http://te4.org/characters/1819/tome/2a3053d4-1d07-11e0-b589-001cc000edf0

The second character to reach Far East, and the first to do it while playing with online profiles (the other one, plays on a net-disconnected computer). The big unlocked for this profile (unlocked ghoul, antrohil, geomancy, sun paladin, doomed).

Dwarf fighters in general feel like its too easy. In the beggining couple of levels there were literally no challenges.

Did not do the home fortress due to no stairs in the walkable range, and no waterbreath equipment. Other than that, in mainstream dungeons there was nothing that even posed any threath (granted - i did not do the elven ruins / crypt / mark of spellblaze).

First moment of truth came with a greater vault within Master's domain. 3 deaths in row, and all due to... having many lives available and general easy feeling of the game. "Aww c'mon, i can do it, by just rushing, if I loose a life or two, nothing would happen."

Lesson 1: if you have extra lifes, use them wisely.

Master himself went down like a sack of bananas.

Also nothing worth noting about Iron Throne passage.

After such an easy-going start, Far East came as a surprise. Especially orc patrols. The same patrols that my other character (archmage) uses as handy snack for exp, obliterated this dwarf warrior. 2 or 3 deaths to the first one.

Lesson 2: it IS important to put more than 1 point into rush
OR
Lesson 3: if you want for Aura of Silence to save your butt, do put more than 1 point in it. Otherwise you will get ranged to death from just outside of its radius.

Then went some unlocking spree.

Dark crypt - 1 death due to unlucky trap while being flanked by wall-passing blood mages.

Lesson 4: if you're surrounded by blood mages, try to remember all your tactical options (e.g. sand breath would have saved the day here)

The Shade itself was an incredibly dense and immensely funny fight. Went for a long time, and I think I made it only because Shade wasted a turn from time to time trying to turn on Burrow.

The Spider Cave - felt like a pillow fight, only i was using lightsaber. Did not even notice the end boss. I was just casually walking among spiders, one of them darkens the surrounding, i kill it, and then whoops, i raise a level and some stairs appear.

Prides.
Since the other character already knew Vor, i decided to try some other Pride as first one now. Say the one in the north-west. Two rooms before it - orc patrol. This time mages went down like ripe plums, and then I went down like another ripe plum 3 times in row.

Lesson 5: orc berserkers, including elite ones, are the same colour as your run-of-the-mill popcorn orcs.

Finally got into the G-something pride. First room - a surprise. Double so. First the graphics - I love the feel of that pride. Second - the welcoming party. The room was FILLED with orcs of all kinds, including several wyrmics, cryomacers, and elite zerkers. And I was exactly in the middle of it.
Phase shift, enter the narrow tunnel, kill them one by one, ROAR a victory cry, oh there's that one last orc who just came around the corner. Oops it rushes at as and slows us down a bit, allowing for some double hits to get in. Lets regen for a bit to be on the safe side...
And then a final death by 2HP.

Conclusion - orc zerkers and elite zerkers SHOULD be differentiated visually.

Dekar was a very cool Wyrmic, but now he is dead. That makes me quite sad as he went further than anyone before him. He got killed because I thought I had the situation under control until he got stunned. :[

http://te4.org/characters/2038/tome/4d263778-1fdb-11e0-8d9d-001cc000edf0

At least I can finally make a new char with the new options he unlocked.

Tags say it all. I've recently been hooked in the game and I'm going to try this experiment.

I finally read that I needed to created an online profile at the te4.org site instead of in the game module. Unfortunately, it didn't upload Snik 4, my best still-living offline character so far, so I'm starting a new one.

Meet Snik 5, halfling rogue. She, like the previous four Sniks was inspired by Burb Lulls' Eden, but not going for the no-stores challenge just yet.

Fighting the Worm boss at the bottom of the sand pit on an alchemist.
Golem disinterested in joining in, so had to manually request it did something.
5 turns later it hits the boss, or so i assume, as I was blinded by this stage.

I set the room on fire, but ultimately die.
Choose to resurrect, and come back to life on -28/250 life.
A sandworm then hits me for 34 and I have a final death.

Personally, the idea of resurrecting at a negative life would be great if it meant I'd managed to become a Lich Alchemist and my Golem but the first of a horde of minions to do my beck and call.

Hopefully this time the Mighty Girdle doesn't appear the first time I go to town when I'm on very low $$. Very handy item.

Outside of this above mishap, had a very successful run.
First troll boss (Bill) killed at lvl 3 without dying.
Dark Crypt was then comfortably run straight after before I could get back to town to offload loot.
4 escorts all successful.

