Mennas

Version 0.15: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Mennas A
HP	150
HD	19
XP	4552
Speed	15
AC	15
EV	28
Will	202
Attack1	30 (hit: plain)
Attack2	20 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rElec++, rPois+, rN+++, rRot, rDrown, rHoly
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	High
Uses	Weapons & armour Starting equipment Open doors
Holiness	Holy
Size	Medium
Type	angel, angel
Flags	Actual spells Fighter Flying Glows See invisible Speaks Spellcaster Unique

There was once a human priest named Mennas. He travelled far and wide preaching of Zin to any who would listen, going even so far as to travel into Orcish lands, preaching to orcs about laws and mercy. By all accounts the orcs were not happy with Mennas. They demanded he swear Beogh was the one true god, and when Mennas remained silent they cut out his tongue. Whether or not this angel is that same Mennas is something of a mystery, as he seems to have difficulty speaking.

For a list of all holy monsters, see list of holy monsters.

Useful Info

Mennas, the Voice of Zin is an incredibly dangerous unique angel, the only one who normally appears in the main Dungeon not locked behind a wall. He is fast, extremely durable, and disables many player abilities with Silence, making him a notorious menace to spellcasters.

Location

• The Depths:1-5
• The Swamp:5
• The Snake Pit:5
• The Shoals:5
• The Spider's Nest:5
• The Vaults:2-5
• The Crypt
• The Tomb

Spells

Spell set
Slot1	none
Slot2	Confuse (50% success rate when MR=60)
Slot3	Silence
Slot4	none
Slot5	Minor Healing (2d9)
Slot6	Minor Healing (2d9)

Tips & Tricks

Mennas has the speed of a centaur warrior, hits harder than a stone giant, and is almost as evasive as Ereshkigal. He has standard angel gear: a large shield and holy wrath weapon, making him exceedingly dangerous to undead or lichform characters. Needless to say, Mennas is hard to kill.

Once Mennas sees you, it may already be too late. His high HD means that he has a decent chance of waking up even if you spend only one turn in his LOS. He's faster than most species, and once he gets even moderately close, his 6-tile Silence aura prevents casting spells, reading scrolls, and all invocable abilities. Most traditional escape methods are impossible:

• You can't read a scroll of teleportation, scroll of blinking, or command your allies while silenced.
• Hasting yourself with a potion of speed or wand of hasting will only bring you up to his speed, which is almost never enough to escape with if he's already in melee range. Hasted centaurs, spriggans, and those with boots of running should be fine though.
• Mennas' magic resistance is far too high for a wand of slowing, wand of confusion, or wand of paralysis to affect him.
• Spriggans and other characters which actually have the speed to outrun him should be wary of his Confusion spell. Admittedly, spriggans rarely have low enough magic resistance for this to be a problem, but less mystically attuned species may have trouble here.
• Even Trog's berserk ability requires the ability to speak.

A well-equipped, mid-level tank character should be able to overcome his defenses with the aid of a potion of speed and might. High-level casters or followers of Trog can also handle him easily enough if they spot him at the edge of their LOS (even Mennas will grudgingly succumb to Fire Storm or an army of berserk summoned allies). Anyone else may wish to escape immediately:

• Escape scrolls work fine so long as you read them outside of his silence radius. Don't wait until it's too late! Bear in mind that he sometimes allows his silence to almost run out before refreshing it. If you stand in a space diagonally adjacent to him, there's a chance he'll eventually give you an opportunity to read a scroll of teleport.
• Evocable escape routes (a wand of teleportation, ring of teleportation, Warpwright card, artefact with Blink ability, etc.) still function as normal, though waiting for a teleport to kick in will be painful. Retreating will reduce the number of attacks he'll deliver in the mean time.
• Hasting yourself with at least two tiles between you and him will let any non-naga species make it to a staircase without him catching up and following you.
• Non-Trog forms of berserk function, giving you an equivalent speed boost to Haste for a few turns. Just don't let it wear off before you've escaped, or you'll be heavily handicapped and no closer to getting away. Only use it if you really think you can reach that staircase in time.
• Nemelex Xobeh's followers retain full use of all their decks.
• The Blink mutation works as normal.
• Although they're uncommon and dangerous, hopping down a shaft will leave him behind. Formicids benefit here.
• If you find him without waking him up, remember that you can just walk away. Returning later with more experience and better supplies can make a huge difference.

Trivia

Mennas was a Catholic saint of the early Christian church. He lived in the 6th century, and was excommunicated twice (and pardoned both times).

History

In 0.16, Mennas will occasionally spawn wandering in Pandemonium, and will know Mass Confusion instead of Confusion.

Prior to 0.15, worshipers of good gods would have a piety-based chance of turning Mennas neutral when they encountered him.

Mennas was added in version 0.8.