I'm close to escaping the Fire Plane, all I need is to buy a bit more time. I'm also basically at the point where floating over lava isn't going to be much faster than walking around. Okay then. Exchange my ring of levitation for my ring of conflict. Immediately the place starts going CRAZY, and I begin getting stupid messages like, "The salamander grabs the fire elemental! The fire elemental is already on fire! The fire doesn't burn the fire elemental!"

Have to take the good with the bad. It gets me to the portal. What's more, since they're now all hitting each other, it gives me some time to beat up this balrog. After all, I need to kill a FEW things on this level. Whack! Why... whack... won't... whack... you... whack... DIE. Good. Except...

A fire elemental is now STANDING ON THE PORTAL. (They can DO that? Why didn't the portal activate??) Whack him a couple times... whew, he wanders to the side. I think I'd better get out of here, now. One thing to check first though... blow my magic whistle. A yellow dragon is teleported next to me! He's the only pet left from the Plane of Air, yet somehow, it's more than I expected.

Kawoosh!

I'm on the Plane of Water (upper left area). I dub my remaining pet "Airy". ... Airy's hitting me?! Oh. Remove ring of conflict. *blush* Put ring of free action back on. For my next trick, I remove that new blessed scroll of genocide from my bag. What do I want to genocide? ; (Wiped out all jellyfish, eels, etc.) Most of the little warning question marks are gone now.

See, some day, someone ascending will actually fight these water monsters. But not me, not today, I'm already kind of exhausted and don't need electric eels disintegrating my rings, or krakens trying to instadeath drown me, not when it's already impossible to control where the air bubbles are going on this level.

So, being relatively safe, I use my crystal ball... portal's on the right side, no surprise, yet it's in motion like everything else here. Hey, Airy's gone! Did he drown?? Blind myself with my towel... no, telepathy says he's above me. Guess he can breathe underwater, or something. Hm. Weird. The air pockets keep swirling - what's a red devil doing here?? Must have 'ported in from Fire. Misteltein! It goes down.

Floating, swirling, floating... I take a swipe at water elementals whenever they're in range. Whoa, wait, what? I just felt like I needed help and /Magicbane didn't protect me/!? Well, THAT'S never happened before! It sure wasn't very nice! *make face* Assess the damage. My lizard corpse is cursed. So is my wand of enlightenment, and my magic lamp is no longer blessed. Open bag, get holy water, fix lizard corpse... the rest isn't a big deal. Bless the Book of the Dead while I'm at it. I still think of it as my surrogate Tome of the Night Sky.

Hear some noises. Blow my magic whistle to bring Airy back - never did give him a checkup. Apply the stethoscope, which I kept in my bag. Yikes! Airy has at least 176 HP but right now he's down in the 20s. Cast healing on Airy (I neglected to relearn extra healing, silly me). Airy looks better. Do it again. Airy looks better, then wanders off... no, no, come back. Blow whistle. Heal my dragon again. (Me, I'm healing up pretty fine just with time. In fact, all I really have now is time, so even though the Amulet drains me when I heal Airy, my magic power should regenerate too.) I get Airy back to over 100 HP.

Then more air bubbles merge and the portal comes into view!! I race for it, but it's too far away, and I lose it. *sigh* (Maybe water walking boots would help with this level?) Waiting, wandering... points are back at their maximums. Kill a couple water elementals, and Airy bags one too. Good dragon! Wander the level... where did that portal go?

"So thou thought thou couldst kill me, fool!"

*groan* ZOT! I didn't even have the energy to strike a dramatic pose. I've now seen him on every Plane except Air! He dropped a potion of gain level; I chuck it into my bag. Then "Airy eats the Wizard of Yendor's corpse." Heeheehee! Serves him right. I guess we've all gotta eat... which reminds me. I'm no longer Satiated. Get my 2 lembas wafers out of my bag. Eat one. I have a hard time getting it all down; I'm finally finished.

Shouldn't have any more food problems. Hm, I hope Airy finishes eating by the time the portal comes around again. Floating... there it is! I head to it, blow the magic whistle, make sure Airy is ready and then head through. I'm not fully recharged from death raying the Wizard (and Mistelteining a couple water elementals), but I was honestly getting bored.

So, arrival at the Astral Plane, with Airy! Full hit points, if not full spell points. I get a Guardian Angel. (Put the stethoscope on her... gee, GAngel has fewer hit points total than Airy.) Quick towel check: I'm on the right. So is Death. *whimper* Should I walk all the way around to the far left altar first...? No, that gives a chance for the middle altar (and Pestilence) to spill out; from prior experience, I know the Riders can unlock doors.

Fine. Let's see what we can do with Death. It sure won't be boring.