Lil Jon, MiBe

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jyk4YkvCJ8

D1: Manual mode, engage! Fighting and Unarmed ON, Axes FOCUSED. No notable fights, and by the time the floor is cleared I'm at XL 2, Fighting and Axes are at 4, and Unarmed is at 1. I've got a Net, two Meat Rations, and I found a +1 Robe, which I'm wearing because even a nerdy mage's bathrobe is better than a non-artifact animal skin.

I've also got a Ring of Magical Power, which I'll keep just in case I find an Amulet of Guardian Spirit to pair it up with. I'll ditch it if I find Gourmand or something first.

D2: I run into a gang of Kobolds and accidentally berserk for the first time when I hit "a" instead of Tab. That's what I get for using Tab. I keep Tabbing anyway.

A Potion of Degeneration knocks my Int from 5 to 2. That's BAD, but I've already got Restore Abilities identified, at least.

I upgrade to Ring Mail and turn Armour on. By the time I clear the floor, I'm at level 4, with Fighting at 4, Axes at 5, UC and Armour at 2.

D3: Despite the fact that I berserked to take him out in as few swings as possible, a Jelly corrodes my Hand Axe to +0,-1. I manage to explore most of the level, but there's a bit blocked by a teleport trap. I'll just have to leave it for now. Stats are the same as last floor by the time I'm done. What a crappy level.

D4: A-ha! I only found two down-stairs on D3. The third one is probably behind that teleport trap, and I'll be coming up from the other side. I run into a previous Lil Jon, who is wielding an axe and pretty well-armored, just like me. Unlike me, he is undead and therefore unable to berserk. He boosts me TWO Exp levels to 6, and boosts Fighting to 5, Axes to 6, Armour and UC to 3. Yay-uh, okay.

Thereafter, a dip to level 5 nets me a Ring of Poison Resistance. Things are looking up.

Speaking of looking up, I find the third staircase to D3. There was nothing behind the teleport trap except the staircase itself.

Back on D4, I'm "o"-ing around the level when suddenly SIGMUND! There's six empty spaces between me and him, he's spotted me, and the area between us is pretty wide open. Thankfully, I've got a chokepoint and some doors behind me. My first action is to step away, Sigmund's is to quaff an Invis potion.

I fall back through the chokepoint and run straight for the door, which leads into a narrow hallway with another door at the end. I shut the first door behind me and am almost to the second when a still-invisible Siggy opens the first one. He whiffs a puff of flame at me before I manage to cross through and close the second door.

By the time he opens the second door, Siggy's lost his invisibility. "Do you like me?" he asks. I answer by berserking with one space between us. He takes a swing and deals no damage, I step forward, he quaffs ANOTHER Invis potion. Thankfully, he doesn't move and I kill him before my berserk even wears off.

I don't even bother to rest after I take him out, and run right into an Ogre. Still exhausted, so I throw the Net from D1 at him. It traps him, to my surprise, and I knock him down to Severely Wounded before he gets out, then finish him off in one more hit. Axes 7!

After a Worker Ant bumps Armour to 4 and my XL to 7, I find a Sling and then take up a sling bullet collection, getting 53 on D4 alone. Looks like I'm in the slingin' business. 'bout to spread that PANDEMIC. Slings on until it hits 12.

I find the third staircase down, and engage a Hound who runs away when his HP drops. I mulch both of my flame darts, but get the kill. XL 7, Fighting 5, Axes 7, Armour and UC 4, Slings 0.

D5: An Oklob plant puts a big ol' travel restriction in a wide open area at the middle of this level. An invis-happy Sky Beast drops me to 17 HP before I finally put it down. Seeing as how I've already got four Piety pips, Trog's Hand is invoked to save my two Heal Wounds pots.

