I had one of my most interesting runs this weekend playing Rogue on Roku. Rogue on Roku is not nearly as good as online, but my wife took my monitor when hers died. The controls are clumsier and any item you normally would identify by typing in a descriptor - that doesn't exist. So you would have to take a paper and pen to track what's what. I'm too lazy for that, so it's frustrating.
I got to Level 25 and was in a great position to get to the Amulet, although not a very good chance at ascending. I had incredible luck with potions of raise level - I found a total of four, although one was wasted early on as I hadn't identified it yet. I ended up at experience level 12. I did have a two handed sword, but found no enchantments. I can't recall my strength, which would be important to know.
I found four rings and identified them. Two of them were worthless rings of searching. The other two were rings of slow digestion. They're nice to have, but I found plenty of food, so they were completely unnecessary.
I had much better luck with wands - two wands of slow monster and two wands of teleport away.
The critical moment came on Level 25. I was in the bottom left room and had already searched the other two rooms in the left column and all three rooms in the middle column. I did not see a way to get to the right column. This room was two spaces tall and very long. I dashed toward the end and found a sleeping Medusa. You might recall I made a mistake in this exact same scenario in my successful run.
I believe what I should have done in this moment is hit her when I was adjacent to her. Had I just left the room to search the other three rooms I was afraid she would have awoken and followed me. Instead, I backed up to the clear end of the room, fired four projectiles, then planned to move down to the space adjacent to the threshold at the same moment she appeared out of the darkness thinking this would ensure I would not be confused. Wrong. As I moved down one space, she moved adjacent to me out of the darkness and it said I was confused. I was one space away from the hallway where I am certain I could have beaten her in combat despite being confused. Instead, my move put me above her and I was in peril had I not used one of my remaining tricks.
I used my final scroll of teleportation, and what do you know, it moved me to the top room in the column of three unsearched rooms. Certainly the stairs would be here as there were only a handful of tiles beyond the Medusa. No luck in the first room and no luck in the second room. On my way to the bottom and third room, I had to use my second-to-last charge of slow monster to defeat a Black Unicorn. Right behind that was... another Black Unicorn. I had to use my final charge to beat him. When I got to the room it was only four tiles and no stairs. I still had no idea where the hidden doorway was to the rest of the level. I searched a ton and for a moment started walking on every tile praying for a trapdoor. Then I realized how many monsters I must be spawning and quit. Suddenly a Griffin was on me. I was able to defeat him in combat, but I had to burn my two potions of healing to do it. I finally find the hidden doorway and take out a Vampire. I move back toward the room where the Medusa was, realizing that I would find her on the way and probably more monsters. I find a Medusa in a hallway and beat her without being confused. She drops a scroll in the space to my left. But in that instant another Medusa followed and this time she did confuse me. Despite the confusion, I was able to move left to pick up the scroll and it was a scroll of hold monster. I rested until I was no longer confused, and continued to rest until I had full HP all the while knowing it would just spawn more hell. I then defeated the Medusa.
By this point I was out of all my tricks. I don't even recall what happened next but I died. Terrible luck on that level. Of all the places for those stairs to be... If I could turn back time I would have just attacked that Medusa when I was adjacent to her, won the fight (assuming she didn't confuse me), and then hit the stairs to the level that would have had the Amulet. And I still would have had a scroll of teleportation, two potions of healing, and two charges on my wand of slow monster. It was a punch in the gut.
