Level 48 of the Caverns of Chaos contains five elemental anomalies corresponding to the five Chaos Orbs. They are guarded by four elemental grues with the usual corrupting grue melee attack. The mana anomaly is not guarded by a grue, but rather a chaos wizard. The idea here is to 'U'se each Chaos Orb while standing on the appropriate elemental anomaly. A transcript of the results and some remarks follow:
Mana anomaly - green underscore:
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You face a strange small rift in the air leading into unknown dimensions of pure energy.
Do you want to drop the blessed Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana into the rift? [y/N]
You drop the blessed Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana into the strange rift.
For some seconds a strange silence fills the whole level.
Suddenly the rift disappears.
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Using the mana orb in this way causes the PC's power points to drop to zero and a loss of two points of the Mana attribute. For this reason, spellcasters may want to do this anomaly first, to allow the maximum time for PP to regenerate. Blessed scrolls of power are very useful here.
Earth anomaly - brown underscore:
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You face a man-high stone column with a round opening in the center.
Do you want to put the uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Earth {To+10} into the hole? [y/N]
You fit the uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Earth {To+10} into the stone column.
For some seconds the whole level is shaking.
Suddenly the column disappears.
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The shaking of the level seems to imply some sort of minor earthquake, but the level takes no damage as a result.
Water anomaly - blue underscore
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You face a shimmering pool of unknown depth.
Do you want to throw the uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Water {Wi+10} into shimmering pool? [y/N]
You throw the uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Water {Wi+10} into the shimmering pool.
For some seconds the air gets very humid on this level.
Suddenly the humidity dispenses and everything is normal once more.
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The humidity generated by this operation will damage anything vulnerable to water damage - be careful, have waterproof blankets, do not have unprotected iron armor or weapons exposed.
Air anomaly - bright blue underscore
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You face a man-high whirlwind rising out of a hole in the ground.
Do you want to throw the uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Air {Dx+10} into the whirlwind? [y/N]
You throw the uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Air {Dx+10} into the whirlwind.
For some seconds a roaring wind soars through this level.
Suddenly everything is silent and the whirlwind disappears.
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This roaring wind seems to do no damage.
Fire anomaly - red underscore
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You face a man-high bonfire.
Do you want to throw the blessed Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire {St+10} into the roaring bonfire? [y/N]
You throw the blessed Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire {St+10} into the bonfire.
For some seconds the whole level is filled with an immense heat. You resist the searing flames.
Suddenly the level cools down once more and the bonfire is gone.
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The fire anomaly is by far the most dangerous. It will damage anything vulnerable to fire. This includes any monsters that may be wandering the level. That includes cats. It is very disappointing and frustrating to kill a cat in this way and have the hard-fought-for Ring of the Master Cat explode at this point. Zap a wand of monster detection or read a scroll of monster detection before using the fire orb in the anomaly. It also damages a necromancer PC's slaves. It may not kill them, but undead are vulnerable to fire damage, and a partially fried and very angry extremely experienced level 110 quickling king lich is not something the PC wants to worry about at this point. Leave undead slaves on D: 47. Pets, companions and slaves cannot cross D: 49 anyway.
After all of the orbs are in their proper places, the PC receives the following message:
You hear a grating sound in the distance.
This means the up staircase has reversed direction and now points down. There is no way to return to D: 47 at this point. The PC is now committed to going through D: 49 to D: 50, either to win or die.