Leather drum
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | leather drum |
| Appearance | drum |
| Base price | 25 zm |
| Weight | 25 |
| Material | leather |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A leather drum is a type of tool that appears in NetHack. It is an atonal musical instrument that is naturally made of leather, and appears as a drum when unidentified.
Contents
Generation
Elven Priests and Wizards have a 1⁄6 chance of starting the game with a leather drum as their instrument.[1]
Leather drums make up 1⁄250 (0.4%) of all tools randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Hardware stores can also stock leather drums.
Leather drums are generated uncursed, with the possible exceptions of bones levels and the items generated on some early traps.
Description
A hero applying a leather drum will produce noise that has a range dependent on their experience level:[2][3][4] this renders the hero deaf for 30-49 turns if they are not already deaf and abuses wisdom, and the noise produced will wake up nearby sleeping monsters and restore mobility to immobilized ones, scaring any that fail a roll against their MR score dependent on their proximity.[5][6][7] Monsters will not use this item.
Of note is that the drum of earthquake does not behave exactly the same as a leather drum when applied with no charges, covering a much smaller range while neither abusing wisdom nor causing the hero to become deaf.[8][5]
Strategy
The leather drum is not especially useful compared to most other instruments for the average player, since the deafness it causes may prove inconvenient and its noise may wake several other monsters that you intended to remain asleep—bugles and tooled horns are both lighter in weight with smaller noise ranges, and are tonal instruments that can be used to play the passtune. A leather drum can still prove sufficient for scaring monsters if no other tools are available, and can similarly work to un-freeze immobilized pets and escape from engulfing.
Leather drums can still provide a useful niche for certain roles and character builds: the wider scaring range makes it somewhat more applicable for heroes foregoing Elbereth as well as illiterate and/or pacifist conduct play, and the effect is potentially more useful in large 'open' areas such as the Big Room—some Rogues can also use it to render multiple hostile monsters scared at once, though they will then need to cover a lot of ground in order to maximize their backstab opportunities; other instruments may still work better for this purpose.
History
The leather drum first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Messages
- You beat a deafening row!
- You applied a leather drum, rendering yourself deaf while causing monsters to wake up and possibly flee.
- You pound on the drum.
- As above, but you were already deaf.
Variants
In some NetHack variants that have object materials systems, the leather drum is referred to simply as a "drum".
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, dipping a drum of earthquake into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a leather drum.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, rare instruments shops have a 1⁄10 chance of generating a leather drum on each square.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the item is simply known as a drum, and will always display its material when identified.
Troubadours start the game with knowledge of the drum's appearance, and half-dragon Troubadours will always start with a wooden drum in place of the usual instruments.
Music instruments shops have a 1⁄25 chance of a drum being generated on each square.
The hardware store on the Troubadour quest home level has a pair of drums generated inside during level creation.
Some monsters are generated with drums:
- The elder priest is always generated with a drum.
- Player monster bards and rhymers have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with a drum as their instrument.
- Orcs of the ages of stars are always generated with a drum.
- Mordor orcs and Uruk-hai both have a 1⁄50 chance of generating with a drum, while orc-captains and Uruk-captains have a 1⁄10 chance of generating with a drum.
Dipping a drum of earthquake into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a drum, as in SLASH'EM.
The drum is the preferred instrument for playing Fear, Charge, Cacophony and Inspire Courage via the Troubadour's musicalize spell skill—drums of earthquake can be used in place of a leather drum for playing these songs. If a song is played on a leather drum via the musicalize spell skill, orcs, ogres, giant humanoids, and non-canceled Trumpet Archons may shout along with the song if they are tame, while hostile ones will "counter-shout".
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, elven Cartomancers have a 1⁄6 chance of starting the game with a drum as their instrument like Priests and Wizards.
A leather drum can be combined with a scroll of earth at a furnace to create a drum of earthquake.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, rare instruments shops have a 1⁄10 chance of generating a leather drum on each square, as in UnNetHack.
As in dNetHack and its derivatives, Bards start the game with knowledge of the leather drum's appearance.
Mordor orcs and Uruk-hai both have a 1⁄50 chance of generating with a leather drum, while orc-captains have a 1⁄10 chance of generating with a leather drum.
The leather drum is the preferred instrument for playing Despair, Charge, Cacophony and Inspire Courage via the Bard's musicalize spell skill—drums of earthquake can be used in place of a leather drum for playing these songs.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, rare instruments shops have a 2⁄25 chance of generating a leather drum on each square.
Upgrading a leather drum successfully will produce a drum of earthquake and vice versa. Dipping a drum of earthquake into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a leather drum, as in SLASH'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
Many travelers have seen the drums of the great apes, and some have heard the sounds of their beating and the noise of the wild, weird revelry of these first lords of the jungle, but Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, is, doubtless, the only human being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating revel of the Dum-Dum.
References
- ↑ src/u_init.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 814
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3731
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 655-L663: leather drum effects
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 61: awaken_monsters() function
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 668: calls awaken_monsters(); a monster is awakened if their distance to the hero is at most
, and is scared if their distance is at most 
, where 
is the hero's experience level
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 70: mobilizing monsters in awaken_monsters()
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 78: scaring monsters in awaken_monsters()
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 656: mundane boolean is true when applying a magical drum
