Kernigh, Ice Elementalist

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

The Tale of Kernigh, Ice Elementalist

by Kernigh

I have the account 'Kernigh' at http://crawl.akrasiac.org. When I started a random character in Stone Soup 0.3.4, the game selected a Grey Elf Ice Elementalist. This is the diary of that Ice Elementalist, played on that public server.

Among the ttyrec files of Kernigh, this game starts at 2008-02-09.23:51:50

Arrival and Hobgoblin

I started this game at 9 February 2008, but started this diary at 24 February. Thus, I will write the first sections of this diary by viewing my archived ttyrec files. I open the first ttyrec.

The Grey Elf arrives in the dungeon, wielding an elven dagger and wearing an elven robe. It carries a bread ration and a book of Frost. At the start, I see a weapon in the adjacent west square and a scroll to the northwest, and a deep pool of water blocking the way south.

From the starting position atop the up staircase, my grey elf sights the deep pools of water that block the way south.

I begin to explore this dungeon. The first monster that I encounter is a hobgoblin in the east. I retreat; I let the goblin follow my grey elf toward the first room. I try to use the first spell, "freeze" from the book of Frost. I discover that this is not a ranged spell, that my grey elf may freeze only adjacent monsters. I cast the spell a second time. You freeze the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin is lightly wounded. I cast the spell a third time. You miscast the spell. A chill runs through your body. The hobgoblin hits you with an orcish club.

My grey elf now has only 1/4 magic, but luckily it still has 8/9 hp. So I try using my elven dager to attack the hobgoblin. You hit the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin is moderately wounded. The hobgoblin hits you with an orcish club. That leaves my grey elf at 4/9 hp, possibly one hit away from death. So I flee and let the hobgoblin chase the my elf in a circle around a three-by-two pillar. We two creatures move at the same speed. Your Stealth skill increases to level 3! I wait until my grey elf has 4/4 magic and 9/9 hp, then instruct the elf to turn and attack. I cast "freeze". You freeze the hobgoblin. You kill the hobgoblin!

Chatter

You may edit these chatter subsections to leave your comment; do remember to sign your comment with ~~~~ at the end. I will place a chatter subsection at the end of each section, to encourage you to comment. --Kernigh 18:48, 24 February 2008 (MST)

Hunger and Sickness

The action continues into the second ttyrec file, from 10 February 2008. So far, my grey elf arrived in the dungeon and killed one hobgoblin. Now I will explore the dungeon further.

As my grey elf explores farther, I encounter more monsters. Many of their corpses eventually fall at the same pillar where I killed the first hobgoblin. I eventually gain experience level 2, then my grey elf memorises "Throw Frost", the second spell in the book of Frost. This is a ranged attack. The puff of frost hits the goblin. You kill the goblin!

My grey elf becomes hungry. I throw frost at a small snake, and eat a chunk of small snake flesh. My grey elf soon becomes hungry again, I turn it around and tell it to eat a chunk of giant bat flesh, so that I may preserve my rations. I am very aware that grey elves refuse to eat flesh until they are hungry.

I start worrying about food, and my grey elf takes a chunk of jackal flesh into inventory. When my grey elf is again hungry, it eats the jackal flesh. There is something wrong with this meat. You feel ill. The word "Sick" appears in red on the screen, and the word "Hungry" remains in yellow. My grey elf kills a goblin and eats a chunk of goblin flesh. This solves the hunger, but not the sickness. My grey elf rests. You start searching. You feel your health improve.

My Grey Elf Ice Elementalist is again hungry as I proceed into the second dungeon level. I try to solve that problem with a chunk of giant cockroach meat, but my grey elf again becomes sick. When my grey elf reaches "Very Hungry" status, it eats the meat ration that I found at the first dungeon level. This promotes my grey elf to "Full" status, and I still retain the bread ration from the start of the game. Some turns later, You feel your health improve.

At dungeon level 2, I have my first encounter with a worm. A few spells fail to kill the worm, but the worm moves slowly, so I switch to throwing elven darts at the worm. Eventually I kill it and my grey elf reaches experience level 3. I elect to increase strength, thus my grey elf's attributes are strength 8 -> 9, intelligence 18, dexterity 13. I then flee from some orcs and return to dungeon level 1, before taking a different staircase to dungeon level 2. I continue the exploration, and I collect chunks of meat from dead monsters, while I collect other items from the dungeon floor. I discover and read a paperback book, learning that it is a book of Surveyances, but I refrain from studying its spells.

