Commit | Line | Data |
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15637ed4 RG |
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 |