Oilskin sack
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | oilskin sack |
| Appearance | bag |
| Base price | 100 zm |
| Weight | 15 |
| Material | cloth |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
An oilskin sack is a type of container tool that appears in NetHack. It is made of cloth, and appears as a bag when unidentified.
Description
As with other containers, the oilskin sack can hold items beyond the 52-character limit - it will also protect its contents from water damage unless cursed, in which case it will only protect its contents 2⁄3 of the time.[1]
Strategy
An oilskin sack is incredibly useful for protecting your potions, scrolls and spellbooks alongside rust-prone weaponry and armor - other bags require a charge from a can of grease to offer similar protection, and the grease has a 1⁄2 chance of washing off each time water damage would occur.[2]
Placing your bag of holding in an oilskin sack useful for protecting the first bag's contents from water damage and the curse items monster spell, at the cost of some tedium when retrieving items in from it. Blessing the oilskin sack itself is optional, but may be worthwhile to give it a layer of protection from being cursed, especially once you approach the Plane of Water.
As with a plain sack, an oilskin sack can also be used to protect a wand of cancellation that is stored outside your main bag of holding; unlike a plain sack, the water protection allows you to reliably store other items such as blessed potions of full healing scrolls of remove curse.
Identification
Oilskin sacks can be auto-identified by dipping them into any type of water, such as a moat[3] - be sure to empty any bags that you plan to dip-test this way. They are also fairly easy to detect via price identification: Looting a bag with a base price of 100zm and not being bitten eliminates it being a bag of tricks, and stashing heavier items in it can eliminate the bag of holding.
History
The oilskin sack first appears in NetHack 3.1.0. From this version to NetHack 3.6.0, including some variants based on these versions, the oilskin sack was the only bag to not produce a message when subjected to possible water damage, allowing it to be informally identified by process of elimination.[4]
The feedback for water sliding off an oilskin sack was introduced in NetHack 3.6.1 via commit 2b7b2af, after Alex Smith asked on IRC about an idea for a small, easily implementable feature.
Messages
- Some water slides right off your <sack>.
- Your oilskin sack stopped water from damaging its contents, auto-identifying it.
Encyclopedia entry
Summer passed all too quickly. On the last day of camp, Mr.
Brickle called his counselors together and paid them what he
owed them. Louis received one hundred dollars - the first
money he had ever earned. He had no wallet and no pockets,
so Mr. Brickle placed the money in a waterproof bag that had
a drawstring. He hung this moneybag around Louis' neck,
along with the trumpet, the slate, the chalk pencil, and the
lifesaving medal.
