ADOM Guidebook

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Stone Giant Lord - Hawkslayer - Ratling guardians - Leggot - Ogre guardian - Gaab'Baay - Oracle - Malicious doctor - Ratling traders - Hidden locations

The High Mountain Village - part two

Click here for a color map of the High Mountain Village.

Monsters generated in the HMV are 10% random based on DL, 90% from the following list: ratling warrior (double chance), ratling thief, ratling archer, ratling fencer, ratling trader, ratling master thief, ratling warlord, ratling duelist, orc, goblin slavemaster, swordsman, outlaw, raider, goodwife (double chance), kobold, kobold shaman, farmer (quadruple chance), goblin, goblin rockthrower, ghul, stone giant, stone giant lord, jackalwere.

2.21.1 The Stone Giant Lord

Sometimes there is a Stone Giant Lord generated outside the High Mountain Village walls near where the PC enters from the wilderness. Needless to say, this can be a nasty surprise for a relatively low level PC who has descended through the Unremarkable Dungeon at the beginning of the game. If you can't run away, an attack with Berserk tactics may work if the PC has a decent weapon. He is vulnerable to magic.

2.21.2 Hawkslayer

The burly adventurer in the High Mountain Village will join a PC and act as a companion providing certain criteria are met: the PC must be at least level 25, must not be chaotic and the player (*not* the PC) must know a secret password ("Iceberg"). The only way to learn the password in ADOM itself is drinking from pools, and many players are reluctant to do so. Some players may remember Hawkslayer from the computer RPG "Bard's Tale III". The password is the same in that game.

Hawkslayer is not super-buff as companions go, but he is not bad.

On arriving at the HMV with a level 15 PC and using a blessed stethoscope on him, Hawkslayer was found to be:

You examine Hawkslayer, the burly adventurer. Diagnosis: Level: 1, 
DV: 24, PV: 15, Hits: 355, Attacks: 1, Damage: 14-50. Speed: 120.
A report from the Russian ADOM newsgroup on September 14th, 2000 described a PC who was very careful with Hawkslayer to start, training him in the upper levels of the CoC, proceeding to the Big Room then deeper into the CoC until he was able to take on molochs and balors. Using a blessed stethoscope on him at that point gave the following:

You examine Hawkslayer, the burly adventurer. Diagnosis: Level: 110, 
DV: 96, PV: 36, Hits: 805, Attacks: 11, Damage: 50-86. Speed:120.
Quite impressive.

Hawkslayer uses eternium arrows which can be retrieved for the PC's own use.

It is possible to equip Hawkslayer with items in ADOM 1.0.0. If the PC drops certain equipment to the ground next to him he will pick up the items and equip them.

Unfortunately he will not wear body armor, but will equip boots, cloaks, gauntlets and shields. Be very careful, however. He will not equip these items after he is the PC's companion. The items must simply be dropped next to him *before* giving him the secret password. This behavior will probably change in future versions of ADOM.

2.21.3 Ratling guardians

Two ratling guardians are found at the entrance to the city. They seem to be flavor elements more than anything else and play no real role in the plot of the game.

Thanks to gut for the following:

They have a peculiarity that makes them useful for one thing. This strategy is really only worthwhile if the PC has no means of teleportation, and no potions of invisibility, or Leggot sees invisible too quickly. They are motionless, and will let the PC swap places with them. This means they can be maneuvered in front of Leggot's shop. Place a ratling near the doorway, gather the shop items, repeatedly drop them and pick them up until the shopkeeper doesn't block the doorway (this can take many tries, and being fast helps), stand in the doorway, and swap places with the ratling. An alarm sounds, and the PC will be cursed if it's not chaoticly aligned. Just kill or outrun the summoned thugs, which the PC should be able to do at this point in the game. Leggot won't kill the ratling to get at you, and many thugs will be trapped in his shop as well, they will just look on angrily as you leave. : )

2.21.4 Leggot

Leggot is the shopkeeper in the High Mountain Village. He may offer better prices than Waldenbrook, the shopkeeper in Dwarftown, both when selling items and buying items. He does not share Waldenbrook's hatred of Dark Elves.

2.21.5 Ogre guardian

Like the ratling guardians, the ogre guardian plays no real part in the game. He guards a prison in the High Mountain Village which holds a few monsters. The ogre guardian does not react if the PC opens the jail and kills the monsters within. If the ogre guardian becomes hostile, he is capable of throwing huge rocks at the PC.

