I've been playing Nethack on/off since 1990. Probably the most incredibly addictive and frustrating game I've ever played. I then stumbled across Slash'em. Love the new classes, artifacts, magic, and some of the tweaks.
However, one thing I do not understand is being forced to have two keys - one that will blast you for up to 80 hp every time you do anything with it - to open Vlad's tower. For one thing, isn't the game hard enough? Secondly, with Nethack, and what made it addicting, is that you have to play it smart. Simply rampaging through all the levels wasn't going to do it. And the game penalized you for trying to grab all the artifacts, it was like a built-in game balancer. You're a chaotic rogue and want to use Excalibur? Blam!
But, if I understand it right, with this feature of the Vlad quest, you're forced to hold onto a non-aligned artifact. It doesn't make sense.
