Nice new layout.
◊ Guess this means I won't be doing Zot Defense now, but whatever. It was still pretty buggy and severely unbalanced anyway.
Hey, nice shiny glove down there.
◊ Tip: Cloaks, gloves, and boots can be maximally enchanted to +2 and shiny/runed items are usually enchanted. Ergo, don't try the identification game with these items, enchant armor scrolls won't do anything to them and therefore they won't glow green to indicate the variety of scroll.
Top floor up staircases look different now.
◊ It's a nice touch. Anyway, this time around, I'm going the opposite route for Tsukiko, lots of blood sucking and going into bloated alive move. To make up for her pitiful HP, I'm pumping high regeneration into her.
Anyway, Tsukiko is going alive route this time, meaning we can take hits, this also means we can dish out hits. Remember that lethal infusion spell? Cast that on a weapon and give it a temporary brand that strengthens as your necromancy skill gets higher. the drain brand, which SUCKS. It basically permanently lobs off some HP off of the opponent but... well, it lessens the amount of experience you get from killing them. Sucktastic and is only good for dancing around pillars (the strategy goes: meet an enemy you can't beat, hit it with a negative energy weapon, run around a pillar of some sort, you regenerate, it doesn't, rinse and repeat). Screw this spell, I'm getting rid of it ASAP. Also, this used to be necromancy/enchantment spell. This is now a charm/necromancy spell.
See, the enchantment school was getting too big and useful, so to maintain balance, the Crawl team split it into charms and hexes. Charms benefit you directly while hexes inhibit enemies.
The spell releases its latent energy back to you as it unravels.
It was a scroll of amnesia.
And it clears out hard drive space in Tsukiko's brain. You used to only be able to forget spells if you were under Sif Muna (the magic deity) or had an enchantment spell called... I think also Amnesia?
You start memorising the spell. You continue memorising.
You continue memorising. x3
You finish memorising.
Welcome to the bread and butter spell of any true necromancer. This is Animate Dead, which will animate corpses and skeletons around you when you use it. Isn't it just adorable?
◊ Long story short, since Necromancers lack the "Boom" spells of conjurers, they can always fall back on "Raise more dead things". Note, however, that skeletons and zombies, once defeated, are permanently destroyed, so no cheesing can occur.
Skeleton orc, I choose you!
◊ Use tackle! So there's two catches to use your allies to kill other enemies for you. First you have to yell at them to attack stuff for you (smarter allies usually figure this stuff out on their own, the undead? Not so much) and second, if they defeat an enemy, you only get half the experience, so it is a good idea to do some of your own hurtin' while you add more skeletons to the bank for emergencies. So to yell, just press "t" and select an option. Keep in mind, this kills your stealth.
Your orc skeleton hits the goblin with an orcish morningstar.
The goblin hits your orc skeleton.
Your orc skeleton is destroyed.
Fuck skeletons, we're going zombies from here on out. Gloriously less fragile!
◊ And so a small army began to be born!
◊ Also, one more thing, Animate Dead has a range, so you just have to stand close to a dead corpse to make it rise.
One teeny problem. The undead can't follow you down stairs.
◊ This will eventually be remedied by a different spell but for now, just be sure to be able to handle yourself.
Meet Blork the Orc.
◊ He's a spell caster, usually with a heavy weapon, and near naked half the time. His defense is pitifully weak, even for a caster, so if you get the jump on him, you should be okay. However, I want more zombies just in case, so we leave him to nap.
Something to note, negative energy spells (in other words, all major forms of direct attack that Tsukiko has) does not effect undead or demonic things.
◊ Means I can spam pain all day at this otherwise weak enemy and it would do nothing. Go my zombies! Murder!
Bah, Chemistry, never liked that class.
◊ Still, this is more or less our gate way into transmutation and it has some nice additional necromancy spells, like Sublimation of Blood, which allows you to convert flesh (from corpses or yourself (ow)) into MP.
This is Ijyb.
◊ If there ever was a non-threat unique enemy, this would be the guy. He's a goblin and may carry around a wand or something, but his defining feature is his level of suck and how he's way out of his league.
Good morning, Blork. We have a 100% chance of ass kicking this morning following by more dead walking.
◊ Oh fuck me.
◊ That's a giant eyeball and can paralyze you by looking at you. Luckily, I have my undead army to protect me, but these are a pain for anyone else. Anyway, on their own, undead suck royally. When amassed together, they are a major force to contend with.
◊ Anyway, Blork lived much like he died, useless since he couldn't be bothered to leave behind a corpse.
q - an amulet of resist corrosion (around neck)
This a necklace that basically helps your gear survive acid attacks that can cause them to lose their stats and is why the jelly is so infamous, it eats away your gear. But more on that later.
Oh crud. This is a ghost.
◊ Ghosts in Crawl are rather unique in the fact that they're one of your previous characters with the same stats and gear when it died and on the same floor. And unlike in NetHack they're quite tough and have added resistance, like since they're undead, my pain spell does jack squat. Time to regroup with my army and have them mob Aya.
New floor, same deal.
◊ Anyway, meet Eustachio.
◊ Besides sporting a very fine mustache, he's also a summoner, which means he makes up for his terrible HP and direct battle capabilities by spamming critters at you, living ones no less that the undead can't quite compete with, so we leave him be until I amass more zombies. Walking around the corner allows us to meet some more gnolls, a slime, and its much less wussy cousin, the jelly.
◊ The jelly is the second quintessential asshole of the game, after Sigmund. The Jelly travels around and eats everything that isn't a rock meaning you can lose some potentially awesome items if this guy runs around long enough. The problem also has a tendency to spiral out of control since the jelly can split if it eats enough, and lastly, it's acidic to the touch, so it can deal out loads of damage if you aren't covered up and even then, it can eat through your equipment by weakening it. Kill it with magic or said stones.
Well, crud, this will not go well at all.
◊ Psyche!
◊ Time to go bat form!
With this, my AC is now 0 but my evade is a nice 21. Combined with insane speed of a bat, I am in do or die time.
Woo... made it the floor above where I then make another run from Aya to the nearest stairs down. Ffff-
◊ Escape to the stairs below! Escape successful! And time for a break. More necromancy antics next time.
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