Gozag Ym Sagoz

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Greed is good."

Gozag Ym Sagoz the Greedy teaches that the world belongs to the rich. Those accepting this principle may exchange their gold for divine assistance. Followers of Gozag do not earn piety; the only way to impress this god is by amassing a fortune, and worshippers may request as much assistance as they can afford. Fortunately, Gozag's worshippers are said to have the touch of gold. For Gozag, both flesh and food are inferior to wealth, and therefore all corpses are turned into gold piles. These piles of gold may briefly distract nearby monsters. Stalwarts can order immediate help in the form of potions, with prices dictated by the Greedy. Particularly well-off adherents may attract shopkeepers into the dungeon, and even bribe entire branches of the dungeon. Gozag will also duplicate any one non-artifact item for a servant. Gozag likes it when you collect gold.

Racial Restrictions

Demigods may not worship Gozag Ym Sagoz or any other deity.

Additional Restrictions

Gozag requires a service fee for joining; this starts at 50 gold and rises with the amount of gold generated in the game:

Service fee = 50 + (Generated gold - Generated gold/log10(Generated gold-10))/2

Characters without enough gold receive the message, "Gozag does not accept service from beggars like you!"

Monks who have not yet chosen a god are exempt from this fee.

Appreciates/Deprecates

Gozag Ym Sagoz is a reasonable businessgod, and does not allow personal feelings to affect its behavior one way or another. All interactions with Gozag Ym Sagoz revolve purely around gold.

Given Abilities

As Gozag Ym Sagoz has no piety system, all of its granted abilities are available upon joining. Players are notified when they have gathered enough gold to use the next given ability.

• Golden touch: Corpses left by defeated enemies turn into piles of gold (the amount of gold varies; bigger, stronger monsters tend to generate more). These gold piles have a temporary 1-tile aura which may distract nearby creatures, occasionally making them skip a turn. (Passive)

• Detect Gold and shops: You map the location of gold on the floor in a medium area around you and map the location of shops you have funded on your current dungeon level. (Passive)

• Potion Petition: Purchase one set of potion effects. You immediately get the effects of one of three sets of potions, each containing 1-6 random, different potions. Sets containing more and/or better potions are more expensive to purchase. Once you activate the ability, you must choose and pay for one of the sets. The first use of Potion Petition is free.

• Call Merchant: Fund a merchant to set up a new shop somewhere near to areas of the dungeon you have explored. You choose one out of four different Merchants with different shop types, one of which is a food shop (Mummies and vampires are not offered the food shop, thus receive only three choices). The first use of Call Merchant costs at most 800 gold for the best shop, increasing by 200 gold per use (though most shops are actually much cheaper). Chosen shops place only in unexplored levels of the Dungeon, Depths, and the Vaults, or at your feet if all the unexplored levels in those three branches already have called merchants.

• Bribe Branch: Send money to the humanoid and demonic inhabitants of a branch to turn them temporarily neutral or incite them to join you. Uniques and all other enemy types are unaffected. (Costs 3000 Gold)
  • You must be in the branch to use this ability. Adds 3000 gold to this branch's bribe fund. Monsters have a chance based on their HD (stronger monsters have a higher chance) to either become peaceful (for some gold from the bribe fund) or become your permanent allies (for more gold from the fund). The chance is rolled when they first notice you.
  • Allied monsters will take from the fund when fighting, but not over time.
  • Attacking one of these pacified monsters will result in turning any pacified monster in sight hostile.
  • This power can be used on the Orcish Mines (affects orcs), Elven Halls (elves), Vaults (humans), Iron City of Dis (demons), Gehenna (demons), Cocytus (demons), Tartarus (demons), and Realm of Zot (draconians).
  • This power can be incredibly useful in branches with dangerous enemies. Having a few Orbs of Fire or Ancient Liches on your side can make a big difference.

An amulet of faith will function differently for a follower of Gozag. All of his abilities will be available at a discount while wearing the amulet, but removing it causes prices to rise to a higher point than they would be normally. The Forlorn mutation also causes an increase in prices.

Punishments

Upon leaving Gozag Ym Sagoz, any funded stores close, as they are unable to pay their debts without your funds. Any bribed monsters will turn hostile. In addition:

• Petition for your drink to fail: When quaffing potions, there is a high chance that you will lose a turn (but not the potion).
• Turn to gold: When buying from shops, there is a chance your purchase will turn into 1 piece of gold.
• Incite: Hastes an enemy.
• Claim gold: Gozag claims about 10% of any gold you pick up (much like Zin).

Strategy

Characters that rely heavily on corpses, such as Necromancers, ghouls, vampires, and trolls, should think twice before choosing to follow Gozag, as you'll be turning everything you kill into gold. You also will have a harder time getting dragon armour, since the dragons will leave no corpses to butcher.

Gozag is an appealing choice for spriggans; as herbivores, they have less use for corpses than most species (barring Necromancy or blood sacrifice-accepting gods), and more gold means more access to shop equipment, Gozag's abilities, and (if hunger actually becomes an issue) edible food items.

History

Gozag Ym Sagoz was added in 0.16.