Plus sign

plus sign

This is a plus sign. It's about a foot tall, and about a foot wide. It's sort of heavy.

Type: usable
Cannot be traded or discarded
Quest Item

(In-game plural: plus signs)

View metadata
Item number: 818
Description ID: 79993334
View in-game: view

refreshedit data

Drop Location

The Enormous Greater-Than Sign

Plus? Plus what? (one time drop)

When Used

• From inventory, before The Oracle's major consultation:

You have no idea what this thing is for.

• From inventory, after consultation:

Following The Oracle's advice, you treat the plus sign as a book, and read it. It describes, in great detail, a place called the Dungeons of Doom. The first chapter teaches you that the Enormous Greater-Than Sign is actually the stairway leading to these dungeons, and the rest of the book teaches you how to recognize the items and monsters contained within its halls. After you're done reading the book, it vanishes in a puff of obsolescence.

Notes

• Grants access to The Dungeons of Doom.

References

• In NetHack, a plus sign represents a spellbook (or a closed door).
• In the use text, "a puff of obsolescence" alludes to the message received in NetHack after using a throne, namely "The throne vanishes in a puff of logic.", which refers in turn to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.