Julie's ascension game started August 20th, 2007. Based on a character from an ongoing story of mine. She's a fitting Ranger, prefering to be on the fringes of the action... but hadn't had much luck previously. Her first game, from April 26th, had her swarmed down a passage in the Gnomish Mines, where she killed off /almost/ everything - except a soldier ant. A more promising game from July 14th-21st (which included a wand of wishing and Stormbringer) ended when she fell through a trap door above Medusa's level, landed in a maze, and got pounded by a minotaur. (Leaving bones found by Betty.) However, in both of those she was chaotic. Here, she went in as neutral... EARLY GAME -"Not much to report here. But not a terribly favourable layout; chaotic altar in the mines, Oracle all the way down on level 7. Lots of shops though - potions on 3, general on 4, books on 5 and 6." -"Got a few ID scrolls from the bookstores, and as per usual, worked on identifying things. First helmet I'd found was apparently not a helmet but a helm of brilliance. Rusty thanks to that trap. So irritating." -"Sokoban done, continuing down. Zoo on level 10, but in a room beyond the upstair/downstair path, so can take it out whenever I like. Bees on level 11. Quest portal on level 13, along with a lawful altar." -"More stores! General on both 14 and 16. Level 17 is the @ level; finally an aligned altar on level 18, but I've mostly set up camp back on 13. Medusa on 24; she's in the middle." -"Converted the altar on 13, killed off an Aleax and sacrificed for an artifact. Got Magicbane; could be worse. Enchanted it up." -"Magicbane just saved my life. Some centaur in the maze for the Quest had a wand of death, but he couldn't disintegrate me. This is good! Already I'm better than a prior Laurie and Carrie." -"Used blessed genocide scroll to kill off all liches before even seeing any. Not taking any chances. Continuing down, castle on level 28. Ludios back on level 15." -"Descended into Gehennom. Level 35 is CANDI'S SWAMP! Her bones file from Juiblex! (Hard to miss with her magic lamp still on.)" -"Toted Candi's stuff back to level 13... among random things I get Front Brand (which she'd found lying around on DL4), a +3 athame (she had Magicbane too), and the PYEC (!!!). This means, being neutral and all, I can charge items!" -"Addendum, I also have magic resistance by keeping this card around, so I'll keep silver dragon scales (rather than using Candi's grey ones)." -"Vlad's entrance is level 38. The Wizard's on 39?! I thought he was always BELOW Orcus. But Orcus ends up on 42. The bottom is level 47." -"Coming back up one time, a titan on Asmodeus' level nearly ruined everything with it's summoning. But I survived with nary a brainsuck." -"Scorpius is long dead; been periodically invoking my bow, and have more arrows than I'd ever know what to do with. Croesus dead. Juiblex and Yeenoghu both been gated in and killed. Decide to call it here on September 3rd, evening. The astute will notice it's been about two weeks." MIDDLE GAME -"Revived February 8th, afternoon. The Veniti's have both ascended; I now have to beat their scores. Time to scavenge the levels for gems." -"Pickaxed a grave that detect treasure indicated had a potion. Turned out to contain a potion of sickness AND a tourist corpse named Candi. There's creepy irony here, so I think I'll keep the potion around." -"Gems obtained. That's not enough though... want to be remembered for more! Eat a couple tengus. Ha ha, first character to get teleport control! (Before teleportitis, thankfully.)" -"Want to bulk up more on magic and increase my kills... start walking on magic traps. Obtain pet mumak and... something else. A robe would help with magic, so I try introducing the pets to the priest in the mines." -"Pets weren't keen on chaotic priest, but do kill a watchman who had a wand of death. Score! Will add it to the centaur's, Orcus' and Candi's. But mumaks are apparently vegetarian, and 'I'm worried about him'." -"Morph mumak up into a balrog. (Other pet died.) Now introduce him to the priest... I have a robe. Bring him down and introduce him to a few other "friendly"s, like shopkeepers, priest of Moloch, grey unicorns..." -"Plunged deep again, took out most of Wizard's zoo. On the way out of the teleporter, Balrog became peaceful instead. Oh well. Consolidate; learn more spells; consort with more incubii; walk on more magic traps; bulk up