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Last time: I did Thrundarr's first two quests and found a wand of wishing! This time: More quests!
I return to Dwarftown and sell some loot. I now have some 23000 gold. I use a couple of thousand to buy another uncursing scroll, since I haven't found many and even if I had, you can never have too many uncursing scrolls.
The demented ratling takes the uncursed scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle" (+6,10d4+6) [+2,+2]. The demented ratling lifts the uncursed scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle" (+6,10d4+6) [+2,+2] to his mouth.
Suddenly his mouth grows to enormous proportions!
The demented ratling devours the uncursed scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle" (+6,10d4+6) [+2,+2]!
The demented ratling grins evilly in your direction!
Each time I feed an artifact to the ratling he grows a bit stronger and faster. Good thing I'll never need to fight him! (Unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong. This is ADOM after all.)
Time to head down to the Ogre Cave.
The Ogre cave is a one-level dead-end branch off Dwarftown. It is inhabited by a lot of ogres, a few ogre lords and a couple of ogre magi. I'll have to be somewhat careful around the magi but otherwise I should be able to clear this without breaking a sweat. No other monsters will spawn in the OC. In clearing out the first room, I hit level 13.
Two into Alertness (9), one into Dodge (6).
You suddenly feel ancient magical energies manifest in your vicinity.
You'll always see this message when you hit level 13. We'll see what it means in a moment. I stash my wand of wishing in the first room before proceeding any further. Since no monsters spawn in the OC beyond its initial population, it should be safe here. I'm not taking any chances with the possibility of setting off a trap and destroying it.
Ogre corpses have a chance to increase strength. The chance is better with ogre lords than regular ogres, and better the lower your strength is when you eat the corpse. As discussed in the thread, there used to be an exploit where you could deliberately temporarily lower your strength (or other attribute for other monster corpses) to increase the chance of getting an increase. You could do this by making yourself sick with a devil's rose herb, and by starving yourself with stomacemptia herbs or drakeling acid spit. Sickness and starvation lower most or all of your stats. Another way was to equip a ring of weakness, an auto-cursing item (ie it curses as soon as equipped) which reduces your strength to 1, guaranteeing an increase off every ogre or other strength-increasing corspe. (Such as giants.) Unlike trapped items like my old armour, auto-cursing items can be uncursed through normal means long enough to unequip them. In the new versions, Biskup has made the game check base rather than modified strength for the purposes of determining whether the attribute is increased, so these techniques no longer work. What a jerk.
It reads:
"HERO, I AM WAITING FOR YOU.
VISIT MY PALACE IN THE ANCIENT PYRAMID FOR A MEETING.
COME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"
The scroll is signed with "Rehetep".
This scroll is generated when you hit level 13 and receive the message I got earlier. It means that the ancient pyramid on the world map is now unlocked. It will remain unlocked until you reach level 17, at which point it will close again. I'll go there later.
I clear out the rest of the cave without a problem and return to Thrundarr. I leave the wand where it is for now. The OC makes the perfect location for a stash - close to Dwarftown and free of any monsters that could run off with your gear. My reward is 5000 gold. The next quest is to win the arena championship. I head up there now.
As I clear D:7 on my way back up, I find a lesser orcish vault. As I kill and loot, I find a pair of unidentified worn boots. Worn boots are usually...
...seven league boots.
, as if the wand of wishing wasn't enough. If I hadn't found these, I'd have likely used one of my wishes to wish for a pair. Blessed seven league boots divide the time required to walk by 6, or 3 if uncursed. Wilderness travel time is halved by blessed 7LB, or reduced to 75% for uncursed. Cursed 7LB increase both. These boots are incredibly good, especially when going for an ultra ending. With 7LB, my barbarian class ability, and Long Stride I can very easily outrun just about monster in the game, except perhaps quicklings, even when strained and bloated. Furthermore the wilderness travel time bonus is a huge deal. One of Gaab Baay's quests involves hunting a rare giant boar that only spawns in random encounters in the forests of the world map. It is easy to spend weeks of game time looking for the boar without 7LB. The boots are unfortunately vulnerable to fire and lightning, hopefully I won't lose them to a fireball trap or whatever. (I probably will eventually.)
As I clear I also find a wand of door creation, which I promptly use to get a tenacious cat off my ass.
The rest of the vault is cleared without incident. I read another blessed ID scroll to identify my new loot from the vault and to establish whether my 7LB are blessed. I know they aren't cursed because the first thing to always do upon wear-IDing something is to try to unequip it to find out if it's cursed. It turns out they aren't blessed so I fix that. I also find a cursed potion of gain attributes in my inventory. Once I bless and drink this, it will add 1 to each attribute. Very nice. I also find a ring of damage. These boost your physical damage - much more useful than my ring of stun resistance so I swap it in. They're more effective if blessed, but I'm down to 1 holy water which I'd rather save for emergencies.
I reach the arena and remember I don't have a way to deal with cats in the area just yet. Well I have my blessed 7LB now, I might as well keep heading up and go run some errands on the world map before I lose them to a trap/vortex/fire or lightning breathing monster. I make it back to the surface without incident. First destination is back to the Unremarkable Dungeon via the HMV back entrance.
