User:Neil/SEEE of Sif Muna

Character creation

Since winning with a Deep Dwarf Necromancer, I wanted to try a different approach, one that does not rely on summons and undead. I tried a Mountain Dwarf Hunter of Nemelex Xobeh ("Wilford Beardwagon"), which went reasonably well, but I wanted to get back to magic for a while. After that I played a Deep Elf Conjurer (fire+earth) ("Elrond Hubbar"), and found myself using Stone Arrow quite a bit. I thought I would try optimising for Earth Magic rather than Spellcasting and Conjurations, so I went with a Sludge Elf Earth Elementalist. While this character doesn't have the massive MP pool, or the Conjurations aptitude, that a Deep Elf would, the extra HP are worth it.

In defiance of societal standards of maturity and taste, I have named the character "Tari Blackstool".

Early game

I got to XL 3 and learned Stone Arrow before leaving the first level of the dungeon. Besides doing a nice chunk of damage, this is the only conjuration spell in the Book of Geomancy, and thus my ticket to learning even better magic for blowing things up. I stayed empty-handed until I reached level 1 in Unarmed Combat, and switched to Short Blades. Before I could even gain a rank, though, I found two ego quarterstaves on D:3: protection and speed. I took this as a sign and switched. Ijyb was also on D:3, but posed no problem and gave me XL 5. The sewers ("water treatment center" variant) were on this level as well, and were also easy: for the most part I used Sandblast or the quarterstaff; besides the usual loot, there was a random Book of Clouds lying about. As a parting gift, D:3 gave me a +6 ring of evasion. I learned Passwall and Lee's Rapid Deconstruction while on D:3.

On D:4 I killed Grinder easily, then found the staircase to the Ecumenical Temple. I converted to Sif Muna and set up a temporary stash until I reach the Lair. D:4 had a +4 ring of dexterity and a wand of cold, and D:5 the cloak of Starlight. While I was hoping to be stealthy, I'll trade that for rCold, rElec, and +4 to evasion. D:5 also had a Book of Unlife, though I'm not intending on having allies other than Orb of Destruction so it's mostly useless.

D:6 had Pikel, who died to a few Stone Arrows; as well as a robe of magic resistance and an efreet flask. D:7 was full of uniques, as well as a ghost of a previous incarnation of this character. There was Crazy Yiuf (yet another quarterstaff), Blork the orc, Menkaure, and Joseph. It also had a Book of Fire, Book of Spatial Translocations, and a crossbow. I learned Blink and Mephitic Cloud, stashed my spellbooks, and proceeded on.

D:8 had an antique weapon shop, and D:9 the staircase to the Orcish Mines, but the levels were otherwise unnotable. On D:10 I fell through a shaft to D:11; a little while later, I met Gastronok. His summons kept blocking line of effect, but eventually I managed to get next to him and alternate Stone Arrow with whacks from the quarterstaff of speed. He died quickly after that, giving me a wizard hat of magic resistance. Later on D:11 (after going back up and clearing D:10) I encountered a Psyche and Josephine tag team. I led them to the doorway, with Josephine's zombies conveniently blocking line of effect for her wand of polymorph other, and cast LRD repeatedly, killing them both fairly quickly. I then found an awesome randart: the +0 leather armour "Jykh" {+Inv rF++ Dex+2}. I switched from my robe of magic resistance, of course. This means I now have rC+ rF++ rElec from armour alone. The level also had a staff of air, which was precisely the opposite of what I wanted.

D:11 had the stairs to the Lair, so I entered. The first level yielded a Book of Conjurations (ice+air), from which I memorized Throw Frost. After clearing the level, I memorized Bolt of Magma and decided to replace Throw Frost with Magic Dart, since at the moment I seem to have more options with Fire Magic. I took a short break to move my stash from the Temple, then proceeded downward. Lair:2 had a randart leather armour that was vastly inferior to my current one, and a crystal ball of some sort. Lair:3 had a Book of Zoology and a Book of Minor Magic, from which I learned Summon Butterflies and Repel Missiles.

On Lair:4 Sif Muna granted me a randart spellbook focused on earth magic. Two of the spells (Stoneskin and LRD) were duplicates from Geomancy, but two were new: Iron Shot and Statue Form. This level also had boots of running, which makes me quite happy. Lair:5 had the Shoals staircase and a scroll of acquirement. Since spellbooks don't seem to be a problem for the moment, I selected "staff" and claimed my staff of earth.

The Lair has been easy so far because of my evasion of 30 and nice stack of hit points: I can melee yaks without much risk, though I keep my distance from anything with a poisonous bite. My next spell will probably be Iron Shot, for those situations where Stone Arrow just doesn't do enough damage. Ice Form is also a possibility, since I haven't trained up Fire Magic too far yet (only with Bolt of Magma).

