NetHack data file - version 3.0 @ a human; These strange creatures live mostly on the surface of the earth, gathering together in societies of various forms, but occasionally a stray will descend into the depths and commit mayhem among the dungeon residents who, naturally, often resent the intrusion of such beasts. They are capable of using weapons and magic, and it is even rumored that the Wizard of Yendor is a member of this species. + a spell book a ghost ) a weapon [ a suit or piece of armor % a piece of food ? a scroll / a wand = a ring ! a potion ( a useful item (pick-axe, key, lamp, etc.) * a gem or rock $ a pile of gold; A metal of characteristic yellow colour, the most precious metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange. Sym- bol, Au; at. no. 79; at. wt. 197.2. It is the most malle- able and ductile of all metals, and very heavy (sp. gr., 19.3). It is quite unalterable by heat, moisture, and most corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in coin and jewelry. [ Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition ] " an amulet 0 an iron ball _ an iron chain ` a boulder or statue a an ant or other insect b a blob c a cockatrice; Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg. Then, along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad, to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to hatch. When it hatches, out comes a creature called basil- isk, or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures. A sin- gle glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both man and beast. Its power of destruction is said to be so great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal. Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vege- tation to wither. There is, however, one creature which can withstand the basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel. No one knows why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle. Perhaps the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness: if it ever sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instant- ly. But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to sicken and die. [Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) and other sources] d a dog or other canine e an eye or sphere f a feline g a gremlin; The gremlin is a highly intelligent and completely evil creature. It lives to torment other creatures and will go to great lengths to inflict pain or cause injury. h a humanoid; Humanoids are all approximately the size of a human, and may be mistaken for one at a distance. They are usually of a tribal nature, and will fiercely defend their lairs. Usually hostile, they may even band together to raid and pillage human settlements. i an imp or minor demon; ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could gambol and jump prodigiously; ... [The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany] An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting. Thus an 'ymp tree' was a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed. 'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan, but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils. The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the ghostly and the diabolic state. [Katharine Briggs, A Dictionary of Fairies] j a jelly k a kobold; The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation of a master wizard (demi-god?). They are about 3' tall with a vaguely dog-like face. They bear a violent dislike of the Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble for Elves at any time. l a leprechaun; The Irish Leprechaun is the Faeries' shoemaker and is known under various names in different parts of Ireland: Cluri- caune in Cork, Lurican in Kerry, Lurikeen in Kildare and Lu- rigadaun in Tipperary. Although he works for the Faeries, the Leprechaun is not of the same species. He is small, has dark skin and wears strange clothes. His nature has some- thing of the manic-depressive about it: first he is quite happy, whistling merrily as he nails a sole on to a shoe; a few minutes later, he is sullen and morose, drunk on his home-made heather ale. The Leprechaun's two great loves are tobacco and whiskey, and he is a first-rate con-man, impos- sible to out-fox. No one, no matter how clever, has ever managed to cheat him out of his hidden pot of gold or his magic shilling. At the last minute he always thinks of some way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the twinkling of an eye. [A Field Guide to the Little People by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse] m a mimic n a nymph o an orc p a piercer; Ye Piercer doth look like unto a stalactyte, and hangeth from the roofs of caves and caverns. Unto the height of a man, and thicker than a man's thigh do they grow, and in groups do they hang. If a creature doth pass beneath them, they will by its heat and noise perceive it, and fall upon it to kill and devour it, though in any other way they move but exceeding slow. [ the Bestiary of Xygag ] q a quadruped; The woodlands and other regions are inhabited by multitudes of four-legged creatures which cannot be simply classified. They might not have fiery breath or deadly stings, but ad- venturers have nevertheless met their end numerous times due to the claws, hooves, or bites of such animals. ...the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a Stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one contin- uous bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can imitate the human voice. [Curious Creatures in Zoology, John Ashton] r a rodent s a spider t a trapper or lurker above u a unicorn; Men have always sought the elusive unicorn, for the single twisted horn which projected from its forehead was thought to be a powerful talisman. It was said that the unicorn had simply to dip the tip of its horn in a muddy pool for the water to become pure. Men also believed that to drink from this horn was a protection against all sickness, and that if the horn was ground to a powder it would act as an antidote to all poisons. Less than 200 years ago in France, the horn of a unicorn was used in a ceremony to test the royal food for poison. Although only the size of a small horse, the unicorn is a very fierce beast, capable of killing an elephant with a single thrust from its horn. Its fleetness of foot also makes this solitary creature difficult to capture. However, it can be tamed and captured by a maiden. Made gentle by the sight of a virgin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head in her lap, and in this docile mood, the maiden may secure it with a golden rope. [Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)] v a vortex w a worm; [The crysknife] is manufactured in two forms from teeth tak- en from dead sandworms. The two forms are "fixed" and "un- fixed." An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's electrical field to prevent disintegration. Fixed knives are treated for storage. All are about 20 centime- ters long. [ Dune, by Frank Herbert ] x a xan or other mythical/fantastic insect; They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to find out what lay ahead. "Since you are the one who sucks the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosqui- to, "go and sting the men of Xibalba." The mosquito flew down the dark road to the Underworld. Entering the house of the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw... The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?" So he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he knew the names of all twelve. [ Popul Vuh, as translated by Ralph Nelson ] y a yellow light z a zruty; The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the wil- dernesses of the Tatra mountains. A a giant ape B a giant bat C a centaur; Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves. Despite a strong streak of sensuality in their make-up, their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly thought of man's welfare. The attempted outrage of Nessos on Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet, lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles. Further, the Cen- taurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important members. So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek. These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos. [Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271] D a dragon; In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man. Although preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction and disease. Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous undertaking. For the dragon's assailant had to contend not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire-breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail, the most deadly part of its serpent-like body. [Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)] E an elemental; Elementals are manifestations of the basic nature of the universe. There are four known forms of elementals: air, fire, water, and earth. Some mystics have postulated the necessity for a fifth type, the spirit elemental, but none have ever been encountered, at least on this plane of ex- istence. F a fungus or mold G a gnome; ... And then a gnome came by, carrying a bundle, an old fellow three times as large as an imp and wearing clothes of a sort, especially a hat. And he was clearly just as frightened as the imps though he could not go so fast. Ramon Alonzo saw that there must be some great trouble that was vexing magical things; and, since gnomes speak the language of men, and will answer if spoken to gently, he raised his hat, and asked of the gnome his name. The gnome did not stop his hasty shuffle a moment as he answered 'Alaraba' and grabbed the rim of his hat but forgot to doff it. 'What is the trouble, Alaraba?' said Ramon Alonzo. 'White magic. Run!' said the gnome ... [The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany.] H a giant humanoid; Giants have always walked the earth, though they are rare in these times. They range in size from little over nine feet to a towering twenty feet or more. The larger ones use huge boulders as weapons, hurling them over large distances. All types of giants share a love for men - roasted, boiled, or fried. Their table manners are legendary. I an invisible stalker J a jabberwock; "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! [Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll] K a Keystone Kop L a lich; Once in a great while, an evil master wizard or priest will manage through use of great magics to extend his or her life far beyond the normal span of a human. The usual effect of this is to transform the human, over time, into an undead of great magical power. A Lich hates life in any form; even a touch from one of these creatures will cause a numbing cold in the victim. They all possess the capability to use magic. M a mummy N a naga; The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and the head of a man or woman. They will fiercely protect the territory they consider their own. Some nagas can be forced to serve as a guardian by a spell caster of great power. O an ogre P a pudding or ooze; These giant amoeboid creatures look like nothing more than puddles of slime, but they both live and move, feeding on metal or wood as well as the occasional dungeon explorer to supplement their diet. Q a quantum mechanic; These creatures are not native to this universe; they seem to have strangely derived powers, and unknown motives. R a rust monster; These strange creatures live on a diet of metals. They will turn a suit of armour into so much useless rusted scrap in no time at all. S a snake T a troll U an umber hulk V a vampire W a wraith X a xorn Y a yeti Z a zombie & a demon : a lizard ; a giant eel or other water creature ' a golem; These creatures, not quite living but not really nonliving either, are created from inanimate materials by powerful mages or priests. ~ the tail of a long worm