Remember the chaotic altar I converted to neutral on UD:8? Me neither, but I knew there was one somewhere in the UD. I sacrifice another 3000 gold to convert it back to chaotic, sacrifice a few monsters, and use the altar to create four new potions of holy water. Holy water is another thing you can never have too much of. I use one to bless my fireproof blanket. This time I hang around and spend some time sacrificing monsters to bring my piety up to the max level before crowning level. This is tedious but does take substantially less time than reaching crowning level. It nets me the lucky and fate smiles intrinsics, which should reduce the chances of my 7LB getting destroyed, as well as generally currying favour with the RNG. I use non-sacrificable monsters to train some levels in the Bow skill.
On my way back through the HMV to the world map, I stop by the shop and purchase some of the stuff I set aside last time: A wand of cold, a wand of door creation, a scroll of uncursing, and a scroll of defense. The wand of cold is my other means to cross water. It can freeze water tiles to ice, but they will only support a total 1000s of weight worth of gear. I'll have to choose carefully what to take.
Next stop is Holeinthewall, where I buy a potion of water, a potion of booze, and a scroll of protection. I also visit Yergius and buy Detect Traps, Disarm Traps and Open Locks. Open Locks lets me use Thieves' Tools to lock or unlock doors, negating any traps present, without a key. Not especially useful but hey, money is no object any longer and I like collecting skills.
After Holeinthewall, I head southeast.
This is the Infinite Dungeon. Unlike other dungeons, the ID does not save levels when you head up or down stairs. Going back the way you came will generate a new level. The ID will never generate features such as pools, altars, shops, vaults etc. It can be a great place to level a character with a weak early game as you can clear ID:1 over and over and safely level off rats and goblins. I'm here to find a waterproof blanket. This could take a while, and is guaranteed to be fucking tedious, but crossing that river on D:10 (not to mention any others I run into) via ice will be a pain in the ass as I'll want to bring my gear with me. Alternatively, I might find a couple of scrolls or a wand of teleportation, which would enable me to safely raid the Small Cave for the blanket I left there and GTFO before I die. While I'm in the ID, I'll also be able to farm more water to make into holy water, and probably find other useful consumables like booze potions, ID scrolls and uncursing scrolls.
I pickpocket a blanket on the first floor but an ID scroll reveals it to be a plain blanket. Hopes dashed. I also run into several special rooms with one-time effects. One transfers 1 point of Strength into Learning, another lowers my Perception by 1, and another hits me in the face with hot mud, blinding me and lowering my Appearance by 1 until I use the Wipe Face command which exists purely for this purpose, restores my sight and raises my Appearance by 2 (for a net gain of 1). I also hit level 14.
Athletics (7), Detect Traps (12), and Disarm Traps (10).
I encounter a named minotaur. Monsters like this guy are a new feature. They are encountered at random and have unique abilities. This guy just cast a spell which drained 2 points of strength. Motherfucker, since when can stupid cow people cast spells? I call bullshit. I had 23 strength at the start of this game, now I have 17. Fuck this. I pull him back to the room in the northwest corner and use my obscene mobility to scoot past him and run for the stairs. Being strained will train your strength up to 18 (burdened will take you to 16), so I'll eventually recover 1 point at least.
The ID is making me impatient and later I accidentally run into a cat and kill it. Welp. I kill a black baby dragon and eat its corpse, gaining acid resistance.
About two hours after I entered the ID, I finally pickpocket a waterproof blanket. I bless it and get the fuck out. Along with the expected consumables I mentioned earlier, I also find another blessed potion of dexterity and an uncursed potion of strength. Again, I'll save the Dex potion until I take Dex to 25 with herbs. My Strength is back down to 17 thanks to another one of those rooms that change Strength for Learning. I'll wait until strained trains it back to 18 and then hit up the trainer in Dwarftown for another point or two before I bless and drink the Strength potion. Another nice item I looted is a wand of digging. I'll be able to use this to make a shortcut through DH:2. I also now have enough booze to charge my trap wand enough to deal with any cats I encounter in the arena.
I hit level 15 on my way back to the surface. I have 4 picks now, thanks to my Strength being drained into Learning.
I'm going to want to max Climbing later, so I pump all 4 into that (34). For my talent I take Hardy, which gives 3 more HP. That's next to nothing, but Hardy is a prerequisite for a talent chain that increases PV.
I found more than enough booze in the ID to charge my trap wand, so I'll head back to the arena after swinging by the UD to bless some more holy water and Dwarftown to stash some loot in the Ogre Cave. While I'm in Dwarftown, I do some training with Garth and pay a visit to one of the NPCs I haven't introduced yet.
"Wouldst ye like to learn the art of Smithing for a meagre fee of 5000 gold?
