Carcosan sting
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | carcosan sting |
| Appearance | curved dagger |
| Damage vs. small | 1d3 (+1d5, requiring 25 insight) |
| Damage vs. large | 1d2 (+1d5, requiring 25 insight) |
| Damage type | piercing |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | dagger |
| Secondary skill | firearms |
| Expert traits | second, focus fire |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Magical item? | no |
| Future tech? | yes |
| Properties |
|
| Base size | small |
| Base price | 5000 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 10 |
| Base material | gold |
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | carcosan bolt |
| Appearance | golden bolt |
| Damage vs. small | 1d5+5 (+4d5) (10–30) |
| Damage vs. large | 1d5+5 (+4d5) (10–30) |
| Damage type | energy, piercing |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | firearms |
| Expert traits | (none) |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Magical item? | no |
| Future tech? | yes |
| Properties | (none) |
| Base size | tiny |
| Base price | 0 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 1 |
| Base material | metal |
A carcosan sting is a type of charged piercing weapon that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack and is both a melee weapon and a launcher. The carcosan sting is a small-sized item, making it one-handed for a medium-sized wielder, has a base material of plastic and is considered to be a futuristic item. It uses the dagger skill when used in melee and the firearms skill when used to fire carcosan bolts, expending one charge per shot. Carcosan stings appear as a curved dagger when unidentified.
Generation
Shadowsmiths can make a copy of an existing carcosan sting made of shadowsteel, provided they have enough material on hand. Tame shadowsmiths will do so free of charge while peaceful shadowsmiths will charge for the service.
Carcosan stings are not randomly generated and cannot be wished for by a hero that isn't a Tourist, though they may still be found in bones.
Two monsters can be generated with a carcosan sting.
- carcosan courtiers are always generated with carcosan stings.
- deminymphs are given the "yellow sign madman" weapon kit with a 1⁄100 chance. Of these deminymphs, 1⁄20 of them are generated with a carcosan sting.
Description
In melee, carcosan stings inflict piercing damage and gain a +0 to-hit bonus. Hitting a monster in melee while it has less than 95 charges will also return 1–5 charges to it. Carcosan stings deal 1d3 damage against small and large monsters, gaining an additional +1d5 damage if the hero has at least 25 insight and having its enchantment damage bonus doubled. For example, a +7 carcosan sting deals 1d3+7 damage at 24 insight and 1d3+1d5+14 at 25 insight. A hero wielding a carcosan sting while they are at Skilled or better in dagger gains the "focus fire" and "create opening" expert traits. Firing a sting shoots carcosan bolts, which inflict energy and piercing damage, bypassing most damage type resistances. The carcosan sting has a total range of 8 squares, with each shot expending one charge. When fired at Basic skill in firearms it shoots 1 bolt, increasing to 1–2 at Skilled, and again to 2–3 at Expert.
A fired carcosan bolt deals 1d5+5 against small and large monsters. Once the hero has at least 25 insight, both the carcosan sting's melee attacks and the bolts it fires will implant byakhee eggs into one of the target's pieces of worn armor on hit, chosen at random. If the hero is hit they will also be stunned for 1–3 turns; monsters are instead made confused. Each piece of a armor can hold up to 3 byakhee larva, with them hatching into strange larva 6–12 turns after they were implanted. These strange larva may later grow up into fully fledged byakhee. Every turn, each worn piece of infested armor will sting its wearer for 2d2+4 damage, with additional larva contained in the same armor piece increasing the damage to 4d2+8 at 2 larvae and 8d2+16 at 3 larvae. Armor which is larger or smaller than normal has this damage adjusted by 2 damage dice for each size up or down.
Carcosan bolts will explode on contact with monsters and obstacles, or once they reach their range limit without having hit anything. Monsters caught in the explosion, including the hero, sustain 4d5 physical damage, which is not resisted by fire resistance. If the bolt instead hits a wall there is a 1⁄20 chance that it will be dug out, leaving behind 20–40 rocks. Closed doors hit by heavy blaster bolts will be destroyed, while squares of solid rock will remain unaffected.
Madpeople which have at least 30 insight and either know the carcosan sting's identified appearance or are currently carrying one can reshape Fire Brand and Frost Brand into carcosan stings by dipping them into a forge or fountain, respectively. As carcosan stings are insight weapons, any madperson — or hero of any role which is currently bound to Ose — gains to-hit and damage bonuses to both melee and ranged attacks made with carcosan stings which scale with their insight.
Carcosan stings are normally generated with 80 to 100 charges unless otherwise specified, and can be recharged any number of times. Recharging has different effects based on the beautitude of the charging source: blessed charging sets charges to 50, cursed charging sets charges to 5 and uncursed charging sets the charges to a number between 25 and 45.
In terms of monster weapon preference, monsters will prefer the carcosan sting to all other ranged weapons, except for the hand blaster and arm blaster. As a melee weapon, monsters will prefer the carcosan sting to a razor cleaver, and will prefer a droven dagger or better to a carcosan sting.
Messages
- The door is blown to splinters by the impact!
- You destroyed a door with a carcosan bolt.
- The wall blows apart from the impact!
- You destroyed a wall with a carcosan bolt.
- Your <armor> bites you!
- You were damaged by byakhee larvae infecting your armor.
