Dave
2024-12-27 20:17:36 UTC
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Permalinkassuming that by the time I am ready to publish, it is still possible to
do so. In 1997 I began a project to ascend one character of each role
and post the ascensions on r.g.r.n. In recent years the newsgroup has
been largely abandoned. USENET thrived for a time under the umbrella of
Google Groups, but Google has pulled the plug on displaying newsgroup
updates, so many of the r.g.r.n. folks have migrated to the r/nethack/
subreddit. I created a Reddit account to post my previous ascension but
between attempting to post too soon after creating my account and
exceeding the character limit, I gave up and posted it to my own server.
This document will live at
http://www.vortex4.net/~friend/nethack/marion.html. All thirteen of
these ascensions are indexed at https://www.vortex4.net/~friend/nethack.
In 1982 a friend of mine showed me hack on his dad’s computer. After a
few games I mused that I’d like to win the game with every role. He
told me it was impossible. I was an impressionable youth and took him
at his word. The only hack I had access to at the time was at his
house, so I didn’t have many opportunities to play. I finally got my
own copy of hack for my Amiga 500 in 1989, finding it on a disc from the
Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software. The A500 only
had 512k of memory out of the box, so I couldn’t run the cooler nethack
2.3 until I got my 1MB upgrade, or the even cooler nethack 3.0 until I
got my 2MB upgrade.
In 1991 my friend’s dad got me an internship at the Department of Energy
lab where he worked. A typo trying to rm a file launched rn, and in no
time I had discovered r.g.r.n. When I wasn’t learning sed, awk, grep,
and nroff, I was reading ascension posts. I showed nethack to another
friend of mine who latched onto it and cultivated his own habit. He is
much smarter and more patient than I am and he was able to ascended
within months.
By nethack 3.3 I had discovered the spoilers lists and my games were
getting better, but I still played much too quickly and carelessly to
ascend. General consensus was that a Valkyrie was the easiest class, so
I started there. I typically played under my own username, but one day
in 1997 I read an r.g.r.n post by a player whose Valkyrie was named
after Taarna from the film “Heavy Metal”. It fired my imagination. I
knew immediately who my Valkyrie would be, and suddenly the old idea of
ascending every role came back in force. Should I ever ascend paquita,
I wondered, who would the other roles be named for?
I worked at a Video Store in 1995, and had by the end of my time there
absorbed a decent chunk of its catalog. Some roles would be easy,
overlapping with characters from films with which I had the greatest
personal connection. Selecting characters for the other roles took
place over time. With the help of the 3.3 spoilers, I had constructed a
rough order of roles from easiest to hardest, and I switched genders
every time I switched roles. The film or show I chose had to be
formative. I couldn’t select a just any character from any film or
show; it had to have a significant impact on my life. It also had to
stand up to the annual ritual of a Halloween watch party before
beginning the /dev/null (and later, Hardfought) November Nethack Tournament.
It was difficult to find an Archeologist who fit the bill. Since it was
the last of the thirteen roles, and because I had started with Valkyrie,
I would need a female character. This presented a number of problems.
Who qualifies as an archeologist? To what degree are female
archeologists represented in television and film? Which were formative
for me, and which would stand up to an annual viewing?
An archeologist is an anthropologist, but the reverse is not necessarily
true. This would seem to rule out Temperance Brennan of “Bones” fame.
Evelyn O’Connell from the 1990s “Mummy” series was a librarian rather
than an archaeologist. Did any treasure hunter/grave robber count?
Vash from “Star Trek, The Next Generation” was clearly appropriate, but
I had already done “Star Trek” with my Healer ascension and STTNG wasn’t
really as formative for me as the original series. ‘Dolly’ Parton from
“Bonekickers” and Sydney Fox from “Relic Hunters” would technically
work, but neither show really grabbed me (I only got through the pilot
of the former and the latter was…not good). I even dug into “Kung Fu
Vampire Killers”, but though I have a soft spot in my heart for grad
students, neither Lucy nor Mina really counted as archeologists. There
is an argument to be made in favor of Ray from the third “Star Wars”
trilogy as a treasure hunter, but the original trilogy was much more
formative for me. The best choice probably would have been River Song
of “Dr Who” fame, who is the most compelling female archeologist I came
across in this research. That said, despite my longstanding science
fiction fandom, I disapprove of time travel, so I was never able to
really get into “Dr Who”.
I started to notice recurrent themes in my survey of screen
archeologists. First was the “adventurer archeologist” trope, which was
really a much better fit for this exploration than a more academic
archeologist. Second was a pattern emerging in these films, whether it
be “King Solomon’s Mines”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, or even “Heavy
Metal”, where our hero has some relationship with the daughter of
an(other) archeologist. This “archeologist’s daughter” trope was pretty
contrived from a storytelling angle, but showed up in so many places
that I felt like it deserved some consideration. “Tomb Raider” fuses
these tropes together, as Lara Croft is both the archaeologist and the
archeologist’s daughter. I had never seen the films, and gave the
original 2001 Angelina Jolie film and the 2018 Alicia Vikander film a
watch. I preferred the 2018 version, but neither movie made me excited
to watch a second time.
Remembering that I had enjoyed the 1985 version of “King Solomon’s
Mines” as a child, I reviewed both the 1950 and 1985 versions. Beware
of this rabbit hole. The 1950 version is 100% an elephant snuff film,
and there is a scene where the filmmakers appear to have intentionally
started a wildfire on the savannah to create and film a wildlife
stampede. I am wondering if Stewart Granger’s line about a “waste of
time, supplies and lives” was scripted or commentary. The 1985 version
indeed has much to appeal to a ten year old boy, but I have no desire
watch either film again.
Heavy Metal got consideration mainly for its formative influence,
particularly on my early musical taste. I first saw it when I was
seven, and was scared of green glowy things for years afterward. But
though the girl in the Harry Canyon story exemplifies the archeologist’s
daughter trope, the character not only has no depth but is also
literally credited as “Girl”, so this was really a non-starter.
