Drum of earthquake
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| |
|---|---|
| Name | drum of earthquake |
| Appearance | drum |
| Base price | 25 zm |
| Weight | 25 |
| Material | leather |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A drum of earthquake is a type of magical tool that appears in NetHack. It is an atonal musical instrument that is made of leather, and appears as a drum when unidentified.
Contents
Generation
Drums of earthquake make up 1⁄500 (0.2%) of all tools randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops. Hardware stores can also stock drums of earthquake.
Drums of earthquake are generated uncursed, with the possible exceptions of bones levels and the items generated on some early traps. They are generated with 4-8 charges.[1]
Description
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Numbers: minimum experience level to affect that spot.
Red: 1-9, blue 10-19, green 20-29A hero applying a drum of earthquake will produce different effects depending on whether or not the drum has charges.[2][3][4]
- Applying a charged drum of earthquake will consume one charge and cause an earthquake across a portion of the dungeon level that is dependent on the hero's experience level:[5]
- The earthquake will create several pit traps at random squares within the hero's proximity (possibly including on their square), and destroy doors, altars, fountains, sinks, graves and thrones in the affected area (not counting high altars in Moloch's Sanctum and on the Astral Plane)—pits can be created this way even on undiggable levels and will cause moats, pools and lava to flow from adjacent squares, and boulders on squares where pits are created will immediately fill in those pits and bury any items on the boulder's square (interestingly including other boulders). Damage incurred to any shop doors from this earthquake will anger the shopkeeper. Squares with magic portals will not have a pit created on them.
- The earthquake will also unfreeze all immobile monsters and awaken all sleeping monsters on the level, shake loose monsters that are hiding on the ceiling, anger peaceful monsters that are dropped into the resulting pits, and scare any monsters that are within a Euclidean distance of 23.7 squares from the hero's position and fail a check versus their MR score.[6][7] Monsters within a distance of 4*[(XL - 1) / 3 + 1]+1 which are awakened by the earthquake will become hostile.[8][9]
- Any hero or monster that is dropped into a pit by an earthquake, including a pit whose square they were on without being inside the pit itself, takes the usual falling damage and will suffer instant stoning from any footrice corpses that they were wielding or sharing the pit square with—a hero or monster that is already in a pit will be jostled around violently and suffer damage with the same conditions for instant stoning. Flight, levitation and clinging will prevent a hero or monster from falling into a created pit. This damage is subject to half physical damage, and the hero is considered responsible for any monsters killed from this damage.
- A hero that has a pit opened on their position while they are tethered to a heavy iron ball that is buried on their square will have the iron chain tethering them broken.[10]
- A hero that is trapped in a pit at the time of being subjected to an earthquake has a chance of taking reduced damage and "keeping their footing" that is dependent on their luck, dexterity and whether or not they are an Archeologist, and this chance is much lower if they are currently fumbling[11]—a hero that keeps their footing exercises dexterity, and will not be subjected to stoning from footrice corpses that are in the pit or currently being wielded by them.[12]
- Applying a drum of earthquake with no charges will produce noise that has a range dependent on the hero's experience level: this is similar in effect to applying a leather drum, but it will not render the hero deaf or abuse their wisdom and the noise will have 1⁄8 of the range.[13][14]
Monsters will not use this item.
Drums of earthquake can hold a maximum of 20 charges: uncursed charging adds d4 charges while blessed charging adds 2d4 charges, and cursed charging will strip all charges instead.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Per commit 52f4803a, the earthquake from a drum of earthquake can reveal secret doors and secret corridors, destroying them and creating pits at their locations.
Per commit 0473fff5 and commit 8764ae12, destroying an altar by applying a drum of earthquake or by any other means will raise the anger of that altar's god to its maximum, and also applies a -20 alignment record penalty if the altar belonged to the hero's god—high altars will still not be destroyed, but will prompt the wrath of its god as described regardless.Strategy
The drum of earthquake makes the use of unidentified drums incredibly dangerous, especially on levels with peaceful monsters that you do not want to risk angering—creating an earthquake in Minetown, on the quest home level, or anywhere with a temple (especially one that is co-aligned) is a very bad idea. This is further complicated by the fact that both items share the same base cost of 25zm, rendering price identification methods useless in distinguishing the item types without use-testing. Elven Priests and Wizards that start with leather drums can safely type-name any drums they come across that are not also identified as leather drums. Pacifist conduct players will especially want to avoid applying an unknown drum, since opening pits under monsters can kill them and break the conduct.
