Pity it wasn't lightning vortices! Did you not have any fire resistance at all or was it just not enough?
Black wizards in the wilderness can be really bad news unless you can kill them really quickly - easy to get surrounded with potentially pretty tough opponents. I've lost promising characters to summoned dark orcs, ettins and the like.
Celestrix is cool though, especially to find so early. My last winner got it around level 18 from the frost giant caves and wore it pretty much all the time until the corruption got too much at around D:40. Just remember to take it off when you need a bit of luck.
Gate closers: L+ DE Mindcrafter (p20), N= Gnomish Assasin (p20), N= Gnomish Mindcrafter (p23), N= Ratling Ranger (R49)