The Rod of Seven Parts
| ) The Rod of Seven Parts (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | spear |
| Damage vs. small | 1d8 +1d20 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d10 +12d0 |
| To-hit bonus | +1d7 |
| Bonus versus | non-lawful monsters |
| Weapon skill | spear |
| Size | one-handed |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried |
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| When wielded |
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| When invoked |
|
| Base price | 7777 zm |
| Weight | 45 |
| Material | platinum |
The Rod of Seven Parts is an artifact that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is a lawful intelligent artifact, and its base item is a spear made of platinum.
Generation
The Rod of Seven Parts cannot be randomly generated or wished for, though it is a valid artifact for inheritance.
The Rod of Seven Parts is always generated in the Law quest, where the blessed -7 artifact is placed within the historic statue of a djinni named "Qadeej, of the Wind Dukes of Aaqa" at the top of the Arcadian Tower during level creation.
Description
While wielded, The Rod of Seven Parts has +1d7 to-hit and +1d20 damage bonuses against non-lawful monsters, and deals additional bonus damage against monsters based on its beatitude: +1d20 against holy-hating monsters if it is blessed, +1d10 against holy- and unholy-hating monsters if it is uncursed, and +1d20 damage against unholy-hating monsters if it is cursed. Additionally, The Rod of Seven Parts grants drain resistance while wielded, can be used to joust as with a lance while riding, and will never break as a result of jousting.
If The Rod of Seven Parts is wielded when any of the demon lords and princes that demand bribes are generated, that demon will be generated as hostile rather than peaceful, and if the hero is wielding the artifact when a demon ruler warps to them and wants to demand a bribe, they will also turn hostile.
Invocation and commands
The Rod of Seven Parts has other features that make it a very unusual artifact, even compared to most other artifacts in dNetHack and its derivatives: invoking the artifact has no cooldown at all and will prompt the player for a command word, with different powers tied to each of the command words—reading the artifact will study the writing engraved on the weapon, which gives clues to the player about the command words.
However, in lieu of an invocation timer, the various powers instead reduce the enchantment of the artifact—the Rod of Seven Parts has a maximum possible enchantment of +7, and basic one-word commands can reduce the Rod's enchantment down to a minimum of -7, while advanced multi-word commands can only reduce the enhancement down to +0, with the exception of the last one (listed further below). The Rod of Seven Parts cannot be enchanted past +7, but will never be evaporated as a result of any attempt to do so. In addition to using scrolls of enchant weapon, the Rod will gain a point of enchantment for every 7th successful hit the hero lands with the artifact, up to the aforementioned maximum of +7.
The valid commands for The Rod of Seven Parts are as follows:
| Command | Approximate translation | Effect | Charges used | Minimum Enhancement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruat | Fall | Prompts the player for a cardinal direction, then creates a single pit on a square adjacent to the hero in that direction. | 1 | -6 |
| Coelum | Heaven | Casts "cure wounds" on the user, restoring HP equal to (1 + XL/3)d4 + XL. | 1 | -6 |
| Fiat | Let it be | Creates a food ration. | 1 | -6 |
| Justitia | Justice | Casts the light spell. | 1 | -6 |
| Ecce | See | Casts both the detect monsters and detect unseen spells simultaneously as if the hero were Skilled in divination spells. | 2 | -5 |
| Lex | Law | Grants enlightenment, unrestricts the spear skill, and will formally identify the artifact. | 2 | -5 |
| Rex | King | Grants three uses of levitation at-will (as if from quaffing three blessed potions of levitation). After landing, the character may take off again by pressing < when not standing on an up stairway. Using the command again while there are uses of levitation left will consume one of those uses instead of lowering the Rod's enchantment. Reading the artifact will display a "crown-like decoration with raised segment(s) around the pommel", with the raised segments equal to the number of levitation uses left. | 3 | -4 |
| Ruat Coelum | Heaven Falls | Prompts the player for a target square, and causes 1+XL5 explosions centered on that square, with the die size for damage equal to (XL2+1) plus an intelligence-based bonus. Each explosion deals fire, cold or shock damage, which is determined at random. | 1 | +1 |
