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#    SCCS Id: @(#)data.base    3.2    96/10/17
#    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.
#
# This is the source file for the "data" file generated by `makedefs -d'.
# A line starting with a # is a comment and is ignored by makedefs.
# Any other line not starting with whitespace is a creature or an item.
#
# Each entry should be comprised of:
# the thing/person being described on a line by itself;
# on each succeeding line a <TAB> description.
#
# If the first character of a key field is "~", then anything which matches
# the rest of that key will be treated as if it did not match any of the
# following keys for that entry.  For instance, `~orc ??m*' preceding `orc*'
# prevents "orc mummy" and "orc zombie" from matching.
#
#    The demons are all listed first because makedefs used to have to give
#    them special handling for #ifndef INFERNO; it doesn't matter any more.
aerdrie faenya

    Aerdrie  Faenya is the elven goddess of air and weather. As a rain-
    bringer, she is revered as a source of fertility.  She is, however,
    perceived as a somewhat distant  goddess, and the fact that she  is
    also revered by some aarakocra slightly diminishes the  strength of
    elven  devotion to  her (as does  her definite  neutral tendency in
    alignment). The goddess  herself takes  delight in  the freedom  of
    the skies, the music  of wind instruments,  and (sometimes)  fairly
    severe and  violent thunderstorms. She is  friendly to all  avians,
    aarakocra, ki-rin, and lammasu.
                     [ Monster Mythology, by TSR inc. ]
aclys
aklys
    A short studded or spiked club attached to a cord allowing
    it to be drawn back to the wielder after having been thrown.
*leax
    An Aleax,  according to the  AD&D Fiend Folio,  is a  creature that
    looks exactly  like the character, and  is sent  by the character's
    god to  punish alignment violations. Obviously  - and  luckily - in
    Nethack this is not the case.
amat*rasu *
    The Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami is the central
    figure of Shintoism and the ancestral deity of the imperial
    house.  One of the daughters of the primordial god Izanagi
    and said to be his favourite offspring, she was born from
    his left eye.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
*amnesia
Maud
    Get thee hence, nor come again,
    Mix not memory with doubt,
    Pass, thou deathlike type of pain,
    Pass and cease to move about!
    'Tis the blot upon the brain
    That will show itself without.
        ...
    For, Maud, so tender and true,
    As long as my life endures
    I feel I shall owe you a debt,
    That I never can hope to pay;
    And if ever I should forget
    That I owe this debt to you
    And for your sweet sake to yours;
    O then, what then shall I say? -
    If ever I should forget,
    May God make me more wretched
    Than ever I have been yet!
        [ Maud, And Other Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson ]
angel*
    He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
    is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed
    are the children of the kingdom; but the weeds are the
    children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the
    devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers
    are the angels.  As therefore the weeds are gathered and
    burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
    [...]  So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels
    shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
    and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be
    wailing and gnashing of teeth.
        [ The Gospel According to Matthew, 13:37-42, 49-50 ]
anhur
    An Egyptian god of war and a great hunter, few gods can match
    his fury.  Unlike many gods of war, he is a force for good.
    The wrath of Anhur is slow to come, but it is inescapable
    once earned.  Anhur is a mighty figure with four arms.  He
    is often seen with a powerful lance that requires both of
    his right arms to wield and which is tipped with a fragment
    of the sun.  He is married to Mehut, a lion-headed goddess.
ankh-morpork
    The twin city of Ankh-Morpork, foremost of all the cities
    bounding the Circle Sea, was as a matter of course the home
    of a large number of gangs, thieves' guilds, syndicates and
    similar organisations.  This was one of the reasons for its
    wealth.  Most of the humbler folk on the widdershin side of
    the river, in Morpork's mazy alleys, supplemented their
    meagre incomes by filling some small role for one or other
    of the competing gangs.
        [ The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett ]
anshar
    A primordial Babylonian-Akkadian deity, Anshar is mentioned
    in the Babylonian creation epic _Enuma Elish_ as one of a
    pair of offspring (with Kishar) of Lahmu and Lahamu.  Anshar
    is linked with heaven while Kishar is identified with earth.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
ant
* ant
    This giant variety of the ordinary ant will fight just as
    fiercely as its small, distant cousin.  Various varieties
    exist, and they are known and feared for their relentless
    persecution of their victims.
anu
    Anu was the Babylonian god of the heavens, the monarch of
    the north star.  He was the oldest of the Babylonian gods,
    the father of all gods, and the ruler of heaven and destiny.
    Anu features strongly in the _atiku_ festival in
    Babylon, Uruk and other cities.
*ape
    The most highly evolved of all the primates, as shown by
    all their anatomical characters and particularly the
    development of the brain.  Both arboreal and terrestrial,
    the apes have the forelimbs much better developed than
    the hind limbs.  Tail entirely absent.  Growth is slow
    and sexual maturity reached at quite an advanced age.
    [ A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa by Dorst ]

    Aldo the gorilla had a plan.  It was a good plan.  It was
    right.  He knew it.  He smacked his lips in anticipation as
    he thought of it.  Yes.  Apes should be strong.  Apes should
    be masters.  Apes should be proud.  Apes should make the
    Earth shake when they walked.  Apes should _rule_ the Earth.
        [ Battle for the Planet of the Apes,
            by David Gerrold ]
    Four-handed, tailless,  mammal of  the  order of  Primates, of  the
    sub-order  of _Anthropoidea_,  which of  all  mammals most  closely
    resembles man (both in appearance and in behaviour).
              [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
*rchon
    Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
    However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
    evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
    surroundings.
    Archons are the primary  inhabitants of the Seven Heavens. The five
    varieties of archon (Lantern, Hound,  Warden, Sword, and Tome) have
    wholly different appearances.  The various types look like  spheres
    of  light,   dog-faced  humanoids,   bear-like  humanoids,   winged
    humanoids,  and hawk-like humanoids respectively. Although there is
    a distinct  hierarchy among the varieties,  there is  no rivalry or
    jealousy  there.  Each  has  his   role  to  fulfil  and   that  is
    recognition enough for an archon.
    However strange  and frightening  their  appearance, archons  never
    seem evil. Rather, they appear  as beings at peace  with themselves
    and their environment.
                    [ Monstrous Compendium 8, by TSR inc. ]
*shikaga *akauji
    Ashikaga Takajui was a daimyo of the Minamoto clan who
    joined forces with the Go-Daigo to defeat the Hojo armies.
    Later when Go-Daigo attempted to reduce the powers of the
    samurai clans he rebelled against him.  He defeated Go-
    Daigo and established the emperor Komyo on the throne.
    Go-Daigo eventually escaped and established another
    government in the town of Yoshino.  This period of dual
    governments was known as the Nambokucho.
    [ Samurai - The Story of a Warrior Tradition, by Cook ]
    On July 8, 1336,  he and his samurai entered Kyoto, forced Go-Daigo
    to retire,  after which  he seized  power himself  and installed  a
    puppet prince on the throne  (the current Japanese  imperial family
    are  the   descendants  of  this   puppet  emperor  that   Ashikaga
    installed).

    Go-Daigo escaped,  though, wouldn't  admit to  have been  defeated,
    and  opened a new "capital"  in Yoshino (south of  Kyoto), where he
    and few  of his  descendants claimed  to be  running a  government,
    known as  the "Southern Court". The  period between  1337 and 1392,
    when Japan was ruled by two courts, is known as the Nambokucho.

    That "government" disappeared, naturally, after a  few generations,
    and Ashikaga's  Muromachi regime lasted for  a long  time. The last
    Ashikaga daimyo in power was the 14th descendant of Takauji.
asphynx
        This small,  inoffensive-looking snake shares the feared power
        of petrification with its distant relatives the cockatrice and
        basilisk. Just one touch from its blunt snout  can render  one
        motionless for all eternity.
    [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
horned devil
        Horned devils lack any real special abilities,  though  they
        are quite difficult to kill.
incubus
succubus
        The incubus and succubus are male and female versions of the
        same  demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
        usually to the detriment of the mortals who  are  unwise  in
        their dealings with them.
erinyes
        These female-seeming devils  attack hand to hand  and poison
        their unwary victims as well.
marilith
        The marilith, a type V demon, has a torso shaped  like  that
        of  a human female, and the lower body of a great snake.  It
        has multiple arms, and can freely attack with all  of  them.
        Since it is intelligent enough to use weapons, this means it
        can cause great damage.
barbed devil
        Barbed devils lack any real special abilities,  though  they
        are quite difficult to kill.
vrock
        The vrock is one of the weaker forms of demon, being only  a
        type  I.   It  resembles a cross between a human being and a
        vulture and does physical damage by biting and by using  the
        claws on both its arms and feet.
hezrou
        ``Hezrou'' is the common name for the type II demon.  It  is
        among the weaker of demons, but still quite formidable.
bone devil
        Bone devils attack with weapons and with a great hooked tail
        which causes a loss of strength to those they sting.
nalfeshnee
        Not only do these demons, which are of type IV, do  physical
        damage  with  their  claws and bite, but they are capable of
        using magic as well.
ice devil
        Ice devils  are  large  semi-insectoid  creatures,  who  are
        equally  at home in the fires of Hell and the cold of Limbo,
        and who can cause the traveller to feel the latter with just
        a touch of their tail.
pit fiend
        Pit fiends are among the more powerful of devils, capable of
        attacking  twice with weapons as well as grabbing and crush-
        ing the life out of  those  unwary  enough  to  enter  their
        domains.
juiblex
jubilex
        Little is known about the Faceless Lord,  even  the  correct
        spelling  of  his name.  He does not have a physical form as
        we know it, and those who have peered into his  realm  claim
        he  is  a  slime-like  creature who swallows other creatures
        alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes  disease  in  his
        victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
yeenoghu
        Yeenoghu, the demon lord of gnolls,  still  exists  although
        all his followers have been wiped off the face of the earth.
        He casts magic projectiles at those close to him, and a mere
        gaze  into  his  piercing  eyes  may  hopelessly confuse the
        battle-weary adventurer.
orcus
        Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a rams head  and  a  poison
        stinger.   He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
        abilities.  His wand causes death to those he chooses.
geryon
        Geryon is an arch-devil sometimes  called  the  Wild  Beast,
        attacking  with  his claws and poison sting.  His ranking in
        Hell is rumored to be quite low.
dispater
        Dispater is an arch-devil who rules the city of Dis.  He  is
        a powerful mage.
*lzebub
        Baalzebub has been known as the lord of the flies.  His bite
        drips  poison,  and a mere glance into his eyes can stun the
        hapless invader of his realm.
asmodeus
    It is said that Asmodeus is the overlord over all of hell.
    His appearance, unlike many other demons and devils, is
    human apart from his horns and tail.  He can freeze flesh
    with a touch.
demogorgon
        Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth  and  can
        spread  a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending
        them.  He is a mighty spellcaster, and he can drain the life
        of mortals with a touch of his tail.
athame
    The consecrated ritual knife of a Wiccan initiate (one of
    four basic tools, together with the wand, chalice and
    pentacle).  Traditionally, the athame is a double-edged,
    black-handled, cross-hilted dagger of between six and
    eighteen inches length.
athen*
    Athene was the offspring of Zeus, and without a mother.  She
    sprang forth from his head completely armed.  Her favourite
    bird was the owl, and the plant sacred to her is the olive.
        [ Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch ]
    Athena, the  Greek goddess of war and peace, the peaceful arts, and
    wisdom.  Patron defender of many Greek cities, Athens in particular
    (then called Pallas Athena),  she is a major  goddess of the  Greek
    pantheon  and, according to Hesiod, the daughter  of Metis (Wisdom)
    and Zeus, born fully  armed from his head. A goddess of  battle and
    allegedly  a snake  goddess,  she is  a deity  who also  stands for
    discipline against  the more unruly conduct  of such  as Hermes and
    Poseidon.
    Her  symbol is the Aegis,  the skin of  a sacrificial  goat. She is
    also associated with ship-building and domestic crafts.
              [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
atlatl
    A device used to throw spears for longer distances.  A short
    staff with a handle at one end and a cradle for the spear at
    the other.
axolotl
    A mundane salamander, harmless.
b*lzebub
    The "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Hebrew
    Ba'alzevuv (Beelzebub in Greek).  It has been suggested that
    it was a mistranslation of a mistransliterated word which
    gave us this pungent and suggestive name of the Devil, a
    devil whose name suggests that he is devoted to decay,
    destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic...
        [ Notes on _Lord of the Flies_, by E. L. Epstein ]
balrog
    ...  It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as
    if a cloud had bent over it.  Then with a rush it leaped
    the fissure.  The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed
    about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air.  Its streaming
    mane kindled, and blazed behind it.  In its right hand
    was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it
    held a whip of many thongs.
    'Ai, ai!' wailed Legolas.  'A Balrog!  A Balrog is come!'
           [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
baluchitherium
titanothere
    Extinct rhinos include a variety of forms, the most
    spectacular being _Baluchitherium_ from the Oligocene of
    Asia, which is the largest known land mammal.  Its body, 18
    feet high at the shoulder and carried on massive limbs,
    allowed the 4-foot-long head to browse on the higher branches
    of trees.  Though not as enormous, the titanotheres of the
    early Tertiary were also large perissodactyls, _Brontotherium_
    of the Oligocene being 8 feet high at the shoulder.
        [Prehistoric Animals, by Barry Cox ]
barbarian
    They dressed alike -- in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and
    deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short
    swords; and they were all gaunt and scarred and hard-eyed;
    sinewy and taciturn.
    They were wild men, of a sort, yet there was still a wide
    gulf between them and the Cimmerian.  They were sons of
    civilization, reverted to a semi-barbarism.  He was a
    barbarian of a thousand generations of barbarians.  They had
    acquired stealth and craft, but he had been born to these
    things.  He excelled them even in lithe economy of motion.
    They were wolves, but he was a tiger.
        [ Conan - The Warrior, by Robert E. Howard ]
    Hrun the  Barbarian crept  soundlessly along  the corridors,  which
    were lit  with a  light so  violet that  it was  almost black.  his
    earlier  confusion was  gone. This was obviously  a magical temple,
    and that explained everything.
       ...
    Observe Hrun,  as he leaps  cat-footed across  a suspicious  tunnel
    mouth. Even in this violet light his skin gleams  coppery. There is
    much  gold about his person, in  the form of anklets and wristlets,
    but otherwise  he is naked except  for a  leopardskin loincloth. He
    took  that in the  steaming forests  of Howondaland,  after killing
    its owner with his teeth.
    In his right hand  he carried the magical black sword  Kring, which
    was  forged  from a  thunderbolt  and has  a  soul  but suffers  no
    scabbard. Hrun  had  stolen it  only  three  days before  from  the
    impregnable  palace  of the  Archmandrite of  B'Ituni,  and  he was
    already regretting it. It was beginning to get on his nerves.
    "I tell you  it went down that last  passage on the  right," hissed
    Kring in a voice like the scrape of a blade over stone.
    "Be silent!"
    "All I said was -"
    "Shut up!"
                [ The colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
basilisk
        At first glance an unassuming lizard; at first touch instantaneous
        petrification. Such is the life of the feared basilisk.
    [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook
barbed devil
    Barbed devils lack any real special abilities, though they
    are quite difficult to kill.
*bat
giant bat
    A bat, flitting in the darkness outside, took the wrong turn
    as it made its nightly rounds and came in through the window
    which had been left healthfully open.  It then proceeded to
    circle the room in the aimless fat-headed fashion habitual
    with bats, who are notoriously among the less intellectually
    gifted of God's creatures.  Show me a bat, says the old
    proverb, and I will show you something that ought to be in
    some kind of a home.
        [ A Pelican at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse ]
*bee
    This giant variety of its useful normal cousin normally
    appears in small groups, looking for raw material to produce
    the royal jelly needed to feed their queen.  On rare
    occasions, one may stumble upon a bee-hive, in which the
    queen bee is being well provided for, and guarded against
    intruders.
*beetle
    The common name for the insects with wings shaped like
    shields (_Coleoptera_), one of the ten sub-species into
    which the insects are divided.  They are characterized by
    the shields (the front pair of wings) under which the back
    wings are folded.
        [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
bell of opening
    "A bell, book and candle job."
    The Bursar sighed.  "We tried that, Archchancellor."
    The Archchancellor leaned towards him.
    "Eh?" he said.
    "I _said_, we tried that Archchancellor," said the Bursar loudly,
    directing his voice at the old man's ear.  "After dinner, you
    remember?  We used Humptemper's _Names of the Ants_ and rang Old
    Tom."*
    "Did we, indeed.  Worked, did it?"
    "_No_, Archchancellor."

