NEW MONSTER: TRISKELION VAT MEN.

TRISKELION VAT MEN

FREQUENCY: Very rare

NO. APPEARING: 1-10

ARMOR CLASS: 6

MOVE: 12”

HIT DICE: 3

% IN LAIR: 70%

TREASURE TYPE: See below

NO. OF ATTACKS: 1

DAMAGE/ ATTACK: By weapon

SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil

MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard

SAVE: Fighter 3

INTELLIGENCE: Average

MORALE: See below

ALIGNMENT: See below

SIZE: M

PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil

LEVEL/ X.P. VALUE: III/ 35 + 3/hp

Triskelion vat men are raised in vats from nutritional fluid called vat media. All appear male and have pale, unnaturally white skin. They all wear the same white toga-like garments and Phrygian style hats as seen on Triskelion statues. They take one of three forms: crying, laughing, or scowling. Triskelion vat men are unnable to change their facial expressions. Their type indicates their attitudes and behavior.

Crying Triskelions have their face drawn into a permanent grimace of grief, like the tragedy mask of theatre. They are of neutral alignment and prefer to avoid combat unless they greatly outnumber their opponents. They use no weapon except for a quarter staff. Crying Triskelions are melancholy and depressed and have poor morale (40%). They believe that if they consume the flesh of laughing Triskelions then they will relieved of their sadness. This is true. A crying Triskelion that eats the meat of a living laughing Triskelion will transform into a laughing Triskelion over the next 1d4+4 hours. They will sometimes collect treasure and in their lair will have type D.

Laughing Triskelions are always giggling or laughing out loud. Thus, they can never surprise. At first they appear as delightful companions, but they constant tittering and joking soon makes them unwanted among even the most tolerant. They are of chaotic neutral alignment and will only ever be armed with swords. If they enter combat they will fight as a berserker (2 attacks per round or +2 to hit) but their armor class worsens to 8. Laughing Triskelions are unable to take things seriously, including their own wounds or impending death and they never fail morale checks. They do not value treasure but will sometimes possess magic swords or potions.

Scowling Triskelions have as their visage a perpetual expression of intense hate and disgust. They are warlike and have a neutral evil alignment. They delight in taking slaves, especially of crying Triskelions, for they enjoy the suffering and hopelessness of others. They use a nine-tailed whip in combat (treat as a horseman's flail). Their morale is good (70%) and they are usually disciplined combatants. Scowling Triskelions value gold and will have treasure type M on individuals and type Y in their lair.

All Triskelion vat men can rely on vat media for their meals, if they have no other means of obtaining food. At times, the vats create abnormal vat men with statistics differing from those given above.