# Talk:Shrieker
are they considered vegan to eat?

Contents

1 Vegan?
2 #chatting with shriekers
3 Do they really summon?
4 Why do pets don't eat shrieker corpses?
5 Do they have a passive attack&nbsp;?

Vegan?
as far as I know they count as vegan food. Giz 08:48, 1 December 2006 (UTC)giz

#chatting with shriekers
It also produces the message "The shrieker shrieks."  Does anyone know if this can also create monsters, or is it just the attack? -Ion frigate 10:07, January 21, 2010 (UTC)

Just found it, it aggravates monsters but doesn't have a chance to summon.  I think I'll add that to the article. -Ion frigate 08:36, February 10, 2010 (UTC)
Do they really summon?
Do shriekers really summon anything, i.e. is the summoning code runnable? In my entire NetHack gaming career, it has not happened a single time. And I was playing a lot of low-level pacifists. --Tjr 13:56, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Just wiztested it by surrounding myself with 8 shriekers. I blinded myself and used telepathy to detect the monsters (simpler than trying to keep real monster detection going). With 8 shriekers going at once I noticed monsters suddenly appearing on the map at the same time the shriekers went. They definitely appear. It's just hard to notice because the monsters will appear anywhere in the level, so even if you run into the monster created by a shriek, you could just as easily assume it was caused by random generation. -- Qazmlpok 14:31, 19 December 2010 (UTC)
Strange. Every 1560 turns spent near a shrieker, it should summon a purple worm. I guess I was just lucky never to get one. --Tjr 19:15, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
Why do pets don't eat shrieker corpses?
They're safe to eat, after all. --Tjr 10:06, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

A pet horse just ate a shrieker corpse. Are you wondering why a cat/dog won't? Shrieker corpses are vegan so carnivorous pets won't eat them. -- Qazmlpok 11:48, 25 May 2011 (UTC)
Do they have a passive attack&nbsp;?
I'm wondering if shriekers have a passive attack, to do something when hit. Some spoilers mention to attack shriekers with a dull dagger to summon monsters, or to hit them from distance to waken monsters from afar. It seems, that shriekers only have two possible ways to shriek, one is then they get a turn with an enemy (of them) adjacted, the other then the player #chats to them. But a shrieker attacked in melee definitly doesn't shriek, but does it anything at all&nbsp;? A shrieker at distance is harder to observe, because one can't actually hear the shrieks (as one can hear other distant things like Orcs shrieking in pain (acid) or Roomsounds) (it seems the dev-team didn't think about that). In the code I only found, that shriekers don't have any normal attack in MONDATA.C, the #chat effekt is handled in SOUNDS.C, and the procedure mresponde in MON.C handles the active summoning, but its hard find the callers of this procedure. As I can say from playing-experience is, that shriekers doe summon under conflict, so this behaves like an active attack. A good place to test this is the Cavemanquestgoal, there one finds three shriekes. #invoke the Sceptre of Might and one will see the shrieker stay in place adjacted to each other, like they are infighting (intead of moving). Than lots of Monters are summoned. This includes Giants and Bugbears (the normal random Monster in the Cavemanquest), but also a overproportional number of purple Worms, so they do summon (and shriek) under conflict. (By the way a neat methode for farming giants for strength). However, attacking the shriekers with a ranged weapon (as recomended on this Wiki (Artikle about the Cavemanquest)) doesn't wake the Cromatic Dragon. She only awakes if one waits on the stairway with stealth boots, and waits for the shriekers to approach, or simply to don't wears stealthboots. (sorry for the bad english) -79.210.45.176 00:01, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Shrieking is neither a melee attack nor a ranged attack nor a pyrolisk-style gaze nor a passive attack. It's something of its own. The code path is shared only with Medusa's gaze.[1]
A pet shrieker keep shrieking all the time. And yes, it summons hostile monsters, including hostile purple worms. Maybe this is why the DevTeam made Medusa un-tame-able (but forgot about shriekers). --Tjr (talk) 19:03, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
That's actually an interesting thought; of note, I saw somebody complaining once when he used the SLASH'EM genetic engineer glitch to tame Medusa, and even when tamed Medusa would keep gazing at the player (and thus getting reflected and petrified). Ihatesoldiera (talk) 01:35, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
Ok, now as this is clarified, the tactics descriped on the Chromatic Dragon page should be changed. It mentions to attack shriekers with a sling in order to awaken the Chromatic Dragen, what shouldn't work. -- 79.210.42.78 10:21, 31 August 2013 (UTC)
BTW, the m_respond code is called from Monmove.c#line350. --Tjr (talk) 11:33, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

↑ m_respond in mon.c

After some time of shrieker farming in the Caveman Questgoal and some source diving, I found out that m_respond has several callers&nbsp;:

When a shrieker could attack (dochug in MONMOVE.C)
When a shrieker turns to flee (the same, but shrieking ignores Elbereth, so they get a chance to shriek, even if the player stands on Elbereth (annoying if you are eating a giant))
When a shrieker is hit by a boomerang. (boomhit in ZAP.C)
When a shrieker is hit by some spells or wands (speed monster,striking, ...) (bhitm in ZAP.C)
They seem however not to summon under conflict - probably I mistook the shrieking while the player stands on Elbereth for that.
I am just wondering what the dev-team thought about this callers. It seems that shriekers should always shriek when attacked, but they forgot about some situations. If shriekers would shriek when attacked in meelee or with other ranged weapons or even every turn the players is adjected they would pose a significant thread (and could be farmed much better&nbsp;:-) ). - 79.210.27.137 13:40, 8 October 2013 (UTC)