    * Old Tom was the single cracked bronze bell in the University
    bell tower.
        [ Eric, by Terry Pratchett ]
blind io
    On this particular day Blind Io, by dint of constant vigilance
    the chief of the gods, sat with his chin on his hand
    and looked at the gaming board on the red marble table in
    front of him.  Blind Io had got his name because, where his
    eye sockets should have been, there were nothing but two
    areas of blank skin.  His eyes, of which he had an impressively
    large number, led a semi-independent life of their
    own.  Several were currently hovering above the table.
        [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
* blob
    Animated protoplasm.
bone devil
    Bone devils attack with weapons and with a great hooked tail
    which causes a loss of strength to those they sting.
book of the dead
    Faustus: Come on Mephistopheles.  What shall we do?
    Mephistopheles: Nay, I know not.  We shall be cursed with bell,
    book, and candle.
    Faustus: How?  Bell, book, and candle, candle, book, and bell,
    Forward and backward, to curse Faustus to hell.
    Anon you shall hear a hog grunt, a calf bleat, and an ass bray,
    Because it is Saint Peter's holy day.
    (Enter all the Friars to sing the dirge)
        [ Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, by Christopher Marlowe ]
brigit
    Brigit (Brigid, Bride, Banfile), which means the Exalted One,
    was the Celtic (continental European and Irish) fertility
    goddess.  She was originally celebrated on February first in
    the festival of Imbolc, which coincided with the beginning
    of lactation in ewes and was regarded in Scotland as the date
    on which Brigit deposed the blue-faced hag of winter.  The
    Christian calendar adopted the same date for the Feast of St.
    Brigit.  There is no record that a Christian saint ever
    actually existed, but in Irish mythology she became the
    midwife to the Virgin Mary.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
broadsword
    Bring me my broadsword
    And clear understanding.
    Bring me my cross of gold,
    As a talisman.
        [ "Broadsword" (refrain) by Ian Anderson ]
bugbear
    Bugbears are relatives of goblins, although they tend to be
    larger and more hairy.  They are aggressive carnivores and
    sometimes kill just for the treasure their victims may be
    carrying.
    Bugbears are giant, hairy  cousins of goblins who frequent the same
    areas  as  their smaller  relatives.  Bugbears are  large and  very
    muscular, standing 7' tall.  Their hides range from light yellow to
    yellow brown  and their  thick coarse  hair varies  in colour  from
    brown  to  brick  red.  Though  vaguely   humanoid  in  appearance,
    bugbears seem to contain the  blood of some large  carnivore. Their
    eyes recall  those of  some savage  bestial animal, being  greenish
    white with  red pupils, while their  ears are  wedge shaped, rising
    from the  top of  their heads. A  bugbear's mouth  is full of  long
    sharp fangs.
    Bugbears have two main goals  in life: survival and  treasure. They
    are  superb  carnivores,  winnowing  out  the   weak  and  careless
    adventurer, monster, and animal. Goblins  are always on  their toes
    when  bugbears are present, for  the weak or  stupid quickly end up
    in the stewpot.
                     [ Monstrous Manual, by TSR, Inc. ]
*camaxtli
    A classical Mesoamerican Aztec god, also known as Mixcoatl-
    Camaxtli (the Cloud Serpent), Camaxtli is the god of war.  He
    is also a diety of hunting and fire who received human
    sacrifice of captured prisoners.  According to tradition, the
    sun god Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into Mixcoatl-Camaxtli
    to make fire by twirling the sacred fire sticks.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
s*d*g*r* cat
    Imagine a sealed container, so perfectly constructed that no
    physical influence can pass either inwards or outwards across its
    walls.  Imagine that inside the container is a cat, and also a
    device that can be triggered by some quantum event.  If that event
    takes place, then the device smashes a phial containing cyanide and
    the cat is killed.  If the event does not take place, the cat lives
    on.  In Schroedinger's original version, the quantum event was the
    decay of a radioactive atom.  ...  To the outside observer, the cat
    is indeed in a linear combination of being alive and dead, and only
    when the container is finally opened would the cat's state vector
    collapse into one or the other.  On the other hand, to a (suitably
    protected) observer inside the container, the cat's state-vector
    would have collapsed much earlier, and the outside observer's
    linear combination has no relevance.
            [ The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose ]
*cat
kitten
    Well-known quadruped domestic animal from the family of
    predatory felines (_Felis ochreata domestica_), with a thick,
    soft pelt; often kept as a pet.  Various folklores have the
    cat associated with magic and the gods of ancient Egypt.
*centaur
    Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination
    the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves.
    Despite a strong streak of sensuality, in their make-up,
    their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly
    thought of man's welfare.  The attempted outrage of Nessos on
    Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the
    Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of
    Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet,
    lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles.  Further, the
    Centaurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the
    body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved
    an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important
    members.  So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek.
    These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and
    clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially
    with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos.
             [ Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271 ]
*erberus
kerberos
    Cerberus, (or Kerberos in Greek), was the three-headed dog
    that guarded the Gates of Hell.  He allowed any dead to enter,
    and likewise prevented them all from ever leaving.  He was
    bested only twice:  once when Orpheus put him to sleep by
    playing bewitching music on his lyre, and the other time when
    Hercules confronted him and took him to the world of the
    living (as his twelfth and last labor).
chameleon
    Name of a family (_Chameleonidae_) and race (_Chameleo_) of
    scaly lizards, especially the _Chameleo vulgaris_ species,
    with a short neck, claws, a grasping tail, a long, extendible
    tongue and mutually independent moving eyes.  When it is
    scared or angry, it inflates itself and its transparent skin
    shows its blood:  the skin first appears greenish, then
    gradually changes color until it is a spotted red.  The final
    color depends on the background color as well, hence the
    (figurative) implication of unreliability.  [Capitalized:]
    a constellation of the southern hemisphere (Chameleo).
        [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
*haro*n
    When an ancient Greek died, his soul went to the nether world:
    the Hades.  To reach the nether world, the souls had to cross
    the river Styx, the river that separated the living from the
    dead.  The Styx could be crossed by ferry, whose shabby ferry-
    man, advanced in age, was called Charon.  The deceased's next-
    of-kin would place a coin under his tongue, to pay the ferry-
    man.
chih*sung*tzu
    A Chinese rain god.
*hromatic *ragon
tiamat
    Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind.  She is
    extremely vain.
    Avaricious,  supremely vain,  and  profoundly Lawful  Evil,  Tiamat
    proclaims  herself  the   creator  of  all  evil  dragonkind,   and
    certainly many evil dragons  revere her as their creator and patron
    deity.  She  infests the  uppermost  of  the  Nine  Hells with  her
    consorts,  each a  Great Wyrm  of different  colour -  one red, one
    white, one green, one blue, and one black.
    Tiamat's Avatar appears  as a gigantic five-headed dragon with  one
    head of  each of  the chromatic  (evil) dragon  types. Each  head's
    colour  runs the length  of the  neck and into  the forepart of het
    body  as stripes,  gradually blending  to  three  stripes of  grey,
    blue-green,  and  purple  over her  back  and  hind-quarters,  then
    merging into a muddy dark  brown tail. Her underbelly and  legs are
    greenish white fading into her upper body colours.
                     [ Monster Mythology, by TSR inc. ]
cockatrice
    Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are
    just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg.  Then,
    along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad,
    to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to
    hatch.  When it hatches, out comes a creature called basilisk,
    or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures.  A single
    glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both
    man and beast.  Its power of destruction is said to be so
    great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal.
    Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vegetation
    to wither.

    There is, however, one creature which can withstand the
    basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel.  No one knows
    why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the
    basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle.  Perhaps
    the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness:  if it ever
    sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instantly.
    But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that
    merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
    sicken and die.
    [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
      and other sources ]
chickatrice
    This beastie is the recently-hatched broodling of a cockatrice, a
    creature feared by adventurers great and small for its petrifying
    peck.  [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
pyrolisk
    A single glance from this red-feathered cockatrice  can cause even
    the bravest adventurer to burst into flames, their flesh withering
    and blackening and curling beneath the creature's baleful gaze.
    [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
cornuthaum
    He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur tippets which had
    the signs of the zodiac embroidered over it, with various
    cabalistic signs, such as triangles with eyes in them, queer
    crosses, leaves of trees, bones of birds and animals, and a
    planetarium whose stars shone like bits of looking-glass with
    the sun on them.  He had a pointed hat like a dunce's cap, or
    like the headgear worn by ladies of that time, except that
    the ladies were accustomed to have a bit of veil floating
    from the top of it.
                        [ The Once and Future King, by T.H. White ]

        "A wizard!" Dooley exclaimed, astounded.
        "At your service, sirs," said the wizard.  "How
    perceptive of you to notice.  I suppose my hat rather gives me
    away.  Something of a beacon, I don't doubt."  His hat was
    pretty much that, tall and cone-shaped with stars and crescent
    moons all over it.  All in all, it couldn't have been more
    wizardish.
                        [ The Elfin Ship, James P. Blaylock ]
couatl
    A mythical feathered serpent.  The couatl are very rare.
    The couatl  are feathered serpents of myth and lore. It is believed
    that  they are  distant relatives  of dragons,  though this remains
    unproven.  So rare  as to be  considered legendary,  the couatl are
    some  of the  most beautiful creatures  in existence.  A couatl has
    the body of  a long serpent and  feathered wings the colour of  the
    rainbow. Occasionally  sent as  messengers from  the gods to  their
    erring servants,  a couatl  will always  seek to  punish those  who
    deserve it.
                 [ 2nd ed. Monstrous Compendium, by TSR, Inc. ]
cram*
    If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't
    know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely,
    is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining,
    being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing
    exercise.  It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.
        [The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien]
*crocodile
    A big animal with the appearance of a lizard, constituting
    an order of the reptiles (_Loricata_ or _Crocodylia_), the
    crocodile is a large, dangerous predator native to tropical
    and subtropical climes.  It spends most of its time in large
    bodies of water.
croesus
kroisos
creosote
    Croesus (in Greek: Kroisos), the wealthy last king of Lydia;
    his empire was destroyed when he attacked Cyrus in 549, after
    the Oracle of Delphi (q.v.) had told him:  "if you attack the
    Persians, you will destroy a mighty empire".  Herodotus
    relates of his legendary conversation with Solon of Athens,
    who impressed upon him that being rich does not imply being
    happy and that no one should be considered fortunate before
    his death.
crom
    Warily Conan scanned his surroundings, all of his senses alert
    for signs of possible danger.  Off in the distance, he could
    see the familiar shapes of the Camp of the Duali tribe.
    Suddenly, the hairs on his neck stand on end as he detects the
    aura of evil magic in the air.  Without thought, he readies
    his weapon, and mutters under his breath:
    "By Crom, there will be blood spilt today."

