Ruins of Moria

The Ruins of Moria
Location	Level 16–19 of the Dungeons of Doom
Bones	No
Mappable	Yes
Teleportable	only on levels 3-6
Diggable floor	2nd level only
Diggable walls	No

The Ruins of Moria is a dungeon branch in UnNetHack, modeled after the Mines of Moria from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It has six levels.

In contrast to the book, the player explores Moria from the bottom up, eventually reaching the West-gate of Moria (also known as the Doors of Durin). During the journey, the player will find both masses of orcs, often with enchanted gear, and vast riches.

There are six levels in the Ruins of Moria, numbered from the bottom-most one up. Minus the third, every level contains one or two cursed scrolls of teleportation named "Word of Recall"; this is an Angband reference.

Level 1: Shrine to the Ruins of the Endless Stair

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The downstairs is in a large enclosed area with iron bars; there is a secret door on the lowest tile of the left wall, with the burned engraving “Herein lie the lower remnants of the Endless Stair” in front of it. 2d8 small pieces of unrefined mithril are buried in the enclosed area; outside the enclosed area are many pools of lava, with 30 piles of gems littered around the area. Half of the monsters randomly generated on this floor will be of the orc monster class, and ⁷⁄₁₀ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

Level 2: The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

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This level recreates the location of the final battle from The Fellowship of the Ring. The downstair and upstair are on the leftmost and rightmost ends of the level, respectively; between them is a narrow bridge flanked by huge lakes of lava. In the middle of the bridge is the corpse of a wizard along with a very burnt quarterstaff and burnt robe; there are also 2-8 dwarf corpses scattered around the level, as well as 2-4 cursed dwarvish mithril-coats that are buried underground, and 2-10 random objects. The corpses are intended to represent the fallen Fellowship.

At the rightmost end of the bridge is Durin's Bane, a unique balrog - he is equipped with a fireproof, uncursed bullwhip, a wand of speed monster, a cursed potion of paralysis, and has a ¹⁄₃ chance of generating with a shield of reflection. As a unique demon, he ignores Elbereth, unlike other demons outside Gehennom.

³⁄₅ of monsters randomly generated on this floor will be o, and ⁷⁄₁₀ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

Level 3: Moria Tribute Level

Unlike the other levels, the third floor is more of a "filler" rooms-and-corridors level. However, it is designed to resemble an actual level from the game Moria (even employing a similar style of fixed layout in previous versions), and as such is not a persistent level - you will get a hint regarding this upon arriving, where you are greeted with this message:

"The dungeon here seems less persistent."

This means that the level will be re-generated every time you enter it, with any items left on the ground being permanently lost; an engraving that has chance of appearing on this level reads "Why, oh why didn't I leave my items in the town?", alluding to this. As such, the level does not contain any randomly generated items, barring those included in the inventory of randomly generated monsters. If a unique item is left on the level, however, it will not change upon leaving and re-entering, since the unique items are required to be indestructible.

While on the level, the flavor message "You feel the dungeon suddenly center itself around you!" occasionally appears - in Moria, the player is always in the center of the screen, with the dungeon "scrolling" around them.

⁷⁄₁₀ of monsters randomly generated on this floor will be o, and ⁷⁄₁₀ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

Level 4: The Halls of Moria

The fourth level is the Halls of Moria, which has four possible fixed layouts; most of them are in the style of cavernous halls of stone pillars with randomly placed stairs.

The place is completely overrun by orcs, with 31-34 deep orcs, 21-24 hill orcs, 11-14 orc-captains, and 1-3 trolls generated in random locations at level creation - all these monster will be generated hostile. There are 2-8 blessed dwarvish mithril-coats scattered about which have positive enchantments up to +5, along with 11-25 random objects; there is a ¹⁄₄ chance of a lit oil lamp generating.

⁹⁄₁₀ of monsters randomly generated on this floor will be o, and ⁷⁄₁₀ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

If you don’t have reflection by the time you reach here, you should seriously consider heading back, as the orc swarm will have plenty of attack wands to use on you, with a non-negligible chance of one of them carrying a wand of death.

moria4-1

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• For this version, the stairs up and down are placed randomly in the many doored pillars.

Level 5: The Forest

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The fifth level consists of a large, randomly-generated forest in the center with a ¹⁄₄ chance of a tree being generated on each square, along with a ¹⁄₄ chance of all trees being converted to dead trees. There is an independent ¹⁄₄ chance that the forest will also be a swamp, with ¹⁄₅ of the empty tiles converted to muddy swamp, and 1-4 swamp ferns placed randomly throughout the level.

There will always be a peaceful iron golem that generates with an uncursed axe, and also has a chance of generating with other iron items: a ¹⁄₂ chance of a tin opener, a ¹⁄₅ chance of a can of grease, and a ³⁄₂₀ chance of a tinning kit. 2-8 bear traps, 2-16 comestibles, and 2-12 random objects are placed throughout the forest. If the level is created at night, two bats and 1-2 B are also randomly generated around the level. ¹⁄₁₀ of monsters randomly generated on this floor will be o, and ⁷⁄₁₀ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

On the rightmost side of the level is the upstairs, as well as two orcish barracks behind secret doors. These barracks also have dwarves as prisoners behind iron bars.

