Rutterkin
i rutterkin 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 5 |
| Base experience | 66 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 20 |
| Alignment | -7 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 20 |
| Nutritional value | 10 |
| Size | Tiny |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
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A rutterkin:
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| Reference | SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line894 |
A rutterkin, i, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. The rutterkin is an imp-like minor demon that has many of the same qualities as the imp, including regeneration and the ability to follow an adjacent hero across dungeon levels, along with a higher monster level and difficulty. In Hack'EM, unlike other minor demons that leave corpses, rutterkins are not carnivores. Tame rutterkins have a chance of turning traitor.
A rutterkin has a poisonous claw attack that drains strength, and has a weakness to silver.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated rutterkins may be created as peaceful towards chaotic heroes who do not possess the Amulet of Yendor.[1]
A rutterkin is among the tame minor demons that can be given as minions to chaotic heroes via sacrifice at experience level 6 or below.
Rutterkins appear among the random i that are part of the first quest monster class for Knights and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Knight quest. They also appear among the random i that are generated on each floor of the Wizard quest at level creation. Rutterkins additionally appear among the random i that are part of the second quest monster class for Necromancers and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters randomly generated on the Necromancer quest.
Strategy
A hero encountering a rutterkin in the early game will ideally have a source of MC3 or even poison resistance (which rutterkins themselves incidentally lack) by that point. While their regeneration and somewhat higher HP will make them annoying to bring down, but they thankfully appear later than their imp cousins, giving heroes more time to prepare. Outside of these early stages, rutterkins are generally not a threat.
History
The rutterkin first appears in NetHack-- 3.0.10, and also appears in SLASH 6.
Origin
The rutterkin (plural "rutterkin" or "rutterkins") originates from Dungeons & Dragons, where they are a deformed kind of demon that are among the weakest types present in the setting. A rutterkin is a disfigured humanoid demon that stands at 5‒7 ft (1.5‒2.1 m) tall, and is considered ugly even by demonic standards: their skin is mottled green and blue-violet, with only the occasional patch or two of wiry bristles for hair (if even that); they possess backward-pointing ears, pointed and elongated skulls, and tiny red swollen eyes, and their misshapen limbs and bodies make them universally asymmetrical.
Rutterkins are sometimes formed from the souls of chaotic evil mortals that were incompetent and arrogant, and others are formed directly from raw or dead manes, while still others were subjected to corruption by a "warp touch"-like disease. Dretches that rose above others in their pack could become rutterkin, while powerful demons were demoted into rutterkin as a less merciful alternative to simply killing them off. Regardless of origin, they are considered pathetic mutants and held in utter contempt even by the chaotic evil "society" of the Abyss, to the point that they often heckle and belittle even each other. Every rutterkin is deformed in its own unique way: most are hunched and frequently howl in pain, as their bodies warp and contort at random and may cause their limbs to become unstable or stop functioning altogether; one of their few recourses is to try and kill anything in their path, or die trying.
To this end, they behave in wild, monstrous and undisciplined manners, and are generally cruel bullies that respect only brute force and delight in destroying anything seen as weaker than themselves—manes and dretches are their most frequent targets, though any feeble or greatly wounded demon was fair game if they believed the victim couldn't hurt them back too badly. Despite this, they possess at least average human intellect and relatively high cunning, along with some basic sense of self-preservation; they are also usually unwilling to attack with claws or fists, due to the physical pain it causes, and prefer exotic and masterwork weapons such as axes and "snap-tongs".
Like other demons, rutterkin can summon more of their kind, but are limited to other rutterkin, manes, dretches, and rarely chasmes. Rutterkin often rely on numbers to overwhelm targets, most often grouping together in gangs of 3-12 and creating waves of immobilizing terror. Their behavior unwittingly makes them useful to their hated kin as guards, often alerting other stronger demons to the presence of trespassers through their attempts to summon reinforcements. Though there were ways for rutterkins to rise above of their wretched state and become a stronger type of demon, they never truly recover from the anguish of that state and will resort to anything to keep their grip on power.