| Fiat Justitia | Let justice be done | Prompts the player for a cardinal direction, then casts both the force bolt and slow monster spells in that direction, followed by casting cause fear. | 2 | +2 |
| Lex Rex | Law is King | Removes curses and cures sickness, sliming and gray mold infection. | 3 | +3 |
| Ecce! Lex Rex | See! Law is King | Casts charm monster. | 5 | +5 |
| Ruat Coelum, Fiat Justitia | Though heaven falls, let justice be done | Summons a number of high-level vortices and elementals equal to 1+XL5, and casts the protection spell. | 7 | +7 |
| Ruat Coelum, Fiat Justitia. Ecce! Lex Rex! | Though heaven falls, let justice be done. See! Law is King! | Summons a number of high-level vortices and elementals equal to 1+XL5, fully heals the hero while curing sickness and sliming, grants them the ability to levitate using <, and temporarily tames nearby monsters as though the hero read a non-cursed scroll of taming while confused. This command is the only multi-word command that can reduce the artifact's enchantment below +0. | 14 | +7 |
Origin
The Rod of Seven Parts is the name of a 1996 accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, written by Skip Williams. It focuses on the fictional artifact of the same name, which was originally introduced in the 1976 supplement Eldritch Wizardry, and the boxed set details the rod's history and includes an adventure centered around finding its parts—the artifact also lends its name to a 1996 Dungeons & Dragons novel that is loosely based on the adventure from the aforementioned accessory. While The Rod of Seven Parts has appeared throughout various editions of the game, dNetHack and its derivatives draw the most inspiration for the artifact from the 1996 accessory.
Within the settings of Dungeons & Dragons itself, The Rod of Seven Parts is a nickname for The Rod of Law, a powerful artifact of lawful nature which was created by the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, or vaati, while they fought the Dawn War against the Queen of Chaos—it was given its name from being split when it was used during the battle of the Fields of Pesh in order to banish Miska the Wolf-Spider to a prison in Pandemonium; when Miska was stabbed with the rod, the chaos from its blood rendered the rod unstable, shattering it into seven pieces and scattering them across the multiverse. Afterwards, fragments of the rod would sometime surface here and there, often in times of great need, and once the rod was completed and served its purpose it was known to scatter again.
The complete rod was 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and its width decreased from 2 inches (5.1 centimeters) across at the bottom to a half-inch (1 centimeter) at the top, while the length of the fragments from smallest to largest were 4 inches (10 centimeters), 5 inches (13 centimeters), 6 inches (15 centimeters), 8 inches (20 centimeters), 10 inches (25 centimeters), 12 inches (30 centimeters), and 15 inches (38 centimeters). Due to their lawful nature, the fragments did not appear damaged but instead displayed intricate patterns of crystalline facets on each breaking point.
Each fragment of the rod shared a common set of powers, in addition to having individual powers—any non-lawful creature in possession of a fragment of the rod would see its worldview shifting towards a lawful disposition, while any lawful creature holding a fragment of the rod could use it to locate the next larger segment. In order to activate a segment's power, the user had to focus on a fragment-specific command word:
- The 4-inch tip possessed the ability to cast "cure light wounds" up to five times each day. Activation required the command word "Ruat".
- The 5-inch fragment could, once a day, create an effect similar to the "slow" spell for 23 minutes. Its command word was "Caelum".
- The 6-inch segment was able to cast "haste" once a day with a duration of 23 minutes, and notably did not age the wielder rapidly when doing so. Its command word was "Fiat".
- The 8-inch fragment could cast "gust of wind" five times daily. Its command word was "Justitia".
- The 10-inch segment granted its user access to the "true seeing" spell once a day, lasting for 20 minutes. Its command word was "Ecce".
- The 12-inch section, the second largest, could cast "hold monster" once a day, with the effect lasting for 20 minutes. Its command word was "Lex".
- The largest fragment, measuring 15 inches, bestowed its owner with the ability to cast "heal" once per day. Its command word was "Rex". As the largest fragment, it was also the only one that could not be used to locate other parts of the rod.
These are the basis for the artifact's powers and their command phrases in dNetHack and its derivatives. As shown in the tables above, the activation words make up the Latin phrase Ruat Caelum, Fiat Justitia. Ecce Lex, Rex, which translates to "Though heaven falls, let justice be done. Behold, the law is king".
