Planar Bestiary
Joyful trines are 15-foot (4.5 m) tall entities called from the plane of Elysium. They prefer to deter with joy, but if comes to it, they are not above killing with kindness. Keen watchers and protectors, these tripart creatures often serve celestial beings and demigods as companions, or as guardians of important locations. Guardian trines remain loyal even when forgotten and left to watch lonely corners of the multiverse.
Motive: Protect, guard, spread joy
Environment: Anywhere in the multiverse serving the interest of divine beings or guarding important sites
Health: 50
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (8 points)
Armor: 4
Movement: Short
Modifications: Speed defense as level 6 due to huge size; magical lore, religion, and history as level 9
Combat: A joyful trine attacks twice each round with their fists. If the same target is hit twice in the same round, they must succeed on an Intellect defense task or be forced to mentally review all their past failings. An affected target takes 4 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) each round until they succeed on an Intellect defense task on their turn, one minute passes, or they benefit from magical healing.
No more than once per hour, the joyful trine utters a celestially charged song from all three heads. Each creature within short range hearing it that fails a Might defense task descends two steps on the damage track due to a feeling of overwhelming contrition. (This effect never pushes a character a third step down the damage track, if they were already on it .) On a successful defense task, joyful mental influence makes the target feel friendly and accommodating toward the trine until after their next turn.
Interaction: A joyful trine prefers to parley instead of fighting, using either the language of angels (Celestial) or telepathy. The trine first attempts to convince those who cross the purposes of the trine, to leave. One of the trine heads usually has the perfect anecdote, joke, or method of persuasion that can turn a potentially violent encounter into an opportunity to decide something new.
Use: The explorers were hired to clear out a vault where great riches of a vanished dragon are rumored to lie. They've been warned of the many magical traps protecting the place, and most potent of all, the joyful trine set to keep out looters.
GM Intrusion: The continuing presence (and psychic influence) of the joyful trine makes a character lose their next turn weeping, remembering some sweet memory they hadn't recalled in forever.
GM Intrusion: The joyful trine immediately reacts to a character's attack with two fist attacks of their own.