Star vampire (SLASH'EM) - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: hatnote

2026-04-23T13:38:19Z

hatnote

Umbire the Phantom: pothole

2026-04-23T13:37:48Z

pothole

Umbire the Phantom: touch ups

2025-12-03T10:02:14Z

touch ups

Umbire the Phantom: /* Origin */ wordsmithing

2025-03-16T23:30:07Z

‎Origin: wordsmithing

Aximili: /* Origin */ "Star vampire" on Wikipedia now redirects to an Italian metal band

2025-03-16T23:27:32Z

‎Origin: "Star vampire" on Wikipedia now redirects to an Italian metal band

Umbire the Phantom: /* Strategy */ word choice

2025-02-11T16:37:10Z

‎Strategy: word choice

Umbire the Phantom: pothole

2025-01-29T18:06:07Z

pothole

Umbire the Phantom: mention vulnerabilities

2024-12-17T13:31:27Z

mention vulnerabilities

Umbire the Phantom: properly note blood

2024-12-17T13:26:53Z

properly note blood

Umbire the Phantom: aaaaaa

2024-12-17T12:00:25Z

aaaaaa

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
   |reference=[[SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3232]]
 }}
-{{for|the monster in other variants|star vampire}}
+{{otheruses|the monster in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM|the monster in other variants|star vampire}}
 A '''star vampire''', {{monsym|star vampire}}, is a type of [[monster]] that appears in the [[Lethe patch]], [[SLASH'EM]] and [[SlashTHEM]]. The star vampire is a form of [[Vampire (monster class)|vampire]] that is extra-terrestrial rather than [[undead]] like the vampires of ''[[NetHack]]''&mdash;they are still [[strong]] and [[unbreathing]] [[humanoid]]s that share similar traits such as [[flight]] and enhanced [[regeneration]], and as [[Vampire (monster attribute)|vampires]] they also have a [[diet]] of blood and a weakness to [[silver]]. Star vampires can be seen via [[infravision]], and can [[follow]] a [[hero]] to other levels if they are adjacent. [[Tame]] star vampires may turn [[traitor]].

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
   |frequency=1
   |genocidable=Yes
-  |attacks=[[Tentacle attack|Tentacles]] 2d6 [[Physical attack|physical]], Tentacles 2d6 [[drain life]], Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 drain life, Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 drain life
+  |attacks=[[Tentacle attack|Tentacles]] 2d6 [[Physical damage|physical]], Tentacles 2d6 [[drain life]], Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 drain life, Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 drain life
   |resistances conveyed=None
   |resistances=sleep, poison, cold

