Kikubaaqudgha

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

"Spread unending torment and darkness!"

Kikubaaqudgha is a terrible Demon-God, served by those who wish to indulge in the powers of death. An evil god, Kikubaaqudgha requires worshippers to cause the death and destruction of as many creatures as possible. In exchange, Kikubaaqudgha offers great assistance to the aspiring necromancer: knowledge of dark magic, protection against necromantic backlash, and an endless supply of bodies taken from Kikubaaqudgha's vast mausoleum. Kikubaaqudgha will send corpses to followers, and enhance servants' necromantic prowess with gifts of Necromancy spells. Kikubaaqudgha will protect followers from the effects of necromantic miscasts, death curses, and may even shield them from unholy torment. Especially fervent followers may invoke torment themselves by sacrificing a cadaver, and Kikubaaqudgha will eventually allow followers to either receive knowledge of the most powerful and forbidden necromantic magic, or to have their weapon imbued with pain. Kikubaaqudgha likes it when you kill living beings, you destroy the undead, you kill demons, you kill holy beings and you destroy nonliving beings. Kikubaaqudgha's powers are based on Necromancy instead of Invocations skill.

Restrictions

Demigods may not worship Kikubaaqudgha (or any other deity).

Djinn's unusual approach to magic renders them unable to worship Kikubaaqudgha.

Appreciates

• You or your undead slaves killing living, nonliving, holy, undead, or demonic creatures. (Chance of +1 Piety, chance increases with the victim's HD, but decreases with your level.)
  • Note that the "Kikubaaqudgha accepts your kill" message does not mean your Piety has risen, just that it could have.

Deprecates

• 1 piety lost every 340 turns on average, and you are excommunicated if it falls to 0.
• Abandonment. (Penance)

Given Abilities

Piety level -: "Purveyor of Pain"

• No abilities.

Piety level *: "Scholar of Death"

• Receive Corpses: Creates 1-9 reanimatable, branch-appropriate corpses near yourself. A high Necromancy skill gives more and better corpses, with freshness depending on your piety. (3 MP, 2-3 piety)

Piety level **: "Merchant of Misery"

• You may resist Necromancy miscast effects from spell miscasts or mummy death curses. Your resist chance rises with piety. Spells that qualify for protection will have "Kikubaaqudgha supports the use of this spell." in the description.

Piety level ***: "Artisan of Death"

• No new abilities.

Piety level ****: "Dealer of Despair"

• Protection From Torment: You sometimes take reduced damage from torment and agony; there is a piety/600 chance of taking no damage, and failing that a piety/250 chance of taking a random amount of damage from 2 to the full amount rolled. The average damage is shown below.

Piety	Unprotected	HP lost w/ Kiku Protection	HP lost w/ Kiku Protection & rN+++
80	50%	36.4%	34.3%
100	50%	33.35%	30.85%
120	50%	30.4%	27.5%
150	50%	26.25%	23.9%
200	50%	20%	16%

Piety level *****: "Black Sun"

• Torment - Use a corpse to torment everything in your LOS, including yourself. (4 MP, 8-12 piety)

Piety level ******: "Lord of Darkness"

• Once per game, you may choose to either:
  • Receive Forbidden Knowledge: Kikubaaqudgha will grant you Haunt, Borgnjor's Revivification, Infestation, Necromutation, and Death's Door
  • Brand Weapon With Pain: Give a non-artefact weapon of your choice a permanent Pain brand and increase its enchantment level by 2. This splatters blood over the area, invokes torment, and overwrites the current brand on the weapon.

Gifts

Kikubaaqudgha grants a semi-random assortment of spells upon reaching 1* and 3* piety. Each set guarantees the player at least one corpse-using spell to complement the Receive Corpses ability. Kikubaaqudgha will never grant spells your species cannot cast.

At 1* piety, Kiku will gift Animate Skeleton and three randomly selected low-level Necromancy spells:

• Corpse Rot
• Pain
• Sublimation of Blood
• Vampiric Draining
• Agony

At 3* piety, Kiku will gift Animate Dead and four randomly selected mid-level Necromancy spells:

• Dispel Undead
• Anguish
• Borgnjor's Vile Clutch
• Death Channel
• Excruciating Wounds
• Simulacrum

Punishments

Kikubaaqudgha does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers! Kikubaaqudgha's wrath brings forth all the dread powers of necromancy. Victims are wracked with torment, assailed by the undead, smothered in miasma, and afflicted with a host of other necromantic ailments. Further, Kikubaaqudgha's gifts become tainted; those that attempt to use necromantic magic to fend off wrath will find it backfiring on them when least expected. Kikubaaqudgha's wrath lasts for a relatively short duration.

