Gypsy
@ gypsy 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 24 |
| Attacks |
Claw 2d12 (Steals intrinsics), Spellcasting |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 619 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -2 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | death magic, sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed |
causes teleportitis (100%) |
|
A gypsy:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3796 |
A gypsy is a monster which only appears in SLASH'EM. Gypsies are human, and are represented by a @.
Chatting with a gypsy can be very useful, provided you have luck, money, and time.
Contents
When chatting to a gypsy, these choices will show themselves :
Fortune telling
The gypsy reads your fortune and charges you 50 credit. The effects of this are determined by the card.
Cards with an effect
| Card | Image | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Zero of trumps | The Fool | You lose one point wisdom and 3 points of luck. |
| 1 of trumps | The Magician | Reveals the location of the portal to the Wizard's Tower if you haven't killed him, otherwise resurrects him and teleports him to your current location. |
| 2 of trumps | The High Priestess | "I see a high altar on level <level of Moloch's Sanctum>" if you don't have the amulet, otherwise "I see a high altar in the heavens..." |
| 3 of trumps | The Oracle | "I see an Oracle on level <oracle level>". |
| 4 of trumps | The Lovers | A foocubus of the opposite sex appears. |
| 5 of trumps | The Chariot | "For 5000 credit I will teleport you to a level of your choosing!" |
| 6 of trumps | Strength | Gain one point strength and provides half physical damage for 500-1000 turns. |
| 7 of trumps | The Hermit | "You feel like hiding"; Gives teleportitis for 300-600 turns and invisibility for 500-1000 turns. |
| 8 of trumps | The Wheel of Fortune | "You feel lucky"; Increases luck by 3. |
| 9 of trumps | Justice | Summons an erinyes if not extinct. |
| 10 of trumps | Punishment | You become punished if you are not already punished. If you are punished, does the Curse items monster spell against you |
| 11 of trumps | The Devil | The voice of Moloch booms: "Thou shalt pay for thy indiscretion!" A <demon name> of Moloch appears before you. |
| 12 of trumps | Sorcery | Gain one point of wisdom or intelligence (depending on role) and provides Half spell damage for 500-1000 turns. |
| 13 of trumps | Death | Does a Touch of death against you. |
| 14 of trumps | The Tower | Gives the location of Vlad's Tower. |
| 15 of trumps | The Star | "The gypsy reaches behind your head and pulls out a <name of the stone>." The gypsy pulls a precious stone out of the back of your head, based on the month as described below. There is a one in six chance of getting two gems. This will automatically identify the gem. |
| 16 of trumps | The Moon | Resets and gives the current phase of the moon, changing luck to match the possibly new moon phase. |
| 18 of trumps | The Judgment | "I see a quest on level <quest level>" |
| 19 of trumps | Infinity | "For 10000 credit I will grant you a wish". If accepted, she gets canceled (can be checked with a stethoscope). The next time Infinity is drawn the gypsy disappears, "I wish I wasn't here!". |
Note: For levelport or wish to work, you need enough credit. Otherwise you'll only get the message "what a pity that I can't accept gold", and nothing will happen.
The gypsy has a deck of 72 cards that is used for fortunes and ninety-nine (but not three card monte). If the deck is exhausted the gypsy will reshuffle the deck. It is therefore possible to go through the entire deck of cards to get the wish. You need 3,600 credit to go through the entire deck of cards and will also need some way to deal with the negative effects, especially the touch of death. If playing during the month of April, however, the gems received through "The Star" will always be greater than the cost of going through the entire deck, giving players the option of repeatedly going through the entire deck (refusing to accept the wish each time) to slowly collect diamonds, as well as the other positive effects.
Gems that a gypsy can give you with "The Star"
| Month | Gem | Value |
|---|---|---|
| January | Garnet | 700 |
| February | Amethyst | 600 |
| March | Aquamarine | 1500 |
| April | Diamond | 4000 |
| May | Emerald | 2500 |
| June | Opal | 800 |
| July | Ruby | 3500 |
| August | Chrysoberyl | 700 |
| September | Sapphire | 3000 |
| October | Black opal | 2500 |
| November | Topaz | 900 |
| December | Turquoise | 2000 |
Cards which do nothing, but have a message
| Card | Image | Message |
|---|---|---|
| 2 of rings | Change | Your powers will be put to the test soon .. |
| 3 of rings | Works | You will meet new challenges |
| 4 of rings | Power | Your strength will aid you greatly in times to come |
| 5 of rings | Worry | Your worst nightmares will come true |
| 8 of rings | Prudence | Next full moon is an excellent time to try to please your god |
| 9 of rings | Gain | Your wishes will become true |
| 3 of swords | Sorrow | Your relationships will be shaky |
| 6 of swords | Science | Your intellect will aid you soon |
| 7 of swords | Futility | You should stop trying to bend fate |
| 9 of swords | Cruelty | The cards are stacked against you. |
| 10 of swords | Ruin | When the full moon rises terrible things will happen to you. |
| 2 of wands | Dominion | You must not let evil overcome you |
| 3 of wands | Virtue | Keep active or woe will overcome you |
| 4 of wands | Completion | You should stick to your path |
| 5 of wands | Strife | When Mars is out, it will be a time of bloodshed for you |
| 6 of wands | Victory | If you stick to your path, great things will happen to you |
| 7 of wands | Valour | Your strength will be put to the test in coming times |
| 9 of wands | Adjustment | Beware, it will not be a safe time for you next full moon |
| 2 of shields | Love | You should work on your relationships. |
| 5 of shields | Disappointment | Disappointment waits for you around the corner |
| 6 of shields | Pleasure | The full moon is the time for you to develop relationships |
| 7 of shields | Debauch | You will meet someone tall, dark and handsome |
| 8 of shields | Indolence | Your god will be short tempered during the new moon |
| 9 of shields | Happiness | Your dreams will come true |
| 17 of trumps | The Sun | "It is the witching hour. Beware of the undead!" if it's midnight, "It is nighttime. Beware of creatures of the night!" if it's nighttime, "It is daytime. Shouldn't you be working?" if it's daytime |
Cards which do nothing
All others.