I get Partly Explored thanks to the Oklob, but there's an up-stair on the far side of the plant outside of the exclusion zone, so I drop in from there and explore... and the staircase to the Ecumenical Temple is RIGHT NEXT to the Oklob. And they're surrounded by Plants that will prevent my rapid advance. If I were playing a MiGl (for the buckler, you see), I would seriously be contemplating a Pickett's Charge right now to get into that Temple. Thankfully, as a Minotaur Berserker, I have no need of any of the altars in the temple and probably won't get Burdened before I make it to the Lair. Seeya, sucker. Praise Trog!

D6: I decide to throw down with an Ogre without berserking and lose half my life in the process. I berserk to finish off the two orcs and the iguana behind him. Afterwards, I'm derping around with half HP (exhaustion gone) when I run into my first Orc Priest! I pull him through some blind corners and take him out with little issue, but the invisible Sky Beast behind him knocks me down to 16 HP after I sacrifice his corpse. By the time I'm done quaffing both of my Heal Wounds pots and activating Trog's Hand, he's visible again and I axe him to a well-deserved death. After the fight, I'm at 51/75 HP with Trog's Hand still on.

It's obvious that I need to tighten up my play; I'm in the midgame now, after all. This is where it starts to get interesting.

I accidentally berserk while Tabbing at some Goblins (I really need to stop doing that) with no ill long-term effects. Then I trade my Ring Mail up for a Chain Mail.

I meet my first Centaur a little later, kite him around a blind corner, and take him out without berserking. From first sight to final death, he shot at me five times, swung in melee seven, and did nine points of damage total. I heart Chain Mail. There's a Wand of Frost right behind him. Score!

On a sneaking suspicion, I check my mutations and it turns out that I am robust, have a fast metabolism, and tend to lose my temper in combat. Maybe I WASN'T hitting "a" by accident while Tabbing...

I find my first Book of Evil Un-Trogly Forbiddenness, and because I've got four piety pips already, decide to save it for later as a landmine. I'd burn it immediately if I didn't have BIA.

Once it's time to dive, I'm at XL 8, Axes 8, Fighting 6, Armour 5, UC 4, Slings 2.

D7: Armor Shop! The Splint Mail is tempting, but the Dex Gauntlets are cheaper and I don't have gloves yet, so I go with those. Aside from that, there's a few light armors and a helmet I can't wear, so I probably won't be coming back here.

A non-berserk fight with an Orc Wizard and an Orc Warrior drops me to 62/75 HP, which signals to me that I can safely Thermopylae Orc Warriors without berserking. Good to know. And the Orc Warrior had a +0 Orcish Splint Mail on him, so now I definitely don't need to go back to that armor shop.

I run into a Slave after some exploring. He's on the far side of a chokepoint, and there's a door next to me, probably leading to another hallway that runs parallel to the chokepoint. I open it and Pikel is right on the other side, well within charging range, not another Slave in sight. I berserk for FREEDOM.

Sure enough, he drops an Electro whip. And because I'm still wielding my Jelly-corroded Hand Axe, packing a Sling, and want a Buckler anyway, I pick it up, turn off Axes, and focus M&F. With Axes already at 9, it'll crosstrain high and fast. Hell, I only need to train M&F to 12 for minimum delay on the whip. I needed 14 Axes for JUST the Hand Axe.

I open up a door to see an Orc Priest with a Warrior right behind him. Thankfully, it's a comfortably long one-wide hall. Close door, Warrior opens it. The whip takes him and the priest out with no problem, but I berserk after the Priest goes down, which makes the two regular orcs behind him far easier than they needed to be.

After clearing the level (and sacrificing a few of the freed slaves' kills along the way), I do a search for "mace" just to see if there are any branded maces I left behind with the NO AXES. Sure enough, there's a glowing whip up on D4, but it's not branded (and I really should have checked it while I was on D4). What I want is a Protection-branded mace to go along with my whip; if I can one-shot with the whip, that's great, but Pikel's Electrical Slave Whip is not the best tool for dealing with La Resistance members, like Sky Beasts and whatnot.

XL 9, MF 2, UC 5, Fgt 6, Arm 5, Slings 3.

