Tengu

i tengu
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d7

i tengu
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d7
Base level	6
Base experience	76
Speed	13
Base AC	5
Base MR	30
Alignment	7 (lawful)
Frequency (by normal means)	3 (Rare)
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	300
Nutritional value	200
Size	Small
Resistances	Poison
Resistances conveyed	Poison (13%), teleport control (17%), causes teleportitis (20%)
A tengu: can teleport. has teleport control. does not eat. (*) can follow you to other levels. has infravision. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line531

A tengu, i is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The tengu has the highest difficulty and monster level of the minor demons - they are the only minor demons without a weakness to silver. Tengu have infravision, can be seen via infravision, possess the ability to teleport randomly and control its destination, and can follow a hero to other levels if they are adjacent.

A tengu has a single bite attack, and possesses poison resistance.

Eating a tengu corpse or tin has a ²⁄₁₅ chance of granting poison resistance, a ¹⁄₅ chance of granting teleportitis, and a ¹⁄₆ chance of granting teleport control.

Generation

Randomly-generated tengu may be created as peaceful for lawful characters.

Tengu appear among the random i that are part of the first quest monster class for the Knight and make up ²⁴⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Knight quest. They also appear among the random i that are generated on each floor of the Wizard quest at level creation.

Strategy

The teleportation abilities of tengu can make them quite annoying to fight or evade, though hostile ones are often worth fighting unless you are in a dire situation - they are also easier to kill on no-teleport levels, such as Sokoban. Their corpses and tins are valued by many players as a source of teleport control, making them a common target of reverse genocide; Knights may also consider genociding quasits, which causes other minor demons to generate in their place and enables tengu farming on the home level and any other quest level with a magic trap. Remember that when eating corpses, having an intrinsic that corpse provides does not increase the odds of it providing other intrinsics, i.e. it is not worth obtaining teleportitis solely to "force" teleport control.

Chance of gaining teleport control

This table shows how the odds of obtaining teleport control from tengu corpses increase with the number of corpses:

Eaten corpses	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chance of control	17%	31%	42%	52%	60%	67%	72%	77%	81%	84%	87%	89%	91%	92%	94%	95%	95%	96%	97%	97%

This table shows the relation between killing tengu and obtaining the intrinsic from their corpse, which includes the chance of them leaving one in the first place:

Killed tengu	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chance of control	8%	16%	23%	29%	35%	41%	46%	50%	54%	58%	62%	65%	68%	70%	73%	75%	77%	79%	81%	82%

This table displays the odds of obtaining the intrinsic from tengu generated by reading one or more cursed scrolls of genocide:

Read scrolls	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Chance of control	35%	58%	73%	82%	89%	93%	95%	97%	98%	99%

If you have a scroll of charging and a stack of blank scrolls, a newly generated magic marker can get you intrinsic teleport control about 83% of the time.

History

The tengu first appears in Hack 1.0. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, the tengu uses the t glyph: NetHack 3.0.0 makes the tengu part of the imp or minor demon monster class and gives its current glyph.

Origin

In Shinto belief systems, the tengu (Japanese: 天狗, lit. 'Heavenly Dog') is a legendary creature regarded as a a type of yōkai (supernatural beings) or Shinto kami (gods or spirits). Tengu are depicted in various forms in artwork, generally falling somewhere between large, monstrous birds and anthropomorphized beings with red faces and/or unusually prominent noses (possibly to mirror the bird's bill). Shinto monkey deity Sarutahiko Ōkami is considered to be the original model, with his red face and long nose becoming the tengu's defining characteristic in popular imagination. There are two primary "types" of tengu in more contemporary folklore, art and fiction: the daitengu (or hanatakatengu, "tall-nosed tengu") are often pictured in a more human-like form with long noses, while kotengu (sometimes karasu-tengu or konoha-tengu) may conversely be depicted as more bird-like.

Early depictions of tengu often show them as kite-like beings who can take a human-like form, often retaining avian wings, heads, or beaks. Some artistic representations of tengu depict them as taking the form of priests - in the 13th century, tengu came to be associated in particular with yamabushi, mountain ascetics who practice Shugendō, and Japanese art most frequently depicts tengu in the yamabushi's garb, including their distinct headwear and sash. Tengu are also depicted with magical feather fans that can sometimes grow or shrink a person's nose, and are more often shown to stir up great winds; they also have various other accessories associated with them, such as tall "one-toothed" geta sandals.

Buddhism long held that tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war, with one of the earliest examples being the Konjaku Monogatarishū collection of stories published in late Heian Japan (794–1185). These tengu disguise themselves as priests or nuns, and their true form is that of a kite; they mislead the pious with false images of the Buddha, spirit away monks to remote places, possess women in an attempt to seduce holy men, rob temples, and endow their worshippers with unholy power. These accounts continue into the 12th and 13th centuries, where tengu of this period were the ghosts of angry, arrogant or heretical priests and nuns that lacked good principles, as well as the ghosts of priests, nuns and ordinary people that possessed excessive pride in life; the knowledgeable among them became daitengu, while the ignorant become kotengu.

Good and bad tengu are made distinct as early as the Shasekishū, a book of Buddhist parables written in the late 13th century of Kamakura era Japan: the good tengu command the bad ones and act as protectors of Buddhism - though they fell into demonhood from the flaw of pride or ambition, they remain the same good, dharma-abiding persons they were in life. Later stories in the 17th and 18th centuries also depicted tengu as protective of Buddhist institutions, and they came to be feared as the vigilant protectors of certain forests; they were also worshipped as beneficial gods or revered spirits in various regions, and their war-like traits were ascribed to great knowledge of swordsmanship and other martial arts. Tengu also feature frequently in spoken stories collected by Japanese folklorists: these stories are often humorous, and tend to portray tengu as ridiculous creatures who are easily tricked or confused by humans.

Variants

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, tengu hit as a +1 weapon.

A tame tengu minion can be given to lawful heroes at experience level 4 or lower through sacrifice or prayer.

Tengu appear among the random i that are part of the second quest monster class for Necromancers and make up ⁶⁄₁₇₅ of the monsters randomly generated on the Necromancer quest.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, tengu are medium and humanoid, and do not possess or confer poison resistance.

Tengu that generate in the Samurai quest, or else with a ¹⁄₂₀ chance in other levels, are generated with banded mail, high boots, a helmet, a yumi and a stack of ya, and two weapon sets dependent on gender: a katana and wakizashi for male tengu, and a naginata and knife for female tengu.

Tengu can appear in the court of a throne room ruled by an ogre king.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, tengu and other minor demons that leave corpses are carnivorous. Tengu also take +d6 damage from being hit with iron weapons and items like all minor demons.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, the chance of obtaining teleportitis from a tengu corpse or tin is reduced to ¹⁄₁₀.

Hack'EM

In Hack'EM, tengu are carnivores as in xNetHack, but are otherwise unchanged from NetHack.

Encyclopedia entry

The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese legend. Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up feuds and prolonging enmity between families. Indeed, the belligerent tengu were supposed to have been man's first instructors in the use of arms.

[ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]