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Trilogy, the Half-Elf Geomancer
[sound F/X: forehead repeatedly striking desk] I knew I shouldn't have made that stupid "trifecta" crack. Note to self: don't do the Wight quest without nether resistance or more than 200hp. 
And yes, I do already have two other DitLs going, but I never could decide between these three anyway, and oh, did I mention I'm a glutton for punishment? And so I give you Trilogy, the Half-Elf Geomancer. Say hello to the nice people, Trilogy.
"Hm? Oh. Hey."
You sound kind of down. Well, more so than usual, at least.
"Yeah, Mom and Dad are at each other's throats again."
Yes, I'd heard there was some long-standing point of contention between them.
"‘Contention’? That's putting it delicately."
So what is it about, if I may be so bold?
(shrug) "Basically, Dad swears up and down that I'm The One, the fulfillment of prophecy, who is destined to defeat Morgoth and restore peace to the world. Mom, of course, thinks he's out of his gourd and is just gonna get her precious daughter killed, and is always going around muttering about ‘crazy humans and their delusional fantasies of conquest’…"
Yes, I can see where that could be a source of friction.
"Typically it starts with Mom saying something about how there's no such thing as prophecies, and Dad is like, ‘Oh yeah? What about the Doom of Mandos on the sons of Fëanor, then?’ and then Mom is like, ‘That's completely different,’ and Dad is like, ‘No, it isn't,’ and it usually devolves into a shouting match from there."
Ouch… Well, have you considered actually trying to take on Morgoth?
"How? All I've got is a parlor trick—I can make grass grow out of the floor. Unless Morgoth's got the mother of all hay fever allergies, I don't think that's gonna help."
You've also got your Geyser spell.
"Riiight, the Squirt Gun of Arda. If you need someone to take out the Wicked Witch of the West, I'm your girl."
Yeah, okay, but your powers will get stronger as you increase in skill—even your Geyser spell. And you'll have plenty of time to change your mind; it's not like we'll be going after Morgoth tomorrow or anything.
"Hmm… it would annoy my mother, and that's rarely a bad thing… all right, we'll start small and see how far I'm willing to take this."
That's the spirit. 
Actually, I suppose I should explain the whole name and plot thing… See, my very earliest just-dabbling Geomancers were human, male, and named Geo (my boundless creativity in action… ). The Geo/Neo pun, and corresponding backstory, were of course irresistible. When I decided to go official with him, though, I had to make him a her to keep my character roster gender-balanced, and I figured I already had too many human characters going—so I made her a Half-Elf, tweaked the backstory appropriately, and punned a more suitable Matrix name.
"Oh. So this is your fault."
Um… can I plead the Fifth on that?
"Right. Just for that, I'm gonna go stand over here and be moody and distant."
What, just for a change? Anyway, as always, here are the technical details: maximize and preserve modes on, worshipping Eru, no non-main monsters, 49 random quest, and point-based stat allocation, netting starting stats 10,18/40,13,12,10,13. And my skill point plan, as generated by my tome-skiller script (and as always, We Apologize for the Shameless Plug™ ):
Based on generic Half-Elf Geomancer
Used 245 of 245 points [req. level 50]
Combat (0) 1.000 [0.200]
Weaponmastery (0) 0.700 [0.400]
Sneakiness (0) 1.000 [0.900]
Magic (34) 50.000 [0.900]
Magic-Device (0) 1.000 [1.050]
Spell-power (70) 50.000 [0.700]
Geomancy (70) 50.000 [0.700]
Fire (16) 50.000 [1.050]
Water (16) 50.000 [1.050]
Air (16) 50.000 [1.050]
Earth (16) 50.000 [1.050]
Meta (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Conveyance (5) 3.500 [0.700]
Divination (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Temporal (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Mind (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Nature (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Necromancy (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Runecraft (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Thaumaturgy (0) 0.000 [0.700]
Spirituality (0) 1.275 [0.550]
Prayer (2) 2.500 [0.500]
Monster-lore (0) 0.000 [0.500]
Spread blows (0) ( ) [ 5]
Tree walking (0) ( ) [ 7]
Perfect casting (0) (+) [ 6]
Extra Max Blow(1) (0) ( ) [ 7]
Extra Max Blow(2) (0) ( ) [ 7]
Ammo creation (0) ( ) [ 8]
Touch of death (0) ( ) [15]
Artifact Creation (0) ( ) [70]
Far reaching attack (0) ( ) [10]
Trapping (0) ( ) [10]
Undead Form (0) ( ) [15]
Basically the plan is to max Magic, Spell-power, Geomancy and the four elemental schools, push Conveyance high enough to cast Disarm, and put the last few skill points in Prayer. That last is the downside of the plan: I'll be depending on Eru for detection in general and identifying in particular, but with this plan, I won't be able to cast Listen to the Music or Sense Hidden until after three relic quests, and Identify will take all five. I'm tempted to reallocate some skill points from the elemental schools to Prayer, but I don't know which ones I can get away with not maxing—and if I were to go that route, it'd probably be cheaper to put the points in Divination to begin with.
Chapter 1
And to give you an idea of the awesome power of the Geyser spell, it takes seven shots and all our mana to get rid of a Village idiot that's pestering me.
"…You're sure about this whole ‘defeat-Morgoth’ thing."
Don't worry, it gets better.
"Can't get much worse, I suppose. So, now that I'm in Bree, is there some place I can get a room for the night, or do we move into that crazy guy's house?"
We'll solve your shelter problem by taking the:
Thieves Quest
You feel a vicious blow on your head…
"Ow." [rubs head] "You sure know how to show a girl a good time…"
Sorry, that part was unavoidable. Once I've retrieved my stuff from storage, I start casting Call the Elements in the north corridor and the east alcove.
"Um… not that messing up the floor of the badguys' hideout isn't mildly amusing in a random-acts-of-vandalism sort of way, but… why are we doing this?"