I haven't done the Shoals before, so I think I'll clear out all but the bottom level of the Lair (and probably the other branch, Swamp or Snake) first. Onward. . .

Lair:5-7, Orc

Lair:6 had stairways to both the Snake Pit and the Slime Pits, but I did not take either just yet. It was also full of blink frogs and spiny frogs, but neither posed a threat. Lair:7 turned up a randart +2 cloak with rElec and MR; I'm still wearing Starlight for now, but should I need more stealth and MR, I'll switch. Additionally, Sif gifted me a level 3 randart spellbok: Poison Weapon, Tukima's Dance, Abjuration, Call Canine Familiar, Recall, and Spider Form. I learned Abjuration, since the Rod of Demonology was almost necessary last time. I also found a Book of Power here, so I swapped out Stone Arrow for Iskenderun's Mystic Blast: almost twice as much damage, and much more accuracy, for only one more mana. This means Spellcasting will need some more work, though, to eliminate hungering from my primary attack.

After clearing the penultimate floor of the Lair, I re-checked the shops and found a single item with rPois—and it was a banded mail so useless to me. Off to the Orcish Mines, then, since I might do Swamp without rPois, but not Snake.

I had to go down to Orc:3 before I found multiple staircases. I spent most of my time stair-dancing, luring five to eight orcs at a time. I meleed the regular orcs and blasted the warriors and priests, using Bolt of Magma when I could line one up with a few ordinary orcs, Mystic Blast otherwise. The spell hunger from Mystic Blast was noticeable, though the orc corpses provided enough nutrition.

Orc:2 had an ice cave portal. The simulacra were no problem at all, but the freezing wraiths were fairly tough, requiring enough Bolts of Magma that I had to channel after every other wraith. There were no big demons, only some white imps whom I meleed. I went through most of my carried food, since I was channeling frequently, and a lone necromancer left the only corpse in the place. I came out with a staff of cold, a cap of cold resistance, and a few spellbooks: two Books of Frost, a Book of Ice, and a second Book of Conjurations (ice+air). I left the Mines to drop off the loot at the stash, picked up some more food, and returned. Orc:2 had a number of shops, but none that I needed. A different section of the level had the Bailey portal, but that didn't yield much: only an elven short sword of speed, which replaced a dagger of venom as my primary butchering tool.

In a disconnected section of Orc:1, I met and killed both Erica and Sonja, and received my third gift, a Transmutations randart book: Sticks to Snakes, Ignite Poison (already in my Book of Fire), Blade Hands, and Necromutation (nice!). Orc:4 had Jozef and Donald. The former was easy, but Donald had a shield of reflection, meaning most of my shots were missing. He was a little too strong to melee, so I was happy to have the boots of running to keep my distance. After being chased across two floors, I finally managed to put together enough firepower to take him down, and claimed the shield for my stash (though I don't think I'll wear it).

The rest of Orc:4 was full of ogres, two-headed ogres (six of them), ogre magi (just two), and trolls. The toughest inhabitants, though, were two rock trolls, who gave me a bit of a beating just to convince me that, no, I am not a melee character. They took quite a number of blasts, but eventually fell. With the level clear, I checked the four shops and, sure enough, one had a ring of poison resistance. I also bought a bit of permafood and two scrolls of recharging, then headed back to the Lair. There I learned Iron Shot to meet my future large-scale blasting needs.

Now that I have a high-level conjuration, I arguably should go back from IMB to Stone Arrow as my staple attack, but I think I'll keep it as it is for now. I haven't used Mephitic Cloud much: I tried it on Donald but he must have had poison resistance from his armour. I can definitely see arguments for swapping that out for Alistair's Intoxication (which I did last game, and never regretted); I'd have to buy the Book of Party Tricks, but I can afford it. Passwall hasn't been much use yet, but I'll hang onto it for now. In the longer term, I'd like to branch out into Transmutations, with enough Necromancy to be able to cast Necromutation. My lowest-level Necromancy spell, though, is Animate Dead, so it may be a while before that happens.

Next stop is the Snake Pit, then either the Shoals or the Elven Halls.

Death

On Snake:1 I killed a few black mambas before running into an anaconda. Even with the boots of running, it was fast enough to keep up with me. I managed to get it to "heavily wounded", but my Evasion was not enough to avoid its constriction attack. I died as I was quaffing a potion of speed in hopes of getting away. In retrospect, I completely forgot I had Blink, which would have given me enough time to drink the potion and get away. I also should have stuck with Mystic Blast, as Iron Shot never managed to hit its target. Oh well.

 3.   62122 Tari Blackstool the Geomancer (level 14, -5/85 HPs)
            Began as a Sludge Elf Earth Elementalist on July 19, 2011.
            Was the Champion of Sif Muna.
            Slain by an anaconda (24 damage)
            ... on Level 1 of the Snake Pit on July 20, 2011.
            The game lasted 03:21:11 (33535 turns).