Rawlin fights a dragon
Oct. 13th, 2025 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeMori: in hack103, of course!
We each have our preferred Hack classes. Rawlin likes the wizard.
Now, wizards are tricky. They have a stupid high strength stat, way higher than the knight’s, but no weapons or food, and barely any armor. They get a bunch of magical items, none identified, and maybe they’ll be amazing... or maybe you’ll have a wand of light and a wand of secret door detection and have to beat monsters to death with your bare (yet surprisingly buff) wizard hands.
This started as a punching run. Bad luck. But Rawlin got surprisingly lucky and managed to find a fair number of throwing weapons. Mostly crappy ones, darts and rocks, but then she got a flail and started whipping ass.
She also lucked into a couple good stores with the money to get what she needed. Armor achieved! Sword achieved! Food achieved! Wands... okay, her wands were still shit like “make monster invisible” but you can’t have everything.
Rawlin, I’ve discovered, is a way more cautious, patient player than I am. When she learned what the wand was (by accidentally making a cockatrice invisible), she immediately teleported out and left the level. (Obviously it was the right move but it’s one I’m REALLY bad at. What if there’s a wand of wishing in that level???)
It’s been a long time since we played a Wizard and gotten anywhere. We remembered that they can teleport on command earlier than any other class (at experience level 7, rather than 10) but otherwise? Not much. So it was really cool to learn, thirty YEARS into playing Hack, that apparently wizards also eventually gain a skill to perceive monsters nearby, even if they’re on another side of a wall and not in view! How cool is that? Are there other high level skills you can gain? Holy shit! This game keeps on giving!
Rawlin, through canny strategy, managed to obtain freeze resistance, which we usually struggle to obtain. (Good thing too; freezing spheres are EVERYWHERE this run, more common than orcs or killer bees, and Rawlin can just totally ignore them. Gotta look into eating more freezing spheres.) Poison resistance cost her quite a bit (in Hack103, poison permanently lowers your strength stat) but what can you do. She lucked into a ring of fire resistance, and immediately put it on. Good thing too because... DRAGON!
Dragons are among the most important monsters in Hack. Not just because they are wicked tough (though they are) and not JUST because they are the one monster with a ranged attack (fire) that is completely unaffected by writing Elbereth on the floor... but because one of your major goals of the game is to kill a dragon AND EAT IT. Because while eating a freezing sphere makes you cold resistant, eating a DRAGON makes you fire resistant, and when the whole point of the game is fucking off to Hell, fire resistance is a MUST. A ring can be stolen or fall off (god, the idea of eating salmon in Hell, only to have your rings slip off so you burn to death... that’s a very Hack death), but once you eat a dragon, you’re golden. Ain’t no one stealing that meat out of your guts!
Rawlin was already running away, because the level was full of tough monsters that combine badly. And so she flees into a room, only to discover: an umber hulk (tough), a purple worm (tough), a dragon (OH NO), and my ghost (gee, can’t imagine how I got there).
Hack is turn based. Nothing moves til you do. Rawlin’s low on health, has one move free before she gets swamped. What should she do: drop her (flammable) wizard scrolls, or write Elbereth (which won’t stop dragon fire)?
She drops her scrolls, and just in time. The dragon fires at her. THEN she writes Elbereth.
Then SHE FUCKING SAVED AND WENT TO BED. HOW DARE SHE DO THIS TO ME. THERE’S A DRAGON. AAAAAAAH.
Rawlin: it was past two in the morning. I’m not fighting a dragon in that condition.
Mori: DYING. DYING OF SUSPENSE.
Rawlin: I think I will sit on my scrolls and Elbereth and let the dragon clear the room with fire. It will be a challenge alone; I’d rather not deal with an umber hulk, a purple worm, an ettin, AND a nurse on top of it. I have plenty of food; I can sit and wait until my health is better (and the monsters are burnt) and deal with it then.
Mori: hope my ghost gives you good shit, at least.
We each have our preferred Hack classes. Rawlin likes the wizard.
