Aargxl the Octopode Wizard

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

For Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.12.2

Foremost: Sorry for the simple English, it means that I am from another country, so feel free to correct anything.

This is an RPG diary - the character itself writes this down, let's say with one of the eight tentacles.

The Beginning

If you ask, why I am using this book, named Artificial Historical Intelligence (AHIn), calm your mind and think... I will write history, that is. Blargh! My species has almost vanished with time, and while we never had a realm as great as most talking beings, our influence was as strong as our culture is old. At current times, most of my type vanished. As my great great grandmother told me, the Gnome Zot forged the perhaps strongest magical artefact we know of. As he already passed away, many adventurers venture into his realm, dying or coming back empty-handed even more than they were before. They simply seek for power, that is what makes them crawl out of the former "castle" of Zot as miserable as they do. But I am different: I seek not the power for some reason, as the Orb will not be mine, but held by our females for bringing up strong and numerous new generations. Strong enough, to adapt to the new, more and more technological, environment and achieve the greatness our civilisation hat in ancient times.

Dungeon 1

As I enter the sunken castle of Zot through some mountanious caverns leading underground, I suddenly feel safe. There is no sunshine in here for drying me out. As the entrance is half underwater, it seems that I just arrived on low tide and that this part of the mountain is flooded sometimes. I inspect the water for habitants, and there are none. Then I open the door in front of me, knowing that I can take refuge in the water at any time. Another room with an Entrance, three more doors andfifteen poisoned Needles. I pick them up, perhaps they will be useful later. Everything else I have with me are my Wizard Hat, my book of minor magic and a ration of bread. As I left my home I gave all my magical rings to my family, so they can protect themselves without me.

I take the southern door, and directly behind it another door, after which I turn right and find a scroll with the insignia NASONA KHELEX. I continue following the narrow path north as a way to the left catches my eye, where a mere bat is taking a nap. I presume they have good sensing abilities, so I do not move closer. Instead I prepare to snipe it with my magic darts. After the first one it wakes up, after the second one it reaches me, and I decide it is time to try to constrict it for an easy prey. As I planned, the bat could not free itself, and so I slice its dead body into pieces for the raw meat. Despite it tasting and smelling like crap, my species is used to eat raw meat for we never had much desires for good taste.

Behind me is now a door which leads me back to the second room through another little flooded entrance-room. To complete it and be near to the water, I open the last, northern door in this second room. Again a small room with another door and nothing more... As I explore the surrounding pathway I start to map the area in my memory: The big room with three dors is simply some kind of main entrance, flanked by the watered smaller rooms to the east and west surrounded by mentioned narrow path, which inf act gives the entrance-complex the form of a big egg.

Now there are three possibilities to go on: There are two tunnels leading on, one each to the east and west of the egg, and there is a big room to the southeast, possibly connected to the eastern tunnel. Tactical genius as I am I take the big room for exploring first, since it covers potential best exploration with the fastest way back to the water. As I enter it, I find a shaft in the ground and note that for later exploring. Furthermore the room contains only an elven dagger, which I take for my property. Probably from some poor adventurer before me. As I open the northern door, I find the eastern tunnel I mentioned before connected to the room. But in the middle of this tunnel it has an arm leading further east, with a ball python blocking the way while asleep. I position myself in a distance near to the water and begin to snipe it. Easy prey. I follow the (short) tunnel. It takes a curve and at its end there is a scavenging rat. Sniping it consumes my ability to cast spells, as I miscast this easy spell once and get contaminated. I must have become pretty rusty at my old age for doing so. But it is no problem, as I just rest here until I recovered again. My Chunk of Bat flesh is rotting, so I throw it away and slice myself a new piece of meat from the rat corpse. As I do that a pile of gold catches my eye - but only one step closer to it reveals another bat and a sleeping kobold. Since the bat noticed me I lure it backwards to kill one after another. It did not follow me, so I sniped from the best distance I could get, and while I went on again the kobold was awake. I tried to snipe him as well, but as I got out of training I had another miscast and in the end strangled the stinking doglike creature to death with my tentacles. I took a little rest and inspected the corpses: The Kobold flesh stinks abnormally, so I only take the bat-meat with me. And the gold, of course. Pretty much, I had only twenty pieces before, now I have thirty four. Also, near the corpse of the kobold there is another shaft. Since I am not sure where it will lead me and if there is a way back, I decide to leave it to be. Not far from it I find a sleeping giant cockroach. As I tried to snipe it, I miscasted again, withdrew and recovered. I decided to focus on training especially my conjurations, since it seems that I fail at least every fifth try. Anyway, I completely miscasted all my magical energy and just killed it in melee combat with my elven dagger and felt some increasing in my abilities direclty after it (Level 2). I took a rest, since I should take no risks, my species could depend on me. The flesh smelled bad, so I left it, while my consumable chunks all had rotted away.