Preliminary setup; we're going to be using these later. Try to get as many shallow-water squares as we can.
"Ah, I see; we're going to drown the badguys in inch-deep puddles. And to think I doubted you."
*groan* Come on, let's get this show started. Now, as we've seen, Geyser isn't up to the task of taking out these Novice rogues, so I'm gonna have to crank you up to berzerker/running and–
"Excuse me, you perverted sicko?"
What? It's right there on the 'C'haracter screen, down in the corner. All it does is change your speed and your fighting ability. Any other meaning you might have read into it was entirely in your own head, young lady.
"Riiiight. You just stay over there where I can see you."
You see what I have to put up with… Anyway, after opening the alarm door, I back off and soften up the first Novice rogue a bit with Geysers before clubbing him over the head with my Mage Staff. This brings me to clvl 2, and I immediately beat a hasty retreat back to the north corridor to rest. Now, we have to do the skill points exactly right: 3 to Geomancy to get the Channel Elements spell, and 2 to Water to increase the damage of its water-bolt effect.
"Hey, what'd you do? The water… it feels different now, like it's got hidden power in it."
Exactly. Now the next Novice rogue is just around the corner; lure him out, get onto a water square and–
"Yes, I can feel it… Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"
Good shot! Again.
"But that shot used up all the water, I—oh, that's right, I've got more. C'mere, ugly…" [steps back to next water square]
Two more water bolts and the Novice rogue is dead. Now do you see the point of all the water?
"Yeah, okay, so you're not an idiot. That's a relief, at least."
I get no respect, I tell ya… Unfortunately, another Novice rogue followed the first one around the corner, and I'm out of mana. I slip into one of the rooms off the north corridor and rest to regain my mana; then I create some more water squares, lure him in, hit him with two more water bolts, then finally kill him by clubbing him over the head.
A little more dancing around like this and I manage to kill another Novice rogue and a Novice warrior, and in the process make clvl 3 and get the first relic quest from Eru, a long way southeast of Minas Anor. That'll be annoying to find…
"You're not gonna try and go do that now, are you?"
Not yet; at the very least we have to finish up with the thieves first. Now, again I have to be careful with my skill allocation: 2 to Geomancy and 1 to Air to get both high enough for the Vaporize spell, and 2 to Magic to get some much-needed mana.
"Amazing. I can feel more now… from the water, the grass, the sand… how are you doing this?"
You're doing it. This is your power; this is how you're going to defeat Morgoth.
"It… is going to get a lot more powerful between now and then, I hope."
That it will. Now come on, we've got more badguys to take on, and more ways to do it. Our next encounter as we return to the main room is the Bandit poking his head out of his room; I lure him back to the east alcove where I've got all my water squares set up and drop him with one Vaporize spell. 
This pushes me all the way to clvl 5; the ten resulting skill points go 2 to Geomancy, 3 to Magic for more mana, and 5 to Conveyance to top it off.
"Okay, I'm definitely seeing some potential here."
See? You should trust me more.
"Uh-huh…"
I adjust Tactic down to 'coward' before proceeding, since we shouldn't need to club anything over the head anymore. The rest of the quest proceeds straightforwardly, with a few Vaporizes here and there taking out all the remaining monsters. There, that wasn't so hard, now was it?
"Mm. You're not planning on rushing off to take on Morgoth next, I hope."
No, we need to get much more powerful first. But first things first: the Bandit's dagger is an anemic (+1,+1), barely enough to cover the Beginner Cantrips spellbook I need for the Ent's Potion spell (as I'm starting to get hungry), and certainly not enough to properly prepare for the relic quest. Looks like we'll have to do a couple levels of the Downs first, and I think I can just afford to stock for that—a cheap ?oWoR, a couple !oCCWs, and… um, Trilogy, why does your Robe look like a black trench coat? And where did you get those sunglasses?
(shrug) "The shopkeeper said he'd heard I was coming, and he set them aside just for me. I dunno, I kinda like ‘em."
I'm not goin' there… Okay, we'll stow the Spellbook of Geyser in our new home for now, since we now have cheaper and more effective attack spells from Geomancy. Food and escape for now are covered by Ent's Potion and Phase Door; detection is where I'm currently lacking, and will continue to lack at least until after I have the first relic quest under my belt. Still, I think we're ready to take on the Barrow Downs next time out.
Chatter (1.1)
ZizzoTheInfinite: Audience commentary, suggestions and questions will go in these Chatter sections; I'll put a new one at the end of each section as I post it and delete empty ones as I go. And here's a character sheet for Trilogy, as of the end of the Downs.
PaulMoore: Cool! Three Zizzo DiTLs at once. What more could I ask for?
BDw 1 thru BDw 2
BDw 1
"This level can't be all bad…"
"Nice place. Why are we here again?"
For now, to accumulate experience and treasure. Your primary attack in the Downs will be Vaporize on grassy squares—which means you'll need to be careful with monsters that resist poison.
"Like that Small kobold over there that just woke up."
Exactly. You'll need to use Call the Elements to create some non-grass terrain that you can Vaporize to take him down.
"No problem. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"
The Small kobold takes me to clvl 6, with all five skill points going to Geomancy. Nothing else interesting happens on the level, so we proceed to:
BDw 2: Princess quest for 14 Hill orcs
"You have a superb feeling about this level." Hmm, fourteen means the full-'X' form of the quest room; not much opportunity for setup. I'll hold off on that superb feeling for now—especially considering that I just stumbled across my first trap, a Wisdom Trap.
"Ow. Well, that wasn't very–"
Just don't… That's what I was worried about earlier: not having any way to detect traps. We're gonna need to keep an eye out for a Rod Tip of Trap Detection.
Nothing much of interest happens for a while. A Novice mage pushes me over the top to clvl 7, with skill points going 3 to Geomancy and 2 to Magic.
