For the first time, I decided not to leave the Drakalor Chain after I closed the gate, and instead take my level 50 dwarven paladin and see how deep I could make it into the ID. I decided not to use stairhopping except in emergencies. In other words, I can only go back upstairs if I'm about to be killed, not just because an upcoming fight looks really tough. At this point I'm down to level 335, and it's getting pretty hairy. Here are a few things I've learned:

- With enough magic mapping, monster detection and teleportation, most levels are easy. But if I used them whenever I felt like it, they'd run out in a hurry. So I only detect monsters when I know there's a tension/threat room and every hallway ends in a door.

- Sources of healing that don't get used up are very important. I kept the rapid healing corruption, and (even though it's a pain to keep switching back and forth) I put on my necklace of rapid healing, bracers and crown of regeneration after most fights.

- Monster power levels are definitely increasing faster than the 'uber' effect. I've gotten hit by ice vortices for more than 200 hp on two occasions, and orcs and cavemen are critically hitting me frequently.

- Encounters are skewed more towards heavy hitters, but not as much as I expected. I've seen plenty of greater molochs and ghost kings, but only one balor, two doppler kings and two emperor liches.

- Trouble can come from unexpected combinations. For example, ghost kings aren't hard to kill if you can move freely and nothing else is attacking you. But one of the toughest spots I was in came from needing to clear out a lich king to get to the down staircase. He summoned a bunch of swamp hydras and I had them in the bottleneck of a corridor so I could kill them one by one. I was still taking a lot of damage, because swamp hydras 300+ levels down are nasty, but it was manageable. Then Mr. Lich decided to summon some giant raccoons, normally not a problem at all, and they started digging through the walls until the hydras were double- and triple-teaming me. Ouch.

So, I don't know how much deeper this character will make it. I haven't had to pray for healing yet, but both of my pairs of seven league boots have gotten destroyed and I've only got one ring of the clear mind left. I figure sooner or later I'll get confused and then swarmed by some powerhouse monsters. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.