Felt marker
( 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | felt marker |
| Appearance | marker |
| Base price | 10 zm |
| Weight | 2 |
| Material | plastic |
| Monster use | Will not be used by monsters. |
A felt marker is a type of tool that appears in GruntHack. It is made of plastic and appears as a "marker" when unidentified.
Generation
Roughly 1⁄3 of markers encountered will be a felt marker.
Description
The felt marker is somewhat close to the more-familiar magic marker: it can be used to engrave, but cannot write scrolls or spellbooks since the writing will fade from them immediately; blank scrolls written on with a felt marker are not used up. Additionally, a felt marker can be charged repeatedly, while a magic marker can only be charged once.
Engraving on the floor with a felt marker produces graffiti, which is semi-permanent.
Strategy
An unidentified felt marker is a source of great disappointment for players who believe they have stumbled upon a magic marker, only to watch the ink fade from a blank scroll. However, this does not remotely preclude it from being useful: failing to write a scroll this way can be used to informally identify and type-name a felt marker without wasting the scroll, making magic markers easier to distinguish in the future. Using felt markers for engraving Elbereth can also preserve wand charges for offensive use or escaping.
Identification
The felt marker is trivial to distinguish via price identification, since its base cost is much lower than that of the magic marker. GruntHack also allows you to view the price of objects within any containers in your inventory, which circumvents the need to potentially sell the markers or use up charges on writing a scroll.
