ARCHIVED Majang's Disquisition on the Nether Reaches - Revision history

Qqqqwe2: Qqqqwe2 moved page Majang's Disquisition on the Nether Reaches to ARCHIVED Majang's Disquisition on the Nether Reaches: old, actually quite well written despite many of the outdated references, but the hells have changed too drastically for thi...

2024-08-30T18:55:09Z

Qqqqwe2 moved page Majang's Disquisition on the Nether Reaches to ARCHIVED Majang's Disquisition on the Nether Reaches: old, actually quite well written despite many of the outdated references, but the hells have changed too drastically for thi...

Majang: /* Pandemonium */

2017-06-08T10:49:11Z

‎Pandemonium

Majang: /* Pandemonium */ de-emphasising the training of spellcasting skill

2017-06-08T10:48:13Z

‎Pandemonium: de-emphasising the training of spellcasting skill

Majang: update completed

2017-05-29T19:21:21Z

update completed

Majang: /* Ziggurat */ some updates

2017-05-29T19:20:05Z

‎Ziggurat: some updates

Show changes

Majang: /* The Hells */ some updates

2017-05-29T18:52:21Z

‎The Hells: some updates

Majang: /* Pandemonium */ some updates

2017-05-29T18:41:02Z

‎Pandemonium: some updates

Majang: /* The Tomb of the Ancients */ some updates

2017-05-29T18:21:24Z

‎The Tomb of the Ancients: some updates

Show changes

Majang: /* The Slime Pits */ some updates

2017-05-29T17:42:54Z

‎The Slime Pits: some updates

Majang: /* The Abyss */ some updates

2017-05-29T14:24:31Z

‎The Abyss: some updates

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 ==Pandemonium==
-Having cleared all places that cannot be reached directly via the Depths, it would now be a good time to widen your skill set again. By now, you should be close to mastering your first skill, probably [[earth magic]], if you have not reached level 27 already. All other skills should have developed well enough that you can cast all your spells with some confidence, even without the help of aids like wizardry (wiz) items or potions of brilliance. Even Death’s Door should be available for you in case you need it. You have therefore reached all your initial skill goals and can look around for what else you may want to accomplish. Keep focusing on your current skill set and you will become slightly more powerful with current spells. Start training underdeveloped skills instead, and you will become much more powerful in some things you have not tried yet. In any case, it is now time to switch on some neglected skills such as [[staves]] (you want to bring this up to 12 for reaching minimum delay for your elemental staves), and [[dodging]] for improving your ability to evade blows and projectiles. But looking ahead, you will soon encounter some really bad enemies who don’t respond well to either [[Shatter]] or [[Fire Storm]]. Having a third option to hurt them would require training another elemental skill. The recommendation here is [[ice magic]], which will allow you to cast [[Glaciate]] in a surprisingly short time, because your current high [[spellcasting]] and [[conjurations]] skills give you a good head start on that. Glaciate is an amazing spell which allows you to shock-freeze almost the whole LOS in a 90°-angle starting from your position, which is usually enough to kill almost anything that is attacking you. Many late game bosses throwing hellfire at you are not particularly cold-resistant, or even susceptible to [[cold]] damage. Alternatively you can start training [[air magic]] in order to cast [[Tornado]]. Tornado complements Shatter most effectively, as it hurts anything especially badly that is left relatively unscathed by Shatter. And the other way round. Ironically, because Tornado is a single-spell-school spell, you will take much longer now to bring it up to speed for you than training Ice magic for Glaciate.
+Having cleared all places that cannot be reached directly via the Depths, it would now be a good time to widen your skill set again. By now, you should be close to mastering your first skill, probably [[Earth Magic]], if you have not reached level 27 already. All other skills should have developed well enough that you can cast all your spells with some confidence, even without the help of aids like wizardry (wiz) items or potions of brilliance. Even Death’s Door should be available for you in case you need it. You have therefore reached all your initial skill goals and can look around for what else you may want to accomplish. Keep focusing on your current skill set and you will become slightly more powerful with current spells. Start training underdeveloped skills instead, and you will become much more powerful in some things you have not tried yet. In any case, it is now time to switch on some neglected skills such as [[staves]] (you want to bring this up to 12 for reaching minimum delay for your elemental staves), and [[dodging]] for improving your ability to evade blows and projectiles. But looking ahead, you will soon encounter some really bad enemies who don’t respond well to either [[Shatter]] or [[Fire Storm]]. Having a third option to hurt them would require training another elemental skill. The recommendation here is [[ice magic]], which will allow you to cast [[Glaciate]] in a surprisingly short time, because your current high [[spellcasting]] and [[conjurations]] skills give you a good head start on that. Glaciate is an amazing spell which allows you to shock-freeze almost the whole LOS in a 90°-angle starting from your position, which is usually enough to kill almost anything that is attacking you. Many late game bosses throwing hellfire at you are not particularly cold-resistant, or even susceptible to [[cold]] damage. Alternatively you can start training [[air magic]] in order to cast [[Tornado]]. Tornado complements Shatter most effectively, as it hurts anything especially badly that is left relatively unscathed by Shatter. And the other way round. Ironically, because Tornado is a single-spell-school spell, you will take much longer now to bring it up to speed for you than training Ice magic for Glaciate.
 If you have by now visited the [[Slime Pits]] and the [[Tomb]], you have cleared all the great treasure hoards the game has on offer, except for the Ziggurat, which of course is the mother of all treasure hoards. This can be quite a sobering realization for you. You may still find yourself without a crucial piece of equipment that you’d like to have before continuing the game. Quite likely you find that you have not nearly as many potions of mutation as you’d like to have, or that you still can’t pile on as much INT on your character to give you all spells hunger-free (you’d need 38 INT at spellcasting skill 27). The realization that filling these gaps puts you once more at the mercy of the item generation algorithm is probably something of a bleak prospect.

