I had a female archaeologist turned into a killer bee a few days ago. At first I thought "Cool! I'm now a fast and deadly killer!", but I soon found out killer bees have close to ZERO carrying capacity. Then I thought about #sitting to create my personal army (or at least plenty of meat shields), but my three pets kept eating them before they can hatch... I committed suicide on an hill orc to return to human form. She ends up with 8 pets in Sokoban, killed by a lucky hit from a giant mimic. Mostly because I forgot to count turns, as I took a step nearer to check if it's dead or not... well, it's not.
I've read a funny story involving werefoo from rgrn before... here it is:
Here's a repost of my "Pet shop follies: a foolish
anecdote", from 1999:
_________________
Earlier today, I started up an Archeologist. On level 2,
I was attacked by a were-rat plus friends. I had to pray for
healing before the battle ended. Even though I attacked the were-
rat first, I was were-ified before I zeroed him.
This left me hundreds of turns to kill while I waited
for the prayer timeout. Most of it was spent as a 2 pound rat
underneath 200 pounds of possessions. Bored of pressing the
space bar, I wondered if #monster brought in extra rats each
time, or whether the old ones were teleported back to you.
I used #monster a couple of times, and you get extra rats.
("Would you like extra rat with that, sir?" "Yes; please.")
OK, maybe I used #monster more than a couple of times.
I had to confirm my findings.
Once back to human form, I went to a shop on that
level. I figured that a dozen or so rats milling around
for a while would randomly scatter the shop contents across
several city blocks. I could wander through the rest of
the level, idly picking stuff up and slaying beasts. This
would be far less boring than standing at the shop entrance
and waiting for DumbCat to pick up something better than a
-2 Tribblebane.
Before I got to the shop, I turned back to the 2 lb
rat again. In retrospect, I must have used #monster a couple
of times more at this point. I had rabid rats, giant rats,
and sewer rats. And people thought that I would never amount
to anything!
I eventually got to the shop, which quickly half-
filled with rats. My evil plan failed. (So much for my
potential career as an Evil Overlord.) The rats at the back
couldn't push their way to the front. The rats at the front
weren't trained as retrievers, so they just milled around,
then dropped their loot. I also got the impression that most
of the objects were too heavy for rats to pick up.
You just can't find decent minions anymore.
Foiled in my villainy, I pushed my way (with some
difficulty) through mobs of rats to the stairs leading to
the Gnomish Mines. (How many rats do you get per #monster,
anyway? Or were they starting to breed?) I prayed my were-
dom away, then ferried down a few loads of rats, averaging
about three rats a load. I started wandering around the
mines, to see what my loyal subjects were up to.
I saw a few civilians in the distance, but I never
had to draw whip: they died of, ah, natural causes before
I got there. All I had to do was pick up the loot. (Maybe
I do have a career as an E.O. after all.)
By the third corner, I was ahead of the rats. I
turned the corner and saw a squad of the GRA (Gnomish
Republican Army) nearby and closing fast. I wielded my whip,
snarled in defiance, and fled. (See! Definitely E.O.
material!)
One gnome almost caught up when I had to dodge
around a particularly stubborn rat. By then, the other
gnomes were debating the local pecking order with my
immigrant rodents. A bit later, the fast gnome got into
his own argument.
I went all the way back to the first corner and
waited. After a long time of listening to noises in the
distance, a lone gnome staggered around the corner. He
made it three steps before two members of my Home Guard
had a chat with him about where they could grab a bite to
eat.
He only had 8 GP on him, the cheapskate.
Bored again, I ferried DumbCat up the stairs,
leaving the rats to conquer the Mines or die in the attempt.
(Not much of an E.O. plan, but hey, rats are cheap.) I
went over to the stairs down to the normal dungeon level.
I ferried down ten or twelve rats to keep me company, then
started exploring.
Nothing really interesting happened. One rat went
crazy from hunger and attacked another rat. Down one. I
felt a moment of sadness a while later. Down two. I
peeked up at level two at one point, just in time to see a
rat starve to death. Down three. Ten percent lost to
attrition isn't that bad. The E.O. wasn't part of the ten
percent, so everything was spiffy.
I had just finished pickaxing a statue when a grey
slug showed up and a rat vanished from sight. I looked at
the slug, but it was far enough away that I could clear up
my end of the room before going to greet him. I looked for
the trap door that the rat had fallen through, but didn't
see it. I stepped to the pile of ex-statue rocks, and found
the trap door.
I landed right beside a were-jackal. Deja vu: I
zeroed him and his buddies, again with the help of a prayer,
and again I got were-ified. This time, I ended up as a 20
pound critter under the 200 pounds of loot.
This time, I got a bit carried away with #monster.
(I did not get carried away with #monster when I was a were-
rat. At least, not by my standards.) The room had about 30
jackals milling around before I stopped. I suppose there
were a similar number in the adjacent rooms and corridors.
Early on, a gnome or two had tried to gate-crash.
For some mysterious reason, they did not succeed. I sus-
pected that I wouldn't be picked up many experience points
on this level.
With hundreds of moves still to go before I could
re-pray, I was suddenly attacked by a giant ant! I hadn't
noticed it, since it was a brown "a" in a sea of brown "d"s.
The jackals hadn't attacked it. (Defected to the rebel
alliance, no doubt.) It quickly blasted me back to human
form.
I grabbed my arms and armor, then squished the ant.
I had some difficulty. The jackals just milled around and
laid bets. Five rooms away, a jackal politian was haranguing
the crowd about "the ants, our natural allies". (Are critters
of the same color friendly to each other? Or did I scramble
the program by overflowing the "pet" array?) [The ants were
too tough for the jackals.]
A second ant forced its way to the front. This time,
the totes only gave me even odds. Down to only two HP, I
seized a wand and zapped. I missed the ant, but killed two
jackal spectators. (Served 'em right, the traitors.) A moment
later, I bit the biscuit myself.
In the post-mortum, NetHack told me that my Archeologist
was unlucky. Jeez, tell me something I don't know.
I just hope that turkey doesn't get turned into a bones
level. "The jackal hits! The jackal hits! The jackal hits!
The jackal hits! The jackal hits! You die..." <What! I never
even got off the stairs!>
Fortunately, there is a defense. If you go down the
stairs surrounded by a solid wall of friendly rats or jackals....
Poll
65 (12.2%)
Author
Topic: Nethack (Read 176312 times)