Tengu

i tengu
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d7

i tengu
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d7
Base level	6
Base experience	76
Speed	13
Base AC	5
Base MR	30
Alignment	7 (lawful)
Frequency (by normal means)	3 (Rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	300
Nutritional value	200
Size	Small
Resistances	Poison
Resistances conveyed	Poison (13%), teleport control (17%), causes teleportitis (20%)
A tengu: can teleport. has teleport control. does not eat. (*) can follow you to other levels. has infravision. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line531

A tengu, i is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The tengu is the strongest of the minor demons, and has infravision, can be seen via infravision, possesses the ability to teleport randomly and control its destination, and can follow a player character to other levels if they are adjacent.

A tengu has a single bite attack, and possesses poison resistance - they are the only minor demons without a weakness to silver.

Eating a tengu corpse or tin has a ²⁄₁₅ chance of conveying poison resistance, a ¹⁄₅ chance of conveying teleportitis, and a {{frac|6} chance of conveying teleport control.

Generation

Randomly-generated tengu may be created as peaceful for lawful characters.

Tengu appear among the random i that are part of the first quest monster class for the Knight quest and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated there. They also appear among the random i that are generated on each floor of the Wizard quest at level creation.

Strategy

The teleportation abilities of tengu can make them quite annoying to fight or evade, though hostile ones are often worth fighting unless you are in a dire situation - they are also easier to kill on no-teleport levels, such as Sokoban. Their corpses and tins are valued by many players as a source of teleport control, making them a common target of reverse genocide; Knights may also consider genociding quasits, which causes other minor demons to generate in their place and enables tengu farming on the home level and any other quest level with a magic trap. Remember that when eating corpses, having an intrinsic that corpse provides does not increase the odds of it providing other intrinsics, i.e. it is not worth obtaining teleportitis solely to "force" teleport control.

Chance of gaining teleport control

This table shows how the odds of obtaining teleport control from tengu corpses increase with the number of corpses:

Eaten corpses	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chance of control	17%	31%	42%	52%	60%	67%	72%	77%	81%	84%	87%	89%	91%	92%	94%	95%	95%	96%	97%	97%

This table shows the relation between killing tengu and obtaining the intrinsic from their corpse, which includes the chance of them leaving one in the first place:

Killed tengu	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chance of control	8%	16%	23%	29%	35%	41%	46%	50%	54%	58%	62%	65%	68%	70%	73%	75%	77%	79%	81%	82%

This table displays the odds of obtaining the intrinsic from tengu generated by reading one or more cursed scrolls of genocide:

Read scrolls	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Chance of control	35%	58%	73%	82%	89%	93%	95%	97%	98%	99%

If you have a scroll of charging and a stack of blank scrolls, a newly generated magic marker can get you intrinsic teleport control about 83% of the time.

Origin

Tengu are demons or spirits in Japanese folklore. They are portrayed either as humanoid birds or having long noses. They are usually represented by characteristic fierce red masks with very long noses.

Variants

xNetHack

In xNetHack, tengu and other minor demons take +d6 damage from being hit with iron weapons and items.

Encyclopedia entry

The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese legend. Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up feuds and prolonging enmity between families. Indeed, the belligerent tengu were supposed to have been man's first instructors in the use of arms.

[ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]