Based on a character from an ongoing story of mine. Written first person. *** 1 Hmmm... want backstory? Well, tourists have a reputation for being difficult, as they can get schmucked in the early game. However, most tourists at THIS site have done surprisingly well! Now, admitedly, one of the first characters ever created on Jan 27, 2007 was a tourist. (Killed by a jackal.) But once serious gameplay began, deaths were mostly avoided. Candi (Mar 28-Apr 20) was made for a quick death, but she wouldn't die, seeing as she found Frost Brand lying around by the stairs on DL4. She only died when she forgot to cure herself after meeting Juiblex (notably, her bones would be found by ranger Julie, results pending!). Thus came Laurie the First (May 10-May 13). The first Laurie made it down to Medusa, but with no reflection or means of crossing came back up; she was subsequently killed when she started taking on soldiers in a barracks to get gloves - one had a death ray. (She left bones, found by Carrie, who also had no reflection and immediately came back up a level - to be offed by a giant with a death ray! There's irony in that.) Laurie the Second (May14), created for revenge, was killed the same day by a Grey elf: Laurie the Excursionist St:14 Dx:13 Co:17 In:11 Wi:13 Ch:14 Neutral Dlvl:7 $:0 HP:45(45) Pw:26(26) AC:0 Exp:6 T:8940 Which brings us to Laurie the Third (June17th). That's me. I wasn't created for revenge, just for fun - which might explain some of the success?? Anyway, level 2 had an aligned altar right next to the Mines entrance. Minetown itself had a bookstore and was co-aligned. Lowest mines level was the maze with the vampires. Chaotic altar on level 7 right next to the Sokoban stairs. Sokoban itself had the Bag of Holding... bit troubling given the need for reflection, but obviously it worked out this time. Weapons shop level 8. Lawful temple level 9. Chaotic altar sitting on level 10, near the downstairs; throne room off to the side. Neutral altar near the downstairs on level 11 -- this became the key point for my stash, particularly after finding the Ludios portal here, and the Quest portal on level 12. Another of my altars level 15; Rogue level was 17; lawful altar on 18; swamp level on 19. That was a surprise, but all the marsh was off on the left side. A crocodile I'd somehow acquired brought me kelp fronds. Who knew? Medusa on level 23. She was set in the middle; spent some time above again, then used boulders to bridge the water and make a path - had no levitation. Ventured into mazes before I was really ready, but had a dog named Spelly and made use of a cockatrice corpse to create a statue of a minotaur, mind flayer, python, lich, another minotaur, and again... castle on level 27. Waited to take it on until I was ready. Once ready, another cockatrice helped create statues of a red naga, lieutenant, lich, and stalker. Genocided liches and got the Platinum Card by sneaking up on the Rogue and zapping him with death before he knew I was there. Became practically unstoppable. Also found a spellbook of light, which let me illuminate everything, and wizard lock, which let me lock out any rooms not on paths between stairs. Used a pickaxe to carve the way between stairs in the mazes. Learning from other characters previously, created Silver Dragon scale mail (magic resistance already from the PYEC). Orcus level 37. Vlad's tower entrance level 38. Hit bottom on level 48. Found the square, and carved a path there too. Lit almost everything. By this point it's been just a little over a week (June 25th, around 6pm). And like many characters before me, I went into extended slumber... rewaking January 2, 2008. My brother Corry just ascended, but couldn't beat Hayate's score. 2 Time to have some fun now! Refreshed my memory. Used spell to light Juiblex's level, the only one not lit. Charmed up weapons (including Vorpal Blade) and armor (including helm of brilliance). Wearing helm, with higher Int, read many spellbooks, so any spell gifts would be of use. One of those spells was Detect Treasure, so mined from DL11 up for gems, as well as in the mines. Hauled a spare box (containing a loadstone) from there up to DL2 for useful items. Revisited the Quest level, casting light there too, since the spell would soon be forgotten. Found I hadn't killed things in the graveyard partway down, or the Kops at the bottom. So did. Then got gems from the Medusa Mazes (which hadn't been explored) and did more mapping of Gehennom levels. Took out part of the Wizard's Zoo and his kraken friends. On the final trip up, had some issues with a Captain creating