As in exchange for that I found more gold (five pieces) and a brown potion, though the potion was guarded by another kobold. And now there is a staircase leading down. Since I need to get a feeling to this dungeon, at first I'll explore this floor furtheron.

Next I found a sleeping hobgoblin, almost as dirty as the kobolds before. I sniped it and recovered afterwards. Note that I do not intend to waste too much time on this journal, so I will only write down essential Information and completely new things for the understanding.

I found a scroll labeled HEX VENIEPP, a dart throwing kobold, a kobold with a dagger, a giant gecko (edible flesh), another bat, 21 pieces of gold, leather armor (cannot wear this stuff), a goblin, 20 stones (didn't need them), a giant newt (edible), 17 steel darts, a kobold, a hobgoblin with a club, a goblin with an orcish dagger, a sling (left behind) and a worm (edible meat, got two chunks out of one worm). After clearing this floor I felt myself getting a little bit stronger (Level 3, Str.+, Conjurations 2, 19 HP, 9 MP). I had now some last resort throwing device with the 17 steel darts and memorised the spells mephitic cloud and conjure flame from my spellbook. Two Shafts and three staircases leading to the next floor. I took one of the staircases for a safe escape route back.

Dungeon 2

Good choice, I found a bread ration and a bubbling yellow potion near the stairs. Though I don't need the bread now and I am not sure if I'll need the potion anyway, it did seem fair enough to have it just in case.

Despite the already known types of creatures in here I found out, that there are jackals roaming around. They never seem to go alone, so I need to stay more alert if I see one. Their flesh seems bad.

As I walked through some underground trees, I almost stumbled over a cloaked gnoll wielding some kind of suspicious staff. I noticed him on a distance though, since he seemed to be crazy and screamed his name "Crazy Yluf" into my direction. I walked back a little to get a free line of sight on him for my magic. While he seemed pretty tough, I tried my mephitic clouds to irritate him, but after some severe miscasts in this a wall of fod surrounded me and made enough noise to lure another creature to us, an ooze. I was able to run the stairs back up with only the ooze following me an defeated it with my last effort. Then I took a good rest, knowing that this crazy gnoll was waiting for me to go the stairs back down with his stick of wood from his crazy shoutings. I survived, but then I was very hungry and that guy seemed dangerous in his craziness, so I took another stair in hope of meat and a good possibility to get at the gnoll from a good position. Also, in panic I drank my two potions, but they were of no use: A potion which degenerated my body (Str 5 instead of 7) and one that tasted like the ones for curing strange mutations if I remember correctly. But in the end they were more problem than help. I'd surely have already died if it wasn't for one last success of my mephitic cloud on Yluf. It worked out with the food - the other stairway was guarded by a bat and two giant newts.

When I came back, Yluf was away, only a single rat searching for food. I killed it and got all my 17 thrown steel darts back. I found him searching for me somwhere completely different, but this time he was alone and my mephitic cloud worked out at the first try, so he was easy prey even more confused than before he just ran in directions all the time.

I switched his staff with my elven dagger since it seemed to be somewhat magical in his effect, and later found out that it just does random effects on the one it hits. Better than a dagger for me. His cloak didn't fit me and I left it lying around with his false beard. Near him I found a curved silver wand. I tried it in the direction of a wall and it turned out to be a wand of fireball. Great, I forgot how to use this spell generations ago.

I found some sultanas and edible creatures; quokkas and adders. Both easy prey.

After exploring this floor fully, I had found two different silvery potions, three unidentified scrolls (in total), and five poisoned darts added to my belongings. My strengh partly recovered (6 out of 7 str.).

Dungeon 3

I came into this area hungry, but I found living supply in form of adders directly near the stairs. Also, not far from it there was a sleeping woman in a magician's robe. Since I cannot risk my life for charity, I did not wake her up. Instead I shot a mephitic cloud at her, waking up confused and probably poisoned, before I shot her to the other realm with some magic darts. Despite a simple robe I found only a wand on her, afar from her name "Jessica". Perhaps she could have been helpfu, but in Zots place it seems like everybody is behaving like in an all vs. all deathmatch, so it was better to take no risks. Also, I suggest she was after the orb too, so in the end we would have to fight about it anyway. First i tested the wand in the direction of a wall, and nothing happened. I identified it on myself as a wand of confusion, while concentrating and waitiing for the effect to fly away. It should come in handy with enemies who do not react to my mephitic cloud.

