Okay, so we've covered a basic level in Crawling survival, skills, attributes, races, classes,melee, stealth, and magic. Time for what will probably be the last broad subject I cover, religion in Crawl. In Crawl, there's a pantheon of gods, some more dickish than others, each with their own varying advantages and disadvantages.
So this is Ganondorf.
◊ He will be playing our first gimmick race as well as our first religious job. Namely, the demonspawn.
◊ As you can read there, they are partly demonic and gain demonic mutations as they level up. Usually these mutations will be completely beneficial but you're guaranteed to get one that falls into the "meh" category (has an advantage and disadvantage). This set of mutations is largely unobtainable by any other race with a few exceptions, like breath weapons (read: You can spit acid/fire/ice/poison/something) and maybe a couple of other ones. Other than that, they're kind of meh as a race, though they do have some good aptitude in invocations and probably something else. Let me check...
Nope, they're meh at everything minus invocation and necromancy. Invocations is basically how good you are at harnessing your deity's abilities. We'll talk more about those in a bit. One more thing about the demonspawn, being part demon, it's evil aligned and so the good gods in Crawl won't accept you (though there's been a major push for the demonspawn to be an exception to this rule in the development community).
We'll also be playing as a Chaos Knight, which is one of the few religious classes.
◊ The religious classes all basically start with a god instead of having to find an altar and converting to one later in the dungeon. Bersekers start under Trog, Paladins start under TSO, Priests can start under either Zin or Yredelemnul (referred to as Y for now on because that is a long name), Healer start under Elyvilon, or just Ely, and Chaos Knights can start under Xom, Makhleb, or Lugonu. Lots of names right? Don't worry, we'll cover each one in time. For now, all you have to know is that we're picking Makhleb as Ganondorf's patron deity.
Alas, the long sword is not available as a starting weapon (message from the future: it's now available in the latest version), though besides, I always thought of Ganondorf as more of a mace kind of guy, or a really big axe.
◊ You know, something that says "I'm going flatten you like a pancake". Mace it is.
So after picking Mak as our deity of choice, Ganondorf heads off into the dungeon!
◊ First off, Chaos Knights' starting weapon is +2,+2, so our mace offers extra accuracy and damage. We also have leather armor, which is basically the half way point between dodgy, casty robes and beefy, tanky armor. That being said, Ganondorf, despite being Ganondorf, is going to grab the nearest heavy piece of armor he finds and put it on, cause, well, I prefer heavy armor, so no magic going on here. Luckily, god abilities are not stopped by armor, so we'll get to have fun with that.
You kill the hobgoblin.
Makhleb accepts your kill.
The chump went down in a single hit. That being said, there are various things you can do to please each individual deity in Crawl. See that second block of text? (Get here by pressing "^" and then "!")
◊ Basically, to please Mak, just kill anything that moves (and then even some of the stuff that doesn't move) and burn its corpse afterward. Don't get too overly zealous with the burning, you'll need to eat some of those to survive. Regardless, keep doing this and Mak will like you even more, meaning he gives you access to more powers. Right now we don't have jack squat and Mak only barely cares of our existence.
◊
He's also rather lenient on what you can do and can't do, namely, being a god of chaos and destruction, he couldn't care less what you're doing so long as you're sending a steady supply of dead things to him. Some gods, however, like Trog, dislike certain actions. For Trog, that's casting spells and he will punish your for doing that. Mak? Nah, he's a cool dude and let's you do what you want, except leave him. Leave him and you better be ready to bunker down for several rounds of assaults from demons. All evil gods hate it when you leave them and will make your life hell for a while afterward until completely forgetting about your existence.
Said chump left behind a corpse, so we'll be burning that sucker.
◊ Just walk over a fresh corpse, press "p", and...
Makhleb is pleased with you.
The hobgoblin corpse flares red and disappears.
Your prayer is over.
That simple. Repeat several more times and you'll be moving up Mak's list in no time flat.
Potion identification time: This is a potion of magic. It's a must have for all wizarding types, because it refills a chunk of your MP, which means you can cast more spells.
This is a potion of invisibility. It's insanely useful for stealth and magic characters. For everyone else? Meh.
Makhleb accepts your kill. You can now gain power from killing.
