Wand of cancellation

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Name	cancellation
Appearance	random
Base price	200 zm
Weight	7
Type	beam
Maximum charges	8
Monster use	Will not be used by monsters.

A wand of cancellation emits a beam which cancels any monsters or objects it hits. Monsters are entitled to a resistance check against the effect.

Warning: Putting a charged wand of cancellation into a bag of holding will cause a magical explosion that will destroy the bag and everything within it. Don't do this. Zapping a bag of holding, however, will either unbless or uncurse it, and will have no effect whatsoever on the contents.

Effects

The wand of cancellation has a number of complicated effects; when you find one, it will behoove you to study thoroughly the article on cancellation before zapping it! Among these effects, it will:

• uncurse and unbless items
• neutralize enchantments and charges of most items
• change most potions into water
• blank scrolls and spellbooks
• neutralize the special attacks of many monsters
• kill a clay golem instantly by erasing its writing

Breaking

If you break a wand of cancellation, there is an explosion from 1 to (4*charges) damage. Monsters and objects in the affected squares are cancelled.

Identification

Do not zap yourself with an unidentified wand that makes engravings disappear; if it is a wand of cancellation, you will lose all your scrolls, spellbooks, and potions; these will become blank scrolls or water.

If you wish to test your wand and see if it is cancellation, first engrave a message onto the floor or find a previously created engraving and then zap the  wand towards the floor or engrave with the wand on the same space with the engraving.  If you then read the message "The engraving on the <floor> vanishes!", that does not mean you have a wand of cancellation, it could either be a wand of make invisible or a wand of teleportation, and will need to follow up with further tests to safely confirm the type of wand you possess.

If you have a pet without a special attack (such as a kitten), you can zap an unidentified wand that makes engravings disappear. If the pet disappears, it is either teleportation (and you can find the pet later in the level) or invisibility (which you can see if you have the see invisible intrinsic). To confirm, you can use a stethoscope, the information line from it will say that it has been cancelled.

Another means is to drop a non blank scroll that you do not need on a square, and then zap it with the wand, if the scroll vanishes then the wand is a wand of teleportation, if it remains unchanged then it is a wand of make invisible, if however it changes into a blank scroll then it is a wand of cancellation. Blank scrolls can not be canceled but if the blank scroll is either blessed or cursed the wand of cancellation will make change the BUC status of the scroll to uncursed.

Generation

Wands comprise 4% of all randomly-generated items in the main dungeon, 6% in containers, 5% on the Rogue level, and 8% in hell. There is a 4.5% chance that a randomly-generated wand will be a wand of cancellation.

Messages

"You are covered in sparkling lights!"

You've just been zapped by a wand of cancellation.

"You feel a strange sense of loss."

Having been hit, the wand has cancelled an item in your inventory.

"The engraving on the <floor> vanishes!"

You engraved with a wand of cancellation, teleportation, or make invisible where there is an existing engraving, or with a wand of cold where there is an existing burned engraving.

Strategy

Do not even pick it up unless you need it, even if you do not have a bag of holding. A large part of Nethack is about forming good habits.

If you do need it, at least keep it in a special "danger" inventory letter you always check for, and put it into your stash as soon as practical. Never place unidentified wands into a Bag of Holding unless wands of cancellation have been ruled out. Exploding your bag of holding with all the goodies can be a game-ending mistake.

Some people like to keep a wand of cancellation, some holy water, and/or scrolls of remove curse in a sack called "CANCEL" safe from curses and damage. The same dire warning applies to this sack, then.

SporkHack

In a rare act of kindness, recent versions of SporkHack make an exploding BoH spew its contents around instead of destroying them. Thus, wands of cancellation are less dangerous.

References

• See the main article on Cancellation for more details on the effects.