So, after the note, let's move on.
Whoa, bears!
◊ Everything's Worse With Bears, don't you know? Bears can do a two-claw attack barrage, and take quite a few hits to kill. And there's an even nastier variety we'll meet later on, too.
Well, kind of dark to be fighting bears, so I'll just use my wand and What the hell?
◊ Where'd that Spider come from?!?
Well, I manage to fight off both nasties. Resting a bit, I scan around after a Detect Monsters spell. Huh, seems like I missed a patrol.
◊
Ooh, a Gelatinous Glob.
◊ Again, totally not a Gelatinous Cube from D&D. These monsters are rather interesting. We'll see why soon enough. But first, another shot of the Cold Ball.
◊
So, after some wandering, I decide to rest in a room for a bit, only to have the Gelatinous Glob smash through the door
◊ to get at me.
Let's see that again!
◊ Close a door, and the Glob will smash it in an attempt to get at you.
It's also worth noting that Gelatinous Globs resist Ice spells. "The Gelatinous Glob resists the attack." No problem using my Magic Arrows, though.
Anyways, I'm laden down with loot. Time to retreat
◊ and sell some stuff.
Here's most of my haul,
◊ barring a few rusted Vendor Trash items. I love how evil the Cursed cape looks in this picture.
Perusing the stores, I find an improved set of Gauntlets of Slaying
◊ available. Might as well pick them up, my physical ability isn't all that great, anyways. Already encountering problems trying to pick up every bit of loot from the dungeons.
So, diving back into the fort, I meet another nasty creature, a shadow.
◊ If you're playing the male figure,
◊ it makes for a weird sort of mirror/Shadow Self battle. But since I picked the female, that effect is kind of lost.
Still, Shadows are unpleasant, for a few reasons. To begin with, they're immune to cold.
◊ Not resistant, immune. Though, again, Magic Arrows will deal full damage.
As I'm battling the shadow, a viper
◊ decides to drop in. Screw this, time to beat a retreat... Oh, yeah.
◊ Shadows can walk through walls...
OH, COME ON!
◊ Okay, to hell with this! Dimension Door ahoy!
*ZOIP!*
DANGIT!
◊ Well, still better than being surrounded by three monsters. I kill the ogre and deal with the other three one at a time. Thankfully, while shadows can walk through walls, they can't occupy the same space as other creatures, so they'll still block creatures behind them from attacking you if in a hall.
Meet another shadow
◊ while wandering around. And another Gelatinous Glob
◊ barges in while I'm trying to sleep. And this one paralyzes me.
(As an aside, why doesn't the // paragraph break work in Liveblogs? Kind of annoying where lines are either squished together, or double-spaced.)
Anyways, yeah, paralyzation can hurt. So I beat a hasty retreat with Dimension Door
◊ again.
I'm able to face and kill it again. Gelatinous Globs
◊ have a good chance of dropping loot.
But I'm done with this floor. Next level down!
Doesn't look so bad
◊ at first.
Though one snooze later, and the random monster generator
◊ decided to make things more interesting.
One big problem with many roguelikes is impatience. Quite often you end up holding down an arrow to cross a hallway, only to end up meeting a monster halfway through, and getting mutilated by it before you realize you've met the monster and take your finger off the arrow key. I've lost quite a few characters like that. Similar, getting in a habit of "Arrow, S(earch) key, Arrow, S, Arrow" sometimes lead to boneheaded moves like this one.
◊ I found the trap, but didn't notice that I did find it before my muscle habit made me walk right into it.
Another weird door
◊ placement.
TWO glyphs
◊ at once? Somebody hates me.
Finally, my low strength starts to bite me in the ass.
◊ I can't carry a suit of armour. Admittedly, this is the big problem with rusty and broken equipment, especially rusty armour. It's incredibly bulky, and only worth twenty-five copper. Still every copper counts in this game. But with Rune of Return, I just have to make a pile of loot by the stairs, and come back for it when I sell everything else.
Anyways, that's Floor 5
◊ cleared out. Here's my haul.
◊ Oooh, Essences of Lesser Restore Mana. I can sell those for a good price, but they're quite valuable, especially as I'm much better at spellcasting than fighting, so I'll keep them around. Keep one on my belt pouch, and the rest in the large bag.
Whoa, now THAT'S a Battle Axe!
◊ And that bonus to Strength will help me haul more loot from the dungeons!
I rearrange my spell list
◊ a bit, and then teleport back to the dungeon.
For fun, I use a Detect Traps
◊ scroll. Detect Traps is kind of annoying, as it has a limited range, as opposed to Detect Monsters or Objects, which scan the entire level. Still, can be helpful, if only because traps are another potential source of XP for disabling. The funky black and red symbol on the other side there is what a Glyph trap looks like unactivated.
Crap, more incorporeal undead. An Eerie ghost.
◊ This one passes on the whole 'looking human' thing for the classic bedsheet look.
Not a plot room, but a weird preset encounter
◊ nonetheless. Spiders, spiders everywhere! And webs! Which don't do much other than give a line of text
◊ in the status screen.
Strangely, Eerie ghosts aren't immune to Cold Bolt like shadows. Unfortunately, they make up for this with a Dexterity-draining attack.
◊
The Eerie Ghost touches you!
You feel clumsier!
Again, it's only temporary, but can still really screw you over. Gotta be cautious.
The next level up from Rat-Men, now I see a Wolf Man.
◊ Still troublesome, but they usually drop good loot.
Oh, holy crap!
◊ That monster generator kicks into overtime whenever I sleep in a dungeon floor.
This nasty is a Slime.
◊ Completely immune to physical attacks. You NEED spells to kill it.
Huh, odd room.
◊ Not sure what's with all the statues.
Ooh, managed to get a screenshot of a Bandit firing an arrow.
◊ Now for one of the Manticore unleashing a tailspike barrage.
Another statue room?
◊ Odd.
My haul.
◊ Ooh, Elixer of Heal Major Wounds. I'm definitely keeping that one! And a shiny suit of enchanted Chain Mail. Makes me regret buying the enchanted Scale Mail. But them's the breaks. Also a wand of Lightning Bolt that I'll keep around to attack with when my Mana runs out.
The magic axe I found is an odd weapon. It beefs up
◊ your intelligence. Tempting, but I need a good weapon to at least be decent in combat. Mana gets eaten up pretty quickly.
Also found a scroll of Summon Monster. Which, unlike the Summon Trap scroll, can work in town.
◊
Bought and read a spellbook of Light. So I don't need that wand of mine. It only has one charge on it anyways. Curious, I drain it of the last charge.
◊ "Phhhhttt." Huh, didn't know empty wands blew raspberries.
While there are dead wands you can find that only Olaf will buy, I'm curious when I see the magic store will buy
◊ empty wands from you. And then I'm more surprised when doing so recharges them.
◊ Huh, neat. Ah, well. I don't need it anymore. I know the light spell now.
Rearrange my spell list some more.
◊ I decide that Cure Minor Wounds has lost its usefulness at this level, and it gets drummed out of the list. I'm going to have to be making a lot of decisions like this from now on, wondering what spell gets to be on the quick-cast list. I can cast any spell I know from the Spellbook menu, but that's very annoying to do.
And with that, I descend to the next level.
◊ What awaits me here?
