Game #48 Continued

Surprisingly enough, I am still finding wands, not that this character uses them a whole lot. There are also three rings of poison resistance available in shops. There are so many games where I struggle to find poison resistance and this game is positively overflowing with it. Anyway, after obtaining the rune in the Swamp, I cleared out the entire Lair before going to remove all the orcs from the Orcish Mines. As usual, the Mines are fairly unconnected and I have not seen all of level 3 or level 4, but I did not see any reason to try and explore the entire area.

I then went down a couple of more levels into the dungeon, but decided to explore the Snake Pits. I have cleared the first two levels, though I keep switching to my sling, forgetting that it is my axe that provides me with poison resistance. My plan tomorrow is to see if I can get the rune out of the Snake Pits before going down as deep in the dungeon as I can.

Game #48

Now that I've figured out how to get the rune out of the Swamp, it probably shouldn't be surprising that I have managed to do it again. Hopefully this character will last longer than my last character that obtained a rune.

This has been an interesting game due to the sheer number of wands that I have found. I am currently carrying 14 and I have 5 in my stash. My primary weapon is an artifact executioner's axe that Trog gave me. It provides poison resistance and, provided I hit, does an obscene amount of damage. Good armour has been hard to find, as I am still wearing the +3 orcish ring mail of cold resistance that I took from Igyb on the second level of the dungeon. I have a mottled dragon hide, but I haven't seen a scroll of enchant armour since the last one I found was destroyed by fire.

All in all, this game has been going well, though I am finding that when I don't die before finding the Lair, it means that the game takes a long time to play. That means that I struggle to play one game a day, as I often don't have that much free time.

Game #47

7297   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 10, -33/81 HPs)
       Killed by triggering a blade trap on Level 2 of the Lair of Beasts.

I thought this was going to be another good game, especially as I found a ring of poison resistance. However, this character really struggled to find a decent weapon. I had an artifact short sword, as well as a long sword of freezing, which I used as my primary weapon, but I really wasn't causing as much damage as I usually do.

I did make it down into the Lair and prepared myself to explore it. Upon arriving on level 3, I was hit hard by a black snake, but managed to escape. I returned to level 2 to rest, but a giant slug was there and took me down to 1 hitpoint before I was able to defeat it. Rather than just resting, I moved, though I don't know why, and stepped on a blade trap, which did 34 hitpoints of damage.

Lessons Learned
1. When low on hitpoints, rest where you are - don't walk to a different location to rest.

Game #46 - My First Rune!

33193  Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 13, -7/168 HPs)
       Mangled by a five-headed hydra on Level 9 of the Lair of Beasts.

SUCCESS!!!! Sweet, glorious success. It hasn't even been two months since I started this journey and I have finally obtained my first rune - a decaying rune of Zot - taken from the fifth level of the Swamp.

Message History

Trog accepts your collateral kill.
Your two-headed ogre looks more experienced.
You enter the shallow water.
Moving in this stuff is going to be slow.
There is some shallow water here.
You see here a decaying rune of Zot.
O - a decaying rune of Zot

.#.##.####{..#{## 
.#.##    ##.#####      . 
.#.#   ###{.{{{.###  .{{ 
.#.#  ##{{..#{{{.%##.{{{ 
.#.# ##...{{.{.{..#{# 
...# #..{{{#{{{..{.{# 
...# ##.#{##{.#{{.{## 
...#  ####O{.{{..{## 
####   ###@.#{..### 
         ######## 


You can see a friendly two-headed ogre.

At first, there wasn't anything super special about this game. I made it down to the 10th level of the Dungeon, where I found the entrance to the Lair. The entrance to the Swamp was on the second level of the Lair, and after I explored the Lair a bit, I headed down. I had received an artifact flaming axe from Trog, which I was planning on using on any hydras, while I had a staff of poison to give me poison resistance. My plan was to wield the staff and use summoned creatures to help me get to the rune. Surprisingly enough, it worked. My summoned creatures took down a number of hydras and swamp dragons, while I stood around and watched. I finally discovered the room with the rune and managed to pick it up and make my way out of the Swamp.

