First Steam win. HE Archer Gate Closer
This was a fun run no doubt. At no time was I at any real loss on how to proceed. There was a moment when I considered finding a fireproof blanket before tackling the tower, but my RoI proved more than sufficient in the end. I created this character while in the middle of a no-cat ultra attempt with a Drakish Ranger. I wanted something that required less attention to minutae and I especially wanted to get Sun's Messenger to have a go at a few Emperor Liches. With that in mind, I rolled my archer and got a few levels in Lawenilothehl before hunting down Kranach. The dog was dead by the time I arrived, but I didn't have time to worry because I found a chaotic altar there to cheer me up. With the bounties and loot for from the raider lord and Hotzenplotz, I turned it my way and started saccing. Within the hour, I had precrowned twice with Far Slayer and Kinslayer. I knew things were going to work out well for me just from already securing such a powerful tool for my budding archer. After a few more sacs, I crowned with Boots of the Divine Messenger. While it wasn't the bow, I couldn't complain about -para, -death, and +tpcontrol. Who could really?
From there it was standard fare until Dwarftown. I sipped a lucky wish on D:6 and secured the means to save Khelly even before I could comfortably reach him. After a few more sips, I had a few points of stats and intrinsic -para. That was enough for me to stop and call it a day. That pool, along with another a few levels above, remained intact throughout the game. After an initial foray into the animated forest, I retreated when it became apparent that I wouldn't survive the trip. Instead, I carefully wormed my way through the Dwarven halls after several cautious attempts. With that behind me, saving Khelly was simple and I returned to the Ogre cave to stash my loot. I decided then to explore some of the new dungeons and to see if I could find the \tp from the VDDL. On the floor above, my first surge of power in ages bestowed Skullcrusher upon me and it was my primary melee weapon from there on out. I couldn't guess my way to the hidden staircase, though, and my scroll of item detection didn't work the way it's supposed to. I returned to the new dungeons, and took care of the usual Graveyard and High King dungeons. In the HK levels, I found a GoGS and my first of six Rings of Djinni Summoning. I decided to save it for a rainy day. After I swiped the Water Orb and stashed the snake's corpse at Waldenbrook's, I made for the Tower. There on the first floor, was another RoDS. This just kept getting better and better. Even with the two wishes, I put aside the thought that I might wish for a blanket. I took with me the bare essentials and a scroll of familiar summoning just in case. The fight ended up being fairly unremarkable. I was immune to fire already thanks to my crowning; still, the ACW got in a few lucky strike with its breath, but I persevered. Now with two orbs and two wishes, I decided upon Find Weakness over anything else. I never regretted the choice. What with the new monster generation rates, I needed as many critical hits as I could get.
The next two temples proved fairly simple just because Farslayer doesn’t take guff from anybody, Chaos Guardian or not. The sweetest of surprises awaited me in the Casino. Yes, I was more than happy to gamble my way to a corruption in exchange for those wonderful, magnificent Bracers of motherfucking War. Things were really getting good now. When I found the guaranteed GV of Red Dragons on D:46, I realized I was gaining experience much faster than I had anticipated. What with the BoW on hand, I could forgive the vault for throwing Bugbiter and the Staff of the Wanderer at me. I decided to swing by the Minotaur Maze while I was still on level 30. As luck would have it, I only ran into two dead ends—both on the 6th floor. In just two hours, or four in-game days, I held the Emperor’s head aloft with the one hand and, wouldn’t you know it, Sun’s Messenger in the other. Now I knew this character was a rare gem.
While I was enjoying this almost cheating mode archer, I had a chance to test some game mechanics along the way. The most interesting came in the Unreal Dungeon shortly after I hit level 32. When it comes to what exactly "able to dodge missiles" means, there seemed to still be some speculation in the wiki. I can safely say that it does not confer 100% dodging 100% of the time. When I found a 3x7 room full of Greater Titans, I took the brave man's stance of defiance, but fortunately had time to escape when I realized my strained body was no certain match against their eternium quarrels. There was a moment upon my return with the Archmage's corpse that I thought I would find no way back up, but I lost some weight and took them down as close to one at a time as I could manage. By that point, I was practically at level 50. I had found another RoDS and wished for 7lb boots while retaining a spare just in case. You know it's bad when I can't even remember where I found all of them. One was in the Blue Dragon Caves, and another I got out of an exchange potion. At this point, I wandered about some looking for things to mop up around Ancardia. I swung by the Ice Palace to take out some giants and come back out with Robes of Resistance and, I’m not sure, maybe Silver Key? I couldn’t tell sorting through the massive inventory afforded me by the GoGS, the Fire Orb, and the solitary copy of Strength of Atlas I managed to find. Who cares anyway? I was in fine spirits as I headed down for the last time to D:50.
Picture yourself with no worries in the world. Thousands of arrows and quarrels are in your quiver and the most powerful missile weapons are on your back. You step into the eternal ice of D:49, hurl that potion of uselessness against the wall, and BAM, Nature’s Companion lies at your feet. Good gravy. How can it be this good? Hello D:50! Take a quick peak at a magic map and then take the long slow path towards the gate. I didn’t want to dig or otherwise bypass anything. I killed every monster who dare showed resistance to the coming forces of Law. The ghosts were, of course, no problem whatsoever. With three shots, Fistinarius fell and failed his master in his one duty to keep the gate open. After killing everything on the western half of the screen, I made a show of throwing one lever and walking to the other, daring any to defy me by undoing my work. After closing the gate, I wished for wands of destruction with one of my three remaining RoDSs and made my way out (after finding a mixed tension room of lollygaggers in the south-eastern corner.
My assent to the surface was uneventful—indeed I was uncertain what all I should do since it was my first regular win. I chatted with a few well-wishers, returned to the Ice Palace to claim my unneeded reward (and assassinate the poor sap on the ice), and summoned a few familiars in the SMC only to shoot them down in Lawenilothehl along with a wished-for AKW. Though I only had five corruptions (and was rather fond of the teleportation, gills, and antennae), I slayed to greater black unicorn, and accepted the gift its counterpart. On a lark, I headed to the Sinister Library of Niltrias. The books I found there were nice enough, but the Ghost Librarian managed to get himself killed while I waited. With little else to do in the Drakalor Chain, I visited a few caves to make sure I’d seen all there was to see, stopped by at the introductory dungeon where I mused on all the exciting adventures still ahead of me, and finally stepped out of the valley to claim my place as king of the High Elves.
Munxip, the human shopkeeper grunts at you in a friendly manner. Munxip, the human shopkeeper hits you.
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