[Olga's quest continues...]
----------
/ \
/ REST \
/ IN \
/ PEACE \
/ \
| Olga |
| 3203 Au |
| petrified by a |
| cockatrice |
| |
| |
| 2007 |
*| * * * | *
_________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______
Farvel Olga the Valkyrie...
You turned to stone in The Dungeons of Doom on dungeon level 14 with 123857
points,
and 3203 pieces of gold, after 29573 moves.
You were level 13 with a maximum of 146 hit points when you turned to stone.
At least the cockatrice was
alive this time...
Olga was playing the mid-game very well, she had good kit, she was in good graces with her Tyr, and after sokoban, she had a bunch of rings that promised to be useful. By level 12 I still couldn't find any altars besides the one in the mine town, which was becoming quite a walk (back up to level 2, and down to level 6). My Bag of Holding was full of unidentified kit, and I was on my way to one of my storage chests to drop it all off when I hit a level teleport trap which sent me to level 2! Well, that was helpful. I headed down to the mine town to visit my temple and ran into a peaceful
tengu. Eating them gives you a chance to pickup intrinsic teleport control. This would be useful in conjunction with a wand or scroll of teleport. Unfortunately, there's also a chance you can develop teleportitis which would cause you to randomly teleport. Teleportitis is a bit of a bother, but workable, and at higher levels you can teleport randomly at will, and if I got teleport control I'd be able to teleport wherever I want on demand, and chose to ignore the random teleports that don't take up any mana. I'd eaten a few tengus (tengi?) and with no luck (or unluck) so I figured I was due.
The tengu corpse tastes terrible! You finish eating. --more--
You feel jumpy.
Bugger. I wanted to hear "You feel in control of yourself." I've got teleportitis now. Oh well, I knew the risks, and one of those rings just might be teleport control!
In the mine town I notice a peaceful cat wandering around and am reminded of my earlier visit. Back when I was first visiting the mine town I was excited to find the temple was co-aligned and searched for a box to set up storage in the temple. Fortunately didn't have to look very far because boxes are heavy and tough to lug around. After I got the box up to the temple I had a bunch of junky weapons and armor lying around that were going to be put in there, but when I opened the box I got a message I'd never gotten before.
There's a cat in this box! The cat is alive!
Out popped a peaceful cat named
Schrodinger's cat. I chuckled and moved on. Now that I was back I was looking forward to finding a wand of polymorph to use on a pet to hopefully turn into something tough like
Trogdor, so I fed Schrodinger's cat and it was more than happy to become my pet.
Back at the sanctuary of Tyr's temple everything was checked for curses and I started trying on the safe items to see if they did anything obvious so I wouldn't have to use a scroll of identification. I found I had a bunch of cursed rings I didn't want to risk trying on. Afterwards I still had a bunch of unidentified scrolls and potions so I locked the door to the temple, and fished around in the junk chest I kept there for a weapon and piece of armor I wouldn't mind suffering the possibly ill effects of unidentified scrolls.
c uncursed scroll named DUAM XNAHT
Looks like a good place to start...
You read the scroll named DUAM XNAHT --more--
Your uncursed dagger turns to dust!
Whew! Glad I didn't have Mjollnir wielded at the time!
Fortunately none of the scrolls were punishment because I wasn't sure if I could safely pray yet. I had quite a few scrolls of enchant weapon and while Mjollnir was already kicking ass and rustproof and corrosion resistant, the daggers I was throwing weren't either of those things. Yet.
You are now weilding 9 uncursed daggers.
You read the uncursed scroll of enchant weapon. --more--
Your 9 uncursed daggers glow blue for a moment
You read the uncursed scroll of enchant weapon. --more--
Your 9 uncursed daggers glows blue for a while.
Perfect...
You drink the uncursed potion of confusion. You are confused!
You read the uncursed scroll of enchant weapon. --more--
You mispronounce the magic words on the scroll.
Your 9 uncursed daggers are covered by a shimmering golden shield!
You dip your 9 uncursed daggers into your blessed potion of water. --more--
Your 9 uncursed daggers glow softly amber
Awesome. 9 blessed +3 rustproof daggers.
