Drowned troll

[Ars]

I had a troll barbarian, striving for an ordinary chaos god ending. The game was strolling along nicely, had gotten Skullcrusher right off the start from a surge of power. Before doing the tower I decided to get the Executor that I had seen at the water dragons lair, before entering the tower. The plan was to cast darkness next to the dragon, hack it with an eternium 2-hander (biggest damage available), then grab the jet-black axe and lure the dragon to the back darkness if it's coming then, or just teleport away if necessary (teleport trap was created in the darkness).

But after I had scared the beast away, I stepped outside the darkened area and something swept at me. I was at <100hp, wasn't worrying about health at that point so can't say exactly. But I didn't even see it coming before it hit me. I saw a blue beam coming from the upper right and I drowned.

God damn, just look at that damage. Massive.

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Orcslayer St:34 Le: 6 Wi:20 Dx:22 To:33 Ch: 1 Ap: 6 Ma: 2 Pe:14 N-
DV/PV: 40/31 H: -298(219) P: 15(28) Exp: 14/550849 WDL Sp: 108
Burdened Coward


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His achievements during his adventures:
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Orcslayer, the trollish barbarian, was drowned by a giant dragon turtle.
He scored 134547 points and advanced to level 14.
He survived for 0 years, 38 days, 2 hours, 35 minutes and 45 seconds (38628
turns).
Orcslayer visited 62 places.
His learning score was modified by +2 during his career.
His willpower score was modified by +9 during his career.
His dexterity score was modified by +10 during his career.
His toughness score was modified by -3 during his career.
His appearance score was modified by +1 during his career.
His mana score was modified by +1 during his career.
He was unnaturally aged by 14 years.
He was the champion of the arena.
He ended his adventuring life in the cave of the water dragon.
2992 monsters perished under his attacks.
The following 11 artifacts were generated during his adventure:
the si
the scythe of corruption "Moon Sickle"
the golden gladius "Death's Sting"
the elemental gauntlets
the ring of the High Kings
the crown of science
the ancient mummy wrapping
the ankh
the rune-covered club "Skullcrusher"
the jet-black battle axe "Executor"
the emerald dagger "Serpent's Bite"
He possessed the following intrinsics:
He was fire resistant.
He was poison resistant.
He was acid resistant.
He was lucky.
He was able to control teleportation.
He was immune to ice attacks (gained through an item).
He was able to resist confusion attacks (gained through an item).
He had the following talents: Basher, Healthy, Long Stride, Powerful Strike,
Strong.
He had a final speed score of 108 (final base speed: 109).
He was a fervent follower of Ne'Ftrr.
He did not ask for divine help.
He was neutrally aligned.

[LFk]

Oh sad day.

Level 14 with a Troll is at least fairly far in the game. Yeah that water beam hurts like crazy.

Whoa... Executor, Serpent's bite and Skullcrusher all generated? 3 of the best (if not the 3 best) one handed weapons in the game :P It kind of sucks when they all generate because it's not like you can use em all...

[Evil Knievel]

Yeah, those turtles... But I like your plan. How do you make sure to create a teleporter trap and not waste a lot of wand charges on with other traps?

[meh]

At least you were killed by a proper monster. I once drowned in the high mountain village.

[Ars]

Yeah, Skullcrusher from a surge of power, Serpent's Bite in the Darkforge storage, and Executor in the Water Dragons loot.

The game was at the point where I was planning to do the Fire tower and then dive until the shortcut. I just wanted the executor before that as it's a demon slayer.

The teleport traps are in predictable places, like other traps. There's a list in the guidebook that which trap starts in the top left in which dungeon, and from there they come in a predictable pattern. Anyhow in the water dragon cave the dragon sits on a teleportation trap place. I created one to the lower left from it.

I also realised I should've used Serpents Bite against the dragon, so it would've gotten poisoned. I would've probably been still able to scratch it even through its high PV.

[Silfir]

Once you've stolen from the water dragon, NEVER step out of the darkness. Never ever ever ever. Darken the exit stairs too, if you want, darken the whole treasure room, and teleport from the darkness into the darkness, but if you value your life, NEVER step out of it.

One of my most painful experiences in ADOM was the one time when my best ranger ever (level 21, I think) was casually checking out the treasure and found a glowing wand, and then thought "I'll just pick it up and first thing I do I teleport the fuck away."

Picked up wand, water dragon teleports up to me, breathes water, I die with -200 HP or something left. The damn thing had 5 charges, and it had been my first wand ever. (Later I found another with another character, who became the first one to survive longer than four seconds with it.)

Anyway, darkness. ALWAYS STAY IN THE GODDAMN DARKNESS.

[Ars]

The dragon itself wouldn't teleport in, because it's just gotten its ass kicked. As far as I can tell the giant dragon turtles could do that at any time. At least teleporting away to the stairs at that point wouldn't be a problem, unless maybe if the dragon decided to flee there of all places. Of course if one has the darkness spell then maximum safeness is appreciated, but that's not an option for someone with just a few darkness crystals.

Oh and what happens if you kick her items? She attacks immediately I guess? If not one could just muster them all in one and then manage with less darkness.

[Silfir]

You do know that most demons in the game are also humanoid, so you can just use Serpent's Bite on them? The selling point of Executor is its damage, and personally I wouldn't risk my life getting Executor if I already have Serpent's Bite with lots of weapon skill invested in it...

The absolute least would be to darken the stairs and the place where the item you want is (in this case Executor - it's rare for the water dragon to have many super-valuable items) - two crystals or scrolls. Of course, if you're out to kill the water dragon for XP, there's a lot more strategy necessary, and a couple crystals aren't going to cut it unless you really luck out with your initial backstabbing damage roll. Me, I only ever go for the occasional uber-items. XP is not much of a problem in ADOM, usually.

[Ars]

Executor was for the ACW mainly, as I had no dragon/demon slaying ammo.

Killing it would've been quite a long shot, not with a char this inexperienced, even when trolls do need experience quite badly. Then again I don't know would the poison would've actually worked fast enough, to kill it that way, but that's besides the point. To my experience the dragon doesn't attack after stealing, if it's running away. If it regenerated enough hp fast enough, then it would of course. Against the dragon itself, these measures have always worked for me. These turtles on the other hand...

Darkening executor and stairs would've accomplished same safer, but I couldn't have teleported out from directly the Executor as I had no teleportation means outside of traps.

[Grey]

ACW doesn't count as a demon, so Executor wouldn't have helped much beyond having high damage.

If momma dragon is fleeing and you pick up an item she will *always* teleport next to you and attack immediately in my experience. This can be handy if you want to kill her but she keeps running away. There's a guaranteed wand of teleportation in the dusty dungeon - I always make sure to keep it throughout the game for when it's needed.

[Silfir]

Indeed. There should be no need to rely on teleportation traps.

[Ars]

Ah good, that's 2 things I didn't remember - about ACW and the guaranteed wand.

And Grey, can you tell in more detail about the dragons reaction when picking things when it's fleeing? Did it come to hit, and then teleport away next turn? I can't remember exactly, as it's years since I last robbed the dragon, but I do remember getting away nicely with a similar strategy - though maybe with better teleportation, but that isn't the biggest factor here.

And I did a little test - kicking items does not upset the dragon. That's an easy way to maximize the items you get with minimal use of darkness, with no risk involved. Just don't do potions :)