Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)
Okay.
This has been about my hundredth game total, and one of about 3 or four
in which I finished the quest.
I've actually never before seen Medusa (well, this time neither, to be
exact ;-), nor Fort Ludios or the castle.
I was a gnomish neutral male healer in the beginning (put on an
unidentified amulet of change sometime, for unknown reasons). After my
first few dozen deaths as barbarian and valkyrie I just played all
classes, and in this particular case I chose the class with the least
entries in the high scores list on the server of my choice.
I tried the protection racket for the first time, and it went well. I
think my pet died in the mines on the second level, though. And I was
now protected by Athena, not Hermes. I think naked AC 1, and with a bit
of leather armor, ok. I lost all protection later on. Dunno why. Maybe
shouldn't have killed that priestess and desecrated the altar.
After the Mines up to Minetown I did the main dungeon and sokoban.
Found two of my own bones files, got the orb of fate from one where I
had been valkyrie, and got a real real big heap of cool stuff from the
other one, where I had been disintegrated by a black dragon. Which was
still around, but I had reflection, and thus got disintegration
resistance real soon. A lot of good stuff was in a bag of holding from
my former self, though this bag was now cursed. I didn't dare open it
for fear of the best things vanishing. Well, in the end I opened it all
the same, when I found out I couldn't lift it naked and with gauntlets
of power. I didn't know you could cancel them.
Among the goodies was a +1 shield of reflection (which I didn't use
because my Staff of Aesculapius was twohanded), at least two magic
markers (which, I could swear, were eaten by a gelatinous cube later),
+6 Mjollnir which I couldn't use either, BDDs (20 blessed rustproof +5
daggers)... no armor, that had been disintegrated but still helped me a
lot.
Altars... that was problematic. there were exactly 3. One temple to
Athena in Minetown, an altar to hermes on lv1 and an altar to poseidon
on lv12. Later these would all become altars to hermes, of course
And so Level 12 became my base camp.
So, after a lot of wandering about, I finally was XP 14 and did the
quest. I wanted to do Fort Ludios first, but a mind flayer was coming
too close there, so I left it, and a scroll of genocide solved that
problem later.
Well, the Quest was not too big a problem, though I was very surprised
when I found out that the staff of aesculapius drained levels. My
Levels...
Oh yes, my weapon was a unicorn horn before, and always the staff
afterwards.
Okay, did the quest, then I let medusa admire herself, then I
did the castle (there was a mindflayer there too, played hide and seek
with him). I finally finished the castle, wished for the gdsm, helm of
brilliance, gauntlets of dexterity, magic markers, speed boots. Wiped
out all mind flayers, liches, and disenchanters.
Finished Fort Ludios, nothing interesting there, except for a wand of
death.
And for the first time:
You arrive at the Valley of the Dead...
The odor of burnt flesh and decay pervades the air. You hear groans and
moans everywhere
Yippie
I descended quickly. Asmodeus was easy. Juiblex was easy too. Too slow
for me ;-) I expected him to swallow me at least...
Baalzebub gave me a bit more to chew, kept on escaping and summoned
quite a horde around me at a time, but still, not too hard. I had
expected much more of these demon princes/lords.
I then hit a trapdoor, so I met Orcus going up, it was also good in
running away, but was dispatched all the same. Ventured to the deepest
Level, found the vibrating square. Cleared out paths between the exits
in all levels, and then prepared myself for the showdown.
Badly. ;-)
For some reason I had shuttled a lot of stuff to the castle (lv 30)
from my base camp (lv 12). Now I shuttled it back. And managed to put
about half of my scrolls, lots of potions and almost all my wands in my
BoH. And of course one wand of cancellation. I don't know, I looked
thrice, but still it slipped by somehow.
Well, I found out that I didn't miss anything too serious, except for
at least two wands of death, and my wand of wishing (at 1:0).
