gym21
06-21-2013, 01:14 PM
I've been playing ADOM for something like 14 years without a win... so with pr14 it was time to give it a go. And, after a few false starts in the Unremarkable Dungeon... success!
Glaurir, the High Elven priest, saw his journey begin in unremarkable fashion. He made his way across hills and plains to a small cave carved in the mountainside. Wary of spending too much time in said cave but hearing of a highly beneficial shortcut said to lie in said cave, Glaurir explored the dungeon. After a few encounters with the nefarious inhabitants of said cave, he found a crystalline shield, a crude (but workable) spear and descended through the secret route.
It turned out to be well worth his time. As an avid priest of Corellius, Glaurir was delighted to find an altar dedicated to Him a few levels deep in this otherwise unremarkable dungeon, clearing out a veritable horde of foul orcs to reach it. Already adept with his spear, which seemed to leave some foes staggering on contact, the priest decided to demonstrate his piety by luring evil beings to the altar and offering their souls up to the hungry god. Corellius was increasingly pleased with his disciple's behaviour, and decided (eventually) to show His affection by bestowing a legendary longbow upon His priest. Sun's Messenger would serve Glaurir well for the rest of his quest.
Although he had focused on his martial skills to start, Glaurir quickly found himself in trouble as he made his way through the cave. A flood of water rusted his spear, which quickly broke upon impact with a particularly hard-headed goblin, and he was forced to rely heavily on his knowledge of Acid Bolt and Baptism of Fire for much of the rest of his trip to the High Mountain Village. Not all of his encounters with water were as detrimental, however -- Glaurir had stopped to rest by a shining golden pool that helped him immensely. After one sip he was so attuned to the ethereal world that he could control teleportation. Risking another, despite knowing the dangers of pushing his luck, the elf heard a booming voice echo through the recesses of his mind.
"What do you wish for?"
An amulet of life saving might come in handy someday, thought Glaurir, and behold, one appeared in his hands. Now all he needed to do was to make it to the safety of the village at the end of the path. An ogre magus had other ideas, but despite the difficulty in fighting an invisible foe, Glaurir managed to vanquish him, picking up a dust-covered spellbook in the process. Another item to save for later.
After recuperating in the ratling village, Glaurir moved on to what was supposedly the source of the ChAOs incursion, a twisted cavern in the centre of the chain. Expecting to find an inhospitable place, he was surprised to find it all rather civilised. He fought several times in a grand arena before finding his way downstairs to what looked like a massive garden. Unfortunately for Glaurir, every single plant greeted his arrival by wilting up and dying immediately. He shrugged and moved on, eventually finding his way to a thriving dwarven colony.
The dwarves needed a hero, and their leader gave Glaurir a series of tasks. A lightning lizard was found and dispatched. The Animated Forest was successfully navigated, although two shields were required in order to prevent the trees from buffeting too much. A nest of ogres was wiped out. The arena was mastered, with Bonk the Giant no match for the business end of an adamantium spear. A greater demon was sent to Corellius, but not before Glaurir's friend Ruun was devoured by the beast. And finally, a master necromancer was evicted from an ancient dwarven graveyard. Sun's Messenger combined with a large stack of arrows mowed through the undead without a problem.
Amidst the fighting, Glaurir learned that the book he'd picked up off the ogre magus early in his travels contained powerful magicks. He drank down knowledge of Ethereal Bridge greedily, and from then on relied heavily upon teleportation. He responded to the invitation to visit a sinister period with righteous fury, teleporting up the stairs and dispatching its master for his base trickery, riddling Rehetep with arrows before finishing off his friends with a hearty baptism of fire. After a quick trip to dwarftown to trade his Golden Gladius for combat training, Glaurir also learned of a dwarven mystic who had sealed himself up in a windowless building. He teleported in to meet him and was rewarded with Rolf's legendary axe, which would see plenty of use for the rest of his quest.
After Glaurir tried to raid a twisted dwarven smelter to the south only to be repulsed by its guardian golems, a dark cave in the southwest was relieved of its contents, a beuaitful crystal phial and a rather more mundane climbing set. The latter was more useful -- the priest made his way over the mountains and, via some clever use of Nether Bolt and some rather-less-clever shooting-a-skeletal-king-until-he-re-died, was able to retrieve a priceless heirloom from a tomb far to the north.
