Huginn and Munnin
Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory is a spirit that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Ritual, seal and taboo
Huginn and Muninn's seal may be drawn anywhere, but successfully completing the binding ritual reduces the hero's intelligence and wisdom by one each, which will not put them below the minimum of either attribute for that hero's race (i.e. 8 for clockwork automata and 3 otherwise).
To remain bound to Huginn and Muninn, a hero cannot fall asleep or suffer amnesia.
Mark
A hero that has Huginn and Muninn will have a raven nesting in each ear, which can only be seen from close up. The ravens can be hidden by wearing any helm.
Benefits
While bound, Huginn and Muninn will grant hallucination resistance and will block any effect that causes amnesia or sleeping, though this will unbind them. Binding Huginn and Muninn also grants skill in spears.
Huginn and Muninn's active powers are as follows:
- Ravens' Talons: Permanently blinds a single adjacent monster and deals damage, with the amount of damage dice being equal to 5+1d5 and the size of the dice using the hero's experience level as normal—against a blind or sightless monster, the amount of damage dice is reduced to 1d5.
Their passive powers are as follows:
- Gallows-Sense: Grants warning.
- Memory and Thought: Sets intelligence and wisdom to 25 for the duration of the binding.
Strategy
Binding Huginn and Muninn can help with counteracting the intelligence and wisdom loss from pursuing certain research paths, such as defilement.
As monsters
| B Huginn (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 23 |
| Attacks |
bite 3d6 physical, targeted gaze 1d3 wisdom drain, claw 3d6 stun |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 659 |
| Speed | 20 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | small |
| Resistances | none |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
Huginn:
| |
| B Muninn (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 23 |
| Attacks |
bite 3d6 physical, targeted gaze 1d3 intelligence drain, claw 3d6 stun |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 659 |
| Speed | 20 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | small |
| Resistances | none |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
Muninn:
| |
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Huginn, B, and Munnin, B, also appear as separate monsters that can be summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder. Huginn and Munnin are a nigh-identical pair of small bird-like carnivorous animals: both the male Munnin and female Huginn are capable of flight, have a tendency to wander while moving, and can each be seen via infravision.
Huginn and Munnin each have a bite attack, a claw attack that can stun targets, and a targeted gaze attack that can drain ability scores—Huginn's gaze can drain wisdom, while Munnin's gaze can drain intelligence.
Generation
Huginn and Munnin are first generated when summoned from their seal by an Illithanachronounbinder, and are both summoned simultaneously. Both of them are always created hostile, and neither of them are valid polymorph forms.
Neither Huginn nor Munnin leave corpses upon death, instead dropping a pair of artifact daggers: Huginn drops the uncursed +7 Thought, and Munnin drops the uncursed +7 Memory. Both artifacts have +1d2 to-hit and double damage bonuses versus monsters that are not mindless, and have a chance of canceling such monsters on each hit.
Strategy
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Illithanachronounbinder role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.
If Huginn and/or Munnin are killed after being summoned, they 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. Huginn and/or Munnin are generated along with many other spirits of the near void on the second floor of the branch, and each of them generated with the "whispers" template, which makes each monster nonliving.
Encyclopedia entry
In the High Hall of Gladsheim the Lord of the Aesir sits and waits for thought and memory to return to him. At his feet two wolves attend him. Lacking thought and memory, he could not even name them. The floor of the high hall is mud, scattered with rushes. He sits and waits, the gallows-god, the one-eyed king of Asgard.
There is a fluttering of wings. The ghost-birds return to his shoulder. And instantly he knows; he knows all they've seen. Huginn and Muninn: thought and memory. And he smiles, the lord of the gallows.
