Usually I let graves alone. My current Healer was curious
and opened a grave to find ("guarded" by a ghoul mage) the
Serpent's Tongue; a powerful Slashem artifact! - Quite nice
for a Healer, and meanwhile he is at Skilled proficiency.
Compared with that artifact the Staff of Aesculapius seems
not that appealing - well, damage-wise it still is (or would
be), but being a two-handed weapon and since it doesn't (in
Slashem) protect against level drains (which would be useful
especially in Slashem) I prefer (despite its blast) that
light weight dagger artifact instead.

Janis

On 07.08.2022 10:42, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> Usually I let graves alone. My current Healer was curious
> and opened a grave to find ("guarded" by a ghoul mage) the
> Serpent's Tongue; a powerful Slashem artifact! - Quite nice
> for a Healer, and meanwhile he is at Skilled proficiency.
> Compared with that artifact the Staff of Aesculapius seems
> not that appealing - well, damage-wise it still is (or would
> be), but being a two-handed weapon and since it doesn't (in
> Slashem) protect against level drains (which would be useful
> especially in Slashem) I prefer (despite its blast) that
> light weight dagger artifact instead.

It turned out that Serpents Tongue was not too effective in my
Healer's hand, despite its +6 enchantment and my Skilled dagger
proficiency; too many monsters deeper down are tough and poison
resistant. My enchanted options (+6 Staff of Aesculapius, +5
Vorpal Blade, and +5 Frostbrand) were kept in my bag as backup.

At some point during the home-run (@dlvl:39) I noticed that my
hand wasn't wielding anything any more. Doh! I think I wouldn't
need that artifact dagger but decided to return to Gehennom to
get it; it served me most of the time in that game and that
item should not get lost. I found it at Asmodeus' level where
some of those bullwhip carrying monsters obviously disarmed
me without me noticing. On the planes I switched between that
dagger and a chickatrice corpse, and the Healer even managed
to reach rank #1 (~8M) on the [point-based] highscore list.

Janis

On 11.08.2022 14:11, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> On 07.08.2022 10:42, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>> [ Neutral Healer found Chaotic Serpent's Tongue in a grave ]
>
> It turned out that Serpents Tongue was not too effective in my
> Healer's hand, despite its +6 enchantment and my Skilled dagger
> proficiency; too many monsters deeper down are tough and poison
> resistant. [...]

My next game was a Chaotic Rogue. On the Kobold Level (@dlvl:12)
one of the kobolds carried the Serpent's Tongue. Funny. This time
my role and that artifact are co-aligned. Not quite sure, though,
what I shall do with it, since I've already got the guaranteed
and marvelous Bat from Hell as sacrifice gift from my god. Too
bad my Rogue isn't capable of two-weaponing; would be a killer
with those two artifacts.

Janis