The time had come to dive deep into the Caverns of CHaoS. The Dwarven Halls were passed without complaint, and Glaurir eventually stumbled on an old man surrounded by servants of chaOS. They were quickly annihilated, but the sage was in very poor shape. Glaurir knew what he had to do, and handed over his precious amulet. Khevelaster was reborn! The legendary scholar filled in his saviour on the details of his quest before making good his escape.
Glaurir pressed on through the Caverns, bypassing what he was sure was the Water Temple in favour of further training. What he got instead was the fight of his life. A surge of power filled him with anticipation and dread in equal measure, and he soon found himself face to face with... himself! It was a vision of a future Glaurir, twisted into something greater -- but something indisputably evil. Unable to penetrate his doppleganger's defences with his axe and barely able to fend off the vicious blows with his crystal tower shield, Glaurir changed course, hoping that magic would fell his opponent. It did -- the doppleganger died screaming after encountering a baptism of flames.
Stepping over the charred, smouldering corpse, Glaurir happened upon his reward. It was a small thing, really, but its power was obvious. The obsidian shield would be his protector for the rest of his days. Glaurir moved forward, finding that a banshee had taken over part of the dungeon as her own private domain. He was wise to the threat, however, plugging his ears with beeswax before carving the spectral creature head to toe with a blow from his axe. Eventually, however, Glaurir found that he could go no further: A wall of fire blocked his path. He retraced his steps, making for the Water Temple.
The Snake from Beyond was a formidable foe, but after dealing with a doggleganger king Glaurir felt no fear. One bite got through his defenses, but in retaliation, a vial of cure poison was smashed over the Snake's head. Dazed and confused, the vile creature was helpless in the face of continued burnings and blows from Rolf's Companion, and quickly expired. The Elemental Orb of Water was Glaurir's reward.
Along the way, Glaurir had found seven precious arrows of dragon slaying. He knew that was a hint that he was ready to tackle his next -- and greatest challenge. The Tower of Elemental Flames was noticeable for miles around, illuminating the night sky with a pyre of evil. Glaurir, clutching his fire-resistant equipment closely (and wrapping everything else in several layers of fireproof blankets), stepped into the breach.
It was a debacle almost from the start. Expecting to find fire lizards and drakes, Glaurir instead encountered an enormous room full of karmic dragons. Deciding that fleeing was the best course of action, Glaurir ended up being chased all over the level by the beast, finding out to his dismay that the staircase had to be behind them. Fortunately, enough of them had moved that the room was navigable -- if perilous, thanks to magic bolts of every kind spraying in on him -- and the stairs were reached.
A fight with a fire giant king proved that despite his mastery of axe and shield, Glaurir wasn't able to hold his own against the most fearsome creatures that could be put in front of him, but he was confident in his magical abilities. A dose of sheer cold would surely be the end of these fire creatures. Making his way to the top level, he found that he was correct in his assumption. Fire demons and grues fell by the score, but Glaurir soon caught the attention of a far more dangerous foe. The Ancient Chaos Wyrm strode forth.
Glaurir pulled his dragon-slaying arrows from his quiver and proceeded to pepper his opponent with shots. Six hits in a row brought the beast virtually to his knees. The next shot would finish him off. It was his last arrow. It had to hit. It missed.
Trump card used up to no effect, it was time for desperate measures. No matter how many times nether bolts were hurled in his direction, the Wyrm shrugged them off. Melee was barely effective, with Rolf's Companion barely nicking his armoured hide and the Wyrm bringing Glaurir close to death on several occasions. And then, luck -- one bolt finally penetrated his defences. The great beast lay dead at an exhausted priest's feet. So too did the Orb of Fire.
Knowing that some castings of Ice Ball could have saved him plenty of trouble, Glaurir decided that the Library would be his next port of call. Feeling utterly confident after coming out of the fight with the Wyrm alive, he stepped into the rift... and fell straight to the bottom in a pile of broken, precious equipment. Hopefully the trip to the library would be worth it.
It wasn't. Several dangerous opponents were occupying the stacks, and although they were eventually annihilated, Glaurir found no useful books and only a few pitiful scrolls of identify. His rage was palpable, and he considered taking it out on the cowering librarian before taking his leave of the place, never to return.
Before making his way back to dwarftown, Glaurir opted to brave the notorious minotaur maze. He had, after all, six scrolls of magic mapping -- surely enough to counter any mischief the minotaur mages could cook up. Or so he thought. Six scrolls later, he still had no clue where he was or where he was going, but opted to keep on pushing rather than run away.
