Scary encounter ... and a new respect for the Yendorian Armed Forces
JMonkey
Sunsword, GDSM, Reflection a bag of holding ... in short, she's about
2/3 of the way to completing the ascension kit.
On level 18 of the dungeon, she was checking out a chest on the far
side of a room, when two Sergeants enter. No biggie -- I'd just taken
out an entire barracks upstairs. Then, when the pair is two squares
away, I see the message, "The Sergeant wields a cockatrice corpse!"
Cripes!! I'd killed one on the level a bit earlier, but hadn't thought
it posed me any more danger unless I wielded it myself or ran around
blind in the dungeon with no gloves on.
Taking no chances, I blasted one of them with a wand of fire. Not a
kill and now they were right up on me, so I zapped myself with a wand
of teleportation. Once I had some distance between us, it was no
problem taking them out with wands.
Still, I had no idea that soldiers would wield a cockatrice corpse.
Scary.
Ray Kulhanek
That happened to me once; I ran straight for the stairs and didn't
come back to that level until I was sure the corpse had rotted
away. Like you, I had no idea they could do that until I found
out the hard way.
JoaoSantos
[...]
> Still, I had no idea that soldiers would wield a cockatrice corpse.
> Scary.
IIRC, any intelligent monster will wear gloves if it finds/owns some,
and any intelligent monster wearing gloves will pick up and wield
rubber chickens. I do remember being killed that way at least once by
a T.
Intelligent stone resistant monsters (gargoyles, quest nemesis) maybe
also wield them even if not wearing gloves.
solidsnail
JMonkey
hit by a weilded cockatrice corpse is delayed rather than instadeath,
so I suppose the situation wasn't quite as dire as I thought. Still,
though. Ugh.
Janis Papanagnou
> Looking over the Wikihack entry on cockatrices, it seems that being
> hit by a weilded cockatrice corpse is delayed rather than instadeath,
> so I suppose the situation wasn't quite as dire as I thought. Still,
> though. Ugh.
Delayed, depending on your speed and burdeness.
Janis
Janis Papanagnou
The soldiers are worse because they don't respect Elbereth, but trolls
and gargoyles do. That's where a wand of teleport is especially nice
to have.
I recall that I once at Ludios didn't even notice some soldier wielding
the corpse because I was blinded. I probably shouldn't have killed the
cockatrice in the first place, of course, while soldiers were around.
Janis
Doug Freyburger
>
> On level 18 of the dungeon, she was checking out a chest on the far
> side of a room, when two Sergeants enter. No biggie -- I'd just taken
> out an entire barracks upstairs. Then, when the pair is two squares
> away, I see the message, "The Sergeant wields a cockatrice corpse!"
> Cripes!! I'd killed one on the level a bit earlier, but hadn't thought
> it posed me any more danger unless I wielded it myself or ran around
> blind in the dungeon with no gloves on.
>
> Taking no chances, I blasted one of them with a wand of fire. Not a
> kill and now they were right up on me, so I zapped myself with a wand
> of teleportation. Once I had some distance between us, it was no
> problem taking them out with wands.
>
> Still, I had no idea that soldiers would wield a cockatrice corpse.
> Scary.
Cockatrice corpse is the top of the list of items to wield by monsters
that can. Any monster wearing gloves will switch to a cockatrice corpse
from *any* nonartifact weapon not already welded to their hand.
Because of this I tend to pick up any cockatrice corpse as soon as I
kill one and put it in the first container I encounter. I also like to
carry it to the up stairs, go up, throw it any direction that has room,
then go back down again. Monsters don't move while you are off a level
but when you enter a level corpses on it are aged and tend to disappear.
It's easy to stay away from a level long enough for the rubber chicken
to go away. I also like to keep the rubber chicken until I am about to
descend and then throw it for the same reason.
Carelessness kills. In a recent game I got myself in trouble and died
in a crowd in the mines. Then the next game I rapidly got to the same
stats but without gloves. I forgot which game it was and I picked up
the first rubber chicken I killed without checking. Boing! Goodbye yet
another game from carelessness. Two games on two consequative days and
both in the mines. Sigh.
Janis Papanagnou
>
> Carelessness kills. In a recent game I got myself in trouble and died
> in a crowd in the mines. Then the next game I rapidly got to the same
> stats but without gloves. I forgot which game it was and I picked up
> the first rubber chicken I killed without checking. Boing! Goodbye yet
> another game from carelessness. Two games on two consequative days and
> both in the mines. Sigh.
It's good to hear that there are more people out there who are confusing
games. As part of a personal learning process I formed a mental habit of
not starting a new game immediately after another one terminated (by either
death or ascension). Nethack addiction prevents me from consequently follow
that line, though, but at least after the second death I usually abstain.
Janis