Mission ADOMPossible: Threading Water

[Cactus]

Success!
It turned out to be much better than I thought at the beginning. But the doppleganger kings populating the air temple gave me the impression that our hero wasn't buff enough. But he is actually. Found many wands that I emptied on the AKW and during the final fight even found the thick gauntlets I had been waiting for all the time. So on my way back up I could pick up all the potions and food I had left on the ground.
Saved on DL:1 on turn 52966 (8000 turns played) next to an ogre king ready to feel the power of beastfighter berserk.
Started at character level 19, finished at 31 (we're already learning the mighty secrets of Haggling).
The next player will still have to do the earth temple and can theoretically visit no less than two greater vaults if there's time.
Savegame:
Munn_she.zip

[Harwin]

Nice job Cactus!

Did you end up clearing the Dragon Lesser Vault?

[Harwin]

As far as I know, our Drakeling Beastfighter is eligible for mission 9A. All others must do 9B. Note that this challenge provides extra time, at least 9B does.

1)All 4 of us have scored a point with Munn'sheez, so really anybody but Cactus can play him. <---NOTE: Munn'sheez will be at a severe disadvantage during the early turns on D:50 due to the cold on D:49.
2)Sturm Flut should have no problem with 9B. That's not to say there isn't danger, but he's ready. Sadly his wands of destruction are useless. With no turn limit, and his SoCR, he *could* farm for a wand of trap detection before chaos archmage, or potions of healing, but really, he should be fine. <--- NOTE: The ghosts might be a risk for him. Fistanarius will probably come after you if you make your way to one of the levers, avoiding the central room. That might then give you enough opportunity to teleport and enter gate.
3)Lanthir is in reasonable shape if he can take the turns to prep for 9B. I should not play him, since I was the last person to play him alive, although I can if absolutely necessary.
4)Groucho is probably also in reasonable shape if he takes the extra turns for 9B. I'm happy to play him since we have 2 weeks, and since I've never scored a point with him.
5)Mistanarius is just in terrible shape. He should be played only if someone fails with one of the others.

So, I'd like either Groucho or Munn'sheez, but I'm happy with either I can't play Sturm, and should be discouraged from Lanthir.
If one of our players has never closed the gate, maybe you want to try with Munn'sheez? The double points aren't going to matter that much for us anyway.

[szopin]

There were three adamantium two-handed swords actually. The one you left in Darkforge was the penetrating one. That's bad luck!

Haha oh wow... Had to recheck the screenshots and indeed there were three. Dammit, would at least reach that bastard (removing shield would make Lanthir lose one resistance, but 1hp per turn is nothing in comparison to 120 in two). All in all it was really a pleasure playing him. Didn't bother with tunnel in DH2, hammered through losing maybe 5hp in total, big punch demon also fell in few berserk hits, then almost drowned as of course left helm of wather breathing on the way to df, high level assassins are really nice. Now to get my mist elf
assassin once to similar power level and the assassin-mage will be complete (that concentration)

[Harwin]

Oh one worry with Munn'sheez. His random teleportation might kick in before he recovers from the cold - so he should probably sit very still until he recovers - there should be no room for him to randomly teleport to the truly dangerous areas, and if he avoids moving/making noise the balors might not detect him.

[szopin]

Oh one worry with Munn'sheez. His random teleportation might kick in before he recovers from the cold - so he should probably sit very still until he recovers - there should be no room for him to randomly teleport to the truly dangerous areas, and if he avoids moving/making noise the balors might not detect him.

Random thought: if he has no fire wands to heat himself up, does eating increase temperature? In rl afaik it does, all that sugar combustion in the stomach. RFE?

[Cactus]

Don't worry about teleportitis, he had a blinky for breakfast! Will post the detailed notes tomorrow.

For the next mission, I wouldn't mind giving Lanthir one last try. But any character should be okay.

[Cactus]

So, this is what further happened to Munn'Sheez from when he escaped the doppleganger kings:

