Dudley's dungeon

The ghostAnd now the souls of the dead who had gone below came swarming
up from Erebus -- fresh brides, unmarried youths, old men
with life's long suffering behind them, tender young girls
still nursing this first anguish in their hearts, and a great
throng of warriors killed in battle, their spear-wounds gaping
yet and all their armour stained with blood.  From this
multitude of souls, as they fluttered to and fro by the
trench, there came a moaning that was horrible to hear.
Panic drained the blood from my cheeks.
     [ The Odyssey, (chapter Lambda), by Homer ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. of IzchakThe shopkeeper of the lighting shop in the town level of the
gnomish mines is a tribute to Izchak Miller, a founding member
of the NetHack development team and a personal friend of a large
number of us.  Izchak contributed greatly to the game, coding a
large amount of the shopkeep logic (hence the nature of the tribute)
as well as a good part of the alignment system, the prayer code and
the rewrite of "hell" in the 3.1 release.  Izchak was a professor
of Philosophy, who taught at many respected institutions, including
MIT and Stanford, and who also worked, for a period of time, at
Xerox PARC.  Izchak was the first "librarian" of the NetHack project,
and was a founding member of the DevTeam, joining in 1986 while he
was working at the University of Pennsylvania (hence our former
mailing list address).  Until the 3.1.3 release, Izchak carefully
kept all of the code synchronized and arbitrated disputes between
members of the development teams.  Izchak Miller passed away at the
age of 58, in the early morning hours of April 1, 1994 from
complications due to cancer.  We then dedicated NetHack 3.2 in his
memory.
                [ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. 
disappears!         
                    
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#####-......|       
     |..d@..|       
     |......+       
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The force bolt hits 
the soldierThe soldiers of Yendor are well-trained in the art of war,
many trained by the Wizard himself.  Some say the soldiers
are explorers who were unfortunate enough to be captured,
and put under the Wizard's spell.  Those who have survived
encounters with soldiers say they travel together in platoons,
and are fierce fighters.  Because of the load of their combat
gear, however, one can usually run away from them, and doing
so is considered a wise thing.

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details.!        
----                
...|                
...|                
...-###d@#@         
----                
                    
                    

You slice the iron  
golem"The original story harks back, so they say, to the sixteenth
century.  Using long-lost formulas from the Kabbala, a rabbi is
said to have made an artificial man -- the so-called Golem -- to
help ring the bells in the Synagogue and for all kinds of other
menial work.
"But he hadn't made a full man, and it was animated by some sort
of vegetable half-life.  What life it had, too, so the story
runs, was only derived from the magic charm placed behind its
teeth each day, that drew down to itself what was known as the
`free sidereal strength of the universe.'
"One evening, before evening prayers, the rabbi forgot to take
the charm out of the Golem's mouth, and it fell into a frenzy.
It raged through the dark streets, smashing everything in its
path, until the rabbi caught up with it, removed the charm, and
destroyed it.  Then the Golem collapsed, lifeless.  All that was
left of it was a small clay image, which you can still see in
the Old Synagogue." ...
    [ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. in two!       
      ----------    
      |........|    
    ##d@_...}..|    
    # |........|    
##%## -------+--    
                    
                    

You smile at the    
nymphA female creature from Roman and Greek mythology, the nymph
occupied rivers, forests, ponds, etc.  A nymph's beauty is
beyond words:  an ever-young woman with sleek figure and
long, thick hair, radiant skin and perfect teeth, full lips
and gentle eyes.  A nymph's scent is delightful, and her
long robe glows, hemmed with golden threads and embroidered
with rainbow hues of unearthly magnificence.  A nymph's
demeanour is graceful and charming, her mind quick and witty.

"Theseus felt her voice pulling him down into fathoms of
sleep.        The song was the skeleton of his dream, and the dream
was full of terror.  Demon girls were after him, and a bull-
man was goring him.  Everywhere there was blood.  There was
pain.  There was fear.        But his head was in the nymph's lap
and her musk was about him, her voice weaving the dream.  He
knew then that she had been sent to tell him of something
dreadful that was to happen to him later.  Her song was a
warning.  But she had brought him a new kind of joy, one that
made him see everything differently.  The boy, who was to
become a hero, suddenly knew then what most heroes learn
later -- and some too late -- that joy blots suffering and
that the road to nymphs is beset by monsters."
    [ The Minotaur by Bernard Evslin ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. engagingly.   
    ----------      
    |........|      
  ##-._...}n.|      
  # |....d@..|      
%## -------+--      
                    
                    

The newt(kinds of) small animal, like a lizard, which spends most of
its time in the water.
        [ Oxford's Student's Dictionary of Current English ]

"Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
        [ Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. turns      
to flee!            
  # |........|      
%## -------|--      
           #        
           d        
           @        
           :        
           #        

A mysterious force  
makes you teleport! 
                    
     -------+---    
     |.........|    
#####-.d.@^....|    
     |.........|    
     -----------    
                    

You step onto a     
polymorph trap! You 
turn into a yetiThe Abominable Snowman, or yeti, is one of the truly great
unknown animals of the twentieth century.  It is a large hairy
biped that lives in the Himalayan region of Asia ... The story
of the Abominable Snowman is filled with mysteries great and
small, and one of the most difficult of all is how it got that
awful name.  The creature is neither particularly abominable,
nor does it necessarily live in the snows.  _Yeti_ is a Tibetan
word which may apply either to a real, but unknown animal of
the Himalayas, or to a mountain spirit or demon -- no one is
quite sure which.  And after nearly half a century in which
Westerners have trampled around looking for the yeti, and
asking all sorts of questions, the original native traditions
concerning the creature have become even more muddled and
confused.
        [ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details.!   
     -------+---    
     |.........|    
#####-..d.Y....|    
     |.........|    
     -----------    
                    

You see a doorThrough me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
        [ The Inferno, from The Divine Comedy of Dante
                Alighieri, translated by H.F. Cary ]

Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. open.
                    
                    
     -------@---    
     |.........|    
#####-....Y....|    
     |...d.....|    
     -----------    
                    

The colonel hits!   
You feel foolish.   
                    
     -------|---    
     |.....@...|    
#####-....Y....|    
     |...d.....|    
     -----------