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So, here then is the Human Druid, Embor.Child of a serf and black sheep of his family.

In pack and on person are carried small treasures.

Modest but honestly earned gear wielded.

And, after descending a flight of stairs to level 22 is now On the Doorstep, in the dungeon that is Angband.

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Entry & Starting Map on Level 22

What appears to be a normal start map.
Your results will vary as Angband randomly generates all maps.

The Bad Feeling

On the Angband scale of feelings a character gets upon entering a level ‘Omens of death haunt this place.’ is number 9…on a scale of 1 to 9.
In contrast, number 1 on that scale reads ‘This seems a quiet, peaceful place.’

Druidic Powers and Magic Devices

Druids have the ability to ‘map’ a portion of their surroundings with the use of the spell ‘Sense Surroundings‘…aptly named. 

It is incredibly helpful as you can imagine and is found in the ‘Book of Nature Magics [Gifts of Nature]‘.

With a quick evocation of nature magics Embor is able to sense the environment within the dungeon.

Nothing out of the ordinary as of yet, I am intrigued by the door-ed small chamber to the north west and the cross shaped chamber to the north east.

Embor now employs a helpful magic device taken from a blackguard on level 21, the ‘Rod of Treasure Location‘.

And, with a quick zap…

Lovely ‘*‘ populate the chambers that contain objects, magic items or weapons and ‘*‘ denotes buried treasure such as coins or jewels. The chambers I was interested in contain loot and only a short distance from the start location. Promising.

Now for the last of my starting actions before moving I cast ‘Detect Life‘ from the ‘Book of Nature Magics [Lesser Charms]‘, an incredibly useful and potentially lifesaving spell, especially when you feel that omens of death haunt the place you stand.

‘Obad Hai, reveal to me those living denizens of this sunless deep!’

A crushing blow.
A long list of foes and at the top a beast of legends,
the old wyrm himself…Smaug ‘D‘!

Smaug is no joke and running into him on level 22, 40 levels above where he’s normally found is, to say the least, unexpected. The experience gained upon killing him is insane, just one catch there, you have to kill him.

The chambers to the west look just about as bad with a number of long fights and 3 named, unique monsters; Ibun ‘h‘, Uglúk ‘o‘ and Lugdush ‘o‘. 

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The ‘Plan’
 I’m not sure Embor is up for this fight, having struggled with smaller fights in the past. I’m more concerned with aggroing the entire lot and simply be overrun.
I suppose if I’m clever enough and, with a little luck, I could pull the groups out individually and work my way through them, taking short rests in between to recover hit and spell points before moving to the next…might work.
Or, I could simply bypass all of it and pick my way through the remainder of the level without getting mixed up in this mess at all. Could be some good loot scattered about this level. Or, I could call the level a wash and head back up the stairs to start over.

Anyway, while mulling it all over, I take another look at Smaug not knowing if or when our paths would cross again and grabbed some screen shots to send to a friend for a laugh or two when I notice something about the cross shaped chamber.
There, the small northern chamber, an object all by it’s lonesome, unguarded.
Hmmm.

Also, no doors…anywhere.
Now that doesn’t really mean anything as secret doors reveal themselves only when you get up next to them but, maybe I could access that north chamber without having to fight Smaug and grab whatever that object was.
My imagination begins to run away with thoughts of mithril shirts, magic rings or, dare I think it, the Arkenstone. What could possibly be stashed away in the chamber behind a dragon’s chamber?
‘Probably something good,’ the burglar in me says ‘something shinny’.  Thoughts of leaving evaporate as I now start looking at ways to ‘Bilbo’ a trinket from Smaug and bring it back to my waiting company of dwarves.

Continued Here:
Angband: On the Doorstep pt. 3

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