FREQUENCY: Very rare ([Tropical Wilderness Forest], [Tropical Wilderness Plains], [Tropical Wilderness Desert])
FREQUENCY: Very rare ([Dungeon Level VII])
 

NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: Parent 5, 'children' 6
MOVE: Parent 9", 'children' 12"
HIT DICE: 9
% IN LAIR: 40%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-20 or 1-8
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: [SB]
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
SIZE: L
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: VII | 1,400 + 12

On first sight this creature appears to be a large black panther with yellow, bloodshot eyes.
It is usually found in caves in warm zones of the underworld.
It is carnivorous and its skin has been known to fetch as much as 1,500 g.p..

The creature displays a most unusual dissociative power which enables
it to divide into nine individual black panthers. This transformation
takes place in one segment of time and appears to be instinctive,
requiring no concentration on the part of the 'parent' beast. The
creature will always attack a party of adventurers or any other
monster it encounters, usually (90%) transforming itself as soon as its
enemies are sighted and then attempting to surround the party, all
nine 'children' acting in co-operative fashion as though there exists
some telepathic bond between them which gives them the effective
power of a corporate brain. There is only a small chance (10%) that
the creature will remain in parent form before attacking, and even if
this is the case the dissociation will take place after 1-2 melee rounds
of combat.

If one or more of the 'children' are damaged during melee there is a
25% chance (check each melee round, but the chance is not
cumulative) that the children will be re-associated to form the parent.
This takes place by means of a blink operation and all the children
can be re-associated so long as they are within a 50' radius (the reassociation
will not take place if all children are not within a 50'
radius); the children can still engage in combat during the round of
their re-association.

When re-associated, the parent can regenerate 9 hit points each round,
one for each of the offspring (if one or more of the offspring were unharmed
before re-association, the hit points due to them from the
regeneration are lost and cannot be transferred to one of their
damaged brethren). Once one round of regeneration has taken place,
the parent will again dissociate into nine (or perhaps fewer, if one has
been killed) offspring; again the parent can partake in combat during
the melee round of dissociation. If an offspring is killed, the body will
blink to the parent-body when re-association takes place, but the regeneration
has no effect on that particular individual beast, and when
dissociation next takes place, there will be one fewer offspring.

After the second dissociation, the whole process begins again, with a
25% chance each round that the parent will re-form if one or more of
the children have been damaged.

The parent beast has 9 hit dice, each child 1 die. When the creature
dissociates, the parent's hits will be divided as equally as possible
between the children (so a parent of 49 hits will divide into five
children with 5 hits each and four with 6 hits each).

The parent attacks as a 9HD monster using its flail-like tail to hit for
2-20 hit points of damage. The tail is swung over the head in a
manner similar to the tail attack of a wyvern.

Each child fights as a 2HD monster, using its tail in a similar manner
to inflict 1-8 hit points of damage.
 

by Dean Lockwood and P. S. Barton