Horn of Geryon

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Miscellaneous item
Name	horn of Geryon
Icon

The horn belonging to Geryon, guardian of the Vestibule of Hell. It has the power to call forth demonic beasts. With high Evocations skill, it will call greater numbers of beasts, with lower chances of those beasts being hostile. ‘So Joshua called together the priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the Lord's Covenant, and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ram's horn.’ ‘When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it. They completely destroyed everything in it with their swords—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys.’ -Joshua 6:6,20-21, New Living Translation

The horn of Geryon is a unique evocable artefact which summons hell beasts, which may come hostile. It can only be found by slaying Geryon in the Vestibule of Hell.

Useful Info

The horn of Geryon creates a loud noise (noise 15) and summons a few hell beasts. The horn is considered evil, so the good gods despise its use.

The horn always summons 1 hell beast. There are 3 checks: 10 * Evocations + 1d90 > 131, 10 * Evocations + 1d90 > 181, 10 * Evocations + 1d90 > 231, for each check passed, another hell beast is summoned.

Hell beasts always have a chance to spawn hostile; if 1d(10 * Evocations) > 8, the summons are friendly (97% at max Evocations). Like most types of summons, if you attack an already friendly hell beast, it will vanish instead of going hostile.

Duration of the summons is around 27 turns, it does not depend on Evocations skill.

Once used, the horn will become inert until you've earned enough experience to restore it.

Strategy

If you can confidently complete the Vestibule of Hell, have good Evocations skill, and aren't forbidden from using it, the horn of Geryon is worth having. Hell beasts are a nice ally to have; they have moderately high damage, are fast, and the horn can summon multiple at a time.

Since hell beasts trample, it isn't recommended to use the horn if you're relying on stairs.

History

• Prior to 0.28, using the horn made no noise.
• Prior to 0.14, the horn served a very different purpose. Until it was used while standing inside the Vestibule of Hell, the four portals to Gehenna, Cocytus, Dis, and Tartarus were sealed shut. As such, Geryon was essentially the only monster necessary to kill in order to get a perfect 15-rune ascension. Using the horn anywhere else simply summoned a hostile hell beast to attack you (worth no XP).
• Prior to 0.9, items brought outside the Dungeon contributes towards score. The horn, worth 5000 gold, was one of the more valuable items to bring out.

Also, before the changes to experience and skills in 0.9, this item was commonly used by high-level characters as a renewable way to "victory dance" Fighting, Dodging, and weapon skills.