My teleportitis flares up and sends me into one of the rooms I locked full of minor baddies wielding my new daggers wearing little more than a cloak.
Whoops... I dispatch them easily enough and make it back to the temple with the intention of making a blessed scroll of identify to try to ID my cursed rings in the hope that one of them is teleport control. I pick up some useless potions and scrolls and go searching for a fountain to dip them into to dilute potions into water, and to erase the scrolls. I head back and drop my 4 potions of water on the altar to Tyr.
You pray to Tyr. You are surrounded by a shimmering light. --more--
You feel Tyr is well-pleased. The altar glows softly blue.
You see here 4 potions of Holy Water
I pull my magic marker and some unlabeled scrolls out of my bag of holding and then remember that an uncursed bag of holding makes the items within it weigh half, but a blessed bag of holding makes things weigh only a quarter! I dip the bag into one potion of holy water and smile at the thought that I just doubled my carrying capacity so easily. I check my knowledge to find the magic words to write a scroll of identify and uncap my magic marker.
What do you want to write? FOOBIE BLETCH
T uncursed scroll of Identify
#dip T
What do you want to dip your uncursed scroll of identify into? F
Your scroll of identify glows amber.
t blessed scroll of Identify
I dig in my newly blessed bag of holding and pull out all my wands and anything else I might want identified. When you read a blessed scroll of identify there's a chance it will identify your whole inventory, and you'll be kicking yourself if that happens, and all your cool shit is inside your bag. I read the scroll and ID some rings, see invisible, polymorph, -2 ring of lose constitution, polymorph control. Since I was just in my bag I remember that I've got a wand of turn invisible and zap myself with it. Then I realize that I've got polymorph control AND polymorph! If I can polymorph at will, I can do some cool stuff like turn into a dragon or cockatrice, or turn into a vampire lord and play the rest of the game with levitation, awesome strength, and without having to eat! I put on the ring of polymorph control and read a scroll of remove curse so I can take it off at will, then I take off my armor so the transformation doesn't destroy any of it. I put on the ring of polymorph and quickly dipped it into some holy water so I could take it off (it's not something you want to be stuck with). I waited a few turns for the ring to do it's thing, and sure enough;
What monster would you like to change into?
I thought a moment, then smiled.
You are transformed into a grey dragon! --more--
use #monster to use your breath attack --more
use #sit to lay eggs
Eggs? Well, I was a female! Suddenly I see myself strolling through the dungeon with an army of baby dragons at my side, breathing death at whatever might come near.
Fuck. Yes. And if they die, I can use their scales for some awesome armor! I lay an egg, and move aside to an empty square to lay another.
Schrodinger's cat eats a dragon egg (laid by you)
[cartman]DAMNIT KITTY![/cartman] I need to lock that cat outside. I take a step towards the door and my teleportitis puts me across the map with a group (clot?) of Uruk-hai. Whoops, wait; I'm a fucking dragon now! I breathe a magic blast at a few of them and realize that I'm out of energy! Stats get redone when you change and while I had a lower natural armor class, I had 40 hit points!
That can't be good. I give them a few strong bites and realize that I'm still invisible, so I avoid them and make it back to the temple.
What monster would you like to change into?
Whoops, forgot to take off the ring. Well, being a dragon isn't all it's cracked up to be...
You are transformed into a cockatrice! --more--
use #sit to lay eggs
Oh yeah, cockatrice eggs can be thrown like grenades! I quickly lay a few eggs, and my cat knows better than to eat them. But cockatrices weren't meant to carry all the shit that I had so I got pretty hungry moving around before the next transformation, plus rings make you hungrier. I turned back into my original form and grabbed my bag for some food only to realize that I was out. I headed out of the temple to find something to eat, but couldn't find anything. Weak! I headed back for the temple and by now I was weak with hunger. I couldn't pray for Tyr to fill my stomach since I just asked him to bless that water! I'm fucking awesome, and I'm going to die of hunger! I resist the temptation to freak out and run around the level looking for something to eat, and try to focus on what I can do. I check the junk chest on the off chance it'll have some food. No luck just swords and heavy metal armor.