monsters on DL42, including a cockatrice, disenchanter and four storm giants; cast confuse monster and enchanced my spellcasting. All that only takes two days; now it's January 3rd! (I've been down here less than two weeks, technically.) Create a to-do list of fun things for the next little while. One is to play with Medusa. I go down, wearing an amulet of reflection, and cast stone to flesh on her. A hard spell for me, yet I manage it twice. She dies twice more. In the process, I also revive a ranger named Peaches, who attacks me, so I kill her also. (Would have revived Perseus, except he'd already been pickaxed and his sack taken.) Next in the list of things is to play with Croesus. I invade his lair and hit him with Confuse Monster. He starts taking out his own zoo. Finally dies when a giant drops a boulder on him. (Should have brought a wand of undead turning to play more!) Next I start playing with escape spells, only to realize that, being below XP 20, I can't advance them. So I start playing with Incubii. (I tend to keep them around for that reason... one locked on DL11, another DL24, also DL4 or something... then of course all the ones at the bottom of the Quest.) While wandering to raise my XP, start playing with magic traps... interestingly find there WEREN'T any for the most part of the dungeon, until after Medusa. Kill lots and lots of things while trying to absorb energy. Manage to tame a grey unicorn who was next to me. Nonplussed, call him Magus, take him with me, and he kills a lot of the molds and things on Juiblex's level for food. Keep him with me back up to DL11 for some polymorphing. First time, he turns into a green dragon. Keen! Polymorph also nets me a new amulet of life saving, and a ring of free action (what, I didn't have one yet??), but no ring of teleport control. Can't eat Croesus' tengus yet. Bring Magus back up to DL2, where I'm starting to transfer things. Put a saddle on him and decide to ride him around a bit. Unfortunately, while separated on DL11, he eats a changeling or something and turns into a clay(?) golem. Sigh. Something kills him back down in Gehennom. 3 Now approaching the one year anniversary of discovering the dungeons. Decide to get a bit more serious. Genocide mind flayer types. Final polymorphs. Get teleport control ring, try eating a tengu, does nothing for me. Try sitting on thrones; Croesus' throne DOES give me a wish, so I get a magic marker to write enchant armor scrolls. (Seriously, that's about all I wrote with it.) Pumped up about 4 levels by the Incubi at the bottom of the Quest, plus dance around on a trap there (tame some centaur, only to have it die by something else created). Can't totally be serious yet. Try drinking from fountains for the fun of water demons or moccasins. Get some of the latter, but not before lots of random stuff got cursed outright; read a scroll of remove curse, which uncursed all the teleportation scrolls I wanted to use. Hee hee, oops. ^_^ Expend a wish on fireproof gauntlets of dexterity, only to find a pair moments later in my DL11 stash. Oopsie again. ^_^ Anyway, probably ready for the Wizard. Head back down, stopping by Vlad's to pick up the Candelabrum. (Incidentally, only ever saw *exactly* 7 candles... one got partly used...) Notice I'd never fully mapped Vlad's lower tower either, so do that. Discover the amulet of strangulation I'd left behind, as well as a box called "Quantum". Oh, I'd killed a Quantum Mechanic... open the box. The cat inside is dead! I revive Schrodinger's cat. For no apparent reason, I'd kept my wand of polymorph, so I then morphed him. He became something useless, then a jellyfish, which is even more useless. Charged up the wand of polymorph and tried a couple more times. Ooh, a titan called Schrodinger's Cat! I discover very quickly that this is a pet than can heal himself, after also making himself invisible and fast. We go to introduce ourselves to the Wizard. Laurie the Explorer St:18/** Dx:22 Co:18 In:22 Wi:22 Ch:18 Neutral Dlvl:44 $:0 HP:406(406) Pw:210(210) AC:-40 Exp:26 T:121190 I discover that I neglected to fully clear out the Wizard's Zoo. Do so, in the process finding another pair of gauntlets of dexterity (sigh) and earning a cursed scroll of teleportation. That solves the problem of getting down fast with my pet. Keep heading up; Wizard manages to summon a purple worm before he's death zapped. Kill everything else, kill the worm before he can kill Schroe, read a new spellbook there (drain life), wait for Schroe to finish eating the worm, then scroll teleport down to the Square. Things go shockingly well. To the