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1.1 root 1: Hack & Quest data file - version 1.0.3
2: @ human (or you)
3: - a wall
4: | a wall
5: + a door
6: . the floor of a room
7: a dark part of a room
8: # a corridor
9: } water filled area
10: < the staircase to the previous level
11: > the staircase to the next level
12: ^ a trap
13: $ a pile, pot or chest of gold
14: %% a piece of food
15: ! a potion
16: * a gem
17: ? a scroll
18: = a ring
19: / a wand
20: [ a suit of armor
21: ) a weapon
22: ( a useful item (camera, key, rope etc.)
23: 0 an iron ball
24: _ an iron chain
25: ` an enormous rock
26: " an amulet
27: , a trapper
28: : a chameleon
29: ; a giant eel
30: ' a lurker above
31: & a demon
32: A a giant ant
33: B a giant bat
34: C a centaur;
35: Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination
36: the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves.
37: Despite a strong streak of sensuality in their make-up,
38: their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly
39: thought of man's welfare. The attempted outrage of Nessos on
40: Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the
41: Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of
42: Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet,
43: lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles. Further, the Cen-
44: taurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the
45: body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved
46: an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important
47: members. So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek.
48: These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and
49: clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially
50: with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos.
51: [Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271]
52: D a dragon;
53: In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man. Although
54: preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it was
55: seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction and
56: disease. Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous under-
57: taking. For the dragon's assailant had to contend not only with
58: clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire-breathing nos-
59: trils, but also with the thrashings of its tail, the most deadly
60: part of its serpent-like body.
61: [From: Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]
62: E a floating eye
63: F a freezing sphere
64: G a gnome;
65: ... And then a gnome came by, carrying a bundle, an old fellow
66: three times as large as an imp and wearing clothes of a sort,
67: especially a hat. And he was clearly just as frightened as the
68: imps though he could not go so fast. Ramon Alonzo saw that there
69: must be some great trouble that was vexing magical things; and,
70: since gnomes speak the language of men, and will answer if spoken
71: to gently, he raised his hat, and asked of the gnome his name.
72: The gnome did not stop his hasty shuffle a moment as he answered
73: 'Alaraba' and grabbed the rim of his hat but forgot to doff it.
74: 'What is the trouble, Alaraba?' said Ramon Alonzo.
75: 'White magic. Run!' said the gnome ...
76: [From: The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany.]
77: H a hobgoblin;
78: Hobgoblin. Used by the Puritans and in later times for
79: wicked goblin spirits, as in Bunyan's 'Hobgoblin nor foul
80: friend', but its more correct use is for the friendly spir-
81: its of the brownie type. In 'A midsummer night's dream' a
82: fairy says to Shakespeare's Puck:
83: Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
84: You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
85: Are you not he?
86: and obviously Puck would not wish to be called a hobgoblin
87: if that was an ill-omened word.
88: Hobgoblins are on the whole, good-humoured and ready to be
89: helpful, but fond of practical joking, and like most of the
90: fairies rather nasty people to annoy. Boggarts hover on the
91: verge of hobgoblindom. Bogles are just over the edge.
92: One Hob mentioned by Henderson, was Hob Headless who haunted
93: the road between Hurworth and Neasham, but could not cross
94: the little river Kent, which flowed into the Tess. He was
95: exorcised and laid under a large stone by the roadside for
96: ninety-nine years and a day. If anyone was so unwary as to
97: sit on that stone, he would be unable to quit it for ever.
98: The ninety-nine years is nearly up, so trouble may soon be
99: heard of on the road between Hurworth and Neasham.