You smell decay. Yuck! By now, my grey elf carries many chunks of flesh, hoping to have a sufficient food supply. When my grey elf smells decay, I often drop rotten chunks. I soon learn another danger of dungeon exploration, as my grey elf trips a trap. A large net falls onto you! You become entangled in the net! You see here a throwing net. Trapped in a net, my grey elf becomes vulnerable to monsters. You cannot pick up the net that holds you! It is fortunate that no monsters are around. You struggle against the net. My grey elf is unable to move or flee. You try to slip out of the net. After some more attempts, You slip out of the net! I resume the exploration. I find another bread ration, so now I have two bread rations.

I throw frost at a snake and miss. I flee away from the snake and return to dungeon level 1. I use another staircase to return to dungeon level 2, but not before my grey elf again feels hungry. I have no chunks of meat, and want to preserve my bread rations if possible, so after my grey elf kills a goblin, it eats a chunk of goblin flesh. There is something wrong with this meat. You feel ill. For the third time, my grey elf is both hungry and sick.

This time, the situation is not so good. Your disease is taking its toll. You feel clumsy. Dexterity drops from 13 to 12. A few turns later, Your disease is taking its toll. You feel dopey. Intelligence drops from 18 to 17. As I wander dungeon level 2, I fail to find anything that would die and leave another chunk of flesh to eat. You are feeling very hungry. Your disease is taking its toll. You feel weakened. Strength drops from 9 to 8.

The game displays the drop in strength from 9 to 8.

So I reluctantly eat one of my two bread rations. That bread ration really hit the spot! You finish eating. Despite my reduce attributes, I steer my grey elf to remaining unexplored part of dungeon level 2. By killing a giant cockroach, You are now a level 4 Ice Elementalist! You feel agile. The dexterity display changes from "12 (13)" to "13 (14)"; I welcome the idea that despite the new point of dexterity gained at level 4, my grey elf still has the future opportunity to recover the other point of dexterity lost to its disease. I still am not sure how to recover my lost points. I retreat my grey elf to a previously explored room and rest, where it finally recovers from its illness.

Chatter

I eat a chunk of jackal flesh. Sick! I eat a chunk of giant cockroach flesh. Sick! I eat a chunk of goblin flesh. Sick! Do I need to learn to stop eating these things? --Kernigh 18:48, 24 February 2008 (MST)

Orc Warrior and Pillar

An orc warrior moves adjacent to my grey elf, and begins a chase around a one-by-two pillar. As a snake appears, I retreat toward an up staircase. The snake moves in front and takes position adjacent to my grey elf, but for some reason the snake does not want to attack my grey elf.

 #..#.#....#...#.####
.#o............#.#<.#
...(#.#.##.##..#.##.#
#####......#.....##.#
...####.##.###.####.#
...'...........S@...#
...####..#.#..o######
...####....#...##### 

But for some reason, the snake S does not want to attack my grey elf @; the snake remains highlighted on my screen. So the snake disappears (probably moving northwest) and leaves an empty space between my grey elf and the orc warrior o, as I run for the staircase. This empty space prevents the orc warrior from following me to dungeon level 1. I use another staircase to return to dungeon level 2 and begin to hunt the orc warrior and any remaining monsters on this level.

You feel your intelligence returning. I hope that my grey elf's strength and dexterity will also return in time. The orc warrior surprises my grey elf at a corner. I cast "freeze" four times, heavily wounding the orc warrior, before the orc warrior attacks back. The orc warrior hits you with an orcish short sword! Ouch! That really hurt! One hit drops my grey elf from 19/19 to 9/19 hp. I let the orc warrior chase my grey elf around a one-by-one pillar near an up staircase. When I reach 19/19 hp, my grey elf twice freezes the orc warrior; it seems that my grey elf can cast that spell about twice as fast as it can move. Then the orc warrior hits to drop my grey elf to 15/19 hp. I reach 19/19 hp again, and freeze the orc warrior once. The orc warrior is almost dead. The orc warrior hits you with an orcish short sword! Ouch! That really hurt! 7/19 hp.

######.#.......##..#.#.#               Kernigh the Chiller
...# #.#..#..........#.#               Grey Elf
##.# #.#..#.#....#...#.####            HP: 9/19
##.# #.#.............#.#<.#            Magic: 12/12
##.# #....#.#.##.##..#.##.#            AC: 2     (0)
##.########......#.....##.#            EV: 11
.........####.##.###.####.#            Str: 8 (9)
.........'................#            Int: 18
.........####.o#@#...######            Dex: 13 (14)
.........####..o.#o..######            Gold: 60
..<...............^.......#            Experience: 4/118  (0)
.........####.......#####.#            Level 2 of the Dungeon
.........#  #########   #.#            a) +0 elf dagger
.........#              #.#            Hungry
.........#              #.#
######'###  #############.#
     #.#    #.............#
You are feeling hungry.

