1 Hack & Quest data file - version 1.0.3
10 < the staircase to the previous level
11 > the staircase to the next level
13 $ a pile, pot or chest of gold
22 ( a useful item (camera, key, rope etc.)
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]
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)]
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.]
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:
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
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
121 [From: A Field Guide to the Little People
122 by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse. ]
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-
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
160 [From: Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun
161 Library) and other sources. ]
168 ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
169 gambol and jump prodigiously; ...
170 [From: The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany.]
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]
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). ]
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
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). ]
223 From its teeth the crysknife can be manufactured.
224 ~ the tail of a long worm
226 The xan were animals sent to prick the legs of the Lords of Xibalba.
229 The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the wildernesses
230 of the Tatra mountains.
231 1 The wizard of Yendor
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