Rite of Detestation

?   Rite of Detestation
Base item	blank scroll
Affiliation	intelligent madpeople
When carried	none
When read	detestation
When invoked	detestation
Base price	2500 zm
Weight	5
Material	paper

The Rite of Detestation is an artifact scroll that appears in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. It is unaligned, and its base item is a scroll of blank paper. It appears as a water-damaged scroll when unidentified.

Generation

The Rite of Detestation cannot be wished for, though it can be left behind as part of a bones level.

For Madpeople, The Rite of Detestation is always generated in their quest box in their quest.

Description

If at any point in the game the character is crowned, the artifact will be replaced with a normal scroll and have its functionality removed. A character that hasn't been crowned will need to perform three rites of detestation, one for each god of the pantheon, afterward being rewarded with the Ibite arm and being permanently converted to the unaligned alignment, becoming devotees of Bokrug, the water-lizard. When invoked or read while standing on an altar, the scroll will attempt to perform a rite in detestation of the altar's god – if the altar is of the madman pantheon and you haven't previously done a ritual in detestation of that god – or convert the altar to the needed alignment otherwise. A character that performs the three rites cannot ascend as an unaligned character without the scroll so it should be kept on hand on the ascension run.

On the astral plane, characters that converted to Bokrug will need to perform three more rites of detestation on the three high altars. Following this, the sea-green stone idol will appear where they may offer the amulet to ascend.

Messages

You examine Rite of Detestation.
This records the very secret and ancient rite once performed by the
high-priests of Sarnath in detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard, whose
followers their ancestors had cruelly slain. The rite is penned in your hand.
What were you going to do with it?

You invoked or read the artifact while not standing on an altar.

You examine Rite of Detestation. You perform a rite in detestation of <god>!
The altar sinks into swampy water!

You invoked or read the artifact while standing on a valid madman pantheon altar.

You examine Rite of Detestation.
You modify the rite to attune the altar to <god>!

You invoked or read the artifact while standing on an altar not of the madman pantheon or of a god you had already previously detested.

<The Ibite arm> rises from the swamp!

You performed your third rite of detestation and received the Ibite arm.

You examine Rite of Detestation.
The ritual has run its course here on the material plane.
You need to find some more powerful altars!

You invoked or read the artifact after receiving the ibite arm but before entering the planes.

You examine Rite of Detestation.
This records the very secret and ancient rite once performed by the
high-priests of Sarnath in detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard, whose
followers their ancestors had cruelly slain.
You need to find some more powerful altars.

You read or invoked the artifact on the astral plane while not standing on a high-altar.

The high altar sinks into swampy water!
You hear water bubbling.

You invoked or read the artifact while standing on a high altar.

You examine Rite of Detestation.
This records the very secret and ancient rite once performed by the
high-priests of Sarnath in detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard, whose
followers their ancestors had cruelly slain.
You have finished your work at long-last.

You invoked or read the artifact after detesting the last high altar.

Origin

The story surrounding Sarnath and Bokrug are contained in H.P. Lovercraft's short story "The doom that came to Sarnath", where the titular city is destroyed on the day of the 1000th celebration of the destruction of the city of Ib, which had been razed and desecrated by its people. Here it is mentioned that although the high priests were at first only performing the rite abhoring Bokrug, the god whose sea-green stone idol had vanished from Sarnath after it was brought over following Ib's destruction. It was this event that led to the death of Taran-ish, the then high priest of Sarnath who "scrawled upon the altar [...] the sign of DOOM". Though, later on they also participated in the celebration of the eradication of the beings of Ib and were witness to the return of the beings of Ib to their city, vanishing without a trace along with their city leaving only the sea-green stone idol behind. The rite itself is never fully explained in the short story, aside from being performed in the tower-like temples of the city where the chrysolite altar that Taran-ish had scrawled DOOM on laid. It is not explicitly stated either whether the rite involved said altar, or whether the strange and inexplicable things Sarnath was built on were pilfered from the city of Ib. It is unclear whether the rite had any part in the destruction of the city of Sarnath or if it even prevented its destruction and was the reason for the thousand-year wait.

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