Draft:Crystal Ball

Omega 0.90.4

Crystal Ball&TypeArtifactBase value (Au)500Item level3Weight75Unidentified appearanceGlass OrbCursed nameBall of Mindlessness

A Crystal Ball is a reusable artifact for locating creatures and loose objects and receiving a game hint. Its Glass Orb appearance is distinct from the Mysterious Orb used by the elemental Orbs. Identification permits activation, but a curse or insufficient Intelligence and level can make it erase remembered exploration instead.

Generation

Crystal Balls can occur repeatedly in ordinary random treasure and in monsters' additional random possessions. New copies have neutral blessing and are unidentified; their fixed appearance does not itself satisfy the activation check. Ordinary acquirement cannot select artifacts, and Knight's Pawn Shop excludes them from automatic stock.

Gazing

Use A → a with the ball in accessible inventory. The following conditions are checked in order:

Condition	Result
Unidentified	Refuses to activate; the hour is not recorded
Already used at the current clock hour	Displays a rerun message; no detection or amnesia
Cursed, or failed Intelligence-and-level check	Erases remembered exploration of the current map and records the hour
Otherwise	Monster detection, object detection and one random hint; records the hour

For a noncursed ball, let S be current Intelligence plus character level. Failure occurs when a random integer from 0 through 29 exceeds S. Thus S = 20 gives a 30% failure chance, S = 28 gives 1/30, and 29 or more removes this random failure. Positive blessing gives no further bonus to this check; enchantment is not used. A cursed ball still fails at high Intelligence.

Detection briefly displays living creatures and the first loose object's category at each occupied item square on the current level, then restores the ordinary display. It is not continuous tracking or a complete terrain map, and does not list every object in a pile or carried by a monster. Monster drawing bypasses sight and invisibility checks, but the display still clips to its current screen window. The final hint is selected from the game's general hint list, not tailored to the detected target.

Amnesia clears explored-map memory and redraws what is presently visible. It does not erase known spells or item identification. Both success and amnesia retain the ball, spend no mana and use no finite charge supply.

Reuse

All Crystal Balls share their last-use marker. It starts unused and compares the 24-hour clock hour, not elapsed time or the date. A use at 10:59 permits another at 11:00, but returning at 10:00 on another date still matches the old marker if no different-hour use intervened. A spare ball does not bypass it. This marker is separate from those of holy symbols, the Staff of Enchantment and the Helm of Teleportation.

Strategy

At Intelligence plus level 29 or above, a known noncursed ball is a repeatable scouting resource with no spell or potion cost. Below that threshold, weigh the chance of losing your map against the value of locating a dangerous creature or treasure. Monster detection and object detection potions offer alternatives without the ball's Intelligence check; clairvoyance answers the separate question of terrain layout.

Record useful positions while the detection display is present. Blessing a neutral ball does not improve its success rate, and trying to enchant its intact power causes the ordinary artifact backlash. Keep an independent detection option when revisiting at the last recorded hour.