Lamp of fire

Type	Miscellaneous item
Name	lamp of fire
Icon

A magical device for summoning fire elementals. It is rather unreliable, and usually requires several attempts to function correctly. Using it carries an element of risk, which is reduced if one is skilled in the appropriate elemental magic.

A lamp of fire is an evocable item which summons a fire elemental from an adjacent lava or cloud of flame tile, as if you'd cast the Summon Elemental spell. (The cloud of flame will be consumed by the spell, but the lava will remain.) The higher your Evocations skill, the more likely the device is to work, while having a high Fire Magic skill increases the likelihood of the fire elemental being allied to you instead of hostile:

Getting one friendly summons is guaranteed by Fire Magic skill 10, two are guaranteed by 13, etc. up to an effective maximum of six or seven summons at Fire Magic skill 27.

Strategy

With high Fire Magic skill, it's not hard to generate a lot of fire elementals. However, that's not necessarily a good thing. Fire elementals leave trails of flame that are persistent for several turns. And the tile occupied by the elemental always has a cloud of flame in it. Thus doubling back in the direction you came from is problematic; the more elementals on your trail, the more problematic. This is an item that must be handled with care.

That being said, they can deal decent fire damage in melee in spite of their fragility, and if you have access to Fire Magic attack spells, you can fire through them while they engage the enemy without fear of damaging them. This applies to spells that deal purely fire damage; Bolt of Magma and Fire Storm also cause physical damage, and will kill them.

Should you need a reliable "ignition" source, instead being dependent on finding lava tiles on your current level, acquire the Conjure Flame spell; for subsequent summons, you can just use the first elemental's own fire trail.

History

Prior to 0.9, it appeared unidentified, as a blazing lamp.