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 ==Pandemonium==
-Having cleared all places that cannot be reached directly via the Depths, it would now be a good time to widen your skill set again. By now, you should be close to mastering your first skill, probably [[spellcasting]], if you have not reached level 27 already. All other skills should have developed well enough that you can cast all your spells with some confidence, even without the help of aids like wizardry (wiz) items or potions of brilliance. Even Death’s Door should be available for you in case you need it. You have therefore reached all your initial skill goals and can look around for what else you may want to accomplish. Keep focusing on your current skill set and you will become slightly more powerful with current spells. Start training underdeveloped skills instead, and you will become much more powerful in some things you have not tried yet. In any case, it is now time to switch on some neglected skills such as [[staves]] (you want to bring this up to 12 for reaching minimum delay for your elemental staves), and [[dodging]] for improving your ability to evade blows and projectiles. But looking ahead, you will soon encounter some really bad enemies who don’t respond well to either [[Shatter]] or [[Fire Storm]]. Having a third option to hurt them would require training another elemental skill. The recommendation here is [[ice magic]], which will allow you to cast [[Glaciate]] in a surprisingly short time, because your current high [[spellcasting]] and [[conjurations]] skills give you a good head start on that. Glaciate is an amazing spell which allows you to shock-freeze almost the whole LOS in a 90°-angle starting from your position, which is usually enough to kill almost anything that is attacking you. Many late game bosses throwing hellfire at you are not particularly cold-resistant, or even susceptible to [[cold]] damage. Alternatively you can start training [[air magic]] in order to cast [[Tornado]]. Tornado complements Shatter most effectively, as it hurts anything especially badly that is left relatively unscathed by Shatter. And the other way round. Ironically, because Tornado is a single-spell-school spell, you will take much longer now to bring it up to speed for you than training Ice magic for Glaciate.
+Having cleared all places that cannot be reached directly via the Depths, it would now be a good time to widen your skill set again. By now, you should be close to mastering your first skill, probably [[earth magic]], if you have not reached level 27 already. All other skills should have developed well enough that you can cast all your spells with some confidence, even without the help of aids like wizardry (wiz) items or potions of brilliance. Even Death’s Door should be available for you in case you need it. You have therefore reached all your initial skill goals and can look around for what else you may want to accomplish. Keep focusing on your current skill set and you will become slightly more powerful with current spells. Start training underdeveloped skills instead, and you will become much more powerful in some things you have not tried yet. In any case, it is now time to switch on some neglected skills such as [[staves]] (you want to bring this up to 12 for reaching minimum delay for your elemental staves), and [[dodging]] for improving your ability to evade blows and projectiles. But looking ahead, you will soon encounter some really bad enemies who don’t respond well to either [[Shatter]] or [[Fire Storm]]. Having a third option to hurt them would require training another elemental skill. The recommendation here is [[ice magic]], which will allow you to cast [[Glaciate]] in a surprisingly short time, because your current high [[spellcasting]] and [[conjurations]] skills give you a good head start on that. Glaciate is an amazing spell which allows you to shock-freeze almost the whole LOS in a 90°-angle starting from your position, which is usually enough to kill almost anything that is attacking you. Many late game bosses throwing hellfire at you are not particularly cold-resistant, or even susceptible to [[cold]] damage. Alternatively you can start training [[air magic]] in order to cast [[Tornado]]. Tornado complements Shatter most effectively, as it hurts anything especially badly that is left relatively unscathed by Shatter. And the other way round. Ironically, because Tornado is a single-spell-school spell, you will take much longer now to bring it up to speed for you than training Ice magic for Glaciate.
 If you have by now visited the [[Slime Pits]] and the [[Tomb]], you have cleared all the great treasure hoards the game has on offer, except for the Ziggurat, which of course is the mother of all treasure hoards. This can be quite a sobering realization for you. You may still find yourself without a crucial piece of equipment that you’d like to have before continuing the game. Quite likely you find that you have not nearly as many potions of mutation as you’d like to have, or that you still can’t pile on as much INT on your character to give you all spells hunger-free (you’d need 38 INT at spellcasting skill 27). The realization that filling these gaps puts you once more at the mercy of the item generation algorithm is probably something of a bleak prospect.

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 {{advice}}
-{{version017}}
+{{version020}}
 A [[Majang's_Caster_Walk-Through|different walk-through]] presented the [[gargoyle]] [[earth elementalist]] worshiping [[Vehumet]] as a possible way to obtain the [[Orb of Zot|Orb]] for a first 3-[[Rune of Zot|rune]] victory as a caster. That walk-through deliberately stopped at the end-game, ignoring all post-end-game branches of Crawl that you need to visit to win a 15-rune victory. Hopefully that walk-through has helped a few players to get their first victory under their belt (by the way, has it ever occurred to anyone to create belts a a new type of equipment slot that would fit all species, except maybe [[octopode]]s?).

