biggest kick in the teeth the game has given me (no Kranach)

[auricbond]

Ok, so this wouldn't be a big deal to other people, but I have this obsession with ticking boxes... if I don't get puppy and kranach in my highscore the game is dead to me.

I also have a personal goal of killing Keriax by day 30, with a ratling assassin.

The game just gave me everything I could want. Started with +5 pv leather armour and +3 cloak. Reached hmv by level 5, in shop found both slb's (my keriax goal is near-impossible without these) and a girdle of carrying (I like to carry weapons to equip id for ego extensions and/or sell). Couldn't ask for more. Oh also a holy water potion.

I'd say i I make it to the hmv, kranach appears 9/10 times on my way to pregen puppy. No kranach. Ok, maybe I can make the dive to pregen puppy without leveling up. Did so, with 500 or so exp to go (< 2500 total exp so far). Also got an altar on the nest level (I had previously converted to chaos), for an easier precrown later on.

Went and scouted around. No kranach. I also had the sheriff with me because the corpse often rots before I can reach him (and no highscore message unless I supply the corpse). The drawback is if I get ambushed he can be lost in the wilderness and then I find the raider lord without the sheriff-- so far this hasn't happened though.

Ok, so hunger is starting to become a problem. I head all the way over to CoC, buy 50 cooked lizards.

I make it my goal to hunt out the moldy dungeon. Find it. Still no kranach. I waggle back and forth for ages on a plains tile (least time expensive). Now it's day 10 and still no kranach. I definitely meet all the official criterion. Just bad luck perhaps? At this point, my Keriax goal is pretty much no way, given how much I've accomplished by day 10 in other runs and still not come nearly close.

Just in case there are other factors, I dump Sheriff in terinyo in case it 'scares away' the raider lord. Day 12 and still nothing. Keep in mind with blessed slb's this amounts to crossing the wilderness many times over. I've been running into plenty of other enemies, often being forced to kill some in an ambush, but so far skirted level 6.

I decide to take off slb's in case that reduces my chances of finding the raider lord (just grasping at straws at this point). I hit day 15, still can't find the bastard. I've eaten two thirds of my cooked lizards.

For a perspective, my last char that died in the top level of TOEF had accomplished all of these by day 15:
ud dive
kranach, puppy
keethrax
all ancient dwarf quests
grabbed tome of donors
mummy lord
ToTHK
griffyard
And by day 16 had beaten darkforge as well, died on day 17.

Granted that was an especially good run, most don't get that far by that point on the clock.

By day 20 I just quit out in disgust. F*** you, game.

[grobblewobble]

I am not really sure how the level limit for Kranach works, but next game I would drop either one of these restrictions - either don't worry about in-game time, or don't worry about Kranach. Imposing both of these restrictions on yourself is bound to be frustrating.

[Grond]

You should do some chaos knight runs! Find an altar and a source of fire resistance, then try to do both raider and puppy quests. >:D

For bonus points, get the raider encounter on the hills square next to HMV.

EDIT: Interestingly enough, it seems like you can get the raiders encounter on any type of terrain, so road and swamp might be better choices than plains if you are really desperate.

[auricbond]

You should do some chaos knight runs! Find an altar and a source of fire resistance, then try to do both raider and puppy quests. >

For bonus points, get the raider encounter on the hills square next to HMV.

EDIT: Interestingly enough, it seems like you can get the raiders encounter on any type of terrain, so road and swamp might be better choices than plains if you are really desperate.

Good point. I tested on the road to terinyo once but I think that one is different as it never generates any encounters. For some reason the pyramid road never occured to me.

I am wondering if I had simply VERY bad luck this run, or if there was another mechanic involved. I've been doing the same sequence every time I play and I have not come anywhere close to having this much difficulty finding Kranach. I feel convinced that for whatever reason, he was impossible to find this time around. Without slb's I probably would have spent a good 40 days looking for him before I gave up...

I am not really sure how the level limit for Kranach works, but next game I would drop either one of these restrictions - either don't worry about in-game time, or don't worry about Kranach. Imposing both of these restrictions on yourself is bound to be frustrating.

It hasn't been before now.
It was just so bizarre. The game gave me a huge boon then took it all away. The restriction didn't seem unreasonable and had every reason to think I would meet that goal too given how every other game has gone.

Sure you could say if I forego one of the restrictions I will meet with more success, but it makes the victories all the sweeter when things go your way... the game feels a bit too easy when you go back.

[mjkittredge]

I feel your pain. I always try to do Kranach with every character, but some of them run out of money and food and have to give up after a while. I'd rather see them reach their full potential and go as far as they can because the ultime goal isn't crushing some small time bandit in x days, it's closing the gate.

I wrote on the FB page about my mist elf Bard getting one shotted by a raider in his gang from near full HPs. It's a low crit chance but potentially very lethal. So I use Coward tactics to start then get them all lined up and body blocking each other at the edges of the zone so they can't all focus fire you with arrows.

[Blank4u47]

Not sure if this applies, but it's either lvl 6 or 5000 xp that ends the quest.

[auricbond]

Not sure if this applies, but it's either lvl 6 or 5000 xp that ends the quest.

Met both the conditions, that's what's so bewildering about it. Makes me think there are other circumstances where it's impossible for him to appear.

[Blank4u47]

Met both the conditions, that's what's so bewildering about it. Makes me think there are other circumstances where it's impossible for him to appear.

I've had characters before that got kranach on the way to smc and pc from teryino. Usually those characters have like 0-1 pv too... makes me wonder if he appears more often the less pv a character has.

[Grond]

I've had characters before that got kranach on the way to smc and pc from teryino. Usually those characters have like 0-1 pv too... makes me wonder if he appears more often the less pv a character has.

Tested a character with 84 PV. Got raiders on the 4th encounter, and 26/100 plains encounters were roving raiders. This lines up pretty well with what TB has said: "After having received the quest each wilderness encounter has a 25% chance to be an encounter with Kranach." (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3349).

PVRaiders.bmp

Met both the conditions, that's what's so bewildering about it. Makes me think there are other circumstances where it's impossible for him to appear.

Count 25 wilderness encounters in a row with no Kranach while under the xp/level limit, and I will be more inclined believe this.

[Blank4u47]

Good to know it was just an isolated case of bad luck! Thanks for the testing grond