With my first rune obtained, I decided to finish exploring the Lair. Unfortunately, I did not manage to survive my first forays into the 9th level of the Lair. I still need to realize that when the stairs descend into an open area with a lot of monsters visible, it is not safe to keep going down the stairs, as eventually you will be surrounded. I thought I was doing the right thing by popping down the stairs and then dragging a couple of enemies up the stairs, but eventually the enemies surrounded the stairs and by simply arriving, I lost almost all my hitpoints, putting me in an unescapable situation.

Lessons Learned
1. I am able to obtain a rune.
2. Avoid situations where you can become surrounded.

Game #45

5411   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 10, -1/85 HPs)
       Slain by a troll zombie on Level 11 of the Dungeon.

One of the things that makes Crawl so replayable is the fact that each class type plays just a little bit differently. Unfortunately for me, that means that there are certain rules regarding playing a Berserker that I am struggling to learn. The rule I violated in this game is regarding hunger management. When you encounter a large group of enemies (in this case, a room full of zombies, led by an orc priest), you must ensure you are not going to become hungry during the fight.

Given the number of enemies, I knew that immediately berserking was not the correct solution. The first thing I did was summon help, and a berserked ogre took out 2/3rds of the zombies. During that time, I became hungry, so when my ogre died, I did not have the option to berserk. (Note: While my ogre was fighting the zombies, the orc priest was busy blasting me with his god's wrath. Stupid priestly spells that don't need line of sight.) I was low on hit points and decided to summon another helper. Unfortunately, I failed, which gave the nearest zombie the time to move right beside me. My next move was irrevelant, as the zombie hit me and killed me before it occurred.

Lessons Learned
1. As a berserker, you must keep your food level up, especially when encountering dangerous opponents.

Game #44

1273   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 8, -13/75 HPs)
       Killed from afar by an oklob plant on Level 6 of the Dungeon.

Honestly - what the hell is an oklob plant? You rarely encounter one and I am pretty sure that the other times I have encoutered them, I have been at a much higher level. This one was blocking part of the level and I did not think it would be that difficult to defeat. However, I could not get my summoned creatures to attack it.

Eventually a summoned black bear did attack it and almost destroyed it before dying. I then berserked and walked towards the plant, but it managed to corrode all my armour before I even got there. Then, to make matters worse, my berserk wore off before I arrived and I was unable to defeat the stupid plant.

Yet another example of needing to die to a new monster in order to figure out its strengths and weaknesses.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight an oklob plant.

Game #43

14494  Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 11, -16/90 HPs)
       Kill from afar by a firedrake on Level 6 of the Lair of Beasts.

I'm not really certain what mistake I made this game. I was fighting a large group of yaks in a chokepoint and I was berserked. After killing the last yak, a firedrake appeared and blasted me with fire.

I ended up moving through the chokepoint into an open room to kill the last couple and at that time a firedrake appeared. The first flame hit me hard, and I was already down on hitpoints from fighting the yaks. As I was still berserked, I was in a bit of a bind. I could not use a wand, put on my ring of fire, or drink a potion of extra healing. I was too far away to get into close combat, so I backed up and got out of sight. My berserk almost immediately wore off, which meant I was slow. I immediately summoned a troll, but it appeared behind me. As I moved to swap places with it, the firedrake blasted me with fire twice and killed me.

Stupid game.

Game #42

3464   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 9, -2/75 HPs)
       Slain by an orc wizard on Level 9 of the Dungeon.

Who knew that dungeon level 3 could be so dangerous? I encountered an area surrounded by water and full of jackals, gnolls and the odd orc and ogre. At one point, I had 9 gnolls on the screen before running away to level 2. All the berserking in order to defeat kept making me hungry, but gnoll meat is only partially edible and I swear that every piece I ate made me sick, so I spent a lot of time recovering from my sickness and then recovering my hitpoints.

Regardless, I managed to survive. Below is my list of vanquished creatures at the end of dungeon level 3, where I was already at level 7.

Vanquished Creatures
  An ogre (D:3)
  A centaur (D:2)
  A giant frog (D:3)
  3 snakes
  47 gnolls
  An ooze (D:1)
  10 giant bats
  2 giant geckos (D:2)
  8 goblins
  5 hobgoblins
  22 jackals
  5 kobolds
  9 orcs (D:3)
  3 giant cockroaches
  5 giant newts
  9 rats
132 creatures vanquished.