By that time I was very impatient to get this aw...some game done, so I
just combed through the whole dungeon once, and prepared for waking the
wizard. In retrospect I should definitely have got myself another wand
of death and two scrolls of charging. Oh well
Packed my stuff and went to say g'day to Rodney. First thing he does on
being woken: Steal my staff. Wha? Wizards can do that? I thought he
only stole the amulet... Aaargh, I'm no longer level drain resistant,
Vampire Lord at Range 0, aaaa...
Used my only shot from a wand of death in the whole game, killed the
wizard above water, took a bath, got my stuff back. Did the invocation.
First with a cursed book of the dead, uncursed it, then it worked.
Okay. And now the real fun started. As soon as I was in the Sanctum,
Rodney popped up again. Worked my way to the high priest (almost always
fighting with my staff, no fun but the best a healer can do ;-).
Finally killed the high priest. Killed the two Rodneys. Killed some
Geryon that had been summoned (peaceful at first, dunno what angered
him). Cleared out the rest of the monsters there. Sifted through
everything. An Amulet... identify: a cheap plastic imitation. Argh...
No Amulet of Yendor on the whole level. Well, Rodney must have taken it
from the ground where the high priest fell. Up one Level. Meet Rodney.
Meet Geryon. Hadn't I killed him? Poked the wizard a bit. Finally, a
few levels higher, killed him. An Amulet. A cheap plastic
imitation... Argh. Well. Well well. If the Wizard has the amulet, I can
just run to Level 1, wait for him there...
Good Idea!
Did that. Rodney came. Killed him. Nothing. What? Asked the rgrn
oracle. Amulet is down there? Not really? Awww, come on. Level
teleported down to 50 again. Killed Geryon. Guess what he had on him?
An Amulet...
Identify: The Amulet of Yendor. Finally, the real one! Okay, running,
teleporting, being dropped levels down on ascent, finally getting out
of gehennom, short picknick break at base camp, and yes! Here I am!
Level one. I
have the amulet. I have my staff, which Rodney stole once more.
Oh yes, I had the immensely good idea to put two BoH on the stairs to
take up with me. One with food, one with gems. I was stressed when I
picked up both. "Your load is too heavy to climb the stairs".
Dropped a bit of stuff till I was only burdened.
"<")
Made my way through the Planes of Earth and Air like this (only that no
one told me i would be "entrapped" after using the orb of fate), only
to get in really deep trouble on the plane of Fire. Dropped both these
bags inside a steam vortex. Didn't pick them up afterwards.
There were two Rodneys, and at least two Archons. Rodney stole my
Amulet and my staff. And Rodney and the Archons and a titan then
happily summoned monsters, till I was at least 8 layers deep in
monsters. Tried to pick out the Archon from the monsters, didn't work.
Fought with the +2 Vorpal Blade (skill basic), definitely no fun. Wands
of cold neither. Finally Rodney stayed next to me long enough to be
beheaded, got my staff and the amulet back. Hacked my way out of the
monsters slowly. Had to quaff 4 or five potions of full healing, but
finally reached the monster free area. Archons followed me, so I
finished them now. I have to say, black dragons are a blessing as soon
as you have disintegration resistance. ;-) Plane of Water was easy
again.
The Astral Plane! Whoah. Look at all the lights!
And this time in the game, I was really really lucky. Thanks RNG.
Picked the right side immediately. Killed Death (how ironic).
Hacked my way through a few Angels, and, looky looky, "There is an
altar to Hermes (neutral) here."
#offer "r"
Yeeeeeehah.
I am so smart. s m r t.
*sing dance, open beer, de-stiffen neck...*
The things that made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up:
There were at least three times where I didn't have an amulet of magic
breathing on and went for a bath.
"You feel entrapped". ...hits. ...hits. ...hits. (x30) ...
The Wizard of Yendor stole your blessed +7 Staff of Aesculapius.
Oh no. ... uses the Touch of Death.