This time I'd taken the sand pit too casually, as I'd last run it quickly and easily without dying.
Now I understand how perilous it can be with collapsing tunnels and how often one can be blinded without the resists I had last time.
Time to give it all another go.

Atrophy, with golem Petrify.
Attempt 1: lvl 23, died to a monster zerg instant spawn.
Attempt 2: lvl 14, died to negative life resurrect bug on sandworm boss.

Oh God... Oh God... Oh God... Elven Blood Mages, Cultists, and Corrupters everywhere!

I guess now I know why there is so much Dwarven Steel equipment laying around here in scattered piles... Please just let me make it out of here alive. It is no kind of place for a Dwarven Fighter to be.

sometimes i try to imagine what my character looks like. which involves amusing things.

so what the monsters see is a huge tree trunk with a midge of the non-swarming kind attached to it. the midge being gwydion the halfling arcane blade...

I made the suggested Dwarven Fighter as my first character. Level 9. Doing pretty well. Maxing strength at each level.
Just found "Voratun Plate Armour". The first non-iron Plate I have found. Shivering with anticipation and delight I look at it. Glorious!!!

Except for one thing. Strength requirement of sixty. 60!!!! I am going to have to carry 17 Enc worth of Plate around with me for the next 10 or 15 levels!!! Cannot really be unhappy about that, but... Doh!!! The frustration. :)

Five years have passed since the death of the Istaris and the destruction of the Orc Pride. The orc presence in the Far East has greatly decreased with the loss of their leaders. The free people of the Sunwall now prosper and thrive on their land. The West is once again in peace... and most of its inhabitants did not even know they were on the verge of destruction.

Haldor is back from his journey on the seas. As always, Haleth and Morwen have been waiting for their father the whole morning, repeating in the garden the ultimate fight of their parents against the evil wizards. Aeryn is waiting inside the house. Since the fall of the Istaris and the relative quietness of the orcs, her duties as protector of the Gates of Morning leave her enough time for her family.

Even after settling down in the Far East, Haldor kept his taste for adventure... so he decided to put his talents to good use by escorting merchants through their journeys on land and sea. After the creation of portals between the West and the Far East, trade between the nations has grown flourishing. But now, it asks for more expansion. Rich patrons have invested a lot of money to build the biggest and fastest ships to explore the Great Sea to the east. And even if the orcs are quiet, there are still pirates roaming the sea, always looking for an easy prey...

Today, Haldor is back from one of those journeys across the Great Sea. Since he's been hired, no pirate has dared attacking his ship. And this last trip was very successful...

"You seem to be very satisfied with your journey..." says Aeryn.

"Indeed." replies Haldor. "This time we finally found what we were looking for... A new continent beyond the Great Sea, to the east. We were welcomed by peaceful people. Humans, elves... Their people call themselves with strange names, like we never heard before. And they wish to open a new trade route with our continent..."

"And what is the name of this new world?"

"Eyal... Maj'Eyal..."

FAR EAST

“This is all your fault!” Eden rattled the Orb of Many Ways frantically, but it offered no response.

Eden’s self-proclaimed stellar sense of direction had failed him in this strange new land. Despite his half-hearted wanderings, he hadn’t come across a single trace of civilisation (apart from a few orc patrols who angrily told him to ‘wait for the next beta’). For all his aspirations of becoming a loner in Middle-Earth, he soon found that being alone wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and his present isolation was making his brain behave in strange ways… the fact he had all-but-made an imaginary friend before becoming stranded didn’t help matters.

“Now are you sorry you abandoned me? If you were wearing me, you could have fled from Novan and not needed to use the farportal…”

“Quiet!”

“I hope those ballyhooed Frost Treads have sturdy soles… you’re going to be wandering for a long time…”

“Quiet I said! Quiet! I…” Eden’s initiation into the insanity club was postponed as he spied the telltale entrance to a cave mere yards away. Approaching the entrance he saw that the cavern was submerged.

“An underwater cave… Shouldn’t be too difficult to traverse. Right…”

Fortunately, the sound of approaching hoof falls brought Eden away from his premature death on the end of a naga’s trident. A patrol was approaching him, and not just any patrol – a patrol of humans and elves in shining armour. Sun paladins!

“By Eru’s knapsack, I’m saved!” The paladin patrol (or palatrol) came to a halt by Eden’s side as he gasped, “Thank you, thank you! I-I-I’ve been lost for days! I went through this portal and it dropped me in the middle of nowhere and I haven’t got a clue where I am! But now I’m saved, hahaha! Please, won’t you help me?”