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 The reasons to keep the four hells for the end of the game are not decisive. If you have the right equipment, you should be strong enough to take them on right after coming out of Zot. But they are difficult, complicated and tedious places, not unlike the Abyss, and for the first 15-rune run it is just nice to see all the other fun-places before having to spend much time in the grinder of the hells. Although the four hells are very different from each other in their basic theme, they have a lot of things in common, and none of them is to your advantage.
-Firstly, each hell is seven large levels deep. This is a lot of ground to cover, and doing it feels endless. As all but the last levels are usually devoid of loot, you are under no obligation to explore each level completely. You want to keep your stay as short as possible, and that means that you will want to go deep as fast as possible. Just like in the Abyss or in a Ziggurat, you’ll never find upstairs in a hell branch. You either go down or you go out. So if you find yourself in the need to escape from a level without going downstairs, you can take one of the three portals out, which will take you back to the Vestibule, and you will have to start from the beginning again. At least the levels don’t change, so you can track your previous progress to the spot where you left the hell, and mapping works permanently.
+Firstly, each hell is seven large levels deep. This is a lot of ground to cover, and doing it feels endless. As all but the last levels are usually devoid of loot, you are under no obligation to explore each level completely. You want to keep your stay as short as possible, and that means that you will want to go deep as fast as possible. Just like in the Abyss or in a Ziggurat, you’ll never find upstairs in a hell branch. You either go down or you go out. So if you find yourself with the need to escape from a level without going downstairs, you can take one of the three portals out, which will take you back to the Vestibule, and you will have to start from the beginning again. At least the levels don’t change, so you can track your previous progress to the spot where you left the hell, and mapping works permanently.
 Since you are not keen on lingering on any given level, you can put your many scrolls of magic mapping to good use. Let them show you the next set of downstairs, and go there straight. Just make sure that you have four maps left for the lowest levels, as it helps you tremendously to have those mapped out. Whenever you go down a level, you will stand on an exit, which gives you the opportunity to leave in a hurry, if necessary.
-Each level is packed full with mid-level undead or demonic enemies. Most of them are completely outclassed by you, but some [[fiend]]s might still ruin your day. Here is what makes hell so tedious for everyone – each level subjects you to what is called Hell’s Mystical Force: A frequently doled out punishment for you coming here. Many of these punishments don’t bother you much as a gargoyle, such a [[rot]]ting or [[drain]]ing. But getting confused or paralyzed while low on health is always bad news, and picking up contamination just like that might get you badly malmutated. Once in while your stats get reduced by up to seven points, so you need to wear a source of [[sustain attributes]] all the time to control this reduction. Other punishments are painful blasts of conjuration spells, and, most of the time, the appearance without warning of an entirely new and uninvited gang of enemies right next to you. At least these are not summoned, give real piety and experience and might even leave behind corpses for snacks.
+Each level is packed full with mid-level undead or demonic enemies. Most of them are completely outclassed by you, but some [[fiend]]s might still ruin your day. Here is what makes hell so tedious for everyone – each level subjects you to what is called Hell’s Mystical Force: A frequently doled out punishment for you coming here. Many of these punishments don’t bother you much as a gargoyle, such a [[rot]]ting or [[drain]]ing. But getting confused or paralyzed while low on health is always bad news, and picking up contamination just like that might get you badly malmutated. Once in a while your stats get reduced by up to seven points, so you may want to carry around equipment giving you stat bonuses for these reduced stats. Other punishments are painful blasts of conjuration spells, and, most of the time, the appearance without warning of an entirely new and uninvited gang of enemies right next to you. At least these are not summoned, give real piety and experience and might even leave behind corpses for snacks.
-All this being said, you realize that you won’t have any real rest to heal up or recharge after a fight. You constantly find yourself fighting off new groups of enemies, and there are no quiet corners where you are entirely save from attacks. Bring all your stacks of potions of healing or potions of ambrosia to get your health back up in a hurry. Bring also some means of channeling energy.
+All this being said, you realize that you won’t have any real rest to heal up or recharge after a fight. You constantly find yourself fighting off new groups of enemies, and there are no quiet corners where you are entirely save from attacks. Bring all your stacks of potions of healing or potions of ambrosia to get your health back up in a hurry. Bring also some means of channelling energy.
 Once you reach the seventh level, you have a prolonged fight ahead of you, until you meet the local boss. This is always an exceedingly strong character, not unlike the Pan Lords of the four unique rune floors in Pandemonium. You will have a hard time killing them, and you need to kill them to obtain the four runes stored in the vicinity. Another important unique that often shows up in the hells is the [[Serpent of Hell]]. This is a fearsome creature, as bad as anything you meet in this game. It doesn’t fly, so Shatter it to death, but don’t feel ashamed to abandon the fight if you sustain more damage than you deal out.
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 ===Gehenna===
-[[Gehenna]] is just the opposite of Cocytus: Ice is replaced by heat and brimstone, water by lava. Your opponents are flame-throwing creatures of hell, such as [[hell knight]]s, [[hell hound]]s and the deadly [[brimstone fiend]]s. Bring along as much fire resistance as you can carry, and otherwise everything else you needed in Cocytus. If you know [[Glaciate]], you have an excellent weapon against almost anything here. Unfortunately, a lot of the fire here is hellfire, and there is nothing you can do to prepare against it. Just kill all hellfirers as soon as they come up on the horizon.
+[[Gehenna]] is just the opposite of Cocytus: ice is replaced by heat and brimstone, water by lava. Your opponents are flame-throwing creatures of hell, such as [[hell knight]]s, [[hell hound]]s and the deadly [[brimstone fiend]]s. Bring along as much fire resistance as you can carry, and otherwise everything else you needed in Cocytus. If you know [[Glaciate]], you have an excellent weapon against almost anything here. Unfortunately, a lot of the fire here is hellfire, and there is nothing you can do to prepare against it. Just kill all hellfirers as soon as they come up on the horizon.
 The boss of this branch is [[Asmodeus]], once more an extremely strong and durable demon lord. He resides in the deepest dungeon of a fortress with at least two lines of defenses. Many of the walls here are stone or even metal, so you can put LRD to good use against minor enemies. Once you reach Asmodeus’ inner sanctuary, he will have surrounded himself with brimstone fiends, hellions and balrugs, and you need to kill these fast alongside Asmodeus. Again, Glaciate is what you want to use here, with a few LCS shots for good measure. You may have to retreat or teleport away during the boss fight. Heal up quickly to catch him low on HP. Don’t forget to collect the many treasures, the Obsidian Rune of Zot, and the [[Sceptre of Asmodeus]]. This staff is well enchanted, but not near anything as good as any of your elemental staves. It summons fiery demons, but who needs summons?
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 The final level consists of several mazes, one of which [[Ereshkigal]] dwells in. Sometimes you also have a large river to cross, but with your permanent flight you couldn’t care less. If you find navigating the mazes too tedious, remember that you can re-arrange the wall layout dramatically with Shatter. Just be prepared for lots of fresh monsters to swarm you afterwards. Shatter is also useful for breaking into sealed treasure rooms, of which there may be a few, containing considerable loot. It certainly pays to read a map for this level.
-Ereshkigal is neither resistant against fire, nor does she fly, so she responds well to both Shatter and Firestorm. If you get a clear shot at her, LCS is also very effective. But one of her spells is [[Major Healing]], so you need to bring her down swiftly, before she casts it again and again to save her ugly hide. And she likes to cast [[silence]], which can be very dangerous when you are already low on health. It is always good to have a [[wand of teleportation]] with you, for cases like this one.
+Ereshkigal is neither resistant against fire, nor does she fly, so she responds well to both Shatter and Firestorm. If you get a clear shot at her, LCS is also very effective. But one of her spells is [[Major Healing]], so you need to bring her down swiftly, before she casts it again and again to save her ugly hide. And she likes to cast [[silence]], which can be very dangerous when you are already low on health.
 ===Dis===

