WARNING: this post is
very long and full of spoilers...
This has been one of the most satisfying and crazy run that I had :)
I think this is a good example of "adapting to what the dungeon gives you".
Everything began on D:4, when I found an altar of Xom, and for an unknown reason I decided to worship him:
3266 | D:4 | Became a worshipper of Xom of Chaos
I basically never worshipped Xom, so I had no idea what to expect.
Things started to seem good, though:
4190 | D:5 | Noticed Dowan 4191 | D:5 | Noticed Duvessa 4201 | D:5 | XOM: summons friendly quasit 4207 | D:5 | Killed Duvessa 4207 | D:5 | XOM: divine lightning 4215 | D:5 | Killed Dowan
and
4428 | D:5 | Gained mutation: You are robust. (+10% HP) [Xom's grace]
but then it quickly showed that this was not the full plan:
5398 | D:6 | XOM: 3-stop teleportation journey 5406 | D:6 | XOM: swap monsters 5491 | D:6 | XOM: enchant monster (bad)
followed by:
6210 | D:6 | Lost mutation: You are robust. (+10% HP) [Xom's mischief] 6210 | D:6 | Gained mutation: You are frail. (-10% HP) [Xom's mischief]
From this point onwards, I stopped worrying too much about mutations, and I just tried to live with what I got in the moment :)
On D:9 I found two randarts that will be very important:
6611 | D:9 | Identified the +0 cloak of Distant Worlds {rPois rF+ Str+7} 6612 | D:9 | Identified the +9 dagger "Sythryis" {speed, rN++ Str+4} Actually, I will understand the importancy of the cloak later (for the moment, I ignored it, wearing something with more AC).
Instead, I took the dagger and I used it a lot, starting training short blades.
Went to Lair, and found:
13748 | Lair:5 | Identified the +1 hat of Miracles {Str+4} (again, this will be important later)
Xom decided that was time to train shields and I said: "Ok, Xom, let's do it".
15209 | Lair:4 | XOM: god gift: buckler {god gift} 15307 | Lair:4 | Reached skill level 1 in Shields After Lair, I started training Long Blades in order to help a bit with the damage.
I was still using magic as a primary offense (Fireball, mostly) - but some melee backup is good.
As I always do, I left Orc after the end of the dungeon (Orc:2 is really dangerous, imho). On Orc:2, I found:
26839 | Orc:2 | Bought a shimmering dagger for 224 gold pieces 26839 | Orc:2 | Identified the +10 dagger "Udweisof" {pierce, rN++ Str-2 | Int+8 Dex+2} (You bought it in a shop on level 2 of the | Orcish Mines) 26856 | Orc:2 | Bought a twisted shield for 247 gold pieces 26867 | Orc:2 | Identified the +3 shield "Fecaer" {rF+ rC+ Regen+} (You | bought it in a shop on level 2 of the Orcish Mines) The rest of the first part of the run was without big events, but I was struggling to find "big" spells.
I had to branch into non-fire conjurations:
30587 | Swamp:3 | Learned a level 6 spell: Iron Shot 46810 | Vaults:2 | Learned a level 7 spell: Spellforged Servitor
In the middle of the trip I found a Fire Dragon Armour and started enchanting it.
My plan was quite simple, casting Iron Shot and high-level Fire magic with FDA, and find some good one-handed long blade.
But this plan was hindered by the fact that I had no high-level fire magic at all, and no good long blade... :)
Then in the depths I saw the Ziggurat vault with 2 angels and 2 daevas, and decided to break it for a nice eudemon blade.
When the eudemon blade was in my hands I started to think "Yes, maybed we can go extended".
So I decided to go to Elf, where my plans were completely rewritten.
I noticed this in a shop:
the +12 gold dragon scales of the Barnacle {rPois rF+ rC+ Int+2} for 2257 gold pieces and I could not resist.
This was basically all of my gold, but it was worth it... and then Xom decided to help a bit:
69762 | Elf:2 | Bought the +12 gold dragon scales of the Barnacle 70391 | Elf:2 | XOM: god gift: 2080 gold pieces
But I didn't want to give up magic - since I was still a Fire Elementalist inside.
