Part 10: Six Months Ago
Last time on Heroes...
Hiro is not one to pine over the loss of a good friend. Like any good samurai, he must adapt, quickly, to his ever-changing surroundings, even if it means leaving the dead unblessed and unburied.
Chapter 10 - Six Months Ago
If you have still have wands of make invisible and speed monster, why not give your pet a hand.
That's pretty damn cool, if I say so myself. I was saccing some stuff when I got Trollsbane, which is actually a pretty bad weapon that only has benefits versus trolls, but hey pet with weapon > pet with no weapon.
Wow, it keeps getting better and better. This is actually the same dwarvish mithril-coat that I ditched after finding my gray dragon scales.
That is sick nasty, if I do say so myself.
...
Oh for fucks sake.
That was a lurker above, which has a chance of eating up an enemy and automatically digesting them. Sort of like a better vortex. Normally, if they swallow your character, you'll just get digested a bit but can hit yourself out. But if they eat up another monster, BLAMO! no more pet.
I am seriously done with this whole pet business. Hiro Nakamura rides alone. 
I hit level 14 but was worried about the confusion so instinct took over and I missed the shot. Quest time!
Hm, quest in just a sec, let me clean up some loose ends around here.
Well well, what do we have here?
Cockatrice corpses are probably the best weapon in the game. Hit any enemy that isn't stoning resistant (some acidic monsters and stone monsters obviously resist stoning, as do all the quest nemeses) and they'll instantly turn to stone. However, wielding a cockatrice corpse is a dangerous game, and you need to take special precautions when you're using one.
First, make very very VERY sure that you are still wearing a pair of gloves.
Pick up the corpse.
Wield it.
Well, that was fun.
But before you get all excited about walking around slapping monsters to death with your rubber chicken, sit down with the Cockatrice spoiler for a bit. There are umpteen many ways to die, not only from a live cockatrice, but also from a cockatrice corpse. The #1 rule of cockatrice corpses, besides to check several times that you didn't take your gloves off for some reason, is not to move when wielding a cockatrice corpse. If you fall in a pit, hole, or trapdoor while wielding a cockatrice corpse, you'll die instantly - no takebacks, unless you have an amulet of life saving. That sucks.
So, before you start moving again, unwield your cockatrice corpse and put it in a bag so that you don't accidentally eat it. That will kill you too. If it's in your bag, it can't hurt you.
#name-testing an amulet of ESP.
I am having zero luck with thrones this game.
OK I know I swore off pets forever but but but BABY DRAGON
And a pony
Wait a sec, that's not a pony any more. I WANT MY PONY BACK.
Well, I didn't know you could do that. Maybe we can be friends.
And finally it's quest time! Here's the message when you first enter the quest level.
And a look at the first quest level. You can learn a lot more about the Samurai quest from its Gazetteer page. Our quest enemies are ninjas and wolves and other d, and we'll be seeing a lot of those over the next couple levels.
Let's go have a chat with Lord Sato, our quest leader. You need to be at least level 14 and have 20 alignment to attempt the quest, otherwise he won't let you continue.
20 alignment is a joke and as long as you aren't playing pacifist you should be fine there. Level 14 might be more of a problem - you might need to find some potions of gain level to help with the last couple levels, or just take a few thousand turns walking around killing things. Hiro is more than ready to kick some ninja ass.
With reflection and magic resistance, the quest is pretty boring, so I don't have many interesting screenshots of the place. I actually spend more time trying to let my pets get the killing blow on the enemies than anything else.
Well well well, what do we have here? The Shogun's Castle, 3rd level in the samurai quest, has guaranteed weapon/armory sections where you can find stuff. Finding Grayswandir is really something special though - silver sabers are already very rare, but only 1/20 of silver sabers will be Grayswandir. Grayswandir is a silver saber which does double damage against all enemies and additionally does 1d20 silver damage against all silver-hating monsters, mostly undead and demons. It is, without a doubt, one of the best weapons in the game, and samurai can reach basic skill in saber, which is more than enough to use Grayswandir effectively. If I run across Frost Brand or Fire Brand, I might trade up, but otherwise I'm probably set weapon wise for the rest of the game.
Uh oh - only two wands engrave-test to make bugs stop moving, and I've already identified wands of sleep...
Maybe Ashikaga Takauji won't be so hard after all.
My pets look to be doing well, thanks to all the wolves and wargs I softened up for them. Unforunately, I don't have any healing spells that I can cast at them to heal them up.
Boots of speed. That about finishes my ascension kit - if I find a magic marker, I might even be able to do this wishless, and not the cheating bones-looting style wishless either.
And here's the man himself.
And this nice fellow is kind enough to identify amulets of life saving for me.
Nice to meet you too.
Ashikaga Takauji is no pushover. Like all quest nemeses (and other annoying monsters like named demons and liches), he has the annoying habit of teleporting to the stairs after you smack him a couple times. Unlike some quest nemeses, he is an @ and thus resists Elbereth. Worst of all, although he doesn't do much damage, the Tsurugi of Muramasa that he's wielding has a 5% chance of bisecting you every time it hits. There's no way to survive that, unless you're wearing an amulet of life saving. We want to finish this fight fast.
Wand of death kills him in one. Yeah, it's lame, but so is bisection. If you don't have a death ray, you can use wands of sleep or potions of paralysis to hold him still while you beat up on him.
Once your quest nemesis dies, he'll drop the quest artifact and a silver bell, which is the Bell of Opening. The Bell of Opening is required later in the game, so make sure you hold onto it.
The quest artifact for samurai is the Tsurugi of Muramasa. Unfortunately, it's not actually a very good weapon. It does a lot of damage (but not as much as Grayswandir + katana) and has the chance for bisection in its favor. However, its biggest problem is that it's a two-handed sword. If it gets cursed, you're going to be in a lot of trouble, since you can't do anything that requires two hands. Need to reach into a bag of holding to get some holy water to uncurse it? Can't do that if your two-handed weapon gets cursed. It does however act as a luckstone, so you'll be wanting to keep it blessed at all times anyway. I'll keep it in my bag for points++ come end game, but Hiro will be sticking with the Grayswandir + katana combo for now.
Looks like my buddies did pretty well for themselves through the quest. And to top it all off, they're still alive. Imagine that.
Just #chatting with Lord Sato on the way out.
You know what guys, I'm pretty proud of you and all the work you've done to help me on the quest.
Rock on.
Now in possession of the Tsurugi of Muramasa, Hiro Nakamura is ready to conquer the world! But will the prophecies of the thread title come true? Can the future really be changed? Find out on the next episode of Heroes, Chapter 11 - Fallout.
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