I learn nothing.

I started up a new Nethack character because I hadn't played in a while.

Heidi the Valkyrie started on a new moon, which is bad luck, but I was willing to try my chances.

I lucked out with a first level altar. Though it wasn't of my alignment, I could still use it to identify cursed/blessed status. I found a cloak that Tim, my dog, thought was safe to try on. It was a freakin' cloak of displacement! I was VERY lucky! I pressed on, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Even more good luck when the second level had a fully stocked potion shop. I quickly priced everything, and put the stuff I wanted Tim to steal near the door. I distracted the shopkeep while Tim managed to sneak a few potions out. They helped a little, but I didn't get the djinni I was hoping for.

I returned to the altar to do some more identifying, and figured I'd try my luck at a conversion. The first attempt failed, and I didn't want to be on Tyr's bad side, so I stuck around until I got another chance, which succeeded! Woot! Co-aligned altar on the first level with a nearby chest for storage!

On the next level, I find a small dog. I check my inventory for tripe, but have none, so I see if he'll eat a food ration. He does, and I name him Jim. On the next level down, Jim wanders into a level teleport trap, and disappears to parts unknown. Damnit Jim! I soon find a ring of warning, and things are looking a bit better.

Further down I find a sink, a good place to look for a ring. I decide to take my chances with disturbing it, and kick it repeatedly. An incubus is summoned, but merely teleports away. Further kicking resulted in a black pudding oozing up from the drain. The black pudding is pretty tough for my level, but it's slow. I lead it next to Tim to see if he wants to step in, but he wisely stays out of it. I dance around, staying just out of its corrosive reach, while trying to kick the ring out of the sink. After a bit of this ballet, a ring appears! Except it the same freakin' ring I already have! What are the chances! Now I have a black pudding on the loose, and nothing to show for it. I retreat back to the altar.

I pick up a few items on the way which I identify at the altar, and manage to find some cursed boots that I bless so I can wear. The boots were -1, so they didn't affect my armor class at all since I wasn't wearing anything on my feet before them, but covering your body matters in Nethack.

I luck out with some good monsters to sacrifice, and Tyr gives me Mjollnir way freakin' earlier than I ever expected to get it! I'm pretty sure it's also corrosion resistant, so I should be able to show the black pudding who's boss! I fight my way back down to the sink level, keeping Tim far away from the level teleport trap as we pass it. I had hoped to see Jim by now, but I guess he's on a level under the black pudding.

I corner the black pudding and start beating it with Mjollnir. It has the bonus of not being an edged weapon, because edged weapons increase the chance of the pudding dividing. I hoped to end it quickly, but the pudding divided an amazing FIVE times before I realized I wasn't doing enough damage to kill it. I just quintupled my problems. Genius. But Tim came to the rescue! Apparently he had been doing more fighting than I had noticed, because he was ready to take them on now! He made short work of them, and we explored the rest of the level.

A few levels down we found a freakin' co-aligned altar! For starting on a new moon, I've been awfully lucky! The next level down was a bones level, which is both lucky, and unlucky. A bones level is the save of a level on which a character died previously. The lucky thing is that there is usually good gear on the corpses, the unlucky thing is that whatever took the character out last time is still around. I searched cautiously, and was surprised to find it was a double-bones level! I had died on it once before, found it as a new character only to die on it again, then found it this time. One of my previous characters had turned to stone, and I lacked a pick to free the items within the statue, but the other had plenty of goodies. With luck, some of which weren't cursed.

I check out a nearly empty shop on the same level, and pick up some new potions for testing. I get Tim nearby in case I get incapacitated, and quaff one of the potions. It's alcohol, and I remember that my stats take a hit for a while, but forget that I become confused. I take a step in the wrong direction, and accidentally attack Tim! With the power of Mjollnir, he died on the first blow. Goddamnit. I check all my wands on him to see if one is undead turning, but no luck. Poor Tim.

I'm more cautious now, without Tim's backup, I need to make sure I don't get myself in to a hairy situation. I find a kitten, which gladly joins me after some tripe. I name him Tim II, but he dies in the next room to a dwarf lord. Maybe I should just stop playing...

I return to the altar to reconcile with Tyr. He's probably pretty pissed about me murdering poor Timmy. After a few sacrifices, a counter-aligned unicorn shows up! After a bit of chasing, I take him down, and sacrifice him to Tyr for extra bonus reconciliation points! He gives me Werebane, which is really only great when fighting werewolves, which aren't much of a worry for me with Mjollnir. I put Werebane in my storage box in the altar room, and forget about it. I review the cursed inventory of my fallen character, and realize that I wouldn't have worn an amulet that was bad... In fact, I think there's a pretty good chance the amulet is a good one... I put it on while standing on the altar, just in case it's the cursed amulet of choking. It's the amulet of ESP! It's still cursed from being taken from a dead character, but it's not like I'll want to take it off any time soon! I decide to try for an uncursing, and take my chances by putting on a few cursed rings and pray to Tyr. He uncurses my ESP amulet. You know, the one I didn't want to take off anyways? Sigh. I suddenly teleport to another area. And one of the cursed rings I'm wearing is teleport. Fantastic.

Further down I am reunited with Jim! He doesn't remember me, of course, but he sure remembers the food I give him! He joins me happily, and I hope I can keep him alive until he grows into a large dog. Another level down I run into a werewolf that the Random Nethack God seems to have a soft spot for. I can't hit him at all. He gets a bite in before I can dispatch him, and I know I'm infected. I could pray to cure it, but I'm not sure when I last prayed, and I don't want to piss Tyr off, so I hope I can make it back to the altar to sacrifice a few more so Tyr will be more willing to help me out. I don't make it.

