Ack, Female Dark Elven Bard, treasure hunter gate closer
Been messing about with TH lately since it feels like it makes the late game hilarious in the latest versions simply due to the number of artifacts and other OP items in the game, and Ack didn't disappoint. Point buy prioritized the physical attributes, then Alert Hardy Tough Skin. Acquired TH at level 9.
Didn't startscum but I did get very lucky with the skillset: Alchemy, Concentration, Detect Traps, Food pres, Healing were there in addition to the DElf skills, though I never did actually use Alchemy. Didn't even bother with Keethrax and just did early game as if normal, shuffled between Terinyo, goblin camp, SMC, holeinthewall and the nearby dungeons until I was ready to cross the Drakalor chain.
I decided early on that Ack wouldn't be another cheese Rolf Set character, so she resolved not to completely betray her chaotic kin and kept neutral alignment despite the urgings of the priest in a town near the purple cavern. The random dungeons were in convenient locations, putrid in the horizontal mountains outside the settlement and moldy due north. Ack was gifted an adamantium spear early in her quest and used it for a long time until an eternium model eventually showed up. Upper CoC was uneventful, aside from three rivers that would've been a nuisance except that Ack found a 30s metal cap with a snorkel on it :confused: . Treasure hunter already paying off, she did the first Dwarf quest, found she had some nice equipment including a cloak of invis and a scroll of magic mapping, so she also plunged through the DH to get the Marble Wand of firey boomey explosions. :cool:
Intermission: Back to the surface, found the other random dungeons, cleared the top level of Griffyard, got tele control somewhere and therefore the wand, used the magic mapping to get through SMC. Somewhere along the way down the quicksilver bracers dropped.
At this point my memory fails to completely track the game thread, there were a fair number of saves. The main point to remember is, aside from the last one, the Greater Vaults spawned NOTHING USEFUL.
At some point, Ack was strong enough to try to go into Darkforge. The golem at the top of the down stairs convinced her otherwise. It took many applications of the RCT to finally die, and she was scared.
IQD went smoothly. As did the FGJC, except the greater vault yielded NOTHING, and then in the Jarl vault, Ironfist dropped randomly. This is a theme, pay attention.
After IQ, Ack went north to get the High Kings' permission to descend. Nothing to say here, ring acquired.
Could've done some Rift/Library stuff but meh, pass. TH gave us Ring of Ice, lets go.
Chuck RCT at ACW, dies.
From here is the point that TH gets out of control and breaks the game. Ack doesn't even have the usual eternium chain mail adventurers get from the gruesome murder of a dwarven veteran, she's rocking adamantium chain that dropped in the Griffyard.
Ack decides to pledge her eternal allegiance to the Neutral god and gets Fire immunity and Whirlwind. Bleh. Then charges down the CoC. Graveyard, etc. blah blah blah. Finally she reaches the wall of flames, descends, and "You feel truly excited." She had already seen this message once, but had no idea she would go on to see it THREE MORE TIMES. Yes, this character had FIVE greater vaults. Ack looked around for a second and then ack-tivated a wand of item detection, saw nothing worthwhile and descended the level. She dealt with the bunny level and then came to the Casino where her power level jumped considerably. Black Whip of Extinction plus a Red Dragon Scale Mail. The rules of ADOM demanded she gamble for these items.
Next memorable location was a greater karmic vault around D:32-36 that had the lead great axe but nothing else.. easily skipped.
Down a few more levels, and another greater vault of giants, but again, no worthwhile artifacts, possibly just Wyrmlance. HOWEVER, while fighting through the outer rooms of the vault, The Wall dropped. Hard to miss a 750s tower shield.
Then on D:45, a Giant Vault with Silence of the Dead, Eagle's Claw, and Thunderstroke revealed itself. Yay?
Ack scooped these up and started training thrown daggers and crossbows.
UL was scary, with two named boss monsters, one of whom wasn't even documented in Ack's Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, AND a surge of power that granted lame old Masher, but she survived.
Uselessness gift (wished for potions, since Ack had two spare RoDS) was the robe of the master monk, which was worn through all of D:50. +10 speed and +10 Wi are really good.
D:50; used the doors and bunnies strategy, though Ack could've probably killed everything on the level twice over without breaking a sweat. Talked to the druid and did the white unicorn quest rather than spend corruption scrolls, then left.
