Qazlal Stormbringer

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

"Let the forces of nature tear it all down!"

Qazlal Stormbringer is a violent god of tempests, who delights in unleashing the forces of nature against the unsuspecting. Those who invite Qazlal's gaze will find themselves the eye in a storm of elemental destruction, from which only their god can protect them. Pious worshippers of Qazlal will gain the ability to direct and control the destructive might of the storm. Followers of Qazlal are protected from the clouds they create. As a follower of Qazlal gains divine favour, they are slowly surrounded by a loud storm, causing elemental clouds to appear near them, blocking attacks, and (for the particularly devout) deflecting incoming projectiles. Qazlal allows followers to incite nature against their foes, causing a localised natural disturbance or, for particularly devout followers, a more widespread disaster. Followers of Qazlal can give life to elemental clouds, turning them into elementals whose loyalty depends on the origin of the cloud. Followers can gain temporary resistances against the elements on taking damage from that element. Qazlal will eventually offer more permanent protection against an element of the devotee's choosing. Qazlal likes it when you or your allies kill living beings, you or your allies kill the undead, you or your allies kill demons and you or your allies kill holy beings.

Racial Restrictions

Demigods may not worship Qazlal Stormbringer (or any other deity).

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing natural, undead, demonic, or holy beings. The higher the enemy's HD, and the lower your experience level, the better the odds of you gaining piety.

Deprecates

• Forgetting him (Your piety will slowly decrease over time).
• Abandoning him.

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "[Your Species] Mishap"

• All worshipers are immune to the negative effects of any clouds they generate, regardless of source. Naturally-occurring and enemy-generated clouds will harm you as normal, however. (Passive)

Piety level *: "Lightning Rod"

• Storm Shield: You passively generate randomly selected elemental clouds within two tiles of your location. Possible clouds include flaming clouds, clouds of freezing vapour, clouds of thunder, and clouds of sparse dust. These deal their corresponding elemental damage to enemies which stand in them, provide you with a bonus to SH, and generate significant amounts of noise at all times, greatly reducing your ability to be stealthy. The frequency with which these clouds generates, as well as the amount of noise they generate, rises with piety. This skill is upgraded further at **** piety (see below). Note that Storm Shield clouds do not spawn in corridors (clouds only generate when a selected tile has no more than 3 adjacent walls), though the associated SH remains in effect.

Piety level **: "[Your Species] Disaster"

• Upheaval: Blast a small smite-targeted area with elemental forces, dealing either fire, cold, electricity, or earth (physical damage. Three of the elements also have an associated additional effect: fire creates temporary lava tiles nearby (shoving items aside), cold will freeze the targets, while electricity will deal bonus damage to flying monsters. Raising Invocations increases this ability's damage, as well as its success rate and the area of effect (ranging from a single tile to a 2-radius burst). Costs 4 MP, 3-5 piety.

Piety level ***: "Eye of the Storm"

• Elemental Force: Convert nearby clouds into elementals. Clouds you've created will produce friendly elementals, naturally occurring clouds will create neutrals, and clouds created by monsters will create hostiles (worth no XP). Invocations determines its success rate and the number of clouds affected per use. Costs 6 MP, 6-9 piety.

Piety level ****: "[Your Species] Catastrophe"

• Upgraded Storm Shield: At **** piety, Storm Shield also grants you a permanent Repel Missiles effect and grants a small amount of SH.
• Elemental Adaptation: Taking elemental damage occasionally grants you a single rank of resistance to the element of the damage. The following elements can be affected:
  • Fire
  • Cold
  • Earth (this equates to physical attacks, granting you a small boost to AC and SH)
  • Electricity
• This resistance lasts for X turns. Passive, no cost.

Piety level *****: "[Your Species] Cataclysm"

• Disaster Area: Unleash several uncontrollably aimed Upheavals at locations within your line of sight. Invocations increases damage dealt, success rate, and number of Upheavals. No square adjacent to you is affected. Costs 7 MP, 10-15 piety.

Piety level ******: "End of an Era"

• No new abilities

Punishments

Qazlal does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Qazlal's wrath is swift and unmistakable. Sinners are stripped of their resistances, assaulted by furious elementals, and surrounded by waves of molten lava.

Upon abandoning Qazlal, you are given 25 penance. Every so often, he will afflict you with one of the following forms of divine retribution:

• 33.3%: Summons hostile, durably summoned fire, water, earth, or air elementals near you, upgraded with HD equal to your experience level. These are far more dangerous than normal elementals.
• 33.3%: Causes a mighty clap of thunder at your location, generating significant levels of noise.
• 33.3%: Give you one of the following temporary mutations: rF--, rC--, rElec-. These are transient mutations similar to those caused by wretched stars, and are removed as you gain XP.

All the time it will cause noise 50% of the time before other possible actions.

Strategy

True to his name, Qazlal Stormbringer brings an unparalleled amount of elemental devastation to bear for his worshipers. Even without training Invocations, he greatly increases your damage output by blasting random tiles near your character with elemental fury. At low piety, this will rarely have much effect, but at high piety you will regularly see enemies take massive damage as the storm around you rages. This awesome devastation comes at a price, however - as your piety rises, you will generate more and more passive noise each turn. This eventually winds up being louder than if you shouted each and every turn, matching a Fireball spell in volume. As such, expect wandering monsters to find you wherever you go, particularly in quiet areas such as the Crypt and the Tomb, and don't bother with the Stealth skill. Try to pull difficult enemies back to already-cleared areas to mitigate the threat of reinforcements.

With Invocations, Qazlal becomes an extraordinarily powerful offensive force, in particular due to Upheaval and Disaster Area. Upheaval is a powerful smite-targeted ability which grows in area as your Invocations rises, eventually becoming a smaller, cheaper, random element Fire Storm. Blasting threatening enemies from the edge of your line of sight is easy, but mind your piety - spamming it can quickly cost you a * or two. Disaster Area is similarly devastating, but on a much larger scale; bursts of Upheaval will strike random locations within your line of sight, eradicating everything it strikes (at sufficiently high Invocations levels anyway). Even more expensive than Upheaval, this should only be used when you are facing plenty of enemies and want to wipe them out quickly. Also, be aware that it will never affect your tile or any tile adjacent to you.

Elemental Force is less dramatic, but still has its uses. Quickly creating a small army of elementals can greatly increase your damage output, and will help distract dangerous opponents. Use it to call in some quick allies or to create a diversion, allowing you to flee to a nearby staircase.

It is not recommended to summon mercenaries using the Mercenary card while worshiping Qazlal, as they will not be immune to your storm clouds.

History

Prior to 0.17, Qazlal's wrath didn't cause noise 50% of the time before other possible actions, and could inflict bad mutation Deformed body.

Qazlal Stormbringer was added in 0.15.

During Qazlal's original development, its final gift at maximum piety was to permanently grant the player a single rank of any elemental resistance. This was removed before release, however.