Mother (spirit)
- This article is about the spirit and its associated monster. For the quest leader known simply as Mother, see Mother (monster).
- For the cult deity that uses "the Great Mother" as one of many epithets, see The Black Mother.
- For other uses of the term, see Mother.
Mother, who beheld beauty, also known as the Great Mother is a spirit that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Ritual, seal and taboo
The Great Mother's binding ritual must be performed with the hero addressing the seal while blind.
To remain bound to Mother, the hero must not genocide any monsters.
Mark
A hero that has Mother bound develops eyes on their hands that can be seen from a distance. These eyes can be covered with worn gloves or a mummy wrapping.
Benefits
While Mother is bound, the hero has magic resistance and clairvoyance, and gains skill in divination spells.
Mother's active powers are as follows:
- Disgusted Gaze: A hero that is not wearing a mummy wrapping or any gloves other than crystal gauntlets can select a monster to target, who will be struck by lightning for 5 dice of shock damage with a size equal to that of the hero's spirit die. This will cause the hero to drop their currently wielded weapon, as well as their offhand weapon if they are performing two-weapon combat, and will grant them an extra move—additionally, a nearby target has a chance of being paralyzed.
Mother's passive powers are as follows:
- Evaluate: Gives an indication of the HP of living creatures.
As a monster
| e Great Mother (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 39 |
| Attacks |
targeted gaze 5d5 paralysis, targeted gaze 2d15 shock, claw 5d2 physical, kick 5d3 stuns, Spellcasting 3d4 random |
| Base level | 32 |
| Base experience | 1738 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 0 |
| Base MR | 100 |
| Alignment | -1 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 1600 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | medium |
| Resistances | sleep resistance, poison resistance, stoning resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | sleep resistance |
|
The Great Mother:
| |
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, the Great Mother, e, also appears as a monster that can be summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder. The Great Mother is an eye creature that lacks a head and is unbreathing and amphibious—it has normal vision and infravision, can see invisible can be seen via infravision, and will seek out gold, gems and other items to pick up. Like many summoned spirits, the Great Mother cannot be tamed.
The Great Mother has five attacks: a targeted gaze attack that inflicts paralysis, a second targeted gaze that inflicts shock damage, a claw attack that does physical damage, a kick attack that can stun targets, and the ability to cast one random monster spell during each of her turns. The Great Mother possesses sleep resistance, poison resistance and stoning resistance.
Generation
The Great Mother 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.
The Great Mother 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 the Great Mother 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. The Great Mother 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.
Encyclopedia entry
I rolled my wheelchair over to the bookcase and pulled down the battered medical encyclopedia that I'd had for years. The book was maddeningly vague. It could have been anything, or nothing. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I could hear the old ship's clock ticking on the shelf across the room.
There was the high, thin drone of a jet on its way to Miami. There was the soft whisper of my own breath.
I was still looking at the book.
The realization crept on me, then sank home with a frightening rush. My eyes were closed, but I was still looking at the book. What I was seeing was smeary and monstrous, the distorted, fourth-dimensional counterpart of a book, yet unmistakable for all that.
And I was not the only one watching.