He was rewarded with a confrontation with the minotaur emperor and his retinue. The mages quickly fell to nether bolt; the touch of the priest's fiery hands spelled the end for the emperor, whose wild swings with his dread axe never once made contact with the nimble elf. Knowing of the treasures the emperor held, Glaurir went through his horde with great anticipation, only to find Shezestriakis, the gauntlets of eternal peace.
A rather annoyed elf marched back to dwarftown, offered up his spare accumulated artifacts to Corellius, who rewarded him by crowning him as a Champion of Order and with a weapon to match his status as well. Wielding Skullcrusher, Glaurir practised his clubbing in the dead gardens and in the darkforge. The golems were no match for him this time.
The wall of flames was bypassed, and once the grey guardian espied the Ring of the High Kings, he allowed the priest access to the deeper levels. The Casino held no interest for Glaurir -- he knew the perils of gambling -- and he continued on towards his true goal. The cHaOs gate was surely close.
On a level that seemed to be removed from the rest of the world, the Cat Lord had a deadly encounter with a wand of fireballs saved for such a purpose. Yulgash, the Master Summoner was next to fall, followed quickly by an Ancient Stone Beast. Both were easy marks for burning hands, as were the denizens of the Blue Dragon Caves. The ChAOS archmage, surrounded by magedoom eyes, required a different strategy, although clubbing him to death with Skullcrusher was hardly a subtle one. Along the way to the bottom of the Caverns, Glaurir twice encountered vaults full of red dragons. Nether bolt served him very well there, although the rewards -- a black tome, an iron crown, and a thin dagger -- were hardly worth the time spent.
With all the orbs on hand, the way to the very bottom of the dungeon was open. Glaurir was awarded for his inventiveness in chilling circumstances with the Hammer of the Gods, which he used to propel himself along the path. Then came the last fight. By now, a spellbook of Major Punishment had made its way into Glaurir's possession, and armed with the new spell and several potions of boost willpower, the regular chaos creatures were easy to overcome. The balors were a different story, and the lone, brave priest was forced to go toe to toe with them in melee.
Mighty blows were exchanged with the nine, and Glaurir found himself constantly corrupted by the foul creatures. Fortunately, plenty of relief was on hand, and the final balor was shot through with a message from the sun well above as he attempted to flee the priest's holy wrath. With every monster dead, the gates were pulled closed, and Glaurir made good his escape, slaying a great black unicorn and being completely cleansed of his corruptions before leaving the Drakalor Chain to great acclaim.
Glaurir, the High Elven priest, saw his journey begin in unremarkable fashion. He made his way across hills and plains to a small cave carved in the mountainside. Wary of spending too much time in said cave but hearing of a highly beneficial shortcut said to lie in said cave, Glaurir explored the dungeon. After a few encounters with the nefarious inhabitants of said cave, he found a crystalline shield, a crude (but workable) spear and descended through the secret route.
It turned out to be well worth his time. As an avid priest of Corellius, Glaurir was delighted to find an altar dedicated to Him a few levels deep in this otherwise unremarkable dungeon, clearing out a veritable horde of foul orcs to reach it. Already adept with his spear, which seemed to leave some foes staggering on contact, the priest decided to demonstrate his piety by luring evil beings to the altar and offering their souls up to the hungry god. Corellius was increasingly pleased with his disciple's behaviour, and decided (eventually) to show His affection by bestowing a legendary longbow upon His priest. Sun's Messenger would serve Glaurir well for the rest of his quest.
Although he had focused on his martial skills to start, Glaurir quickly found himself in trouble as he made his way through the cave. A flood of water rusted his spear, which quickly broke upon impact with a particularly hard-headed goblin, and he was forced to rely heavily on his knowledge of Acid Bolt and Baptism of Fire for much of the rest of his trip to the High Mountain Village. Not all of his encounters with water were as detrimental, however -- Glaurir had stopped to rest by a shining golden pool that helped him immensely. After one sip he was so attuned to the ethereal world that he could control teleportation. Risking another, despite knowing the dangers of pushing his luck, the elf heard a booming voice echo through the recesses of his mind.
"What do you wish for?"
An amulet of life saving might come in handy someday, thought Glaurir, and behold, one appeared in his hands. Now all he needed to do was to make it to the safety of the village at the end of the path. An ogre magus had other ideas, but despite the difficulty in fighting an invisible foe, Glaurir managed to vanquish him, picking up a dust-covered spellbook in the process. Another item to save for later.
