Fountain
Fountains, 
, are a dungeon feature represented primarily by a { (left curly bracket), but possibly by a ¶ (pilcrow), ⌠ (top half integral) or a Ї (Cyrillic capital letter YI), depending on your operating system and options (see the note about symbol below). They are found randomly scattered throughout the dungeon, usually in rooms that do not have any other dungeon feature (ie: chests, sinks) in them. You use a fountain by dipping items into it, and by quaffing its water, and by digging down on it.
Fountains on non-special levels have a 1/7 (14%) chance of being magic[1], an attribute that cannot be determined prior to use. Digging on a sink will create a non-magic fountain.
Contents
Quaffing
You can drink from a fountain by quaffing its water while standing over it. Upon doing so you get a message indicating the results.
Magic Fountains
If the fountain is magic, and your Luck is non-negative:
| Message | Effect | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| "The cool draught refreshes you." | Your hunger is reduced slightly. | 3/10 |
| "Wow! This makes you feel great!" "A wisp of vapor escapes the fountain..." |
Your wisdom is exercised, and all your attributes are restored to their maximum (same effect as a blessed potion of restore ability). One attribute is increased by 1 (uncursed potion of gain ability effect); if your Luck is 4 or higher, this last effect will increase all your attributes by 1 (blessed potion effect). After this effect, the fountain is no longer magical. | 7/10 |
In either case, the fountain will not dry up.
Non-magic Fountains
Quaffing from a non-magic fountain, or magic with negative Luck:
| Message | Effect | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| "The cool draught refreshes you." | Your hunger is reduced slightly. | 9/30 |
| "This tepid water is tasteless." | No effect | 9/30 |
| "You feel self-knowledgeable..." "The feeling subsides..." |
You see your attributes and exercise your wisdom (as with a wand or uncursed potion of enlightenment). | 1/30 |
| "The water is foul! You gag and vomit." | You vomit and your hunger is increased. | 1/30 |
| "The water is contaminated!" ("Perhaps it is runoff from the nearby slime mold farm" if poison resistant) | You lose d10 HP and d4+2 STR and your constitution is abused. (if you are not poison resistant) |
1/30 |
| "Perhaps it is runoff from the nearby <fruit> farm." | You lose d4 HP (if you are poison resistant) | |
| "An endless stream of snakes pour forth!" "You hear something hissing!" (if blind)"The fountain bubbles furiously for a moment, then calms." (if moccasins genocided) |
d5+1 water moccasins are created. | 1/30 |
| "You unleash a water demon!" "You feel the presence of evil." (blind) "Grateful for his/her release, he/she grants you a wish!" (peaceful) "The fountain bubbles furiously for a moment, then calms." (summoning failed) |
A water demon is summoned. It has an (80+DL)/100 chance of being hostile (100% if you have the Amulet); if not hostile, he/she'll grant one wish and then vanish. | 1/30 |
| "You attract a water nymph!" "You hear a seductive voice." (blind) "A large bubble rises to the surface and pops." (unblind, water nymphs genocided or extinct) "You hear a loud pop." (blind, water nymphs genocided or extinct) |
A water nymph is summoned. | 1/30 |
| "This water's no good!" | Each item in your inventory has 1/5 chance of being cursed outright; your hunger is increased and your constitution is abused. | 1/30 |
| "You see an image of someone stalking you. But it disappears." "You feel transparent." (blind, invisible) "You feel very self-conscious. Then it passes." (blind, not invisible) |
You gain see invisible and your wisdom is exercised. | 1/30 |
| "You sense the presence of monsters." "You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes." (no monsters, beginner, not hallucinating) "You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes."(no monsters, beginner, hallucinating) "You feel threatened." (no monsters, not hallucinating) "You get the heebie jeebies." (no monsters, hallucinating) |
You briefly see monsters on that level and exercise your wisdom. If no monsters on the level (other than you), no visible effect. | 1/30 |
| "You spot a gem in the sparkling waters!" (unblind) "You feel a gem here!" (blind) |
