Unseen horror

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Version 0.31: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
unseen horror xUnseen horror.png
HP 25-52
HD 7
XP 736
Speed 30
AC 5
EV 10
Will 20
Attack1 12 (hit: plain)


Resistances None
Vulnerabilities None
Habitat Land
Intelligence Animal
Uses Uses nothing
Holiness Natural
Size Medium
Type unseen horror, unseen horror
Flags See invisible
Invisible
Batty
A creature rarely seen by anyone; those few who have seen one would rather they hadn't. Among the few bemused reports, the single common element is the creatures' bat-like movement.

“The awful shadow of some unseen Power
Floats, tho’ unseen, amongst us.”
-Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”, I, 1-2. 1816.

Useful Info

Unseen horrors are fast monsters that are naturally and permanently invisible. Like bats, they constantly move around. They usually appear in mid-Dungeon; an out of depth unseen horror can appear as early as D:5.

Tips & Tricks

  • Unseen horrors are batty - they'll hit you, move away to a random tile, and repeat. Because they are so fast, they'll complete this cycle multiple times. Because they are invisible, it's hard to track their location (unless you have see invisible).
  • Without see invisible, unseen horrors can be quite difficult. In addition to being harder to track, invisible monsters are harder to hit and more likely to hit you.
  • If you don't have SInv, the following can be effective:
    • Scroll of poison: Unseen horror are batty, so they'll skitter into the poison clouds, which will quickly finish the monster off.
    • Attacks that don't miss: Spells like Olgreb's Toxic Radiance and Fireball don't miss, so the accuracy penalty does not matter.
    • If an unseen horror is in a cloud, it's much easier to detect its location. Other than a scroll of poison, scroll of fog or Mephitic Cloud can be used to see its position. Mephitic Cloud can also confuse the unseen horror, turning it nearly harmless.
  • Swinging or casting wildly at a target you cannot see (and that will not stay still) is generally a waste of time. You can greatly increase your odds of hitting an unseen horror by luring it into a hallway, so you at least know which direction it'll be in. Better yet, try to lure it in with a rat or some other weak monster coming in behind it. If you can pin it in place, that gets rid of a lot of its advantage. Attack it with Ctrl+direction (or *+direction).
  • Fleeing is sometimes the wisest choice, and actually not too hard to do. Blinking or teleporting away is an excellent temporary method, and since unseen horrors cannot open doors and tend to move away after hitting you, it's easy to run and then leave them locked in a small chamber or on the other side of the level. Failing that, you can usually lure them up a floor and then escape back down without them pursuing (though it may take a few tries). Their low willpower means a scroll of fear can get them to temporarily flee you.
    • Unseen horrors cannot fly, so if you have deep water or lava nearby, use them for an escape.
  • Worshipers of Cheibriados who can reliably invoke Slouch should do so if they are attacked by an invisible opponent; an unseen horror will generally die in one application.

History