I've been wanting to do NaNoWriMo this year, but I've also been trying to be all responsible and productive, which makes it harder to justify long stretches of time writing each day. Or 'writing', as is more often the case. The plan I've settled on is to put some time toward studying each day, and if after taking care of that and any other urgent, important business there is still time, then I should write. No particular story in mind this year, once again I am aiming to work scattershot on a variety of small ones. My real goal is to get back into a regular writing habit.

The study is especially important, as I got a letter back unexpectedly quickly offering me a place in the course I applied to. Much of yesterday was used up accepting the offer and reading over documents I am required to read. So today will be putting in mandatory application for optional government loan on an already-subsidised course of study. I've been quite worried that I won't be sufficiently prepared this time round either, so I am making extra effort to reacquaint myself with physics and mathematics between now and then.

I aim to be more organised, capable and diligent than I was a decade ago, and actually get this done. Really, I am in a very fortunate position to have the opportunity.

In other news, I was bored at work last week and started taking down notes on scrap paper for some personal projects. One side was for a library classification system I'd like to develop:

Top-level categories - three? Roughly Knowledge, Action, and Creation. Knowledge, straightforwardly(?) about 'things' in the world, containing e.g. Computing, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Language, Mathematics, Sociology, Technology, History, Law, Chemistry, Politics, Biology, Physics.

'Creation' covers creative works + their criticism and interpretation, etc. Includes drama, music, poetry, prose fiction, essays, comedy.

'Action' covers activities which are primarily something done, such as play or entertainment, rather than descriptions or theories about the world or acts of imaginative creation, though subsets may include both or either. Includes sports, athletics, motor racing, performing arts, board games, computer games, role-playing games, card games, and other formal or informal competitions at which generally the only thing at stake is itself (or the contents of wagers).

Design principle: 'unboxed'. To avoid the DDC pitfall of cramming less (designer perspective) central material into the margins as new is discovered or deemed sufficiently important. Each level should in principle be open-ended, so that new sub/categories can be added and occupy the same amount of notational space as previous categories. May be best to use letters since those are not decimalised and can be wrapped around e.g. 'A', 'AA', 'AAA', etc. However with proper hierarchy markers numbers may not be a problem, and thus become desirable as less in need of translation.

Interdisciplinary work + 3 spatial dimensions precludes perfect cataloguing and shelving.

The other is part of a series of exercises in mapping for the game Doom. I'm not sure what the long-term benefit would be, since it is not as if I have grand future plans those are merely a skill-development prelude to, but it is something I would like to do. The first of those exercises is making replacements for each map in the original game, within vanilla (i.e. unmodified) limits and taking inspiration from the original map name and some other elements. That is, to practice by making my own take on the originally released game. So, I wrote down some notes for my level ideas, which have been rattling around for a few months now. I really ought to either succeed at getting an editor to work on Ubuntu or getting access to a Windows machine.

E1M1 (The Hangar): Former humans + imps only, no keys, no shotgun. Ideal design: two large, open, cratey rooms (the hangars), 'bridge' crosses a chasm and reverse direction through area overlooked by starting zone, proceeds straight to exit. Secret area: after bridge, lowered wall ambush leading to a 'shooting gallery' running parallel to the main path for several rooms - player should be able to ambush some monsters within the gallery and in the regular run. Possibly a further secret to a last stand room. Open + airy feel.

E1M2 (Nuclear Plant): Early encounter in one direction with locked doors, no key on map. Former humans, imps, demons, secret shotgun. Early, easy key (make it hard to miss). Rad-suit in small switch-opened compartment (can we do overlooking glass window from control room?). To access second half of map player must proceed through reactor area. Bounded by airlock (used timed door if possible to force it remaining closed a while after passing through), player must seal their entrance to open an access tunnel, and fight through that to the exit-airlock. Entire space between airlocks is radiation zone. Enclosed feeling, tight corridors. Map is relatively small, to be revisited later.

E1M3 (Toxin Refinery): Lots of perilous catwalks around toxic sludge, barrel areas, active machinery if possible. Teleporter ambushes in awkward environments to fight from.

