Re: The 12 Labors Tournament
Megara completed the Caress Andarial quest, after finishing NM, doing a fair amount of MFing and Baal runs there. One trip through the Cow Level yielded no parts of the Cow King set, oh well.
Her plan was to run by monsters and hope not to have many extra fast or Holy Freeze bosses along the way, or have any roadblocks from monsters clustering. Levelling in NM Baal runs and some Mausoleum runs got her up to 84 so I figured that would help lower monster's chance to hit for the merc and her. I did find a wand with Dim Vision charges in NM but left that in the stash and I resolved not to use teleport or TP scrolls at all.
Preparing for the Caress Andarial quest was a quick trip to NM to reset the map, then an extended drinking session (stamina potions, thawing potions and antidote potions) complete with taking off of (some) clothes (just her orb and gloves!)
The monster rolls were: Cat 2: tainted, fallen, spiders Cat 3: tainted, vampires and ghouls. The main thing I was worried about were vampires for the chasing and tainted for following and blocking. Tainted and vampires were not a good roll, and some with cold damage could have been a problem. Ghouls were a good roll on that front, easy to run by and not blocking exits. One scary bit was there were extrafast vampire packs, and cursed something packs, so that added some urgency. But no overlapping aura packs, which I'd been concerned about: Fanaticism and Holy Freeze in the same area would have been serious trouble. There was one Blessed Aim pack- I think that was the only aura enhanced pack I ran into en route.
I had thought that having done many many Andarial runs I would have a good sense of finding the stairs down quickly, but I ended up running through almost all of Cat 2 and much of Cat 3 before getting down to Cat 4. I ran up to Andarial and caressed/slapped her a bit before running back to the stairs and up to Cat 3 to equip gear back and then return to manage easily. I did forget to give the merc his weapon back before stepping back down, but that wasn't a crucial mistake as it went smoothly.
I went back to the Cat 2 WP and worked back down to kill all those monsters who had dared to chase earlier, particularly the extrafast ones and the cursed ones.
I anticipate revisiting Andarial many times to MF gear before proceeding onward, as well as some Countess and levelling runs. My strategy has been "safety through being overlevelled" and hopefully it continues to work.
[highlight]Hardcore[/highlight]
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Forum Name Character Name Class Clvl Current Location SP? Labors
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Kestegs AWorkingStiff Necromancer 85 Guardian No 12/12
Krupa DannyCrane Paladin 86 Kurast Docks H Yes 9/12
jdkerrr Asparagus Paladin 74 Valley of Snakes H No 8/12
purplelocust Megara Sorc 84 Lut Gholein H No 8/12
Quickdeath Lizzie2 Amazon 66 Harrogath NM No 7/12
Sint WorkedUp Druid 67 River of Flame NM No 6/12
jdkerrr SlogTheFrog Barbarian 43 Lut Gholein NM No 5/12
Wolron Dumber Necromancer 48 Rogue Camp NM Yes 5/12
sequana Hope Amazon 35 Harrogath Yes 3/12
Jocular BornToFolk Druid 33 River of Flame Yes 3/12
ancalagon JabberWalk Amazon 30 River of Flame No 3/12
Thaurus Boadicea Amazon 22 Dry Hills Yes 1/12
Jason Maher Jason Necromancer 17 Outer Cloister Yes 1/12
Ojimijam Evelyn Assassin 13 Black Marsh No 1/12
Eureka Workaholic Barbarian 4 Cold Plains No 1/12
[highlight]Fallen Heroes[/highlight]
Code:
Forum Name Character Name Class Clvl Current Location Labors
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JimmyOfJudecca Heracles Barbarian 75 Harrogath NM 7/12
Krupa ThisIsMalaga Paladin 64 Plains of Despair 6/12
Nightfish Hammertime Paladin 60 NM Durance II 7/12
jdkerr BrusselSprouts Sorceress 51 NM Durance II 5/12
LordMay Stone Barbarian 27 Diablo 2/12
jdkerr MrSchizo Druid 24 Duriel 1/12
jdkerr Adria Sorceress 21 Canyon of the Magi 1/12
Quickdeath Lizzie Amazon 1 Corpsefire 0/12
[highlight]Softcore[/highlight]
Code:
Forum Name Character Name Class Clvl Current Location SP? Labors
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GoldenredDragon Vein Paladin 28 City of the Damned No 2/12
Jason Maher Jacinta Amazon 30 Kurast Docks No 3/12
Thaurus TrevorTheTimid Druid 50 Undergrd. Passage No 4/12
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