Near to her body I found a stash of valuables, "guarded" only by a sleeping giant newt: A scroll, two more poisoned needles, some gold, two murky inky potions, and - ultimately- my first new ring. The small garnet ring did not show any direct use when I put it on, but it also did not seem to stick to my tentcle.

Near some orc party I found a third one of those murky inky potions, and while I rested, my muscles seemed to completely regenerate. Also, I found out that the ring made my metabolism act calm and recource-saving. I will call it ring of sustenance from now on.

From a killed kobold I got a blowgun, to use my poisoned needles, if needed. Near it I found a meat ration, one scroll looking the same as I already got one, and one I do not know either.

Then I stumbled across a man wearing a scythe and a robe. Somehow he seemed familiar to me. Loking dangerous but sleeping I decided to take him out immediately the way I did with the woman Jessica, so he would not be able to run into me while awake or even ambush me. I let him wake up confused like the woman before and threw some fireballs from my wand at him. Three to bee exact. When I wanted to inspect his dead body, I found out that the explosions attracted some more enemies. To my gratitude it was only a rat, a worm and a hobgoblin, and I saved my magic capacities by using the wand. His embroidered robe did not fit me, but I took his scythe with me.

I found an upgoing escape hatch afterwards and wondered, if he could lead me into areas of the second level, which I could not reach before. It wasn't like that. Stepping downstairs again from the nearest stairs, I landet between a party of orcs and a sturdy looking goblin. Since I did not have my mind restored fully, I decided to lure the single goblin to the stairs through a magic dart and it worked out, because he was nearest to me. I lured him further back into the second level. I confused him with my latest wand, then shot him with around ten magic darts, and it did not seem to harm him much, crawling around. I found my wand of fireballs to be run out, so I engaged him in melee with Ylufs staff. With fortune on my side it two-hitted him, with the first hit knocking him unconscious. His remains had nothing useful but the information of his name, Ijyb. Seemed to be a rather famous goblin, if something like that exists. I rested until I felt strong enough to take on the orc tribe, getting hungry and having my fresh meat rot away. No matter, it seems that carrying the ring there is more than enough food for me.

The orcs waited for me, throwing spears and darts, but it seems it was only half of a party. Thee orcs, no priests or wizards with them, so no problem. Arond the next corner I found two more single orcs and started to get cautious. Perhaps a big tribe, just spreaded a little bit, gaining territory? False alarm, they were probably ambushing the big sleeping worm for food, so it was probably only a small, marginal group sent out for food. Also, there was a goblin corpse nearby, perhaps he was out for the worm too.

After a while I got to know a species of giant mites. Seems they are as well venomous, as susceptible to poison themselves. Not a big threat. I watch this last little encounter as a helpful piece of knowledge for the future. The level was cleared and I fetl as if I could memorize one or two new spells, but I rather didn't. Who knew at which time I found a new spellbook, and I felt as if the three I used were enough for now. By the last exploring I also found a glowng jade ring; putting it on explained to me, that he granted my body faster regeneration abilities. Combined with the other one it would help me regenerate fast while needed and still not using a lot of energy.

Dungeon 4

Going through the first stairway available, I landed in between an orc party, supposedly waiting there to ambush adventurers like me. Fast as I was, I got back to level 3 again, taking two of them with me and massacring them with magic darts. These grew pretty strong already and it seemed, that I just needed to get warm with magic again. After regenerating, I just went back down to look if the other two orcs were still there, waiting if their comradres came back with booty. Alarmed as they were, but also panicked, they stood directly n front of me coming back down, and if I hadn't grown back to my old strngh this fast, their weapons and bodies would surely have overthrown me. A risk I estimated as almost none, since i blasted them all three with only six shots, while evading their attacks easily.

In my search to still my hunger, I found a goliath beetle next. As I read once, this one was susceptible to poison and slow, so I poisoned it with my blowgun while keeping it on a distance, afterwards finding out, that I could not eat it. A sleeping quokka than released me from my needs.

After eating, it came the ghost of another octopode around the corner. Since it flew and directly started shooting magic darts at me, I concluded it was eventuelly a big threat. I confused it with the wand and shot it to death myself first, along with a giant newt. The thing left no items at all, as it seemed to be a ghost of some kind... It reminded me of myself, but fortunately only a ghost and not nearly as determinded as me. Were there other octopodes like me, haunting this place now? Or was there some kind of magic trap here, abstracting something of invaders and combining it to beings like that one, almost like a trap? I do not know this, but I acted fast and hit hard, before it could grow a real danger.

