YAAP - Schopenhauer-Wiz-Elf-Mal-Cha polyselfless, polyless

Ascension report
Character dump
Inventory
Final attributes
Spells known in the end
Vanquished creatures
Genocided species
Voluntary challenges
Your skills at the end
Goodbye
Top Ten

This text was posted on the 23. June 2004 on the newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.nethack

This is my second ascension, the first was back in November with a Valkyrie.

Ascension report

Starting equipment

I started the game as a chaotic wizard with a spellbook of detect food, a ring of regeneration and a wand of magic missile. Not the best things I could get I thought at first. But the ring was indeed crucial for my survival, I didn't take it off upto the Castle after which I had a decent AC.

Schopenhau the Evoker     St:13 Dx:12 Co:14 In:20 Wi:10 Ch:9  Chaotic
Dlvl:1  $:0  HP:11(11) Pw:7(7) AC:9  Xp:1/0 T:1

Sokoban and Gnomish Mines

I got lucky in the beginning as there was a general store on dlvl 2 where I bought a skeleton key, a magic whistle and two magic marker. The marker were spared until I knew what spellbooks I was missing. The statues on the Oracle level didn't have any spellbooks. I did Sokoban without any problem and got a bag of holding.

The RNG was teasing me as I found a spellbook of magic missile on dlvl6 lying around and a throne on dlvl 8 which granted me a wish. So I got a +2 SDSM which I was wearing until the end.

Minetown had a co-aligned altar, but without any scrolls or wands of create monster I couldn't take advantage of it.

The wine cellar was interesting. I found a blindfold (I had telepathy since dlvl 4) and a polymorph trap. Kelly II got beefed up into a silver dragon. I accidently picked up a loadstone although I didn't know there is one where one finds the luckstone. Was it randomly generated or are my spoilers outdated?

Fort Ludios and Quest

On dlvl 12, the same level with the portal to the Quest, I've eaten a quantum mechanic which gave me speed. I think this is the longest time I've ever been without speed. Usually I would have found long ago speed boots or a wand of speed monster. A little while later Anhur gave me MagicBane which increased my survival possibility enormously. Now I had a reliable and fast way to engrave Elbereth to keep monsters separated in different rooms. Call them private zoos if you like.

At about T:30000 I've entered Fort Ludios. As usual it was lots of whacking without any great danger. Croesus was killed by several magic missiles and left me his accumulated wealth of 46k zorkmids. I've found some good armor to improve my AC: a blessed +2 pair of leather gloves, a uncursed +3 helmet and a blessed +3 small shield. After Ludios my AC was -35 (including protection points).

The throne was very generous. It let me genocide arch-liches, identified my complete inventory and reduced my charisma to 4. Up until this moment I was thinking about a genocideless ascension, but when offered this opportunity I couldn't resist.

Then I had to gain experience to be allowed to the Quest. I killed Medusa and ventured deeper until I got exp lvl 14 and quickly completed the Quest.

The Castle

The armor room had a helm of telepathy and of opposite alignment which cost me my protection points. I learn something new every game. The dragons (three green ones and a black one) didn't interest me, I already had my SDSM. The wand of wishing at the Castle was (0:1). I wished for two scrolls of charging, got em and then wished for +2 blessed boots of speed, got em, too. The throne on the other hand vanished immediately without any effect.

At T:49000 I wrote a spellbook of create monster and got into a sacrifice frenzy that lasted almost 9000 turns. I got several protection points, several artifacts and almost every spellbook I wanted.

Gehennom

Then I considered myself to be ready to go to hell. The named demons (Juiblex, Baalzebub, Asmodeus, Vlad, Orcus) were no problem. Baalzebub was kind of annoying. He escaped with a scroll of teleportation. I had to track him down on dlvl 12 to kill him.

Although I recently had an unfortunate incident with an cockatrice corpse, I couldn't resist to use a cockatrice that Orcus summoned to kill him. I don't know if he appreciated the irony but I did.

Compared to my first ascension Gehennom wasn't as boring this time. I could walk through quickly thanks to my knowledge of the spell of magic mapping and a lot of potions of object detection.

On dlvl 48 I found the vibrating square and made my final preparations for the Ascension run. I made a stupid mistake as I sacrificed a former pet. All protection points gone again and my AC at -25. I got me a stronger pet, let it kill the priest in mine town and took the money (ca 110k) to the only other priest I've found so far. Then I continued my preparations.

At T:70820 I was ready.

Schopenhau the Sorcerer   St:18 Dx:22 Co:16 In:20 Wi:19 Ch:14  Chaotic
Dlvl:42 $:0  HP:300(300) Pw:285(295) AC:-34 Exp:21 T:70820 Satiated

Ascension run

In the Wizard's tower, I found a ring of conflict that I only used on the Plane of Earth and the Wizard's zoo.

At T:71090 I nearly died a stupid death. I choked over a killer bee corpse, but luckily I was wearing one of three amulet of life saving. That'll teach me to check if I'm satiated or not.

The finger of death took care of Rodney. At the three occasions we met, he never had a chance. Every time my finger of death worked. At T:73477 I took the Amulet of Yendor into my possession.

On my way up, the mysterious force kicked in annoyingly often. He took me seven times back to the level I was trying to leave and five times to the level below.

The Planes

At T:75303 I left the Dungeons of Doom. The Plane of Earth was a little tedious. I thought I need cursed scrolls of gold detection to find the portal. So I thought I hadn't any means to find the portal and had to dig the level out completely.

But I consulted my spoilers and learned that uncursed scrolls and being confused also works. I already had two scrolls and the other two were quickly written and then Earth was left in no time.

