Ronin the Daimyo       St:25 Dx:18 Co:18 In:18 Wi:18 Ch:18  Lawful
Astral Plane $:0  HP:386(401) Pw:109(109) AC:-19 Xp:22/20090459 T:
47275

Conducts: illiterate, genoless, polyselfless, artiwishless

This was my first samurai ascension, as well as my first illiterate
and first genoless conduct ascension. I haven't played lawful or
combat-focused characters before this, so lots of new experiences.
I want to thank David Damerell for his Object Identification Spoiler,
which I consult regularly in every game, but never as much as I did
for illiterate! The whole combination was quite fun to play. I got a
ridiculous number of wishes given that I couldn't recharge any /oW.

In all of my past ascensions I have read b?oGeno on Water for ; and
again on Astral for L, so I was a little apprehensive, but it turned
out they weren't as bad as I expected. I confess I got very lucky
with finding portals on the planes (given no ?oGD), though I did have
to visit all three altars to win.

[Screen shot and final stats are at the bottom, after the game
timeline
and "lessons learned" (my running notes during the game)]

GAME TIMELINE/NOTES

started as St:15 Dx:14 Co:18 In:13 Wi:7 Ch:8
found [oSpeed, +1 dwarven helm in DL2 armor shop
at Oracle: caught between 12 killer bees (level above), jaguar (level
below)
  ...in the red, but not quite enough to pray for healing
  ...managed to kill enough bees with yumi/ya to get +1 XL, bonus HP
  ...now is when we miss the E-word
Sokoban level 2: had just started a tricky set of moves...
  ...when *3* soldier ants appeared behind, cutting off only escape
  ...fortunately only one at a time (this was a close one)
  ...killed 1st, #pray for heal during 2nd, +1 XL bonus HP during 3rd
  ...and my reward? /oW (0:2)  woo hoo!  plus 2 tins of spinach, this
level
now with [oMR and SDSM (AC:-6, Str:18/04)
you'll never guess what I found on Sokoban level 3? yup, another /oW
(0:3)
  ...sad that I'm lawful/illiterate; PYEC will evade my grasp, no b?
oCharg
Sokoban was "oR version (can't have everything)
  ...off to the Mines with AC:-11, MR, reflection
Mines were uneventful
throne #2 gave a wish -- got (oH since I have most everything else
DL13 co-aligned temple priest gave AC +3 for first protection
all the way down to Medusa with *no* intrinsics (except initial speed)
  ...only two floating eyes (left no corpses), etc.
wow... the Medusa titan is peaceful
  ...first time with titan variant of Medusa as a lawful
back to stash to price-ID/behavior-ID stuff
  ...so far !oLev is my only way of crossing water
off to do a sacfest: ^magic in same room with altar on DL22
  ...WOULDN'T you know it: charismatic, magical explosion
  ...not a single creature to #offer
all the way back up to DL5: ^magic not too far from altar
  ...this one lasted longer; lots of potions etc., no crowning
  ...with no /oCrMon and no other ^magic, time to move on
after ID, we now have =oLev =oConf and [oJump
illiterate players do a lot more walking
this game has the most altars (5) and temples (4) I've ever seen
  ...not including Sanctum and Astral
invisible demilich at Medusa lets me dagger him to death, doesn't
move?
  ...turns out he was at a dead-end, next to a dart trap; wouldn't
cross it
was *carefully* approaching a mind flayer in a maze, intending ranged
attack
  ...stepped into line-of-sight to throw daggers, but he threw !oPara
first
  ...he had time to run up 5 squares, suck my brain once (no grease
yet)
finally got poison res., level above Castle (really, really late)
Medusa + mazes + Castle + VotD: went from XL12 to XL14 just by killing
  ...then VotD had 2 wraith corpses, so XL16
  ...met Yeenoghu at the VotD
this game has Ft. Ludios
  ...soldier had /oDeath, grabbed it after only 1 charge used
  ...so, this game had 6 thrones total; none gave ID (for luckstone)
  ...got more protection; wished for a touchstone (to ID luckstone)
another big sacfest
  ...finally got crowned (still didn't have fire/cold yet)
  ...only gave Snickersnee before /oCrMon ran out
  ...found "oESP; /oPoly netted us grease, stethoscope, tooled horn
time for the Quest
  ...ended up with 5 !oGL, around 25 !oEH: now XL:21 HP:306 AC:-20
  ...ninja (kunoichi) aren't too bad; joshu, ryoshu are tougher
     ...those are all samurai XP levels; see xplv-343.txt
     ...man, look at all the loot this quest yields
     ...especially wands; don't bother bringing attack wands next time
  ...quest nemesis died easily to /oDeath
     ...and then ninja in room grabbed the Tsurugi (whoops!)
     ...another /oDeath shot, just to be sure; the Tsurugi is mine
decided to ascend with the Tsurugi (rather than wish for Frost Brand)
  ...as illiterate, can't ?oEW -- looks like +0 Tsurugi does more
damage
thoroughly enjoyed my first lich beheading
  ..."teleport out of *that*, pal!"
Gehennom
  ...first time I'm not able to pay off the demon princes
     ...Asmodeus was wily: alternates /oFire /oCold and attacks
     ...trickier than usual to beat him to the upstair
     ...and: had a "oLS, so had to kill him twice
  ...this is turning out to be "the game of mazes and mind flayers"
     ...have seen 5 in mazes, so far; 2 at Orcus, 1 at Vlad
  ...Orcus, in one summon: two arch-liches, two master mind flayers,
     ...and two black dragons; one disintegrated Orcus (and his /
oDeath)
     ...well, that was exciting; Tsurugi-bisecting arch-liches FTW
     ...kept mind flayers at a distance this time
ascension preparation
  ...wasn't able to get intrinsic teleport control (peaceful tengus)
     ...first game not using teleportation at all; will ascend without
it
  ...the game didn't yield a single /oEnli !oEnli or throne/fountain
enli
     ...a lot of rings/amulets remained unIDed, but nothing crucial
ascension run
  ...greeted at Sanctum stair by arch-lich, master lich
     ...stood on stair and bashed them, but they summoned monsters
twice
     ...disenchanter trapped next to me did -1 to my [oMR (now AC:19)
     ...one of the monsters was cockatrice though
        ...lasted for the whole level; made tons of Sanctum statues
  ...greeted at Vibrating Square by arch-lich
     ...first time making one peaceful with blessed Book of the Dead
  ...tally of Rodney
     ...nervous T:45448 T:45614
     ...curse aura T:45851 (only got wands)
     ...force field 44->44 44->45
     ...nervous T:46068
     ...force field 31->32
     ...nervous T:46221
     ...curse aura T:46343 (got bag of holding, candelabrum)
     ...nervous T:46584 T:46637
     ...summoned T:46790
     ...greeting on Earth T:46880 (one shot /oDeath)
     ...reappeared on Air T:46970 (one shot /oDeath)
     ...curse aura @Astral T:47175 (only got wands)
  ...given that Lawful can get hit harder with force field, that was
lucky
planes
  Earth
    ...crystal ball worked first time; far upper-left corner
  Air
    ...took my time; =oConflict and tooled horn help as always
    ...got lucky and found the portal with first /oSDD zap
  Fire
    ...crystal ball worked first time, just like conf u?oGD
  Water
    ...first time not reading b?oGeno to kill eels etc.
       ...with greased [oMR, not as hard as I thought
    ...really lucky; again found portal with first /oSDD zap
  Astral
    ...first time not reading b?oGeno to kill liches
       ...made 3 arch-liches peaceful with Book of the Dead
    ...Famine's in the center
       .../oDeath, but wait, his medallion glows! that /oDeath now
empty
       ...snuck past him, but this altar is neutral; snuck past him
and out
    ...Book makes arch-liches peaceful, but they still teleport to you
       ...disadvantage, makes it harder to get around
    ...Death's on the left
       ...stethoscope: Death (neutral):  Level 36  HP 26(47)  AC -5
          ...wow, that's not many points; Tsurugi killed him in one
blow
       ...NUTS left is chaotic
       ...blocking exit: Richard the Arbalester: L 25 HP (193) AC -20
fast
          .../oTeleport away
    ...gonna have to take on Pestilence on the right
       ..."Eve the invisible Swashbuckler swings her [...] Vorpal
Blade"
          ...yikes. I wasn't the target; =oConflict for the win
       ...two /oDeath zaps, bouncing between angel and me
          ...that's a total of 6 beam transits, and they *all* missed
her
          ...used /oTeleport to get Eve away
       .../oDeath, but wait, Pesty's medallion glows! (unbelievable)
          ...second /oDeath kills him
       .../oTeleport and #jump up to the temple door
          ..."Dion the invisible Speleologist" blocks the door
          ...but the Tsurugi bisects him neatly, and we're in

