Story Time

[kennfusion]

Someone mentioned in a thread on touch arcade that although they have been playing Roguelikes forever, they have never "won". I am the same. Playing without cheats, I have never won. I think that is why I have been playing them for 20 years. But misery likes company and I think we need a story thread, so I am starting one.


Today Kennfusion thought it might be possible to finally get that damn amulet and get out. Early on he found both a ring of retain strength and a ring of protect armor (forget the actual names). Since by the time Kennfusion usually arrives in Troll/Chimera land he usually is under 10 strength and all his armor has been acid blasted to hell and back, this was a nice change.

As you would guess, snakes and aquator's be damned, Kennfusion rolled right by you. The problem was food. By floor 14, he had only found 3 food at that point, and although he was only putting the rings on when he actually had to, he was finally starting to feel faint when a Troll showed up for the party a little earlier than would have been liked. With nothing to confuse or hold the Troll and down to 23 hp's, and unsure if he had 1 or 2 more hits left before the Troll ate him, Kennfusion turned to his one and only option...an unknown staff in his inventory. Stealing himself for the death that was probably due him, Kennfusion held the staff in front of him and invoked its power. A bright flash of light blinded Kennfusion momentarily and where the Troll had been standing, there was suddenly some food. Not sure what to make of this, and starving, Kennfusion did not ask questions but feasted on the banquet before him. Surprising though, the staff still did not seem to brand itself with an arcane name.

Not long after he came across a scroll of identify which led him to understand that he had a staff of Cornucopia with a whopping 8 charges left.

With staff in hand, and a nice +1/+1 two handed sword he found not long after, Kennfusion made his way down to level 21, carving through Trolls and then Medusa. But alas, he got cornered by 2 Chimera, and the staff was depleted. RIP....yet again....

[CommanderData]

I love it! That story made my morning... Please, anyone that feels like they want to share a little Rogue Touch gaming experience here in a colorful way, do so! If we can get this thread to snowball a bit I'll make it a permanent sticky

[Zakia]

Today Kennfusion thought it might be possible to finally get that damn amulet and get out. Early on he found both a ring of retain strength and a ring of protect armor (forget the actual names).

Ring of Sustain strength: Keeps your strength from draining via poison, dart traps, and snake bites.
Ring of Maintain Armor: Keeps your Armor protected from Aquator attacks and rust traps.

My small story:
I have had some memory issues that kept me from playing Nethack, as much as I loved the concept. I came upon RT, and it was so much more manageable, I was estatic. I found a +5 +5 Two-Handed sword in V1 and used it to epicly win the game.

[shadowspawn]

Like Kennfusion, my characters often suffer strength and armor disasters. One sorry individual actually explored a whole level with strength 3 before a pitiful end.

Tonight I was looking good. An early test use of a wand polymorphed a leprechaun into a vampire and gave me a nasty fright, but a further application of the wand produced a bat, so no damage done. Saved my scrolls, so when I found some +3 leather armor I had 2 scrolls of enchant armor in my backpack, and soon found two more. I sensed some powerful magic, and found a shiny +2,+2 blessed long sword which I was able to buff up to +4,+2. Rings were looking good, +3 strength, +3 damage, preserve strength. With two rings deployed fulltime I was ravenous and gobbling a food per level, but amazingly still had 8 food in my backpack. With a potent blessed weapon I made brutally short work of zombies and wraiths. Feeling confident. About level 15 my luck turned and I fell through 3 trapdoors in quick succession. Suddenly I was feeling a little light in the experience department for the serious levels, and with no useful items beyond sword and armor and rings. I tiptoed about in some trepidation waiting to see how I fared against the serious monsters. First up was a troll: no worries, quick victory, I rock! Second up was a griffin. No choice but to step up and slug it out. An exchange of meaty blows. I am sure I would have killed it with just one more swing or a slighty better dodge... but received a foul mortal blow (to -1). Curses. Now my top 5 honest characters have all fallen to griffins!!

My most exciting dungeon run was with the now defunct CD special character. I had a strong starting character, acquired a backpack full of items, and used everything. Paralysis potions and teleportation scrolls to escape from tight spots and run and recover. Cancellation wands to neutralise Medusa and Vampire. Slow wands to get the upper hand against griffin and jabberwocky. Touch and go against my first ever dragon, but killed it while on 1 hp. The wildest fight was with a medusa. The medusa landed some heavy damage and I was at risk of death from a single blow, when in addition the medusa confused me. In desperate retaliation, I used a wand of confusion on the medusa, and we stumbled around in a large room for some time with occasional random hits before both recovering within a round of each other, and I got in the first and fatal blow.

