Etched in Water

Swan's Wing, by Ursula Synge
Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly
His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik
Owl in Love, by Patrice Kindl
Goblin War, by Jim C. Hines
Cloven Hooves, by Megan Lindholm
The Swan Kingdom
Priness Ben
Tea with the Black Dragon, by R. A. MacAvoy
Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart
The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
House of Many Ways, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, by Eva Rice
Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce

http://inspire.luquette.org/the_difference_between_strength_and_courage.htm

It's an interesting poem, but I'm really not so sure I like it. I can't quite see why it takes courage to be gentle or to be loved. If anything, it seems that loving is what requires courage. In loving, you're letting your guard down, even though you might be betrayed. . Being loved...seems more passive to me.

I keep on getting addicted to roleplay sites that are dying.

Also, the baby at < http://www.babyhomepages.net/?gclid=CP7P4tGz15QCFRIdagod8gUbkg > looks like a goblin. Don't ask me why. But he seems a lot like a cheerful Jig.

Minus the fangs.

I am calm. I am collected. I am not considering strangling a certain RPG admin for the fourth time this month. Maybe I ought to wait for the fifth time and then head over to bad_rpers_suck? I'm also starting to see why said roleplay site doesn't have many members. Maybe, I dunno, this is just a wild guess here, because the main admin has an ego the size of a Vogon highway? What he doesn't seem to realize is that people have feelings. Amazing, huh? So they might not take kindly to, say, him making fun of their stuff. There is nothing constructive about his criticism; it was sarcastic and useless considering that I was just the messenger.

And it was slightly hypocritical too, which is hilariously funny.

I would leave the site, except I need a new obsession first.

Three round trips to the library is my new record.

http://www.tomsmithonline.com/comedy/thing_in_the_crib.htm

I found the Wikipedia article on Nuala amusing. Maybe I just have an odd sense of humor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuala


Actually, Wikipedia can be rather funny. The Corinthian is described as an "eyeball afficionado".

Anyone else see the irony in experts in teaching people not to rely on experts?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKNKY3YXHEOS9W

There's going to some new Old Kingdom books soon! I wouldn't have found out about it if I hadn't been looking up information about Shade's Children on Wikipedia.

Clariel is Chlorr, and I have a feeling I'm going to like her and get horribly depressed every time I read Abhorsen again. I wonder...what would make an Abhorsen become a necromancer and then one of the Greater Dead?

Still two-ish more years to go. *sighs*

Also, there's going to be a book set after Abhorsen. I'm still hoping for Lirael and Nick to get together. And there'll be Mogget!

Also, Superior Saturday is out, and I'm pissed because it's been a month and I haven't read it yet. I just looked at the spoilers a few minutes ago.

I guessed right what Superior Saturday's sin would be back when Sir Thursday was coming out, which means I'm going to be smug and insufferable for the next hour or so. Not that it was that hard to guess.

I'm addicted to simulation games, especially if they have to do with evolution.

Games like SimEarth, Wolf, Lion, Eco, Creatures, and Princess Maker were all made when I didn't even know what evolution was.

I miss the Evolution Game from BBC; I'm sure I would have beaten it...eventually.

Eccky looks awesome, though. Now excuse me, as I go off to corrupt the young and innocent...

Ants have taken over the kitchen. They're everywhere:  the counter, the chopsticks, the wok, the table....I have become really good at killing the ones that climb onto me with my feet.

Garlic-flavored yogurt is disgusting. I can't think of garlic without wanting to vomit now.

I finally managed to get hold of Daughters of Darkness.

It was awesome. There was shin-kicking and soulmates, and shin-kicking of soulmates. I loved Mary-Lynette's initial reaction to Ash; she's so practical. She's sort of like Susan, minus the poker(and the Voice and the rat...) I couldn't stop giggling, at least in the first half.