    [ Conan the Avenger by Robert E. Howard, Bjorn Nyberg, and
      L. Sprague de Camp ]
*yclops
    And after he had milked his cattle swiftly,
    he again took hold of two of my men
    and had them as his supper.
    Then I went, with a tub of red wine,
    to stand before the Cyclops, saying:
    "A drop of wine after all this human meat,
    so you can taste the delicious wine
    that is stored in our ship, Cyclops."
    He took the tub and emptied it.
    He appreciated the priceless wine that much
    that he promptly asked me for a second tub.
    "Give it", he said, "and give me your name as well".
            ...
    Thrice I filled the tub,
    and after the wine had clouded his mind,
    I said to him, in a tone as sweet as honey:
    "You have asked my name, Cyclops?  Well,
    my name is very well known.  I'll give it to you,
    if you give me the gift you promised me as a guest.
    My name is Nobody.  All call me thus:
    my father and my mother and my friends."
    Ruthlessly he answered to this:
    "Nobody, I will eat you last of all;
    your host of friends will completely precede you.
    That will be my present to you, my friend."
    And after these words he fell down backwards,
    restrained by the all-restrainer Hupnos.
    His monstrous neck slid into the dust;
    the red wine squirted from his throat;
    the drunk vomited lumps of human flesh.
        [ The Odyssey, (chapter Epsilon), by Homer ]
*ark *ne
    ... But he ruled rather by force and fear, if they might
    avail; and those who perceived his shadow spreading over the
    world called him the Dark Lord and named him the Enemy; and
    he gathered again under his government all the evil things of
    the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it,
    and the Orcs were at his command and multiplied like flies.
    Thus the Black Years began ...
        [ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
demogorgon
    Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth and can
    spread a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending
    them.  He is a mighty spellcaster, and he can drain the life
    of mortals with a touch of his tail.
dispater
    Dispater is an arch-devil who rules the city of Dis.  He is
    a powerful mage.
djinn*
    The djinn are genies from the elemental plane of Air.  There,
    among their kind, they have their own societies.  They are
    sometimes encountered on earth and may even be summoned here
    to perform some service for powerful wizards.  The wizards
    often leave them about for later service, safely tucked away
    in a flask or lamp.  Once in a while, such a tool is found by
    a lucky rogue, and some djinn are known to be so grateful
    when released that they might grant their rescuer a wish.
*dog
pup*
    A domestic animal, the _tame dog_ (_Canis familiaris_), of
    which numerous breeds exist.  The male is called a dog,
    while the female is called a bitch.  Because of its known
    loyalty to man and gentleness with children, it is the
    world's most popular domestic animal.  It can easily be
    trained to perform various tasks.
shadow wolf
    This evil creature (_canis tenebrous_)  lurks in the darker, more
    sinister corners of the world. Its bite is known for its chilling
    effect upon humanoid flesh, and it is not a tameable animal.
    [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
mist wolf
    This hazy canine  (_canis precipitous_) is  thought to  have a good
    heart hiding somewhere within its green, silky hide. Unfortunately,
    the  beast is  usually ravenous,  as its diet  of mist is  not very
    filling, at least compared to human flesh.
    [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
*dragon
*xoth
    In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man.  Although
    preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it
    was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction
    and disease.  Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous
    undertaking.  For the dragon's assailant had to contend
    not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire
    breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail,
    the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
    [Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]
dwarf*
    Dwarfs have faces like men (ugly men, with wrinkled, leathery
    skins), but are generally either flat-footed, duck-footed, or
    have feet pointing backwards.  They are of the earth, earthy,
    living in the darkest of caverns and venturing forth only
    with the cloaks by which they can make themselves invisible,
    and others disguised as toads.  Miners often come across them,
    and sometimes establish reasonably close relations with them.
    ... The miners of Cornwall were always delighted to hear a
    bucca busily mining away, for all dwarfs have an infallible
    nose for precious metals.
    Among other things, dwarfs are rightly valued for their skill
    as blacksmiths and jewellers: they made Odin his famous spear
    Gungnir, and Thor his hammer; for Freya they designed a
    magnificent necklace, and for Frey a golden boar.  And in their
    spare time they are excellent bakers.  Ironically, despite
    their odd feet, they are particularly fond of dancing.  They
    can also see into the future, and consequently are excellent
    meteorologists.  They can be free with presents to people
    they like, and a dwarvish gift is likely to turn to gold in
    the hand.  But on the whole they are a snappish lot.
        [ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
earendil
elwing
    In after days, when because of the triumph of Morgoth Elves and
    Men became estranged, as he most wished, those of the Elven-race
    that lived still in Middle-earth waned and faded, and Men usurped
    the sunlight.  Then the Quendi wandered in the lonely places of the
    great lands and the isles, and took to the moonlight and the
    starlight, and to the woods and the caves, becoming as shadows
    and memories, save those who ever and anon set sail into the West
    and vanished from Middle-earth.  But in the dawn of years Elves
    and Men were allies and held themselves akin, and there were some
    among Men that learned the wisdom of the Eldar, and became great
    and valiant among the captains of the Noldor.  And in the glory
    and beauty of the Elves, and in their fate, full share had the
    offspring of elf and mortal, Earendil, and Elwing, and Elrond
    their child.
        [ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
eel
giant eel
    The behaviour of eels in fresh water extends the air of
    mystery surrounding them.  They move freely into muddy, silty
    bottoms of lakes, lying buried in the daylight hours in summer.
    [...]  Eels are voracious carnivores, feeding mainly at
    night and consuming a wide variety of fishes and invertebrate
    creatures.  Contrary to earlier thinking, eels seek living
    rather than dead creatures and are not habitual eaters of
    carrion.
        [ Freshwater Fishes of Canada, by Scott and Crossman ]
elbereth
    ... Even as they stepped over the threshold a single clear
    voice rose in song.

        A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
        silivren penna miriel
        o menel aglar elenath!
        Na-chaered palen-diriel
        o galadhremmin ennorath,
        Fanuilos, le linnathon
        nef aear, si nef aearon!

    Frodo halted for a moment, looking back.  Elrond was in his
    chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon the
    trees.  Near him sat the Lady Arwen.  [...]
    He stood still enchanted, while the sweet syllables of the
    elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody.
    "It is a song to Elbereth," said Bilbo.  "They will sing that,
    and other songs of the Blessed Realm, many times tonight.
    Come on!"
       [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
electric eel
    South-American fish (_Gymnotus electricus_), living in fresh
    water.  Shaped like a serpent, it can grow up to 2 metres.
    This eel is known for its electrical organ which enables it
    to paralyse creatures up to the size of a horse.
       [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
*elemental
    Elementals are manifestations of the basic nature of the
    universe.  There are four known forms of elementals:  air, fire,
    water, and earth.  Some mystics have postulated the necessity
    for a fifth type, the spirit elemental, but none have ever
    been encountered, at least on this plane of existence.
~elf ??m*
*elf*
elvenking
    The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn
    rings of old trunks.  Some went to and fro bearing cups and
    pouring drinks; others brought food on heaped plates and
    dishes.
    "This is poor fare," they said to the hobbits; "for we are
    lodging in the greenwood far from our halls.  If ever you are
    our guests at home, we will treat you better."
    "It seems to me good enough for a birthday-party," said Frodo.
    Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for
    his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the
    sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a
    waking dream.  [...]
    Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to
    himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained
    in his memory as one of the chief events of his life.  The
    nearest he ever got was to say: "Well, sir, if I could grow
    apples like that, I would call myself a gardener.  But it was
    the singing that went to my heart, if you know what I mean."
       [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
erinys
erinyes
    These female-seeming devils named after the Furies of mythology
    attack hand to hand and poison their unwary victims as well.
ettin
    The two-headed giant, or ettin, is a vicious and unpredictable
    hunter that stalks by night and eats any meat it can catch.
excalibur
    At first only its tip was visible, but then it rose, straight,
    proud, all that was noble and great and wondrous.  The tip of
    the blade pointed toward the moon, as if it would cleave it
    in two.  The blade itself gleamed like a beacon in the night.
    There was no light source for the sword to be reflecting
    from, for the moon had darted behind a cloud in fear.  The
    sword was glowing from the intensity of its strength and
    power and knowledge that it was justice incarnate, and that
    after a slumber of uncounted years its time had again come.
    After the blade broke the surface, the hilt was visible, and
    holding the sword was a single strong, yet feminine hand,
    wearing several rings that bore jewels sparkling with the
    blue-green color of the ocean.
        [ Knight Life, by Peter David ]
eye of the aethiopica
    This is a powerful amulet of ESP.  In addition to its standard
    powers, it regenerates the energy of anyone who carries
    it, allowing them to cast spells more often.  It also reduces
    any spell damage to the person who carries it by half, and
    protects from magic missiles.  Finally, when invoked it has
    the power to instantly open a portal to any other area of the
    dungeon, allowing its invoker to travel quickly between
    areas.
floating eye
    Floating eyes, not surprisingly, are large, floating eyeballs
    which drift about the dungeon.  Though not dangerous in and
    of themselves, their power to paralyse those who gaze at
    their large eye in combat is widely feared.  Many are the
    tales of those who struck a floating eye, were paralysed by
    its mystic powers, and then nibbled to death by some other
    creature that lurked around nearby.
flesh golem
    With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
    the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
    of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.  It was
    already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
    the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
    glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
    eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
    motion agitated its limbs.

    How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
    delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
    had endeavoured to form?  His limbs were in proportion, and I
    had selected his features as beautiful.  Beautiful!--Great God!
    His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
    arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
    flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
    only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
    seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
    which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
    black lips.
        [ Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ]
fog cloud
    The fog comes
    on little cat feet.

    It sits looking
    over harbor and city
    on silent haunches
    and then moves on.
         [ Fog, by Carl Sandburg ]
*fung*
    Fungi, division of simple plants that lack chlorophyll, true
    stems, roots, and leaves.  Unlike algae, fungi cannot
    photosynthesize, and live as parasites or saprophytes.  The
    division comprises the slime molds and true fungi.  True
    fungi are multicellular (with the exception of yeasts); the
    body of most true fungi consists of slender cottony
    filaments, or hyphae.  All fungi are capable of asexual
    reproduction by cell division, budding, fragmentation, or
    spores.  Those that reproduce sexually alternate a sexual
    generation (gametophyte) with a spore-producing one.  The
    four classes of true fungi are the algaelike fungi (e.g.,
    black bread mold and downy mildew), sac fungi (e.g., yeasts,
    powdery mildews, truffles, and blue and green molds such as
    Penicillium), basidium fungi (e.g., mushrooms and puffballs)
    and imperfect fungi (e.g., species that cause athlete's foot
    and ringworm).  Fungi help decompose organic matter (important
    in soil renewal); are valuable as a source of antibiotics,
    vitamins, and various chemicals; and for their role in
    fermentation, e.g., in bread and alcoholic beverage
    production.
        [ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
*gargoyle
    And so it came to pass that while Man ruled on Earth, the
    gargoyles waited, lurking, hidden from the light.  Reborn
    every 600 years in Man's reckoning of time, the gargoyles
    joined battle against Man to gain dominion over the Earth.

