In my XNethack game I have problems to get unholy water. Usually I use
fountain dips to curse plain water, but in this game I dried out every
fountain until Gehennom to no avail. So I wonder whether that feature
has been removed in that variant or whether I had just bad luck. What
other means would be feasible? Confused blessed scroll of remove curse
would be the next best option, asking spell-casters isn't advisable.
Is there any other option I forgot about?

Janis

20.08.23 14:22 — Janis Papanagnou:
> In my XNethack game I have problems to get unholy water. Usually I use
> fountain dips to curse plain water, but in this game I dried out every
> fountain until Gehennom to no avail. So I wonder whether that feature
> has been removed in that variant or whether I had just bad luck. What
> other means would be feasible? Confused blessed scroll of remove curse
> would be the next best option, asking spell-casters isn't advisable.
> Is there any other option I forgot about?
Praying with the water placed on the wrong altar. >:-)

I actually did this a few times (in vanilla Nethack); mostly early in
the game when unholy water wasn't available and I also had no divine
protection to lose yet. Takes a bit of offering to get absolved again,
but with either the right altar available or the possibility to convert
the wrong one afterwards, it might be worth a try. It works on the
first attempt and I've had no negative experiences yet (other than
losing protection and having to sacrifice), but I might also have been
lucky here.

The scroll is the safer option, of course. Especially with each potion
of water individually named, and other things removed from the
inventory. But: no risk, no fun… ;-)

Benjamin

--
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires.
Seek discipline and find your liberty.
-- Frank Herbert, Dune Chronicles

On 21.08.2023 10:58, Benjamin Heiligenbrunner wrote:
> 20.08.23 14:22 — Janis Papanagnou:
>> [Getting unholy water]
>> Is there any other option I forgot about?
>
> Praying with the water placed on the wrong altar. >:-)
>
> I actually did this a few times (in vanilla Nethack); mostly early in
> the game when unholy water wasn't available and I also had no divine
> protection to lose yet. Takes a bit of offering to get absolved again,
> but with either the right altar available or the possibility to convert
> the wrong one afterwards, it might be worth a try. It works on the
> first attempt and I've had no negative experiences yet (other than
> losing protection and having to sacrifice), but I might also have been
> lucky here.

Okay, that was obviously the reason why I forgot about that method. ;-)
In my game I've max'ed my bought protection and don't want to lose it.

I might delay the unholy water acquisition for the moment; it seems I
can proceed without it currently. But cursing scrolls of teleportation
and destroy armor and later also potions of gain level would be handy,
though.

> But: no risk, no fun… ;-)

But: "DYWYPI?" - No risk, no fancy acronyms. :-)

Janis