# Elder priest

@ elder priest 

Difficulty

33

Attacks

Weapon 2d10 physical, Gaze attack 1d4 paralysis, Tentacle 2d10 Amulet theft, Tentacle 2d10 intrusion, Cast 2d8 clerical spell, Cast 2d8 clerical spell

@ elder priest 

Difficulty

33

Attacks

Weapon 2d10 physical, Gaze attack 1d4 paralysis, Tentacle 2d10 Amulet theft, Tentacle 2d10 intrusion, Cast 2d8 clerical spell, Cast 2d8 clerical spell

Base level

25

Base experience

1070

Speed

15

Base AC

−9

Base MR

90

Alignment

−128 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

0 (Not randomly generated)

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

400

Size

medium

Resistances

fire, sleep, shock, poison, petrification

Resistances conveyed

sleep

The elder priest:

 can swim.

 can survive underwater.

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 can see invisible creatures.

 is omnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 is a human.

 is an overlord to its kind.

 is neither male nor female.

 is nasty.
 is strong.

 can pick up weapons and food.
 can pick up magical items.
 wants the Amulet of Yendor.

 wants the Amulet of Yendor, the Bell of Opening, the Book of the Dead, the Candelabrum of Invocation, and your quest artifact.

 can be seen through infravision.

The elder priest plays the part of high priest of Moloch in dNetHack, guarding the Amulet of Yendor in Moloch's Sanctum.
The elder priest is a terrifying figure with a paralyzing gaze, clerical spellcasting abilities, and a distinctive melee attack which destroys your worn armor.  In addition, the priest is covetous and will try to steal the Amulet, the invocation artifacts, and your quest artifact.  If destroyed, the priest will quickly revive like a Rider.  
The elder priest is generated with a blessed +3 quarterstaff, blessed +3 cloak of magic resistance, potions of full healing and extra healing, and a leather drum and wooden flute.
Unlike in vanilla, the Wizard of Yendor is capable of killing the elder priest if you can lure him in (such as with the guaranteed 12 turn appearence after you perform the invocation).  

Origin
Given its encyclopedia entry, the elder priest who guards the Amulet of Yendor in dNetHack is probably the high priest that appears in H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.  The high priest is a mysterious but disturbing figure shrouded in yellow silk, which sits alone in a temple on the Plateau of Leng in Lovecraft's Dreamlands, and communicates with visitors by playing an ivory flute.
Commentators on Lovecraft's writings have speculated that this being is either a servant of Nyarlathotep, or an avatar of the "crawling chaos" itself.

Encyclopedia

From Leng, where rocky peaks climb bleak and bare
Under cold stars obscure to human sight,
There shoots at dusk a single beam of light
Whose far blue rays make shepherds whine in prayer.
They say (though none has been there) that it comes	
Out of a pharos in a tower of stone,
Where the last Elder One lives on alone,
Talking to Chaos with the beat of drums.

The Thing, they whisper, wears a silken mask
Of yellow, whose queer folds appear to hide
A face not of this earth, though none dares ask
Just what those features are, which bulge inside.
Many, in man's first youth, sought out that glow,
But what they found, no one will ever know.
	[ H. P. Lovecraft, Fungi from Yuggoth XXVII. ]

 