Frankenstein's Monster

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Frankenstein's Monster, ', is a unique monster that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. He is a type of undead golem that is very similar to a much stronger flesh golem, and possesses all the same elemental resistances minus fire resistance. Frankenstein's Monster has two claw attacks.

Eating the corpse or tin of Frankenstein's Monster is guaranteed to convey one of cold resistance, shock resistance, sleep resistance, or poison resistance, with an equal chance of each.

Generation

Frankenstein's Monster is guaranteed to appear in Frankenstein's Lab, where he is found wandering the maze surrounding the lab. He is always hostile, and cannot be selected as a form for polymorph.

Frankenstein's Monster will always generate with 400 HP. He leaves a corpse that is aged 100 turns upon death.[1]

Strategy

While Frankenstein's Monster has a lot of HP, solid AC of -5 and hits decently hard, he is unlikely to be a huge threat for any play that has reached Gehennom and found the laboratory's branch: his melee attacks hit only moderately hard for the depth he is encountered at, he lacks special abilities, and he is fairly slow at 8 speed. Most players can take advantage of his vulnerability to fire damage to make the fight that much quicker.

As Frankenstein's Monster is mindless, locating him can be difficult - a blessed potion of monster detection or the spell of detect monsters cast at Skilled or higher in divination spells can make him easy to spot. For players who are determined to kill him, the corpse is generally unsuitable for consumption without using a tinning kit, but provides valuable resistances in the event you lack any of them; Frankenstein's Monster is also not counted as human for purposes of cannibalism or sacrifice.

Origin

Frankenstein's monster (or Frankenstein's Creature) is the main antagonist of 1818 Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The story itself begins with Captain Robert Walton on an exploration of the North Pole: Walton had come to the area in pursuit of scientific knowledge, and during the voyage his crew spotted a dog sled driven by a gigantic figure, later revealed to be Frankenstein's monster. A few hours later, they rescue a freezing and emaciated man from near-death, who identifies himself as Victor Frankenstein, the monster's creator; Victor then recounts his life story to Captain Walton as a warning.

While at university, Victor Frankenstein excels in chemistry and other sciences, developing a secret technique to give life to non-living matter. He undertakes the creation of a humanoid being over the course of two years in the attic of his boarding house in Ingolstadt. Due to the difficulty of replicating the minute parts of the human body, Victor makes his monster about 8 feet (2.4 m) in height and proportionally large, and selects for features commonly considered beautiful during the process.

Despite this, when the monster is finally animated he takes on a hideous appearance, with dull and watery yellow eyes and yellow skin that barely conceals the muscles and blood vessels underneath. Repulsed by his work, Victor flees from it in horror; frightened, and unaware of his own identity, the monster wanders through the wilderness. Far from being an unintelligent brute, the monster is an emotional, contemplative being that attempts to fit into human society, but his shunning leads him to seek revenge against Frankenstein.

Frankenstein's monster has since become iconic in popular culture, and has been featured in various forms of media, including films, television series, merchandise and video games; due to his significant role, the monster is commonly and erroneously referred to by "Frankenstein", his creator's name. The most popularly recognized versions are the trilogy of film portrayals by Boris Karloff: the 1931 film Frankenstein, the 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein, and the 1939 sequel Son of Frankenstein. Frankenstein's monster is described by scholar Joseph Carroll as occupying "a border territory between the characteristics that typically define protagonists and antagonists".

Encyclopedia entry

With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was
already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
motion agitated its limbs.

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I
had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!--Great God!
His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
black lips.

[ Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ]

References