Acererak
L Acererak 
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|---|---|
| Difficulty | 33 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 4d4 physical, Touch 5d6 life drain, Cast 0d0 mage spell, Gaze attack 2d6 life drain |
| Base level | 25 |
| Base experience | 957 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | -9 |
| Base MR | 99 |
| Alignment | 20 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1200 |
| Nutritional value | 100 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | fire, cold, sleep, shock, poison, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | |
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Acererak:
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Acererak is the Binder quest nemesis, in dNetHack, Slash'EM Extended, and SlashTHEM.
Variants
In dNetHack it is possible to have the quest artifact, the Pen of the Void, even before you encounter Acererak. This is because the Pen is also the Binder's first sacrifice gift. Whether the Pen is in the possession of Acererak or of the player, defeating the quest nemesis restores it to its double-bladed form, making it a double damage weapon and increasing the effects of spirits bound into it. Defeating Acererak also teaches you his seal, so you can bind him as a spirit.
In Slash'EM Extended the Pen cannot be received as a sacrifice gift, so it can only be obtained from Acererak.
In SlashTHEM Acererak guards the new quest artifact, a version of the Hand Mirror of Cthylla. The Pen is relegated to the Binder's first sacrifice gift.
Origin
Acererak the Devourer is a character that originates from the Greyhawk setting of Dungeons & Dragons. He was a cambion, a demonic offspring of a powerful summoned balor named Tarnhem and a human woman. Ten years after his conception, she is killed by a torch-wielding mob, and the young half-demon is rescued by Vecna; the Whispered One kills his advisors when they urge him to kill the child, and instead takes on Acererak as an apprentice. The ten-year-old Acererak loathed life and looked forward to becoming undead like his master; during Vecna's siege of Fleeth, the lich is severely wounded and rescued by Acererak, earning him a promotion.
At some point, Acererak moves to the Vast Swamp where he constructs a lair for himself, best known as the infamous
; Acererak also builts a subterranean temple complex in the name of Orcus, burying its architect and all of its workers within. He then fully succumbs to the lure of lichcraft and has himself buried in the labyrinthine tomb, where he achieves demilichdom and leaves his body behind for the planes beyond. The sequel module Return to the Tomb of Horrors retcons this, instead portraying the Tomb as an anetchamber to Acererak's true dwelling - a lost city on the Negative Energy Plane's border, where he plotted to fuse his essence with the plane and gain multiversal control over all undead.
Acererak is thwarted by the player adventurers and destroye; in the 3rd edition of D&D, he lingers on after his passing as a vestige that can be summoned and bound by Binders, the basis for his role as the Binder quest nemesis.
