantially less crowded, only one Pit field leaks around the corner, and falls to another four Fireflashes and a Manathrust. The rest we can lure out one at a time to finish off. And after all that anti-summoning effort, not one of them even tries to summon anything at me–

[slaps forehead] "You had to say it…"

Okay, the very last one gets a summons in when I follow him out to finish him off. :o The princess, in the midst of this distraction, offers us a Long Sword, Sheaf Arrows or Metal Brigandine Armor. Again, meh. The arrows, I guess.

"Uh… dragons?"

Specifically, a Great Wyrm of Chaos, a Great Hell Wyrm, and an AMHD. Let's see if a Phase Door will get us somewhere safe… ah, good, that got us to the room where the Fire hounds were. The Hell Wyrm and the AMHD are pinned in the corner; the Chaos Wyrm gets around the corner into the quest room.

"So it's between us and the stairs down. Lovely."

Enh, we're about out of room for the segment, actually, and the arrows aren't likely to be worth the effort. And frankly, neither is any of the Pit fiends' drop, now that I think about it. I think we'll just punt and head back up here.

"*whew* Thank Eru for small favors."

That's quite enough of that, young lady: ;)

Lothlorien

Now, we have a few things to *ID*:

Hmm, we're still back in v2.2.7 with the limited Mathom-house; there's just barely enough room left there to complete my Nazgûl ring collection. And my only house left with any room is the one in Gondolin, and it doesn't have much: only two slots left, after I stow Ingwe and Vorpal Blade. We'll need to do some house cleaning before long. That can wait, though; for now, we'll just return to Lothlorien and settle in for next time.

Ang 78 (take 2) thru Ang 83

"So, have we actually made any meaningful progress into Angband at this point?"

Well, if we have another run like last time, we should make it to about the midpoint this time out.

"That's… actually better than I was afraid of."

Well, it's nice to have some characters who don't complain about these things.

"I heard that, Human."

Oh, hush: ;)

Ang 78, take 2; "Looks like any other level."

[casts See the Music] Hmm, the nearest down stairs is uncomfortably close to a monster pit full of hounds–

"Not that one. South."

Hm? Oh, yes, there is another down stairs there. :o

Ang 79; "Looks like any other level."

We're greeted by a Green icky thing that takes two Manathrusts to kill. Which may not sound like much, but c'mon, it's a frickin' icky thing. :\

"Can… we go now?"

Yes, ma'am. [casts See the Music] Ooh, there's a vault off to the west. Wanna try–

"No."

Yeah, you're probably right:

Ang 80; Princess quest for 12 Dreadlords; "Looks like any other level."

"This is bad, isn't it?"

Could be better. [checks notes] On the up side, they're only speed +10 and 3000hp, and evil, so two Fireflashes and change will kill one; on the down side, they have all kinds of annoying spells, including summon-undead, and they can pass through walls, so there's no chance of controlling the battlefield. We'll have to try to wake them up one at a time and lure them out.

"Speak of the devil…"

And there's one showing up on telepathy as we approach the quest room. Okay, there's an empty room nearby; let's lure him into that and out of the walls so that Fireflash will full damage.

*FWOOSH!* "Well, that's one."

And if we continue to have that kind of luck, we shouldn't have any problem.

"Here comes number two."

#2 goes just as quickly; #3, annoyingly, summons an Archlich at us.

"I knew it."

Okay, let's step back and drop a Stone Prison to limit his summons–

"Uh… small problem with this plan."

Oh, that's right, Archliches can pass through walls too, can't they? :o Okay, plan B, then: Flare-swap with a nearby Master mystic in the room to our north to buy us some breathing room. A bit of clever maneuvering allows us to get a dog-leg on the Archlich as it approaches and finish it off without much trouble; the Dreadlord, annoyingly, teleports away at the last moment. X-(

[slaps forehead] "And now we have to search the whole level for him."

Let's take care of the rest of them first. (Oh, remind me, we picked up a fate during that last fight; we'll need to check that topside). We Flare-swap back into position, clear out the useless Prison, and resume luring Dreadlords out one at a time.

"I think they're sending the flunkies first."

An incidental swarm of Dreads, with bogie #4 lurking in the middle of them. Hmm, I wonder if we can get Feanor's boots activated before they get here.

"Now he thinks of this…"

Ooh, only two tries. It lasts long enough to take out #4, but not through the rest of the Dreads, who dribble in a few at a time for a while. Anyway, we settle back into our routine—including the annoying bits of it, as bogies #5 thru #7 all teleport away at the last minute. X-( X-(

"We need a better plan."

If you've got ideas, I'm listening. Feanor's boots still aren't recharged, and I'd hate to have to go through a !oSpd for every one of the rest of them. At least bogie #8 dies in an orderly fashion. Bogies #9 and #10 double-team us, but that just means we can Fireflash both of them at once. >:>

"Don't get cocky on me up there."

Who, me? ;) Let's see, there are six Dreadlords left unkilled, and… [casts Sense Monsters] *whew* all of them are nearby. Only one left in the quest room, oddly; I must have lost count, or one teleported out on me. That one falls quickly, and we head west, where two more are lurking."

"They're running away."

That's right, most of them teleported out when they were almost dead. We'll have to be more aggressive about hunting them down. One creepy note as we pass through the quest room: the corpse of Gandalf the Grey. You know, I thought I heard fighting as we approached the quest room… :-(

"Wait, Gandalf is an Istari, isn't he? Should he even have a corpse?"

(shrug) Dunno. Too bad you're not one of my Possessor characters, though; that might've been a decent upgrade.

"…You're creepy sometimes, you know that?"

Yes, ma'am. ;) We finally manage to outrun and finish off one of the Dreadlords to our west, by which time the other has regained its courage and is coming for us. [casts Sense Monsters] Hmm, there's a third off further to the west; it's uncomfortably near an animal pit, so I think I'll wait for it to come to us.

"East, then?"