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 Having cleared all places that cannot be reached directly via the Depths, it would now be a good time to widen your skill set again. By now, you should be close to mastering your first skill, probably [[spellcasting]], if you have not reached level 27 already. All other skills should have developed well enough that you can cast all your spells with some confidence, even without the help of aids like wizardry (wiz) items or potions of brilliance. Even Death’s Door should be available for you in case you need it. You have therefore reached all your initial skill goals and can look around for what else you may want to accomplish. Keep focusing on your current skill set and you will become slightly more powerful with current spells. Start training underdeveloped skills instead, and you will become much more powerful in some things you have not tried yet. In any case, it is now time to switch on some neglected skills such as [[staves]] (you want to bring this up to 12 for reaching minimum delay for your elemental staves), and [[dodging]] for improving your ability to evade blows and projectiles. But looking ahead, you will soon encounter some really bad enemies who don’t respond well to either [[Shatter]] or [[Fire Storm]]. Having a third option to hurt them would require training another elemental skill. The recommendation here is [[ice magic]], which will allow you to cast [[Glaciate]] in a surprisingly short time, because your current high [[spellcasting]] and [[conjurations]] skills give you a good head start on that. Glaciate is an amazing spell which allows you to shock-freeze almost the whole LOS in a 90°-angle starting from your position, which is usually enough to kill almost anything that is attacking you. Many late game bosses throwing hellfire at you are not particularly cold-resistant, or even susceptible to [[cold]] damage. Alternatively you can start training [[air magic]] in order to cast [[Tornado]]. Tornado complements Shatter most effectively, as it hurts anything especially badly that is left relatively unscathed by Shatter. And the other way round. Ironically, because Tornado is a single-spell-school spell, you will take much longer now to bring it up to speed for you than training Ice magic for Glaciate.
-If you have by now visited the [[Slime Pits]] and the [[Tomb]], you have cleared all the great treasure hoards the game has on offer, except for the Ziggurat, which of course is the mother of all treasure hoards. This can be quite a sobering realization for you. You may still find yourself without a crucial piece of equipment that you’d like to have before continuing the game. Quite likely you find that you have not nearly as many potions of cure mutation as you’d like to have, or that you still can’t pile on as much INT on your character to give you all spells hunger-free (you’d need 38 INT at spellcasting skill 27). The realization that filling these gaps puts you once more at the mercy of the item generation algorithm is probably something of a bleak prospect.
+If you have by now visited the [[Slime Pits]] and the [[Tomb]], you have cleared all the great treasure hoards the game has on offer, except for the Ziggurat, which of course is the mother of all treasure hoards. This can be quite a sobering realization for you. You may still find yourself without a crucial piece of equipment that you’d like to have before continuing the game. Quite likely you find that you have not nearly as many potions of mutation as you’d like to have, or that you still can’t pile on as much INT on your character to give you all spells hunger-free (you’d need 38 INT at spellcasting skill 27). The realization that filling these gaps puts you once more at the mercy of the item generation algorithm is probably something of a bleak prospect.
 Well, there is some treasure to be found at the lowest levels of each of the hell branches, but the hells are somewhat complicated and tedious places, so there is good reason to leave these branches for the last bit of the game. And, truth be told, the treasures there are usually not that exciting. If you go there just with the hope of finding the missing [[Book of Annihilations]] or the [[Necronomicon]], you are most likely going to be disappointed.
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 * Pandemonium is easy to enter, but not that easy to leave. Most levels do not provide an exit back to the Depths. Usually you only find several transfer-portals to another level of Pandemonium. Every other level or so you can leave Pandemonium through a portal to the Abyss, and from here you can then make it back to the Depths. Given the sheer terror that just mentioning the word Abyss will have instilled in you earlier in the game, this may not sound like a desirable option. But since you have already secured the Abyssal Rune, that place has lost its sting entirely to you. Quite often immediately on arrival in the Abyss even two exits are generated right in your LOS. If not, then just a little bit of roaming around will get you to one. If your respect for the Abyss is still too high, you need to wait a bit longer until an exit from Pandemonium is generated inside a Pandemonium level. Even that does not happen very infrequently. Exits are gray tiles, whereas portals to other levels have a blueish color. An exit will take you straight back to where you entered Pandemonium in the Depths.
-* Pandemonium does contain some dangerous enemies. Mostly you are going to fight demons of various levels, and many of them can hurt you badly. All kinds of [[fiend]]s may show up here, which like to torment you, or pester you with [[hellfire]]. If they come as individuals, you will not be worried, but a big crowd of the wrong guys can really ruin your day. The most dangerous foe on each level is a so-called Pandemonium Lord, short [[Pan Lord]]. Those are semi-[[unique]] high-level demons, randomly generated with fearsome characteristics, a huge HP pool, and many resistances. They always have a name (like uniques), and they tend to hang around vault-like structures, surrounding themselves with powerful allies. When you encounter one, you should always read its description to see what it’s strengths and weaknesses are. If it flies, Shatter is not a very good option. If it is highly fire resistant, it will take a lot of Fire Storms to make it keel over. Often they bring both traits, which means that you need to bring them into range of your LCS/Iron Shot. Other opponents are [[demonspawn]]s, a playable species which is entirely restricted to Pandemonium as an opponent. They are quite powerful and come in many different flavors, like real demons. They attack you with spells and weapons, and they usually come in groups.
