Scroll of immolation

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Scroll
Name	Scroll of immolation
Icon

A scroll that fills the creatures around the reader with an unstable and powerful inner flame.

Reading a scroll of immolation will affect all creatures in your line of sight as though they were the victim of an Inner Flame spell; until the status effect wears off, killing them will cause them to release a violent fiery explosion. The size and damage of the explosion varies based on the size of the monster slain, and is powerful enough to severely injure or even kill careless characters.

This scroll has no effect on monsters with infinite willpower, though the scroll does not otherwise check will.

Hunters start play with a scroll of immolation.

Strategy

Used wisely, however, these scrolls can be very useful; coupled with a decent ranged weapon, attack wand, or area-effect spell, you can safely kill a single weak monster and initiate a chain reaction that eradicates everything around it. If you happen to have rF++ or better, and a high AC, you can generally ignore the risks involved in using the scroll and simply resist the explosion. The scroll excels particularly:

• In monster-packed areas, like Vaults:5 -- it's very good for clearing the entrance if you read it immediately upon descending and manage to kill 2-3 vault guards, the chain reaction will take care of the rest.
• Against monsters who generate summons when confronted: e.g., The Royal Jelly, Dissolution, Mnoleg.
• With your own allies: summons, undead, Hepliaklqana ancestor...

Note that the resulting explosion(s) will generate a lot of noise and will likely attract just about every other monster on the level to you. For Vaults:5 in particular, it might not be worth clearing vault guards with immolation, since you'll attract the scarier monsters just outside.

History

• Prior to 0.25, the scroll had no effect on summons (except for durably summoned monsters).
• Prior to 0.13, these scrolls were significantly less useful; they would unleash a single moderately-powerful explosion centered on the reader, though thankfully this explosion could only destroy scrolls in very early versions of the game.