The Many Deaths of Jamie

This page is a Diary of a Crawler, the journal of an individual character. This page probably contains spoilers.

History

I suck at roguelikes, I finished an ancient version of Hack ONCE when I was a kid, and have spent countless hours frustrating over Hack, NetHack and more recently Linley's Crawl ever since. Deaths before Level 5 are almost a certainty for me. I'm happy if I reach Level 8 before dying.

I'll keep this page as a collection of short stories about my more interesting failures. Please let me know what you think on the talk page.

Surrounded By Evil, Low On Gas

I started off this Stone Soup adventure with my Mountain Dwarf Fighter in what looked to be a fairly standard run - a few magic items, a few decent throwables like Dwarven Daggers and Hammers, I was feeling pretty confident. Decending to L3, I discover this floor actually branches off into three non-connected parts, which meet up again on L4. Very interesting!

So I clear out L1, L2 and all the separate L3 branches, and choose one to continue exploring. I run into a stairway for L5 and have a quick peek down, only to come face to face with my own ghost from a previous game. I quickly scarper back up before former-me kills present-me and continue exploring, heading west.

I run into some Hobgoblins and a Giant Iguana, formidable enough at this level to be taken seriously. Whilst positioning myself to fight them better, a band of Orcs with a Shaman in the northwest spots me and starts closing in. This is getting too much for me, I can see the unknown black to the south joins back up with a known area (and staircase!) so I make a run for it - face first into another band of Orcs, this one with a Wizard. Great.

I change direction and circle back around to get back to the east where I came from, and lo and behold ANOTHER ghost comes from the north and decides to join the foray.

I have no chance now. Well, if they're going to have me, I'm taking some with me. I gallantly plant my Dwarven feet and start swinging my axe. The Orc Wizard falls, and I start hacking into the Iguana as it makes lunch out of my leg. But alas, it's just not enough. AARRGGHH!

You miss the giant iguana.
The giant iguana bites you!
You hear a shout!
The orc priest utters an invocation.
Pain shoots through your body!
You die...

278 Jamie the Chopper (level 4, 0/38 HPs)
             Began as a Mountain Dwarf Fighter on Feb 20, 2009.
             Killed by nerve-wracking pain
             ... invoked by an orc priest (6 damage)
             ... on Level 4 of the Dungeon.

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      #.......#########.##.# 
      #.....@.#    #.....#.# 
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.....o.oo.gg.................
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.    #.... ..................
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(the title for this one is stolen from a Red Valley album title, check em out)