How to Kill Morgoth: Playing Angband

[Huinesoron]

Írimë II

... is currently on DL 61, five levels below Waterlily's previous best. She's also CL 42, which is the highest I've ever had - and on DL 60 she picked up a self-recharging Rod of Restoration, which will allow her to magic back all her lost XP every 2500 steps.

I have killed things I never knew existed. Multi-hued hounds were a nasty shock, and I have a horrible feeling I'm going to meet a Time Dragon one of these days, but I have slain Shelob, and Smaug and Scatha, and Fundin Bluecloak the Dwarf priest. There are only five Uniques I know of that I haven't killed: Ariel the Queen of Air (an elemental), Harowen the Black Hand (stupidly fast thief), Gilim the Giant of Eruman (not seen this run), Saruman of Many Colours, and Osse Herald of Ulmo (not seen this run). Saruman is actually right here on DL 61, so it may be his time...

My traits haven't changed overmuch. Írimë now has protection from Fear and Nexus, and has picked up Regeneration (faster healing). She's also maxed out her innate stats (except Wisdom, which she doesn't use), and has actually hit the cap for her Strength. This is handy, because it means I can stop worrying about looking for Strength on equipment. But no Nether resist, no Hold Life, and no Sustain any of her stats.

She's been cautious. Big scary things usually get Teleport Other'd. This emphatically includes Death Drakes - the critters which killed both Celebestel and Lupa - which I've discovered can walk through walls and are functionally invisible (they create a moving spot of darkness around themselves, so unless they're right up close I just can't see them). She's got enough life that she should be able to take a hit from one - one hit - but I'm not keen on testing that.

She's also got a second Ring of +8 Speed tucked away, so if I find some useful boots, I can swap that out for the Ring of Barahir now that my stats are pretty high.

Oh, and she found the Nauglamir! That's where the Regeneration and Fear protection come from, along with some stat boosts. So she's now carting around an actual Silmaril for its +1 Light radius. ^_^

Anyway, off to kill and/or flee from Saruman.

hS

[Huinesoron]

Írimë II

... is dead.

No picture, because I've managed to lose the sketchbook I draw them in, but am not willing to admit defeat on finding it again.

Írimë did an amazing job. She made it all the way to 3300' - Dungeon Level 66, a full 10 levels further than my previous best, Waterlily! She killed Smaug, Saruman, Scatha, the Balrog of Moria, and even Shelob herself (oh, and don't forget Tevildo, Prince of Cats!). She made Character Level 44, three more than Waterlily, and would have been higher had it not taken so long to find a source of Hold Life.

Her final equipment included the Nauglamir, Osse's Trident of Wrath (all the way from Level 20), the Ring of Barahir, a Ring of +9 Speed, mail made from the scales of a Balance Drake (resistance to weird things like Chaos and Disenchantment), the Shield of Elros, and the Short Bow of Amras. She carried as many staves of speed as she could get her hands on, and her spells let her recharge them as often as they ran out. She got five blows of her trident every turn, could spot and disarm every trap without fail, and all she was really looking for was resistance to Nether and some better stat-sustain options.

... and then she saw the Mouth of Sauron. And she decided she could take him. And they were both down to about half health, and she thought it was going well.

Aaaaand then he "invoked a storm of raw magic", which I believe is the next stage of Celebestel's Mana Bolt from back in the day. Nothing, including the player, resists pure Magic damage, and so all her clever resistances were good for nothing. She had over 300 health remaining, but:

> The Mouth of Sauron invokes a storm of raw magic.
> The Wand of Dragon's Frost is destroyed!
> The Scroll of Enchant Armour is destroyed!
> The Pike is destroyed!
> The Gelatinous Mushroom is destroyed!
> The Seeker Arrow of Slay Evil is destroyed!
> You die.

RIP Írimë II. You were awesome.

---

Next up will be a Priest, and since we've just played an Elf With Extras (Gnome), I think I have to go for a Budget Elf next. So we will be a half-elven priest(ess). I think that probably makes us Elwing.

hS

[Huinesoron]

We're back! I still haven't drawn Irimë II, though I still intend to, but I have a new character in the dungeon right now. As a reminder, the current criteria for getting a portrait and ending the line is to reach Dungeon Level 40 or Character Level 35.

Elwing I

... is on DL40 right now. As discussed above, she's a Half-Elven Priest. That means she has a boosted Wisdom stat (used for spellcasting), and... very little else, she's a very middle-of-the-road character.

