Game #88

1483   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 8, -4/97 HPs)
       Slain by an orc warrior on Level 7 of the Dungeon.

Inattention killed this character. I encountered a group of orcs and did not realize how much damage the orc warrior was doing to me until I was down to 12 hitpoints. My fatal mistake was not attempting to escape at that point - for some reason I decided to berserk, which did not help much.

Lessons Learned
1. Escape when you have low hitpoints. Berserk when you have high hitpoints.

Game #87

26     Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 2, 0/25 HPs)
       Slain by a hobgoblin on Level 1 of the Dungeon.

Stupid game. Why should I die to a hobgoblin on level 1? How can it do so much damage in so little time?

Game #86

219398 Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 19, -1/170 HPs)
       Killed from afar by a smoke demon in The Abyss.

Argh!! I hate the damned Abyss. This character ended up in it twice, both due to Zot traps. The first time I lucked out and found an exit immediately. The second time I quickly ended up in trouble, as something was covering me in sticky flames, which burned up all my scrolls of teleportation. My character was very strong, but I ended up stuck and surrounded by demons.

Stupid game. The Abyss is able to kill any character, and I do NOT like the ending of one of my best characters EVER to be due to what amounts to a random dice roll. The Abyss needs to be rethought. It needs to be made less dangerous to move through OR there needs to be ways to make it easier to get out of.

Game #85

99375  Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 16, -14/146 HPs)
       Demolished by a naga warrior on Level 5 of the Snake Pit.

I never found the entrance to the Swamp in this game. After clearing the Lair, I went back to the dungeon and cleared it down to level 19 before deciding to tackle the Snake Pit. My biggest problem this game was that all my resistances were on artifact pieces of armour, which all had negative bonuses to my armour class. This meant that I felt like I was taking a lot more damage than last game (which I was, as my last game, I had an armour class in the 35 range).

Anyway, I cleared the first four levels of the Snake Pit and then popped down to the fifth level to make certain that all three staircases were in the middle of a round room with a ton of enemies, which was the case. I then returned to my stash, got everything I would need for the battle and returned. My plan, which almost worked perfectly, was to summon three helpers, read a scroll of teleportation and then descend to level 5. I did that, but when I teleported, I ended up in a hallway with a unique and a bunch of undead. It was a bit of a struggle to win that battle, but I did and I easily dealt with the stragglers from the main room.

What killed me was the fact that the room with the rune in it still had a huge number of powerful nagas in it, and I went into that room unprepared. A summoned rock troll took out a bunch but eventually I had to teleport away as I was getting low on hitpoints. My immediate plan was to head towards an escape hatchway to level 4, but a naga warrior appeared between me and the hatchway. I tried shooting him and was then pinned in the hallway as another naga appeared from the other direction. I had to fight my way out, but the naga warrior had a magical halberd and was hit me for a ton of damage each time, which quickly put an end to my character.

Lessons Learned
1. There are two rooms in the last level of the Snake Pit that you must deal with.
2. Don't forget to bring wands to a level with a rune - a wand of draining would have helped greatly, but I left two of them in my stash.

Game #84

226964 Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 19, -2/165 (169) HPs)
       Hit by a large rock thrown by a stone giant on Level 27 of the Dungeon.

This was by far my best game to date, as I have never had a character reach level 19, nor have I ever made it to the bottom of the dungeon before. The Swamp was actually easy in this game, as I managed to get a war axe of flaming, and a very good bow from Trog and I used the combination of the two to easily deal with the hydras, swamp dragons and other nasties in the Swamp. With the rune from the Swamp obtained, I moved over to the Snake Pit and quickly cleared the first four levels. The fifth level was tough, but not too bad. I find that the fact that the Guardian Nagas teleport you actually helps, as it gives you an automatic escape option, after which you can rest and regain your hitpoints before rejoining the battle.

I could not find any way to see invisible, which caused me problems in the middle levels of the dungeon, especially when I encountered a group of boggarts on level 18. I cleared out the Hive, as I was running into food difficulties and then cleared the dungeon down to level 20. I then went back and started clearing the Vaults. All went well until I hit level 5 and encountered Boris. I quickly summoned help and ran away, especially as once he turned invisible, I had no way to find him. With clearing the Vaults no longer possible, I decided to push to the bottom of the dungeon before deciding upon my next course of action.