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
   |frequency=1
   |genocidable=Yes
-  |attacks=Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 [[drain life]], Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 [[drain life]], Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 [[drain life]]
+  |attacks=[[Tentacle attack|Tentacles]] 2d6 [[Physical attack|physical]], Tentacles 2d6 [[drain life]], Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 drain life, Tentacles 2d6 physical, Tentacles 2d6 drain life
   |resistances conveyed=None
   |resistances=sleep, poison, cold
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 }}
 {{for|the monster in other variants|star vampire}}
 A '''star vampire''', {{monsym|star vampire}}, is a type of [[monster]] that appears in the [[Lethe patch]], [[SLASH'EM]] and [[SlashTHEM]]. The star vampire is a form of [[Vampire (monster class)|vampire]] that is extra-terrestrial rather than [[undead]] like the vampires of ''[[NetHack]]''&mdash;they are still [[strong]] and [[unbreathing]] [[humanoid]]s that share similar traits such as [[flight]] and enhanced [[regeneration]], and as [[Vampire (monster attribute)|vampires]] they also have a [[diet]] of blood and a weakness to [[silver]]. Star vampires can be seen via [[infravision]], and can [[follow]] a [[hero]] to other levels if they are adjacent. [[Tame]] star vampires may turn [[traitor]].
-A star vampire has six tentacle attacks, which alternate between dealing physical damage and [[life drain]]ing. Star vampires possess [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]] and [[cold resistance]], and have a vulnerability to silver.
+A star vampire has six [[tentacle attack]]s, which alternate between dealing [[physical damage]] and [[life drain]]ing. Star vampires possess [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]] and [[cold resistance]], and have a vulnerability to silver.
 A star vampire is [[poisonous]] to consume, which primarily comes up if they are [[digested]] by another monster.
@@ Line 54: / Line 53: @@
 In the story, a nameless narrator seeking forbidden knowledge comes across an occult volume known as ''De Vermis Mysteriis'', said to have been written by a Belgian sorcerer named Ludvig Prinn, who was burned at the stake during the witchcraft trials. Finding it to be written entirely in Latin, and not being able to speak the language, the narrator writes a New England mystic whom he established contact with during his search, and the mystic agrees to aid him in translating the book. While perusing the tome at the mystic's home in Providence, RI, the mystic inadvertently stumbles across a spell or invocation on a chapter dealing with familiars: he believes to be a summoning towards one of the invisible "star-sent servants" spoken of in the frightful stories surrounding Ludvig Prinn, and the narrator makes no attempt to stop the mystic from reading the inscription out loud.
-This act is what summons the story's titular monster: the room immediately turns dreadfully cold, and an unearthly wind rushes in through the window, followed by a hideous laughter that heralds the arrival of an invisible vampiric monstrosity&mdash;the star vampire suddenly lifts the mystic into the air and begins feeding off of his blood until he is nothing more than a wrinkled, flabby corpse. As the creature continues to feed, it slowly becomes more and more visible until its monstrous form is fully revealed, causing the narrator to go mad; after the creature retreats back into the nameless cosmic gulfs it had come from, the book mysteriously vanishes, and the narrator sets the mystic's house on fire and wanders out into the streets. The story ends with the narrator struggling to move on from his ordeal, subconsciously fearing that the "shambler from the stars" will one day return for him.
+This act is what summons the story's titular monster: the room immediately turns dreadfully cold, and an unearthly wind rushes in through the window, followed by a hideous laughter that heralds the arrival of an invisible vampiric monstrosity&mdash;the "star vampire" suddenly lifts the mystic into the air and begins feeding off of his blood until he is nothing more than a wrinkled, flabby corpse. As the creature continues to feed, it slowly becomes more and more visible until its monstrous form is fully revealed, causing the narrator to go mad; after the creature retreats back into the nameless cosmic gulfs it had come from, the book mysteriously vanishes, and the narrator sets the mystic's house on fire and wanders out into the streets. The story ends with the narrator struggling to move on from his ordeal, subconsciously fearing that the "shambler from the stars" will one day return for him.
 The star vampire seen in variants of ''NetHack'' is obviously modeled after this monster, including its permanent invisibility, though it does not lose this invisibility upon feeding in SLASH'EM (presumably due to the difficulty involved in coding such a feature).

