spazzkat

I had a great game going, and fired up the save file from yesterday’s run tonight. I was in Sokoban and died horribly, like ya do, ’cause, well, Nethack. I proceeded to have the following conversation with kisanthe:

annathepiper: I’m in the middle of Serious Nethack May Be Serious
annathepiper: Level 11 character currently in Sokoban
kisanthe: Ooh! Hope it’s the Bag of Holding Sokoban.
annathepiper: SHIT DEAD
annathepiper: Hallucinating and burdened and surrounded and then a damn incubus started taking my armor off!
annathepiper: Also, it was the amulet of reflection sokoban!
kisanthe: …okay, that’s not funny, but it is funny.
annathepiper: It was, really ;)
annathepiper: I was cheerfully sneaking through the final treasure room killing monsters one at a time and then a damn black light went off
annathepiper: And then suddenly HELLO EVERYBODY AWAKE!
kisanthe: You’d think a *black* light wouldn’t wake everybody up!
annathepiper: So I backed into a corner and started shooting everything in sight, until the incubus showed up!
kisanthe: So, assuming the black light affected the critters it woke up too… you died naked in a big murderous hallucinatory orgy?
annathepiper: Yeah pretty much XD
kisanthe: Best way to go! ;)

And now in my current game, I was hungry, so I whipped out a tin and discovered it contained pickled dwarf. There I am nomming it, and the next monster I see? A dwarf. And all I can think is AWK-WARD!

That last one in particular, though, got me thinking of Nethack thanks to my propensity for playing Elf characters. Which, of course, led me to wonder about other hypothetical Nethack-themed Irish tune names! Such as:

• The Surly Shopkeeper
• Farewell to My Pet Cat
• Gold in the Bag of Holding
• The Cursed Loadstone Lament
• The Polymorph Trap Jig (this one would definitely change keys AND time signatures between the A part, the B part, and the C part)
• Yet Another Stupid Death Reel
• The Elven Boots
• The Infravision Jig
• Izchak’s Magic Lamp (That I Stole in Minetown)
• The Vibrating Square
• The Lich That Cursed My Broadsword
• Road to Gehennom
• Drowsy Maggie Needs Sleep Resistance
• A Luckstone to Banish Misfortune
• The Succubus Washerwoman

Anybody got any others?

The run into Gehennom started off with a bang, I’ve got to admit. There I was poised at the stairs down from the Valley of the Dead, and I’m thinking, “well gosh, I have a whole other genocide scroll here, what should I take out?” Given that I’d already taken down the other major recurring threats that usually threaten my Ascension candidates, and given that I’ve lost a couple of promising high-level characters to sliming, the answer seemed pretty simple: P’s. Because green slimes are AUGH.

I did pretty damn well up until I got to Vlad’s Tower. Highlights of the initial phase of Gehennom were:

• Jubie at level 30, nothing a few good swipes from Stormy and judicious application of the unicorn horn couldn’t handle
• Sunsword found just lying around on level 31, not that I could use it as a Ranger, but hey
• Another amulet of life saving on that level as well
• Baalzebub at level 33, and he got a bit frisky and escaped via wand of digging down to level 34. I chased him back up to 33 to take him out
• 2 touchstones at level 35 finally let me get rid of my crap gems
• Orcus was at level 39, where I had it demonstrated to me that yes, I needed to wield Stormy AT ALL TIMES to be level-drain resistant. Notably, I found a magic lamp–yay, permanent light source! Didn’t use its wish since I didn’t know its curse status. I also found a cockatrice corpse and discovered that why yes, Orcus IS vulnerable to stoning. Muahaha. However, undeads and yellow dragons are NOT
• Another luckstone on level 40

I figured out that the top of the Wizard’s Tower was at level 42, and then backtracked up to find Vlad. His entrance turned out to be at 35. And in Vlad’s Tower was where I made my first critical mistake: not paying attention to what the hell I was doing with the cockatrice corpse I’d picked up on Orcus’ level. I burned through not one but TWO amulets of life saving, thanks first to triggering a land mine and THEN to falling down the goddamn stairs. The lesson here, my children, is of course to ALWAYS unwield your cockatrice corpse before you go down stairs. And make damn sure you’re not burdened if you’re going to play with cockatrice corpses.