GATES OF MORNING

“High Lady Aeryn. We found some vagabond not affiliated with the Sunwall out in the wilds. Probably a spy.” The pair of paladins that had dragged Eden’s bruised body the distance of the journey to the Gates of Morning dropped him unceremoniously, “Deal with him as you will.”

Eden got to his feet, tenderly feeling his many aches and pains as he did, “You’re the boss here? I’ve gotta tell you, I don’t think much of the hospitality around here. Would it hurt ya to roll out a red carpet for new arrivals? I just think that with this treatment I’ll…” Eden looked up, noticing who he was talking to for the first time, “… okay-I’ll-be-quiet.”

The woman who stood before Eden was glaring at him with such intensity that he imagined she was trying to melt him with imaginary heat vision. Not that it would’ve been necessary; the sheer gleaming of her armour was enough to give Eden a mild suntan just by standing there.

Eden waited as the woman perused him. When no greeting seemed imminent, he coughed and began, “Anyway, my names Ed--”

“I am High Sun Paladin Aeryn, ruler of the Sunwall.” The woman spoke over Eden, “Followers of the sun, who wield the power of the sun to punish the enemies of the sun.”

“Thanks for clearing that up. So, anyway--”

“Who are you, traveller?” Aeryn sniffed with distaste, “You have the smell of orcs about you.”

“I should imagine so! I’ve just fought through a whole dwarven-hallsworth of them, and I haven’t had the chance to fit a bath into my schedule. I don’t suppose you warriors of the sun have a bath house of the sun I can use… of the sun?”

An entirely humourless smile crossed Aeryn’s face, “You seem to be under the delusion that you are welcomed here, rogue. I, for one, doubt your story. We have heard of no dwarven halls in the surrounding lands, and I find it hard to believe someone as un-shiny as you could have performed such a feat anyway. I find the idea of you being an orcish spy far easier to believe…”

“How can I be an orcish spy?! They barely understand what they’re seeing half the time, let alone what others are seeing for them!”

“High Lady Aeryn!” A sun paladin approached Aeryn, who had entirely ignored Eden’s speech, “News of another spider attack reaches us. Scouts saw a group of the fiends dragging an anorithil into Ardhungol.”

“Anorithil?” Exclaimed Eden, “You mean like Beturin?”

“Indeed! That was her name!”

Aeryn scowled, “And how did you know that?” Drawing her sword, she advanced on Eden, “Not an orcish spy, but a spider spy? A spy-der?”

Eden drew his knives, “Oh, whatever. You’re obviously itching for a fight of the sun, lady of the sun. I’ll give you a fight, of the sun!”

“Eden?”

Both Aeryn and Eden turned to the sun paladin in confusion. Raising his visor, he was revealed to be Belebeth, the sun paladin Eden had assisted in the Trollshaws. “Is that you? Never thought I’d see you again! How fare you?”

“You know this knave?” Aeryn mumbled, sheathing her sword.

“Indeed. He was the rogue who helped me to my recall portal I told you about.” Belebeth turned to Eden and grinned, “Come quite a way from your home in Bree, haven’t you?”

“We cannot control our circumstances, only our responses…” Eden replied with humility, but not before shooting a smug look at Aeryn.

“So, you’re not a spy…” Aeryn muttered, “But then, how do you know Beturin?”

“Saved her too,” Smiled Eden, “She’d be fertiliser for Old Man Willow right now if it wasn’t for me.”

“Well then,” Aeryn displayed a smile as gleaming as her armour, “Why not rescue her again, from these spiders? Do that, and maybe we can talk further about your admittance here…”

“Deal! After all, how big can these giant spiders be?”

ARDHUNGOL 1

“WAAAAAH!”

Eden was hurled against the cavern wall, rolling to the floor in cloud of dust. Turning his head, he beheld the gigantic mandibles only inches away from piercing his neck. He swung his dagger, by luck hitting the scuttling horror in one of its many eyes. The pain was enough for it to flinch, giving Eden the opportunity to regain his footing and bring the creature down with a frantic flurry.

“That’s not a spider!” Shrieked Eden, “That’s… that’s two mumakil tied together!”

 Level 30!
 +3 Cunning
 +2 Precision
 +1 Cunning/Packing

This scenario repeated itself many times as Eden attempted to explore the caverns – far more times than he would’ve liked. Although adventuring was never truly safe, Eden felt a sense of peril that he hadn’t felt before. During one of the quiet moments between battles, he heard a sinister voice in his head that was not his own.

