N, the hapless Naga Poison Mage

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

Meet N, hapless Venom Mage

Besides a superiority of vision and a natural robustness, the Naga are blessed with the uncanny ability to use its own body as furniture. Countless horrors have been related concerning the effects of lack of chairs, beanbags, ottomans, etc. on a creature pushed to its limits. Some freedom from the discomfort of resting and praying could go a long way -- I would imagine -- towards offsetting the inevitable bludgeonings, burnings, blastings, mutations, sickness, &c that certainly awaited our hapless hero. Poison was a personal choice; I found outright destruction beneath me and ice magic a bit too pretentious. Poison was slow and uncertain and I liked that.

First Descent (08/13/10)

Aaa, where did you come from, mephitic cloud? What a great spellbook to start with. It's certainly a nice spell to have, as running away is usually not an option for Nagas. I would say it's even more useful than liquid flame, because of the whole running away bit. I wish I had realized the enormous advantages of the spell earlier, ie, before sending several hapless Fire Elementalists to their doom, one of whom slowly slithered towards N and casted liquid flame on our hapless hero on the 3rd or 4th stage of the dungeon while his escape route to the upstairs was blocked by a mostly harmless orc.

Notes for next time: Perhaps I could have outran and lost the naga ghost of cheibriados instead of panicing and trying to take out the orc that blocked my path? Or perhaps that ponderousness doesn't carry over after death?

Second Descent

Menkaure on 3, nearby, a wand shop -- I can't outrun him anymore, can I? Ran around a corner and started playing scroll roulette -- no teleport, but a curse weapon and a fog came up. Well, thank god I was wielding my dagger and not that staff I found. As Menkaure inched closer, I went into the shop and bought a confusion wand, which surprisingly worked (surprisingly, since mephitic cloud didn't). I'll be seeing you after a few levels, tough guy.

And seriously, these ghosts have got to stop guarding the entrance to the temple with their horrible horrible sticky flame. I stupidly tried to escape, figuring he was as slow as I was. Didn't work. Ended up reading a teleport. Burned through all my heal wounds in the process. Snuck back later to find a Cheibriados altar, with that godforsaken thing still wandering around down there. Thank god for stealth. You're next on my list, former me.

What's this? A +5 +5 ring of slaying?

The gods are obviously aware that I'm writing this diary, and, in their effort to embarrass me, have cursed me with not only that ring of slaying at dungeon 5 or 6, but also, on dungeon 8, a Orc warrior carrying, of all things, a glowing demon's whip, which turned out to be electrocution branded. Where the damn hell did he get THAT? Is that even possible? Does he have demon friends or something? Thank you, venom bolt.

A +5 ring of slaying, and a demon whip of electrocution. Dear lord, I'm pretty much certain I'm going to die now. Better take a break.

All in all, poison, stabbing, and stealth makes some things pretty easy, but I would not have survived without that paralysis wand. I spent 200 gold on a wand of fire thinking I would need it, but I ended up using paralysis and stabbing on all the tough enemies. Hope one of those unID'd scrolls is a recharging, and I have no idea what to do once poison and magic resistance starts kicking in. Maybe that melee will come in handy, but with stabbing, poison, spellcasting, conjurations, stealth, fighting, short blades, and maces, I'm wearing myself pretty thin.

Me and my whip, together 4ever

So here I am, with the best weapon in the game -- the demon whip of electrocution -- and the highest ring of slaying I've ever seen -- obviously a conspiracy to make everything I write here irrelevant to the common man, deepening my isolation until the day I die, depressed and alone. Curse my wretched fate. I found Harold, and then Josef, on on Lair one (one at a time). I softened both with venom bolts from afar and dispatched them with my godlike whip.

Picking through Josef's remains, I noticed a wand of paralysis zapped 4 times. Yikes! How did all those zappings go unnoticed? Unsure of the math of Magic Resistance, I'm not sure just how lucky I was. I mean, looking back, that was pretty close -- I was in the red, at like 14 or something. One hit of paralysis would've been doom. Even if the odds were 1 in 10, that would only give me a 65% survival rate. 2 in 10, and that would have been 40%. 25% at 70%.

I also challenged and dispatched a hydra up close. That was close, and very idiotic. I was down to 0 MP and red health before the final hit with the uber-whip took him down to red, and he started running away. Being unable to chase him or cast any sort of spell, I threw my knives and darts at him. He was almost out of range before I realized that I still had that poison breadth I haven't used in like, forever. Sweet! Nice how poison breadth damages resistant creatures.

Oh, and slouch absolutely murders Blink Frogs, and mephitic cloud sheep and yaks. Everyone feels great in the lair, though, just to make them feel that incorrectly misplaced false sense of insecurity.