I found another amulet of life saving in Vlad’s Tower, as well as getting some gauntlets of power identified (although I didn’t elect to use those). But still, that FAIL with the cockatrice corpse would come back and kick my ass later. Saved when I killed Vlad and got the Candelabrum, though.

When I got back to it the next night, an air elemental on level 45 gave me a SERIOUS beating. I pounded it with the Longbow of Diana, though, and then finished it off with my dagger. Even with a couple of enchantments on it, sadly, Stormbringer is not just that awesome an offensive weapon for a Ranger.

Polypiled some scrolls on level 46, and got another point of AC on the gaunlets of dexterity as a result. Back down to AC -39, WOO! (Though it’s important to note that even with my AC that low, both the air elemental AND various minotaurs encountered were able to do me serious damage.)

The portal into the Wizard’s Tower was in the fake tower on level 46, and that took me up to level 44. There, I engaged in wacky fun hijinx with a ring of conflict and another cockatrice corpse (handled more carefully this time around, to be sure), and cheerfully stoned anything left standing after the ring turned most of a big room of monsters against each other.

I got a bit of a start though when a big horde of vrocks and a pit fiend jumped me, and one of the bastards summoned Yeenoghu. I’ve killed Yeenoghu before in previous games so I wasn’t too worried, but still, this was Cause for Concern. Took me a bit to take him out.

Here is one of the sweetest pair of statements you can ever seen in Nethack: “You kill the Wizard of Yendor! The death ray bounces!”

So yeah, that was tasty. And I scampered downward to look for the vibrating square, which turned out to be on level 47. The wizard came back at me once before I did the Invocation, and again once I actually got into the Sanctum to go at it with the High Priest.

There was where my other fatal blows got dealt me. One, the Wizard cursed one of my bags of holding and I had to rescue what I could from it and flee, since I couldn’t afford to take the time to try to uncurse it and I was out of remove curse scrolls, and I think down to one holy water. And two, the High Priest burned through my last amulet of life saving.

So between those, I was pretty much screwed when the Wizard caught up with me again on level 37, and I couldn’t teleport away. AUGH!

Why yes, I did want my possessions identified:

Amulets
 R - the Amulet of Yendor
 Weapons
 a - a +4 elven dagger (alternate weapon; not wielded)
 b - the blessed +4 Longbow of Diana
 m - 24 cursed +0 arrows (in quiver)
 J - the rustproof +2 Stormbringer (weapon in hand)
 Armor
 e - a blessed fireproof +5 elven cloak (being worn)
 i - an uncursed +4 orcish helm (being worn)
 w - an uncursed +3 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
 A - an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
 B - an uncursed +0 pair of gauntlets of power
 G - a blessed fireproof +4 pair of gauntlets of dexterity (being worn)
 O - an uncursed +5 shield of reflection (being worn)
 Comestibles
 Y - a cursed partly eaten food ration
 Z - 3 uncursed food rations
 Spellbooks
 K - the uncursed Book of the Dead
 Rings
 c - a cursed ring of teleportation
 F - an uncursed ring of levitation
X - a cursed ring of conflict (on left hand)
 Wands
 j - a wand of fire (0:5)
 l - a cursed wand of cancellation (0:1)
 q - a cursed wand of teleportation (0:0)
 y - a cursed wand of cancellation (0:4)
 C - a wand of digging (0:1)
 W - a wand of cold (0:4)
 Tools
 f - the cursed Bell of Opening (0:2)
 n - the cursed Candelabrum of Invocation (no candles attached)
 x - a blessed +2 unicorn horn
 H - an uncursed bag of holding
 Gems
 o - an uncursed luckstone

