Vorpal jabberwock (UnNetHack)
J vorpal jabberwock 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 27 |
| Attacks |
Bite 3d10 physical, Bite 3d10 physical, Claw 3d10 behead, Claw 3d10 behead |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 809 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1300 |
| Nutritional value | 600 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
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A vorpal jabberwock:
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- For other implementations of the monster, see vorpal jabberwock.
A vorpal jabberwock, J, is a type of monster that appears in GruntHack. The vorpal jabberwock is the strongest type of jabberwock that a hero can encounter, and is an implemented version of the deferred vorpal jabberwock that exists in the data of NetHack. Like other jabberwocks, it is a strong carnivorous animal that is capable of flight, can be seen via infravision, will pick up food and other items that they come across while hostile, and can be saddled for riding while tame.
Vorpal jabberwocks have two strong bite attacks and two strong vorpal claw attacks that each have a 1⁄40 chance of beheading targets under the same conditions as Vorpal Blade—wielding Vorpal Blade will protect from the beheading effects, and they will not occur if the vorpal jabberwock is canceled. Hitting a vorpal jabberwock with Vorpal Blade will always behead them.
Generation
Randomly generated vorpal jabberwocks are always created hostile, and are not randomly created in Sheol.
Origin
The vorpal jabberwock is based on the titular creature of Jabberwocky, a famous nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, and its encyclopedia entry is an excerpt from the poem. Jabberwocky is first printed in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to the 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice finds herself in a looking-glass world and encounters the poem as part of a book written in a seemingly unintelligible language; she shortly discovers the text and the world at large is in fact inverted (or mirrored), and holds a mirror to the poem to read it, finding it as puzzling as the odd land she is now in. The poem is also the inspiration for the artifact weapon Vorpal Blade, based on the unnamed adventurer's weapon that is used to behead the jabberwock - this is also the basis for the jabberwock's weakness to Vorpal Blade.
The original illustrations by John Tenniel accompanying the poem (and the rest of the two novels) depict the titular jabberwock as a bipedal creature that vaguely resembles a dragon: It has bat-like wings, a long serpentine neck, a long tail, a weird head with rabbit-like teeth, hands with three long spidery talons, and a waistcoat. Some of the jabberwock's more particular traits may reflect the contemporary Victorian obsession with natural history and the then-fast-evolving sciences of paleontology and geology.
Encyclopedia entry
Vorpal jabberwocks and Vorpal Blade share the same encyclopedia entry:
The Cat materialized at the far end of the bar, downed the
Hatter's drink, and said, "I hear the burbling, and eyes of
flame are drifting to the left."
I glanced at the mural, and I, too, saw the fiery eyes and heard
a peculiar sound.
"It could be any number of things," Luke remarked.
The Cat moved to a rack behind the bar and reached high up on
the wall to where a strange weapon hung, shimmering and shifting
in shadow. He lowered the thing and slid it along the bar; it came
to rest before Luke.
"Better have the Vorpal Sword in hand, that's all I can say."
Luke laughed, but I stared fascinated at the device which looked
as if it were made of moth wings and folded moonlight.
