Subject: Angband: Frequently Questioned Answers


  Okay folks, until a real Angband FAQ file is built, here's a lot of
info to try to cut down on traffic on rec.games.moria.  I've tried to
organize it loosely into categories.  Some of the information contained
below is definitely "Spoilers", so read on at risk of your own thrill of
discovery...

	Where to get Angband
* For anyone looking to get the game, it's available for anonymous ftp
  from ftp.cis.ksu.edu (aka procyon.cis.ksu.edu or 129.130.10.80).  The
  Unix source is in pub/Games/Angband and ports for the PC, Amiga,
  Mac, Atari ST are available in subdirectories.
* Angband Docs: ftp ftp.cis.ksu.edu  /pub/games/angband

	Public Service Announcements
* There is a new, Angband-specific newsgroup, rec.games.roguelike.angband.
  If your site carries this newsgroup, please try to use it instead of rec.
  games.moria for Angband discussions.
* When posting a message to rec.games.moria about something that relates
  to Angband, please include the word 'Angband' in your subject.  If
  your posting is specific to some version of angband, try to mention
  that as well.  For example, if you're asking a question about PC
  Angband, put 'Angband (PC)' in the subject.  This simple courtesy will
  be greatly appreciated by all the moria fans on rec.games.moria. 
  After all, the group is primarily for Moria, and offshoots like
  Angband, Morgul, Druid Moria, etc. are secondary.
* About (backup) savefiles:
	Some people use (backup) savefiles.
	Some people don't.
	Others would, but can't.
  Please leave it at that.  I'd hate for the flamewar to restart...

	Artifacts
* Artifacts don't appear in stores (unless you sell it to them).
* The artifact list in the angband.doc file is incomplete ON PURPOSE.
  It's only meant to tell you a little info about some "legendary" items.
* In some places, the artifact description is (slightly) wrong.  This
  reflects the "legend and rumor" basis for the descriptions (It also
  reflects the fact that the angband.doc file is slightly out-of-date).
  If you want a complete, up-to-date list, ask for the spoiler file.
* Unique items, once missed, are gone forever...  If you get a "special"
  message, I suggest you use that Staff of Trap Detection, so you don't
  fall through a trap door!
* Unique items should resist destruction by fire/frost/lightning/etc, and
  shouldn't be picked up by monsters, so you don't have to worry too much
  about some *&%&^ing green glutton ghost picking up an awesome item.
  Ditto with thieves stealing them...
* Artifacts CAN appear on a level that doesn't give you the "special"
  message.  The "special" message only lets you know if there is an artifact
  (or other special feature) on the level when it's first generated.  If a
  monster is killed and drops an artifact, the only way you'll know about it
  is to ID it (or carry it a while, and hope for the "pseudo-ID" to tell you).
  However, if there is an artifact on the level at the time of creation, you
  will get the "special" message (see below on feelings, though).
* Many (but not all!) artifact weapons can be identified as artifacts
  just by looking at them, because they do non-standard damage.  For
  example, if you see a longsword (normally does 2d5), that says 4d5, you
  know it's an artifact.  (In fact, it's Ringil, the best weapon in the
  game.) 
* Artifacts CAN be disenchanted, just like any other item. 
  Disenchantment only affects your weapon, and any armor you are using,
  so your spare weapon is safe.  If you have an item which gives you
  disenchantment resistance, then ALL of your items are protected.
  There are very few items which grant disench. res.  They are:
	Chaos Dragon Armor
	Balance Dragon Armor
	Power Dragon Armor
	Calris (3d7 bastard sword, initially cursed)
	Deathwreaker (HEAVY 4d12 mace of disruption)
	Rilia (2d4 dagger)
	Celeborn (Mithril Plate)
* Curse Weapon and Curse Armor scrolls CAN DESTROY artifacts.  In PC
  Angband 1.3 or newer (and maybe the other ports as well) artifacts do
  get a saving throw against this destruction, but it's less than 50/50
  that they survive.  In general, it is not a good idea to read unIDed
  scrolls found on "lucky" levels or deep in the dungeon until you know
  which scrolls these two are, unless you aren't using any equipment you
  care about and have remove curse (spell/scroll/staff/rod) to get rid
  of the (newly) cursed item.  You have been warned...