Contents of the bag of holding:

a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor
3 uncursed luckstones
a greased +0 pick-axe
a cursed skeleton key
a cursed potion of extra healing
a cursed potion of full healing
5 uncursed scrolls of teleportation
2 uncursed scrolls of gold detection
a blessed scroll of teleportation
10 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
14 uncursed K-rations
25 uncursed C-rations
a +4 elven bow
8 +0 arrows
a cursed magic lamp
a cursed blindfold
a potion of holy water
an uncursed potion of water
the fireproof +0 Orcrist
the rustproof +0 Trollsbane
a wand of fire (0:1)
a wand of fire (0:6)
a wand of death (0:1)
a wand of lightning (0:0)
a wand of teleportation (0:4)
an uncursed amulet of reflection
the +0 Sunsword
a wand of secret door detection (0:12)
a wand of cold (0:3)
a wand of teleportation (0:4)
a cursed wand of teleportation (0:0)
a wand of undead turning (0:4)
a wand of teleportation (0:5)
a wand of opening (0:4)
a wand of wishing (0:0)
an uncursed ring of teleport control
an uncursed ring of fire resistance
an uncursed ring of regeneration
a cursed ring of slow digestion

Final Attributes:

You were piously aligned.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were shock resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You were level-drain resistant.
You were magic-protected.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You had automatic searching.
You had infravision.
You were stealthy.
You caused conflict.
You were protected.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
You were extremely lucky.
You had extra luck.
Bad luck did not time out for you.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You are dead (5th time!).

Vanquished creatures:

Baalzebub
Orcus
Yeenoghu
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (4 times)
a high priest
a mastodon
Medusa
Croesus
6 iron golems
a storm giant
a titan
3 glass golems
a balrog
5 purple worms
7 gray dragons
4 red dragons
a white dragon
an orange dragon
5 black dragons
2 blue dragons
4 green dragons
4 yellow dragons
13 minotaurs
5 jabberwocks
Scorpius
8 baluchitheria
Vlad the Impaler
7 stone golems
a master mind flayer
18 Olog-hai
a Nazgul
10 pit fiends
a hell hound
10 titanotheres
9 trappers
2 baby red dragons
a baby white dragon
a baby green dragon
a baby yellow dragon
a guardian naga
27 vampire lords
4 skeletons
9 aligned priests
8 captains
6 shades
7 nurses
7 ice devils
7 nalfeshnees
6 lurkers above
2 Aleaxes
2 frost giants
an ettin
4 golden nagas
6 black puddings
25 vampires
11 lieutenants
34 ghosts
3 queen bees
3 winged gargoyles
a mind flayer
6 giant mimics
8 zruties
4 fire giants
4 ogre kings
4 ice trolls
14 rock trolls
12 umber hulks
3 flesh golems
4 Elvenkings
2 doppelgangers
14 hezrous
9 bone devils
6 large mimics
6 wumpuses
3 fire vortices
a baby long worm
a baby purple worm
7 long worms
3 couatls
15 stalkers
3 air elementals
12 fire elementals
7 earth elementals
5 water elementals
4 hill giants
3 giant mummies
4 black nagas
9 xorns
23 giant zombies
3 elf-lords
25 sergeants
11 barbed devils
22 vrocks
2 salamanders
16 wargs
7 winter wolves
5 hell hound pups
29 small mimics
4 glass piercers
5 warhorses
5 steam vortices
12 xans
3 ettin mummies
2 ogre lords
16 quantum mechanics
16 trolls
a sasquatch
2 wood golems
3 erinyes
2 mariliths
2 sharks
4 electric eels
10 gelatinous cubes
4 pyrolisks
4 large dogs
6 freezing spheres
6 flaming spheres
6 shocking spheres
2 large cats
8 tigers
11 gargoyles
3 dwarf kings
11 tengu
5 ochre jellies
12 leocrottas
8 energy vortices
30 mountain centaurs
4 stone giants
4 elf mummies
8 human mummies
2 red nagas
2 pit vipers
a python
8 cobras
57 wraiths
8 carnivorous apes
17 ettin zombies
4 leather golems
5 Grey-elves
116 soldiers
3 watchmen
6 horned devils
6 succubi
9 incubi
15 chameleons
2 crocodiles
32 giant beetles
9 quivering blobs
26 cockatrices
24 wolves
5 winter wolf cubs
5 lynxes
6 panthers
7 gremlins
3 spotted jellies
69 leprechauns
3 orc-captains
6 iron piercers
4 mumakil
17 giant spiders
28 scorpions
7 horses
12 black lights
12 vampire bats
41 forest centaurs
6 gnome kings
7 orc mummies
4 dwarf mummies
6 ogres
4 brown puddings
2 rust monsters
8 owlbears
8 yetis
a gold golem
6 werewolves
4 Green-elves
2 piranhas
12 giant eels
22 lizards
11 chickatrices
7 dogs
3 dingos
7 housecats
6 jaguars
10 dwarf lords
6 blue jellies
a white unicorn
3 gray unicorns
a black unicorn
6 dust vortices
10 ravens
12 plains centaurs
10 gnome mummies
4 snakes
5 water moccasins
15 apes
25 human zombies
2 rope golems
a Woodland-elf
25 soldier ants
2 fire ants
18 bugbears
an imp
6 quasits
3 wood nymphs
7 water nymphs
a mountain nymph
11 Mordor orcs
24 Uruk-hai
6 orc shamans
11 rock piercers
8 rock moles
8 ponies
10 fog clouds
14 yellow lights
5 shriekers
9 violet fungi
25 gnome lords
8 gnomish wizards
4 kobold mummies
2 red naga hatchlings
a golden naga hatchling
2 guardian naga hatchlings
9 gray oozes
3 barrow wights
15 elf zombies
16 ghouls
5 straw golems
6 paper golems
a jellyfish
26 giant ants
2 little dogs
13 floating eyes
2 kittens
43 dwarves
3 homunculi
2 kobold lords
6 kobold shamans
42 hill orcs
35 rothes
3 rabid rats
4 centipedes
9 giant bats
7 monkeys
16 orc zombies
12 dwarf zombies
2 wererats
5 werejackals
17 iguanas
107 killer bees
16 acid blobs
16 coyotes
5 gas spores
8 hobbits
8 manes
3 large kobolds
22 hobgoblins
10 giant rats
13 cave spiders
a brown mold
2 yellow molds
3 green molds
2 red molds
83 gnomes
13 gnome zombies
14 geckos
24 jackals
3 foxes
3 kobolds
12 goblins
3 sewer rats
15 grid bugs
3 bats
17 lichens
18 kobold zombies
10 newts

