Greater pegasus
| u greater pegasus (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 22 |
| Attacks |
Kick 2d8, Kick 2d8, Bite 4d6 |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 642 |
| Speed | 24 |
| Base AC | -6 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1800 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A greater pegasus:
| |
| Reference | EvilHack 0.8.3 - monst.c, line 1248 |
A greater pegasus, u, is a type of monster that appears in EvilHack and Hack'EM. It is a fully-grown pegasus that is the strongest non-unique monster in the unicorn or horse monster class.
A greater pegasus has two kick attacks and a strong bite attack, and possesses sleep resistance and poison resistance.
Generation
Greater pegasi are not randomly generated, and are not valid forms for polymorph. A pegasus can grow up into a greater pegasus.
The greater pegasus cannot be targeted for genocide.
Strategy
For characters capable of riding, the greater pegasus is one of the best steeds: it can be easily raised from a regular pegasus in almost no time at all, and its magic saving throw of 90 gives it a stellar defense against certain magical effects compared to the previous growth stage - this also makes it harder to zap with beneficial wands such as speed monster. As a herbivorous monster, it can also be difficult to find intrinsic-granting corpses.
A greater pegasus equipped with Ithilmar is protected from most of the misfortunes that can befall a steed of any power level: Ithilmar blocks digestion instadeath as spiky barding does, confers magic resistance and reflection, prevents beheading, and renders the wearer completely immune to starvation, conflict or untaming from being mounted or else left on another floor.
Origin
Pegasus (Greek Πήγασος "Pḗgasos", Latin Pegasus or Pegasos) is a winged horse in classical mythology, usually depicted as a winged white stallion. Depending on the telling, he and his brother Chrysaor were both born when Medusa was decapitated by Perseus, or else sprang from her blood as it was spilled upon the earth. Long honored as a constellation, Pegasus is a subject of very rich iconography, especially through ancient Greek pottery as well as paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance.
According to early myths, Pegasus created fountains wherever his hooves touched the ground, with one of these springs being the Hippocrene ("horse spring") of Mount Helicon. Despite the association with Perseus, Pegasus figures much more in the most famous tale of the Greek hero Bellerophon: he captures Pegasus near another fountain with the help of Athena and Poseidon, and the winged horse allows Bellerophon to ride him in order to defeat the monster Chimera. Later, Bellerophon rode Pegasus towards Mount Olympus, prompting Zeus to send a gadfly to sting Pegasus and throw Bellerophon off to his demise - in almost all tellings, Pegasus himself would make it to Olympus, where he was used to carry Zeus's thunderbolts.
Encyclopedia entry
The famous winged horse, whose origin is thus related. When
Perseus struck off the head of Medusa, with whom Poseidon had
had intercourse in the form of a horse or a bird, there sprang
forth from her Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus. The latter
obtained the name Pegasus because he was believed to have made
his appearance near the sources (pegai) of Oceanus.
[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
