Elynae's Ogres

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

Hi! Here, you'll find my attempts to ascend various Ogre characters. I hope you'll have fun reading and maybe be encouraged to play some terrible characters with painful aptitudes, abysmal EV and little to no AC. Oh, and did I mention the fast metabolism and the fact that they can't use bucklers?

I will be playing the 0.8. Trunk version online on crawl.develz.org. If this changes over the course of the diary, I'll notify you up here.

Ogre Stalker

I'll aim for a hybrid build with Spellcasting, Necromancy, Fighting and Maces & Flails. I chose the Stalker because I will have Fulsome Destillation and Evaporation, extremely strong spells in the early game. I will worship Kikubaaqudgha for Necromancy spellbooks.

Early dungeon, pre-Temple

D:1! The quest for the Orb begins! A hammer lies next to the staircase I entered the dungeon from. My +2, +2 club is basically rubbish, so I toss it aside. I turn of Stealth, Stabbing and Dodging so as not to waste XP. At the end of D:1, I have a nice collection of confusion potions. I can train Transmutations and Necromancy without corpses by casting Fulsome Distillation with "Z" instead of "z" with XP in my pool, which helps a lot.

On D:2, I meet a snake. In the knowledge that it could easily kill me at this stage of the game, I evaporate a potion of confusion and then maul the snake to death. It helped by biting itself. Terence meets the same fate. Thanks for the mace! I turn around a corner and find myself peering into Crazy Yiuf's hut. Time for more confusion! I wish some kobold would leave corpse soon. Crazy Yiuf dies but puts up a good fight even while confused- that staff hurts! More importantly than his +0 cloak, in his hut he has a hammer of holy wrath. Bye-bye, bog-standard hammer, it was rubbish while it lasted. Nothing worth mentioning happens afterwards on this level.

Level 3 and D:3! And Sigmund! I cast Evaporate at him. But I miscast the spell, and first thing he does is confuse me! I survive the confusion. Now that I can cast spells again, I fire another potion of confusion at his. It works flawlessly. To be safe, I poison him. He dies quickly.

The ghost of WasJordan - a weakling Felid Fire Elementalist - appears as I am recovering from the fight. I flee around a corner. The ghost will be level 1-3, so it's not much of threat. For emergencies, I have a potion of heal wounds. Emergencies? I take a good swipe at it with my hammer, and it dies with that one hit. Level 6! Transmutations hits level 3 and I turn it off to train Necromancy more. I only want it for Evaporate after all. A kobold drops an orcish whip of reaching. Though I doubt that I'll ever need it I take it with me. The next one poisons me severely. I find a quiet spot to rest.

With the +4 ring of protection and the +2 wizard hat I find on D:4, I'm less squishy. Soon, I find a distillery. I buy a potion of confusion, one of paralysis for evaporating and a potion of healing and two of heal wounds to save my life.

D:5 - the Temple should appear soon. And hey presto, there it is! Right next to it, I find a Book of Conjurations (fire+earth). Useless. I drop it in the Temple and join Kikubaaqudgha. While I'm at it, I don't want my 5 scrolls of recharging to be burnt, so I lay them down beside the book.

Early dungeon, pre-Mines

D:6, on we go! Oops. I cursed my orcish flail. And I'm low on permafood - two meat rations and one lychee. Luckily, I find two rations a dozen turns later. So I'm not in imminent danger yet. A royal jelly, an apple and a scroll of enchant weapon II to uncurse the flail follow suit.

Is the whole dungeon spammed up with kobolds that wield blowguns? That's probably the fourth! And there's Edmund! Luckily, he is no threat when confused, and what's more, he had a +2, +2 spiked flail of protection. An antique weapon shop I find has nothing interesting - three randarts but nothing I use.

I open a door and find myself confronted with a large number of kobolds and big kobolds. Two potions of confusion and three potions of poison later, I find myself confronted with a large mass of corpses to distill poison from and Kikubaaqudgha's first gift - the book of Necromancy! I memorise Regeneration, Vampiric Draining and Dispel Undead immediately as I have Necromancy 5 and Spellcasting 5.

Down to D:7! I find a Book of Air after killing an ogre. Swiftness will come in handy and it trains Charms, so I memorise it. Yet another book: a Book of Maledictions. Useless. For now, I'll return to the Temple to drop all my books and some potions. Back on the level, I find and kill Eustachio. Beside him is a sand-covered staircase. I brace myself and head downwards.

Portal vault: The Ossuary

I face three mummies. Dispel Undead greatly helps in the fight. I'm so glad potion curses were removed. The rest of the ossuary simply consists of minor undead like goblin zombies, and traps that deal no serious damage. I raid the well-filled loot chamber. Nothing is much of use, though, only a few potions and two scrolls of random uselessness and one of enchant armour.

Early dungeon, pre-Mines (II)

Thanks to my Charms 1 skill, I can now cast Swiftness and Regeneration at Good. Kikubaaqudga's spells and my spiked flail of protection make D:8 a party. A Deep Elf ghost I encounter dies swiftly to Dispel Undead without casting a single spell, and Vampiric Draining trivialises the rest.

D:9 hosts another ghost: TGW's KeCj. It dies to two casts of Dispel Undead. And, after slaying a few critters, I find the staircase to the Orcish Mines. This character is very good here as I can freely confuse everyone, so I head downstairs. .

The Orcish Mines

On Mines:1 I am greeted by a large welcome committee. Two potions of confusion make short work of the orc priest, 2 wizards, meatshield orcs and ogre. The second level is similar: another densely filled small pocket. As there is only one staircase up - the one I came from - I return and explore the rest of Mines:2. Nothing is there except four orcs, so Mines:3 here I come! After a few orcs killed there, Kikubaaqudgha's piety reaches ***! A new book! From it, I memorise Corpse Rot and Sublimation of Blood. Agony, another nice spell, is in the book as well. As soon as I gain another Necromancy and Spellcasting level, I'll memorise it.