2619 creatures vanquished.

Genocided species:

mind flayers
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
master liches
arch-liches
gray oozes
brown puddings
black puddings
green slimes
rust monsters
disenchanters
krakens

13 species genocided.

Voluntary challenges:

You genocided 13 types of monsters.
You used 12 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.

                       ----------
                      /          \
                     /    REST    \
                    /      IN      \
                   /     PEACE      \
                  /                  \
                  |      Natil       |
                  |       0 Au       |
                  |  killed by the   |
                  | invisible Wizard |
                  |    of Yendor     |
                  |                  |
                  |       2011       |
                 *|     *  *  *      | *
        _________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______

Goodbye Natil the Ranger...

You died in Gehennom on dungeon level 37 with 1400566 points,
and 0 pieces of gold, after 76842 moves.
You were level 20 with a maximum of 150 hit points when you died.

You made the top ten list!

 No  Points     Name                                                   Hp [max]
  1    1400566  Natil-Ran-Elf-Fem-Cha died in Gehennom on level 37
                [max 48].  Killed by the invisible Wizard of Yendor.    - [150]
  2      20094  Faanshi-Hea-Hum-Fem-Neu died in The Gnomish Mines on
                level 10.  Killed by a stone giant.                     -  [80]
  3      15591  Natil-Ran-Elf-Fem-Cha died in The Dungeons of Doom on
                level 4 [max 7].  Killed by a soldier ant.              -  [59]

This being last night’s Nethack adventures!