	Feelings
* About "special about this level", or "good feeling", or "luck is turning",
  etc messages:  You will only get them when you enter a level IF you've
  been on the previous 2 levels "long enough".  This is to prevent people
  from standing on a stairway, and going up and down until they get a
  "special" message.  "Long enough" is a couple hundred turns or so, if
  I remember right.  This means that the 1st time you go to 50' into
  dungeon, you will never get a message, because you can't have been on
  the previous TWO levels yet.  NOTE ALSO:  If you are in wizard mode,
  you don't get the "something special" message, because it tells you
  exactly what is on the level.
* Another note on the "something special about this level" message: 
  There are three things that could cause it... Artifacts, monster pits,
  and player ghosts.  As you get deeper in the dungeon, the game
  considers monster pits to be less special.  At 2500', only 1 pit in 5
  or 6 is likely to trigger a "special" message.  So there is no
  guarantee that you can stop looking for an artifact just because you
  found a monster pit.  In fact, a monster pit, or a player ghost, or
  an artifact on the level doesn't prevent another artifact from
  appearing on the level, although the odds are slim at shallow depths.
* The other "feelings" you can get relate to the general 'rating' of the
  level.  Many things can contribute to the 'rating' of a level:  Out
  of depth monsters, out of depth items, some excellent items (DF, HA,
  of Westernesse, RA, R, etc), and special rooms (vaults, round rooms,
  giant vaults, etc).  If you get one of these messages, you should be
  fairly careful, in case there's some out of depth monsters around, but
  you should also try to grab everything you can, in hopes of getting
  some better items.
* There has been many ideas proposed on rec.games.moria for changing
  these feelings, or otherwise making the tactic of simply going up and
  down levels with resting in between unprofitable.  Many of them have
  either been unfeasible, or would be *nasty* to code.  But many others
  have sounded reasonable, and would not be too hard to code.  (I, for
  one, am waiting until a really great idea comes along before I alter
  something so basic about the game as these messages, and how artifacts
  are distributed. -CFT)

	Spellcasting
* All spellcasters are penalized for high ACs.  This is based on true AC,
  w/o any magical bonuses.  This simulates the general encumbering effects
  of heavy armor.
* Mages, and other mage-type spell caster, lose mana for wearing gloves (or
  gauntlets or cestus).  This simulates the interference they cause with
  the intricate gestures required for spellcasting.  Priests and paladins
  don't have this problem, as they invoke the power of their diety...
* The minimum spell failure chance depends both on your class and on
  your spell stat.  Only pure spellcasters (mage and priest) can get
  really low failure rates.
* Many duration spells don't provide much duration if cast again while the
  effects still last.  For example, casting haste self 10 times in a row
  isn't a very good use of mana...
* There are 9 spells books for mages, and 9 for priests.  The new 5
  books can be found deeper in the dungeon.  Or you could get lucky and
  see them at the Black Market.  These books are not artifacts. 
* Monster spell resistances have been changed from Moria...  In Moria, a
  white dragon took extra damage from a fire bolt/ball, and partial
  (1/4th) damage from a frost bolt/ball.  In Angband, a white dragon
  takes normal damage from a fire bolt/ball, and almost no (1/9th)
  damage from a frost bolt/ball.  Basically, there are no more
  "susceptibilities".  There are a couple of exceptions to this...
  Monsters can be susceptible to bright light (ie, wand of light, not
  lightning), and holy orb does extra damage vs evil creatures.
  (I was totally wrong when I had said holy orb does less than normal
   damage against non-evil creatures, sorry.  I must have been tired
   when I looked at the source code. -CFT)
* Many of the mage spells are now adjusted by your level.  However, a
  lot more monsters are immune to frost/fire/lightning, so either you
  need a LOT of magic missiles, a good bow, or haste up and hack-n-slash.
* Priests and paladins now need the right prayer book to learn spells. 
  In Moria, they didn't. (Moria did it that way to prevent players from
  dropping all but the 3rd book to "force" Orb of Draining.)  Angband does
  it this way so that the new spells in the extra books wouldn't be
  given to a low level character (who then couldn't cast it until he
  journeys deep in the dungeon and finds the right book).  This means you
  can "force" the spells you want, if you drop all but 1 book at home
  before learning new spells.  (Don't forget to pick the books up again
  afterwards!  I lost a half-troll priest to a bunch of water trolls,
  since he forgot the book with 'portal' in it!)
* "You seem to be missing a book" means that you have the capacity to
   learn more spells than you happen to have available to you at the
   moment.  This might mean that you are level 50, and already know all
   the spells, but could learn more if there were any.  It might mean
   that you are a 6th level rogue, who could learn a second spell, but
   the normal books only have one spell below level 7.  (In this case,
   you really are missing a book).  The wording of the message may be
   a little confusing, but, to be honest, I can't think of a relatively
   short message that applies to both situations and sounds good.

