Singing Sword

Version 0.17: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

An enchanted blade which loves nothing more than to sing to its owner, whether they want it to or not.

the +7 Singing Sword

+7 double sword
Makes noise
Damages everything (excluding the user) in LOS during high tension

Desirability

The Singing Sword is, admittedly, a fairly powerful weapon; in spite of its lack of a brand, a +7 double sword is still quite effective in the hands of a skilled Long Blades-user, though perhaps not end-game quality. Its noise-generating properties are also not so terrible. So long as no monsters are visible, it generates no actual noise; it only begins singing loudly enough to attract attention when tension begins to rise. This makes it a dreadful choice for a stabber, and may result in enemies nearby waking up and joining the fight on occasion, but it by no means rules the weapon out as dangerously unusable.

At high tension levels (40+), the sword's name changes to the Screaming Sword, and it begins emitting massive amounts of noise each turn. This deals a small amount of irresistible damage to all monsters in your line of sight (including allies!), softening up hordes and potentially helping you take down powerful foes. Admittedly, this only triggers in irresponsibly dangerous situations, and thus shouldn't be a major deciding factor in whether or not you wield this artefact, but it bears mentioning.

When silenced, the sword's name instead changes to the Sulking Sword. This has no further effect.

Screaming Mechanics

When tension is greater than 40, the sword will become the Screaming Sword, and periodically scream, dealing minor but irresistible damage to all monsters in sight. These screams deal ((1d2)*(1d2)*(1d3) + 1d3 + 1)*(XL/27) damage. In theory, this can deal up to 16 damage, but is far more likely to be around 5-10 at XL27, and even less for earlier characters. There is a 10% chance per scream that the damage will be doubled; however, damage is still capped at 16. Furthermore, damage is also capped at 30% of the monster's max HP, or at 50% for doubled screams.

History

• Prior to 0.14, this weapon was significantly worse; its base type was a long sword and it generated significant amounts of noise regardless of the presence of monsters.
• 0.9 added the LOS damage during high tension.