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PREVIOUSLY, ON SLASH'EM: Update #3
We left off with using a third lamp to wish for a ring of slow digestion.
Downstairs, there's a random pair of gauntlets of power on the floor. I just bought a pair too 
I pick up and engrave test the wand on the ground. Attempting to fight my writing means its striking.
Striking can be used offensively, or to do stuff like destroy boulders like I did here. Destroyed boulders turn into a big pile of rocks. If I had the stone to flesh spell, I could further make those rocks into meatballs and chow down.
The next level, I run into a woodchuck, which means we've reached the Oracle special level. It shows up somewhere from DL:5-9, and is the signifier for Sokoban - The entrance to Sokoban is always one level below Oracle.
Woodchucks are basically re-skinned rock moles. They can tunnel through rock and will wander the map randomly. Theoretically, it could cut down trees if you had one near a tree, but trees are a very rare dungeon feature that only show up on a couple special levels.
Woodchucks only show up on the Oracle level because its a old USENET Oracle joke. Amusingly, if a woodchuck somehow attacks the oracle, the oracle even gives off a ZOT.
The Oracle level has a bunch of guaranteed statues in it. The statues can randomly contain a spellbook if you bother to break them all and look through them (with the wand of striking, for example). I settle for a spellbook I found lying on the floor. Insulate is one of the new SLASH'EM spells, it gives temporary shock resistance.
The Oracle herself is at the middle of the level, surrounded by fountains. You can pay her for minor and major consultations - minor ones are true rumours, while major ones are fairly significant individual spoilers. For example:
quote:
The detection of blessings and curses is in the domain of the gods. They will make this information available to mortals who request it at their places of worship, or elsewhere for those mortals who devote themselves to the service of the gods.
Here's one talking about BUC testing with altars.
Periodically the game will check to see if you've trained enough stats to give you a stat up. Almost everything you do also trains or abuses stats, although this can take a while to notice. This here is +1 to each of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.
SOMEthing on the level is invisible and capable of stealing. Its probably a pixie, a SLASH'EM nymph which does just that. The wand of digging is fairly unimportant though.
That, well, now we have a problem. That's my slow digestion ring. I can't see invisible, but I do have telepathy if I can blind myself somehow.
Dust vortexes are weak enemies that can do little more than blind you, which is perfect. I was right, the pixie is the one in the top right corner.
I lose the blindness before I can track it down, but I get it lured into the straight tunnel and manage to kill it with my wand of striking.
Next to the downstairs I find a gold ring. Which is......the same as the ring of polymorph control I have on that I wished for. Welp
Here I am, merrily kicking doors down, when one of those doors was a shopkeepers. Whoops. Luckily I have enough cash to pay for the repairs, or he would have tried to shotgun me in the face.
Shopkeepers in SLASH'EM are a higher level than vanilla and usually get shotguns. Fun, isn't it? His shop doesn't really have anything interesting at first glance.
Displacement (like from the cloak I'm wearing) can cause enemies to not know for sure where I am and waste attacks elsewhere. The longer you stand next to them the less it works.
Towels work as an easy way to blind yourself for telepathy and a few other uses.
This second upstairs means we've found the entrance to Sokoban.
Sokoban is a series of four set levels of boulder pushing puzzles, with either a bag of holding or an amulet of reflection at the end of the fourth level. On top of that, each level has a random wand, random ring, and a bunch of random food. I don't need the bag and I have reflection from my armour, but its worth going through the first bit of it.
This wand engrave-ids as slow monster. Boring!
The first level of Sokoban always has two scrolls of earth tucked away in it, in case you need more boulders to solve the puzzle. I #name them as earth and carry on.
Tengus are minor demons that can teleport around a bunch to be annoying. Too bad for him all of the Sokoban levels are no-teleport.
SLASH'EM adds several new Sokoban levels, but so far the ones we've seen are the Nethack ones. The easier Nethack ones, even.
Can't get away from me this time, unicorn!
The easiest Sokoban level and I still manage to mess it up 
Breaking boulders in Sokoban causes a small luck penalty, but it should be gone before I'm finished with the place.
There's a ton of enemies at the end of the level, I end up fighting through three waves of them by the time I clear it out.
The third level is another Nethack one and not very interesting until the end.
A new SLASH'EM member of Team Ant, snow ants have a cold attack (which can destroy potions) and their corpse can give you cold resistance.
One of the wands I picked up in Sokoban turns out to be magic missile, another doesn't seem to do anything engraving so probably isn't important.
The fourth level is the Nethack amulet of reflection version. We didn't see a single one of the new maps.
Pushing the boulder over reveals a new boulder in front of us. Which has to be a giant mimic blocking our path. I don't have an effective for-sure method of killing him without breaking more boulders and don't need the prize at the end so I decide to just cut and run at this point.
I get level 9 on the way down. Undead Slayers get intrinsic poison resistance at level 9, but I have the intrinsic already.
I do another check of the armour shop and do a double check on the helmet there. Since this one weighs {50}, it has to be one of the three notable helmets that actually do something.
This one doesn't do anything noticeable when I put it on, so either telepathy (extrinsic telepathy works in a limited range around you without needing to be blind) or brilliance (increases Wis and Int with positive enchantment). I move on to try some other armour while I'm here.
SLASH'EM adds poisonous cloak, which will try to poison you when you put it on. It feeling itchy means it hit my poison resistance and did nothing. The poison from this has a 33% chance of being fatal, so be wary of unknown cloaks. It only does the poison right after being worn, so if you survive its safe to leave on
Cloaks of protection provide slightly more AC compared to other cloaks.
Recluse spiders are a new SLASH'EM monster, they're a slightly more dangerous cave spider. Their corpses has a bit better of a chance of giving you poison resistance.
Cancellation and polymorph aren't like each other at all. False rumours!! 
Here we find our first troll. Trolls will always leave corpses and will regenerate from them very often. Combined with being fairly hard hitting and they're a significant threat in the early game.
Scoping out the level with telepathy, there's some soldiers and elves hanging out with a cave spider for some reason.
Tinning kits are the easiest way to get rid of trolls, but I don't have one and have to try to eat it before it revives. But it revived too fast for me to get it this time.
And stay dead.
I'll never be able to cast it, but nice to know I guess.
From the looks of it, the elves were throwing at my displaced image and just killed the spider they were hanging out with instead.
Most soldiers get some sort of firearms now. Frag grenades are a popular one, they do fire damage. I step around to the other side of the solider to avoid the blast.
Wood golems drop a bunch of quarterstaves when killed. Unfortunately, I don't think woodchucks do extra damage to them.
I kill the unicorn that was hanging around and grab one of the shields the elves dropped. Lycanthropes can't dual-wield and I doubt I'll be doing much spellcasting, so a shield is a nice little bit of AC.
Things are looking pretty good so far!
NEXT TIME, ON SLASH'EM
More new special levels!