+* Pandemonium does contain some dangerous enemies. Mostly you are going to fight demons of various levels, and many of them can hurt you badly. All kinds of [[fiend]]s may show up here, which like to torment you, or pester you with [[hellfire]]. If they come as individuals, you will not be worried, but a big crowd of the wrong guys can really ruin your day. The most dangerous foe on each level is a so-called Pandemonium Lord, short [[Pan Lord]]. Those are semi-[[unique]] high-level demons, randomly generated with fearsome characteristics, a huge HP pool, and many resistances. They always have a name (like uniques), and they tend to hang around vault-like structures, surrounding themselves with powerful allies. When you encounter one, you should always read its description to see what it’s strengths and weaknesses are. If it flies, Shatter is not a very good option. If it is highly fire resistant, it will take a lot of Fire Storms to make it keel over. Often they bring both traits, which means that you need to bring them into range of your LCS/Iron Shot. Other opponents are [[demonspawn]]s, a playable species which is entirely restricted to Pandemonium as an opponent. They are quite powerful and come in many different flavors, like real demons. They attack you with spells and weapons, and they usually come in groups. Some of them leave behind edible corpses, if you need a snack.
 * Pandemonium can get you mutated. [[Cacodemon]]s and [[Neqoxec]]s are commonplace, so expect to receive some genetic modifications.
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 * [[Cerebov]]’s realm is easily recognized by a red floor with red walls. You quickly get the impression that things are going to be hot here. Cerebov watches over the Fiery Rune of Zot, and this is certainly one of the most dangerous places in Pandemonium, if not in the whole game. Cerebov has a metal-walled stronghold, and it is well defended by all kinds of heat-emitting monsters. You definitely need rF+++ in this place. Your biggest danger comes from [[balrug]]s and [[brimstone fiend]]s, who show up in great numbers and fling hellfire at you on first sight. Good if you now have [[Glaciate]], because it will kill almost anything in here. More than on any other level it is necessary to clear everything outside the stronghold before going in. Cerebov is extremely resilient, and you are not likely to kill him on your first attempt. You will need to teleport away (and then this new place should already be safe!), to channel up more MP and heal yourself up. Find Cerebov again and then finish him off. There is one quick way of killing him, if you have [[Tornado]]. Fly over a patch of lava that completely surrounds you, and start the storm. Cerebov will be lifted up and home in on you, trying to hit you from melee range – until the storm ends. Then he will remember that he actually can’t fly and drown in his lava. You will lose his artefact [[Sword of Cerebov|sword]] that way, but you wouldn’t have used it anyway, would you? As a reward for killing him, you can now at leisure examine Cerebov’s many treasure rooms, and of course you also need to pick up his rune before leaving.
-* [[Mnoleg]] is the Pan Lord of a realm that has yellow walls and brownish-reddish floors. He is the master of malmutations, and he surrounds himself with those demons that specialize in this devious business: Cacodemons and Neqoxecs. Needless to say that you should immediately put on a source of resist mutation, because almost certainly a few of those corrupters will manage to get a clear shot at you. To escape this level without any bad mutations is almost impossible, even with resistance. Like with the other rune levels, first explore the area around Mnoleg’s vault and eliminate all oppostition. Except for picking up bad mutations you should not have many problems here. Then walk into Mnoleg’s vault, kill him and grab the Glowing Rune of Zot. Mnoleg does not fly, and a number of Shatters will suffice to drive the smirk out of his glowing face.
+* [[Mnoleg]] is the Pan Lord of a realm that has yellow walls and brownish-reddish floors. He is the master of malmutations, and he surrounds himself with those demons that specialize in this devious business: Cacodemons and Neqoxecs. Take them out with all you have as soon as you spot them. Still, almost certainly a few of those corruptors will manage to get a clear shot at you. To escape this level without any bad mutations is almost impossible, even with resistance. Like with the other rune levels, first explore the area around Mnoleg’s vault and eliminate all opposition. Except for picking up bad mutations you should not have many problems here. Then walk into Mnoleg’s vault, kill him and grab the Glowing Rune of Zot. Mnoleg does not fly, and a number of Shatters will suffice to drive the smirk from his glowing face.
-It will take you quite a while to collect all five runes from Pandemonium. The four unique rune levels usually let a good number of regular levels pass by before they show up. But while you are waiting for them: One of the benefits of attacking Pandemonium before the hells is that once in a while, rarely, it will allow you the chance to raid a Ziggurat, perhaps on one in every 20 levels. If you get that chance, you should take it, as it will boost both your inventory (therefore your character build) and your skills, because you will earn vast experience. The first few levels are easy and harmless. Around level 10 things become more dicey, and when you feel that it is becoming dangerous, you can opt out. You will land back on the Pandemonium level on which you found the portal, and you’ll want to leave Pandemonium at your earliest convenience to lighten your pack. You still can complete the Depths-based Ziggurat later on. Read what this walk-through has to say about Ziggurats, though, before you get very deep.
+It will take you quite a while to collect all five runes from Pandemonium. The four unique rune levels usually let a good number of regular levels pass by before they show up. Once you have collected all the runes, there is not much point to linger much longer in Pandemonium. You want to win your first 15-rune run, and it is time for you to move on.
 ==The Hells==

