Lesser known mechanics and easter eggs

[C. Blue]

Speculations are also welcome, so this thread can be used to discuss potential rare mechanics or also tips how to handle certain things, and to uncover them. ^^

Some game mechanics are hardly known, yet people tend to find out about them earlier or later, well, at least sometimes :-p
The intention of this thread is to keep track who finds out about the more obscure things and inform others about it, as it would be sad if once discovered things were actually forgotten again. So if you find out anything, just add to this thread!
If you have suggestions for new additions of special mechanics, please use the in-game "/rfe" command as usual (or create another forum thread if you want to discuss it), as this thread is for referencing already existing things rather than creating new ones.
I'll write down the first three things that come to mind as already been "discovered" by players, correct me if wrong.

- Dropping The One Ring into the lava inside Mt Doom will weaken Sauron the next time he spawns (for as long as he isn't defeated).
This also works in IDDC, and the "two Saurons" (IDDC vs non-IDDC) are handled separately.
IIRC this was discovered first by Meregord and someone who was with him, but I don't remember it clearly at all.
Small additional teaser perhaps: The same old volcano, Mt Doom, is involved into another item-related issue.

- Using wand of heal monster on sick townies can cure them.
I forgot who discovered this.
Very small teaser: Healing monsters could have its use in very specific circumstances, considering that monsters or mechanics in general might behave/work differently depending on monster health state. For example you cannot charm monsters that aren't at full HP. However, this is not something that will turn around any particular gameplay and I believe has no real importance (uh, although I'm never sure what kind of weird stuff/mechanics/ideas players will come up with at some point, that I have never thought about, been surprised several times in the past).

- Armour weight is actually kind of realistic, while weapon weight is more like reallife x 3.
I noticed this and adjusted outliers accordingly when I checked weapons and armour for consistency in relation to each other.
Related to this point perhaps, I also adjusted metal weight to be consistent.

Regarding fantasy metals Mithril and Adamantite (leaving out Ebonite for now):
I'm treating Mithril somewhat as counterpart to our real-life Titanium, as their properties seemed, uh, kind of similar, remotely >_> and as anyone looking into bicycles will know, both are very difficult to forge and therefore very expensive.
Titanium does exist as "item flavour" for wands in the game though, this could maybe get resolved at some point.
Adamantium could be any kind of super-dense metal maybe (as its weight is reflecting it realistically and not being "magically" light at all).
Tungsten comes to mind, where we could assume raw tungsten only for massive golem pieces where weight can be excessive, and for armour we have highly capable dwarven forge masters producing finest tungsten carbide >,>' keeping the weight as we know it in-game, but still somewhat in check compared to actual raw tungsten. Fits roughly pretty well imo.

Another small teaser for further discovery: I also looked into melting points of some metals.

- Salt water is rather effective at melting ice.

[Sav]

Let's try to add some!

- Wood chips can be used as store signs
As already is described in the guide, 4.10a, you can use pieces of wood for a fun shop sign. But these usable and durable pieces are actually somewhat rare. They rarely drop in the dungeons, but they are actually common as drops from Halloween event townies.
However, any char can just get a shovel and head to trees on the world map surface, or pop into Barrow Downs or Mirkwood and start cutting down trees. No (digging) skill is required, you will get a piece of wood every once in a while. It may take some serious attempts digging with no skills, but it's still an easy and reliable way to get a sign for a shop. (Mirkwood has huge areas of trees in dungeon layout, which can be nice)

- Massive piece of Wood as a lifebuoy
With some luck, one may actually obtain a massive piece of wood while cutting trees. While it is somewhat massive and heavy, these are actually a good way to quickly cross oceans when traveling on the world map, as they prevent drowning. Of course, a levitation ring would work as well, but a massive piece of wood is more fun and doesn't require an equipment slot.

- Super rare forms and uniques
The uniques 'Bloodfang, the Wolf' and 'The wounded bear' can only be summoned. They cannot spawn at all. Either some nasty mob summons them for you, or you can summon them yourself with a staff.
Apart from the uniques, you can also summon a Woodsman. A very rare 't' form to get. But, thanks to the easter egg of curing townies, you can get your woodsman form easily.
Last but not least, with a lowlevel Maia (maybe an intern or apprentice?) doing the hard work of finding them, any mimic can get those candlebearer and darkling forms. Even Maia mimics can get those forms, as long as they kill the 2nd kind after their ascension. As it is not possible for anyone to spawn all of these to get both forms on their own, a little help is required from a friendly player.
This makes three must have forms for every ultimate mimic (the forms are useless of course) and two must haves for everyone seeking to kill all unis.

- Enterprise thieving
When you approach thieving as a serious business model, trying to maximize revenue, it's obvious that thieving will be mostly used to cut costs on potions. And it's also obvious that a thief will get caught a lot.
Knowing that blacklists will last for (close to) 16 minutes for mana potions and resistance potions, 13 minutes for healing potions and a mere 6 minutes for speed potions, one can set a timer for these to get back to stealing as quickly as possible.
This timer can also be used in-game, by using '\W0000' instructions in a macro. For example, a macro '\W9600:/page character\n' would wait 960.0 seconds and then page the name "character". It can be replaced by a character name, but one can also use an account name, to have a timer macro like this you can use on multiple characters.
Of course, you can do crazy things with such macros, like having a countdown timer and using extra \W commands to time the thingy in the upper right corner.

- Locked doors lowering exp
This is about doors, not traps. Opening a locked door usually gives 1 experience point. Imagine opening hundreds of doors. Could be tedious, but it should be safe. Especially if you have the magelock spell which can lock doors for you. After all, you can just open em and lock em yourself to open them again.
However, if one would try to open the same door over and over again, one would obviously lose its mind. Or maybe one needs to lose its mind before even attempting. Either way, if one would attempt to do so, the exp seems to be ok for a while, but eventually opening this locked door will actually reduce experience points.
In the end, shooting a few orcs is much easier and yields greater rewards.

[C. Blue]

A somewhat different tip

If you play on a server where not all dungeon locations have yet been discovered, using wilderness map pieces can be effective.
These are technically scrolls, and their level is 15.
Scrolls are in the 'magic' treasure class (except for golem scrolls, which are in 'junk').
Low-level monsters that have a high chance to drop 'magic' items and also have FRIENDS flag so they come in packs are Gnome Mages and Dark-Elven Warlocks. Then, Barrow wights, Vrocks and Hezrous also have decent 'magic' drop chance and FRIENDS.
Last but not least, greater undead in general has a great chance to drop 'magic' treasure class stuff.

Side notes:
Gnome mages are the lowest level monsters whose native depth is actually the same as the wilderness map scrolls (both are level 15), so you don't need to go to any deeper depth but can just farm them (and all the other monsters too of course) at their native depths without worrying of reducing your chances.
Dark-elven Warlocks actually have 100% chance to drop 'magic' stuff, which makes them unique among FRIENDS monsters.

If a wilderness map piece reveals a dungeon location to you, it does not yet count as "discovered'! You still need to go there and get line-of-sight to the entrance staircase, in order for it to register officially in the exploration history (mathom house).