I finally find the quest room in the northwest corner of the level. It's actually not as bad as I feared; there are enough grass squares in the outer ring of the room for me to lead all the orcs out to their doom (luckily Hill orcs don't resist poison…). Between the fourteen of them, they push me all the way up to clvl 10; the fifteen skill points go 4 to Geomancy, 6 to Magic and 5 to Spell-power. And the quest reward choices are a Rapier, a Broad Sword, or Cord Armor; since our goal is cash, I take the Broad Sword and return to:
Bree
where the magic shop annoyingly has no ID scrolls—so I have to go to Gondolin to find out that my quest reward is a Shocking Broad Sword (+5,+1). And how convenient that the Gondolin weapon store has a 30000gp cap. The book store is being stingy, though, so it takes an inter-town shopping tour to complete stocking for the relic quest: Spellbooks of Noxious Cloud, Fireflash and See the Music. I also pull my Spellbook of Geyser out of storage.
"Uh… could I get a backpack or something here?"
Don't worry, it'll get a little better once we've got some Tomes. A few more essentials, and I think we're ready to go do the relic quest.
First relic quest
On the way to the quest, I stop by Minas Anor to pick up some Identify scrolls, as the Bree alchemy shop was fresh out. I also buy a Wooden Rod of Nothing from the magic shop, in hopes of finding a Rod Tip of Trap Detection.
I find the quest entrance without too much effort, not far beyond the Mordor area. Here we go:
LTm -2, take 1
"You like the look of this place… Fortunately, I fixed the bug in 2.2.7 that caused all arena levels to be dark; unfortunately, even with the fix, the intended behavior is for one in five arena levels to be dark anyway, and I just hit my unlucky draw.
"So, I have to search every square inch of this level, I've got monsters coming at me from all sides, I have no detection spells, and I can't see anything beyond the light radius of my lantern. Remind me again why I let you talk me into this."
It's not quite that bad. We can use Globe of Light to light up the floor to a radius of 4. And the monsters will be typical of BDw 2, and will only be leveled up to level 4, so they won't be too tough. You're right, though, that this is going to be rather annoying…
…and one tedious march through the level later, no relic is to be found. A quick trip back to Minas Anor to replenish my ?oID supply, and back down to:
LTm -2, take 2
"You like the look of this place…" Especially since it's lit this time. So… you're not going to ask why we're searching the same level again?
"Lisa already warned me about that."
"Yeah, I figure we front-liners gotta stick together, right?"
You realize the metatextual implications of this are potentially staggering.
"That's nice. Can we get back to searching now, please?"
I tell ya, I get no respect… No relic on this level either, so we bounce on the stairs and return to:
LTm -2, take 3
"Looks like any other level."
"So, the relic should be here this time, right?"
Is that what Lisa told you? Not necessarily; we might potentially have to try two more times after this.
"Oh. Joy."
Indeed. A White harpy pushes me over the top to clvl 11; skill points go 2 to Geomancy, 2 to Prayer, and 1 to Magic. Otherwise, nothing of note happens, including no relic. Unfortunately, I was right. My stock of ?oID's is getting low, so I swing by Minas Anor again, where the magic store has a Spellbook of Disarm.
"Great, another book. I was just thinking my load wasn't heavy enough."
*groan* Any-way, back to:
LTm -2, take 4
"This level can't be all bad…" Small tree streamers on this level; I'll have to go back and walk all of them, after I've swept the level.
"C'mon, what are the odds?"
I've seen it happen. An excessively careful search of the trees, however, yields nothing. As I'm headed to the stairs out, though, good ol' Smeagol makes his snivelly self heard. Good thing I put those points into Prayer, so that now I can cast See the Music.
"Well, that's an unpleasant sight. Can I kill it?"
I encourage it. Smeagol never approaches me, and after a few Noxious Clouds and Geysers, he drops his ring and a Frozen Wooden Boomerang (+6,+1). I think I'll swing back by Minas Anor and sell this off before returning to:
LTm -2, take 5
"This level can't be all bad…" Okay, this is it, Trilogy; the relic has to be on this level, and if we miss it, we've lost it.
"Right. No pressure or anything…"
Just keep a careful eye out.
"What do you think I've been doing?"
Okay, okay… To my relief, I find the relic about halfway through the level.
"Okay, Eru's happy. At the risk of sounding egocentric, what did I get out of this?"
Well, you can cast Manathrust and Sense Monsters now. After another two quests, you'll be able to cast Sense Hidden and Listen to the Music.
"Ah, the big payoff. I don't know why I ever doubted you."
No respect… I pick up a fate on the way back to:
Bree
Which reminds me, I also picked up one on the way back to the quest dungeon that last time. Let's check those out: I may find a Bolt on dlvl 14, and I'm fated to meet a Green worm mass on dlvl 13.
"O-kaaay, and I thought Dad was out there with his whole prophecy thing…"
Indeed. I stow my Fireflash and Geyser spellbooks for now to free up room, along with four Potions of Cure Light Insanity to start my stockpile. And now that I have Smeagol's ring, I can go do the Mushroom quest.
"Yes, I'm sure many adventurers have had to face such harrowing trials as this."
Hey, you think you've got it bad? One of Hercules' famous Twelve Labors was to clean the Augean stables in a single day.
"At least that had the dignity-saving feature of being nearly impossible. This was just silly."
And people call me a cynic… The reward, as usual, is:
- The Sling of Farmer Maggot (x2) (+20,+0) (+2), which activates for terrify every 10+d50 turns ahd has +2 searching, infravision and shots
which I'll wear for the infravision boost for now. I also *ID* my first junkart:
- Benetar's Death Ray Experiment, which activates for experience loss
Joy. Back to the Barrow Downs next time out…
BDw 2 (take 2) thru BDw 6
BDw 2, take 2; "This level can't be all bad…"
Uneventful. I've got to remember to buy a shovel or a Spellbook of Dig; Geolysis, annoyingly, doesn't cut through rubble. In the meantime, though, Manathrust and Sense Monsters are handy. Sense Hidden would be nice, though… In the meantime, we proceed to:
BDw 3; "What a boring place…"
An arena level, and thus over quickly. Fast forward to:
BDw 4: Fumblefingers quest for 17 Cave orcs; "You like the look of this place…"
"So… why can't this guy just pick up one of these daggers or maces that are lying around on the floor of the level and use that to get his sword back?"