Which left “Raiders of The Lost Ark”, and Marion Ravenwood. She is
certainly an archeologist’s daughter. Does she count as an adventurer
archeologist? Minutes after she is introduced she asserts that she is
Jones’ partner in the quest for the Ark. Though her treatment by 80’s
Hollywood does her no favors, at least the character in the original has
more nuance than in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull”, which I would rather not have subjected myself to. I will
grant, however, despite her heavy handed obsession with Jones in that
film, that her adventurer archeologist credentials in the action scenes
were impeccable. Was “Raiders of the Lost Ark” formative? Oh my, yes.
I saw that film when I was seven too, and like everyone in my
generation, the climactic scene where the Nazi Toht’s face is melted off
by the Ark will be burned into my brain for as long as I live.
Ultimately, it was the only piece of media in my research which I would
eagerly watch on Halloween no matter how many November tournaments it
took to ascend.
So marion it was. She would be a dwarf, as I had only one other dwarf
ascension. In general I add a new conduct for each new role, and the
easiest to add to my stack looked like weaponless. If The November
Nethack Tournament had been built on 3.7, I would have added pauper, but
as TNNT was built on 3.6.7, weaponless it would be. I also attempted to
achieve “never changed form” this time around. Though I achieved it in
earlier ascensions, I hadn’t in the last several, and it would count as
a conduct stack increase if I failed on weaponless.
The weaponless archeologist, as one member of my TNNT clan put it,
“sounds like nethack on hard mode”, and I cannot disagree. As the wiki
notes, Monk and Samurai are the best candidates due to their martial
arts, and Barbarian less so since it can only achieve Master in unarmed
combat. Everyone else has to resort to thrown weapons, spells, or pets
to do significant damage. The only missile weapon the archeologist can
become expert in is boomerang, and they get no multi-shot bonuses. My
Junethack weaponless attempt (on 3.7, but before I’d learned about
pauper) only reached the Quest, where marion (miriam at the time, as I
apparently have been mishearing her name for the last 43 years of
watching this film) was slain by a wand of death wielded by the Minion
of Huhetotl.
I enjoyed watching nethackathon this year, so much so that afterward I
was disappointed when there was rarely live nethack to watch.
Considering that perhaps other people felt this way, I began streaming
my games as v4friend on Twitch. It is somewhat fitting that at the end
of this goal of 13 character-based ascensions, I finally have an actual
recording of this one. As my feed is not wildly popular those streams
have since expired on twitch, so I have created a YouTube channel in
order to post the videos - https://www.youtube.com/@vortex4friend. The
quality is not great - in the third I accidentally move the window so
you can’t see the message line, in one of them I don’t figure out for an
hour that I need to turn my guitar down to quiet the feedback, and I
don’t have a private room in which to stream, so there is frequently
background noise. As I’ve never successfully downloaded my ttyrecs,
this is the only ascension I’ve ever actually recorded.
Streaming my games had the unexpected side effect of getting me invited
into a Clan ahead of TNNT, something I’m not sure has ever happened
before. I did let them know ahead of time that I was only likely to
try for one ascension this year, but they welcomed me anyway. I am thus
now a member of Gandalf’s Illegal Fireworks, and have now for the first
time contributed to the success of a Clan.
Calling back to “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, marion’s pettype
was dog and her dogname was Indiana. Her fruittype would be date (“ya
eat em!”). The names of pets and nurses overlapped somewhat and names
were heavily reused, as pets were so important to the weaponless attempt
that marion burned through many of them in order to survive. The only
named animal characters in “Raiders of the Lost Ark", were the python
“Reggie” at the start of the film, and the evil monkey later, whose
fan-asserted name is “Capuchin Monkey”. I don’t like that name much, it
feels like calling Lassie “Rough Collie”. I called several pets
“Nameless Monkey”, which I thought was more appropriate. Other pets
were named for deceased colleagues of Indiana Jones: Forrestal,
Michaelson, and Professor Abner Ravenwood. Nurses and/or other pets got
the names of Jones’ allies in the original film: Marcus Brody, Jock,
Sallah, Fayah (Sallah’s wife), Your children (a reference to when Marion
bestows three kisses on Sallah, one for Fayah, one for “your children”,
and one for him), and Katanga. I also included Short Round, even though
Marion wasn’t in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. That movie is
kinda racist, but I always liked Short Round. Any horses were named for
vehicles, primarily Bantu Wind, Katanga’s freighter. Occasionally I
named horses for other vehicles like Plane, Truck, or Submarine. Incubi
were named after Jones or villians: Indiana/Indiana Jones/Indy and
Belloq/Bellosh/Renee, among others.
The game in which marion ultimately found success started
inauspiciously. The weaponless conduct I was attempting generally
required Indiana to do most of the fighting until marion found darts
and/or daggers to throw. This time around Indiana died before marion
found the second room, so she resorted to fisticuffs and throwing her
whip and pick-axe for early survival (throwing the +2 bullwhip turned
out to be an effective way of taking down many low hp creatures). An
unlocked chest on the first level facilitated her mines branch stash,
and contained a cloak of displacement which she wore through the end of
the game.
The Gnomish Mines yielded enough daggers and darts to make marion at
least somewhat dangerous, and the discovery of a black opal on her way
to Minetown paid for an initial round of Protection; despite having no
pet, she was able to reach the (co-aligned!) Minetown altar while still
only level 3. Minetown’s hardware store yielded a magic whistle, and
its two delis provided enough food to permit a more leisurely
exploration of the dungeon.
Between Marcus Brody, a kitten tamed in Minetown, and Nameless Monkey,
who joined marion in the “find kitten” level of TNNT, the magic whistle
was critical to surviving Sokoban. Nameless Monkey ate a chameleon
corpse and transformed into a black unicorn before being slain by a gold
golem. This mixed blessing furnished marion a unicorn horn without
having to harvest one herself. Marcus Brody also ate a chameleon corpse
and became a xan, which turned out to be a potent ally. Another dog,
Jock, made an appearance before marion had solved the top level of
Sokoban, though it was lost in the zoo. A cat therein, Sallah, joined
forces with her, though it was slain by a leocrotta on the way back down
to the Dungeons of Doom. The Sokoban prize was a bag of holding.
A recurring theme of marion’s runs would be food scarcity. The
weaponless addition to veganism made it harder than usual to restrict
prayer to food-related emergencies. The decision of what to do after
Sokoban was thus overshadowed by a dwindling supply of rations. Despite
this limitation, she opted to pursue the luckstone at Mines’ End in
order to contribute toward a Lesser Archeologist trophy for Gandalf’s
Illegal Fireworks. This choice would also provide the opportunity to
invest what proceeds from the Sokoban zoo weren’t eaten by a rock mole
into a little more protection.