I hope to kill this orc warrior before my grey elf starves! When I return to 19/19 hp, I try a hit and run strategy. My grey elf freezes the orc warrior, then steps back, then freezes. The orc warrior misses you. Then steps back, then freezes. The orc warrior is almost dead. The orc warrior hits you with an orcish short sword. 17/19 hp seems okay, then steps back, then freezes. You kill the orc warrior! You are now a level 5 Ice Elementalist! The orc warrior drops its corpse, and my grey elf eats a chunk of orc flesh.

Now I may think of other chores, such as exploring the northwest part of dungeon level 2, and studying new spells. As I move toward the northwest, my grey elf again begins hungry, and I eat a second chunk of orc flesh. But the second chunk was not as well as the first, and my grey elf enters its fourth illness. This time, I rest my grey elf and the illness soon leaves it.

As my grey elf battles four other monsters, it becomes very hungry. It must now eat its last bread ration. Soon after this, a goblin drops its corpse, but the corpse arrives too late for my grey elf to eat it. As I finish my exploration of dungeon level 2, You feel your dexterity returning. I continue to await the return of strength.

I reach the most northwest room. Before I take that staircase to level 3, I want to identify some items. I read a scroll from a stack of two, and discover that it is a scroll of identify. The scroll reveals that I have an uncursed ring of magical power. I wear this, and it boosts my grey elf's magic from 15/15 to 15/24. I read another scroll from another stack of two, but apparently nothing happens. I hoped for, but did not identify, the scroll of detect curse.

Users in Freenode's ##crawl tell me that Detect Traps will be a useful spell, so I instruct my grey elf to memorise that spell from my book of Surveyances. I then try to memorise the next spell in the book of Frost, a spell called Ozocubu's Armour. It is a level 3 spell and the game tells me that I have 5 available levels, but in three attempts, my grey elf cannot understand the spell. You fail to memorise the spell.

Chatter

I did not notice this much while playing the game, but I fought that orc warrior with an AC of only 2. Maybe I need a better AC. --Kernigh 18:48, 24 February 2008 (MST)

Ijyb and Jessica

As I continue the second ttyrec file, my grey elf enters dungeon level 3. This is where I meet Ijyb, wielding a glowing dagger. My grey elf tries to throw frost at Ijyb, but my first attempt miscasts the spell, and my second attempt misses. I retreat; I do not let Ijyb move close enough to use the glowing dagger against my grey elf! I sight a pair of staircases, grab a meat ration from the floor, and flee to dungeon level 2. Now I hope that I may defeat Ijyb somehow.

I enter another part of dungeon level 3 and defeat a giant cockroach, and rest on the staircase. Ijyb comes into view. He is wielding a glowing dagger. This causes my grey elf to flee up the staircase to continue resting.

I enter dungeon level 3 again, and locate Ijyb again. He doesn't appear to have noticed you. I carefully position my grey elf, and try to surprise Ijyb by throwing frost. Ijyb is lighty wounded. We begin to trade shots. My grey elf throws frost, and Ijyb throws stones. Ijyb is moderately wounded. But when Ijyb moves to chase, my grey elf flees away from the glowing dagger, leaving one empty space between my grey elf and Ijyb. But I sight Jessica.

#..........##.............#.           Kernigh the Chiller
...........##...............           Grey Elf
#..........#####..........#            HP: 23/24
..........................#            Magic: 17/24
...........#####..........#    .       AC: 2     (0)
............   #..........#    ..      EV: 11
 ...#          #g#........#   ...      Str: 8 (9)
               #.#g##########          Int: 18
               #@#..g..(.(.(# ...      Dex: 14
               #.#######....#  ..      Gold: 101
               ......  #....#  ..      Experience: 5/275  (0)
              ......l..#....#....      Level 3 of the Dungeon
             ........l........# #      a) +0 elf dagger
            @..........####.###
           #########.#     .#
                    .      .#

Jessica, wielding a runed long sword, and wearing a robe.
She appears to be resting.

Maybe if I lead the grey elf east, then I might escape Jessica. But Jessica notices my grey elf and begins to cast magic darts. After two such castings, my grey elf falls to 9/24 hp. I can only hope that I manage to flee before Jessica shoots my grey elf to its death.

Ijyb and Jessica, both onscreen, simultaneously threaten my grey elf.

