Vlad's Tower

From NetHackWiki
Revision as of 01:28, 13 December 2015 by Quantum Immortal (talk | contribs) (UnNetHack: {{nethack-360}} and reference)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Vlad's Tower is the home of Vlad the Impaler, the entrance of which is a second "up" stair, located between the 9th and 13th levels of Gehennom (inclusive, counting the Valley as 1, so somewhere between dungeon levels 34 and 42 inclusive). It consists of three levels connected by ladders. All levels in the branch are no-teleport. Only the middle level is eligible to leave bones files. It is not part of Gehennom, and prayer is permitted in the tower.

Vlad is located at the top level. All three levels contain many secret doors, traps, and several guaranteed items. The walls and floor of each level are undiggable.

You can directly level teleport from the tower to each of its three levels, to the Gehennom levels above it, and to the Dungeons of Doom, but not to levels below the tower. However, quaffing a cursed potion of gain level on the uppermost floor will only result in an "uneasy feeling".

Monster generation is biased toward chaotic monsters in this branch.

Bottom level

    --- --- ---    
    |x| |x| |x|    
  ---S---S---S---  
  |xS.........Sx|  
----|.........|----
|.>.|.........+...|
|.--|.........|--.|
|.|xS<........Sx|.|
|.---S---S---S---.|
|...|x|.|x|.|x|...|
---.---.---.---.---
  |.............|  
  ---------------  

There is a random dragon immediately inside the main door of the courtyard, and eight other random monsters on the level. Four of the ten niches marked 'x' will contain the following:

These niches will also contain random traps.

Middle level

  --- --- ---  
  |x| |x| |x|  
---S---S---S---
|xS.........Sx|
--|.------+----
  |......|.<|  
--------.|-----
|xS>.....+..Sx|
---S---S---S---
  |x| |x| |x|  
  --- --- ---  

The ten niches marked 'x' contain (one randomly assigned to each): two hell hound pups, a winter wolf, two random demons, and the following items:

Top level

  --- --- ---  
  |V| |V| |V|  
---S---S---S---
|.......+.+...|
---+----|.|----
  |...\(|.+>|  
---+----|.|----
|.......+.+...|
---S---S---S---
  |V| |V| |V|  
  --- --- ---  

Vlad the Impaler, with the Candelabrum of Invocation, occupies the throne; a chest is behind it. Each of the six marked niches contains a random vampire (or a replacement random monster if extinct/genocided), and a chest.

As of NetHack 3.6.0, two of the six chests in the closets are guaranteed to contain stacks of 4-8 candles[1]. One chest contains wax candles and the other contains tallow candles. As long as these stacks are not destroyed, they insure that the player will have more than enough candles to perform the invocation, without having to resort to wishing or polypiling.

History

The modern form of Vlad's Tower first appeared in NetHack 3.1.0.

As early as NetHack 3.0.0, a different form of Vlad's Tower appeared embedded in Hell (which was quite different from Gehennom). Each of the three levels appeared embedded in a maze, much as the modern Wizard's Tower is, except that the lower level was directly accessible from the maze. The Candelabrum of Invocation did not yet exist, and the Wizard still carried the Amulet of Yendor. Consequently, taking on Vlad was strictly optional.

Back when the guaranteed items were added, crystal plate mail was the best armor in the game. Presumably, the other ones were much more useful, too.

The guaranteed candles of the top level appeared with NetHack 3.6.0.

Variants

SLASH'EM

  --- --- ---  
  |V| |V| |V|  
---S---S---S---
|.......+.+...|
---+-+--|.|----
  |....V|.+>|  
---+-+--|.|----
|.......+.+...|
---S---S---S---
  |V| |V| |V|  
  --- --- ---  

In SLASH'EM, Vlad's tower became even more complicated, when his room was locked behind six indestructible doors(marked orange, real color is brown), that would have to be opened using keys from alignment quests. At least two of the keys would have to be acquired before approaching Vlad would be possible, but you can sometimes do without them.

Vlad, the throne and the chest occupy the same square now. There are no guaranteed candles in the chests here.

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the large boxes on the top level are coffins, which will contain vampires and vampire lords, who will awaken when you open them.

Probably, there are no guaranteed candles in the chests here.

References

This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:

Redistribution, copying, and editing of these spoilers, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. The original contributors to any spoiler must continue to be credited.
  2. Any modifications to the spoiler must be acknowledged and credited.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.