Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: Now with 50% more Sigmund

[Demented]

How interesting.
I just lost my level 9 tutorial character in the orc mines... Albeit to a trio of wizards, rather than an ogre. Admittedly, I was fixing to get him killed and the entrance to the orc mines looked appropriately menacing. Magic dart was, next tosummon small mammals, his most effective spell. (He was the tenth in a series of less than witful deep elf conjurers, and the only one to reach level 7. After the minotaur made it through the tutorial flawlessly, I falsely assumed the tutorial made things easy. Nine dead elves deep elves later...)

...

Is that a mushroom?

[Cogwheel]

Last time, we left our low-calorie hero-substitute in the orc mines. Surrounded, as one might expect, by orcs. And mines.

Spoiler

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All told, that went remarkably well. This is the end of floor 2 - note the piles of gold I've acquired. The orc mines can either have a few tiny areas, or one huge area. Neither is known for its corridors, so expect to get zerg rushed.



I storm my way to floor 3 and suffer nothing more than an attack of refreshing simplicity. This place is easy. Now, if I meet knights, warlords or sorcerers, that's an entirely different story, but I can handle this stuff.

Also, an armour shop. Shocking, I know. Time to storm the premises, given our vast stores of gold.



Words fail me. Time to get the artifact gauntlets, the helmet and the cloak. And all cheaply, at that. Yes, the RNG actually seems to like me for once. Crazy, I know.



These will be replacing the dex gloves. Note that +3 is more than most gloves/boots/cloaks/helmets can have, as non-artifact ones are capped at +2. The other bonuses (accuracy and damage) are very nice too. The cloak is a +2 cloak of Magic Resistance, while the helm is a +2 See Invisible helm. These replace +0 gloves that grant 3 dexterity, and a +0 helmet/+0 pair of boots. I can live with that.



Floor 4. See that green thing? It's a troll. Large, green, regenerates at crazy speeds, and generally acts like a vastly nastier version of an ogre. They're not fun.



Which is why trouncing them like this comes as something of a surprise. I'm not sure quite what happened, but Redshirt has received a significant upgrade. He hits harder, too, which must be thanks to the gloves.



You can't tell, but I'm standing on a jewelry shop. All this glee, however, has yet to make me levitate. Peter Pan has lied to me.

Rest assured, there will be blood for this. For now, let's take a look at the merchandise.



VERY nice. I bought Vusung right off the bat, but please, vote on some other things to buy here. For those items you haven't seen before: Sustenance slows down hunger, magical power raises MP by 9, levitation levitates you briefly when evoked (success is not guaranteed), regen speeds up your regen speed a lot at the cost of making you hungry faster, and Conservation protects scrolls/potions from destruction by fire and cold. Pick your poison awesome.



The orc mines have been cleared out. Quite fun, really, and profitable. Here's that branch to the Elven Halls. It's filled with equipment. Also elves. The deep elves here all have elven gear, including valuable (for casters and light armour-users) elven armour. They can also hurl lots of spells, even the tanks. The mages and so forth can blow you into tiny chunks, the priests are like orc priests but worse, and summoners will call in hordes of demons.

Still, I have magic resistance. I can deal with that. I have lots of magic resistance, thanks in no small part to the cloak. This should be doable. Down the stairs, than.



I have made a grave miscalculation.



So instead of fighting, I fled. Didn't go back to the Lair, but rather to floor 11 of the good old dungeon. I should be able to deal with it easily now.



A weapon shop! Maybe I'll find a better polearm.



Yes, and then again no. While a glaive is nice, I can't bless an artifact, so I have to give that one a miss.



I don't know what a wood golem is. Fortunately, what it isn't is dangerous. Seemed weaker than an ogre, actually.



Don't laugh, Lajatangs are powerful and rare weapons. Unfortunately, I realized after taking this screenshot that it's actually a staff, not a polearm. Too bad.

Those green blobs you see are slime creatures. They hit reasonably hard, have a bunch of HP, regenerate quickly, and flee at the first sign of trouble. Typically comes in groups of four or five. Makes them a bit of a pain to deal with, but thankfully, they're only common in the Swamp.



This is a mottled dragon. Its breath weapon is sticky flame. When nature coughs up a giant, bright purple lizard that vomits napalm, I think it's safe to say that reptiles have jumped the shark.

Fortunately, this one is killed before it uses its breath weapon and does horrible things to my scroll supply.



At least it left this. Dragonhides can be enchanted, making dragon armour. They impart some kind of resistance, and fit everyone. Everyone. Yes, trolls/spriggans/whatever too. I know that Steam Dragon hide is light armour, unlike the rest, and as Mottled Dragons are a bit weak, that may be the case for their hide too. Not sure. In any case, if anyone wants me to enchant this thing, I'll get to it. For now, I left to Lair 2 to stash a bunch of things.


Anyway! Vote time. Of the jewelry shop lineup, what should I buy? My current jewelry consists of a resist corrosion amulet, a resist slow amulet, that artifact ring, and a ring of poison resistance. Also a fire resistance ring. Now, choose.

