Diskos
| ) | |
|---|---|
| Name | diskos |
| Appearance | circular-sawbladed axe |
| Damage vs. small | 1d6 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d8 |
| Damage type | slashing |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | axe |
| Secondary skill | polearms |
| Expert traits | (none) |
| Primary attribute | strength |
| Magical item? | yes |
| Insight threshold(s) | 5-50 |
| Properties |
|
| Base size | medium |
| Base price | 500 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Default weight | 120 |
| Base material | metal |
A diskos is a type of weapon that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The diskos is a medium-sized melee weapon, making it one-handed for a medium-sized wielder, and uses the axe skill. It has a base material of metal, and appears as a circular-sawbladed axe when unidentified.
Generation
Diskos make up 1⁄200 (0.5%) of all weapons that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Used armor dealerships and antique weapon outlets can also stock diskos.
The artifacts Fire Brand and Frost Brand can only be wished for in diskos form by an Anachrononaut or Android, and only Anachrononauts and Androids can reshape the Brands into diskos by dipping the chosen artifact into a forge or fountain respectively—this reshaping requires the hero to either have a diskos in their inventory or be at least Skilled in axes.
Description
The diskos is a serrated trick weapon that is always considered a magical item, and it inflicts slashing damage, dealing 1d6 damage against small monsters and 1d8 against large monsters—as a serrated weapon, it also grants a 1⁄5 bonus to various types of damage that it inflicts against monsters with a DR of seven or less and are not wearing torso armor (i.e. a cloak, suit or shirt). A hero wielding a diskos while they are at Skilled or better in axes gains the "hew" and "fell" expert traits.
If the hero is wielding a diskos and not performing two weapon combat or wearing a shield, they will gain a doubled damage bonus from their strength and the weapon will use the higher between the hero's axe and polearms skills. A diskos can also be applied to pound with it at a distance similar to a polearm, using the hero's polearms skill to determine the valid range.
The diskos is also a full insight weapon, and gains several effects as the hero's insight is increased:
- At 5+ insight, the diskos appears as a "spinning" weapon, and its higher spinning speeds deal increased physical damage with higher insight, with a cap of 2d6+3/2d8+4 physical damage for a medium-sized diskos at 40 insight.
- At 5 insight, the diskos gains a flat bonus to its physical damage equal to 1⁄4 of their damage dice's size, and it gains a second such bonus at 40 insight. At 10 insight, it also gains another scaling physical damage bonus equal to 1⁄4 of their damage dice's size, and gain three more bonuses of this type at 25, 30 and 35 insight, for a total of +1 die and +1/2 die flat damage with a medium-sized diskos at 40 insight.
- At 15+ insight, the diskos will become "energy-wrapped" and deal bonus damage. A "light-wrapped diskos" is cloaked in holy energy that deals doubled damage against holy-hating monsters, while a "shadow-wrapped diskos" is cloaked in unholy energy that deals doubled damage against unholy-hating monsters. The diskos will gain 1 die of energy damage at 15, 20 and 45 insight, and gains a flat energy damage bonus equal to their damage dice's size at 50 insight, for a total of 3d6+6/3d8+8 energy damage with a medium-sized diskos.
Origin
The diskos is largely adapted from The Night Land, a 1912 "Dying Earth" horror and fantasy novel by English writer William Hope Hodgson that centers around a vision of a far-distant future where the Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. It is also inspired more indirectly the Whirligig Saw, a trick weapon from the 2015 game Bloodborne that is only encountered in 'The Old Hunters' DLC.
In The Night Land, the Diskos (which is always capitalized in the text) is the primary weapon of the remnants of humanity, the last few millions of which are gathered together in the Last Redoubt: a gigantic metal pyramid nearly 8 mi (13 km) high that is protected by a shield known as the "air clog", powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". The Diskos is described as a weapon powered by the earth's magnetic field, whose spinning metallic disk gives off a fiery gray glow when in use; it is stored hanging from a belt at the hip in its retracted form and must be drawn to its full length in combat, with care taken not to swing it while in striking distance of allies due to its immense cutting power. Each user's Diskos is said to be attuned to them, and upon their death it is returned down a vast underground rift to where the "Earth Current" is strongest.
Based on this description, Author John C. Wright envisions the Diskos as "a two-handed axe whose blade is like a living, electrified sawblade", with the name referring to both the sawblade (which can be dismounted from the forked "staff" portion) and the weapon as a whole—the Whirligig Saw of Bloodborne is depicted very similarly, being a pair of serrated circular saw blades mounted upon a large staff. The Whirligig Saw's description states: "A trick weapon crafted by the workshop heretics, the Powder Kegs [...]. This weapon pummels beasts in its mace form, but its true strength lies in its attached mechanical saws. These discs, lined with serrated teeth, spin rapidly, trashing the flesh of beasts into fine shreds." The diskos of dNetHack and its variants blends the quasi-magical qualities and aesthetics of both weapons with the serrated damage and polearm-like usage of the latter.
Encyclopedia entry
And here I must make known that these weapons did not shoot; but had a
disk of grey metal, sharp and wonderful, that spun in the end of a rod
of grey metal, and were someways charged by the Earth-Current, so that
were any but stricken thereby, they were cut in twain so easy as aught.
And the weapons were contrived to the repelling of any Army of Monsters
that might make to win entrance to the Redoubt. And to the eye they had
somewhat the look of strange battle-axes, and might be lengthened by
the pulling out of the handles.