When you abandon Kikubaaqudgha, all currently existing corpses will decay into skeletons in a few turns. While under penance, Kikubaaqudgha will occasionally inflict you with Torment, as well perform other forms of divine retribution. Kikubaaqudgha will often combine these punishments:

• Receive Corpses is cast (using your XL in place of Necromancy skill), followed by a hostile Animate Dead. All corpses and skeletons in the vicinity will be affected.
• Clouds of miasma at your location and around you.
• Death curses.

Kiku may also punish you for casting Necromancy spells (5% probability).

Strategy

Kikubaaqudgha offers three main features: a massive supply of corpses, protection from torment and mummy death curses, and knowledge of Necromancy.

• The former is a fairly cheap, 1*, spammable ability, making Kiku great for the entire game. It requires some proactive play; it takes 2 turns and a bit of MP to get running, but surrounding yourself with allies is always powerful. This remains competitive even into the Pandemonium and Hell.
• Kiku's quick and fitting spell gifts are especially useful to characters learning Necromancy from scratch, though it means Kiku is slightly less useful (comparatively) to Necromancers early on.
• Kiku's torment protection is useful for the extended game. The Tomb is one of the deadliest branches of the whole game, but the addition of death curse protection eases up the challenge. Characters that receive Necromutation and other high level spells are even better off.

At 6*, you get the choice between a pain-branded weapon and the capstone Necromancy spells. This typically happens around the mid-game, and it can be a tricky decision.

• The Pain brand deals absolutely devastating damage in the right hands. It deals flat, Necromancy-based damage; faster weapons like Short Blades and demon whips work great, even with little training. Pain only works on the living. This is not a concern in the mid-game, but iffy in Zot and useless in the demon and undead-infested extended game. Blessing also increases enchantment, so keep your weapon at or below +7.
• The spells, on the other hand, are the inverse. Those spells are great for the endgame, but they won't help you one bit when you can't cast them. It's also entirely possible to luck across the Necronomicon as you explore.

In the end, the decision comes down to "Would I rather have something that will help me much later, or something that will help me survive right now?"

In the case you decide to pick the spells, the Excruciating Wounds spell, if you've found it, can substitute for a permanent pain weapon in a pinch. However, Excruciating Wounds is a noisy spell that makes other spells somewhat harder to cast.

Tips and Tricks

• Undead and tree form characters benefit the most from invoked torment, though that doesn't mean that living characters can't use it! Kiku's protection will often reduce and even prevent damage, but living monsters take the full 50%. Plus, your torment-immune undead can mop up what remains.
• Don't be stingy in the art of corpses! Receive Corpses is a very cheap ability. Kiku piety isn't very meaningful; passives have little impact on a 3-rune game, while Torment still remains niche for living characters. The swarm of zombies are easy to underestimate.
  • Corpse Rot is a more unorthodox spell; it uses a corpse to create a protective ring of miasma. It then leaves behind a skeleton, which still can be animated.
  • Torment protection also drastically eases up the Crypt, so otherwise 3-rune followers of Kiku can take a visit.
• Kiku has no objection to you wielding weapons of holy wrath.
• In spite of Kiku's punishments, Kiku's divine retribution is one of the easiest to survive. Stair-dancing lets you run from the monsters Kiku sends. Expect to receive Torment every time Kiku's wrath occurs, however. Undead minions turn hostile when you leave, meaning you can't just surround yourself with corpses.

History

• Prior to 0.28, Kiku's 1* and 3* spell gifts guaranteed a corpse using spell instead of Animate Skeleton and Animate Dead; book logic was also different.
• Prior to 0.27, Kiku would gift randart spellbooks and the Necronomicon, instead of gifting spells directly.
• Prior to 0.25, Kiku's wrath included Necromancy miscast effects instead of death curses.
• Prior to 0.20, Kiku's 1* spellbook gift had a guaranteed Corpse Rot rather than a guaranteed Pain spell.
• Prior to 0.19, Kiku gave a piety-dependent bonus to final HP when casting Death's Door. Also, Kiku did not grant piety for killing undead creatures, and the torment protection did not reduce damage from agony. In addition, Kiku worshippers had to pray over a corpse to invoke the Torment ability.
• Prior to 0.17, Kiku helped at Piety level **** to resist the Haunt inflicted sickness on the caster (resist rate rose with piety). Kiku worshippers also had to pray at an altar to receive the Necronomicon/Pain brand gifts.