YAAP

I worked on this character for about a week. Another Elvish Chaotic Wizard (they are my favourite!). I actually didn't think I was going to be able to pull this off, especially after I found Famine and Death and neither had the right altar, but I was generating conflict and I broke a couple of wands of teleportation to get to my altar and voila:

Goodbye Gitsnik the Demigod...

You went to your reward with 4504272 points,
The Eye of the Aethiopica (worth 4000 zorkmids and 10000 points)
The Book of the Dead (worth 10000 zorkmids and 25000 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
Stormbringer (worth 8000 zorkmids and 20000 points)
Sunsword (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points)
Werebane (worth 1500 zorkmids and 3750 points)
Trollsbane (worth 200 zorkmids and 500 points)
Sting (worth 800 zorkmids and 2000 points)
Magicbane (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
The Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
14 amethyst stones (worth 8400 zorkmids),
12 emeralds (worth 30000 zorkmids),
7 diamonds (worth 28000 zorkmids),
7 rubies (worth 24500 zorkmids),
4 dilithium crystals (worth 18000 zorkmids),
4 jacinth stones (worth 13000 zorkmids),
3 jet stones (worth 2550 zorkmids),
3 chrysoberyl stones (worth 2100 zorkmids),
3 obsidian stones (worth 600 zorkmids),
2 black opals (worth 5000 zorkmids),
2 turquoise stones (worth 4000 zorkmids),
2 citrine stones (worth 3000 zorkmids),
2 topaz stones (worth 1800 zorkmids),
2 opals (worth 1600 zorkmids),
2 jade stones (worth 600 zorkmids),
1 sapphire (worth 3000 zorkmids),
1 garnet stone (worth 700 zorkmids),
1 fluorite stone (worth 400 zorkmids),
1 agate stone (worth 200 zorkmids),
3 amulets of life saving (worth 450 zorkmids),
1 amulet of reflection (worth 150 zorkmids),
and 0 pieces of gold, after 65481 moves.
You were level 25 with a maximum of 359 hit points when you ascended.

Actually I think this might have been my lowest ascension points, and I didn't die once (You Survived).

So, from the top:

I got all the way down to the quest with no issues. A disproportionate amount of graveyards were hanging around though, so I ate enough wraith corpses to get me in. I got my cloak to +5 and fireproofed some speed boots I found in a shop after I'd smacked a shopkeeper good for over charging me. I ignored most of mine town, snaffled my luckstone from the bottom and descended as far as I could. I forgot sokoban so I jumped back up and did that (amulet of reflection) then wandered around for a while whaling on everything I could get to trying to get my points up.

Killed the Dark One, stole the Bell and the Eye and then dumped some titan corpses on the altar and converted. I figured from here on in it wasn't going to be a big issue as I had already entered my quest, but I got lucky and conversions were had. I would branchport back to this altar a few times during the game, so I locked the door and made sure I blocked the other side with boulders just in case.

I got crowned, and polypiled some magic markers and a ring of levitation. I also learned Cone of Cold which would have made the ring of levitiation moot, but I prefer to fly to pretending I'm Jesus. I killed Medusa with a Finger of Death (received around the same time as I got crowned. I just stood there casting create monster for a while) and immediately below her is the castle. I snuck around the back, killed the dragons, scored some SDSM and [oD to raise my dexterity with. I drained my magic markers writing charging and enchant armour scrolls - fireproofd my gauntlets and got them to +1, and my SDSM created and to +3. I saved the markers - later I might be able to poly pile them.

I stood at the back door entrance to the throne room and whaled on anyone I didn't like, dumping troll corpses on the other side of the traps so I could deal with them later if necessary. I got another genocide out of the throne (previously genociding L and h with markers, high luck and some scrolls) and wiped out cockatrices as I'd been nervous twice now (started the game on a new moon) and hadn't seen a lizard corpse recently.

Wishing from the wand was difficult to choose, but I ended up with some armour (cornathaum - wizards hat), a blessed magic marker, some potions of gain level and a bag of holding. I wouldn't see another bag until the very bottom of hell (though I didn't know it) so I needed it. I saved the rest of the wishes for later, not having any pressing need for them now.

The valley of the dead was time consuming, but no problem, I was worried about not having fire resistance and was deep in thought the whole way through the valley, until I realised crowning would have given it to me. Happy at the thought, I gave all my gold to the priest of Moloch, then killed him and stole it back. He hadn't granted me any protection anyway.

I was a bit slack on the way down, I payed off both Asmodeus and Beelzebub. Jubilex actually posed me a problem - when I entered his swamp I realised instantly where I was and ran back upstairs. I could have burned a wish on a spellbook of cure sickness (or just used my Unicorn Horn) but I wanted to be sure. Levelporting back up to 17 courtesy a cursed scroll of teleportation, and sacrificing until four leaf clovers were all around my feet, I used the last of magic marker writing the spellbook.

Things were fairly quiet from there on in - Orcus was easier this time once I remembered I could teleport him off the upstair before he escaped, so that was good. No charges in his wand of death though. No matter because I had the finger anyway.

