Elder priest
@ elder priest 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 34 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d10 physical, Single-target (active) gaze attack 1d4 paralysis, Tentacle 2d10 Amulet theft, Tentacle 2d10 intrusion, Cast 2d8 clerical spell, Cast 2d8 clerical spell |
| Base level | 25 |
| Base experience | 1170 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | -9 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | -128 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | fire, sleep, shock, poison, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | |
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The elder priest:
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The elder priest, @, is a unique monster that appears in dNetHack and notdNetHack. The elder priest is a terrifying humanoid and human-like figure that replaces the high priest of Moloch as the guardian of the Amulet of Yendor in Moloch's Sanctum.
Generation
The elder priest is always generated tending to the high altar of Moloch in his Sanctum, and is not a valid form for normal polymorph.
The elder priest is always generated with a blessed +3 quarterstaff, a blessed +3 cloak of magic resistance, a potion of full healing, 3 potions of extra healing, a leather drum, and a wooden flute.
The elder priest is always capable of reviving from their corpse, similar to a Rider.
Abilities
The elder priest is strong, amphibious, capable of swimming, can see invisible, and will pick up and collect items - they are also covetous and will try to steal the Amulet, the invocation artifacts, and your quest artifact, and are an overlord to their kind.
The elder priest has a weapon attack, a single-target paralyzing gaze, a covetous tentacle attack that can steal the aforementioned items, a second tentacle attack that has several relatively-unique effects, and will attempt to case two clerical monster spells per round of combat. They possess fire resistance, sleep resistance, shock resistance, and poison resistance like other high priests, as well as stoning resistance.
Tentacle swarm
The Elder Priest's second tentacle attack is a swarm of squirming tentacles that triggers the effects of the "helminthophobia" madness (fear of worms and worm-like things) and can remove or destroy your items, potentially triggering the effects of the "talons" madness (fear of losing what you love). Helminthophobia is rolled once at the end of the attack, and will cause you to panic for 1d6+1 turns if triggered, while each item theft or destruction has a chance to trigger talons independently, inducing panic for 1d6+1 (more) turns on each trigger - this is not specified for each trigger, but applies to every instance of theft or complete destruction (with details).
It begins with exactly 4 action tokens, which are spent on the following sets of action:
- If you have a preservative engine active, it will try to block some of the blows. This counts as a physical attack, so low power is sufficient. The tentacles attack it twice - draining a charge each time. if both attacks are blocked successfully, the entire tentacle attack immediately ends with no other effects and nothing further happens, including the Helminthophobia check. The messages for this are "The tentacles squirm against the forcefield." for the first attack, and either "The field holds!" or "The field fails!" for the second. If the field fails, then this is counted as 2 actions out of the 4 that the attack is allotted, even though it only eats 1 charge, and the attack continues.
After the preservative engine is checked, it will begin trying to rip apart most of your armor. If you have no cloak, body armor, or undershirt, nothing happens and you continue to the table of random negative effects. Otherwise, it will try to destroy or steal your worn armor - the outermost item is chosen, so cloak will supersede body armor will supersede shirt. Only one slot can be attacked per turn, and this will always cost one token.
Item destruction is consistent for almost all gear, with one chance-based effect having different odds per item. The tentacles will slip free if the item is greased, with usual grease mechanics, and that will instantly end the action (consuming the token). Otherwise, there is a chance for the item to be either stolen or attacked directly. For shirts, this is a 15% chance to steal, for body armor it's 25%, and for a cloak it is 66%. If the item is stolen, then it is just stolen and added to the Elder Priest's inventory. If the item is attack, then it tries to destroy the item entirely. If you have Preservation active from a doll, then the item is protected with no ill effects, consuming the action. If not, then the item is destroyed if it is higher than +0, otherwise it loses d4 points of enchantment. The enchantment drain has a 10% chance to resist for mundane items and a 90% for artifacts for each point, but the destruction will destroy artifacts without a save and without remorse. If your item is stolen or entirely destroyed, you will lose sanity equal to half of the normal sanity loss for encountering the Elder Priest, potentially causing a minor madness like babbling or screaming.