Ascend to the cavernous level D:37
Plan to stay for a while, get healed by natural regeneration and maybe find thick gauntlets.
No prayers, no potions and no source of corruption removal mean we should avoid getting in emergency situations, but if it happens of course I'll use the water orb
Kill an annis hag and get "You have just completed your current quest!"
Find a wand of poison, another wand, kill a master lich and hit Level 20
Only thing that hits me hard is a greater claw bug, the rest of the monsters goes down with ease. I regain confidence in the character's power. High speed, poison hands and acidic blood is actually great.
Due to the high monster generation and food preservation skill I can stay fed on the cavernous level without having to touch the remaining cooked lizards despite food cursing by poison hands.
A blink dog appears. After killing 5 of them I get the corpse, the alignment only went down from L+ to L.
Now teleportitis is suddenly great.
Three body armor parts were found: mithril chain, green iron splint and adamantium scale
I try the adamantium scale mail [+3 +8] and prefer it over the AMW for now.
With +TCtrl I decide to face the red dragon vault again.
Descend to air temple level, dig a tunnel, create and close door, bypassing the doppleganger kings.
I take off RotHK and elemental gauntlets so I can wear Oman, Whirlwind and Fire orb without food consumption penalty.
Continue fighting ancient red dragons on D:41
Level 21 Talent: Quick Shot
Corruption: disease-ridden maggots (50 less HP due to -6 To)
Due to the constant fire breathing, my speed is >200 most of the time
Level 22
Level 23
There he is: Keredetiussanavus, the great red wyrm
Level 24 Talent: Careful
The red dragon vault is cleared. I left potions on the ground, but many of them were shattered by fire breath. No PoCC or PoGA (forgot to check if we have IDed those yet).
D:43 Earth temple. I leave it for later or (more probably) for the next mission
I meet a gelatinous cube and think it's quite a safe way to check if Gordon gained -Para from the pool (I really want to be sure before the next mimic). I hit it in coward mode without getting paralyzed.
D:44 tension room
D:45 greater vault (I don't check which kind)
D:46 greater vault (undead)
D:47 kill two boss monsters, northeastern stairways leads to D:48, southeast is the one to UL:1
UL:1 pool
UL:2 tension room of greater claw bugs directly east of the stairs. I don't want that, so I dig another corridor
Antennae corruption
UL:3 time is running out
"Hurumph!" Dorn beast, hear it but don't see it
UL:4 Sharad-Waador
Looking at the turn count I have to do him first
Dig a circle and make a stash with our gold and weapons in order to be unburdened. (small tunnel with door)
Equip AMW and elemental gauntlets, dip 2 stacks of sling bullets into poison. Hopefully I can avoid engaging in melee, because I have no idea how I should get rid of dooming without an altar.
I start with a wand of poison and run around the 2-tile wide circle, careful that each charge hits him twice. The sling bullets and rocks are not able to harm him. I think there was 1 hit out of 30 shots.
Depending on whether Sharad shoots fire or frost bolts, my speed is affected. Some of the time I get a -80 speed modifier (!). Now he could easily take me out in melee but he prefers to stay in the distance and shoot bolts, which I resist/dodge completely. After having emptied both wands of poison (bouncing), I can finish him off with 2 charges of Magic Missile. I don't have to wrench the final charges and don't have to engage in melee.
Level 25
Level 26
Level 27 Talent: Defensive Fighter
Level 28
turn 51679, so I've got a bit more than 1000 turns to go
DL:1 stone giant lord threat room in upper right corner
DL:2 (51816) A minotaur mage confuses me, teleportitis gets me to the downstairs. The Mage is still there
DL:3
DL:4 Hit Level 29 fighting many ancient blue dragons
Item destruction is almost nonexistent, I wonder if our shock immunity helps here.
DL:5 many dragons, one GBW surround me
Teleportitis kicks in, I teleport east first and meet Sraxkex. Kill some dragons to get to him, one of them drops thick gauntlets (finally!)
He gets blinded by hitting me (acid blood), but I have to use the water orb
stilts corruption (ok, now we're REALLY fast)
I'm half surrounded and can't lure Srax into a corridor because he stumbles. So I just have to follow him, making use of superior speed and trying to keep Ds and not named Ws next to me.
I engage in Berserk melee and use first aid in coward mode after taking critical hits. Have to use the water orb three or four times in total. Read the scroll of satiation in the middle of the fight to save time
On turn 52347 I kill Sraxkex
Level 30 Talent: Dodger
On the way back up I equip the thick gauntlets which are cursed. But soon we should have holy water to bless a scroll of uncursing
I fight my way out and collect lots of potions and food I had left on the ground
Level 31
During the last levelups we got lots of stat increases, including St, To, Le
DL:3 white unicorn. I help my L+ fellow out by killing the dragons around it
DL:1 the turn limit approaches. I kill a black slayer and a quickling lord, but an ogre king is still alive when I have to save on turn 52966.
Next move would be to step back from the ogre king.
When reaching the upstairs, find our stash in a dug out minichamber with a door close to the stairways.
Keep an eye out for potions on the ground on all levels.

[Harwin]

Well done Cactus!

I take off RotHK and elemental gauntlets so I can wear Oman, Whirlwind and Fire orb without food consumption penalty.

I thought Champion reduced drain from artifacts generally - does it instead mean you can wear up to 3 without penalty?

Nicely done on Sharad-waador.

Read the scroll of satiation in the middle of the fight to save time

So that's why you hold on to those... Good thinking.

[Cactus]

As a champion you suffer 1/4 point additional food consumption per artifact instead of 1/2 point. The sum is rounded down, so champions get to wear three "free" artifacts while others get one.

I was planning to do try acid spit on Sharad, but luckily the wand charges were just enough. I think he would have resisted the acid though. Also, he never shrugged off poison and didn't approach when I was frozen.

Next mission we should maybe try to convert the earth temple altar and sac those huge amounts of dragon gold to regain our piety. But I don't know how safe it is. Can a monster sac you from within a wall for example?