On the way down from D4 to D8, I run into a Jelly on D7! The freed slaves ignore my commands to attack it, saying something about union rules and burning their hands off with acid being against them. So I pitch five darts of dispersal at the damn thing just trying to keep him at a safe distance while still dealing damage, and the last blink lands him right next to me.

I wind up kiting him for a good long while, just trying to get enough distance to put my Frost Wand to good use, knocking him to half HP by the time he gets next to me. I didn't want to have to do it, but I swung my brand new whip at the Jelly. The first swing didn't kill him, but it DID identify the whip as being +2,+2 to go along with its electrocution brand. Sure enough, the Jelly didn't corrode it.

Yep, Lil Jon is now a bull with a whip. Who just tried to protect his corrosion-protected whip from corrosion by sending a bunch of recently-freed slaves to punch an acid jelly to death.

D8: Trog grants me my first gift: a glowing Dwarven Battleaxe. It's a two-hander, and I haven't found a buckler yet, so I'm not fully committed to M&F juuuuust yet. I'll check the brand once I'm done shock-whipping these jackals to death.

Antimagic brand. Underwhelming. I'll wield it long enough to find out if the stats are good, but I'm not training Axes and I'm keeping M&F focused.

Later, while axing an Ogre and Ice Beast to death...

+5,+6. Nice. Not thrilling, not spectacular, but nice.

Now the question is, do I want to forego bucklers and demon whips for a two-handed weapon that will be significantly harder to train to minimum delay? After all, I don't even have a buckler yet, and the axe is MORE POWER NAO.

Verdict: I'll wield the axe - and focus Axes, with M&F off - until I find a buckler. M&F will crosstrain for a few more levels if I switch back to it.

Hooray, Papyrus Book! Oh no, Giant Spore right next to it! I'm going to run even though it's futile. He's too close. I lose a Choko, and hear a screech. Hippogriph goes down, and there's no spore colony. Lame!

Amulet of Clarity to counteract my berserkitis! Not lame! Still got the ring of Magical Power, too. Oh, and the Degen wore off at some point. I'm up to 81 sling bullets (and haven't been using my sling much).

XL 9, Ft 7, Ax 9, MF 4, UC 6, Ar 6, Sl 4.

D9: Little bit of staircase bouncing to deal with some killer bees. I round a corner and see a goliath beetle at a comfortable distance, and decide that this is a good time to put my sling to good use. Unfortunately, it barely puts a dent in him as his glacial crawl brings him to my axe. I really hope I get some use out of this sling soon...

I let myself get knocked down to 24/84 HP fighting a Centaur, Orc, and Ogre in a narrow corridor. What I should have done was throw a BIA in front of me to handle the centaur, then cleaned up the rest myself. I haven't used BIA yet, but it's getting to be about that time.

Previously-unseen staircase up to 8! Inside is 379 gold and an altar of Xom. Thanks for the collection plate, but I don't feel like throwing my existence away just yet.

Back down on D9, I encounter Grum, who is accompanied by at least three war dogs and a sky beast. Thankfully, I'm in a narrow pass where his numbers mean nothing... but the glaive he's wielding has me concerned. I give him a good bit of ground into the corridor, and sure enough, he moves to the front of the line with the dogs behind him and the Sky Beast in the rear (cackling in sadistic anticipation, no doubt).

I berserk, Grum drops, and my berserk lasts all the way through the death of the sky beast. Then I finish off the war dog that was trapping the sky beast with little effort.

Another corridor opens up into a room with a bunch of yaks, frogs, and jackals, plus a basilisk and a sky beast. Looks like we're gonna do another Spartan Hold. I'm tanking yaks when I discover that the basilisk's gaze is smite-targetting. I didn't know that. He manages to turn me to stone and moves all the way up to the front, then fails to do significant damage to me. Berserk time!

I grind through most of the tough monsters up front when my berserk wears off and I've still got a room full of yaks and frogs charging at me. I decide to use BIA for the first time this game to cover my retreat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6GuBbY2Ss

The first Ogre falls to the first Yak. This is looking bad. The second Ogre finishes him, but gets killed by the yak behind him. And I'm running out of corridor.

