Blibdoolpoolp, graven-into-flesh
Blibdoolpoolp, graven-into-flesh, @, is the Drow Healer quest nemesis in dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack. Also known simply as Blibdoolpoolp, she is a strong, humanoid and chaotic elf-like monster that guards the Bell of Opening. The Drow Healer quest artifact, Esscooahlipboourrr, is instead in the possession of Blibdoolpoolp's mindgraven champion, a monster summoned by Mad Grazi using a crystal skull containing the Champion's spirit.
The monster is a manifested avatar of the kuo toa deity Blibdoolpoolp, and her presence is a result of the kuo toa's collective hallucinatory powers: this is what causes the life draining plague seen across the Drow Healer quest, as the avatar is drawing an immense amount of life energy to stabilize herself. Similar to the Cyclops of the normal Healer quest, if Blibdoolpoolp is killed and she is carrying Esscooahlipboourrr, or it has not yet been handled by the hero, she will drain the life of a plague victim on the level, including any trapped in sacks, and kill them in order to save herself. Curing the plague is thus also instrumental in ensuring Blibdoolpoolp meets a permanent end without prolonging her life at her victims' expense, though per the information above it is possible to retrieve the artifact without having to kill her first.
Blibdoolpoolp is omnivorous, amphibious and capable of swimming, can see invisible, has monster detection, can be seen via infravision, and will follow the hero to other levels if she is adjacent. Blibdoolpoolp is considered to be an elf, a drow, a demihuman, and aquatic, and as (an avatar of) the kuo toa's deity she is an overlord to her kind. Blibdoolpoolp is covetous and capable of warping, will pick up magical items and other objects that she comes across, and desires the Bell of Opening. She cannot be made tame or even peaceful like other quest nemeses, and seeing her will impact the hero's sanity and insight.
Blibdoolpoolp has two claw attacks that can steal the quest artifact if the hero obtains it, a bearhug attack, a tentacle attack that steals one or more magical items if the target is already caught in her bearhug, the ability to cast one clerical monster spell during each of her turns, and a passive attack that occurs upon death (even if her life would be saved as above) and inflicts the "bright surging torrent" mummy curse. At high insight, she switches to a more deadly attack routine: the claw attacks that can steal the quest artifact become stronger, and she gains an additional rending armor-shredding attack that follows the claw attacks and precedes the rest of her attacks.
Blibdoolpoolp possesses fire resistance, cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, shock resistance, poison resistance, acid resistance, stoning resistance, drain resistance, and immunity to sickness, and has a vulnerability to iron due to being elven. She can be warded by the fully-reinforced Elder Sign.
Generation
Blibdoolpoolp is always created hostile, and is not a valid polymorph form or genocide target.
For Drow Healers, Blibdoolpoolp is always generated meditating within the walled-off central area of the Drow Healer quest goal level at level creation, with the Bell of Opening in her possession.
Blibdoolpoolp does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Even though Blibdoolpoolp will not generate carrying Esscooahlipboourrr, she is capable of stealing it from the hero using her claw attacks or her auto-hit tentacle attack that steals magical items—while her mindgraven champion carries Esscooahlipboourrr, the champion herself is not covetous. As such, curing the plague victims on the level first before engaging Blibdoolpoolp or attracting her attention is a much more ideal priority.
Origin
Blibdoolpoolp (pronounced "blib-DOOL-poop" or "BLIB-dool-poop") is the patron goddess of the kuo-toa in Dungeons & Dragons, and makes her debut in the 1980 1st-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons accessory, Deities & Demigods. She is neutral evil in all of her appearances save for 3rd Edition, which makes her chaotic evil (reflected by her alignment in dNetHack and its derivatives), and is portrayed as a paranoid, reality-denying deity of the sea whose sanity is questionable at best—this may be because she herself is the nonsensical spawn of her fanatical followers' madness-fueled imaginings. In any case, the supposedly-ancient Sea Mother views the kuo-toa as her children, as they are her only worshippers, and her priests run most of kuo-toa civilization.
Blibdoolpoolp usually takes the form of a 15 foot-tall (4.6 meter) nude human female that is depicted with a lobster's head and claws, or else with a crayfish's head and claws alongside an articulated shell covering her shoulders; those forced to look deeply into her eyes at close range could be driven to insanity. Blibdoolpoolp is irrational and prone to unpredictable mood swings, as well as fickle changes in behavior—she is also highly secretive, shunning contact with most other deities, though she is on relatively friendly terms with the ixzan deity Ilxendren. She believes herself a holder of deeply fundamental magical secrets related to the nature of the universe, but hoards those secrets to herself, making them impossible to check.
Blibdoolpoolp is generally bloodthirsty and filled with hatred for the pain her kuo-toa children suffered at the hands of many races, and spends most of her time brooding over the kuo-toa while plotting her revenge against those who drove them from the surface. She has a particular enmity for surface-dwelling races, as well as illithids and drow: she spites humans and especially elves for the initial driving of her kuo-toa children to the Underdark, and the mind flayers then captured the kuo-toa and forced them into slavery; the psionic oppression drove the peaceful beings to insanity and extreme religious fanaticism, and the drow and mind flayers are also seen as enemies and competitors for the little territory her followers have left. Her hatred for sea dwellers is relatively minor, with the exception of sea elves.
Blibdoolpoolp's hatred of surface races and Underdark ones alike is reflected in her mandates to her priests and worshippers: the kuo-toa priesthood was mandated to immediately drive away any illithid settlers found close to their homes, and she would compel other races to bring drow to her as sacrifices when an opportunity arose, rather than directly opposing them herself. It is commonly speculated that Blibdoolpoolp was simply the most prominent of several deities invented by the enslaved kuo-toa, most likely the result of a modified human statue—notably, the nearly-extinct ancient kuo-toa tribes of the open seas have never heard of Blibdoolpoolp.