@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 ==Origin==
 {{wikipedia|The Shambler from the Stars}}
-The star vampire is based on a monster that originates from the horror short story "The Shambler from the Stars" by American writer Robert Bloch, which is first published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Though not a creation of [[H. P. Lovecraft]], the tale is written as part of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], and Lovecraft would later write [[wikipedia:The Haunter of the Dark|"The Haunter of the Dark"]] as a sequel later that year and dedicate it to Bloch. The original short story was later included in 1945 as part of Bloch's first published book, ''The Opener of the Way'', and he eventually wrote his own sequel "The Shadow from the Steeple" in 1950.
+The star vampire is based on a monster that originates from the horror short story "The Shambler from the Stars" by American writer Robert Bloch, which is first published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Though not a creation of [[H. P. Lovecraft]], the tale is written as part of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], and Lovecraft would write [[wikipedia:The Haunter of the Dark|"The Haunter of the Dark"]] as a sequel later that year and dedicate it to Bloch. The original short story was included in 1945 as part of Bloch's first published book, ''The Opener of the Way'', and he eventually wrote his own sequel "The Shadow from the Steeple" in 1950.
 In the story, a nameless narrator seeking forbidden knowledge comes across an occult volume known as ''De Vermis Mysteriis'', said to have been written by a Belgian sorcerer named Ludvig Prinn, who was burned at the stake during the witchcraft trials. Finding it to be written entirely in Latin, and not being able to speak the language, the narrator writes a New England mystic whom he established contact with during his search, and the mystic agrees to aid him in translating the book. While perusing the tome at the mystic's home in Providence, RI, the mystic inadvertently stumbles across a spell or invocation on a chapter dealing with familiars: he believes to be a summoning towards one of the invisible "star-sent servants" spoken of in the frightful stories surrounding Ludvig Prinn, and the narrator makes no attempt to stop the mystic from reading the inscription out loud.
@@ Line 56: / Line 56: @@
 This act is what summons the story's titular monster: the room immediately turns dreadfully cold, and an unearthly wind rushes in through the window, followed by a hideous laughter that heralds the arrival of an invisible vampiric monstrosity&mdash;the star vampire suddenly lifts the mystic into the air and begins feeding off of his blood until he is nothing more than a wrinkled, flabby corpse. As the creature continues to feed, it slowly becomes more and more visible until its monstrous form is fully revealed, causing the narrator to go mad; after the creature retreats back into the nameless cosmic gulfs it had come from, the book mysteriously vanishes, and the narrator sets the mystic's house on fire and wanders out into the streets. The story ends with the narrator struggling to move on from his ordeal, subconsciously fearing that the "shambler from the stars" will one day return for him.
-The star vampire seen in variants of ''NetHack'' is obviously modeled after this monster, including its permanent invisibility, though it does not lose this invisibility upon feeding (presumably due to the difficulty involved in coding such a feature).
+The star vampire seen in variants of ''NetHack'' is obviously modeled after this monster, including its permanent invisibility, though it does not lose this invisibility upon feeding in SLASH'EM (presumably due to the difficulty involved in coding such a feature).
 ==Encyclopedia entry==

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 ==Origin==
-{{wikipedia|Star Vampire}}
+{{wikipedia|The Shambler from the Stars}}
 The star vampire is based on a monster that originates from the horror short story "The Shambler from the Stars" by American writer Robert Bloch, which is first published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Though not a creation of [[H. P. Lovecraft]], the tale is written as part of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], and Lovecraft would later write [[wikipedia:The Haunter of the Dark|"The Haunter of the Dark"]] as a sequel later that year and dedicate it to Bloch. The original short story was later included in 1945 as part of Bloch's first published book, ''The Opener of the Way'', and he eventually wrote his own sequel "The Shadow from the Steeple" in 1950.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Star vampires are very fast at 18 base [[speed]], with an excellent base [[AC]] of -5 and the ability to deal significant amounts of damage, and they are always generated invisible. Fortunately for most heroes, they are also generally not encountered until much later in the dungeon, and do not possess [[death resistance]] or [[drain resistance]] since they are not undead, giving them more weaknesses to exploit&mdash;a hero will usually have a source of drain resistance or at least [[Magic cancellation (3.4.3)|MC3]] by the time they run into one, and in a worst-case scenario they can use [[Elbereth]] to drive a star vampire off.
-Star vampires are best fought alone, both to lower the amount of damage potentially taken from their attacks and to avoid losing track of other vital messages in the fray of combat (e.g. from nearby monsters that can [[petrify]] the hero). A hero battling one can also take advantage of their weakness to silver weapons and their [[vulnerability]] to [[Fire (element)|fire]] as well. On the note of messages, though the star vampire's tentacle attacks produce the same message as those of a [[mind flayer]] or [[master mind flayer]], they do not pose a danger to the hero's [[intelligence]] and also cannot be blocked by a [[ring of free action]].
+Star vampires are best fought alone, both to lower the amount of damage potentially taken from their attacks and to avoid losing track of other vital messages in the fray of combat (e.g. from nearby monsters that can [[petrify]] the hero). A hero battling one can also take advantage of their weakness to silver weapons and their [[vulnerability]] to [[Fire (element)|fire]] as well. On the note of messages, though the star vampire's tentacle attacks produce the same message as those of a [[mind flayer]] or [[master mind flayer]], they do not inflict [[intelligence drain]] and pose no danger to the hero's [[intelligence]], though they also cannot be blocked by a [[ring of free action]].
 ===As a polyform===

