Ok, so this wouldn't be a big deal to other people, but I have this obsession with ticking boxes... if I don't get puppy and kranach in my highscore the game is dead to me.
I also have a personal goal of killing Keriax by day 30, with a ratling assassin.
The game just gave me everything I could want. Started with +5 pv leather armour and +3 cloak. Reached hmv by level 5, in shop found both slb's (my keriax goal is near-impossible without these) and a girdle of carrying (I like to carry weapons to equip id for ego extensions and/or sell). Couldn't ask for more. Oh also a holy water potion.
I'd say i I make it to the hmv, kranach appears 9/10 times on my way to pregen puppy. No kranach. Ok, maybe I can make the dive to pregen puppy without leveling up. Did so, with 500 or so exp to go (< 2500 total exp so far). Also got an altar on the nest level (I had previously converted to chaos), for an easier precrown later on.
Went and scouted around. No kranach. I also had the sheriff with me because the corpse often rots before I can reach him (and no highscore message unless I supply the corpse). The drawback is if I get ambushed he can be lost in the wilderness and then I find the raider lord without the sheriff-- so far this hasn't happened though.
Ok, so hunger is starting to become a problem. I head all the way over to CoC, buy 50 cooked lizards.
I make it my goal to hunt out the moldy dungeon. Find it. Still no kranach. I waggle back and forth for ages on a plains tile (least time expensive). Now it's day 10 and still no kranach. I definitely meet all the official criterion. Just bad luck perhaps? At this point, my Keriax goal is pretty much no way, given how much I've accomplished by day 10 in other runs and still not come nearly close.
Just in case there are other factors, I dump Sheriff in terinyo in case it 'scares away' the raider lord. Day 12 and still nothing. Keep in mind with blessed slb's this amounts to crossing the wilderness many times over. I've been running into plenty of other enemies, often being forced to kill some in an ambush, but so far skirted level 6.
I decide to take off slb's in case that reduces my chances of finding the raider lord (just grasping at straws at this point). I hit day 15, still can't find the bastard. I've eaten two thirds of my cooked lizards.
For a perspective, my last char that died in the top level of TOEF had accomplished all of these by day 15:
ud dive
kranach, puppy
keethrax
all ancient dwarf quests
grabbed tome of donors
mummy lord
ToTHK
griffyard
And by day 16 had beaten darkforge as well, died on day 17.
Granted that was an especially good run, most don't get that far by that point on the clock.
By day 20 I just quit out in disgust. F*** you, game.