[Cogwheel]

Try this site, and similar ones, and I may attempt the achievements you create. Consider it an outlet for my readers' collective sadism.

[Milskidasith]

I say you could go with the ring of regeneration and the ring of sustenance, but I don't know if you really *need* food that much that you have to buy a ring of sustenance. Then again, if you don't, you'll only fight enemies that drop no corpses and run out of rations very quickly. :P

[Iskandar]

I'd say the ring of ice, if it grants resistance to ice as well as boosting your ice spells. You resist fire/poison/corrosion already, might as well add to that, though you will have to start micromanaging your jewelry at that point, switching based off of what enemies you are facing.

That amulet of conservation could be handy, if you remember to switch it out at the right time.

Not sure the ring of regeneration is worth it. If you are losing HP quickly enough you are going die, the times extra regen would be helpful are few, especially as you'd have to give up one of your resistance rings.

Given that you haven't had any food problems, and you aren't a caster, the ring of sustenance is probably useless.

I would also say, if you have a remove curse handy, picking up the amulet of controlled flight might be useful as well....

[Iskandar]

oh, and would you mind posting your experience sheet as well as your character sheet? Would be kind of interesting to see how well you are developing....

[Lord Herman]

I always try to get my hands on a Ring of Sustenance, but I'm not sure if it's worth it if it means not wearing the rings you have now. And switching out rings every time you fight something might get tedious. Still, if you can afford it, buy it. If you don't, the RNG will send you to the Dungeon of No Food.

[Raroy]

I say get levitation, it just might save you.

I don't want to say anything that would ruin......stuff. Break a leg! Get a back up fire weapon as well. They always seem to be useful.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Try this site, and similar ones, and I may attempt the achievements you create. Consider it an outlet for my readers' collective sadism.

Like this?

[Milskidasith]

Wow. I just ran a Troll Berserker of Trog, and the first item I find in the dungeon is a +3 ice dragon armor.

My first armored troll. It's beautiful!

[Aragehaor]

The ring of Sustenance sounds like something that will be useful once the game decides your getting too fat for its tastes.




Also.




The hard part may either be finding three hydras in the same room. Or charming one while all three are attacking you.



Edit: two quick questions.
A) Can wizards get a god?
B)How Do you get a god in the game?

[The Dark Fiddler]

My first real character was an homage to Casualty.

20 characters later, and he remains the farthest reaching of my characters; having died on Dungeon 9/Orc Mines 1.

[Gorgondantess]

Here's a thought: don't buy anything. The really good randarts in shops are about 700-1000 gold, generally. You have all the resistances, If you were to buy anything, go for the glaive, as blessing is overrated. Seriously? You get +2/+2 and distortion. It's a standard item, not as good as a lot of randarts I've seen. I've seen, in a shop, a randart +13 scythe, amongst other things. Trust me, you're not getting better than that.
There's always more shops. Always. And you will be disappointed when you come across that scythe and can't afford it because you spent the money on, admittedly good, but not great items. I sure as hell was, coz this was with my merfolk crusader (polearms!), and I had just spent all my money at food and potion shops (with regeneration and berzerker rage, food starts to become an issue.)

[Cogwheel]

Things

Interesting idea.. I admit, I'm only really considering it because both polearms and Distortion are rare. In any case, I might try the randart. Food, thus far, has not been an issue at all. I'm not drowning in it like Casualty was, but I get by, especially with poison resistance. I suspect PR does more for my hunger issues than sustenance, actually. I was mostly looking at conservation (looking at you, centaurs with fire/frost shots and hasted casters) and regen as potential buys. If I get a ring, it'd be just one, and it would replace PR. That is, I'd put on PR only when I actually need it.

So. We've narrowed it down to regen, levitation (Raroy is crazy), conservation, that one randart weapon. I can currently afford any one of these, except possibly the regen ring. Saving my money for now, but by all means, vote away.


Achievements look like fun. The hydra one can be very easily accomplished in a certain semi-guaranteed room in the Swamp, where you may have to contend with dragons, drakes and about 15 hydras. One of those "flee for your pathetic life" situations.


Fiddler: I'm not surprised, but only because Casualty was a troll monk. That's a combo that's both effective, very nice in the early game and beginner-friendly.

Mil: ENVY. That's all I'm saying. That armour... wow.

Iskendar: Ring of ice? I have one. Also madness. Redshirt isn't going to cast anything much in platemail, sadly, and while ice rings do give cold resist (as does the artifact ring I have on already, by the way), they also give fire weakness. I'll see what I can do about the sheets.


To all my readers: I'll be in locations with little to no internet access, as my signature shows, for the next three weeks. Do not expect updates during this time. Maaaybe one. I promise nothing, though. Sorry about this. Amuse yourself with superior LPs on the boards (hint: any of them).


Edit: On the subject of getting gods, if you don't start with one, find an altar at the Ecumenical Temple and pray on it. The temple lacks Beogh altars (rare, most common in the orc mines) and Lugonu altars (only found in the Abyss).