Even more frightening was some kind of spore bomb I found only a little later. I shot at it, and it exploded, leaving behind a big area of fungus-infected ground and mutating living beings? I almost ran out of ranged attack possibilities while destroying it, and I am thankful that I had the blowgun with me. While exploding, it attracted some other creatures, who got at me while I was resting. Luckily I woke up bitten by a rat first, otherwise I would not have noticed the orc skeleton roaming into my direction early enough. So there must be necromancers here too. After the ground was spore-free again, I pickd up a long sword of freezing, which I do not need normally, but if I have to fight against many cold blooded animals, it should come in handy. Near it was a godly altar. I recognized it from a distance, the ugly and always different looking faces of Xom, the god of chaos. I had a short talk to him while praying, just to explain to him, that my mission has no space to amuse him, while I was fighting for my tribe. Even though he laughed at me, I came to believe that he did aknowledge my opinion. Some gods feel offended if you decline them after talking to them, but as we octopodes know them all, I also knew that Xom likes to communicate from time to time and supposed, that he'd be more offended if I simply ignored his altar, than by myself not wanting to be his toy. Eventually I am anyway, just that the gods have some kinds of arrangements, so if I do not subscribe to one of them, they have to leave me my own will. This is based by an ancient contract for balancing out the power of the gods between each other. Anyway, I cannot afford the risk to play his game, while my species is about to fade away.

Food will not be my problem; I found an amulet of the gourmand, as they are common for every talking species which lives in an area where food comes very situational. Nomads for example use them while they travel through rich landscapes. Together with my ring I think it is almost impossible for me, to get hungry. So I just have to be very cautios and patient not to get into too much trouble. Time is on my side now.

I revoke those words partly. I almost didn't get away when I ran into a monstrous kobold called Pikel by his human slaves. While he himself perhaps would easily be tricked, his slaves also had strong bodies and could withstand a serious beating. I could only hold them on a distance because I had some narrow passages near me, in which I withdrew while closing the entrance with conjured flames. It was difficult confusing these enemies, so I had to blow and throw anything at them that I had, killing Pikel himself at last with one last hit by Ylufs staff. One little failure and I would have vanished forever, no matter how much food supplies I had. Since the slaves in fact were superior to Pikel himself in bodily aspects, I suppose he used a magid wand for keeping them under his influence. He had a dangerous whip of electrocution with him, which I took for my belongings afterwards. If he had hit me with it before I hit him with Ylufs staff, my quest could have been over as well. After the fight, I felt almost like starving, so my next goal would be to get some food before I had to eat some of the durable food, which seems to be rather rare in this dungeon.

I wasn't lucky, since the only creatures I found weren't edible. I ate a choko first, as I know they are heavy to carry compared to their saturation value. Still hungry, I searched on around the gnoll fort I found.

Instead of food, I found tons of roaming and sleeping jackals behind the gnoll fortress, but at least a good weapon: "Killer Klown's Peril" was engraved to it, and it seemed to be designed especially for slaying orcs. This did not help me, since I like to keep a distance, but it also made me feel more dextrous and strengthened my magic resistance.

Dungeon 5

I went here first to get satiated before I took on the gnoll fort. I found another choko, and despite of that nothing nutritional. The area was full of kobolds and had metal walls. But I found a glowing blowgun which was not cursed, so I replaced it with my old one. Finally I found an adder. Seemingly s single one in the whole dungeon, but I could rip its flesh off. I still felt hungry and decided, to check out even the next level for some food, even if only adjacent to the stairs. I found crimson imps and a giant eyeball in my search for the first time. The one blinks often, but seems to be no threat to a magid dart throwing magician, while the eyeball could magically paralyze me. Luckily, he was alone while doint so and did not pose much offensive threats on his own. If these are with melee fighters, I need to be careful. Finally I found enough food in the sixth floor and went back to the gnoll fortress in Level 4.