Build Notes: I was deep into Lair 3, sick and at red health, when I realized that I hadn't ID'd any potions of healing yet. You know, natural poison resistance and everything. Potions were not piling up -- I might have picked up 1 potion of healing at some point and passed by drinking it.

Oh, and the dungeon has been really stingy on teleports as well -- I'm down to a single one. I might've used one earlier, but that's only two teleports, and I'm at level 10 or 11 by now. Thank god I'm an absolute murderer.

No randarts. No books. No shops -- well -- that wand shop and a useless weapons shop (because of my enviable whip).

I'm letting conjurations and poison out-pace spellcasting, and maces outpace fighting, by around 3 levels maybe. I'm building up melee whenever I can, fighting is at around 5 by now to spellcasting's 7. Stealth I let run free, at 10. It's nice, never having been stealthy before. I still have 4 stabbing from my pre-whip days. Oh, and invocations too -- it feels like an awful lot: fighting, maces, spells, poison, conjuration, stealth, invocations. The only reason I can maintain this completely random build is no doubt because of that whip. Oh whip, how I love you -- let's grow old together.

Oh Gawd

Oh gawd make, the pain, make it stop. I thought we'd grow old together, just me and you, braving the dungeons of doom together as long as the stars shined from the sky. Alas it was not meant to be. Have I learned anything? I was frozen by a eye, hidden behind a hill giant. I tried casting venom bolt 3 times, and missed all three times. After that my poor venom mage bit the dust with full HP. There was no point in running from the eye -- or was there, with full Chiebrados gear? Would a zapped invisibility wand have worked? If I read a teleport, would it have teleported me even if I was frozen? Should I have tried the time step, still at poor -- no certainly not. Alas, my dear N, all I know is that I am certain your death was my fault. I could have done something -- and now I am so alone... so utterly alone.

N's Third Descent

Good lord Nagas have it easy. There is absolutely nothing that is really a threat, with mephetic cloud, see invisible, intrinsic armor, poison resistance, stealth, conjurations, high hp, decent fighting and weapons, poison breadth... and they say minotaurs have it easy. Cheibriados providing corrosion resistance, resistance across the board, and enormous stat boosts. Honestly, I feel bad, because the path to the orb will henceforth no longer be one fraught with peril and adventure.

Having a nice unbranded great mace might not be all that bad, since I already have Maxwell's silver hammer as a temporary crushing brand, and a few spellbooks with the other brands in a shop. A crystal triple sword, at 700 gp, seems like a steal -- which probably means it's cursed.

Later...

• Blink and ring of teleport control is awesome.
• Staff of demonology ... abjuration will come in handy.
• Staff of power! Apparently the staff of power slowly drains if I unequip it, which means I can equip to another staff or to a melee weapon briefly and still have that extra MP store.
• Venom Bolt has taken out almost every unique I came across. Have found only occasional use for Mystic Blast.
• No snake pits :-( Meaning no barding for the last Cheibriados stat boost. Where else do nagas hang out?
• Ooo, Donald has a eveningstar of flaming. And a shield. Don't mind if I do.
• Curses! Swamp 5 is guarded by Mara. I have never taken out this fellow, I mean, ever. I was hoping for an easy stash.

How I looked Death in the Eye

Let me tell you how I came to look death in the eye. First of all, I'm in my mid-20's now, and I don't have any skills over, say, 17. I can take on pretty much anything 1 on 1, with my enormous defenses, shields, enchantments, conjurations, and weapons, but I'm not a damage dealer. You could say that I could probably wander drunk through the dungeon and still survive about a dozen things that would have killed more powerful, but less protected players.

So -- anyways, I came upon, in the deepest levels of the dungeon, that old gauntlet of rooms, each one with a more and more powerful wizard surrounded by more and more powerful Golems. I can't deal with golems -- no one can really, unless you are a minotaur -- they are tanks, basically, immune to everything. I could take out the wizards fairly easily, now that I have a smiting ice spell -- freezing cloud -- assuming they were vulnerable to ice. Also, I could line up the golems along a corridor and fight them one by one. So that's what I did.

The trouble came when I reached the eighth room. I was fighting a lich, who I could not mystic blast or smite-freeze because of the Golems and the cold protection. I tried casting bolt of poison, until he started summoning greater demons -- executioners (harmless to me), and ice fiends. No big deal -- I was going to teleport out of there -- god bless controlled teleport.

Oh, did I mention that I dropped all my scrolls of teleport in the previous room because I had to walk through fire clouds? Which means I was down to rings. Fine, no big deal. But I was at yellow face to face with an ice fiend -- I needed my cold protection, so there was no way I could take that off while waiting for teleport to kick in. Which means I had to remove my control port ring in order to put on the teleport ring. Fine, no big deal -- I had explored the vast majority of the dungeon before running the gauntlet, just for this situation. (Although I was afraid, all the time, that there could have been a bazaar in there or something.)