Priests are spellcasters. Technically her spells are prayers, but it amounts to the same thing. Elwing has three spellbooks now: one for basic utility spells (Detect Evil is the only one I use any more), one she found in the dungeon for bigger utility spells (Word of Recall to return to town, and Remembrance for restoring any stolen XP), and one of basic battle spells. She's got three effective combat spells: Dispel Evil, which hits all evil creatures she can see; Dispel Undead, a cheaper variant only for the undead; and Orb of Draining, which costs a third as much and does about twice the damage to clustered targets.

As a Priest, she also can't use edged weapons. Or rather, she can - but just holding them pushes all her spell failure rates up to 50%. The last time she intentionally hit something was 30 levels ago, so yeah, she's casting a lot of Orbs of Draining.

Elwing has had good luck with the unique artefacts - she's wearing six right now, which along with her other gear gets her general resistance coverage (including Poison!), decent boosts to her key stats, and... basically she's doing okay.

Until she meets something nasty. The current level spawned the Balrog of Moria (native to DL50) just outside her staircase in. She used her wand of Teleport Other to blip it away, but just ran into it again. It breathed a single jet of flame which took her from 373 health to 40, despite her resistance to Fire. Yeah, she teleported right out of that battle. Elwing is fragile, and if she's not careful she'll run into a Death Drake or something and die in one hit.

But that's for the future. For now, we've got treasure to find and monsters to kill.

hS

[Huinesoron]

Well, it's been so long that I can't even remember what happened to Elwing, but fortunately I have her log file saved. Looks like she ran into Gorlim, Betrayer of Barahir on Dungeon Level 45, and he woke up and killed her in a single turn. Whoops!

Lavender I

I've got a new character on the quest to kill Morgoth now: Lavender, a Hobbit Ranger. I actually considered which race and class would go together well for once: Hobbits are great at stealth and shooting, so a Ranger seemed a natural fit. Lavender's plan was to stand waaaay back and just shoot everything before it could reach her.

... then, on DL 17, she killed Smeagol, who for some reason was carting around Aiglos, the Spear of Gil-Galad. Which is a stunningly good weapon. I haven't found anything else that can do even half its damage - and Lavender is down on DL 63 now! The spear is branded with Cold, so anything which doesn't resist cold gets increased damage. It's also got a powerful charm against the undead, and will currently average 530 damage per round against them, at a time when the strongest enemies I'm seeing have less than 2000 health total.

Lavender's also racked up her speed to +29, combining a pair of Leather Boots of Elvenkind (+9), a Ring of Speed (+10), and the Ranger spell Haste Self (+10, and I'm recasting it every time it runs out). She moves as fast as Morgoth himself! She's also carrying 3 rods of Slow Monster, which she uses with impunity; there are very few enemies she doesn't end up getting 2 or even 3 turns in a row against before they can respond. Plus she has a Decoy spell, which places a Decoy which monsters will preferentially attack... a couple of levels back she killed both Saruman and Shelob without either landing a hit.

Things are getting more dangerous though, as Lavender approaches the level where Irime II died (my deepest run to date). Not long ago she nearly died to a swarm of 9-headed hydras; even with her resistance to poison, one poison breath did nearly 200 damage, and she only has 650 health. She teleported away and snuck back to take them out one by one, but the next time she saw a hydra pit she stayed far away.

More recently, she discovered that a Hobbit's native Hold Life (prevents experience drain) does nothing against Time Hounds. She was able to scrounge up a Scroll of Banishment and just delete all Hounds from the level, but otherwise she would have just avoided the whole region.

Can Lavender reach DL 100 and kill Morgoth? We'll have to see. I'm optimistic at present, but pride goeth before the >> It breathes >> You die.

EDIT: The Mouth of Sauron was hanging out on DL 63. With his 7000 health (Lavender has a Rod of Probing which tells her exactly what an enemy has), he took a looong time to whittle down. He dropped both a Nether Bolt and a Mana Storm which each knocked her from near-full health to almost dead, and his attacks have drained most of her wands and weakened her stuff; but by downing Healing and *Healing* potions like they were water, Lavender has slain the Mouth and avenged Irime II.

EDIT2: hahaha she ran into a Werewolf of Sauron on the very same level and it killed her stone dead.

hS

[Huinesoron]

What was my previous best? It looks like Irimë II, who hit Dungeon Level 66/100, Character Level 44. Well, today, we are

Gribblins II, Kobold Rogue

... who has just entered DL 69 and is at CL 46.

Huh, Irimë II was also a rogue; apparently I'm good with the sneaky sorts.

Gribblins (who was only meant to be a brief diversion, hence the name) is all about the Recharge spell. She has four staffs of speed and one of healing; and when she uses them up, she casts Recharge and refills them. So far I've only had one explode on me.

