You have encountered a Disoriented Drone! Mini-Boss Rules:
Only trolls who's rolls contributed to 'summoning' this mini-boss may fight it. This is a mini-boss! Unlike regular boss battles, the mule will not be posting new rounds, and players can simply post as fast and often as they want, taking turns to attack one at a time. Players who have trinkets or abilities may also post to use one directly after posting their attack, giving them a maximum of two turns for that round. When each troll in the fight has had a turn to attack the mini-boss once and use one power/trinket, a new round begins. At each new round roll the standard 2d6 and use the table below to see what damage you've taken. As always, the first number is what you should check for your damage, and the second is the amount done to the mini-boss. Once the mini-boss or all players fighting it reach 0hp, this can be counted by all trolls participating as a battle rp for growth. If you have any questions, please PM the mule!
DRONE STARTING HP: 81
Grunts, buzzing and groans are commonplace in the Dark Swamp, but these noises aren't like what you've been hearing so far. You and your group immediately prepare for battle as a huge, horned form rears out from behind a swampy bluff. The figure staggers and groans. Electrical static emerges from his broken equipment, and soon it is clear that you have stumbled across a dazed drone lumbering through the swamp. A crumpled, bloodstained map seems to hang uselessly from his hand. He clutches his injured head and tries to focus his one good eye on the party.
"Ehh??! WHO GOES THERE! B-BY ORDER ... THE QUEEN!" He exclaims. The drone's gruff bellow turns into a raging roar and before an explanation can be given, he charges the party! "TAKE THIS, REBELS!" The drone barely remembers to retrieve his Bo staff from his backpack before swinging with wild, delusional abandon at his opponents.
If you rolled a 1, in the flurry of sweet Bo staff attacks, you are caught dead in the chin by a swift blow. The drone rolls right over you, beating you senseless over and over again as he screams something about "FORCIBLE MANEUVERS!" and doesn't appear to want to stop his "maneuvers" until you are a colorful pulp. Take 4 dmg.
If you rolled a 2, you are in the radius of the drone's attacks as he strikes out ferociously. He reaches into his bag while you're stunned and pulls out a broken radio, which he attempts to bite the antennae off of and toss right at your noggin. "GRENADE!" he hollers. At least it's not an actual grenade, but it is actual head trauma. Take 3 dmg.
If you rolled a 3, the drone whirls around, demanding an answer from you. "WHERE AM I?". He lifts you up with impressive force and begins slapping you senseless. "WHO ARE YOU?" Take 2 dmg.
If you rolled a 4, you skirt back and forth between the drone's quick blows but don't manage to make it out in time to receive a swift rapping up and down your back. Take 1 dmg.
If you rolled a 5, the drone's erratic maneuvers ends up creating some very difficult footwork in the swampy terrain. Before you know it, you trip up and fall over a log into one of Alternia's incredibly vibrant and painful species of flora. You manage to escape the drone's blows this time, but the Swamp had the last laugh. Take 1 dmg.
If you rolled a 6, you exploit the drone's damaged vision. With some quick misdirection to the already disoriented foe, you are easily able to slip around to his back where his large blind spot is. It's almost comical how he tries to look behind him as you make quick attacks from behind his bulky backpack, and you take advantage of the confusion to let off some serious steam. Take no damage and deal double damage this turn.
When the mini-boss or all trolls have reached 0hp, please look in the spoiler below.
Mini-Boss at 0
With a long, low, pained groan, the drone lowers his weapon and sits down on the soggy ground. After a few minutes of silence, he looks up and addresses the nearest troll, his voice and good eye unsteady and petulant, like a wiggler. "I'm tired. Muffin, I'm tired. I'm going to nappy-naps now." Without waiting for a reply from 'Muffin', he gently lies down on his side, and a few minutes later begins to snore. Neither shoving, nor hitting, nor screaming will wake the sleeping giant.
Do not continue to roll 2d4s in the ORP - you may only win against each boss once. Each player can now roll 1d100 in their next post. If you get a multiple of 5, your troll has noticed a 3 use novice trinket of your choice that has tumbled from the sleeping Drone's backpack during the fight.
Players at 0
The drone continues to thwack around wildly at the group, braining any troll who gets too near. You and your allies are vastly outmatched, and all your strength seems to be flaggin. It appears that despite his most likely severe head and eye injury, his strength and stamina have not been compromised one bit. Stepping forward to you, he raises his weapon and you close your eyes in anticipation of the connecting strike. "HALT! I SEE YOU! S - STOP RIGHT THERE REBEL!" The blow never comes. You open your eyes to see him turn and rush over to a patch of thick swamp grass. Raising his weapon, he begins to frantically attack the empty patch of swamp. You decide to take his lapse in vision as the opportunity to hurry away.
