Hubertus XLIII the Ruinous (Demigod)
For Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.13.1
The Character
The ancestry of the line of Hubertus has it's origins in Xom. Unpredictably, he coupled pretty often. Sometimes he mated with humans or other species, sometimes he gave birth somehow by himself. I play many of his afterlings, one by one (so this is currently the 43th try to win the game with a demigod) and tried melee fighters, ranged fighters and casters, mainly I just tried out what works best by using wanderers. This background in fact also seems to fit into the storyline best and it gives me the creeps to see what kind of start I'll have. I kind of like demigods, because they have a rather hard midgame, because of no god and their slow leveling, but I always hoe to make it to the point, where I can travel to the abyss and level up as long as I want. After some training, their high stats should compensate everything and make them pretty untouchable - that is - at least- what I am hoping for.
Basically, this one is a wanderer given the following: Stats: Str 15 Int 17 Dex 14 Spells: Magic Dart recognized Items: Bread ration, +0+0Club, +0Robe, book of Geomancy Skills: Spellcasting 1,7 | Conjurations 2,6 | Air Magic 1,0 | Earth Magic 1,7 | Evocations 1,7
A funny thing, that he has already some air magic, while training it at a -5 aptitude, maybe it will come in handy. Of course I first saw what this character had, then I decided to try a new diary - Earth magic seems next to fire magic to give the best possibilities of making it through the early game.
Hubertus XLIII is pretty self-convinced. After hearing like the most fearsome stories about this place, he decided to make himself immortal by owning the place completely. Thus he plans not to go before everything in the dungeon is his or at his feet.
Dungeon 1
Magic Dart and Sandblast seem to make a good starting combination. Both still have a hunger cost of #, but are at 10% and 12% success rate. I will first train both Conjurations and Earth Magic. After the lava-surrounded hallway and the 2-tile-gate I find an orange and a murky blue potion, a +0 leather armour, a scroll, 11 darts of dispersal, an amulet of guardian spirit and some bolts. Nice starting! I think the amulet is a bad idea with 5 MP, but I'll take it and the bolts with me. Also, that reminds me of my long-term plans about having a really long game with Hubertus this time, so I firstly turn on the autopickup for almost everything, as long as I can carry it. Another scroll even before the first enemy. A Dwarven Hand axe, which replaces my club while only doing more damage, no downsides (and dwarven = often enchanted, right?).
Then finally a Hobgoblin, sleeping next to his hard earned money of 13 gold pieces. Magic darted before coming into sandblast range. He left another club. I don't think I'll need it for throwing, but who knows? A one-shot cockroach. Next a goblin with 10 gold and an elven dagger. Even though it seems that nothing can stand in my way, I rest after everything - there is enough food for that around. I Dart a bat and then a kobold with together three shots (2 for the bat, one for the kobold) and try to grab the dwarven cloak as a hobgoblin appears. This one just won't die. I shoot my MP out, I hit him several times, I shoot when MP is restored, then I run away and shoot when I can, since my melee sucks. In the end I manage to shoot him dead with 2 remaining HP out of 15 and no MP - a reminder, that not everything is so easy as it seems? But Conjurations got to level three, like a prize. The cloak is +0, but at least not corrosive.
After Magic Dart is now at 6% I turn Conjurations off to get my Sandblast better, and after a Kobold Earth magic moves to 2. Still 12% chance. I find a ring of ice, but take it off again.
Dungeon 2
After some time I find a room with gnolls and more, which I firstly skip (thank gramps they did not notice me). I ran into Terence then. Tough nut, it took a lot of kiterunning, restoring mana, throwing of clubs and darts of dispersal, but I managed it. I take his mace and wield it, a chain mail explained why he was so tough (Could have seen that earlier). I find the pack of four gnolls somewhere roaming aroung in search of me, after I fully explored the leven. I kitekill three of them, until I have to flee to level 1 and rehab while killing a giant newt.Nice experience, now my Conjurations and Earth Magic are both three, and my Spellcasting 2.9, but already reducing the spell hunger of level 1 spells to 0. I'll get it to three, then I'll get Stoneskin and Stone Arrow to under 10%. Wow, after finishing off the gnoll a pack of jackals and a giant gecko appear - this level still had much to find after fully exploring it. But I didn't find any stones up to now, so I rely almost entirely on Magic Dart.
