Sign of the Scion Queen Mother

In dNetHack, notdNetHack, and notnotdNetHack, the sign of the Scion Queen Mother is a ward which scares some monsters when engraved on the floor. The sign of the Scion Queen Mother can be reinforced up to 7-fold, with each level of reinforcement taking 8 strokes to draw. With a fast engraving tool each reinforcement takes 1 turn, or 8 turns with a slow engraving tool. It gains no secondary effects at higher levels of reinforcement.

The following classes of monsters are warded by the sign of the Scion Queen Mother:

• a ant or other insect
• x xan or other mythical/fantastic insect
• s arachnid or centipede
• R rust monster or disenchanter

Generation

Scrolls of sign of the Scion Queen Mother make up ⁵⁄₃₆ (~13.9%) of all randomly generated scrolls of warding. Writing a scroll of sign of the Scion Queen Mother with a magic marker costs 8 charges. Scrolls of sign of the Scion Queen Mother can be wished for.

Rings have a base ¹⁄₁₂ (~8.33%) chance of being generated with a ward-engraving. ¹⁄₂₄ (~4.17%) of those rings will be generated with a of sign of the Scion Queen Mother ward engraving. When wishing for a ring engraved with the sign of the Scion Queen Mother, if that ring would be generated with an engraving, it will have its engraving changed to a sign of the Scion Queen Mother.

The sign of the Scion Queen Mother is found in spellbooks of all levels.

The odds of a spellbook containing a sign of the Scion Queen Mother ward are:

• Level 1 spellbooks: ¹⁄₁₈ chance (~5.55%)
• Level 2 spellbooks: ⁷⁄₃₂ chance (~21.9%)
• Level 3 spellbooks: ¹⁄₁₅ chance (~6.66%)
• Level 4 spellbooks: ¹⁄₁₂ chance (~8.33%)
• Level 5 spellbooks: ¹⁄₁₆ chance (6.25%)
• Level 6 spellbooks: ⁵⁄₇₂ chance (~6.94%)
• Level 7 spellbooks: ¹⁄₁₂ chance (~8.33%)

The sign of the Scion Queen Mother, along with many other wards, can be learned from the Necronomicon's option to "Study up on ancient warding signs".

Troubadours start the game with knowledge of the sign of the Scion Queen Mother.

Description

1-fold signs of the Scion Queen Mother appear as "a sign of the Scion Queen Mother" on the floor, 2-fold wards appear as "a reinforced sign of the Scion Queen Mother", then "doubly reinforced sign of the Scion Queen Mother", "triply reinforced sign of the Scion Queen Mother" and so forth.

Messages

Rumors

They say there is a Queen over all the queens of ants and bees.

They say the Queen of the ants is also Matriarch of all spiders.

They say that mystical insects and crustaceans bow to the same throne.

The sign of the Scion Queen Mother wards against most organized hierarchical insects and spiders.

Encyclopedia entry

The scion queen mother rules over all the social insects,
and many other creatures besides. Her sign is a stylized
insect head composed of eight strokes, and may be
reinforced up to seven times.