[BTA]

I've been playing for only a few days, but I have several stories to share.

I was just exploring the dungeon, when I stumbled upon some shurikens. I equipped them so I could throw them faster, only to find that they were cursed. Several minutes later, slimes have cornered me and I'm stuck throwing arrows at them. XD

Earlier, I found out I had equipped a ring of teleportation... I'm pretty sure it was cursed, but I don't quite remember. I teleported in front of a Venus Fly Trap, and I was about to die. Threw my last potion, and... KABOOM, it explodes. Got killed by a troll after that though.

And finally, I found a Wand of Polymorph. That was fun. Till I tested it on an Ice Monster. Dragon on floor 1.

EDIT: Similar to the shurikens, I accidentally equipped cursed darts. Managed to polymorph a troll I saw, and the aquator on my tail didn't do much since I had a ring of maintain armor, but I was still eventually killed while throwing weapons at enemies.

On the dungeon I'm currently in, I got a scroll of identify, and asked my friends whether to ID a staff or a potion. They said the staff. It was a Staff of Nothing.

[kennfusion]

Yesterday Kennfusion was raiding what must have been some sort of Gem Mine, as there were rings all over the place. Moving down to the mid teens, Kennfusion had at least 6 different rings, but unfortunately not enough scrolls of identify to figure them all out. But the ring of protection and the ring of searching he kept switching out, as he felt that they were making him hungry, so he only wore them when he needed them.

But he must have also been tired, because at one point, with a Centaur barreling down on him, he went to put on the ring of protection and suddenly the Centaur was also enraged, Kennfusion must have put on one of the unknown rings by accident. Still, the centaur was dispatched and Kennfusion proceeded on his way but now with hordes of monsters coming at him all enraged from all sides. This wore him out enough that he accidentally put on another unknown ring...but he could not figure out what it did at first. Wandering around he came across his first Troll. As he threw daggers at it from across the room, it closed in on him and just as it reached him a Phantom also hit him from some unknown side. Kennfusion had dropped his HP in half almost instantly....but then suddenly he teleported to another room across the floor. Ohhhh, the ring! the Ring! It is a ring of teleportation!

Of course, teleporting around is nice when it helps you escape, but of course when monsters are gathering on each floor in an enraged state, eventually this is going to get you caught in a bad trap. And about 2 floors down he teleported into a monster nest! Ouch!

[farnsworthiness]

So there was Bilbo, trying to slowly make his way through the depths and find his precious ... amulet. He'd made it pretty far through the depths seething with bad creatures, though each level was made by the skin of his teeth. Wisely, he stashed away every magical item he could while at the upper levels, saving them all for when the need was most dire. By about level 10, his pack was bursting with potions of clairvoyance and scrolls of teleportation, not to mention several wands that flamed, granted invisibility or provided a cornucopia.

Sometime about that point, he had lucked into a two handed sword and plate mail. The sword was bigger than he was and the armor had an unfortunate accident with an aquator, but it was better than anything he had found to that point. After wiping a spot of rust from the breastplate, he continued onward. After a level, he chugged down several potions that seemed to give him a better workout than he was getting from lugging around that bulging pack of goodies. Turning a corner into a darkened room, he spied a parchment . Crossing his fingers, he mumbled the words on the sheet. Immediately, that dragon sticker he was carrying flashed with a brilliant light. "Hot damn", Bilbo exclaimed. As he looked up and down the glowing sword, he uttered, "Wonder what this does now?". As if in reply, the sword shot out a blast of energy which spectacularly collided with a distant wall. "$#!*", Bilbo exclaimed as he peered in the direction that the sword shot. Turning the sword over, he spied the words: "YETI-POKER. GOOD FOR ONE (1) FREE KILL. NO MULLIGANS". "$#!* $#!* $#!*!!!", Bilbo cursed. Muttering to himself, he continued down a set of stairs.