    In each coming, the gargoyles were nearly destroyed by Men
    who flourished in greater numbers.  Now it has been so many
    hundreds of years that it seems the ancient statues and
    paintings of gargoyles are just products of Man's
    imagination.  In this year, with Man's thoughts turned toward
    the many ills he has brought among himself, Man has forgotten
    his most ancient adversary, the gargoyles.
    [ Excerpt from the opening narration to the movie
        _Gargoyles_, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
geryon
    Geryon is an arch-devil sometimes called the Wild Beast,
    attacking with his claws and poison sting.  His ranking in
    Hell is rumored to be quite low.
ghost
    And 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 ]
*giant
giant humanoid
    Giants have always walked the earth, though they are rare in
    these times.  They range in size from little over nine feet
    to a towering twenty feet or more.  The larger ones use huge
    boulders as weapons, hurling them over large distances.  All
    types of giants share a love for men - roasted, boiled, or
    fried.  Their table manners are legendary.
~gnome ??m*
gnome*
gnomish wizard
    ...  And then a gnome came by, carrying a bundle, an old
    fellow three times as large as an imp and wearing clothes of
    a sort, especially a hat.  And he was clearly just as frightened
    as the imps though he could not go so fast.  Ramon Alonzo
    saw that there must be some great trouble that was vexing
    magical things; and, since gnomes speak the language of men, and
    will answer if spoken to gently, he raised his hat, and asked
    of the gnome his name.  The gnome did not stop his hasty
    shuffle a moment as he answered 'Alaraba' and grabbed the rim
    of his hat but forgot to doff it.
    'What is the trouble, Alaraba?'  said Ramon Alonzo.
    'White magic.  Run!'  said the gnome ..
         [ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]
goblin
    Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.  They make
    no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.  They
    can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled
    dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually
    untidy and dirty.  Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes,
    tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well,
    or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and
    slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and
    light.
         [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
gold
gold piece
zorkmid
    A metal of characteristic yellow colour, the most precious
    metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange.  Symbol,
    Au; at. no. 79; at. wt. 197.2.  It is the most malleable
    and ductile of all metals, and very heavy (sp. gr., 19.3).
    It is quite unalterable by heat, moisture, and most
    corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in
    coin and jewelry.
         [ Webster's New International Dictionary
          of the English Language, Second Edition ]
~flesh golem
*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 ]
gremlin
    The gremlin is a highly intelligent and completely evil
    creature.  It lives to torment other creatures and will go
    to great lengths to inflict pain or cause injury.
grid bug
    These electronically based creatures are not native to this
    universe.  They appear to come from a world whose laws of
    motion are radically different from ours.

    Tron looked to his mate and pilot.  "I'm going to check on
    the beam connection, Yori.  You two can keep a watch out for
    grid bugs."  Tron paced forward along the slender catwalk
    that still seemed awfully insubstantial to Flynn, though he
    knew it to be amazingly sturdy.  He gazed after Tron, asking
    himself what in the world a grid bug was, and hoping that the
    beam connection -- to which he'd given no thought whatsoever
    until this moment -- was healthy and sound."
        [ Tron, novel by Brian Daley, story by Steven Lisberger ]
gunyoki
    The samurai's last meal before battle.  It was usually made
    up of cooked chestnuts, dried seaweed, and sake.
hachi
    Hachi was a dog that went with his master, a professor, to
    the Shibuya train station every morning.  In the afternoon,
    when his master was to return from work Hachi would be there
    waiting.  One day his master died at the office, and did not
    return.  For over ten years Hachi returned to the station
    every afternoon to wait for his master.  When Hachi died a
    statue was erected on the station platform in his honor.  It
    is said to bring you luck if you touch his statue.
heart of ahriman
    The other three drew in their breath sharply, and the dark,
    powerful man who stood at the head of the sarcophagus whispered:
    "The Heart of Ahriman!"  The other lifted a quick hand
    for silence.  Somewhere a dog began howling dolefully, and a
    stealthy step padded outside the barred and bolted door. ...
    But none looked aside from the mummy case over which the man
    in the ermine-trimmed robe was now moving the great flaming
    jewel, while he muttered an incantation that was old when
    Atlantis sank.  The glare of the gem dazzled their eyes, so
    that they could not be sure what they saw; but with a
    splintering crash, the carven lid of the sarcophagus burst
    outward as if from some irresistible pressure applied from
    within and the four men, bending eagerly forward, saw the
    occupant -- a huddled, withered, wizened shape, with dried
    brown limbs like dead wood showing through moldering bandages.
    "Bring that thing back?" muttered the small dark man who
    stood on the right, with a short, sardonic laugh.  "It is
    ready to crumble at a touch.  We are fools ---"
        [ Conan The Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
hell hound*
    Hell hounds are fire-breathing canines from another plane of
    existence brought here in the service of evil beings.  A hell
    hound resembles a large hound with rust-red or red-brown fur,
    and red, glowing eyes.  The markings, teeth, and tongue are
    soot black.  It stands two to three feet high at the shoulder
    and has a distinct odour of smoke and sulphur.  The baying
    sounds it makes have an eerie, hollow tone that sends a shiver
    through any who hear them.
hermes
    Messenger and herald of the Olympians.  Being required to do
    a great deal of travelling and speaking in public, he became
    the god of eloquence, travellers, merchants, and thieves.  He
    was one of the most energetic of the Greek gods, a
    Machiavellian character full of trickery and sexual vigour.
    Like other Greek gods, he is endowed with not-inconsiderable
    sexual prowess which he directs towards countryside nymphs.
    He is a god of boundaries, guardian of graves and patron deity
    of shepherds.  He is usually depicted as a handsome young
    man wearing winged golden sandals and holding a magical
    herald's staff consisting of intertwined serpents, the
    kerykeion.  He is reputedly the only being able to find his way
    to the underworld ferry of Charon and back again.  He is said
    to have invented, among other things, the lyre, Pan's Pipes,
    numbers, the alphabet, weights and measures, and sacrificing.
hezrou
    "Hezrou" is the common name for the type II demon.  It is
    among the weaker of demons, but still quite formidable.
hobbit
    Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more
    numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace
    and quiet and good tilled earth:  a well-ordered and well-
    farmed countryside was their favourite haunt.  They do not
    and did not understand or like machines more complicated
    than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a handloom, although
    they were skillful with tools.  Even in ancient days they
    were, as a rule, shy of "the Big Folk", as they call us, and
    now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.
        [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
hobgoblin
    Hobgoblin.  Used by the Puritans and in later times for
    wicked goblin spirits, as in Bunyan's "Hobgoblin nor foul
    friend", but its more correct use is for the friendly spirits
    of the brownie type.  In "A midsummer night's dream" a
    fairy says to Shakespeare's Puck:
        Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
        You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
        Are you not he?
    and obviously Puck would not wish to be called a hobgoblin
    if that was an ill-omened word.
    Hobgoblins are on the whole, good-humoured and ready to be
    helpful, but fond of practical joking, and like most of the
    fairies rather nasty people to annoy.  Boggarts hover on the
    verge of hobgoblindom.  Bogles are just over the edge.
    One Hob mentioned by Henderson, was Hob Headless who haunted
    the road between Hurworth and Neasham, but could not cross
    the little river Kent, which flowed into the Tess.  He was
    exorcised and laid under a large stone by the roadside for
    ninety-nine years and a day.  If anyone was so unwary as to
    sit on that stone, he would be unable to quit it for ever.
    The ninety-nine years is nearly up, so trouble may soon be
    heard of on the road between Hurworth and Neasham.
        [ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
hom*nculus
    A homunculus is a creature summoned by a mage to perform some
    particular task.  They are particularly good at spying.  They
    are smallish creatures, but very agile.  They can put their
    victims to sleep with a venomous bite, but due to their size,
    the effect does not last long on humans.

    "Tothapis cut him off.  'Be still and hearken.  You will travel
    aboard the sacred wingboat.  Of it you may not have heard; but
    it will bear you thither in a night and a day and a night.
    With you will go a homunculus that can relay your words to me,
    and mine to you, across the leagues between at the speed of
    thought.'"
        [ Conan the Rebel, by Poul Anderson]
horned devil
    Horned devils lack any real special abilities, though they
    are quite difficult to kill.
*horsem*
death
famine
pestilence
war
hunger
    [Pestilence:] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as
    it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.  And
    I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown
    was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

    [War:] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say,
    Come and see.  And there went out another horse that was red: and power was
    given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they
    should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

    [Famine:] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say,
    Come and see.  And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had
    a pair of balances in his hand.  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four
    beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a
    penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

    [Death:] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the
    fourth beast say, Come and see.  And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his
    name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.  And power was
    given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
    hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
         [ Revelations of John, 6:1-8 ]
huan*ti
    The first of five mythical Chinese emperors, Huan Ti is known
    as the yellow emperor.  He rules the _moving_ heavens, as
    opposed to the _dark_ heavens.  He is an inventor, said to
    have given mankind among other things, the wheel, armour, and
    the compass.  He is the god of fortune telling and war.
hu*h*eto*l
minion of huhetotl
    Huehuetotl, or Huhetotl, which means Old God, was the Aztec
    (classical Mesoamerican) god of fire.  He is generally
    associated with paternalism and one of the group classed
    as the Xiuhtecuhtli complex.  He is known to send his
    minions to reek havoc upon ordinary humans.
         [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
humanoid
    Humanoids are all approximately the size of a human, and may
    be mistaken for one at a distance.  They are usually of a
    tribal nature, and will fiercely defend their lairs.  Usually
    hostile, they may even band together to raid and pillage
    human settlements.
human
acolyte
apprentice
archeologist
arch priest
attendant
cave*man
chieftain
guard
healer
ninja
nurse
page
*priest*
ronin
samurai
shopkeeper
student
thug
warrior
*watch*
wizard
player
    These strange creatures live mostly on the surface of the
    earth, gathering together in societies of various forms, but
    occasionally a stray will descend into the depths and commit
    mayhem among the dungeon residents who, naturally, often
    resent the intrusion of such beasts.  They are capable of
    using weapons and magic, and it is even rumored that the
    Wizard of Yendor is a member of this species.
ice devil
    Ice devils are large semi-insectoid creatures, who are
    equally at home in the fires of Hell and the cold of Limbo,
    and who can cause the traveller to feel the latter with just
    a touch of their tail.
imp
     ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
    gambol and jump prodigiously; ...
        [ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]

    An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting.  Thus an 'ymp tree' was
    a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed.
    'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan,
    but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from
    hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as
    well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils.
    The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the
    ghostly and the diabolic state.
        [ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
incubus
succubus
    The incubus and succubus are male and female versions of the
    same demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
    usually to the detriment of the mortals who are unwise in
    their dealings with them.
ishtar
    Ishtar (the star of heaven) is the Mesopotamian goddess of
    fertility and war.  She is usually depicted with wings and
    weapon cases at her shoulders, carrying a ceremonial double-
    headed mace-scimitar embellished with lion heads, frequently
    being accompanied by a lion.  She is symbolized by an eight-
    pointed star.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan]
issek
    Now Issek of the Jug, whom Fafhrd chose to serve, was once
    of the most lowly and unsuccessful of the gods, godlets
    rather, in Lankhmar.  He had dwelt there for about thirteen
    years, during which time he had traveled only two squares up
    the Street of the Gods and was now back again, ready for
    oblivion.  He is not to be confused with Issek the Armless,
    Issek of the Burnt Legs, Flayed Issek, or any other of the
    numerous and colorfully mutilated divinities of that name.
    Indeed, his unpopularity may have been due in part to the
    fact that the manner of his death -- racking -- was not
    deemed particularly spectacular. ... However, after Fafhrd
    became his acolyte, things somehow began to change.
        [ Swords In The Mist, by Fritz Leiber ]
izchak
    The 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 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 dedicate NetHack 3.2 in his memory.
            [ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]
jabberwock
vorpal*
    "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
    Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
      The frumious Bandersnatch!"

    He took his vorpal sword in hand;
      Long time the manxome foe he sought --
    So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
      And stood awhile in thought.

    And, as in uffish thought he stood,
      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
    Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
      And burbled as it came!

