Carcosan courtier
| n carcosan courtier (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 13 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 1d5 physical, claw 0d0 charm, claw 0d0 charm, tentacle 1d5 poison (dexterity, 5+ insight), bearhug 5d5 drowning (25+ insight) |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 275 |
| Speed | 18 |
| Base AC | 5 |
| Base MR | 55 |
| Alignment | 10 (lawful) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | none |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
A carcosan courtier:
| |
A carcosan courtier, n, is a type of monster that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The carcosan courtier is a type of eyeless and mouthless humanoid nymph that is genderless rather than always-female, and is fey, insectoid, aquatic, and extra-terrestrial in nature: carcosan courtiers can be seen via infravision, possess normal sight despite their face being mostly (if not completely) featureless, are amphibious and capable of flight via floating, and will seek out gold and magical items among other objects to pick up. They cannot wear shields.
A carcosan courtier can reach level 30, and has behaviors influenced by the hero's insight: carcosan courtiers have 5 points of AC in the 'special' category, and gain up to 5 points of natural AC and DR as the hero's insight increases—below 25 insight, they will always flee from the hero when possible, while at 25 or more insight they will only flee half the time.
Carcosan courtiers have a weapon attack, a pair of claw attacks that can charm targets, and two insight-gated attacks: one is a tentacle attack that inflicts dexterity-draining poison and is used at a threshold of at least 5 insight, and gains extra damage dice per 5 points of insight up to a maximum of 5d5 at 25 insight; the other attack is a drowning bearhug that is used at 25+ insight. Carcosan courtiers boast skilled prowess in martial combat.
Carcosan courtiers can be warded by a Elder Sign at any level of reinforcement.
Generation
Carcosan courtiers are not randomly generated normally, and are usually created hostile—they can occur in big groups of 5–9. They are not a valid polymorph form or genocide target, and figurines and statues of them cannot be wished for.
A carcosan courtier is one of the "yellow nasties" that can be summoned by the harassment of the Stranger and the Suzerain—these courtiers are summoned individually and will have the fulvous monster template.
Carcosan courtiers make up 2⁄189 of the monsters randomly generated on the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest.
Five carcosan courtiers appear among the monsters that are generated surrounding an elven Madperson on the Astral Plane during level creation.
A carcosan courtier is generated with a mask and various types of equipment that are dependent on chance and whether or not they are generated in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest):
- A carcosan courtier generated in the future will not be given elven armor like other nymphs, and instead has a chance of being given the following equipment.
- For their weapons, they will always generate with a carcosan sting and are also given one of the following:
- A 1⁄40 chance of a non-cursed +5 beamsword with a focus gem that has a roughly equal probability of being a chunk of fossil dark, a citrine stone, a chrysoberyl stone, a jacinth stone, or an amber stone
- A 3⁄40 chance of an isamusei
- A 3⁄20 chance of a wrathful elven broadsword
- A 3⁄4 chance of a crow quill
- For their armor, they can be given one of the following equipment sets:
- A 1⁄20 chance of a full golden set of partly-upgraded imperial elven armor—imperial elven boots with the "very fast speed" upgrade, imperial elven gauntlets with the "strength" upgrade, an imperial elven helm with the breathless, "blindness suppression" and "accuracy" upgrades, and imperial elven body armor with the "flying", "sickness resistance" and "reflection" upgrades
- A 1⁄5 chance of a +5 set of armor: a crystal helm, plasteel armor, a bodyglove, plasteel gauntlets, and plasteel boots.
- A 1⁄4 chance of a set of armor consisting of boots that are either a pair of shoes or a pair of stilettos, a suit that is either a noble's dress or a consort's suit, and gloves that are either a pair of gauntlets or a pair of long gloves (each with roughly equal probability)
- A 1⁄4 chance of a set of armor consisting of a suit that is either a waistcloth or an elven toga, a pair of elven boots, a helm with the randomized appearance of a circlet that will be veggy in object material and colored either yellow (4⁄5 chance) or brown (1⁄5 chance), and a torso item that will either be a T-shirt or an elven cloak
- A 1⁄4 chance of a set of armor consisting of boots that are either a pair of shoes or a pair of stilettos with roughly equal probability, a suit that is either a gentleman's suit or a gentlewoman's dress with roughly equal probability, a shirt item that will either be a ruffled shirt or Victorian underwear with roughly equal probability, and a helm that will be either a top hat or a hennin with roughly equal probability
- For their weapons, they will always generate with a carcosan sting and are also given one of the following:
- A carcosan courtier generated outside of the future will have a chance of being given the following equipment.
- For their weapons, they will always generate with a carcosan sting and are also given one of the following:
- A 1⁄40 chance of an isamusei
- A 3⁄40 chance of a broadsword
- A 3⁄20 chance of a rapier
- A 3⁄4 chance of a stiletto
- For their armor, they can be given one of the following equipment sets:
- A 1⁄20 chance of archaic boots, archaic gauntlets and archaic plate mail
- A 1⁄5 chance of a set of armor identical to the third set used for carcosan courtiers in the future
- A 1⁄4 chance of an elven toga
- A 1⁄2 chance of a set of armor identical to the fifth set used for carcosan courtiers in the future
- For their weapons, they will always generate with a carcosan sting and are also given one of the following:
All of a carcosan courtier's equipment will be colored yellow, and items that are generated as being made of shadowsteel or any metallic material will also be converted to gold.