When last we left our story, I was stuck with all the charges on my first two wands of wishing used, and with no means of levitation to be had. This was standing in the way of me clearing Fort Ludios on level 14, as well as getting across the Medusa level to take her out.

My initial idea on how to deal with this was to go back up through the earlier levels and start quaffing from fountains to see if I could trigger another wish. This bumped up my stats a couple of times, but also did a round of cursing my stuff–including one of the bags of holding. Had to blow some holy water to fix that, and lost a few thousand gold thanks to the bag eating it when I #looted.

A wraith on level 16 got me up to experience level 17. Mm, tasty AND nutritious! And since I wanted a gold influx I went ahead and cleared out the remaining leprechaun hall on level 17. No love with the fountains by the time I made it down to level 22, though.

Lost my poor orc mummy Madchen on level 20, and then on the way back up picked up cat #4, Sparky, on level 6. Only to lose poor Sparky to a troll with a wand of striking on level 3. RIP, Sparky!

Lots more holy water thanks to an altar on level 3, and Stormbringer from the altar on level 7! Trollsbane showed up at the altar on level 15, but as of this writing I’ve stuffed it and Orcrist into one of my bags of holding. I don’t need much weapon-wise at this point besides Stormy, my original dagger, and the Longbow of Diana.

I came up with the idea to polypile what rings I’d found in the game, but was only able to do this once since I’d blown all the charges on the single wand of polymorph I’d found. So I zapped it until I wrested the final remaining charge, and that got me a couple more copper rings which I then sink-ID’d as “slow digestion”. Also left me with unidentified silver, ruby, and granite rings, on top of a previously found engagement ring.

Since that didn’t get me anywhere special I thought okay, let’s blow what means of monster creation I have and see if I can get somebody to drop something interesting. That got me another wraith corpse, and a bump up to level 18. This plan would possibly have gone farther had my good friend kisanthe not pointed out to me that well DUH, I could trapdoor my way down into the Castle and bypass Medusa completely–which I’d entirely forgotten about. Yes, it HAS been a while since I’ve regularly played Nethack!

Eager to try this plan, I scampered back down to level 22 and took out the titan. It had a wand of cold but used most of its charges.

Level 24 proved to NOT be the Castle; the Castle was on 26, and I took down the drawbridge thanks to a wand of opening. Then it was time to say HEY CASTLE RESIDENTS SAY HI TO STORMBRINGER AND THIS HANDY COCKATRICE CORPSE! MAN, clearing the Castle is way easier if you have a cockatrice corpse. And this even gave me an opportunity to discover that even after all these years, Nethack can still teach me something: that if you hit a leather golem with a cockatrice corpse, it’ll turn into a stone golem!

The Wand of Wishing was in the top left hand room, and I got myself a scroll of charging and a blessed ring of levitation. Blew the charging scroll on a previous magic marker, but forgot to use the marker to make more charging scrolls. Doh. *^_^*;; So now I still have the wand and it’s chargeable and in reserve until I get a means to charge it back up again. Also pondering what else I should add to the Ascension kit. I’m fond of the ring of levitation + ring of free action combo, so I need me a ring of free action at this point. I’m pretty set for armor, although I am considering the virtues of a cloak of displacement versus the heavily blessed and enchanted elven cloak I’ve already got. And certainly another amulet of life saving wouldn’t suck. Or potions of full healing.

Fell through a trapdoor in the Castle and quickly scampered back up again, since I did NOT feel ready to take on the Valley of the Dead. Used the wand of opening and the ring of levitation to get back into the Castle and take out the dragons; the red one finally gave me fire resistance! (The others, for the record, were orange, gray, and white. Got orange scales as a trophy.)

There was no wish or anything else of note off the throne in the Castle, so I came back up to take out Medusa. Then on general principle, I went back to get into Ludios. Croesus tried to take me out with a wand of lightning AND a wand of death, so now I know what those are.

