Majang's Gargoyle Wizard of Vehumet Diary - Revision history

Majang: /* Vaults 1-4 */

2014-05-30T07:09:40Z

‎Vaults 1-4

Majang: /* Spider 5 */

2014-05-30T06:57:34Z

‎Spider 5

Majang: /* The Lair */

2014-05-30T06:20:32Z

‎The Lair

Majang: /* Epilogue */

2014-04-29T19:51:03Z

‎Epilogue

Majang at 13:27, 27 April 2014

2014-04-27T13:27:12Z

Majang: created page

2014-04-27T13:20:25Z

created page

Show changes

@@ Line 203: / Line 203: @@
 After some exploration I get attacked by hordes of undead. Their source is the entrance to the Crypt. I now enjoy the sight of more and more monsters getting struck by their own missiles, thanks to Donald’s Shield of Reflection. A book is lying around! Guess what, summoning! Aaargh! Almost done with the level, I see the entrance to a Bazaar. I don’t recall that this was announced when I entered. What do you know, I find a book of power there! I have Orb of Destruction! I also see a potion of Cure Mutation, for quite a steep price, but I think I can’t let this one go. I’d hate to let go of my current good mutations, but that time will inevitably come. I also find an artifact pair of gloves, which turns out to be +0 with resistance to electricity. 240 gold is quite a steep price for a piece of junk. A runed demon whip has the pain brand. I might branch out into Necromancy much later, so I keep it. It appears that bazaars are no longer timed – that would be a nice change!
-My firestorm is now at 65 %. Soon! I may want to learn it after the next level. Now it is time for the orb! It is already at 1% failure rate, so I can use it at will. That may be the time to pay my final visit to Mara! So it happens. I rush to Spider 3, and find Mara where I left him last time. But he is not stupid. After taking my first orb, he splits up, leaving me to guess the target. That means I have to resort to ball lightnings again. Next move he clones me, and that starts a spectacular exchange of ball lightnings. But this is good for me and bad for Mara, as all three Maras get badly hit this time, while me and my clone barely take a scratch. Well, Mara manages to fire off a bolt of fire on me, and that hurts. I decide to retreat upstairs, but the last message I see announces Mara’s demise, and the disappearance of my helpful clone in a puff of smoke. I heal up and return to investigate – indeed, his robe and demon whip form a heap at exactly the same spot where I killed Asterion. That ends my quest in the Spider Nest, and I return to the Vaults via Lair 2.
+My firestorm is now at 65 %. Soon! I may want to learn it after the next level. Now it is time for the orb! It is already at 1% failure rate, so I can use it at will. That may be the time to pay my final visit to Mara! So it happens. I rush to Spider 3, and find Mara where I left him last time. But he is not stupid. After taking my first orb, he splits up, leaving me to guess the target. That means I have to resort to ball lightnings again. Next move he clones me, and that starts a spectacular exchange of ball lightnings. But this is good for me and bad for Mara, as all three Maras get badly hit this time, while me and my clone barely take a scratch. Well, Mara manages to fire off a bolt of fire on me, and that hurts. I decide to retreat upstairs, but the last message I see announces Mara’s demise, and the disappearance of my helpful clone in a puff of smoke. I heal up and return to investigate – indeed, his robe and demon blade form a heap at exactly the same spot where I killed Asterion. That ends my quest in the Spider Nest, and I return to the Vaults via Lair 2.
 Descending into Vaults 3 the first foe I see is Mennas accompanied by two napping vampire mosquitoes. What puts these vile creatures in his holy presence? And now they are going to join forces to attack me! I try a fireball on him to see what it accomplishes: Nothing! So I jump back up the stairs and kill one of the mosquitoes which managed to follow me. I return to my stash and grab potions of might and agility; with those, I should be able to whip him down if I meet him again. If I’m lucky I may also hit him at least once with an orb before he silences me. I take down a different staircase to Mennas’ level, which places me quite far away from him. I find my second fire giant, but this time I get him down quickly with my ball lightning.