The next three will be released in fall, so I'm going to be keeping an eye out for them. I didn't bother with the first and the third because they looked boring. I'm looking forward to The Chosen the most, just because I really want to see Quinn embarrassed. And Rashel seems like the sort of character I would like, since she's a vampire hunter and all.

The first two books of the Vampire Diaries got boring as soon as the true love stuff started. I expect I shall keep on reading to the end, but Elena was boring once she stopped being so self-absorbed. I like self-absorbed characters. ;_;

Also, Thalia in Codespell just rocks. I wish my grandmother was half as entertaining.

Blargh. Just blargh.

I'm afraid I'm going to puke all over the laptop.

The Summer Reading program starts tomorrow. All I have to do is read ten books to get a free one.

I hope they have some interesting books...

You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Anhur... An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance... The voice of Anhur booms: "Congratulations, mortal!" "In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!" You ascend to the status of Demigoddess...

Do you want your possessions identified? [ynq] (n)

Contents of the bag of holding:

an uncursed potion of healing
2 uncursed C-rations
2 uncursed K-rations
12 uncursed K-rations
a wand of death (0:7)
an uncursed magic whistle
an uncursed amulet of life saving
a blessed scroll of light
a blessed potion of healing
a wand of magic missile (0:6)
an uncursed scroll of teleportation
a potion of unholy water
an uncursed potion of extra healing
an uncursed potion of full healing
an uncursed diluted potion of extra healing
6 potions of holy water
8 blessed potions of extra healing
9 blessed potions of healing
a wand of lightning (0:2)
an uncursed amulet of life saving
a wand of fire (0:5)
an uncursed cockatrice egg named Betty (laid by you)
a wand of cold (0:7)
an uncursed cockatrice egg named Nym (laid by you)
a +0 unicorn horn
an uncursed cockatrice egg named Lyr (laid by you)
a wand of magic missile (0:6)
a wand of digging (0:5)
a wand of cold (0:7)
a wand of digging (0:4)
an uncursed scroll of stinking cloud
an uncursed amulet of life saving
a wand of magic missile (0:6)
a wand of fire (0:5)
a wand of magic missile (0:3)
a wand of striking (0:8)
an uncursed candy bar
an uncursed amulet of life saving
3 uncursed potions of full healing
a wand of create monster (0:13)
an uncursed scroll of scare monster
2 uncursed lembas wafers
an uncursed cockatrice egg named Dev (laid by you)
an uncursed cockatrice egg named 2 (laid by you)
an uncursed cockatrice egg named 1 (laid by you)
a +0 unicorn horn
a wand of teleportation (0:5)
a wand of magic missile (0:5)
a wand of magic missile (0:4)
a wand of digging (0:4)
a wand of teleportation (0:5)
a wand of cold (0:7)
a wand of sleep (0:2)
a wand of digging (0:8)
a wand of teleportation (0:7)
a wand of digging (0:4)
a wand of death (0:3)
2 cursed lizard corpses
2 cursed potions of full healing
4 uncursed lembas wafers
an uncursed candy bar
a wand of teleportation (0:6)
an uncursed diluted potion of paralysis
a cursed wand of teleportation (0:4)
a wand of teleportation (0:3)
a cursed wand of fire (0:0)
a cursed wand of teleportation (0:4)

Final Attributes:

You were the Glory of Arioch.
You were piously aligned.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were shock resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You were magic-protected.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You were warned.
You had infravision.
You were invisible to others.
You were stealthy.
You caused conflict.
You could teleport.
You had teleport control.
You were protected.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
You had free action.
Your life would have been saved.
You were very lucky.
You had extra luck.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You survived after being killed twice.