	Combat
* Group monster can be DANGEROUS!  Even if you can kill a single orc/
  troll/novice whatever/whatever hound/etc without too much trouble,
  it's easy to get overwhelmed by sheer numbers.  My advice: Make sure
  only 1 can attack you at a time, and for any spell-casting or
  breathing groups, ambush them from around a corner so that only 1 can
  see you at a time.  A possible exception to this is novice rangers;
  they can only cast magic missile, and missile spells (as opposed to
  ball spells or breath weapons) cannot "jump" other monsters in
  Angband.  So, if you're having trouble with novice rangers, get them
  all lined up in a corridor, and then some of them will be wounded/
  killed by M.M.s from other rangers.  Of course, you don't get
  experience for anything that you don't kill, but you might survive
  a bit longer...
* Another major piece of advice is that you should always try to carry
  some cure serious wound (or better) potions (to cure some HPs, and
  remove blindness and confusion).  This will allow spell casters to
  cast their escape spells, and allow others to read their escape
  scrolls.  Scrolls of phase door or teleport are important for
  characters who don't have an escape spell.  Staves of teleportation
  work also, but a thief can only steal 1 scroll at a time, or a fire
  trap can only burn up 1 scroll at a time...  On the other hand, you
  can use a staff while blinded and confused.
  
* The to-hit bonuses for using a "bow" can come from any source; rings,
  DEX, gauntlets of slaying, the "bow", the "arrows".  But the to-dam
  bonus for shooting a "bow" come only from the "arrows" and the "bow",
  so a Ring of Damage (+18) won't help your bow damage (unless you're
  hitting a monster over the head with your longbow).
  
* Damage from "ego" weapons/artifacts is calculated as follows:
  damage = (weapon-base * weapon-mult) * hit-mult
           + hit-bonus + weapon-bonus + player-bonus
  weapon-base is the base damage rolled (i.e. "3d4" or "1d10")
  weapon-mult is for special weapons (i.e. "of fire", see below).
  hit-mult is the multiplier granted from a "good" hit (see below).
  hit-bonus is the bonus damage granted from a "good" hit (see below).
  weapon-bonus is the "plusses" (if any) on the weapon itself
  player-bonus is the player's bonus damage (from rings, strength, etc).

  Note that bonus-damage is NOT multiplied in.  This means that a
  dagger (1d4), even if it does x5 damage, is not as good as a two-handed
  sword (3d6) that does x2 damage, unless you get more swings with the
  dagger.  Of course, if the T-H-sword had +0 to damage, and the dagger
  had +20 to damage, you would probably want to use the dagger anyways.

  There is an exception to the above equation:  missile weapons, when
  used in conjunction with the appropriate ammo.  This helps warriors
  survive without spells.  For this case, the formula is:
  damage = (ammo-base + ammo-bonus + bow-bonus)
	   * bow-mult * ammo-mult * hit-mult + hit-bonus
  bow-mult is the multiplier from the missile launcher (i.e. x2,x3,x4).
  ammo-mult is for special ammo (i.e. "of Fire", "of Dragon Slaying")
  hit-mult and hit-bonus are as above (i.e. "good hit", etc).

  Note that, unlike with normal weapons, bow-bonus's ARE multiplied in.
  This makes a heavy crossbow (x4) with a high bow-bonus-damage very
  powerful...  If you have some bolts.
  
  Note also that "player-bonus" does not apply to missile weapons, unless
  the player actually hits the monster with the bow.
  
* A quick note about "bows" and to-hit and to-damage bonuses.  If you
  are wielding a "bow", and you show the info screen, the to-hit and
  to-dam bonuses for the bow are not added in.  This is because these
  values reflect the extra to-hit and to-dam bonuses you get for hitting
  a monster over the head with your "bow".  The code uses the correct
  values when you shoot "arrows" with your "bow".  As for what happens
  when you actually hit a monster with the bow, I do not know...
  
