Treasures to Be Found

Over the ages, Morgoth's armies of minions have plundered wealth from many cities and lands, and brought it back to the vaults of Angband. Dragons have brought hoards of gold and valuables, powerful mages have served Morgoth by creating great magical devices, and orcs and trolls have mined the rock of Angband itself to find precious stones and metals.

Also, of course, many other adventurers before you have fared forth into the mines, and the equipment of all such luckless would-be heroes is scattered around the passages and chambers of Morgoth's underground realm.

Some treasures may be stored in chests, either wooden or iron. Such chests may have hidden traps, which can however be searched for and disarmed as with other traps.

While adventuring in Angband, there are many treasures to be found, some lying abandoned, others on the bodies of the enemies you slay. These treasures include the following types follows:

• precious metals and gemstones
• magical items
• equipment

Precious metals and gemstones

As well as veins of metals and gemstones which can be dug from the walls (see Entering the Dungeon), small amounts of these can be found scattered where they have been dropped by passing adventurers or travellers, and many monsters also carry wealth with them. In the early levels, your character is more likely to find copper or silver, but later gold, mithril and adamantite may be found, and deeper still gemstones such as garnets, diamonds and emeralds may be found. There is a full list in the Tables section of this manual.

Magical Items

Many magical items have been created by mages for their own, and others', use. These items are designed to have magical effects either on the person using them, a target chosen by the user, or the area around them. The deeper your character descends into Angband, the more powerful are the items discovered likely to be. Many of these items will have beneficial effects that will be useful in exploring Angband and fighting the denizens thereof, but some items are designed by maleficent minds to trap the unwary explorer into using them unwisely and unprepared.

Magical items comprise:

• potions
• scrolls
• rings
• amulets
• wands
• staves
• rods
• mushrooms

Equipment

Like your own character, other adventurers and explorers will have entered Angband equipped for their quest, and their equipment may be found discarded throughout the dungeon – this includes armour, weapons, torches and lanterns, indeed virtually anything your character may have. In addition, many monsters will carry equipment, either for their own use or taken from adventurers as trophies.

When happening on such equipment, you may be tempted to immediately equip your character with them, but this can be dangerous – while some equipment is ordinary, and other items may be enchanted to be more powerful or effective, there are also cursed items which will have harmful effects on any character wearing or using them; and such curses also make it difficult to remove these items.

Identifying Magical Items

When you begin the game, magical items are a mystery to your character, and all that can be told about them is what they look like, or what they are made of. There are several ways to find out what an item does:

1. Use it. Drinking a potion, reading a scroll, or aiming a wand across the room, will (most of the time) tell you what it does. Sometimes it won't because the effect may not be immediately apparent, or because there is nothing for it to act on. And sometimes it will have a negative effect, so this method requires some caution.
2. Cast an Identify spell. The Identify spell is a safe way of identifying what a magical item does, but is only available to some magic users, and even then not until later in the game.
3. Use a scroll. Scrolls which duplicate the function of the Identify spell can be found in the dungeons or bought in the Alchemy Shop. Although not cheap, they are effective. There are also much rarer scrolls which have a far more powerful Identification effect, telling you everything there is to know about an item.
4. Use a staff. One type of staff duplicates the effect of the Identify spell, and like the scroll, can be used safely and effectively, but costs much more than a scroll as it can be used more than once.

Identifying Magical Equipment

Depending on your character's chosen class, he or she has a varying ability to sense the magical qualities of arms and armour. This ability is known in Angband as 'pseudo-ID', as it mimics, somewhat weakly, the ability of the Identify (ID) spell.

If your character picks up and carries arms and armour found in the dungeons, after a time he or she will get a sense of the quality of the item. This can distinguish between good magical items and cursed items, and if the character has a strong pseudo-ID ability, they will also be able to distinguish different powers of magical and cursed items, as well as normal items (note: characters with a weak ability cannot distinguish normal items – such items will appear no different to items they have not identified yet).

Other than simply using it, any of the methods for identifying magical items can also identify magical equipment

Full list of the pseudo-ID classifications

Magical Equipment

Magical arms and armour can be classified into three distinct groups by their power: firstly, simple enchanted items; then, more powerful items, known as 'ego-items'; and finally, unique items, known as 'artifacts'. Each of these is explained in detail on separate pages.