https://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/damerell/morgue-damerell-20251011-171945.txt
Home again! I lost one previous GnGl to a D:7 deep elf mage, but still, to win in two games is rather better than I had been doing. Of course it doesn’t hurt that GnGl has an easy time of it, especially early on.
I found quicksilver dragon scales early on (D:1-2, I forget exactly which) which was a boon, although around Lair and the S branches I’d find myself wondering if I’d rather wear that and have reasonable MR, a +3 leather of poison resistance for the obvious reason, or a +4 brigandine and have more AC. Fortunately Nikola dropped a +2 cloak of rPois on Spider:3 and by then my AC was good enough in the QDS I’d wear it until finding a +9 randart plate on U:2.
I took WJC in a D:5 Temple. I hit a horrible ant nest on D:8; killed the queen ant, but still had to escape down to D:9 - then I had death yaks on the Lair entrance on D:9 who had to be picked apart one at a time with some caution about going up to D:8, and Harold and Joseph turned up to help; this was probably the worst bit of the game.
I ducked into Lair but the first hydra was a bit of a crisis so I ducked out at L:2 - but not before finding a +8 randart long sword with {protect, +Fly Int+6 SInv}; this served for a while as an adequate weapon and I kept it around all game for flight and a SInv swap. Bought a +5 amulet of reflection and off to Orc, quickly getting enough gold to buy a ring with {rCorr rElec Int+2 Dex+3} which served for most of the game. Orc was OK and it was back to Lair.
I was better equipped for Lair and aside from being shafted to L:6 it was pretty tolerable. I found a +1 rapier with {flame, rElec rF+++ rC+ Int-3} - typical, a perfectly good hydra-poker just when the need for one was over - but also acquired a ring with {rN+ Dex+6}, giving me very respectable evasion for a while.
Went to D:12 but a tengu reaver turned up with some nasty friends and I cleared off to Spider. This was a struggle in the leather armour until Nikola dropped me the cloak with rPois; after that my AC was better and I also learned Stone Arrow which was doing better on emperor scorps and other high-AC targets than the longsword.
Off to Shoals - very nearly collected by a catoblepas that came with Polyphemus and a nasty moment on Shoals:4 but otherwise fine. Back to D:12 and the tengue reaver still nearly killed me, but after than the rest of D was OK and I went to Vaults, finally getting a broad axe here which I enchanted up (I’d have gone for an eveningstar, demon blade, etc but the broad axe dropped first).
After V:5 I reckoned Slime would be quite reasonable - it was (immolating TRJ and friends with the rF+++ rapier in hand), and I got a ring here with {Wiz Dex+3} which would be useful later. V:5 was next, going for the traditional approach of coming downstairs buffed-up and mashing everything up with Heavenly Storm. This dropped me a +12 antimagic trident; I thought I’d use it for OOFs (and did use it for one or two ancient lichen) but I only saw two and it proved just as practical to steamroller them in Dragon Form.
Next was Depths, where a +9 plate dropped with {*Drain rF+++ rC+ Regen+} - up until now rF and rC had been painful, and my AC was great with it, but I did have to buy a ring with {rN+ MR+} to patch up losing the MR from the QDS. Then Elf - pretty easy having done so much else first - and Crypt, ditto.
Then the tricky extended rune question. I cleared the Vestibule - another case of mashing everything (including Murray) up with Heavenly Storm - and with rF+++ Gehenna was clearly first. Geh:7 was a pain (although Asmodeus not too bad) but yielded boots of running and an amulet with {Acrobat rN+ Str+6 Dex+3}, replacing my trusty +5 reflection. I felt like Dis wouldn’t be too bad, and indeed it was all pretty well controlled.
Next I learned Statue Form for those pesky Tzitzimimeh and was off to Tar. This was worse - Serpent of Hell turned up, doom hounds were the usual nuisance, but I got through, with once again the hell lord themself being a relatively minor problem.
At this point sanity (and two friends sitting nearby) prevailed and I did not trot off to Tomb to have a crack at that. I had Dragon Form online, and would crack into the Z:5 lungs by using that and Heavenly Storm to, you guessed it, attempt to mash up the entire level in one go.
Two panlords and a seraph on the orbrun; I killed one of the panlords, but escaped the other with a timely Serpent’s Lash to the stairs (and I think dazing it with holy word), and just fled the seraph and teleported.
I made much less use of Irradiate this game than I expected, I think because a WJC character with an axe already has many good options if they are surrounded.
Next is FeWz. Somehow, I don’t expect to win that in 2 games.