armour." -"Tried to get some Kops by annoying a (remaining) shopkeeper on DL4 with arrows. He followed me out, I deked around him and started shoplifting gems. (I'd sold him them in the early game for $.) However, before I could make it out, he zapped fire, which reflected off my armor, and killed him. Geez." -"Been wandering for a while... a few spells are harder to remember. While I still have the ability, I go down and zap some stone to flesh on Medusa, only to kill her again with my reflective armour. Yes, I make my own fun." -"Few magic traps remain - one nets me a tame giant spider, ditch him in the Quest. Then a tame floating eye, which I morph up into a White Dragon (while he's standing on junk, getting myself a second amulet of life saving)." -"Shuttling stuff like gems and trinkets back up to level 3, 'introduced' the Dragon to the Oracle (after getting some advice). Hee hee, oops! *smirk* Dilithium crystals are surprisingly frequent. Locate a touchstone quite belatedly." -"Have called the Dragon 'OldEye'. We're becoming friends, which is a bit of a bother, because I now feel obligated to heal him at times. (At least my god gave me a spellbook of extra healing for a gift.)" -"Shuttling things out of Gehennom now too. Took OldEye down to meet the peaceful balrog, but the latter's level 24 to OldEye's 22." -"Realized that have been using Frost Brand for most melee, but don't actually have the ability to use long swords. Start doing many, many sacrifices to try and get one. Get Werebane, Cleaver and Dragonbane instead." -"Belatedly realize that Vorpal Blade is a long sword, and try to get crowned instead. Success there. Stash Vorpy and continue with Frost Brand. All stats have now maxed out as well. Start writing more scrolls of enchant armor using Candi's magic marker." -"What do you want to write on? [AIR or ?*] Ha ha." -"AC is down to -42 with the found T-shirt included. One trip up found an Angel with Sunsword in the dungeon, which is weird considering the number of artifacts already. Decide to handle any other loose ends then move into the late game." -"Wipe out master mind flayers. End up reacquiring giant spider from Quest level while looking for food for OldEye. Hadn't expected Spidey to still be tame. (Some animals like a long worm are trapped and unkillable at far left of screen. Odd game feature.)" -"Polymorph self into a xorn using rings. Try eating a few rings... warning, two of increase damage, Candi's ring of shapechange protection, but despite the supposed 33% chance, never seem to acquire any abilities. What a waste of a morph. Sigh. Walk through a wall for the hell of it. Refresh my spells." -"Time for the Wizard. Plan to off him with a cockatrice corpse from his zoo, then wield +3 Magicbane to soak curses whenever I'm not using my +7 Frost Brand to actually fight with. Have gotten into a bad habit of melee instead of range attacks, but now level 30 with 600+ LP, I'm virtually unkillable..." END GAME -"Success with plan (one of the three 'trices left a corpse). Teleport to 47, then leave OldEye and Spidey behind while I deal with the Sanctum. Get this weird idea in my head to save all the priest robes, since I was also collecting oilskin cloaks. (Including Candi's burnt one, I found, like, 4. But no cloak of magic resistance until this point in the game.)" -"Actually got a scroll of stinking cloud to work for the first time! Didn't impress Moloch, or his high priest, but may have helped to snare the amulet. Begin the long trek up." -"Mysterious force seems to like level 45. Made it as high as Orcus' stash (42), only to be dragged down twice to end on 45. Then AGAIN, dragged down to this level. Hit it at least four times; lost Spidey in here somewhere. (Literally lost, didn't even notice him die - think he hit a trap door.) Also had to kill a lot of things when a summoned monster read a scroll to create more." -"Finally made my way back out of Ye Olde Hell. Didn't see the Wizard much, though at least once. Dart trap in the upper right corner of the Valley still had darts, incidentally." -"ki-rin at an upper maze level... I can't resist a harder kill, so go a bit out of my way. It summons stuff, including a disenchanter and green slime, which is awkward. Manage to take things down, but OldEye dies. Resurrect him. He starts eating corpses. I teleport those away from the stairs - we can't spend all day down here." -"Back on 13, go to doublecheck my