If you want to have another go at this fight, you can continue to roll 2d4s in the ORP. You may re-try this mini-boss a total of three times if you loose each time. However, you may only commence another fight against this boss once all posts in this thread have been filled in with rp.
Ganyma does 3 damage! 20/20 Regen : 2/3 Boss HP: 81 - 3 = 78/81
As Ganyma approached, something began to emerge from the opposite direction. Another rebel? The electric noises he heard from within the bush gave him cause for concern. "Red Swan -- " he began. Ganyma was cut off as the huge drone charged. Not good! No matter what Reemus' allegiance was, there was immediate danger nearby.
He leapt up to attack and took a huge blow from the drone, getting soundly slapped across the face. Ganyma finally managed to unsheath his push knives and stuck the drone right in the chest. Body armor. Dang! At least he was released. Ganyma fell to the ground. It had at least given his comrades a good opening for attack.
"Uhh yeah, sure." Reemus said, looking first at Odette then at the stone. He wasn't in the best of shape, but the little redblood sure didn't look up to lifting the boulder herself. With a pained grunt, he leaned down. The bandages pressed tight against him as he bent, especially against his gut. Reemus tried to ignore the slight embarrassment. Instead, he worked on finding a grip on the big rock.
Odette passed the time sniffing at and barking at Odette. Trolls didn't float! Trolls didn't even have wings, as far as she knew! What was this ridiculousness?
"Mum, stop that." Reemus grumbled. He was keeping most of his attention on the rock, and put serious effort in trying to lift it despite the strain. The lady called him strong. Time to prove it!
The yellowblood only glanced up as another somewhat-familiar voice spoke up amidst some growing buzzing nearby. At first, Reemus was startled by seeing the short but bulky form of that tealblood from the line. "You-" he was about to voice his utter confusion, but he had to pause as a fight started to break out. An ambush?!
No, no. Just a wayward drone, by the looks of the armor. A patched-up one, and Reemus could sure sympathise with that. But, the thing was a threat. His arms were still around the boulder, and Reemus was still crouched around it. Well, the lady had wanted it taken care of, didn't she? "Move!" Reemus ordered Ganyma, and as the older troll dropped, he hurled that boulder right at their enemy.
Odette's head whipped around at the call of her code name. There was only one troll with a voice that deep that called her that. The sight of the familiar tealblood warmed her bloodpusher. He was okay! Thank goodness. Odette was especially worried for him after the cave-in. "Gan—" She started to say, immediately cut off by him charging headfirst into a drone.
She was horrified, to say the least. Horrified at herself, for not spotting him. She was a better scout than this. Now she was getting distracted by crushes, ones that she couldn't even trust the allegiance of, at that. She turned her attention to Reemus just in time to watch him hurl the massive boulder at the drone. Squeaking and quickly dodging out of the way.
Her face felt hotter. That was, genuinely, one of the coolest, hottest things she had ever seen. Odette whined, dragging her hands across her face. What was her problem! She had to get it together! There was a real, actual threat in front of them, and it was her duty as the highest ranking rebel to take them out!
She peeked through her fingers just in time to get a radio to the face, knocking her back into the mud. Giving a whelp and then a groan as she pulled herself up from the muck, she shot the drone a dark glance. Kicking the wind under her feet again, she charged, gunning to sweep the massive troll off his feet.
Ganyma does 7 damage! 18/20 Regen : 1/3 Boss HP: 62 - 7 = 55
Perhaps it was the climate, terrain or Ganyma's physical state, but his accuracy was not exactly on par with what he had hoped. His whole skull rattled as the Bo staff impacted with his jaw, and before he knew it he was being violently thrashed by the explosive drone. Ganyma fought back, and he fought back hard. His regeneration kicked in, patching up his many blunt wounds and warping his flesh where the staff laid him flat. "Hhh!"
A swift jab, and Ganyma had found a weak spot in the drone's body armor. He twisted his knife. Jabbing up and locking out, he was able to get some leverage. Finally, he escaped. His torso and back were peppered with flaying stings, but he was otherwise unharmed. At the same time, Ganyma was burning out fast. He exhaled a heavy breath.
While the drone was preoccupied with Ganyma again, Reemus pushed in for a strong punch from the side. A squeak from behind dragged his attention back to Odette for a second. "You okay, m-" Womp. The drone started tossing painfully metal, kinda heavy objects at their heads.
Well, if she was okay before, probably wasn't now. Reemus sure wasn't, and needed to take a moment to hold his aching head. In the midst of the new layer of pain, he thought, Grenades ain't square.....