* Multipliers for various weapon powers are:
	L   -  x5	XD  -  x5	FB  -  x3	FT  -  x3
	SD  -  x3	SDm -  x3	SU  -  x3	SO  -  x3
	SG  -  x3	ST  -  x3	SE  -  x2	SA  -  x2
  Abbreviations used above are: (self knowledge mesg. in parenthesis)
    L   - Lightning, unless res. ("electrocutes your foes")
    XD  - Execute Dragon ("great bane of dragons")
    FB  - Frost (Brand), unless res. ("freezes your foes")
    FT  - Flame (Tongue), unless res. ("burns your foes")
    SD  - Slay Dragon ("especially deadly against dragons")
	NOTE: SD is x3 in Angband, not x4 like it was in Moria...
    SDm - Slay Demon ("strikes at demons with holy wrath")
    SU  - Slay Undead ("strikes at undead with holy wrath")
    SO  - Slay Orcs ("especially deadly against orcs")
    SG  - Slay Giants ("especially deadly against giants")
    ST  - Slay Trolls ("especially deadly against trolls")
    SE  - Slay Evil ("fights against evil with holy fury")
    SA  - Slay Animals ("especially deadly against Nature's creatures")
  Note that only the highest applicable multiplier is used, if several
  apply.  For example, a weapon with XD, SU, SE used against a Dracolich
  will only do the x5 from XD, NOT x5x3x2 == x30 from all three.

* Damage bonuses for special hits are:
  "good hit"		x2 + 5
  "excellent hit"	x2 + 10
  "superb hit"		x3 + 15
  "*GREAT* hit"		x3 + 20
  The odds of getting a special hit are influenced by your plusses to
  hit, your combat skill, and the weight of your weapon (Heavier weapons
  are more likely to deliver an extra-hard hit).

* Priests are penalized for wielding "non-priestly" weapons.  This
  penalty comes from D&D.  Priests are basically restricted to maces,
  clubs, and other blunt weapons.   They should get a message ("You are
  not comfortable with your weapon" or something like that) if they
  wield a non-priestly weapon.  But this is only -2 to hit and
  damage...  If you find Ringil, WIELD IT!
* For those who have examined the "blows" table (which tells how many
  swings you can get, based on your strength, your DEX, and the weight
  of your weapon), be warned:  When calculating your STR to weapon
  weight ratio, the code considers any weapon lighter than 5 pounds to
  weigh 5 pounds.  So there is no longer any advantage gained by
  wielding really light weapons (ie a Stilleto no longer gives two
  swings even to a character with moderate stats.)
* PC Angband (and probably the other ports as well, soon) now has Chris
  Wilde's targetting code to aim spells, wands, rods, and missiles at
  monsters which at not "in line" with you.  You activate it by using the
  '*' key.  To turn off targetting when you are finished, (it's turned
  off automatically if you kill the monster you were targetting), use
  the '*' command, and then hit the ESC key to abort targetting.


	Items
	
* Weapons "of Flame" are (FT).  "of Frost" is (FB).  "of Fire" does x3 fire
  damage like a (FT), but doesn't give you fire resistance.
* Calris:  To uncurse it, either use a scroll of *remove curse*, or
  just read a scroll of enchant weapon to-hit (a scroll of enchant
  weapon to-dam would also work, but Calris' +20 makes it infinitely
  improbable that it will successfully enchant it).  It will still say
  '{cursed}', and it will still aggravate monsters, but you will be
  able to switch to another weapon until you can get enough enchant
  to-hit scrolls to remove Calris's penalty to-hit.
* A Potion of Life restores lost experience, restores any drained stats,
  cures poison, confusion, blindness, hallucination, removes fear and
  stunning, heals cuts and fully heals you.  It's a very nice potion to
  have around.
* A staff or rod of Enlightenment acts as the priest spell of sense
  surroundings (basically, it maps one screen, without detecting
  anything).  A potion of Enlightenment lights the entire level, like
  the wizard mode light command.  A potion of *Enlightenment* wizard-
  lights the level, identifies all your items, restores your INT and
  WIS if they were drained or increases them otherwise, and, on the
  newest PC Angband (maybe also in Unix/etc versions) grants self-
  knowledge.
* Don't drink a potion of Death, Ruination or Detonations!  The potion
  of Detonations makes a good thrown weapon, though.
* A weapon of Morgul cannot be uncursed with a normal remove curse
  spell.  See the note on 'Calris' for how to uncurse one of these.
* Dragon Scale Mail (DSM) powers: (ALL DSMs have RA, and the breath is
     appropriate for the type of dragon)
  Blue DSM:	RL  (breathe for 100 hp)
  White DSM:	RC  (breathe for 110 hp)
  Black DSM:	just RA  (breathe for 130 hp)
  Green DSM:	RPoi  (breathe for 150 hp)
  Red DSM:	RF  (breathe for 200 hp)
  Multi-Hued DSM:  RL, RC, RF, RPoi  (breathe for 250 hp)
  Bronze DSM:	RConf  (breathe for 120 hp)
  Gold DSM:	RSound  (breathe for 130 hp)
  Chaos DSM:	RDisench, RChaos  (breathe for 220 hp)
  Law DSM:	RShards, RSound  (breathe for 230 hp)
  Balance DSM:	RDisench, RChaos, RShards, RSound  (breathe for 250 hp)
  Shining DSM:	RLight, RDark  (breathe light/dark for 200 hp)
  Power DSM:	RDisench, RChaos, RShards, RLight, RDark, RNexus,
		RNether, RL, RC, RF, RPoi  (breathe "elements" for 300 hp)
  NOTE: RChaos resists both chaos and confusion.
* A Cloak of Aman is not an artifact, it is just a cloak with RA, stealth,
  and a very large bonus to AC.

