Dancing weapon

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dancing weapon (
HP	16-54
HD	15
XP	932
Speed	13-19 "-19" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 13.
AC	17
EV	18
Will	Immune
Attack1	30 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rF++, rC++, rElec+++, rPois+, rN+++, rTorm, rRot+++, rDrown
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Plant
Uses	Uses nothing
Holiness	Non-living
Size	Small
Type	dancing weapon, dancing weapon
Flags	Fighter Levitate

A large two-handed war axe with a formidable double-sided head, designed for use in battle by skilled warriors. It has been enchanted to dance through the air and attack under its own power. On Carian coins, indeed of quite late date, the labrys, set up on its long pillar-like handle, with two dependent fillets, has much the appearance of a cult image. -Sir Arthur John Evans, Mycenaean tree and pillar cult and its Mediterranean relations, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ XXI, p. 109. 1901

Useful Info

Dancing weapons are weapons animated into life and capable of attacking on their own. They are fast and hit relatively hard, and their high EV, wide array of resistances, and immunity to many spells makes up for their minimal HP. Be aware that their stats vary based on the weapon type (dancing daggers are much less of a threat than dancing giant spiked clubs, for instance), and that dancing branded weapons will have especially potent attacks.

Instead of leaving corpses, dancing weapons simply become their base weapons when killed (unless they were summoned, in which case they disappear). These weapons may be enchanted or branded.

Friendly weapons can appear via:

• Tukima's Dance
• Xom action
• High power Blade card

Hostile weapons can appear via:

• Tukima's Dance cast on a cursed weapon
• At the entrance to, and inside, the Hall of Blades (always branded once inside the Hall, never branded at the entrance)
• Xom action
• Beogh's wrath

Tips & Tricks

• Non-elemental Conjurations, such as Airstrike or Iskenderun's Mystic Blast, are very effective against dancing weapons (Airstrike especially so, since it's being applied to a flying target).
• Dancing weapons also lack see invisible, so stabbing specialists with access to invisibility should have an easy time with them.
• In the Hall of Blades, every weapon will be branded. Taking out the dancing distortion weapons should be your highest priority. The other brands can be defended against by having a wide variety of other resistances.
• Note the differences between a hostile dancing weapon and a weapon mimic: weapon mimics are much slower, have only a poison-branded attack which bears no relation to the weapon being mimicked, and leave no "corpse."
• In console, dancing weapons are distinguishable at a glance from normal melee weapons since they are "reversed": dancing weapons are represented by (, while normal weapons are represented by ).