I round the corner and suddenly face deep elves. Two magi and five soldiers, and to make matters worse, an orcish high priest, two sorcers and a warlord are behind them. I step back and manage to lure out a few deep elves. A soldier fires some arrows at me. I should have memorised Repel Missiles - which is shown again as the orc warlord lifts a crossbow and begins shooting at me. In a heated fight, I kill the orc warlord and two deep elf magi. I'm level 10 - doesn't this show how powerful Evaporation is? I hit level 11. With the experience I just gained (~3500) I can memorise Agony and cast it at Very Good.

What's this? An ice cave in the Orcish Mines? And guarded by an ice dragon and a couple of yaks and polar bears? Erk. But I have a wand of fire and a "no risk, no fun" mentality. One of the polar bears does serious damage, though, so I have to retreat and try again. I dispatch the ice dragon with four zaps of my wand - which was quite unlucky. The Ice Cave entrance has melted away by now. Perhaps it's better this way as I won't risk my life. As there's nothing to do here now, I walk downstairs to brave Orc:4.

I have piety **** and am rewarded with torment resistance and a Book of Unlife. A player ghost appears while I'm resting. It's a Kenku Air Elementalist, but between level 11 and 15 (powerful) this time. I try dispelling it, but it brings me down to 23 in two lightening bolt hits. I blink, read a scroll of fog, heal myself. It appears again. Hoping for luck, I quaff brilliance, then dispel. It's down to "severely damaged" in one hit. Expecting death, I cast Dispel Undead again - and miscast. At 99% chance and exactly at the moment where my life is at stake. Luckily, I am still at 34 HP. My next cast kills it, and I get a nice chunk of XP.

But just as I rest and heal up, a Troll Berserker ghost appears. And I'm at 10 MP, which gives me two Dispel Undead and one Swiftness cast. I severely wound it with Dispel Undead, so instead of casting Swiftness I retreat a few steps, cast again and kill it. As if that wasn't enough, as soon as I reach full HP and MP an Ogre Berserker ghost appears. It dies just as quickly as the last ones. Level 12!

This level is filled with centaurs, centaur warriors and crossbow-wielding orc warriors. Evaporate and Vampiric Draining solve all situations. And now I can reap the rewards: a good old shopping spree. Armed with new scrolls of blinking and a wand of teleportation I leave the Mines.

Early dungeon, pre-Lair

I return to the Temple, memorise Animate Dead to use it in the Lair (hydra zombies and yak zombies are quite strong), and Pain to finish of fleeing creatures. In addition, I recharge my wands of cold, fire and draining for emergencies. Thus prepared, I make my way downwards. On D:9, I fall down a shaft to D:11 and hear a distant snort! A Labyrinth! I'd appreciate some good loot now, so I start searching. It turns into a frantic hunt while the clock ticks faster and faster. Finally, I find the Labyrinth and immediately enter.

Portal vault: The Labyrinth

In the Labyrinth, you have to proceed from rock walls to stone walls to metal walls, where you find the Minotaur, loot and escape hatch. I begin wandering, keeping an eye on the wall type. Soon, I find Mr. Minotaur and confuse him. He is in a corner and is wielding a demon trident of flaming, so I play safe and zap him with a wand of fire. The loot is mediocre - a scroll of blinking, a scroll of enchant weapon II, a wand of random effects, a ring of levitation and an unknown ring.

Early dungeon, pre-Lair (II)

Upon leaving, I see LordSloth's ghost, an experienced MDEE. It's not even level 11 yet, so I attack and swiftly kill it. I clear the level and walk up to D:10. On D:12, I find the Lair of Beasts. Before we go in, I'll take a look at D:13. A bailey!

Portal vault: The Bailey

This bailey is filled with orcs behind a moat of deep water, poking at me with polearms of reaching. But what I can't take out with Pain, I use Evaporate on. Loot? A pile of polearms and a bit of gold. Bah.

Early dungeon, pre-Lair (III)=

I come across a troll and skin him. I enchant his hide and now have a troll leather armour. Moments later, I find a ring of wizardry sitting on the ground waiting to be picked up. Now I can cast all my spells at Excellent in troll leather armour! And a wand of healing is just lying there as well! Whee! Now to cruise through the Lair. Get your sunglasses and prepare for a relaxing trip.

The Lair of Beasts

Upon entering Lair:1I get attacked by yaks. They are goring me from two sides, so I rely on Vampiric Draining to help me out of this situation. With near-full HP, I end the fight. And I am rewarded with a scroll of acquirement! As I already have teleportation and healing wands, I choose Staff. According to the rules, I will receive a Staff of Death. And that it is. I'll use it for high-level necromancy spells. On Lair:2 I get tossed down a shaft to Lair:4 and have to fight another bunch of yaks. Soon, I find a killer bee vault. The use of poison clouds in melee in combination with troll leather armour and Regeneration to cancel out the poison proves very effective - and I am rewarded with countless honeycombs and potions of poison. Lair 3, a Maud ambush! I poison her to death. Pity she had a demon trident - I could do with a demon whip! Weighed down despite my hight strength, I visit the Temple to drop some potions, wands and transform a steam dragon hide to a steam dragon armour. Most importantly, though, I am gifted the Necromonicon! I memorise Borgjnor's Revivication, which is only at Fair though. I need Summoning skill to use Haunt, though! So I memorise Recall, which will be useful with minions and for training.

On Lair:8, the sheer numbers of death yaks are terrifying but no match for Evaporate. Tons of XP and hydra/death yak zombies later, the Lair of Beasts is cleared!