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 ==The Slime Pits==
-The entrance to the [[Slime Pits]] is placed between the 6th and the 8th level of the [[Lair]]. Having seen it that early, you may have tried it once as an unsuspecting player, and that will have quickly taught you to not to put your nose into places you don’t belong, and to treat unknown areas with respect. This attitude is entirely appropriate regarding the Slime Pits. Some characters should never walk in there. Even if you have [[corrosion]] resistance, the high number of aggressive jellies spitting their globs at you will have your equipment corroded to the point of rendering entirely useless within a few hits. What good is even an [[executioner's axe]] when it is corroded to -16? You won’t hit a thing with hit, and if you do, you won’t do any damage. Melee fighters therefore better go for a 14-rune run, or at least they should leave the Slime Pits for the end and then convert to [[Jiyva]] to retrieve the rune unmolested.
+The entrance to the [[Slime Pits]] is placed on the 5th or 6th level of the [[Lair]]. Having seen it that early, you may have tried it once as an unsuspecting player, and that will have quickly taught you to not to put your nose into places you don’t belong, and to treat unknown areas with respect. This attitude is entirely appropriate regarding the Slime Pits. Some characters should never walk in there. Even if you have [[corrosion]] resistance, the high number of aggressive jellies spitting their globs at you will have your equipment corroded to the point of rendering it entirely useless within a few hits. What good is even an [[executioner's axe]] when it is corroded with -16? You won’t hit a thing with hit, and if you do, you won’t do any damage. Melee fighters therefore better go for a 14-rune run, or at least they should leave the Slime Pits for the end and then convert to [[Jiyva]] to retrieve the rune unmolested.
-Being a caster, the situation looks more hopeful for you. Corrosion still makes you more vulnerable to attacks, but at least that does not effect the accuracy or the damage output of your spells. You can kill whatever you find down there, and that gives you a good chance to retrieve the rune. Still, you should not take the Slime Pits lightly. It is one of the few places where your nature as a gargoyle does not give you much of an advantage. The two most dangerous (and very frequent attacks) are [[acid]] (of course) and [[malmutate|malmutations]]. Inherently you have nothing to protect against either. Unfortunately, the most common protections available against both are [[amulet]]s, which means that you may have to make a choice against which you want to protect yourself most of the time. It seems to be wise to protect yourself with an [[amulet of resist corrosion]], and then swap it quickly for an [[amulet of resist mutation]] as soon as a [[shining eye]] shows up on the horizon. But swapping amulets takes a full [[aut]], and that may already be enough for the eyeball to mess up your DNA. So you may instead decide to deal with increased corrosion damage in exchange for less exposure to bad mutations. Your call. Having said all this, you really should not enter the Slime Pits without any protection against bad mutations. If there is no prophylaxis for you, at least you should have a lot more than one [[potion of cure mutation]] for treatment.
+Being a caster, the situation looks more hopeful for you. Corrosion still makes you more vulnerable to attacks, but at least that does not affect the accuracy or the damage output of your spells. You can kill whatever you find down there, and that gives you a good chance to retrieve the rune. Still, you should not take the Slime Pits lightly. It is one of the few places where your nature as a gargoyle does not give you much of an advantage. The two most dangerous (and very frequent attacks) are [[acid]] (of course) and [[malmutate|malmutations]]. Inherently, you have nothing to protect against either. It seems to be wise to protect yourself with a [[ring of resist corrosion]]. And you really should not enter the Slime Pits without a few [[potion of mutation|potions of mutation]] for treatment.
-Considering their almost insubstantial nature, jellies are rather difficult to kill. Even your best bolt or shot spells usually take more than one shot to bring an [[azure jelly]] or an [[acid blob]] down. They often attack in groups, so area-of-effect spells are good. Distressingly, [[Shatter]] does not work very well against jellies, as they somehow tend to absorb the damage with their gelatinous bodies. The best spell against jellies is [[Fire Storm]], as it takes care of most jellies on the first cast. It also works against the various [[eyeball]]s that levitate through these levels. By now you should be able to cast Fire Storm with some confidence, although you will still suffer greatly from spell hunger. Shatter is almost useless against them. These eyeballs definitely need to be taken seriously, although they tend to drop very fast from your shots or fireballs. LRD also works well, if you can catch the eyes in the blast radius. The [[shining eye]] was already mentioned. Kill it on first sight, and don’t feel ashamed to use a Fire Storm against it. [[Golden eye]]s [[confuse]] you, and [[giant eyeball]]s paralyze you. You can’t afford either while dodging jellies, so you need to prioritize them too. Remember, your magic resistance is probably still quite low, and it would be surprising if you managed to add [[stasis]] or [[clarity]] to your resistances before entering the Slime Pits.
+Considering their almost insubstantial nature, jellies are rather difficult to kill. Even your best bolt or shot spells usually take more than one shot to bring an [[azure jelly]] or an [[acid blob]] down. They often attack in groups, so area-of-effect spells are good. Distressingly, [[Shatter]] does not work very well against jellies, as they somehow tend to absorb the damage with their gelatinous bodies. The best spell against jellies is [[Fire Storm]], as it takes care of most jellies on the first cast. By now you should be able to cast Fire Storm with some confidence, although you will still suffer greatly from spell hunger. It also works against the various [[eyeball]]s that levitate through these levels. Eyeballs definitely need to be taken seriously, although they tend to drop very fast from your shots or fireballs. LRD also works well, if you can catch the eyes in the blast radius. The [[shining eye]] was already mentioned. Kill it on first sight, and don’t feel ashamed to use a Fire Storm against it. [[Golden eye]]s [[confuse]] you, and [[giant eyeball]]s paralyze you. You can’t afford either while dodging jellies, so you need to prioritize them. Remember, your magic resistance is probably still quite low.
-The Slime Pits have six levels, by the way, and some of the first five consist of two, often three unconnected areas. Even when all places are technically connected, you may still not be able to cross certain stretches where the walls are getting too close to each other. This is because the walls are corrosive, too, and you should avoid coming near them. The game marks the dangerous spots in an eerie greenish colour, and auto-travel will also not touch them.
+The Slime Pits have five levels, by the way, and some of the first four consist of two, often three unconnected areas. Even when all places are technically connected, you may still not be able to cross certain stretches where the walls are getting too close to each other. This is because the walls are corrosive, too, and you should avoid coming near them. The game marks the dangerous spots in an eerie greenish colour, and auto-travel will also not touch them.
