Part 17: Company Man

Last time on Heroes...


With the Amulet of Yendor in hand, Hiro's next stop is the Astral Plane, and he's not about to take no for an answer.

Chapter 17 - Company Man

It's really hard to try and capture the excitement (or pain) of the ascension run in screenshots. I'm not too much of a gamer, but no matter how many times I've ascended, the adrenaline is still pumping as I head up towards the Astral Plane. Take a breath, calm down, and don't do anything stupid - dying at this point really sucks. It's also really hard to capture what's going on here in screenshots, so if there's any questions/clarifications let me know.



I dodged the graveyard in Moloch's Sanctum on the way in by levelporting. You can't teleport out (no levelporting with the Amulet, and Moloch's Sanctum is a no-teleport level), so we'll have to use another method for getting out - the cursed potion of gain level. Might even be worth a spare wish if you have one.

At this point, your goal is just to get out of Gehennom. Not only do you have to content with Rodney coming back to bother you every few hundred turns, now that you have the Amulet you have to deal with the mysterious force. Randomly as you go up levels in Gehennom, you can get thrown back some levels. As a lawful character, you have a 25% chance of getting thrown back either 1, 2, or 3 levels. That's no fun. This is why it's always a good idea to dig out paths between the stairs in Gehennom and also time to dig out all those teleportation scrolls you've hopefully been gathering. Having teleport control and teleportitis (or their respective rings) will also be very useful.

Levels 49 to 44 are boring and nothing happens, just a lot of walking to the stairs.


As I hit level 43, Hiro gets his first taste of the mysterious force.


I get teleported back down to level 44. I've used up all my power trying to teleport, so it's time to start breaking out the scrolls.


Unfortunately, I forgot that this level contains part of the Wizard's Tower. All the Wizard's Tower/demon levels are no teleport, and you'll have to move up the old-fashioned way by walking to the upstairs. I use a wand of digging to zap a pretty direct path to the upstairs.


Made it through Orcus Town with no problems, and thankfully this is the last time I'll see it this game.




Hm, looks like I decided to punt this level and didn't even bother digging out a path from the stairs. You have a 2/3 chance of successfully teleporting when you're carrying the Amulet of Yendor, so it might take a few tries to teleport.


Making my way through another no-teleport level.


Balls.


Pass #2 through Baalzebub's Lair.


Made it all the way up to level 35 - only to get mysterious force'd back down again. Pass #3 through Baalzebub's Lair. Fortunately, it's my last time.


Asmodeus' level. We're getting close!



Rodney can do several things while you're ascending - do nothing ("You feel vaguely nervous"), curse your items (shown here), aggravate monsters, summon monsters, or come back and face you himself.



Look through your inventory and see what happened. Looks like he nabbed...my GDSM and the candelabrum. No biggie. If something vital gets cursed, break out some of those potions of holy water or scrolls of remove curse to fix your stuff up. If any of your weapons or rings or vital tools get cursed, those probably deserve some care.


Yipes.


Wand of death. That's kill #4.


Ah thank god, that's it for Gehennom. All things considered, I didn't get hit that bad by the mysterious force, especially for a lawful character. Rodney can still pop up though, so don't let your guard down.


Still got one more of these left, and the VotD is long and no-teleport, so I'll take a shortcut up to the castle.



If the stairs are close, it's easier to just walk, but otherwise I'm Ctrl-T or using scrolls to skip past the longer levels.


Phew.


I had 22 scrolls of teleportation when I started my ascension run, and I used every single one of them to get to this point. Not a peep from Rodney on the way up either. One more set of upstairs to go.


Make sure you still have the Amulet, since otherwise you'll escape the dungeon instead of going to the Elemental Planes.



With drawn breath, Hiro prepares to leave the mortal plane...