Shelob
s Shelob 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 31 |
| Attacks |
Bite 8d4, Bite 5d4 poison |
| Base level | 26 |
| Base experience | 1120 |
| Speed | 15 |
| Base AC | 3 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 150 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | poison, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (100%) |
|
Shelob:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line1560 |
Shelob is a unique arachnid added in SLASH'EM that appears on her Special Level along with Girtab. She possesses powerful melee attacks (one of which is poisoned), but otherwise has no special abilities. She resists petrification and poison, and her corpse is guaranteed to convey poison resistance.
Strategy
Like Girtab, Shelob is unlikely to be a major threat to most characters that can reach the Spider Caves. However, less experienced characters who are dipping into the Caves to retrieve the guaranteed speed boots there will want to be cautious. Shelob does respect Elbereth and scrolls of scare monster.
Origin
Shelob comes from the Tolkien Universe. She is a huge spider who attacks Frodo and Sam at Cirith Ungol as they enter Mordor. One of the most ancient creatures in Middle-Earth, she is older even than Sauron, being the last child of Ungoliant, the giant spider who helped Melkor to kill the Two Trees of Valinor which lit the world. Unlike most other "evil" creatures in the Third Age, she is not under Sauron's control.
Encyclopedia Entry
...Great horns she had, and behind her short stalk-like neck
was her huge swollen body, a vast bloated bag, swaying and
sagging between her legs; its great bulk was black, blotched
with livid marks, but the belley underneath was pale and
luminous and gave forth a stench. Her legs were bent, with
great knobbed joints high above her back, and hairs that stuck
out like steel spines, and at each leg's end there was a claw.
[ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