extent that I have some more fun with the wand of undead turning, reviving a number of corpses, including a valkyrie (Miaka? Carrie?), a rogue (Corry, my brother - had to kill him), a wizard (Fate - somehow a GUY, so killed him) and a tourist (Candi, the only peaceful one - Schroe offed her). Lightning bolts fly around in the temple, but I get the amulet. I take the time to kill everything. Tidyness counts. Long trip up - but not that long. The mysterious force menaces me a couple times, mostly around DL42, where I re-encounter the Wizard. I death zap him - and he has an amulet of life saving. I death zap him with prejudice, and he's gone. Once I'm past Orcus' level, it's mostly clear sailing. Kill some cockatrices on the way up to use against the Wizard, but never get the chance. (Also discover that they stack, and will rot away according to the lower on the stack. Thing had been dead less than 20 turns when they both vanished.) Drop in on The Oracle. Schroe kills him. Meh. Play around with more Incubii on the way up too, hoping to use potions of gain level to make potions of full healing instead of for upping Exp. Results in four more levels, plus the message "The incubus demands that you pay him, but you refuse. You feel vaguely nervous." However, the Wizard seems to be giving me and Schroe a wide berth. I only seem him after dawdling a long time on DL2, getting my act together. Decide to actually bless the diluted extra healing and full healing potions I put together, along with drinking most of the gain levels. Laurie the Adventurer St:18/** Dx:22 Co:18 In:22 Wi:22 Ch:18 Neutral Dlvl:2 $:0 HP:673(673) Pw:302(308) AC:-40 Exp:30 T:124389 So as you see, I'm completely unstoppable by now. Hit the Plane of Earth wearing Cloak of Magic Resistance (found in the sanctum of all places), in case I have to melee the Wizard to avoid hitting Schroe. Nope - zap. Wander around the level and kill everything, making note of the potion on the portal so I don't walk onto it until I'm ready. Next, Plane of Air. First little snafu... Schroe DIES. I revive him with my wand of undead turning, but he comes back hostile. Sigh. Uncursed scroll of taming doesn't work, so kill Schroe - though not before he summons some other things. Take his long sword with me (it's thoroughly corroded after Schroe decided to take on "a" black pudding on Jubilex's level). Also encounter a green slime while blinded by lightning, so dodged a bullet there in killing it. Once most everything on this level is dead, off to the Plane of Fire. Kill everything there. No, really. The portal was reasonably close, but I walked around and killed everything, getting a wand of death off of a Salamander and Fire Brand (cursed, -3) off something else. I realize I'm almost bored. Enchant up my silver sabre from +5 to +6 with a scroll I found. Plane of Water is next. The Wizard shows up there, but is quickly dealt with. I use Magic Missile spell to kill things that might electrocute or drown me and melee with the elementals. Find the portal bubble reasonably quickly and float around it to kill more things. Either I ended up on the portal at one point, or it flitted under a corpse and reappeared in a spot right after I walked off it. Weird. Anyway, made it to the Astral Plane. On the left side, which was a bit disorienting at first. 4 I find I'm not even caring which rider I face - I go left. It's Pestilence, who I wait for, then he dies to a death zap in the doorway. I go through, hitting the other things that are menacing me. Then Pesty revives, however, my Guardian Angel is right behind him, so I can't death zap without ticking the Angel off. So I hit him while two weaponing, readying my cure sickness spell. But Pestilence *turns to flee*!!! .... Okay, sure. I hit somewhere else, he comes back almost immediately - I hit him again, and he dies. Huh. I head into the temple area. It's the chaotic temple. I take a trip around the back, hoping to ditch Pesty there, and head for the middle. As I do, I "hear a door unlock and then open". Death is right there waiting for me - and it looks like an archaeologist is coming this way from the far right. Death gets in a couple hits (first took me down to 666 Max HP, hm), but goes down after a couple spelled Magic Missiles. (They were crafted to hit the monk behind him too.) I head in. Death's following, and I hit him before reaching the altar area. *Death* turns to flee. Huh. Apparently, I really am invincible. I kill a knight or something as well as the monk... neither of them have any artifacts, or, in fact, any really good stuff. Hayate had found TONS of