Roguelike Roulette [Slot 1s]

Level 27: "This place seems reasonably safe"

Marash trundles idly around, until she spots Khim, son of Mim and starts backing away. She was intending to leave and let him be, except that one of his firebolts destroyed one of her teleport level scrolls.

Back around a corner, protection from evil, bless, protection from heat and cold.

... he isn't taking much damage. Drain life again barely dents him. Marash definitely needs a heftier attack.

He can heal himself? This will take forever! And disenchant items? Time to get out of here. Marash portals herself out of the way.

Rest, recover, re-scan surroundings for a path down. Scurry quickly.

Level 28: "You have a superb feeling about this level"

Death. Gotta be death.

There's Draebor the Imp off to the northwest along with his escort. Worryingly, multiple tengus. But he probably is not the source of this foreboding. Marash heads opposite anyway.

What else? Blink dogs? Full of pain, those. Bouncing her around among wolves. Once Marash is sure she's taken care of most of those she heads off to kill a gang of black orcs for fun but, sadly, not profit.

She was mistaken about having taken care of all the blink dogs. Fortunately none show up while she is otherwise occupied and are again disposed of.

Time, now, for her first encounter with a dark elf druid, who managed to confuse her at range in advance.

First action: Marash zaps herself with her rod of curing. The druid counters by summoning two vampire bats, a killer white beetle, a giant red scorpion, a giant white dragon fly and a giant black ant.

Second action: The bats and druid are evil, so Marash takes a step back and prays for protection from evil. Then, blesses herself.

A couple of rounds exchanged between herself and the scorpion, and Marash takes another glance at the dragon fly and prays for resistace to heat and cold.

Unnecessary. The scorpion is defeated and the dragon fly soon after. Now, only a vampire bat between her and the evil druid, Marash calls upon an orb of draining. Most of its remaining allies wiped out immediately, the druid emself softened up nicely.

Just to be sure, Marash finishes the elf off with her rod of draining. No great prize, sadly, just some trap detection scrolls.

Roaming, still no sign of what is so superb about this place. Wait, a mature white dragon? Could that be it? With protections up and successfully activating her rod and gauntlets she manages to take it down easily enough, so perhaps not.

At least the dragon dropped an intelligence potion, so she can proceed with another with about her.

At last a potion of enlightenment reveals an interesting-looking room off to the west. Perhaps that will finally resolve this mystery. Her first shambling mound cut down on the way, and detect evil once she gets near enough.

That's it, definitely. Troll pit. One Olog, eight water trolls, a dozen each of algroths and stone trolls, eighteen water trolls and a full fifty forest trolls! Who knew there were so many troll-kinds in the world?

This is a battle she expects to retreat from. But if she wins, oh, wouldn't that be a blow against Morgoth's forces.

Toward the end of the first wave she is re-gifted with the prayer of Turn Undead. Carefully she collects her ammunition from the floor and waits for the second wave to arrive.

Much, much tougher. The rod and gauntlets help take half-trolls down but while they charge she is worn down slowly. Finally, broken through a line of half-trolls, weaker forest trolls behind. Might be able to heal up while dealing with those.

A brief gap in the trolls gives her moments of respite, used to read a scroll from the ground and enchant her whip for greater accuracy.

The olog is down easier than feared. Water trolls and half-trolls see off the last of her lightest healing potions. Resources going down as the third wave approaches.

She manages to avoid using so many potions on that wave, with luck, rod, gauntlets and even risking an orb of draining despite the ongoing mana drain of keeping herself protected.

On the fourth wave there are more forest trolls again. Marash uses those as breaks in the action, where she can regenerate faster than they can hurt her. She has grown in power twice over the course of this battle, and by its finish needs far less to resort to desperate measures to survive. although it helps that only weaker trolls are left at the very end.

Now her biggest problem is what to exit with. Wand of frost bolts? Replace her Defender whip with a Defender maul? It's better at being a weapon, but not so good at providing armour or stealth.

Stealth boots left for near-identical stability boots, weapon left as is, and a new wand to wreak some havoc with. Not bad, although one might quibble about it being 'superb'.