You have encountered a hoard of Early-Rising Undead! Mini-Boss Rules:
Only a maximum of three trolls may fight this boss. 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!
HORDE STARTING HP: 100/100
You're pretty confident at judging when it's light enough to go inside, shut the door, and drop the bolts. Here in the dark of the swamp, with treetops clustered so close overhead, you'd assume that there would be little to few undead, and definately not now. These creatures relied on sunlight to live, didn't they? So what was this medium sized hoard doing, shambling towards you? Questions would have to be cut short, as the moans from behind you indicated that you were surrounded.
If you rolled a 1, several of the creatures surround and pin you down. They tear at you with surprisingly strong hands and rake you with still sharp teeth, despite the mould and decay. Take 4 dmg and deal no damage.
If you rolled a 2, you get body-hugged from behind. The thing holding you is cold, wet, lifeless, and surrounding you in a choking embrace. Take 3 dmg and deal double damage.
If you rolled a 3, hands grab at your feet from below. Looking down, you see a torso with no legs, fastening onto your feet and trying to pull itself up. Take 3 dmg and deal double damage.
If you rolled a 4, one lands on top of you for a moment, wet dead air forced from it's decaying lungs into your face from the impact. You quickly kick it off. Take 2 dmg and deal double damage.
If you rolled a 5, suddenly one displays a terrifying burst of speed, charging towards you. It grabs onto your front as it's legs disintegrate and it topples into the muck. Take 2 dmg and deal double damage.
If you rolled a 6, you look around, trying to find a place where you can at least get your back against something solid. There is nowhere to be found, they are all around you. Take 1 dmg and deal triple damage.
*damage multipliers should be applied before age/weapon bonuses*
When the mini-boss or all trolls have reached 0hp, please look in the spoiler below.
Mini-Boss at 0
You have managed to cull enough of the hoard to dart through the shuffling crowds and break free of their waving embrace. Still, you won't be able to survive out here for long. You should probably continue pressing north, or retreat back south to the safety of Four Fronds.
You must keep rolling 2d4 in the main thread, the swamp is swarming with undead! If you have not won a prize from fighting this boss before, you can now roll 1d100 in their next post. If you get a multiple of 3, one of the undead your troll brought down had a 3 use novice trinket, pinned to the front of their rotting clothes. If you get a multiple of 5, one of the undead your troll brought down had a 3 use adept trinket, pinned to the front of their rotting clothes.
The multiple of 5 overrides the multiple of 3. Always take the larger prize.
Players at 0
The hoard is overwhelming, unrelenting, and unstoppable. You can't stay here - you must either continue pressing north, or retreat back south to the safety of Four Fronds.
You cannot stay in the swamp anymore, it is too dangerous! Swamp ORP must be wrapped up and your troll may move to one of the two final ORPs, depending on their side.
Etsali barely had time to draw in another breath after warning the others before one of the oncoming horde burst into action, rushing them with a speed that she never could have imagined possible from it. Every instinct said to duck out of the way, but she couldn't be sure Vos had had time to get away yet, even with her speed, so she stepped further into its path instead and braced herself. The mud dripping off it splattered as it slammed into her, and the impact made her stagger. As she stumbled back, however, something gave, the undead's legs falling away even as its fingers latched onto her shirt. A quick, horrified shove broke its grip on her, sending the torso into the muck alongside the rest of it. Etsali gagged as she moved back from its still outstretched fingers.
Etsali deals 2 damage.
KitsuneAura
Magical Detective
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Green Minuet rolled 2 6-sided dice:
2, 1Total: 3 (2-12)
Green Minuet
Greedy Trickster
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:52 pm
∞ Ephias Sagine
Health: 17 Defensive B Trinket: 1/1 Support A Artefact: 1/1
Etsali had hardly spoken out when Ephias felt something close around him, pinning his arms to his sides. As it drew him into a crushing embrace, the air rushed from his lungs. A sickly, cloying scent filled his nose. Cold, wet hands tightened around his jacket. The skin along the arms was flabby and loose, and in places mottled with decay. Against his back he felt a soggy pressure. A wave of revulsion passed through him and his skin seemed to crawl.