-In any case, because this is a branch where voracious jellies are roaming free, you are guaranteed to not find a single piece of loot on the first five levels. You may therefore decide to cut your visit short by going deep as quickly as possible, without careful exploration of where all these different stairwells go to. All you are missing out on is [[experience]]. One of the most rewarding kills of the game would be [[Dissolution]], the only intelligent being in this Branch (except you, of course); he is a slime glob that likes to summon eyeballs against you. He is the only [[unique]] you expect to encounter in the Slime Pits, except of course for [[The Royal Jelly]] (TRJ).
+In any case, this is a branch where voracious jellies are roaming free, and you are guaranteed to not find a single piece of loot on the first four levels. You may therefore decide to cut your visit short by going deep as quickly as possible, without careful exploration of where all these different stairwells go to. All you are missing out on is [[experience]]. One of the most rewarding kills of the game would be [[Dissolution]], the only intelligent being in this Branch (except you, of course); he is a slime glob that likes to summon eyeballs against you. He is the only [[unique]] you expect to encounter in the Slime Pits, except of course for [[The Royal Jelly]] (TRJ).
-TRJ is the boss of the sixth and final level, and you’ll have to kill it in order to retrieve all the many treasures that are well hidden behind strong walls. This level is one huge open area, with four hermetically sealed treasure vaults placed in the middle, and the three staircases usually very close to the outer walls, out of sight of the treasure vaults. Because all is so very open here, you are vulnerable to dangerous attacks from several sides simultaneously. Explore the areas around your entry point carefully. It may be a good idea to try all three sets of stairs to get a feel for the situation. Whenever you come down, make some noise, kill those jellies or eyeballs which lurk around, and see what happens. Normally, TRJ will gravitate to one of the places where you announce your presence. When you seem him, you hopefully still have a good supply of MP, because you are going to need it. Try to engage TRJ on or near the up-stairs. If you are within sight of the treasure vaults, do not use Shatter under any circumstances, as this would probably result in many of the goodies being eaten by jellies. Instead, hit TRJ with a volley of Fire Storms, if possible amplified by casting [[Ring of Flames]] first. It usually takes three or four Storms to bring TRJ down. The moment you apply some damage, TRJ will spawn great numbers of dangerous jellies. Because they are summoned, their killing will not restore your MP. If you have not seen TRJ yet, but you are killing jellies whose demise you find “strangely unrewarding”, it means that you have hit TRJ with a Fire Storm outside your LOS, and he has started to release his summons. Keep throwing Fire Storms into this area, and you may kill TRJ without ever seeing him. When he dies, the game gives the message “with an infernal noise, the power ruling this place vanishes”. Expect to be getting very low on MP before TRJ finally dissolves into goo. You may have to retreat upstairs for a while to recover your energy and even some health.
+TRJ is the boss of the fifth and final level, and you’ll have to kill it in order to retrieve all the many treasures that are well hidden behind strong walls. This level is one huge open area, with four hermetically sealed treasure vaults placed in the middle, and the three staircases usually very close to the outer walls, out of sight of the treasure vaults. Because all is so very open here, you are vulnerable to dangerous attacks from several sides simultaneously. Explore the area around your entry point carefully. It may be a good idea to try all three sets of stairs to get a feel for the situation. Whenever you come down, make some noise, kill those jellies or eyeballs which lurk around, and see what happens. Normally, TRJ will gravitate to one of the places where you announce your presence. When you seem him, you hopefully still have a good supply of MP, because you are going to need it. Try to engage TRJ on or near the up-stairs. If you are within sight of the treasure vaults, do not use Shatter under any circumstances, as this would probably result in many of the goodies being eaten by jellies. Instead, hit TRJ with a volley of Fire Storms, if possible amplified by casting [[Ring of Flames]] first. It usually takes three or four Storms to bring TRJ down. The moment you apply some damage, TRJ will spawn great numbers of dangerous jellies. Because they are summoned, their killing will not restore your MP. If you have not seen TRJ yet, but you are killing jellies whose demise you find “strangely unrewarding”, it means that you have hit TRJ with a Fire Storm outside your LOS, and he has started to release his summons. Keep throwing Fire Storms into this area, and you may kill TRJ without ever seeing him. When he dies, the game gives the message “with an infernal noise, the power ruling this place vanishes”. Expect to be getting very low on MP before TRJ finally dissolves into goo. You may have to retreat upstairs for a while to recover your energy and even some health.
-Killing TRJ will has a nice effect: The hard walls surrounding all the treasure have now turned into a translucent rock wall, and you can see all the goodies awaiting your tender care. But first you need to make sure that every single jelly on this level gets destroyed. Once you are done with this, apply some LRD to one of the vault walls until it shatters. Walk in and take what you need. Repeat this procedure with the other vaults, occasionally killing the jellies that spawn on this level even now. Make sure that you have enough open inventory slots before you break open a vault, so that you can take everything of interest. You may have to make a visit to your cache in between. And don’t forget to pick up the Slimy Rune of Zot, which you find lying in one of the four vaults.
+This would be quite distressing, as you then cannot defend all your prospective treasure against the remaining jellies' appetite; killing TRJ had the effect of breaching the walls surrounding all these goodies. You and/or the jellies are now free to reap them for your very different purposes. Some of the stuff in this treasure vault tends to be quite awsome, so don't let it get slurped away by the wobblies!
-I hope you made it out of the Slime Pits alive, and not too badly deformed. Before you move on, you may have to quaff a [[potion of cure mutation]], or two, to eliminate all your bad mutations (and, sadly, also the few good ones you may have acquired by now). The good news is that now you have completed all the quests awaiting you in the [[Lair of Beasts]]. You won’t have to return here for this game. All the other action will now be much further down, near your cache in the Vestibule.
+I hope you made it out of the Slime Pits alive, and not too badly deformed. Before you move on, you may have to quaff a [[potion of mutation]], or two, to eliminate all your unacceptably bad mutations (and, sadly, also some of the few good ones you may have acquired by now). The good news is that now you have completed all the quests awaiting you in the [[Lair of Beasts]]. You won’t have to return here for this game. All the other action will now be much further down, near your cache in the Vestibule.
 ==The Tomb of the Ancients==

