Demon Lord Artefacts

Currently, only Cerebov, Dispater, and Asmodeus have fixed artefacts associated with them. This page is to come up with fixed artefacts for the other demon lords.

Each item possessed by a demon lord should have some unique property that can't be provided by a random artefact. They should have something to do with the demon lord's theme. They may also have some negative effects associated with them, like Asmodeus' item occasionally summoning hostile fiends/demons. Put your ideas for each demon lord's item under its heading.

Possible themes: speed, high evasion, negative energy, draining

The most famous myth concerning Ereshkigal is her meeting with her sister, Inanna/Ishtar. Inanna descends to the underworld to meet her sister, which goes quite badly for her, trapping her soul in the realms beneath until her (much later) revival. To commemorate the myth, here's a fixedart based on Inanna's symbol, an eight-pointed star.

“This Star holds the trapped soul of Ereshkigal's sister, the daeva Inanna, who perished attempting to wrest control of the underworld from Ereshkigal. It shines with terrifying radiance.”

Provides rN+, EV+4, stealth–. Can be evoked for mass confusion but will confuse you with 100% certainty if you are undead/demonspawn or worship an evil god.

FYI, Inanna totally fits the description of a daeva. From “A hymn to Inanna” at http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.07.3# : “She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance.”

She's also a fertility deity, but that's a little less appropriate for Crawl. =)

— Minced

Possible themes: low evasion, high durability, high melee damage, ice

+3 large shield [RC+]. When you block an enemy's melee attack, the enemy takes some cold damage and and also may be stunned (lose action points) if it is vulnerable to cold. Each blocked attack has 1/200 chance of summoning a hostile ice demon and 1/500 chance of summoning a hostile ice fiend. — ledtim 2010-09-13 22:09

Ice fiends can do 200 cold damage per turn before cold resistance is considered. The shield would be wearable (but not great) if it summoned ice devils, but fiends are a no-go. — Minced

Eh, maximum damage ice fiends can do in one round is 156 damage, assuming no armor and no resistances, and the shield provides RC+. Honestly, I thought it might be too good since ice fiends are probably little threat if you are powerful enough to actually get this thing. Feel free to suggest other ideas though. I admit this idea isn't the most creative since it's too much like the demonspawn mutation (though it'd be easy to code for the same reason.) — ledtim 2010-09-14 05:51

Bit of thread necromancy here, but Antaeus does NOT need a shield. Otherwise, it would be basically impossible to take him down in melee - monsters with large shields seem to block over half the time. If this item is ever implemented he either needs to not carry it, or perhaps get horrible SH from it (since he's so huge, even a large shield would basically be like a buckler to him). -IonFrigate

Possible themes: summoning abominations/tentacled monstrosities, mutation

“Mnoleg's beloved shoes glow with an unholy fashion sense.”

EV +5, stealth-, can be evoked to make your character do a dance for four turns, then summon a (possibly hostile) abomination! When worn, gives the message “You feel like doing a little dance.”

— Minced

Possible themes: speed, negative energy, necromancy, darkness

“All that remains of Gloorx Vloq is its head, burning with shadow like an unholy torch. Perhaps it could be useful…”

rN+, +inv, stealth+, trails miasma behind you. Stylish!

— Minced

“A pitch-black piece of cloth, surrounded by swirling darkness that engulfs both it and its wearer.”

(inspired by https://crawl.develz.org/mantis/view.php?id=2544) +2 Cloak, +inv, +stealth, -5 accuracy, reduces vision range by 2.

— ledtim 2010-09-19 02:54

Possible themes: spellcasting, magic

+4 Robe. Can be evoked for a random potentially dangerous spell at the power of 8*Evocations, cost 5 MP per evoke. Possible spells: Fireball, orb of electricity, freezing cloud, conjure ball lightning, lightning bolt. — ledtim 2010-09-13 22:27

— Minced Sounds fun! I personally think it would be more fun (and thematic, given lom lobon's lightning theme) if it chose random lightning spells, since chain lightning, orb of electricity and conjure ball lightning all have the potential to fry their caster.

— ledtim 2010-09-14 14:27 Lom Lobon has ice storm though, so he's not just lightning. I want to have the potential to have fire and cold damage backfire on the player, especially since the item is a robe that prevents the wearing of a robe of resistance.