Not far down marion was separated from her faithful xan; a level
teleport trap followed by a trap door dropped her directly to Mines’
End. By this time she had looted a potion of object detection off the
corpse of a nymph, and was able to determine the location of the
luckstone. Mines End was rough for a level 8 (whoops, vampire! Level
7) marion, and she was forced to resort to prayer and a wand of
lightning in order to survive her initial foray. The level teleporter
under the luckstone returned her to just one level down from Marcus
Brody, with whom she was able to quickly reunite thanks to the magic
whistle. Back at minetown she tamed a large dog named Your children,
and just in time, as Marcus Brody picked a fight with the Priest of
Quetzalcoatl and lost. After taking moment to run up to her stash and
render some harmful potions inert with her unicorn horn, marion returned
to Mines’ End fully prepared to make holy water once the luckstone was
in hand. Soon it was hers, but another level teleport trap sent her
back up to her stash without Your children. An altar in the Dungeons of
Doom one level below her stash provided her first batch of holy water.
She blessed the luckstone and the bag of holding, then headed deeper
into the dungeons of doom to seek additional food.
She found a leprechaun hall one level below the sokoban branch. Was it
worth clearing the hall without a guarantee of food? Perhaps not. The
gold would still be there once she found sustenance. Fortuitously on
the very next level after the hall was a 4x5 delicatessen, which was
just the buffer marion needed to go back and finish the mines. On the
way there she ran into the first of several unicorns, at which she threw
her most valuable gems in order to increase her luck. She made it back
down to Mines’ End before Your children became untamed, and combed the
level for everything of interest. The TNNT swapchest accepted a ring of
protection, and from it she was able to remove an uncursed amulet of
reflection named kindly donated by xdminsy.
Now endowed with reflection, marion continued her progress through the
Dungeons of Doom. She cleared the leprechaun hall and then headed back
down to the deli to buy additional food. On the next level was yet
another leprauchaun hall. Soon after she found the quest level, but
opted not to engage with it due to her lack of poison resistance. The
same level had an altar and a spiked pit nearby. When the pit trapped a
black unicorn she slew it and tried to fish it out, but she was attacked
by a dust vortex which repeatedly captured her and dropped her into the
pit, costing her the bulk of her hit points and forcing a prayer. Then
Your children became stuck in the pit, and was killed by a passing owlbear.
After that madness it no longer seemed like a good idea to proceed
without as much protection as marion could afford. She stopped at her
stash for a little alchemy after buying the local bookstore out of
identify scrolls. This revealed a wand of make invisible, of which she
took immediate advantage. She returned to Minetown to pick up a couple
more points of protection, then continued on through the Dungeons of
Doom. She tamed a horse named Bantu Wind, which was timely, as the next
hurdle was a throne room. Bantu Wind was quickly overcome, but by now
marion had identified wands of undead turning, enabling the
reconstitution of her hapless horse. Bantu Wind was resurrected twice
more cleaning out a treasure zoo a couple of levels later. On the same
level she befriended a housecat named Katanga. Unfortunately a level
teleport trap separated her from her pets, and by the time she returned
Bantu Wind had been lost. Katanga was destroyed by a soldier with a
wand of fire on a deeper level which housed a barracks. On the upside,
cleaning out the barracks provided a good supply of C and K-rations.
She tamed a pony named Submarine and a housecat named Short Round, but
the latter was slain on the way back up to the stash.
By this point marion was holding too much cash not to finish maximizing
protection, so she returned to Minetown, where Submarine was killed by a
werewolf. She sought out fountains to increase her supply of holy
water, then performed some alchemy, blessing her scrolls of remove curse
and uncursing any useful items. She took this time to bless her tinning
kit, facilitating the production of blessed tins of acid blob. Then it
was time to finish mapping the Dungeons of Doom.
Again her provisions dwindled to only C and K-rations. On the way down
she completed the TNNT missing code quest and received the Really Cool
T-Shirt. She tamed a little dog named Reggie and a pony named The Ark
of the Covenant. Frustrated by their lackluster damage, she polymorphed
The Ark of the Covenant into an iron golem and Reggie into an owlbear.
I didn’t notice at the time but there was a weapon on the ground between
them. It was at that moment that I lost the “never polymorphed an
object” conduct for the first time in several ascensions. Sadly, a
trapper swallowed and destroyed The Ark of the Covenant shortly thereafter.
Medusa’s foyer was populated by a Titan, though fortunately it was
peaceful. Without water walking or levitation there was no way to cross
the moat to Medusa’s island. Now there was no place to go but back up,
and she was continuing to burn through her meagre supply of C and
K-rations. She headed back to her stash. If all she could do next was
kill Medusa and go on to the Castle, she would need to be prepared. She
stopped by the bookstore and bought all of the enchant armor, gold
detection, and unidentified scrolls and spellbooks she could. She took
a moment to read the cheaper spellbooks, and discovered one of magic
missile. An acid blob slain during this period provided a ring of
levitation. She blessed her stack of enchant armor scrolls and brought
the Really Cool Shirt up to +4. Between that and the extra protection
she was now at AC -15. Though she was already invisible she had not
found a blindfold or towel. A mummy wrapping and reflection would have
to be enough. On the way down she tamed a dog named Capuchin Monkey.
She also met Forrestal, a chameleon to which she had tossed a tripe
ration while it briefly took the form of a kitten. Once at Medusa’s
level, marion opted to dig down and then find the stairs back up. She
played a bugle to wake Medusa, and the reflection+visibility combo did
the rest.
Then marion went on to fully explore the throne room-endowed level
below. Forrestal was slain by an unknown enemy, possibly a red naga.
