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Great idea Erik! This type of game strikes me as a great practice tool -
you really have to take your time and think, and use every resource
available to you. Also, I've gotten much better now at running away.
My contribution to the thread: IM rating 19, Spriggan Warper (clvl 7).
The (long) story is below, and the morgue follows. Short version of
story: Running away proved to be a useful tool. Perhaps less "Ironman"
than "Very Fast Coward", but there you go.
Level 1: So I start by memorizing Apportation from my starting
spellbook, a spell I'd never seen the use for until this challenge game.
It's very nice indeed for grabbing useful things from the middle of
packs of monsters or open areas (and in the challenge game, VERY handy
when you see something useful but it's in the other direction from a
downstairs). Ran into a kobold and then a goblin, and dispatched them
quickly with the rod of striking. Found a scroll and read-id'ed it right
away - I figured this character would be short-lived, anyway.
Was
?id, and I had nothing useful to identify. Oh well. Found a downstairs
soon after.
Level 2: Found three new potions, killed a rat and a goblin, and danced
for quite a while with a quokka, using the rod and darts, before finally
killing it. Nothing else special before the next downstairs.
Level 3: I come down the stairs and spot an ogre who's also just spotted
me - I take off running down the long, narrow hall, and eventually find
a nice little room with a pillar for some dancing. I find the ogre and
lure it back, flinging force bolts and darts at it as I stay just out of
arm's reach, and when I kill it, I gain 3(!) levels, and memorize Blink.
I next meet a hound, which is in between me and my dancing-pillar, and
which the rod can't damage fast enough, so I start running down a
corridor. Which leads to an orc and a kobold. I let the hound catch up,
and use my scroll of blinking to get behind it, then start running away
again in the opposite direction. I see a downstairs, move towards it,
and in trying to kill the hound and the orc, I let them get right beside
me. Oh yeah, I can't move off the downstairs... so I dive.
Level 4: The hound and orc follow, and are now joined by a goblin and
giant ant. I run. I managed to create enough space at one point to use
Apportation to get a ?id (which, when I had time, id'd a potion of
poison for me) but had to run right past some other scroll which I never
saw the likes of again. I hope it wasn't an OOD ?acquirement - I think
I'd cry. I dive downstairs again...
Level 5: ...and meet another ogre. After some dancing, my Spriggan is
now clvl 6. I turn a corner, and find myself face-to-face with a
centaur, a giant frog, two jackals and a rat. I bravely run away - the
centaur wings me a couple times, but I make it to another set of stairs.
Level 6: Ah - another downstairs, right there.
Level 7: Dispatch another ogre; another ?id tells me that I'm carrying a
potion of speed - good, I can probably survive one more life-threatening
situation. One soon presents itself in the form of a particularly
resilient giant iguana - the rod just wouldn't make a dent. No place to
dance, but I can run, so I do - and foolishly stop to Apportate myself
another scroll. The iguana catches up, follows me down the stairs...
Level 8: ...and is joined by a giant frog and a rat. I use the rat to
block traffic while I deal with a kobold in the next room, then run to
the stairs. I figured that I had time to Apportate the nearby bread
ration, but I misjudged the frog's distance from me, and he catches up
and hits me when I go down the stairs...
Level 9: ...leaving me with 2 HP, trapped in a dead end, right beside a
rat. Luckily, because the downstairs led to such a closed-in spot, the
frog is nowhere to be seen. The rat, luckily, misses me twice, and I
take it out with the rod. I finally ID the scroll I picked up on level
7, that led to my flight here... and it's a scroll of paper. Sigh.
There's a downstairs right around the corner.
Level 10: I use my potion of speed while fighting an orc wizard, which
still manages to knock me down to 9 HP with magic dart and flame before
I kill it. I avoid two hounds and get poisoned by a snake, which worries
me since I have no potions of healing at this point, but I feel better
quickly. I pick up a second unid'd potion, and quaffing it, it turns out
to be confusion. I find a book of Surveyances and memorize Detect Traps,
which didn't turn out to be all that useful in the end. I get a couple
more unid'ed potions of another kind, but I leave them un-id'ed just in
case it's heal wounds - I'll need every one. There's a hound between me
and the next downstairs, but fortunately my Spriggan has excellent
broken-field running skills. I dive.
Level 11: I find a couple more of those unid'ed potions, bringing my
total to 4, so I feel okay quaff-id'ing one. They're restore abilities.
:/ I find another downstairs almost immediately.
Level 12: I find my first wand, in view from a nearby downstairs. Thank
you, Apportation.
