#tridrone

Image by Julie Dillon, © Wizards of the Coast

[In the original Monster Manual 2, the tridrone was illustrated point up. Nowadays, they’re usually illustrated point down. I decided to make this variety canonical. Of course, modrons are too hierarchical and cooperative to turn this into a star-belly Sneetch situation, but I could see rogue modrons fighting about it.]

Modron, Tridrone CR 3 LN Outsider (extraplanar) This bizarre creature is a trilateral pyramid, with each of its three lateral faces bearing a single eye and mouth. It has one clockwork arm and two clockwork legs growing from each of these surfaces, all tipped with nimble clawed digits. It carries a spear in each of its three hands, and rotates constantly to scrutinize its environment with different eyes.

Tridrones are modron drones that are skilled at thinking in three dimensions. They are capable of obeying three directives at once, a great enough sense of behavioral flexibility to seem almost normal to mortals. Tridrones are often scouts and porters, able to cover a wide array of terrains with ease while carrying a heavy load. Tridrones scuttle up and down the buildings of Regulus constantly, hauling building materials to be assembled by monodrones or relaying observations to quadrone or pentadrone superiors.

A tridrone is capable of climbing on practically any surface, and they usually fight from a ceiling or wall to stab down at their opponents. They are more likely to make hit and run attacks than lesser modron drones, and their whirling combat style has a strange grace to it. They can fight effortlessly with each of their three arms, preferring to carry a single piercing weapon in each hand. A tridrone can make combat plans and execute them with orders to its monodrone and duodrone subordinates, although they are somewhat limited in their scope and creativity.

Some tridrones appear as inverted pyramids, point facing down, whereas others appear with their point facing up. There are exactly even numbers of both of these varieties in existence. Primus is engaged in an experiment to determine which configuration is the more efficient one. Both types cooperate in order to best serve the goals of the modron collective, but minor friendly competition between point up and point down tridrones does occur.

Geometry angels...

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