Gollum (EvilHack)
h Gollum 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d4 physical, claw 0d0 steal item |
| Base level | 5
|
| Speed | 10 |
| Base AC | 6 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | -10 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | small |
| Resistances | poison resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
Gollum:
| |
| Reference | EvilHack 0.9.1 - src/monst.c, line 631 |
- For the defunct monster in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, see Gollum (SLASH'EM).
Gollum, h, is a unique monster that appears in EvilHack. Gollum is a small and omnivorous hobbit-like humanoid: he is capable of swimming; has infravision; can be seen via infravision; will pick up gems, gold, magical items, and other objects that he comes across; and can follow the hero to other levels if he is adjacent.
Gollum will seek out The One Ring in particular to pick up and put on, and will eat any fresh enough corpses that he moves over. He will also grudge and attack the piranhas, bats, giant bats, vampire bats, and orcish monsters on his level in order to eat their corpses.
Gollum has a normal weapon attack and a claw attack that can steal items, and possesses poison resistance.
Generation
Gollum is always generated hostile, and is not a valid polymorph form or genocide target.
Gollum is always generated on the lower floor of Goblin Town at level creation, which can only be reached through a trap door placed somewhere on the upper level. Within his cavern, Gollum himself will be placed in one of six random spots.
Strategy
Gollum has a slow movement speed of 10 and mediocre AC, but like the Goblin King, he can surprise you and make life difficult if you are careless. Gollum can also become troublesome if he steals a powerful item or comes across The One Ring, which is placed randomly on the level.
History
Gollum first appears in EvilHack version 0.8.1.
Origin
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth setting, Gollum (also known as Sméagol) was originally a Stoorish hobbit during the middle periods of the Third Age. Sméagol's friend and close relative Déagol had offered him a cheap present on his birthday: later that day, Déagol was pulled into the water by a large fish while boating in the Gladden Fields, and found a gold ring. Sméagol demanded the ring as a birthday present and strangled Deágol when he refused, hiding his body afterward—thus, Sméagol became the fourth Ring-bearer. Sméagol kept his treasure secret and used it in malicious ways, slowly becoming corrupted by the ring; his peers began to avoid him, and in his state as a loner he muttered to himself and gurgled in his throat, which earn him the derisive moniker of "gollum".
Eventually banished from his family and hobbit-hole, Smeagol wandered in loneliness up the River, using the invisibility of the Ring to survive by catching and eating raw fish. Some time later, he made his way to a cave in the Misty Mountains from which the stream ran—there, the Ring's malignant influence twisted his appearance and mind, prolonging his life well beyond its normal span with the murder of Déagol haunting him the entire time. For over four hundred years, "Gollum" managed to live on a small island surrounded by a subterranean lake, which is replicated as his level in EvilHack; he would prey upon any raw fish he caught from his small raft along with goblins from the nearby Goblin-town, as simulated by the corpses of piranha and orcs (among other monsters) generated on his level. Meanwhile, he had developed a habit of talking to the Ring and reassuring himself that it turned up to him so it could be his "Birthday Present" and his "precious".
Gollum eventually became so disfigured and grotesque in appearance and mentality that by the time he encountered Bilbo Baggins, he was afflicted with almost complete madness. The Hobbit details Bilbo's encounter with Gollum and subsequent theft of the Ring (which Bilbo may well have been aided in by the Ring itself). Gollum would eventually leave the caves in pursuit of Bilbo and the Ring, encountering Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring—in events that span much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Gollum leads Frodo into Mordor and betrays him to Shelob, and eventually he finally seizes the Ring from Frodo in Sammath Naur; in his euphoria, he loses his balance and falls into the fires of Mount Doom, destroying both him and the Ring for good.
Messages
Gollum will randomly speak one of the following lines:
- "Precious, precious, precious! My Precious! O my Precious!"
- "Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!"
- "Never! Smeagol wouldn't hurt a fly!"
- "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nassty little pocketsess!"
- "We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us!"
- "And they doesn't taste very nice, does they, Precious!"
Encyclopedia entry
"Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy
creature. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was.
He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale
eyes in his thin face."
[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
