Game #70 Finished

171115 Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 17, -16/225 HPs)
       Killed from afar by a shadow dragon on Level 5 of the Vaults.

Got the Swamp rune and then easily cleared the first four levels of the Snake Pit. Level 5 was a problem, as all three down staircases led to the same spot - an open room surrounded by all the biggest and baddest Nagas in the game. I summoned three helpers and went down, but that was not a resounding success - I defeated a number of the enemies but was hit pretty hard before I could retreat. The second time worked the same way and then the third got me in real trouble. I summoned three helpers and went down. Once I was on level 5, I berserked and started swinging. Unfortunately, there were a lot of tough Nagas and I was quickly super poisoned. I fled back to level 4 and then discovered a problem with my plan. While berserked, I was unable to drink any potions, which meant that I had no way to deal with the poison. My only solution was to fight through all the Nagas that came upstairs with me, run away from them until my berserk wore off and then drink a potion of healing, all before the poison killed me. I did that and somehow it actually worked, though that left me slow, with 30 hitpoints and facing four scary creatures. Luckily a summoning actually worked and a black bear from Trog took out the monsters for me.

With my piety very low, I moved on to the Hive and cleared it out. I then returned to the Snake Pit, summoned help and went down one last time. There weren't many enemies left by this point, and my summoned help quickly defeated them, which was good, as I immediately stepped upon a teleportation trap and was moved away from the battle. I found the room with the rune in it and used summoned trolls to defeat most of the enemies guarding the rune.

With two runes, I took the time to scour the shops for anything that would be useful. Of course, that meant that I ran out of money, so I quickly cleaned out the Orcish Mines.

My next stop was the Vaults. Nothing was too difficult until level 5, where I encountered a group of dragons and some other creatures I had never encountered before. There were two golden dragons, a shadow dragon, a titan and a few other creatures. I had no idea who I should fight first, or what I should do and ended up dying, as all those creatures can cause a LOT of damage in a short period of time.

So, once again, I died as soon as I encountered some creatures I had never encountered before. Stupid game.

Lessons Learned
1. Life protection is pretty much required in the Vaults.