Nicest item:
a tin of woodchuck meat
And now, for the braggin around part:
2 6142620 Arnie-Hea-Gno-Fem-Neu ascended to demigoddess-hood. 228
[250]
"Only" place two in the high scores list. That's life
Arnie the Chirurgeon St:18/50 Dx:20 Co:18 In:18 Wi:22 Ch:18
Neutral
Astral Plane $:0 HP:256(261) Pw:262(341) AC:-29 Exp:30 T:142226
Satiated
Hell, was I bloody stupid the whole game through. In 14 without the
helm of brilliance...
stuff (abridged, so people will only _almost_ die of boredom):
the blessed +7 Staff of Aesculapius (weapon in hands)
an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
an uncursed fireproof +4 Hawaiian shirt (being worn)
a blessed fireproof +5 oilskin cloak (being worn)
a blessed +5 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
an uncursed rustproof +4 helm of brilliance (being worn)
an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of gauntlets of dexterity (being worn)
a blessed bag of holding named real
the blessed Orb of Fate (0:1)
a blessed +0 unicorn horn
an uncursed ring of slow digestion (on left hand)
an uncursed ring of free action (on right hand)
a blessed amulet of life saving (being worn)
a wand of death (0:0)
the rustproof +0 Fire Brand
a wand of death (0:0)
4 potions of holy water
a blessed amulet of life saving
an uncursed ring of polymorph
an uncursed ring of polymorph control
3 blessed potions of full healing
stats:
You were the Envoy of Balance.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were level-drain resistant.
You could teleport.
You had teleport control.
Your life would have been saved.
You survived.
Vanquished creatures:
Asmodeus
Baalzebub
Geryon
Orcus
Yeenoghu
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (15 times)
Death
a high priest
Medusa
Croesus
2 Archons
The Cyclops
2 titans
8 gray dragons
2 demiliches
Vlad the Impaler
2 master mind flayers
2 mind flayers
28 grid bugs
12 newts
4756 creatures vanquished.
Genocided species:
hobbits
dwarves
bugbears
dwarf lords
dwarf kings
mind flayers
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
master liches
arch-liches
rust monsters
disenchanters
You genocided 13 types of monsters.
You used 8 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.
Goodbye Arnie the Demigoddess...
Okay.
This has been about my hundredth game total, and one of about 3 or four
in which I finished the quest.
I've actually never before seen Medusa (well, this time neither, to be
exact ;-), nor Fort Ludios or the castle.
I was a gnomish neutral male healer in the beginning (put on an
unidentified amulet of change sometime, for unknown reasons). After my
first few dozen deaths as barbarian and valkyrie I just played all
classes, and in this particular case I chose the class with the least
entries in the high scores list on the server of my choice.
I tried the protection racket for the first time, and it went well. I
think my pet died in the mines on the second level, though. And I was
now protected by Athena, not Hermes. I think naked AC 1, and with a bit
of leather armor, ok. I lost all protection later on. Dunno why. Maybe
shouldn't have killed that priestess and desecrated the altar.
After the Mines up to Minetown I did the main dungeon and sokoban.
Found two of my own bones files, got the orb of fate from one where I
had been valkyrie, and got a real real big heap of cool stuff from the
other one, where I had been disintegrated by a black dragon. Which was
still around, but I had reflection, and thus got disintegration
resistance real soon. A lot of good stuff was in a bag of holding from
my former self, though this bag was now cursed. I didn't dare open it
for fear of the best things vanishing. Well, in the end I opened it all
the same, when I found out I couldn't lift it naked and with gauntlets
of power. I didn't know you could cancel them.
Among the goodies was a +1 shield of reflection (which I didn't use
because my Staff of Aesculapius was twohanded), at least two magic
markers (which, I could swear, were eaten by a gelatinous cube later),
+6 Mjollnir which I couldn't use either, BDDs (20 blessed rustproof +5
daggers)... no armor, that had been disintegrated but still helped me a
lot.
Altars... that was problematic. there were exactly 3. One temple to
Athena in Minetown, an altar to hermes on lv1 and an altar to poseidon
on lv12. Later these would all become altars to hermes, of course
And so Level 12 became my base camp.
