Scroll

Omega versionsRemake 0.90.4 (current)source 009707d17482updated 2026-07-24

Scrolls are single-use readable items represented by a bright-yellow ? in Omega 0.90.4. They can provide information, improve equipment, grant temporary powers, or radically alter a level, while cursed copies often reverse or spoil the expected benefit.

Every scroll weighs 5, has fragility 1, and belongs to the COMMON rarity class.

Scroll types

Scroll
Blank scroll
Scroll of spells
Scroll of blessing
Scroll of acquirement
Scroll of enchantment
Scroll of teleportation
Scroll of wishing
Scroll of clairvoyance
Scroll of displacement
Scroll of identification
Hint sheet
Jane's guide to treasure
Scroll of alertness
Scroll of cosmic flux
Scroll of charging
Scroll of the warp
Scroll of self-knowledge
Scroll of law
Scroll of heroism
Scroll of true sight

Finding scrolls

Scrolls can appear among random treasure on dungeon floors and in monster inventories. The pawn shop can stock eligible scrolls, and a scroll of acquirement can produce either a random scroll or, when blessed, a chosen scroll. Some monsters also carry a particular scroll.

The initial roll among the 24 scroll types is uniform, but the treasure-level check can reject a scroll that is too powerful for the current source. Randomly generated copies begin uncursed.

Unidentified inscriptions

At the start of a new game, the following pool of thirty inscriptions is shuffled. The 24 scroll types receive the first 24 shuffled names, leaving six unused in that game. An inscription learned in one game therefore cannot safely identify the same scroll in another. A scroll's cursed name appears only after its type has been identified.

No.	Inscription	No.	Inscription
1	scroll-GRISTOGRUE	16	scroll-Aratron Samael
2	scroll-Kho Reck Tighp	17	scroll-De Wormiis Mysterius
3	scroll-E Z	18	scroll-Necronomicon
4	scroll-Kevitz	19	scroll-Pnakotic Manuscript
5	scroll-Arcanum Prime	20	scroll-Codex of Xalimar
6	scroll-NYARLATHOTEP	21	scroll-The Mabinogion
7	scroll-Gilthoniel	22	scroll-Ginseng Shiatsu
8	scroll-Zarathustra	23	scroll-Tome of Tromax
9	scroll-Ancient Lore	24	scroll-Book of the Dead
10	scroll-Eyes Only	25	scroll-The Flame Tongue
11	scroll-Ambogar Empheltz	26	scroll-Karst Khogar
12	scroll-Isengard	27	scroll-The Yellow Sign
13	scroll-Deosil Widdershins	28	scroll-The Kevillist Manifesto
14	scroll-Magister Paracelsus	29	scroll-Goshtar Script
15	scroll-Qlipphotic Summons	30	scroll-Pendragon Encryption

Reading scrolls

Scrolls cannot be read while blind or afraid. Cancelling before choosing a scroll leaves it in the inventory. Once a scroll has been read, it is normally consumed even if a later target or text prompt is cancelled or rejected; exceptions and important targeting details are described on the individual page.

Blessed, uncursed, and cursed copies may have very different results. The BUC table on each individual page describes those outcomes from the reader's point of view.

Loss and destruction

Reading normally consumes one scroll. Cancelling before choosing a scroll is safe, but cancelling a later target or text prompt usually does not prevent consumption.

A scroll can also be lost in the following ways:

• The Destroy an item command can shatter a selected scroll.
• An acid trap can damage possessions unless the reader dodges the spray or has acid immunity. A normal fragility-1 scroll subjected to the general item-damage check shatters 14 times in 15.
• Entering the Abyss removes all possessions, including scrolls.
• A cursed scroll of acquirement can destroy a random possession. A scroll of blessing can disintegrate a sufficiently cursed target. Misusing the Orb of Earth can disintegrate all possessions.

A blessed scroll may resist the general item-damage check according to its item level, but this offers no protection to level-0 scrolls and is unreliable for low-level ones.

Strategy

Protecting scrolls

Acid immunity prevents an acid trap from damaging possessions, making it the most direct protection for carried scrolls. Avoid entering the Abyss with scrolls that must be retained. Blessing can improve the survival chance of higher-level scrolls, but it should not be treated as dependable protection for low-level copies.

Acquiring scrolls

Search ordinary floor treasure and monster drops, and check the pawn shop when it refreshes. A blessed scroll of acquirement is the reliable way to request a particular scroll; an uncursed acquirement only chooses the scroll category and then gives a random type. Blippers carry scrolls of teleportation, phantasticons carry scrolls of true sight, and necromancers can leave scrolls of spells.

Using scrolls

Identify both the scroll type and its BUC state before committing rare or dangerous copies. Keep escape effects such as teleportation available for emergencies, use temporary combat or vision effects shortly before they matter, and save acquirement or wishing until the desired result and any required input are known. Choose targets before reading: once a scroll reaches its effect, backing out of a later prompt normally still consumes it. Some scrolls ignore BUC while others reverse their benefit, so consult the individual effect table rather than assuming that blessed is always stronger or cursed is merely weaker.

References

• WinOmega source at the documented revision