Beogh

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Drown the unbelievers in a sea of blood!"

Beogh the Brigand is a deity worshiped by the cave orcs native to the Dungeon. Only orcs may devote their service to Beogh, and must prove their devotion by bloodshed and sacrifice. Devout followers of Beogh can smite their foes, and especially fervent devotees of Beogh may even gain followers of their own, for the orcs still await their Messiah. There is no altar to Beogh in the Ecumenical Temple, but orc priests, orc high priests, and Saint Roka will offer hill orc characters the opportunity to convert. Altars to him can often be found in the Orcish Mines.

Beogh is considered an evil god.

Racial Restrictions

Beogh only tolerates hill orcs as worshipers.

Appreciates

• You or your allies killing a living, holy, undead, or demonic creature.
• You killing a hostile priest.
• Blessing the corpse of an orc (praying while standing on an orc corpse).

Deprecates

Regardless of your behavior, you lose on average 1 piety every 320 turns. If you drop to 0 piety, you'll be excommunicated. You will also lose piety (or incur penance) for the following:

• Desecrating orcish remains (using orc corpses for any purpose, like Animate Dead or Sublimation of Blood).
• Butchering an orc corpse or cannibalism (eating chunks from orc corpses).
• Destroying an Orcish Idol.
• Attacking an orcish ally. (Be careful if you are confused!)

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Messenger"

• Protection from harm - If you receive damage that should kill you, there's a 10 + (Piety/10) % chance to cancel all damage (instead, your Piety is reduced by 20 + 1d20). Unlike with good gods, this protection is canceled if you're under penance.
• Spread experience - Each time you gain some experience, Beogh will give an additional half of that amount among the orcish followers in your line of sight. Those experience points are not taken from those you would be receiving: the player doesn't lose any XP points.

Piety level *: "Proselytiser"

• Bonuses to armour - The AC bonus of your armour and the SH of your shield is increased by an amount based on your piety. The larger the equipment's base AC or SH, the greater the bonus.

Piety level **: "Priest"

• Smiting - You can smite any monster in view for around 6 + 1d(5 + Invocation Skill) HP. This is unavoidable, and cannot be reduced by any factor except deep dwarf damage shaving. (3 MP, 80-160 Food, 3 Piety)

Piety level ***: "Missionary"

• Gain orcish followers - Non-summoned, shapeshifted, sleeping, confused or paralyzed orcs (even uniques, eg. Blork) around you may recognize you as their Messiah and turn friendly. The chance depends on your piety and experience level (the higher, the better) and the hit dice of the orc (the lower, the better). Conversions may happen when:
  • A hostile orc notices you for the first time (including because you hit it or cast a spell on it)
  • A hostile orc becomes significantly wounded (best not use poison!)
  • You or one of your allies kill a non-ordinary orc (in this case, the monster will survive the killing blow, unless it was reduced under its max HP in negative). This works best on higher level orcs.
• Bless your orcish followers - Beogh may bless one of your followers when it kills an enemy or otherwise gains experience. The chance is 1d(Piety) >= 30, or one at random when you kill an enemy (10% chance). The blessing has one of the following effects:
  • 10%: An ordinary orc becomes an orc priest, otherwise 25% chance to add +1 to their weapon's accuracy, 25% chance to add +1 to their weapon's damage, 50% chance to add +1 to their armour's AC.
  • 90%: 50% chance to remove poison, sickness, confusion, rotting, slowing, or exhaustion (if they are so afflicted), otherwise heals 25% of the follower's HP.

Piety level ****: "Evangelist"

• Recall your orcish followers - You can recall your orcish allies, as per the Recall spell (but only for orcs): all your orcish followers in the dungeon are teleported close to you over a number of turns. (2 MP, 50-100 Food)
• Orc reinforcements - If you have no followers on this level, there's a small chance that Beogh will give several permanent, friendly orcs to you.

Piety level *****: "Apostle"

• Walk on water - You can cross deep water as if it was normal floor. Be careful not to let your piety drop under 120 or incur penance while you're walking over deep water!

Piety level ******: "Messiah"

• No new abilities.

Punishments

During penance or following desertion, you'll occasionally experience one of the following forms of divine retribution:

• 25%: Suffer smiting (if you are worshiping another god at this point, there is a piety/4 % chance that the new god will protect you from this).
• 13%: Durably summons 1d2 hostile dancing weapons. These weapon will be +1d3-1/+1d3-1 and branded with electrocution. They will vanish when defeated.
• 25%: Followers around you have a chance to turn hostile (only if you're still a follower of Beogh).
• 37% (62% if you changed religion): Sends forth an army of durably summoned orcs, led by a stronger orc, whose type depends on your experience level. This orc can sometimes be named.

Trivia

In very ancient versions of Crawl, comments in the code referring to orc priest smiting stated that they were channeling the wrath of B.O.G. (Brian's Orc God). This eventually evolved into the name, "Beogh."

History

In 0.15, followers will be able to give specific equipment to specific followers, and Beogh will occasionally gift random gear to followers with empty equipment slots.

Prior to 0.14, orcish versions of gear existed, and Beogh only granted bonuses for wearing orcish armour (as well as wielding orcish melee weapons).

Prior to 0.13, hill orc priests started with this religion.

Prior to 0.12, recalling orcish followers did not have any delay, but it was not able to recall orcish followers from other levels. Shared experience was added in 0.12.