Westheim, the Draconian Skald
Draconian Skald is a combo that I haven’t played so far, so this could get either very interesting, or very brief. I entered with a spear, some bread, and a book of war chants, but didn’t know any spells yet.
D:1
Encounter one was a bat, but next I met a kobold with darts of flame. I managed to kill him and took his short sword to eventually prepare some meal for the way.
I had some problems to get through the hordes on the level. Picked up a few stones to soften up targets. Kobolds and hobgoblins were tough to kill with just a pointy stick.
I chose Freezing Aura as my first spell, since cold should work well against the natural monsters encountered early on. Since I have no experience in enchanters and so on (at least not many successful attempts), this can go totally wrong. One thing did go totally wrong already: I found a ring, wore it, and it was cursed.
D:2
Found a ring of levitation, a shield for some protection, and was building up a stash of scrolls, but few potions so far. I lacked a powerful ranged attack and had no armour. Overall the level was rather empty and not very helpful in getting ahead. I also miscast Freezing Aura about 80% of times, so it was not really any help so far.
D:3
Food was a concern at the moment, with little butcherable corpses. This was a 5x5-rooms layout and things got a little crowded when I ran into Terence when I already had a goblin, an adder, and a bat on my scales. I couldn’t get rid of him and it took a long time and was very painful to kill him just with my worthless spear. Needless to say, Aura didn’t work a single time.
A gnoll almost killed me. I had already ID-ed scrolls of teleportation before trying to get away from two adders, and this time teleported away with 1 HP left. Landed on top of a rat and a newt and wiggled through. Adders and gnolls were at the moment almost unbeatable for me and there were a lot of them on this level. I was already level 4, but I was no match at all for them.
Killed another adder in one of the upper rooms, but was poisoned… Freezing Aura had failed to work again. Picked through my scrolls and found three of fog (well, now two), then found identify. ID’ed potions of restore abilities, scrolls of enchant weapon, recharging, and fear. That last one could become useful at some point. Once, of course.
Struggled to kill an ooze, then turned around a corner and found Sigmund, and RAN, RAN, RAN away.
D:4
Could it get worse? It could. Ran into a ghost right in the first room. It was a deceased centaur hunter, so outrunning him would be a challenge. Two kobolds got between him and me, and I dropped down an escape hatch.
D:5
One more kobold and a mite do deal with. They almost had me, until I resorted to despair-quaff my potions. The first was might, the second heal wounds. With this, the opponents were toast, one kobold dropped a short sword of speed. Of course, all this didn’t help at all. My AC was 5 – enough said.
I wasn’t able to catch a break. A band of goblins and a few of nature’s minor beasts attacked me and I could hardly slay them in a corridor. Got a few poisoned darts.
Continued to wander and ran into a scorpion, but I managed to dodge him and continued in the other direction. There I ran into Edmund. Turned around but the scorpion was already there. They chased me around the level and into a dead end.
Teleported out and right into the MIDDLE between Dovan and Duvessa. Used my last teleporting scroll immediately. This time I ended up in a remote section of the level with only a rat as companion. A tasty rat, I must say.
Maybe it was that cursed ring. Maybe it was a Ring of General Unluckiness. The next scroll I found was the one to remove curses and I took it off.
D:4
I eventually found a stair up and ended up right next to where I had dropped down an escape hatch earlier. I moved just two squares to pick up gold and two kobold immediately came out and cut me off from the stairs. The ghost showed up soon and the running game began again. I eventually managed to lose the ghost somewhere and continued into a dead end with a distillery. Put all my money into potions of curing and heal wounds and one of might. Next found a food shop, but by now I was broken.
Rounded the corner and found a worker ant. Of course. For once, Freezing Aura worked and I froze it to death, but was poisoned again.
Next found another scroll of identify. ID-ed scrolls of enchant armour (if I just had any!!), potions of degeneration (great), and the cursed ring I had ran around with for ages. Guess what. It was a -3, -2 ring of slaying. Yaaaay. No wonder I couldn’t hurt anything.
D:3
Went up further to look for some easy XP, while staying away from the left part of the level, where Sigmund was roaming free. Killed a kobold for a blowgun and poisoned needles. There was a strange alignment of dead corridors to the bottom of the level but I found no secret doors.
D:4
Blundered into the centaur ghost again, this time without any help of kobolds to hold him off. The stairs were far away when I met him. I had no chance to beat him, and I had no means of teleportation anymore. Took my sword of speed, quaffed a potion of might, and –
… killed the ghost. Nobody was more surprised than me to see that, not even the ghost. Now, thus strengthened and up to level 6 – I was almost killed by Ijyb with a wand of cold. It took all my healing potions and a potion of might to kill him.
Continued and found a book of Power. Which was of no use to me, since I couldn’t even properly put a spear in the fridge… got a few more potions, scrolls, food, and steal darts.
D:5
Almost slammed into Dowan again, then found a portal to the sewer. Oh. Well.
Sewer
Slashed and pierced through scores of rats, geckos, and mites while circling through the lengthy sewer. Then rounded a corner and ran into a jelly. I pounded the thing with stones, but missed a few and in the water it then managed to catch up and splashed me with acid.
And I died there, very quickly.
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That’s about the most unfortunate run you can have. No armour found anywhere, and that ring of slaying was just mean … well … I guess I’m a terrible player.