Level 13: I find a +1 ring of evasion, the first and only jewellery I am
to find. I test the wand on a kobold, and it's enslavement, which is
good, because it turns out there are LOTS more kobolds, big and small,
right behind him. He kindly keeps them busy for me while I run. I find
and read a magic mapping scroll; this level is very open. This is bad
news for this character, so I make for the nearest downstairs visible on
the overall map. When I get there, there's a giant ant five squares
away, but it doesn't see me - I quietly Apportate over a nearby ?id, and
an un-id'd scroll.
Level 14: The second scroll was curse armour - no biggie. I haven't seen
any other robes yet, anyway. The ?id identifies a potion of mutation for
me, which I quaff, hoping for something to extend my survival a bit more
("You can control translocations" would have been great with Teleport
Self, in my starting book). I get two types of scales for +2 AC, and
weakness. Having picked up the Young Poisoner's Handbook on the previous
level, I now have a quiet moment and memorize Sting, which shortly gets
put to good use on an ogre. I pass the Vault stairs with a wistful look
and find my next downstairs, guarded by three orcs and an orc warrior. I
use the wand of enslavement to charm the warrior, get him to start
beating on his compatriots, and sprint past to the stairs.
Level 15: Two orcs follow me down into a dead end corridor, which would
have been no problem if I hadn't typoed and evoked the rod at myself,
right down to 7 HP. I manage to kill the orcs quickly though, as well as
a curious giant newt that poked its head quizzically 'round the corner.
I then run into a hippogriff, and take off in the other direction. I see
a downstairs, and have time to try to Apportate a nearby un-id'd scroll,
but it doesn't come to me - instead it twitches... I wonder if it was a
mimic.
Level 16: I appear next to an oblivious jelly. I edge away, and then
take care of it with the rod. A staircase comes into view immediately.
Level 17: And I appear next to 4 boggarts. I run away, and find myself
in a room with 3 downstairs... took a second to figure out which one I
could take without moving away from the other two.
I dive again.
Level 18: There's a hydra on the edge of my vision, but I back away
without it seeing me. I find a scroll of magic mapping and use it, and
head for the nearest downstairs since things are getting a little too
hairy and I just want to dive as quickly as possible now. Two slime
creatures see me but can't catch me.
Level 19: I find a wand, which when zap-id'd turns out to be lightning,
and a scroll, which turns out to be my first scroll of teleportation. I
appear in the corner of a small room with two corridors leaving it, and
two ugly things between me and the exits. Rather than sensibly running
away, I smugly start throwing lightning bolts around the room - thus
attracting the attention of the other four ugly things around the
corner. Now, rather than sensibly running away, I panickingly start
throwing more lightning bolts around the room. The ugly things get me
pinned against a wall, my last un-id'd potion turns out to be !might,
not !heal wounds, I forgot about Blink, and die. Anti-climactic perhaps,
but makes for a good moral.
Here's the morgue.
Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.
Craven the Prestidigitator (Spriggan)
(Level 7 Warper)
Play time: 00:40:26 Number of turns: 4591
Experience : 7/1152
Strength 10 Dexterity 18 Intelligence 15
Hit Points : -2/25 (dead) Magic Points : 23
AC : 3 Evasion : 13 Shield : 0
GP : 99
You are on level 19.
You are not hungry.
Inventory:
Hand weapons
b - a +0 orcish short sword
Missiles
h - 17 +0 orcish darts
Armour
d - a cursed +0 robe (worn)
Magical devices
I - a wand of enslavement (4)
R - a wand of lightning (3)
Comestibles
B - 2 bread rations
Scrolls
g - 2 scrolls of remove curse
Jewellery
l - a +1 ring of evasion (left hand)
Potions
i - 4 potions of restore abilities
Books
e - a book of Spatial Translocations
f - a book of Surveyances
j - a Young Poisoner's Handbook
Magical staves
a - a rod of striking (in hand)
You have 232 experience left.
Skills:
+ Level 3 Darts
+ Level 1 Throwing
+ Level 4 Dodging
+ Level 4 Stealth
+ Level 3 Spellcasting
+ Level 5 Translocations
+ Level 1 Divinations
+ Level 11 Evocations
You have 2 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Success Level
a - Sting Poison/Conjuration Good 1
q - Apportation Translocation Great 1
w - Teleport Other Translocation Good 4
B - Blink Translocation Very Good 2
T - Detect Traps Divination Good 2
Mutations & Other Weirdness
You are partially covered in supple grey scales (AC + 1).
You are weak (Str -1).
You are partially covered in speckled scales (AC + 1).
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