The Black Mother - Revision history

Chris: /* List of major boons */ add Presence

2025-11-20T18:12:24Z

‎List of major boons: add Presence

Umbire the Phantom: word choice

2025-10-07T18:45:55Z

word choice

Umbire the Phantom: lede, etc.

2025-07-12T01:21:40Z

lede, etc.

EasterlyIrk: actually update the goat page for the first time in like 5 versions

2025-04-02T07:47:23Z

actually update the goat page for the first time in like 5 versions

Show changes

EasterlyIrk: add mutations as a quick & dirty list

2025-04-02T06:43:05Z

add mutations as a quick & dirty list

Umbire the Phantom: cats

2024-05-25T13:09:12Z

cats

Disruptor: /* Drooling object property */ typo fixed

2023-06-13T15:26:21Z

‎Drooling object property: typo fixed

Chris: Begin splitting cults into their own pages

2022-10-01T18:43:15Z

Begin splitting cults into their own pages

Lapis413: Partial update to cults to account for 3.21.4; more to come

2022-09-24T01:19:18Z

Partial update to cults to account for 3.21.4; more to come

Netzhack: /* Gifts and Blessings */ "Chance to do" means opportunity; "chance of doing" means probability.

2021-10-26T22:14:01Z

‎Gifts and Blessings: "Chance to do" means opportunity; "chance of doing" means probability.

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 |-
 | Knowledge || 40 || Gifts you a slab containing the Red Word, teaching it to you upon reading.
 |-
 | Mutate || 50 || Does not require lifetime devotion, but instead requires increasing amounts of mutagen (goat's milk) consumed.

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 === Sacrificing ===
-The mouths of the goat will accept your sacrifices on behalf of the Mother. To offer to them, you must stand adjacent (if you can perceive the mouths directly) or more commonly on their square (if you can't perceive them), and #offer corpses. To join the cult formally, you must #offer corpses until you receive a ''holy symbol of the black mother'' (a ''tarnished triple goat-head'' when unidentified). This item serves as your connection to the goat, and has a 10% chance to be gifted per corpse offered. After the first holy symbol is acquired, subsequent offerings without a holy symbol in open inventory have a 25% chance to gift a holy symbol. A mouth of a goat will attempt to eat any corpse that is dropped or offered within range, but a corpse eaten in this way only counts for cult favor if you carry a holy symbol in open inventory.
+The mouths of the goat will accept your sacrifices on behalf of the Mother. To offer to them, you must stand adjacent (if you can perceive the mouths directly) or more commonly on their square (if you can't perceive them), and #offer corpses. To join the cult formally, you must #offer corpses until you receive a ''holy symbol of the black mother'' (a ''tarnished triple goat-head'' when unidentified). This item serves as your connection to the goat, and has a 10% chance of being gifted for each corpse offered. After the first holy symbol is acquired, subsequent offerings without a holy symbol in open inventory have a 25% chance of a holy symbol being gifted. A mouth of a goat will attempt to eat any corpse that is dropped or offered within range, but a corpse eaten in this way only counts for cult favor if you carry a holy symbol in open inventory.
 The Black Mother has unique rules for accepting offerings:
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 * You lose 4d4 hunger (scaled by your size, like normal hunger).
 * You lose 4d4 sanity (if you're already below 50 sanity, you only lose 1)
-* Horrific tentacles erupt from your head, dealing damage to all adjacent hostiles. Peaceful monsters are ignored, and anything that would petrify you on contact is also ignored. These tentacles deal 4d4 physical damage with a chance to apply strength-draining poison.
+* Horrific tentacles erupt from your head, dealing damage to all adjacent hostiles. Peaceful monsters are ignored, and anything that would petrify you on contact is also ignored. These tentacles deal 4d4 physical damage with a chance of applying strength-draining poison.
 Having the goat-ridden madness does improve your diminishing returns from drooling property sacrifices, but has no effect on offerings made directly to mouths.

