Caterwaul

f caterwaul
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Claw 1d4 physical, Claw 1d4 physical, Bite 1d6 physical

f caterwaul
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Claw 1d4 physical, Claw 1d4 physical, Bite 1d6 physical
Base level	6
Base experience	78
Speed	24
Base AC	4
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	1 (Very rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	300
Nutritional value	100
Size	Medium
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
A caterwaul: has no hands. is an animal. is carnivorous. is normally generated hostile. can be seen through infravision. does not appear in Gehennom.
Reference	Source:SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line670

A caterwaul, f, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. The cauterwaul is a medium-sized and quadrupedal feline animal that is carnivorous and can be seen via infravision like all felines. In Hack'EM, a pinch of catnip thrown at a caterwaul will render them tame and confuse them, and a hero eating catnip while in the form of a caterwaul will be confused for 2d8 (more) turns.

A caterwaul has two claw attacks and a bite attack.

Generation

Randomly-generated caterwauls are always created hostile, and will not normally appear in Gehennom.

In SlashTHEM, caterwauls appear among the random f that are part of the second quest monster class for Cavepeople and make up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ (3%) of the monsters randomly generated on the Caveman quest. Caterwauls also appear among the random f that are part of the first quest monster class for Zookeepers and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ (14%) of the monsters randomly generated on the Zookeeper quest.

Strategy

Caterwauls move twice as fast as most heroes at 24 speed, which makes them difficult to evade and increases the amount of damage they can inflict against the hero. They fortunately lack any special abilities or MR score, and are generally unremarkable—a hero with enough armor and HP can usually deal with the brunt of their attacks, and Elbereth can help in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM as usual.

History

The caterwaul first appears in SLASH 6.

Origin

The caterwaul is a creature that originates from Dungeons & Dragons, where it makes its debut in the original 1981 Fiend Folio and also appears in the 1992 Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix released as an update and expansion to the former. Its name is derived from "caterwauling" which generally refers to a shrill howling or wailing noise, including ones that sound like the cry made by a cat in heat.

Caterwauls are vicious and chaotic evil feline creatures with short midnight-blue fur, yellow eyes and long prehensile tails, and their faces have delicately pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes. The caterwaul generally lives in low mountain areas, particularly those with thick vegetation, and will always defend its territory from intruders—they are militantly solitary creatures, living on their own after three months with a total average lifespan of five years; they also never mate for life, and will breed at most 3 times over their lifespan. A caterwaul is exclusively carnivorous and its diet consists of hunting large rodents, occasionally supplemented with raids on domestic sheep or cattle.

Caterwauls prefer to ambush victims from trees or rock outcroppings above a trail and leap onto them, chasing only if necessary—they can move very quickly on both hind legs, and move even faster on all fours, reflected by their high movement speed in variants of NetHack. Caterwauls attack with biting and claws, and can supplement theses melee attacks with a high-pitched keening sound that damages all opponents within 60 feet unless they save against breath weapons—additionally, caterwauls are capable of hasting themselves once per turn instead of attacking with either ability, which grants a 4-point bonus to AC and doubles their normal attacks and movements for seven rounds.