As you can see, I don't have so many specifics in mind for E1M3 as yet. The major concept I have in mind is to feature damaging 'nukage' floors a lot more than the official level, where they show up only occasionally, and try to a) make the playing area more interesting and difficult with environmental hazards and b) make the map look a bit more like that stuff is actually processed there. Since this is the map with the exit to the secret level, I need to come up with a somewhat interesting puzzle to unlock that too. I like the idea, too, of introducing the first teleporter ambushes of the episode make what seemed a safe, easy path suddenly cramped and dangerous, with the player at risk of falling into the toxic liquid (not far) below if overzealous in evasion. This would also be the first level that outright gives the player a shotgun, as well as featuring shotgunners / sergeants as enemies.

A concept I would like to use in general is what I call 'last stand' areas, where most new weapons and notable supply caches are found in areas decorated to indicate your fellow space marines died with or wielding them. Or else are traps.

E1M9 (Military Base): Almost exclusively zombie / possessed enemies. I want to feature tight, oppressive spaces with lots of line triggers revealing enemies and being sniped at from cubby-holes. Possibly some more open corridors too. Given the previous map, player should probably enter from something like the sewer. Chaingun or multiple chainguns present only in secrets. At the end of the map, the player should be ambushed by a swarm of imps and demons, the only non-humans on the map.

Ideas for further on are vaguer. Since I think I am probably not so great skillwise, am planning to balance maps so that I find them hard on the middle difficulty and shape the other difficulties around that. Shall see if these ideas get anywhere.

Town:
 
Marash stows her trusty mace in her home, along with the amulet of charisma. She sells off the Ring of the Dog and that potion of boldness she expects never to use, buys herself a shield and some leather armour, and sells off the lesser boots of free action. There, better.
 
She heads off to the general store, fills her quiver with arrows, buys some Recall scrolls, and sits down to study her prayers before heading back down.
 
Level 11: "This place looks uninteresting"
 
Marash is quickly set on by a gang of rogues. She prays to be protected from evil and kills thirteen of them before one escapes with some of her money.
 
After a while running around, Marash concludes her feeling about the level was right. She finds the stairs leading down and reads a scroll called 'fertum anus'. It unexcitingly detects traps, so she shrugs and heads down.
 
Level 12: "You are unsure about this place"
 
But surely better than the last one! She calls up her detections and becomes aware of a dark elven mage, a baby red dragon and ten manes. Mostly new creatures, always worrying. On consideration, she decides to wait and recover her magical power.

 
Nothing happens, so she heads off in search of the dark elven mage, grabbing a cap along the way. A hippogriff gets in the way, giving her trouble fighting it off. Especially after the elf cast a poisonous cloud onto her and ran off.
 
By the time she gets the hippogriff away, she has realised there might be something special about the cap she found, so it gets swapped out. She drops the one she was wearing; it got damaged by a trap 50 feet above anyway.
 
That hat is a very cute hat! Definitely worth wearing, and not just for the way it improves her looks. Although she isn't quite sure yet what else it does...

 
Marash wanders the dungeon, wondering if there is anything else nice here. What she finds is the yeek Orfax, Son of Boldor, and his escort. Dozens of yeeks fall to her ball and chain, but little sign of their local lord presents itself, just an embarrassment of riches in loot.

She finds a magical sword and decides to test it out, though it does not sit well in her hands. The Ring of the Dog laying around goes on too, just to know it better in case she wants to sell it.
 
The sword she discovers is slightly better than the ball and chain she wields, but to use it feels too wrong. There was a magical spear on the floor, so that gets tested as well. While roaming in search of something to spear, she discovers a chest on the floor. Opening it poisons her, but brings reward in copper coins and sapphires.
 
More wandering in search of something to stick a spear into. The place seems strangely empty, until she meets a kobold and feels herself buffeted by something invisible. A quick prayer to sense the invisible reveals some Air Spirits around, soon defeated once sighted.
 
The kobold drops a ring. A cursed ring of searching, only discovered after it is worn and stuck. A reason to curse oneself for taking the risk.
 
She retrieves her staff of curing and trudges off to face the yeek, plotting to abandon items she no longer finds needful.
 
