Sickle
) 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | sickle |
| Appearance | sickle |
| Damage vs. small | 1d4 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d1 |
| Damage type | slashing |
| To-hit bonus | -2 |
| Weapon skill | farm implements |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Magical item? | no |
| Properties | (none) |
| Base size | small |
| Base price | 4 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 20 |
| Base material | iron |
A sickle is a type of weapon that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The sickle is a small weapon that can either be thrown or wielded in melee (where it is one-handed for a medium-sized wielder), and uses the farm implements skill. It has a base material of iron.
The sickle is the base item for two artifacts: Gaia's Fate and The Sickle of Thunderblasts.
Generation
Binders that do not have race-specific starting inventories start each game with an uncursed and rusty +0 sickle.
Sickles make up 19⁄1000 (1.9%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in shops and as death drops. General shops, antique weapons outlets and used armor dealerships can stock sickles.
Fire Brand and Frost Brand can be generated or wished for in sickle form, and can be reshaped into a sickle by dipping the artifact into a forge or fountain respectively—this reshaping requires the hero to either have a sickle in their inventory or be at least Skilled in farm implements.
The arrow rain monster spell has a base 1⁄33 chance of generating up to 16 uncursed +0 sickles and firing them at the target.
Human smiths, Dracae Eladrin and Oona can forge sickles for a hero that pays to request their services and gives them enough of their required material.
Hellish seals that contain a Jrt Netjer may generate sickles inside.
Sickles with high enchantments and object properties can be generated in the magic item vaults that appear within the Avatar of Lolth's lair during level creation if it appears as the second Abyss level.
Several monsters can be generated with sickles:
- Gold golems have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with a golden sickle.
- Glass golems have a 1⁄12 chance of being generated with a glass sickle.
- Corvians have a 1⁄5 chance of being generated with a sickle.
- Houseless drow have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with an obsidian sickle.
- Peasants have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with a sickle.
- Civilian Plumach Rilmani have an effective 4⁄27 chance of being generated with a lead sickle.
- Gae Eladrin have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with an equipment set that includes a blessed gemstone sickle.
- Caillea Eladrin that are generated during the waxing and waning crescent moon phases have a 3⁄4 chance of generating with two silver sickles.
- The blue-eyed fox has a 1⁄16 chance of generating with a filth-encrusted and dire-poisoned sickle.
- Deminymphs that are generated with undead hunter kits on the Drow Healer quest are always generated with a sickle.
- Befouled wraiths have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a large sickle.
- Mariliths that are generated in Gehennom or are slated to receive high quality equipment have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a sickle among their many weapons.
- Nitocris always generates with a +9 golden sickle.
- The Hmnyw-Pharaoh always generates with a cursed +9 large metal sickle.
Description
A sickle inflicts slashing damage, dealing 1d4 damage to small monsters and 1d1 damage to large monsters, with a -2 to-hit penalty. A sickle can be poisoned by dipping it in an appropriate potion. As farm implements, they have +6 to-hit and double damage against plant monsters. A hero that wields a sickle while Skilled or better in farm implements gains the "bleed" expert trait.
In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will favor the sickle over the orcish dagger, and will prefer a dagger or better to the sickle—they will not actively throw sickles like the hero is capable of doing.
Origin
A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook, or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock. Since the beginning of the Iron Age, hundreds of region-specific variants of the sickle have evolved, initially made of iron and later steel. This great diversity of sickle types across many cultures can be divided into smooth or serrated blades, both of which can be used for cutting either green grass or mature cereals using slightly different techniques.
Like other farming tools, the sickle can be used as an improvised bladed weapon. Examples include the Japanese kusarigama and kama, the Chinese "chicken sickles", and the makraka of the Zande people of north central Africa. Paulus Hector Mair, the author of a German Renaissance combat manual also has a chapter about fighting with sickles. It is also particularly prevalent in the martial arts of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines; in Indonesia, the native sickle known as celurit or clurit is commonly associated with the Madurese people, and is used both for fighting and as a domestic tool.
Encyclopedia entry
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously
curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or
cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock
(either freshly cut or dried as hay).
The inside of the blade's curve is sharp, so that the user
can either draw or swing it against the base of the crop,
catching the stems in the curve and slicing them at the same
time. The material to be cut may be held in a bunch in the
other hand (for example when reaping), held in place by a
wooden stick, or left free.
