# The Stake of Van Helsing

)   The Stake of Van Helsing   

Base item

wooden stake

Damage vs. small

1d6 +12

Damage vs. large

1d6 +12

To-hit bonus

+5

Bonus versus

(all)

Weapon skill

dagger

Size

one-handed

Affiliation

lawfulUndead Slayerintelligent

When carried

magic resistance

When wielded

(none)

When invoked

(none)

Base price

5000 zm

Weight

20

Material

wood

The Stake of Van Helsing is the Undead Slayer quest artifact in Slash'EM. It is lawful for wishing purposes. Its base item type is a wooden stake, which uses the dagger skill.  It has a flat +5 to-hit and +12 to-damage against all monsters, and provides magic resistance when carried.  The name of the Stake is a reference to Abraham Van Helsing.
As with any wooden stake, wielding it against a vampire or vampire bat gives a 10% chance of instantly killing the creature ("You plunge your stake into the heart of 

<vampire>"). Otherwise, it still does 2 + d6 extra damage ("You drive your stake into <vampire>").

Strategy
This is fairly nice as quest artifacts go.  Its damage bonus makes it strong enough to be a contender in SLASH'EM's endgame, while the periodic instakill is useful against annoyances such as vampire mages and fire/star vampires.  Slotless magic resistance is also very useful, although as usual, if you are an undead slayer yourself you won't want to rely on this artifact for it.  This is a decent candidate for a lawful artifact wish, especially given how the Sceptre of Might has been nerfed in SLASH'EM.
Pacifists and other heavy pet-users will find this a very nice weapon for a pet Solar: it is one of the few ways to give them extrinsic magic resistance, and its damage bonus greatly augments Solars' already-impressive fighting capabilities.

</vampire></vampire>