The Elbereth FAQ

By Kate Nepveu
Version 1.1; created April 16, 2001; last updated April 30, 2002 to clarify ways of engraving.

Contents

• What's Elbereth?
• What monsters will respect Elbereth?
• What's the best way to engrave Elbereth?

What's Elbereth (a.k.a. the E-word)?

According to the Guidebook, in its discussion of the E)ngrave command,

"Engraving the word "Elbereth" will cause most monsters to not attack you hand-to-hand (but if you attack, you will rub it out); this is often useful to give yourself a breather. (This feature may be compiled out of the game, so your version might not have it.)"

(You can tell if Elbereth is complied into your version of the game with #version or Meta-v.)

Thus, Elbereth can help protect you from attack. It is also a popular way to protect stashes of equipment in the dungeon, even those in containers, since gelatinous cubes will eat any container except an ice box. Note that something (an item, you) must be on the space where Elbereth is engraved for monsters to stay off the space. Elbereth on an empty space has no effect. Also, the effect of Elbereth is case-insensitive, but you exercise wisdom if you engrave it thus: "Elbereth". (You can also bury Elbereth in the middle of some other letters and it still works: "fooElberethfoo".)

An identical effect can be obtained by dropping a scroll of scare monster. In 3.4.0, you will be told that "<affected monster> turns to flee!" when you drop the scroll or finish engraving Elbereth. (However, scrolls of scare monster are a poor choice to protect your stash, since they disintegrate once picked up enough.)

[Elbereth comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's writings set in Middle-Earth, particularly The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion; it was the Elves' name for a goddess they particularly revered. A song in her praise proves to have bad effects on Sauron's minions in The Lord of the Rings. See also "Elbereth" under the specify command, "/".]

What monsters will respect Elbereth (that is, not attack me)?

It's easier to say what doesn't respect Elbereth. The following will attack you anyway:

• Any monster represented by an @. Generally, these are humans and elves; however, it also includes shapechangers (werecreatures, chameleons, doppelgangers, and sandestins) while in @ form.

  Note that although K (Keystone Kops, Kop Sergeants, etc.) are considered human for purposes of cannibalism and sacrifice, they do respect Elbereth.

• Shopkeepers, guards, lawful high priests (only found on the Astral Plane), and the Wizard of Yendor. These are listed separately in the code because they will not respect Elbereth even if polymorphed into something else. (Note that you're very unlikely to be able to polymorph the Wizard, but just in case...)
• Any monster that is blind. However, it has to be a very special kind of blindness. Just lacking eyes isn't enough—thus gelatinous cubes do respect Elbereth, even though if you polymorph into one you can't see anything, and they won't eat your stash if it's properly engraved. Instead, it has to be blindness caused by an external source: blindfold, lightning flash, potion of blindness, cream pies, or the blinding effects of being attacked by exploding yellow lights, dust vortices, ravens, cobras, or Archons.
• Some specific quasi-human (and tough) monsters: all A, minotaurs, and the Riders on the Astral Plane.
• A special case: teleporting monsters will still teleport to the up staircase, even if you have Elbereth engraved and an item on top.

In addition, peaceful monsters will not respect Elbereth. Obviously, they won't attack you, but they will walk over the space—not picking anything up, but possibly eroding the Elbereth protecting your stash. (Protecting that space from peaceful monsters is left as an exercise for the reader.) How do you tell if a monster is peaceful? Use the "/" command to identify the monster (and you'll see, for instance: "o an orc (peaceful hill orc)").

What's the best way to engrave Elbereth?

Well, first, it's best to engrave when you've got all your wits and senses about you. That is, you have the following chances of messing up each letter if you are: blind (1/9), confused (1/12), stunned (1/4), or hallucinating (1/1). So don't count on engraving Elbereth correctly if you're impaired.

You can, of course, engrave in a number of different ways. The relevant qualities are summed up below, and then each method is detailed.

Duration:

• Text burned into the floor will not erode from being stood on or walked over.
• Text engraved in the floor lasts a while, but will erode over time.
• Text written in the dust doesn't last long at all.

Speed:

• Fast methods of engraving are writing in the dust or using a wand or athame. You can write up to ten (10) letters in one turn with a fast method.
• Slow methods of engraving are with edged weapons and hard gems; they take one turn per letter.

The importance of duration should be obvious. Speed is important because while you are engraving, anything can and will attack you: you don't get Elbereth's protection until you're finished engraving. What's more, the attack won't interrupt your engraving—once you start engraving, you can't protect yourself until you are done. For this reason, if you are under attack, you should only engrave by a fast method. In addition, if you are under attack and want to add an Elbereth to a square that already has one, only add one; if you add more than one, you can be attacked before you finish; think of it as obscuring the monsters' view for too long.

Methods

• Burning into the ground. Text written with a wand of fire or lightning (with at least one charge) will be burnt into the ground, and will not erode. (It will vanish if you engrave over it with a wand of cold; you can also remove it by engraving in the ground; see below). Because this is done with wands, it is a fast method.
• Engraving in the ground. This can be done with a wand of digging, a hard gemstone (diamond, ruby, jacinth, sapphire, black opal, emerald, aquamarine, topaz), a ring with a hard gemstone (diamond ring, etc.), a steel ring, or an edged weapon. You can also melt into ice with a wand of fire, which erodes like an engraving. Note that the speed depends on the method; wands and athames take one turn to write Elbereth, the other methods here take one turn per letter.
  • Engraving with any edged weapon other than a non-cursed athame (including Magicbane) will dull the weapon, reducing its enchantment. In addition, if you engrave with a +0 weapon and type "Elbereth" at the prompt, "What do you want to engrave in the floor here?," you will get the following message: "Your [weapon] gets dull. You only are able to write "Elberet" --More-- You cannot write any more."

    Thus, if you need to write Elbereth with just one +0 non-athame, first engrave "Elb" and then add "ereth" to the engraving. Odd, but true, because of how engraving is treated: engrave 1-3 letters and lose one enchantment from a weapon; 4-5, lose 2; and 6-7, lose 3. A -3 weapon is too dull to engrave with. (Of course, you could also use two +0 weapons, or one weapon at +1 or greater, if practical.)

• Writing in the dust. This can be with your finger, a soft gem, a ring without a hard gem, any charged wand except digging, fire, or lightning, and so forth. Note that you have a 1/25 chance of screwing up each letter if you're engraving in the dust. While this only takes one turn, any movement—like fighting—on your part will smudge it out. Even staying put will erode it, since no-one stands perfectly still. In other words, if you write in the dust, you can't expect it to last very long. However, the higher your dexterity is, the more slowly it will smudge. You can also avoid smudging completely by levitation over the writing in the dust.

You can also scrawl on the floor in blood, if you write with your fingers while polymorphed into any V or & (same chance of screwing up letters as if writing in the dust), or scribble on the floor with a magic marker. The first is unlikely to come up all that often, and the second is unwise because usually you have much better uses for magic marker charges. However, they're there if you need them.

Credits

Thanks to all of rec.games.roguelike.nethack, and in particular to Zack Weinberg, Shaman, Ross Presser, Robert R. Schneck, Keiran, Topi Linkala, Esque, and Dylan O'Donnell.

Up to the NetHack Page