Part 33: Matchstick, MuWz - Seven

Update 7: Elves and Zombies, oh my!


We return to Matchstick now in the possession of three runes. We technically have enough to go win the game, but that's boring, would you not agree?


Instead, we're going to go kill some elves. Also Sonja, I guess. Sonja isn't particularly threatening at range, carrying curare needles and a short sword of either distortion or chaos. She also has blink and teleport self.


Elves, on the other hand, are completely non threatening, and I take out three in a single fireball.


Sonja launches a curare needle at me, which would suck if I could actually breathe. Curare poisons and slows, doing massive damage from asphyxiation. Being undead nullifies this entirely. An elf, meanwhile, misses me with a throw flame shot and kills a comrade. Whoops.


Eventually, because I figured killing all the elves that could actually do damage to me catches up, and Sonja manages to hit me with the short sword, teleporting me away. No real harm done. Distortion can hurt, doing up to 26 bonus damage, or blinking, teleporting, or even banishing the unlucky victim to the Abyss. I got off easy here.


Found her! Interestingly, see the short sword beside the entry staircase? That would be Sonja's short sword of distortion. She dropped it in favour of an elven long sword.


A couple of missed bolts later, and she dies in one hit. Farewell Sonja, we won't miss you.


Erica is a spellcaster. She has bolt of venom (3d14), invisibility, mystic blast (3d14), confuse, slow and teleport self.

I am also a spellcaster. I do more damage.


Nikola! You're about 17 dungeon floors and 15 character levels too late. I normally find Nikola in dungeon 14 on promising characters, where he wrecks me with his 27 air magic skill and spell list of shock(d18), bolt of lightning (3d22), blink, and chain lightning.

He also has a penchant for shouting "Danger! Danger! High voltage!" I unashamedly love Nikola while I hate him.


A single bolt of iron, and Nikola busts out chain lightning. He's completely immune to electricity, so he'll let it bounce off of him and repeatedly strike you with it until it grounds out.


Inevitably, Nikola dies too. That damage came from that chain lightning. Even with rElec, Nikola is a major threat. He decided to try and melee me rather than continue attacking with chain lightning. Lucky decision for me, I guess.


Randart weapon in the event I find a great helmet or hat without rElec. The rF+ won't hurt either.


rF+ won't hurt right about now. Azrael is an efreet, using bolt of fire (3d20), sticky flame (3d5), fireball (3d20), and two types of hellfire, one doing 3d20, the other 3d15 in a burst.


I pull him and his cronies into the hallway and proceed to channel mana while flinging bolts of iron at them. They all eventually die to this onslaught.


Norris shows off part of why he's annoying already. He can smite for 7-17 damage, and also feeds on intelligence, paralyzes, confuses, goes invisible, and can even heal himself.


He simply chooses to try out damaging me with smites, and dies as a result. Sif's gift isn't all that needed, since she's already given me what I really wanted.


Speaking of what I wanted, I grab Fire Storm. It's still a near fail, but this way I can quickly check to see what my odds are looking like as I gain experience.


Before I came into the Halls, I grabbed the potion of heal wounds from the potion shop on Orc 4. I need 13 of these, if you recall, for the treasure trove.


OH NO! Zot trap again! summoning... an abomination. Well then.


Death mage, you are in an unusual area. I don't normally see you until Elves 5. Begone.


No controlled teleport means we've reached our goal. Elves 5 is hard. The end vault is difficult for the unprepared, to say the least.


Elven demonologists are not to be taken as lightly as the kobold demonologist. These guys mean business, and you can find yourself in trouble quickly.


Those stone walls signify the entrance to the end vault. I'll come back here in a minute.


Exploring and clearing the rest of the floor is always a good plan, since you can assume you'll be relatively safe if you have to flee the end vault.

The deep elf sorcerer up top has bolt of draining(3d18), hellfire(3d20), summon demon, haste, and banish. The annihilator to the right has bolt of lightning(3d20), crystal spear(3d34), blink, iron shot(3d28), and poison arrow(3d22)


Setting up skills. I may be wanting something as quickly as possible.


Deep elf swordmasters are my worst nightmare. Dual wielding short swords, they are dodgy and can dish out a lot of damage to unarmored characters.


A LOT of damage. Pains in the ass, they are.


Main hallway cleared out. So far so good.


Deep elf master archers are what every ranged character wishes they could be. Skilled with a bow, dodgy... they're threatening, but less so than the blade masters.


