Draft:Juggernaut of Karnak

Omega 0.90.4

Juggernaut of Karnak&TypeArtifactBase value (Au)1000Item level6Weight1000Unidentified appearanceCrudely Carved MonolithCursed nameJuggernaut of Karnak

The Juggernaut of Karnak is a heavy, single-use artifact that sweeps a straight line through the current map, destroying creatures and much of the terrain in its path. It leaves loose objects behind, but its tunnelling can contribute to a lethal cave-in. Activating it before identification kills the user immediately.

Generation

The Crudely Carved Monolith is an item-level-6 random artifact, initially eligible for unique generation. Once ordinary generation creates it, that route blocks further copies. It is excluded from monsters' repeatable additional random possessions. A new copy is unidentified and neutral. Normal acquirement cannot select artifacts, and automatic pawn-shop stock excludes them.

Releasing the Juggernaut

Use A → a from accessible inventory. A known copy asks for one of the eight compass directions. Escape at this direction prompt safely preserves it and gives no release experience. Unknown activation dies before offering that choice. Once a direction is accepted, the sweep begins in the adjacent square and continues to the map boundary; walls, range and loss of sight do not stop it.

What lies in the line	Result
Most terrain, including walls, doors, stairs and traps	Becomes floor with its location behavior removed; walls count toward tunnelling
Water, lava, abyss, void or space	Terrain and location behavior remain; the sweep continues through it
Secret squares	Lose their secret flag
Creatures	Normal death handling is invoked without an attack roll or damage-immunity check
Loose objects and normal death drops	Remain on their squares

The line includes creatures beyond current sight and friendly or important inhabitants; it does not select only enemies. Death itself revives through its special death handling. Normal deaths can have ordinary quest, succession or other consequences, and the normal creature experience award still depends on its sight check.

A completed release grants 1,000 experience in addition to applicable creature awards, consumes one Juggernaut, and checks accumulated tunnelling. It has no mana cost and no blessing, enchantment or charge requirement beyond being known. A line with no creatures still spends it.

Cave-ins and terrain loss

Every wall crossed contributes to the current level's tunnelling total. At increasing totals the game warns with falling dust, creaking and trembling; exceeding the collapse threshold caves in the dungeon. Normal 64-row dungeon maps collapse above 64 accumulated tunnelling counts. The check is skipped in the Astral Plane and at depth zero except the Dragon's Lair; that 16-row map collapses above 16. Existing digging matters, so a single release can cross the threshold on an already weakened level.

A cave-in normally kills the player. Shadowform instead provides the coded escape to the countryside and changes the destroyed site's world terrain, so even surviving is not preservation of the dungeon. Plan a route before erasing stairs or other location services: surviving the line itself does not guarantee that the original exit still works.

Strategy

Identify it before an emergency and plan the entire line, including squares beyond sight. It can bypass hard physical defenses and open a passage, but its weight of 1,000 makes long-term carriage expensive. Detection or clairvoyance can help survey the route, and a separate escape is valuable if the sweep removes stairs.

Unlike the Holy Hand-Grenade, it leaves ground loot and ordinary death drops, making it the less destructive choice for treasure recovery when the line and cave-in risks are acceptable. Water and other preserved hazards may still prevent reaching those drops. Avoid sending it through services, allies or quest inhabitants merely to remove one enemy. Blessing supplies no stronger sweep, and enchanting an intact Juggernaut causes the normal artifact backlash.