Re: OT: Nethack
Laura the Archaeologist, Report #5, Polymorphing pleasures, looting and an unusual wish.
I have to share
this screenie. This poor buddy lived only one turn in our company. Talk about having a bad day!
I lost Alf the dragon a short while after this. I got too close to a level teleporter and Alf happened to enter it and vanish. I have used telepathy to look for him on every level from 1 to 29 (Valley of the Dead) but I have not been able to find him yet. Could he actually be down in Gehennom?
Oh well, I don´t actually need a pet now for fighting, and once I learn the identify spell, I don´t need one for curse testing in the field either.
Now Laura had a long polymorphing session at her base camp in Minetown. The most interesting item types for Laura to polymorph were (in descending order):
1. spellbooks (by far the most interesting)
2. rings
3. magical tools (looking for magic markers - I brought every unicorn horn I had found)
4. magical armors (among other things, brought all elven cloaks/boots)
5. scrolls
6. potions of oil, booze, fruit juice and sickness (the ones you can´t cancel to water)
Wise from earlier characters, I now save one copy of all spellbooks for spells I want to keep using for the rest of the game. Only the others are to be polymorphed.
This is the 'too good to let go of' pack. (the column to the left of the altar are the squares where I drop stuff to polymorph).
As you can see from my screenie, I did eventually get a spellbook of identify. Yay! Shortly afterwards, Camaxtli gave me a spellbook of finger of death when I prayed on the altar. I have basic skill with Attack spells, so the fail risk is exactly the same as for the cancellation spell, 37%.
I went back to Fort Ludious and polymorphed the pile where most soldiers died. Got two pairs of gloves of dexterity, but they were both +0 and I figured it wasn´t worth the EA scrolls or marker charges to enchant them up. I kept my +4 leather gloves. There was one T-shirt in the pile as well as a hawaiian shirt. I always read T-shirts. This one was not particularly funny: "Vault Guards Do It in Small, Dark Rooms". I chose the hawaiian.
(I liked "Madame Elvira´s Succubus-o-Rama Employee of the Month" I got last game a lot more.) :badteeth:
Altars on three consecutive levels (21-23) in the dungeon.
Encountered a ki-rin which managed to cast Summon Nasties. Not too many monsters appeared, though.
Being this high in level so early has its perks - the monsters will also be nastier. Which is why Laura kept those incubi waiting until she felt she was ready to handle high-level beasties.
DL 27 - Medusa level
I got the version with the titan close to the start. I rushed him in melee, and thankfully, no summoning storm.
I rolled a boulder down to one of the three water squares in the first room, then I used jumping boots to make my way across the level. Medusa killed herself when she gazed upon my shiny armor (I was also blindfolded, just in case).
DL 28 - The Castle
I lit my lamp and put on levitation boots. I used Magic Missiles to kill the four giant eels in the moat. The damage from this spell depends on character level, so Laura packs a mean punch with those. I got help from bounces on the castle walls as well. Levitated around the back, killed the dragons, found absolutely nothing cool in the four storage rooms (not uncommon if you´ve had played with pretty much unlimited polymorphs).
Wand of wishing was 0:1.
DL 29 - Valley of the Dead
Much better luck with the loot here, especially a multitude of useful potions. The first (biggest) graveyard could be looted at a calm pace, since all monsters were asleep and I am stealthy. On my way to the second graveyard, I met a cockatrice. Idiot me decided to cast Fireball on it. OK, it died alright, but the explosion woke up every damn inhabitant in those graveyards. I found a bottleneck and could face off the horde from there.
I brought all loot back to the base camp (level-teleported to DL 4 (the one with mines entrance) from the Valley using a cursed scroll of teleportation). After some more polymorphing, I
finally learned how enchant weapon scrolls look like. Used one wish to get a magic marker. Recharged the wand with a blessed scroll of charging I had saved earlier. Wrote some enchant weapon scrolls and one charging (for recharging the magic marker itself - uncursed scroll works just as well as blessed for this), then some more enchant weapon. Frost Brand is now +6 and my silver sabre is +7. I want to bless them, too, but that will have to wait until I have more water.
Wrote a genocide scroll and wiped out ;
Lots of alchemy with my potions, and I could get HP up quite a bit, plus I saved three blessed full healing potions.
Since I wanted to curse several things (a 4-pack of teleport scrolls (for level teleporting) and a potion of gain level (for fast escape from Moloch´s temple))
I did something I have not done before.
Used up two of those. I have saved one holy and one unholy water in my BoH. I plan to collect more potions and cancel a pack to water. Then I can make these holy or unholy as I please, by dipping.
My spellbook collection is in an inconvenient place for the rest of the game. I should probably move it to DL4 so I can re-study what I need on the way up. Not sure if I can carry all that and still only be Burdened. Hmm, can you do controlled level-teleport if you are Stressed?
Maybe I should just bring my wand of wishing (1:2) and wish for a needed spellbook if I run out of the spell. Or I could wish for a magic marker and simply take any book I find in the fÃeld, cancel it and write a new one of the needed type. I like that idea.
Demons of Gehennom, watch out!
. I really need to learn how to get that good at this game 
. I used to love rings of regeneration when I found them...Until I realized I starved to death every time i kept it on all the time. 