Gray mold infection
- Not to be confused with gray fungus.
Gray mold infection, or simply gray mold, refers to two types of negative status properties in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Sources
Gray mold infections are caused by monsters with "gray mold" attacks, including on-death passive attacks, that use the AD_GMLD damage type flag. Monsters with "gray mold" attacks will inflict damage and cause gray mold spores to scatter on the target's skin, while monsters with "gray mold" passives will leave behind clouds of gray mold spores (#) upon death—a hero or monster standing within clouds of gray mold spores will have them settle upon their skin, while a hero or monster that breathes in the spores will also have their respiratory system infected.
The following "gray mold monsters" have active attacks and on-death passives that spread gray mold spores:
These monsters also have a special vulnerability to acid damage, since it burns away the gray mold that makes up their bodies—this makes acid a potent cure for gray mold infections, as explained further below. They can also revive from their corpses as well: a vegepygmy's corpse has a 9⁄10 chance of reviving into a vegepygmy, and will otherwise turn into a vegepygmy shaman, while a vegepygmy shaman's corpse has the same chance of reviving into a vegepygmy shaman or else becoming a rusty-gray mold.
A hero that either dies of a gray mold infection or is killed while infected with gray mold and leaves bones will arise as a vegepygmy shaman if they cast spells using the wisdom attribute, and will otherwise arise as a regular vegepygmy.
The damage dice of 'gray mold' attacks determine how many spores infect the victim each turn if they are hit or stand within the clouds, e.g. a cloud of spores left by killing a vegepygmy will infect a hero or monster standing in the cloud with 1d2 spores each turn, while a cloud of spores from killing a gray fungal tower will infect the same hero or monster with 10d10 spores.
Infection progress
A hero or monster afflicted with gray mold will gradually take HP damage, and both of these infection types will worsen and deal more damage unless treated properly. This is measured in a total of "points" that represent the amount of spores a victim is infected with—gray mold infections on the skin deal 1 damage per turn for every 1000 spores, while gray mold infections in the throat (or the equivalent area that they breathe through) deal 1 damage per turn for every 100 spores. This also determines the chances of taking damage from those spores each turn, as well as how much damage is inflicted, and that damage in turn adds a random amount of spores from 0 up to the amount of HP lost, with an equal probability of each value.
For example, a hero that has 10 spores in their throat has a 10 in 100 or 1⁄10 chance (10%) of taking 1 point of damage each turn, while if they have 10 spores infecting their skin, they have a 10 in 1000 or 1⁄100 chance (1%) of taking 1 point of damage each turn; if either hero takes damage from their infection, they have a 1⁄2 chance (50%) of gaining another spore for that infection. A hero with 210 spores in their throat will always take at least 2 damage each turn and gain 0-2 spores, with a 10-in-100 or 1⁄10 chance of taking 3 damage and gaining 0-3 spores instead.
Healing via quaffing potions does not cure gray mold infections and can in fact exacerbate them: a potion of healing adds 10 spores to the throat, while a potion of extra healing adds 100, and a potion of full healing adds 200. Severe enough infections of the throat (i.e. 400+ spores) will eventually cause a hero or monster to start suffocating, preventing them from eating or quaffing in most instances unless they are ingesting acid or booze.
Prevention and cures
A hero or monster will not have their throat (or equivalent) infected with gray mold if they have magical breathing or are unbreathing, and wearing a towel, shemagh or bodyglove will prevent respiratory infection. A hero polymorphed into a monster that is inorganic, acidic or made of gray mold itself will prevent gray mold infections from affecting them and abort any infection that is currently present.
Gray mold infections can be cured or removed by the following methods:
- Quaffing a potion of acid—all spores in the throat will be burned away by the acid, even at stages of infection that would otherwise prevent quaffing.
- Eating acidic corpses or quaffing acidic blood will burn away throat spores unless the hero is infected enough that they cannot perform either action.
- Using a bite attack on an acidic monster—this will remove mold spores in the throat and on the skin.
- Being hit by a thrown potion of acid will burn away all spores on the skin.
- Quaffing a potion of booze—the spores are similarly vulnerable to alcohol, and blessed booze removes 50 spores in the drinker's throat, while uncursed booze removes 100, and cursed booze will remove all of them.
- Polymorph into a monster that is inorganic, acidic or made of gray mold itself will abort any infection present as mentioned previously, while polymorph into a monster that lacks a throat will shift those spores onto the skin if possible.
- Buer's Gift of Health ability can clear gray mold infections.
- Applying a doll of good health will clear gray mold infections among many other afflictions.
- Casting the full healing spell fully clears gray mold infections.
- Nurses offer a gray mold removal service that has the same effects as quaffing a cursed potion of booze, including removing all gray mold spores.
- Successful prayer with any throat spores or at least 500 skin spores will clear all of the spores from the hero.
- The Rod of Seven Parts can cure gray mold infection by invoking the artifact and using its Lex Rex command.
Origin
Gray mold in the context of dNetHack and its variants is based on "russet molds" from Dungeons & Dragons. Russet mold is a very rare variety of underground fungal mold that is found in dark and moist areas like many other fungi: it has an irregular texture and varies in color from gold-brown to rust-red, often resembling a patch of rust from long-distance. The fungus is covered in short hair-like growths that stand upright and slowly wave back and forth, and it continually emits a cloud of spores in a 3-foot (91 cm) radius. Creatures that come into contact with the spores contract a paralyzing illness that is eventually fatal unless treated with with a spell of "cure disease".
Russet mold is immune to damage from weapons and the effects of most spells, with the exception of "continual light" or "cure disease". The only mundane methods of killing a russet mold require acid, alcohol or salt, reflecting the cures for gray mold infections in dNetHack. The corpses of creatures killed by russet mold spores will become covered in new russet mold growths: these new growths are very hardy, requiring a "cure disease" spell to be cast within an hour of the creature's death to destroy them; a "hold plant" spell only stops the growth for the duration of the spell, and after an hour, only "wish" can halt the spread of the mold. Eventually, a russet mold-infected corpse will transform into a vegepygmy, which also occurs in dNetHack and its variants.