Reggie ate Forrestal’s corpse and was quite unhelpfully transformed into
a hobbit. After exploring the rest of the level, marion discovered that
the throne room was extremely large (13x4), and reasoned that it would
be a poor choice to leave it uncleared before moving on. Unfortunately
it contained multiple dragons. An elf lord made short work of Reggie
the hobbit. Reggie was avenged, but a pattern was clearly developing
whereby marion could only deal with one of these powerful enemies at a
time with her assorted stacks of low-powered missile weapons. She
raised Reggie from the dead, then polymorphed it into an ochre jelly and
Capuchin Monkey into a white dragon. Certainly marion would now be able
to face the occupants of the throne room! Unfortunately both of her
pets were slain by a green dragon’s poisonous gas breath. Stymied,
marion fled upstairs, just in time to meet four stone golems coming in
the door to Medusa’s lair. No longer safe there, she ran to the down
stairs from the throne room level to see if she could make a go of
things, but ran afoul of a minotaur. Fleeing again, she made her way to
the castle.
Then things started to get really bad. A master lich appeared. She
brought her wand of lightning to bear, but moved off of the stairs, and
the lich now blocked her escape. A red dragon joined the battle. She
tried digging down, forgetting that floor was too hard on the castle
level to make trapdoors. She tried taming the dragon to no avail. In
short order she was forced to pray. She then resorted to a bugle, which
scared the dragon off, but readied all of the soldiers in the castle for
battle. At this point I was sure the game was lost. Fortunately, the
lich moved off of the stairs and marion was able to flee back up. She
gradually made her way back to Medusa’s level, fended off the stone
golems, fought her way past the other guardians enough to escape from
Medusa’s island, and reached the stairs up. It was clear at this point
that she could not go on without the ability to do serious damage. She
returned to her stash to retool, despite a chronic food shortage
hamstringing her options. Her C and K-ration supply was now countable
on one hand.
Her new strategy was to become a spellcaster. She shed her mithril for
studded leather and her helm for a leather hat. She trained force bolt
in order to reach basic proficiency in attack spells so that she might
leverage magic missile. As a result, marion was now completely out of
food. The only known source would be at the castle. She headed back
down to Medusa’s level to clear out the sea life. But when marion
arrived, she discovered the Titan was now hostile. She fled back
upstairs again, searching for food, and staving off hunger with prayer.
She tried once more to take on the Titan, but it summoned monsters
faster than she could destroy them with her magic missiles, and again
she fled, resorting to prayer to fill her belly a second time. Halfway
back to her stash, she heard a sound indicating a vault, searched it
out, and discovered the portal to Fort Ludios.
Finally a significant source of food! She had to pray one more time to
stave off hunger, but after that she began to loot C and K-rations from
the mounting casualties of the Army of Yendor. On completion of her
initial assault on Ludios, she was able to bring 46 C-rations and 28
K-rations back to her stash. She kept about a quarter of this food on
her, curated her inventory, and discovered enchant weapon. Then she
went back down to kill Ludios’ dragons, which included a gray kind
enough to drop scales. In short order she had +5 gray dragon scale
mail. A yellow dragon dropped the last potion of gain level needed for
marion to reach 14, so despite her lack of poison resistance, she set
off with her new -22 AC and headed to the quest. On the fourth quest
level she found the only incubus she would ever canoodle with, also
called Indiana (though the other incubi in the game were assigned names,
she dispatched them all before they could make contact). This level
also provided the only magic marker she would ever find. Before
proceeding to the final quest level, she headed back to the stash in
order to complete her retrofit to optimize for weaponless. She had
found enough scrolls of enchant weapon to turn her twenty-two daggers
into a devastating +6 stack.
It was at this point that I made a fateful mistake, but I wouldn’t
discover it until I resumed the game the next day. The problem was
staying up late to process inventory, enchanting the dagger stack, then
immediately saving and going to bed. I never switched marion to bare
hands after that, and didn’t remember to in the morning. She engaged in
melee with an easily-dispatched enemy, and then I realized that it was
too easy; it should have taken more than one hit. She was still
wielding the daggers. This took the wind out of my sails. I still
didn’t know about the polypiling fail though, and I wasn’t too concerned
about not being able to obtain the weaponless conduct, but it was a
heartbreaking way to lose it.
The way forward, then, was to go find a strong melee weapon. This would
necessitate visiting an altar. After marion returned to her stash, she
grabbed the appropriate monster summoning accoutrements, and began
sacrificing. During this session a gelatinous cube emerged from her bag
of tricks, which she ate, acquiring sleep resistance. Quetzalcoatl’s
first gift was Snickersnee. A number of creatures impeded her return to
the stairs, so she sacrificed more and obtained Frost Brand. Then it
was back down to the Quest to deal with the Minion of Huhetotl. Frost
Brand did the trick, and the Orb of Detection was hers. She tamed
another kitten named Michaelson. After some inventory curation at the
stash, marion deployed a blessed figurine of a garter snake called
Professor Abner Ravenwood. She polymorphed Professor Abner Ravenwood
into a gnomish wizard and Michaelson into an Uruk-hai.
It was now time to secure Medusa’s level and begin the process of taking
the castle. Sadly, neither of these pets were likely to survive the
Titan’s nasties. It finally summoned a cockatrice, permitting the
situation to be resolved by rubber chicken diplomacy. Professor Abner
Ravenwood survived this imbroglio, but Michaelson had not. Next marion
began slinging the sharks and eels populating Medusa’s moat. I had
forgotten the that stones thrown or slung over water skip, but she had
enough rocks from the shattered statues of nasties to thin out their
population somewhat before she became impatient and started hitting them
with Frostbrand. Professor Abner Ravenwood did not survive the Green
Dragon from the throne room, which marion finally cleared. She
continued to the castle, obtaining poison resistance from a violet
fungus corpse on the way.
At this point marion was starting to forget magic missile, so she took
one more trip back up to the stash to relearn it and drop off loot. On
the way she tamed a horse named Truck. Here things went a bit sideways.
Returning to the stash, she stopped off at an altar where a couple of
dwarves were milling around. While she sacrificed a tengu, Truck killed
one of the dwarves, and out of habit, she sacrificed it. But marion was
herself a dwarf. This created a same-race sacrifice condition and
converted the altar to Huhetotl, angering Quetzalcoatl and costing
marion all of her hard-earned protection.
Obviously she was spending too much time preparing, so she returned to
the castle. Figuring AC -13 should be enough to deal with the castle
guardians, marion took out the master-lich with her magic missiles,
trained another horse named Bantu Wind II, and used a combination of
magic missiles and slinging to take out the xorns and the moat monsters.