So, after a lot of wandering about, I finally was XP 14 and did the
quest. I wanted to do Fort Ludios first, but a mind flayer was coming
too close there, so I left it, and a scroll of genocide solved that
problem later.
Well, the Quest was not too big a problem, though I was very surprised
when I found out that the staff of aesculapius drained levels. My
Levels...
Oh yes, my weapon was a unicorn horn before, and always the staff
afterwards.
Okay, did the quest, then I let medusa admire herself, then I
did the castle (there was a mindflayer there too, played hide and seek
with him). I finally finished the castle, wished for the gdsm, helm of
brilliance, gauntlets of dexterity, magic markers, speed boots. Wiped
out all mind flayers, liches, and disenchanters.
Finished Fort Ludios, nothing interesting there, except for a wand of
death.
And for the first time:
You arrive at the Valley of the Dead...
The odor of burnt flesh and decay pervades the air. You hear groans and
moans everywhere
Yippie
I descended quickly. Asmodeus was easy. Juiblex was easy too. Too slow
for me ;-) I expected him to swallow me at least...
Baalzebub gave me a bit more to chew, kept on escaping and summoned
quite a horde around me at a time, but still, not too hard. I had
expected much more of these demon princes/lords.
I then hit a trapdoor, so I met Orcus going up, it was also good in
running away, but was dispatched all the same. Ventured to the deepest
Level, found the vibrating square. Cleared out paths between the exits
in all levels, and then prepared myself for the showdown.
Badly. ;-)
For some reason I had shuttled a lot of stuff to the castle (lv 30)
from my base camp (lv 12). Now I shuttled it back. And managed to put
about half of my scrolls, lots of potions and almost all my wands in my
BoH. And of course one wand of cancellation. I don't know, I looked
thrice, but still it slipped by somehow.
Well, I found out that I didn't miss anything too serious, except for
at least two wands of death, and my wand of wishing (at 1:0).
By that time I was very impatient to get this aw...some game done, so I
just combed through the whole dungeon once, and prepared for waking the
wizard. In retrospect I should definitely have got myself another wand
of death and two scrolls of charging. Oh well
Packed my stuff and went to say g'day to Rodney. First thing he does on
being woken: Steal my staff. Wha? Wizards can do that? I thought he
only stole the amulet... Aaargh, I'm no longer level drain resistant,
Vampire Lord at Range 0, aaaa...
Used my only shot from a wand of death in the whole game, killed the
wizard above water, took a bath, got my stuff back. Did the invocation.
First with a cursed book of the dead, uncursed it, then it worked.
Okay. And now the real fun started. As soon as I was in the Sanctum,
Rodney popped up again. Worked my way to the high priest (almost always
fighting with my staff, no fun but the best a healer can do ;-).
Finally killed the high priest. Killed the two Rodneys. Killed some
Geryon that had been summoned (peaceful at first, dunno what angered
him). Cleared out the rest of the monsters there. Sifted through
everything. An Amulet... identify: a cheap plastic imitation. Argh...
No Amulet of Yendor on the whole level. Well, Rodney must have taken it
from the ground where the high priest fell. Up one Level. Meet Rodney.
Meet Geryon. Hadn't I killed him? Poked the wizard a bit. Finally, a
few levels higher, killed him. An Amulet
. A cheap plasticimitation... Argh. Well. Well well. If the Wizard has the amulet, I can
just run to Level 1, wait for him there...
Good Idea!
Did that. Rodney came. Killed him. Nothing. What? Asked the rgrn
oracle. Amulet is down there? Not really? Awww, come on. Level
teleported down to 50 again. Killed Geryon. Guess what he had on him?
An Amulet...
Identify: The Amulet of Yendor. Finally, the real one! Okay, running,
teleporting, being dropped levels down on ascent, finally getting out
of gehennom, short picknick break at base camp, and yes! Here I am!
Level one. I
have the amulet. I have my staff, which Rodney stole once more.
Oh yes, I had the immensely good idea to put two BoH on the stairs to
take up with me. One with food, one with gems. I was stressed when I
picked up both. "Your load is too heavy to climb the stairs".
