Engraving

An engraving refers to any form of text inscribed into the ground; the act of engraving refers to any act of inscribing such text in the ground, usually invoked with the command E. This can ostensibly be done by a player to record messages to themselves, and there are also random engravings left in the dungeon; however what is arguably the most common use of engraving is to inscribe the name Elbereth. There are several types of engraving:

• The most common type of engraving is to write in the dust, often done with one's fingers (by the command E-) or items that are not capable of one of the other types of engraving; messages written in the dust are highly susceptible to being eroded and can also be erased with a towel. One can write ten letters per turn in the dust.
  • Attempting to write in the dust while polymorphed into a demon or vampire will instead scrawl in blood, which shares properties with writings in the dust.
• There is also plain engraving, which can be done with any edged weapon, hard gem, or a wand of digging. This is frequently not done as most items that can be used to engrave in this fashion take one turn per letter to engrave and the player is inexplicably helpless while they write; however athames and wands of digging can engrave at the rate of ten letters per turn. Engravings are largely unalterable, but a concentrated effort can degrade them (especially by fighting while standing on the square where the engraving is).
  • The epitaphs on gravestones share these properties, for obvious reasons.
  • Using a magic marker to engrave will write graffiti on the floor, which shares its properties with engravings save that it can write at a ten-letters-per-turn rate. It is generally seen as a waste of the magic marker, but is also the most common type of writing used for engravings that are randomly generated in the dungeon.
• Burning is performed using a wand of fire or lightning. It is effectively permanent, as it cannot be degraded by any normal means (but could be transmuted by attempting to write atop of it with a wand of polymorph), and is as fast as writing in the dust; it is therefore the preferred method of engraving for protecting stashes (with Elbereth). Attempting to burn into ice will instead melt the ice, which is not a permanent engraving.