Orthos
Orthos, Sovereign of the Howling Dark is a spirit that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Ritual, seal and taboo
The seal of Orthros must be drawn on a square adjacent to a hole, and the hero must chat to the seal while facing the hole across from them.
To remain bound to Orthos, the hero must not be in an unlit square for more than a few turns while they are either blind or not carrying an active light source. The turn limit provides a grace period to cure blindness or otherwise light the hero's surroundings.
Mark
A hero that has Orthos bound will have strange winds tug on their clothes, which can be seen from a distance. This mark is disguised by not wearing any cloak other than a mummy wrapping.
Benefits
While bound, Orthos grants the hero disintegration resistance along with the musicalize spell skill.
The active powers of Orthos are as follows:
- Exhalation of the Rift: The hero exhales a line of wind in a chosen direction that is three squares wide, and struck targets are knocked back. Targets in the center of the line take 5 spirit dice of damage, while targets along the edges take 1d5 spirit dice of damage.
The passive powers of Orthos are as follows:
- Flickering outline: The hero gains displacement.
- Void Sight: The hero gains astral vision.
A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:
"Orthos has been known to cause difficulties with sanity recovery; if this is not yet resolved, how should it be properly noted?"
As a monster
| . Orthos (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 42 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 34 |
| Base experience | 1615 |
| Speed | 30 |
| Base AC | -20 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | -5 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 0 |
| Nutritional value | 0 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, drain resistance, immunity to sickness
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Orthos:
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In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Orthos, ., also appears as a monster that can be summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder. It is an unsolid and humanoid ghost-like entity that is unbreathing and thus amphibious, and is capable of flight and phasing. Orthos has infravision, lacks HP regeneration, and can follow the hero to other levels if it is adjacent. Like many summoned spirits, Orthos cannot be made tame.
Orthos has two touch attacks and an engulfing attack that all inflict shadow damage, which ignores most forms of AC. It possesses cold resistance, sleep resistance, disintegration resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, drain resistance, immunity to sickness, death resistance, and drain resistance.
Generation
Orthos is first generated when summoned from his seal by an Illithanachronounbinder. It is always created hostile, and is not a valid polymorph form or genocide target.
Orthos is always generated with the uncursed +1 Flickering Outline, an artifact that is named for one of its passive spirit abilities: Flickering Outline is a cloak of displacement that can be safely enchanted to +7 and grants cold resistance while worn, and invoking the artifact allows the hero to cast a targeted, area-of-effect 'death' spell that behaves similar to the explosion from breaking a charged wand of death (including being flavored as a "disintegration field").
Orthos does not leave a corpse upon death.
Strategy
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Illithanachronounbinder role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.
If Orthos is killed after being summoned, it can be encountered again in the Void, a branch accessed by opening the high altar of Ilsensine the Fallen as an Illithanachronounbinder using the invoke effect of The Elder Cerebral Fluid. Orthos is placed randomly along with many other spirits of the near void on the second floor of the branch, and is generated with the "whispers" template, which makes it nonliving.
Messages
- The hole grows darker, and a whistling occurs at the edge of hearing.
- The mournful whistle grows louder, as the air around you flows into the pit.
- But that is all that occurs. Darkness. Wind. And a lonely whistle.
- You attempted to bind Orthos.
- A whistling occurs at the edge of hearing.
- The mournful whistle grows louder, as the air around you flows into the pit.
- As above, while blind.
- You feel that it will stay with you for a while.
- You successfully bound Orthos to yourself.
- Your blade vibrates for a moment.
- You successfully bound Orthos to the Pen of the Void.
- For an instant you are falling.
- You performed the binding ritual incorrectly. There is no message for failing to bind Orthos due to a lack of open slots for spirits of the Near Void.
Encyclopedia entry
In the dark there is something that will always be a shade darker than the lightless black, as though it drew back the night like a curtain. That thing can be heard, even across the inconceivable gulf that separates the place of the vestiges and the known Multiverse. The faintest whisper suggests a howl as maddening as it is endless.
