Mr Hawking: Part 1 - Running Away
The Amazing Adventures of Mr Hawking the Godless Spriggan Enchanter
Part One - Running Away
... in which we are introduced to our hero Mr Hawking and get to watch him run away from many an encounter.
Hello Mr. Hawking.
Mr. Hawking is a Level 1 Spriggan Enchanter.
Spriggans:
move two thirds faster than most and have seven magic resistance per level (not three), but can't wear most armour and have the lowest natural HP of any race
have bad aptitudes for melee skills (except short blades), but have enormous EV and are good at stealth, stabbing and related magics
cannot eat meat in any form (thus, no chunks), but they have a very slow metabolism. Their extreme herbivorousness helps in that it boosts the food value they get from their veggies.
would have wings if they could stop fucking badgers for like one minute
Enchanters are:
spellcasters that start with a Book of Charms, a short sword (dagger for spriggans), some darts, and some skill in Enchantments and Short Blades. They generally fight by incapacitating their enemies by casting Ensorcelled Hibernation or Confuse and then stabbing them.
Spriggan Enchanters are a fairly popular build. The engine that drives this build is the combination of confusion / sleep spells and a wonderful stabbing ability. Throughout this game Mr. Hawking will be confuddling enemies or putting them to sleep and then making sure they never wake up. When he meets enemies he can't confuse he will run. Luckily for him, Spriggans are also very fast.
The downside to Spriggans is that they are vegetarians. This of course also means they are weak, with bones like paper. Just like vegetarians in real life. To survive, Mr. Hawking will have to rely on his stealthiness, because he can't take a hit.
What a nice inventory you have there Mr. Hawking. He starts with the basics that Enchanters get (as noted above). He also starts with the potion of porridge. All Spriggans start with this odd potion, which provides a large amount of nutrition. It can be a lifesaver in the early game if you can't find food.
What nice skills you have Mr. Hawking. I leave short blades on for now to train it up a couple levels. I REALLY don't want Mr. Hawking to miss when standing beside a sleeping ogre. You only get one chance sometimes, you damn well better kill him.
I do turn off enchantments. That'll level quickly once Mr. Hawking starts spamming spells.
And he's off. This starting area is not nearly as interesting as Grog's.
Mr. Hawking encounters his first sleeping opponent, a rat. He stabs him. I love doing that.
Mr. Hawking steps onto a teleport trap. Stuff gets weird.
Teleport traps can be very dangerous for a guy like Mr. Hawking. He's still only level 1 with only 8 HP and he doesn't know what his escape routes are. The second picture is from later when he gets back to the teleport trap so that you see what it looks like.
Luckily he manages to kill some folk and find his way back to the main part of the map.
Mr. Hawking kills a goblin, levels up! A lot of his kills so far have been with darts. Mr. Hawking started with decent darts and with good throwing skill. It would be silly to waste that. The best kind of kill in this game is the one where you don't put yourself in danger.
Now that Hawking is level 2, it's time to learn a spell. Ensorcelled Hibernation puts his enemies to sleep and is a key early game spell for stabby Enchanters.
Ensorcelled Hibernation:
Can hibernate various monsters, making them very good targets for stabbing them to your hearts content. Also, it can be resisted several times. After you successfully hibernate a critter, it will resist further hibernation for a long time (might be around 20 turns). Only works on the living, and those who aren't cold-res -- try confuse instead.
This is why Ensorcelled Hibernation is a good spell. Mr. Hawking went from having a potentially dangerous enemy to having a sleeping practice dummy.
Mr. Hawking has moved into DL:2 when he levels up. He picks dexterity.
Mr. Hawking found a +2 elven buckler.
I'm not really sure what to do here. I did equip it but I'm not sure if it hurts his stabbing ability or if the survival factor makes it worth it. Until someone tells me otherwise he's going to use it.
Mr. Hawking takes a quick run down to DL:3 to scope things out. He meets the ghost of Reknor. Uh Oh. Ghosts can't be ensorcelled, and there's no telling what kind of ghost this is. Time to climb back up to DL:2.
Through a different entrance to DL:3, Mr. Hawking gets in trouble. He gets hungry. There is lot less available food for him than there was for Grog. Vegetarians can't cut up corpses and Mr. Hawking still hasn't found any vegetables. He does have the potion of porridge, but he's going to save that for an emergency. For now he'll just have to be careful with the spells and keep his eyes open for sources of nutrition.
Mr. Hawking meets Reknor again. He allows himself to escape by casting hibernation on a cockroach that blocks Reknor's path.
This was very close to a deadly situation. The snake was right on top of Mr. Hawking before he was able to Hibernate it, and because of how fast snakes move escape isn't always an option. Luckily he was able to stab it.
Beyond the immediate danger of the snake is another problem - he is now
Very Hungry.
Mr. Hawking is rewarded for all this though, with the wand that is lying on the ground. It turns out to be a wand of digging, which may help with an escape down the road, and which will come in handy in the Orcish Mines if he gets that far.
Near starving... No choice... Mr. Hawking isn't willing to die from starvation in the dungeon...
He quaffs the potion of porridge and hopes that he can find food quickly.
It's Reknor again! Time to scram from this level Mr. Hawking. He dives to DL:4.
Oh shit. That wasn't a good dive.
He takes one hit from the Orc Wizard but Mr. Hawking escapes up the stairs and manages to avoid Reknor's ghost. He goes through a different staircase and continues to explore DL:4.
The very same Orc Wizard Mr. Hawking was trying to avoid ends up cornering him in the corridor. Mr. Hawking is in a very dangerous spot. He can't run because the wizard will spam spells at him, but can he kill him? If the hibernation spell doesn't work, he's in real trouble.
Phew.
DL:4 is clear so Mr. Hawking checks out DL:5. He encounters another orc wizard. Bah. At least they're not Orc Priests. Gotta look on the bright side.
Elsewhere on DL:5, a hound skeleton. You can't use hibernation on the undead but the hound isn't overly dangerous so Mr. Hawking will be ok for now. One cool thing about undead monsters in this game is that you don't get any idea of what their health is like. They're either living (kinda) or dead.
Oh no. This is a really bad spot. A Killer Bee Zombie and behind him an Orc Wizard.
The killer bee zombie can't be sleep stabbed and he's providing protection for the Wizard. It's time to get the hell out of here, but how? Mr. Hawking isn't even close to an exit.
A potion of haste and a lot of luck saved the day. (This was by far the closest Hawking got to death. If that was a priest instead of a wizard he would be dead.)
Mr. Hawking runs all the way back to DL:3 with almost no health left and rests it out.
We're going to leave him for the moment - I need to figure out where to go from here.
***
What god should I pick at the Temple? We should be there fairly soon.