NetHack [3.1]: Beyond this Place of Wrath and Tears

 

One of the levels of Gehennom, this version's version of Hell.

      

I was in pretty good shape when I wrapped up the last NetHack session, having just conquered the Castle level, found the Wand of Wishing, and collected almost everything I needed or wanted for my "ascension kit." Before continuing, though, I spent a couple of hours revisiting earlier levels to accomplish some final things:

    

• Commenters suggested that I use my Wand of Wishes for a Bag of Holding. It turns out I didn't need to waste a wish. One of the bags in the shop on Level 25 was a Bag of Holding. I bought it for $150. For the rest of the session, I kept most of my potions and scrolls in it to protect them from traps.

      

Ha! No regular bag is worth that much gold!

        

• I sacrificed some more corpses to my god at the altar on Level 20. Still no artifact weapon.

• I explored several vaults that I'd left alone on the way down. One of them had a portal to a brand new area called "Fort Ludios." More on that later. On my first visit, I killed a few orcs but otherwise left it alone until I could visit again on the way back down.

• I returned to the Gnomish Mines again. There were a couple of chaotic unicorns on the way, so I took the time to toss a few gems at them.

      

How?

      

• I couldn't believe how many "junk" scrolls and potions I'd left behind. I took the time to blank the scrolls, dilute the potions to water, and bless the stacks of water.

• I donated another $8,000 to the priest in the temple in the Gnome town and got -2 to my armor class.

• I sacrificed a bunch more corpses on that altar. Nothing would give me any artifact weapon.

     

Disappointed!

    

• Finally, I decided to wish for it. First, though, I wished for a couple of Scrolls of Charging and used one to recharge my magic marker. I wrote a couple of Scrolls of Enchant Armor, but those took around 12 charges each, and the marker only recharged to 50 in the first place. I got a warning that a Scroll of Genocide would cost even more. 

• The Wand had come with two wishes. I was persuaded by my commenters' suggestions, and I used the other for the sword Grayswandir. With reluctance, I gave up my +6 longsword. I used the other Scroll of Charging to get 3 charges back on the wand.

    

At the bottom of the Gnomish mines, I finally found the damned secret door that everyone was saying ought to be there. I kicked it in and found a "gray stone," plus some other gems. It was, of course, a "luckstone," I don't quite understand what luck is doing for me, but if it has anything to do with the ease of the rest of the session, I'm all for it.

       

On my fifteenth visit . . .

        

On the way back down to the Castle, I went through the portal in the Level 18 vault and took on Fort Ludios. It took forever--longer than the Castle. There were dozens and dozens of guards, dragons, and monsters.The guards dropped heaps of helms, shields, boots, cloaks, and rations. I piled up some of the rations for later, and put even more in my Bag of Holding, but I didn't have the patience to test every piece of armor again. I also didn't really see the point, as I was unlikely to do better than the items I already had.

    

But in addition to their standard equipment, many of the guards spawned with wands and potions. I haven't quite gotten used to enemies using items. Every once in a while, one of them beans me in the head with a potion and makes me blind or confused or something. More alarming, the game kept saying things like, "the death ray whizzes by you!," indicating that they had Wands of Death. I had to keep repositioning myself to get out of such enemies' lines of sight. They never hit me, though. I'm not sure what would have happened if they had. My Shield of Reflection seems to send back most spells (and dragon breath), but I don't know if it always works. I'm also not sure whether "Magic Resistance" would save me from it. Best not to find out. I did end up picking up a couple of wands with a couple of charges left. By the end of the session, I had six charges among three wands.

    

Moments like this make you pause and reconsider what you're doing.

    

The interior of the castle offered battles with hobgoblins, orcs, and kobolds--trivial enemies at this point--plus a unique character named Croesus. He did the only damage to me on the entire level, and it wasn't much.

      

The interior of the castle had a room full of gold--tens of thousands of pieces, I'm sure, but I didn't really have any use for it. I left it where it was for now. I looked around but didn't find any other artifacts. The throne gave me +4 maximum hit points the first time I sat in it and disappeared in a "puff of logic" the second time. 

     

I'd feel even better if I got a wish.

     

I returned to the main branch, went back to the castle, took a save and a backup (I want to emphasize that I still haven't reloaded from one), and let myself fall down a trap door. I landed in the Valley of the Dead. Immediately, I was swarmed by dozens and dozens of ghosts (which you can't see even with "See Invisibility"), mummies, vampires, vampire lords, wraiths, zombies. I literally screamed as they approached, assuming that their level-draining attacks would be the death of me. My ranged attacks couldn't keep up with their volume and my Teleportitis didn't work on the level. I wedged myself in a corner, but ghosts can pass through walls. I winced the first time a wraith touched me.

   

But nothing happened. Not a single one of their attacks drained a single level. Nor did they damage me significantly. I just stood there and swung at them with my sword, its silver properties burning the flesh of many of the attackers, killing one after the other without suffering any effects. What is with this game? Did I accidentally download a hacked version? Is there something that resists level draining? If so, it must be new to this version. I couldn't believe I'd ever considered genociding vampire lords; they did nothing. 

   

As the bodies fell, I ate the wraith corpses (only one out of three wraith deaths left corpses, alas), rising from Level 16 to Level 21. 

     

This situation is nowhere near as dire as it looks.

