Mennas

Version 0.24: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

Mennas A
HP	100-203
HD	19
XP	4384
Speed	15
AC	15
EV	26
Will	160
Attack¹	30 (hit: plain)
Attack²	20 (hit: plain)
Resistances	rElec rPois+ rMiasma rN+++ rHoly+++
Vulnerabilities	None
Habitat	Land
Intelligence	Human
Uses	Weapons & armour Starting equipment Open doors
Holiness	Holy
Size	Medium
Type	angel, angel
Flags	Fighter Flying Speaks Unique Male

There was once a human priest named Mennas. He travelled far and wide as a missionary of Zin, often venturing even into Orcish lands. He beseeched the orcs to abandon their false tribes and return to the peoples of their birth; only Zin's light could truly cleanse the weight of sin that had twisted their bodies.

By all accounts the orcs were not happy with Mennas. Eventually, a group of them demanded he recant his words 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.

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

Spells

Name	Damage	Range	Flags
Mass Confusion	—	—	Wizard flag
Silence	—	—	Wizard flag
Minor Healing	2d9+3	—	Wizard flag

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 a weapon of holy wrath, making him exceedingly dangerous to undead, demonspawn, or lichform characters. Needless to say, Mennas is hard to kill.

Once Mennas sees you, you may have a difficult problem. 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 all species except spriggans and vampire bats, 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 haste will only bring you up to his speed, which is almost never enough to escape with if he's already in melee range. Hasted felids, centaurs, and those with boots of running should be fine, though, and spriggans can outrun him on their own.
Mennas' magic resistance is normally far too high for a wand of paralysis or disintegration to affect him; if you have 15+ Evocations skill and hit him with a scroll of vulnerability, though, you might be able to pull it off.
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 potions of haste 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 cannot recast silence while silenced, therefore if you wait long enough he will let you read a scroll of teleportation to get away.
Wands and evocable items, such as evocable blink, sacks of spiders, phials of floods, etc. still function as normal, potentially allowing you to gain some space, get out of his silence radius or summon some allies. A phantom mirror can be of tremendous aid here.
Hasting yourself with at least two tiles between you and him will let any normal-speed 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.
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.
Spriggans and other characters which actually have the speed to outrun him should be wary of his Mass 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.
Bolt spells, area-of-effect spells, and other penetrating attacks will all bypass Mennas's shield, though you won't be able to cast anything if Silence is up. Cloud spells like Freezing Cloud, Conjure Flame, or a wand of clouds will also bypass his evasion.

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

Prior to 0.16, Mennas could not spawn in Pandemonium and knew Confusion instead of Mass 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.