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 First some nuts and bolts about the Abyss. If you think it is time to collect the Abyssal Rune, you don’t have to wait for a monster to [[banish]] you. Somewhere in the Depths you are guaranteed to find at least one portal to the Abyss. Entering here means that you will also get back to that place once you find an exit. As you well know, in the Abyss you can walk for ever in any direction without reaching the end. Each of the five levels is endless. Not only that, they also change and shift around constantly, so that each turn will reveal slight changes to the walls and other structures. This also means that it is impossible to map visited terrain, and you find yourself mostly in the dark about anything but your immediate surroundings. You don’t get lost in the Abyss, you are lost in it all the time.
-Structures of interest are two kinds of portals. The one glowing in a darker colour will lead you to a deeper level of the Abyss, which will also be more challenging to you than the one you are currently on. On the fifth level, of course, you will find no such portal. Portals glowing in a brighter colour are the ones leading out of the Abyss. In your earlier visits that was the only thing you ever cared for, but now, when you see one, you will make the hard decision to ignore them and move on in search of the only structure of real interest, the vault-like arrangements of walls or sometimes trees which contain the Abyssal Rune. There is a zero-chance that you find that structure on the first two levels. You need to go deeper, which in itself can take a while. Once you are on the third level, you will have to make the choice whether you want to go deeper through the next portal, or stay on the level. If you stay, looking around may take a very long time. The deeper you go, the more likely the rune vault is going to be generated at any given turn, but your opposition will also be more formidable. You may first just start out looking around on the third level, and if you feel that you can handle all enemies with ease, you can then decide to move further down.
+Structures of interest are two kinds of portals. The one glowing in a darker colour will lead you to a deeper level of the Abyss, which will also be more challenging to you than the one you are currently on. On the fifth level, of course, you will find no such portal. Portals glowing in a brighter colour are the ones leading out of the Abyss. In your earlier visits that was the only thing you ever cared for, but now, when one generates, you will make the hard decision to ignore them and move on in search of the only structure of real interest, the vault-like arrangements of walls or sometimes trees which contain the Abyssal Rune. There is a zero-chance that you find that structure on the first two levels. You need to go deeper, which in itself can take a while. Once you are on the third level, you will have to make the choice whether you want to go deeper through the next portal, or stay on the level. If you stay, looking around may take a very long time. The deeper you go, the more likely the rune vault is going to be generated at any given turn, but your opposition will also be more formidable. You may first just start out looking around on the third level, and if you feel that you can handle all enemies with ease, you can then decide to move further down.
-No matter what you do, unlike in all other branches, you will never succeed to clear an Abyss level of most of its inhabitants. Enemies get spawned constantly, and there won’t be any meaningful rest for you during which you can peacefully recharge your MP or HP. If you are unlucky, you may even get swamped with dangerous enemies approaching you from all sides. It is therefore best to keep a low profile in the Abyss. Too bad that your best spells are very noisy: Casting LRD or Shatter will ensure that every monster and its brother will track you down immediately. If feasible, you should therefore try to kill monsters with your weapon or with a less noisy bolt- or shot-spell, or to even ignore them entirely and escape in a different direction. Unfortunately, this is not feasible very often. Many of the monsters in the Abyss may malmutate you as soon as they become aware of you. The only way to prevent them is to kill them fast, which almost always requires some noisemaking. In this regard you should constantly keep your eyes open for [[cacodemon]]s (yellow) and [[neqoxec]]s (pink) – don’t give them even a turn to cast their filthy spells at you. Of course you should have a source of [[resist mutation]] active all the time to avoid the worst of that. This unfortunately will not help you against [[wretched star]]s, particularly nasty and very frequent inhabitants of the Abyss. They also give you bad mutations as soon as they see you, and you can’t protect yourself against them short of killing these monsters as soon as you see them. Fortunately, the bad DNA received this way will work itself out of your system on killing a few enemies. But theses mutations pile on quickly, and the wretched stars don’t die that fast. You can find yourself crippled by very debilitating stat changes for quite some time.
+No matter what you do, unlike in all other branches, you will never succeed to clear an Abyss level of most of its inhabitants. Enemies get spawned constantly, and there won’t be any meaningful rest for you during which you can peacefully recharge your MP or HP. If you are unlucky, you may even get swamped with dangerous enemies approaching you from all sides. It is therefore best to keep a low profile in the Abyss. Too bad that your best spells are very noisy: Casting LRD or Shatter will ensure that every monster and its brother will track you down immediately. If feasible, you should therefore try to kill monsters with your weapon or with a less noisy bolt- or shot-spell, or to even ignore them entirely and escape in a different direction. Unfortunately, this is not feasible very often. Many of the monsters in the Abyss may malmutate you as soon as they become aware of you. The only way to prevent them is to kill them fast, which almost always requires some noisemaking. In this regard you should constantly keep your eyes open for [[cacodemon]]s (yellow) and [[neqoxec]]s (pink) – don’t give them even a turn to cast their filthy spells at you. This is also true for [[wretched star]]s, particularly nasty and very frequent inhabitants of the Abyss. Fortunately, the bad DNA received this way will work itself out of your system on killing a few enemies. But theses mutations pile on quickly, and the wretched stars don’t die that fast. You can find yourself crippled by very debilitating stat changes for quite some time.
 Other monsters you need to consider in the Abyss: [[apocalypse crab]]s surround you with dangerous, sometimes contaminating fog. A [[starcursed mass]] shrieks you to death, and separates or re-combines at wish. They are very difficult to finish off. A [[lurking horror]] approaches you to torment you by way of its own disintegration. [[Spatial maelstrom]]s hit you hard with translocational energy. And then you can find all kinds of heavy-duty [[demon]]s, [[undead]], and lots of other monsters you don’t enjoy meeting.
-Since you are going to be swamped at least a couple of times in the Abyss, it is very necessary to bring along all your potions of healing and magic that you can get your hands on. You are likely to burn through most of them during your long stay. Good if you have a [[wand of healing]] and a few [[scroll of recharging|scrolls of recharging]] to keep your capacity for healing up. Although mostly useless otherwise, a [[potion of ambrosia]] has its finest hour in the Abyss. It recharges and heals you almost completely within a few turns, at the price of having you confused while its effect lasts. In the very short breaks between fights in the Abyss this is just what you need. It may even be worth drinking in the middle of a fight, as the recharge and healing rate easily out-paces the damage you sustain from the monsters around you while you are confused.
+Since you are going to be swamped at least a couple of times in the Abyss, it is very necessary to bring along all your potions of healing and magic that you can get your hands on. You are likely to burn through most of them during your long stay. Although mostly useless otherwise, a [[potion of ambrosia]] has its finest hour in the Abyss. It recharges and heals you almost completely within a few turns, at the price of having you confused while its effect lasts. In the very short breaks between fights in the Abyss this is just what you need. It may even be worth drinking in the middle of a fight, as the recharge and healing rate easily out-paces the damage you sustain from the monsters around you while you are confused.
-One exasperating feature of the Abyss is that once in a while you get [[teleport]]ed randomly and without prior warning. For some reason this tends to happen always when you are very close to reaching the portal that just beckoned to you from the horizon, or when an amazing piece of loot, including the rune, is about to be picked up. For that reason it is good to have learned the [[apportation]] spell before entering the Abyss. It helps you a lot with acquiring the goodies that are lying around. Just make sure that you are not flying over [[lava]] or [[deep water]] when you apportate something towards you, or you can kiss the item good-bye. In any case, if you see anything that you want to reach or grab in the Abyss, do it at once without delay, as you may otherwise miss the opportunity.
+One exasperating feature of the Abyss is that once in a while you get [[teleport]]ed randomly and without prior warning. For some reason this tends to happen always when you are very close to reaching the portal that just beckoned to you from the horizon, or when an amazing piece of loot, including the rune, is about to be picked up. It is therefore good to have learned the [[apportation]] spell before entering the Abyss. It helps you a lot with acquiring the goodies that are lying around. Just make sure that you are not flying over [[lava]] or [[deep water]] when you apportate something towards you, or you can kiss the item good-bye. In any case, if you see anything that you want to reach or grab in the Abyss, do it at once without delay, as you may otherwise miss the opportunity.
-The secret to success (and to survival, which is almost the same) in the Abyss is to keep moving. Rune generation and portal generation is based on the number of tiles revealed to you. The more you move (always towards unexplored area), the more new tiles you see, the sooner you find the exit or the rune. Of course, sometimes you will be happy to have found a quiet corner where monsters leave you alone while you are healing up.
+The secret to success (and to survival, which is almost the same) in the Abyss is to keep moving. Rune generation is based on the number of tiles revealed to you. The more you move (always towards unexplored area), the more new tiles you see, the sooner you find the rune. Of course, sometimes you will be happy to have found a quiet corner where monsters leave you alone while you are healing up. Exits generate whenever you have killed a good number of monsters, but you don't need an exit before you have the rune.
-As said above, the rune is always found in a vault-like structure (only on level 3 or below). When you see something with doors, or with anything resembling a symmetrical lay-out, or a ring of trees, or a place guarded by [[lightning spire]]s, go and investigate. Chances are that you have found the rune. But you need to be careful, as there is usual a strong guard placed around the rune. If you see the rune, apportate it towards you, pick it up and run away. Once you have the rune, exit-generation receives a massive boost, so you can expect to see the portal to safety soon.
+As said above, this rune is always found in a vault-like structure (only on level 3 or below). When you see something with doors, or with anything resembling a symmetrical lay-out, or a ring of trees, or a place guarded by [[lightning spire]]s, go and investigate. Chances are that you have found the rune. But you need to be careful, as there is usual a strong guard placed around the rune. If you see the rune, apportate it towards you, pick it up and run away. Once you have the rune, exit generation receives a massive boost, so you can expect to see the portal to safety soon.
-One final word of warning: When you are surrounded, teleporting away is a good idea. But most teleports take much longer than outside the Abyss. After initiating the teleport you have therefore to survive a lot more turns before you are (hopefully) in the clear.
+One final word of warning: When you are surrounded, teleporting away is a good idea. But most teleports take much longer than outside the Abyss. After initiating the teleport you therefore have to survive a lot more turns before you are (hopefully) in the clear.
 ==The Slime Pits==