    One, two! One, two! And through and through
      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
    He left it dead, and with its head
      He went galumphing back.
                [ Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll ]
jackal
    In Asiatic folktale, jackal provides for the lion; he scares
    up game, which the lion kills and eats, and receives what is
    left as reward.  In stories from northern India he is
    sometimes termed "minister to the king," i.e. to the lion.
    From the legend that he does not kill his own food has arisen
    the legend of his cowardice.  Jackal's heart must never be
    eaten, for instance, in the belief of peoples indigenous to
    the regions where the jackal abounds. ... In Hausa Negro
    folktale Jackal plays the role of sagacious judge and is
    called "O Learned One of the Forest."  The Bushmen say that
    Jackal goes around behaving the way he does "because he is
    Jackal".
        [ Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore ]
jaguar
    Large, flesh-eating animal of the cat family, of Central and
    South America.  This feline predator (_Panthera onca_) is
    sometimes incorrectly called a panther.
     [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
juiblex
jubilex
    Little is known about the Faceless Lord, even the correct
    spelling of his name.  He does not have a physical form as
    we know it, and those who have peered into his realm claim
    he is a slime-like creature who swallows other creatures
    alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes disease in his
    victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
kabuto
    The kabuto is the helmet worn by the samurai.  It was
    characterized by a prominent beaked front which jutted out over
    the brow to protect the wearer's face; a feature that gives
    rise to their modern Japanese name of 'shokaku tsuki kabuto'
    (battering-ram helmet).  Their main constructional element
    was an oval plate, the shokaku bo, slightly domed for the
    head with a narrow prolongation in front that curved forwards
    and downwards where it developed a pronounced central
    fold.  Two horizontal strips encircling the head were riveted
    to this frontal strip:  the lower one, the koshimaki (hip
    wrap), formed the lower edge of the helmet bowl; the other,
    the do maki (body wrap), was set at about the level of the
    temples.  Filling the gaps between these strips and the shokaku
    bo were small plates, sometimes triangular but more commonly
    rectangular in shape.  Because the front projected so
    far from the head, the triangular gap beneath was filled by
    a small plate, the shoshaku tei ita, whose rear edge bent
    downwards into a flange that rested against the forehead.
       [ Arms & Armour of the Samurai, by Bottomley & Hopson ]
katana
    The katana is a long, single-edged samurai sword with a
    slightly curved blade.  Its long handle is designed to allow
    it to be wielded with either one or two hands.
ki-rin
    The ki-rin is a strange-looking flying creature.  It has
    scales, a mane like a lion, a tail, hooves, and a horn.  It
    is brightly colored, and can usually be found flying in the
    sky looking for good deeds to reward.
king arthur
*arthur
    Ector took both his sons to the church before which the
    anvil had been placed.  There, standing before the anvil, he
    commanded Kay:  "Put the sword back into the steel if you
    really think the throne is yours!"  But the sword glanced
    off the steel.  "Now it is your turn", Ector said facing
    Arthur.
    The young man lifted the sword and thrust with both arms; the
    blade whizzed through the air with a flash and drilled the
    metal as if it were mere butter.  Ector and Kay dropped to
    their knees before Arthur.
    "Why, father and brother, do you bow before me?", Arthur asked
    with wonder in his voice.
    "Because now I know for sure that you are the king, not only
    by birth but also by law", Ector said.  "You are no son of
    mine nor are you Kay's brother.  Immediately after your birth,
    Merlin the Wise brought you to me to be raised safely.  And
    though it was me that named you Arthur when you were baptized,
    you are really the son of brave king Uther Pendragon and queen
    Igraine..."
    And after these words, the lord rose and went to see the arch-
    bishop to impart to him what had passed.
       [ Van Gouden Tijden Zingen de Harpen, by Vladimir Hulpach,
        Emanuel Frynta, and Vackav Cibula ]
knight
    Here lies the noble fearless knight,
    Whose valour rose to such a height;
    When Death at last had struck him down,
    His was the victory and renown.
    He reck'd the world of little prize,
    And was a bugbear in men's eyes;
    But had the fortune in his age
    To live a fool and die a sage.
        [ Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miquel de
          Cervantes Saavedra ]
~kobold ??m*
*kobold*
    The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation
    of a master wizard (demi-god?).  They are about 3' tall with
    a vaguely dog-like face.  They bear a violent dislike of the
    Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble
    for Elves at any time.
*kop*
    The typical policeman of 1920's movies, the Keystone Kop was
    modeled like the English "bobby", with a long brass-buttoned
    overcoat, carrying long nightsticks that he (more often than
    not) whapped himself with, rather than anyone else.  The
    Keystone Kops were very slapstick-like, relying on speed and
    numbers to achieve their comedy, rather than sophisticated
    wit.
kos
    "I am not a coward!" he cried.  "I'll dare Thieves' House
    and fetch you Krovas' head and toss it with blood a-drip at
    Vlana's feet.  I swear that, witness me, Kos the god of
    dooms, by the brown bones of Nalgron my father and by his
    sword Graywand here at my side!"
       [ Swords and Deviltry, by Fritz Leiber ]
koto
    A Japanese harp.
kraken
    Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
    was pale-green and luminous and wet.  Its fingered end had
    hold of Frodo's foot, and was dragging him into the water.
    Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife.  The
    arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out
    for help.  Twenty other arms came rippling out.  The dark
    water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
       [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*lady
offler
        Blind Io took up the dice-box, which was a skull whose various orifices had
    been stoppered with rubies, and with several of his eyes on the Lady he rolled
    three fives.  She smiled.  This was the nature of the Lady's eyes:  they were
    bright green, lacking iris or pupil, and they glowed from within.
        The room was silent as she scrabbled in her box of pieces and, from the
    very bottom, produced a couple that she set down on the board with two de-
    cisive clicks.  The rest of the players, as one God, craned forward to peer at
    them.
        "A wenegade wiffard and fome fort of clerk," said Offler the Crocodile
    God, hindered as usual by his tusks.  "Well, weally!"  With one claw he pushed
    a pile of bone-white tokens into the centre of the table.
        The Lady nodded slightly.  She picked up the dice-cup and held it as
    steady as a rock, yet all the Gods could hear the three cubes rattling about
    inside.  And then she sent them bouncing across the table.
        A six.  A three.  A five.
        Something was happening to the five, however.  Battered by the chance col-
    lision of several billion molecules, the die flipped onto a point, spun gently
    and came down a seven.  Blind Io picked up the cube and counted the sides.
        "Come _on_," he said wearily, "Play fair."
        [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett]
lemure
    The lowliest of the inhabitants of hell.
leocrotta
leu*otta
    ... the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness,
    the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a Stag, the neck,
    tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven
    hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous
    bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can
    imitate the human voice.
        [ Curious Creatures in Zoology, by John Ashton ]
leprechaun
    The Irish Leprechaun is the Faeries' shoemaker and is known
    under various names in different parts of Ireland:
    Cluricaune in Cork, Lurican in Kerry, Lurikeen in Kildare
    and Lurigadaun in Tipperary.  Although he works for the
    Faeries, the Leprechaun is not of the same species.  He is
    small, has dark skin and wears strange clothes.  His nature
    has something of the manic-depressive about it:  first he
    is quite happy, whistling merrily as he nails a sole on to a
    shoe; a few minutes later, he is sullen and morose, drunk
    on his home-made heather ale.  The Leprechaun's two great
    loves are tobacco and whiskey, and he is a first-rate con-man,
    impossible to out-fox.  No one, no matter how clever, has ever
    managed to cheat him out of his hidden pot of gold or his
    magic shilling.  At the last minute he always thinks of some
    way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the
    twinkling of an eye.
        [ A Field Guide to the Little People
                   by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse ]
*lich
    Once in a great while, an evil master wizard or priest will
    manage through use of great magics to extend his or her life
    far beyond the normal span of a human.  The usual effect of
    this is to transform the human, over time, into an undead of
    great magical power.  A Lich hates life in any form; even a
    touch from one of these creatures will cause a numbing cold
    in the victim.  They all possess the capability to use magic.
~* of light
* light
    Strange creatures formed from energy rather than matter,
    lights are given to self-destructive behavior when battling
    foes.
gecko
iguana
lizard
    Lizards, snakes and the burrowing amphisbaenids make up the
    order Squamata, meaning the scaly ones.  The elongate, slim,
    long-tailed bodies of lizards have become modified to enable
    them to live in a wide range of habitats.  Lizards can be
    expert burrowers, runners, swimmers and climbers, and a few
    can manage crude, short-distance gliding on rib-supported
    "wings".  Most are carnivores, feeding on invertebrate and
    small vertebrate prey, but others feed on vegetation.
        [ Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia ]
loki
    Loki, or Lopt, is described in Snorri's _Edda_ as being
    "pleasing and handsome in appearance, evil in character, and
    very capricious in behaviour".  He is the son of the giant
    Farbauti and of Laufey.
    Loki is the Norse god of cunning, evil, thieves, and fire.
    He hated the other gods and wanted to ruin them and overthrow
    the universe.  He committed many murders.  As a thief, he
    stole Freyja's necklace, Thor's belt and gauntlets of power,
    and the apples of youth.  Able to shapechange at will, he is
    said to have impersonated at various times a mare, flea, fly,
    falcon, seal, and an old crone.  As a mare he gave birth to
    Odin's horse Sleipnir.  He also allegedly sired the serpent
    Midgard, the mistress of the netherworld, Hel, and the wolf
    Fenrir, who will devour the sun at Ragnarok.
# long worm -- see "worm"
lord carnarvon
    Lord Carnarvon was a personality who could have been produced
    nowhere but in England, a mixture of sportsman and collector,
    gentleman and world traveler, a realist in action and a
    romantic in feeling.  ...  In 1903 he went for the first time
    to Egypt in search of a mild climate and while there visited
    the excavation sites of several archaeological expeditions.
    ...  In 1906 he began his own excavations.
        [ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
lord sato
    Lord Sato was the family head of the Taro Clan, and a mighty
    daimyo.  He is a loyal servant of the Emperor, and will do
    everything in his power to further the imperial cause.
lord surt*
    Yet first was the world in the southern region, which was
    named Muspell; it is light and hot; that region is glowing
    and burning, and impassable to such as are outlanders and
    have not their holdings there.  He who sits there at the
    land's-end, to defend the land, is called Surtr; he brandishes
    a flaming sword, and at the end of the world he shall go forth
    and harry, and overcome all the gods, and burn all the
    world with fire.
            [ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
lug*
    Lugh, or Lug, was the sun god of the Irish Celts.  One of his
    weapons was a rod-sling which worshippers sometimes saw in
    the sky as a rainbow.  As a tribal god, he was particularly
    skilled in the use of his massive, invincible spear, which
    fought on its own accord.  One of his epithets is _lamfhada_
    (of the long arm).  He was a young and apparently more
    attractive deity than Dagda, the father of the gods.  Being
    able to shapeshift, his name translates as lynx.
lurker*
    These dungeon scavengers are very adept at blending into the
    surrounding walls and ceilings of the dungeon due to the
    stone-like coloring of their skin.
lycanthrope
*were*
    In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting
    the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a
    were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province,
    "notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase."
    The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins,
    halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the
    said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to
    take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other
    penalty."  The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may
    judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following
    year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who
    ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little
    children, "even on Friday."  The poor lycanthrope, it appears,
    had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French
    pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from
    eating infants on a fast day.
        [ The History of Vampires, by Dudley Wright ]
magic mirror of merlin
    This powerful mirror was created by Merlin, the druid, in ages
    past, when trees sang and rocks danced.  It protects all who
    carry it from magic missiles, and gives them ESP.
mail d*emon
    It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
    domesticated canines only.
ma*annan*
    Normally called Manannan, Ler's son was the patron of
    merchants and sailors.  Manannan had a sword which never
    failed to slay, a boat which propelled itself wherever its
    owner wished, a horse which was swifter than the wind, and
    magic armour which no sword could pierce.  He later became
    god of the sea, beneath which he lived in Tir na nOc, the
    underworld.
manes
    The gnats of the dungeon, these swarming monsters are rarely
    seen alone.
marduk
    First insisting on recognition as supreme commander, Marduk
    defeated the Dragon, cut her body in two, and from it created
    heaven and earth, peopling the world with human beings who not
    unnaturally showed intense gratitude for their lives.  The
    gods were also properly grateful, invested him with many
    titles, and eventually permitted themselves to be embodied in
    him, so that he became supreme god, plotting the whole course
    of known life from the paths of the planets to the daily
    events in the lives of men.
        [ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
marilith
    The marilith has a torso shaped like that of a human female,
    and the lower body of a great snake.  It has multiple arms,
    and can freely attack with all of them.  Since it is
    intelligent enough to use weapons, this means it can cause
    great damage.
master assassin
    He strolled down the stairs, followed by a number of assassins.
    When he was directly in front of Ymor he said: "I've come for
    the tourist." ...
    "One step more and you'll leave here with fewer eyeballs than
    you came with," said the thiefmaster.  "So sit down and have
    a drink, Zlorf, and let's talk about this sensibly.  _I_
    thought we had an agreement.  You don't rob -- I don't kill.
    Not for payment, that is," he added after a pause.
    Zlorf took the proffered beer.
    "So?" he said.  "I'll kill him.  Then you rob him.  Is he that
    funny looking one over there?"
    "Yes."
    Zlorf stared at Twoflower, who grinned at him.  He shrugged.
    He seldom wasted time wondering why people wanted other people
    dead.  It was just a living.
    "Who is your client, may I ask?" said Ymor.
    Zlorf held up a hand.  "Please!" he protested.  "Professional
    etiquette."
        [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
master key of thievery
    This skeleton key was fashioned in ages past and imbued with
    a powerful magic which allows it to open any lock.  When
    carried, it grants its owner warning, teleport control, and
    reduces all physical damage by half.  Finally, when invoked,
    it has the ability to disarm any trap.
master of thieves
    There was a flutter of wings at the window.  Ymor shifted his
    bulk out of the chair and crossed the room, coming back with
    a large raven.  After he'd unfastened the message capsule from
    its leg it flew up to join its fellows lurking among the
    rafters.  Withel regarded it without love.  Ymor's ravens were
    notoriously loyal to their master, to the extent that Withel's
    one attempt to promote himself to the rank of greatest thief
    in Ankh-Morpork had cost their master's right hand man his
    left eye.  But not his life, however.  Ymor never grudged a
    man his ambitions.
        [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
medusa
    Medusa, one of the three Gorgons or Graeae, is the only one
    of her sisters to have assumed mortal form and inhabited the
    dungeon world.