stash and get the tooled horn I left there; I found another coming up and want to pair them. OldEye had been left on 14, still eating something. Naturally, the wizard shows up - and evades death rays!" -"Forced to melee with the Wizard, who now teleports back and forth; I retreat to the downstair to get OldEye. Strangely, when I go down the Wizard follows, then zaps a wand of digging (did he do it twice?) which I guess puts him on 15. I leave him behind." -"Passing by old Oracle level (7), something drops a new spellbook. I drop AoY to spell-ID it's BUC status, then retreat around a corner to learn restore ability, more for completeness. That done, I kill a Zruty - who drops a new amulet of life saving!" -"Couple levels up, the Wizard's back... 'So you thought you could elude me!' (Ahem, who eluded who?) Again forced to melee. He steals the Longbow of Diana! What, not the Amulet? ...wait... where's the Amulet at?" -"Kill the Wizard. Go back down to DL7 to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, which I seemed to have confused with my new amulet of life saving. Come back up. Wizard returns again, but this time responds to a death zap." -"Sort things out at my box on DL3. Quaff more full healing, replace useless create monster things with gems, get my artifacts, etc. Leave the +2 shield there (haven't used it since the early game and it'd interfere with spells). Keep my initial bow and displacement cloak, more as proof I kept track of them than for sentimentality." -"Up on DL1, monsters gate in. When the red dragon dies, he leaves behind an amulet of life saving! This is the third one I've just found lying around, including the one on 7, and one from the mid-game in a bear trap on 24. Unbelievable." -"Plane of Earth. Wizard dies, and I ID a spellbook of dig. Start whacking on earth elementals - it takes longer to kill them than I'd thought. Realize the two-weaponing of prior ascensions may have been rather key." -"Do much digging, wanting to clear out the level. Find a scroll of genocide. Then something read create monster, and made a whole bunch of things, including a mind flayer. So I genocide mind flayers and work through the rest. OldEye takes out the peaceful umber hulks. I take out the Wizard again." -"Level clear (minus some respawners). On to the Plane of Air, wearing levitation and free action. Elementals try to engulf almost immediately; finally free of them (down by 200+ LP!), I try extra healing on OldEye. Doesn't help, he's killed by the swarm." -"Resurrect OldEye again and try to make my way right. Enter and emerge from clouds - message that an Archon vanishes from sight! Yowza. There's still another one here though, along with a ki-rin and many other things..." -"Level clear; at some point OldEye died again, no idea where his corpse ended up. Got an Archon killed too... main problem with them is how they stun you, so one has to recover, then fight blind. Enchant MagicBane up to +4. On to the Plane of Fire." -"Detect the fire portals, then swallowed up by a vortex. Only to hear the Wizard return! This is a problem because there's also an Archon here wielding Demonbane, who stuns me once I'm freed. I manage to recover enough to fire a death blast - which the Wizard evades. Then he summons nasties." -"I'm not in danger really (even losing 300 LP is less than half total), but there's some serious annoyance happening. Eventually I take care of things. Zap a wand of light around and start picking off the things that remain. Including another Archon." -"Heading for portal, one more Archon appears... as I'm hitting him, he spawns his twin. Then the Wizard is back. It's like a repeat of the situation when I arrived! A boulder ends up on the portal when a giant dies." -"Finally off to the Plane of Water... horror of horrors, there's a GREMLIN here, must have walked on the portal from fire! He multiplies... and I'm swallowed by an errant fire vortex or something. I get out, and there's, like, already 10 gremlins. One chuckles and I feel cooler! (But it's only 10:30pm?)" -"Drastic measures are required. Remove blessed scroll of genocide from bag, discovered in mid-game. (Ironically hadn't used it on 'h' since only master mind flayers seemed an issue, and I'd had an uncursed scroll.) Wipe out all 'g' before I can't even walk on this level anymore." -"Back to normal gameplay... zap water things from afar with magic missile and melee with water