Ahazu
Ahazu, the Seizer is a spirit that appears in dNetHack and notdNetHack.
Contents
Ritual, seal and taboo
Ahazu's seal must be drawn in a square containing a pit. An Illithanachronounbinder begins the game with knowledge of Ahazu's seal.
To remain bound to Ahazu, you must not become weak from hunger.
Mark
A character that has Ahazu bound will have a starry void in the back of their throat. This mark can only be seen up close, and can be hidden by wearing a mask or R'lyehian faceplate.
Benefits
While bound, Ahazu confers immunity to engulfing attacks of any kind, and grants skill in flails, including heavy iron balls as with Convicts.
Ahazu's active powers are as follows:
- Abduction: This targets a single adjacent monster that you have injured with a melee attack, or a thrown or fired projectile, and removes it from the game along with its inventory - the only exceptions to this are unique items and indestructible artifacts (i.e. the alignment keys, The Annulus, The Silver Key, and The Pen of the Void).
- This does not kill the monster: you do not receive any experience, it is not counted as killed for the purposes of quests or other objects (including the Temple of Chaos artifacts), and there is no way to bring it back.
- Prayer timeout is decreased as though you had sacrificed the victim; if your god is angry, their anger is instead reduced by the value of the "sacrifice". You also gain any beneficial effects as though you ate that monster's corpse: this avoids harmful effects, but does not confer any nutrition.
Ahazu's passive powers are as follows:
- Engulf: Monsters you attack in melee that are at 1⁄10 HP or less are automatically abducted as above. This is meant to be as much a hindrance as a help.
- Shadow Well: Monsters you attack in melee have a 1⁄5 chance of losing their next move.
- Swallow: You can eat any meal in 1 turn, with the effects that meal would cause occurring as normal - the duration of any temporary intrinsic you would receive is reduced by 1⁄10.
- Hunger: You lose nutrition at a rate of 1 extra point per 10 turns.
As a monster
| & Ahazu (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 13 |
| Attacks |
touch 4d4 causes hunger, engulf 4d4 digests |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 327 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 8 |
| Base MR | 3 |
| Alignment | -1 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | fire, poison
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Ahazu:
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In notdNetHack, Ahazu, &, also appears as a monster that can be summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder. He is a medium-sized major demon that is amorphous, amphibious, strong, and unbreathing - he can be seen via infravision, will pick up and collect items, and follows a player character to other levels if he is adjacent.
Ahazu has a hunger-inducing touch similar to that of Famine and a digestion attack, and possesses fire resistance, poison resistance and death resistance. Like most summoned spirits, he cannot be tamed and will turn traitor if somehow made tame.
Ahazu is poisonous to consume, which primarily comes up if he is digested by another monster.
Generation
Ahazu is first generated when summoned from his seal by an Illithanachronounbinder. He is always created hostile, and is not a valid form for normal polymorph.
Ahazu is always generated with 4 or 5 food rations.
Ahazu does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Illithanachronounbinder role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.
Ahazu can be encountered again in the Void, which is accessed by opening the high altar of Ilsensine the Fallen as an Illithanachronounbinder using the invoke effect of The Elder Cerebral Fluid. Ahazu is generated along with many other spirits of the near void on the first floor of the branch, and is generated with the "whispers" template, which makes him nonliving.
Encyclopedia entry
All shall feed the Shattered Night.