47 gnolls and 22 jackals, and they were all in one fairly large area. And it did not end there. Level 4 contained a bunch of small rooms, each filled with gnolls! Too bad you can't take a racial emnity in Crawl.

I won't bore you with the rest of this game, which sucked because I foolishly wielded an axe I found on the ground, which turned out to be cursed. I made it from level 4 all the way down to level 9 with a -3, -2 hand axe, but I never found a single scroll of remove curse. I should know better than to wield unknown weapons.

On level 9, I got annoyed with the game and essentially played poorly in order to die. I walked down a staircase into an open area with a lot of bad guys, so I went berserk and waded in. Once my berserk wore off, I kept swinging and was quickly defeated. I finished the game with 71 gnolls killed, which should put a solid dent in the gnoll population of Crawl.

Game #41

49     Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 2, 0/23 HPs)
       Killed by triggering a dart trap on Level 1 of the Dungeon.

At least this stupid game was merciful and killed me before the game even got remotely interesting. The random number generator decided that I was going to be unable to hit the kobold. With 1 hitpoint left, I started retreating in order to pillar dance until I was strong enough to deal the final blow. However, I managed to step on a dart trap and die.

Stupid game.

Game #40

6579   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 10, -2/72 (76) HPs)
       Slain by a glowing hand crossbow on Level 9 of the Dungeon.

I thought things were going very well this game right up until I died. I had found an amulet of the gourmand as well as an artifact spear of orc slaying. Since I had it, I decided to clear the Orcish Mines, which I did (kind of, as the majority of the mines was inaccessible and I did not feel like risking a teleport). After that, I continued on into the dungeon until I ran into a mimic. Now, I've defeated many mimics in the past, so I'm not sure why this one took me out. I was below half hitpoints, so I'll have to remember for next time that mimics can attack very quickly, as this one got in three attacks to my one.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight a mimic.

Game #39

31466  Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 13, -11/114 HPs)
       Killed from afar by a lava snake on Level 4 of the Swamp.

This game was played over the last three days, as I was home alone with the kids, so the amount of time I had for playing games was limited.

I made it to down to the 10th level of the dungeon on a wing and a prayer. I kept making mistakes, but an array of wands and potions kept me in the game. It was after a tough fight with a hydra on dungeon level 11 (since I did not have any non-slicing weapons) that I remembered I had the ability to summon help from Trog. I must remember to do that when the battles warrant it.

I found the entrance to the Lair on dungeon level 12 and decided to clear the first two levels so that I could create a stash. On Lair 2, Trog decided to be extremely nice and gave me an artifact war axe that was flaming (take that Hydras!) and provided electricity and poison resistance (take that Lair and Swamp!).

So, I went through the Lair and the first three levels of the Swamp easily, given my weapon and abilities. It got tougher on level 4 of the Swamp, but I managed to explore around 1/2 of the 5th level of the Swamp, while taking out a lot of swamp drakes, swamp dragons and hydras. Every once in awhile, I would end up with my hitpoints getting low, mostly due to the swamp worms, fish and other water creatures that would pop up and attack. For most of the level, I had been retreating to a hallway to restore my hitpoints. However, at one point I had been reduced to 50 hitpoints and I was near a staircase up. I thought that going up a level to rest would be the best option, completely forgetting that this was not the dungeon and that the levels above were not cleared of foes. I arrived on the 4th level of the Swamp right beside a large pool of lava and a number of lava worms. I had no fire resistance and died as I was attempting to go back down the staircase.

Unbelievable. I was so close to a rune and yet I still did not manage to obtain one.

Lessons Learned
1. Always remember to use your special abilities, such as summoning aid.
2. Either clear every level, or remember that you have not cleared a level.

Game #38

6056   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 10, -23/139 HPs)
       Annihilated by a hill giant on Level 9 of the Dungeon.

Wow! That hill giant really hurt me fast. I walked down to level 10 and encountered a bunch of orcs, a gila monster and a hill giant. I went berserk and started hitting the hill giant, but he took me down from 180 hitpoints really fast. I attempted to run upstairs when my hitpoints got below 50, but the gila monster hit me and then the hill giant hit me for 31 hitpoints of damage and I died.