Third Ogre does better, fourth ogre does better than him, fifth ogre finishes off the last of the enemies AND survives. After all the corpses are sacrificed, I've still got five piety pips. And sure enough, that herd was guarding the entrance to the Lair.

Kill Phantom, get Meat ration, SHAFT! Oh no!

D11, going up: I land in a small room with an altar of Fedhas and a Hammer of Draining. I'm bringing the Hammer to the Lair. I do NOT want draining weapons hanging around the dungeon.

There's an altar of The Shining One here that seems to be generating monsters. Two Megabats and a fire bat have come out of the crevice so far, and there's no telling how many are on their way to my axe. First time I've seen this.

Turns out, I'm in a mini-Temple on D11, and several of the altars in here are producing bats. Weird.

I run into an Orc Priest with an entourage. BIA for the priest, but the Ogre just ends up killing everyone. Behind them is the Orcish Mines, and south of that is a staircase up.

XL: 10 Fgt: 8 Ax: 11 UC: 7 Ar: 7 Sl: 5

D10, going up: I had already found one down staircase on D9 before I got Shafted, and thankfully, I come up pretty close to it. There are a few Orc Warriors and Wizards guarding it, and one of the Warriors has a shiny splint mail. Unfortunately, an invisible Orc Wizard starts smacking me while I'm trying it on, so now I'm stuck fighting an invisible Orc Wizard with no armor on. Good news is, running to the staircase causes me to kill him in two swings. Better news is, the Warrior's splint mail was +2.

Back on D9: A sky beast awaits me at the top of the stairs. I break out the sling and pop him until he goes invisible, barely denting him in the process. I pull back to a chokepoint where he drops his invisibility, and I finish him off with the axe.

Behind a Phantom is a Wand of Polymorph Other. Useful!

A ways later, I run right into a Basilisk and immediately get slowed. I berserk, get completely petrified, lose the petrification, and kill the basilisk before I lose the berserk.

A quick dip down to D10 brings two yaks back up with me. I take them out with no berserk and Trog gives me another antimagic battleaxe. Let's see if it's better than +5,+6.

I spot a Jelly and instinctively reach for the Polymorph wand... but then I think better of it and fire at him with one of my two Frost Wands and take him out before he gets to me. Good stuff.

Lair 1

Because I've already got a good bit of it explored already, I'll clear out D10 and D11 before I really get busy down here. Right now I just want to dive to L2 to drop a stash.

I identify Magic Mapping at the best possible time! While I'm on my way to the stairs, a Giant Slug and a Crocodile accost me, and the new battleaxe turns out to be +0,+4. It can stay here.

XL: 10 F: 8 Ax: 11 UC: 7 Ar: 8 Sl: 6

Lair 2

Stashity Stash.

D10

I drop down the way I came up, and am accosted by what I believe is an Unseen Horror. While I'm dealing with that, I run into Eustachio. I quickly drop him, then grab some corridor and finish off the Horror by stepping back and forth while wielding an axe. I tried the sling for a bit, but it just wasn't cutting it.

The next interesting find is a +3 Dwarven Plate Armour and a Magic Scroll shop. I buy all the scrolls I can afford, with plans to come back for the rest later.

Maurice goes invisible on me and blinks around while I deal with an Ogre, but I eventually pull him into a corridor and deal the last blow as soon as his invis drops.

Another Spore, but this one leaves a colony! Yay XP!

I axe a Sky Beast down to retreating, then sling two shots into him before he vanishes on me. Further exploration leads me to Urug. I kill him and his posse and take his steel javelins.

I see the sky beat again, and once again, slinging him doesn't do enough damage fast enough. The axe does.

XL 11, F 9, Ax 12, UC 8, Ar 9, Sl 7.

D11: Lots of orcs down here. One of them drops a Hammer of Crushing, which I don't want. Another drops of Hammer of Protection, which I do. All I need now is a buckler.