And as of my last save, I’m still in the Fort but haven’t cleared out the actual gold vault yet. Trying to decide if it’s worth it at this point since I am riding the line between being unburdened and burdened, and I’ve already gotten as much protection as I’m likely to get, I think!

Short form: Natil the Elf Ranger has completed the Quest and is now seeking a ring of levitation so that she can finish Fort Ludios. She’s currently at Exp. level 16, HP 114, and AC -38! Thanks to early wands of wishing as well as other lucky finds she is armored for bear, with gray dragon scale mail, speed boots, gauntlets of dex, and a shield of reflection. She’s armed with her original elven dagger as well as the Longbow of Diana.

Wish her luck, folks. Details for the Nethack geeks behind the fold!

Pets:

So far I have gone through a LOT of pets in this game:

• Original dog, Varden, died fairly early on
• Second dog, Terrill, made it with me all the way down to level 23 (Medusa) while I was looking for Fort Ludios. On the way back up off of 23 he killed and ate a chameleon corpse, and turned into a cobra! That was kind of fun, as he was biting and killing things for a good while. I lost him in Fort Ludios, though.
• Third dog, Hadden, acquired shortly after Terrill. Didn’t last long though.
• First cat, Fred. He made it almost down to Medusa’s level with me and Terrill, but bit it on level 22.
• Second cat, George, acquired after I finished the Quest! Lost him in Ludios, though.
• Fourth dog, Madchen, acquired after second visit into the Fort. As of this post Madchen is still alive, although she ate a chameleon corpse and is currently an orc mummy. This game is giving me WEIRD pets
• Third cat, Polly, acquired shortly after Madchen but lost shortly thereafter as well

Stores:

Stores in this game, at least outside the Gnomish Mines, have been slim pickings. I got a potions store on level 2, and general stores on levels 3 and 6. None of them turned up anything particularly interesting.

Gnomish Mines:

The notable things about the Mines were:

• Non-coaligned altar in Minetown and no magic lamps in the stores, not that I needed them with finding two, count ‘em, TWO early wands of wishing
• Got the version of the bottom level that had no wine cellar and various little closets with gems stuffed around the edges of the level, i.e., one of the easier versions. I can deal with that
• Got shock resistance off of a brown pudding! Zzzt!

Sokoban

Sokoban’s level was early on, showing up with the Oracle at 5 and Sokoban’s stairs at 6. Discovered that it’s been long enough since I’ve regularly played Nethack that I’d forgotten most of the patterns of how to move the stones around, so I had to pull the trick with dropping all my stuff and squeezing between boulders so I could move them. Fortunately I didn’t abuse my luck too much doing this.

The prize level turned out to have an amulet of reflection, although as of this writing that’s proved kind of unnecessary now that I have the shield. Way, WAY more valuable a find in Sokoban was the first wand of wishing! Off of that, I got the obligatory blessed +3 gray dragon scale mail.

Various other special rooms:

There were altars discovered at levels 3, 7, 10, 15, and 19, with a non-coaligned temple at 10 as well. This has proven very useful so far in giving me a crapload of protection AC (from the priestess of Mercury; I continue to be kind of surprised that you can work the protection racket with a non-coaligned priest/ess, NOT THAT I MIND THIS OR ANYTHING ;) ). Also, there have been ample opportunities to make holy water and bless blanked-out scrolls.

Level 7 had a David’s Treasure Zoo, and level 9 had an opulent throne room. Neither were nearly as interesting as the surprising plethora of leprechaun halls, of which I found THREE, at 11, 16, and 17. As of this writing I’ve cleared out the ones on 11 and 16, and haven’t bothered with 17 yet just because I don’t want to go through another round of chasing those little green bastards all over a level.

Level 12 proved to be the Big Room, and had the Quest Portal as well.

Beehives occurred at 14 and 20, with the obligatory scores of royal jelly off the latter in particular.

Rogue level’s at level 18. Has been mostly notable so far as the site of my first air elemental kill in the game–thankfully, air elementals can be taken out with enough poundings of missiles from the Longbow of Diana.

