Level 20
- $6,243, AC 1, Str 18/75, Exp 11
- +2 long sword, +1 bow, +3 splint mail, 31 +0 arrows
- Ring of cold resistance
- Ring of +2 increase damage
- Wand of speed monster, wand of digging
- Magic whistle
- 2 potions of monster detection, 2 potions of levitation
- Scroll of remove curse
- 11 food rations
- Four unidentified scrolls
Attempt 1:
Almost immediately, a dragon snuck up on me while exploring a corridor.
Uh-oh. Time to use one of those unidentified scrolls!
And here we have one of the unexpected advantages of savescumming. Now, whenever I reload a saved game, I'll know I have an extremely rare scroll of genocide. I can save it for when I really need it, and until then, act knowing that I have this option. But right now, I need it, so I invoke 'D.'
The rest of the level gave me no trouble, except that the exit completely eluded me. Unable to find any secret doors, I wasted all of my wand of digging's charges trying to find the exit, to no avail. After that, I quaffed a potion of monster detection, and it revealed orcs in a part of the level I hadn't explored yet - this let me focus on where to search for hidden doors, and eventually I found it and the orc-guarded exit. I did not make a save.
On level 21, I encountered a new enemy, demons, represented by an '&' sign.
In trouble again, I read an unidentified scroll which turned my hands blue - indicating a scroll of confuse monster! But it wasn't enough to save me.
Attempt 2:
I killed a cockatrice, and then absentmindedly stepped on its corpse.
Attempt 3:
A dragon awaited me right at the stairs. I tried to see if I could save my scroll of genocide by using one of confusion instead. The game told me the dragon appeared confused, but its fighting ability didn't seem affected in the slightest. Needless to say, I became lunch.
Attempt 4:
Nothing particularly noteworthy happened. I found a wand of light, and some odds and ends that I couldn't carry, including an ivory ring.
Level 21
- $7,162, AC 1, Str 18/75, Exp 11
- +2 long sword, +1 bow, +3 splint mail, 31 +0 arrows
- Ring of cold resistance
- Ring of +2 increase damage
- Wand of speed monster, wand of digging, wand of light
- Magic whistle
- 2 potions of monster detection, 2 potions of levitation
- Scroll of remove curse, scroll of genocide, 2 scrolls of confuse monster
- 11 food rations
- An unidentified scroll
Attempt 1:
The dog fell into a trap door, and I followed. The dog was there, non-hostile, and so were stairs leading down, so I descended. It did not follow!
A wraith in the stairs room on level 23 gave me another level-boosting corpse. I kept exploring, descending stairs whenever they were found, and by level 27, the scenery changed.
 |
| Without IBMgraphics support, the maze is difficult to read. |
The maze! Is this the end?
Well, it was the end of this run. I explored, hit some dead ends, and then demons surrounded me.
Genocide time, right? Wrong. Demons can't be genocided - the scroll prompts you to input a letter, and the '&' sign is not accepted. My scrolls of confuse monster didn't even seem to help. What good are these things anyway?
Attempt 2:
I lost the dog to another trap door, but this time I decided I didn't care. The level was easy enough, the dog seemed more of a nuisance than a help at this point, and I found enough cool stuff while exploring that it seemed worth it.
Level 22
- $7,451, AC 1, Str 18/75, Exp 12
- +2 long sword, +1 bow, +3 splint mail, 31 +0 arrows
- Ring of cold resistance
- Ring of +2 increase damage
- Wand of speed monster, wand of digging, wand of light, 2 wands of fire
- Magic whistle
- 2 potions of monster detection, 2 potions of levitation, potion of object detection
- Scroll of remove curse, scroll of genocide, scroll of confuse monster
- 11 food rations
- An unidentified scroll
- An unidentified ring
Attempt 1:
The dog was hostile and I had to put it down, which was actually pretty difficult and nearly got me killed. I encountered and a genocided a dragon, and discovered through use that my unidentified scroll was a self-immolating scroll of fire. Then I got overconfident and fought a purple worm at less than full health, and died.
Attempt 2:
This time the dog was not hostile... until I hit it by accident. And then I had to put it down. It carried a scroll of identification, which identified my ring as one of poison resistance - nice, but maybe not as useful as it might have been ten levels ago!
