NetHack [3.1]: Rust and Ruin

 

I just can't stop drinking from fountains.

       

After losing Aamanz so stupidly, I took a few days off. When I fired it up again, I created Aaron the Archaeologist (I'm still accepting random characters from the game) who ate a rotted corpse on Level 1 and died before he did anything else of note. Abadan the Samurai followed him, but he died of starvation in a particularly insidious Level 3, on which I could find only a couple of rooms and a long corridor. I know there were secret doors somewhere, but none of my searching could reveal them, and I had to just watch as he starved, fainted, got attacked by a werejackal, turned into a werejackal himself, lost all his armor, fainted again, and was killed by a gecko.

    

Next came Abastunagi the Elf. I felt good about him. My winning NetHack 3.0 player was an elf. They come with two intrinsics that are hard to get otherwise: "Automatic Searching" and "See Invisible." The automatic searching alone saved me from dozens of traps. The elf has a "chaotic" alignment and prays to the god Erevan Ilesere, who comes from Dungeons & Dragons, I believe. He starts with an elven short sword, an elven bow, 30 elven arrows, an elven mithril coat, and two lembas wafers.

     

Nothing much happened until Level 4. I destroyed a floating eye with my bow. (I learned the hard way not to attack them in melee combat; they freeze you and some other enemy always appears.) I ate it and got the "Telepathy" intrinsic. On the same level, I found Adjama's General Store, which sold a blindfold (among some other useful things). I spent some time dropping loot in his store and buying what he had.

       

Killing a floating eye--safely.

      

Level 4 had two ways down again, and the first again brought me to the Gnomish Mines. I killed gnomes and dwarves and soon found myself awash in boots, helms, cloaks, shields, and weapons. It drives me crazy that it's such an effort to identify it all. On Level 8 of the mines, I found the same town setup that Aamanz had found, including a chaotic altar, and I spent an absurd amount of time dragging stuff to the altar, checking its blessed/cursed status (cursed items flash black) before trying it on. I eventually ended up with some +2 hard shoes and a +2 cloak, giving me a fairly low armor class (-5) for this early. One of the dwarves also had a pick, which I consider necessary for my ascension kit. Unfortunately, eating a poisonous spider (I was trying to get the "Poison Resistance" intrinsic) cost me 3 points of strength.

      

My biggest liability in NetHack is the inability to wait before trying things out. When I have several unidentified scrolls and potions, I can't help but find a safe space and try them out, hoping for the best. For that reason, I lost a bunch of my potions when I read a Scroll of Fire. I also spent most of Level 7 hovering above the ground, unable to reach anything, because one of the potions I tried was a Potion of Levitation.

   

Enemies spawn often enough on the town level that I suspect you could stay here effectively forever, especially since there's a food shop. 

    

The Gnome Mines ended at Level 13. I killed innumerable gnomes, gnome lords, gnome mages, dwarves, dwarf lords, and even a gnome king. I loved getting a bunch of them in a long hallway where they kept killing each other with their own missile weapons. I left so much potentially-valuable stuff on the dungeon floor that it physically hurt. My auto-searching identified a gazillion traps.

       

Look at all the traps on this level.

     

When I emerged from the Gnomish Mines, I was Level 9. My strength, wisdom, and constitution had gone up a few times. I had a +2 Ring of Protection, an unidentified (but not cursed) amulet, two Wands of Magic Missile, a Wand of Polymorph, a Wand of Teleport Monster, a pick-axe, a blindfold, a credit card (for unlocking doors), and a Scroll of Enchant Weapon that I couldn't decide whether to use on my current weapon or wait until I had a better one. I had also found two spell books: "Magic Missile" and "Knock." It wasn't a bad haul, but it could have been better. I never found anything good to sacrifice on the altar for a chance at an artifact. I thought about hanging around the town until something spawned but ultimately decided to move forward. 