I noticed Vlad's upstair around Level 40, but as I was clearing out monsters I must have destroyed a boulder, covering it in rocks. It took me about an hour to figure out which floor I was meant to be on, and where the stupid upstair was. I quickly shot upstairs, over abusing the finger of death (giant beetles are annoying!) and picking up the [oWW and "oLS before beating up his un-holiness for the Candelabrum.

Down to level 47 where I found the vibrating square - marking it by surrounding it with daggers, then back up to kill the wizard. I made some choices before I did this, killed some wraiths, burnt some wishes on armour and markers and scrolls, and got my AC to -30. I would have risked running it higher, but I've never had luck with going beyond the +3 mark (or +5 on the hat) so I just left them where they were: +4, or +5 with no intrinsic. If all else fails I have the protection spell anyway. I branchported back to the altars I remembered and polypiled most of my excess tools and books and scrolls looking for good loot (I got *one* magic marker for about 2 hours of polypiling) which I used to write scrolls of gold detection for later (I actually still had charges in my blessed magic marker, but had it stashed in the sack instead of the bag of holding, so I forgot about it). I wished for Stormbringer because Anhur was having a possessive day and wouldn't give it to me then wandered beating up on mastadons and minotaurs until I was ready to enhance the skill. My final wish from my second wand of wishing was for 2 blessed potions of gain level. Getting my to 23 and enhancing most of my skills as far as they would go.

Phew. Off to kill the Wizard, the terrible Wizard of Yendor.

The wizard woke up before I was finished clearing his moat, so I had to deal with him setting his pets on the thief. The bastard stole my eye too, so I had to watch my spells. I beat him with Stormbringer until he gave it back. Then grabbed his stuff and level ported with my last cursed teleport scroll. Open the portal to the inner sanctum, and sneak along. I cleared the first graveyard with little worry, swapping to Magicbane for most of it after my bag of holding was unblessed and nearly killed me - Magicbane protects about 90% of the time against the random cursings that carrying the book of the dead does to you.

I beat up everyone I could, having only one problem with a priest and an amulet of reflection, then stole the Amulet of Yendor, called it REAL, and ran screaming into the night.

Well maybe not the night, I ran up the stairs.

I got all the way to the top with minor issues - at one point I couldn't get upstairs for a while due to the stupid mysterious force, but it wasn't a problem - not meeting the Wizard once, then checked my stuff, dumped the last of my now useless gold (I do it for the fun not the points) and headed to the plane of Earth.

Killed the Wizard, drank a potion of gain level to get me to 25 and supplement the one wraith who dropped an edible corpse when I was practising with Stormbringer, and cast "Charm Monster" to confuse myself. I never use that spell, it's usually the one I use to confuse myself after I have forgotten it. Scroll of Gold Detection reveals the portal, a few wands of digging get me there. Ring of levitation on just before I jump in, and swap all my digging wands for teleportation wands.

The plane of air was scary, I was levitating, generating conflict, casting finger of death and zapping teleportation wands everywhere and still I almost died. I had to break a wand of teleportation to get away.

Plane of Fire had the portal really quite close to me, and a single teleportation zap was necessary to get rid of the only fire elemental that got close to me. Plane of Water was a bit of a yawn, I spotted something going in to the portal and ran up to it, swapping levitation for Slow Digestion, and removing my Conflict ring just in time.

The Astral plane was a strange experience this run, it was both harrowing and relatively easy. I started on the right, so figured I'd just go with it, it was only Famine anyway and he fell pretty quick to my Finger of Death. The Angel of Anhur turned out to be useless, so I just slapped my ring of conflict back on and let them duke it out amongst themselves. Mostly up there I just used my wands of teleportation, resorting to Finger of Death when it was necessary to kill a rider anyway. I got into the temple to find it was the wrong one. Great.

Famine blocked me on the way out, and a couple of A's, so I teleported him out of the way (knowing full well how the programming works, he couldn't have shown up close enough), then magic missiled and magicbaned my way back out.

The scariest moment of the game happened when I found myself locked in the lowest corridor staring right into the jaws of death. Or at least the rider anyway. Finger of Death wouldn't help here, teleportation was useless. I checked my inventory for something to help me, but most of my wands were empty. I was panicking, worried that he would remove most of my HP and force me way down. I put on my towel to check everyone else's location, only to get really nervous when I saw Famine just on the other side of the corridor entry.

Then I noticed a Knight coming up behind him and I remembered something about Knights and Magic Missile - which connected the right dots in my head and I readied my spells.

The magic missile hit, bounced off the back wall, and then killed Death in one spell. Oh fuck yeah.

I fought my way up to the central altar and again, it was the wrong fucking one. I got lucky on the way back down, enough monsters were blocking the entrance that Death and Famine had to duke it out on their own. I ran.

Pestilence fried under a finger of death, conflict dealt with most of the beings and teleportation dealt with the rest. I made a dive for the altar, only to realise I wasn't entirely certain - remember last time when I escaped in celestial disgrace! - so I chatted to the priest, careful to make sure my bloodthirsty blade didn't want to say hi. She offered me two bits for an ale, and I stepped back onto the altar, sacrificed the Amulet of Yendor named REAL, and basked in the glory of my demigod hood.

Next challenge is to ascend a different class - I'm thinking a Healer of an Archaeologist. Neither race have I ascended before.

But first, help Alicia now that I've got her playing the game. Of which I am amazingly pleased.