Overall Notes Between Sokoban and Medusa:

I generally hit Sokoban first and then the Mines, and that was extra helpful this game so far as Sokoban gave me that early advantage with the first wand of wishing!

At level 10, I deliberately triggered a polymorph trap and turned into a soldier ant for a while. Fortunately I survived that intact. This was also where my first wraith corpse got me up to level 12.

My first amulet of life saving dropped on level 16–in the leprechaun hall as I recall.

Got cold resistance off a yeti corpse on level 20. Hit Medusa’s level at 23 and came back up to keep looking for Ludios. Carefully avoided an Olog-hai at 22 and a titanothere at 21, critters I wasn’t prepared to take on yet. Back on 20, finally got poison resistance off a golden naga, and on 17, found amulet of life saving #2 after Cobra!Terrill killed a black unicorn.

All the way back up on 6, I got bumped up to level 15 thanks to a potion of gain level AND a wraith.

In the Quest, I burned the first amulet of life saving when a centaur got a little too frisky with a wand of fire. But I quickly made up for this with a shield of reflection! AND a bag of holding, AND a SECOND wand of wishing!

So at that point it was time for some serious wishing business: 2 blessed scrolls of charging, got only one; blessed +3 fireproof speed boots; blessed magic marker; blessed +3 fireproof gauntlets of dex. Thanks to the marker, I was able to fix my burned elven cloak, and then generate some blessed genocide scrolls to take out L’s and R’s. Tried to make an uncursed one to take out mind flayers, since I’d taken out master mind flayers earlier, but the marker ran out.

Once I was out of the Quest, one of those mind flayers that had narrowly escaped genocide must have had a vendetta, since the bastard got me and took out most of what I’d learned about identified objects, like they do. I did however also discover that Ludios was in fact in the game, with a portal in the Vault on level 14!

Round 1 in Ludios lost me both Terrill and George, but I made it up to level 16 off of another wraith corpse, and recharged the first wand of wishing. That got me a blessed magic marker to try to make some identify scrolls. But I didn’t stay in there after killing the first initial huge wave of soldiers–I wanted to get rid of some of my extraneous inventory, and make sure I could actually get into the Fort.

So I blew the last wish on wand #1 for two scrolls of enchant weapon, to enchant up the Longbow of Diana, and to regain the identification of that particular scroll. Blew the second to last wish on wand #2 for two uncursed scrolls of genocide, and took out those damned mind flayers, along with krakens. The final wish on wand #2 went to a blessed wand of cancellation, so I could start churning out holy water and blank scrolls. Thusly prepared, I went back up through the upper levels for a while to re-learn their layouts, and got a bunch of enchant armor scrolls prepped and bumped my AC all the way down to -38.

A second visit back into Ludios proved that I do not in fact have an effective way of getting into the Fort. So as of this writing, I’m back out again and looking hard for a ring of levitation, boots of levitation, or water walking boots. I ducked into the Mines to scour them for rings, and that’s where Madchen turned into an orc mummy. That’s also where I killed air elemental #2!

I’ve kept generating holy water as I can, and that’s gotten me my first altar artifact, finally: Orcrist. Meh. I’ve also found a second bag of holding, and I’ve gotten both bags as well as my luckstone suitably blessed with all of the holy water.

I’m saving at this point, since I’m far enough along that I’m now having to seriously plan for making it not only through the Fort, but through the Medusa level as well and into the Castle. I REALLY need a means of levitation and am vaguely cranky that I didn’t think to use one of that plethora of wishes early on it! That was stupid of me. I hope I live to actually correct the mistake!

I have also had reported to me that my blurb scripts do not work under the Opera browser, unfortunately. The problem is that I can’t figure out what exactly I need to do to fix that. If anybody out there knows Opera well enough, or knows Javascript well enough, to try to help me out with that, let me know and I’ll see if I can roll Opera into the list of browsers on which my web page is known to go.

I fixed a couple minor bugs with the blurb scripts, as well; the addition of the Nethack button had screwed up functionality on Netscape 4. This is now fixed. The Writing and Credits blurbs should display there just fine.