Stash

The Lair:2 stash of a Kobold Artificer.

A stash is a location for storing items you cannot carry, but may need later. Since intelligent monsters can pick up items like weapons, wands, potions, or scrolls for their own use, it's advised that you choose an area with little or no risk of them showing up.

Stashes serve multiple purposes. First and foremost they serve as a place to store the large quantities of redundant food, wands, armour, and weapons you'll be finding. Even strong characters will quickly accrue enough loot that they won't be able to carry all of it. Secondly, they serve as a safe deposit for important potions or scrolls. Many monsters have flame and ice attacks that can destroy your items, and losing your last potion of cure mutation or scroll of remove curse can be frustrating.

Good stash locations include:

• The Ecumenical Temple is a fair stash location early in the game. No monsters spawn in the Temple, although they can follow a character there if they are next to the staircase when the character goes down. On the downside, the Temple is found on the upper floors of the Dungeon, making the trek back when one has progressed to the late-game quite tedious, so it's recommended to move your stuff if you get the chance.
• The Lair is a very popular stash location, especially Lair:2. Only beasts spawn there, none of which are capable of picking up your items.
• Once cleared of Geryon and his allies, the Vestibule of Hell makes a great late-game stash since monsters never respawn there. Multiple portals to the Vestibule are found on the last levels of the Dungeon for ease of access. Remember, however, that all portals close when you pick up the Orb of Zot, cutting off access once you're on your ascension run!

Should you run out of carrying capacity or inventory space before reaching a decent stash location, make a temporary stash by dropping off some of your excess supplies. You can place it just about anywhere so long as you only drop items that monsters won't pick up (some good candidates include extra food or certain other items such as scrolls of enchant armour or enchant weapon). Consider inscribing one of the objects you leave behind so you can find it again quickly by using 'Ctrl+F'.