-- yes, I realized that I could have put on the control port ring as I was waiting for the teleport to kick in -- but who is telling the story? Anyways, by the time the teleport kicked in, I had emptied out my 5-charged wand of healing, and was in the red. Which for a mid-20's naga fighter-mage means like 40 or so. So, no biggies.

Of course, it must have been all that stealth resting I was doing in the Gauntlet, because I teleported into a newly spawned Yaktaur captain. There was no way I was taking HIM on without any missle deflection. So, I teleported again, of course -- uncontrolled. I had completely forgotten by this point that I was going about uncontrolled teleports.

And, of course my friend, where else would it bring me but, the 3x3 last room in the gauntlet -- the only tiny 3x3 grid on the entire map where I most certainly did not want to go under any circumstances.

And there he was -- death himself -- the ancient lich. Surrounded by 4 crystal golems. I had no scrolls, and I had 1 MP. You know, I had been expecting this moment to come. There was absolutely no way out ... the door was still hidden, and slowly slithering away at the snail-like pace I moved ...

So, what did I do my friend -- what could I do? I had to wait. Period by period by period. My stealth was up to late teens now -- but I was facing here probably the most horrifying and horrifyingly alert monster in the game. And turn by turn, I watched my MP go up from 1 to 2 .. to 3.... while I was standing there, in the red, looking right at death and his four pets, whose only purpose in life was to wait for me, behind that hidden door, until the moment I walked in.

A cast uncontrolled teleport at fair. I could have miscasted, and -- oh, I don't know, become confused and woke up all five of those goddamn murderers. And I wasn't going to risk giving away my position by putting on that controlled port ring. I was going to see where this last goddamn uncontrolled port would bring me. But -- against all expectations -- it kicked in, without a hitch. And then I had to wait some more, looking right into their horrible horrible eyes, until, three turns later -- I was in some random room, right next to some upstairs.

May Cheibriados strike me down if I lie to you today, my friends.

The End

Well -- I escaped with the orb. My first time! I'm no longer an orb-virgin. There's not a great deal to say -- the only thing that was a challenge was Zot:5 -- which burned up pretty much everything I had -- scrolls of recharging, wands of healing, potions of cure mutation, Cheibriados piety, Honeycombs, etc..

• Got the runes of Swamp, Shoals, and Vault -- did not bother with hell.

• I tried to clear Zot:5 slowly -- I was not a particularly powerful character (the highest skill was conjurations at 20) because I was a fighter/mage hybrid, and relied a lot on stealth to single monsters out.

• Silence the ancient liches and melee them to death -- that's the only way I can think of to beat them. If I don't get a silence, I became absolutely swamped and usually teleported out.

• Thank god rings of teleports worked when silenced.

• I had such high defense and stealth (ice armour, shields, deflect missles, armour) that I could afford to uncontrolled port around Zot:5 until I reached a safe area.

• Cheibriados's slouch works wonders on orbs of fire -- but really drains the piety.

• Saving Hives and Halls, for their fast monsters, provided me a source of emergency piety. Clearing Halls gave the last 2 stars after spamming slouch for orbs of fire.

• Orb guardians are very easy one on one -- I left my demon whip unbranded and casted venom brand for the orb guardians and fire or ice for everything else. Venom bolt (never did find poison arrow) at a distance works wonders. Up close, however, they absolutely murdered me, even with AC in the 40's.

Final thoughts

• Nagas are by far the most forgiving race to play. They are immune to poison, invisible monsters, and being mobbed (because of their stealth). They are absolutely impossible to kill quickly. They have an answer for all the vicious things the game tends to throw at the crawler. Add the the cheap tricks of Cheibriados, and that Time Step ace up the sleeve, and it becomes pretty much impossible to die stupidly.

• I was an idiot and passed by buying warp weapon -- I found it early in the game in a bazaar, but decided against spending the 900 or so on the book. Would have been absolutely worth it -- with blinking to give me space and banishing to get rid of them altogether -- would have made zot:5 a lot easier.

• It seems late game consists of preparing for that single level, Zot:5.

• Having an unvorpalized demon whip enchanted to +6,+7 worked well, as I could cast ice, fire, or venom brand when appropriate. The warp brand would have made my day. Too bad there's no holy brand or temporary vorpalization for whips.

• I got INCREDIBLY lucky late game -- only had 3 scrolls of acquirement, but the third and final one (I always wished for armour) gave a naga-barding of levitation -- and that final Cheibriados boost, not to mention great additional AC. I couldn't believe it when I first saw it! Basically, it was like getting a pair of Lev, +5 Str, +5 Int, +5 Dex, +8 AC boots. I burned all my enchant weapons on it to get it to +5 before having Cheibriados bless it.

• "You have escaped with the orb! You find it strangely unrewarding."