Elynae's Mummy Warper
I randomly selected a character and got a Mummy Warper. Let's give this a shot.
Contents
Pre-Temple
- D:1
I start training Polearms for my spear, but a kobold I kill drops a whip of venom so I promptly swap to Maces&Flails. It helps me kill a hobgoblin in plate armour - +2 plate armour, as it turns out, which I put on. Upon reaching level 3 I raise STR from 14 to 15. I'll eventually need 18 to negate extra penalties for the plate.
- D:2
Just a lot of wimpy monsters.
- D:3
The troll Purgy! I have good AC and a venom weapon, and a scroll of blinking should things go badly, so I confront him and he dies without much difficulty. 2 levels gained! Grinder! Mummies are immune to his Pain spell and his pain-branded claws so I just whip at him. He quaffs a healing potion but eventually dies. Level 6!
- D:4
I pick up a great mace (though at this skill and dungeon level, the whip is way better). Blork the Orc guards the entrance to the Ecunemical Temple. I whip him to death and loot his morningstar. It'll be handy against rPois enemies. At the Temple I join the ranks of Okawaru's followers.
Pre-Lair
- D:4 continued
Pikel! His whip is either electric (very dangerous) or flaming (very dangerous for mummies). I have ?blinking if things go badly so I hope for the best and attack. He electrocutes me upon his first hit so I run away. I am forced to drag him to D:3, then ?blink back to the staircase and run down to D:4. I'll come back soon with Heroism. I come across an old forge. This vault has scorpions and a chance of a high-end but negatively enchanted weapon - executioner's axe or eveningstar. Sometimes it also has the Singing Sword In this case, sadly the axe which is useless for me.
- D:5
I get Heroism and return to level 3 for Pikel's whip. He's in hiding. After an annoyingly long time I find him, invoke Heroism, through darts and axes with my boosted Throwing skill as he approaches, whip him a few times and then retreat while the poison does his work. Victory, and an electric whip! Electrocution is great early on and doubly so on fast weapons. While read-IDing my scrolls I enchant the plate armour to +1. I have three enchant weapon II scrolls which I all put on the electric whip. It's likely that it will have to serve till late Lair. I also read-ID enchant weapon I on it. D:5 is accoridngly easy.
- D:6
The excellent +8 autumn katana {slice, Clar} in a shop for 1.6k gold. Also an ankus of speed and +Blink for 133 gold, but it is sadly -5. Perhaps I'll consider using the katana when I have the mummy, if I don't have a very good demon whip by then. But for now, onwards! Dowan and Duvessa die quickly and easily. I find a food shop (even more useless for a mummmy...), an antique shop selling a scroll of enchant armour (later) and a book shop. I also find the dagger "Morg" which is +5, pain and Int +5 in a shop for 189 gold, but isn't very good for a non-casting mummy with no Necromancy skill, so I move on. At the end of the level I have two books (War Chants and Sky) which are useless for now, and ** Okawaru piety.
- D:7
Since I am probably going to switch to an artefact long blade sooner or later, I throw an additional enchant weapon II scroll on the whip. A ring of fire and a ring of protection from cold! Good! This negates my rF- without hurting my rC+. No monsters of note. Okawaru piety ***.
- D:8
+1 boots of levitation, good. 21 AC now! The Orcish Mines are guarded by many warriors and priests. I spend 8 wand of cold charges and still have a hard time. At least a lot of monsters = a lot of corpses = a lot of piety. Prince Ribbit is a pushover by now. Okawaru piety ****.
- D:9
Okawaru piety ***** and Maces&Flails 12. This is enough to reach mimimum attak delay on whips and demon whips so I devote my training to Armour instead, sturning Maces&Flails off. Using plate at 2.5 skill isn't exactly optimal. Artefact plate! A scroll of acquirement! Now, I really want that katana, so gold it is. 2130 gold pieces, resulting in a total of 2582! YES! H - the +8 plate armour of the Accordion {Str+2 Dex+2} YES YES YES! With the katana in my backpack, training Long Blades instead of armour now, and with 23, I press on quite happy with the way this game is going. I'll switch to the katan once I have appropriate (6-8, I guess) skill.
