Games Reviews

With a great deal of good luck, I've finally gotton an illiterate
caveman (lawful Dwarf).  down to the vibrating square, and am now trying
to go back up.  (He's found the VS, but not Vlad's tower).   I'm hoping
to get him all the way (not sure if he will make it).

On the way back up again, though, he's run into a small problem -
Demogorgon.  Plus another self-created problem (more later).

Fortunately, the blessed unicorn cured his sickness, and he was able to
get a square away and dig downstairs with a wand of digging to escape D
and give him time to think.

Question 1 is: what is the best way to eliminate D, without engraving
Elbereth?

I don't think I have enough holy water on hand to fight him in a
slugfest,esp with +0 weapons.  (Snickersee, Mace of Might, and
Excalibur.  Excalibur may or may not have a plus left after hitting a
disenchanter by mistake, but it's probably pretty close to +0).

No scrolls of scare monster are on hand.  I've could try to polypile for
them with what scrolls I have (which isn't very may, about 6).  Or look
for more scrolls, taking the time to scour the levels I can reach.

So far this seems to be the best bet, explore for more scrolls, look for
scrolls of scare monster, which are fortunately still ID'd even after an
encounter with a mind flayer.

Potential problems: if D summons monsters, and gets a fire-breather, the
scroll may go poof :-(.


Other ideas, from the Demogorgon FAQ, involve polymorphing.  The caveman
has a ring of polymorph control, and 1 tin of chameleon meat, plus a
wand of polymorph (hopefully that still has charges).

#1 Polymorph into a black dragon, and breathe on him with monster.

The idea sounds great, but some quick tests in wiz mode indicate I have
about three shots and may not hit.  It doesn't seem very sure-fire.

#2 Polymorph into a cockatrice/chickatrice, lay some eggs for stoning
gernades, and stone him.

#2 seems to have more appeal, but I'm not sure how to pull it off as a
male caveman.  I thought I could poly into a chickatrice and lay eggs,
but it looks like that's a no go, it seems chickatrice don't lay eggs,
and I'd have to be a female to start with and polymorph into a
cockatrice.

Also, I'm not sure about my chances of hitting with a stoning gernade, I
haven't done that much, wiz mode tests were not very encouraging.

I have some amulets, but no way to identify an amulet of changing
without breaking #conduct.

Other risks:  I've been bosting the character up levels as much as I
can, using polymorph on potions and alchemy, so he's level 21.  If I
polymorph I risk turning into a new dwarf.

The other little problem isn't a problem yet.  On the level below D is
an ex-pet, a peaceful 37th level arch lich with 296 hp and an ac of -20
(so says the stethoscope).  I had to ditch him when he became confused.
A solution that could take care of this possible future menace would be
good, too.

I do have a blessed magic lamp which I have been keeping in reserve, I
suppose I could always use it to wish for a cockatrice corpse (there
aren't any around), or three blessed scrolls of scare monster, but it
seems like a waste.

I was hoping to use it to wish for a blessed +2 shield of reflection
(Perseus didn't have one) so that I could wear an amulet of life saving
instead of an amulet of reflection (I'd pick one of the amulets from
Vlad's tower and #pray if necessary to get rid of the strangulation).

pervect wrote:

quote:


> Question 1 is: what is the best way to eliminate D, without engraving
> Elbereth?

Cockatrice corpse.

Raisse, petrified by a cockatrice


--
irina@valdyas.org    LegoHack: http://www.valdyas.org/irina/nethack/
Status of Raisse (piously neutral): Level 8  HP 63(67)  AC -3, fast.

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 00:13:52 GMT, pervect <notreal@netscape.net> scribed
into the ether:

quote:


>With a great deal of good luck, I've finally gotton an illiterate
>caveman (lawful Dwarf).  down to the vibrating square, and am now trying
>to go back up.  (He's found the VS, but not Vlad's tower).   I'm hoping
>to get him all the way (not sure if he will make it).
>
>On the way back up again, though, he's run into a small problem -
>Demogorgon.  Plus another self-created problem (more later).
>
>Fortunately, the blessed unicorn cured his sickness, and he was able to
>get a square away and dig downstairs with a wand of digging to escape D
>and give him time to think.
>
>Question 1 is: what is the best way to eliminate D, without engraving
>Elbereth?

I recently had a wonderful time with my last ascended archaeologist
fighting Baalzebub, who summoned Yeenoghu, who summoned Demogorgon. Once I
was finally able to isolate D with me standing on the stairs (which
took..FOREVER, and I came close to death several times, but this isn't a
problem you'll have), I just did a simple alternation of "hit him, horn
me". He danced around a lot, but died just the same. Just don't do what I
did, and not notice that you are confused, leading to an attempted attack
dragging you OFF the stairs, and having him escape to repeat the whole
process. That went into my dictionary under the word "suck".