I learn Smithing because why not. Smithing allows you to improve the stats of your metallic weapons and armour, but requires a forge (immobile dungeon feature), an anvil (weighs 1000s), and an ingot of the same type of metal as the piece of gear in question. It also consumes quite a lot of game time. Ingots can occasionally be looted but can also be smelted from lumps of ore using the Metallurgy skill, which I don't have and Glod doesn't teach. The only ways to get Metallurgy are to start with it (eg the Weaponsmith class), get it as a random new skill from a potion of education, or wish for it. (Not worth it unless you're swimming in wishes.) Ore is obtained by digging in dungeon walls with a pickaxe. The likelihood of finding it is increased by the Mining skill, which I also don't have.
I chat to Glod again.
For a fee, Glod will remove rust from rusty items or repair broken ones. I get the rust removed from my stuff and the key fixed. I drop by the store to sell some sis and...
Uhhhh. That's new. And ominous. Looking at him tells me he is now "extremely experienced." I hope he's not gonna go crazy and take over Dwarftown or eat my soul or something if I sell him enough sis. The other merchants didn't give the same message, maybe I should sell to the guy on D:10 in future.
I head to the arena and start working my way through the scrub tier monsters.
On the 15th fight I get a cat. Even though I already killed one by accident in the Infinite Dungeon, I don't want to power the Cat Lord up any further. I dip 4 potions of booze into a holy water. Potions cap at 4 for simultaneous dipping. As you can probably guess, blessed potions of booze charge wands by more. I charge my wand and set a trap in front of the cat. I get water for the first one and the cat is unharmed. The next one I get is an arrow trap. All four arrows miss and the trap ceases to function. The next two are alarm traps, no use with no other monsters in the arena. Finally I get a teleportation trap.
The audience boos and throws vegetables.
This still counts as a win and I get paid and continue through the rest of the matches until I get to the championship fight. There are three possible opponents for the championship fight, and I pull the toughest one, a named ogre mage. He works like a normal ogre mage, turning invisible and casting frost bolts. If I was lower level he'd be dangerous to fight without cold resistance and/or see invisible but he's no problem for this character. When I get him to low HP he tries to run away while invisible but I zap my blessed wand of fireballs that I got from Thrundarr earlier and he dies.
"Congratulations! Ye hast won yer 20th fight! This makes ye the new champion!
To acknowledge yer heroic valor, we'll grant ye the golden gladius.
Me hast won one of those blades in me great times!
He refers to it as the 20th fight as he doesn't count the first one where you fight for free. The gladius is an artifact sword - the golden gladius "Death's Sting" (+2, 2d5+2)[+3,+3](+7 Spd). The speed bonus is nice enough, but the damage is pretty average and not even in the same league as my spear. Plus it's not a spear. I head back to Dwarftown and turn the quest in.
Thrundarr rewards me with a ring of fire resistance, a bunch of adamantium armour, and a mithril longsword and shield. The reward for this quest seems to have been buffed - I'm fairly sure all the gear used to be mithril and would often not be as good as what I had already. All that gear should be blessed, unless for some reason that has changed too. The cap is [+0,+5], a huge upgrade. The chain mail is (-1,-3)[-1,+9], a slight improvement. It also has the padded prefix, which grants stun resist. The girdle has the same stats as my current one, but should be blessed so I switch them. The boots are [+0,+3], more protective than my 7LB but lacking the amazing movement bonus. I hold on to them in case my 7LB get destroyed. The other stuff gets sold to Waldenbrook. I go to visit the one remaining NPC in Dwarftown we haven't met yet.
Hey, ya got da golden gladius?
Ye must be a promising fighter!
I won two of dose in me days...
Lost both of them when my home village was pillaged by an elder chaos wyrm.
*Damn*
Lost everything on dat day!
Wife, children, dog, ...
*Sniff*
Dost ye want to exchange da gladius for some training I might give ye?
Okay, now listen..."
Over the next hours the old gladiator recounts a number of interesting tricks to you.
He also shows some new weapon moves to you.
In exchange for the gladius, I get a level in each melee weapon class I haven't already leveled, and some marks in those I have. More importantly, Bart also teaches me the Backstabbing and Tactics skills. If I didn't already have it, he'd have also taught me Two Weapon Combat. Backstabbing gives me a chance to do extra damage whenever I attack a monster that hasn't seen me yet - nice when combined with stealth. Tactics increases the positive modifiers from my tactics settings. Very nice. I return to Thrundarr for his final quest.
A vile daemon hast been terrorizing our homely village recently. Find and slay the vile beast.
This spawns a greater daemon in Dwarftown. Despite the scary sounding name, it isn't too dangerous, except for its attribute-draining magic, similar to that fucking minotaur in the ID.
I keep my distance and use my crossbow to kill her. The attribute-draining attacks are melee-range only so I'm safe doing it this way. My reward is another artifact weapon, the lead-filled mace "Big Punch" (+1, 8d5+3). I feed it to the mutated ratling. Four artifacts to go.
My strength is back to 20 after spending thousands of gold with Garth, so I pop back to my stash to bless and drink my potion of strength, taking my strength back up to 22, almost where it was when I started the game!
I'll call it here for tonight. Apologies for the shorter update, but I spent a lot of time in the Infinite Dungeon doing stuff that wouldn't have been interesting to include and it's getting late. Next time: I explore the ancient pyramid and the dwarven graveyard!