I arrive in the Big Room with Rein. I quickly discover, there's not one but TWO POLYMORPH TRAPS ON THE LEVEL. (Along with a trap door, which will pose a problem shortly - don't rush me.) So one of the monsters polymorphs into a major "&" demon, which turns invisible and starts stalking me. That's bad. I teleport around the level a few times with my wand (pick up a few items while I'm at it), and Misteltein monsters as well as chuck daggers. (I don't think my spell was at 0% fail, but close enough.) But it becomes quickly apparent that I'm not going to win this one. There's too many nasties.

I need to get out of here, now. If I go up, I'm stalemated (plus, if memory serves, there was a unicorn I was hitting who jumped through that trap door...). I teleport over to the downstairs, keeping a charge in my wand. To make things more awkward, Rein eats a chameleon corpse and becomes something totally different... or maybe she stepped on one of the traps. Either way, with everything else closing in, I have to leave her. (I'd found no magic whistles. *sigh*)

I'm now on DL13, wounded, and too drained to cast spells. To make matters worse, some of the nasties on the level above fell through the trap door, and are now wandering around. To make matters dismal, telepathy says there's a zoo on this level, a 6x5 room! (That's at least 24 monsters.) Also, a bunch of rooms are dark, and I hadn't bothered to bring the wand of light. (You shut up, this stuff gets heavy after a while!)

I limp around, searching desperately for the next downstair - I need to get off this level as well, too many things here that can kill me. Incidentally, this is where I get my first unicorn horn, though the unicorn could easily have killed me too. Thank goodness for spell zapping.

Some of the zoo is awake. Something (hill orcs?) are chucking daggers. I might have had some potions of healing, but they've since been quaffed. I'm starting to think I won't make it, and am wondering how I'll face Nanoha and Fate in the afterlife. ("Gomen, but it was either death or spend my life on DL11!") Then, miracle of miracles, I stumble upon the stairs in a dark room - having taken the circuitous route from the upstair, instead of walking through the zoo. Run away!

Now on DL14. The only thing of interest here is a throne room, and it's off on the far left, containing only nine sleeping monsters. I think I'm safe. *whew!* Explore a bit, and heal up. The tripe I've been hoarding comes in handy; rather than fight a little dog in my weak state, I tame it. Call him A's. (Save the name Zafira for any large dogs.) Also on this level, I tame a new cat - call her Reinforce, the darker version of Rein - and a kitten or something. (Could I have called it Shamal? It was so long ago.)

Anyway, there's a large box on this level. That's a boon - there have been NO containers so far! Not even in the mines! The stash I've been building at the altar on level 1 has been kept under a boulder. (I figure, anything strong enough to move a boulder likely won't be on level 1. But it's awkward, and I have to carry all my tripe so the pets don't get it. Hm, and don't ask me why boulders don't squash other food; it's magic!) Flit down to DL15 as well, which looks unremarkable.

The main problem is now that levels 12 and 13 are cutting me off from the rest of my stuff, including a few things left on level 11 to be unburdened (you know, like the wand of light). However, killing something, I get a scroll of teleportation, and my pets identify it as cursed (by walking reluctantly). So with my ring of teleport control, I have an out.

Feeling stronger, with my new pets, I decide to take a stab at the throne room. There's trolls in there, but pets can eat trolls before they do their irritating return from the dead thing. The next several turns are a little blurry, but after whacking the nest and running away, Reinforce (or A's?) fell through a trap door, and in a dark room, my other pet (Shamal?) got killed. Upset, I start wailing on the troll who killed her. Was NOT paying close enough attention to my hit points!!

Wising up just in time, I flee the battle (or possibly drop the troll with daggers and flee before he reincarnates, or possibly pray then do the same thing - it was all VERY scary). I run for the throne room. Dead end? Nope. Put on ring. Pick up the chest. Read scroll. Teleport to what level? Level 1!

Lost those new pets, but I'm now back at my coaligned altar, with a chest I can use for stuff instead of the boulder. (Though I continue to keep all the junk under that rock until the end.) I also have a unicorn horn. It was close, but I'm still alive! *beams* Regroup and gather my stuffs. Along the way, I've even obtained more scrolls of create monster. Clean up the level (offering as I go), use the scrolls, and it's somewhere in here that I finally get my Magicbane.

However, it's also at this point that I was Crowned by Anhur.

Oh, @(#*@#$*#$%!