- D:10
A pack of bees! The venom whip has not outlived its service yet. I use Heroism in a fight against a hill giant, which works fine. Another scroll of acquirement! I have my endgame weapon, decent armour which Okawaru will further improve, but no wand of healing, hasting or teleportation, so I pick Wand. ...and it gives my Polymorph Other. Utterly useless.
- D:11
At Long Blades 6 I decide to use my katana. Easy game from now on. I pick up a shield for later use - after I get mininum delay on this thing and some Fighting and Armour skill, probably. An ice statue guards an Ice Cave. I remove the ring of fire (rC++ now), kill it, and enter.
Interlude - An ice cave
Instantly surrounded by ice beasts, I retreat to a corner and slay them all. The room only has a scroll of random uselessness, some gold and an orcish club, but a teleporter leads to the nest one... with Heroism and Finesse activated I step through. 2 ice statues! Good thing I'm well-prepared and attacking blindingly fast. With 30 HP left I destroy both. However, the loot is just as disappointing here. A chain mail, a staff of death, 26 runes darts and 19 stones. Ring of fire back on and back to the Dungeon!
- D:12
Okawaru grants me his first gift: the +9,+3 sling "Yhaafua" {god gift, speed, rElec rC+ Dex+1}. Not really bad but not really good either, and definitely not suitable for this character at my current skill levels. Maybe he'll help my armour slots soon... I slice a horde of yaks to bits, barely taking any damage. This katana is awesome. A cap of spirit shield for 90 gold. Since I don't actually use my MP for anything other than buffing pre-combat, I buy and wear it. Also, a ring of regeneration for 540 gold. Very useful for mummies in particular - no access to potion healing or Regeneration, no hunger costs. The rest of the level is a heap of dead slime creatures and yaks, Maurice's body parts and beetle legs once I am done with it.
- D:13
A centaur warrior and Jozef with a holy wrath battleaxe would have been a challenge for a normal mummy, but +8 plate armour, +8 katana, Heroism and Finesse remove their "threat" status and intestines quite effectively. Long Blades 12, katana at minmum delay, finally Armour time. +2 boots replace the +1 levitation ones, but I'll keep them in my backpack should I be banished or something. Apropos banishment: Distortion dagger off Sonja! I disintegrate her safely from a distance to avoid being sent to the Abyss. That's me done with the first half (almost) of the Dungeon. I'll head to the Lair now.
The Lair of Beasts
- Lair:1
And yet another ?acquirement! Ugh... wand of fireball. On the bright side, I find a wand of teleportation on the floor.
- Lair:2
I establish my stash here and drop some strategically (but not tactically) useful scrolls and scrolls I have in too large numbers. Otherwise, boring level.
- Lair:3
A +2 buckler from Okawaru - time for Shields 5. A ring of teleport control complements the wand nicely. My first Lair branch is the Snake Pit. Good! I'll take care of that later.
- Lair:4!
A seven-headed hydra! The katana won't be good against that... Heroism and the electric whip do their job well, though. With Shields 5 to negate all buckler penalties I go back to training Armour. 4th acquirement! Better luck this time... invisibility. Ugh. While this has been exceptionally bad luck, perhaps I should start saving these in future, waiting until I identify more wands. Level 13 - now I can restore rotted HP and STR/INT/DEX.
- Lair:5
Greeted by an eight-headed hydra which falls to the same strategy as the last one. Okawaru gives me a much-welcomed +2 cloak of magic resistance. 29 AC and rising!
- Lair:6
Even a death yak pack in the open isn't too hard. Since I have 30 AC now with all that XP, I divert my attention to Fighting. Okawaru piety reaches ******.
- Lair:7
A labyrinth! I map the level and teleport to the entrance.