(shrug) I've given up trying to figure out the quest. That was more Bjorn's obsession, really.
"Yeah, that Crazy Sword Guy has gotta be—whoa… Dude, who's the cute goth chick?"
"Um… why is the bear talking to me? And did he just call me a ‘chick’?"
Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting you haven't met everyone yet. This is Bjorn, one of my older characters.
"Yeah, I'm, like, retired now. So my job is pretty much to sit on a porch and say stuff like ‘You durn kids get off my lawn!’ Lame job, but I figure, hey, someone's gotta do it."
"Uh-huh. Interesting company you keep."
Remind me not to introduce you to Qbmgzxjvwm… Anyway, Sense Monsters is picking up two of the Cave orcs to my immediate south as I enter the level. Turns out they're stuck in a corridor behind some rubble. I've gotta get a shovel… After picking off those two, I find another pair a bit further south and east; they push me over the top to clvl 12, with skill points going 1 to Geomancy, 1 to Earth (for Grow Barrier), and 3 to Spell-power. I also get the second relic quest, east of Bree and northeast of Minas Anor.
"Um, not to be a wet blanket or anything, but could we at least finish this level before we charge off after the relic again?"
Oh, I'm gonna hold off on this for a bit; this quest dungeon will cover dlvls 8–12, and the monsters will be leveled as high as level 16 at the top and level 24 at the bottom. I at least want to push far enough into the Downs to have faced off against something close to what I'll find there.
"*whew* Thank Eru for small favors."
No respect, I tells ya… The Cave orcs themselves are little challenge, falling easily to Noxious Clouds. The quest reward choices are Symbiosis, Summoning, Monster-lore and Barehand-combat. Bleh. I think I'll go with Summoning.
"What on earth for?"
Utility. You noticed that your piety went down when you killed the Novice paladin and the Novice priest a few minutes ago, yes?
"Eru did seem annoyed, now that you mention it…"
Now we can avoid that by having a "handler" to kill them for us, since monsters killed by pets don't affect our piety.
"Really. Interesting situational ethics for an omni-benevolent Valar."
A Valar that can unmake you with a thought, too; you might not want to get on his bad side. Anyway, as usual, by the time I'd hunted down the last Cave orc, I'd covered most of the level; a quick sweep of the last few corners and then on to:
BDw 5; "What a boring place…"
An apt description. A group of Snotlings takes me to clvl 13; I allocate skill points 2 to Geomancy, 1 to Magic and 2 to Spell-power, and make a totem out of one of the Snotlings.
"A pet Snotling. I must be the luckiest girl in the world…"
We'll get something better later.
"It's a voodoo doll. Am I supposed to stick pins in it?"
*groan* True to my word, I quickly upgrade the Snotling to a Black naga. Nothing of interest after that, so we fast forward to:
BDw 6: Princess quest for 14 Owlbears; "You have a superb feeling about this level."
Indeed; these should take me up at least a level, which is at least reasonably superb. Not far in, I get my first chance to try out my Black naga totem on a group of Novice priests. In retrospect, getting in line of sight of all of them at once was poor strategy; I use up two !oCCW's keeping ahead of their cause-wounds spells. The nagas (I'm conjuring them up two at once now) just aren't holding their own. And then the Owlbears appear at the door.
"All right, look, I know you're using the voodoo dolls for a good reason, but at this point I'm prepared to take the piety hit. Let me cut loose here."
You're right, of course; go for it.
"Finally. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"
Fortunately my Noxious Cloud spell is more than up to the task. The seventh Owlbear takes me to clvl 14, with skill points going 1 to Geomancy and 4 to Spell-power. The quest reward choices are a Broad Spear, an Awl-Pike or a Large Leather Shield. Saleable kit, then; I go with the spear, which turns out to be a Broad Spear of Slay Troll (+5,+6). Oh, and I replace the Black naga totem with a new one from one of the Owlbears.
"Oh, this won't end well…"
*sigh* My loot is getting heavy, so I recall to:
Bree
to sell some off. As long as I'm here, I pick up a Spellbook of Dig. And I don't want to hear any complaints, Trilogy; it's either this or a shovel that weighs twice as much.
"Yeah? Lemme see the shovel."
Oh, just for that, I'm taking the relic quest next time out…
Chatter (1.4)
PermanentInk: Just a little note on your wiki usage here. Anchors, as I understand it, use a global namespace, meaning that your anchor titled "latest," while surely appropriate for its use, is likely to collide with anyone else who thinks to use the same anchor name -- a reasonably likely occurrence. Better to choose a more specific anchor name, like perhaps "TrilogyDitlLatest."
ZizzoTheInfinite: Actually, AFAICT, the Anchor() macro simply expands to an HTML <a id="anchorname"> locution, which would mean that the anchor name only has to be unique within the page. I'm already using "latest" anchors in my other two DitLs, with no apparent ill effects.
MayLith: Yup, anchors are relevant to the current page only (which irritates the heck out of me, but at least the 'head' thing works cross-page); witness the fact that you can use anchor(top) and anchor(bottom) on all sorts of pages and not have cross-confusion.
Oh... and once again, I'm enjoying this DitL!
ZizzoTheInfinite: Wait, you mean you want a link on page A that goes to anchor "here" in page B? That works basically the same as the 'head' thing, actually; you just make a link like wiki:Self:url_of_page_B#here. In fact, there are two conveniently placed examples in my comment above… 
MayLith: Yes, I know. It just bugged me when I first was learning wiki. Thanks, though. 
