Circle of Acheron
In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, the circle of Acheron is a ward which scares some monsters when engraved on the floor. Circles of Acheron can be reinforced up to 4-fold, with each level of reinforcement taking 2 strokes to draw. With a fast engraving tool each reinforcement takes 1 turn, or 2 turns with a slow engraving tool. It gains no secondary effects at higher levels of reinforcement.
The following monsters are warded by circle of Acheron:
- most undead, except . Maanzecorian
- d Cerberus
Generation
Scrolls of circle of Acheron are not randomly generated. Writing a scroll of circle of Acheron with a magic marker costs 8 charges. Scrolls of circle of Acheron can be wished for.
Circles of Acheron make up 3⁄4 of all non-hallucinatory engravings on rings, and rings can be wished for with a circle of Acheron engraving.
Circle of Acheron appears in spellbooks of level 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7. The odds of a spellbook containing a circle of Acheron ward are:
- Level 1 spellbooks: 2⁄3 chance
- Level 2 spellbooks: 1⁄3 chance
- Level 3 spellbooks: 2⁄9 (22.2%) chance
- Level 4 spellbooks: 1⁄4 chance
- Level 7 spellbooks: 1⁄12 (8.3%) chance.
Circle of Acheron, along with many other wards, can be learned from the Necronomicon's option to "Study up on ancient warding signs".
Troubadours start the game with knowledge of the circle of Acheron.
Description
Standing on a square with a circle of Acheron engraved prevents Pale Night's seduction attack.
Like the Hexagram and Heptagram, circles of Acheron guard against the touch of death spell, preventing monsters from casting them. Additionally, it also grants total immunity to the spell.
Circle of Acheron also protects against the Stranger's "yellow death" spell.
Standing on an engraved circle of Acheron guards against the instant death exhalation of ancients of death, but does not confer immunity to the life-force theft inhalation damage.
Monsters standing on an engraved circle of Acheron are immune to the The Death-Spear of Keptolo's death-touch invoke.
Circles of Acheron do not protect against death-ray effects such as from a wand of death.
Circles of Acheron appear as "x-level circle of Acheron" on the floor.
Messages
- You are already beyond Acheron.
- You were affected by the touch of death spell but were protected by standing on a circle of Acheron.
- But <monster> is already beyond Acheron.
- You invoked The Death-Spear of Keptolo but the monster was standing on a circle of Acheron.
Rumors
- They say that the dead cannot cross back over the river Acheron.
Undead cannot reach you while standing on the circle of Acheron.
Encyclopedia entry
Then looking further onwards, I beheld
A throng upon the shore of a great stream:
Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know
Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem
So eager to pass o'er, as I discern
Through the blear light?" He thus to me in few:
"This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive
Beside the woful tide of Acheron."
[ The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri ]
A circle of acheron takes just two strokes to scribe, making
it the simplest of the wards. It may be reinforced up to
4 times.