After recuperating in the ratling village, Glaurir moved on to what was supposedly the source of the ChAOs incursion, a twisted cavern in the centre of the chain. Expecting to find an inhospitable place, he was surprised to find it all rather civilised. He fought several times in a grand arena before finding his way downstairs to what looked like a massive garden. Unfortunately for Glaurir, every single plant greeted his arrival by wilting up and dying immediately. He shrugged and moved on, eventually finding his way to a thriving dwarven colony.
The dwarves needed a hero, and their leader gave Glaurir a series of tasks. A lightning lizard was found and dispatched. The Animated Forest was successfully navigated, although two shields were required in order to prevent the trees from buffeting too much. A nest of ogres was wiped out. The arena was mastered, with Bonk the Giant no match for the business end of an adamantium spear. A greater demon was sent to Corellius, but not before Glaurir's friend Ruun was devoured by the beast. And finally, a master necromancer was evicted from an ancient dwarven graveyard. Sun's Messenger combined with a large stack of arrows mowed through the undead without a problem.
Amidst the fighting, Glaurir learned that the book he'd picked up off the ogre magus early in his travels contained powerful magicks. He drank down knowledge of Ethereal Bridge greedily, and from then on relied heavily upon teleportation. He responded to the invitation to visit a sinister period with righteous fury, teleporting up the stairs and dispatching its master for his base trickery, riddling Rehetep with arrows before finishing off his friends with a hearty baptism of fire. After a quick trip to dwarftown to trade his Golden Gladius for combat training, Glaurir also learned of a dwarven mystic who had sealed himself up in a windowless building. He teleported in to meet him and was rewarded with Rolf's legendary axe, which would see plenty of use for the rest of his quest.
After Glaurir tried to raid a twisted dwarven smelter to the south only to be repulsed by its guardian golems, a dark cave in the southwest was relieved of its contents, a beuaitful crystal phial and a rather more mundane climbing set. The latter was more useful -- the priest made his way over the mountains and, via some clever use of Nether Bolt and some rather-less-clever shooting-a-skeletal-king-until-he-re-died, was able to retrieve a priceless heirloom from a tomb far to the north.
The time had come to dive deep into the Caverns of CHaoS. The Dwarven Halls were passed without complaint, and Glaurir eventually stumbled on an old man surrounded by servants of chaOS. They were quickly annihilated, but the sage was in very poor shape. Glaurir knew what he had to do, and handed over his precious amulet. Khevelaster was reborn! The legendary scholar filled in his saviour on the details of his quest before making good his escape.
Glaurir pressed on through the Caverns, bypassing what he was sure was the Water Temple in favour of further training. What he got instead was the fight of his life. A surge of power filled him with anticipation and dread in equal measure, and he soon found himself face to face with... himself! It was a vision of a future Glaurir, twisted into something greater -- but something indisputably evil. Unable to penetrate his doppleganger's defences with his axe and barely able to fend off the vicious blows with his crystal tower shield, Glaurir changed course, hoping that magic would fell his opponent. It did -- the doppleganger died screaming after encountering a baptism of flames.
Stepping over the charred, smouldering corpse, Glaurir happened upon his reward. It was a small thing, really, but its power was obvious. The obsidian shield would be his protector for the rest of his days. Glaurir moved forward, finding that a banshee had taken over part of the dungeon as her own private domain. He was wise to the threat, however, plugging his ears with beeswax before carving the spectral creature head to toe with a blow from his axe. Eventually, however, Glaurir found that he could go no further: A wall of fire blocked his path. He retraced his steps, making for the Water Temple.
The Snake from Beyond was a formidable foe, but after dealing with a doggleganger king Glaurir felt no fear. One bite got through his defenses, but in retaliation, a vial of cure poison was smashed over the Snake's head. Dazed and confused, the vile creature was helpless in the face of continued burnings and blows from Rolf's Companion, and quickly expired. The Elemental Orb of Water was Glaurir's reward.
Along the way, Glaurir had found seven precious arrows of dragon slaying. He knew that was a hint that he was ready to tackle his next -- and greatest challenge. The Tower of Elemental Flames was noticeable for miles around, illuminating the night sky with a pyre of evil. Glaurir, clutching his fire-resistant equipment closely (and wrapping everything else in several layers of fireproof blankets), stepped into the breach.
It was a debacle almost from the start. Expecting to find fire lizards and drakes, Glaurir instead encountered an enormous room full of karmic dragons. Deciding that fleeing was the best course of action, Glaurir ended up being chased all over the level by the beast, finding out to his dismay that the staircase had to be behind them. Fortunately, enough of them had moved that the room was navigable -- if perilous, thanks to magic bolts of every kind spraying in on him -- and the stairs were reached.