Second relic quest
Hmm, "a very long way east of Bree" puts it out beyond Erebor, I think… ah, here it is, not far out from there. Here goes nothing:
LTm -8, take 1; "You like the look of this place…"
Not really, no, not with what looks like Mughash's or Vort's entourage not far off to my northwest—and my Noxious Cloud is only level 15, so it's still doing poison damage. I knew I should've brought my Fireflash spellbook. I drop some terrain and set up a Vaporize to catch the advance scouts, then drop a Noxious Cloud on some Shamans in the middle of the pack that are cursing at me. A bad idea, as it turns out, as they curse a couple more times and suddenly I'm down to 34/75hp.
"We're doomed, aren't we?"
Not yet. I cast Grow Barrier to buy myself some time. Now, unfortunately, all the kobolds are swarming around my little enclosure, and Phase Door won't get me far enough away. Time to use one of my Scrolls of Teleportation.
"Remind me again why I let you talk me into this."
This is not a problem, Trilogy, we just need a better angle of approach. We came in near the southeast corner of the level, and the ?oTele drops us near the southwest corner. Okay, we'll explore this side of the level first, then. A nearby pack of Cave orcs takes me to clvl 15, with skill points going 2 to Geomancy and 3 to Spell-power. One more level and we'll be able to cast Elemental Minion, which may well help us with our kobold problem.
"Uh-huh. Brilliant planning on that front."
You see what I have to put up with…
"Um, are you noticing this steady trickle of kobolds coming in from our north?"
Oh, man, that's all we need, Mughash and Vort on the same level. ![:\](/wiki/tome/img/ohwell.png ":\"){kind=small}
For now, let's just let ‘em keep trickling to us and pick them off with Manathrust. Once the early stragglers are finished off, I push forward close enough to see them and lay down some terrain for stage two: firing off Elemental Waves and Vaporizes to catch them as they wake up and start approaching.
"You realize it's just a matter of time before they all wake up and we're stuck again."
Not necessarily; your Stealth is Excellent, which lets us approach close enough to see the entire pack. Good, there are no Shamans this time, and no Archers left after taking out the advance scouts. Ah, and this group is Vort and company; the other one must be Mughash, then.
"Brilliant deduction. Now, can we do something about them?"
We're about to. I lay down more terrain closer to the pack and approach close enough for Elemental Wave to start overlapping into the group. The first Wave successfully takes out Vort and about half her entourage; I step back and fire off a second one to catch the monsters at the edge of the first Wave who weren't killed, then back off to rest. See, Trilogy? We're doing fine.
"We haven't gotten all of them yet."
This next pass should, though. And indeed, a few judiciously placed Elemental Waves finish off the group. Vort's drop is a Bastard Sword (+4,+6)—and she even leaves her corpse for us to make a nice souvenir out of.
"More voodoo dolls. You're gonna start collecting these things, aren't you?"
Just the unique ones.
"*groan* Look, just don't get cocky on me here. This strategy won't work on that other group of kobolds; they're already awake."
Not a problem; Vort and company pushed me up to clvl 16, and after putting 1 skill point in Geomancy, 2 in Magic and 2 in Spell-power, I've got a new strategy available.
"Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this whole adventure?"
Oh, ye of little faith… I move cautiously back east toward Mughash's group, and as soon as they come into view, I cast Grow Barrier.
"That's your brilliant plan? To box ourselves up and let ourselves get surrounded again?"
No, we're going to–
"Wait, I can see it… in the walls… Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!"
And one Elemental Minion spell later, we have… well, an elemental minion. Specifically, a level-33 Fire elemental from a sandwall. I set him on seek-and-destroy and… oh, @#&$, he's going the wrong way.
"Well, that was a foolproof plan."
Gimme a minute here… I use the "give target to a friend" option to try to get my wayward Fire elemental's attention back on the far too quickly approaching kobolds and cast Grow Barrier again to close the breach. And it's still going the wrong way. No problem; I'll set him back to "follow me" and he won't be able to go too far. Sure enough, that gets the Fire elemental back in line—and two turns later, a Kobold has killed it. 
"Can we go home now?"
Grmbl… I need to rest to regain my mana. By the time I'm back up to full, I'm surrounded again. Not by many monsters, mind you, but there's no clear side from which I can safely call up another minion. I'm gonna try a Phase Door… it takes me northwest, far enough away to give me time to throw up another barrier and conjure up another minion, this time a level-34 Earth elemental from a granite wall. It last all of another two turns.
"Look, this isn't working. Let's teleport out and try something else."
Hmm, I don't suppose I can use my Owlbear totem from inside here… well, whaddaya know? It works. Ya know, I was wondering why I could still see all the kobolds from inside my barrier box. Maybe all of an arena level is always considered visible, or maybe there's a bug in Grow Barrier such that line-of-sight isn't recomputed. Either way, I'll take what I can get. It takes maybe a dozen or two serially conjured-up Owlbears, but eventually most of the immediate crowd are taken care of, leaving me room to conjure up another Earth elemental to finish off the last of them. There, I bet you don't think these ‘voodoo dolls’ are so useless now, eh?
"Can we please just go home now?"
I rest my mana back up and punch out of the box by conjuring up a Fire elemental. At least I think I did; I can't find him anywhere. The Earth elemental is badly beaten as I drag him back toward the fray, so I dismiss him and go back to the Elemental Wave strategy.
"Uh, didn't we discuss this?"
I think we're okay; we got most of the Shamans in that last sweep. And we can always Grow another Barrier in case of emergency.
"We are so doomed…"
Actually, a couple well-placed Elemental Waves manages to bring down the entire onslaught. Why did I let you talk me out of that strategy?
"Because your common sense at least sometimes wins out over your suicidal optimism?"
No respect… Mughash's crew pushes me to clvl 17, with skill points going 1 to Geomancy and 4 to Spell-power. Mughash's drop was a Quarterstaff (+5,+2).
"Okay, all the kobolds are dead. Now can we go home?"
