Avatar of Lolth

From NetHackWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Avatar of Lolth, &, is a monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. She is a demon princess that represents the goddess Lolth: she is strong, can see invisible, has infravision, can be seen via infravision, will seek out and pick up various items, and can follow the hero to other levels if she is adjacent. Lolth's avatar is covetous and capable of warping, and desires the Amulet of Yendor, the invocation items, and the quest artifact of the hero's role - she cannot be made tame, and will turn traitor if somehow tamed.

The Avatar of Lolth has two possible attack chains that she can use each turn: her standard attack chain, and a set of eight "marilith-arm" attacks. During the Avatar's first attack of each turn, unless she is cancelled or the hero has protection from shape changers, there is a 12 chance of the marilith-arm attacks replacing her standard attack chain.

The Avatar of Lolth's standard attacks consist of the following:

  • A unique seduction attack that rolls against the hero's charisma and wisdom - failing this check results in her performing a poisonous bite that causes an instadeath if the hero lacks poison resistance, and using a level draining bite otherwise. Passing the check results in a number of powerful rewards, including intrinsic to-hit and damage bonuses or even granting a wish.
  • A 4d8 weapon attack and a 4d8 offhand weapon attack.
  • An intrinsic theft touch attack.
  • A 0d8 clerical monster spell - if Lolth is the chaotic goddess of the hero's pantheon, the Avatar's spellcasting will increment her anger by one and cause her to smite them, and otherwise the Avatar uses the default set of clerical spells available to her.

The Avatar of Lolth's marilith-arm attacks consist of the same weapon attack and offhand attack (4d8 each), followed by two 2d8 weapon attacks using the third and fourth weapons in the Avatar's inventory, then four 1d8 weapon attacks using the fifth-to-eighth weapons in her inventory.

The Avatar of Lolth possesses poison resistance and acid resistance.

Generation

The Avatar of Lolth is not a valid form for polymorph. She is intended to be generated peaceful only if the character is piously aligned, and is either a drow that worships Lolth or a hedrow that worships Lolth, Vhaeraun, Keptolo, or Pen'a - a bug in the code currently interferes with this and reverses it.

The Avatar of Lolth is one of the four demons whose lair has a 14 chance of appearing as the second Abyss level. She is normally generated at the center of her lair, the Demonweb, where she meditates atop her throne.

The Avatar of Lolth is always generated with the following items: blessed +7 crystal plate mail fitted to her form and engraved with Lolth's symbol; blessed fixed +5 orihalcyon gauntlets; a blessed fireproof +5 droven cloak; a blessed fixed +5 glass droven helm; four blessed acrid +2 droven short swords; 2 blessed acrid +4 droven short swords; a blessed acrid +6 obsidian elven short sword; and the blessed fixed +8 Scourge of Lolth. The Scourge of Lolth is a chaotic and intelligent artifact whose base item is a silver 8-headed viperwhip, and it has +1 to-hit and double damage bonuses against non-drow elves, grants warning of non-drow elves while carried, and uses exploding dice for its damage.

Origin

Lolth is a major character in the settings of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. First created by Gary Gygax for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, she later appeared in the Forgotten Realms setting, and 3rd edition made her a member of the 'default' pantheon. In those various settings, the drow pantheon of gods will always consist at minimum of the leader Lolth, as well as Kiaransalee, Vhaeraun, and Zinzerena, with the goddess Eilistraee as the sole good member. Lolth makes her debut in the 1978 module Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and her role as a deity is first explored in the 1980 Deities & Demigods.

Lolth (Lloth in the Drow language) is the Demon Queen of Spiders and the chief goddess of the Drow, whose realm lays within the 66th layer of the Abyss, also known as the Demonweb Pits. Lolth usually appears in the form of an "exquisitely beautiful" female dark elf that is sometimes covered in clinging spiders, or in the guise of a drider-like black widow spider. She is a cold and cruel goddess that revels in betrayal and bloodshed, toying with her minions and victims alike: she desires little more than absolute fealty and obedience from all drow, and enjoys corrupting humans and other elves into her worship, with any questioning of her motives or wisdom considered a sin.

Lolth views those less powerful than herself as either pawns or foes, while holding those more powerful than herself in contempt - naturally, she admires ambition even more than loyalty in her followers, and inspires them to employ any and every means necessary to ascend to a higher station in life, especially if it involves deception, betrayal, and murder. Guile and political ruthlessness are the signs of Lolth's favorites: those who blindly obey Lolth's demands would find themselves quickly led to their deaths. Lolth uses this to foment unending chaos amongst the drow, ostensibly to weed out the weak and complacent among her servants, but clearly just as much (if not far more so) for her own amusement.