# The Temple of Moloch
The Temple of Moloch is a special level in SLASH'EM, dNetHack and SlashTHEM. In SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, the Temple of Moloch is accessed by a stairway down located between levels 32 and 35, while in dNetHack the stairway appears between levels 5 and 25.
As the name implies, the entire level minus the stair room and treasure room is a temple dedicated to Moloch; the altar is marked and surrounded by four priests of Moloch, though the room is not considered an actual "temple".

Contents

1 The level
2 Strategy

2.1 The altar

3 See also
4 Reference

The level
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There are two spiked pits in the stair room. The X mark indicates a burned message reading "Those Not of Moloch, Begone!".
The niches on the sides of the temple each contain a statue gargoyle, and the main area contains a bone devil, a babau, a barbed devil, a vrock, a horned devil, a hezrou, and 21 random Z; notably, this can include ghoul queens, which are not randomly generated otherwise and considered extremely dangerous.
The room on the far right contains nine piles of treasure, each composed of a chest, a wax candle, a random amount of gold, and three random objects. In dNetHack, the center chest also contains a scroll of consecration.

Strategy
Before walking further into the temple, use telepathy or monster detection to check for any ghoul queens: they possess dual spellcasting attacks, can  summon nasties, move at the same base speed as you, and are not covetous - this means will happily sit outside of the ring of monsters they have summoned, continually summoning more. Ghoul queens should be your highest-priority targets, equal to or even above the hostile priests. When cutting through the random Z to reach any ghoul queens, try to avoid hitting ghoul mages as well: their aggravate monster spell can result in your retreat being quickly cut off.
Be cautious when attacking the priests of Moloch, as Moloch responds with divine lightning bolts, potentially blinding you even if you have reflection/lightning resistance. They also hit fairly hard in melee and ignore Elbereth, and the summon insects spell can create far stronger insects, with specific monsters depending on the variant.

The altar
The altar to Moloch can be converted, and is one of two guaranteed altars in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, with the other occurring in the Lawful Quest. This may prove useful in games where very few altars generate otherwise, as the Minetown priest is the only guaranteed source of protection since the priest in the Valley of the Dead is generated hostile in those variants. Conversely, the altar here can also be used to make unholy water.

See also
Special level (SLASH'EM)
Reference
From source mtemple.des file