    When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the
    conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the
    country.  She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her
    chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva,
    the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her
    beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents.  She became a cruel
    monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could
    behold her without being turned into stone.  All around the
    cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men
    and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and
    had been petrified with the sight.  Perseus, favoured by
    Minerva and Mercury, the former of whom lent him her shield
    and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she
    slept and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided
    by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he
    cut off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the
    middle of her Aegis.
        [ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
*mimic
    The ancestors of the modern day chameleon, these creatures can
    assume the form of anything in their surroundings.  They may
    assume the shape of objects or dungeon features.  Unlike the
    chameleon though, which assumes the shape of another creature
    and goes in hunt of food, the mimic waits patiently for its
    meals to come in search of it.
mind flayer
    This creature has a humanoid body, tentacles around its
    covered mouth, and three long fingers on each hand.  Mind
    flayers are telepathic, and love to devour intelligent beings,
    especially humans.  If they hit their victim with a tentacle,
    the mind flayer will slowly drain it of all intelligence,
    eventually killing its victim.
minotaur
    The Minotaur was a monster, half bull, half human, the
    offspring of Minos' wife Pasiphae and a wonderfully beautiful
    bull. ...  When the Minotaur was born Minos did not kill him.
    He had Daedalus, a great architect and inventor, construct a
    place of confinement for him from which escape was impossible.
    Daedalus built the Labyrinth, famous throughout the world.
    Once inside, one would go endlessly along its twisting paths
    without ever finding the exit.
        [ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
mit*ra*
    Originating in India (Mitra), Mithra is a god of light who
    was translated into the attendant of the god Ahura Mazda in
    the light religion of Persia; from this he was adopted as
    the Roman deity Mithras.  He is not generally regarded as a
    sky god but a personification of the fertilizing power of
    warm, light air.  According to the _Avesta_, he possesses
    10,000 eyes and ears and rides in a chariot drawn by white
    horses.  Mithra, according to Zarathustra, is concerned with
    the endless battle between light and dark forces:  he
    represents truth.  He is responsible for the keeping of oaths
    and contracts.  He is attributed with the creation of both
    plants and animals.  His chief adversary is Ahriman, the
    power of darkness.
        [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
            Nations, by Herbert Spencer Robinson and
            Knox Wilson ]
*mithril*
    _Mithril_!  All folk desired it.  It could be beaten like
    copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
    of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
    Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty
    of _mithril_ did not tarnish or grow dim.
        [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
mitre of holiness
    This helm of brilliance performs all of the normal functions
    of a helm of brilliance, but also has the ability to protect
    anyone who carries it from fire.  When invoked, it boosts
    the energy of the invoker, allowing them to cast more spells.
mjollnir
    Forged by the dwarves Eitri and Brokk, in response to Loki's
    challenge, Mjollnir is an indestructible war hammer.  It has
    two magical properties:  when thrown it always returned to
    Thor's hand; and it could be made to shrink in size until it
    could fit inside Thor's shirt.  Its only flaw is that it has
    a short handle.  The other gods judged Mjollnir the winner of
    the contest because, of all the treasures created, it alone had
    the power to protect them from the giants.  As the legends
    surrounding Mjollnir grew, it began to take on the quality of
    "vigja", or consecration.  Thor used it to consecrate births,
    weddings, and even to raise his goats from the dead.  In the
    Norse mythologies Mjollnir is considered to represent Thor's
    governance over the entire cycle of life - fertility, birth,
    destruction, and resurrection.
~slime mold
*mold
    Mold, multicellular organism of the division Fungi, typified
    by plant bodies composed of a network of cottony filaments.
    The colors of molds are due to spores borne on the filaments.
    Most molds are saprophytes.  Some species (e.g., penicillium)
    are used in making cheese and antibiotics.
        [ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
mol?ch
    And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
    Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever
    he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that
    sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech;
    he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall
    stone him with stones.
    And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off
    from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto
    Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
    And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes
    from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill
    him not:
    Then I will set my face against that man, and against his
    family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after
    him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
        [ Leviticus 20:1-5 ]
mumak*
    ... the Mumak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and
    the like of him does not walk now in Middle-Earth; his kin
    that live still in latter days are but memories of his girth
    and majesty.  On he came, ... his great legs like trees,
    enormous sail-like ears spread out, long snout upraised like
    a huge serpent about to strike, his small red eyes raging.
    His upturned hornlike tusks ... dripped with blood.
        [ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*mummy
    But for an account of the manner in which the body was
    bandaged, and a list of the unguents and other materials
    employed in the process, and the words of power which were
    spoken as each bandage was laid in its place, we must have
    recourse to a very interesting papyrus which has been edited
    and translated by M. Maspero under the title of Le Rituel de
    l'Embaumement. ...
    Everything that could be done to preserve the body was now
    done, and every member of it was, by means of the words of
    power which changed perishable substances into imperishable,
    protected to all eternity; when the final covering of purple
    or white linen had been fastened upon it, the body was ready
    for the tomb.
        [ Egyptian Magic, by E.A. Wallis Budge ]
mummy wrapping
    He held a white cloth -- it was a serviette he had brought
    with him -- over the lower part of his face, so that his
    mouth and jaws were completely hidden, and that was the
    reason for his muffled voice.  But it was not that which
    startled Mrs. Hall.  It was the fact that all his forehead
    above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and
    that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his
    face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose.  It was
    bright, pink, and shiny just as it had been at first.  He
    wore a dark-brown velvet jacket with a high, black, linen-
    lined collar turned up about his neck.  The thick black
    hair, escaping as it could below and between the cross
    bandages, project in curious tails and horns, giving him
    the strangest appearance conceivable.
        [ The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells ]
*naga*
*naja*
    The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and
    the head of a man or woman.  They will fiercely protect the
    territory they consider their own.  Some nagas can be forced
    to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.
naginata
    A Japanese pole-arm, fitted with a curved single-edged blade.
    The blades ranged in length from two to four feet, mounted on
    shafts about four to five feet long.  The naginata were cut
    with a series of short grooves near to the tang, above which
    the back edge was thinned, but not sharpened, so that the
    greater part of the blade was a flattened diamond shape in
    section.  Seen in profile, the curve is slight or non-
    existent near the tang, becoming more pronounced towards the
    point.