The drum of earthquake is much more useful when known to the hero, and can be used to awaken already-hostile monsters from a longer distance: Rogues in particular can attract the attention of their quest nemesis, the Master Assassin, on the Rogue quest's goal level by applying the drum while standing at the bottom right square of the left section—the hero is normally blocked off from the nemesis by no-teleport restrictions and undiggabble walls, but the earthquake effect will wake him up immediately and cause the covetous Master Assassin to warp to the hero's location.
The drum also has a niche application for flying or levitating heroes to try and slow down pursuing hostiles, especially in open areas such as the Big Room, and has a much-less-niche use in attracting the Wizard of Yendor's attention in the late game stages without having to climb the Wizard's Tower. Though in theory this can also slow down monsters pursuing a hero on the Astral Plane, the risk of angering a high priest may cause serious complications upon reaching one of the high altars, and it will have a lesser effect on any covetous monsters while doing nothing against flying monsters such as the Riders.
A drum of earthquake with no charges can often prove more useful than a regular leather drum since it does not deafen the hero or abuse their wisdom, and the lower range of the noise it produces makes it less likely to affect monsters outside of the hero's range of vision. If all else fails, the item is useful polypile fodder for trying to produce other magical tools or instruments.
History
The drum of earthquake first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.1.1, including some variants based on those versions, the earthquake a drum of earthquake produces can remove magic portals when creating pits. This is fixed in NetHack 3.1.2.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.2.2, the earthquake a drum of earthquake produces can also destroy high altars. This is fixed in NetHack 3.2.3 and refined further in NetHack 3.3.0.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.4.3, the drum of earthquake is subject to a few notable bugs:
- Liquid does not flow into pits created by a drum of earthquake as they do for pits or holes from broken wands of digging—this is fixed in Jun 2004 via commit 87507aed.
- Incorrect feedback is provided if a drum of earthquake is applied and a hero or monster is already in a pit—this is bug C343-174, and is fixed in May 2006 via commit 914c66b1, commit b9db663d and commit b76a0fe0.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.6.0, the surrounding area is described as a "dungeon" when describing the effects of a drum of earthquake, even in other dungeon branches or on the Elemental Planes—this is fixed for NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 31f883da, which is imported from DynaHack.
From NetHack 3.0.0 to NetHack 3.6.2, applying an uncharged drum of earthquake caused deafness as applying a leather drum does—this is fixed via commit 76bffe5b, which also establishes the unique drum messages produced by applying an uncharged drum of earthquake.
Messages
- You produce a heavy, thunderous rolling!
- The entire <dungeon> is shaking around you!
- You applied a charged drum of earthquake. The word "dungeon" is replaced depending on the hero's location in the overall dungeon, e.g. Sokoban uses "puzzle", while the Astral Plane uses "astral plane".
- <The monster> is shaken loose from the ceiling!
- You saw a monster that was hiding on the ceiling fall off as a result of the drum of earthquake producing an earthquake.
- You hear a thumping sound.
- As above, but you did not see the monster fall.
- You easily dodge the falling <monster>.
- A monster fell off the ceiling while it was hiding on your square—this does not inflict damage and will place the monster on an adjacent square.
- The <fountain> falls into a chasm.
- The <kitchen sink> falls into a chasm.
- The <altar> falls into a chasm.
- The <headstone> topples into a chasm.
- The <throne> falls into a chasm.
- You saw one or more dungeon features be destroyed by the earthquake from a drum of earthquake.
- Some holes are quickly filled with <water/lava>!
- You saw pits created by a drum of earthquake fill up with water or lava from adjacent squares.
- KADOOM! The <boulder> falls into a chasm <below you>!