After the preservative engine and armor checks are complete, then d12s are rolled to determine the next set of effects. One effect is rolled per action remaining, and effects cannot be triggered twice in the same turn - if they are, then they are re-rolled without consuming the action. If they are blocked individually and have no effects, that still consumes the action.
| Die roll | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Removes boots, identically to shirt but with 66% chance. This does not affect your sanity |
| 2 | Tries to remove wielded weapon, rolling a d50 against your strength score - if you lose, the weapon is yanked from your grasp and given to the attacker. This is not prevented by grease or welded weapons, and does not affect your sanity |
| 3 | Removes gloves, identically to shirt but replacing the chance-based trigger with a d30 rolled against your strength score - if you lose, the gloves are removed, otherwise the tentacles attempt to destroy them. If you're wielding a weapon, you always pass the check. This does not affect your sanity |
| 4 | Removes shield, identically to wielded weapon but rolling a d80 against your strength score instead of a d50. This does not affect your sanity |
| 5 | Removes helmet, identically to shirt but with 90% chance. This does affect your sanity, identically to shirt removal |
| 6 | Drains your max power by 20% of its value. This is blocked entirely by a worn cloak, body armor, or shirt, and reduced to 10% if you have half physical damage. This negatively affects your sanity, identically to shirt removal |
| 7 | Severely damages your brain, reducing your intelligence by d6 points, forgetting 10% of memory per point drained and losing a experience level for every two points drained. If this reduces your intelligence below 3, you die like from other sources. This also does a significant amount of physical damage and forces a sanity check, whether you lived or not |
| 8 | Shreds your soul, draining 3+d4 levels and damaging you for 4 points of constitution. This is entirely blocked by worn cloak or body armor (but not shirt). If you have drain resistance, you do not lose levels and only lose 2 points of constitution.. This also does a substantial amount of physical damage, and forces a sanity check. |
| 9 | Extreme physical damage, damaging you for 6 points of strength and 3 points of constitution, and negatively impacting your sanity. This does a borderline obscene amount of damage, but is doubly resisted by half physical damage, so you will only take a quarter of what you normally would. This is entirely blocked by a worn cloak or body armor. |
| 10 | Item theft, see below |
| 11 | Item theft, see below |
| 12 | Steals 4 items from you, but only if you have nothing else to lose. If item theft is rolled and you still have any equipped items (cloak, body armor, shirt, helmet, gloves, boots, shield, weapon) this is rerolled. If you truly have none of that left to lose, then this consumes all of the remaining attack actions and steals 4 items. |
In addition, there is a unique interaction if you are protected by Tensa Zangetsu - which grants you a regenerating forcefield (shihakusho) while wielded with no worn body armor or cloak. This will protect you from any of the effects that are blocked by a worn cloak or body armor. However, tentacles will not consume an action when they try (unsuccessfully) to rip it apart, so this shouldn't be relied on - the tentacles are likely to just steal the rest of your gear instead.
Strategy
The Wizard of Yendor respects the elder priest as the "true owner" of the Amulet of Yendor and will not attack it, but other covetous monsters do not respect it and will try to steal the Amulet.
Origin
The elder priest is most likely based on the "High Priest Not to Be Described" that appears in H.P. Lovecraft story The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. This high priest is a mysterious but disturbing figure shrouded in yellow silk, and sits alone in a temple on the Plateau of Leng in Lovecraft's Dreamlands, communicating with visitors by playing an ivory flute. Commentators on Lovecraft's writings have speculated that this being is either a servant of Nyarlathotep or an avatar of the "crawling chaos" itself.
Encyclopedia entry
From Leng, where rocky peaks climb bleak and bare
Under cold stars obscure to human sight,
There shoots at dusk a single beam of light
Whose far blue rays make shepherds whine in prayer.
They say (though none has been there) that it comes
Out of a pharos in a tower of stone,
Where the last Elder One lives on alone,
Talking to Chaos with the beat of drums.
The Thing, they whisper, wears a silken mask
Of yellow, whose queer folds appear to hide
A face not of this earth, though none dares ask
Just what those features are, which bulge inside.
Many, in man's first youth, sought out that glow,
But what they found, no one will ever know.
[ H. P. Lovecraft, Fungi from Yuggoth XXVII. ]
