Sickle
) | |
---|---|
Name | sickle |
Appearance | sickle |
Damage vs. small | 1d4 |
Damage vs. large | 1d1 |
To-hit bonus | -2 |
Weapon skill | farm implements |
Size | one-handed |
Base price | 4 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
Weight | 20 |
Material | iron |
A sickle is a type of weapon that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. The sickle is a melee weapon whose default size is small, making it one-handed for a medium-sized hero, and uses the farm implements skill. It has a base material of iron.
The sickle is the base item for the artifacts Gaia's Fate and The Sickle of Thunderblasts.
Generation
Binders that do not have specific starting inventories start each game with an uncursed +0 sickle.
Sickles make up 19⁄1000 (1.9%) of all weapons randomly generated on the ground, in shops and as death drops. General shops, antique weapons outlets and used armor dealerships can stock sickles.
Human smiths, Dracae Eladrin and Oona can forge sickles for a hero that gives them enough of their required material.
Sickles have a very low chance of being generated by arrow rain attacks.
Several monsters can be generated with sickles:
- Gold golems have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with a gold sickle.
- Glass golems have a 1⁄12 chance of being generated with a glass sickle.
- Corvians have a 1⁄5 chance of being generated with a sickle.
- Houseless drow have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with an obsidian sickle.
- Peasants have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with a sickle.
- Civilian Plumach Rilmani have an effective 4⁄27 chance of being generated with a lead sickle.
- Gae Eladrin have a 1⁄6 chance of being generated with an equipment set that includes a blessed gemstone sickle.
- Caillea Eladrin that are generated during the waxing and waning crescent moon phases have a 3⁄4 chance of generating with two silver sickles.
- Deminymphs that are generated with undead hunter kits on the Drow Healer quest are always generated with a sickle.
- Befouled wraiths have a 1⁄3 chance of being generated with a large sickle.
- Mariliths that are generated in Gehennom or are slated to receive high quality equipment have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a sickle among their many weapons.
- Nitocris always generates with a +9 golden sickle.
- The Hmnyw-Pharaoh always generates with a cursed +9 large metal sickle.
Hellish seals that contain a Jrt Netjer may generate sickles inside.
Sickles can appear in the magic item vaults generated within the Avatar of Lolth's lair if it appears as the second Abyss level.
Description
The sickle deals 1d4 slashing damage to small monsters and 1d1 slashing damage to large monsters, with a -2 to-hit penalty, and can be poisoned. Like all farm implements, they have +6 to-hit and double damage against plants.
Sickles can be used as throwing weapons, with a +2 to-hit bonus when thrown.
Fire Brand and Frost Brand can be reshaped into a sickle by dipping the artifact into a forge or fountain respectively, if the hero has a sickle in their inventory or is at least Skilled in farm implements.
Origin
A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook, or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock. Since the beginning of the Iron Age, hundreds of region-specific variants of the sickle have evolved, initially made of iron and later steel. This great diversity of sickle types across many cultures can be divided into smooth or serrated blades, both of which can be used for cutting either green grass or mature cereals using slightly different techniques.
Like other farming tools, the sickle can be used as an improvised bladed weapon. Examples include the Japanese kusarigama and kama, the Chinese "chicken sickles", and the makraka of the Zande people of north central Africa. Paulus Hector Mair, the author of a German Renaissance combat manual also has a chapter about fighting with sickles. It is also particularly prevalent in the martial arts of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines; in Indonesia, the native sickle known as celurit or clurit is commonly associated with the Madurese people, and is used for both fighting and as a domestic tool.
Encyclopedia entry
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously
curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or
cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock
(either freshly cut or dried as hay).
The inside of the blade's curve is sharp, so that the user
can either draw or swing it against the base of the crop,
catching the stems in the curve and slicing them at the same
time. The material to be cut may be held in a bunch in the
other hand (for example when reaping), held in place by a
wooden stick, or left free.