# Scroll of mail

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Name

scroll of mail

Appearance

stamped scroll

Base price

0 zm

Weight

5

Ink to write

2

Monster use

Will not be used by monsters.

The scroll of mail is a type of scroll that appears in some versions of NetHack. On some systems, the mail daemon can deliver mail with message from outside NetHack to your hero, and reading the scroll will show the message. Reading this scroll naturally breaks illiterate conduct; you will be warned if attempting to read sent mail would do so.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Strategy
3 History
4 See also
5 References

Generation
Mail scrolls are never generated randomly in the dungeon (although in some versions of NetHack, the mail daemon delivers them at random). You can turn the option "mail" off to prevent scrolls of mail being delivered.
The source of the scrolls varies according to which operating system you play on: 

On UNIX and Linux, you can set up an alert for incoming email.
On DOS, scrolls with random messages are delivered now and then. Public servers often allow people watching a game to send short messages to the person playing the game. An error in wishing for mail body armor may also leave the player with a scroll of mail instead (i.e. a wish for "blessed greased fixed +3 dragon mail" will produce a blessed greased scroll of mail). In theory, you could acquire as many of these scrolls as you want by sending many messages to yourself.
If the MAIL compile-time option isn't defined, scrolls of mail don't exist in the game. Attempting to write one will reject the name, and wishing for one will give a random scroll instead. The official Windows binaries don't define MAIL.

Strategy
Unlike other scrolls, scrolls of mail lack many of their gameplay applications:

They will not polymorph into other objects or be consumed by polypiling, they just turn into junk mail.[1][2][3]
They cannot get wet.[4][5]
They are not affected by cancellation.
A gelatinous cube gains no nutrition by eating one.[6]
If you wish for or write a scroll of mail, or you discover a bones file with someone else's mail, it will be "junk mail addressed to the finder of the Eye of Larn". (The roguelike Larn would send the user mail when they won.)[7][8][9][10]
However, they can still affect a game in the following ways:

They weigh as much as any other scroll (5), so you can become burdened by mail.
They can be thrown to propel yourself backward while levitating.[11]
Huge quantities of mail scrolls can be used for a shop-robbing exploit known as the "200 rock steal".
Large amounts of scrolls of mail can be used as "fodder" against curse items.
History
In NetHack 3.4.3 and earlier versions, reading a scroll of mail immediately breaks illiterate conduct; a scroll of mail will also "activate" an Elbereth square in these versions. As of 3.6.0, the reminder for illiterate conduct is included, and Elbereth's mechanics mean that scrolls of mail no longer affect squares with Elbereth engraved.

See also
Mail daemon
References

↑ zap.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1040

↑ zap.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1156

↑ zap.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1241

↑ trap.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 2712

↑ potion.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 1467

↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 2110

↑ objnam.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 2524

↑ read.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 660

↑ write.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 233

↑ bones.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 88

↑ https://nhqdb.alt.org/?2390