Hall of the Hellbinder

Version 0.18: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This floor is hot to the touch. Deep below it burns a fire hotter than any other.

The Hall of the Hellbinder is a Wizard Laboratory made of unnatural black walls and yellow floor sigils dedicated to control over all manner of demons. Its map is a convoluted series of demonic summoning and containment chambers, with two small treasure rooms southeast of the entrance area, a portal out opposite of the entrance, and a wide open boss chamber at the very bottom. Expect to face almost any tier 2 or 3 demon along the way, as well as various demon summoners and gouts of flaming clouds that fill the bottom-center of the halls.

The treasure in the top two chambers consists of 18 squares of the following:

• 83.33% chance: gold
• 8.33% chance: scroll of torment, scroll of summoning

The boss chamber contains a wide spread of vaguely thematic items across 12 squares:

• 20.27% chance: random spell book
• 6.76% chance: rod of shadows, ring of fire, ring of protection from fire, wand of fire, wand of draining, scroll of torment, scroll of summoning, staff of summoning, gold
• 0.68% chance: demon whip, demon blade, demon trident
• 10.14% chance: a random moderate-quality item

Monsters

The sheer variety of demons you can face here make proper preparations difficult, especially since red devils and reapers will have random weapon brands. Fire, cold, and poison resistance will definitely help minimize the amount of damage, negative energy resistance will help with the common soul eaters and mutation resistance will help with spare cacodemons. Willpower is of immense use for said cacodemons and banishment from deep elf demonologists. Hellfire is, as always, irresistible for players.

The placement of demons in this Wizlab is fairly consistent, though the exact demons placed can vary significantly. The following section helps explain demon placement on the map found below.

There are two groups of 2s guarding the safe path midway through the Wizlab. Each 2 represents one of the following:

• 32.79% chance
  • 3 Soul eater
• 24.59% chance
  • 2 Hell beast
• 16.39% chance
  • 2 Green death
  • 2 Reaper
• 8.19% chance
  • 2 Tormentor
• 1.64% chance
  • 2 Lorocyproca

A single 3 accompanies each of the groups of 2s. Two groups of 3s can also be found shortly after entering the Halls. Each 3 represents one of the following:

• 15.38% chance
  • 4 Ice devil
  • 4 Orange demon
  • 4 Red devil
  • 3 Sun demon
  • 3 Ynoxinul
• 7.69% chance
  • 4 Rust devil

There is a single 7 and a single f found shortly before reaching the Hellbinder's chambers. There are equal odds of these being either:

• Another 3
• e Deep elf demonologist

The two 6s found midway through the map, one to a side, are some of the most dangerous creatures found here:

• 25% chance
  • 2 Balrug
  • 2 Blizzard demon
  • 2 Cacodemon
  • 2 Hellion

There is a single 4 and a single d found after passing through the first area of the map. There are equal odds of these being either:

• Another 6
• K Kobold demonologist

Boss: Hellbinder

In the center of the altar room at the bottom of the map (located at the 1), you'll find a randomly named hellbinder worshiping at an altar to Makhleb. Although he's armed with a demon blade, his melee attacks are still much less devastating than his hellfire and demon summons. Any decent combat spell specialist or ranged attacker should be able to obliterate him before he can put up much of a fight, especially if they have Aura of Abjuration prepared to take care of his summons quickly. Warding (from an amulet of warding, macabre finger necklace, or staff of summoning) will keep you safe from some of his summoned foes, but will do nothing against the more dangerous ranged threats; if he manages to summon something actually threatening, don't be afraid to teleport and come back once his allies time out.

A mighty spellcaster, wreathed in arcane energies, and muttering the most profane incantations you might have ever heard.

@
HP: 150
HD: 20
Spells: Summon Minor Demon, Summon Demon, Haste, Hellfire, Blink Away
Equipment: Demon blade, robe
Recommendations: Fortunately, his demon summons are mostly weak for their relative depth, lacking Summon Greater Demon. Unfortunately, he can still blast you with 3d20 hellfire, or get a lucky nasty brand on his demon blade. Take him out fast to keep things simple.

Source

Nearly all of the unusual glyphs here are for specific decorative floor tiles, which are simply differently-coloured floor in console. The rest are as follows:

1 Hellbinder

0 Random tier-5 demon

2 3 6 Various demons (see above for details)

4 d 7 f Demons or summoners

h Fire cloud generator

$ i Treasure

A Entrance

< Exit

x Rock wall

c Stone wall

+ Door

Entrance on A, exit on <, stone on c, doors on +, rock on x, a fire cloud generator on h, and loot on $ and i. The 4d pair and 7f pair are both randomly a kobold demonologist and the 6 above or a deep elf demonologist and the 3 above. The 0 is a random 5 or other-such demonic weakling, a minor speed-bump before the hellbinder himself.

MAP
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ENDMAP

History

• Prior to 0.22, this WizLab had more higher-tier demons.
• Prior to 0.14-9ae1ffb6, the vault contained a significantly different demon set. Hellions, sun demons, tormentors, and blizzard demons were more common; soul eaters and hell beasts were less common; the vault had a random chance for the kobold and deep elf demonologists; and neqoxecs were present while red and blue devils were absent. The vault's danger was thus more random than now. ([0.14.1 source link.])