Dirge (dNetHack)

)   Dirge   (No tile)
Base item	long sword
Damage vs. small	1d8 +1d10 +6
Damage vs. large	1d12 +1d10 +6
To-hit bonus	+1d5
Bonus versus	monsters without acid resistance
Weapon skill	long sword
Size	one-handed
Affiliation	chaotic Knight intelligent artifacts
When carried	(none)
When wielded	acid resistance
When invoked	(none)
Base price	4000 zm
Weight	40
Material	iron

For the artifact in other variants, see Dirge.

Dirge is an artifact that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is chaotic-aligned, and its base item is a half-melted long sword.

Generation

Dirge cannot be randomly generated or wished for, though it can be found in bones and is a valid artifact for inheritance.

A Knight that has permanently converted their alignment to chaotic and isn't wearing a helm of opposite alignment can create Dirge by performing same-race sacrifice on a chaotic altar while their alignment record is positive, their god is not angry and that hero is wielding a valid weapon: as Dirge is a malleable artifact, any non-artifact weapon or weapon-tool other than a lightsaber is eligible, with no restriction on size or material. If done successfully, the weapon will be transformed into Dirge, repairing any erosion it had and making it fixed and sets its enchantment to +0 if it was negative.

Description

While wielded, Dirge grants acid resistance and is permanently coated in acid: it has +1d5 to-hit and gains +1d10 acid as a property and +1d10 acid again from its acid coating. Dirge is also unholy, and has a separate flat bonus of +6 damage against unholy-hating monsters.

Dirge always counts as cursed for the purposes of unholy damage vulnerability, even if it is blessed. It gains half your impurity as bonus damage and half your impurity murder score, specifically, again. It interferes with holy being's special abilities – defined here as beings that are vulnerable to unholy damage – adding 6 turns to their ability timeout on hit and has a ¹⁄₂₀ of canceling the monster altogether.

Several of The Black Mother's mutations have additional effects that interact with Dirge:

• "Abhorrent spore" grants Dirge passive tentacle attacks – the same as the goat-ridden madness – that trigger ^insanity⁄₁₀₀ of the time while it is wielded in the main or offhand, once per turn.
• "Crawling flesh" heals you by 1 hp on hit.
• "Illumination of Shub-Nugganoth" increases Dirge's unholy damage from being cursed to 4d9. If Dirge is blessed, also increases holy damage to 3d7.
• "Hairlike tendrils" protects against disarming attacks from whips. Does not protect against other effects that would leave you weaponless.
• "Pointed claws" make Dirge deal +1x base damage against all monsters that don't resist slashing. It also makes it deal slashing and piercing damage, if it didn't previously.
• "Mind-stealing tongue" gives Dirge the "mind-stealing blade" object property, with effects similar to a blade of mercy: a monster that is hit has a chance of lashing out at a random adjacent monster that is allied with them, subject to a resistance check versus their MR score. Hostile monsters will only lash out at other hostile monsters, and peaceful or tame monsters will only lash out at other peaceful or tame monsters—a monster that lashes out will do so even if the hit from the blade of mercy/grace/pity that triggered their lashing out would kill them, with the lashing occurring just before the monster dies.
  • The monster will perform their entire attack routine when lashing out, and if the attacking monster is alive and their lashing out kills a monster that is not a grudge target or part of an opposing faction, the attacker must also pass a check against their MR score or else they will become crazed and berserk, with a ¹⁄₅ chance of becoming confused and a ¹⁄₁₀ chance of laughing for up to 5 turns. Monsters that are mindless or negatively impact the hero's own sanity are immune to becoming insane from this effect.
• Tentacle valves turns Dirge into a living weapon, making it attack on its own ^insanity⁄₁₀₀ of the time while wielded, rolled once per turn.

The shifting mind mutation does not affect Dirge.