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 A '''star vampire''', {{monsym|star vampire}}, is a type of [[monster]] that appears in the [[Lethe patch]], [[SLASH'EM]] and [[SlashTHEM]]. The star vampire is a form of [[Vampire (monster class)|vampire]] that is extra-terrestrial rather than [[undead]] like the vampires of ''[[NetHack]]''&mdash;they are still [[strong]] and [[unbreathing]] [[humanoid]]s that share similar traits such as [[flight]] and enhanced [[regeneration]], and as [[Vampire (monster attribute)|vampires]] they also have a [[diet]] of blood and a weakness to [[silver]]. Star vampires can be seen via [[infravision]], and can [[follow]] a [[hero]] to other levels if they are adjacent. [[Tame]] star vampires may turn [[traitor]].
-A star vampire has six tentacle attacks, which alternate between dealing physical damage and [[life drain]]ing. Star vampires possess [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]] and [[cold resistance]].
+A star vampire has six tentacle attacks, which alternate between dealing physical damage and [[life drain]]ing. Star vampires possess [[sleep resistance]], [[poison resistance]] and [[cold resistance]], and have a vulnerability to silver.
 A star vampire is [[poisonous]] to consume, which primarily comes up if they are [[digested]] by another monster.
@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Star vampires are very fast at 18 base [[speed]], with an excellent base [[AC]] of -5 and the ability to deal significant amounts of damage, and they are always generated invisible. Fortunately for most heroes, they are also generally not encountered until much later in the dungeon, and do not possess [[death resistance]] or [[drain resistance]] since they are not undead, giving them more weaknesses to exploit&mdash;a hero will usually have a source of drain resistance or at least [[Magic cancellation (3.4.3)|MC3]] by the time they run into one, and in a worst-case scenario they can use [[Elbereth]] to drive a star vampire off.
-Star vampires are best fought alone, both to lower the amount of damage potentially taken from their attacks and to avoid losing track of other vital messages in the fray of combat (e.g. from nearby monsters that can [[petrify]] the hero). On the note of messages, though the star vampire's tentacle attacks produce the same message as those of a [[mind flayer]] or [[master mind flayer]], they do not pose a danger to the hero's [[intelligence]] and also cannot be blocked by a [[ring of free action]].
+Star vampires are best fought alone, both to lower the amount of damage potentially taken from their attacks and to avoid losing track of other vital messages in the fray of combat (e.g. from nearby monsters that can [[petrify]] the hero). A hero battling one can also take advantage of their weakness to silver weapons and their [[vulnerability]] to [[fire]] as well. On the note of messages, though the star vampire's tentacle attacks produce the same message as those of a [[mind flayer]] or [[master mind flayer]], they do not pose a danger to the hero's [[intelligence]] and also cannot be blocked by a [[ring of free action]].
 ===As a polyform===
-For a hero with [[polymorph control]], the star vampire is an excellent form for [[polymorph]] because of the same qualities that make it a fearsome opponent: a high base level, flight, speed, regeneration, flying, unbreathing, powerful attacks, and the ability to wear most non-torso [[armor]].
+For a hero with [[polymorph control]], the star vampire is an excellent form for [[polymorph]] because of the same qualities that make it a fearsome opponent: a high base level, flight, speed, regeneration, flying, unbreathing, powerful attacks, and the ability to wear most non-torso [[armor]]. They remain vulnerable to silver, however, which can pose a problem for heroes relying on silver weapons.
 As their size prevents them from wearing [[suit]]s of armor or [[cloak]]s, a hero looking to become a star vampire should take appropriate precautions and obtain [[magic resistance]] and other necessary properties from a slotless source such as a [[quest artifact]], among other options. Additionally, as a vampire they cannot [[eat]] food normally and must instead obtain [[nutrition]] by draining blood from corpses or else quaffing [[Potion of blood (SLASH'EM)|potions of blood]] or [[Potion of vampire blood (SLASH'EM)|vampire blood]]&mdash;in SlashTHEM, [[Potion of blood (SlashTHEM)|monster blood]] can also grant similar properties as eating that monster's corpse would.