Lessons Learned
1. Berserking does not make it possible to survive being surrounded.

Game #37

1641   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 8, -7/68 HPs)
       Mangled by an orc on Level 7 of the Dungeon.

We'll label this game as "berserking doesn't win every battle". On level 7 of the dungeon, I encountered a large room full of orcs - probably 10-12 regular orcs plus a few orc priests and a few orc warriors. Since they were bottle-necked in a doorway, I figured I could easily go berserk and stand in the door until they were all defeated. However, even berserked fighters are not immune to the smiting attack of orcish priests. As I easily defeated the first few orcs and orc warriors, the orc priests quickly knocked me down to 1 hitpoint. I immediately fled and got just into a hallway when my berserk wore off. I tried to read a scroll of teleportation, but due to my slowness, an orc was able to walk up and kill me before I could read the scroll.

Lessons Learned
1. Even with berserking, certain battles are dangerous.
2. When you berserk for a dangerous battle, you better be sure you are going to win, as if you do not, the exhaustion effect will make it very difficult to survive.

Game #36

79     Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 3, -3/30 HPs)
       Killed from afar by Sigmund on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Damn it - Sigmund is far too powerful a character for when you encounter him. I did not even know it was him, as he was invisible when I encountered him. My first knowledge that something was wrong occurred when a magic dart hit me out of nowhere. I paused, figured out that it was likely Sigmund and then took a step away from the area where the magic dart came from. He immediately confused me, after which I was dead.

Stupid game.

Game #35

274    Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 5, -4/45 HPs)
       Slain by a phantom on Level 3 of the Dungeon.

Bah. Another game where I played stupidly. Why can't I just accept that there are many times when you should not keep fighting an enemy to the bitter end? I had a multitude of escape options, yet chose to continue beating on the phantom when I had only 9 hitpoints and was slow after berserking. Stupid!

Game #34

3340   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 9, -16/79 HPs)
       Demolished by an abomination on Level 8 of the Dungeon.

This was a very strange game, full of things I had never encountered before. On Level 6, I discovered an artifact buckler surrounded by translucent rock walls. I annotated the level, intending to return once I found a wand of digging, only to have the imp I was fighting teleport inside the translucent rock room. He picked up the bucker and teleported out. After I killed him, I took the buckler for myself.

On level 7, I encountered a wizard. He had the same icon (@) as the unique humans, but I don't think he was unique, given that he did not have a name. However, he did have the ability to cast Crystal Spear, which I have never encountered before. It took me from full hitpoints to 6 hitpoints in one casting. Luckily, I had a potion of extra healing and was then able to go berserk and kill him.

Finally, on level 8, I discovered a couple of small rooms. The first was full of treasure, but the second was full of abominations - four capital X abominations and six lowercase x abominations. I had never fought them before, so I immediately went berserk. However, the capital X abominations are extremely tough foes, and it took me so long to kill them that Trog would not allow my berserking to continue, so I became exhausted after killing one and severely wounding a second. I had absolutely no escape options (no blinking, no teleportation) and no fast attack options (such as a good wand - I had a wand of flame that I quickly discovered was empty). The abominations quickly killed me, as the big ones hit for a lot of damage. Not really sure what I should have done in that situation. It seems like once I opened the door, I was dead, no matter what tactics I tried.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight a large abomination.

Game #33

1751   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 8, -6/68 HPs)
       Mangled by an ogre on Level 7 of the Dungeon.

I am now playing a Berserker, since the first month of playing a Hunter did not go well and because I had so much luck with my tutorial Minotaur Berserker.

Things went very well in this game until dungeon level 7. There, I encountered an ogre immediately after my berserk wore off. Being slow and fighting an Ogre does not work. Luckily a scroll of teleportation saved me, even though I likely should have died, as I waited until my hitpoints were very low before reading the scroll. Then the exact same thing happened a second time - after using berserk to kill the second ogre, what should appear but a third ogre. Even worse, I zapped an unidentified wand at him and it turned out to be a wand of invisibility. So, I was slow and tired, with an invisible ogre chasing me. For a second time I waited too long to use my scroll of teleportation and this time I died.

