Thanks for reading and sharing your reflections! Mechanically, Troika is an adaptation/retroclone of Fighting Fantasy. NPC and monster Miens are baked-in to that system. I wanted to write full Mien tables for the other NPCs in this adventure but ran out of room.
Troika is also the name of a city at the center of the game's implied weird science-fantasy setting. Troika city bears some resemblance to the city of Sigil from the d&d 2e setting Planescape, filtered through the thematic tone of writers like Terry Pratchett, Gene Wolfe and M. John Harrison.