The Sewers

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

Every inhabited place needs to dispose of its waste products. The Dungeon too has its stinking sewers and drains, full of filthy water and ignored by most but used as hideaways by the disgusting and the desperate. Old tales speak of dangerous creatures stalking through the foul-smelling green water, preying on each other without mercy. The tales also allude to valuable items accidentally washed into the drainage tunnels, forgotten and left to grow mouldy in the damp caverns.

Every settlement brings forth the unpleasant sewers and drains, ignored by most but hideaways for others. Old tales speak of dangerous creatures, bathing in disgustingly green water, preying on each other without mercy. The tales also tell of the valuable items left by daring and unfortunate visitors, left to collect dust in the damp caverns. You have an uncanny feeling that the drain will fall apart rather soon.

Useful Info

The Sewers are a special level marked by a portal entrance ("a glowing drain") surrounded by dirty green and blue water. It will rust away after a period of time, so make sure you enter as soon as you find it! This entrance is guarded by various rats and snakes; if you see a gray rat, you're almost certainly close.

The monsters found in the sewers are mostly aquatic monsters with a minor in poisoning. Depending on which layout you get, the monsters spawned will be different. You are guaranteed to get giant newts, ball pythons, and adders. Other possibilities include:

• Many layouts have rats, grey rats, and green rats. Orange rats are also possible, and should be handled with care.
• Sometimes there are rooms with several kobolds and big kobolds, guarding a little treasure.
• Some of the more dangerous endings have mermaids and sirens (though these are "malarious" and "sickly" versions that have significantly lower HD), jellies, giant frogs, crocodiles, or giant slugs.
• The unique troll Purgy can sometimes be found in the sewers.

Hence, doing the sewers without a means to cure poison, destroy monsters in a single hit, or kill things from a distance is rather foolish.

Loot only appears at the ending, in small chambers along the path, or in kobold rooms. Mermaid endings generally do not have much loot, while jelly/frog endings have loot ranging from evocable items, magical staves, and randarts to stacks of potions such as cure mutation. Sometimes there is an altar to Elyvilon or Zin, perhaps with potions scattered about. Frequently there's a deep-water route to more treasure; merfolk, tengu, octopodes, or grey draconians might go for that, but other characters will have to depend on a ring or potions of flight, which can be risky.

There are always readily accessible exit gates in case you're overwhelmed, but as with most portal levels, once you leave, you cannot return.

Tips & Tricks

• Remember that enemies that are not amphibious are easier to defeat if you face them while they're standing in shallow water. This is very useful for taking out big kobolds (assuming they don't simply kill you at range with darts and needles).

Portal Timeout Messages
1st: "The drain is slowly rusting away."
2nd: "The drain is rusting away."
3rd: "The drain is quickly rusting away."

Monsters

• Ball python
• Adder
• Rat
• Green rat
• Orange rat
• Giant newt
• Giant frog
• Crocodile
• Kobold
• Big kobold
• Big fish
• Jelly
• Giant slug

Sewer Variant Monsters

• Malarious mermaid (only 3 HD)
• Sickly siren (only 3 HD)

Uniques

• Purgy