She used a bugle looted from one of the many dead soldiers to learn
the passtune, and proceeded to use the drawbridge to crush castle
guardians until one of the soldiers therein destroyed it with a wand of
striking. After thinning out the castle defenses and crossing the moat,
she claimed a silver saber from one of the fallen captains. In short
order the castle and its wand of wishing were hers. Sadly, it appeared
that sacking the castle treasuries in the wrong order had permitted a
rust monster to eat most of the armory, though it had turned up its nose
at a pair of boots of water walking.
Realizing that to regain protection she would need to empty Ludios,
marion and Bantu Wind II returned. The latter was killed by a dwarf
lord on arrival, raised, then killed again by a swarm of monsters
summoned by a green-elf. Faced with a multitude of not-so-challenging
creatures, marion took the opportunity to train up silver saber and
two-weapon combat, maxing out her capabilities in each. Once she
regained Protection marion moved on to the Valley of the Dead. She met
another horse, which she tamed and called Bantu Wind III. When she got
to the Valley’s swap chest, she had only a potion of full healing to
offer. Unfortunately the options from this chest were pretty slim, the
most useful item being a +3 elven leather helm. After clearing the
Valley of the Dead marion retuned to her stash for a final round of
alchemy before heading to Gehennom.
First she spent some time sacrificing in an attempt to gain either
Greyswandir or be crowned, but Quetzalcoatl seemed to still be holding a
grudge after the dwarf sacrifice. During this process Bantu Wind III
was killed, and she tamed two more warhorses, Bantu Winds IV and V. One
of the creatures summoned during the sacrifice fest dropped another wand
of wishing. In another moment of ecclesiastical confusion, she
attempted to sacrifice Bantu Wind III’s corpse, irritating Quetzalcoatl
again and losing all of her protection a second time. Bantu Wind IV was
slain by summoned creatures. After burning through all of her create
monster wands, she returned to her stash for a little alchemy, revealing
a ring of conflict. She enchanted her silver saber and cloak of
displacement, as well as her water walking boots, then realized all of
her protection was gone. Fortunately there were two temples below, and
neither were to Quetzalcoatl, so the money to buy protection back was
already banked. Alchemy complete, she headed down. She stopped off at
a fountain to dip for Excalibur (collect them all!). Then, at the
temple to Huhetotl she lured a panther to the altar, and converted it.
She had already lost all of her protection so she didn’t really care
about being called out as a murderer at this point. Priest of Huhetotl
dispatched, she retrieved her 42000 zorkmids and headed to the temple of
Camaxtli to buy all but 2 points of her protection back, bringing her AC
down to -27.
It was time to go to Gehennom. On arrival an arch-lich appeared and
summoned Jubliex, but marion quickly dispatched them both. She bribed
Asmodeus with 18 zorkmids for safe passage, and Baalzebub for 22. Bantu
Wind V fell, was raised, and fell again. She made her day down to
Orcus’ level but struggled with encumbrance. She returned to her stash,
stopping at the temple to Camaxtli on the way to finish buying
protection, and reviewed her haul. This trip had yielded gauntlets of
dexterity and her first wand of death, plus a couple more wands of
create monster which failed to elicit another gift from Quetzalcoatl.
On the upside they did summon a gelatinous cube corpse which conferred
fire resistance upon her.
AC was now down to -29, but the bulk of marion’s food was in low-yield
K/C-rations rather than high-yield food rations. She tamed a little dog
called Nameless Monkey II on the way back down, as well as a warhorse
called Bantu Wind VI. Hitting them with the polymorph wand tuned Bantu
Wind VI into an Iron Golem and Nameless Monkey II into an Incubus.
Orcus’ level was straightforward, and marion only had to chase him
halfway back to the upstairs before he succumbed to Frost Brand. He had
spawned with two wands of death this time, rather than the usual one.
Unfortunately on the level below, a mind flayer got too close and she
began to lose discoveries.
The stairs to Vlad were only a couple of levels below Orcus’ level.
After clearing out most of Vlad’s Tower, marion had to return to her
stash to shed weight before taking on Vlad. She was over-prepared when
she finally faced him, dispatching him with ease between free action,
potions of paralysis and stairs blocked with a scroll of earth. She
discovered a ring of free action and acquired cold resistance from a
gelatinous cube corpse. A purple worm swallowed Bantu Wind VI whole.
Nameless Monkey II began wielding +6 daggers thrown by marion and
killing things off, but was slain by an Ogre Lord with a wand of
lightning. She found a Helm of Brilliance, tamed a kitten named
Michaelson II and a dog named Professor Abner Ravenwood II.
The magic marker had 61 charges left, and if the number of hits marion
was taking in Gehennom was any indication, it was time to use it up.
Trimming as much inventory as possible, she uncursed a pair of gauntlets
of power, restocked her supply of food, and started writing scrolls.
With Frost Brand at +7 and her silver saber at +6 she was good on
offense. She enchanted the helm of brilliance and the gauntlets of
power, but ran out of charges before she could max out the water walking
boots. AC -36 would have to do. She blessed her potions of extra
healing, full healing, gain energy, and gain ability, and quaffed all
but 3 potions of full healing, maxing most of her ability scores and
bringing her HP above 200 and her Power above 100. She cursed a number
of potions of water and built up a stack of cursed scrolls of genocide.
She blessed her scrolls of taming and both of her luckstones. She then
polymorphed Professor Abner Ravenwood II into a vrock and Michaelson II
into a Fire Giant. It was about this time that I realized that I had
lost the polyobjectless conduct. This meant that I had not only failed
to gain a new conduct but lost one since my previous ascension. Though
on consideration, I realized that the conduct count was the same as in
my previous ascension, as somehow marion had never changed form.
Now prepared, marion headed back down. A lich which had previously
chased her away summoned nasties, and she countered with conflict.
Sadly this seems to have resulted in Professor Abner Ravenwood II being
slain by Michaelson II. Lich defeated, marion moved on, eventually
discovering a pair of speed boots. At the entrance to the wizards tower
a gremlin had split into thirty, but fortunately marion had made sure to
keep light memorized, and she made short work of them. Quaffing a
potion of object detect on each level to make sure she hadn’t missed
anything important, she descended until she found the vibrating square
on level 50. Then she proceeded to depopulate the wizard’s tower.