I turn into a wolf, bursting through my armor, and destroying my awesome cloak of displacement! I'm overburdened, and can't wield any weapons! I rest a bit from the transformation, and summon some wolves to my aid. At least I'll have some protection in my vulnerable state. I slowly make it back to the altar, stopping to summon more wolves (and one timber wolf!) whenever I can, but it's slow going with what became an enormous pack of wolves, and the teleportation that plagued me (wolves can still wear rings, apparently). I get an idea to get Werebane to see if it will purify me, but it only blasts me with energy, which I guess makes sense, since I'm a werewolf... I teleport again, away from the safety of the pack, and barely make it back. I have to pray. I'll take my chances.

Luckily, it wasn't too soon for Tyr, and he cured me of my lycantropy. Now I have an army of wolves following me around. I gotta find a polymorph trap or wand somewhere... I adjust my pack for exploration travel, and decide to bring Werebane with me this time.

I find a small general store full of food, which I quickly buy regardless of price. The rings I can't remove and useful amulet make me burn calories faster, so I need it more than I need the gold. Teleportation is wearing on my nerves. I get desperate and try to use a fountain to remove the rings. All the sacrificing gave me enough luck to avoid all the nasty possibilities of fountain use, but I still couldn't get the rings off. I wander back up, looking for a fountain (I should have kept better notes), and happen upon a sleeping nymph! I quickly separate myself from my pets, and take off everything I can, down to the two cursed rings. I slap the nymph awake, who dutifully steals something from me, and teleports away. She takes one of the cursed rings from me, and I get dressed and wait to find out if it was the teleport ring... I soon teleport into a nasty room, and fight my way out. As my wolves come to reunite with me, my ESP amulet shows me their encounter with the nymph, who falls quickly to my pets. Damnit.

My pack of wolves is becoming a chore to manage. They're alway wandering off, keeping away from me when I want to go down stairs, and staying too close to me when I go back up stairs to bring more down. I start to get very hungry before I can safely pray to Tyr to fill my belly. The pack of wolves is eating up everything in sight, and not leaving a thing for me. I scavenge for food and run into a freakin' mumak! It charges me immediately, and I take several very serious hits. It gets me from 103 hit points to 6 far to quickly. Without my displacement, I'm stuck dancing around, dodging through the pack. The pack is also aware that I've made a mistake, and aside from the occasional passing swipe or bite at the mumak, fails to dog-pile (as it were) when I need it most. The mumak ignores the lightly attacking wolves for many turns, trying only to finish me off, but I barely make it away long enough for it to turn on the wolves. Then the massacre began.

Every wolf strong enough to pick a fight with the mumak was obliterated in a few short turns, but I knew the mumak had to be weakening. Down to only a few wolves and Jim, the mumak turned back to me. I checked my inventory for something to bring down a mumak, and found a wand of magic missile I had forgotten about. I didn't have a good angle on the mumak, and didn't want to kill myself on a ricochet, or injure any of my wolves or poor Jim. I danced around the small room, trying to get a shot while trying to avoid the mumak's tusks. I hit the mumak three times before my wand sputtered empty. The mumak bearing down on me, I stubbornly believed it had to be near death. I put on the ring of plus damage I had taken off when I started to get hungry, and took one last swing at the mumak.

It fell right there. I was alive, still starving, but alive. One of my wolves jumped on the corpse and ate it before I could do anything. So there I was, surrounded by my dead wolves, starving to death. I did the only thing I could. I ate my pets' corpses. Tyr wasn't going to like it, but he'd soften up after a few sacrifices. But still... Goddamnit.

I returned to the altar to identify the status of some new equipment, then headed to the general store to see how much the shopkeep would give me for some of my unidentified scrolls. One of them was very expensive, even though it was cursed, so I held on to it, and returned to the altar for some safe reading. I got rid of everything that could burn in case of a scroll of fire, and read the expensive cursed scroll. It was a scroll of genocide! Good thing I found out it was cursed first, that could have been bad. I think a bit about what monster I want sent in, and get a great idea! I ask it to genocide all tengu because I know the cursed genocide scrolls teleport those creatures in instead of killing them all, and I can use the tengu for some thing useful.

Several tengu appear, and I annoy Tyr yet again by attacking a peaceful creature, and quickly scarfing down the corpse. I get lucky on the first try and get teleport control! Tengu teleport at will, and eating their corpses gives you a chance to get teleport control, or teleportitis. I just got lucky. FINALLY I can stop dealing with this teleport bullshit!

I spot a nymph nearby but the wolves get to her before I can get her to steal my cursed ring of teleportation. I start altar camping, and sacrificing anything that comes close enough for me to drag to the altar to get back in Tyr's good graces. I after a bit of a dry spell, a gaggle of chickatrices appear, and I get greedy. I quickly chase them down, but they refuse to leave corpses! I kill the last one, and it leave a corpse, and the wolves don't immediately eat it! Score!

I bend down to pick it up aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnddddd

I turn to stone.

Making yet another pretty statue of one of my characters.

I need to make gloves a priority. There were some cursed gloves on my dead character, but I didn't put them on. Obviously the negative hit of the cursed gloves would have been preferable to turning to stone.

I lean nothing.