eat anything they come across in their diggings, although it
is still unknown how they convert some of these things into
something of nutritional value.
+rodent*
+ A gnawing mammal (order _Rodentia_) having in each jaw two
+ (rarely four) incisors, growing continually from persistent
+ pulps, and no canine teeth, as a squirrel, beaver, or rat.
+ [ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary
+ of the English Language ]
rogue
* rogue
I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a
conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
[ Autolycus the Rogue, from The Winter's Tale by
William Shakespeare ]
+roshi
+ Roshi is a Japanese word, common in Zen Buddhism, meaning "old"
+ (ro) and "teacher" (shi). Roshi can be used as a term of
+ respect, as in the Rinzai school; as a simple reference to
+ actual age, as in the Soto school; or it can mean a teacher who
+ has transmitted knowledge to, and thus "given birth" to, a new
+ teacher.
+ [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
rothe
The rothe (pronounced roth-AY) is a musk ox-like creature with
an aversion to light. It prefers to live underground near
seven and a half pounds to start off with would increase in
weight to five tons!"
[ Royal Jelly, by Roald Dahl ]
+ruby
+sapphire
+ _Corundum._ Mineral, aluminum oxide, Al2O3. The clear
+ varieties are used as gems and the opaque as abrasive materials.
+ Corundum occurs in crystals of the hexagonal system and in
+ masses. It is transparent to opaque and has a vitreous to
+ adamantine luster. ... The chief corundum gems are the ruby
+ (red) and the sapphire (blue).
+ [ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
rust monster
These strange creatures live on a diet of metals. They can
turn a suit of armour into so much useless rusted scrap in no
time at all.
+# takes "rust monster or disenchanter" when specifying 'R'
+rust monster or disenchanter
+ These ground-dwelling monsters are known to make short
+ work out of degrading adventurers' combat equipment.
*saber
*sabre
Flashed all their sabres bare,
a Sasquatch -- not Burns's giant Indian, but the hairy apelike
creature that we have all come to know.
[ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]
+scalpel
+ A scalpel is a very sharp knife used for surgery ... Merely
+ touching a medical scalpel with bare hands to test it will
+ cut through the skin. ... Medical scalpel blades are gradually
+ curved for greater precision when cutting through tissue.
+ [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*sceptre of might
This mace was created aeons ago in some unknown cave,
and has been passed down from generation to generation of
I read these words, and read again, and tried
My eyes against the heavens, and read again.
[ Endymion, by John Keats ]
+set
+seth
+ The ancient Egyptian god of chaos (Set), the embodiment of
+ hostility and even of outright evil. He is also a god of war,
+ deserts, storms, and foreign lands. ... In the Book of the
+ Dead, Seth is called "Lord of the Northern Sky" and is held
+ responsible for storms and cloudy weather. ... Seth was
+ portrayed as a man with the head of undeterminable origin,
+ although some see in it the head of an aardvark. He had a
+ curved snout, erect square-tipped ears and a long forked tail.
+ He was sometimes entirely in animal form with the body similar
+ to that of a greyhound. Animals sacred to this god were the
+ dog, the jackal, the gazelle, the donkey, the crocodile, the
+ hippopotamus, and the pig.
+ [ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
shad*
Shades are undead creatures. They differ from zombies in
that a zombie is an undead animation of a corpse, while a
[ Close to Shore, by Michael Capuzzo ]
shito
A Japanese stabbing knife.
+shopkeeper
+ There have been three general theories put forward to explain
+ the phenomenon of the wandering shops or, as they are
+ generically known, _tabernae vagantes._
+ The first postulates that many thousands of years ago there
+ evolved somewhere in the multiverse a race whose single talent
+ was to buy cheap and sell dear. Soon they controlled a vast
+ galactic empire or, as they put it, Emporium, and the more
+ advanced members of the species found a way to equip their very
+ shops with unique propulsion units that could break the dark
+ walls of space itself and open up vast new markets. And long
+ after the worlds of the Emporium perished in the heat death of
+ their particular universe, after one last defiant fire sale,
+ the wandering starshops still ply their trade, eating their way
+ through the pages of spacetime like a worm through a three-
+ volume novel.
+ The second is that they are the creation of a sympathetic Fate,
+ charged with the role of supplying exactly the right thing
+ at the right time.
+ The third is that they are simply a very clever way of getting
+ around the various Sunday Closing acts.
+ All these theories, diverse as they are, have two things in
+ common. They explain the observed facts, and they are
+ completely and utterly wrong.
+ [ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
shrieker
With a single, savage thrust of her spear, the warrior-woman
impaled the fungus, silencing it. However, it was too late:
shall pay for this, and seven heads for the dog, who was a
better warrior than many a man."
[ Conan The Warrior, by Robert E Howard ]
+*sleep
+ Sleep is a death; oh, make me try
+ By sleeping, what it is to die,
+ And as gently lay my head
+ On my grave, as now my bed.
+ [ Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne ]
slime mold
Slime mold or slime fungus, organism usually classified with
the fungi, but showing equal affinity to the protozoa. Slime
*snake
serpent
water moccasin
-python
pit viper
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
--Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu
[ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ]
sokoban
- Sokoban (Japanese for "warehouse person") is a puzzle-type
- game where the player must push around treasure to a goal
- area. It apparently won first prize in a Japanese programming
- contest.
- [ Xsokoban web site ]
+ Sokoban (Japanese for "warehouse keeper") is a transport puzzle
+ in which the player pushes boxes around a maze, viewed from
+ above, and tries to put them in designated locations. Only one
+ box may be pushed at a time, not two, and boxes cannot be pulled.
+ As the puzzle would be extremely difficult to create physically,
+ it is usually implemented as a video game.
+
+ Sokoban was created in 1982 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and was
+ published by Thinking Rabbit, a software house based in
+ Takarazuka, Japan. Thinking Rabbit also released three sequels:
+ Boxxle, Sokoban Perfect and Sokoban Revenge.
+ [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*soldier
sergeant
lieutenant
against which you cannot prepare a perfect defense.
--Human aphorism
[ The Dosadi Experiment, by Frank Herbert ]
+squeaky board
+ A floorboard creaked. Galder had spent many hours tuning them,
+ always a wise precaution with an ambitious assistant who walked
+ like a cat.
+ D flat. That meant he was just to the right of the door.
+ "Ah, Trymon," he said, without turning, and noted with some
+ satisfaction the faint indrawing of breath behind him. "Good
+ of you to come. Shut the door, will you?"
+ [ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
~*aesculapius
*staff
So they stood, each in his place, neither moving a finger's
projects / nethack / commitdiff