Vortex

The members of the vortex monster class will all engulf you and cause an appropriate type of damage, except dust vortices, which will blind you, and fog clouds, which will do physical damage. Once you can survive their engulfing long enough to get yourself expelled with your horn or drum, their greatest danger is transporting you into lava or into a black dragon's disintegration blast.

Fog cloud

v fog cloud
Difficulty	4
Attacks	Engulf 1d6

v fog cloud
Difficulty	4
Attacks	Engulf 1d6
Base level	3
Base experience	38
Speed	1
Base AC	0
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	2 (Quite rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Sleep, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
A fog cloud: can fly. can flow under doors. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not have a solid form. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line856

Fog clouds offer a good opportunity for weapon training. While you are engulfed, your attacks are guaranteed to hit, avoiding the normal trouble non-warrior roles can have with the -4 Unskilled To-hit penalty. Despite messages like "You are laden with moisture and can barely breathe", they are not very dangerous because of their low speed. Pacifists might have problems with them if they can't move away since they mustn't destroy them.

As of version 3.6.0 a fog cloud may actually be a shapeshifted vampire or vampire lord, and resurrect in that form after being killed.

Dust vortex

v dust vortex
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Engulf 2d8 blind

v dust vortex
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Engulf 2d8 blind
Base level	4
Base experience	54
Speed	20
Base AC	2
Base MR	30
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	2 (Quite rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Sleep, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
A dust vortex: can fly. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line863

As with fog clouds, dust vortices offer a good chance for beginning characters to train their weapon skills, particularly up to NetHack 3.6.0 since they dealt no physical damage. In NetHack 3.6.1, dust vortices are able to deal 1d6 physical damage if their attack fails to engulf you because you had been engulfed by them recently.

Ice vortex

v ice vortex
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Engulf 1d6 cold

v ice vortex
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Engulf 1d6 cold
Base level	5
Base experience	74
Speed	20
Base AC	2
Base MR	30
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Cold, Sleep, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
An ice vortex: can fly. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision. does not appear in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line870

Energy vortex

v energy vortex
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Engulf 1d6 shock, Engulf drain energy 2d6, Passive (level + 1)d4 shock

v energy vortex
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Engulf 1d6 shock, Engulf drain energy 2d6, Passive (level + 1)d4 shock
Base level	6
Base experience	101
Speed	20
Base AC	2
Base MR	30
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Shock, Sleep, Disintegrate, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
An energy vortex: can fly. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not have a solid form. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line879

The energy vortex is a very dangerous monster to encounter if one lacks shock resistance, possessing both passive and active shock attacks. Note that the passive attack is only triggered by melee attacks; ranged attacks, even when engulfed, are perfectly fine. This includes repeatedly throwing and picking up your melee weapon, if you have no more powerful alternative. It is sometimes necessary to use wands to survive an unfortunate energy vortex encounter. Neither active nor passive shock attacks will destroy your rings or wands.

While engulfed, the energy vortex will drain your power 75% of the time, much in the same manner as a anti-magic trap. If it drains your power below zero, it will reduce your max power! This can be particularly devastating if you can't kill it quickly; it can drain your max power all the way down to zero. Cancelling the vortex will prevent this, but magic cancellation will not, nor will magic resistance.

The energy drain attack was implemented in NetHack 3.6.0, where it was was 4d6, making it even more dangerous.

Steam vortex

v steam vortex
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Engulf 1d8 fire

v steam vortex
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Engulf 1d8 fire
Base level	7
Base experience	112
Speed	22
Base AC	2
Base MR	30
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	2 (Quite rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Fire, Sleep, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
A steam vortex: can fly. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not have a solid form. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision. appears only in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse.
Reference	monst.c#line888

Fire vortex

v fire vortex
Difficulty	10
Attacks	Engulf 1d10 fire, passive (level + 1)d4 fire

v fire vortex
Difficulty	10
Attacks	Engulf 1d10 fire, passive (level + 1)d4 fire
Base level	8
Base experience	142
Speed	22
Base AC	2
Base MR	30
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	0
Nutritional value	0
Size	Huge
Resistances	Fire, Sleep, Poison, Stoning
Resistances conveyed	None
A fire vortex: can fly. does not breathe. has no eyes. has no limbs. has no head. is mindless. does not have a solid form. does not eat. (*) is neither male nor female. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision. appears only in Gehennom. never leaves a corpse. gives out light.
Reference	monst.c#line897

Encyclopedia entry

Swirling clouds of pure elemental energies, the vortices are
thought to be related to the larger elementals. Though the
vortices do no damage when touched, they are noted for being
able to envelop unwary travellers. The hapless fool thus
swallowed by a vortex will soon perish from exposure to the
element the vortex is composed of.

Body Parts

Vortex also refers to the grouping of body parts for the forms of vortices. It affects the messages referring to the appropriate body parts as follows:

Bodypart	Description
Arm	Region
Eye	Eye
Face	Front
Finger	Minor current
Fingertip	Minor current
Foot	Lower current
Hand	Swirl
Handed	Swirled
Head	Central core
Leg	Lower current
Light Headed	Addled
Neck	Center
Spine	Currents
Toe	Edge
Hair	Currents
Blood	Life force
Lung	Center
Nose	Leading edge
Stomach	Interior

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, the energy vortex, doesn't drain your energy.

UnNetHack

UnNetHack adds the surprisingly dangerous anti-matter vortex (removed after version 4.0.0).

References

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

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.1. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-361}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.