Preservative engine
| ( | |
|---|---|
| Name | preservative engine |
| Appearance | infernal contraption |
| Base price | 8000 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Material | metal |
| Monster use | May be used by monsters as misc items. |
- This article is about the tool that protects armor from erosion and other damage. For the item that provides intrinsic protection of the hero's inventory, see doll of preservation.
A preservative engine, also referred to as an infernal engine, is a type of magical tool that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is an ensouled tool that is made of metal, and appears as an infernal contraption when unidentified.
Generation
Preservative engines are not randomly generated and cannot be obtained through polypiling, though they can be wished for or found in bones. Normally-created preservative engines are always uncursed with 4-7 charges, and will be set to low by default.
Preservative engines are generally found in Gehennom: devil vault hellish seals have a chance of containing preservative engines, and a preservative engine is always generated in the hell loot chest next to Baalphegor's throne if the lair shared by her and Mephistopheles appears as the lower Hell level.
Description
A hero applying a preservative engine will be prompted to choose from one of the following options:
- Replace component
- Switch off
- Switch to low intensity
- Switch to high intensity
While switched on to low intensity, a carried preservative engine will protect the hero and their inventory against the armor-destroying effects of vorpal weapons and attacks, armor shredding attacks, flaying weapons, excoriating weapons, and the shredding tentacle attacks of the elder priest. While switched on to high intensity, it can additionally protect the hero and their inventory from being damaged by fire, cold, acid, shock, or energy-based attacks—this includes gazes, passive attacks, touch attacks, attack wands, monster spells, and madness effects.
Each instance of item destruction blocked by a functioning preservative engine will consume a charge from the engine, independent of how many items the attack would have destroyed. Monsters that pick up magical items will also pick up preservative engines—though they will not apply the engines for themselves, an engine in a monster's inventory will function for that monster as it does for the hero (since preservative engines are normally generated on low settings).
A preservative engine can hold a maximum of 8 charges, and it can be charged by either using a hellfire component via the "replace component" option, or by reading a scroll of charging which preservative engines interact with differently from most other tools: a cursed scroll of charging used on a preservative engine will set its charges to the maximum of 8, while a blessed scroll instead removes all charges, and an uncursed scroll will add one charge unless it is already at its maximum of 8.
Strategy
The preservative engine is a very useful tool in the late game to mitigate the nuisance posed by unforeseen sudden deaths and otherwise hard-to-avoid attacks from dangerous enemies, such as the attacks of the Elder priest and flaying weapons that monsters like mariliths may occasionally spawn with. This somewhat offsets the lack of a guaranteed source of the preservation intrinsic and is a worthwhile wish for those preparing to fight demon lords with shredding attacks such as Demogorgon, Malcanthet or Dagon. Its arguably most useful property is the ability to negate shredding and vorpal attacks, however its ability to completely negate energy attacks can be invaluable for when you wish to safeguard against pyrolisks while carrying flammable items and other effects while with items in open inventory. A woollen cloak will have much the same effect for cold and fire type attacks without expending valuable charges but does not protect against electric and acid type attacks.
If the player is facing an enemy spellcaster that can cast acid rain and does not have a wide hat, it might be worth turning the engine over to high for just long enough to dispatch of them. Leaving the engine running on high for a long time will quickly drain all its charges, so unless strictly necessary it is best to always leave it on low setting—similarly, leaving an engine with charges off on purpose is generally a bad idea.
Sourcing hellfire components can be a challenge, since they will only be generated in specific locations: hell vaults; magic item vaults guarded by scrap titans, juggernauts or hellfire colossi; the statues of colossal clockwork war-machines found in the first three cavern levels of the Law Quest; and death drops from hellfire colossi themselves. A single hellfire colossus can provide anywhere from 4 to 16 hellfire components, so if one is encountered they can potentially keep the engine running for a good while on its 'low' setting.
Origin
The school of hellfire mentioned in the item's description first appears in the Fiendish Codex II - Tyrants of the Nine Hells as an incredibly tall baatorian green-steel edifice created for the study into the creation and application of hellfire. Hellfire in D&D refers to a magical fire suffused from the essence of the nine hells themselves and burns hotter than any other flame. It is a primordial type of energy said to burn even the souls of living creatures, destroying their very essence. It was created by archdevil Mephistopheles, lord of eighth and ruler over Cania in a ploy to gain power over Baator and overthrow Asmodeus for his throne at the top of the hierarchy of the devils. Although incredibly powerful, this has also led to some complications and this venture has cost him a great deal of power and left his domain instable. His school of hellfire conducts experiments in his capital city, and explorations are made into the depths of the lost city of Kintyre to further his research.
Hellfire engines — a type of devil war-machine were created utilizing hellfire's destructive capabilities to be used in the never ending blood wars against demons on Avernus, hell's first layer. The passage concerning the rending claws of demons most likely refers to the blood wars and some high level demon's ability to destroy armor such as Juiblex's corrosive attacks. Other notable mentions of creatures capable of destroying armor include the Zorbo and Rust monster from previous editions.
Although no item is directly accredited to Baalphegor in issue #135 of dungeon magazine Mephistopheles is mentioned to have created an artifact to capture his consort's blood and tears and to have named it Baalphegor's grace which grants the user control over a group of eryinyes that originally served as her bodyguards. But the item was later lost on the material plane following her disappearance and wound up in the hands of the silver dragon vampire Lashonna.
Messages
- Your infernal engine whirrs.
- Your preservation engine successfully negated a vorpal or shredding attack.
- <Its> infernal engine whirrs.
- A monster was protected from a vorpal or shredding attack by its' preservative engine.
- You put the new component into the engine.
- The engine had a hellfire component inserted and now has 8 charges.
- You switch the engine off.
- The engine is now off.
- You switch the engine to low intensity.
- The engine now only protects against vorpal and armor shredding attacks.
- You switch the engine to high intensity.
- The engine now protects against vorpal armor shredding and energy attacks.
- Your preservative engine glows red.
- The engine had its charges set to 8 after reading a cursed scroll of charging or was cursed.
Encyclopedia entry
An invention of the School of Hellfire in the eight circle of Hell.
Designed to ward off the rending claws of certain demons, only a few
prototypes have thus-far been completed, and many of those have been
lost. When set to high intensity, also protects one's possessions
against many forms of energy-based damage.
