Minion of Huhetotl

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The Minion of Huhetotl, &, is the Archeologist quest nemesis. They are a unique major demon who guards the Bell of Opening and the Archeologist quest artifact, The Orb of Detection. The Minion of Huhetotl is almost identical to Nalzok, the Priest quest nemesis, save for their far weaker chaotic alignment and his slightly lower monster MR.

The Minion has two strong weapon attacks, will attempt to cast one mage monster spell per round of combat, and has a claw attack that can steal back the quest artifact if you liberate it from him. The Minion of Huhetotl possesses the usual demon resistances to fire, poison, level draining, and death magic, along with the stoning resistance of all quest nemeses.

Generation

The Minion of Huhetotl is always generated within the southeastern room of the crypt on the goal level of the Archeologist quest, standing atop the sole altar to Huhetotl with the Bell of Opening and The Orb of Detection underneath him.

Strategy

The Minion of Huhetotl's temple is filled with various monsters, so be sure to clear out the temple before confronting him. Like all quest nemeses, he is covetous, and can inflict very large amounts of damage with his two weapon attacks and spellcasting, which includes drain strength, summon nasties, curse items, and destroy armor). It is recommended to awaken him remotely while on the upstair (or else teleport to the upstair after doing so) and engage him there with a means of engraving Elbereth or a scroll of scare monster, combined with a source of magic resistance.

His high MR score of 75 lets him easily resist a wand of sleep or polymorph, all but forcing players to resort to offensive spells, wands and melee attacks. Wielding a blessed silver saber is very effective, as is a blessed dwarvish mattock - the Minion is a large monster, and the archaeologist can achieve Expert in both the pick-axe and saber skills. However, remember that even with magic resistance, the Minion cursing a wielded mattock will leave you without the use of your hands, so prepare a means of emergency curse removal if you employ this strategy, e.g. a bag with scrolls of remove curse or a cache of holy water.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

The scroll of scare monster on the ground no longer scares any unique monster.

Variants

Some variants replace the Minion of Huhetotl with a different quest nemesis.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, the Minion of Huhetotl is replaced with Schliemann as the quest nemesis.

Encyclopedia entry

Huehueteotl, or Huhetotl, which means Old God, was the Aztec
(classical Mesoamerican) god of fire. He is generally
associated with paternalism and one of the group classed
as the Xiuhtecuhtli complex. He is known to send his
minions to wreak havoc upon ordinary humans.

[ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]