Game #50

96388  Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 15, -4/130 HPs)
       Killed from afar by a smoke demon on Level 7 of the Elven Halls

Another game where I did quite well. I made it to the Lair and cleared all 10 levels of it. I had not found any poison resistance, so I did not attempt the Swamp or the Snake Pits. After the Lair, I decided to go to the Orcish Mines, as every once in awhile, you find some armour of poison resistance among the orcs. I quickly found the entrance to the Elven Halls and decided to check it out, since I need to learn what you may find in each of the branches, as that controls whether or not you bother to visit the branch.

The first couple of levels of the Halls were not difficult, but each successive level was a bit harder. I stopped on level 5, as I had to flee from a couple of situations where I was massively outmatched. I bought a number of cool items from shops in the Halls before leaving.

I ended up making a number of purchases, though I haven't obtained poison resistance yet, as I don't have enough money to purchase the artifact scimitar that provides poison resistance.. So, I took the time to dig my way around and clear out the entire Orcish Mines, before heading deeper into the dungeon. Dungeon level 15 was interesting, as there was a room surrounded by crystal walls full of wierd monsters (including a statue) and all the access routes were protected by teleportion traps (and other traps, including the first trap of Zot I have ever encountered that took away four points of my intelligence). I figured out how to get past the traps, by using a wand of digging to create a path around them, and even managed to kill everything in the room, but there was no interesting treasure inside.

Dungeon level 17 was insane. It was a large area of alternating walls and open spaces, arranged so that you could only walk diagonally. Inside the diagonal spaces were a number of shadow dragons whose breath attack reduces your level. I spent a bunch of time switching between levels 13, 14 and 15 and barely surviving, even with the summoned help from Trog. Behind all of this were some treasure rooms. The first was protected by a spear trap, but the second was protected by a Zot trap, which threw me into the Abyss. ARGH!!! That is the second time in three games I have ended up in the Abyss. This time I actually got lucky, and after my second teleport, due to being surrounded by demons, I found a gate out.

There was a lot of treasure on 17, so I took the time to identify some of it and found a bunch of poison resistance, so I went through the Swamp in an attempt to get the rune at the bottom of it, as well as to gain back some of the favour I lost using my summoned helpers in the Abyss. I obtained the rune from the Swamp and then went back to the dungeon and cleared it all the way down to level 20.

I then went through the shops and bought a few things to make my character tougher, which took me back to the Elven Halls. As I was there, I figured I would explore all the levels, just to see what they were like. I easily defeated all the elves, with the exception of the few guarding something special on the last level. There was one that summoned a bunch of demons, including a type 1 demon, and they quickly defeated me.

Lessons Learned
1. How not to fight on the last level of the Elven Halls.