Outside the treasure zoo a master lich summoned nasties before marion
could slay it, and Michaelson II fell to an Ogre King, but was revived.
She tamed a large cat named Reggie III on the way up to the top of the
tower. A cockatrice left a corpse on the final level of the tower, and
a marion used it to dispatch all of the Wizard’s moat monsters. She
then returned to her stash for one last round of inventory management
and alchemy before starting the run.
Reggie III, unhelpful as a large cat, was polymorphed into a pit viper,
but he went on to eat a chameleon corpse and became a hobbit. This was
intolerable, so marion zapped him again and he became a Skeleton. He
was now so slow that he was having trouble following her upstairs.
Eventually she left him behind, just bringing Michaelson II with her up
to the stash. She tried one more round of sacrifices with her remaining
wands of create monster, but Quetzalcoatl wasn’t having it.
Realizing that she had already blown the conduct for never having
polymorphed an object, and not having found a ring of slow digestion
yet, marion went ahead and polypiled rings, wands, scrolls, and tools.
This yielded some scrolls of identify and enchant armor, spare
low-charge wands of death and teleportation, and the long sought-after
ring of slow digestion. She cancelled all of her useless potions,
uncursed all of the useful cursed items, and enchanted her assorted
boots. Her resting AC was now -38 with the water walking boots and -36
with the speed boots. She shed excess weight, retaining enough of her
ascension kit such that she wouldn’t be required to stop by the stash
during her escape from the dungeon. Now it was time to begin.
She picked up Reggie III on the way down and proceeded to wake up
Rodney. Her first mistake was doing so while burdened. As soon as she
opened the wall to his lair, he teleported out and stole the Orb of
Detection, making the wands of death only useful for taking out the
Double Trouble duplicate wizards, of which there were a total of four
over the course of this fight. Many of these Wizards were floating over
the moat, which complicated marion’s ability to dispatch them without
the Book of the Dead and the Orb of Detection falling in. Fortuitously
she still did massive damage with Frost Brand and the silver saber, so
once she determined she couldn’t death-zap the real wizard, she was able
to hack him to pieces. In the meantime, the wizard’s summoned nasties
included gremlins, which quickly multiplied and stole marion’s
protection. Between being slow to understand the implications of the
wizard holding the Orb of Detection and the plethora of Double Trouble
duplicates, she went through more than half of her death charges, a
scroll of remove curse, and a potion of full healing before she finally
defeated Rodney.
She made her way to the vibrating square, performed the Ritual of
Invocation, then entered the Sanctum. She donned her ring of conflict
to deal with the graveyard. Neither Michaelson II nor Reggie II
survived long. Fortunately a gargoyle and one of the priests of Moloch
each dropped wands of death on her way to the temple. Once inside the
Temple she death-zapped the high priestess, and was rewarded with a
lightning strike from Moloch, but fortunately nothing worse. And with
that, she had the Amulet. It was time to go. Somehow Michaelson II’s
body was still where it lay on her way back, so she raised him on her
way out of the Sanctum.
During her flight from Gehennom, the wizard reappeared on five different
occasions and the mysterious force struck on eight. Her way was further
hampered by troublesome disenchanters, mind flayers, and one lich who
gated in Yeenognu. Slowly but surely all of these challenges were
overcome, though one death zap bounced after killing the wizard and took
out Michaelson II, angering Quetzalcoatl for the umpteenth time.
Fortunately, thanks to the gremlins at the wizards tower, she had no
protection left to lose. By the time she escaped Gehennom she had lost
a number of discoveries, her AC was down to -26, her silver saber to
+5, and she had only one wand of death with charges remaining..
The trip up to the top of the Dungeons of Doom was largely uneventful,
slowed from time to time by nasties summoned by the wizard and levels
forgotten from brain-eating. The wizard did show up around level 12 and
dodged multiple zaps before he was dispatched. When marion reached the
stash, she restocked her C and K-rations and grabbed an extra armload of
wands of digging. She recharged a wand of death, switched her water
walking boots out for her speed boots, grabbed additional holy water,
greased her hat, cloak, and bag, added some enchantment back onto her
silver saber, shed a bunch of weight, and set out for the Endgame.
The elemental planes were uneventful. The Wizard only made an
appearance on earth. She began each level with drunken gold detection,
held off air elementals with her bugle, and shed weight at appropriate
intervals, mostly on Water. She walked into the water once, but
fortuitously didn’t lose her blessed scrolls of taming or cursed scrolls
of genocide. She took a moment to bless her unicorn horn, her
luckstone, and her default rings in order to ensure she could swap one
out for conflict as needed. She ensured that she was satiated. Finally
ready, she “treaded bubble” as close to the center of the plane of Water
as she could until the portal appeared. When it did, she pulled out her
six potions of gain level, a blessed potion of speed, her 3 cursed
scrolls of genocide, and her 2 blessed scrolls of taming. She quaffed
the potion of speed, and stepped through the portal to Astral.
She immediately started drinking potions of gain level, but an arch-lich
appeared. She began alternately summoning purple worms, taming them,
and drinking gain level potions. By the time she was done a second
arch-lich had appeared, she had consumed three of her six potions of
gain level, and the other three had been shattered by the liches. She
also now had eight pet purple worms and two wild, as well as a tame
orange dragon which had taken “splash damage” from one of her scrolls.
Bringing conflict to bear in order to hold off the liches, marion moved
toward the central altar. She used her wand of teleport to open a path
to the door, pounding on the liches with Frost Brand and the silver
saber to dissuade them from blocking her way. Famine met her at the
door but fell quickly to a death-zap. Between conflict, the wand of
teleport, and lich-pounding, she made her way through the center foyer,
razing the door to the center temple with a wand of digging. Making
her way to the altar, she found that it was that of Huhetotl. She was
going to have to try another. But left or right?
When marion managed to emerge from the temple door, the foyer was
stacked with angels, followed closely behind by a reconstituted Famine.