(Gnoll fortress)

Before I went inside, I checked my multiple unidentified scrolls for finding out how to prepare best. The ones I had the most of (three) were my identifying scrolls, and I identified 4 potions of curing with them first. I went on using them and with the second one found out, that the Killer Klown's Peril was strongly enchanted (+6,+8), and my new blowgun made more damage too (+2). With my last scroll I identified two scrolls of agility. Together with the already identified Potion of speed they will make some difference. I presume using the blowgun while opening the door and poison-lure out gnolls in hopefully small numbers. I will run for the deep water at the eastern walls outside the fort and wait for their death, poisoning them and shooting magic darts. It worked out well and took some time. I cleared the whole fortress because they all were stupid enough to follow me into the deep water. After finishing, I returned to level 5 and headed for the fortress there. Infront of the door stood one magician who I found out to be called grinder. He probably would have been stronger than me, if he wouldn't have stood directly in fron ot the fortress moat. So I just stood in a safe distance and endured his paralysing and other spells, while bombarding him with magic darts. Perhaps he thought I'd drown if he paralyzed me in the deep water, otherwise he surely would have noticed that offensive ranged spellcasting would have put me in far more danger. After killing him I smashed the body of an orc zombie and found another scroll of identify lying around. I identified a potion of confusion and threw it away, getting rid of the baggage and risk of drinking it while hectic and in danger.

Opening the fortress door, I found out, that it was a

(Goblin fortress)

and started the same as I did with the gnolls, just that I did it much more aggressive. Since Goblins are rather weak compared to gnolls, often I just sniped them on their way to me, instead of running back to the water. The only worthwile enemies were some gnolls and big kobolds. This also indicates, that it was no "goblin" fortress, but a mixed one. I did not find valuables I needed despite a little buckler which perhaps will come in handy at some time, and the rest of this levels maze I already cleared on my earlier search for food. Anyway, they hat pets in the fortress; bats and other stuff, so inf act I went out of the fortress feeling really full.

Dungeon 6

I entered level six of the dungeon again, expecting no further ambushes in this area, since it should have made the round that it is dangerous right now. At least, some time passed since I wiped out the orc-ambush easily. Instead there was a lone hound sleeping near the stairs, so I sliced him with my orc slayer and ate his flesh. If he was waiting for an ambush, he probably didn't wake up because the sneaking ablity inherent to my species, as well as the fact that we can partly control our transpiration and thus are hard to smell.

A short way to the east I found a sleeping killer bee skeleton, so I shut the tunnel I came through with a flame and shot it to pieces, while two giant frogs emerged near it. Fortunately, I am already fit to make the flame last for a while, so I dartet them too. But I have to be careful: both types of creatures ran into my flame after a while and still needed one magic dart to get torn apart, so they were durable. Just in case, I memorized the blink spell. Even though all these enemies seemed rather fast, so the spells effectiveness would seem questionable.

I made my way through this level and found some things. Particularly also one staff of fire, which I identified by just shooting it. Not much more happened, the level was fairly easy to cross after getting rid of the first mentioned enemies.

I decided to put on the buckler already, since I feel like I can use my spells well enough while wielding it, and expanding my training focus further, so I would be able to cast blink easily and effectively using the wands. Wielding the buckler I also thought it would be wise to use this possibility, since I'd surely find better, but heavier shields later on my quest.

Dungeon 7

Again and orc ambush directly near the first stair I passed through. I wasted no time, and since the only real danger seemed to be the orcish wizard, I shot mephitic clouds repeatedly at him, until he was confused. While doing so (he turned out to be rather persistant) I aimed, so it would hit also the other orcs and blocked the way to me entirely, so the emerging hound, goblin and bat got confused too. Since this act used up most of my concentration, I could only spare few magic darts, but since I took out the dangerous creatures first, it was easy to do the rest with some poisoned and steel darts. The loot was almost not existantafar from a wand of lightning, but I regard it as reward, that closely behind them I found a special stair. Outlined by four fountains and golden, it seemed that I would find somthing interesting there, and it was: an ecumenical temple, a place where many gods gather their altars together, resembling the ancient pact I wrote about earlier. Here I could freely choose a god to worship and ignore the others, while in fact doing an act of peace instead of insulting some of them.

I thought about it for some time and talked to some of them. I felt I had an unclear vision of how to tip fate a little bit more into a direction favouring my species and decided, that I would join the belief of Vehumet. It seemed rather logical, since his destructive powers resembled what I was already doing, and I went well with this tactic. I thought of him as an improving of my way to fullfill the quest, rather than forcing me to behavings being counterproductive. I felt somewhat burdened and put left my unused weapons, as well as my empty wand of fireball near the stairs in the temple. It seemed a fairly safe place to me, if Xom wouldn't find it funny to burn my belongings.

Back in the seventh floor of Zots dungeon the first enemy I encountered was a sleeping, shadowy creature. I conjured a flame blocking the path between us and was surprised, how many magic darts it resisted.

