The Rat King (SLASH'EM)
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 16 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4, Bite 2d3 |
| Base level | 12 |
| Base experience | 359 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 7 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 200 |
| Nutritional value | 120 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | stoning |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
The Rat King:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line1476 |
The Rat King is a monster that appears in SLASH'EM.
Generation
The Rat King only appears on the rat level, and is always generated with a long sword. Oddly enough, despite being a unique monster with his own level, he does not have the G_NOGEN flag.
Curiously, he is explicitly "the Rat King" in the source code, with the M2_PNAME flag marking his name as a "personal" name. Similarly named uniques (e.g. the Chromatic Dragon) lack both "the" and the M2_PNAME flag in the source code.
Strategy
Although all other r are tiny animals, the Rat King is medium-sized and able to use weapons, wands and scrolls. He can be quite dangerous to the unwary adventurer due to this, combined with his speed, HP and fairly hard-hitting weapon attacks.
Origin
In biology, a rat king refers to a group of rats that are accidentally knotted and sticked together at their tails and sometimes legs. It shares some similarities with siamese siblings, but as opposed to actual siamese twins, the rats are joined postnataly. Radiographical images show that the tails of the joined rats had fractures in their tails which healed, implying the rats were alive in that state for a prolonged time.
The more literal Rat King as a large humanoid rat with a crown appears in various works of fiction. Perhaps the most famous "example" is actually commonly misremembered: many recall the villain of The Nutcracker as being the Rat King, but it is in fact the Mouse King.
