Blessed (monster)
- This article is about the specific monster type in dNetHack and its derivatives. For the specific item beatitude, see BUC.
A blessed, q, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack. The blessed is an insight monster that appears as a strange form of humanoid-shaped female quadruped with a pair of horns, non-humanoid feet (which prevents wearing boots) and no distinct head—blessed are simultaneously human, demihuman and animal.
Blessed are strong and thick-skinned herbivores that are amphibious, capable of flight, possess teleport control and displacement, and can tear through webs—they have normal vision, second-level low-light vision, and the ability to see invisible monsters. Blessed that can be perceived by a hero (which requires at least 40 insight) can be seen via infravision, have a tendency to wander while moving, will collect magical items and other objects, and will follow a hero to other levels if they are close enough. They have 1⁄4 more carrying capacity compared to other monsters of their size.
The blessed are servants of the Black Mother: they cannot be tamed and are lords to their kind, and a hero that manages to perceive one may lose sanity and further raise their insight—blessed are generally hostile toward enemies of the Black Mother, and will similarly be peaceful towards their fellow followers (including a hero aligned with the cult).
Blessed have 16 points of AC each in the natural, dodge and special categories, and they have several points of DR in various slots: 5 points of natural DR and 4 points of special DR for the "head"; 8 points of special DR for the upper body; 4 points of special DR for the arms and hands; 4 points of special DR for the lower body and legs; and 5 points of natural DR for the feet.
A blessed has six different attacks: a passive wide-angled blinding gaze attack; a stunning attack that can take the form of a butting attack, tentacle attack or gaze attack; a "million-arm" weapon attack that deals physical damage repeatedly until the attack misses; two normal kicking attacks; and the ability to cast one clerical monster spell with no cooldown each round. Blessed possess magic resistance and all other resistance properties: they additionally have a life saving ability that triggers 2⁄3 of the time when they are killed, provided they are not cancelled and were not killed by a petrifying effect.
A blessed will choose her clerical spell from one of open wounds, sanity bolt, ice storm, acid rain, geyser, summon young, the close-range mass cure spell, lightning, god ray, disintegration, or the Red Word—the god ray spell has a 9⁄100 chance of being chosen, while disintegration has a 1⁄100 chance, and all other spells have a 1⁄10 chance. Hostile blessed can also periodically summon mistweaver monsters while unseen, which will be aligned with The Black Mother due to their monster template:
- h small goat spawn
- @ goat spawn
- H giant goat spawn
- v swirling mist
- v dust storm
- v ice storm
- v thunder storm
- v fire storm
- C plains centaur
- C forest centaur
- C mountain centaur
- n quickling
- n dryad
- n naiad
- n oread
- n yuki-onna
- n deminymph
Blessed can be warded by the fully-reinforced Elder Sign, a Gorgoneion, or a wooden weapon on the ground that has a dreprun stave carved into it.
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"Try to properly detail the black goat attacks if possible."
Generation
Blessed are only randomly generated in the Lost Cities (which consists of all floors of the Neutral Quest below the Rilmani town), and will only be generated at all if the hero has at least 20 insight. They are not valid polymorph forms or genocide targets, and statues or figurines of blessed cannot be wished for.
Blessed can appear among the minions of the Black Mother. They can also be summoned by the summon young monster spell.
Up to four blessed are generated on the Neutral Quest, where one is always placed behind the door of the building in the general northwestern area of the Temples of the Old Gods floor during level creation: the second has a 1⁄5 chance of being placed a few squares south of the door, while the third and fourth each have a 1⁄10 chance of being placed in front of the hallways closest to the river.
Blessed are always generated with robes, and will never be given weapons normally.
Strategy
Hostile blessed are best engaged with great caution, as the combination of their million-arm attacks, repeated kicks, 18 speed, and powerful clerical spellcasting will constantly chip away at even the most heavily armored hero's HP: acid rain and geyser spells will corrode or rust various metallic items and dilute potions, blanking scrolls and spellbooks, while also degrading other water-vulnerable items that are not protected by waterproof armor or containers; lightning can inflict high damage unless you have reflection or shock resistance; sanity bolts and the Red Word can shred your sanity and even cause you to disrobe from becoming uncomfortable in your worn armor; and their "black goat" attacks can turn into charming attacks that deprive you of still-other critical items.
For a hero that reaches 40 insight before entering the Temples of the Old Gods, making an offering to the Black Mother at her altar or through a mouth of the goat will pacify all hostile monsters that are part of her faction. Conversely, a hero aligned with the Black Mother will encounter peaceful blessed much more often, but should also take serious care not to offer a taboo corpse to the Black Mother while a blessed is nearby.
For other heroes, high HP and sanity-management items are all but required, and cancellation is one of the best bets to stop a blessed's spellcasting and prevent their life saving from dragging out the fight—the blessed's MR score of 30 is low enough that a wand of cancellation has a very reasonable chance of working within the first few zaps. While the fully-reinforced Elder Sign, reinforced Gorgeneion and weapons with carved dreprun staves can ward off hostile blessed, a scroll of scare monster may be preferable to stand on and will also guard against their spellcasting. A hero that has already read the Red Word of Knowledge will not be affected by the corresponding "Red Word" monster spell.
In terms of inventory protection, a worn utility belt, oilskin cloak or doll of protection can suffice, and you can drop all of your dilution-vulnerable items using the appropriate command (Shift + D) if all else fails. An engagement ring is also recommended to prevent blessed from charming you, while 1-turn escape items are also highly useful to have available at a moment's notice.
Origin
The blessed derive their name from the Blessed of Shub-Niggurath, a fictional race from the 1964 short Cthulhu Mythos story "The Moon-Lens" by Ramsey Campbell—though The Black Mother herself is very similar to Shub-Niggurath in concept, being an entity referred to as a "black goat" with "a thousand young" and using feminine pronouns, their "blessed" have few if any traits in common with each other.
The blessed's appearance is based partly on the entities associated with SCP-4971, which is described as a space-time anomaly existing within the former SouthWood Park Mall in Havensbrook, Indiana. The anomaly contains "a vast, mostly arboreal landscape under a nearly perpetually setting sun" that anyone leaving the main concourse of the mall will find themselves within, and the flora there resembles those found in the Pacific Northwest of the US and Canada, and the anomalous entities within are the result of a woman-dominated eco-terrorist cult summoning a godlike cervine being, which transformed many of them and their victims into beings whose heads and necks were replaced with triangular symbols. As 'daughters' of the goat-like Black Mother, the blessed are also headless "quadruped" beings that were formerly human, with the transformation changing the shape of their feet as well (presumably to cloven hooves or something similar, hence their inability to wear boots).
