Revive
A corpse is a dead monster, but there may be a way to revive it. Most annoyingly, the trolls and the Riders have the ability to revive themselves; that is, they will resurrect a few turns after they are killed. See their articles for strategies on how to prevent this and kill them permanently.
Most actions that try to dispose of a Rider corpse will instead instantly resurrect it. Among other actions, this includes teleporting it, tinning it, or taking it into your inventory. This resurrection is useful if you are Death farming.
You may also revive any corpse with turn undead, the spell or the wand.
Messages
In the following messages, substitute the names of the involved monsters for the monsters of your choice.
Using turn undead to revive a corpse will produce one of three messages:[1]
- Your acid blob corpse suddenly comes alive!
- You zapped yourself with a wand or spell of turn undead, and the acid blob corpse in your inventory came to life. The acid blob spawns adjacent to you. (Because the wand or spell hit you, the following message is often "You shudder in dread.")
- The gnome lord's acid blob corpse suddenly comes alive!
- You zapped a gnome lord with turn undead, and the acid blob corpse in its inventory came to life. The acid blob spawns adjacent to the gnome lord. (If a mind flayer is carrying a lizard corpse, one way to retrieve it is to revive the lizard.)
- An acid blob suddenly appears!
- This may indicate that you zapped an unseen monster with turn undead, and its acid blob corpse came to life where you can see it. This is not the only possible cause of a "suddenly appears" message.
When a corpse revives itself, one of these messages may appear:[2]
- An ice troll rises from the dead!
- This is the most common message; T monsters often will come back to life soon after death.
- You feel squirming in your backpack!
- Some corpse in your inventory (not being wielded) came to life. The monster will spawn adjacent to you. The message does not name the monster.
- The ice troll corpse writhes out of your grasp!
- You were wielding the ice troll corpse when it came to life. The ice troll spawns adjacent to you.
- Startled, the water nymph drops an ice troll corpse as it revives!
- The ice troll will spawn adjacent to the water nymph. (If you carry a troll corpse, a nymph may steal it.)
- An ice troll suddenly appears!
- This may indicate that an ice troll corpse, in the inventory of an unseen monster, came to life where you can see it. This is not the only possible cause of a "suddenly appears" message.
- A rock troll writhes out of a sack in your pack!
- The player had a rock troll inside a sack as it returned from the dead.
- An Olog-hai writhes out of a sack!
- A monster had an Olog-hai corpse in its sack as it came alive.
- A troll escapes from a chest!
- A troll was dead in a chest on the ground when it returned to life.
SLASH'EM
Some fungi and molds can revive themselves in SLASH'EM. You might just kill the fungus repeatedly, or drop its corpse where the revived fungus will not block the way.
More interestingly, as other types of corpses rot, then mold may grow on them, and the corpse may revive as a mold. This typically produces the "rises from the dead" or "squirming in your backpack" message, as the corpse disappears and the mold spawns.
