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.