	General
* You don't get any extra speed from wearing a second speed ring.  You
  can still get extra speed by wearing a speed ring with some other
  source of speed, like boots of speed.  This is not a bug.
* If you kill Sauron out-of-depth (not on level 99 (4950')), then you
  will have to fall through a trap door to get beyond level 99.  This
  is a bug, caused by an oversight in the quest code.  Sorry, folks...
  By now, this has probably been fixed in most versions of Angband, but
  I'm including it here just in case.
* There is a Potion of Self Knowledge, much like the potion from
  Nethack, which can tell you what your resistances etc. are.  With
  judicious use of these potions, you should be able to tell what powers
  various artifacts grant you.  This should reduce people's reliance on
  spoilers to decide which of 2 weapons, or 2 armors, etc. to use.
  Some often asked about messages:  "hard to find" is stealth, "land gently"
  is feather fall, "appetite is small" is slow digestion, and "will not
  become out of shape" is sustain constitution.
* Farmer Maggot CAN be killed.  Just hit him a lot...
* Infravision allows you to see SOME invisible monsters (if they aren't
  cold-blooded).  This is not a bug.
* Orcs and trolls can be fun to line up in a long corridor, and then
  blast with a wand of light!  (Not all types are susceptible...)  A rod
  of light can be a mid-level character's best friend, doing good damage
  against a whole line of susceptible monsters, with a really fast (~8
  rounds) recharge.
* Unique monsters, once missed, come back again (until killed).  If you are
  having a LOT of trouble with one of them, run and read a WoR scroll.  Maybe
  he won't be on the level next time...  You can kill him later, when you're
  tougher.  I especially recommend this with "Mim, betrayer of Turin" for
  mages...  (You'll see why  :-)
* Some advice on identifying items:  How you go about it depends on your
  class and level.  For warriors, paladins and rogues, carry everything
  you find (weapons + armor; this doesn't work for potions, etc) for a
  while.  Your 'pseudo-identify' should kick in and give you some idea
  how good/bad the item is.  For anyone with the 'remove curse' spell,
  try on any armor you find.  If it's cursed, uncurse it, and drop it.
  That way you don't have to carry cursed items at least.  But DO NOT
  do this with weapons.  There are some really bad weapons that can
  laugh off your feeble attempts to uncurse!  For mages and rangers
  who have the identify spell and know it well enough to cast fairly
  often, ID everything you can.  If you've got some really nice Mithril
  Plate, you don't have to ID things like studded leather armor, but you
  should try to get everything you can.  Besides, you should be on the
  lookout for light armor artifacts, to avoid the mana penalty of heavy
  armor.  For priests, and low levels mages and rangers, you have to
  depend on ID scrolls, staves of perceptions, etc.  Even priests do get
  some feeling of 'cursed' items if they carry things long enough.  Try
  not to waste ID spells on cursed items.  At high levels, priests can
  get the ID spell, but it's in one of the deeper books.
* Warriors, paladins, and rogues get an improved 'pseudo-identify', which
  is much better than the simply 'magik'/'cursed' version from Moria.
  Mages, priests, and rangers are stuck with just noticing 'blessed'/
  'cursed', and not noticing it too quickly.  But warriors, rogues,
  and paladins can notice:
	'worthless'	cursed item
	'terrible'	cursed ego item or artifact
	'average'	uncursed, but nonmagic item, maybe with minuses
	'good'		item with plusses
	'excellent'	ego item
	'special'	artifact
  Warriors notice items most quickly, followed by rogues and then paladins.  
* Damage messages when you cast a spell, or fire a missile, are
  dependant on the amount of damage done relative to the current HPs of
  the monster.  There are a number of messages, depending on how
  severe the attack was, and on what type of monster it is (for example,
  monsters without mouths don't "scream in pain", they "draw back in
  pain").  Note that throwing many items (like food rations) does NO
  DAMAGE.
* The monster memory does show more than one description for some
  monsters.  Some examples are filthy street urchins, novice mages/
  priests/warriors/rangers, mimics, gnome mages, etc.  There are two or
  more entries because there are actually two or more different types
  of these monsters.  Often the difference between them is that one is
  found solo and the other is found in groups, at a slightly deeper level.
* Also note that the monster memory doesn't give you credit for killing
  a monster if you cannot see the monster (if you are blind, or the
  monster is in a dark area beyond your infravision range, etc).  The
  recall code for uniques is slightly different, and the monster memory
  will note their deaths, unless you never saw them, even by an 'ancestor'
* To use rods with the "non-rogue" command set, use the 'z' key.  This
  IS documented in the help screen, but it doesn't fit on the first
  screen.  If you hit ESC instead of space, you'll never see the second
  (and following) help screens, so you wouldn't know this.
* Monster "pits" are rectangular rooms, about 20 by 5, (they look like
  some of the rooms which have an "inside wall") filled with monsters.
  Slime pits are filled with jellies, molds, icky things, oozes, etc.
  Orc, Troll, Dragon and Demon pits are filled with different types of
  those monsters (Dragon pits are filled with the same color dragons).
  Undead pits (aka Graveyards) are filled with some nasty undead. 
  Inside monster pits, there can be monsters that are VERY far out of
  depth, so you should be very careful around them.
  Monster "vaults" are unusually shaped and sized rooms, filled with
  monsters, treasures, and traps.  The 'greater' vaults are huge (about
  60x20), with outside walls of impenetrable rock except for a couple
  of granite walls in the corners.  Monster vaults are filled with all
  different kinds of monsters, and often have some really nice treasure
  to go along with some out-of-depth monsters.  Greater vaults are
  filled with all different kinds of out-of-depth monsters, with
  excellent treasure (often more than 1 artifact), and some REALLY
  out-of-depth monsters.  Taking on a greater vault is amazingly
  dangerous unless you have some speed, lots of resistances, and a
  teleport away spell/wand/rod.  You have been warned.  "Monster vaults"
  (as opposed to "monster pits") do not cause a "special" feeling, but
  they do greatly improve the 'rating' of the level, so you will often
  get some form of "your luck is turning" message.  Of course, if the
  "vault" happens to contain an artifact, you should get the "special"
  message as usual.
* Nexus "stat-shuffling" attack can be prevented by Resist Nexus, which
  is quite rare. (PDSM, Aule, Bloodspkike, Soulkeeper, Bladeturner, and
  Feanor).  If your stats do get "shuffled", there is no way to restore
  them, short of getting them shuffled again (and again and again) until
  they get restored.  Of course, if all your stats are maxed up to 18/100,
  then it doesn't matter if they get shuffled.
  