Wait... I pull out a few uncurse swords and daggers.
What monster would you like to change into?
XornXorns are metallivors, which means that this chest full of junk is my ticket to a full stomach! It took more swords than I thought to slake my hunger, but I wasn't at risk of dying anymore. As I'm eating I realize that one of my choices of what to eat is unexpected, my ring of polymorph control. I confirm that the ring is made of iron, and can be eaten by me. Eating a tengu corpse can give me intrinsics, so eating a magic ring should be no different, right?
You eat your uncursed ring of polymorph control. --more--
Magical energy courses through your body!
Sweet!
What monster would you like to change into?
Awesome! Now I don't have to use a ring finger to keep polymorph control!
I change into a Vampire Lord and load my backpack light to go try out my new body. I decide to hit the bottom of the mines for the luckstone and on my way I had two surprises!
A chickatrice falls out of your backpack and calls out "Mommy!"
I'm fighting so I take a few more turns and another one appears! I guess some of those eggs I laid when I was a cockatrice were fertilized! I may not be flanked by baby dragons, but baby cockatrices just may be better! I step back from my melee and blow my magic whistle. A few turns later all my previous foes are made of stone, and not particularly interested in continuing the fight. I breeze through to the bottom of the mines and can't help but laugh when a really nasty monster appears with a menacing look in it's eyes, and is turned to stone at the mere touch of a tiny chickatrice. I also notice that as a Vampire Lord I have a modest amount of HP, but have regeneration and whenever I attack something I hit it with my weapon, then bite it and suck strength from it. Few monsters made it to two rounds of Mjollnir and the vampire bite, I was kicking ass. My thoughts turned to my piles of unidentified stuff on the level 12, and decided that I really needed to find another altar deeper in the dungeon. So, flanked by two chickatrices, I waltzed back up to the regular dungeon on level 2, and made it down to level 12 easily. On the way, my teleportitis put me into a previously undiscovered scroll store! Sweet! I was still looking for a scroll of genocide, and really wanted to rustproof some of my armor. I had a ton of cash, and didn't think I'd have trouble cleaning the store out, but I wanted to know how my new body would fair against a tough shopkeeper. I proved to be too fast and strong for him. I gathered up all the scrolls and read all the spellbooks looking for force bolt, but everything there was beyond my spellcasting skill level.
I continued deeper, with no altars in sight, until I found a treasure zoo which is basically a room full of monsters all standing on different amounts of gold. I had stealth, so all the monsters were will asleep when I opened the door. I laughed at what was about to happen, and blew my magic whistle. My chickatrices teleported in and, two at a time, began turning the sleeping monsters to stone.
You snooze, you lose!They were halfway through the monsters when I noticed that one of my chickatrices had grown into a cockatrice. I named it Quik-Dry. My chickatrice turned a gnome to stone, and attacked a sleeping cockatrice. Uh oh, that cockatrice is petrification resistant, and I don't know if it can beat a full grown cockatrice in a physical fight. I confirmed I was wearing gloves, and ran over to take care of the cockatrice before my chickatrice got too badly hurt.
Seasoned Nathack players may know what's about to happen.I approach the cockatrice and give it a good swing of Mjollnir, and follow up my attack with... a vampire bite. The worst part was that I realized that I would touch the cockatrice when I bit it after I pressed the attack button. I hadn't encountered any cockatrices before so at least I was thinking about the consequences of attacking a cockatrice, problems was I thought about it one turn too late.
Well, it was certainly fun to play around with polymorph, and I definitely picked up some skills and knowledge that'll help me in future games, but it was still rough to see Olga the Vampire Lord turn into a piece of art.
It's just carbonated apple juice! How could it possibly be as good as it is? All I know is this stuff gets cleared out of the company refrigerator in under a week, no matter how much we buy.
I thought about how much training and familiarity I really had with my rifles, and rethought the things I thought I needed. I was afraid I was on the path to becoming one of those guys who has lots of cool toys, but doesn't really appreciate the skill that goes into operating them. I wanted to get back to basics. To me, this was an old bolt action rifle. As I looked up history on some of these rifles I read about men like 
