Vorpal jabberwock (SLASH'EM)
J vorpal jabberwock 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 27 |
| Attacks |
Bite 3d10 physical, Bite 3d10 physical, Claw 3d10 physical, Claw 3d10 physical |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 809 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -2 |
| Base MR | 50 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1300 |
| Nutritional value | 600 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A vorpal jabberwock:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line2683 |
- For other implementations of the monster, see vorpal jabberwock.
A vorpal jabberwock, J, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. The vorpal jabberwock is the strongest type of jabberwock that appears in both variants, and is an implemented version of the deferred vorpal jabberwock that exists in the data of NetHack. Like other jabberwocks, it is a strong carnivorous animal that is capable of flight, can be seen via infravision, will pick up food and other items that they come across while hostile, and can be saddled for riding while tame.
Vorpal jabberwocks have two strong bite attacks and two strong claw attacks, and hit as +3 weapons. Unlike regular jabberwocks, they do not have a special vulnerability to Vorpal Blade.
Generation
Randomly generated vorpal jabberwocks are always created hostile. They will not randomly generate in Gehennom.
Strategy
Vorpal jabberwocks are much tougher than their standard counterparts, and without the ability to instantly fell one via Vorpal Blade they can prove to be a tough challenge for a hero heading towards the late game.
Origin
The vorpal jabberwock is based on the titular creature of Jabberwocky, a famous nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, and its encyclopedia entry is an excerpt from the poem. Jabberwocky is first printed in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to the 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice finds herself in a looking-glass world and encounters the poem as part of a book written in a seemingly unintelligible language; she shortly discovers the text and the world at large is in fact inverted (or mirrored), and holds a mirror to the poem to read it, finding it as puzzling as the odd land she is now in. The poem is also the inspiration for the artifact weapon Vorpal Blade, based on the unnamed adventurer's weapon that is used to behead the jabberwock - this is also the basis for the jabberwock's weakness to Vorpal Blade.
The original illustrations by John Tenniel accompanying the poem (and the rest of the two novels) depict the titular jabberwock as a bipedal creature that vaguely resembles a dragon: It has bat-like wings, a long serpentine neck, a long tail, a weird head with rabbit-like teeth, hands with three long spidery talons, and a waistcoat. Some of the jabberwock's more particular traits may reflect the contemporary Victorian obsession with natural history and the then-fast-evolving sciences of paleontology and geology.
Encyclopedia entry
Jabberwocks and Vorpal Blade share the same encyclopedia entry:
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
