You may (or may not) have noticed in my Acention Post that I hadn’t killed Yeenoghu, even tho I said he needed killin’. Now one thing neat about this subject is it has an angle for advanced players and one for the very beginners. #1. Why Didn’t I kill Yeenoghu? and #2. Why do I have a grudge against him?
Well the first one Yeenoghu is one of the unique Major Demons (A Demon Lord, as opposed to a Demon Prince, no idea who makes the distinction). While other demons like Juiblex, or Orcus, or Asmodeus, have their own lairs in Gehennom (Nethack’s version of Hell) Yeenoghu (as well as Dispater, Dispater, and the most powerful foe in the game Demogorgon ) so the only way to encounter him (or the other three) is to have him summoned by other demons. I guess Yeenoghu simply gets lord status because the others can only be summoned by demon princes or Lords, Yeenoghu can be summoned by any major demon capable of demon summoning (which is most of them). So he didn’t get killed in my game that despite baiting a few major demons in Gehennom, he was never summoned.
OK now to get to the case against this demonic bastard. As I said before, he can be summoned by any major demon, which leads me to the beginner tip.
The fountain gambit….DON’T!
Fountain Gambit? Well if you’ve played Nethack for even a short time you’ve seen fountains in the dungeon. One thing you can do is drink from them (Quaff from them “Q” being the command key), you can get some neat stuff, like stats boosts, or permanent see invisible, and the pie-in-the-sky jackpot is to summon a friendly Water Demon who will grant you a wish, which can REALLY be a kickass boon, because what better than a said of Silver or Grey Dragon Scale Mail, or some speed boots in the first few levels of the game?
Still better chances are that the fountain will poison you, summon Water moccasins or Water Nymphs, the former quickly dispatching a new character with their numbers and poisoned bites, the latter not actually harming you, but stealing your stuff so other nasties can find you wandering the dungeon naked, unarmed, and looking rather foolish.
And that Water Demon? Well if he shows up, he’ll likely be pissed, and if you happen to be lucky enugh to not get killed in the first round, well he just might summon Yeenoghu, and then you are FUCKED!
So for you new travelers of the Dungeons, if you see a fountain leave them be. You’ll need them later for #diping items. For lawful charactors, a dipped longsword can be turned into excalibur once you make experience level 5. Since its one of the best weapons for lawful characters that’s a big boon. Also it can be used to make useless scrolls (like Scrolls of Punishment or Scrolls of food detection) into much more useful blank paper that can be written on with a magic marker. Or taking less useful potions like Fruit Juice or a potion of Detect monsters into water which can be blessed into holy water.
Hope this helps you hackers out!
Happy Hacking!
I never even imagined that one of the demon lords or arch demons could show after quaffing from a fountain. The occasional water demon, no biggie.
I’ve been addicted to quaffing after one game which had two fountains on level one, and each one had a friendly water demon granting a wish. 10,000:1 but it got me spoiled.
Then again, on the low levels, I tend to pley fairly recklessly – knowing that I’m likely to get killed soon. I just played a game that lasted 35 moves. Rock on the noggin, end of story!
Fountains can only summon water demons….the Water Demons can summon LOTS of nasty stuff.
Yeah I got a wish or two in early games….but you also get a LOT of pain and misery. Look at it the same way as playing Roulette. Yeah you may win, but overall you’re going to lose, and skill ain’t got nothing to do with it.
Also in Nethack, like real life, helmets save lives!