So - I started stacking strength, using all the items collected until now:
- the +9 dagger "Sythryis" {speed, rN++ Str+4}
- the +0 cloak of Distant Worlds (worn) {rPois rF+ Str+7}
- the +1 hat of Miracles (worn) {Str+4}
and this was enough to keep casting at least Fireball even in GDA!
Finally, in Elf:3 I got a double sword (useful for non-demonic monsters) and my long-awaited fire spells:
73890 | Elf:3 | Learned a level 6 spell: Starburst 73899 | Elf:3 | Learned a level 8 spell: Ignition 73362 | Elf:3 | Identified the +6 double sword of Winaz {venom, +Blink | rPois rF+ Str+3}
At this point I had invested a lot in Conjuration, and I had problem casting Ignition (that is pure Fire) and Spellforged Servitor (that is half Summoning).
I kept training both Fire and Summoning, together with armour, for a lot of time. And fighting, obviously. I always keep fighting active all the time in a Gargoyle (that's the reason for the title).
I did Vaults:5 with brilliance, haste and Ignition. Really satisfying.
http://preview.redd.it/l5zonwsae4b41.jpg?width=594&format;=pjpg&auto;=webp&s;=1bfd5bb329953dee79ffab384ceea3f8d4eab9f1 I decided that Iron Shot needed some help:
78604 | Vaults:5 | Learned a level 7 spell: Orb of Destruction
Now - my golden rule is: never go to extended if you don't clear Zot first.
Is not optimal, because of the mutations, but the last thing that I want is to die in Zot:5 after 15 runes.
Clearing Zot together with Xom is... well, interesting.
Random teleports, enemies swap, summon of hostile summonings... mixed with the traps and the Orbs of Fire. This was the best teleport of the entire run, thanks Xom!
http://preview.redd.it/wfz3g1bee4b41.jpg?width=1871&format;=pjpg&auto;=webp&s;=15af2c30365aaa9973efa0656aa7a9db3b0031b0 Then... I decided to go extended. All in.
Hell vestibule, even if in theory easier, never goes as I want.
It took me an insane amount of time to kill Geryon:
93927 | Hell | Noticed Geryon 93929 | Hell | XOM: blink monster(s) 94049 | Hell | XOM: summons friendly ice devil 94197 | Hell | Killed Geryon
At this time, I still didn't have Ignition fully online, and was feeling a bit weak.
My eudemon blade was not even at mindelay (and will not be for some time).
So, I decided to go to Tartarus, that I find slightly more controllable.
But Xom decided that "controllable" is not applicable in a Xom run.
I entered Tartarus, I was surrounded by a really high number of enemies... and Xom decided to move the stairs (the exit to Hell's vestibule) 5 squares further away from me.
The stairs were immediately covered by other monsters, impeding a blink.
95204 | Tar:1 | Entered Level 1 of Tartarus 95207 | Tar:1 | XOM: repel stairs
To make things more interesting...:
95225 | Tar:1 | XOM: summons 2 hostile shadow creatures
WOAH. Xom redefines in this way the word "challenging".
In some way I survived. Fought my way back to the exit, using a combination of Iron shots and melee.
The rest of Tartarus was uneventful, until I found Ereshkigal.
Now, rethinking a bit about it, I was not really ready to fight her.
The fight started quite well, spells were not super-effective given the high chance of miss of Iron Shot and the close range of OoD, but melee with my +9 eudemon blade was working quite well.
My health was going down, but her health was going down faster. Quite ok.
Then she started healing, and I was not able to do enough damage to outheal her.
I was about to teleport away, when Xom decided to make things more interesting...
99229 | Tar:7 | Cast into level 5 of the Abyss (Xom)
Sorry? WHAT? Abyss:5?
Abyss:5 is a really scary place. Really. Worse than Hell, probably.
So - not only I had to escape in some way, but I knew that I would have emerged in front of Ereshkigal.
So, I had to escape at full health and mana. This was much more complex than I thought, but in some way I did it...