      

The rest of the level had a lot of chests, which I painstakingly unlocked and searched, despite the fact that there's not much I want or need anymore. I did find a couple of useful Scrolls of Enchant Weapon and Enchant Armor. Unfortunately, one of the latter--and here was my one major mistake of the session--destroyed my Shield of Reflection. When you use a Scroll of Enchant Armor, the game picks a random armor piece from what you're wearing, but I guess the highest you can normally enchant is to +5, and if you try to go above that, the item is destroyed. The shield was my only +5 item, but I should have taken it off before reading the scroll. I had to use one of the three wishes to get it back (at +2). Enchanting other items made up for the loss.

   

I was surprised to find stairs going back to the Castle. I thought the trip down was one-way. On the far western side of the map, I encountered a Priest of Moloch, who warned that I had entered a sacred place. There was an "unaligned" altar in the room. I should mention at this point that I have a general idea what I need to do to win the game. I wasn't going to leave that to experimentation. I know that the High Priest of Moloch has the Amulet of Yendor, but I believe he's down further in the dungeon and not this priest. 

   

A hallway leading away from the altar room led to a stairway. I saved again here and thought about wrapping things up, as this seems to be the real point of no return. When you go down the stairs, the game warns: "You are standing at the gate to Gehennom. Unspeakable cruelty and harm lurk down there. Are you sure you want to enter?" I sucked it up, said "yes," and went down--and was surprised to see a stairway going back up. Is there a point of no return in this version? 

     

It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehennom.

     

The next few levels were pure mazes, full of gold and traps, such that I started wearing my Ring of Levitation to avoid the latter and then got annoyed at always having to take it off to pick up the former. I'm not sure why I'm bothering to collect gold anyway. The twisty passages did a good job of disguising one of my most hated foes: the yellow light. I very nearly used my Scroll of Genocide on them. They kept coming around corners and exploding in my face, leaving me blinded for a few dozen turns. Admittedly, this isn't as big a deal as it sounds, since I have "Telepathy."

    

The demonic enemies on these levels were easy to deal with; most took extra damage from the silver in Grayswandir. There were a lot of minotaurs, and these were the first enemies in a long time to pose even a slight threat. A couple of them got me down to near-50% of my hit points before I killed them. I had plenty of resources to deal with them, of course, if they threatened me any more than that, including just backing away and throwing missiles. Minotaurs all dropped Wands of Digging. Unable to use them all, I got in the habit of blasting random holes in the dungeon walls to facilitate the return trip.

       

A typical Gehennom level.

      

I got hungry fast enough in these mazes that even though I brought plenty of rations, I started to wish I'd brought more. Eventually, I stopped exploring the maze levels completely. I just went far enough to find the stairs down. I suppose it's cheating to take screenshots of each level to help you on the way back? I won't use them unless I'm cheating by then anyway.

    

Level 35 was a special level. There was a regular maze around the edges of the map, but the central part had a fortress with vampires and a demon named Asmodeus. He apparated right next to my character and demanded $4,357. Despite this being the sort of game in which you probably should pay such ransoms, I said no. He teleported away after a couple of hits from my sword.

        

It would be a stronger request if you were in front of me instead of behind me.

       

Level 37 was also unique, and it's here that I suffered (maybe) my only near-death of the session. The level was full of water squares--I guess it was supposed to be a kind of swamp--so I immediately put my Ring of Levitation on. Before long, I was attacked by someone named Juiblex, who engulfed me like those vortexes do, trapping me in a small cage of his own flesh. Within a couple of hits, I was down to 50% hit points. Even worse, I got the message that, "you feel very sick." I know from experience that "Sick" leads to death in just a few turns if not cured. I knew that I could cure it with my Potion of Extra Healing, but I guessed it didn't make sense to do so until I had killed or gotten away from Juiblex. I wasn't sure a Wand of Death would work from inside, but I told myself I'd try if he didn't die in a couple of hits. Fortunately, he did (he also responded badly to silver), when I was down to one-quarter of my hit points. I quickly took the Potion of Extra Healing out of the Bag of Holding and quaffed it. I guess maybe the unicorn horn would have worked, too.

    

The closest I've come to death in a long time.

     

I continued through the next levels of the maze, cleaving through minotaurs, bone devils, and balrogs. Teleportitis didn't work on some of the levels. Wands of Digging (and pick-axes) didn't work on others. I picked up useful scrolls and potions but mostly didn't bother to even test other things. I meet the occasional cockatrice or rust monster, which I'm always careful to kill at a distance or just avoid, but they do hit me now and then, and I've managed to avoid their effects the same way I avoided level drain. Does it have to do with luck?

   

The last level I explored before closing this session (Level 41) was another special one. It had a fortress in the center apparently ruled by the demon Baalzebub. Like Asmodeus earlier, he teleported right next to me and demanded almost all my gold. Despite having no reason not to give it to him, I said no. He conjured some fellow demons. He and his friends were capable of stunning me with gaze attacks, so I put on my blindfold as soon as I could. Like Asmodeus, he warped away every time I hit him. Unlike Asmodeus, he came back frequently. I kept waiting for him and swiping at him when he appeared, but after about 10 rounds of that, he hadn't died, and I assumed he wasn't going to. I continued on to Level 42 and quit the game there.

  

And then the coward teleported away. He's the little & in the southwest.

    

I have no good answer to the question of why I didn't use one of my Wand of Death charges on Baalzebub or Asmodeus. Certainly, they sounded like the very sorts of enemies I was saving the Wand for. I guess I wanted to wait and see whether they really posed a threat.

      

So let me ask a question that I'm sure is going to come back to haunt me: if dragons and vampire lords and demon princes don't offer any real danger, what at this point could possibly kill me?

   

Time so far: 30 hours