So after a recent entry in the Treasure Hunter competition crashed, I got a bit peeved, asked about crash-prevention measures, but ultimately started up again. Though I hadn't been updating the THSUCKS thread quite as regularly before, I'd kept going. A few minutes ago I was on D50, with about 800 HP, TotRR and Obsidian Crown/Medal in hand, fighting my way through Chaos Mutants, about, say, 10 minutes away from giving Andor Drakken a good pasting (and getting my first win, incidentally). I was playing on jaakos's server this time rather than my own computer, as it seemed to have better stability.
It was almost a dead cert of a win. I had the crown of leadership, Preserver (teleported into a Greater Vault of the undead, teleported two liches out of the way, nabbed it, teleported back out), was crowned with Nature's Companion, SLBs, a girdle of giant strength, the RotMC, and ~12 blessed potions of ultra healing. My ?oCR were quite low, 8 or so, and only one potion of cure corruption, but I had 200 speed and a massive damage output. I was sure I could mash him without too much trouble.
Only the game crashed when one of the chaos servants picked up a wand from a pile. It asked me if I wanted to restore a backup, I said yes. Only this backup placed me a long, long way back, with my druid at only level 37, before I'd even passed the Air Temple. Technically, yes, I could do it again from there in a day or so (I'm a slow player), but I'm not wasting a day of my life re-doing everything I spent this day doing.
This is the second time I've been pipped at the post. Last time was my own fault; I had a Human Monk very nicely turned out, ready to go for an UCG ending, only I didn't realise there was no 'Stop reading now?' type warning for writing scrolls (as there is for reading spellbooks), and in attempting to write some to pass time on D50 waiting for 'Extremely Corrupted', I turned into a purple j.
It seems ADOM's going to be the one 'main' Roguelike I never beat (out of the famous four). I'm not attempting a full game again, unless another version comes out. I'll probably play in the mini-challenges (the Weakest Link one was great fun last year), but the time invested just isn't worth it for me anymore.