Scroll of summoning

Version 0.18: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Scroll
Name	Scroll of summoning
Icon

A scroll that calls forth several creatures woven from shadow into the shapes of those beings found within the reader's immediate vicinity.

Reading a scroll of summoning will instantly summon a collection of allied monsters appropriate to the floor you are currently on, similar to the effects of casting Shadow Creatures 2d2 times, but with greater duration than the actual spell. These reinforcements can significantly vary in quality, but the scroll is capable of bringing a large amount of support to bear instantly at no cost beyond the scroll itself.

Strategy

• Sufficiently intelligent monsters carrying this scroll can read it and use it against you. As with all summons, killing the reader will dispatch the summons instantly.
• These scrolls are very rare. Given the manner in which the summoned monsters scale with the player's current branch from where the scroll is read, its desirability remains fairly consistent throughout the game.
• This scroll can be particularly useful when fighting The Royal Jelly, especially if you are reading more than one. Surrounding it with summons generated by this scroll will force any additional jellies created by damaging TRJ to spawn on the outskirts of your army, giving you a temporary, albeit reasonable buffer to finish it off.

History

This current iteration of the scroll of summoning was added in 0.12. In 0.10 and earlier, however, there was a different item called a scroll of summoning which would create a small abomination for you. This was changed to a scroll of unholy creation in 0.11, and was removed entirely in 0.12.