    "With his naginata he killed five, but with the sixth it
    snapped asunder in the midst and, flinging it away, he drew
    his sword, wielding it in the zigzag style, the interlacing,
    cross, reversed dragonfly, waterwheel, and eight-sides-at-
    once styles of fencing and cutting down eight men; but as he
    brought down the ninth with a mighty blow on the helmet, the
    blade snapped at the hilt."
        [Story of Tsutsui no Jomio Meishu from Tales of Heike]
nalfeshnee
    Not only do these demons do physical damage with their claws
    and bite, but they are capable of using magic as well.
nalzok
    Nalzok is Moloch's cunning and unfailingly loyal battle
    lieutenant, to whom he trusts the command of warfare when he
    does not wish to exercise it himself.  Nalzok is a major
    demon, known to command the undead.  He is hungry for power,
    and secretly covets Moloch's position.  Moloch doesn't trust
    him, but, trusting his own power enough, chooses to allow
    Nalzok his position because he is useful.
neanderthal*
    1.  Valley between Duesseldorf and Elberfeld in Germany,
    where an ancient skull of a prehistoric ancestor to modern
    man was found.  2.  Human(oid) of the race mentioned above.
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 ]
ninja-to
    A Japanese broadsword.
*norn
    The Norns were the three Norse Fates, or the goddesses of fate.
    Female giants, they brought the wonderful Golden Age to an end.
    They cast lots over the cradle of every child that was born,
    and placed gifts in the cradle.  Their names were Urda,
    Verdandi, and Skuld, representing the past, the present, and
    the future.  Urda and Verdandi were kindly disposed, but Skuld
    was cruel and savage.  Their tasks were to sew the web of
    fate, to water the sacred ash, Yggdrasil, and to keep it in
    good condition by placing fresh earth around it daily.  In her
    fury, Skuld often spoiled the work of her sisters by tearing
    the web to shreds.
        [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
            Nations by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox
            Wilson ]
nunchaku
    A Japanese flail.
*nymph
    A 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 ]
odin
    Also called Sigtyr (god of Victory), Val-father (father of
    the slain), One-Eyed, Hanga-god (god of the hanged), Farma-
    god (god of cargoes), Hapta-god (god of prisoners), and
    Othin.  He is the prime god of the Norsemen:  god of war and
    victory, wisdom and prophecy, poetry, the dead, air and wind,
    hospitality, and magic.
    As the god of war and victory, Odin is ruler of the Valkyries,
    warrior-maidens who lived in the halls of Valhalla in Asgard,
    the hall of dead heroes where he held his court.
    These chosen ones will defend the realm of the gods against
    the Frost Giants on the final day of reckoning, Ragnarok.
    As god of the wind, Odin rides through the air on his eight-
    footed horse, Sleipnir, wielding Gungner, his spear, normally
    accompanied by his ravens, Hugin and Munin, who he would also
    use as his spies.
    As a god of hospitality, he enjoys visiting the earth in
    disguise to see how people were behaving and to see how they
    would treat him, not knowing who he was.
    Odin is usually represented as a one-eyed wise old man with a
    long white beard and a wide-brimmed hat (he gave one of his
    eyes to Mimir, the guardian of the well of wisdom in Hel, in
    exchange for a draught of knowledge).
ogre*
    Anyone who has met a gluttonous, nude, angry ogre, will not
    easily forget this encounter -- if he survives it at all.
    Both male and female ogres can easily grow as tall as three
    metres.  Build and facial expressions would remind one of a
    Neanderthal.  Its small, pointy, keen teeth are striking.
    Since ogres avoid direct sunlight, their ragged, unfurry
    skin is as white as a sheet.  They enjoy coating their body
    with lard and usually wear nothing but a loin-cloth.  An elf
    would smell its rancid stench at ten metres distance.
    Ogres are solitary creatures:  very rarely one may encounter
    a female with two or three young.  They are the only real
    carnivores among the humanoids, and its favourite meal is --
    not surprisingly -- human flesh.  They sometimes ally with
    orcs or goblins, but only when they anticipate a good meaty
    meal.
        [ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
olog-hai
    But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen
    appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of
    Mordor.  Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech.  That
    Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not
    known.  Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs;
    but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike
    even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size
    and power.  Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will
    of their master:  a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and
    cunning, but harder than stone.  Unlike the older race of the
    Twilight they could endure the Sun....  They spoke little,
    and the only tongue they knew was the Black Speech of Barad-dur.
        [ The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*ooze
*pudding
    These giant amoeboid creatures look like nothing more than
    puddles of slime, but they both live and move, feeding on
    metal or wood as well as the occasional dungeon explorer to
    supplement their diet.
oracle
delphi
p*thia
    Delphi under towering Parnassus, where Apollo's oracle was,
    plays an important part in mythology.  Castalia was its
    sacred spring; Cephissus its river.  It was held to be the
    center of the world, so many pilgrims came to it, from
    foreign countries as well as Greece.  No other shrine rivaled
    it.  The answers to the questions asked by the anxious
    seekers for Truth were delivered by a priestess who went into
    a trance before she spoke.
        [ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
orb of detection
    This Orb is a crystal ball of exceptional powers.  When
    carried, it grants ESP, limits damage done by spells, and
    protects the carrier from magic missiles.  When invoked it
    allows the carrier to become invisible.
orb of fate
    Some say that Odin himself created this ancient crystal ball,
    although others argue that Loki created it and forged Odin's
    signature on the bottom.  In any case, it is a powerful
    artifact.  Anyone who carries it is granted the gift of
    warning, and damage, both spell and physical, is partially
    absorbed by the orb itself.  When invoked it has the power
    to teleport the invoker between levels.
goblin king
orcrist
    The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when he
    looked at it, and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth,
    clashed their shields, and stamped.  They knew the sword at
    once.  It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when
    the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did
    battle before their walls.  They had called it Orcrist,
    Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply Biter.
    They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.
        [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
orcus
    Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a ram's head and a poison
    stinger.  He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
    abilities.  His wand causes death to those he chooses.
~orc ??m*
orc*
* orc
uruk*hai
    Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the
    goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous.  The average orc
    is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders,
    a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur.
    Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
    Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested.  Not
    needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated
    apparels.  Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or
    hordes.  They tend to live underground as well as above
    ground (but they dislike sunlight).  Orcs can use all weapons,
    tools and armours that are used by men.  Since they don't have
    the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly
    hunting for them.  There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot
    use.
        [ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
osaku
    The osaku is a small tool for picking locks.
owlbear
    Owlbears are probably the crossbreed creation of a demented
    wizard; given the lethal nature of this creation, it is quite
    likely the wizard who created them is no longer alive.  As
    the name might already suggest, owlbears are a cross between
    a giant owl and a bear.  They are covered with fur and
    feathers.
palantir of westernesse
    The elves of long ago created this powerful crystal ball.
    When carried, it grants ESP, regeneration, and reduces all
    damage caused by spells to one-half of what it would have
    normally been.  When invoked, it tames creatures in its
    vicinity.
*piercer
    Ye Piercer doth look like unto a stalactyte, and hangeth
    from the roofs of caves and caverns.  Unto the height of a
    man, and thicker than a man's thigh do they grow, and in
    groups do they hang.  If a creature doth pass beneath them,
    they will by its heat and noise perceive it, and fall upon
    it to kill and devour it, though in any other way they move
    but exceeding slow.
        [ the Bestiary of Xygag ]
pit fiend
    Pit fiends are among the more powerful of devils, capable of
    attacking twice with weapons as well as grabbing and crushing
    the life out of those unwary enough to enter their
    domains.
platinum yendorian express card
    This is an ancient artifact made of an unknown material.  It
    is rectangular in shape, very thin, and inscribed with
    unreadable ancient runes.  When carried, it grants the one
    who carries it ESP, and reduces all physical damage done to
    the carrier by half.  It also protects from magic missile
    attacks.  Finally, its power is such that when invoked, it
    can charge other objects.
poseido*n
    Poseido(o)n, lord of the seas and father of rivers and
    fountains, was the son of Chronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus,
    Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.  His rank of ruler of the
    waves he received by lot at the Council Meeting of the Gods,
    at which Zeus took the upper world for himself and gave
    dominion over the lower world to Hades.
    Poseidon is associated in many ways with horses and thus is
    the god of horses.  He taught men how to ride and manage the
    animal he invented and is looked upon as the originator and
    guardian deity of horse races.
    His symbol is the familiar trident or three-pronged spear
    with which he can split rocks, cause or quell storms, and
    shake the earth, a power which makes him the god of
    earthquakes as well.  Physically, he is shown as a strong and
    powerful ruler, every inch a king.
        [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
          Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
ptah
    Known under various names (Nu, Neph, Cenubis, Amen-Kneph,
    Khery-Bakef), Ptah is the creator god and god of craftsmen.
    He is usually depicted as wearing a closely fitting robe
    with only his hands free.  His most distinctive features are
    the invariable skull-cap exposing only his face and ears,
    and the _was_ or rod of domination which he holds,
    consisting of a staff surmounted by the _ankh_ symbol of
    life.  He is otherwise symbolized by his sacred animal, the
    bull.
*purple worm
    A gargantuan version of the harmless rain-worm, the purple
    worm poses a huge threat to the ordinary adventurer.  It is
    known to swallow whole and digest its victims within only a
    few minutes.  These worms are always on guard, sensitive
    to the most minute vibrations in the earth, but may also
    be awakened by a remote shriek.
quadruped
    The woodlands and other regions are inhabited by multitudes
    of four-legged creatures which cannot be simply classified.
    They might not have fiery breath or deadly stings, but
    adventurers have nevertheless met their end numerous times
    due to the claws, hooves, or bites of such animals.
quantum mechanic
    These creatures are not native to this universe; they seem
    to have strangely derived powers, and unknown motives.
quasit
    Quasits are small, evil creatures, related to imps.  Their
    talons release a very toxic poison when used in an attack.
quetzalcoatl
    One of the principal Aztec-Toltec gods was the great and wise
    Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukumatz in Guatemala, and
    Kukulcan in Yucatan.  His image, the plumed serpent, is found
    on both the oldest and the most recent Indian edifices. ...
    The legend tells how the Indian deity Quetzalcoatl came from
    the "Land of the Rising Sun".  He wore a long white robe and
    had a beard; he taught the people crafts and customs and laid
    down wise laws.  He created an empire in which the ears of
    corn were as long as men are tall, and caused bolls of colored
    cotton to grow on cotton plants.  But for some reason or other
    he had to leave his empire. ...  But all the legends of
    Quetzalcoatl unanimously agree that he promised to come again.
        [ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
raiden
    The god of thunder.
rat
* rat
    Rats are long-tailed rodents.  They are aggressive,
    omnivorous, and adaptable, often carrying diseases.
rock mole
    A rock mole is a member of the rodent family.  They get their
    name from their ability to tunnel through rock in the same
    fashion that a mole tunnels through earth.  They are known to
    eat anything they come across in their diggings, although it
    is still unknown how they convert some of these things into
    something of nutritional value.
rogue
    I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a
    quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a
    good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other
    senses.  I see this is the time that the unjust man doth
    thrive. <...> The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity,
    stealing away from his father with his clog at his heels:  if
    I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the king
    withal, I would not do't:  I hold it the more knavery to
    conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
        [ Autolycus the Rogue, from The Winter's Tale by
                          William Shakespeare ]
rothe
    The rothe (pronounced roth-AY) is a musk ox-like creature with
    an aversion to light.  It prefers to live underground near
    lichen and moss.
rust monster
    These strange creatures live on a diet of metals.  They can
    turn a suit of armour into so much useless rusted scrap in no
    time at all.
sake
    Japanese rice wine.
salamander
    For hundreds of years, many people believed that salamanders
    were magical.  In England in the Middle Ages, people thought
    that fire created salamanders.  When they set fire to damp
    logs, dozens of the slimy creatures scurried out.  The word
    salamander, in fact, comes from a Greek word meaning "fire
    animal".
        [ Salamanders, by Cherie Winner ]
sasquatch
    An ape-like humanoid native to densely forested mountains,
    the sasquatch is also known as "bigfoot".  Normally benign
    and rarely seen, this creature is reputed to be a relative
    of the ferocious yeti.
sceptre of might
    This mace was created aeons ago in some unknown cave,
    and has been passed down from generation to generation of
    cave dwellers.  It is a very mighty mace indeed, and in
    addition will protect anyone who carries it from magic
    missile attacks.  When invoked, it causes conflict in the
    area around it.
scorpio*
    A sub-species of the spider (_Scorpionidae_), the scorpion
    distinguishes itself from them by having a lower body that
    ends in a long, jointed tail tapering to a poisonous stinger.
    They have eight legs and pincers.
        [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
shad*
    Shades are undead creatures.  They differ from zombies in
    that a zombie is an undead animation of a corpse, while a
    shade is an undead creature magically created by the use
    of black magic.
shaman karnov
    Making his quarters in the Caves of the Ancestors, Shaman
    Karnov unceasingly tries to shield his neanderthal people
    from Tiamat's minions' harassments.
shan*lai*ching
    The Chinese god of Mountains and Seas, also the name of an
    old book (also Shan Hai Tjing), the book of mountains and
    seas - which deals with the monster Kung Kung trying to
    seize power from Yao, the fourth emperor.
        [ Spectrum Atlas van de Mythologie ]
shito
    A Japanese stabbing knife.
skeleton
    A skeleton is a magically animated undead creature.  Unlike
    shades, only a humanoid creature can be used to create a
    skeleton.  No one knows why this is true, but it has become
    an accepted fact amongst the practitioners of the black arts.
slasher
    "That dog belonged to a settler who tried to build his cabin
    on the bank of the river a few miles south of the fort,"
    grunted Conan. ...  "We took him to the fort and dressed his
    wounds, but after he recovered he took to the woods and turned
    wild.  -- What now, Slasher, are you hunting the men who
    killed your master?" ...  "Let him come," muttered Conan.
    "He can smell the devils before we can see them." ...
    Slasher cleared the timbers with a bound and leaped into the
    bushes.  They were violently shaken and then the dog slunk
    back to Balthus' side, his jaws crimson. ...  "He was a man,"
    said Conan.  "I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the
    dog, who knew no fear."  He quaffed part of the wine, then
    emptied the rest upon the floor, with a curious heathen
    gesture, and smashed the goblet.  "The heads of ten Picts
    shall pay for this, and seven heads for the dog, who was a
    better warrior than many a man."
        [ Conan The Warrior, by Robert E Howard ]
slime mold
    Slime mold or slime fungus, organism usually classified with
    the fungi, but showing equal affinity to the protozoa.  Slime
    molds have complex life cycles with an animal-like motile
    phase, in which feeding and growth occur, and a plant-like
    immotile reproductive phase.  The motile phase, commonly
    found under rotting logs and damp leaves, consists of either
    solitary amoebalike cells or a brightly colored multinucleate
    mass of protoplasm called a plasmodium, which creeps about
    and feeds by amoeboid movement.
        [ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
*snake
serpent
water moccasin
python
pit viper
cobra
    Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
    had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
    every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of
    the fruit of the trees of the garden:  but of the fruit of the tree which is
    in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
    shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
    not surely die:  for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
    eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And
    when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
    to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
    thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