Multiple cockatrices wandered the level, but I avoided their stoning effect and took care not to step on their corpses. And I found the exit without any setbacks.
Level 23
- $8,396, AC 1, Str 18/75, Exp 12
- +2 long sword, +1 bow, +3 splint mail, 31 +0 arrows
- Ring of poison resistance
- Ring of +2 increase damage
- Wand of digging, wand of light, 2 wands of fire
- 2 potions of monster detection, 2 potions of levitation, potion of object detection
- Scroll of remove curse, scroll of genocide, scroll of confuse monster
- 10 food rations
Attempt 1:
I quaffed a potion of monster detection. Nothing but a leocrotta and a nurse, the latter of which dropped a scroll of enchant armor. Other monsters spawned in, but nothing I couldn't handle. I exhausted my wand of light but picked up a few useful things.Level 24
- $9,046, AC 0, Str 18/75, Exp 12
- +2 long sword, +1 bow, +4 splint mail, 31 +0 arrows
- Ring of poison resistance
- Ring of +2 increase damage
- Wand of digging, 2 wands of fire
- Potion of monster detection, 2 potions of levitation, potion of object detection
- 2 scrolls of remove curse, scroll of genocide, scroll of confuse monster
- 10 food rations, 1 tin
I noticed that my scrolls of remove curse didn't stack. Why not - is one of them cursed?
Attempt 1:
I figured the monster detection and object detection should be saved for the maze, but quaffed a potion of levitation just on the off-chance that it might prevent tripping a trapdoor during its brief duration. I'm not sure what else you do with these. It basically lasted long enough to explore one dark room, where I found a scroll of teleportation and another, unidentified scroll.
I killed a cockatrice in a corridor, and an umber hulk followed, stepping over its corpse to no detriment. I killed the umber hulk too, but barely, and really should have used a scroll of confuse monster. Oh well.
A third room held a snake hiding under a potion of invisibility, which I grabbed, and as I retreated, ran into a dragon! I wanted to see if I could kill it without genocide, so I drank the potion of invisibility - it still attacked me, but missed. I hit, it hit back. I used my scroll of confuse monster, and it hit, it breathed fire on me anyway, nearly killing me. One more hit and I died.
Attempt 2:
Right in the starting room, I fell for the old bag-of-cash-placed-on-the-trap-door trick.
On floor 25, I had a close call with a rust monster in the dark, and after killing it a purple worm swallowed me, but I hacked my way out before it could finish digesting me. Then, in a corridor, I got sandwiched between a powerful yeti, xorn, and zruty, but I beat them all.
I found a few things clearing out level 25, at least, and then returned to level 24, where I found another scroll of enchant armor, mutually confused and was then nearly killed by an umber hulk, ate some bad tinned food, and ran into a dragon in the dark which I genocided.
Finally, this run came to an end while exploring a dark room, three monsters - an ettin, a xorn, and a nurse all showed up at once and took turns hitting me. I drank a potion of invisibility which I found earlier in the level and tried to escape, but the nurse landed a killing blow on me anyway.
Attempt 3:
Killed by a demon. The scroll of confuse monster seemed to prevent it from summoning help, but didn't hurt its battle accuracy. One demon was enough.Attempt 4:
A 'xan' pricked both my legs in combat. This did not affect my strength, but nevertheless caused me to collapse under my load as if it had. I dropped my arrows and killed it, and on its corpse found a potion which made my legs feel "somewhat better."
The rest of the level was the usual cycle of finding stuff and killing monsters, including an umber hulk. I got hungry and ate the tin - it contained strength-boosting spinach this time! And the loot included a scroll of enchant armor too. Even more notably, I found a +3 shield - that's a significant AC boost, though by now I was definitely having trouble carrying all of my stuff.
Lastly, I killed and ate a wraith - one of the few corpses light enough to lift - for another level boost.
Stats and items:
- $10,234, AC -5, Str 18/98, Exp 13
- +2 long sword, +1 bow, +5 splint mail, +3 shield, 30 +0 arrows
- Ring of poison resistance
- Ring of +2 increase damage
- Wand of digging, 2 wands of fire
- Potion of monster detection, 2 potions of levitation, potion of object detection
- 2 scrolls of remove curse, scroll of genocide
- 12 food rations
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