@@ Line 172: / Line 172: @@
 Spider 5 is a good place to sacrifice a map scroll, so that I don’t stumble inadvertently into dangerous places. My insertion point is in the outer periphery, so I can explore slowly approaching the vault, which appears to be a huge circular area in the southeast of the map. I’m sure it is brimming with ghost moths, emperor scorpions and demonic crawlers. The secret here is to isolate the strong opponents and to wrestle them down one by one. And I haven’t met Arachne yet, so I need to expect her beautiful presence on this level. Too bad I have to kill her.
-Now, here is an amazing find: A manual of maces and flails. Together with the cross-training bonus from staves, it adds a whopping +8 bonus to an already respectable +1 aptitude. Since I’m really out of a decent melee weapon, I would be stupid not to use this opportunity. I’m still carrying around that rod of destruction, so I can start training right away. Maybe I can return to my morningstar of protection when I am back to the lair. That should do a lot more damage than the staff of power that I am using now. And I believe to have seen that Asterion and possibly even Mara was carrying a demon whip. So once I tackle them I should have an appropriate weapon for a character such as me. The price, of course, is that it will take longer to get my big spells online. Fire storm is now at 89% failure rate, and I need it way down from there.
+Now, here is an amazing find: A manual of maces and flails. Together with the cross-training bonus from staves, it adds a whopping +8 bonus to an already respectable +1 aptitude. Since I’m really out of a decent melee weapon, I would be stupid not to use this opportunity. I’m still carrying around that rod of destruction, so I can start training right away. Maybe I can return to my morningstar of protection when I am back to the lair. That should do a lot more damage than the staff of power that I am using now. And I believe to have seen that Asterion and possibly even Mara were carrying a demon whip. So once I tackle them I should have an appropriate weapon for a character such as me. The price, of course, is that it will take longer to get my big spells online. Fire storm is now at 89% failure rate, and I need it way down from there.
 The area outside the vault is explored quickly. Now I’m going in. I don’t think I have ever been killed on Spider 5, but this shouldn’t be the time to have this experience. All access is hampered by spiderweb traps – I invest some time to clear them away, so I have unobstructed escape routes to the nearest stairs when I need them (and I guess I will need them). There is also lots of water here, but since I can fly, this water is my friend. I take the southern way around the circular center structure first, encountering mostly spiders, including orb spiders. They don’t live long enough to throw anything at me. Almost half way round, I see the first ghost moth. The second fireball brings it down, but some of my mana got drained. Ignite poison is helpful here, because it kills everything poisonous in sight, and my fireballs have stirred up some spiders. But before my mana is back to full, an emperor scorpion spots me. Time to use my escape routes! He awaits me back at the foot of the stairs, and indeed I need six ignite poison spells to burn him up from the inside! I did not have those 30 mana points when I escaped upstairs, so that rest was really crucial. Just round the corner another emperor shows up. For him I don’t need to retreat, but he is followed by so many smaller critters that I spend all my mana. Another temporary rest upstairs.
-It takes me quite a while before I return to the place where I killed that first ghost moth. On the way there I encounter four more emperor scorpions, various yellow and red wasps, a boring beetle, a moth of wrath, and lots of lesser spiders. They were all stirred up by those two fireballs I threw at the ghost moth. I can now see the entrance to the inner vault, but I backtrack, so that I can clear out the northern approach first. I don’t like to have enemies showing up behind me when I enter the vault. Doing this I first pick up an unidentified scroll (either brand weapon, enchant weapon III, or summoning), and then have to kill another ghost moth, now needing four fire balls. I can also admire the handiwork of that boring beetle I killed earlier. The second moth didn’t have as much support as he first one, so the northern approach to the vault entrance is clear. Inside there is only one more ghost moth. It manages to get my mana down to nothing with still lots of hit points to kill. I have to use my wand of fire to do that, which works quite well. Treasure: three lumps of ambrosia, a plain scale mail, a potion of healing and a phial of floods. Spiders are cheapskates.
+It takes me quite a while before I return to the place where I killed that first ghost moth. On the way there I encounter four more emperor scorpions, various yellow and red wasps, a boring beetle, a moth of wrath, and lots of lesser spiders. They were all stirred up by those two fireballs I threw at the ghost moth. I can now see the entrance to the inner vault, but I backtrack, so that I can clear out the northern approach first. I don’t like to have enemies showing up behind me when I enter the vault. Doing this I first pick up an unidentified scroll (either brand weapon, enchant weapon III, or summoning), and then have to kill another ghost moth, now needing four fire balls. I can also admire the handiwork of that boring beetle I killed earlier. The second moth didn’t have as much support as the first one, so the northern approach to the vault entrance is clear. Inside there is only one more ghost moth. It manages to get my mana down to nothing with still lots of hit points to kill. I have to use my wand of fire to do that, which works quite well. Treasure: three lumps of ambrosia, a plain scale mail, a potion of healing and a phial of floods. Spiders are cheapskates.
 As a result of gaining the second rune, my maces/flails skill is now almost at 6, but my firestorm is still at 85% failure. Should I dare to tackle Asterion on my way back? I want his whip! I can try my balls of lightning to get him down. I’ll try!
-There he is, napping very close to the place where I last saw Mara. That is a bit dangerous, to say the least, considering the noise created by my lightning balls. But the way back to the upstairs is clear, so I think I can risk it. I need to take a step closer to get him into range for my wake-up call, a fireball, but he wakes up without it. Ouch, he knows sticky flame, and I’m not wearing my dragon armor! Stupid! I quickly drop the unidentified scroll and hit him with my fireball, which he takes very hard, so there is hope. I unleash my lightning balls, but a demonic crawler gets in the way, making sure that mostly I get hit by the six balls running loose. I need to kill that crawler with a bolt of fire. This fight is not going well. Asti now has his spectral weapon up, which could be an advantage because my second volley of balls will be hitting both him and the weapon. It works, he collapses while I still have three balls in the air. I’m lucky – the Asti’s sticky flame only destroys a scroll of remove curse.
+There he is, napping very close to the place where I last saw Mara. That is a bit dangerous, to say the least, considering the noise created by my lightning balls. But the way back to the upstairs is clear, so I think I can risk it. I need to take a step closer to get him into range for my wake-up call, a fireball, but he wakes up without it. Ouch, he knows sticky flame, and I’m not wearing my dragon armor! Stupid! I quickly drop the unidentified scroll and hit him with my fireball, which he takes very hard, so there is hope. I unleash my lightning balls, but a demonic crawler gets in the way, making sure that mostly I get hit by the six balls running loose. I need to kill that crawler with a bolt of fire. This fight is not going well. Asti now has his spectral weapon up, which could be an advantage because my second volley of balls will be hitting both him and the weapon. It works, he collapses while I still have three balls in the air. I’m lucky – Asti’s sticky flame only destroyed a scroll of remove curse.
 I get his whip with apportation, which is a +3,+2 demon whip of draining. A good enchantment, but I don’t like draining. If this unidentified scroll is a branding scroll, it may change that to something more useful. But where is that scroll now – I cant’t see it. Asti collapsed right on top of it, so I have to use apportation to remove all his debris from my scroll. That contains a glowing shield and a scroll of teleportation. I even have time to chop up his minotaur body without Mara turning the corner. I decide to linger, heal up and see how far I can explore without getting into trouble. The shield, by the way, is a +1 shield of cold resistance. That will come in handy if I ever survive to explore Cocytus.

