Demons constantly appearing in a room

[Janis Papanagnou]

I'm not sure what happened in my current notnotdNethack game, or
what I did to get that effect...

It's a normal level in the upper dungeon (dlvl:14) with a temple
(cross-aligned) and a co-aligned altar. I'm doing some sacrifice
parties there. Now for ten thousands of turns nothing noteworthy
happened; until recently...

Regularly there's demons spawning at that level, major and minor
ones. And it doesn't end. - What may be the reason for that? How
can I stop that (other than leaving the level)?

The demons spawn in the room where a downstairs is located (if
that matters). I've dug up most of the floor tiles in case that
there's something similar to some "brain-root" buried (which is
the source of a similar effect with brainblossom patch monster),
but there was nothing buried. There's also no magic inscription
to summon something, as far as I can see. Or any other distant
monster that would summon demons.

Possible reasons...?
What I've previously done is to have attacked a weeping angel
that at some point. He dug down to leave the level. May that
be the reason for the observed effect?

Janis

[Janis Papanagnou]

Post by Janis Papanagnou
I'm not sure what happened in my current notnotdNethack game, or
what I did to get that effect...
It's a normal level in the upper dungeon (dlvl:14) with a temple
(cross-aligned) and a co-aligned altar. I'm doing some sacrifice
parties there. Now for ten thousands of turns nothing noteworthy
happened; until recently...
Regularly there's demons spawning at that level, major and minor
ones. And it doesn't end. - What may be the reason for that? How
can I stop that (other than leaving the level)?
The demons spawn in the room where a downstairs is located (if
that matters). I've dug up most of the floor tiles in case that
there's something similar to some "brain-root" buried (which is
the source of a similar effect with brainblossom patch monster),
but there was nothing buried. There's also no magic inscription
to summon something, as far as I can see. Or any other distant
monster that would summon demons.
Possible reasons...?
What I've previously done is to have attacked a weeping angel
that at some point. He dug down to leave the level. May that
be the reason for the observed effect?

In my stats I see these characterizations (in case they matter):
You occasionally struggle with insanity.
You occasionally see things you wish you hadn't.
You have a tendency to hallucinate.
You could use a stiff drink, or maybe some sedatives.
I have some booze to tackle the latter, but that probably won't
help me. (How to counter the other properties I don't know.)

Janis

[Ron Nazarov]

Post by Janis Papanagnou

Post by Janis Papanagnou
I'm not sure what happened in my current notnotdNethack game, or
what I did to get that effect...
It's a normal level in the upper dungeon (dlvl:14) with a temple
(cross-aligned) and a co-aligned altar. I'm doing some sacrifice
parties there. Now for ten thousands of turns nothing noteworthy
happened; until recently...
Regularly there's demons spawning at that level, major and minor
ones. And it doesn't end. - What may be the reason for that? How
can I stop that (other than leaving the level)?

That sounds like an alkilith is on the level. They're monsters that
passively spawn demons on the level. They can spawn starting from 6
insight, but require 66 insight to actually become visible, which is why
you can't see it. You can stop it by reaching 66 insight and killing
the alkilith. See
https://codeberg.org/noisytoot/notnotdnethack/commit/023ffc0dd611a85cf549f6c0b1b8a2201187d6c1
for a more complete description of alkiliths.

Post by Janis Papanagnou

Post by Janis Papanagnou
The demons spawn in the room where a downstairs is located (if
that matters). I've dug up most of the floor tiles in case that
there's something similar to some "brain-root" buried (which is
the source of a similar effect with brainblossom patch monster),
but there was nothing buried. There's also no magic inscription
to summon something, as far as I can see. Or any other distant
monster that would summon demons.
Possible reasons...?
What I've previously done is to have attacked a weeping angel
that at some point. He dug down to leave the level. May that
be the reason for the observed effect?

No.

Post by Janis Papanagnou
You occasionally struggle with insanity.

This means you have between 50 and 74 sanity. Unrelated.

Post by Janis Papanagnou
You occasionally see things you wish you hadn't.

This means you have between 1 and 19 insight, which explains why the
alkilith spawned but you can't see it.

Post by Janis Papanagnou
You have a tendency to hallucinate.

This means you have the delusions madness. Unrelated.

Post by Janis Papanagnou
You could use a stiff drink, or maybe some sedatives.
I have some booze to tackle the latter, but that probably won't
help me. (How to counter the other properties I don't know.)

