A special container that can hold the invocation items, and only the invocation items. Has bag-of-holding-like properties (or else is an artifact bag of holding). It appears in some hard to reach place in the dungeon.

In order to incentivize bullwhip use or other creative problem solving, Vlad wields the Candelabrum in his offhand.

If you chat to the Oracle while carrying invocation artifacts (or possibly just after you’ve triggered the game flags for having acquired them at some point) she offers you a special consultation which helps show an unspoiled player the next step to take to complete the game, given what you have so far.

New artifact Dark Candle, of which there are seven in the game, carried by Medusa, the priest of Moloch in the Valley, Asmodeus, Baalzebub, Juiblex, Orcus, and the Wizard of Yendor. They are intended to be attached to the Candelabrum (and possibly don’t do anything when applied on their own), but attempting to do so warns the player “You feel cold and hollow”. When you attach the seventh one and complete the Dark Candelabrum, you are blasted, level drained, lose all divine protection and possibly crowning and a permanent intrinsic. When lit (requires an #invoke), it casts an “eerie shadow” but provides you “intense clarity of vision”, which is effectively a radius 4 light source. It never runs out of light on its own, but if you are targeted by curse magic, it is disrupted and shuts off.

Proposals to address the situation where all the candles needed for the invocation are guaranteed in Vlad’s Tower. The current situation removes frustration but many players feel that it’s trivialized, whereas the system in 3.4.3 was frustrating because it was a common occurrence to have to backtrack to the Mines for candles after forgetting they needed to be collected, or worse, having to wish for them because the game didn’t generate 7 of them.

• Make the Candelabrum come prefilled with 7 candles; this doesn’t address the trivialization concerns but does make it slightly less blatant.
• Put Izchak’s store on a bones-ineligible level and guarantee at least 7 candles in the shop.
• Rely on gnomes in the Mines being generated with candles, with a certain minimum amount of candles guaranteed.
• Candles generate randomly on the floor of Gehennom levels, zero or one stacks per level.
• Monsters in Gehennom sometimes generate with candles (though this would be difficult to tune and would not be as discoverable via object detection).
• Make bees occasionally drop beeswax, which you can craft into candles; or they just rarely drop wax candles, or wax candles appear in beehives.

When you attempt to jump to an unlit space while carrying the Candelabrum, it automatically comes alight (rapidly consuming the candles as usual) to light the destination space.

Priests get buffed effects from the invocation artifacts:

• The Bell of Opening opens things at range.
• The Candelabrum’s light is brighter (or “sunlight”) and affects things sensitive to light such as gremlins and vampires. The candles could also burn slower.
• The Book of the Dead either improves the power of turning undead, or makes it easier to raise the dead.

The hero should be able to see from the get-go that the Candelabrum has seven candle holders, so display it as “(x/7 candles attached)” instead of just “(x candles attached)”.

The Candelabrum refuses to light if it has fewer than 7 candles.

Applying or invoking the Candelabrum with insufficient candles prompts you to attach more candles to it rather than lighting it.