Revising the Volcano Lottery

In a previous post, someone finally clued me in with a Scroll of Spell Extension actually did, and which spells/scrolls it worked on. Once I read that, I decided to alter somewhat my Volcano Lottery strategy.

In addition to buying/selling the book and the chest in the store for a profit, and not selling books from the first couple levels (thanks to posters on the blog) I've also started saving Time Warp and Spell Extension scrolls. Previously the Volcano Lottery was limited to the duration of two Stealth scrolls, however if you read a single Stealth (in addition to any other buffs you may have) then get 3 to 6 mobuls back in time thanks to a Time Warp, you can then read the Spell Extension scroll and double the duration of your buffs. This can also function as a good timer for your Stealth as the short-term buffs such as Haste will drop off before the others.

Even after I've gotten back from the Volcano if I've gotten a good Time Warp/Extension combo, I have gotten as low as level 5 in the dungeon before the Stealth wore off. Usually in my strategy I bank the money I've gotten from selling the Volcano books/chests and go visit the University so that money will collect interest as I buy the courses. (Only if I think the interest will get me enough money so I can read the books instead of selling them, or if I didn't find much and need the interest to get up to about 200,000 gold). BUT if I have had good Time Warping, I will not even buy my weapon/armor upgrades and will just dive into the dungeon until those buffs wear off.

Another addendum to the Volcano Lottery strategy, is that if I happen to have a scroll of Hold Monster and I can figure out where the D. Prince is sitting, I will hit him with a spell to get him to move off the potion, read the scroll, get the potion and then Shift-Z out of there. You can win the game without ever going down in the dungeon.

Spells & Mirrors

Was messing around today with directional spells and a mirror. Lightning and Fireball both did about 60-70 points of damage. Cone of Cold did about 40-50. Magic Missile did 25. I then decided to try Phantasmal Forces, and it said:

In What Direction? The spell caster (thats you) believed!

I also suffered 42 damage the first time and 53 the second time.

Teleport Away didn't work on the mirror.


Those were the only directional spells I had at the time. Would be interesting to try a Scroll of Pulverization. :)

Sphere Explosivo!

I had never tried to use a SPH (Sphere of Annihilation) spell on a Disenchantress before, but zowie that wasn't the brightest idea that I've ever had. It caused an explosion that took out all of the 8 squares adjacent to the discenchantress (including where I was standing) however I had read a life protection scroll so I was able to come back.

Larn Facebook page...

I saw this today...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1464366964&ref=name#/group.php?gid=39061607667&ref=mf

Kinda cool.

The GENOCIDE spell...

Hey, two posts in one sitting. Very rare :)

I'm curious about what monsters people GEN when they get the spell. For me, I will always go with Nagas. They are the most annoying creatures that you encounter in the dungeon. They are difficult to hit, they have a lot of hit points, you can't use SLE or WEB on them. They can rust your armor, un-enchant your items, and worst, they can pickpocket you like a Nymph. (I just recently was heading out of the Volcano and a naga popped up and stole the potion of cure dianthorritis!)

I have to say, that one of the few additions I liked in ULARN was that you could find the Nymph or Naga that took your stuff and kill them, and you'd get the last item of yours that they stole back.

So what other monsters do people Genocide?

Hey! Who Xvarted?

Sorry about the title, I couldn't resist. I thought of another tiny thing I had noticed in the past about Larn: As part of my "volcano lottery" strategy, I am typically jumping around the Volcano with a Stealth scroll in effect. Sometimes, I will magic-missile a Xvart in order to lead it away from a place I need to get to, to pick up a valuable chest or book. Several times I have been leading a Xvart past some dragons (I believe they were Silver) and they "woke up" from the stealth! It's like the Xvart signals them or something. I haven't noticed any other monsters that will do that. It's gotten me killed many times.

Scroll of Spell Extension

Does anyone know how precisely the Scroll of Spell Extension works? I have noticed a few times that my hastes or stealths or undead protections last a lot longer than they should. However, when I've *tried* to use a scroll of spell extension it doesn't seem to make any difference. Do you cast the spell, then read the scroll? Do you read the scroll and it affects the next spell? Is the extension so minor that I just didn't notice? Or does it only work with spells that you cast and not scrolls or potions?

Also, if you read a scroll of Time Warp and go back 5 mobuls, does it extend your spells? When you cast Haste, does it expire at a certain fixed "time" or does it run for one mobul regardless of Time Warp?

I wish I had the time/know-how to look through the larn source code, but I don't. Time Warp and Spell Extension are just two of the things that have always befuddled me about Larn. (The previously mentioned Amulet of Invisibility falls into that same catagory).