Disintegration

Disintegration is a way items and creatures can be destroyed. Disintegration is one kind of instadeath, which occurs when you are hit by a blast of disintegration. The only possible sources of such a blast are a black dragon's breath or a particular flavour of your God's wrath - wide-angle disintegration beam (which can also destroy worn armor, helmets and shields, even if you are reflective or disintegration-resistant); there are no spells or wands of disintegration.

Reflection will save you from a blast of disintegration (Magic resistance does not!), but not a wide angle disintegration beam. You can also gain disintegration resistance, by wearing black dragon scale mail or by eating a black dragon corpse (this will protect you from both sources of disintegration).

On an unrelated note, certain items can also disintegrate. Spellbooks can disintegrate when you fail to read them, and one type of scroll can disintegrate when picked up: Uncursed scrolls of scare monster disintegrate when picked up if they've already been picked up once while uncursed. Cursed scrolls of scare monster always disintegrate when picked up.

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