2.21.6 Gaab'Baay

Gaab'Baay is of critical importance for those attempting a special ending. She assigns several quests; the reward is the Medal of Chaos, which is required to pass through the Chaos Gate. She will assign quests only to PCs with chaotic alignment. She will not assign quests until the demented ratling has been given six artifacts ("Talk to the mutated one."). Her quests are as follows:
  1. Bring her the skull of a giant boar. An annoying quest. Giant boars can only be found randomly in the wilderness, and rarely leave skulls, even for PCs that have Food Preservation at 100. This quest can literally take months of game time to complete, causing elapsed game time to exceed the 90 day point at which time background corruption starts to accelerate.
  2. Bring a potion of cure corruption. These can be obtained from Guth'Alak (see section 0.10.3.1.1). It is worth taking the time to get one from Guth'Alak, since they are very rare otherwise.
  3. Bring the corpse of a farmer. Quite often a farmer will be wandering around the outside of the High Mountain Village. Otherwise they can be found in Terinyo. It seems farmers leave a corpse more often after this quest is assigned, but the effect has not been quantitated. So if you are playing a wild chaotic, use some restraint and don't wipe out all farmers just because they are easy to kill. It might also be prudent to kill off the stone giant lord outside the HMV if one is generated. You don't want him killing off your farmer.
  4. Bring a scroll of danger. Another scarce item. If the PC finds one, it should be put somewhere safe until it is needed.
  5. Bring a wand of monster creation. Note that a cursed wand of monster creation will work, but one with zero charges left will not.
After successfully delivering all of these items, Gaab'Baay produces the Medal of Chaos. Note that it, like all parts of the Chaos Trinity, corrupts the PC merely by carrying it. Leave it somewhere safe until it is needed.

2.21.7 The Oracle

The Oracle dispenses advice to PCs with all three parts of the Chaos Trinity about how to become a chaos god. However, it is no longer necessary to have all three parts of the Chaos Trinity to enter the Chaos Gate. Interaction with the Oracle in ADOM 1.0.0 has not been thoroughly investigated.

The corpse of the Oracle grants +6 to Learning but also curses and dooms the PC. Beware of attacking the Oracle. She is capable of casting Death Ray and shares the properties of karmic beings, although she is not named as such. She can safely be killed with missiles, since she cannot move from her island. Just stay out of direct line. To get the best benefit from her corpse bless it and have Le under 20. Remember where the nearest altar is to remove the cursing and dooming.

2.21.8 The malicious doctor

The malicious doctor has a flesh golem companion for sale for 25,000 gold pieces. He plays no other part in the game. From the reports of those who have acquired this companion, it is not worth the money. If the player wants this companion, it is worth luring the malicious doctor to the SMC before buying it. In that case it is generated with much more experience.

Note that the malicious doctor will not sell this companion to lawful PCs. When lawful PCs 'C'hat with him, the game responds with "The malicious doctor eyes you with suspicion. "My office is closed."

2.21.9 Ratling traders

Ratling traders are occasionally generated in the High Mountain Village. Like many other random monsters in the High Mountain Village, they are quite often hostile. If the PC needs food at this point, don't kill hostile ratling traders. They may eventually become nonhostile and therefore a source of food.

2.21.10 Hidden locations

There are three hidden locations in the High Mountain Village. Gaab'Baay is located in a hidden passageway along the eastern wall. Two scrolls are located in the doorless room in the center of the northern wall. The only way to enter this room is with teleportation. Note that teleportation traps may be conveniently generated adjacent to and within the room:

  #######
  .#.?.#.
  .#^..#.
  .#####.
  ^......
The carets represent locations where a teleportation trap may be created. A teleportation trap can also be created on the square where the scrolls lie, of course.

The two scrolls are a cursed scroll of chaos resistance and a "strange message". See section 5.2 for the contents. The final location is a hidden passage in the western wall. It contains a potion of ultra healing and a staircase behind yet another hidden door. The staircase leads to the northern central part of the wilderness.

Please note that this is an unofficial and unauthorised copy of Andy William's ADOM Guidebook. For further information on the legal and moral challenges raised against this Improved ADOM Guidebook please see rec.games.roguelike.adom.
Updated July 4th, 2009