[Milskidasith]

My troll berserker died, unfortunately, wearing his armor (up to +7 at that point, I was really lucky with scrolls).

I was in the orc mines, and an orcish warlord spawned and attacked me while I was resting after berserking to get through some other stuff.

And DAMMIT. I just realized I should have just spammed the crap out of "summon ally" because I was drowning in piety from all the corpses I offered. I could have lived. >_<

[Cogwheel]

That's the worst part of character deaths - the hindsight. Realizing that there was a very, very easy way out of the situation that killed you. Not fun at all.

[Aragehaor]

Achievements look like fun. The hydra one can be very easily accomplished in a certain semi-guaranteed room in the Swamp, where you may have to contend with dragons, drakes and about 15 hydras. One of those "flee for your pathetic life" situations.

Yay, my achievement is mentioned! Also, you are aware that you do have to survive the encounter to get the achievement, right?

To all my readers: I'll be in locations with little to no internet access, as my signature shows, for the next three weeks. Do not expect updates during this time. Maaaybe one. I promise nothing, though. Sorry about this. Amuse yourself with superior LPs on the boards (hint: any of them).

I will proceed to get my hopes up.

Edit: On the subject of getting gods, if you don't start with one, find an altar at the Ecumenical Temple and pray on it. The temple lacks Beogh altars (rare, most common in the orc mines) and Lugonu altars (only found in the Abyss).

Ah, thought it would be there Noob question, How exactly do you pray?

[The Dark Fiddler]

Press 'p'

?? = list of commands

[Aragehaor]

Press 'p'

?? = list of commands

A shame that the character i wanted that for died, He was a level 8 Sludge elf wizard, (Oh and i did figure out how to pray. He became the disciple of... the magic one. forget his name)

But the second part really is going to be useful for me, (Now i can find out how to look for hidden doors. yay! )

[The Dark Fiddler]

I really enjoy playing DemonSpawn, even if their stats are underwhelming. Control teleporation + teleport scroll = great escape button.

And worshiping Xom is fun.

[Aragehaor]

I really enjoy playing DemonSpawn, even if their stats are underwhelming. Control teleporation + teleport scroll = great escape button.

And worshiping Xom is fun.

Great fiddler, and i wanted to play a vampire too. Now?


And, for Some reason whenever i worship Xom my characters end up dead due to gnoll related face smashing.


EDIT: Worshiping Xom is very fun though, like you said.

[Gorgondantess]

Xom is evil. I do not trust the RNG that much.
But playing a demonspawn wanderer of Xom actually sounds kinda fun...

[Cogwheel]

The vampire healer one is easily done. Xom-worshipping Demonspawn Wanderer is just stupid, crazy and self-destructive. Like this game, really. I like it.

Anyway! This has now become a Stone Soup discussion thread in my absence. Feel free to throw bonus updates in here, in fact. Have at it. Knock yourselves out. Trite overused expressions.

I'm leaving in less than an hour. I have quite some time to figure out how to get the infinitely stupid game to run in a window again. Changing full_screen to false in the files doesn't seem to help.

[Domochevsky]

Press 'p'

?? = list of commands

Ah, so that's what that does... my undead always just pondered the meaning of unlife when i pressed 'p'.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Anyway! This has now become a Stone Soup discussion thread in my absence. Feel free to throw bonus updates in here, in fact. Have at it. Knock yourselves out. Trite overused expressions.

Hmm... maybe I shall try this...

*Looks at own Let's Play*

Maybe.

Edit: I just realized Vampires can't actually be Healers... so yeah. Oh well.

[Cogwheel]

Ah, so that's what that does... my undead always just pondered the meaning of unlife when i pressed 'p'.

That's the message you get if you lack a deity, I believe.

Stupid Crawl refusing to work in a window... gah.

[Aragehaor]

That's the message you get if you lack a deity, I believe.

Stupid Crawl refusing to work in a window... gah.

Thats just crawl attempting to make your life difficult outside of the game as well as inside.



I named a Minotaur chaos knight fable, Got him to level three things were looking good even had a ring of invisibility. Then i read a scroll which caused "a feeling of inevitable doom." i thought "Well Duh, im playing stone soup arent i?" And thought nothing more of it.

Few minutes later after chasing a bat through into a previously explored Large open room i ran into no less then 10 Orcs, 5 gnolls, 5 orc wizards, 3 bats And a few another gruesome creatures.

The moral of the story? Scrolls can kill you too.

[Gorgondantess]

Actually, that's a scroll of random uselessness. It didn't aid your death at all- it did nothing. That was just the RNG being evil.

[Aragehaor]

Actually, that's a scroll of random uselessness. It didn't aid your death at all- it did nothing. That was just the RNG being evil.

Hmm, Now im torn from being happy that i dont need to use a identify scroll on unknown scrolls just in case. And worried that the RNG is going to curbstomp me into the ground from now on. (The three other characters ive made since then, by the way have met low level ends to masses of orcs.)


EDIT: Make that four. only this time from a worm gnoll combo. Why is this game so fun?

[Vitruviansquid]

But no, really. Scrolls *can* kill you. >_>