Three card Monte
The aim of this game is simple: you choose a card, and the card might or might not be the right one. If you choose the right card, you win your bet in credit. Whether or not you win is based on your Luck and your previous games' results. You are guaranteed to win the first game you play.
Ninety-nine
Each player draws three cards at the beginning of the game. Players take turns playing cards, drawing after each turn. Non-trump and non-face cards add to the total score, with a maximum of 99, and a minimum of 0 (see below for other card effects). If your opponent cannot play a card, you win.
| Card | Effect | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Kings | Put the score to ninety-nine | Can always be played |
| Queens and Jacks | Diminish the points by 10 | Cannot be played unless score is above 10 |
| The Fool | Can't be played | Will stay till the end of the game in your hand |
| All other trumps | Don't do anything to the points | Always safe to play |
| All the other cards | Add their value to score | Cannot exceed 99 points if played. |
Note that the cards held in hand or played in the last game of ninety-nine will be taken out of the deck when you ask for the gypsy to read your fortune. The gypsy shuffles the deck at the start of each game.
Pawn gems
This allows you to sell gems for credit. To successfully pawn gems, they must be identified first. The gypsy gives you the base price of the gem as credit. Gems pawned in this way are not transfered to the gypsy's inventory, but are rather destroyed. Thus it is not possible to pawn a large number of gems in the hopes of getting a wish and recover the gems by killing the gypsy afterwards.
Strategy
In general, the main use of gypsies is to gain wishes. In doing this, magic resistance is crucial; one does not know when the death card will come up. It is also advisable to have a means of removing punishment and restoring Luck, although these are less pressing concerns. It is a good idea to call a gypsy who has given you a wish, so that you do not accidentally waste more gems on her. In doubt, check with the stethoscope if she is canceled, in that case, she indeed gave a wish.
Be very careful not to anger gypsies: they are very high-level spellcasters and can steal intrinsics in the manner of a gremlin. One does not retrieve gold or gems given to them from killing them, so it is almost never worth it to do so yourself. (Having a powerful pet kill them is substantially safer.) They will gladly curse your items, summon nasties, and possibly even perform a touch of death on you without reading your fortune should you anger them.
It is possible to get up to 120 wishes from gypsies without any gems, and even with a very small amount of gold. All you will need is a cursed scroll of genocide. You can obtain it by any method - write it as wizard with high luck, find it and curse with unholy water, etc. You can also just find a randomly generated gypsy, and use her wish for two cursed scrolls of genocide (or a magic marker).
When you have a cursed scroll of genocide, find any small, safe area - Sokoban is a good choice. Now, use your scroll to reverse genocide gypsies. Now you have 4 to 6 gypsies. Next, you can get sufficient credit for a wish by abusing Three-Card Monte. How? It's simple. First, choose a gypsy and call her something. For your first game ever, you can bet all your money - you will always win - but note that this means only your character's first game ever, not your first game with that particular gypsy. Afterward, bet 1 zorkmid until you see the message "You win! Wasn't that easy" (do NOT pick the same card twice in a row, though). Then, bet most of your gold and credit with that particular gypsy - there is very good chance of winning this time[1], because of the characteristics of rnl function. Repeat until you'll have at least 13600 credit. Now, have her read your fortune until you get a wish. Remember that you have to be able to deal with a number of negative effects - make sure you have a blessed and preferably high enchanted unicorn horn, magic resistance, the ability to defeat demons, a means of restoring luck, etc.
Once you get a wish from a particular gypsy, she can never give you another wish; however, because you called her something, you can tell that she won't give you a wish again. You might want to call her "Building up credit/reading fortune" as you are doing so, and "Gave me a wish" once she does, so that her status will be unambiguous if you should get interrupted.
Happy wishing!
Encyclopedia entry
No entry.
References