Teleport and death-zaps cleared those hurdles, but by the time she made
it back to the hall she had only four charges remaining in her wand of
death. She was going to have to choose the correct altar next or there
would be problems. By now the hall was completely packed. She cleared
the right path with teleport, but it was quickly stoppered by the
remaining arch-lich. She was down to her last wand of teleport. Death
was to the right and Pestilence to the left. She pounded the arch-lich
into oblivion and took a step to the right. She pulled out her magic
whistle to bring her remaining allies closer - now just two purple worms
and the orange dragon. Then she decided to go left instead.
Losing another purple worm, and becoming hung up by a couple of green
dragons, marion opted to pound on them with her swords to save teleport
charges. She got out of the hall but was blocked by a pair of angels
and a gray dragon. She used teleport again to clear a path.
Fortunately before the bulk of the purple worms were killed off, they
had thinned out the hoard somewhat. Running across some dead purple
worm corpses, she used undead turning to raise one in order to give
conflict something else to work on. She moved forward and was met by
Pestilence, who received a death-zap for its trouble. Now there was a
clear path into the left foyer. Confusion from an umber hulk waylaid
her somewhat, but there were only a couple of foes between her and the
temple. She dodged angels and teleported priests, opting to pound one
priest of Moloch who blocked her progress toward the temple. When she
reached the temple doorway it was blocked by another priest with an
angel close behind. She teleported them away and marched to the altar.
It was to Quetzalcoatl. She had done it. She chatted with the high
priest of Quetzalcoatl to get 2 bits for the afterlife, then…
---------
| |
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| | _ |
@--------- -- | |
D@|.......|% -- | | | |
AA|***@A..| --- % | ----.---- |
|***@...-%.[***@_U | ! |
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@|.......| -- -- -----%-----
--------- -- --.-
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----------
[Marion the Spelunker ] St:25 Dx:20 Co:20 In:20 Wi:20 Ch:13
Lawful S:1
Astral Plane $:2 HP:250(259) Pw:135(135) AC:-24 XP:19/2570393 T:106143
10d:03h
You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Quetzalcoatl...--More--
An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...--More--
The voice of Quetzalcoatl booms out: "Mortal, thou hast done well!"--More--
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"--More--
You ascend to the status of Demigoddess...--More--
Do you want your possessions identified? [ynq] (y)
Coins ('$')
$ - 2 gold pieces
Amulets ('"')
D - an uncursed amulet of reflection named kindly donated by xdminsy
(being wo
Weapons (')')
V - the blessed rustproof +7 Frost Brand (weapon in hand)
Y - a blessed +6 silver saber (wielded in other hand)
Armor ('[')
H - a blessed greased +4 helm of brilliance (being worn)
v - an uncursed +3 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
I - a cursed +3 pair of speed boots (being worn)
n - an uncursed greased burnt +3 cloak of displacement (being worn)
Q - the uncursed +4 Really Cool Shirt (being worn)
X - an uncursed +5 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
Comestibles (‘%’)
J - an uncursed K-ration
C - an uncursed tin of spotted jelly
Scrolls ('?')
S - a cursed scroll of genocide
Spellbooks ('+')
l - the uncursed Book of the Dead
Rings (‘=‘)
p - a cursed ring of conflict (on right hand)
g - an uncursed ring of free action (on left hand)
P - a blessed +1 ring of gain constitution
W - a blessed ring of slow digestion
Wands ('/')
E - a cursed wand of death (1:2)
B - a wand of digging (0:6)
h - a wand of teleportation (0:4)
j - a wand of teleportation (0:0)
m - a wand of undead turning (0:2)
Tools ('(')
o - a blessed greased bag of holding containing 65 items
t - the Bell of Opening (0:1)
w- the uncursed Candelabrum of Invocation (7 candles attached)
U - an uncursed magic whistle
u - the Orb of Detection (0:2)
f - an uncursed skeleton key
R - a cursed stethoscope
k - a blessed +0 unicorn horn
Gems/Stones ('*')
z - a cursed worthless piece of blue glass
A - an uncursed worthless piece of green glass
M - an uncursed worthless piece of orange glass
F - an uncursed worthless piece of red glass
K - a cursed worthless piece of violet glass
B - an uncursed worthless piece of white glass
x - a cursed worthless piece of yellowish brown glass
Z - a blessed luckstone
(3 of 3)
Contents of the bag of holding:
a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor
an uncursed amulet of life saving
an uncursed amulet of life saving
an uncursed amulet of life saving
an uncursed amulet of magical breathing
the +1 Sting
6 +6 daggers
the rustproof +0 Snickersnee
the blessed rustproof +0 Excalibur
the blessed +0 Orcrist
an uncursed +0 cloak of protection
an uncursed date
8 uncursed C-rations
2 uncursed food rations
10 uncursed K-rations
6 uncursed tripe rations
an uncursed scroll of scare monster
4 uncursed scrolls of teleportation
3 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
a cursed scroll of blank paper
an uncursed scroll of create monster
an uncursed scroll of magic mapping
a blessed scroll of remove curse
2 blessed potions of full healing
a blessed potion of object detection
2 uncursed potions of object detection
an uncursed potion of sleeping
5 potions of holy water
a potion of unholy water
an uncursed ring of free action
an uncursed ring of levitation
an uncursed ring of protection from shape changers
an uncursed ring of regeneration
an uncursed ring of shock resistance
an uncursed ring ring of sustain ability
an uncursed ring of teleport control
a wand of create monster (0:10)
a wand of speed monster (0:2)
a wand of speed monster (0:7)
a wand of death (1:0)
a wand of death (0:0)
a wand of death (0:0)
a wand of death (0:0)
a wand of death (0:1)
a wand of digging (0:8)
a wand of digging (0:8)
a wand of digging (0:7)
a wand of fire (0:4)
a wand of polymorph (0:4)
a wand of polymorph (0:2)
a wand of secret door detection (0:8)
a wand of sleep (0:6)
a blessed wand of wishing (0:2)
a wand of wishing (0:3)
an empty uncursed oilskin sack
a horn of plenty (0:10)
a magic flute (0:6)
an uncursed bugle
a can of grease (0:8)
a blessed tinning kit (0:19)
an uncursed towel
a +0 unicorn horn
10 uncursed diamonds
a blessed luckstone
an uncursed touchstone
--More--
Do you want to see your attributes? [ynq] (y)
Marion the Archeologist's attributes:
Background:
You were a Spelunker, a level 19 female dwarven Archeologist.
