Draft:Helm of Teleportation

Omega 0.90.4

Helm of Teleportation&TypeArtifactBase value (Au)1500Item level2Weight0Unidentified appearanceStrange Weightless HelmCursed nameHelm of Teleportation

The Helm of Teleportation is a weightless artifact that repeatedly teleports its user within the current map. It is activated from inventory, rather than worn as body armor. A known blessed helm permits destination selection; unidentified or cursed use can teleport the user into an obstruction and kill them.

Generation

Its fixed appearance is Strange Weightless Helm. Ordinary random generation can create it as an item-level-2 artifact, then blocks further ordinary copies through the unique-generation marker. It is not in the repeatable random monster-possession pool. New copies are unidentified and neutral; normal acquirement and automatic pawn-shop stock exclude artifacts.

Teleportation

Keep it accessible and use A → a. It needs no mana, is not consumed, and is not an armor-slot item. The familiar appearance alone does not satisfy its identification check.

Helm state	Destination and result
Unidentified, any blessing	Unsafe random coordinates; anything other than floor or an open door causes immediate death
Identified, cursed	The same unsafe random-coordinate branch
Identified, neutral	Random unoccupied, nonsecret floor found by the normal placement search
Identified, blessed	Chosen unoccupied floor; a non-floor or occupied choice instead gives neutral random teleportation

Greater positive blessing or enchantment adds no further control. The unsafe branch does not check for an occupying creature before accepting floor or an open door. This makes it unsuitable as an escape plan even when much of a map looks open.

For a blessed use, move the target cursor to a valid square and confirm with .. Do not treat Escape as a safe cancellation once targeting has begun: this teleport effect does not handle the selector's abort result safely. A normal, in-bounds but unsuitable destination falls back to random teleportation and has already spent the use opportunity.

Teleportation updates the screen and room at the new position. It does not change dungeon depth or provide the world destinations of the Amulet of the Planes. Ordinary artifact activation is available in local scenes; the countryside command set does not provide the same activation command.

Reuse and strategy

The helm records the 24-hour clock hour before teleporting. All copies share that marker, initially unused, and refuse another activation matching it. This is not a one-hour elapsed timer: crossing a clock-hour boundary permits reuse, while the same hour on a later date still matches if no different-hour use intervened. The marker is separate from the Staff of Enchantment and holy symbols. No charge decreases, and ordinary charging does not select this artifact.

Its zero weight makes a prepared helm convenient to retain, but never identify an unknown copy by testing it. Establish its identity and curse state first; blessing is valuable for choosing a surveyed retreat. Clairvoyance can help locate suitable floor, though a creature arriving there still causes random fallback.

Keep an independent teleportation scroll or other escape for the interval after use. Unlike reading a scroll, activating the helm does not apply the scroll-reading checks for blindness or fear, but the item must remain accessible and its hour must be available. Further enchanting an intact helm produces artifact backlash rather than improving destination control.