Secespita
| ) Secespita (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | knife |
| Damage vs. small | 1d3 +1d8 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d2 +1d8 |
| To-hit bonus | +1d8 |
| Bonus versus | living |
| Weapon skill | knife |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
(none) |
| When wielded |
|
| When invoked |
(none) |
| Base price | 1000 zm |
| Weight | 5 |
| Material | copper |
Secespita is an artifact that appears in EvilHack and Hack'EM. Its default alignment is chaotic for generation purposes, and its base item is a knife made of copper.
Generation
A random knife generated on the ground, in a general shop or as a death drop has a base 1⁄20 chance of being made into Secespita if the artifact has not yet generated.
Secespita is the guaranteed first sacrifice gift for the unaligned Infidel, and any chaotic hero may receive Secespita as a sacrifice gift.
Description
While wielded, Secespita grants poison resistance, and sacrificing a corpse on an altar with the weapon wielded improves its sacrifice value by 1⁄2 rounded down (e.g., a unicorn corpse's value goes from 7 to 10). As a weapon, Secespita has +1d8 to-hit and +1d8 damage bonuses against all monsters except nonliving ones, and when killing a live monster with Secespita, the hero regains a random amount of energy equal to a random value between 1 and (2*ML) + 1.
Secespita can be combined with Magicbane at a forge to create The Staff of the Archmagi, an artifact quarterstaff.
Strategy
Secespita is primarily a "utility" artifact: though it can be adequate as a weapon due to its damage bonuses covering a majority of monsters you can encounter, and Infidels in particular can reach Expert skill in knives, some of the more deadly monsters such as the various zombies are non-living. With this in mind, Secespita is best used to finish off weakened enemies for the energy gain, including any potential sacrifices.
While increasing sacrifice value has no effect on altar conversion, Secespita can make it far easier for an Infidel to pacify Moloch at an already-converted altar should he be angered: offering him a monster with a minimum difficulty of 11 while wielding it will pacify him, compared to a minimum difficulty of 16 otherwise. It is not entirely unusual for an Infidel to seek out Magicbane (including even wishing for it) in order to create The Staff of the Archmagi and bolster their spellcasting capabilities, especially since after obtaining Secespita they are limited to artifact gifts that are unaligned.
Origin
As indicated by the Wikipedia article used for the encyclopedia entry, the secespita is a long sacrificial knife composed of brass and Cypriot copper (i.e., from Cyprus) that saw frequent use in the sacrificial rituals of the Roman priesthood. The root word is the Latin verb secō, which means "to cut" or "to amputate". A secespita's specific purpose was most likely for opening the body of an already-slain sacrificial animal to extract its entrails, a task carried out by the higher order of priests; Secespita's functions in EvilHack mirror this, including the improved sacrifice value.
While writers of the era such as the Roman historian Suetonius describe the secespita as a knife, some modern writers also interpret it as an axe, a cleaver or a dolabra (a type of axe that could double as a pick or mattock); this is based on an unconfirmed description originating from a summary of Roman grammarian Festus's work, with the summary written by historian and monk Paul the Deacon. Some Roman coins representing sacrificial emblems do appear to depict an axe as well.
Encyclopedia entry
The secespita is a long iron sacrificial knife, made of brass and copper from Cyprus, with a solid and rounded ivory handle, which is secured to the hilt by a ring of silver or gold. The flamens and their wives, the flaminicae, who were priests and priestesses of the Ancient Rome, the virgins and the pontiffs made use of it for sacrifices.