Dropped a bit of stuff till I was only burdened.
"<"
)Made my way through the Planes of Earth and Air like this (only that no
one told me i would be "entrapped" after using the orb of fate), only
to get in really deep trouble on the plane of Fire. Dropped both these
bags inside a steam vortex. Didn't pick them up afterwards.
There were two Rodneys, and at least two Archons. Rodney stole my
Amulet and my staff. And Rodney and the Archons and a titan then
happily summoned monsters, till I was at least 8 layers deep in
monsters. Tried to pick out the Archon from the monsters, didn't work.
Fought with the +2 Vorpal Blade (skill basic), definitely no fun. Wands
of cold neither. Finally Rodney stayed next to me long enough to be
beheaded, got my staff and the amulet back. Hacked my way out of the
monsters slowly. Had to quaff 4 or five potions of full healing, but
finally reached the monster free area. Archons followed me, so I
finished them now. I have to say, black dragons are a blessing as soon
as you have disintegration resistance. ;-) Plane of Water was easy
again.
The Astral Plane! Whoah. Look at all the lights!
And this time in the game, I was really really lucky. Thanks RNG.
Picked the right side immediately. Killed Death (how ironic).
Hacked my way through a few Angels, and, looky looky, "There is an
altar to Hermes (neutral) here."
#offer "r"
Yeeeeeehah.
I am so smart. s m r t.
*sing dance, open beer, de-stiffen neck...*
The things that made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up:
There were at least three times where I didn't have an amulet of magic
breathing on and went for a bath.
"You feel entrapped". ...hits. ...hits. ...hits. (x30) ...
The Wizard of Yendor stole your blessed +7 Staff of Aesculapius.
Oh no. ... uses the Touch of Death.
Nicest item:
a tin of woodchuck meat
And now, for the braggin around part:
2 6142620 Arnie-Hea-Gno-Fem-Neu ascended to demigoddess-hood. 228
[250]
"Only" place two in the high scores list. That's life
Arnie the Chirurgeon St:18/50 Dx:20 Co:18 In:18 Wi:22 Ch:18
Neutral
Astral Plane $:0 HP:256(261) Pw:262(341) AC:-29 Exp:30 T:142226
Satiated
Hell, was I bloody stupid the whole game through. In 14 without the
helm of brilliance...
stuff (abridged, so people will only _almost_ die of boredom):
the blessed +7 Staff of Aesculapius (weapon in hands)
an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
an uncursed fireproof +4 Hawaiian shirt (being worn)
a blessed fireproof +5 oilskin cloak (being worn)
a blessed +5 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
an uncursed rustproof +4 helm of brilliance (being worn)
an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of gauntlets of dexterity (being worn)
a blessed bag of holding named real
the blessed Orb of Fate (0:1)
a blessed +0 unicorn horn
an uncursed ring of slow digestion (on left hand)
an uncursed ring of free action (on right hand)
a blessed amulet of life saving (being worn)
a wand of death (0:0)
the rustproof +0 Fire Brand
a wand of death (0:0)
4 potions of holy water
a blessed amulet of life saving
an uncursed ring of polymorph
an uncursed ring of polymorph control
3 blessed potions of full healing
stats:
You were the Envoy of Balance.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were level-drain resistant.
You could teleport.
You had teleport control.
Your life would have been saved.
You survived.
Vanquished creatures:
Asmodeus
Baalzebub
Geryon
Orcus
Yeenoghu
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (15 times)
Death
a high priest
Medusa
Croesus
2 Archons
The Cyclops
2 titans
8 gray dragons
2 demiliches
Vlad the Impaler
2 master mind flayers
2 mind flayers
28 grid bugs
12 newts
4756 creatures vanquished.
Genocided species:
hobbits
dwarves
bugbears
dwarf lords
dwarf kings
mind flayers
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
master liches
arch-liches
rust monsters
disenchanters
You genocided 13 types of monsters.
You used 8 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.
Goodbye Arnie the Demigoddess...
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