The next encounter was rather big. At first I found an orc party keeping a hound, with a worker ant mixing into the brawl. They were all out for me, bit a narrow path only let one of them get to me at a time. The hound was first. I used one of my two wands of confusion to have a creature block the way to me, and then got a little distance to shoot a mephitic cloud. While that completely occupied this party, a second, bigger orc party and some animals emerged from my back side. Luckily they were far enough for me to keep them off with mephitic clouds. I slaugthered them all but some kind of sky beast, while I used up all my energy for the rest. Since it seemed dangerous and new to me, I confused it with a wand to put it out in melee afterwards. It was still a strong opponent and hit me hard, while behind it another orc emerged from the dephts of the former castle. I decided to act quick and put them both out with a zap of my wand of fire. It used only one shot. Even though the beast seemed slightly injured from my beating, it was still showing me how powerful this wand was. I decided I would use it up carefully in near future. While resting, even more enemies emerged, but they all appeared only solo and so were no threat, while Vehumet seemed pleased about the massacre.

After feeling refreshed and - thanks to the ring, the amulet and the hound still full, I searched the battlefield for valuables. I killed a worm and ate as much as I could and then found the probable cause for the brawl of enemies: They were gathering around some single, but well barricaded merchant. Vejuxa was thankful at me for putting out the plundering orcs and invited me to her shop. It explained very well, why she could withstand the plunderers for so long. I decided, I could use some of the gold found around the place, since I suggested I wouldn't find endless oppoturnities to spend money in there. Of course I did not tell her that I already wiped out some potential customers, leaving us both satisfied; her with 432 of the 448 gold pieces I already owned, and me with a wand of enslavement and a wand of draining. She informed me, that those had twelve and eight charges and I felt as if my mission was on a good way of sucess.

Since I already had two wands of confusion (though the first one should be almost run out), it may seem that there was no need for a wand of enslavement. But I felt, that it could be better having one strong creature fighting for me, than just lurking around, possibly hurting itself. It would also draw more attention if directly attacking our enemies, granting me space for castings. The wand of draining I bought as some kind of last resort weapon, if I really ran out of energy and there were still strong enemies. In any case, it widened my possibilities and seemed to match to my decision of training my evocational abilities.

After departing Vejuxas shop I found an alarm trap. I never saw these before, and since I assumed I already killed the majority of threats, I tested it. A single orc wizard came and got blewn. Some space away I ran into an orge. Until some days ago I would have sneaked off as such a creature was hostlie towards me, but in this case I just confused it and hit it to death with my orc slayer. Vehumet was pleased enough to grant me acess to the freeze spell. I did not neccesarily need the spell, but it would be rude to ignore a gods offer. I memorized it from his divine telephatic words.

I found a lone yellow wasp in the north eastern corner of the floor. I supposed it was poisonous, so I put it out from a distance. Afterwards, I was resisting the idea of having made a failure buying the wands. The bee guarded a spellbook boutique, run by an old felid named Quisupt. I could have bought either a book on one of this themes: wizardy in general, conjurations and callings. After a short while saving money I could have bought a book of geomancy instead. I relaxed while realising, that none of them were of imminent absoluteness for my belongings, while Vehumet would offer me interesting spells over time anyway. Still, I thought I'd have to come back later, for buying one of the more expensive books. I took a closer look at some of them. A tome of destruction would be nice, but unneccessary. I would always prefer to choose my cast spells directly rather than evoking some random effect and possibly having the book destroy itself, and that is exactly what this tome does, Quisupt explained to me. It was also by far the most expensive book in his store, valuing 1967 gold pieces. Seemed to me like some kind of collector's value, compared to its effectiveness. He showed me a book of Summonings, but I declined due to the nature of my purse and because I did not really feel like focusing on different species' help, while this quest is that of the octopodes. Interesting was a book of anhillations, but I felt the voice of Vehumet rise in me, telling me that I would not need this. Eventuelly he would grant me the same book, if I proved worthy. It wasn't much up to that point, but after Qisupt realised my lack in financial power, he stopped counseling me. I looked through the magical vitrines and found some more interesting books. In a volume of combat magic should be written how to conjure ball lightnings, in a grimoire of scorching creation were some more sufficient summonings, since it sampled demonic creatures, who were once designed to obey. In a compendium of boosting evil there were several possibilities of training necromancy, ending with the mastery of a so called bolt of draining. For that time, my wand of draining should be sufficient, but I considered learning necromancy. I had never used those techniques in my ongoind life, but I knew they were powerful. Not many generations ago, a whole family branch of octopodes was wiped out by only two experienced necromancers using the ancient octopode graves spread all over the wood that was their home. A "Book of the Dragon" opens up later for the possibility of learning to summon mighty dragons or even transmutate to one of their kind. While I am proud to be an octopode, I would not be ashamed to change my form into royal creature like them, spawned out of even more ancient times than our own species. I would see which books I'd buy by the time of need. I could always come back and decide to adapt to certain circumstances with the help of these books. Regaining my focus on the present situation of my quest, I left the shop.