Now, wizards are tricky. They have a stupid high strength stat, way higher than the knight’s, but no weapons or food, and barely any armor. They get a bunch of magical items, none identified, and maybe they’ll be amazing... or maybe you’ll have a wand of light and a wand of secret door detection and have to beat monsters to death with your bare (yet surprisingly buff) wizard hands.
This started as a punching run. Bad luck. But Rawlin got surprisingly lucky and managed to find a fair number of throwing weapons. Mostly crappy ones, darts and rocks, but then she got a flail and started whipping ass.
She also lucked into a couple good stores with the money to get what she needed. Armor achieved! Sword achieved! Food achieved! Wands... okay, her wands were still shit like “make monster invisible” but you can’t have everything.
Rawlin, I’ve discovered, is a way more cautious, patient player than I am. When she learned what the wand was (by accidentally making a cockatrice invisible), she immediately teleported out and left the level. (Obviously it was the right move but it’s one I’m REALLY bad at. What if there’s a wand of wishing in that level???)
It’s been a long time since we played a Wizard and gotten anywhere. We remembered that they can teleport on command earlier than any other class (at experience level 7, rather than 10) but otherwise? Not much. So it was really cool to learn, thirty YEARS into playing Hack, that apparently wizards also eventually gain a skill to perceive monsters nearby, even if they’re on another side of a wall and not in view! How cool is that? Are there other high level skills you can gain? Holy shit! This game keeps on giving!
Rawlin, through canny strategy, managed to obtain freeze resistance, which we usually struggle to obtain. (Good thing too; freezing spheres are EVERYWHERE this run, more common than orcs or killer bees, and Rawlin can just totally ignore them. Gotta look into eating more freezing spheres.) Poison resistance cost her quite a bit (in Hack103, poison permanently lowers your strength stat) but what can you do. She lucked into a ring of fire resistance, and immediately put it on. Good thing too because... DRAGON!
Dragons are among the most important monsters in Hack. Not just because they are wicked tough (though they are) and not JUST because they are the one monster with a ranged attack (fire) that is completely unaffected by writing Elbereth on the floor... but because one of your major goals of the game is to kill a dragon AND EAT IT. Because while eating a freezing sphere makes you cold resistant, eating a DRAGON makes you fire resistant, and when the whole point of the game is fucking off to Hell, fire resistance is a MUST. A ring can be stolen or fall off (god, the idea of eating salmon in Hell, only to have your rings slip off so you burn to death... that’s a very Hack death), but once you eat a dragon, you’re golden. Ain’t no one stealing that meat out of your guts!
Rawlin was already running away, because the level was full of tough monsters that combine badly. And so she flees into a room, only to discover: an umber hulk (tough), a purple worm (tough), a dragon (OH NO), and my ghost (gee, can’t imagine how I got there).
Hack is turn based. Nothing moves til you do. Rawlin’s low on health, has one move free before she gets swamped. What should she do: drop her (flammable) wizard scrolls, or write Elbereth (which won’t stop dragon fire)?
She drops her scrolls, and just in time. The dragon fires at her. THEN she writes Elbereth.
Then SHE FUCKING SAVED AND WENT TO BED. HOW DARE SHE DO THIS TO ME. THERE’S A DRAGON. AAAAAAAH.
Rawlin: it was past two in the morning. I’m not fighting a dragon in that condition.
Mori: DYING. DYING OF SUSPENSE.
Rawlin: I think I will sit on my scrolls and Elbereth and let the dragon clear the room with fire. It will be a challenge alone; I’d rather not deal with an umber hulk, a purple worm, an ettin, AND a nurse on top of it. I have plenty of food; I can sit and wait until my health is better (and the monsters are burnt) and deal with it then.
Mori: hope my ghost gives you good shit, at least.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 02:44 am (UTC)AAAAAAAAH
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 03:09 pm (UTC)My goal is to find the minotaur of the level, defeat him, take his wand of digging, and then use it to find the hidden wand of wishing in the level, so as to procure some final items for endgame. I am in good shape, but I would rather play safe and procure more reliable items for that final challenge.
If I make it to Yendor, it will be my first time fighting him. Let’s see what today’s play brings!
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 03:11 pm (UTC)