Level 6: Doors of Durin

The sixth and uppermost level of Moria has two variants: an "intact" version and a "ruined" version, each with different loot. Both variants have an equal chance of appearing. When the player enters this level, they are greeted with the message:

You hear the sound of restless waters.

Common traits

The downstair is always in the room at the southwest corner of the map, which is connected to a small graveyard; past this graveyard is a warehouse with 5+2d4 random objects. The warehouse is connected to the main hallway, with the main gate at its rightmost end; across from the warehouse is the "Twenty-First Hall". To the right of this Hall, there is an altar room, and to its left is a treasure room; past the treasure room is "The Chamber of Mazarbul" which contains various chests and a grave with the epitaph "Balin, Son of Fundin, Lord of Moria".

On the other side of the main gate is a melon and a engraving that can only be read at night: "Speak, friend, and enter". ("Mellon" is elvish for "friend".) The path outside leads to a lake that contains the Watcher in the Water, a unique kraken-like sea monster that always carries an uncursed magic lamp).

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In the intact variant of the Doors of Durin, the Twenty-First Hall has 21 rocks, a flint stone, and a lembas wafer. The caches in the north and south walls of the treasure room are lined with four chests each, containing 1-3 random objects per chest. The altar room contains a cross-aligned altar; there is also an ice box, two iron safes, and three large boxes, whose contents are randomly generated as normal.

The Chamber of Mazarbul contains four dwarf statues and six chests, with each chest containing a specific type of item: scroll, potion, wand, amulet, ring, or spellbook.

²⁄₅ of monsters randomly generated on this floor will be o, and ⁴⁄₅ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

Once cleared out, this version serves as an excellent temporary base because it has an altar. You can easily haul loot from lower levels to b/u/c test and sort. If you successfully convert the altar and have a means of flying or water walking, the lake is safe for diluting potions once the Watcher in the Water has been killed. If you have the patience, this is also a relatively secure environment for polypiling -- the corridor outside of the altar room is exactly 8 tiles in length and has a lockable door.

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The second, “ruined” version of the Doors of Durin is less bountiful than its counterpart. The Twenty-First Hall is filled with corpses instead of its normal contents, and the eight chests in the treasure room each only have a ¹⁄₂ chance of spawning. The altar room has a boulder place of the altar; the ice box, iron safes, and large boxes each only have a ³⁄₄ chance of generating. The statues in the Chamber of Mazarbul are smashed into piles of up to 25 rocks, and 12-22 boulders are scattered around the level; each boulder has a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of being replaced with a rock at level creation, and all non-secret doors have a chance of being replaced with boulders. The lake that the Watcher in the Water dwells in has 'flooded' enough for the waters to reach just outside the main gate.

³⁄₅ of monsters randomly generated on this floor will be o, and ⁴⁄₅ of those orcs will be deep orcs.

General strategy

The type and quantity of loot the player can get from the Ruins of Moria varies depending on how well equipped they are to handle its challenges. There are three major roadblocks to looting Moria: Durin’s Bane on the second level, the horde of Orcs on the fourth level, and the Watcher in the Water on the final level. However, even if the player can’t defeat or bypass Durin’s Bane, there are still rewards to be obtained by visiting this branch.

The first level has a very large number of random gems, with a notable chance for gray stones; this gives a decent chance of finding a Touchstone to identify gems, as well as a potential Luckstone if the player wasn’t able to reach the one in Mines’ End. There are also a handful of cursed scrolls of teleportation, which both makes the scroll easily identifiable and gives access to levelporting.

Once the player can defeat Durin’s Bane, they get access to his Wand of Speed Monster to zap themself for the speed intrinsic, a Bullwhip to disarm enemies and pull items out of moats, and a ⅓ chance for a Shield of Reflection for the important Reflection extrinsic. Spellcasters will also like the Robe on the dead wizard in the middle of the bridge, and may be able to acquire it without fighting Durin’s Bane if they have a way to evade him.

Reaching and clearing the Halls of Moria requires a way to cross the two holes in the second floor’s bridge, strong enough weapons and armor to deal with a horde of very well-equipped orcs, and reflection or magic resistance for protection from the very plausible wand of death they’ll have. Once the player can deal with all of those, they’ll gain access to all the orcs’ numerous loot and death drops, along with the blessed dwarvish mithril-coats on the level.

After clearing all the prior challenges, the player can go up and explore the last two levels. The forest doesn’t have anything particularly noteworthy aside from an Iron Golem that can potentially hold a tinning kit or can of grease should the player choose to fight it. The final level at the top has a large amount of random loot within its chests and graveyard, as well as a potential altar depending on the variant. If the player can also defeat the Watcher in the Water at the very end, they can retrieve its Magic Lamp for an infinite light source or a potential non-magic wish. The bullwhip from Durin’s Bane can also help the player retrieve the lamp from the water if they can levitate, fly, or walk on water.

External Links

• Github Level File