Interlude: A Labyrinth
I find the metal walls easily, but have a harder time getting right to the centre. When I do, the minotaur dies quickly, but the loot is sadly pretty useless.
- Lair:7 continued
I reach level 14. The layout of this Lair level is open and watery: a lot of lakes with a lot of fish, and a distinct lack of worthy opponents (Gastronok does not qualify).
- Lair:8
A +2 helmet of see invisible seems better than the +0 cap of spirit shield. Perhaps I'll switch back to the cap later when I have more MP and enchant armour scrolls. Fighting 10 reached - time to train Shields so I can upgrade my buckler to a normal shield. I have the jungle_book Lair:8 vault. It's a system of stone corridors with some secret rooms; in one, an anaconda guarding a loot is hiding. If I manage to kill the anaconda, some elephant statues spread out over the various corridors will come to life as dire elephants! Caution necessary. I pass through the corridors, kill some elephants in the first secret room, and face the anaconda. Heroism, seven blows with the katana, victory with only 7 lost HP! Now the worse part of this vault... I add Finesse to fight the first two dire elephants and use a wand of fire to kill two more. Loot time! An amulet of guardian spirit - good stuff; P - the ring "Qeanilul" {rF- Dex-2 Int+3 Dam+6 SInv} - so unbelievably close to being good stuff, and a good swap against non-firey enemies; the +2 pair of boots "Fruaps" {rPois rF++ MR} - excellent, and I can use the Dam+6 ring now! Great loot for Lair:8 standards.
The Orcish Mines
- Orc:1
After leaving the Lair I make my way to the Orcish Mines. Hopefully the shops have something useful (/healing or /hasting would be awesome). A food shop (useless) and a weapon shop (just as useless) and a general store (from which I buy a wand of digging). And of course orcs, orcs, orcs.
- Orc:2
The Orc:2 room is easy. Backtracking to another section of Orc:1 I find a jewellery shop that yields an amulet of conservation (and yet another useless shop, books this time).
- Orc:3
An orc knight, 3 orc warriors, 3 orc priests, 3 orc wizards and 13 orcs welcome me. Heroism, Finesse, 23 more deaths to my blade.
- Orc:4
Okawaru gifts the +6,+5 double sword of Wunaeb {god gift, drain, -TELE +Rage rElec rC+ Stlth++}. Not half bad, not half as good as the autumn katana. However, -TELE can come in handy (for walking over teleport traps) and rElec too, so I keep it as a swap. An orc high priest surrounds me with summons. I foolishy try to kill him and foolishly don't swap in cTele as I teleport, resulting in me being surrounded by orcs at 19 HP. I read ?fear, sending them running, and controlled teleport back to the stairs. Note to self: you're not quite invulnerable. I swap in the ring of fire for rF++ to kill Harold. The old joker Okawaru grants me, in infinite benevolence, the -7 pair of boots of Jeshisk {god gift, Str-2 Dex+5}. The wand of digging comes in handy to unite the two Orc:4 sections, resulting in a corridor to hide in as a nice side-effect. And I lay siege to the end vault! Tons of orcs! Now tons of corpses! A dozen priests that are powerless against the greater power of corner abuse! An open space where they can freely smite me making me run like a little girl in a pink frock! Level 15 - I raise DEX. I want decent EV in plate later, and my STR will never be enough for gold dragon armour. Crystal plate armour would almost be without additional penalties at XL 27 (with a potential STR of 23), but it's really rare. Back to battle! High priests and knights in similar numbers as the weaker orcs before - but Finesse is my friend again. With Shields 11 I switch to Invocations. Without Heroism, I have few shield penalties, with Heroism none - and I need more Finesse success. Finally 4 shops at the edge of my sight. Victory! The first shop has nothing useful, only a few scrolls I don't need. The second one sells a pearl dragon armour for 5k gold. Not only is that hopelessly overpriced, but my plate armour is much better than it anyway. The third shop has a pile of useless weapons. The fourth a heap of junk. Crawl as we know it and love it.