At the landing of the staircase, Bilbo took a step forward, only to have the floor give way like the scene from "Money Pit". "$#!*!!!", he cried as he plummeted downwards. Waiting at the next floor was a wraith who lept out of the shadows crying out: "I've got you now John Sheppard!!!" Upon seeing Bilbo the wraith stopped, looked curiously at the hobbit and said, "Wait, you're not from Atlantis... But you'll do." "Oh crap", replied Bilbo as the wraith thrice sucked the life out of him. With a weak swing at the wraith, the hobbit dispatched him and gained a bit of that experience back. "Oh well", said Bilbo as he strode down a torchlit hall. This is turning out to be quite a crappy expedition for a ri...amulet.

With a bit of luck, Bilbo dispatched a few more weak badguys before falling down through several yawning pits in the floor. As he finally landed near level 18, he dusted off his rusty plate and peered around into the dark. Thinking to himself, 'This isn't going to be fun at all', he looked over his shoulder and suddenly remebered the pack of goodies he'd been saving since level one. As a troll and a ur-vile barged into the room, all poor Bilbo could think of was food. "My this ring of maintain armor, +3 damage and ring of protection just give me the damndest appetite! I already had second breakfast, but what shall I do for brunch?" Inspiration struck him and he used his staff of cornucopia to smite the monsters, leaving a banquet fit for a squad of grown men or a single hobbit. A trailing griffin also fell to the staff, leaving a single piece of stale burnt toast where the monster once stood. "Ha!" cried Bilbo as he gathered up the food. "I shall never be hungry again!"

He was still gloating to himself a level later when he encountered another griffin. Gleefully, he waved the staff of cornucopia at the griffin. The staff gave a weak little fizzle as it touched the fearsome monster, who smirked and promptly ate the fat hobbit. A muffle "Oh $#!*" was the last thing anyone ever heard of old Bilbo.

This old hobbit ain't coming back.

[MikeB]

Feyrollo smiled to himself. After all these times, after so many years, he had him. He had never defeated Treplac The Enigmatic, after facing off so many times. But now, he had his old Mage Academy colleague, and there would be no escape. He finally would win a chess game, after 23 years of playing at in the shadow-soaked study of Lycaceum Archives.

Treplac grimaced slightly and rubbed a finger against his cheek. The mage's odd silver eyes scanned his deteriorating chessboard army, looking for some recourse. He sighed and finished off his iron goblet of mead, with a single gulp. As he set down the goblet, an animated skeleton, dressed in an Academy Livery, shambled from the doorway, and quietly refilled the goblets of the old colleagues.

Treplac noticed Feyrollo's sardonic grin. "You may carry the day for once, my friend."

"It certainly seems that way."

Treplac reached for the Queen's Bishop. Feyrollo's heart leapt -- just the blunder he was waiting for. That would be the old sorceror's last mistake in this game!

But Treplac's hand hesitated, and he sat back in his leatherbacked chair. After a moment, Treplac grinned and said, "My friend, did I tell you about my little misadventure with planar displacement last week?"

"No, I do not believe you did," Feyrollo said, tapping his fingers on a captured rook. The old windbag was trying to put off the inevitable with another one of his rambling tales.

Treplac's smile broadened. "Well. You see, I had been reading The Grimbridge Grimore -- I have told you of that, yes?"

Feyrollo grunted, "Indeed, the spellbook you hired those armored nitwits to recover for you, from the Thrapian Temple." Feyrollo glared at the board, hoping to draw his colleague's attention back to the game at hand. But he knew this was too much to hope for.

"Ah yes." Treplac slapped his palms together in a clasp. "You see, I was trying to invoke the Gate Astral Projection, but I still had not gotten all of the translations just correct. You know, it is tricky, the Thrapian Cult are rather sticklers for dipthongs and pronunciations in their forked tongue..."

Feyrollo took a shallow sip of his mead. "Indeed. Were you going to move that bishop, my Brother Wizard?"

Treplac's immense range of wisdom did not include the ability to take a gentle hint. He continued, "You see, I had most of the words right, but the actual invocation is quite literal, and I fear that I did botch it a bit, with some creative alliteration, I might add!" He chuckled.

Feyrollo's scowl got darker. Not only was his friend putting off his defeat, but mages simply should not *chuckle*. Snicker, yes. Scoff in contempt, always. But not chuckle.

But Treplac was enraptured with his own tale. "You see, the spell actually came out as not 'Gate Astral Projection' but instead 'Irate Kestral Propogation!' In no time at all, my tower was packed to bursting with thousands of very angry eagle-like raptors, diving, tearing at my books with their claws, and ripping at tapestries! I had to act quickly, so I vortexed all of the flying assailants into a random teleportation gate. All that was left was a lot of feathers and a Wizard Tower in utter disarray!" Again that damn chuckle.