You were lawful, on a mission for Quetzalcoatl who was opposed by
Camaxtli (neutral) and Huhetotl (chaotic).
You were in the endgame, on the Astral Plane.
You entered the dungeon 106143 turns ago.
It was nighttime.
You had 2570393 experience points, 2549607 more were needed for level 20.
Your score was 1921830 before end-of-game adjustments.
You have been playing for 1 day, 10 hours, 4 minutes and 42 seconds.
Basics:
You had 250 out of 259 hit points.
You had all 135 energy points (spell power).
Your armor class was -24.
Your wallet contained 2 zorkmids.
Autopickup was off.
Final Characteristics:
Your strength was 25 (base:18/22, innate limit:18/100).
Your dexterity was 20 (limit:20).
Your constitution was 20 (limit:20).
Your intelligence was 20 (base: 16, innate limit:16).
Your wisdom was 20 (base:16, innate limit:16).
Your charisma was 13 (limit:16).
Final Status:
You were satiated.
You were unencumbered.
You were wielding two weapons at once.
You had basic skill with two weapon combat.
Final Attributes:
You had infravision
You were piously aligned.
You were magic-protected.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You were warned.
You had automatic searching.
You had infravision.
You were invisible to others.
You were displaced.
You were stealthy.
You aggravated monsters.
You caused conflict.
You were warded.
You took half spell damage.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
You had free action.
You were extremely lucky.
You had extra luck.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You survived.
--More--
Do you want an account of creatures vanquished? [ynaq] (y)
Vanquished creatures:
Orcus
Yeenoghu
Juiblex
the Wizard of Yendor (12 times)
Pestilence
Famine (twice)
Vlad the Impaler
5 arch-liches
a high priest
5 mastodons
Medusa
Croesus
8 krakens
11 iron golems
9 master liches
20 storm giants
a titan
5 glass golems
4 balrogs
the Minion of Huhetotl
19 purple worms
[snip]
3753 creatures vanquished.
--More--
Do you want a list of extinct species? [ynq] (y)
Extinct species:
soldiers (extinct)
1 species extinct.
Do you want to see your conduct? [ynq] (y)
Voluntary challenges:
You followed a strict vegan diet.
You read items or engraved 141 times.
You never engraved Elbereth.
You never genocided any monsters.
You never changed form.
You used no wishes.
You never died.
--More--
Do you want to see the dungeon overview? [ynq] (y)
The Elemental Planes:
Astral Plane: <- You are here.
Some temples.
Plane of Water:
Plane of Fire:
Plane of Air:
Plane of Earth:
The Dungeons of Doom: levels 1 to 27
Level 1: "vault"
One way stairs up to The Elemental Planes.
Level 2:
Level 3: "altar in fountain room"
An altar to Quetzalcoatl.
Portal to robotfindskitten.
Level 4:
A scroll shop.
Level 5:
A fountain.
Level 6:
Level 7:
Level 8:
A delicatessen, a fountain.
Level 9:
Level 10:
Level 11:
An altar to Quetzalcoatl, some fountains, a sink.
Portal to The Quest.
Level 12:
A fountain.
Portal to Fort Ludios.
Level 13:
A fountain.
Level 14:
A fountain.
Level 15:
A primitive area.
Level 16:
A fountain, a grave.
Level 17:
A grave.
Level 18:
Level 19:
A temple.
Level 20:
Some fountains.
Level 21:
A temple, a fountain.
Level 22:
Level 23:
A fountain.
Portal to Deathmatch Arena.
Level 24:
Level 25:
Level 26:
Level 27:
The castle.
Connection to Gehennom.
Gehennom: levels 28 to 51
Level 28:
A temple, many graves.
Valley of the Dead.
Level 29:
Level 30:
Level 31:
Level 32:
A fountain.
Level 33:
Level 34:
Level 35:
Level 36:
Level 37:
Level 38:
Some shops, an altar, a grave.
Level 39:
Level 40:
Level 41:
Level 42:
Level 43: "Lich on 43"
Level 44:
Level 45:
Level 46:
Level 47:
Level 48:
Level 49:
Level 50:
Level 51:
A temple, many graves.
Moloch's Sanctum.
The Gnomish Mines: levels 3 to 10
Level 6:
Many shops, a temple, some fountains.
Level 7:
Level 8:
Level 9:
Level 10:
Some fountains.
The Quest: levels 1 to 6
Level 1:
A throne.
Completed quest for Lord Carnarvon.
Level 2:
Level 3:
Many temples.
Level 4:
Level 5:
Level 6:
A temple.
Sokoban: levels 5 up to 2
Level 2:
Solved.
Level 3:
Solved.
Level 4:
Solved.
Level 5:
Solved.
Fort Ludios:
Level 1:
Fort Ludios.
DevTeam Office:
Level 14:
A throne, a fountain, some
Deathmatch Arena:
Level 23:
robotfindskitten:
Level 3:
Vlad's Tower: levels 39 up to 37
Level 37:
A throne.
Level 38:
Level 39:
--More--
Goodbye marion the Demigoddess...
You went to your reward with 3970160 points,
The Book of the Dead (worth 10000 zorkmids and 25000 points)
Orcrist (worth 2000 zorkmids and 5000 points)
Sting (worth 800 zorkmids and 2000 points)
Excalibur (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
Snickersnee (worth 1200 zorkmids and 3000 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
The Orb of Detection (worth 2500 zorkmids and 6250 points)
The Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
The Really Cool Shirt (worth 800 zorkmids and 2000 points)
Frost Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
10 diamonds (worth 40000 zorkmids),
7 worthless pieces of colored glass,
3 amulets of life saving (worth 450 zorkmids),
1 amulet of reflection (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of magical breathing (worth 150
1 cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor (worth 8 zorkmids),
and 2 pieces of gold, after 106143 moves.
You were level 19 with a maximum of 259 hit points when you ascended.
This ascension is dedicated to Ann Kathryn Lee, who ascended to
demigoddess-hood in March of this year. Ann was my mother’s best
friend, and I thought of her as my second mom. She was not my first
dungeon master, but she ran the first full D&D campaign I ever
participated in. She was a huge influence on my love of movies, music,
and video games, and taught me what storytelling should feel like to the
listener. I hope to one day be half as good of a dungeon master as she was.