Badboniac, The Vampire Years
Contents
He's back!
It's been a while. After major frustration, and even giving up the quest for quite a while (back in the .7 days), Badboniac is back with a new perspective, a new attitude, and a new character. Say hello to Badboniac, The Vampire Years.
Note: Playing .9 version.
So close
Close, and even close enough. My last run, I came so very close. Three runes. All levels finished but for the last floors on two levels. But there was a problem. It was boring.
I just wasn't having fun. And the reason is that big S word. Specialization. I made the mistake of having many skills turned on. So at the point of being ready to enter Zot, I was at 27 in Spellcasting, but only 19 in Summoning. And there was just no way to level up, with almost every vault completed.
So I entered Vault:8, knowing I would probably die. And I did. Suicide by vault guard. But this time, it's going to be different.
Enter the conjuror
My play style is to nuke from afar, and thus a vampire is born. Having no food clock, being able to cast spell after spell- this is very cool.
Conjuror isn't so hot, admittedly. Vamps ain't so great at conjuring! But I think I can make it work. Mephitic Cloud, I love you. Here we go.
The first day
Magic Dart is kinda wow. On the one hand, it kills Kobolds etc with surprising ease. On the other, a small snake with its high EV takes 6 shots to kill. That could be trouble, going forward.
Nice. Throw Frost is a decent upgrade. Nice! Mephitic Cloud here we are. This is a game changer. Casting it at Fair is only OK, but it will get better.
Skills update. I won't make the same mistake I made last time. This run, I will train:
- Spellcasting
- Conjurations
- Ice
- Air
- Poison
And that's it. This will allow me to have Mephitic, Poison, and Freezing Cloud, and get them to high levels. I would like to get Stealth and etc up, but frankly I need the magic skills more than the others.
Next day
Level 4 now, and rolling. Wa hoo!, an Ossuary! But there's a problem. I really shouldn't enter, at my current level. But I'm going in anyway.
The Ossuary
Big mistake! Magic Dart doesn't handle Mummies very well. At least not when you've got other zombies attacking. The procedure is Swiftness, then back away as I fire Magic Dart at them. But it isn't hitting hard enough, and they are ganging up on me.
Yowch! Low hitpoint warning! 3 HP left!
Time to face the facts. I can't beat this place. Exiting. Damn.
Level 8
Wow. I'm at level 8. Magic Dart at Excellent, Mephitic Cloud at Great. Could be a good game!
Weapon!
A Vampiric dagger! Now we're talking. Only a dagger, and frankly I don't fight too often, but it will be good to finish them off, or regain a little HP when needed.
I'm a jerk
I know the whole point of the game is to kill creatures and get the orb, but I'm such a jerk about it. Imagine, you're a worker ant, living your life. You take a quick nap. Suddenly, you're surrounded by poison gas, and some asshole in a robe is shooting magic darts at you. No wonder everyone is trying to stop you from getting the orb.
A close call
Almost died! A water moccasin skeleton almost killed me. They take not much damage from Magic Dart, are immune to my current cold attack, and shrug off Mephitic Cloud. After knocking me down to half my HP, I retreat up the stairs. Rest and heal.
Cool find
On level 6 of the dungeon, I find a Staff of Conjuration. Not bad!
Level 8
Time to memorize a new spell, so I head upstairs for a little quiet. And run into an orc priest! Well, how about a little Meph cloud, father?
That helps, but Magic Dart doesn't hurt him enough, so I go in with vamp dagger blazing.
That dagger is amazing. He smites me, I hit him and get the HP back. He dies, I get the EXP, and am still at 100% HP. Dust to dust...
Darn. I have no spells to memorize.
Good/Bad
A Rod of Smiting! That's good. Menkaure! That's bad. A centaur! That's bad. Kill him with Mephitic Cloud. That's good. Found the Temple. That's good. No altar to Sif Muna. That's bad. Found the altar to Sif not 30 steps away. That's good.
Met Joseph. That's....not too bad really. Meph and meph again! Argh! Throw Frost just isn't doing it. He's hurt, but I need to close the door and retreat.
Joseph opens the door, shoots a stone at me, and I die.
Darn.
Brrrrr
Start again! Ice Elementalist. Good aptitude for it, and I do like Summon Ice Beast- works nice with poison. Let's get it on!
Dead at level 4.
Hey you! Come here!
The last major success I had was as a summoner. So here we go.
Call Canine Familiar. A great spell.
I now have enough levels to summon Ice Beast. But I'm not going to. Last time I did this, I gained Ice skill. Which is great, but it's yet another skill to split experience with. So, I'm not going to do so. I'm going to keep two skills active. Spellcasting and Summoning. Once Summoning is at 10, I will look into Summon Ice Beast.
Level 6
Casting canines more reliably. Summoning at 6.
Bottling blood very nice. In the past, I never much did so. But now I see the advantage of always having one or two potions of blood around. I usually go bloodless, so thats doubly true.
Although, when I do get Ice, I'm going to pursue it. Simulacrum is good. Ice form I have never used, but it does sound good.
Wow. Shops galore. Two scroll shops, wand shop, and the useless-for-vampires food shop.
Hmm. I'm still without a good weapon. Using just plain sabre. Keep looking.
Cool. A Temple layout I've never seen. Corrupted Temple? No Sif Muna though.
Very cool. A portal. Bailey. Might be a bit tough at this point, but I'm going for it.
The Bailey
Yowch. Twisting little passages. This will make it tough for me to summon an army.
Argh! Orcs on the other side of water, with weapons of reaching. And I have no way to reach them!
Well, here's the plan. Memorize Call Imp. They can fly, and it's at a low enough level that I can spawn an army. I have a scroll of amnesia, to forget it later if I need.
That's a bit better. The orcs chewed up my dogs, but the imps caused them a good amount of trouble. Retreat and heal. I have three potions of blood left. Time to summon an imp army!
Actually, that won't be necessary. I'll just go bat form, fly over the water (it's only 1 square) then go normal form, and summon Canines again. Easy.
One nice thing about this map, I see a lot of exit portals.
I see a bit of gold, and several orc warriors, through the glass walls.
The Baily front door has two orc warriors and two orc knights. All with reaching weapons, I'm sure. But these are behind lava, not water. Well, imp time! I just wish I had Poison Cloud at this point- they'd be dead with zero risk to me. Ah well.
This is slow going. Imps don't hit very hard. So my strategy will be, summon imps to harass them, and when an orc crosses the lava, I will summon canines to attack him. Slow, but I think effective. It's a portal though. I can always bail out if needed.
Whut oh! An orc warrior. I am low on mana. This might be the end. Bat form to escape, but there is no escape with his weapon of reaching!
Ok, no problem. Bat form to run away, and I guess he forgot about me. rest to get mana, then cast Canines until dry. That orc will rue the day he forgot about me!
Ah sweet death for him! and just to be a jerk, I'm draining his corpse. Back to the Bailey.
Wow. Thousands of turns. But finally got them. Gained some good experience, and a pair of Pitted gloves.
Nice! rC+, MV on the gloves.
Now it gets interesting
Found the entrance to the Mines, but decided to explore a little before I go. Good thing too, because I found a book. Book of Conjurations!
Magic Dart will train Conjurations, and give me an attack spell, if only a small one. Later, Mephitic Cloud for Poison and Air. And with those two at an OK level, learn Freezing cloud. That will be the total of my skills being trained.
Oh, and Invocations for Sif Muna's channeling ability.
WIN!
July 22, 2012. Badboniac the VpSu wins the game!!!
