Scroll of random uselessness

Type	Scroll
Name	Scroll of random uselessness
Icon

Scrolls of random uselessness are a common kind of scroll that has almost no practical value. Upon reading, you will receive a weird or misleading message, and the scroll will be usually be identified.

As a last resort, this scroll can be used in an attempt to cast Summon Butterflies. The odds of this working, however, are very slim.

Possible Messages

"The dust glows a [strange colour] colour!" *"The scroll reassembles itself in your hand!" (thus you don't "waste" it) "[Your weapon] glows [strange colour] for a moment." OR "Nothing happens." (if you have no weapon in hand) "You hear the distant roaring of an enraged [animal]!" "You smell [smell]." OR "Nothing happens." (if you are a mummy, and thus noseless) "You experience a momentary feeling of inescapable doom!" "Your ears itch." "Your brain hurts!" "Your nose twitches suddenly!" "You hear the tinkle of a tiny bell." (summons 4-16 friendly butterflies) "You hear [noise]."

[strange colour] is a colour composed of a prefix (brilliant, pale, mottled, shimmering, bright, dark, shining, faint) and a colour (red, purple, green, orange, magenta, black, grey, silver, gold, pink, yellow, white, brown, aubergine, ochre, leaf green, mauve).

[animal]: frog, pill bug, millipede, eggplant, albino, dragon, dragon, human, slug.

[smell]: coffee, salt, burning hair, baking bread, something weird, wet wool, sulphur, fire and brimstone.

[noise]: snatches of song, a voice call someone else's name, a very strange noise, roaring flame, a very strange noise indeed, the chiming of a distant gong, the bellowing of a yak, a crunching sound, the tinkle of an enormous bell.

History

Prior to the skill training overhaul in 0.9, scrolls of random uselessness could be used to train the first level of Spellcasting, which was pretty much the only other thing they were good for.