“Eden?” Arenji hissed, “Your time comes, and not a moment too soon.”

“You!” Eden spoke to thin air, “This little subconscious ploy shows just how desperate you are!”

“Fool yourself if you will, whelp.”

Eden moved on, ignoring the voice, when he noticed something peculiar. “Arenji… if I’m to die… why aren’t you happy?” Indeed, Arenji’s voice was bitter, “I thought you delighted in seeing people brought to their end.”

“In most cases, yes,” Arenji grumbled, “But there is a meddler in your affairs…”

“Meddler? What do you mean?”

Arenji was silent. All of a sudden, Eden felt a presence behind him. Spinning on the spot, he saw no one.

ARDHUNGOL 2

 Level 31!
 +3 Strength
 +1 Whirlwind
 +1 Efficient Packing

Eden fell back with exhaustion. He was fighting a group of dragon hatchlings, both red and white, that didn’t seem to be dwindling. He couldn’t help but hear the distinctive scuttling sounds of giant spiders blocking off his escape routes too. Only when it was too late did he perceive the source of the hatchlings; a pair of drakes, one red and one white. Eden couldn’t hope to face them, the main body of the hatchling horde stood directly between him and them. With his escape blocked by spiders, he had no choice but to read a scroll of phase door.

The scroll deposited Eden in a new cavern, but from the nearby sounds of roaring and scratching, he guessed that he wasn’t too far from his previous location.

A faint red glow came from the darkness beyond. In its light Eden could almost make out… an orc’s face?

“Hello, something seems to be happening down the--”

???

“I… I can’t move…”

“Good. That’d just make my work harder. Can you see me?”

Although Eden didn’t feel his eyes open, his vision slowly returned. Unable to move his head, Eden could only see from his current viewpoint that he was in a dark, underground chamber. The air was deathly cold.

“I’m freezing…”

“Ahh, quit complaining.” Came Grim’s response. Her familiar face appeared in Eden’s field of view, smiling as always, “You’re lucky I found ya in time.”

“Lucky?” Eden mumbled, “Lucky how?”

“Don’t you remember? You were attacked by this orcish pyromancer and his drakes, not to mention a whole heap of giant spiders. They totally surrounded you. You were in a right state; looked like a crimson jelly exploded.”

“Oh, yeah…” Eden moved to wipe his face, but found he couldn’t move his arms, “I remember that damned pyromancer now. Makes this cold a bit more bearable thinking about it. Where are we?”

Grim offered no response, too busy with something out of Eden’s field of view to reply. Eden asked another question, “How did you find me, anyway?”

“Uh? Oh…” Grim shrugged, “Turned out there was a second farportal to the east that didn’t need the Orb of Many Ways. It’s what all those sun paladins and anorithils were using to show up in the west. I went through it, found that Sunwall place, got told to go to Ardhungol by the scary lady, and found ya in a spider web. Simple. Ooh! I think I’ve got this figured out now…” Grim ducked out of view again. A few moments later, Eden felt the paralysis slowly fade from his limbs. “That better?”

“Yes. So… I’m going to be okay?”

“Right as rain,” Grim twinkled, “Just one thing. You kinda lost a rib. Hope you don’t mind.”

“One rib? Of course not.” Eden sighed. He felt safe, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time, “Looks like I owe you big-time, Grim. Still, I got pretty far for a punk from Bree, didn’t I? I wonder if the townspeople will accept me now, once they’ve seen all I’ve gone through…”

Grim made a long and hesitant noise, tugging the collar of her robe awkwardly, “Well, maybe… I mean, people are a little more accepting now than they were in the old days…”

In an instant, Eden was suspicious, “What do you mean? You have fixed me up properly, right? I’m not disfigured or anything? I have to say, I didn’t know you to be much of a doctor…”

“Doctor?! Nah, I’m hopeless at that stuff,” Grim giggled, “I ended up in prison when I tried to get that splinter out of old man Gardner’s finger once…”

“Then… what have you done? And what is that?!” For the first time, Eden beheld the tool Grim held in her hand – a bonesaw.

“I can hardly ply my trade without it, can I Eden?”

“Trade?!” Thoughts of dread were rapidly accumulating in Eden’s mind, “Why is it so cold?! How did you heal me?! And where are we?!”

Grim smiled, a picture of glee, “The Paths of the Dead, silly!”

You have died!