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-'''The Black Mother''', also called Shub-Nugganoth or the Black Goat, is a chaotically aligned [[Cult (dNetHack)|cult]] in [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]].
+'''The Black Mother''', also called '''Shub-Nugganoth''' or the '''Black Goat''', is a chaotic-aligned [[Cult (dNetHack)|cult]] deity that appears in [[dNetHack]], [[notdNetHack]] and [[notnotdNetHack]].
 == Location ==
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 The Black Mother may be offered to at any [[mouth of the goat]]. These can be found randomly in garden special rooms, but two are guaranteed in the Lost Cities. One is found in the upper left room of the 6th level of the Lost Cities, with many goat spawn wandering around near it, on top of an altar to the Black Mother. Another is located in the bottom right on the 7th level, on a tile with a gain energy potion & 2 potions of full healing.
-To actually see the mouths directly, you must have 60 insight. Otherwise, they will occasionally drip acidic spittle onto the floor, which can be perceived even with 0 insight. This is audible and visible from a distance as a 'viscous liquid dripping onto the floor'. If you can see the space the mouth occupies, it will be marked with a white {{white|I}} like an invisible monster. The messages can change depending on if there are monsters or the player standing on their space, but are unmistakable.
+To actually see the mouths directly, you must have 60 insight. Otherwise, they will occasionally drip acidic spittle onto the floor, which can be perceived even with no insight. This is audible and visible from a distance as a 'viscous liquid dripping onto the floor'. If you can see the space the mouth occupies, it will be marked with a white {{white|I}} like an invisible monster. The messages can change depending on if there are monsters or the player standing on their space, but are unmistakable.
 === Sacrificing ===

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 These attacks will trigger against all adjacent monsters hostile to the attacker.
 {{variant-343}}
 [[Category:dNetHack cults]]

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 These attacks will trigger against all adjacent monsters hostile to the attacker.
+{{variant-343}}
-[[Category:DNethack]]
+[[Category:dNetHack cults]]
-[[Category:DNethack_Cults]]
+[[Category:dNetHack gods]]

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 == Drooling object property ==
-The Drooling property is the major reason to worship the black goatEach turn, an item with this property appearance may change appearance. The adjectives used can shift to 'drooling', 'staring', 'lashing', or 'stormwrapped', with its abilities changing as the name changes.
+The Drooling property is the major reason to worship the black goat. Each turn, an item with this property appearance may change appearance. The adjectives used can shift to 'drooling', 'staring', 'lashing', or 'stormwrapped', with its abilities changing as the name changes.
 *Drooling: Deals 2x acid damage
 *Staring: Adds study to the target (reducing its AC and increasing the damage it takes on the next attack) by the base damage rolled that turn, plus the enchantment of the item.

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-Cults are a feature in [[dNethack]] involving sacrifice to lesser or less involved [[deities]]. Theoretically they can be all be joined regardless of alignment, but each cult has an alignment of deities that accept worship of the cult god alongside them; gods of mismatched alignments regard it the same way as [[Sacrifice|sacrificing]] to a rival deity. There are currently two cults, one [[chaotic]] and one [[lawful]].
+'''The Black Mother''' is a chaotic aligned [[cult]] deity.
 ==Sacrificing to the Black Mother==
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 These attacks will trigger against all adjacent monsters hostile to the attacker.
 [[Category:DNethack]]