Vanquished creatures:

Baalzebub
Orcus
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (thrice)
Famine (twice)
8 arch-liches
a high priest
3 mastodons
Medusa
Croesus
16 krakens
7 iron golems
2 master liches
9 storm giants
2 titans
a glass golem
9 purple worms
4 gray dragons
13 silver dragons
8 red dragons
6 white dragons
6 orange dragons
10 black dragons
2 blue dragons
11 green dragons
7 yellow dragons
16 minotaurs
6 jabberwocks
The Dark One
11 baluchitheria
7 Angels
5 demiliches
Vlad the Impaler
6 stone golems
7 master mind flayers
19 Olog-hai
a Nazgul
3 pit fiends
a sandestin
a hell hound
16 titanotheres
6 trappers
a baby gray dragon
a baby white dragon
3 baby blue dragons
4 guardian nagas
4 vampire lords
a skeleton
4 shopkeepers
14 aligned priests
5 captains
6 shades
19 liches
a water troll
6 clay golems
4 nurses
4 ice devils
5 nalfeshnees
5 lurkers above
7 Aleaxes
a frost giant
6 ettins
a golden naga
20 black puddings
38 vampires
12 lieutenants
2 watch captains
30 ghosts
a cavewoman
a knight
a rogue
2 queen bees
10 winged gargoyles
6 mind flayers
7 giant mimics
8 zruties
16 fire giants
7 ogre kings
8 ice trolls
14 rock trolls
13 umber hulks
10 flesh golems
5 Elvenkings
4 doppelgangers
4 hezrous
9 bone devils
6 large mimics
a wumpus
7 fire vortices
a baby long worm
3 baby purple worms
10 long worms
14 couatls
21 stalkers
13 air elementals
13 fire elementals
5 earth elementals
3 water elementals
10 hill giants
5 giant mummies
5 black nagas
23 xorns
15 giant zombies
7 elf-lords
25 sergeants
a water demon
8 barbed devils
2 vrocks
4 salamanders
20 wargs
5 winter wolves
2 hell hound pups
26 small mimics
5 glass piercers
20 warhorses
4 steam vortices
15 xans
11 ettin mummies
3 ogre lords
10 quantum mechanics
33 trolls
5 sasquatches
2 wood golems
2 erinyes
4 mariliths
a djinni
8 sharks
8 electric eels
10 gelatinous cubes
7 pyrolisks
7 large dogs
8 freezing spheres
10 flaming spheres
13 shocking spheres
4 large cats
10 tigers
8 gargoyles
6 dwarf kings
23 tengu
21 ochre jellies
10 leocrottas
9 energy vortices
4 mountain centaurs
15 stone giants
11 elf mummies
5 human mummies
4 red nagas
6 green slimes
10 pit vipers
3 pythons
7 cobras
56 wraiths
6 carnivorous apes
22 ettin zombies
7 leather golems
5 Grey-elves
118 soldiers
3 watchmen
8 horned devils
5 succubi
8 incubi
8 chameleons
3 crocodiles
31 giant beetles
12 quivering blobs
33 cockatrices
25 wolves
18 winter wolf cubs
4 lynxes
8 panthers
49 gremlins
5 spotted jellies
13 leprechauns
11 orc-captains
11 iron piercers
5 mumakil
14 giant spiders
5 scorpions
13 horses
7 ice vortices
8 black lights
75 vampire bats
10 forest centaurs
14 gnome kings
6 orc mummies
8 dwarf mummies
4 ogres
12 brown puddings
18 rust monsters
22 owlbears
10 yetis
6 gold golems
3 werewolves
9 Green-elves
6 piranhas
27 giant eels
27 lizards
11 chickatrices
5 dogs
6 dingos
5 housecats
14 jaguars
12 dwarf lords
10 blue jellies
5 white unicorns
3 gray unicorns
5 black unicorns
6 dust vortices
23 ravens
17 plains centaurs
a Kop Kaptain
8 gnome mummies
8 snakes
2 water moccasins
5 apes
28 human zombies
3 rope golems
10 Woodland-elves
34 soldier ants
16 fire ants
41 bugbears
5 imps
4 lemures
12 quasits
10 wood nymphs
9 water nymphs
11 mountain nymphs
34 Mordor orcs
30 Uruk-hai
8 orc shamans
18 rock piercers
16 rock moles
6 ponies
13 fog clouds
20 yellow lights
6 shriekers
12 violet fungi
26 gnome lords
11 gnomish wizards
10 kobold mummies
2 red naga hatchlings
a black naga hatchling
a golden naga hatchling
2 guardian naga hatchlings
18 gray oozes
9 barrow wights
24 elf zombies
16 ghouls
3 straw golems
5 paper golems
9 jellyfish
5 baby crocodiles
49 giant ants
5 little dogs
27 floating eyes
8 kittens
23 dwarves
13 homunculi
6 kobold lords
11 kobold shamans
75 hill orcs
34 rothes
7 rabid rats
7 centipedes
22 giant bats
2 Kop Sergeants
5 monkeys
29 orc zombies
27 dwarf zombies
4 wererats
5 werejackals
27 iguanas
110 killer bees
7 acid blobs
7 coyotes
5 gas spores
7 hobbits
16 manes
6 large kobolds
47 hobgoblins
12 giant rats
19 cave spiders
3 brown molds
6 yellow molds
2 green molds
2 red molds
50 gnomes
5 Keystone Kops
30 garter snakes
20 gnome zombies
12 geckos
18 jackals
3 foxes
6 kobolds
19 goblins
12 sewer rats
34 grid bugs
20 bats
14 lichens
16 kobold zombies
14 newts