@@ Line 91: / Line 91: @@
 Lair 7 greets me with a pack of death yaks. I manage to kill three before slipping up again. I’d better look for another set of downstairs. Vehumet now offers me Ball Lightning. I don’t know this spell, but I guess for a gargoyle (I’m about to get my large wings to fly permanently) the use of it shouldn’t be too risky. I give it a try and learn it. Let’s see what it does to those death yaks! Indeed, I get hit most of the time by the ball lightnings, but it doesn’t affect me at all. But also the death yak I isolated takes it quite well. In the end I finish it off with bolt of fire. I try it again on a five-headed hydra, and that one collapses after the first application of ball lightning. I’m beginning to like that spell! The secret seems to be to stay in an open area.
-After clearing Lair 7 I am only one or two kills away from permanent flight, but I need to go up to Lair 2 to relieve myself. It will be nice to attack Lair 8 with shiny new wings! Indeed, just after getting down the stairs to level 8, Snorg attacks me and has the dubious honor of getting me my wings. I flap them excitedly, and go back into attacking the other beasts who don’t appreciate my airborne presence. This Lair ending is the one with the canine enclosure. It also has the entrance to the Slime Pit, but otherwise not much is happening here. I was hoping for the dragon ending, which might net me a mottled dragon skin, but it is not to be. I shouldn’t complain, though: the bears and dogs are guarding a helm of see invisible; on top of allowing me to get rid of my ridiculous useless hat (why on earth didn’t I throw it away right at the beginning?), it will free up my rings to use intelligence boosters only – I now have a total of +7, which brings me up to 30 at level 14. There is still a lot more to come my way!
+After clearing Lair 7 I am only one or two kills away from permanent flight, but I need to go up to Lair 2 to relieve myself. It will be nice to attack Lair 8 with shiny new wings! Indeed, just after getting down the stairs to level 8, Snorg attacks me and has the dubious honor of getting me my wings. I flap them excitedly, and go back into attacking the other beasts who don’t appreciate my airborne presence. This Lair ending is the one with the canine enclosure. It also has the entrance to the Slime Pit, but otherwise not much is happening here. I was hoping for the dragon ending, which might net me a mottled dragon skin, but it is not to be. I shouldn’t complain, though: the bears and dogs are guarding a helmet of see invisible; on top of allowing me to get rid of my ridiculous useless hat (why on earth didn’t I throw it away right at the beginning?), it will free up my rings to use intelligence boosters only – I now have a total of +7, which brings me up to 30 at level 14. There is still a lot more to come my way!
 ==Dungeon 11-12==
 On my way out of the Lair, I forgot to check on the hill giant that is still lurking on level 10 of the dungeon. No matter, I find another one on 11, and he doesn’t present any problems to me at this stage. I also dispose of Maurice, who upgrades my cloak to +2, but without any branding. Still a nice addition. Otherwise the level is unremarkable, except that it allows me to kill a mottled dragon, and this one leaves behind a hide! I snatch it and return to my stash to turn it into my coveted armor. I use my second scroll of enchant armor to bring it up to +1, but I need more of those scrolls, so that not any acid-slinging hobo renders it useless. I now have AC 26, and a GDR of 42%! Watch out, orcs, I’m coming for you!

