A Big Stack of Stupid

So, the aforementioned stack of 11 diluted potions of extra healing had grown to 13.  I am getting more and more eager to change them into diluted potions of full healing for the 8 hp/potion increase to my max.

Finally, finally I polypile 2 potions of gain energy.

I dip the stack!  Then, for no reason I can fathom, I dip the stack again.  I now have 13 diluted potions of gain ability.  Completely worthless, as I am already maxed in all attributes.

I drink one, just because I'm irritated.  The message:  You're already as smart as you can get.

Yeah, sure.

A Near Miss

Nobody like dying in Nethack.  It may be funny.  It may make a good story.  In the end, it's the end of a game.  That game should never end from network failure.

So there I am in the bottom level of the Gnomish Mines looking for potions of gain energy so I can change my 11 diluted potions of extra healing into 11 diluted potions of gain level and add 88 hp to my meager 130 hp total.

Suddenly, the game is not responding to my keyboard input.  Uh oh.  I try everything I can think of short of closing the terminal session.  Finally, I decide to log into nethack.alt.org from another terminal and see if I can recover my game that way.

Ahh!  A countdown timer!!  Should I let it go?!  Should I abort it!!?!!?  I decided to snap a screenshot and let it continue.

Even worse!!  Non-graceful termination of a process on a Unix system!!  This is it.  Game over, man.

Wait.... that looks like..... could it be?

I'm back, baby!

Mediocrity

You feel lackluster.

Current tourist is progressing.... not high enough to do the quest, but pretty good stat-line (at least until that rust monster gave me the business.)  The problem is that he doesn't excel at anything.  18/14 strength... pretty good but not out of line for his level.  AC -7... meh... and that includes a 5 AC bump from offering to priests.  I haven't really found any great gear.  AoR in sokoban (which I had to wrestle off a stupid werewolf,) bag of holding in a shop, but no decent armor drops and no wishes anywhere.  Seriously, the best armor I've found was dwarvish mithril, and my short stint as a winter wolf cub destroyed both that and my t-shirt.

I have gotten two gifts by sacrificing.  First Cleaver (sigh... thank you so much The Lady) and then Vorpal Blade.  I need to level before I can improve longsword, so I can't hit squat with it.

So I progress.... pressing forward knowing that I'll be outclassed pretty quickly but too far along in the game to think about stopping.  I just soldier on.

Memory Lapse

I just launched Nethack again, took a look at my inventory, ate some food, then proceeded down the stairs that were next to me.

Words are burned into the floor..... uh oh.

This is deadly bones level you better run..... oh, crap.

It touches you.  You are covered in frost.  You die.

Not again.... sigh..... I just hope this bones level is gone forever.

ARE YOU %$@&* KIDDING ME?!!?

Really, Nethack?  Really?!!?  I mean, I understand last game.  Sometimes you have a little fun and rough us up a little.  It's fun for you.  We get it.  But to throw the same invisible Arch-Lich at me in two consecutive games is like shelling out $60 so that Peter Molyneux can savage me repeatedly.

Well, at least I got to capture the "deadly bones" message.  Plus, I'm not dead but I have no idea how I'm going to get past this.  Maybe the Gnomish mines entrance is accessible.  If it's not, I'm boned.

Some Days.....

Some days this game has it in for me.  I'm only playing as tourists now, so any significant success in the game gets my enthusiasm up.  This game, it seems like the game was toying with me.

First off, I found an artifact weapon in a weapon shop on level 2.  Magicbane?  Mjollnir?  Frostbrand?  No, Trollsbane.  Yay.

Next, I find another artifact on a corpse.  Firebrand?  Vorpal Blade?  No, Cleaver.  Double yay.

I cleared out the Gnomish Mines shop level without finding anything of note and ascended back to the Dungeons of Doom.  One level down, and what do I get?  Something about burning bones and I'd better run.  What?  I don't remember any message like that before.... One step into the room and suddenly there's an invisible Arch-Lich using touch of death on me.  Then there are two.  Then I am dead.

Could I have escaped?  Perhaps.  I might have had a wand of digging, come to think about it.  Meh.  This game had it out for me this time.  Time to start over.

This Will Make a Great Picture

Wandering down the hall as a tourist.....  suddenly, an Owlbear jumps out and grabs me!

"You are being crushed."  I know I have only a few turns left before dywypi.  I check my inventory for possible life-saving-ness.  Camera!  Could it work?

a. apply what?  an expensive camera.  Direction?  Right at the stinking owlbear.

Next turn the owlbear is nowhere to be seen.  Blinded by the flash, he wandered off into the darkness.  I found him later in another room and fed him +2 darts until he died.