As soon as she finds him she protects herself from evil. When he is closer she tries to bless herself, but is too confused by his spell.
 
Ack! By the time she is no longer confused he has blinked away again, beyond her reach unless she is willing to cut through the manes she detected earlier.
 
She marches south, restoring her protection from evil once the first manes is in sight. Three manes down and a baby white dragon filters in with a ranger. Drain Life deals with the dragon. She tries out firing arrows at the rangers until they approach. She almost doesn't notice when they are all dead, sets wearily to sorting through everything the rangers dropped.
 
None of it turned out special. She marched on, only to find Orfax coming for her, along with a baby red dragon. She retreats back up the corridor, fighting reinforcements as she went. The dragon's fire breath destroyed some of her precious items and marked it as a priority target. But, she could not see a path to destroy it quickly without using up her ability to do so when she created the opportunity. Desperate for time, she turned to tools she should have been using more, her staves of confuse and slow monsters. They affect all but Orfax and buy time.
 
Something unseen starting touching her and draining her dexterity. Fortunately she couldn't get any clumsier, but still she ended up praying for vision to see the moaning spirit in the walls, and to knock it away.
 
Orfax teleports her into the big room, where a green jelly comes in to cause trouble too. It won't confuse and it won't allow its life to be drained. The dragon wanders away a bit, but Orfax summons a griffon to aid him, a nasty looking creature.
 
Orfax blinks awway, then returns and heals himself, then heals more, and suddenly it looks like maybe fleeing is a good idea. But, surprisingly the rod of drain life kills him outright now finally charged. The griffon remains.
 
Marash prays for Cure Light Wounds and Chants to boost herself for fighting the griffon. More novice rangers approach, and now she is in the dangerous open.
 
The griffon is taking damage too slowly. She uses her staves, The griffon resists being confused but succumbs to slowing. It is still too dangerous, Marash too wounded. She drinks a potion of Cure Serious Wounds, then a second when she is in dire need again. Finally the griffon flees. She turns her attention to the rangers, making one flee her might and killing another.
 
She pursues and kills the fleeing ranger before it gets far, then uses the rod of drain life to dispose of the baby red dragon. The griffon returns to be killed too. Though the green jelly remains, Marash feels safer to check her prizes again.
 
The shortbow Orfax dropped turns out to be much better than the one she'd be carrying, now discarded. A shortsword dropped by a ranger is magical too.
 
While searching for something to test it on Marash encounters an amber amulet, which reminds her she ought to pray for the cursed ring to leave her. She throws it away, along with the Ring of the Dog she'd foolishly been wearing through the fight.
 
She finds a bloodshot icky thing to test her sword on, only to discover it is worthless and get her boots of free action damaged in the process. She kills the icky thing with arrows, then hits the master yeek behind it to death and feels a bit better.
 
She goes back and tries on the amber amulet she found, discovering it to teleport her randomly. In disgust, she throws it away and returns to resisting acid.
 
Wondering if she should abandon this level of Angband, Marash comes across a nest of paladins and cave spiders. A salamander too. She backs away to a nice, narrow corridor and emboldens herself. The paladins try to make her afraid, but she cleanses herself of the emotion.
 
As she sets to mopping up the last paladins, the cave spiders begin waking. The spiders seem reluctant to pursue her, so she recklessly explores north. A kobold archer emerges before her. She detects evil in the form of a tengu, a baby gold dragon, fourteen snagas and seven cave orcs. Clearly, she should head back to the spiders.
 
Those spiders were easy enough to charge and lay into. Her light is fading when she kills the kobold archer and heads north again. The tengu approaches. Marash tries to protect herself from evil, but fails in her prayer. The tengu yanks her into the room with all the snagas.
 
Immediately Marash fires off her rods of light, wiping out a line of snagas south of her. She prays for light and they cringe.

 
The tengu yanks her beside the baby dragon, to take the full force of its attacks. Before she can destroy it, the tengu yanks her back out into the corridor. This time her prayer for protection from evil is successful, and the tengu's attacks slide off her.
 
The tengu flees. Marash kills a snaga in the doorway, giving her a clear shot at the dragon. Her first attempt fails, but so does much of the dragon's reply thanks to her protection. Her rod kills the dragon on the second attempt; immediately the tengu jerks her away and flees again.
 
