# Bell of Opening

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Name

Bell of Opening

Appearance

silver bell

Base price

5000 zm

Weight

10

Material

silver

Monster use

Will not be used by monsters.

The Bell of Opening is one of the unique items that appears in NetHack. It is guarded by your quest nemesis along with your role's quest artifact, and is needed for the Invocation ritual in order to access Moloch's Sanctum. It is made of silver and appears as a silver bell when unidentified.
Like all Invocation items, the Bell of Opening cannot be put into a container and is impossible to destroy.

Contents

1 Generation
2 Effects
3 Strategy
4 Origin
5 Encyclopedia entry
6 References

Generation
The Bell of Opening will always be placed in the inventory of the quest nemesis once you enter the goal level of your Quest.[1] The Bell always starts with three charges,[2] and has a maximum of five charges.[3]

Effects
Applying a non-cursed Bell of Opening while it has charges will detect secret doors, magic portals and traps in your sight within a radius of 8 squares like a wand of secret door detection,[4] and also cause you to be spit out if engulfed, like a wand of opening.[5] If blessed, it will additionally open nearby objects and dungeon features such as doors, chests, and drawbridges within the same radius.[6][7][8] If cursed, it will instead wake nearby monsters and raise the dead similar to the Book of the Dead, but without reviving corpses.[9] When applied with no charges, it acts as a normal bell.
Applying the non-cursed Bell with charges while not engulfed or else applying it during the Invocation while uncharged will fully auto-identify it.[10]

Strategy
Outside of the Invocation, the Bell of Opening can also double as a silver weapon for the shade-infested Orcus Town, and may be of particular use to a Monk preserving their weaponless conduct. The Bell can also be used to find the secret door along the temple wall in Moloch's Sanctum.

Origin

Wikipedia has an article about:
Bell, book, and candle

The motif of "Bell, Book and Candle" originated as a Catholic ritual of excommunication by anathema, although in some works it is often portrayed in connection with exorcism (e.g., the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman novel Good Omens). One notable occurrence of the motif is in the 1985 computer role playing game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar: the player must find the Bell of Courage, the Book of Truth, and the Candle of Love in order to enter the Abyss, the final dungeon of the game.
The Bell of Opening is the only invocation ritual item that does not use an analogue from another folkloric source in addition.

Encyclopedia entry

"A bell, book and candle job."
The Bursar sighed.  "We tried that, Archchancellor."
The Archchancellor leaned towards him.
"Eh?" he said.
"I _said_, we tried that Archchancellor," said the Bursar loudly,
directing his voice at the old man's ear.  "After dinner, you
remember?  We used Humptemper's _Names of the Ants_ and rang Old
Tom."*
"Did we, indeed.  Worked, did it?"
"_No_, Archchancellor."
&nbsp;
* Old Tom was the single cracked bronze bell in the University
bell tower.

[ Eric, by Terry Pratchett ] 

References

↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1310

↑ src/mkobj.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 955

↑ src/read.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 586

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1124

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1069

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1105

↑ src/detect.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1584

↑ src/detect.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1510

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1080

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 1132