You find a random valuable gem or piece of worthless glass and your wisdom is exercised. If you have already acquired gems or gold from this fountain, a nymph is summoned instead (as above). | 1/30 |
| "This water gives you bad breath!" | Monsters on the level flee you for a while. | 1/30 |
| "Water gushes forth from the overflowing fountain!" (pool created) "Your thirst is quenched." (no pools created) |
A number of pools may be created in your vicinity. (Never two orthogonally adjacent, never on your square, the more likely the closer to you.) Be aware that any precious items laying near you may end up at the bottom of a pool! | 1/30 |
Finally, the fountain has a 1/3 chance of drying up (except in Minetown, where you'll always get one warning)
Dipping
If you #dip a single ordinary long sword in a fountain, are at least experience level 5, and Excalibur doesn't already exist in your game, then there is a 1/6 chance of something special happening to your long sword. If you are lawful, the long sword is converted into the blessed, rustless, uncorroded, damageproof Excalibur and you exercise your wisdom. (In SporkHack, dipping only works for lawful Knights.) If you are neutral or chaotic, your long sword is cursed, loses its rustproofing, may lose an enchantment, and you abuse your wisdom. The fountain then disappears. If you were dipping in Minetown, this will anger the Minetown Watch whether you've been warned or not.
In any other case, the dipping is handled normally. First, the object gets wet and does the appropriate things (scrolls and spellbooks blank, potions dilute, iron objects rust, lit objects go out, grease washes off). Then special effects can happen (only 50% chance if wetting object already caused an effectCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
Obtaining curses
Some items are more useful cursed. If you don't find any bones piles, the next safest conduct-proof way to make unholy water is to dip a potion of water into fountains until it becomes cursed. Prepare for the hazards! This works best if the game shows the potion's BUC status because you won't get a message, but you can also keep testing if the potion still stacks with known-uncursed water. Once you have it, unholy water can be replicated just like holy water.
If you want to kill e.g. 120 skeletons, you might want to curse (and polymorph) many unicorn horns. You can curse a very large number of items at once by quaffing. Carry only those items plus the means to defend yourself against snakes, water demons, nymphs. Quaff from fountains until you get the message "This water's no good!". If you run out of fountains, use spellcasting monsters. You will likely need to uncurse your armor when you are finished.
Of course, a confused, blessed scroll of remove curse provides a much safer way to make unholy water.
Symbol
- See also: IBMgraphics
The representation of a fountain as a pilcrow, "¶", is probably not intentional. The top-half integral, "⌠" (some fonts may not have this character), looks vaguely like a fountain and is probably what the DevTeam had in mind.
The problem is that PC character sets vary from one country to another. The symbol "⌠" occurs at code point 0xF4 in the PC code page 437, which is used in the United States. Most of Europe, however, uses either code page 850 (Western Europe), 852 (Eastern Europe using the Latin alphabet) or 866 (Russia). Code page 850 has "¶" at position 0xF4, code page 852 has "˘" and codepage 866 has "Ї".[2]
This script may provide a workaround for some Windows users. Call it, say, RUN-NH.BAT, drop it in the same directory as the NetHack.exe binary, and link the desktop icon to it:
chcp 437 NetHack
Encyclopedia entry
Rest! This little Fountain runs
Thus for aye: -- It never stays
For the look of summer suns,
Nor the cold of winter days.
Whose'er shall wander near,
When the Syrian heat is worst,
Let him hither come, nor fear
Lest he may not slake his thirst:
He will find this little river
Running still, as bright as ever.
Let him drink, and onward hie,
Bearing but in thought, that I,
Erotas, bade the Naiad fall,
And thank the great god Pan for all!
References
- ↑ mklev.c, line 1325. This is the only place this is ever set for a floor tile that could be a fountain, and the special level loader does not execute this piece of code.
- ↑ drawing.c, line 348
This page is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. The original license is:
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