Summoner
You get 3 bluffs. On the 3rd night, choose a player: they become an evil Demon of your choice. [No Demon]
Hail the guardians of the north; by my intellect, thou art cut. Hail the guardians of the east; by my will, thou art dominated. Hail the guardians of the south; by that which lies beyond, the mystery is revealed. Hail the guardians of the west; a shield in the darkness.
Storyteller cues
First nightShow the THESE CHARACTERS ARE NOT IN PLAY token. Show 3 not-in-play good character tokens.
Other nightsChange the Summoner reminder token to the relevant night. ◦ If it is night 3, the Summoner chooses a player & a Demon character. Put the Summoner to sleep. Wake the target. Show the YOU ARE and Demon tokens & give a thumbs-down.
Jinxes
The Alchemist-Summoner does not get bluffs, and chooses which Demon but not which player. If they die before this happens, evil wins. No Demon at the beginning of a game.
The Summoner registers as the Demon to the Clockmaker.
If the living Summoner has no ability, the Storyteller has the Summoner ability.
If the living Summoner is removed from play, the Storyteller has the Summoner ability.
If the Summoner creates a second living Demon, deaths tonight are arbitrary.
If the Summoner creates a second living Demon, deaths tonight are arbitrary.
If Legion is summoned, all evil players become Legion.
If a Lord of Typhon is summoned, they must neighbor a Minion & their other neighbor becomes an evil Minion.
If there would be a Marionette in play, they enter play after the Demon & must start as their neighbor.
If the Summoner creates a second living Demon, deaths tonight are arbitrary.
If the Poppy Grower is alive on the 3rd night, the Summoner chooses which Demon but not which player.
If the living Summoner has no ability, the Storyteller has the Summoner ability.
The Summoner may summon a Pukka on the 2nd night instead of the 3rd.
If the Summoner summons a dead player into the Zombuul, the Zombuul has already "died once".
How to run it (Storyteller)
How to play
- Your most important job before night 3 is staying alive — if you die early, evil has no Demon and almost certainly loses, so play as quietly and credibly as possible.
- Claim an information role that explains why you have no dirt on anyone for two days: Clockmaker, Dreamer, or Seamstress are ideal because their information is private and hard to verify or contradict.
- Coordinate with your Minion partners before the game ends on night 2 — agree on which Demon to summon and which player to turn so the new Demon knows to act and the evil team can protect them.
- Choose your summoned Demon based on the town's information state: summon an Imp if bluffs are tight and you want chaos, a Zombuul if a dead player is untrustworthy to good, a Pukka on night 2 if you want to accelerate tempo, or a No Dashii to corrupt a useful good player sitting next to the summoned player.
- Use your 3 bluffs strategically — give one to each Minion partner if possible so the whole evil team has cover, rather than hoarding all three for yourself.
- The most common mistake is summoning a splashy Demon like Legion without warning your team — Legion converts all evil players and fundamentally changes the team structure, so only summon it if everyone is briefed and the town is large enough to support it.
How to fight the Summoner
- The absence of a Demon in play means night 1 has no Demon kills — if nobody died on night 1 and you suspect a Summoner script, weigh that as strong evidence the Demon has not yet been created.
- The Clockmaker's measurement will return a Summoner-to-Minion distance rather than a Demon-to-Minion distance, because the Summoner registers as the Demon — a Clockmaker reading that becomes inconsistent with your suspected Demon locations should prompt you to consider Summoner.
- After night 3, a player who was previously behaving as good may suddenly start acting strangely or pushing unusual votes — this is the newly summoned Demon adjusting to their role, and it is a meaningful tell.
- Prioritize executing players you have strong reads on being the Summoner before night 3, because killing the Summoner before the ability fires means evil never gets a Demon and cannot win.
- If a Poppy Grower is in the game and alive on night 3, the Summoner cannot choose who becomes the Demon — protect the Poppy Grower specifically to deny the Summoner their optimal target for the summoning.
Key interactions
When the Poppy Grower is alive on night 3, the Summoner picks the Demon type but the Storyteller assigns the target player, stripping the Summoner of the ability to place the Demon on their ideal pick. Good should actively protect the Poppy Grower as a direct counter to precision Demon placement.
The Summoner can legally summon a Pukka on night 2 rather than night 3, accelerating the Demon's poison-and-kill cycle by a full day. Good teams should be alert that an unexplained death on night 2 combined with another death on night 3 could signal an early Pukka summon rather than a standard Demon.
If the Summoner places the Zombuul into a player who is already dead, that Zombuul has already used its one permitted death, making it functionally unable to fake-die and return. Choose dead targets for Zombuul only if you want to deny them that resilience, and good players should note that a Zombuul who never appears to die may have been summoned into a living player.
Summoning a Lord of Typhon requires a Minion to neighbor the summoned player, and their other neighbor is forcibly turned evil — this can corrupt a key good player and is a massive swing ability, but it demands careful pre-night coordination with Minions to ensure seating allows the neighbor constraint to be satisfied.
Summoning Legion converts every evil player into a Legion instance, which completely restructures the evil team and eliminates all existing Minion roles. This is only viable if the Summoner's Minion partners are fully briefed beforehand, and good can sometimes detect a mid-game alignment shift if previously coherent evil bluffs suddenly collapse after night 3.