And I returned from Abyss to Hell, coming out from a tear in reality, hasted and "mighted", in the surprised face of Ereshkigal:
100218 | Tar:7 | Escaped the Abyss 100242 | Tar:7 | Killed Ereshkigal
I love this game :) At this point, I started thinking that I needed more firepower (literally...) but still no Fire Storm whatsoever.
Having invested a lot of summoning into the Servitor, I decided that Dragon's Call was a realistic option.
So I focused on Summoning. It took a lot of time.
In the meanwhile, I took care of Asmodeus:
105024 | Geh:7 | Noticed Asmodeus 105082 | Geh:7 | Killed Asmodeus
I learned Dragon's call on Dis:7 and using brilliance my band of dragons helped me with Dispater:
109704 | Dis:7 | Noticed Dispater 109729 | Dis:7 | Killed Dispater
I never used Dragon's Call in Extended, and is really really wonderful.
My casting plans were, once again, made more "interesting" by Xom:
110213 | Hell | Gained mutation: Your spells are harder to cast, but more | powerful. [Xom's grace] 110213 | Hell | Gained mutation: Your spells are much harder to cast, but | much more powerful. [Xom's grace]
Honestly this was bad for my Dragon's call, but was good for my Ignition :)
Cocytus is always a bad place, but with Ignition and my wings life was slightly easier.
113908 | Coc:7 | Noticed Antaeus 113930 | Coc:7 | Killed Antaeus
For some reason, I never manage to do Cocytus with rC+++. I always need to settle down to rC++, anyway it's not a huge problem.
Now - Abyss. I always search for the rune on Abyss:3. I got a vault with a band of nasty Elephants behind a river of lava.
Ignition made it trivial.
114341 | Depths:4 | Voluntarily entered the Abyss. 116282 | Abyss:3 | Got an abyssal rune of Zot 116913 | Depths:4 | Escaped the Abyss
Time for Pandemonium. And Slime? Nah, I hate Slime. Later.
In Pandemonium, things started to get really tough.
The first rune realm in which I entered? Mnoleg, obviously:
118088 | Pan | Entered Pandemonium 118393 | Pan | Entered the realm of Mnoleg.
I don't know if I was just unlucky, or maybe something changed, but I found an incredible amount of neqoxecs and cacodemons.
I made a plan: minimize mutations, steal the rune, and run away.
I prepared for my plan: 118494 | Pan | Learned a level 1 spell: Apportation 118496 | Pan | Learned a level 1 spell: Summon Butterflies
and I failed miserably in executing it:
118822 | Pan | Gained mutation: You tend to lose your temper in combat. [a cacodemon] 118826 | Pan | Gained mutation: You are occasionally teleported next to monsters. [a neqoxec] 119132 | Pan | Gained mutation: You often lose your temper in combat. [a neqoxec]
When I entered Mnoleg's chamber, I blinked close to the rune (I couldn't see it directly), and wanted to cast Apportation.
Obviously I was teleported away (this time, was not even Xom, but the mutation, I think).
So, I decided to do it in the Good Old Way. Ignition and Dragon's Call:
120044 | Pan | Killed Mnoleg
I tried to clean up something with one potion of mutation, but I decided to keep my mutations for the moment.
With Dragon's Call online, Lom Lobom and Gloorx Vloq were taken care with ease:
120395 | Pan | Entered the realm of Lom Lobon. 120398 | Pan | Noticed Lom Lobon 120412 | Pan | Killed Lom Lobon 120630 | Pan | Entered the realm of Gloorx Vloq. 121103 | Pan | Noticed Gloorx Vloq 121114 | Pan | Killed Gloorx Vloq
But then, entered Cerebov's realm, and arrived inside his castle, in one of the towers.
[high tension music playing] 121447 | Pan | Entered the realm of Cerebov.
Now - Balrugs were never a problem for me in Pan, but when you have a HORDE of Balrugs smiting you, things start going bad quite fast.
I took not one, but TWO bad decisions:
- bad decision #1: I didn't want to use too much magic, since I was very close to Cerebov's vault
- bad decision #2: I didn't want to blindly teleport in an unexplored realm, with a chance of being teleported close to Cerebov
This was the closest call of the entire run. VERY CLOSE.