  
* About the name 'Angband': (with thanks to David M. Tate (dtate+@pitt.edu),
  who posted the article from which I extracted this. -CFT)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  When Melkor sought to establish himself as Lord of Middle-Earth, he
built for himself a giant fortress, Utumno, in the far north of Middle-
Earth.  Being afraid of possible interference by the other Ainur from
Valinor, he also constructed a strongly fortified outpost, Angband, near
the western shores of Middle-Earth, north of Beleriand.  Sauron (also
called Gorthaur) was its captain.

  When the Valar, for the sake of the Elves, came and put Melkor (now
called Morgoth) into captivity in the halls of Mandos for three ages,
they destroyed most of Utumno.  When Morgoth finally returned to Middle-
Earth, after having destroyed the Two Trees, he rebuilt Angband anew,
and made it the seat of his power.  He caused to be raised above its gates
the mighty towers Thangorodrim, and ruled there until finally defeated
by the final incursion of the Might of the Ainur into Middle-Earth.

  "Angband" means "Hell (or prison) of Iron" in (I believe) Sindarin.  The
prefix 'ang-' denotes iron, which is why it occurs in the names of so many
swords and other weapons (e.g. Angcrist, "Iron-cleaver", the dagger of
Beren).

  The complete story is layed out in exquisite detail in Tolkien's 
_Silmarillion_.
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