Dark Monarch

More than one: Dark Monarchs

Floor 10Stolen BeatTakes a bribe 30%Pays 1,050 experience

What is known

Something down here wears a crown and the dungeon knows it. Nothing touches it with magic and little enough touches it with steel. What it touches falls a beat behind and stays there.

The bestiary's report

HIT POINTS12 TO 72ONE OF THE HIGHEST

DAMAGE PER HIT1 TO 12ONE OF THE HIGHEST

HOW IT REACHES YOUMELEE ONLY

SKILL AT HITTING11ONE OF THE HIGHEST

DEFENSE12ONE OF THE HIGHEST

ACTIONS PER ROUND2ONE OF THE LOWEST

CLOSES ON YOUEVERY ACTIONONE OF THE HIGHEST

TAKES A BRIBE3 TRIES IN 10MIDDLING

SHRUGS OFF MAGIC7 SPELLS IN 10ONE OF THE HIGHEST

KILLING ONE PAYS1050 EXPERIENCEHIGH

How to read these

HIT POINTS: How much damage it takes to put one down. Each one gets its own number from the range at random, so two of a kind are rarely the same.
DAMAGE PER HIT: How deep a landed blow cuts. Every hit takes a new number at random, from one up to the top of the range.
HOW IT REACHES YOU: Most kinds have to close on you before they can strike. One that throws reaches you from where it stands and hits harder once you close on it. An ethereal one also strikes without closing, and there is nothing you can do about that.
SKILL AT HITTING: How often its blows land. It is weighed against your protection, and this run's setting is already in it.
DEFENSE: How hard it is to hit. Every point takes five percent off your chance, the same five an attack bonus puts back.
ACTIONS PER ROUND: How many times it moves or strikes before the round is over.
CLOSES ON YOU: How often it spends an action coming at you rather than standing where it is.
TAKES A BRIBE: How often gold turns it away. A refused offer costs you the try.
SHRUGS OFF MAGIC: How often a spell aimed at it simply fails.
KILLING ONE PAYS: The experience one death is worth. It climbs with how deep the kind is found and how hard it fights.

Special attack: STOLEN BEAT

Its touch steals a beat. The one it touches has one action fewer each turn for the rest of the battle, never fewer than one. Nothing is wounded by it. It comes on two attacks in five. It has to be on you to do it.

Chance: 40% of its attacks
Reach: only when it is on you

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