Summon Drakes

Version 0.12: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Summon Drakes is a monster-only spell which summons several of the following reptiles into existence:

• Death drake (24%)
• Fire drake (24%)
• Komodo dragon (20%)
• Swamp drake (20%)
• Mottled dragon (1.5%)
• Lindwurm (1.5%)
• Storm dragon (1.5%)
• Steam dragon (1.5%)
• Dragon (1.5%)
• Ice dragon (1.5%)
• Swamp dragon (1.5%)
• Shadow dragon (1.5%)

Fortunately, you only encounter this spell in the late game, as it is one of the more threatening spells in the game. It allows draconian callers to summon death drakes (the other monsters range from popcorn to moderate threats, as compared to the typical Zot monster), which will quickly fill the area with miasma clouds that will slow, poison, and rot you. As a general rule, try to kill off the caller first in any encounter to keep things simple. If he's already started summoning allies and you are unable to attack him, use whatever means necessary to escape (teleport is not a bad idea on Zot:1-4, but on Zot:5 you'll usually want to resort to whatever means of increasing your movement speed you have available). Attempting to wade your way through hordes of drakes while slowed, rotting, and possibly poisoned is simply never worth the trouble.

Gaining rotting resistance is quite difficult. Zin's Vitalisation ability will protect you, as will having Necromutation active. Other than that, you have to be undead: Ghouls, Vampires, and Mummies usually have nothing to fear from this spell (although Mummies will want to be sure to have sufficient fire resistance for the fire drakes, lindwurms and dragons).

The following enemies cast Summon Drakes:

• Draconian caller

History

In 0.13 it will also summon wind drakes.