I found even another shop, one for spell scrolls. I decided it would not be a bad idea to use 15 of my 16 pieces of gold to buy the one scroll I could afford: A scroll of fear. I just used it so I had the knowledge, how those scrolls look like. I wouldn't want to try one out in hope of something useful and having it scream together an army of enemies. It turned out none of my own scrolls were the same. I used it directly, because the earlier brawls seemed to have consumed most dangers in this area anyway, and I liked the idea of a completely cleared floor. With this scroll, I could perhaps lure some remnants. It did not work, so no one seemed to be near.

By further exploring, I found a sleeping crocodile and a giant frog. The crocodile did not seem to be of great danger, although it could keep me on track with its durability.

A fourth shop I found was for miscellanious antiques. Nothing I needed, but perhaps I could come back later on a shopping trip and get the potions of curing or scrolls of identify.

There was still loot left on the floor, despite much enemies. One armor shop turned out to be a mimic, but a weak one. I got my one wand of confusion empty after nineteen gorgeous shots from it, and I found a jewelled brass wand, turning out to be a wand of teleportation. A book of cantrips was lying on the ground, probably lost or forgotten by one of the many orcish wizards attacking me or fleeing. I memorized how to apport things because I could and how to animate skeletons for further training of this skill, then left the book in the ecumenical temple, since I did not need its inherent knowledge of confusing touches or summoning mammals.

Dungeon 8

Descending, I found a troll skeleton, which was hard to destroy, but also very slow. And it did not regenerate, so it took some time but was without risk. Also there was a fire bat. Not much difference to the normal ones, though.

A scroll of identify laid on the ground; I burnt it to find out about some of my potions. Two potions of poison, which I threw away, and six potions of brilliance. Good, these will halt for some major enemies.

An ice beast rested in a big room. I decided to measure its danger by luring it with magic darts into a narrow hallway and seal it there with a conjured flame, while killing it. It survived many darts, and from close I could tell that it was a ferocious fighter. Just that it was straight frightened of the flame and only waited. Either natural fear or a weakness, comparing what little effect the magic darts had. I killed one hippogriff, confused by my mephitic cloud, but supported by three rats and a scorpion. at last, they were all not a big threat, but the hippogriff dealt and withstood a lot of damage.

Despite minor threats I already wondered, where all the bats and fire bats came from, which were approaching me one after another. I killed them in my breaks between resting, and Vehumet spoke out his aknowledge in my dreams. It seemed as if he worked in my mind while I was sleeping frequently, perhaps strenghtening my will to fulfill the quest. I noticed it because one can remember his dreams more clearly if the one wakes up often. While I was starting a talk with Vehumet, laying myself to rest, I saw a ghost. I did not dream to see a ghost and I knew that. I was always very aware if I was awake or not, and that time... anyway, it was the ghost of a deep dwarf. I supposed that he used wands to summon the bats while inspecting the ghostly outlines of a fire ring burning darkly on one of his fingers. So I could not rely on mephitic clouds or conjured flames. And I had to act fast. At least I thought so. I tried to confuse it by wand, but it seemed to resist th magic without problems. I tried it in melee combat and with magic darts, it was both of no use. What a horror, having the ghost of a dwarf come at me and just not taking damage. Good that I chose to learn to blink myself a while ago. Even though this lured some more minor enemies into range, they were easy to take out with magic darts. For the ghost I had to entirely rely on my wand of lightning, which slowly disembodied him. And then I noticed, that it was not him summoning the bats. The source must have been somewhere else. They still came disturbing my rest one after another. They came from the northwest.

