Stake (Hack'EM)

) File:Stake.png
Name	stake
Appearance	stake
Damage vs. small	1d6
Damage vs. large	1d6
To-hit bonus	+0
Weapon skill	dagger
Size	one-handed
Base price	50 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	20
Material	wood

For the weapon in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, see wooden stake.

A stake is a type of weapon that appears in Hack'EM. It is a one-handed weapon that uses the dagger skill, and has a base material of wood.

The stake is the base item for the artifact The Stake of Van Helsing.

Generation

Undead Slayers start each game with a +0 non-cursed wooden stake as their primary weapon.

Wooden stakes make up ¹⁄₂₀₀ (0.5%) of all randomly-generated weapons. General stores, used armor dealerships and antique weapons outlets can sell wooden stakes.

Description

A stake does +1d6 damage to vampires when used to attack them in melee while they are not in a different form, with further bonuses and a chance of instant death that can stack depending on the following factors. There is a base ¹⁄₁₀ chance (10%) of an instant kill occurring, which is raised by an additional ¹⁄₁₀ for each skill level in dagger up to Expert (40%); another ¹⁄₁₀ chance (+10%) is added if the hero is an Undead Slayer; and another ¹⁄₁₀ chance (+10%) is added if the Undead Slayer hero is wielding The Stake of Van Helsing, for a maximum instant kill chance of ³⁄₅ (60%). If an instant kill does not occur, further bonus damage is dealt instead, with each of the above traits adding +1 damage.

Monsters wielding stakes against a hero in the form of a vampire always have a ¹⁄₅ chance of instantly killing them.

Origin

The wooden stake is a trademark weapon of many vampire hunters in fiction, including Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula. Commonly referred to as simply "Van Helsing", he is best known through many adaptations of the story as a vampire slayer, monster hunter and the arch-nemesis of Count Dracula. Van Helsing is derived from the image of the folkloric professional vampire hunter, and in turn became the prototypical and archetypal parapsychologist for subsequent works of paranormal fiction.

Vampire hunters in fiction, folklore and history alike often carry a kit of tools on hand that traditionally included s mallet and a wooden "stake", which is a pole of very short length that is made of hawthorn and sharpened at one end akin to a tent peg, and is used alongside the mallet in the staking of corpses. "Staking" refers to piercing the heart of a suspected vampire by stabbing the stake over its heart and driving it in using the mallet—one of the most popular depictions of a vampire being staked is the demise of Dracula at the hands of Van Helsing, which does not happen in the actual Dracula novel: though several vampires are indeed killed with a stake to the heart, Dracula himself is instead decapitated by a kukri while his heart is simultaneously pierced by a Bowie knife, destroying the Count and reducing him to dust.

Messages

<The stake> penetrates <the monster>.

Your wielded stake dealt bonus damage against a vampire.

<The stake> drives violently into <the monster>.

Your wielded stake dealt its skill-based damage bonus.

<The stake> plunges into the heart of <the monster>.

<The monster>'s body vaporizes!

A vampire was instantly killed by a wielded stake.

<The attacker> plunges the stake into the heart of <the monster>.

A monster instantly killed a vampire with a wielded stake.

<The monster> drives the stake into you.

A monster hit you with a stake while you were a vampire.

<The monster> plunges the stake into your heart.

As above, but you were instantly killed.