We still have to search the level for the relic, remember?
"You mean we're going to have go through the whole level like this?"
Nah, that should be the worst of it; most of the other monsters we're gonna run into will be susceptible to good old-fashioned Noxious Cloud. Okay, except for these Crypt creeps we just ran into.
"Not again…"
Let's try the Owlbear again… and this time it works out much better—the Owlbear manages to take out most of the Crypt creeps (with a little long-range Manathrust help from us), leaving just one for us to finish off.
"Okay, okay, so the voodoo doll isn't entirely useless. Happy now?"
Very. And the levels just keep coming; a pack of Snotlings take me to clvl 18, with skill points going 2 to Geomancy, 1 to Magic and 2 to Spell-power. Other than a run-in with some Rotting corpse near the northwest corner, the rest of the level is comparative uneventful, and no relic is found. And after that bout, I think I'm gonna head back to:
Bree
to restock (and pick up my Fireflash spellbook…) before returning to the quest.
Chatter (1.5)
MayLith: Once again, a fun read.
A few ideas regarding our evolving wiki-DiTL format:
- It would help, at each new chatter section, to string a dashed line pretty much clear across the page, just above the chatter heading. I know a line that long doesn't make wiki sense, but if you're editing the page, it helps you to find the chatter section rapidly while you are scrolling down.
It might help to number each chatter section in the relevant chatter heading. That way, if (as I just did) one makes a comment in an old chatter section, you can reference it in the change comment and then it's easier to find for other readers. (Yes, diff will do the trick, but if we can make it easier, why not?)
- Well, I suppose one could just reference the letters and/or numbers that are created by the TOC, but somehow I like the idea of an actual labelling a little better...
- I'm not sure I understand what you have in mind here. Could you put an example on this Chatter section?
- Mm, I see your point. I'll have to decide on a numbering scheme. Ideal, I think, would be a macro that expands to the current section/subsection/etc. number (for this Chatter section, for instance, it would expand to something like 1.1.5.1, I think). Then again, I'm not sure macros are expanded in section titles.
- For an example, see the top of this Chatter section.
- A macro is a good idea, but like you, I'm not sure macros go into section titles. Also, if we do that, I think that permanently fixes chatter sections and does not allow for new intermediary chatter sections to be introduced. That's probably not a big deal, *IF* chatter sections are introduced intelligently every so often, but might get confusing if really big chunks go by without any comment... or chatter sections offered and then deleted. (If that makes any sense....)
(nod) I thought that might be what you were thinking of. Having it render as a very thick horizontal rule is suboptimal, though… Actually, if its entire raison d’être is to serve as a navigational landmark while editing, it would probably work just as well as a Wiki comment. I've made the corresponding tweak to your example above; let me know if this still suits.
MayLith: Looks great! I forgot about wiki comments...(if I knew about them in the first place
)
- Well, my policy, as I stated above, is to add a Chatter section below each new story section and delete empty Chatter sections as I go. I hadn't considered the possibility that someone might want to re-insert a Chatter section between two already-posted story sections. The scheme I've just about settled on, though, should allow for that. I think I'm going to label the Chatter sections manually with a section/subsection numbering scheme (omitting for simplicity the singletons at the root and leaves of the tree, so that this Chatter section, for instance, would become something like "Chatter (1.5)"); if someone wants to re-insert a Chatter section between story sections, they can add the corresponding label too, without upsetting the labels on any of the existing Chatter sections.
MayLith: That makes sense. Sounds good to me, Zizzo!
Second relic quest (take 2)
LTm -8, take 2; "What a boring place…"
"We can hope…"
As you say. The levels continue to come fast and furious as a pack of Manes and a pack of Novice rogues push me up to clvl 19, with skill points going 1 to Geomancy and 4 to Spell-power. At this rate, I'm worried that the next relic quest will be nightmarish by the time we get it.
"Well, that's a cheery thought…"
Indeed. My Fireflash spell gets a workout on assorted Rotting corpses and Crypt creeps I run into; otherwise, the level is uninteresting, with no relic. A quick stair-bounce, then, and we return to:
LTm -8, take 3; "Looks like any other level."
Fairly boring, for a pleasant change. Still leveling like a speed demon, though, as a pack of Lemures takes me to clvl 20, with skill points going 2 to Geomancy, 1 to Magic and 2 to Spell-power. No relic, though, so we try again:
LTm -8, take 4; "Looks like any other level."
And there's the relic, not far to our west as we enter the level. *whew* Good thing, too; the level has tree streamers, that I'd have had to walk all the way through to make sure I'd searched the level.
"Now can we go home?"
Yes, Trilogy, now we can return to:
Bree
and stow the Fireflash spellbook, which we won't need again for a while.
"So again, at the risk of sounding self-centered, do I actually have any detection spells now after all that life-risking?"
No more than before; we need one more quest before you can cast Sense Hidden or Listen to the Music.
"That would be the ‘nightmarish’ one you were talking about earlier."
Oh, I agree, Trilogy; it's sorely tempting to reallocate a few skill points from somewhere else to Prayer. I'd only need three, I think; I'm just not sure which of my target skills I can get away with not maxing. Anyway, let's get back to the Downs.
BDw 6 (take 2) thru BDw 10
BDw 6, take 2; "This level can't be all bad…"
A welcome respite from the relic quest. I finally get to use my Owlbear totem for its original purpose when I run into a pack of Novice priests early in the level. Not much further in, I run into Brodda, who dies nicely to a few Noxious Clouds and drops a Mace (+3,+1), a Small Wooden Boomerang (+5,+3), and his corpse.
"*groan* Why can't you collect something normal, like stamps?"