LESSONS LEARNED

wear =oFA, if possible, before moving to mind flayer line-of-sight
  ...in case he has !oPara
when doing sacfest, check hunger (and eat) before #pray
  ...otherwise god may fix your hunger, and not give gifts
when playing illiterate, save and bring all ?oCrMon to sacfest
  ...leave them on the ground; monsters might read them for you? :-)
kill or lure out all other ninja in samurai quest nemesis' room
  ...otherwise, after /oDeath quest nemesis, another may wield the
Tsurugi
"huge" creatures that can't be bisected:
  ...Orcus, Geyron, Asmodeus, Demogorgon
  ...lurker above, trapper
  ...giants, ettin, titan
  ...giant eel, electric eel, kraken
  ...dragons (baby)
  ...nagas (adult)
"gigantic" creatures that can't be bisected:
  ...long worm, purple worm
  ...dragons (adult)

I'm not sure I consult it often but much of it is in my head.

A *blessed* scroll will identify the same amount as a throne; either
all your inventory, or up to 4 items.

An non-cursed scroll will behave like a blessed scroll only with a
1-in-5 probability, otherwise it will identify only a single item.

Also: Quaffing at a non-magic fountain can give enlightenment
(1/30 chance). (As David Damerell mentions in the ID spoiler,
enlightenment can help you ID worn amulets and rings.) Of
course, you also get a 1/30 chance of cursing things in your
inventory, so this doesn't seem worthwhile.

Sadly, in this my first illiterate game, I didn't find any
!oEnli or /oEnli and no throne gave an ID.

A few other misc. notes that weren't in the ID spoiler; first
two can be risky if you're not prepared for the consequences:

 - You can identify =oFA by hitting a gelcube or similar ("You
   stiffen momentarily.").

 - You can identify =oSD by the fact that purple worms, lurkers
   above, etc. will spit you out ("doesn't like your taste"). I
   have seen that message a lot, and it never dawned on me why
   (duh). TDTTOE

 - You can identify /oSDD by the fact that it's the only NODIR
   wand that produces no obvious effect. Kieron Dunbar's wand ID
   spoiler mentions this.

   1. Use the techniques described in the ID spoiler to identify
      other no-engrave wands like open, lock, etc. by zapping
      them at specific things.

   2. When zapping the no-engrave wands, watch for one that
      doesn't ask for a direction, and does nothing (meaning:
      does not produce any message or visible effect). That's
      /oSDD.