121511 | Pan | HP: 2/218 [balrug/fireball (9)]
I can swear I saw the message: "Xom thinks this is hilarious".
But, Xom sometimes also helps you:
121512 | Pan | XOM: summons 3 friendly demons
Heal wounds, heal wounds, haste, fog, Dragon's call, heal wounds x 2. Wow. Survived.
Cerebov, in comparison, was easily trampled by my dragons, with a nice help from Xom:
121986 | Pan | Noticed Cerebov 122021 | Pan | XOM: potion effect (magic) 122028 | Pan | Killed Cerebov
http://preview.redd.it/ervak0qke4b41.jpg?width=1860&format;=pjpg&auto;=webp&s;=51fae63233d7647db6636472540d7d04f91f7a15 When Xom is in good mood, everything is easier:
123711 | Pan | Noticed Mennas 123711 | Pan | Mennas changed into Mennas the apis 123722 | Pan | Killed Mennas the apis
Just demonic rune was missing, but something weird happened.
I entered a realm and I didn't get any message that the demonic rune was in it.
Is this intended?
Anyway, I got some more interesting mutations, and then Xom decided to take me in a guided tour of the realm:
124415 | Pan | Gained mutation: Scrolls take you a little longer to read. [a cacodemon] 124420 | Pan | Gained mutation: Scrolls take you longer to read. [a cacodemon] 124439 | Pan | XOM: 9-stop teleportation journey
This left me IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HELLION ISLAND.
Yes, in the middle.
Luckily, I knew the only spell that could save me: Ignition. Maybe Shatter would work, or self-centered Fire Storm, but not sure.
Ignition took care of the Hellions in one shot!
I didn't care about the Panlord on this realm and I quickly escaped:
124805 | Pan | Got a demonic rune of Zot 124808 | Pan | Found an exit through the horrors of the Abyss. 124817 | Pan | Took an exit into the Abyss. 124817 | Abyss:1 | Escaped into the Abyss 124897 | Depths:3 | Escaped the Abyss
Next, Slime. I like doing slime only when it's trivial. Thanks, Dragons:
127763 | Slime:5 | Noticed the Royal Jelly 127768 | Slime:5 | Killed the Royal Jelly
I decided to remove all of my bad mutations using most of the available potions of mutation and entered the Tomb.
But... don't you think that Tomb:1 is too easy? Xom thinks so. Let's make it more interesting:
129130 | Tomb:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Tomb of the Ancients 129189 | Tomb:1 | XOM: 8-stop teleportation journey 129196 | Tomb:1 | XOM: confuse monster(s)
I was teleported in the center of Tomb:1. Nice.
Tomb:2 was much nastier and not straightforward at all.
I had no way of breaking walls so I got lost in up&down; stairs.
Anyway, finally I got to Tomb:3.
Now, Tomb:3 is the most dangerous place in the game and my trips there have always been close calls, scary moments, and one memorable death, killed by Dispel Undead while in Lichform.
This time, the combination of Dragon's call at high power + Ignition, plus some trip up and down the stairs, took care of all those mummies and all the other horros that inhabit this place.
I had a few scrolls of blinking, but were not overly necessary, I think I used them twice.
133246 | Tomb:3 | Entered Level 3 of the Tomb of the Ancients 134291 | Tomb:3 | Got a golden rune of Zot
Tomb:3 was mine :)
http://preview.redd.it/v3r7846qe4b41.jpg?width=1852&format;=pjpg&auto;=webp&s;=fa3d3c5779e6aa0282d2b38b66e264174eabd0fc Now - time for leave.
135635 | Zot:5 | Got the Orb of Zot
While on the Orb run, I encountered a Seraph, and I thought: "Oh, I didn't kill any Seraph in this run! Let's do it now!"
135717 | Zot:4 | Noticed a seraph 135728 | Zot:4 | Killed a seraph
and then, up, up, up...
136002 | Depths:5 | Noticed Odymaj the pandemonium lord 136313 | D:10 | Noticed Xuosujye the pandemonium lord 136325 | D:10 | Killed Xuosujye the pandemonium lord 136660 | D:$ | Escaped with the Orb!
WHAT-A-RUN!!! Thanks for reading until this point :) :)
