From the NannyMUD documentation

LAST CHANGE

2000-12-11

FUNCTION

NAME
        tell_object - send message to a specific living object


SYNTAX
	object tell_object(object liveob, string message)

DESCRIPTION
	Sends a message directly to the living object 'liveob'. If 'liveob'
	is an interactive object then the message is written directly to
	the socket. If 'liveob' is an npc then the lfun 'catch_tell' will
	be called with 'message' as parameter.


RETURN VALUES
        The first argument, liveobj, is returned from the function.


NOTE
	tell_object as well as write sends unprocessed messages to the
	recieving object. If the mudlib uses processing on messages
	then calling this function will send a raw message.


SEE ALSO
        write in efun/object_related/write