Jessica speeds herself, and closes the distance between herself and Ijyb. Jessica mumbles some strange words. Jessica blinks! Now I cannot see Jessica's position, and I must hope that she does not flank my grey elf. As I approach the staircase, Jessica reappears and fires another magic dart.

........#   ......#####
g#############.#....<.#
..g..(.(.(#.....@...###
######....#..g.!....#
.....#....#.**......#
.....#....#*........#
..........@.####.####
.....####@###  #.#
##.#....@.#    #.#
 ..#.###..#    #.#
##.... #..#    #.#
Jessica casts a spell.

This dart reduces my grey elf to 4/24 hp, and I expect one more shot would end my game. I remain four steps from the stair, but I must try to reach that stair! I think of no other option, I cannot waste a turn to check if some potion might be a potion of curing.

Jessica gestures wildly. But this time, my grey elf evades the dart. Jessica uses her next turns to again close the distance to Ijyb, and my grey elf escapes upstairs. As my grey elf hurries up the steps, I see Ijyb and Jessica approach the bottom of the staircase; but because I began to climb before either unique monster was adjacent, so neither unique monster follows my grey elf.

I rest at the stop of the stairs. My grey elf becomes hungry, but fortunately I have a chunk of giant cockroach in its inventory. It eats that, so I may save my meat ration for later. HP restored.

But my grey elf remains in much trouble. Ijyb and Jessica hold the third dungeon level. If I remain within the first two dungeon levels, then I expect my grey elf to starve. If I return to the third level, they may kill my grey elf. I feel that the current situation is dangerous.

Dungeon Level 4 with Ygumuuwn's Magic Scroll Shop

Now I begin to write this diary as I play the game. The start of this section matches the beginning of the third ttyrec file (2008-02-25.02:23:54).

My grey elf is at the top end of a staircase from level 3 to level 2, having fled from the team of Ijyb and Jessica. I know not any way to defeat them, but I want to continue the game before my grey elf starves. Thus, I now elect to try to find a way to evade Ijyb and Jessica and reach dungeon level 4. But first, my grey elf quaffs one of three purple potions. I want to know these are potions of curing; I might need them if another meeting with Ijyb and Jessica leads to an emergency. But I discover that they are actually potions of slowing. The effect wears off as my grey elf walks to another down staircase.

I luckily arrive at dungeon level 3 near another staircase that leads further down. First, I successfully collect the nearby items, including a bread ration, while defeating two monsters. Then I descend to dungeon level 4. This seems to be a very open area. My grey elf fights some familiar monster types and soon acquires a glowing dwarven dagger. I become hungry but I eat a chunk of hobgoblin flesh, and my grey elf does not become sick!

Meanwhile I notice in my abilities (pressing 'A'), You are very charming. Apparently this means that I can use 'a' to use Glamour. But I wonder, what does Glamour do? I guess that it is time to source-dive! I guess that abl-show.cc might be the source file. Line 1917 tells me that the Grey Elf gains Glamour at experience level 5, while the High Elf gains it at experience level 15. Line 194 has a call to the cast_glamour function, but that function must be in another file. I locate it at line 1828 at spells4.cc, and it seems to involve the code starting at line 1734. It looks like a collection of random effects that might cause fear, confusion, charm or sleep, plus some random messages that do not correspond to the effect. Now I make no attempt to use my grey elf's Glamour.

So far, dungeon level 4 seems as easy as dungeon level 2. I throw frost to eliminate monsters and collect items. An apple joins my bread ration and meat ration in inventory; I become less worried about food, and now to choose to leave corpses on the floor instead of nervously gathering chunks.

I find Ygumuuwn's Magic Scroll Shop. After some guesses at the keyboard, I press [<] to enter the shop. It sells scrolls. I remember a suggestion from some Crawl web site, to buy the cheap scrolls to identify those types of scrolls. So I pay 2 gold for a scroll of random uselessness, 1 gold for a scroll of curse weapon, 1 gold for a scroll of immolation. That leaves 97 gold in the purse. Now that I examine my inventory, I see that my grey elf has one other scroll of random uselessness, and no other scrolls of curse weapon or immolation.

At one point I forget to rest to restore magic to 24/24 after battle. Thus, while fighting a snake, I drop to as low as about 5/24 magic. Fortunately my grey elf wears a ring of magical power! This level seems easy; my grey elf throws frost at each hostile monster. Someone drops an elven blowgun with 17 poisoned needles (increasing my inventory to 38 poisoned needles). I use the [=] command to move the elven blowgun to slot 'b', that should let me use ['] to swap between weapons 'a' and 'b'. Meanwhile, my grey elf's strength finally heals from 8 to 9, reversing the previous effect of disease.