It seems that 12 is chock-full of uniques; just stair-bouncing, I've seen Josef and Sonja so far (and Sonja whiffed a Curare needle at me). Time to go Lair diving!

To be continued...

...continued!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP4Vtv1srUM

Lair 1: Wow, what a boring floor. Found four Curare needles and nothing else worth reporting. Stats are right where they were at the end of D11.

Lair 2: Found my FIRST cloak! Buckler, where are you...

While finishing off an Iguana, something starts trying to enchant me. I run around trying to break LOS until my invisible assailant shows up... and it's Erica! I toss both of my flame darts at her (mulching one in the process) as she suicidally charges into melee range. She leaves behind a Scimitar of Flaming, which I'm not interested in.

Next big fight is against a Fire Drake. I call in a BIA to protect my scrolls, and he goes down fairly quickly. The Ogre even sticks around to help out against some sheep.

I drop down to L3 to staircase bounce with a spiny toad and a gang of yaks. The first group (toad and three yaks) drops me to 36 HP. Stupid Lair, with its stupid no chokepoints. I heal up, and thankfully, I only left two more yaks up on L2.

XL: 11 F: 10 Ax: 13 Ar: 10 UC: 9 Sl: 7

Lair 3: Frozen archway and a dozen or so white imps. I start dropping spell books to detonate and kite the imps over them. A little bit of damage, a lost potion of Agility and a nice piety bump later, I've got all of them dead. And I have no desire to mess around in the Ice Cave.

Found a potion of Cure Mutation, FINALLY! Berserkitis is gone, but I'm down to 95 HP because I'm no longer robust. Amulet of Clarity can stay, though, because it's the only amulet I've found so far. There are a few other Mutation potions laying around, and I might play some Mutation Roulette once I find some more Cure Mutation.

I find my first staircase down to L4 and hear a distant snort. And I happen to be a Minotaur. New plan.

Lair 4: Trog hooks me up with 15 runed sling bullets after I handle up on the first wave of enemies next to the stairs. Very nice. There's a lot of water on this level, and I have to watch where I step to stay out of an electric eel's LOS. Then Trog drops a flame-branded longbow on me, which I guess I'll keep around if I end up sticking with axes. But do I really want to train bows now?

The Eel tracks me down and starts shooting at me while I'm dealing with a few green rats. Thankfully, two steel javelins put him down, but I lose them in the water.

I reach level 12 while killing some Blink Frogs and increase my Int to 8. Strength is at 22, which is enough for my plate mail, so I'll be pumping Dex until I find something heavier.

It turns out that Blink Frogs in large numbers kind of hurt. I'm forced to quaff my last Heal Wounds and activate Trog's Hand, then take another eel out with one of my three Frost Wands. And I hear the clock ticking...

A misclick causes me to use my Wand of Polymorph on the next eel I face, turning him into a fire bat. New strategy adopted!

A fire drake appears, and takes out two of my Detect Curse scrolls and one of my Remove Curse scrolls before my BIA takes him out.

I manage to take on an Elephant Slug in a straight fight while losing barely any HP. And then, Labyrinth!

The Labyrinth: I drop to Hungry before I find the Minotaur, then swiftly kill him and grab the loot, which includes an Amulet of the Gourmand (GIMME), a randart amulet that gives me a bunch of resistances but speeds my metabolism and prevents teleportation (I'll keep this around), a +1 Mottled Dragon Armour (do not want), a +2 Plate Armour of Cold Resistance, which I'll drop my +3 Plate Armour for, and a truckload of wands. By the time I'm done, I've got eight wands (three of which are frost, one of which is Fireball), a Scroll of Enchant Weapon I (which I use on my non-Trog sling bullets), a brand new book to burn, and everything identified. NOICE.

Bye bye, curare needles, scroll of immolation, and wand of draining.

Back on Lair 3: I try out Trog's sling bullets on a spiny frog, and they're explosive. Sweet. A Komodo Dragon sickens me and I have to burn a Curing pot to deal with it.

