Gargoyle
g gargoyle 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Attacks | |
| Base level | 6 |
| Base experience | 95 |
| Speed | 10 |
| Base AC | -4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -9 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1000 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | stoning resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A gargoyle:
| |
| Reference | NetHack 3.6.7 - src/monst.c, line 401 |
A gargoyle, g, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The gargoyle is a strong and thick-skinned humanoid monster that is unbreathing and inediate, and is part of the gremlin monster class.
A gargoyle has two claw attacks and a bite attack. Gargoyles possess stoning resistance, and are one of the few monster types with the property that is neither acidic nor capable of stoning other monsters on their own.
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 071d79dc and commit e96d4ea9, eating a gargoyle or other stoning-resistant monster can grant temporary stoning resistance for 3-18 turns—these resistances will not expire while the hero is eating something that causes stoning until that meal is finished.Contents
Generation
Randomly-generated gargoyles are always created hostile. 76⁄77 of eggs laid by winged gargoyles will hatch into gargoyles, though they are not oviparous and cannot grow up into winged gargoyles.[1]
Strategy
A gargoyle can hit fairly hard with its bite and two claw attacks, and has a natural AC of -4, which may result in death for adventurers who fail to take a gargoyle encounter seriously and cut the monster down quickly. They are somewhat slow at 10 speed, however, and have absolutely no magic resistance, making them very vulnerable to magical items if the hero can successfully hit them.
As a pet and polyself form, gargoyles are somewhat decent: they are strong, breathless and inediate, their immunity to stoning makes dispatching cockatrices easy for them, and they are capable of wearing all armor.
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 8d2407f8, monsters can gain extrinsics from eating corpses, allowing a gargoyle to gain poison resistance from eating a cockatrice corpse or tin.History
The gargoyle first appears in SLASH 6, and is introduced to vanilla NetHack in NetHack 3.2.0.
Origin
A gargoyle is a semi-decorative figure carved from stone and primarily associated with medieval and Gothic architecture, though the concept of animal-shaped water diversions existed centuries prior. The term originates from the French "gargouille", which in English roughly means "throat" or "gullet", and its root is the Latin "gar" ("to swallow"), associated with the gurgling sound of water. Gargoyles are used to divide the flow of rainwater and direct it away from the sides of a building—a trough is cut in the back of a gargoyle, and the rainwater typically exits through the open mouth, preventing it from eroding the mortar between masonry walls; such gargoyles are typically given elongated forms to achieve the desired distance from the wall, and may optionally be given wings as well.
Mythical gargoyles are directly based on the carved stone figures, and have been conceived as animated statues or living statue-like being similar to golems—some works depict them as beings of demonic affinity, e.g. the 1972 television film Gargoyles that provides their encyclopedia entry, or else vessels for demonic possession, as in the popular 1984 movie Ghostbusters. The concept of the gargoyle as a guardian partly derives from the French legend of a dragon-like monster called Gargouille (or Goji), which was subdued or captured by Romanus of Rouen with the aid of either a crucifix or a condemned man that acted as the sole volunteer. The monster was led back to Rouen and burned, with its head and neck preserved due to being tempered by the fire breath, and the head was mounted on the walls of the newly built church as a ward for protection and scaring off evil spirits.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, gargoyles are immune to the rays of a wand of digging or the dig spell, unlike other "stony" monsters such as the closely-related statue gargoyle. Tame gargoyles also have a chance of turning traitor.
Doppelgangers that reach experience level 6 can reliably #youpoly into gargoyles to take advantage of their innate strength and stoning resistance.
All of the above information also applies to SlashTHEM.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, chatting to a tame gargoyle will cause it to ask "if you've seen Elisa Maza"—this is a reference to the popular Disney animated series Gargoyles.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, gargoyles can appear among the court of a vampire lord or vampire lady-ruled throne room. Gargoyles can also appear as random prisoners in throne rooms.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, gargoyles are made vulnerable to digging rays and have their HP halved like other stony monsters, in contrast to SLASH'EM.
Encyclopedia entry
And so it came to pass that while Man ruled on Earth, the gargoyles waited, lurking, hidden from the light. Reborn every 600 years in Man's reckoning of time, the gargoyles joined battle against Man to gain dominion over the Earth.
In each coming, the gargoyles were nearly destroyed by Men who flourished in greater numbers. Now it has been so many hundreds of years that it seems the ancient statues and paintings of gargoyles are just products of Man's imagination. In this year, with Man's thoughts turned toward the many ills he has brought among himself, Man has forgotten his most ancient adversary, the gargoyles.
Gargoyles, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