Odette spun around the drone, trying to take advantage of his poor vision to deal some quick damage. Whipping around to face the drone, she leapt, grabbing his horns and driving the knee of her good leg into his chin. The continuing momentum vaulted her over the drone's head, landing squarely behind him. Odette smiled, proud of her small victory until—
Wham! Another radio to the face. How many did that drone even have? She clutched her pulsing cheek. At least she was drawing the fire, though she knew she wasn't nearly bulky enough to keep that up for long.
Ganyma does 14 damage! 18/20 Regen : 1/3 Boss HP: 44 - 14 = 30
An opportunity presented itself to Ganyma like a shiny leaving gift on Twelfth Perigee's. He almost couldn't believe it. It was easier than allowing someone to practice a finisher on you in training with how big the blindspot was! Ganyma carefully edged himself into position and readied the drone. Leading him around was simple - this technique, while deadly, could end up being too hard to pull off with a foe of such incredible size. Ganyma crouched down nonetheless and launched himself up -- over the drone's backpack and onto his head. His thighs locked around the drone and he twisted his body to bring them both crashing to the ground.
Ganyma executed the technique with a perfect roll. What a rush.
Next time the drone seemed close to reach out and hit, Reemus did just that. Push forth, knuckles to the jaw. Pull back, dodge the counter. Again, again. In and out, systematically. It was almost like a real boxing match! Too bad the thing had half a thinkpan and eventually caught on and thwapped him good when he got too comfortable with the routine.
Watching Ganyma and Reemus fight, Odette felt like her bloodpusher was going to beat straight out of her chest. There was something absolutely thrilling about watching them swerve their weight around take down the drone. It was thoughtful, it was calculated, it was choreographed. It was dancing, but with big, buff dudes.
She held back a swoon. Her face was bright red at this point, and there was no use hiding it. She doubted her comrades would notice, and if they did, they'd probably attribute it to the fight. Plus, it gave her another reason to move around more quickly. Wind kicking around her again, she flew quickly around the drone, leaving small scrapes all over him. Too bad not without receiving her own, she thought.
Ganyma does 3 damage! 16/20 Regen : 0/3 Boss HP: 22 - 3 = 19
"AaaAAAH!" Ganyma felt his body burning out of regenerative energy. He started to feel the welts forming -- the skin breaking and flowing, and staying open. It had been months since he'd felt that sensation. The mere feeling brought tears to his eyes, and he fought back the deathly spread of nettles that lashed out across his back with some weak hits to the drone's legs and back.
He finally exited the battlefield and looked up and down at himself. His limbs were twitching and spasming to no great effect. The effect was horrifying and useless, but finally he witnessed a gash slowly beginning to close. Ganyma sighed. He wasn't done yet.
As Ganyma flung himself into battle, the nightmare of himself suddenly opening up from all of his own wounds was quietly tucked back into the darkest reaches of his thinkpan. Now was not the time.
His bloodpusher pumped in his chest, adrenaline giving Reemus a lot more gusto than he would've thought. Breathing, however, wasn't always easy. Ganyma at one point even retreated from the goings-on. Reemus, with no other option, took his place for a moment, but as soon as the veteran fighter jumped back in, the yellowblood had to tag out and catch his own breath.
Feel the burn in his husky body indeed. He was already sweating, but now he was panting and trying to ignore the angry, stressed wounds from earlier.
Head buzzing, Odette did her best to keep her attention on the drone in front of her. Using her powers was draining her mentally, and the trauma from the radios hitting her hadn't helped either. If it were any other wound, she'd try to push through, knowing full well that it could be easily healed by Vremea, or even her other teammates. But no one could really heal a migraine, a much more internal wound.
She'd have to make a decision. Either she stop hovering around, or deal with the obvious throbbing pain in her head. But if she stopped, she'd have to be on her feet again, and she didn't like that as an option, either. Ugh, now she was wasting her time! Ignoring the headache, Odette moved in, delivering more quick jabs to the drone.
Ganyma does 7 damage! 15/20 Regen : 0/3 Boss HP: 13 - 7 = 6
Finally, Ganyma had gained some momentum. He watched Odette and Reemus carefully. Reemus was a powerful fighter - similar to him, and surprisingly quick. Even with his grievous looking wounds from the battle in the caverns, he was excelling at holding his own. Odette seemed to be using a more agile, guerrilla approach to the drone's attacks. There wasn't as much damage being done by the small redblood, but her abilities were honed and impressive. Ganyma saw the two as fighters in the ring and adjusted his movements to their abilities. On a hunch, he dodged right and planted a powerful uppercut just in time. Reemus' hit landed, Odette slipped in a small but distracting blow and right after, Ganyma was able to use the opening to his advantage. Perfection.
"A-ha!" Ganyma blurted. The groove they'd established was thrilling.
