Stake of Withering
| ( The Stake of Withering (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Base item | stake (dNetHack) |
| Appearance | stake |
| Affiliation | |
| Generation | |
| Wishable? | no |
| Damage vs. small | 1d6 + 1d24 life drain + 1d10 fire or + 1d2 silver + 1 cold |
| Damage vs. large | 1d6 + 1d24 life drain + 1d10 fire or + 1d2 silver + 1 cold |
| Bonus versus | (any) |
| Damage type | piercing |
| To-hit bonus | +1d10 |
| Weapon skill | dagger |
| Properties | (see below) |
| When carried | |
| When wielded | (none) |
| When used | (none) |
| When invoked |
|
| Base size | small |
| Base price | 5000 zm |
| Weight | 20 |
| Base material | wood |
The Stake of Withering is an artifact that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, and serves as the Undead Hunter quest artifact. It is chaotic, and its base item is a stake.
Generation
The Stake of Withering cannot be wished for but can be left behind as part of a bones level.
For Undead Hunters, the Stake of Withering will always be generated upon the death of the index wolf on the square it was killed.
Description
The Withering Stake has various effects dependent on whether the quest has been completed and if the Moon's Chosen is still alive. Its base item grants it +1d6 damage and vorpal attacks against vampire monsters, with a 1⁄20 chance on every hit.
Faintly-burning
If less than 32,000 turns have passed since the start of the game, and if the Moon's Chosen hasn't been killed, carrying the Stake of Withering in open inventory will scare all animals, werecreatures (that don't resist fire) and demihumans. Additionally, once the quest has been formally completed, carrying the Stake of Withering will add +1d10 fire damage to all attacks (melee and projectiles). The Stake of Withering will appear as "faintly-burning" until 28,000 turns have passed, after which it will appear as "faintly-guttering" for another 4,000 turns, but suffers no alterations to its effects yet.
Charred/Budding
Once 32,000 have passed, the Stake of Withering goes out and will appear as "charred" (if the veil hasn't been pierced) or "budding" otherwise, losing the on-carry scare effects and replacing the bonus fire damage with +1 cold damage and flat +1d2 silver damage.
Blooming
After the Moon's Chosen has been defeated, the Stake of Withering aggravates animals, all werecreatures and demihumans, which allows them to always tell your true location, even bypassing displacement. It also increases all experience gained by 30% while carried and has its fire damage replaced with cold and silver, if it hadn't already previously lost it from timeout.
Origings
Similarly to how the Undead Hunters in dNetHack and its variants took inspiration from the Undead Slayer role in SLASH'EM, the The Stake of Withering takes after their quest artifact, The Stake of Van Helsing. Its encyclopedia entry quotes from the Hunter's Torch and Molotov Cocktail from Bloodborne.
Encyclopedia entry
Designed to incinerate beasts and victims touched by the scourge. Fire has
become a staple in beast hunts, and is thought to cleanse impurity.
[ Adapted from Bloodborne, by FromSoftware ]
