ToME WikiShrikeDeCil: Level 9 of the Wizard's Tower. I've fought and killed the Paladin and the Wizard. The staircase has appeared. But all of this happened very far to the left in the level - so the two 'h' healer guys are all that one sees if one moves to the right. It doesn't happen immediately, they can move & cast a couple of spells. But it is near-inevitable that I'll get this message in bright red:
A gruesome software bug leaps out of the shadows and mauls you! right before the game quits. (Apologies if I didn't get the message quite right, I'm reading it as it flashes past 
DarkGod: You mean you killed the paladin & wizard without the healers doing anything ? And then when you move to the right they do things and crash ? BTW how hard was the combat ? did you use Gromush ?
ShrikeDeCil: I entered the non-normal-souled parts of the tower with what I would say is 'far too few' normal souls. 30ish. So both the marilith's prize and Gromush seem to be out of reach in terms of the resources I have left. I raced through the elemental area, killing only a couple. So... I didn't get gromush. When I would charge into the combat on the 9th floor, the game would crash immediately, so I changed tactics.
####### ......'...........@ .....@+ #######
Instead of letting auto-open open the door I was moving into, I open the door diagonally via 'o', and retreated back up the corridor. I got to face _just_ the Paladin this way. She was quite tough, even with level 10 armor/touch and 110 HP. It cost like 20 souls to pass here - and she was worth a few back. So maybe a new of -10 souls fighting her. So one bad guy down. I moved from the bottom of the corridor to the top, which drew the Wizard into the corridor. He blasted me so far back, seeing the healers wasn't an issue. I killed him with 3 souls remaining right before I got him. Then I stepped through the door and crashed. 
Well, drat. Luckily, we're bug hunting so I have a savefile (or 13). I was able to reproduce the crashing repeatedly. I didn't need to meet the healers though - the stairs appeared where the wizard fell. Which was well inside the corridor. So I'm a (W)inner! Ok, with savefiles. Have to try again later without reloading.
I was able to kill the two elven healers though - I'd stick to the north wall and edge in until I could Blood Suck the south healer. Then edge around to blood suck the north healer. _IF_ they didn't do whatever specifically is the crashing thing, I could get them in two sucks apiece. Of course, this would be crazy - there's a lot of crashing and reloading just to get them to not cast "Crash Game" as their random action.
The 'knockback' here is pretty severe. I tried a couple of times with just Blood Sucking someone, but I can't "out suck" them - they have their own healing, and they seem to do a better job than I do. Netherblast seems to be a problem in that it is tough to get close to _one_ of the two, let alone trying to get close to both at the same time for the spell to make sense. So I have to close and whack away. But they both move quickly - so that's a pretty decent chance in their four actions that they'll do something to knock me back... two square. So really - they have _8_ actions before I can close again. If I don't have to stop to heal. So a commentary of the combat from my side (with their side casting damaging spells all over the place) would be:
whack, trudge, trudge, trudge, heal, heal, trudge, whack, trudge, trudge, heal, trudge, trudge, heal, whack...
The marilith's spell seems like it would help greatly, but I don't see me making it here with enough normal souls. (I have 70+ demonic souls, that isn't an issue). I don't feel like I've 'wasted' any, I've been frugal with both BloodSuck & Netherblast. Most of the souls have gone into armor/touch/HP - and skipping any of those in here is suicide too. Hum.
For the marilith's spell to work, I have to spend at least 20 normal souls - 10 to learn it, and 10 to zap one of the big bad guys once. So killing the paladin (say) with that would cost 10 + 10 + a couple heals. Half in fact - so it would cost 25 to kill the paladin. But... just whacking her and healing cost me 20 souls anyway.
I'll start over and see if I can play with Gromush.
DarkGod: Ohhhhh ahah the combat was not meant to work like that, you are suppsoed to fight the four guys at the same time Splitting them appart is indeed much easier. I'll add some mechanism to auto open both doors, just like on level 8. In sucha scenario both gromush and the maritlith spell would help a lot(gromush can be ordered specific targets, if you can think of a strategic use for it ;> ) I found the crash thing, I'll fix it soon I hope. Funny thing is I'd have thought people would get there with not enough demonic souls .. not plain souls .. mhhh
DarkGod: AHhhh I squashed the frelling bug! AHAHAHHAHA! Nasty very very deep engine bug, in the core flags system... Expect alpha10 soon