On level 26, I encountered a Lich, who summoned a couple of type 1 demons. Amazingly, I managed to easily win the battle, by berserking and then summoning a troll and using a potion of speed when the berserk wore off. Around this time, Trog gifted me an ankus that provided the ability to see invisible, though it is a mixed blessing, as it is a -4,-6 ankus, so I can see the invisible monster, but I will be hard pressed to hurt them.

Unfortunately, level 27 proved to be the death of me. I encountered a fire giant and a storm dragon at the same time. While I was fighting the fire giant, the storm dragon was blasting me with lightning, and I did not have any electrical resistance. I managed to defeat both creatures, but I had 29 hitpoints left when I was done. I started resting and a stone giant appeared. I summoned a troll, moved away from the stone giant and was hit by a rock. The end of the best character I have ever had, as level 27 is the bottom of the dungeon - I actually saw the entrances to the Realm of Zot!

Lessons Learned
1. Stone Giants are dangerous and can do a lot of damage in a short period of time.
2. Play slowly and carefully in the deeper levels of the dungeon.
3. Purchase all unidentified artifact items in the shops, as there was an artifact armor that provided electrical resistance.

Game #83

10     Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 1, -4/24 HPs)
       Slain by a giant gecko on Level 1 of the Dungeon.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother playing this game. The fourth enemy I encounter kills me and there was absolutely nothing I could do to prevent it. Geckos are faster than you, so running away is not an option. I was in a hallway, and I berserked when my hit points got low (as I had not found a single item yet), but I still died. In fact, the gecko took me from full hitpoints to 3 hitpoints in one turn.

Stupid game.

Game #82

81929  Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 15, -2/132 (133) HPs)
       Slain by a four-headed hydra on Level 5 of the Swamp.

I wonder if I should wait longer before heading down to the last level of the Swamp. It just seems like luck is all that ever gets me through the fight with the swamp dragons and the hydras, which is not the best way to play the game. In this case, I fought through the first four waves, including a lot of berserking, before ending up in trouble and teleporting all over level 5 before I was able to escape. I restocked and returned, figuring that most of the monsters guarding the rune would be gone. They were, but Francis was not. He (or she) summoned some demons, who summoned more demons until half the screen was filled with 3s, 4s and 5s. I was berserk at the time, with a berserked rock troll as help and we actually managed to defeat them all.

However, the commotion attracted one of the last hydras and I was low on hitpoints and completely forgot that I was slow, which made my death come quickly.

Lessons Learned
1. Leave the last level of the Swamp until a bit later on in the game.

Game #81

111    Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 3, 0/31 HPs)
       Killed from afar by Jessica on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

I blame this death entirely upon the game. My only option to prevent dying was to drink a potion of healing, but there was no way to tell that based upon the information given to me at the time. I had 16 hitpoints, so I was still above 50%, but I was facing a hasted spellcaster who was several steps away from me. Jessica hit me with two magic darts, both of which did 8 damage, thus killing me.

Stupid game. The moment she blinked, I was dead, as I had absolutely no escape options, nor any way to kill her before she killed me.

Game #80

41     Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 1, -2/16 HPs)
       Hit by a dart thrown by a kobold on Level 2 of the Dungeon.

Fourth enemy I encountered hit me with three darts and killed me before I could even get near him. Sometimes this game is just way too dangerous to early characters.

Stupid game.

Game #79

1533   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 8, -4/66 HPs)
       Killed from afar by Blork the orc on Level 7 of the Dungeon.

I really seem to be hitting a wall around level 8 lately, as I seem unable to get any farther in the game. I arrived on level 8 and found myself surrounded by orcs and a LOT of various other monsters. None were difficult and as I was high level (due to one of those crazy gnoll infested levels earlier on) with a +0,+8 broad axe of chopping, I figured I could easily berserk and take out all my foes. In fact, that is exactly what I did.

However, once all the easy foes were dealt with, Blork, a centaur and some more orcs showed up. I tried to move towards them before my berserk wore off, but that did not work, which left me in the middle of nowhere, slow and facing a named NPC with a wand and a centaur with a bow of frost. It did not take long for the two of them to finish me off.

Lessons Learned
1. Always have an escape plan for when your berserk wears off. In this case, I should have taken the stairs up, as I was standing on them when Blork arrived.

Game #78

1893   Bill the Mountain Dwarf Berserker (level 8, 0/59 HPs)
       Slain by a yellow wasp on Level 8 of the Dungeon.

Another game that was my fault. I simply stopped paying attention to my hitpoints as I explored and fought various enemies. In fact, it was a complete surprise when the death message appeared. Sometimes I play on auto-pilot, which just does not work in this game.