I eventually do find a new type of monster: the hound. My grey elf throws frost to weaken it, then tosses stones when it is almost dead. This leads to experience level 6, and a second chance to increase one of my grey elf's three attributes. Thus I increase strength from 9 to 10. I soon finish my exploration of dungeon level 4, and approach the staircase down that will lead down to level 5.

Chatter

I feel lucky to have evaded Ibyx and Jessica so easily. --Kernigh 21:13, 24 February 2008 (MST)

Wow! Nice game so far. Lets see how your luck holds out, eh? Nek 12:58, 29 February 2008 (MST)

I saw you died. Damn Centaurs. Nek 16:02, 1 March 2008 (MST)

I have posted the next section below, which includes my death. --Kernigh 16:35, 1 March 2008 (MST)

Levels 5 to 6 and the Ecumenical Temple

Today is 1 March 2008, the day after 29 February. I am about to bring my grey elf to dungeon level 5, but I have some tasks before my grey elf takes the staircase down from dungeon level 4.

Currently, I try scrolls and potions only when I have more than one in a stack. My grey elf has 5 scrolls labeled QOCYOB INKYGA. It reads one. This scroll appears to be blank. It also has 2 green potions. You feel better. So a green potion is a potion of curing, but I still do not know which scroll is a scroll of detect curse.

My grey elf tries to memorize Ozocubu's Armour from the book of Frost. It failed to learn this spell on dungeon level 2, so I try again now. This spell is somewhat difficult to commit to memory. But this time, my grey elf successfully studies the spell.

You climb downwards. Dungeon level 5 seems to consist of rectangular rooms with connecting corridors. My grey elf collects items while throwing frost at the opposition. As I explore the level, I find some more interesting features. My grey elf sights what seems to be a ring of deep water, containing some aquatic monsters. Another room contains a staircase to the Ecumenical Temple.

Unfortunately an electrical eel in the water wakes up and shoots two bolts of electricity at my grey elf, who drops to 1/28 hp. * * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * * Agrelaa moves behind a wall and rests, but now I am very sure that I must stay away from that water. So I decide to go the Ecumenical Temple. But first, I try some more unidentified items. My grey elf discovers the scroll of magic mapping, scroll of enchant weapon I, and the potion of confusion. My grey elf waits until the confusion ends, then steps down the staircase to the temple.

In the temple, my grey elf encounter the altars to twelve unfamiliar gods. Now I feel my inexperience with Dungeon Crawl! This grey elf is my first character to reach the Ecumenical Temple, in my history of Crawl! The users in the ##crawl channel on Freenode suggest that my Grey Elf Ice Elementalist should follow Vehumet, or follow Sif Muna. However, the "Religion" section mentions that I may receive a description of each god by pressing 'p' on each altar. As my grey elf kneels at each altar, it becomes very hungry and eats an apple.

Though Vehumet for Sif Muna might help with magic, I know that my grey elf already has relatively substantial magic skills, and I would prefer to explore diversity by choosing another god. Thus I select Elyvilon the Healer. You can now call upon Elyvilon to destroy weapons lying on the ground.

My grey elf returns to dungeon level 5, drop some weapons the floor, and use the ability of Destroy Weapons. I now intend to destroy most hand weapons, but retain missiles. I travel to dungeon level 6 and try to dine on three chunks of hobgoblin meat, but the chunks all cause sickness and fail to provide nutrition. So my grey elf eats a beef jerky. I wait for the end of the sickness, before my grey elf proceeds to explore dungeon level 6.

But when centaurs attack, and multiple arrows bring my grey elf to 9/28 hp, then I retreat to dungeon level 5 to rest, and my grey elf again reaches the very hungry status. So my grey elf eats a bread ration.

Then I return dungeon level 6, and trade arrows with a centaur. However, my game suddenly ends when the centaur manages to kill my grey elf of 16/28 hp with one arrow.

The puff of frost hits the centaur. The centaur is heavily wounded. The centaur shoots an arrow. The arrow hits you! Ouch! That really hurt! You die...

My grey elf perishes at dungeon level 6; this is now the end of my diary. I may be at fault for not casting Ozocubu's Armour. Maybe my grey elf held a bad position. However, a user in ##crawl suggests that a centaur is an extremely dangerous monster that my grey elf would need to run away from. If I ever encounter a centaur in another game of Crawl, I will use more attention. I should be careful around electrical eels, too.

Chatter

My next diary will be Kernigh, Wanderer. --Kernigh 16:35, 1 March 2008 (MST)