solo-ing BSOLO1 The Ghost of Lion Castle

I think I mentioned some months ago that I was playing through this again after many, many years.

I have not been able to win and get back to Sarsdell with a magic-user (Eztar a pregen 3rd level) or elf (Kayen Telva - yeah, him!).  I did make it through recently with Hewer, my 3rd level Fighter. It was a close shave and my aura is not clear about it, if you get my meaning.  For one thing, it's against cannon as a Fighter could never be Sargon's heir.  I just wanted to see if it could be done.  I tried a couple of different elf and M/U roll-ups, but no go.  I don't know why they included level 1 magic-user pregens; it seems to me they'd be toast practically immediately.

"An iron ration?  Are you kidding me?  You won my Castle with an Iron Ration?"

This time, I encountered a high number of ferrets, and notably routed a Giant Black Widow Spider without being bitten.  I only survived as I took liberal advantage of the bed for exploring and went through on a treasure run the last go-through.  I thought by picking Orcish language I could avoid some fights but it didn't happen at all.  I didn't see nor smell an orc.

The first monster I encountered was a Giant Ferret, in the field just outside the postern gatehouse in which Eztar was killed (a couple of iterations before) by a Giant Ferret. Hewer kept his spell book and his +1 dagger.  I'm not sure if I re-vengeanced Eztar, and I'm not sure if his gear counts as treasure - but I like to think yes to the former and no to the latter.  It would give me a +1 dagger in the long run.

I think I will shift Hewer over to a 2nd level bald (from the barber room) Wizard in Dungeon Crawl Classics and have him be some kind of cat-conjurer with Sargon as a patron.  I gain a level by completing the adventure auto-magically, but I feel bad about the whole "I'm a fighter" thing.  I could just forswear the sword and devote myself to the study of the hunting cats and their magics.  Sargon as Patron.  Hmm.

Hmm. That's worth a thing, there.

On the random encounter chart, the lower your roll the more dangerous the encounter is.  The lion in Sargon's study almost took me to pieces in a couple of rounds.  Claw/claw/bite 2-5/2-5/1-10! with an 8 needed to hit my chain mail!.  Thank some god below for my last iron ration to distract it - cowardly, yes, but I think it's okay RAW.  I have rarely been so worried about the outcome of a battle - you can't drink healing potions in combat in these rules!  My heart rate was a little up for a couple of minutes!

Lesson:  Be wary of the beasts that skulk Sargon the Cat Sorcerer's keep!

( Following up with this thread in which a Nithian Automaton is discussed.  I don't know what that is, yet.)