Pre-Vaults
- D:14
Harmless until Louise shows up. I swap in my rElec sword, but she still brings me down to 49 HP. I teleport and come back to try again, swapping in my magic resistance ring to avoid banishment. And this time she doesn't deal any damage at all, I'm still at 110/110 after the fight. Louise had a +1 plate armour of cold resistance. There are only 3 enchant armour scrolls in total lying around the dungeon, and I really hope for rF+ plate, so I leave it where it is. A trove of treasure wants a +4 gold dragon armour. Maybe later. Rupert! Rupert no more! Finesse is at 86% success with his nice chunk of XP so I go back to Shields to negate my penalties.
- D:15
Okawaru finally fills my glove slot with plain +2 gloves, giving me a total of 37 AC. Rivers of lava and multiple salamanders, with centaurs and even a titan hiding behind the molten rock... no thanks, I'm skipping this level for now.
- D:16
A honeycomb-style structure hides the entrance to the vaults. I'm strong enough to easily kill the cyclopes and stone giants in it, and it yields the +1 pair of gloves of Okawaru's Whim {+Blink +Inv Str+2}. With these and my cTele ring, I can semicontrolled blink! I'm actually almost a warper now!
- D:17
Nothing of note.
- D:18
I am buff enough to not take any damage of note from skeletal warriors and centaur packs now. Mara! Heroism, finesse, attack! I kill him with ease... only to find that I slew a mere illusion. However, the next Mara that falls to my blade is the real one! Shields 15... back to Fighting! Agnes, yawn.
- D:19
Snorg deals no damage before his untimely death. I swap to my rElec sword to kill Nikola. The +1 pair of boots of the Snail {god gift, +Blink rF+ rC+} are really good, but with +Blink on my gloves and rF++ on my boots, combined with racial rC+ and a lack of MR, I drop them. Okawaru also gifts an eveningstar of flaming, a good new anti-hydra weapon.
- D:20
Boris puts up a hell of a fight, taking 60% of my HP, but fires an orb of destruction against a metal wall, wasting a precious turn and allowing me to shove my katana about his skeletal ribs. And that's the next episode of exploring the Dungeon over! Vaults time!
The Vaults
- V:1
With 15 Fighting and "only" 35 AC I train Armour again.
- V:2
Four hydrae - is this level pretending to be Lair? Anyway, the Crypt entrance is here, so I'll take a holiday from any form of difficulty and go grab some easy XP.
The Crypt
The Crypt is so monotonus and boring that I'll just keep it as one diary entry instead of going into detail. Boots of running! Now, these are nearly always strictly the best boots for any character with no Swiftness... but I'm torn between neutral rF/extra MR *and* Dam +6/sInv and this. In particular, no speed 10 melee monster is actually threatening to this character, and these are the type that running negates as threats. So I'll stick with my current configuration, at least until plate armour of fire resistance. Mennas! Heroism, Finesse, victory at 128/143 HP! This will probably result in infinite hubris and a prompt death to some ridiculously non-threatening monster, but yay! I am basically immortal! And yes! I spend too long surrounded by curse skull summons and am bashed down to 30 HP... that hopefully brought me to reason. Even the final level is just the same skeletal warrior spam, only to an even greater extent, with a few dancing weapons thrown in. Back to the Vaults. I'm at XL 20 with all that XP.
Back to the Vaults I
- V:2 continued
Nothing of note.
- V:3
After killing Azrael Okawaru smiles upon me and gifts me a +4 plate armour of fire resistance! I grab all enchant armour scrolls lying about the dungeon and enchant it to +10 - that's me set for the rest of the game! 41 AC at my current level of Armour skill. With a bit of switching equipment I can wear my boots of running just fine. ?acquirement - wand of hasting, finally! I take on and clear the D:15 lava river vault I fled from earlier.
- V:4
I find the amulet of the Air {cFly +Lev rElec EV+3 Stlth++} in a shop. Seems like a pretty solid rElec swap, especially since I don't want to use my mediocre double sword against titans, storm dragons and electric golems, so I buy it for the fair price of 616 gold.
