Fellow adventurer, turn back while you can! For here begins the roguelike Iter Vehemens ad Necem, a Violent Road to Death. If you choose to travel along it, you will dive into countless exciting adventures to gain items of great magic, attain powerful equipment made of mysterious materials, bathe in the blessings of mighty gods and recruit loyal allies of various shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, along the way you will also often be dangerously injured, poisoned, catch numerous diseases, lose several limbs and transform into manifold different kinds of pitiful creatures in the darkest depths of hostile dungeons. And, at the end of the road, you are bound to perish in a most gruesome and painful way. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Iter Vehemens ad Necem (IVAN) is a free graphical roguelike game, which currently runs in Windows, DOS and Linux. Unlike most roguelikes, which use ASCII graphics, IVAN uses an SDL-based tile graphics engine. This allows much more information to be displayed in the level map. For example, when the player or some monsters wield a weapon or wear armor, it's normally visible on the map. Also, several types of fluids (such as acid, blood, vomit, etc.) are visible on the map. This makes it possible to track a wounded monster by following a trail of blood across the dungeon.

IVAN employs an advanced bodypart handling system. In battle, one loses only if the head, torso, or groin is destroyed. If one's arms or legs take too much damage, they become severed, and the player will merely become disabled, and unable to wield a weapon with that hand, or have to bear greater burden. Many monsters can lose body parts as well. There are several ways to replace or reattach a lost limb, such as drinking healing potions or praying.

Another unique feature is the handling of materials. Each item, including body parts, has a material associated with it. There are several ways to change materials, such as scrolls or praying. For example, a hardened leather body armour may become significantly stronger if transmuted into a meteoric iron one. As this applies to body parts, one could harden a severed limb into stone or metal before reattaching it, thereby gaining a massive strength boost of strength at the cost of dexterity.