things... could it be that by undead turning roles before, they were wary of me as well? Or maybe I shouldn't have made Sting and Orcrist upon my arrival? Anyway, the middle altar turns out to be mine, when I finally look down on it. Only then does the blue dragon turn to flee, sheesh. But I actually go out and all the way around to the right, to take out the archaeologist, Pesilence once more, as well as Famine - who had an amulet of life saving and also needed to be zapped twice. One of the wands of death is charged here, though I had another two in my bag... nothing of interest on the right, so I go back to my proper altar, feeling a bit nonplussed. No Archons. Never saw Yeenoghu either. Chat with the priestess. She wants a contribution. I give her the $4 I got off a green dragon back on DL2. Chat with her again; she gives me $2 back. Huh. Uncurse my magic whistle and summon my pet angel back from where he got stuck on the left. Check his HP, discover he's down slightly - 162 of 168 or something - and it's at this point I realize I don't know the healing spell. I came this far without it? Quite nonplussed now. Hit the angel with a potion of extra healing - he looks sound and hale, but starts to menace another peaceful angel, so I shrug, and ascend... #offer What do you want to sacrifice? [qV or ?*] ? You offer the Amulet of Yendor to The Lady... An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance... The voice of The Lady rings out: "Congratulations, mortal!" "In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!" You ascend to the status of Demigoddess... Laurie the Adventurer St:18/** Dx:22 Co:18 In:22 Wi:22 Ch:18 Neutral Astral Plane $:2 HP:628(628) Pw:315(321) AC:-40 Exp:30 T:126395 Burdened Do you want an account of creatures vanquished? [ynq] (n) y Vanquished creatures: Asmodeus Orcus Juiblex The Wizard of Yendor (5 times) Death (thrice) Pestilence (4 times) Famine (4 times) a high priest ///snip/// 4670 creatures vanquished. Do you want to see your conduct? [ynq] (n) y Voluntary challenges: You genocided 11 types of monsters. You never changed form. You used 3 wishes. You did not wish for any artifacts. Aloha Laurie the Demigoddess... You and the invisible guardian Angel of The Lady went to your reward with 7953758 points, Vorpal Blade (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points) The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points) The Book of the Dead (worth 10000 zorkmids and 25000 points) Sting (worth 800 zorkmids and 2000 points) Orcrist (worth 2000 zorkmids and 5000 points) Fire Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points) Trollsbane (worth 200 zorkmids and 500 points) Cleaver (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points) Sunsword (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points) The Platinum Yendorian Express Card (worth 7000 zorkmids and 17500 points) The Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points) 32 emeralds (worth 80000 zorkmids), 23 amethyst stones (worth 13800 zorkmids), 22 turquoise stones (worth 44000 zorkmids), 22 aquamarine stones (worth 33000 zorkmids), 22 fluorite stones (worth 8800 zorkmids), 21 garnet stones (worth 14700 zorkmids), 20 amber stones (worth 20000 zorkmids), 18 diamonds (worth 72000 zorkmids), 16 sapphires (worth 48000 zorkmids), 16 citrine stones (worth 24000 zorkmids), 14 opals (worth 11200 zorkmids), 14 obsidian stones (worth 2800 zorkmids), 13 rubies (worth 45500 zorkmids), 12 black opals (worth 30000 zorkmids), 11 dilithium crystals (worth 49500 zorkmids), 11 jacinth stones (worth 35750 zorkmids), 10 jet stones (worth 8500 zorkmids), 10 agate stones (worth 2000 zorkmids), 9 jasper stones (worth 4500 zorkmids), 6 topaz stones (worth 5400 zorkmids), 5 jade stones (worth 1500 zorkmids), 4 chrysoberyl stones (worth 2800 zorkmids), 4 amulets of reflection (worth 600 zorkmids), 3 amulets of ESP (worth 450 zorkmids), 3 amulets of life saving (worth 450 zorkmids), 2 amulets of strangulation (worth 300 zorkmids), 2 amulets versus poison (worth 300 zorkmids), 2 amulets of unchanging (worth 300 zorkmids), 1 amulet of restful sleep (worth 150 zorkmids), 1 amulet of change (worth 150 zorkmids), 1 amulet of magical breathing (worth 150 zorkmids), and 18644 pieces of gold, after 126395 moves. You were level 30 with a maximum of 628 hit points when you ascended. You made the top ten list! No Points Name Hp [max] 1 7953758 Laurie-Tou-Hum-Fem-Neu ascended to demigoddess-hood. 628 [628] 2 7110536 Hayate-Wiz-Hum-Fem-Cha ascended to demigoddess-hood. 484 [484] 3 6812688 Corry-Rog-Hum-Mal-Cha ascended to demigod-hood. 760 [760]