   

I returned to the level where the staircases split and went down to "real" Level 5. There, I found something I don't remember from a previous NetHack. A large, rectangular room had a number of centaur statues, which at first I attributed to Medusa. But then I entered the smaller building in the center of the room, where I was greeted by the Oracle of Delphi. You can buy "consultations" from her. I didn't have enough money when I first visited, but later I returned and paid her 50 gold. It appears she just gives hints from the standard pool, which also includes fortune cookie hints and hints you find engraved on the floor. Still, it marginally increases the utility of the economy.

      

That's disturbing in a lot of ways.

      

I went around drinking from her fountains, hoping to get a wish again. I didn't, and in fact I nearly died to a bunch of water moccasins that spawned, but one of the fountains did show me my intrinsics. I gained "Sleep Resistant" and "Poison Resistant" from something I ate. The poison resistance came just in time, as I ran into a nest of killer bees on the same level.

    

On Level 6, I found another new feature in this version: a throne room full of bugbears and gnomes. I'm not sure who the "king" was, but I killed them all. Then I sat on the throne and the game said I "felt better" and restored my health. I got up and sat down again, and it said that I felt "out of place." A third time, and I got a wish! Damn, this version is almost too easy. In moments, I had my Grey Dragon Scale Mail again and the -11 AC that came with it.

      

Is it just me, or is this version generous with wishes?

     

The throne was still there, so I tried sitting again. I got teleported to another room. I returned and tried again, and a voice yelled, "A curse upon you for sitting on this most holy throne!" and I was blinded for a couple hundred rounds. Still worth it. When I'm blind, I can see monsters elsewhere in the dungeon (due to telepathy), and I saw a bunch of hill orcs and uruk-hai spawn in one of the rooms and slowly head towards my room. I shot arrows down the corridor as they approached. After I killed them all, I took some of their stuff back to the altar, checked it for curses, and ended up with a couple more +2 items, bringing my AC to -14.

Level 8 was pivotal in a few ways:

   

• A magic fountain increased my strength by 1.

• I found another store where I spent a bunch of time, killed a couple of mimics, and bought a "Remove Curse" spellbook.

• I killed a gray unicorn and got its horn, an important healing item.

Before I killed the unicorn, I used the "identify" command to look at it and make sure it wasn't black (I remember from the previous version that killing unicorns of your own alignment is bad luck). This reminded me of the extensive monster identification system that NetHack uses. You get a full paragraph about each creature and its strengths and weaknesses. 

      

This is awesome, but . . . "France"?

     

I was in no particular hurry to leave this area of the dungeon, but I had two Scrolls of Teleportation by now, so I decided I'd explore until I encountered something hard, then spend time on the upper levels building my kit. But with my high AC and my magic-resistant armor, nothing really challenged me. I killed owlbears, apes, soldiers (one of whom had an elven cloak, which increased my AC to -15, which a subsequent Scroll of Enchant Armor increased to -17), rope golems, dwarf lords, ettin mummies, rothes, xans, spotted jellies, jackals, giant spiders, hobbits, gelatinous cubes, gnome kings, and other assorted monsters without losing more than 15% of my maximum hit points except when I kicked open a booby-trapped door.

   

As I arrived on Level 11, I got a telepathic message from someone named Earendil that my "help is urgently needed at the great Circle of Earendil!" I have no idea who Earendil is or why he has his own circle. The message went on to say that I should "look for a [something] transporter." Shortly after, I was attacked by a flesh golem, killed it, ate it, and got (I think) the "Fire Resistant" intrinsic.

      

That's what this means, right?

      

I soon came to a room with a # symbol on the floor. As I walked across it, the game said that I activated a portal. "You arrive in familiar surroundings. In the distance, you see the great stone Circle, the place of worship to Erevan Ilsere. Something is wrong, though. Surrounding the circle are orcs! And they've noticed you!"

      

Somehow, I missed that text screen, but I captured this one.

    

Let me pause to ask: why isn't there more of this in roguelikes? I would love it if there were a little text introduction to every level, or at least the special ones. Maybe even for some rooms. Why are there not more multi-line encounters instead of just quick lines of text on the tops and bottoms of the screens? Has anyone ever created a hybrid between a roguelike and a text adventure? I'd eat that up.

