Nighthorn
) Nighthorn 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | Unicorn horn |
| Damage vs. small | 1d12 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d12 |
| To-hit bonus | +1 |
| Bonus versus | (none) |
| Weapon skill | Unicorn horn |
| Size | two-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
(none) |
| When wielded | |
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 10000 zm |
| Weight | 20 |
| Material | bone |
Nighthorn is an artifact unicorn horn that appears in SLASH'EM and dNetHack. It is associated with Nightmare in both games.
Generation
Nighthorn cannot be randomly generated or wished for, and can only be obtained upon killing Nightmare in a way that would have otherwise left a corpse (i.e. without disintegrating or digesting her). The dropped Nighthorn will always be cursed and +0.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, Nighthorn is lawful and obtained at the end of the Lawful Quest, where Nightmare resides. It is functionally no different than a normal unicorn horn, except that it will always provides reflection when wielded.
Strategy
Most characters will find little reason to apply Nighthorn over a regular blessed and enchanted unicorn horn for curing status afflictions. As a weapon, it is a viable option for the mid-game, though non-lawful characters may be dissuaded due to the chance of taking 8d6 blasting damage; it is still worth considering if they are not restricted in the unicorn horn skill, and other sources of reflection prove scarce.
However, it does no more damage than a regular unicorn horn, making it a weaker weapon in the late game; it will also not resist curses, which is one of the biggest set-backs for any two-handed weapon, much less a healing item like a unicorn horn. A shield of reflection will often be preferable for most characters at that stage.
dNetHack
Nighthorn is also implemented in dNetHack as a chaotic intelligent unicorn horn, where it is much more valuable. Nighthorn is dropped from Nightmare, but she now appears in the beginning of the Chaos Quest (somewhere at the Earth Temple). As she and the horn are also chaotic now, and thus will be peaceful to any chaotics, a chaotic who wants the horn may need to take the −5 penalty to luck and alignment for killing a coaligned unicorn. It will also always blast its user when picked up, and blast and evade the grasp of lawfuls.
Nighthorn grants +1d12 to-hit and +1d24 fire, causes a fiery explosion on hit, and grants fire resistance while wielded. It also counts as a luckstone and (if you are chaotic only) duplicates the effects of a scroll of scare monster when dropped on the ground. This will only fend off non-chaotic monsters though. It can be #invoked for levitation. It is always generated cursed.
As unicorns are now one-handed in dNetHack, it can be a viable weapon, though it does poorly against fire-resistant demons.
Encyclopedia entry
The parser recognizes the "horn" in "nighthorn", and will return the encyclopedia entry for that item.
