Maegera
Maegera, the Dawn and Dusk is a spirit that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Ritual, seal and taboo
Maegera's binding ritual must be performed with the seal drawn on a square that either has a forge magma-vent or an amount of gold items with a weight at least 3 times the hero's experience level.
If a forge is used as part of the binding ritual, it will react the same as it does when otherwise used by the hero, which includes a chance of the forge being destroyed—as a result, a source of fire resistance or a minimum of 37 HP is recommended. If the binding ritual is performed using gold, the pile can consist of both gold pieces and/or golden items as long as the pile's total weight matches or exceeds the required weight threshold—gold ingots will be made using an amount of gold equal to that threshold as part of a successful binding.
To remain bound to Maegera, the hero must have at least 1 metallic item in their open inventory at all times (with gold pieces counted towards this).
Mark
A hero that has Maegera bound has a star-shaped hole burned into the gilded bone of their left ring-finger that can only be seen close up. The hole can be disguised either by wearing gloves or by putting on a ring and placing it on the left-hand slot.
Benefits
While Maegera is bound, the hero has complete immunity to fire damage, including damage from elemental fire that is normally only reduced by fire resistance rather than blocked. They also gain skill in pick-axes, hammers and smithing.
Maegera's active powers are as follows:
- Breathe Poison: The hero can use this to create a plume of poison clouds centered at the chosen location, as with a scroll of stinking cloud.
- Ruinous Strike: The hero can select a direction and will attack the adjacent square in that direction, dealing moderate damage to a nonliving monster on that square and instantly destroying golems. If there is no monster present, the target square will be dug out and untrapped.
- Aureate Deluge: The hero can cover their current weapon in molten gold, granting a temporary bonus to that weapon until the gold cools—that weapon will deal elemental fire damage that can affect insubstantial monsters such as shades.
Maegera's passive powers are as follows:
- Hoard: The hero's carrying capacity increases by 1% per experience level.
As a monster
| Z Maegera (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | ? |
| Attacks |
Weapon 2d6 physical, touch 1d6 slowing, claw 0d12 lavahold, touch 3d8 elemental fire, passive 0d8 elemental fire |
| Base level | 27 |
| Base experience | ? |
| Speed | 8 |
| Base AC | 2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | -2 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 300 |
| Nutritional value | 5 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, fire resistance, immunity to sickness, drain resistance, death resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
Maegera:
| |
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Maegera, Z, also appears as a monster that can be summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder. Maegera is a strong and skeletal dwarven zombie that is humanoid in shape and considered thick-skinned: it has normal vision and infravision, can be seen via infravision, emits light in a 2-square radius around it, can tunnel by using a pick-axe, and will seek out gold, gems and other items to pick up. Like many summoned spirits, Maegera cannot be tamed.
Maegera has five attacks: a standard weapon attack; a slowing touch attack; a claw attack that deals damage based on the target's experience level or monster level, and functions as a holding attack which deals elemental fire damage; a second touch attack that does elemental fire damage; and a passive elemental fire attack. Maegera resists slashing and piercing damage, is immune to digestion attacks, has basic prowess in martial combat, and has a full base attack bonus of +1 to-hit per monster level. Maegera possesses cold resistance, sleep resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance, fire resistance, immunity to sickness, drain resistance, and death resistance.
Maegera can be warded by an Elder Elemental Eye at any level of reinforcement.
Generation
Maegera is first generated when summoned from its seal by an Illithanachronounbinder. It is always created hostile, and is not a valid polymorph form or genocide target.
Maegera is always generated with (LD)d5 gold pieces and the uncursed Ruinous Strike, an artifact named for one of its spirit's powers: Ruinous Strike is a golden pick-axe that grants fire resistance while wielded, has +1 to-hit and double damage bonuses against monsters without fire resistance, and can be invoked to create a plume of stinking clouds centered at the chosen location (as with the spirit power).
Maegera 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.
- To be written.
If Maegera 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. Maegera is generated 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
- A finger-like plume of lava rises from the center of the seal.
- The gold on the seal melts and twists in the heat, forming a skeletal figure.
- From certain angles, the bones look serpentine, but from others they look <dwarven/humanoid>.
- Three skulls surmount the figure; a bull, a <lion/feline>, and a <dwarf/humanoid>.
- You attempted to bind Maegera using gold. The word "humanoid" is replaced by "dwarf" or "dwarven" as appropriate if you are a dwarf or an Archeologist, and "lion" replaces "feline" if the hero is an Archeologist.
- A finger-like plume of lava rises from <the ruins of> the forge.
- The slag embedded in the plume twists in the heat, forming a skeletal figure.
- From certain angles, the bones look serpentine, but from others they look <dwarven/humanoid>.
- Three skulls surmount the figure; a bull, a <lion/feline>, and a <dwarf/humanoid>.
- You attempted to bind Maegera using a forge. The word "humanoid" is replaced by "dwarf" or "dwarven" as appropriate if you are a dwarf or an Archeologist, and "lion" replaces "feline" if the hero is an Archeologist. If the forge was not destroyed as a result of using it to set up the ritual, the first line will omit "the ruins of".
- The <dwarven/humanoid> skull moves its jaws soundlessly as the ground rumbles in <Old Dwarvish/an unknown language> beneath you.
- This is the first line used for a successful binding by any means.
- "I am that called Maegera by the accursed Carvers.
- "I give you a star, to bring the fires of Dusk to the castles of the proud,
- "and the light of Dawn to the new towers built on their ruin."
- A skeletal finger of molten gold taps your left ring-finger, leaving a cloud of smoke and a sharp burning sensation!
- You successfully bound Maegera to yourself. If you are a dwarven Archeologist, Knight, Caveperson, or Noble, then you will recognize the rumbling as "old Dwarvish" and Maegera's speech will be printed, and otherwise it is referred to as "an unknown language" with the speech omitted.
- You feel a burning sensation on your left ring-finger!
- This replaces the line directly above if you are blind.
- The ground rumbles up at you in <Old> Dwarvish:
- This is used in place of the first line for a successful binding above if you are blind and a dwarf—dwarven Cavepeople will have the rumbling described as solely "Dwarvish", versus "Old Dwarvish" for other dwarven heroes.
- You hear rumbling in an unknown tongue.
- As above, with Maegera's speech omitted, if you are blind and not a dwarf.
- "I am that called Maegera by the accursed Carvers.
- "I give you a finger, to burn the castles of the proud."
- A skeletal finger of molten gold slices itself off on the edge of your blade!
- You successfully bound Maegera to The Pen of the Void. If you are blind, this last line is omitted.
- All three skulls roar soundlessly as the ground quakes, then the lava plume sinks back into the earth.
- You failed to bind Maegera due to a lack of open slots for spirits of the Near Void.
- You feel the ground quake beneath your feet!
- As above, if you are blind.
- You momentarily see heaping piles of gold in front of you, but they are gone as quickly as they came.
- You performed the binding ritual incorrectly.