demons. Eventually gets tedious but can't find the portal. Then the Wizard again, and the one who avoids death blasts! Melee... he summons things. Steals the Amulet. Steals my longbow. Steals the Bell. AGH!" -"Finally down the Wizard (for the 13th and last time) and thankfully get my stuff back before it floats off somewhere or the portal is triggered under a corpse or something. Then at last I'm off to the Astral Plane." -"I'm on the right. So is Famine... which is annoying, as he's the only one I have no specific defense for. (Though levitation got replaced with slow digestion.) He's death zapped in the doorway, I must teleport things out of my way three times before I can proceed in. Head for the altar. It turns out to be lawful." -"My Guardian Angel dies around now, rather uselessly; I take on Joshua the Student of Fire and then Eric the Journeyer while Famine is held at bay by many insects. Eric has an apron and an ID scroll to ID it with." -"Getting too much stuff; drop all the robes I'd had with me since the Sanctum, don't know what I was thinking. Back to Burderened, I eventually kill Famine again and make my way out and around towards the middle." -"Pestilence comes out to greet me, and dies. Getting back towards the altar is HARD though, because there's a TITAN there that keeps summoning things, in addition to all the insects running around. Go around the side to kill off the titan, and determine this is my altar when things start trying to flee when I go inside." -"Have had to do some serious melee killing - a second titan causing trouble, and Dion, the invisible Archer. Also felt hungry, and ate. It's at this point that I could simply win... but in my kill list, I kinda want to take a crack at Death. Michael the Filcher is also over on the left." -"On my way back out, a black dragon's breath attack bounces off my armour and hits my high priest! He dies! I'm called a murderer! (What, like this was my fault?) So that's another slight issue. Not as safe to come back here anymore." -"Killed Death (with a ranged spell), but also had some priest weld Front Brand to my hand (I'd stopped alternating with Magicbane). Get out one of only two blessed scrolls of remove curse left. Make my way in to the chaotic altar; filcher dies, leaving 9 gems of various types, which I take. Now have to make my way back to the middle." -"Some priest hitting me, I kill him, called a murderer again! (Was he peaceful once?) Then Pestilence meets me, I attack him until he flees... then cockily /pursue/ him all the way back to the right. Down him no problem, but with both Famine and Death tooling around in the middle, should perhaps have reserved charges." -"Famine refuses to drop from death charges! Wand empty, I start running. Manage to melee him down, and PYEC actually does a decent job of recharging the wand, so I don't have to swap it with another from my bag. Not sure if I'm hungry or not??" -"Zap down Pesilence and make a run in for the altar. Think something else was holding me up here too. Can't manage to push a boulder the old titan dropped back into the doorway before Pestilence makes it back through. Death is right behind him." -"Now standing on the altar. There's so much I wanted to do - create Sting/Orcrist, make a crysknife, give myself food detection intrinsic, uncurse Frost Brand which was recursed on my trip back here, maybe burn a wish or two from the uncharged castle wand or my magic lamps... but taking some stuff from the bag makes me Stressed, and the Riders jump to melee range." -"Pestilence avoids a double death zap, and hits me three times. I'm feverish and stunned and could die at any moment - admitedly with life saving, but Death's one step from an attack too. Think I got too cocky in there. Will have to settle for the unusual ascension of ''You were sick from illness.''" Julie the Markswoman St:18/** Dx:23 Co:18 In:22 Wi:22 Ch:18 Neutral Astral Plane $:3 HP:530(839) Pw:249(370) AC:-42 Exp:30 T:154560 Ill Stun Stressed You made the top ten list! No Points Name Hp [max] 1 11550446 Julie-Ran-Hum-Fem-Neu ascended to demigoddess-hood. 530 [839] ...totally beat down everyone else's score though. ...almost did it wishless, and damned if I can remember what that one wish was. Possibly blessed scrolls of charging before I got the PYEC. ...think I'll use my wooden flute, leather drum, and two tooled horns to start a band; we'll all wear oilskin cloaks. February 20th, ~12:30am.