Air was easy, only the Air Elements gave me a little bit of a hard time. As I was near the portal as an Archon wielding Sunsword appeared. He was beating me heavily and followed me to the Plane of Fire. He summoned several monsters among them a master mind flayer which ate a part of my brain. I had to quaff two potions of full healing before realizing that blinding myself protected me from the stunning radiance of the Archon. Then it was much easier to kill him.

Astral Plane

At T:76227 I arrived on the astral plane. Quickly applying my blindfold showed Death on the left, Pestilence at room in the middle and Famine on the right. After putting on my ring of regeneration and slow digestion I tried the left one.

In my first ascension twoweaponing a +6 Demonbane and a +6 silver saber I hit the Riders so hard that they almost didn't touch me at all. This time wielding "only" a +7 Frost Brand Death brought my max HP from 303 down to 266. Extensively casting charm monster made it a little bit easier, but the power drain from the Amulet of Yendor worried me a litte bit. The first time my valkyrie never came in any bad situation and it was pretty clear that she would ascend. This time on the Astral Plane was much more exciting. Until I stood on the right altar I wasn't sure I would make it.

Great. The temple was Thoth's. I had a helm of opposite alignment but that couldn't make me neutral. So I rested, restored my low power and considered my options. With telepathy I saw too many liches around so I bless genocided L. Then I stood beside the door and let them coming, taking one priest at time. As Death appeared again I killed him with several blows and made a dash to the middle room.

Pestilence was annoying but no real threat. I had to kill him twice and the rest of the time my pets kept him away from me.

I entered the temple, closed the door, stood on the altar and it was the right one. I double checked that I had the right amulet, summoned as many pets as I could with my magic whistle, lit the Candelabrum and offered the Amulet to Anhur...--More--

An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...--More--
The voice of Anhur thunders: "Congratulations, mortal!"--More--
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"--More--
You ascend to the status of Demigod...--More--

Lessons learned

1. Having the spell of remove curse and confused reading of scrolls of remove curse is an easy way to bless your inventory if you're short of (un)holy water.
2. Using Elbereth to confine monsters to certain rooms is nice.
3. If you have a cool pet (master lich), you can lose it if it grows in experience (Arch liches genocided)

Conclusion

Playing as a wizard is a completely different experience than playing a valkyrie. It took quite a time to get used to the differences in these two classes but I had to do almost as many Wizards as I had to do Valkyries to ascend. It took 70 Valkyries and 77 Wizards before I could ascend. I think I'll try next a pacificist or a Tourist.

Character dump

started: 14 Jun 2004 17:13
ended:   22 Jun 2004 19:10

You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Anhur...--More--                              
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                   A @  H H                                     
                                 @ --------- U                                  
                                 a |...a...|a                                   
            -----                aV|.aaaY..|                                    
             ...|                A |..a@aaa|                                    
     ---------..--   -------       |..aa@..|                                    
     |.......|...-- --......    |  |...xa..| A|                                 
     |....)%%|...$---.......    |. ----+---- .|                                 
     |..._..$%.....-........    |..A...a...@..|                                 
     |.....$%|....---.......    ---.........---                                 
     |.......|...-- --.....       -----|-----                                   
     ---------..--   ----.--           @)@ --                                   
             ...|      |...-------     a))% -                                   
            -----      |.....)..%|        $                                     
                       -------...--                                             
                             |....--  )                                         
                             ---..)----|-                                       
                                .$.. %                                          
                                ---------                                       
Schopenhau the Necromancer  St:18 Dx:22 Co:16 In:20 Wi:19 Ch:14  Chaotic        
Astral Plane $:2 HP:282(282) Pw:169(320) AC:-39 Exp:22 T:76475 Satiated Burdene 
                                                                                

Goodbye Schopenhauer the Demigod...
You and the giant beetle and the giant ant and the giant ant 
and the giant beetle and the giant ant and the giant beetle and the owlbear
went to your reward with 5362554 points,
The Eye of the Aethiopica (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
Magicbane (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
Frost Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
The Book of the Dead (worth 10000 zorkmids and 25000 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
The Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
Demonbane (worth 2500 zorkmids and 6250 points)
Sting (worth 800 zorkmids and 2000 points)
Fire Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
Sunsword (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points)
Trollsbane (worth 200 zorkmids and 500 points)
      16 fluorite stones (worth 6400 zorkmids),
      12 amethyst stones (worth 7200 zorkmids),
       9 opals (worth 7200 zorkmids),
       9 garnet stones (worth 6300 zorkmids),
       8 diamonds (worth 32000 zorkmids),
       8 emeralds (worth 20000 zorkmids),
       7 rubies (worth 24500 zorkmids),
       6 jacinth stones (worth 19500 zorkmids),
       5 black opals (worth 12500 zorkmids),
       5 topaz stones (worth 4500 zorkmids),
       5 jade stones (worth 1500 zorkmids),
       3 aquamarine stones (worth 4500 zorkmids),
       3 jasper stones (worth 1500 zorkmids),
       2 turquoise stones (worth 4000 zorkmids),
       2 amber stones (worth 2000 zorkmids),
       2 jet stones (worth 1700 zorkmids),
       2 chrysoberyl stones (worth 1400 zorkmids),
       2 agate stones (worth 400 zorkmids),
       1 dilithium crystal (worth 4500 zorkmids),
       2 amulets of life saving (worth 300 zorkmids),
       1 amulet of ESP (worth 150 zorkmids),
       1 cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor (worth 0 zorkmids),
and 2 pieces of gold, after 76475 moves.
Killer: ascended
You were level 22 with a maximum of 282 hit points when you ascended.