Scroll of amnesia

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Name	amnesia
Appearance	random
Base price	200 zm
Weight	5
Ink to write	4-7
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

The scroll of amnesia is the only indisputably bad scroll (even the scroll of punishment gives you a heavy ball to use as a weapon). Reading one makes you forget things and abuses your wisdom.

Reading effects

You have a 1/3 chance of forgetting up to 25% of all known level maps and a separate 1/3 chance of forgetting up to 25% of object identities. You forget all traps on your current level (except any in which you are stuck), forget whether you are punished, and abuse your wisdom. If this causes you to forget the identity of scrolls of amnesia themselves, they are re-identified.

Additionally, the BUC status of the scroll and whether or not you are confused imposes extra effects:

Case	Effect
cursed or not confused	You forget all of the current level.
non-cursed and confused	You forget 6/7 of the current level.
non-blessed and non-confused	You forget 1d(known) spells, starting from the bottom of the Z command spellcasting menu. This is the only way to remove spells from this menu.
non-blessed and confused	Same as above, but 1d(known)+1 spells

N.B.: Sokoban maps are not forgotten.

Messages

Message	Reason
"Who was that Maud person anyway?"	You read a scroll of amnesia
"Thinking of Maud you forget everything else."
"As your mind turns inward on itself, you forget everything else."	You, a character named Maud, read a scroll of amnesia. This is a prime example of TDTTOE.
"Your mind releases itself from mundane concerns."	You read a scroll of amnesia while hallucinating

Identification

Reading the scroll identifies it with devastating consequences, so you are well-advised to ID this and all other 200zm scrolls by elimination or by a scroll or spell of identification.

Monsters will not read this scroll.

Strategy

Scrolls of amnesia are a perfect candidate for blanking.

Playing devil's advocate, this scroll could be used to manage which spellbooks you get gifted. Before you read this scroll, you should sort the spellcasting menu so that forgotten spells or spells you want a book for appear last. Altar farming then will more likely select these spellbooks over ones still present.

Another use could be to avoid blanking spellbooks - you can read them indefinitely often provided you do not already have the spell in your spellcasting menu.

Encyclopedia entry for amnesia

Get thee hence, nor come again,
Mix not memory with doubt,
Pass, thou deathlike type of pain,
Pass and cease to move about!
'Tis the blot upon the brain
That will show itself without.
        ...
For, Maud, so tender and true,
As long as my life endures
I feel I shall owe you a debt,
That I never can hope to pay;
And if ever I should forget
That I owe this debt to you
And for your sweet sake to yours;
O then, what then shall I say? -
If ever I should forget,
May God make me more wretched
Than ever I have been yet!

[ Maud, And Other Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]

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