    

I was on a special, almost completely open map titled "Home 1." It had a circular structure in the center with a bunch of NPCs wandering around. Orcs, goblins, and uruk-hai came swarming at me, but even without the ability to funnel them into a single line, I was able to withstand them just fine. When I reached the center, the NPC in the middle of the circle (Earendil?) said that I was "too inexperienced to withstand the demands" of their quest, and that I should return when I reached "Arandur" level. I was automatically teleported back to Level 11 of the dungeon.

       

I love when enemies kill each other while trying to get to me.

      

By Level 12, I was using the familiar strategy of arriving on a level, immediately putting on my blindfold, and identifying any monsters I didn't recognize. I got a point of strength from a fire giant corpse on the same level. I had two pressing problems by this point. First was a lack of ability to identify things. I had three unidentified rings, an unidentified amulet, four unidentified potions, and several unidentified weapons. I had found three scrolls of Enchant Weapon--one of them blessed--but I didn't want to use them until I had a "forever weapon" or at least one that I respected more than my +1 short sword.

       

Playing it safe with my blindfold and ESP.

      

Second, I had no light source, and more and more of the dungeon rooms were dark. I thought about pressing forward until I found one, but I decided to play it safe and retreat up to the Gnomish Mines, where there was a shop selling nothing but light sources. I figured I might meet enough random encounters on the way back that I'd reach the level necessary to take the quest. I did end up gaining one more level, but it didn't raise me to "Arandur."

   

I made it back to the Gnomish Mine town. There was a hill orc roaming around when I got there, so I decided to try sacrificing him on the altar to my god. I got a message about a four-leaf clover, which I assume means that I gained luck, but alas did not get an artifact weapon. Unfortunately, the guy selling light sources had nothing but candles, which don't last very long. I bought everything he had; one of them turned out to be cursed.

      

Can't do this in any other RPG.

    

My other problem was solved on the way back up. I stopped into the store on Level 4 just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I had. The shopkeeper had a chest for sale, and I hadn't bothered to open it to see what was inside. It turned out that he had a Scroll of Identification. I agonized over what to identify with it. Yes, I know that I can find or create a blank scroll, find a marker, and duplicate the scroll, but I hadn't found any markers, and I was desperate. I decided to prioritize the rings. But when I read the scroll, it turned out it was blessed, and it identified everything I had that I hadn't already identified. My rings turned out to be Regeneration, Fire Resistance, and Teleport Control. I put on Regeneration for now, but Teleport Control is going to come in handy later.

       

I wish I knew what kind of ring I had before I said "no" to this message.

    

Heading back down, a hill giant corpse got me some more strength, and I got a second horn from another gray unicorn, but I soon hit a wall: I couldn't find an exit from Level 13 of the dungeon. I searched and tunneled everywhere, including into a vault where I looted the gold and killed a guard that showed up. Nothing. 

My guess is that I have to solve the quest first, which means killing more monsters. I returned to "Home 1" because it seemed that orcs were continually regenerating there. This session had treated me pretty well, with my character hardly ever in danger, so it was time for a classic blunder. While messing around on the level, I accidentally bumbled into a water square. No, I didn't drown, thankfully (though I nearly had a heart attack in real life), but when I pulled myself out of the square, all my weapons and armor (save my scale mail) were "very rusted," all of my potions had been turned to water, and all of my scrolls had been blanked. I guess it could have been worse.

    

My somewhat unfortunate inventory at the end of this session.

     

I'll keep fighting monsters and hope to deal with this special quest next time. As usual, I'm amazed when I think of all the stuff that they managed to pack into NetHack that still hasn't shown up in the typical commercial RPG of the period, including complex item interactions, monsters able to pick up and use equipment, monsters damaging other monsters, and, well, falling into the water and ruining half your stuff. It really goes to show what developers can accomplish when they're not so obsessed with graphics.

   

Time so far: 11 hours