Yesterday I had a really promising run that I was having a LOT of fun playing. It was a FoDE ^ Makhleb in .32, my first time with new Makhleb, and I had managed to create a +9 vampiric bardiche, and a highly-enchanted vampiric executioner’s axe, a good tower shield, lots of Str+ items. The run was going super well, I felt really OP - I actually cleared Elf:1 and Elf:2 before even entering Lair branches. I O-Tabbed Depths in like 5 minutes. Really fun gameplay–I had been playing the game a LOT over the course of yesterday and the previous day, and knew I should take a break and come back to finish the character another day. But I pushed onward, dropped casually into Vaults:5 with Immolation, and took out a few dozen mobs before SPLAT. and I could have just walked back up the stairs at any point in the dozen turns beforehand. URGH, I was so MAD at myself. I just p*ssed away a perfectly winning run with good ol’ hubris. And the character was so fun! I would have loved chopping those Zot crowds into little bits. Ah, well…
On the other hand, the Spriggan I just splatted made me laugh and reminded me that games are meant to be fun, whether you win or lose! I started a Spriggan Alchemist as therapy after my FoDe died, because I wanted something slow and sneaky and different from a Formicid of Makhleb. Well, I methodically cleared my way down to D:10 and found both Lair and Orc. I had OTR and Mephitic Cloud online. I didn’t have any rPois though, so I thought I’d try one or two more D:floors before entering Lair. On D:11 I sleep-stab three howler monkeys. Fools. I find an acid dragon. Slip some rCorr onto my right hand, and sneak forward. One square away from the sleeping dragon (it would have stayed asleep if), a cyclops came into view, woke up, shouted, and one-shotted me with a rock. Ahahaa, it made me smile. Silly little Spriggans. Hopefully it gives you a chuckle, too:
For those who like to read morgues, here’s my beautiful Formicid who died too soon: