Sheol

Sheol is a dungeon branch that appears in UnNetHack. It can be accessed by a stairway from the main dungeon in Gehennom and, in UnNetHack, from a portal in the Valley of the Dead. Sheol represents a kind of icy underworld (a "frozen-over" hell), in contrast to the fiery hell of Gehennom proper. It contains special ice-themed monsters, traps, and terrain types.

The original description of this branch can be found in Sheol.txt.

Terrain

Level Generation

Levels in Sheol feature a floor composed of regular ground, ice floors, pools, and, on lower levels, clouds. Sheol also contains two new types of ice-based walls, ice walls 8 and crystal ice walls 8. Regular ice wall can be removed by fire or digging with any digging tool, but crystal ice wall is impervious to any form of removal except fire or the crystal pick at the end of the branch. Regular ice wall takes less time to clear than a regular (stone) wall. Removing either type of ice wall leaves a floor of ice behind.

Sheol also contains a new type of trap, the cold trap, which in UnNetHack is generated only within this branch and certain special rooms. The cold trap's threat to players is analogous to the fire traps found elsewhere in Gehennom: they deal cold damage, which can destroy potions in the player's inventory.

The entirety of Sheol is a no-teleport level, with undiggable floors and walls.

Monsters

Several of the new monsters added in UnNetHack are specific to Sheol and appear only there:

• Chillbug
• Blue slime
• White naga
• Ice golem
• Crystal ice golem
• Dark Angel
• Punisher (not randomly generated, but one appears in 50% of filler levels)
• Executioner (unique)

Lawful monsters can naturally generate in Sheol, along with the usual pool of Gehennom-specific monsters.

Levels

Filler

Sheol’s filler levels generate uniquely from the other levels of the Mazes of Menace: They generate in a waving motion from one side of the map to the other. The deeper in Sheol they are, the more narrow the passages. They are also fully lit.

All filler levels are generated with two crystal ice golems, a blue slime, a punisher (50% of the time), and nine other random monsters, along with four random traps. They also contain a random gem, potion, amulet, scroll, wand, ring, spellbook, tool, and weapon, with an extra 33% chance of a wand of fire.

Middle

Sheol’s middle level generates similarly to other filler levels, but with two differences; the portal connecting Sheol to the Valley of the Dead will be generated here, and there is an island on the side of the map containing the downstairs, opposite of the side containing the portal and upstairs. There is one filler level above and four filler levels below the middle level.

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The island will have a L, N, T, V, X, x, ‘, and @, meaning an encounter with a master lich is likely here. In addition, the level is generated with a crystal ice golem, a blue slime, and eight random monsters scattered across the level, along with six random traps. The level also contains a random gem, potion, amulet, scroll, wand, ring, and spellbook, and two random tools and weapons, in addition to two guaranteed wands of fire.

Palace: Top Level

At the bottom of Sheol lies a palace, separated into a top floor and bottom floor. Crystal ice wall blocks the path to the downstairs, which are randomly placed in the far side of the left wing, necessitating a wand of fire to clear the way. The courtyard the player arrives in is lit, but the rest of the level is dark.

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The two rooms blocked by doors and ice at the top of the level each contain one crystal ice golem and a chest with random loot. In addition, the room on the left will have two amulets, ten potions, and three scrolls, while the one on the right will have eleven scrolls and four potions. There will also be four chillibugs in the left and right wings, and three blue slimes, fourteen random monsters, six random traps, and two random spellbooks, rings, and wands placed throughout the level.

Palace: Bottom Level

At the bottom of Sheol awaits the Executioner, standing on his throne. Accompanying him are 8 blue slimes, 4 white nagas, 2 crystal ice golems, 2 ice golems, 3 dark angels, 11 random monsters, and 8 random traps placed throughout the level. The giant ice wall surrounding his throne also contains seven chests; the one furthest from the stairs contains a magic marker, the two that are the next furthest from the stairs each have a crystal pick, and the other four chests have random loot. Unlike the rest of Sheol, the entire level is dark.

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Strategy

• The wands of fire placed in each level and the Crystal Ice Golem’s potential fire breath can both melt ice you’re standing on; to prevent this from dunking you into pools and wetting your items or potentially drowning you, you should wear water walking boots or have some means of Levitation or Flying while traversing over ice.
• As Sheol is only a branch of the main dungeon you don’t have to return through during the Ascension Run, many of the monsters unique to it are significantly stronger than ones in Gehennom, and the only loot worth caring about is in the stashes on the final two levels of the branch, the best strategy for looting the branch is to ignore/bypass combat whenever possible, gather all the loot you want at the end of the branch, and then levelport out once you have everything you want (Levelporting ignores no-teleport levels).
• Crystal Ice Golems, Punishers, and the Executioner are all devastatingly powerful in melee combat, and are the three main opponents standing between you and the loot at the end of the branch. If you don’t have ranged weapons powerful enough to kill them, there are many strategies that can be used to bypass them:
  • Stay away from Blue Slimes if one of them is nearby; several turns of immobility is more than enough for one of them to kill you.
  • If you have high health and AC and are (very) fast and/or have jumping, you can run/jump past the golems due to them only having 9 base speed.
    • The Executioner’s 18 base speed requires you to loop him around one of the pillars on his level if you want to run past him.
  • On the filler levels, wands of fire can be used to melt paths around golems and Punishers that are in your way. You can also use them to melt ice floors into pools to block golems’ movement, as they can’t swim.
  • Blinding yourself with telepathy lets you see where Punishers are in advance on the filler levels so you know where to dig around, and also shows you where the Executioner is when you have to blind yourself to protect yourself from a Dark Angel's stunning gaze.
  • Warning can tell you about the location of nearby, out-of-sight golems to avoid, whether it be because they're around a corner or because you're currently blind.
  • Wands of teleportation won’t work on you due to Sheol being a no-teleport branch, but it can still be used to teleport golems, Punishers, and the Executioner out of the way by zapping them with the wand. If multiple threats are standing next to you, you can also break a wand of teleportation to teleport them all away at once.
  • If multiple golems and/or the Executioner are standing near each other, you can generate conflict to have them kill each other. Other monsters won’t be nearly strong enough to significantly hurt the golems or Executioner before they get killed in turn.
  • The Executioner can be put to sleep by a wand of sleep. His -2 AC and 60 MR means it will likely take multiple tries, so make some space from him before trying to zap him, and have a backup plan in case it doesn’t work.
  • Setting up a beartrap in front of the entrance you make to his throne room and making him run over it can immobilize for long enough for you to easily walk around him.

Trivia

• Sheol contains references to the game The Binding of Isaac, which also has Sheol as one of its levels.
  • If the player’s name is “Isaac”, a trapdoor will be added on all filler and middle levels.
  • At the bottom of Sheol, there is a chance for two unique headstones to appear. One with the inscription "Isaac - Sacrificed by Mother" has a 10% chance of appearing, and "Guppy - Beloved by Flies" has an independent 30% chance. These graves should have a human and cat corpse respectively, but it is not currently implemented.
• The way Sheol is designed is explained by a passage in the sheol.des github file:

"This realm of the dead is in the earth ("erẓitu" = ; comp. Job, x. 21, 22), the gateway being in the west. It is the "land without return." It is a dark place filled with dust (see Sheol, Biblical Data); but it contains a palace for the divine ruler of this shadow-realm (comp. Job xviii. 13, 14). Seven gates guard successively the approach to this land, at the first of which is a watchman. A stream of water flows through Sheol (comp. Enoch, xvii. 6, xxii. 9; Luke xvi. 24; Ps. xviii. 5; II Sam. xxii. 5)."

Origin

Sheol is a term associated with the afterlife in Judaism. Depending on the context, it may be understood as the place where the wicked go after death (i.e. Hell), or as the destination of all who die, regardless of character (similar to the Greek Hades). English translations of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) sometimes translate the expression as "the grave".

External Links

GitHub level file

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