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Si ]

si 
------------------------------------ si ------------------------------------

Weight: 10s

When used in melee combat it grants a +0 bonus to hit and causes 1d4 points of damage.
When used as a missile it grants a -4 bonus to hit and causes 1d4 points of damage.

The si (abbreviation for strange item, pronounced "see") is the first guaranteed artifact that most PCs will encounter, unless they have done the Keethrax quest. It is found on level 8 of the CoC. The level message "The air of this level is filled with a strange smell." is always generated when entering the level containing the si. It falls into the tool category and is thus represented by a ] character. It always lies on a trap, so kick it off of the trap before picking it up if possible.

The si is an artifact that replicates. Since they are artifacts, they are:

  1. indestructible – wield them as a melee weapon to prevent corrosion/damage from jellies if nothing better is available
  2. valuable – sell them to shopkeepers: potentially limitless cash
  3. sacrificial fodder – sacrifice them to the gods, although it may be more beneficial to sell them and sacrifice the gold

All of these properties together make sis rather nice items. Always keep at least one.

Note that sis do not count as an artifact as far as the Demented Ratling is concerned. Also never forget that they replicate. They can get heavy after a while. A particularly nasty effect results if sis are brought into the ID. On a long trip through the ID, sis will replicate to the point where they become annoyingly heavy. This would not be a problem if the PC could simply drop most of them. Unfortunately, they jump back into the PC's backpack before she leaves a level, no matter where on the level they were dropped. Furthermore, monsters will not pick up sis, so they cannot be gotten rid of that way.

Think very carefully before bringing sis into the ID on an anticipated long trip. Many castings of Strength of Atlas is virtually the only guaranteed safe method of dealing with them. Girdles of carrying and girdles of greed, for example, can be cursed by a hag or destroyed outright.

3.4.1 Si growth

The rate of growth of sis seems to be based on their B/U/C status. A simple test of a PC with a single si in her inventory waiting for periods of 1000 turns reveals that, on average, a single cursed si will grow into 1.7 sis every 1000 turns, a blessed si will grow into 2.2 sis every 1000 turns, and an uncursed si will grow into 1.3 sis every 1000 turns. Of the newly generated sis, the test suggests that 82.5% will be uncursed, 4.7% will be blessed, and 12.7% will be cursed. Note that since each newly generated si in turn replicate into further sis, the overall rate of si growth will be exponential in nature.

Updated July 4th, 2009