A fight with a fire giant king proved that despite his mastery of axe and shield, Glaurir wasn't able to hold his own against the most fearsome creatures that could be put in front of him, but he was confident in his magical abilities. A dose of sheer cold would surely be the end of these fire creatures. Making his way to the top level, he found that he was correct in his assumption. Fire demons and grues fell by the score, but Glaurir soon caught the attention of a far more dangerous foe. The Ancient Chaos Wyrm strode forth.
Glaurir pulled his dragon-slaying arrows from his quiver and proceeded to pepper his opponent with shots. Six hits in a row brought the beast virtually to his knees. The next shot would finish him off. It was his last arrow. It had to hit. It missed.
Trump card used up to no effect, it was time for desperate measures. No matter how many times nether bolts were hurled in his direction, the Wyrm shrugged them off. Melee was barely effective, with Rolf's Companion barely nicking his armoured hide and the Wyrm bringing Glaurir close to death on several occasions. And then, luck -- one bolt finally penetrated his defences. The great beast lay dead at an exhausted priest's feet. So too did the Orb of Fire.
Knowing that some castings of Ice Ball could have saved him plenty of trouble, Glaurir decided that the Library would be his next port of call. Feeling utterly confident after coming out of the fight with the Wyrm alive, he stepped into the rift... and fell straight to the bottom in a pile of broken, precious equipment. Hopefully the trip to the library would be worth it.
It wasn't. Several dangerous opponents were occupying the stacks, and although they were eventually annihilated, Glaurir found no useful books and only a few pitiful scrolls of identify. His rage was palpable, and he considered taking it out on the cowering librarian before taking his leave of the place, never to return.
Before making his way back to dwarftown, Glaurir opted to brave the notorious minotaur maze. He had, after all, six scrolls of magic mapping -- surely enough to counter any mischief the minotaur mages could cook up. Or so he thought. Six scrolls later, he still had no clue where he was or where he was going, but opted to keep on pushing rather than run away.
He was rewarded with a confrontation with the minotaur emperor and his retinue. The mages quickly fell to nether bolt; the touch of the priest's fiery hands spelled the end for the emperor, whose wild swings with his dread axe never once made contact with the nimble elf. Knowing of the treasures the emperor held, Glaurir went through his horde with great anticipation, only to find Shezestriakis, the gauntlets of eternal peace.
A rather annoyed elf marched back to dwarftown, offered up his spare accumulated artifacts to Corellius, who rewarded him by crowning him as a Champion of Order and with a weapon to match his status as well. Wielding Skullcrusher, Glaurir practised his clubbing in the dead gardens and in the darkforge. The golems were no match for him this time.
The wall of flames was bypassed, and once the grey guardian espied the Ring of the High Kings, he allowed the priest access to the deeper levels. The Casino held no interest for Glaurir -- he knew the perils of gambling -- and he continued on towards his true goal. The cHaOs gate was surely close.
On a level that seemed to be removed from the rest of the world, the Cat Lord had a deadly encounter with a wand of fireballs saved for such a purpose. Yulgash, the Master Summoner was next to fall, followed quickly by an Ancient Stone Beast. Both were easy marks for burning hands, as were the denizens of the Blue Dragon Caves. The ChAOS archmage, surrounded by magedoom eyes, required a different strategy, although clubbing him to death with Skullcrusher was hardly a subtle one. Along the way to the bottom of the Caverns, Glaurir twice encountered vaults full of red dragons. Nether bolt served him very well there, although the rewards -- a black tome, an iron crown, and a thin dagger -- were hardly worth the time spent.
With all the orbs on hand, the way to the very bottom of the dungeon was open. Glaurir was awarded for his inventiveness in chilling circumstances with the Hammer of the Gods, which he used to propel himself along the path. Then came the last fight. By now, a spellbook of Major Punishment had made its way into Glaurir's possession, and armed with the new spell and several potions of boost willpower, the regular chaos creatures were easy to overcome. The balors were a different story, and the lone, brave priest was forced to go toe to toe with them in melee.
Mighty blows were exchanged with the nine, and Glaurir found himself constantly corrupted by the foul creatures. Fortunately, plenty of relief was on hand, and the final balor was shot through with a message from the sun well above as he attempted to flee the priest's holy wrath. With every monster dead, the gates were pulled closed, and Glaurir made good his escape, slaying a great black unicorn and being completely cleansed of his corruptions before leaving the Drakalor Chain to great acclaim.