I don't think they've invented stamps in Arda yet. Anyway, nothing much else of interest here, so we proceed to:
BDw 7; "What a boring place…"
Hmm, I just noticed that Call the Elements is generating new terrain types: dark pit and ice. Interesting. Otherwise, nothing of note on the level; fast-forward to:
BDw 8: Fumblefingers quest for 13 Forest trolls; "This level can't be all bad…"
An arena level, so we'll see them coming from a distance; none nearby, though, according to Sense Monsters. I find one quickly enough, though, and even the mighty Forest troll is no match for my Noxious Cloud.
"You're not going to make a voodoo doll out of one of these, are you?"
I'm considering it; the hit points and AC are better than the Owlbear we've got, and the melee damage is comparable. If we were going full-out Summoner, I'd be worried about his sensitivity to light, which would make Globe of Light dangerous when he's around; but as a "handler" monster, that shouldn't be a problem.
"I had to ask…"
Fortunately for Trilogy's sensibilities, none of the trolls leaves a corpse. The quest reward choices are Weaponmastery, Divination, Disarming and Conveyance. Hmm, Weaponmastery is a non-starter, Divination is redundant with Prayer under Eru, and Disarming is redundant with my Disarm spell; Conveyance is already as high as my skill plan allows, and I don't think I gain anything from a further increase, but it's the least useless choice. And the last troll takes me to clvl 21, with skill points going 1 to Geomancy and 4 to Spell-power.
And for a change of pace, I've only got about half the level explored by the time the last troll falls (understandable, since with the arena level, they could all come to me). I finish the level and move on to:
BDw 9; "This level can't be all bad…"
An entirely boring level; fast-forward to:
BDw 10: Princess quest for 5 Wargs; "You feel strangely lucky…"
A 1x5 small level, and the quest room is apparently just offscreen to my south; a few well-placed Noxious Clouds and the quest is over quickly. The quest reward choices are a Dagger, a Club or a Glaive. Enh, six of one; I take the dagger, which turns out to be The Dagger of Rilia. Not that we can use it or anything… On an up note, I do find my first Ring of Spell exploring the rest of the level. Otherwise, though, a generally anti-climactic end to the dungeon; we return to:
Bree
where I Mathom the Brodda totem, copy Fireflash onto the Ring of Spell and stow:
- The Dagger of Rilia (2d4) (+4,+3), which activates for stinking cloud (12r3) every 4+d4 turns and has poison brand, slay orc, and resist poison and disenchantment
I also buy my first Potion of Restore Mana from the black market. And that leaves us ready to take on the Orc Cave next time.
Chapter 2
Now, before we head off to–
"Hey, have you ever heard of something called the Wand of Digging of Thrain?"
Um… yes, I have. It's an artifact Wand of Dig, believed to have been owned by Thrain I, who first discovered the Lonely Mountain of Erebor and supposedly used the Wand to dig out the famed Dwarven stronghold of old therein. Why do you ask?
(shrug) "Professional curiosity, I suppose, Earth spells being one of my specialties and all. Do you know what ever happened to it?"
Well, according to legend, it was passed down from father to son until it was taken from Thror, last King Under the Mountain, by Azog, King of the Uruk-Hai.
"So, an Orc has it now… Okay, this is probably gonna sound frivolous, and I know you've probably already got plans of your own, but is there any chance that we could maybe go find this Azog and get the wand back from him?"
*blink* Why the sudden interest?
"Again, it's a point of professional pride—sort of like how a knight of Camelot would want to go retrieve Excalibur if it were stolen by a band of brigands, for instance."
Mm. Well, in the first place, you shouldn't even have heard of Camelot or Excalibur, but I'll let that pass. In the second place, though, Azog is currently believed to be holed up in an Orc Cave north of Bree, which happens to be our next point of call anyway.
"Oh. Well, that works out, then."
And as I was saying when you interrupted me, before we head off to the Orc Cave, I'm going to take a slight tactical risk: I'm going to reallocate three skill points in my skill plan from Magic to Prayer.
"Ooh, quite the risk taker, you are…"
Yeah, laugh if you want, but this will get you Sense Hidden and Listen to the Music without taking another relic quest.
"And what exactly are you risking again?"
Not maxing your Magic skill, leaving you with less mana in the endgame.
"Oh, I get it: you're gambling that you can get those three points of Magic back from the guy that keeps losing his sword. I don't think the odds against that are particularly high, though."
(shrug) As I said, it's a slight risk. Now, in preparation for this, I'm going to pull our Spellbook of Listen to the Music out of storage.
"*groan* Could I possibly get a handcart or something for all these books?"
Don't worry, you'll be leaving behind your Spellbook of See the Music in its place; I was only using the spell for its temporary see invisible (and forgetting to use it more than half the time), but the black market has a Ring of See Invisible in stock for cheap. And with that in hand, I think we're ready to head off to:
Orc 10 thru Orc 13
Orc 10; "This level can't be all bad…"
"So, what should I expect in this place?"
Mostly orcs, ogres, trolls and kobolds. You've already taken care of the worst of the kobolds, though.
"Don't remind me…"
No respect… My primary short-term goal is to gain a clvl and some skill points to put into Prayer—and in the busy halls of the Orc Cave, it doesn't take long for me to achieve clvl 22 and allocate my skill points 2 to Geomancy and 3 to Prayer. Shall we try Sense Hidden, Trilogy?
"‘Bout time…"
See? No respect. Well, no traps in the immediate area, but that won't last long. Listen to the Music costs 57 piety, which is a bit expensive for my tastes; on the other hand, with my Spell-power skill as high as it is, it won't be long before the spell upgrades to identify-pack level. Until then, I'll have to be choosy about what I identify with it. That pretty much finishes up the level, though, so we move on to:
Orc 11; "What a boring place…"
Lives up to its billing. Fast-forward to:
Orc 12; "What a boring place…"
Again, little of note; the only event of interest is acquiring a Hippogryph totem with which to upgrade my Owlbear.
