Charlatan's Orb

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

This orb is the work of a master artificer, contracted to retrieve the orb, who valued their life more than their professional integrity. While this fake faithfully recreates the eerie glow and space-warping properties of the true orb, the power it grants is artificial and only accessible to skilled evokers.

the Charlatan's Orb

Orb
Applies the penalties of the Orb of Zot (33% stealth, scroll of teleport delay is 5-9 turns longer, scrolls of blinking may be fuzzed by up to 2 tiles)
Boosts your other skills by 20% of your base Evocations skill

Desirability

The Charlatan's Orb is a very dangerous item - scrolls of blinking are one of the best escape tools in the game, and this orb makes blinking unreliable. Furthermore, it delays teleport and prevents use of a shield. The skill boost could be nice for an Evocations user though, so it has potential use if your character is especially weak but has high Evocations.

The penalties don't stack with the normal Realm of Zot / Orb of Zot penalties; while you're in Zot, the only penalty is stealth, and there's no penalty while holding the actual Orb. However, this item still requires the shield slot, and most characters who reach Zot already have "enough" skill to win the game, making it of questionable value then.

Formicids cannot teleport or blink, so this orb only penalizes stealth (and uses the shield slot).

History

• Prior to 0.34, this orb (and the Orb of Zot itself) did not hinder scrolls of blinking.
• This unrand was added in 0.32.