Magic harp

Some tools in this game are quite rare that it is quite a surprise to encounter them. The magic harp is an example.

You can play entire games of NetHack without ever encountering a harp. Yet if you do find a harp, it is most probably a simple wooden harp. Apply it and nearby nymphs might become peaceful (music.c, music.c). Upon discovering a harp, it seems reasonable to try it with the next available nymph.

Yet, there is a second type of harp, the magic harp. If it has any charges left, then it tames monsters around you (music.c). What happens, when you grab this harp and test it on a nymph, is that the result is a tame nymph.

The most useful thing that a pet nymph can do is that she can steal an item from a monster, hostile or peaceful. The problem here is that she often fails. For whatever reason, when a nymph smiles at or pretends to be friendly with a monster, the monster becomes angry. The monster will attack the tame nymph, who in turn has no melee attack to strike back with; she will only continue smiling and being friendly until she successfully grabs something; only then does she teleport away.

Now, because she is tame, she will quickly drop whatever she stole so that you can take it. You only need to find wherever she teleported to. Meanwhile, you might need to fight and kill that monster anyway, because your nymph has given to it no damage.

Your pet nymph will die, especially if you bring her to a no-teleport level.