Dungeon 3
I manage to kill an adder, a ball python and an orc in a narrow hallway supplied with stoneskin. The orcish leather armour was -1 and cursed, so I burnt all 4 of my scrolls to remove it. In the process I fount out, that one of them must have been enchant armour or recharging and one was a scroll of noise, bringing me another adder. So one of the scrolls just did nothing, who knows? After resting a goblin moves in, complemented by a hobgoblin, which carried two unidentified scrolls of the same type. Could easily be identification, so I try them out: Nope, teleport! Oops, I went up like 4 tiles :P But nice, another one left, so finally a good chickening out possibility. Oh wow, after another hobgoblin I found a Book of Ice! Not my favourite choice, I'd like to go on more destructive magic (fire 'em up!), but still all spells but Ozocubu's Refrigeration have two magic schools in them, so I might use some of them after a while. For example Bold of Cold sounds nice. Ensorcelled Hibernation could also come in handy, since it is easy to learn and use. Could go for a stab-way of life for the near future... but it is on 28% and low spellpower, so I would have to put big effort into training both Hexes and Stealth, and then supposedly even in Short Blades - that seems like a whole load of effort, so I'll just stick to the damage spells for now and a little Transmutations for stoneskin and later Statue Form. Experience is at this point of the game really rare and should not go to waste for anything that is not in for an immediate bonus of survivability.
I walk and stumble upon an altar of my gramps, Xom in a narrow hallway. as I want to go through his excluded area of possible flames to say hello (and by the way getting that glowing orcish short swort lying around halfway) I get caught in a net fired from a hole in the wall. I rip it apart and take the rest of it... maybe it will be of use. Behind me I found a needle trap, which I manage to disarm directly - my way back from my anestor should be safe now. One step before the glowing short sword (which made me think of maybe rethinking the stabbing way of life) I fell through a shaft and am right now landing in dungeon level 5, not far from a giant gecko skeleton. I think I should blast that with the stones lying next to me and thenn get the hell out of here upstairs! Oh... it didn't even make it in range. But the scorpion behind the next corner did. Thanks for the stones, Xom, if it weren't for them maybe I would have died here. This scorpion looked pretty tough and poisoning. Still I am a mere mortal. See you in a month or so, when I'm through with this dungeon. Ah, and there is the stairs up a level - just have to find the next ones now, I still want that glowing sword. Argh, poisoned by a worker ant. Smash with Sandblast and move on. ARGH, centaur behind bushes - not that way, but lure the worker ant out there. Killed the worker ant after taking one shot. Killed the hound with Sandblast too. Rested. Shit, should have gone back down the stairs for regenerating! While I try to, the centaur destroys his bush and comes at me. He shoots 2 times, I use my scroll of teleport while I'm at 1 HP and manage to dodge. Now how to survive the next rounds until it kicks in? Can he shoot through a throwing net (if I don't miss him)? Suppose so. Stoneskin won't be enough - I will pray that one of my two potions (the one I drink) can save me or I just dodge. The potion of brilliance did nothing but enhance my mind in the moment of crossing the river.
Epilogue
Somewhere in between
"Fuck you, gramps, I know that was your doing. Piss fucking off!"
While demonic laughtering crosses through the room with lightspeed instead of soundspeed
"You are merely my randomness, did you really believe you would be able to surpass mortality and get on a level with me, your creator? Don't make me laugh and be quiet now for I will erase your finities and give your eternal a new form... maybe as an oklob sapling?"
Indeed this could either offend or please Fedhas Madash, or kick in the planet's route a little bit...
P.s. Maybe there is coming more. Maybe I'll try some more Xom ancestry while typing it down ; )