Yay, our title is now "Disciple of Annihilation and Mak has given us our first power, this one being passive. Basically, whenever you kill an enemy, you have a chance of regaining some HP. Yes, you heal from killing. Not that much healing, but it helps when you're being swarmed and suffering from the possible death of a thousand paper cuts as well as a few other situations.
You are very lightly contaminated with residual magic.
This is a potion of resistance. It basically gives you cold, fire, poison, and electric resistance for a short while.
◊ (To get to that screen, just pres "%".) Situationally useful. Also, you'll notice Ganondorf is glowing. This happens when you're over saturated with magic. This happens when you drink certain potions, cast a lot of self-enchantment spells, cast a lot of high level spells, or miscast. At a low level, it just makes you a little easier for enemies to hit, but when you're glowing really bright, you're at the risk of mutating, and eventually, you can gather up so much magic as to EXPLODE! Luckily, you can survive that, but it's going to be at a large chunk of damage. Don't worry, so long as you cast with moderation, you should be able to avoid getting to that point, plus the glowing goes away pretty quickly.
Scroll identification time!
This is the scroll of random uselessness. It does random useless stuff like summoning a pack of allied butterflies as it just did. It's about as random and useless as it sounds.
For the record, a scroll of fear can also frighten your allies. Also, potions:
This is a potion of agility. Temporarily gives a large boost to your dexterity.
Sigmund points at you and mumbles some strange words.
The magic dart hits you!
—more—
Nice introduction to the biggest jerk in this game. Sigmund is a unique character, he comes with a name and only appears once per run if he does show up at all. He also sucks because he shows up at such a point where you probably aren't able to handle him at all. I'm probably going to die right now because he just had to spawned with a wand of paralysis and hit me as I was coming around a corner.
My suicidal attempts to get a screenshot of him is shown here.
◊ Did I mention he turns invisible? Yes, he does that too. He might also carry a spell that can confuse you and maybe throw flames, carries around a big honking scythe, maybe an enchanted one at that. Sigmund, you don't mess with him.
Trick number one with dealing with people who can shoot at you from a distance: Get behind something.
◊ In this case, behind an enemy and a wall, then run, run like the little pansy you are.
Well, the best laid plans of demonspawns and men...
◊ Anyway, there's Sigmund, he's an old guy with a beard but he can still lay down the hurt. And I'm dead. Let's try that again shall we? Go Ganondorf II!
Your demonic ancestry asserts itself...
There is a nasty taste in your mouth for a moment.
Hey! That's rather early to get a mutation, but I'll take it. This is the spit poison mutation. I would have preferred something a little more unique, but I'll take it. Basically, spit poison at enemies, they get poisoned, and this weapon recharges over time so you can spit again. Does cost some hunger though. Overall nice though.
To access, go under abilities by pressing "a" and then press "?" to see all of them.
◊ This one can be selected by pressing f, though you'll also notice we can become atheist and die to Mak's hatred for deserters. Just, let's stick with Mak for now.
Rings are one of two kinds of jewelery you can get in this game, the other being amulets. You can wear two rings at a time and they can have a variety of effects. This one here...
Regenerates your health faster but also makes you hungry faster. I don't care much for it, but I'll carry it along. This ring also identifies itself upon being put on, most rings don't do that so save your scrolls of identification for rings.
Hey, it's Fedhas!
◊ Fedhas has a bit of plant motif, if you can't tell. Basically, Fedhas controls nature, making plants, causing rain, sunshine, and generally spreading life. Fedhas is technically neutral but hates undead and won't let them join since they're rather, you know, going against life's cycle (if you want to join Fedhas, you must be able to rot). That being said, Fedhas will let you know that s/he's quite happy with your corpse being usable as compost when you die. Yeah... Fedhas is like that.
That's a potion of might and the last of the temporary attribute enhancing trio. It boosts your strength and gives a nice damage bonus on top of that.
Argh, this is a potion of poison. You should be able to ride out the effects if you're level two or higher, but be sure to have a potion of healing on hand just in case. With our nifty ring of regeneration, we're able to cancel out the effects and survive. Just kidding! I forgot I had that ring and died anyway! Oh boy, I'm playing terribly tonight. Don't worry, we'll eventually get to see what Mak's second ability is. In part 2 anyway...