Lessons Learned
1. Use your escape option as soon as you realize you are in trouble. Don't wait for your hitpoints to fall to nothing.
2. Don't identify wands by zapping them at dangerous opponents.

Game #32

160    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 3, 0/24 HPs)
       Succumbed to poison on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Stupid game. A snake hit me hard and poisoned me and I did not find a single potion in the first two levels, so there was nothing I could do but die.

Game #31

2687   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 9, -9/64 HPs)
       Mangled by an orc warrior on Level 8 of the Dungeon.

Once again, my own stupidity cost me another game. Level 8 contained a room full of orcs, including a number of orc priests and orc warriors. I defeated all of them with the exception of the last warrior and I got impatient. I was low on hitpoints, but rather than leave and come back later, I decided to plough ahead. You can guess what happened.

Nothing new learned here.

Game #30

10946  Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 11, -2/89 HPs)
       Slain by a six-headed hydra on Level 5 of the Lair of Beasts.

"Your overconfidence is your weakness." *sigh* - This was the second hydra I encountered, and after I successfully dealt with the first one, I became overconfident and kept swinging at this hydra long after I should have turned and fled.

While I normally use an axe and a crossbow as my weapons, I found a hammer artifact that provided electricity, cold and magic resistance, so I had trained my maces and flails up just in case I needed to use the hammer. I also had a mace of draining, which I had used to defeat the first hydra.

Even once I stopped swinging, I still could have saved this game, if I had been willing to pillar dance for long enough to get my hitpoints high enough to use a scroll of teleportation. However, my overconfidence continued, and I thought that a wand of disintegration would finish the hydra off. It didn't, and the hydra killed me.

So, this death is totally my fault.

Lessons Learned
1. Just because you have defeated a monster once, doesn't mean you will be able to defeat it a second time.

Game #29

11067  Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 11, -1/91 HPs)
       Killed from afar by a Balrug in The Abyss.

What exactly are the point of decks of cards? I rarely see them, though this character got two, and they always hurt you. Why would anyone use them? Of course, I had to waste a perfectly good character to determine that decks of cards should just be ignored.

I figured they must do something useful, so I pulled a card while in the temple. That card sent me to the Abyss. I started moving around and was promptly annihilated by a bunch of demons.

Lessons Learned
1. Don't use decks of cards.

Game #28

321    Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 5, -1/39 HPs)
       Killed from afar by an orc wizard on Level 4 of the Dungeon.

I want to blame the stupid wizard, but once again, I stopped thinking and attacked blindly, which resulted in me ending up in a situation where it was difficult, if not impossible, to recover from.

I discovered the wizard by himself while he was still some ways away from me and started firing crossbow bolts at him. He was quite injured by the time he was a couple of steps away from me, at which point he decided to turn invisible. I foolishly switched to my axe and moved to attack, which brought me into the sight of a giant gecko. I took a number of swings at the invisible wizard, positive that this next swing would defeat him. Before I knew it, the gecko was beside me, I was fighting two enemies and was down to 9 hitpoints.

I started retreating and actually made it to a hallway, but before I could enact an escape plan, the wizard confused me. At that point, there was little to nothing I could do, and I died.

Obviously I have not been learning from my previous games, as this is exactly what happened with the centaur and the frog.

Game #27

34     Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 2, 0/19 HPs)
       Slain by a jackal on Level 1 of the Dungeon.

F@$%. I guess this one is partially my fault, as I was using my axe in order to raise my fighting skills. Once my HPs started dropping, I should have switched to my crossbow. However, I am going to blame the damn random number generator. I should not miss a jackal 16 times in a row.

Lessons Learned
1. Use your best attack when required.

Game #26

9021   Bob the Mountain Dwarf Hunter (level 11, 0/80 (81) HPs)
       Slain by a hill giant on Level 11 of the Dungeon.

Another game, another death by a hill giant. This time I was wearing heavy armour, but the hill giant still hit me for 23 hitpoints of damage. So, I guess I didn't learn how not to fight a hill giant. You really, really don't want to melee them.

The stupid thing is, I didn't need to get into a hand to hand fight with the hill giant, as I had a mutation that allowed me to blink, and I had used it all game to blink away from enemies and shoot them with my crossbow. However, once I found a battle axe of flaming, all my strategy went out the window.

I really need to think when I play.