I come out of a side path and end up surrounded by seven War Dogs. Berserk, tab, dead. Back downstairs.

Back on Lair 4: I already explored most of this level while looking for the Lab. While bouncing down to L5, though, I see a group of three Centaurs. One of their frost arrows took out one of my Cure pots. Not nice. I clear out the rest of L4 fairly quickly, summon a BIA, and then drop to 5.

Lair 5: My Deep Troll destroys the Centaurs without any more problems, and I get myself up to Full on their chunks. Lots of War Dogs and Jackals down here.

Nagas! They're guarding the Snake Pit, and their flesh gets me up to Engorged (heh). Trog hooks me up with some poison sling bullets.

Lair 6: While bouncing down to 7, a fire drake takes out a Remove Curse and a Fear scroll. Not cool. I find a Ring of Regeneration to go along with my brand-new Amulet of the Gourmand. VERY cool. I also find an empty Wand of Hasting, and put some juice in it with one of my three Recharging scrolls. Right next to it are two Holy Words. I like this level. I drop all my scrolls before engaging the fire drake again.

Lair 7: I stair-bounce a little to take out the sheep and the fire drake. Near the stairs is the entrance to the Slime Pits and a Jiv altar, neither of which I'm particularly interested in.

Then I run into my first Elephants. I fall back to a chokepoint and berserk, taking two of them out and routing another, but there's more of them! I fall back to the staircase, but an elephant rams me off of it and is now standing on top of it. BIA is called in and we finish them off.

There was also a Boulder Beetle with the elephants, who I manage to go toe-to-toe with. Next find is a Ring of See Invisible, which I decide to keep in my inventory to use as needed.

Behind the next door, I meet my first Hydra! Only four heads on him, and a BIA takes him out with no problem. The BIA also takes out a Boring Beetle before he poofs.

Another BIA helps out with a gang of Necrophages near a strange bunch of dead enemies. I butcher and sacrifice them as needed. I find a Wand of Digging! Utility!

Trog hooks me up with some more poison sling bullets as I'm fighting an Adder, and immediately thereafter I see two elephants. I double-poison one of them, but then it turns out that there are significantly more than two elephants and am forced to BIA my way out of it.

Lair 8: A basilisk and a gang of Blink Frogs convince me to berserk, and get killed. Two Komodo Dragons cost me a Curing pot.

Catoblepas? What the hell is that? A basilisk yak, apparently. Hopefully nothing a BIA can't handle. Sure enough, the two of us take him out, and there's another one right around the corner! I thought these things didn't spawn in herds! Thankfully, he's on the other side of a chokepoint and the same BIA takes him out.

That Cato was running with a rough crowd, though. Specifically, a crowd of death yaks. Wand of Fireball takes out some retreaters and aggros the ones that haven't seen me. I fall back behind the chokepoint and prepare to engage by chugging an Agility pot. They barely put a dent in my HP before they're all dead and retreating. I didn't even bother berserking.

YES. DEATH YAKS CAN NOT HANDLE ME. Trog rewards my might with more sling bullets.

I run into a few more Death Yaks around a corner, so I drop both of my books, fall back, and detonate them. They barely hurt the yaks, but they'll slow down the lesser sheep behind them. Berserk time. Yaks die, sheep die, then I corner one last death yak and finish it off.

Round a corner, more death yaks. Fall back to chokepoint, yak retreats, sling him up. Turns out the new Trog sling bullets are steel with no brand. That's cool, I'll just use the hell out of them.

Round a corner, more death yaks. This time there's a convenient-looking chokepoint leading to an area I haven't explored yet... what could the harm be in utilizing it? Turns out, the harm is another Cato. I summon two BIAs, one to help with the yaks and one to deal with the Cato. Thankfully, they all go down without too much trouble.

Further down the chokepoint, I reach a dead end with some nifty items, including a randart ring with slaying and Str-boosting properties, with no ill side effects. I decide to trade my ring of Poison resistance for it (which I'll still be carrying with me). So now my jewelry situation is a ring of slaying, a ring of regen, and an amulet of the Gourmand. Not too shabby.

