https://crawl.montres.org.uk/morgue/damerell/morgue-damerell-20240420-222108.txt
Ogre of Okawaru isn’t the hardest row to furrow, but I’m quite pleased with this, being both a 2-streak and a one-and-won (to win a combo on the first attempt).
The early game was pretty horrible as it often is on ogres - all those HP don’t help as much as you might like with everything hitting you all the time - and D:4 was a desperate struggle with Edmund (berserked down) and Robin (barely escaped her pack, one of whom was using a sling to great effect) into the sewer I was trying to find) - and Eustachio, but I’d spotted him asleep early and went back to smack him later. Edmund was the best performing monster of the game, having me at 6/145 HP.
The Temple also turned up on D:4 and I took Okawaru; I’ve only won ogre with Wu Jian until now and it seemed like Oka might serve up some armour I could wear and some large rocks. They did not disappoint in either respect.
On D:5 I found a book of Necromancy and thought, ha ha, maybe I’ll try and get Regeneration online, that shouldn’t take more than half the game. Shorly afterwards I realised I had two rings of wizardry and this was actually pretty feasible, which helped a great deal.
Nasty moment with a bee priestess on D:9 but she dropped a +6 morningstar with {protect, Str+2 Int+2} - just what I wanted for now to shore up my rotten defences. Bought a +2 cloak with {MR+ Slay+2 Stlth+} on D:10 which I’d use most of the game; nasty moment with Urug (HP: 6/120) on D:11.
Finally found the Lair, and Oka was starting to serve up randart robes with an assortment of more-or-less useful properties. “Paralysed by Rupert for 6 turns” on Lair:4 but by sheer luck he did it near the edge of LOS and spent most of those turns just walking up to me.
Back to O:2 for a nasty moment with Saint Roka and friends. Not much to buy except some antique armour. Down the Dungeon - acquired the ring of Accord {AC+4 Slay+2} which I’d use for a while - another nervous moment with a feisty tengu reaver on D:14. Tried on a randart amulet with *Contam, sigh, and got “the distance you can be teleported is somewhat limited” mutation which I’d just put up with.
Snake was next - no major problems except Vashnia’s pack, but I was able to get them in sensible terrain and win. Oka kindly served up a +8 demon whip with {elec, *Drain rPois rF+ rC++ Int+2} which was just what I wanted - I’d use it until V:5 where gold dragon scales dropped. (It was, however, a bit of a nuisance that I couldn’t wield-ID other Oka randart weapons and I ended up having to ration identify scrolls with knock-on effects on being able to identify wands and floorgod gifts…)
Shoals also wasn’t too bad - it helps a lot if you’re big and can fight in water; then to Elf, getting Abyssed on E:2 by a glaive of distortion. At this stage in the game going to A:2 was a pain, not an existential threat, and I soon enough found a way out. With Shoals done (and Oka’s help) I had ample javelins, steel javelins, and javs of penetration.
E:3 gave me Starlight (which I’d use up until after V:5 where I really wanted a scarf of warding for a second pip of rN and a third pip of MR), quicksilver dragon scales with {MR+ Str+2 SInv} (an easy upgrade from Oka’s robes), and an amulet with {RegenMP rN+ Str+3 Int+8} (ideal for a spell-dabbling ogre).
However, this would backfire a bit - I’d learn Deflect Missiles and start to train that up, then find Yara’s and decide that was a higher priority, find BVC and start to train Earth to go with my existing Necromancy - then find gold dragon scales and accept I’d never get Deflect Missiles online, wasting some XP. (I did get Yara’s back online and use it (mostly on draconian knights); and I got BVC back online but didn’t find a use for it, although it’s nice to have options).
Down Vaults to V:4; down Depths. Mennas showed up but he kindly let me pop Finesse before he silenced me, so I hammered him flat without having to listen to any boring cries for mercy. Of course after that I had a huge supply of large rocks to throw at anyone who looked at me funny, and I’d bought a manual of Throwing halfway down Depths. Then to V:5, teleporting out of the ambush to a reasonable spot. No real problems here that I remember.
I found gold dragon scales in V:5 - oddly, worn by some random orc, not on the outside of a gold dragon - which I’d leave for a bit because of losing a lot of spells and the pip of MR on the quicksilver scales, but after Slime it seemed clear that being able to take Mennas’s sacred scourge to Hell would be great, and if I was going to drop the demon whip with all the resistances, I’d better wear the gold scales. This also let me cash all the enchant armours lying around and the end result was considerably improved defences.
Slime was no trouble at all with lots of javelins of penetration to deal with TRJ, but didn’t yield all that much useful loot.
To Hell! Murray caused me a nasty moment with repeated torments when I fat-fingered a movement key rather than throwing large rocks; Geryon, on the other hand, was no trouble. Bought all the consumables and went to Cocytus.
Cocytus was OK apart from the flood of Ice Fiends on Coc:7; Anateus himself got phantom mirrored, large rocked, and sacred scourged in fairly short order. That was easy enough that I decided to have a crack at Dis. Dis wasn’t too bad apart from being petrified more than once with a bunch of bastards in view; I was quaffing cancellation to fix this, but you only get so many cancellations. The worst moment was with a couple of iron giants and their friends; Dispater was no trouble at all. I spotted him around a corner, backed up, blinked away, hit Finesse, and let him walk 8 spaces towards me while I threw large rocks at him, and that was the end of him.
I went one space into Gehenna but thought, nah, I’ve proved my point, time to go and win.
Zot wasn’t too bad; there was an obviously suicidal transporter vault on Z:4 which I left well alone. A reasonable supply of ancient lichen and orbs of fire on Z:5, but, well, large rocks. One panlord on the orbrun, but it had rotten evasion, so, well, large rocks.