Marash steps back into the room and calls on light again. She grows reckless, overconfident with her success, and begins simply hitting whatever is nearby as the tengu bounces her around the room. After a while, her light goes out, and she is sent into cave orc territory.
 
A long, confusing while later, everything Marash knows of is dead. She is rewarded with the prayer of Earthquake and a gold-plated rod of door and stair detection.
 
She is out of light and she has been nearly everywhere. Marash returns to town.
 
Rod of door/stair detection sold. Scrolls of mapping and detection stashed at home, to see if she misses them. Oil purchased to fuel lantern. Both scrolls of Recall available in town bought. Return.

Level 10: "This seems a quiet, peaceful place"
 
Marash tries out the prayer of Sense Surroundings. Immediately she knows the shape of much of the surrounding region. She doesn't know where the treasure is, but quickly finds a dragon tooth amulet. But she still doesn't know what the copper one she's wearing does, and putting on a second seems a gamble.

She creeps past a sleeping orc skeleton, gets attacked by an unexpected baby gold dragon. The rod of drain life puts an end to that and gains her 490 gp worth of adamantite from the young dragon's hoard.

Undead and dragons. Skeletal orc, zombified kobold, a baby blue dragon... this patch of dungeon seems busier than the one she left.

She spends a charge from a birch staff on a sleeping giant tick to learn it slows monsters. She isn't scared of ticks by now anyway, but taking the staff with her means doing without a potion.

 
Her first pile of gold coins found and, just her luck, it creeps toward her to attack. It seems far tougher than she can do away with unaided, and there are snagas coming in from the side, so she zaps it with her rods. It dies on the second attempt.

Immediately she prays for light. The light reveals a whole lot more snagas than she was prepared for, but the light hurt them, so she calls it again. None die, so she fires off her rod of light. Still none die, and they are beginning to surround her. Marash flees for the corridor, hoping to contain their approach.
 
Marash is granted the spell of remove curse as her reward, and immediately emboldened puts on the dragon tooth amulet. That turns out to be an amulet of charisma and she just knows she is much cuter wearing it.

Contemplating this new amulet, she suspects the copper amulet may be of strength. Certainly, something protected her from the red frog's weakening bite earlier, so she swaps back for now.
 
Lucky again! Marash immediately stumbles into a green naga and discovers her copper amulet actually protects her from its acid attack, nothing at all about preserving strength.

 
The scrolls found in the snaga room are discovered to be Satisfy Hunger.
 
A kobold archer lures her up north, and when it flees a brigand steals her wand of magic missile and vanishes with it! Time for things to die.

The kobold archer must have it in for her; when next spotted it is screening a baby green dragon. And then a tengu shows up behind her. The kobold dies, the dragon breathes poison on her, seems to hit the tengu too, which flees immediately.
 
The rod of drain life does away with the baby green dragon. The rod of light makes the dark elven warrior that emerged from behind the dragon flee. Marash pursues grimly.
 
She manages a second blast of light at the elf before the tengu yanks her back amid a pack of wolves.
 
The tengu jerks her around before being slain, and Marash turns her attention to the wolfpack. When the dark elven warrior returns, she destroys it with another blast of light before finishing off the wolves.
 
Feeling much better about the brigand incident, but to her chagrin that was not the last of the wolves, yet.
 
A giant spider. Careful not to wake it, even when a priest attacks her in the room.
 
An orc shaman. A hill orc... a nervous feeling. Marash prays to know evil in the area and learns too much. Thirteen snaga. Two cave orcs. Four more orc shamans. Seven more hill orcs. Wormtongue, Agent of Saruman, off in the distance. Grishnákh, the Hill Orc, right in the midst of the rest. The giant spider still hopefully sleeps in the room behind her.

 
For now her current location seems as defensive as can practically be found. Her safest bet seems to be standing ground and blasting with light, keeping herself buffed where practical. And if that proves ill, switching to a slow falling back style. It would be a shame to lose the wand of magic missiles, but Marash hopes she'll know to get out when the getting is good. Twenty-eight orcs and two unique, powerful individuals. At least she is just about at her maximum capability.

