Scorpius
s Scorpius 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 17 |
| Attacks |
Claw 2d6, claw quest-artifact-stealing 2d6, sting sickness 1d4 |
| Base level | 15 |
| Base experience | 474 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -15 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | Unique |
| Genocidable | No |
| Weight | 750 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Poison, stoning |
| Resistances conveyed | Poison (100%) |
|
Scorpius:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line3277 |
Scorpius, s, is the Ranger quest nemesis. He is a unique scorpion that guards the Bell of Opening and the Ranger quest artifact, the Longbow of Diana. Scorpius is a strong, carnivorous and oviparous animal that will seek out magical items and other objects to collect—he is covetous and capable of warping, and can follow the hero to other levels if he is adjacent.
Scorpius has two claw attacks, the second of which can steal the quest artifact back if it was obtained without killing him, and a sting attack that can induce sickness. He possesses poison resistance.
Scorpius's corpse is poisonous to eat, but eating his corpse or tin is guaranteed to grant poison resistance.
Generation
Scorpius will always generate atop his throne at the center of his would-be castle, where he sits meditating with the quest artifact and Bell of Opening underneath him.
Strategy
As the damage Scorpius deals with his two claw attacks is fairly low, the true danger lies in his sickness-inducing sting: An attentive Ranger with a blessed unicorn horn and/or other methods of curing sickness (e.g. eucalyptus leaves and non-cursed potions of extra healing or full healing) may find Scorpius among the easier quest nemeses to defeat. Pets that are strong enough to attack Scorpius and weather his claw attacks have nothing to fear from his diseased sting, which deal no damage to other monsters.
Scorpius moves at the same base speed as you - with fast speed or better, you should have a few openings to attack him before he can teleport away. A scroll of scare monster or boulder fort on the up stair is an excellent defensive measure, as he lacks any sort of ranged or spellcasting attack, and his pitiful 10 AC makes it very easy to finish him off. Another method is to maintain line-of-sight with the up stair as you approach Scorpius: you can then snipe at him using whatever missiles you have on hand (e.g., your bow and a stack of enchanted arrows) and scare him towards the up stair. As long as you maintain enough distance, continued fire should drop Scorpius in a matter of turns.
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (NetHack 3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.
The scroll of scare monster on the ground no longer scares any unique monster.
Per commit 017a8687, Scorpius's disease-inducing sting can now damage monsters—this fix is part of addressing issue #594, which highlights that the Riders and other monsters with similar attack damage types are unable to hurt other monsters in combat.History
Scorpius is introduced along with the Ranger role, quest and quest artifact in NetHack 3.3.0.
As Scorpius is an oviparous monster, it is possible to wish for a "Scorpius egg": in NetHack 3.4.3 and previous versions, this wish produces an egg that will never actually hatch, since Scorpius is a unique monster. This is fixed in NetHack 3.6.0 via commit 029ca9f2 to produce a normal scorpion egg instead, rather than forbidding it outright.[1]
Origin
Scorpius (♏︎), or Scorpio, is one of the constellations of the zodiac, located in the Southern celestial hemisphere near the center of the Milky Way. It sits between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east, and is an ancient constellation that long pre-dates its identification by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century.
In Greek mythology, several tales associated with the constellation are also related to Orion. According to one version, Orion boasted to the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto while hunting with them that he could kill every animal that came from the Earth, and the duo sent a scorpion to kill Orion; their battle caught the attention of Zeus, who raised both combatants to the sky to serve as a reminder for mortals to curb their excessive pride. In another version, Artemis' twin brother Apollo sent the scorpion to kill Orion after the hunter earned the goddess' favor by admitting she was better than him, after which Zeus raised Orion and the scorpion to the sky - the seasons for each constellation's appearance is explained as Orion resuming his hunts every winter, but fleeing every summer when the scorpion comes. Scorpius is either depicted as a normal-sized scorpion or a giant scorpion depending on the source.
Encyclopedia entry
Since early times, the Scorpion has represented death, darkness,
and evil. Scorpius is the reputed slayer of Orion the Hunter.
[...] The gods put both scorpion and hunter among the stars, but
on opposite sides of the sky so they would never fight again.
As Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west.
