| Eternal guardian | |
| @ | |
 | |
| Location | D:29 |
|---|---|
| Monster type | Humanoid |
| Alignment | Lawful |
| Unique? | Yes |
| Sees invisible? | Yes |
| Sees in the dark? | Yes |
| Magic resistance | Very high |
| Picks up items? | No |
| 1.1.1 KPL | N/A |
The eternal guardian is a unique NPC. He is found blocking the down staircase on level 29 of the Caverns of Chaos. If the PC 'C'hats with him while wearing the Ring of the High Kings, he will disappear and allow the PC to pass. According to the Mad Minstrel, the eternal guardian is the brother of the last High King who, ages ago, fought to free the world from Chaos. The forces of Balance took the guardian's former life away and made him guard the staircase he is found on until the Chosen One arrives wearing his brother's ring.
Getting past the eternal guardian without the ring can be tricky. While the guardian can be lured off the stairs, he will summon a non-hostile copy of himself to block the stairs at the first opportunity. The copy will not allow even a PC wearing the ring past unless all hostile guardians are killed. Getting rid of him permanently would require killing him while he stands on the stairs, which is a difficult proposition given the guardian's high HP and armor-penetrating attacks.
The guardian can be blinded, confused, stunned, or teleported to remove him from the stairs. Stun and teleport are difficult to apply due to his high magic resistance, but cursed potions of invisibility, potions of blindness, potions of wonder, and potions of confusion do not have this problem. It's also possible teleport to the stairs after angering him with a ranged attack. PCs that are twice as fast as him may not even need to teleport.
The clones can potentially be farmed for large amounts of experience. If the level happens to feature an altar, they can even be sacrificed. However, as the guardians are lawful, killing them will rapidly reduce alignment. One way around this would be to first transform them into chaos creatures using corruption traps. The guardians' preference for diagonal movement makes it easy to repeatedly lure them over a properly placed trap.
Special abilities[]
- Penetrating melee attack
- Very often shrugs off bolts and other resistible magic
- Immune to death rays
- Immune to telepathic mindcraft
- Diagonal movement
- Can shatter doors
- Unique monster abilities
- Immune to polymorphing, petrification, and djinni strangling
- Unaffected by Calm Monster
- Cannot be swapped with
Common stats[]
Level: 1, DV: 30, PV: 60, Hits: 2362, Attacks: 3, Damage: 10-45, Speed: 100.
Corpse effects[]
The eternal guardian doesn't leave a corpse.
Monster memory[]
Heavily armored, and barrel-chested, this man is HUGE! He stands much taller than you, and is far broader, the folds of his armor hinting at the power beneath. Few of his features are visible beneath his visor, but you can feel cold, hard eyes sizing you up where you stand.