Making my way into that direction and dispatching of seeming endlessly sent bats, Vehumet granted me the knowledge of how to throw frost. It came while I sortet my thoughts after I killed a bat with magic darts. Of course, I memorized it. They came out of some kind of temple. Behind its entrance I saw an altar of Trog. May he have been behind this? I thought of it as a nuisance, but for my purposes it fit well, since Vehumet was very pleased with the killed bats. I thought that perhaps I got into a secret war between Vehumet and Trog, but I did not care. The only thing that mattered was getting the Orb to my family, even if I would be pursued or killed by Trog afterwards. I cleared the temple of around fifteen more bats, a fire bat, a crimson imp, a giant eyeball, an ogre zombie and Vehumet explained to me how to throw flames. The crimson imp fell easily to frost. Vehumet just gave me access to an elemental variety while trying to subjugate Trogs influence. But he did not tell me this, nor explain his behaviour by any means. I assumed, that I should be loyal, but not identify his plans with my own.

All this thoughts were splattered directly after I started to inspect the temple and found out, that it had altars of various gods, mainly the ones prefering direct fighting and with a tendency towards those gods which call themselves "good". The only god whose altar stood there was Elyvilon, but he was there twice, so I presumed him being important in this temple. Vehumet seemed to act shiny with me before the other gods instead of having problems with one of them.

There were some runed doors, and I was sure in this location would be something precious to the gods. Behind one door I found an ice beast and a wraith sleeping. I closed the door temporarily with a flame and shot darts and threw flames. It worked out, but the wraith went through two of my flames without perishing. I hold it stuck in the second one by hitting it with my orc slayer. They guarded nothing, it was just their lair. Perhaps imprisoned by the gods, who surely would appreciate if I took the burden of destroying these foes, for they had this pact forbidding them to actively kill living beings.

In another sealed room I found a freezing wraith. It differed in the fact, that it was susceptible to fire and thus would not be able to cross my flame. It didn't, but while I thought I could easily heat it up throwing flames, it evaded most of them and by the time the flame went off, I was too exhausted to cast it again. Even though almost dead I could not kill it in melee, so I hold a distance. This being was slow. I ran until I could hold it off with a flame again while killing another firebat. Then I switched to my blowgun just to keep the wraith from regeneraating and restored my mind while doing so. After I used up all my long range ammunition I only regained a little bit of concentration, because some flames lastet not as long as others. My wand of fire was empty and I tried two more trewn flames. It still was not enough, and my wand of lightning seemed to be empty too. So I retreated and rested. When it found me, I was regenerated well but it hadn't. Seemed as if it was somehow restless in different meanings. That time I could kill it with flames, In its empty lair was a hand axe and I supposed the gods made it that way for some kind of punishment.

Another two prisons inhereted only a wraith annd a freezing wraith, for which I used almost the same tactic, just with less effort.

In a third one were a wraith and a jelly. They both decided to engage me in melee combat while standing in a flame.

After the last runed door in the south of the temple waited an idolon for me. If it wouldn't have stood in the middle of flames while terrifying me, and afterwards fighting me in af flame, I would have stood no chance of destroying it. Behind it were some treasures, so I suppose it was a strong adventurer the gods doomed in there: A shimmering pewter amulet, a tome of destruction and a lantern of shadows. By then I knew that it was a good thing I did not have the money and will to buy it at the mercants shop. An addition if my own magical energies run out. The lantern dispelled a part of the light available, so I could perhaps use it while I had to flee.

Thanks, gods. I passed by to pray at every last one of the altars.

I returned to the ecumenital temple then to pack my empty wands there. I memorized how to slow enemies down and left my book of minor magic there too. If I'd need something out of it specifically, I could always come back. For the immediate spell learning I decided, that Vehumet would guide me well.

Back in the dungeon, more bats came to me, not as much as before I had cleansed the temple. I killed a crimson imp throwing frost at him. Must have been some leftover from the temple bats roaming around.

Dungeon 9

Entering, I killed an ice beast, a worker ant and two orcs. Then I stumbled into some guy obviously searching for valuables. I was thankful that he could not sneak up on me. He looked like an assasin of the shadows. I killed him, an emerging worker ant and an orc wizard by confusing them with mephitic cloud. Then I fled back to level eight, because more enemies and a troll emerged. In our woods there are sometimes trolls wandering, but if they are mad one should be careful. I was pursued by a hound which I slayed with my sword.

I returned through another stair.

As I descended, I...

[End of note]

Argxl died here by Psyche, waiting two spaces afar with a dagger of electrocution. As the highscore notes, she mangled him somehow. God I shouldn't have started to rush. Both the writings and my playing get worse from it.

The only concluding tip I have from this diary-tryout is, that if you take your time writing such a diary, you also take your time thinking more about what is fact in the game and don't take too much risks. Nearly a shame that I did not make it further because of the diary-project, but also I can just play on normally now, which was prohibited while exiting and saving for this session. Was fun, try it out too if you didn't already.