Now, it was more than a little helpful to be dual wielding a +6 Grayswandir
and +6 silver sabre, but the principle is the same. Once I got my XXX
parked on those stairs, he was going down. Having inferior weaponry just
means it will take longer, but shouldn't have a huge influence on the final
result.

quote:


>#2 Polymorph into a cockatrice/chickatrice, lay some eggs for stoning
>gernades, and stone him.

You  could always polymorph into a cockatrice yourself and bite
him..although this is more than a little risky.

quote:


>The other little problem isn't a problem yet.  On the level below D is
>an ex-pet, a peaceful 37th level arch lich with 296 hp and an ac of -20
>(so says the stethoscope).  I had to ditch him when he became confused.
>A solution that could take care of this possible future menace would be
>good, too.

Wouldn't worry about this too much. He'll likely *stay* peaceful unless you
piss him off somehow, and he's only on one level which you won't be
spending much time on. Not like he's on your stash level, or the VS level
or anything like that.

quote:


>I do have a blessed magic lamp which I have been keeping in reserve, I
>suppose I could always use it to wish for a cockatrice corpse (there
>aren't any around), or three blessed scrolls of scare monster, but it
>seems like a waste.

Just keep burrowing around looking for Vlad, and you'll find a cockatrice
eventually. That's my standard (well, standard as in both times I've had a
character survive to Orcustown) tactic with Orcus to preserve the charges
in his /oD..usually I involuntarily fall through a trap door on his level,
and then continue going down clearing until a chicken decides to show
itself, then I take it back up the stairs and give him a smack with it.

Raisse the Thaumaturge <raisse@valdyas.org> wrote in
news:4338ef86$0$11076$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl:

quote:


> pervect wrote:
> 
>
> Cockatrice corpse.
>
>    Raisse, petrified by a cockatrice

The good news is that, after deciding the best thing to do was to
prepare more, I found both a scroll of scare monster (which I blessed),
AND a cockatrice which left a corpse, which I put in a bag and took
with.

I then went up to where D was last seen, put on a blindfold, couldn't
find him, took off the blindfold, scratched my head, tried it again,
gave up, shrugged, put the cockatrice corpse in my pack, at which point
he showed up and hit me a couple of times.

Having finally located him :-), I healed with a potion, dropped the
scroll, healed again, got the corpse out of the bag, and hit him with it

Then I put the corpse back in the bag, went downstairs, thought for a
bit, and decided that my ex-pet was now a menace, and stoned him, too.
He was a good dog - but an evil Lich.

After that, feeling invulnerable, I proceeded to get killed a few levels
later by Disspater, after running out of full healing potions.  (If I
was playing smartly, I would have bailed out when I was half dead, my
usual policy.).

I do think I'm going to start trying to polypile for and eat rings of
protection next time I try a illiterate Caveman, the poor armor class
you get without scrolls is a definite problem.  Assuming they are
edible, of course.  And I'm beginning to suspect Excalibur is a demon
magnet, think I may just stick with the quest artifact next time, at
least in Gehennon.

pervect wrote:
quote:


>
> And I'm beginning to suspect Excalibur is a demon
> magnet ..

According to the spoiler:

"Demon princes will be generated hostile."

The named demons are either lords or princes.  Only two
are lords the rest princes, and the nastiest are the
princes.

So it only seems to be an issue with demons who could be
a problem.  The run-of-mill demons aren't mentioned.

Given the choice I'll switch from Excalibur to one of
the double-damage artifacts in the late game.

In article news:<Xns96DDAF79F9BA5su2x5@68.6.19.6>, pervect
<notreal@netscape.net> says..
quote:


> Also, I'm not sure about my chances of hitting with a stoning gernade, I
> haven't done that much, wiz mode tests were not very encouraging.
>
>
Wield a stoning grenade, and hit in melee. AFAICS this is entirely safe,
even if not wearing gloves.

Only wield one though, or they'll all go splat together.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
quote:


> pervect wrote: 
>
> According to the spoiler:
>
> "Demon princes will be generated hostile."

I think one can circumvent this by welding nothing (-) before going to a
new level in Gehennom.


--
"Ruleless 'law' will be a political weapon and control of the
judiciary will therefore be a political prize.  'Democracy' will
consist of the chaotic struggle to influence decision makers who are
not responsive to elections." -- Robert Bork