From: aaron@iphc.washington.edu (Aaron)
Date: 4 Feb 1999 19:11:16 GMT



Well, suppose its time to post a completion of one of these.
Cont_W the wizard ascended to demigoddesshood. (Thank the
amulet of change)

There were only 3 different save files available when I first
checked Sascha's page (there are more now mind you). And the
wizard was the first one I tried. And my first attempt at it.
Did not expect to make it all the way to the end on the first
go, but who's complaining. =)

Final stats:
Cont_W the Wizard         St:18/** Dx:21 Co:18 In:22 Wi:22 Ch:18  Neutral
Astral Plane $:0  HP:233(233) Pw:287(287) AC:-34 Xp:29/90047635 T:106687

148569 gold pieces, 3600 zorkmids worth of amulets, 403600 zorkmids
worth of gems. 106687 turns and the guardian angel of Thoth.
Total: 6810377 points.



Below average starting equipment. The blessed potion of invis, and the
wand of teleport were the only two things that proved useful. (the
first was quaffed as soon as I found some mummy wrappings, the 2nd
got rid of the damn mimic in the shop!) The spellbook of food
detection was just dead weight.

Items found en route were unexpectional. No huge lucky finds to
make the game easier. A spellbook of healing and 2 tins of spinich
in a shop on lv2 proved useful, and there were some speed boots
in a shop on lv5. But that's about it. Mine Town inventory was
a complete bust (a magic whistle, I suppose)

Two aligned altars (with aligned priests) in the main dungeon.
Unaligned alter in the Mine Town (who was generated with a wand
of lightning, I found, when I went to kill him... (Had to suck
up a few shots until he ran out of charges. =))


Wishes included 2 magic lamps (one in the big room, one in gehenom
somewhere), and the mandatory wand (with 3 charges). Used the first
lamp to wish for a bag of holding (It was the _only_ one I saw the
entire game) all the rest I used just before offering the amulet
to wish for dilithium crystals (17 of them, in fact).

Used Mojo as a weapon most of the time, occassionally Magicbane.
(I'm sorry, but there is _no_ comparing these two. Magicbane
just doesn't cut it. Sure it might stop a curse now and then,
but comparing the lenght of time it takes to kill something
with each weapon: Mojo comes out _way_ ahead.)  Got both from
sacrificing in the Mine Town. Found both Vorpal Blade and
Orcrist by the time I got to the Castle (left them both in
a chest in the Valley of the Dead), and Frostbrand showed up
on the Astral Plane.
 
Never got Crowned (thought not through lack of trying).
Intrinsics were hard to come by at first... didn't see my
first until I was level 11 (poison resistance). I was
fully expecting a 'the poison was deadly' message up until
that point. Warning (wiz lv 15) bites. Got T-Control
(wiz lv 17) but never used it. Ate no less then 8 rings
of protection from shape changers as a xorn. Not one gave
the intrinsic.. 8( Thoth was nice enough to give me Stealth
after a prayer. I loved him for it. (Made the Castle and
Valley much nicer when everybody stayed put until I got to
them.)

Genocided mind flayers and master liches. Although only
after dealing with a couple of each and remembering just
how much I disliked both. (only ever found the 2 scrolls,
else I probably would have gotten cockatrices as well)

Only near death experiences came in Fort Ludios (3 times) ...
(Strong advice for anyone: Don't do Ludios without reflection!
Magic Resistance is _no_ substitute!) ... in Gehenom (1 time)
when a kraken wrapped me up (yay for wands of sleep!) ...
and once on the quest when the Dark One summoned up no less
then 2 Master Liches, who immediately both summoned up a
hoard of unfriendlies (this was the only time I put on a
ring of conflict ... and once in the mine town, when I went
to check out the general store, only to learn there was a
dwarf with a wand of lightning inside. (luckily the bounce
(though hitting me twice, also hit him once... I proved
tougher)

Never saw a potion of gain ability, enlightenment, a tinning
kit or a wand of death, and only one magic marker. As well,
the only bags I found were two sacks late in the game, and
the bag of holding I wished for)
Polypiled once, in Ludios, on the huge pile of soldier equipment.
(Got a helm of brilliance and gauntlets of dex).
First wand of undead turning came far into Gehenom. So was a
long time before I saw any gray dragon scale mail (and even
then, had to bring it back to life no less then 7 times before
it obliged) Didn't find alot of enchant armor scrolls until
later, so didn't settle for some other colour dragon scales.

Were alot of poly traps in the mines. My pet got zapped into a
Fire Elemental who was quite nasty, but also probably the reason
I saw so few potions and scrolls (can't count the times I saw
the 'XXX's potion boils and explodes' type messages)
He eventually died off, and I used a blessed scroll of taming
on the Orcus level to get two pet shades. But there were
also multitude poly traps in gehenom... one shade went through
a tengu ... queen bee ... lemure phase, before a nurse with a
wand of digging, caused me to fall down 3 levels, and by the
time I got back, both shade and lemure had gone feral. Never
had another pet until the guardian angel on the Astral Plane
(who is damn hard to keep alive! Used _alot_ of extra-healing
spells!)

The elemental planes were kind to me... though I almost lost
my bag on the water plane, when I put it down, then a fire
vortex swallowed me, and carried me off of it.

Actually cast a fair number of spells. More then usual, anyway.
At the end, if I took of my shield of reflection, all spells
were at 0% failure. Finger of Death took care of Rodney 17
times. =)

Killed alot of dragons and vampire lords. They seemed to show
up alot.

Anyway... the ascension seemed pretty straight forward... it
wasn't unusually difficult, nor terribly easy. I don't know
if it was due to the (lv1) pregenerated nature of the dungeon
or just the way it went. All the levels seemed to have the
proper sorts of monsters on them. (ie: No kobold zombies
in gehenom) ... but as well, before I genocided them, just
before going into the Inner Sanctum, I'd only seen 3 master
liches, and didn't see a Titan until I hit the elemental
planes.

Luck or Pregeneration? You be the judge.

Aaron

ps - Orcus didn't have a wand of death. I thought he _always_
     had one?