Scroll of summoning

Version 0.30: 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.

A scroll of summoning instantly summons 2d2 allied monsters. These monsters will "belong" to the floor you're currently on, similar to the Shadow Creatures spell. They have a long duration, but stronger monsters will last for a shorter time. Note that "bands" (like a pack of yaks) count as 1 monster for this scroll's purposes. It never summons creatures that your god hates.

This scroll is mutually exclusive with the scroll of butterflies; only one of the two scrolls may spawn in any given game.

Sample Results

• In the Dungeon, there's a very broad range of possible monsters. On D:12, it might a pack of ogres including an ogre mage... or it might produce a bunch of howler monkey.
• In The Lair, this can produce anything from a water moccasin to a herd of death yaks.
• In the Orcish Mines, it usually produces a group of orcs, possibly including warriors, priests, and sorcerers. trolls and ogres are possible, though.
• In the Lair branches, it summons monsters you'd expect - arachnids for Spider, snakes and nagas in Snake, jellies in Slime...
• In the Realm of Zot, it tends to summon dragons, electric golems, "friendly" moths of wrath, entire bands of draconians, and even the occasional orb of fire.
  • Be aware that moths of wrath will often berserk the hostile natives, which can lead to a nasty death for the unwary.
• It is much less useful in places that have weak "random encounters" but very strong special encounters, such as the Tomb and the last level of the Vaults.

Strategy

Scrolls of summoning are quite rare. Summons scale with your current branch - if you're having difficulty with a monster, summoning 2-4 copies of that monster is bound to kill it, or at least give you time to escape. Therefore, it remains valuable for most of a 3-rune game.

Tips & Tricks

• Combining summons with a scroll of immolation works well. Surround your target with summons, then read immolation. Once something dies, it'll create a chain reaction of explosions, which works wonders against uniques and other dangerous monsters. (As usual with immolation, watch out for any explosions that hit you.)
• Summoning can be particularly useful when fighting The Royal Jelly. If you surround TRJ with summons, the jellies it spawns will appear on the outskirts of your army, giving you time to damage it. Works especially well in a corridor.
• Scrolls of summoning, as of 0.30, are the only scroll that monsters can read.

History

• Scrolls of summoning were useless in the Labyrinth, which was removed in 0.23.
• This current iteration of the scroll of summoning was added in 0.12.
• Prior to 0.11, there was a different item called a scroll of summoning that would create a small abomination for you. It was renamed to a scroll of unholy creation in 0.11, and was removed entirely in 0.12.