Her equipment isn't great. She's wearing Wormtongue's shoes, which have the very nice property of trap immunity, and a range of other stuff, but I have a shield and helmet up in my house that I really want to switch to. Trouble is, my current shield is the only source of Hold Life I've found, so I have to keep it until I can replace it.

Her base speed is +15, or +25 by using one of her renewable staffs. She also has a set of rods of slow monster, so basically everything ends up slower than her... and her boots give her +1 Moves, which means she runs twice as fast as her speed should let her. Nothing can catch her, even without her Teleport Self spell.

She's currently wielding a giant axe named Mundwine, which does over 300 damage per turn against anything evil. As a Kobold she's naturally resistant to poison, and her cloak can be activated to give her doubled resistance against the common elements. Her main issue is her low health; she only has 650 HP, and some monsters here can do half that in one hit.

But still: DL 69! That's pretty good going, and I hope she can go further - if she's careful.

hS

[Huinesoron]

Gribblins II

… is on Dungeon Level 76! Which is frankly insane. There's monsters down here I've never even heard of: the familiar Ancient Dragons have given way to Great Wyrms, and the array of cat-on-the-keyboard-named demons have acquired Lesser and Greater Balrogs to support them.

In terms of Unique, named monsters, I killed one of the Ringwraiths a few levels back, but ran the heck away from Osse, Nan the Giant, and some sort of master Beholder. On DL76 I can see Glaurung himself right outside the room I'm in, so I need to think hard about whether I can take him.

Gribblins is currently Character Level 48, with 899 max health and an absurd 399 spell points. All her spells are utility spells, so she never uses most of those; her actual spellcasting looks like this:

• Object Detection and Reveal Monsters, coupled with a Rod of Magic Mapping, to scan the surrounding area regularly.
• Teleport Other to get rid of monsters who are too dangerous/annoying.
• Recharging to recharge her Staves of Speed (makes her faster) or Banishment (removes one breed of monster from the level).

… that's it. At least 300 of her spell points are unnecessary.

Her equipment is almost entirely unique artefacts. She's running around with:

• Gurthang, which is on fire and poisonous, and extra strong against dragons.
• Bard's bow, which adds a little speed and shoots well.
• Narya, which boosts all her stats, adds some speed, makes her immune to fire, and can be activated to straight-up block some attacks from Evil creatures. I think it's also where she gets her telepathy, letting her sense monsters she can't see.
• A Ring of +6 Constitution, because otherwise her health would be about 650. If I find another source of Constitution, this is being switched for her Ring of +9 Speed, which will get her to +20 Speed normally, +30 using a Staff.
• An Amulet of Trickery, which makes her a bit stealthy and fast; it's not great.
• The Phial of Galadriel, which... emits light.
• A unique armour named Thalkettoth, which gives a bit of speed.
• A cloak from Valinor named Colluin, which can be activated to give double resistance to the common elements. This is very useful: if a Great Ice Wyrm does 1600 Cold damage with its breath, doubled resistance will take that down to 400.
• Elros' shield, which is terrible, but is the only source of Hold Life I've ever found. That means it stops monsters from stealing my XP, which almost all of them want to do this far down.
• A helm called Holhenneth, which prevents blindness and lets me see invisible things.
• Lightning gauntlets named Pauraegen, which are basically useless this deep (they can do 30 damage; Gurthang does over 300).
• Wormtongue's boots, which add speed, make me immune to traps, and give me an Extra Move - while moving, my speed is doubled, which is insanely good.

Overall her equipment is... fine. Gurthang, the cloak, Narya, and Grima's grubby shoes are fantastic; almost everything else could be swapped out if I could replace the fragile network of resistances they give. Of the 20 resistances and protections available, I have 14; but 6 of those are only on one item each. I can't swap those items without losing a resistance, and I can't lose most of my resistances without, y'know, dying.

There's still 25 levels to go before we reach Morgoth. That is a long way through uncharted territory. But for now, the dungeon is dark, and I am alive.

hS

EDIT: hahahaHAHAHAHA.

Fought Glaurung. Nearly killed him (immunity to fire is amazing). He ran away, pushing past the Great Wyrm of Law he had summoned. I tried to fight the Wyrm. It breathed Sound at me once and I died, from over half health, just like that.

So long, Gribblins. You did shockingly well, until you didn't.

[Huinesoron]

Catching up a little on the art: I discovered I'd actually drawn Elwing but never got round to posting her:



And I have now drawn Gribblins the scholarly kobold:



hS