I take one last Cato in a straight fight and the Lair is cleared!

XL:13 F:13 Ax:17 UC:11 Ar:13 Sl:11

At this point, I figure that the best move is to go back to the Dungeon before I start messing around with more side branches. That'll have to wait for another day.

To be continued...

...continued!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNhDlzWEUHU

Unfortunately, a portion of my progress has been lost... I decided to clear the first three levels of the Orc Mines before progressing further through the Dungeon. Orc 1 seems to be a single large area, and I've only found one down-staircase on Orc 2, so it's time to break out Magic Mapping and Wand of Digging there.

Also, I achieved max piety at some point and Trog has been dropping sling bullets on me by the truckload.

I find two rooms that I haven't entered. One contains two vanilla orcs and a down staircase. I run into Aizul on Orc 3, bounce him back up, berserk, and take him out. The second room contains a dozen or so vanilla orcs, a few wizards, and an ogre. They die with no problems. Behind them is a down staircase, which drops me into the middle of a roomful of warriors, plus a warlord and two ogres. One BIA, one Trog's Hand, one Berserk and several axe swings later, they're all dead.

Time to explore the rest of Orc 3.

Orc 3: There's a wizard, a troll, and a few vanillas in the Aizul room. They die cooperatively. I've only found one down-staircase on this level, so I know there's more than three rooms, but I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for Orc 4 yet.

Orc 4: Why the hell not. I stair-bounce some vanillas and a priest, and Trog sends me an inferior war axe of flaming. On my next stair bounce, a warrior drops a battleaxe of freezing, which is potentially better than my antimagic axe... just gotta check the stats. Next bounce shows it to be +0,+2... back to the antimagic axe.

A wand of Explosion handles a warrior inexplicably hiding behind a sorcerer as the two of them inexplicably charge into melee range. The antimagic axe then handles the sorcerer. Next find is an entrance to the Elven Halls and a staircase up, which I'll gladly take.

Several hogs charge me as I near the staircase... behind them is Kirke, who turns me into a hog myself! I run up the staircase to escape, directly into a room full of trolls, priests, and other nasties. Back downstairs.

Thankfully, Pig Form makes me Very Quick, and I manage to get back to a safe spot upstairs with little problem. Rather than continue exploring Orc 4, I figure that the move at this point is to dig over to the room I just discovered on 3.

Back on Orc 3: I run my Wand of Digging out after two uses, but hit it with a Recharge and break into the room. It's pretty much the way I remember it, except now I can use my weapons again. Everyone dies. Back to Orc 4.

Back on Orc 4: Hello, Kirke. Berserk. Bye, Kirke.

Next encounter is an Orc Priest, with Nergalle behind him. She only summons one Spectral before I rush her down, then turn around and take out the Spectral.

A previously-unused ceiling escape hatch brings me up to a previously-undiscovered room on Orc 3.

Back on Orc 3: Priests, wizards, vanillas. All die. There's another down-staircase here, which leads to a previously unexplored (and not particularly dangerous) part of Orc 4, as well as an escape hatch up, which I use for completion's sake.

Back on Orc 4: Found the citadel... I take out a few vanillas and warriors when a high priest comes into view. Just as I finish killing him, a Smoke Demon sticky flames me. I use one of my two Blink scrolls just to keep it from burning and to give me some distance, then drop ALL my scrolls, activate Trog's Hand, and finish off the Smoke Demon.

I tank a few more vanillas, then sneak around the back of the citadel and kite a few more warriors and vanillas to death. Next kite nets me a warlord, who drops a +3 Plate Armour of Resist Negative. I trade the +2 of Cold Res for it.

Then I kite WAY too many Priests at once and get killed.

STUFF I LEARNED

Slings are crap, double-especially if you don't have a shield.

Orc 4 is not to be trifled with.

Minotaurs are pretty badass, especially with god-gifted weapons.

Although if you're getting god-gifted weapons anyway, polearms are probably the way to go.