- V:5
After a short brawl with some orcs I find an entrance to the Hall of Blades.
The Hall of Blades
A hand axe of distortion is luckily defeated before it can banish me. The rest of the level is Heroism, Finesse, slaughter, with only one distortion weapon in addition to the first.
Back to the Vaults II
- V:5 continued
I acquire a wand of heal wounds! This always gives me a sense of security on my mummy games - I've compensated every large problem of this race, the rF- with my armour, the inability to cure confusion with Clar on my sword, and the lack of a stomach with this wand.
- V:6
Nothing of note.
- V:7
A cloak of preservation! Good stuff!
The Tomb of Ancients
This diary is degenerating to a list of uniques I killed without taking damage and items I found, so let's add some spice by doing one of the hardest areas of the game at XL 21. Granted, mummies resist torment and many death curses, making the Tomb of Ancients a lot easier, but it will still be an "exciting" (suicidal) trip.
Tomb:1, part I
First of all, I swap from preservation to magic resistance. Not a lot of monsters here destroy items, but one paralysis from the sphinx pack guarding the pyramid (I guess it's pyramid or something?) would cost my life. Second, there is basically no fire damage and cTele is disabled, so the rF- Dam+6 ring is better than cTele in here too. 5 sphinxes at once! Ugh. Haste, Heroism, victory at 34 HP. Whew. That's the area around the inner structure cleared. Greater mummies and mummy priests await me within. I open the door, kill three priests without much trouble and start attacking a greater mummy, which does surprisingly nothing before being reduced to a pile of bandages. I am a traitor to my race. The following guardian mummies are wonderfully easy if they can't rot or pain you upon dying. 2 greater mummies at once! I drag them to the stairs at the edge of my sight, but they manage to surround me with summons. I am forced to kill them with Heroism and Finesse - or rather, I forgot that I have Blink, but hey, I survived. I need Traps&Doors for the second level of Tomb, so off goes Fighting for now. And that's the first part of Tomb:1 reached! Only the pyramid's rim, accessible from Tomb:2 alone, remains to be cleared.
Tomb:2, part I
Contrived as an ambush, this level instantly surrounds you. A reincanation of Boris hides among the mummy hordes. It doesn't help him though. Good-bye a second time! In a long and tedious process of dragging mummies up stairs, I kill all mummy priests, greater mummies and guardian mummies. There was one incident where I was too stupid to swap out rF- against a sun demon summon, but otherwise it was pretty smooth. Besides the main hall, the level has many small rooms. Too small to be of any significance. Onwards, back to Tomb:1!
Tomb:1, part II
This part of Tomb:1 is basically a rectangular ring filled with greater mummies at regular intervals. It's good experience without being that threatening, especially with rTorm and my boots of running. Frederick! Slash, hack, dead. One by one I kill the greater mummies. With Traps&Doors 9 I feel safe enough to train Fighting again.
Tomb:2, part II
By now I am XL 24 and have 21 Fighting. This part of Tomb:2 is another set of non-threatening small rooms with traps. It is quickly cleared.
Tomb:3
The final episode of this adventure! First ~20 guardian mummies which I drag up the stairs, then the same procedure with the more dangerous mummy priests and greater mummies, one by one. Okawaru gifts crystal plate armour, but it's unbranded and my STR is only 20. The +10 fire resistance plate armour is better, for the meantime at least. Finally, after much tedium, I hold the golden rune in my hands! As the first rune of Zot in this run, too (screw conventions)! XL 25, 23.5 Fighting, 220 HP... the rest of "midgame" will be a breeze. In the Tomb loot I find the Sceptre of Torment. Torment halves the HP of every living creature in sight, and this weapon torments on every second hit... jackpot! The best mummy secondary weapon ever! And I even have appropriate weapon skill from my electric whip days! In the second loot room, yet another reincanation of Boris. Better luck third time? Nope! A manual of Dodging. I've been training DEX for this, so I may as well start now.
