Condenser vane

Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Type	Miscellaneous item
Name	Condenser vane
Icon

A magical device that condenses ambient energy into various destructive clouds. When evoked these clouds form around hostile monsters near the user. The quantity and lethality of these clouds increases with Evocations skill. At low power it will create noxious fumes, and as power increases this gives way to roaring flames, freezing vapours, and poisonous gas. At the highest tiers of power storm clouds, acidic fog and clouds of negative energy become available.

A condenser vane is evoked to engulf every monster in sight as well as the 8 squares surrounding it with semi-random clouds.

This item is mutually exclusive with the tin of tremorstones. Like with other miscellaneous evocables, only 1 condenser vane (or tin of tremorstones) will spawn in a given game.

Useful Info

Evoking the vane will create dangerous clouds around monsters, chosen randomly. Each tile can get a different type of cloud. These include, in ascending order of power:

• Noxious Fumes
• Poisonous Gas
• Flame / Freezing Vapour
• Excruciating Misery
• Thunder
• Acidic Fog

Your Evocations skill determines not only the type of clouds, but also their number and duration. At 27 Evocations, all clouds spawned will be latter three types.

For each square adjacent to at least one enemy, or containing an enemy, you have a (65 + 3.5 * Evocations) / 1.6% chance to create a cloud on that square (max. 99.6%; min. 1 cloud total). However, the condenser vane will never create a cloud on top of you or your allies.

If you are worshipping a good god, you cannot produce clouds of excruciating misery.

The condenser vane expends itself after one use; it can be recharged by gaining experience.

Strategy

Since the condenser vane works very much like the spell Ignition does, it is best used when you are facing a (large) group of enemies with restricted room to maneuver: the density of monsters will create a carpet of clouds, at least at high Evocations. The entrance to Vaults:5 is an obvious one, as are Ziggurat floors.

Tips & Tricks

• At low HP, intelligent enemies won't willingly walk through clouds (unless they're already on top of one). A potion of attraction can pull them in. Combining this with Silence can make the end vault of Elf:3 a whole lot safer.
• In a killhole, the only valid tile will be the one the monster's standing on, thus guaranteeing a cloud on top of them.

History

• Prior to 0.32, if you rolled clouds of excruciating misery while worshipping a good god, they would simply not appear rather than being rerolled.
• Prior to 0.31, the condenser vane was less likely to spawn clouds. Also, for every use, all the clouds would be of the same type.
• Prior to 0.30, the condenser vane would always spawn a 3x3 area of clouds around each monster, regardless of Evocations skill. It could spawn negative energy clouds even if you were worshipping a good god (which incurred penance, and caused the item to be marked as evil). Also, it did not alternate with the tin of tremorstones.
• The condenser vane replaced the wand of clouds in 0.26.