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-'''The Black Mother''' is an [[unaligned]] [[deity]] in [[dNethack]]. She is unique in that she does not have "proper" [[altar]]s, and can be sacrificed to regardless of alignment or current deity.
+Cults are a feature in [[dNethack]] involving sacrifice to lesser or less involved [[deities]]. Theoretically they can be all be joined regardless of alignment, but each cult has an alignment of deities that accept worship of the cult god alongside them; gods of mismatched alignments regard it the same way as [[Sacrifice|sacrificing]] to a rival deity. There are currently two cults, one [[chaotic]] and one [[lawful]].
 ==Sacrificing to the Black Mother==
-To make offerings, you must sacrifice to a special monster called a [[mouth of the goat]]. One mouth is found in the upper right room of the 6th level of the Lost Cities, and another in the bottom left on the 7th level. These monsters have an innate [[insight]] limit of 60, and will accept your sacrifices on her behalf; if you cannot perceive the mouth, then you must stand on its square and offer corpses there. If you can, any square adjacent to the mouth is acceptable.
+To make offerings, you must sacrifice to a special monster called a [[mouth of the goat]]. One mouth is found in the upper left room of the 6th level of the Lost Cities, and another in the bottom right on the 7th level. These monsters have an innate [[insight]] limit of 60, and will accept your sacrifices on her behalf; if you cannot perceive the mouth, then you must stand on its square and offer corpses there. If you can, any square adjacent to the mouth is acceptable.
-The main benefit of sacrificing to the Black Mother is to get access to the unique boons she grants. She has a prayer timeout as normal, along with the possibility to be angered, but has different versions of an artifact gift or other favor.
+A mouth of a goat will attempt to eat any corpse that is dropped on its square; a corpse eaten in this way only counts for favor if you carry a holy symbol. The message given when a corpse is eaten in any way is "A mouth forms from the mist and eats a <foo> corpse!".
-A mouth of a goat will attempt to eat any corpse that is dropped on its square; this does not count as a proper offering unless you [[Sacrifice|#offer]] it yourself, so it will not be eligible for gifts, but it will mollify anger or reset prayer timeout, and will not anger your god. The message given when a corpse is eaten in any way is "A mouth forms from the mist and eats a <foo> corpse!".
+Additionally, once you have had the Goat drool on a weapon of yours, any corpses left by a monster killed by it will be sacrificed to the Black Mother, earning you favor as usual.
 ===Sacrifice Rules===
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 # The Black Mother frowns upon same-race sacrificing for non-chaotics. However, no demons will ever be summoned as a result of the offering. Anachrononauts and Binders have no penalty for same-race sacrifice, even if not chaotic.
-If the corpse has not been revived at this point, the sacrifice is accepted. This can appease the Black Mother, but anger the character's normal deity. Non-chaotic characters will be severely punished by their god for offering to the Black Mother. Each sacrifice will hurt their align record, increment their gods anger by 1, reduce wisdom by 1, and reduce luck by 1. In practice, it's not easily doable to sacrifice as a non-chaotic character due to the anger effects you receive on each sacrifice. Even if not chaotic, Binders and Anachrononauts are immune to this effect.
+If the corpse has not been revived at this point, the sacrifice is accepted. This will earn favor, but anger any non-chaotic deities. Additionally, a successful sacrifice will pacify all of her minions on the same level as you.
-If you would have been eligible, but there were no items to drool on, and you have not already received the Red Word of Knowledge, then you will receive the Red Word instead.
+== Boons of the Goat ==
-=== Holy Symbol of the Black Mother ===
+== Holy Symbol of the Black Mother ==
-The Black Mother provides her devotees with a holy symbol ("tarnished triple goat head" when un-identified) to prove their faith.
+The Black Mother first provides her devotees with a holy symbol ("tarnished triple goat head" when un-identified) to prove their faith.
-Applying a holy symbol will attempt to pray to the Black Mother. This will anger non-chaotic gods, but function as a normal prayer using your prayer timeout with the Black Mother. This will function in Gehennom, and allows Anachrononauts to pray.
+Applying a holy symbol will allow you to (attempt) to spend favor on boons.
 Burying a holy symbol, possibly via dropping it into a pit and covering it with a boulder, will begin a timer for 250+d250 turns. When the timer runs out, the floor will "boil to a black mist" and a hoofprint will be burned into on the floor. This summons a mouth of the goat at that spot, allowing you to continue your worship there.
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 If you are holding a holy symbol in open inventory, any time you kill a monster on an eligible sacrifice spot, they are considered sacrifices even if you didn't #offer the corpse.
-Again, you are only eligible for further non-symbol gifts with a holy symbol in your inventory, and only the first holy symbol given counts against your future gifts.
+After obtaining the symbol, you will be able to purchase other boons in exchange for favor.
-=== Drooling object property ===
+== Drooling object property ==
-Each turn, an item with this property appearance may change appearance. The adjectives used can shift to 'drooling', 'staring', 'lashing', or 'stormwrapped', with its abilities changing as the name changes.
+The Drooling property is the major reason to worship the black goatEach turn, an item with this property appearance may change appearance. The adjectives used can shift to 'drooling', 'staring', 'lashing', or 'stormwrapped', with its abilities changing as the name changes.
 *Drooling: Deals 2x acid damage
 *Staring: Adds study to the target (reducing its AC and increasing the damage it takes on the next attack) by the base damage rolled that turn, plus the enchantment of the item.
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 [[Category:DNethack]]

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 ==Gifts and Blessings==
-The Black Mother does not give gifts like a normal deity. Instead, she will first attempt to give the character a '''holy symbol of the black mother'''. This is a tool-class item that has multiple effects, but the primary effect is the unlocking of further gifts. Any sacrifice eligible for a gift first checks to see if you have a holy symbol in your open inventory. If you don't have one, then you have a 1 / (10 + gifts given by any god) chance to receive one. This gifting counts as an artifact gift for the first symbol given, but not for any symbols past that. If you want another symbol, then you will have to bag or drop any current ones you have.
+The Black Mother does not give gifts like a normal deity. Instead, she will first attempt to give the character a '''holy symbol of the black mother'''. This is a tool-class item that has multiple effects, but the primary effect is the unlocking of further gifts. Any sacrifice eligible for a gift first checks to see if you have a holy symbol in your open inventory. If you don't have one, then you have a 1 / (10 + gifts given by any god) chance of receiving one. This boon counts as an artifact gift for the first symbol given, but not for any symbols past that. If you want another symbol, then you will have to bag or drop any current ones you have.
 If you have a symbol in your inventory, then you have the standard chance of receiving a "gift". However, instead of an artifact being given, she will attempt to apply the drooling [[Object properties#dNetHack|object property]] to your equipment. This property checks your weapon, gloves, and boots for eligibility, and uses the same odds as your chance of getting an artifact from a normal sacrifice.