So. I was playing nethack over SSH terminal on my phone to a server in Finland.
I was playing a human Cleric, and I had a kitten. Apparently I had quit right after making this character.
I ran around the room a bit trying to remember the slightly whacked-out controls (because the stupid Symbian putty thinks my E73's number pad is upside down).
So I left the room with the first stairs, ran into a Jackal which I killed in one hit out of self-defense (read: was mashing the direction button).
It seems pertinent information that I lost sight of my kitten by this point.
I was approaching a room after traversing about 20 #'s, just one square away from the open door, when:
You shudder...
HP: 0/18
You Die.
And then my 3G connection went out and I didn't get to see what actually killed me. Does anyone have any idea what could insta-kill a level 1 adventurer with that message?
I was still on the very first level, mind you, which eliminates a fair number of particular traps. I didn't get any angry god messages, didn't see any creatures in the lighted room I was approaching, my kitten was out of view but I got no message of distant combat.
Just BAM, dead. Like I was hit by the fist of an angry god.
I've had shorter games of course, like falling on my head on the first attempt to mount my pony as a Knight (I even got 'Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 Zorkmids' once afterward just for fun), but this one is just such a strange mystery. A teleport trap sending you to the same level you're on can give a 'shudder' message, but those don't appear til DL6!