3489 creatures vanquished.


gremlins
disenchanters
vampire lords
jellyfish
piranhas
sharks
giant eels
electric eels
krakens

9 species genocided.

Voluntary challenges:

You genocided 9 types of monsters.
You used 8 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.

Goodbye Ferrous the Demigoddess...

You went to your reward with 4465854 points,
Magicbane (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
The Eye of the Aethiopica (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
       6 amulets of life saving (worth 900 zorkmids),
and 0 pieces of gold, after 80346 moves.
You were level 30 with a maximum of 504 hit points when you ascended.

 No  Points     Name                                                   Hp [max]
  1    4465854  Ferrous-Wiz-Elf-Fem-Cha ascended to demigoddess-hood. 504 [504]
  2    3904014  Noboru-Sam-Hum-Mal-Law ascended to demigod-hood.      204 [210]
  3    3395939  Nyni-Val-Hum-Fem-Law was poisoned on the Astral
                Plane.  Poisoned by Pestilence (with the Amulet).     208 [329]

I found an altar on the first level, which allowed me to get Magicbane early. That made the game way easier.

The rest of the game was uninteresting until the endgame.

The astral plane was...confusing. I forgot to put on my blindfold and check to see where the Riders were, and a lich of some sort decided to make my life difficult by summoning a bunch of monsters. I wandered around until I found a door, entered it, and found Famine. Fingered him twice and then tried to find the door to the temple. Unbelievably enough, it was the right altar the first time.

I feel sort of cheated, though, since I'd been extremely prepared for Pestilence. Wands of death out, 3 blessed potions of healing, the spell of cure sickness...This was a ridiculously easy ascension run(met the wizard three times, had six cursed potions of gain level, two handy genocide scrolls, Magicbane for the curses, Famine guarding the first altar which also happened to be the right one), so now I really want to do a harder one. Preferably one where I can face Pestilence.

I was too lazy to get screenshots of the inventory.

I don't remember the second death. The first was from the Big Room, when I was blinded and unable to Elbereth.

Second ascension this month! I could try and go for a third, but that way lies madness.
 
And yes, I named my cockatrice eggs.

I have a strange desire to shout out the f-word.

It's all that chain mail I've been sent.

The first one seems to be the horoscopes. 16-font, bolded blue letters really make me trust an email. Although the Aries one actually looks like it came from Wikipedia.

I SHALL STOP THIS CHAIN RIGHT HERE!

