Watcher in the Water (UnNetHack)
| ; Watcher in the Water (No tile) | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 28 |
| Attacks |
Claw 2d6 physical, Claw 2d6 physical, Bearhug 2d6 drowning, Bite 5d6 physical |
| Base level | 24 |
| Base experience | ? |
| Speed | 9 |
| Base AC | −2 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | −3 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 2000 |
| Nutritional value | 1000 |
| Size | huge |
| Resistances | poison resistance, sleep resistance |
| Resistances conveyed | sleep resistance |
|
The Watcher in the Water:
| |
- For the monster in dNetHack and its variants, see Watcher in the Water (dNetHack).
The Watcher in the Water, ;, is a unique monster that appears in UnNetHack. The Watcher in the Water is a chaotic sea monster similar to a kraken, with the exact same traits in addition to being visible via infravision, and is a lord to its kind. The Watcher in the Water cannot be made tame.
The Watcher in the Water has two claw attacks, a bearhug attack that can drown the hero and a strong bite attack, and possesses poison resistance and sleep resistance.
Eating the Watcher in the Water's corpse or tin has a chance of granting sleep resistance.
Generation
The Watcher in the Water is always generated hostile, and is not a valid target for polymorph or genocide.
The Watcher in the Water is always generated on a specific square within the waters of the topmost floor for the Ruins of Moria at level creation.
The Watcher in the Water is always generated with an uncursed magic lamp.
Strategy
The Watcher in the Water is likely worth fighting to obtain its magic lamp, which will prove difficult between its own formidable nature and the likelihood of needing to retrieve the lamp from the water afterward. The Watcher itself is much stronger and faster than a standard kraken: though it is still slow and potentially kite-worthy at 9 speed, it carries a more significant risk of drowning the hero as a result, and can also inflict high damage with its attacks.
One of many methods to make the Watcher in the Water easier to kill is to use a wand of teleportation on it and hope that it is placed somewhere on land: though the amount of water on both maps makes it unreliable and this may require multiple charges, your chances are favorable and the Watcher is significantly less dangerous once stranded on land; killing it over land also ensures that its magic lamp can be retrieved. Ranged attacks and weapon are also useful, though wands and spells are likely more preferable despite the Watcher's MR score of 30 granting it some significant resistance—non-junk ammunition will prove very difficult to retrieve in comparison unless you have several scrolls of earth or wands of cold, which may be better spent trying to trap the Watcher.
Paralysis can give a hero several rounds of free attacks, though its -2 AC and high HP make it incredibly difficult to kill outright before the potion wears off: use a stethoscope each hit to make sure it still can't act, and keep an escape item on hand in case it grabs you! An oilskin cloak or any greased outer wear protects you from being drowned, and you can step away from the water as needed to heal and reapply grease.
Polymorphing the Watcher is possible, but risky: in addition to resisting with its 30 MR score, there is a chance that it may polymorph into a monster still capable of swimming or else flying over the water—a titan is one of the worse possible outcomes in this regard. However, a successful polymorph is also reasonably likely to turn the Watcher into something much weaker or else incapable of swimming.
If you have killed the Watcher over water and want to retrieve its lamp, you can use the following tactics:
- Push boulders into the water on and around where the lamp is, then dig it out. A scroll of earth is likely to be necessary, though one of the two possible level maps has boulders scattered around that you can use.
- Use a source of magical breathing such as the amulet and walk into the water to retrieve it—drop anything that may be damaged, diluted or blanked by water exposure or stash it in an oilskin sack before diving in.
- Freeze the water with a wand of cold or the cone of cold spell, then dig it out.
- Apply a bullwhip down while levitating or flying over the lamp's square to retrieve it.
- Polymorph yourself into a monster that is breathless or can swim and is not harmed by water, and retrieve the amulet this way.
Origin
The Watcher in the Water is a fictional creature that appears in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth setting, and debuts in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings.
The origins of the creature are not described in the setting itself, but critics have likened it to the legendary kraken and to Odysseus's passage between the devouring Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Its presence in combination with the barrier lake and the formidable Doors of Durin have also been compared to the multiple obstacles often found in Norse mythology. In vanilla NetHack, the passage describing the Watcher is used as the encyclopedia entry for the kraken, implying that the Watcher is assumed to be representative of that legendary creature, which is usually portrayed as a giant cephalopod—UnNetHack changes the kraken's encyclopedia entry to an unrelated poem by The Lord Tennyson.
Lurking in a lake beneath the western walls of the dwarf-realm Moria, the Watcher in the Water is said to have appeared after the damming of the river Sirannon, and its presence was first recorded by Balin's dwarf company 30 or so years before the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. It makes its first appearance when the titular Fellowship is about to enter Moria, attacking them at the western entrance. The encyclopedia entry for UnNetHack is a passage from the book that describes the creature as it grabs Frodo, the protagonist, and tries to drag him underwater. The Fellowship later learns the creature's moniker, "The Watcher in the Water", form a historical account which reveals that the monster also prevented Moria's defenders from escaping through that exit.
Encyclopedia entry
Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
was pale-green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end had
hold of Frodo's foot, and was dragging him into the water.
Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife. The
arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out
for help. Twenty other arms came rippling out. The dark
water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