Nothing really of value here beyond the experience I grabbed out of it. Oh well, I generally find Elves 5 a lot of fun to run through.


On my way out, I start considering grabbing potions.


And end up doing so. To the trove!


Not like I'll be doing anything else with them... In I go!


That is a lot of armor. Not bad.


I may love my silk gear, but furry gear is always hilarious to find. If only a distressingly furry buckler showed up as well.


Sadly, nothing of real use here. I hold a second cloak of darkness in my inventory for possible future use.


Well, maybe the crypt will be better. Crypt is, unsurprisingly, filled with undead. Lots and lots of undead. Good thing I can dispel them.


And what else is the crypt known for than a demon island? At this point, it's negligible exp. Also shown here is the final enhancer message, a HUGE surge of power. With the robe of the archmagi and two enhancement bonuses from being a level 26 mummy, I get this message any time I cast dispel undead now.


Oh... fuck... In the thread, I've discussed the old spell Tomb of Doroklohe. It lives on in three ways. The first is the Tomb card in the deck of escape. The second is a wizard lab by the same name, where strong enemies are hidden in 3x3 pillars of stone. The third? This guy, right here. Khufu is a pain in the ass. Besides him, he has at least one greater mummy alongside him. The bigger issue? His spell list:

Summon demon, smite (7-17), torment, summon undead, and the aforementioned tomb of doroklohe. When he gets weak, he'll use tomb to block himself off. He'll then heal himself up naturally, and when tomb vanishes, there he is, fully healed and just as pissed to see you as before.


I flee to kill off his compatriots, and Khufu does not follow along.


Sif appreciates my efforts in learning Fire Magic by giving me access to Lehudib's Crystal Spear. The big daddy of Bolt of Iron, it has a shorter range, a lower accuracy, but a much higher top end damage. I may eventually nab it.


Room filled with zombies, my spells are alerting all of them to my location. Dispel undead and bolt of fire get a workout here.


As does my experience, capping me off at 27. But this is only the beginning now.


Araganzar, I don't know if any of your alphabet of Octopodes died in the Crypt, but I don't want to see their reanimated corpses again, alright?


Oh, hey buddy. Miss me? I missed you.


Well, now I just feel dumb.


This will be fun. Silence area makes me think silent spectre.


And I'm right. Since I can't cast spells, I swap over to the +0,+12 falchion. It does the trick.


I know this path. This leads to one place, and one place only.


But first, Mummy priest. Able to summon demons, summon undead, cast torment, and smite for 7-17 damage, he's basically the pansy form of Khufu. Without tomb of doroklohe.


My grave is empty, so it can walk all over it if it wants to. Necro miscasts have no effect on me, and that's what most mummies cause. I am perfectly okay with this.


Hello, Tomb. Tomb holds a rune, and holds a LOT of greater mummies, mummy priests, guardian mummies... Basically it has more mummies than you'd ever want to see.


And... hello... tomb... again? This is a first for me. Two Tomb entrances, on different floors. Sure.


A big ol' room of experience.


Curse skulls are like mummy priests, only without legs.


It dies to a single dispel undead, however.


Crypt 5 is the last floor of the crypts, and as such I map it out. To begin, I clear the rest of the floor, leaving that massive castle-like structure for last.


Nothing of interest happens, so let's head in.


Each of those single rooms has an undead foe of some form, and I run into a battle of attrition. There were also dancing weapons in the main area of the first chamber, causing most of that damage.


Progress being made, slowly. Playing it careful here, don't want to run into multiple ancient liches or something.


Decent loot, I guess. Money is always worth it.


This book is way too late. Any spell I could have wanted out of it is now accessible without repercussion for failing the memorization.


Vampires create a lot of chaff for me to fight through. But fight through it I will.


Eventually, the floor is cleared. Not too bad a fight after the first room.


Things are really looking good here. Resistances where I need them, SInv on call with the falchion... I like this setup as it stands for the time being.


With the above setup, 45% fail rate on Fire Storm. Not bad. Once I get that way down, I'll get controlled blink down some too.


Shields will get turned off at 15 as that is, if I remember right, the point where regular shields stop causing problems with casting. And having extra SH points is never a bad thing.


Unsure of what to do next, I save here if I plan on being silly and going after the Tomb rune next.

Next time!

Either Slime Pits or Tombs, depending on how daring I am.