"Not saying a word…"
This summoning schtick is getting kind of expensive in mana, though, as I learn when I try to keep the Hippogryph up long enough to take out a couple packs of Novice paladins. By the time they're all down, I'm completely out of mana—and there's a pack of Novice Warriors behind them, who appear to be slightly faster than me as I run away. Fortunately I regain enough mana to drop a Noxious Cloud behind me for cover. Next time we're topside, I might look into picking up a Spellbook of Charm to deal with cases like this.
"*whew* Thank Eru for small favors."
Which doesn't mean I won't still be collecting totems of uniques.
"Darn. Too much to hope for, I suppose…"
Indeed. And that's this level done; onward to:
Orc 13; "You feel that you will meet your fate here. You have a good feeling…"
Hmm, what was my fate for this level? [checks notes] Ah, to meet a Green worm mass. And on the next level, if I'm lucky, I might find a Bolt…
"Who know being The One would be so exciting?"
Indeed. After dispatching the obligatory nematoid kismet, we encounter Wormtongue a few rooms in, asleep. Hmm… [checks notes] okay, he's got 280hp; my Fireflash currently does 214 damage, Manathrust averages 56, and Noxious Cloud does 89 initially plus 89 per turn. We don't want to give him any more chances than necessary to cast any of his spells at us (especially considering we don't currently have free action), but at the same time we don't want to risk destroying his drop… I think I'll use one Fireflash to soften him up, then take him down with Noxious Cloud. And as a precaution, I'll also quaff one of these Potions of Speed I've been lugging around.
"Um… don't you think you're kind of overthinking this?"
Not really, considering the circumstances. As a mage type, you're not particularly strong in head-to-head combat, so a straight-up toe-to-toe with Wormtongue could be disastrous. Fortunately, the plan goes off without a hitch, and Wormtongue drops a Ball-and-Chain of Slay Giant (+8,+7) and… wait for it… a Mage Staff of Power (-3,-29) (+6). 
"Hey, I like this one. Feels good in my hands."
Oh, it's even better than that. [checks spellbooks] Sense Hidden goes to spell effect level 17, gaining temporary see invisible, which we may be able to use to swap out this Ring of See Invisible in the future; Noxious Cloud goes to spell effect level 33, gaining the unbreath damage type; and most importantly in the near term, Listen to the Music goes to spell effect level 17, gaining identify-pack. Its piety cost, of course, also increases to 79, but being able to identify half a dozen things at once kind of offsets that.
This last becomes particularly handy in the next room over, where I find and quickly dispatch Bullroarer; he drops a Lucerne Hammer (+1,+3), a Morning Star (+3,+5) and a Short Bow (+3,+1). Further in, a pack of Ogres pushes me over the top to clvl 23, with skill points going 1 to Geomancy, 3 to Spell-power and 1 to Magic. And the rest of the level passes without incident, so I collect all the {good} stuff I left lying around earlier and recall to:
Bre^H^H^HWilderness
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about that. Okay from there we return to:
Bree
and sell off loot. Neither the magic shop nor the book store have a Spellbook of Charm; I do pick up Spellbooks of Tidal Wave and Firewall for possible future use.
"Can I just repeat my perennial complaint about spellbook load at this point?"
I did say "future use", Trilogy; we won't be carrying these immediately. As I'm stowing them, though, I notice that I've got two un-ID'd junkarts laying around—and I believe I saw some Scrolls of *Identify* in the alchemy shop. Let's see what we've got here:
- Boccob's Unfinished Works, which activates for ruination.
a Parchment titled “Secrets of the Gnomish Wizards”, which activates for decrease WIS.
Well, that's more room in my home, at least… The black market is stocking a Fireproof Tome of Meta Spells, which is useless to me, and a Potion of Charisma, which is less so—especially since it increases my CHA from 13 to 15.
"Don't get too excited up there; I don't think I'm going to be winning any beauty contests any time soon."
You sell yourself short, my lady. Oh, and I forgot, I picked up a fate down in the Orc Cave: I'm fated to find Thorongil on dlvl 32. [checks notes] Hmm, Thorongil isn't terribly powerful, actually; we're likely to have found a better cloak by the time we get that far.
"Seems to be how my fate runs…"
Well, we'll hope for better when we return to the Orc Cave next time out.
Orc 13 (take 2) to Orc 20
Before heading back down, I buy some Scrolls of Enchant Armor on a lark and use them on my Robe and my Cloak.
"Um… shouldn't we have done this a long time ago?"
Well, it wasn't terribly pressing; you're not supposed to be getting into toe-to-toe fights anyway. This is just a precaution. And frankly, I figured you'd have better armor than store-bought by now. Anyway, let's continue:
Orc 13, take 2; "This level can't be all bad…"
Well, the first part of it ain't good; I'm completely surrounded by Cave orcs as I arrive on the level. Fortunately, my newly-upgraded Noxious Cloud is more than up to the task. And to my surprise, one of them drops Travak.
The level turns out to be a 3x5 small level, and is over fairly quickly; the only event of note is The Ring 'Mogrithor' (-1) dropped by another pack of Cave orcs.
"That can't be good."
Indeed it can't; I'll ditch it here before moving on to:
Orc 14; "This level can't be all that bad…"
Aw, it seems we failed our fate to find a Bolt. The level itself is mostly boring; a Zombified Orc pushes me up to clvl 24, with skill points going one each to Geomancy, Magic, Spell-power, Fire and Air. After that, I kill Ufthak and crew almost without even noticing while trying to punch through some Rotting corpses; he drops a Glaive (+3,+4).
And that's about all the excitement the level can offer me; we continue to:
Orc 15; "You have a very good feeling…"
Not with this pack of Clear hounds next to me as I enter the level, I don't. Still, there must be something interesting on the level to get a feeling this high. So far I'm not seeing it, though. A mixed pack of Uruks and Lemures takes me to clvl 25, with skill points going 2 to Geomancy, 2 to Spell-power and 1 to Earth.
And then the level is over.
"So… did I miss the ‘very good feeling’ part?"
Enh, that pack of Mirkwood spiders in the northeast corner might have been