But Feyrollo's interest was piqued, if slightly. "Where did your gate send all of those attacking kestrels, Treplac?"

"I know not," Treplac said, raising his goblet, and swishing it contemplatively. "But somewhere in the realms, there's a hell of a lot of angry kestrels."

[CommanderData]

MikeB, sorry I haven't had a chance to respond to this thread sooner but... that tale was absolutely outstanding! Rogue Touch gaining a bit of a backstory finally? Maybe so!

How else do you explain all the angry kestrals that are living underground rather than some forest?

[LazySumo]

On some random, deep level of the Deadly Dungeons two griffons stand about four feet apart. One says to the other, "Wait for it, Bob. Just wait for it."

LazySumo had been in this god's forsaken hellhole dozens of times, but never this far down. He had counted over 14 stairs down and at least 7 or was it 8 pit traps, he didn't know. Maybe it was one too many bonks on the head while falling from one level to the next. It had even happened once where he got to take exactly three steps on a new level before being 'escorted' downward, ever downward.

The other griffon says to the first, "I dunno Jimmy, I'm pretty hungry..."

After his latest unexpected decent Lazy picked himself up off the floor and checked his gear... His armor was +3 chain. Well, those were it's stats three aquators ago. Now he was thoroughly soaked and felt like he may as well be naked. They really should rename the place Deadly Showerstalls, he thought.

"Bob, I'm telling you, what we have here is a magical spot. I randomly generates soft, tasty adventurers."

Way back on level 2, wait, had there really been a level 2? Nah, that had to be a fever dream. Well, somewhere's along the way he had managed to pick up a +2, +2 sword of lightning. Very handy indeed, except that you needed to have enough skill to actually hit the things that were trying to eat you. Ummm that might present certain challenges this far down.

"What?!? There's no such thing Jimmy. Adventurers don't magically appear out of thin air. Everyone knows they all come from opening up a room and letting sunlight in. Sunlight ain't healthy, so you should leave your rooms sealed, damp and dark. Common sense, that."

Rings? You want to talk rings? The man had pockets of the useless damn things. Three rings that made him not be hungry. Two rings of sustain strength and half a dozen others, not a one of which was currently helping him to find that amulet. For now Lazy had to get his bearings. Naturally he couldn't see walls, so he headed south of here to look around.

"Look Bob, I know that just as well as anyone else down here. Last summer my Uncle Sid opened up a ceiling in a room he had and accidentally flooded the room with sunlight. The place has been infested with adventurers ever since. He can't live there no more. But this place is special, just you wait."

The wall to the south of his starting position ran east and west, about ten paces to the west Sumo found a door in the wall. Carefully he opened it up to see what was on the other side. Oh, an ogre. Lovely.

"Look, Jimmy, I'm sure that this spot is just as special as you say it is, really. But Suzie's got dinner on and I need to be at the bowling alley by seven for team practice..."

Sumo furiously stabbed at it with his sword. He wasn't sure if the ogre was specially electrically-immune or not, but the sword didn't seem to do much damage, if any. The ogre, on the other hand, with a slobbering grin, took over half of Sumo's life in one swipe of it's meaty paws.

"Bob, sit tight, we're about to hit the jackpot, I can feel it!"

Lazy quickly popped open his backpack looking for some sort of exit strategy. One staff of cornucopia, no charges. Yeah, using the last charge on the jelly might not have been the best idea. A whole jewelry store of completely useless rings. No potions, only one scroll, well damn. Time to hoof it! He threw a scroll of sleep at the ogre and turned to flee straight north. He had no idea what was in that direction but he sure hoped it was friendlier.

"No way Jimmy, I'm leaving. Cya and remember to save one of these 'adventurers' for me! Ha-Ha!"

Up ahead Sumo could barely make out a doorway. Maybe in there he could find a bit of refuge.... In one sudden, disorienting second he felt like a piece of taffy pulled, stretched, twisted and generally abused. As soon as the taffy machine feeling was gone Sumo couldn't hear the roaring of the ogre anymore, which was good news. However, what he did see was two griffons on either side of him, one looked like it was turning to leave. With an amazingly evil grin for a creature with a beak the other one quietly exclaimed, "Disneyland!"

~Fin