Draft:Night gaunt
| n Night gaunt | |
|---|---|
| Form | Ordinary creature |
| Attacks | 2 center attacks: 0–4 physical each before absorption; no defense |
| Special abilities | Abduction after some successful hits |
| Base level | 2 |
| HP | 30 |
| Hit | 15 |
| Defense | 10 |
| Action interval | 6 ticks; lower is faster |
| Kill experience | 35, when death is in sight |
| Generation | Random pools and encounter details |
| Carried items | None at ordinary generation |
| Immunities | None innate |
| Remains | Dead night gaunt; 50% on normal death |
| Remains use | Poisonous food; no alchemy |
Traits
| |
| Reference | minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 71[1] |
A night gaunt is a hostile flying monster that can carry you away during melee. In game terms, the abduction teleports you to a random empty location on the current level.[2]
Generation
Night gaunts appear in ordinary random pools, the sewer population table and the deep Astral Plane table. A badly wounded lesser frost demon can also attempt to summon two as help. Ordinary night gaunts have no starting possessions.[3]
Abduction
A night gaunt makes two center attacks per sequence, each rolling 0–4 raw physical damage. After each successful hit there is a one-fifth chance to check for abduction. That check requires adjacency and either a further one-fifth roll or the player's vulnerability status. Thus the usual chance is 4% per successful hit, rising to 20% while vulnerable.[4]
The abduction routine chooses a new empty place on the same level; it has no additional immunity check or saving throw. Physical damage prevention does not automatically stop the later abduction rolls. The night gaunt has no innate immunity, and is not hungry. It can fly, but its poisonous remains do not make its melee attacks poisonous.[5]
Remains
Normal death has a 50% chance of leaving a dead night gaunt. It is poisonous food and has no alchemical transformation. Its listed corpse value does not make it acceptable to the alchemist, whose purchase routine requires a valid transformation.[6]
Strategy
Avoid prolonged melee when being moved away from a staircase or known route would be dangerous. The modest physical damage understates the risk of landing elsewhere among enemies. Ranged attacks and applicable disabling effects reduce opportunities for abduction. If vulnerable, the chance per hit is five times the usual rate, so close combat becomes especially undesirable.
Origin
The name and abduction description correspond to the night-gaunts in H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, which seize captives, fly with them and torment them by tickling. Omega's combat message uses the same combination of actions.[7]
References
- ↑ lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 373–394; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 134–203; mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 8–145; mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 227–311; time.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 47–74; item.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 63–139. Ordinary construction, combat, timing and remains.
- ↑ minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 71; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 28–41; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 503–534.
- ↑ lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 103–111; lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 149–160; lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 280–395; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 68–99.
- ↑ minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 71; mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 88–93; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 28–41.
- ↑ mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 8–20; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 503–534; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 71; inv.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 430–467.
- ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 134–203; item.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 63–87; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 71; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 819–843.
- ↑ H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 28–41.