With a deep breath, she raises her rod of light...

A few orcs down, another priest approaches from behind. She swings back and kills it immediately - it drops a lantern of brightness, but no time to pick that up now. Slowly, she is worn down as orcs fall. She takes to praying for healing after each kill.

Grishnákh is resistant to light, but not as resistant to drain life once his diminished escort isn't shielding him. It doesn't kill him but does make him look defeatable. Marash prayers for healing, swallows her potion of heroism, but finds him hitting too hard still. She takes a potion of Cure Serious Wounds too, but that isn't enough either. She prays for a portal.

She finds herself in a dark room with Wormtongue, who fails to drain her strength but does steal money from her and vanish. She stumbles into a blinding gas trap, but the room seems safe enough - no entrances or exits she can see.

When her vision is recovered she prays for knowledge of her surroundings. More traps are revealed, and a secret door out. She sits herself by the door and waits until she is recovered from the battle.

At last she feels ready and re-emerges into the dungeon.

Long, running battles with Wormtongue and various orcs. Grishnákh reappears with orc shamans, but with them blocking his retreat, another dose of drain life makes him easy prey. The wand of light finishes off the shamans.

The mopping up takes a long time. Sorting treasure, a bit less with a hard-won staff of Identify.

Something invisible releases spores at her. Marash prays to see the invisible and a carpet of clear mushrooms is revealed to her. She hacks her way through, and Wormtongue shows his face again. Another dose of Drain Life does away with him for good. Several hundred gp won from Wormtongue's corpse, and a pair of boots that identify as a better version of what she is wearing. She is rewarded with the prayer of Cure Serious Wounds, and ditches the potion of nimbleness.

Despite all her searching, no sign of the brigand with her wand of magic missiles is found. Reluctantly, she heads downstairs.
 
Level 11: "This place looks uninteresting"
 
The first thing Marash does is to pray for knowledge of her surroundings. She follows this up by carelessly testing an unknown scroll, which turns out to cast Aggravate Monster. She grabs a metallic purple potion off the floor and prays to know of evil in the region, finding only a black naga in range.

It turns out Night Lizards are not evil. But not dangerous either.

After some wandering she encounters a new foe - a gnome mage. A bit worrying, but should be handleable. And then it summons a warg, which looks to be even worse.

Light does not harm them. She prays for protection from evil, so the warg's attacks slide off her. She kills it quickly, and the gnome seems frail too, but before she can strike it down, it summons a squad of rangers to attack her.

Marash takes a moment to bless herself before wading back in.

9 rangers later there is breathing space to sort through what was dropped. She tests out potions which turn out to grant infravision and speed, and saves a scroll for later.

Sensing a dark elf and a swarm of lemures up north, she takes the southern path instead, finding a marble ring. Her cedar staff identifies it as a Ring of the Dog, which would protect her from fear but make her more obvious to foes. She puts it on, hoping this will not be regretted.

She works up a hunger slaying a dark elf warrier, so reads another scroll of Satisfy Hunger.

Wandering around north on the far side, Marash encounters an orc shaman and immediately detects evil. She finds another two orc shamans, fourteen cave orcs, a baby gold dragon and a tengu. Nothing she believes she can't handle, unless they all show up together.

She kills the shaman quickly. The tengu flees after she gets her first hit in. As the second orc shaman approaches, she protects herself from evil. The orc flees, she pursues. Something behind her breathes sound, stunning her. She casts her rod of light back, revealing a chain of orcs and a baby dragon pursuing her.

Marash makes her stand in a space where foes can approach only in single file either side. She blesses herself again, casts her Ring of the Dog to the floor for making her easier to hit.

A second blast of light destroys some orcs in front of her, giving the dragon a clear path to breath sound at her again. Marash responds with a lethal dose of Drain Life.

The tengu teleports her right into the middle of the orc swarm before blinking away again, but a quick dose of light kills most of them, and the ball-and-chain she won from Grishnákh does away with the survivor.

She finds a cypress staff of blindness and casts it away.