Strategy
Groups of carcosan courtiers are especially common in the Anachrononaut quest and often end up kiting slower heroes with their 18 speed: they take potshots with their carcosan stings from outside of melee range, slowly draining the hero's HP while the stings themselves can infect the hero's armor with strange larvae—these larvae will sting the wearer as they mature and degrade the armor itself, and if not dealt with they will fully mature into byakhee that continue the cycle of infection with their own sting attacks.
Hand blasters and other firearms can cut down fleeing courtiers quickly, and Androids can make use of their emergency speed ability to close the distance without falling under fire. Melee-based approaches will require high damage per round along with speed and possibly a means of immobilizing the courtiers, and engagement rings are highly recommended in order to avoid losing important items.
Carcosan courtiers are also highly dangerous to Madpeople that encounter them on their quest, during or after they retrieve The Star of Hypernotus: fulvous courtiers summoned by the Stranger or Suzerain will not flee as they do in other instances, and the loss of armor to larva infection may leave them vulnerable to other monsters, such as the Stranger's straitjacket-conjuring "incarcerate" ability.
Origin
The carcosan courtier is based in part on the Spawn of Hastur, a monster from the 1981 Chaosium role-playing game Call of Cthulhu that makes its debut in the second volume monster manual, "Ye Booke of Monstres II". The name Hastur originates from an 1891 Ambrose Bierce short story, "Haïta the Shepherd", where he is the benign god of shepherds.
Robert W. Chambers used the name Hastur multiple times in his 1895 short story collection The King in Yellow to represent both a person and a place associated with several stars, including Aldebaran and the Hyades. H.P. Lovecraft read Chambers' book in early 1927, and was so enchanted that he added elements of it to his own creations, briefly mentioning Hastur twice in the 1930 novella "The Whisperer in Darkness". Both Chambers and Lovecraft associated Hastur with Hali and the Yellow Sign among various other terms and phrases—Cthulhu Mythos writer August Derleth also developed Hastur into a Great Old One, with "The King in Yellow" as one of his many epithets and avatars.
Many of the carcosan courtier's abilities in dNetHack and its derivatives reflect those of the spawn of Hastur in Call of Cthulhu: the spawn of Hastur are an amphibious species of octopoid creatures with hideous faces that are well versed in the art of magic, and have a limited ability to fly. They are sometimes seen with Hastur in the Lake of Hali, which is known to be near the city of Carcosa—this is the city for which the carcosan courtier monsters are named, and is one of many elements mentioned alongside Hastur in the short story collection of The King In Yellow (specifically within the tale "The Yellow Sign"). The spawn of Hastur can crush victims with their tentacles and/or draw them to their bodies in order to swallow them whole.
Still another major inspiration for the carcosan courtier is the entry for SCP-2264 on the SCP Wiki, which is one of many entries that is heavily inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos and collectively designates several locations and people of interest:
- SCP-2264-A is an iron door located within a hidden chamber beneath the Martin Tower of the Tower of London, which requires a highly ritualized process that is all but stated to be the methods used to create a philosopher's stone (even including a direct mention of the magnum opus.
- SCP-2264-B is an extra-dimensional city that lies beyond the iron door and is clearly modeled after Carcosa itself—the city is described explicitly and implicitly as following "a sort of dream logic" throughout the whole of the entry and its associated reports.
The encyclopedia entry for the carcosan courtier is a quote from one of the reports that describes the inhabitants (classified as SCP-2264-1) as having porcelain-like skin and being somewhat humanoid, seeming less human the more the observed watched—the speaker describes feeling "that behind those masks, beyond their illusions, was something inconceivable." The entry for SCP-2264 also contains allusions to other SCP entries, including one concerning a fictitious play called "The Hanged King's Tragedy" that is clearly analogous to "The King in Yellow", with the Hanged King himself also mentioned as a similarly analogous being to the avatar of Hastur that the latter fictitious play is named for. Thus, carcosan courtiers are implied to be the spawn of Hastur in humanoid disguises: this is the basis for their several abilities, including shifting to much more dangerous behavior if the hero gains enough insight to see their true forms underneath, and the recurrence of the color yellow and the number 5 in various forms also hints at their connection to Hastur.
Yet another inspiration for the carcosan courtier is the Dominion of the Black from Pathfinder: the Dominion are a malevolent, galaxy-spanning conglomerate of aliens known for eating memories, stealing thoughts, inhabiting bodies and destroying numerous planets over the aeons within the setting.
Encyclopedia entry
Their skin was like porcelain. I think those were the natives.
You know, SCP-2264-1. But the more you stared, the less human
everyone seemed; some had too many limbs, some had too few.
They were like the monsters from an old fantasy comic I read
as a kid. Crazy as this place was, I don't think we were ever
seeing the whole truth. It's like a filter. The people look
humanoid because we're human. Something from another world
would see us more like them. But some... especially the
natives... I got the feeling that behind those masks,
beyond their illusions, was something inconceivable.