    And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?  And
    the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.  And the Lord God said
    unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cat-
    tle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
    dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  And I will put enmity between
    thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
    head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
        [ Genesis 3:1-6,13-15 ]
snickersnee
    Ah, never shall I forget the cry,
        or the shriek that shrieked he,
    As I gnashed my teeth, and from my sheath
        I drew my Snickersnee!
    --Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu
        [ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ]
*soldier
sergeant
lieutenant
captain
    The 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.
solonor thelandira
    The elven god of hunting and wilderness skills.  His
    followers honor him by excelling at archery.
*spider
    Eight legged creature capable of spinning webs to trap pray.
staff of aesculapius
    This staff is considered sacred to all healers, as it truly
    holds the powers of life and death.  When wielded, it
    protects its user from all life draining attacks, and
    additionally gives the wielder the power of regeneration.
    When invoked it performs healing magic.
statue*
    Then it appeared in Paris at just about the time that Paris
    was full of Carlists who had to get out of Spain.  One of
    them must have brought it with him, but, whoever he was, it's
    likely he knew nothing about its real value.  It had been --
    no doubt as a precaution during the Carlist trouble in Spain
    -- painted or enameled over to look like nothing more than a
    fairly interesting black statuette.  And in that disguise,
    sir, it was, you might say, kicked around Paris for seventy
    years by private owners and dealers too stupid to see what
    it was under the skin.
        [ The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett ]
sting
    There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about
    him when he came to his senses.  The spider lay dead beside
    him, and his sword-blade was stained black.  Somehow the
    killing of the giant spider, all alone and by himself in the
    dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of
    anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins.  He felt
    a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of
    an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put
    it back into its sheath.
    "I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call
    you Sting."
        [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
susano*o
    The Shinto chthonic and weather god and brother of the sun
    goddess Amaterasu, he was born from the nose of the
    primordial creator god Izanagi and represents the physical,
    material world.  He has been expelled from heaven and taken
    up residence on earth.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
tanko
    Samurai plate armor of the Yamato period (AD 300 - 710).
tengu
    The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese
    legend.  Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose
    and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up
    feuds and prolonging enmity between families.  Indeed, the
    belligerent tengus were supposed to have been man's first
    instructors in the use of arms.
    [Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]
thoth
    The Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, Thoth is the patron
    deity of scribes and of knowledge, including scientific,
    medical and mathematical writing, and is said to have given
    mankind the art of hieroglyphic writing.  He is important as
    a mediator and counsellor amongst the gods and is the scribe
    of the Heliopolis Ennead pantheon.  According to mythology,
    he was born from the head of the god Seth.  He may be
    depicted in human form with the head of an ibis, wholly as an
    ibis, or as a seated baboon sometimes with its torso covered
    in feathers.  His attributes include a crown which consists
    of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc.
    Thoth is generally regarded as a benign deity.  He is also
    scrupulously fair and is responsible not only for entering
    in the record the souls who pass to afterlife, but of
    adjudicating in the Hall of the Two Truths.  The Pyramid
    Texts reveal a violent side of his nature by which he
    decapitates the adversaries of truth and wrenches out their
    hearts.
        [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
thoth*amon
    Men say that he [Thutothmes] has opposed Thoth-Amon, who is
    master of all priests of Set, and dwells in Luxor, and that
    Thutothmes seeks hidden power [The Heart of Ahriman] to
    overthrow the Great One.
        [ Conan the Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
tiger
    1.  A well-known tropical predator (_Felis tigris_): a
    feline.  It has a yellowish skin with darker spots or
    stripes.  2.  Figurative: _a paper tiger_, something that is
    meant to scare, but has no really scaring effect whatsoever,
    (after a statement by Mao Ze Dong, August 1946).
        [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
titan
    Gaea, mother earth, arose from the Chaos and gave birth to
    Uranus, heaven, who became her consort.  Uranus hated all
    their children, because he feared they might challenge his
    own authority.  Those children, the Titans, the Gigantes,
    and the Cyclops, were banished to the nether world.  Their
    enraged mother eventually released the youngest titan,
    Chronos (time), and encouraged him to castrate his father and
    rule in his place.  Later, he too was challenged by his own
    son, Zeus, and he and his fellow titans were ousted from
    Mount Olympus.
        [ Greek Mythology, by Richard Patrick ]
tourist
    The road from Ankh-Morpork to Chrim is high, white and
    winding, a thirty-league stretch of potholes and half-buried
    rocks that spirals around mountains and dips into cool green
    valleys of citrus trees, crosses liana-webbed gorges on
    creaking rope bridges and is generally more picturesque than
    useful.
    Picturesque.  That was a new word to Rincewind the wizard
    (BMgc, Unseen University [failed]).  It was one of a number
    he had picked up since leaving the charred ruins of
    Ankh-Morpork.  Quaint was another one.  Picturesque meant --
    he decided after careful observation of the scenery that
    inspired Twoflower to use the word -- that the landscape was
    horribly precipitous.  Quaint, when used to describe the
    occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-
    ridden and tumbledown.
    Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld.
    Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant "idiot".
        [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
trapper
    The trapper is a creature which has evolved a chameleon-like
    ability to blend into the dungeon surroundings.  It captures
    its prey by remaining very still and blending into the
    surrounding dungeon features, until an unsuspecting creature
    passes by.  It wraps itself around its prey and digests it.
tripe ration
    If you start from scratch, cooking tripe is a long-drawn-out
    affair.  Fresh whole tripe calls for a minimum of 12 hours of
    cooking, some time-honored recipes demanding as much as 24.
    To prepare fresh tripe, trim if necessary.  Wash it thoroughly,
    soaking overnight, and blanch, for 1/2 hour in salted water.
    Wash well again, drain and cut for cooking.  When cooked, the
    texture of tripe should be like that of soft gristle.  More
    often, alas, because the heat has not been kept low enough,
    it has the consistency of wet shoe leather.
        [ Joy of Cooking, by I Rombauer and M Becker ]
*troll
    The troll shambled closer.  He was perhaps eight feet tall,
    perhaps more.  His forward stoop, with arms dangling past
    thick claw-footed legs to the ground, made it hard to tell.
    The hairless green skin moved upon his body.  His head was a
    gash of a mouth, a yard-long nose, and two eyes which drank
    the feeble torchlight and never gave back a gleam.
    [...]
    Like a huge green spider, the troll's severed hand ran on its
    fingers.  Across the mounded floor, up onto a log with one
    taloned forefinger to hook it over the bark, down again it
    scrambled, until it found the cut wrist.  And there it grew
    fast.  The troll's smashed head seethed and knit together.
    He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them.  The
    waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.
        [ Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson ]
tsurugi of muramasa
    This most ancient of swords has been passed down through the
    leadership of the Samurai legions for hundreds of years.  It
    is said to grant luck to its wielder, but its main power is
    terrible to behold.  It has the capability to cut in half any
    creature it is wielded against, instantly killing them.
tsurugi
    The tsurugi, also known as the long samurai sword, is an
    extremely sharp, two-handed blade favored by the samurai.
    It is made of hardened steel, and is manufactured using a
    special process, causing it to never rust.  The tsurugi is
    rumored to be so sharp that it can occasionally cut
    opponents in half!
twoflower
guide
    "Rincewind!"
    Twoflower sprang off the bed.  The wizard jumped back,
    wrenching his features into a smile.
    "My dear chap, right on time!  We'll just have lunch, and
    then I'm sure you've got a wonderful programme lined up for
    this afternoon!"
    "Er --"
    "That's great!"
    Rincewind took a deep breath.  "Look," he said desperately,
    "let's eat somewhere else.  There's been a bit of a fight
    down below."
    "A tavern brawl?  Why didn't you wake me up?"
    "Well, you see, I - _what_?"
    "I thought I made myself clear this morning, Rincewind.  I
    want to see genuine Morporkian life - the slave market, the
    Whore Pits, the Temple of Small Gods, the Beggar's Guild...
    and a genuine tavern brawl."  A faint note of suspicion
    entered Twoflower's voice.  "You _do_ have them, don't you?
    You know, people swinging on chandeliers, swordfights over
    the table, the sort of thing Hrun the Barbarian and the
    Weasel are always getting involved in.  You know --
    _excitement_."
        [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
tyaa
    An evil goddess, she is able to command all forms of birds
    to do her bidding.
tyr
    Yet remains that one of the Aesir who is called Tyr:
    he is most daring, and best in stoutness of heart, and he
    has much authority over victory in battle; it is good for
    men of valor to invoke him.  It is a proverb, that he is
    Tyr-valiant, who surpasses other men and does not waver.
    He is wise, so that it is also said, that he that is wisest
    is Tyr-prudent.  This is one token of his daring:  when the
    Aesir enticed Fenris-Wolf to take upon him the fetter Gleipnir,
    the wolf did not believe them, that they would loose him,
    until they laid Tyr's hand into his mouth as a pledge.  But
    when the Aesir would not loose him, then he bit off the hand
    at the place now called 'the wolf's joint;' and Tyr is one-
    handed, and is not called a reconciler of men.
            [ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
*hulk
    Umber hulks are powerful subterranean predators whose
    iron-like claws allow them to burrow through solid stone in
    search of prey.  They are tremendously strong; muscles bulge
    beneath their thick, scaly hides and their powerful arms and
    legs all end in great claws.
*unicorn
unicorn horn
    Men have always sought the elusive unicorn, for the single twisted horn which
    projected from its forehead was thought to be a powerful talisman.  It was
    said that the unicorn had simply to dip the tip of its horn in a muddy pool
    for the water to become pure.  Men also believed that to drink from this horn
    was a protection against all sickness, and that if the horn was ground to a
    powder it would act as an antidote to all poisons.  Less than 200 years ago in
    France, the horn of a unicorn was used in a ceremony to test the royal food
    for poison.

    Although only the size of a small horse, the unicorn is a very fierce beast,
    capable of killing an elephant with a single thrust from its horn.  Its fleet-
    ness of foot also makes this solitary creature difficult to capture.  However,
    it can be tamed and captured by a maiden.  Made gentle by the sight of a vir-
    gin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head in her lap, and in this docile
    mood, the maiden may secure it with a golden rope.
        [Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]

    Martin took a small sip of beer.  "Almost ready," he said.  "You hold your
    beer awfully well."
    Tlingel laughed.  "A unicorn's horn is a detoxicant.  Its possession is a
    universal remedy.  I wait until I reach the warm glow stage, then I use my
    horn to burn off any excess and keep me right there."
        [Unicorn Variations by Roger Zelazny]
valkyrie
    The Valkyries were the thirteen choosers of the slain, the
    beautiful warrior-maids of Odin who rode through the air and
    over the sea.  They watched the progress of the battle and
    selected the heroes who were to fall fighting.  After they
    were dead, the maidens rewarded the heroes by kissing them
    and then led their souls to Valhalla, where the warriors
    lived happily in an ideal existence, drinking and eating
    without restraint and fighting over again the battles in
    which they died and in which they had won their deathless
    fame.
        [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
            Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox
            Wilson ]
vampire
vampire bat
vampire lord
    The Oxford English Dictionary is quite unequivocal:
    _vampire_ - "a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in
    the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated
    corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking
    the blood of sleeping persons. ..."
vlad*
    Vlad Dracula the Impaler was a 15th-Century monarch of the
    Birgau region of the Carpathian Mountains, in what is now
    Romania.  In Romanian history he is best known for two things.
    One was his skilled handling of the Ottoman Turks, which kept
    them from making further inroads into Christian Europe.  The
    other was the ruthless manner in which he ran his fiefdom.
    He dealt with perceived challengers to his rule by impaling
    them upright on wooden stakes.  Visiting dignitaries who
    failed to doff their hats had them nailed to their head.
*vortex
vortices
    Swirling clouds of pure elemental energies, the vortices are
    thought to be related to the larger elementals.  Though the
    vortices do no damage when touched, they are noted for being
    able to envelop unwary travellers.  The hapless fool thus
    swallowed by a vortex will soon perish from exposure to the
    element the vortex is composed of.
vrock
    The vrock is one of the weaker forms of demon.  It resembles
    a cross between a human being and a vulture and does physical
    damage by biting and by using the claws on both its arms and
    feet.
wakizashi
    The samurai warrior traditionally wears two swords; the
    wakizashi is the shorter of the two.  See also katana.
warg
    Suddenly Aragorn leapt to his feet.  "How the wind howls!"
    he cried.  "It is howling with wolf-voices.  The Wargs have
    come west of the Mountains!"
    "Need we wait until morning then?" said Gandalf.  "It is as I
    said.  The hunt is up!  Even if we live to see the dawn, who
    now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves
    on his trail?"
    "How far is Moria?" asked Boromir.
    "There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen miles
    as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs,"
    answered Gandalf grimly.
    "Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can,"
    said Boromir.  "The wolf that one hears is worse then the orc
    that one fears."
    "True!" said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath.  "But
    where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls."
        [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*wight
    When he came to himself again, for a moment he could recall
    nothing except a sense of dread.  Then suddenly he knew that
    he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a barrow.  A
    Barrow-wight had taken him, and he was probably already under
    the dreadful spells of the Barrow-wights about which whispered
    tales spoke.  He dared not move, but lay as he found himself:
    flat on his back upon a cold stone with his hands on his
    breast.
        [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
wizard of balance
    The Wizard of Balance holds office in his hidden tower, only
    reachable by magical means, where he teaches his apprentices
    the enigmatic skills of occultism.  He considers himself a
    guardian of the equilibrium of the universe, and goes out of
    his way to promote stability.
wizard of yendor
    No one knows how old this mighty wizard is, or from whence he
    came.  It is known that, having lived a span far greater than
    any normal man's, he grew weary of lesser mortals; and so,
    spurning all human company, he forsook the dwellings of men
    and went to live in the depths of the Earth.  He took with
    him a dreadful artifact, the Book of the Dead, which is said
    to hold great power indeed.  Many have sought to find the
    wizard and his treasure, but none have found him and lived to
    tell the tale.  Woe be to the incautious adventurer who
    disturbs this mighty sorcerer!
wolf
*wolf
    The ancestors of the modern day domestic dog, wolves are
    powerful muscular animals with bushy tails.  Intelligent,
    social animals, wolves live in family groups or packs made
    up of multiple family units.  These packs cooperate in hunting
    down prey.
*worm
long worm tail
worm tooth
crysknife
    [The crysknife] is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken
    from dead sandworms.  The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed".
    An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's
    electrical field to prevent disintegration.  Fixed knives
    are treated for storage.  All are about 20 centimeters long.
        [ Dune, by Frank Herbert ]
wraith
nazgul
    Immediately, though everything else remained as before, dim
    and dark, the shapes became terribly clear.  He was able to
    see beneath their black wrappings.  There were five tall
    figures:  two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing.
    In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under
    their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs
    were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of
    steel.  Their eyes fell on him and pierced him, as they
    rushed towards him.  Desperate, he drew his own sword, and
    it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a
    firebrand.  Two of the figures halted.  The third was taller
    than the others:  his hair was long and gleaming and on his
    helm was a crown.  In one hand he held a long sword, and in
    the other a knife; both the knife and the hand that held it
    glowed with a pale light.  He sprang forward and bore down
    on Frodo.
        [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
wumpus
    The Wumpus, by the way, is not bothered by the hazards since
    he has sucker feet and is too big for a bat to lift.  If you
    try to shoot him and miss, there's also a chance that he'll
    up and move himself into another cave, though by nature the
    Wumpus is a sedentary creature.
        [ wump (6) -- "Hunt the Wumpus" ]
xan
    They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to
    find out what lay ahead.  "Since you are the one who sucks
    the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosquito,
    "go and sting the men of Xibalba."  The mosquito flew
    down the dark road to the Underworld.  Entering the house of
    the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw...

    The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the
    man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?"  So
    he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he
    knew the names of all twelve.
            [ Popul Vuh, as translated by Ralph Nelson ]
xorn
    A distant cousin of the earth elemental, the xorn has the
    ability to shift the cells of its body around in such a way
    that it becomes porous to inert material.  This gives it the
    ability to pass through any obstacle that might be between it
    and its next meal.
ya
    The arrow of choice of the samurai, ya are made of very
    straight bamboo, and are tipped with hardened steel.
yeenoghu
    Yeenoghu, the demon lord of gnolls, still exists although
    all his followers have been wiped off the face of the earth.
    He casts magic projectiles at those close to him, and a mere
    gaze into his piercing eyes may hopelessly confuse the
    battle-weary adventurer.
yeti
    An ape-like humanoid native to inaccessible mountain tops,
    the yeti is also known as "the abominable snowman".  Whether
    or not the title "man" is appropriate remains unknown.
yugake
    Japanese leather archery gloves.  Gloves made for use while
    practicing had thumbs reinforced with horn.  Those worn into
    battle had thumbs reinforced with a double layer of leather.
yumi
    The samurai is highly trained with a special type of bow,
    the yumi.  Like the ya, the yumi is made of bamboo.  With
    the yumi-ya, the bow and arrow, the samurai is an extremely
    accurate and deadly warrior.
*zombie
    The zombi... is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but
    taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a
    mechanical semblance of life, -- it is a dead body which is
    made to walk and act and move as if it were alive.
        [ W. B. Seabrook ]
zruty
    The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the
    wildernesses of the Tatra mountains.