Having explored as much of the area as she feels safe doing, Marash decides to test a couple of scrolls before returning to town. The first is revealed to be a scroll of Monster Confusion. The second, of light. Not wanting to waste the charge of confusion she seeks out and kills a white worm mass, then reads one of her Word of Recall scrolls.

Level 9: "This seems a quiet, peaceful place"
 
Marash heads west and finds a spear on the dungeon floor. While rummaging around for space, she notices something just a bit excellent about the latest boots she's found, so she tries those on. Boots... stack with each other, so now she can fit the spear in her bag too.
 
Not much else on that side, so she heads east, greeted by a black naga in the stair room. The spear is ordinary, but the boots protect her significantly. She wonders what else they do...
 
As she leaves the room, she unexpectedly notices a secret door to some stairs leading down. That will be handy for a quick escape if needed.
 
Panic! In her wandering Marash spies a cave orc. It doesn't seem so dangerous on its lonesome so she walks along to see if it can catch her, when suddenly a side door opens to reveal a non-scary sleeping giant black ant and a worrying baby gold dragon.
 
On a sudden dread hunch she casts detect evil. The area to her immediate south lights up in her mind: a baby blue dragon, a kobold, 9 hill orcs and another 7 cave orcs.
 
Marash swallows nervously. Unless those boots are even better than they look, this is liable to be the death of her.
 
She tests her aspen staff on the cave orc blocking her escape. It doesn't seem to have any effect. She tries to fight her way through the cave orc, but the baby gold dragon comes up beside and attacks. Marash quickly whips out a wand and sends it to sleep, staying focused on the orc.
 
After fierce slugging out she manages to get the cave orc to flee, having to put the gold dragon back to sleep twice meanwhile. As she runs down the corridor, the baby blue dragon has wedged itself into the junction she entered by. She puts that to sleep too and runs on, opening a side that also leads back, another orc in pursuit.
 
If she can keep ahead of it, she might just be able to reach a narrow stretch in which to make a stand.
 
Marash runs frantically north, through a lit room, and slams into the corridor that is her goal, right as the orc in pursuit turns aside for the moment. She steadies herself, prepared to see what dent she can make here.
 
She prays for her health restored. When she is feeling nearly healed, the kobold rounds the corner and into range of her mace. It flees after a single hit. She stands her ground, not wanting to be lured out into a probable slaughter.
 
After a while, a cave orc approaches. She trades blows with it a while, then realises this is a losing proposition with so much death waiting around the corner and prays for herself to be blessed.
 
When it is nearly dead, it flees. Again, Marash stays back to recover herself. Just as well, as a fresh cave orc approaches soon after.
 
That one flees too, and again Marash waits to recover. She is worried about this war of attrition, as even using only mana and time to rest it appears she is expending resources faster than her foes, and she has not the spare energy to spend on detecting evil again.
 
The next creature to come for her is the baby blue dragon. She squeezes the handle of her mace tight with worry.
 
Marash points her cast-iron rod of drain life at the dragon and it dies. She risks a step forward to claim 
its loot - a pile of copper pieces - then steps back again to recover herself. Perhaps she can survive this.
 
A kobold approaches and is felled in a single blow, yielding more copper. Another orc fless when near dead, and Marash grows hungry waiting.
 
Cautiously she pokes her nose out into the room beside her. Nothing? That makes her nervous. She heads back to where this started, alert for danger. Down a corridor she finds a line of cave orcs, blocking the retreat of the one she lately fought. It dies. The rod of drain life kills another, and she prays to be blessed in battle.
 
Another orc dies and a third is badly wounded. She is lured into pursuing it briefly, before realising how badly that could end, and retreats back only to find the baby gold dragon awake and angry again.
 
A straight-out fight is going badly for her, and her prayer for healing fails. She tries the wand of sleeping again and gains a needed breather to retreat.
 
Back in her nook she prays for as much healing as she can, then waits on the rest naturally.
 
When she is nearly healed the baby gold dragon reappears. She tries the rod on it, but in her nervousness fails to activate it properly. A second attempts brings relief and a lifeless dragon. She advances again, slowly.
 
The wounded orc from earlier approaches, then flees again when it feels Marash's might. It drops a welcome collection of Cure Serious Wounds potions.
 