- You saw a boulder plug a pit that was created by a drum of earthquake, with "below you" added if you were occupying that boulder's square.
- The <door> collapses.
- A door was destroyed by the earthquake from a drum of earthquake.
- <The monster> falls into a chasm!
- You saw a monster fall into a pit as a result of an earthquake from the drum of earthquake.
- You hear a scream!
- As above, but you did not see the monster.
- Your chain breaks!
- An iron chain that was tethering you to a buried heavy iron ball on your current square was destroyed as the result of a pit that was created on your square by a drum of earthquake.
- A chasm opens up under you!
- You don't fall in!
- A pit was created on your square by a drum of earthquake, but you were levitating, flying or clinging to the ceiling and avoided falling in.
- You fall into a chasm!
- You fell into a pit as a result of an earthquake from the drum of earthquake.
- You are jostled around violently!
- As above, but you were already in a pit.
- You <butcher/manage/pull off> a <drum maneuver>.
- You applied a drum of earthquake with no charges: "butcher" occurs roughly 1⁄2 of the time, and will otherwise have an equal probability of being replaced by "manage" or "pull off". The drum maneuver will be one of "stepper", "one drop", "slow two", "triple stroke roll", "double shuffle", "half-time shuffle", "second line", or "train" with equal probability.
Variants
Many NetHack variants incorporate the advent calendar room, which may have a drum of earthquake as the Christmas present in the 24th room.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, dipping a drum of earthquake into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a leather drum.
The drum of earthquake can be used to wake up Vlad the Impaler within his tower and obtain the Candelabrum of Invocation without having to obtain the alignment keys beforehand.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, rare instruments shops have a 1⁄50 chance of generating a drum of earthquake on each square.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Troubadours start the game with knowledge of the drum of earthquake's appearance.
Music instruments shops have a 1⁄50 chance of a drum of earthquake being generated on each square, similar to UnNetHack.
A drum of earthquake with 8 charges is always generated on the Gates of N'Kai level of the Neutral Quest, where it is placed inside the statue of a purple worm named "Shudde M'ell" that is set next to the up stair during level creation.
Drums of earthquake can be used in place of a drum as the preferred instrument for playing Fear, Charge, Cacophony and Inspire Courage via the Troubadour's musicalize spell skill—if a song is played on a drum of earthquake via the musicalize spell skill, orcs, ogres, giant humanoids, and non-canceled Trumpet Archons may shout along with the song if they are tame, while hostile ones will "counter-shout".
Dipping a drum of earthquake into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a drum, as in SLASH'EM.
The Singing Sword can learn an earthshaking chant if a drum of earthquake is applied while it is wielded.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, a drum of earthquake can be created at a furnace by combining a leather drum and a scroll of earth.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, in addition to SLASH'EM details, rare instruments shops have a 1⁄50 chance of generating a drum of earthquake on each square as in UnNetHack.
As in dNetHack and its derivatives, Bards start the game with knowledge of the drum of earthquake's appearance. Musicians start the game with a drum of earthquake in their inventory.
Drums of earthquake can be used in place of a leather drum as the preferred instrument for playing Despair, Charge, Cacophony and Inspire Courage via the Bard's musicalize spell skill.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, rare instruments shops have a 1⁄50 chance of generating a drum of earthquake on each square as in UnNetHack.
Upgrading a leather drum successfully will produce a drum of earthquake and vice versa. Dipping a drum of earthquake into a potion of amnesia will use up the potion and "downgrade" the item to a leather drum, as in SLASH'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
- See the encyclopedia entry for leather drum.
References
- ↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 962
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3732
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 641-L654: drum of earthquake effects
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 240-L441: do_earthquake() function
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 650: calls do_earthquake()
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 61: awaken_monsters() function
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 652: calls awaken_monsters() for drum of earthquake
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 265: call to wakeup() from do_earthquake()
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 3027: wakeup() function; the call sets via_attack to TRUE
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 380-L390
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 406-L424
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 416-L424
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 656: mundane boolean is true when applying a magical drum
- ↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 668: calls awaken_monsters() for 'mundane' drum case
