The Stake of Van Helsing (SLASH'EM)
| ) The Stake of Van Helsing (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | wooden stake |
| Damage vs. small | 1d6 +12 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6 +12 |
| To-hit bonus | +5 |
| Bonus versus | (all) |
| Weapon skill | dagger |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried | |
| When wielded |
(none) |
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 5000 zm |
| Weight | 20 |
| Material | wood |
- For the artifact in Hack'EM, see The Stake of Van Helsing (Hack'EM).
The Stake of Van Helsing is the Undead Slayer quest artifact in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. It is the prize for completing the Undead Slayer quest, and its default alignment is lawful. Its base item type is a wooden stake.
Contents
Generation
For Undead Slayers, The Stake of Van Helsing is always generated on the goal level of the Undead Slayer quest, where it is placed on Count Dracula's square at level creation.
Description
The Stake of Van Helsing grants magic resistance while carried. It has +5 to-hit and +12 damage versus all monsters, and as a wooden stake it also deals 1d6+2 bonus damage against vampires with a 1⁄10 chance of instakilling them.
Strategy
The Stake of Van Helsing is a quite nice quest artifact with enough bonus damage to be a contender for a main weapon through the endgame—the chance of instant death is also useful against vampire mages, star vampires and fire vampires. The slotless magic resistance makes it a strong artifact wish for lawful heroes and allows it to fill the niche formerly occupied by The Sceptre of Might in NetHack 3.4.3—the primary caveat of this affects Undead Slayer themselves, who may want to favor another weapon while dealing with the Wizard of Yendor in order to prevent him stealing the Stake and gaining immunity to a wand of death.
Pacifists and other dedicated pet-keepers will find this a very nice weapon for a pet Solar: it is one of the few ways to give them extrinsic magic resistance, and its damage bonus greatly augments Solars' already-impressive fighting capabilities.
Origin
Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a fictional character from Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula. Commonly referred to as simply "Van Helsing", he is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments and a wealth of experience, education and expertise—Van Helsing is a doctor, professor, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and metaphysician. The character is best known through many adaptations of the story as a vampire slayer, monster hunter and the arch-nemesis of Count Dracula, and the prototypical and the archetypal parapsychologist in subsequent works of paranormal fiction.
The wooden stake is one of Van Helsing's trademark weapons, used to pierce the heart of vampires and lay their souls to rest—though the slaying of Dracula by driving such a stake through his heart is a popular image, the events of the story proceed much differently: near the end, Dracula is decapitated by a kukri while his heart is simultaneously pierced by a Bowie knife, destroying the Count and reducing him to dust.