Marash detects evil again, finding only the same 6 hill orcs still in place and a black harpy approaching down the corridor. An opportunity to wait, recover her magic, and heal. She braces herself against the dungeon wall in prime position to surprise the harpy. It dies to a single blow.
 
Marash investigates the room the gold dragon came from, decides to try out the mace and boots she finds there, and heads off to see what hill orcs bring. As she rounds the corner she begins to suspect she has made an error.
 
Her first action is to use the rod of drain life, but it seems only to hurt the single hill orc nearest her. One down, at least, is not to be shunned as a result.
 
The copperhead dies. Several rats die, but breed almost as fast as they fall. Another orc dies after some hesitation. She wonders if the swarm of rats might make this easy - trivial for her to kill so far, they perhaps buffer her against more deadly foes, isolating them for easier kills. And then she discovers giant grey rats have a poisonous bite.
 
After wading through 5 hill orcs and 11 giant grey rats, Marash gets the feeling her new mace might have some magic in it. She pulls it out and starts swinging at rats, and quickly realises it is magically worse than an ordinary mace. In disgust she switches back to her original weapon.
 
Eventually she carves her way through more than 70 rats and verifies the hill orc room is clear. She moves onto the next room in this quartet, having already cut down a few of the novice rangers who have emerged from it. Rats begin pouring out again, filling her path.
 
She has been fighting heavily wounded a while now, balancing the crushing of her foes with prayers for healing where she can, but she believes she can manage this.
 
White rats! Giant white rats mixed among the giant grey rats! Is there no end to them?
 
Sooner than she expected, there is an end to the flow of rats and to the last ranger. She liberates a couple of potions, dumps the anti-useful items she has gathered up in this area, picks up her collection of boots, and leaves.
 
Level 10: "You are unsure about this place"
 
A snake, and a maul. She lets the snake be but grabs the maul. On the floor in the corridor is a copper amulet, which she puts on immediately.
 
There is a trident on the floor which she has no room for; perhaps foolishly, Marash attacks a sleeping green icky thing to find out what the maul does and whether she'd rather the trident instead. The maul turns out to be enchanted badly. Despite hitting harder than her mace, Marash worries she would have more trouble making contact, so switches back to the trusty mace. Just in time to do away with a skeletal kobold.
 
She returns to the stair room in search of another path, but it is infested with giant black lice. They look dreadful. The lice breed worse than rats! It is satisfying to be rid of them all, more so to do so before the rattlesnake caught up with her.
 
Somehow, a baby bronze dragon snuck up behind her. It's breath confuses her, so she drinks a potion of Cure Light Wounds to clear her head. The rod of drain life finishes the dragon.
 
More rats. A door bursts open in the distance. Despite that not yet causing problems, it still worries her. She prayers for knowledge of the stairs as a precaution.
 
A panther surprises her from behind a door, seems to be hurting her more than she hurts it, so it gets the rod. The path behind the panther leads to a steel rod and a potion of contemplation, cutting Marash's constitution and boosting her wisdom beyond what she possessed before that mysterious creature drained her so far above.
 
A heap of silver coins in the room rouses itself and lurches after her, poisoning with its touch.
 
After much deliberation, Marash finally drops her stash of crossbow bolts in order to fit a mithril wand in her bag. The wand and the rod are both soon revealed to be of light.
 
Something in here is invisible and frightening, but it is not the new tengu. Marash resolves to explore as much as possible here before returning to town.
 
The terrifying invisible creature returns. Detect Evil reveals it as a poltergeist, and after some trickery her rod of light shrivels it away.
 
Marash has learned her boots are boots of free action. Unable to find the tengu to finish it off, she reads her scroll of Word of Recall and waits to return to town.
 
Nowhere in town has identification for sale, except on staves Marash can't afford. What she can afford is a new set of prayer books, which look like they will free up a few spaces in her pack to boot. Marash offloads her stash of boots and the book of made spells she found, buys herself a copy of Words of Wisdom and Chants and Blessings, and stocks up on light and Words of Recall.
 
Hoping she near-bankrupted herself well, Marash reads one of her newly bought scrolls and studies prayers as she waits to return to the dungeon.