@@ Line 365: / Line 365: @@
 I think this feature in general was the thing that killed me in the end: The game just did not generate enough quality items that would have helped me to survive the post-end-game. I’m not sure whether there are any real reasons for this, like maybe a change in the game mechanics for 0.14 that severely restricts good-item generation. But I was still wearing my plain gloves and boots when I died. I did not find a single artifact shield (not even a bad one), and not much in the way of useful artifact jewelery that would give me any helpful double resistances. When I died, I was forced to wear a plain ring of sustain abilities, together with an artifact ring that gave me Wiz, MR++, and INT+3. All these were good things to have,  but even a highly resistant character like a gargoyle needs a bit more N+, rF and rC to survive the hells. But what is most important, as a caster, you need a lot more INT to win the game, and I just could not pile it on the way I planned it in the beginning. A bit more INT might have helped killing off a bit faster the bunch of foes that wrestled me down in the end. Needing five firestorms to kill a hell sentinel shouldn’t happen to an end-game character, and that was the beginning of the end for me.
-I may have picked the wrong end-game strategy. Instead of trying to tackle the hells with suboptimal equipment I might have gone into the Ziggurat instead, which may have improved my equipment rapidly. The Ziggurat I may have survived. But the there are levels in there throwing worse stuff at me than what finally killed me, just with the important difference that the layout there puts me at an advantage for using firestorms and tornadoes in a much more efficient way.
+I may have picked the wrong end-game strategy. Instead of trying to tackle the hells with suboptimal equipment I might have gone into the Ziggurat, which may have improved my equipment rapidly. The Ziggurat I may have survived. But some levels in there throw worse stuff at me than what finally killed me, just with the important difference that the layout puts me at an advantage for using firestorms and tornadoes in a much more efficient way.
 In any case, it was fun to do this diary, and I hope it still conveyed that the Gargoyle Wizard of Vehumet is a build that can get you very far (I did a 15 rune + Ziggurat run successfully on a 0.14 trunk version with this build). After all, this was a very unlucky character, and when you try it, you may discover a lot more useful items. Just to add some perspective, the build that won this game for me consistently had rF+++, rC++, rN+++, and always between 38 and 42 INT, depending on whether I had to swap rings of sustain abilities or not. A little bit more luck in armor and jewelery finds may have a huge impact on how this game ends for you.

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:27, 27 April 2014
Line 1:		Line 1:
	{{diary}}		{{diary}}
		+	{{version014}}
	Having been removed from the facade of Cologne Cathedral (where I was quite a success), I was left without a chance of gaining any popularity in the upper world. I decided to take my chances downstairs. I think that I am particularly well equipped for life in the dungeons: I know I can hit hard (and take even more in return without flinching), I am reasonably intelligent, I am oblivious to all kinds of poison, I can touch a life wire without getting too nervous, and the dark forces affect me less than others. All I am lacking is experience, but when I manage to survive long enough, I know I can make my way down here and succeed. There are tales of untold riches, but also untold dangers and horrors that await those who enter the dungeons. Well, I intend to add myself as the ultimate horror for the monsters who already are living down there. They won’t live much longer!		Having been removed from the facade of Cologne Cathedral (where I was quite a success), I was left without a chance of gaining any popularity in the upper world. I decided to take my chances downstairs. I think that I am particularly well equipped for life in the dungeons: I know I can hit hard (and take even more in return without flinching), I am reasonably intelligent, I am oblivious to all kinds of poison, I can touch a life wire without getting too nervous, and the dark forces affect me less than others. All I am lacking is experience, but when I manage to survive long enough, I know I can make my way down here and succeed. There are tales of untold riches, but also untold dangers and horrors that await those who enter the dungeons. Well, I intend to add myself as the ultimate horror for the monsters who already are living down there. They won’t live much longer!