knee-deep

Okay someone mentioned frogs in a previous comment and I figure frogs would
make a neat addition to NetHack.
A bright orange semi-colon. Relatively weak with a special attribute,
striking them with bare skin will cause the attacker to be poisoned much
like touching a cockatrice with bare skin causes stoning.
It's easy enough to avoid, poison resistance is relatively easy to acquire
but it would cause for concern for the unwary. Perhaps striking one of
these poisonous frogs would poison a weapon and screw up a samurai or
knight's attempts to retain a respectable amount of piety as lawful
characters.