What saddens me is that people actually believe in chain mail; there are many, many names

And what makes me even sadder is that the person who sent me it actually sent this filth to a person she is just working on a project with. She doesn't even know that person. I feel like apologizing for her.

I find it amusing how the chain letter promises four years of bad luck to Libras who don't forward it and sixteen to Arien like myself.

The second one has me laughing out loud. It's unbelievably sappy. I wish I knew some boys' email addresses.

Wiz Elf Fem Cha Ciara,accidentally entered discovery mode.

Damn. That was a pretty good character, too. The first wizard I've gotten past Sokoban.

There goes two nights' work.

You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Amaterasu Omikami... An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...
The voice of Amaterasu Omikami rings out: "Congratulations, mortal!" "In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"
You ascend to the status of Demigod...
Do you want your possessions identified? [ynq] (n)

( Read more... )

I was ridiculously lucky in this game. Practically every amulet in Gehennom was an amulet of life saving, but I lost most of them thanks to the malignant aura cursing my bag of holding while I was levitating over water.

More importantly, I found two magic lamps and a wand of wishing in Sokoban.

Air was slightly troublesome without the Orb of Fate; I teleported away all the air elementals that got too close, but they still brought my HP down. Next time, I'm going to bring more wands of teleport and try to get my hands on a damage-reducing artifact if I can find one.

I used conflict on the Astral Plane. The angels sent after me weren't much trouble. They spent a lot of time hitting each other, and I was able to just walk past them and head for Famine's altar.

First altar I went to was the right one- how lucky was that? Especially since I had to use my last wand of death charge on the priest behind the boulder that blocked the door(my magic missile wands couldn't kill him, even after I used all of them). Famine was easy; the first time I got him, he'd already lost half of his HP. The second time, he died in two or three moves without any trouble.

Noboru means "to rise; to ascend". I was trying for irony.

I think I'll continue that boring valkyrie character currently hanging around the castle. It would be awesome to get two ascensions in one month.

Samurai character. Has killed the wizard, finished the invocation. Tons of spiffy stuff in his bag of holding- lots of healing potions, around five amulets of life savings, an amulet of magical breathing, a wand of death, holy water...

And then the wizard curses the bag of holding. Suddenly, he's overtaxed- and levitating over water. He can't do anything unless he puts that bag down- into the water. Now, he has several wands of cancellation, he just can't use them. So he does what he has to.

All that stuff. Gone. And the amulets of magical breathing, which would allow him to get that bag back? There's one on dungeon level five and another one inside that friggin' bag.

At least I still have three Amulets of Life Savings out.

And now he has a cursed blindfold over his eyes because he didn't have enough stuff. I'm out of uncursing stuff, so I'm going to have to use prayer...assuming that he makes it through Gehennom. I think there's still some stuff in the stash, but...I don't know if it'll be enough. My last character to get the amulet got pretty pummeled, and she had the Orb of Fate. This samurai has pretty low HP and AC that just keeps on going down...(First CoMR went poof, so I had to kill the priest of Moloch for it. Lost several points from that. And I don't know what happened after that, but now my AC went down from -20 to -19. Not. Good. Air Elementals are going to beat me up, even with conflict.)

Nothing to do about it now.

And the towel he had on also got cursed.

Lessons learned:
Bring lots of holy water.
Blindfold+Wizard=Inviting Trouble.
Keep some Amulets of Life Saving out. And an Amulet of Magical Breathing.
Get several Bags of Holding.
Avoid water as much as possible.

I'm taking a break now. The game is pissing me off, and anyways, there are gremlins about.

"Your sacrifice is consumed in a burst of flame! An object appears at your feet! The voice of Mars thunders, "Use my gift wisely!"
N- a runed broadsword named Stormbringer"

That was my first sacrifice in the /whole game/. I wonder if the fact that the sacrifice was a water troll had something to do wtih it...

http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/gamespotting/071103minusworld/1.html\

The most difficult MMORPG ever.