Huginn and Muninn
Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory is a spirit that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Ritual, seal and taboo
Huginn and Muninn's seal may be drawn anywhere, but successfully completing the binding ritual reduces the hero's intelligence and wisdom by one each, which will not put them below the minimum of either attribute for that hero's race (i.e. 8 for clockwork automata and 3 otherwise).
To remain bound to Huginn and Muninn, a hero cannot fall asleep or suffer amnesia—if either effect occurs, the sleeping or amnesia effect is blocked at the cost of unbinding them.
Mark
A hero that has Huginn and Muninn will have a raven nesting in each ear, which can only be seen from close up. The ravens can be hidden by wearing any helm.
Benefits
While bound, Huginn and Muninn grant the hero hallucination resistance, and any effect that causes amnesia or sleeping in the hero will be blocked and cause them to unbind. Binding Huginn and Muninn also grants the hero skill in spears.
Huginn and Muninn's active powers are as follows:
- Ravens' Talons: Permanently blinds a single adjacent monster and deals damage, with the amount of damage dice being equal to 5+1d5 and the size of the dice using the hero's experience level as normal—against a blind or sightless monster, the amount of damage dice is reduced to 1d5.
Their passive powers are as follows:
- Gallows-Sense: The hero gains warning.
- Memory and Thought: The hero's intelligence and wisdom is set to 25 for the duration of the binding.
Strategy
Binding Huginn and Muninn can help with counteracting the intelligence and wisdom loss from pursuing certain research paths, such as defilement.
As monsters
| B Huginn (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 23 |
| Attacks |
bite 3d6 physical, targeted gaze 1d3 wisdom drain, claw 3d6 stun |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 659 |
| Speed | 20 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | small |
| Resistances | none |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
Huginn:
| |
| B Muninn (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 23 |
| Attacks |
bite 3d6 physical, targeted gaze 1d3 intelligence drain, claw 3d6 stun |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 659 |
| Speed | 20 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 500 |
| Nutritional value | 200 |
| Size | small |
| Resistances | none |
| Resistances conveyed | none |
|
Muninn:
| |
In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Huginn, B, and Munnin, B, also appear as separate monsters that can be summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder. Huginn and Munnin are a nigh-identical pair of small bird-like carnivorous animals: both the male Munnin and female Huginn are capable of flight, have a tendency to wander while moving, and can each be seen via infravision.
Huginn and Munnin each have a bite attack, a claw attack that can stun targets, and a targeted gaze attack that can drain ability scores—Huginn's gaze can drain wisdom, while Munnin's gaze can drain intelligence.
Generation
Huginn and Munnin are first generated when summoned from their seal by an Illithanachronounbinder, and are both summoned simultaneously. Both of them are always created hostile, and neither of them are valid polymorph forms or genocide targets.
Neither Huginn nor Munnin leave corpses upon death, instead dropping a pair of artifact daggers: Huginn drops the uncursed +7 Thought, and Munnin drops the uncursed +7 Memory. Both artifacts have +1d2 to-hit and double damage bonuses versus monsters that are not mindless, and have a chance of canceling such monsters on each hit.
Strategy
Below this point, there are major spoilers for the Illithanachronounbinder role. They can be accessed by selecting the "Role spoiler" tab.
If Huginn and/or Munnin are killed after being summoned, they can be encountered again in the Void, a branch accessed by opening the high altar of Ilsensine the Fallen as an Illithanachronounbinder using the invoke effect of The Elder Cerebral Fluid. Huginn and/or Munnin are generated along with many other spirits of the near void on the second floor of the branch, and each of them generated with the "whispers" template, which makes each monster nonliving.
Messages
- You hear flapping wings.
- You attempted to bind Huginn and Munnin.
- A pair of ravens land in the seal.
- This is added if you are not blind.
- They hop up to your shoulders and begin to croak raucously in your ears.
- You try to shoo them away, only to find that they have vanished.
- You successfully bound Huginn and Munnin to yourself.
- A pair of large birds land on you and begin to croak raucously in your ears.
- This replaces the first message if you are blind.
- They croak raucously at your weapon.
- You successfully bound Huginn and Munnin to The Pen of the Void.
- You hear Raucous[sic] croaking.
- As above, if you are blind.
- They stare at you for a moment, and then leave just as suddenly as they came.
- You failed to bind Huginn and Munnin due to a lack of open slots for spirits of the Near Void.
Encyclopedia entry
In the High Hall of Gladsheim the Lord of the Aesir sits and waits for thought and memory to return to him. At his feet two wolves attend him. Lacking thought and memory, he could not even name them. The floor of the high hall is mud, scattered with rushes. He sits and waits, the gallows-god, the one-eyed king of Asgard.
There is a fluttering of wings. The ghost-birds return to his shoulder. And instantly he knows; he knows all they've seen. Huginn and Muninn: thought and memory. And he smiles, the lord of the gallows.