100: [Katharine Briggs, A dictionary of Fairies]
101: I an invisible stalker
102: J a jackal
103: K a kobold
104: L a leprechaun;
105: The Irish Leprechaun is the Faeries' shoemaker and is known
106: under various names in different parts of Ireland: Cluri-
107: caune in Cork, Lurican in Kerry, Lurikeen in Kildare and Lu-
108: rigadaun in Tipperary. Although he works for the Faeries,
109: the Leprechaun is not of the same species. He is small, has
110: dark skin and wears strange clothes. His nature has some-
111: thing of the manic-depressive about it: first he is quite
112: happy, whistling merrily as he nails a sole on to a shoe; a
113: few minutes later, he is sullen and morose, drunk on his
114: home-made heather ale. The Leprechaun's two great loves are
115: tobacco and whiskey, and he is a first-rate con-man, impos-
116: sible to out-fox. No one, no matter how clever, has ever
117: managed to cheat him out of his hidden pot of gold or his
118: magic shilling. At the last minute he always thinks of some
119: way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the
120: twinkling of an eye.
121: [From: A Field Guide to the Little People
122: by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse. ]
123: M a mimic
124: N a nymph
125: O an orc
126: P a purple worm
127: Q a quasit
128: R a rust monster
129: S a snake
130: T a troll
131: U an umber hulk
132: V a vampire
133: W a wraith
134: X a xorn
135: Y a yeti
136: Z a zombie
137: a an acid blob
138: b a giant beetle
139: c a cockatrice;
140: Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are
141: just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg. Then,
142: along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad,
143: to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to
144: hatch. When it hatches, out comes a creature called basil-
145: isk, or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures. A sin-
146: gle glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill
147: both man and beast. Its power of destruction is said to be
148: so great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove
149: fatal. Its breath is so venomenous that it causes all vege-
150: tation to wither.
151: There is, however, one creature which can withstand the
152: basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel. No one knows
153: why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the
154: basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle. Perhaps
155: the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness: if it ever
156: sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instant-
157: ly. But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said
158: that merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
159: sicken and die.
160: [From: Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun
161: Library) and other sources. ]
162: d a dog
163: e an ettin
164: f a fog cloud
165: g a gelatinous cube
166: h a homunculus
167: i an imp;
168: ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
169: gambol and jump prodigiously; ...
170: [From: The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany.]
171:
172: An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting. Thus an 'ymp tree' was
173: a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed.
174: 'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan,
175: but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from
176: hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as
177: well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils.
178: The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the
179: ghostly and the diabolic state.
180: [Katharine Briggs, A dictionary of Fairies]
181: j a jaguar
182: k a killer bee
183: l a leocrotta
184: m a minotaur
185: n a nurse
186: o an owlbear
187: p a piercer
188: q a quivering blob
189: r a giant rat
190: s a scorpion
191: t a tengu;
192: The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese
193: legend. Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose
194: and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up
195: feuds and prolonging enmity between families. Indeed, the
196: belligerent tengus were supposed to have been man's first
197: instructors in the use of arms.
198: [From: Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon
199: (The Leprechaun Library). ]
200: u a unicorn;
201: Men have always sought the elusive unicorn, for the single
202: twisted horn which projected from its forehead was thought
203: to be a powerful talisman. It was said that the unicorn had
204: simply to dip the tip of its horn in a muddy pool for the
205: water to become pure. Men also believed that to drink from
206: this horn was a protection against all sickness, and that if
207: the horn was ground to a powder it would act as an antidote
208: to all poisons. Less than 200 years ago in France, the horn
209: of a unicorn was used in a ceremony to test the royal food
210: for poison.
211: Although only the size of a small horse, the unicorn is a
212: very fierce beast, capable of killing an elephant with a
213: single thrust from its horn. Its fleetness of foot also
214: makes this solitary creature difficult to capture. However,
215: it can be tamed and captured by a maiden. Made gentle by the
216: sight of a virgin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head
217: in her lap, and in this docile mood, the maiden may secure
218: it with a golden rope.
219: [From: Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon
220: (The Leprechaun Library). ]
221: v a violet fungi
222: w a long worm;
223: From its teeth the crysknife can be manufactured.
224: ~ the tail of a long worm
225: x a xan;
226: The xan were animals sent to prick the legs of the Lords of Xibalba.
227: y a yellow light
228: z a zruty;
229: The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the wildernesses
230: of the Tatra mountains.
231: 1 The wizard of Yendor
232: 2 The mail daemon
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