Delusions is a permanent madness and cannot be cured, although its
effects can be mitigated by keeping your sanity high. Methods of
changing your insight are listed on
https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Insight#Methods_of_changing_insight.

[Janis Papanagnou]

Post by Ron Nazarov

Post by Janis Papanagnou

Post by Janis Papanagnou
I'm not sure what happened in my current notnotdNethack game, or
what I did to get that effect...
It's a normal level in the upper dungeon (dlvl:14) with a temple
(cross-aligned) and a co-aligned altar. I'm doing some sacrifice
parties there. Now for ten thousands of turns nothing noteworthy
happened; until recently...
Regularly there's demons spawning at that level, major and minor
ones. And it doesn't end. - What may be the reason for that? How
can I stop that (other than leaving the level)?

That sounds like an alkilith is on the level. They're monsters that
passively spawn demons on the level. They can spawn starting from 6
insight, but require 66 insight to actually become visible, which is why
you can't see it. You can stop it by reaching 66 insight and killing
the alkilith. See
https://codeberg.org/noisytoot/notnotdnethack/commit/023ffc0dd611a85cf549f6c0b1b8a2201187d6c1
for a more complete description of alkiliths.

Ah, okay. I suppose it means that neither searching nor fighting
at all the [seemingly unoccupied] spots would help to place a hit
on him.

So I need insight - something I know little about, or rather, I
haven't any clue what it is and how to obtain it. But given the
huge difference of actual vs. required level it would anyway mean
to require quite some effort and time, I'd assume. - So the best
(i.e. most simplest) approach is to just ignore the alkilith,
since I observed no further demon spawning once I left that
specific level.

Post by Ron Nazarov
[...]

Post by Janis Papanagnou
[...]
You occasionally see things you wish you hadn't.

This means you have between 1 and 19 insight, which explains why the
alkilith spawned but you can't see it.
[...] Methods of changing your insight are listed on
https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Insight#Methods_of_changing_insight.

Hmm.., okay. I don't recall to have seen any (or many) of these
monsters that would provide more insight. (Probably because I had
been effectively skipping the river-levels of the neutral quest,
and I also have yet visited just few levels of Gehennom.)

I also don't quite understand the insight weapons (from which I
think I have found or got the Bloodletter, a diskos, any maybe
Isamusei; the latter sounds at least familiar, I'll have to look
that up when I continue my game. Yet I don't understand how they
help to increase insight, so I suppose I'll have to somewhere
find the monsters listed on that page; a long-term undertaking).

Thanks for your support in my understanding the "nndnh" topics.

Janis

[Janis Papanagnou]

Post by Janis Papanagnou

Post by Ron Nazarov

Post by Janis Papanagnou
[...]
Regularly there's demons spawning at that level, major and minor
ones. And it doesn't end. - What may be the reason for that? How
can I stop that (other than leaving the level)?

That sounds like an alkilith is on the level. They're monsters that
passively spawn demons on the level. They can spawn starting from 6
insight, but require 66 insight to actually become visible, which is why
you can't see it. You can stop it by reaching 66 insight and killing
the alkilith. See
https://codeberg.org/noisytoot/notnotdnethack/commit/023ffc0dd611a85cf549f6c0b1b8a2201187d6c1
for a more complete description of alkiliths.

Ah, okay. I suppose it means that neither searching nor fighting
at all the [seemingly unoccupied] spots would help to place a hit
on him.

At some point I decided to return to the level and wait some longer
period of time while using the spent time for more sacrificing.

At some point I noticed in said room an empty spot almost completely
surrounded by demons; I concluded that the alkilith must therefore
reside on that empty spot in the middle. A walk past that quare or
search did not show up anything, as suspected.

But of course the demon spawning continued. At some point I detected
an "Ancient of death" demon, and its description outright frightens
me. Not only the "death dealing, life stealing" sort of attack, but
also the beheading attack, and its high level and huge armor class.

Firing for the first time the Hellfire crossbow, launching hundreds
of blessed +6 bolts, wasn't very effective. Despite the beheading
threat I therefore decided to melee the beast, alas, meanwhile there
was a second one of this powerful "Ancient of death" beast.

So while the invisible alkilith monster wasn't an issue the summoned
demons, especially demons like the ones mentioned here, may surely
be deadly. - I wonder what sort of attack would be appropriate. With
my +6 Stormbringer I could finally kill them, but it feels like a
possibly deadly gamble given the change of that demons beheading me.

Janis