Anhur is giving me a final test. I'm on the Plane of Earth (lower left). Strike a pose, then off the Wizard and his friends, who are also here. Use my crystal ball, to find ^... portal's on the upper right. Recharge the ball, then stow it back in my bag, along with my key (won't need that for a while). Alternate Zapping dig and zapping wand of dig, what with the Amulet draining me. Go straight up, introduce some earth elementals and their friends to my Chaotic Skills. Then dig to the left.

The previous Planers (again, Sesshomaru and Miaka) pretty much rushed through these levels in fear for their lives. I like to think I'm stronger... I certainly have more amulets of life saving! (Not that I want to use them...) So I toil around a bit to kill things. I even dig past the portal to whack at things (depleting the wand). I get a potion of full healing for my efforts!

It's almost too easy. I don't see any more Warning question marks. So with everything in the immediate area dead, I prepare for the next plane. Remove ring of free action (keep slow digestion, it remains an absolute necessity) and replace that with levitation. Get out my crystal ball.

Kawoosh!

I'm on the Plane of Air (almost the lower right corner). Use my crystal ball... portal's on the upper left. Naturally. *roll eyes* Try to make my way there. An air elemental engulfs me and pummels me with debris! My HP is now down into the mid-300s, which is actually of minor concern. I kill the thing, only to get engulfed by a steam vortex. I feel mildly warm.

Pause to ponder.

In the Dungeon, these vortices had become more an annoyance than anything... they can no longer hurt me. So instead of killing it, I sit and wait. I feel mildly warm. I'm recharging my HP and my Pw as I sit here! Oh, this is beautiful, seems that the random lightning strikes can't even hurt me in here! I do get expelled though. Continue to try to make my way northeast, zapping Misteltein at the various entities around, but trying to avoid the vortices. Kill a djinni that way.

The plan is working well for a while. Then, on the tip of the clouds, I get expelled from a "healing vortex" only to find myself surrounded by monsters. *blink* So either they can surround you while you're engulfed, or this is another of the Wizard's tricks. (I suspect the latter, that elf lord looks a bit out of place up here.) Hm. Being surrounded, I can't move, only fight. Apparently, my plan needs to be revised.

If I start fighting one of these things, all nine of them are going to pound on me next turn. Some of these things are dragons. Now, I have a ring of conflict, but would need to take off slow digestion to use it effectively, hence I'd rather not. What else can I do? Well, maybe teleport one of them away.

Zap wand. Apparently no effect. Ow, ow, stop that! *grumble* C'mon, Hayate-chan, THINK! You have intelligence 22! Well, what did I bring with me in the bag again...? Peek inside. Amulets of life saving et cetera, potions of holy water, gain level, full healing, scrolls of taming and remove curse... wait, BLESSED SCROLL OF TAMING? Remove scroll. Ow, ow. Read scroll.

Did you know that when adjacent monsters are tamed, they drop all the items they're carrying? I didn't!! A yellow dragon even dropped a potion of full healing, but I was so startled by the effect the scroll had that I didn't pick it up; someone else got it. So, I now have, like, 8 or 9 pets! (At least two dragons, yellow and black, an elf lord, a giant, and a jabberwock, to name some.) That's... different. I feel loved. *smile*

Still, there's a job to do here - get to that dratted portal! Head through the clouds. Hear a lot of fighting noises. Get out the other side and blow my magic whistle to re-teleport my pets out here. (And they said I was crazy to bring such a whistle to the Planes! *wink*) Ironically, I notice a silver dragon back in the direction I came from. Well, if you're not going to appear in the Dungeon proper, I'm sure not going to kill you up here! Hmph.

One thing I *am* going to take time out to kill though is that ki-rin, which just summoned even more nasty things. (I seem to recall killing one in the Castle too.) It's right in my line of sight. Probably resists death, so I zap him with Misteltein a few times. There, ha. The question becomes, how can I bring my pets with me to the next plane? They can't all be adjacent to the portal and me at once, but they have to be, to follow. (Sesshomaru learned that with his tame djinni.)

Ponder.

Well, a couple things have disappeared through already. I stand next to the portal, blow the magic whistle a few times. ("The jabberwock disappears!" Um, was that my pet, or the other one I saw around here? *sigh*) After a few tries I leap through myself... anyone who missed the boat probably isn't worthy of me anyway.

Kawoosh!

I'm on the Plane of Fire (lower left area). Use my crystal ball... portal's on the upper right. Oh brother. Then I'm engulfed by a steam vortex! Well, that's not too bad, remember? In fact, I take the time to remove blank paper and magic marker from my bag. I write myself a new scroll of taming, that was SWEET. Also write a scroll of charging, since I remember I used the one I had on the crystal ball. Also a blessed scroll of genocide, because I know I'll want one for the next level.

There. Put everything back in the bag. I have a sad feeling... something died. I'm still healing in here though. Oops! I get expelled. It's dark, except around those fire elementals - right, my magic lamp goes out inside vortices. Turn it back on. As I do, my pet black dragon dies and a salamander's taking a swing at me! In fact, lots of things are closing in, I'd better get a move on.

Keeping levitation, I float across the lava. That's given a couple things pause, but it doesn't look like I can stop to fight much. Unlike the Plane of Earth, either the fire elementals here are too fast, or there's more of them - I simply don't have the time to take them down before more of them are going to be on me. I'd rather not get surrounded again; I don't think elementals tame.

The Wizard's back! ZOT. Thank goodness that worked, I can't really melee at the moment. Keep going, halfway there.... uhoh. An Archon has spawned a little ways ahead of me. Miaka had a bit of trouble with one; I was hoping staying at Exp 26 would save me. Sure enough, it comes close, blinds me, then summons some monster. I cure myself, then try to zap it with a death ray! The ray reflects. Oh dear.

However, I'm almost below it now, and as I try to run on my merry way, it seems to loop around behind me, hanging out with the fire elementals who were pursuing me. *shrug* Fine, if you don't really want to fight, I'm cool with that. The fighting on this level is a bit overrated, as I said. As I'm coming up on the portal though, there's still things in my way, including a balrog with a wand of cold. Hm.

Better stop to think.