The undead had virtually lifted Ephias off the ground before he recovered. Shears dangling uselessly from his pinioned arm, he threw his head back, catching his assailant in the face with the back of his skull. There was a sharp thud! and then the arms released him. Landing on his feet, Ephias spun to reorient himself. The daywalkers had them surrounded. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Etsali with her knives at the ready. Zindel had yet to draw his own weapon.
Vos… Where was Vos? He chanced a glance behind him. Escaping into the distance was her lusus. A tiny, yellow and black figure was gripped between her teeth. Good. That way she would be out of harm’s way.
“Wolly!” Ephias called. The sheep came barrelling towards him through the mob.
Zindel's body was frozen for a second as he stared at the daywalkers, not able to react until he saw the terrified look on Etsali's face. He pulled himself out of his stupor, taking a few steps back before feeling something tugging on his legs. With a slow glance, his eyes widened, breath coming out in fast pants. Hands-- moldy, swampy hands grabbed at his pants, and Zindel instinctively kicked at them, body trembling, bile sack churning from disgust. What the ********...?! He'd only ever heard of day-walkers in stories, never in... real life. And now, he was seeing them first hand, only feeding inspiration to his constant daymares. With a panicked kick, the redblood kicked the zombie away, quickly rushing back toward the others. He decided now, now might be the best time. They wouldn't be able to talk about it later, so... "E-etsali--" He started, then looked directly at Ephias. "Ephias, please, both of you. Come w-with me..." He was desperate, practically. "We can find Voscil later. Please..."
Etsali whirled to check on the boys, make sure they didn't need her, but they were handling themselves. Vos was- Gone, good. She'd be able to talk to her younger friend later, when they were all safe, but- "Zin, I already told you." God, she didn't want to keep talking about this, not while daywalkers were still coming at them. She already knew the decisions they'd both have to make, but the situation inspired a desperation equal enough to his that she kept going anyway. "They'd kill us for what we did!"
She shook her head. "I mean, I'd go if I could, maybe if there'd been time before the fight we could have-" The daywalker ran into her full force and she cursed herself for getting so distracted even as she went down screaming. Cold swamp water splashed up around her horns and there was the horrible dead thing's breath on her face and she'd lost the knife she'd been holding so all she could do was flail. Eventually a desperate kick threw it off and she scrambled back in the mud with a small whine, getting her feet back under her as quickly as she could.
There was a disgusting squelch as she wrapped her fingers around another knife and pulled it free from the pouch, and she nearly gagged again. Her hands. But no, no no no, had to focus, couldn't let another one catch her off guard.
Etsali deals 4 damage.
Katanari
quite uneventful
Green Minuet rolled 2 6-sided dice:
5, 1Total: 6 (2-12)
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 6:01 pm
∞ Ephias Sagine
Health: 15 Defensive B Trinket: 1/1 Support A Artefact: 1/1
As an undead grabbed at him, Ephias lashed out with his shears, clubbing it across the face. A chunk of flesh came off, spattering against him. His mouth tightened to form a thin line. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that another zombie had beset Wolly, and waded through the swamp water to help. Before he could reach the sheep though, a third rushed him from the side.
Ephias whirled, swinging his shears, but too late. The undead smashed into him, knocking him back. He was not badly hurt but the air had been knocked from his lungs. Grunting, Ephias retalliated. There was a crack from its ribs as she shears connected with its torso. The grey mottled form stumbled and fell.
“Why don't you come with us?” Ephias interjected, dispatching the undead harassing his lusus. With a nod at the sheep he retreated back towards Etsali and Zindel. They stood a better chance fighting back to back.
The first thing the redblood did when he saw the zombie running toward him was not brace himself. No, he sped away, but the damned thing still managed to grab him, forcing him to release a mangled yelp of fright, pump biscuit beating like a drum in his chest. The thing pushed them both in the mud, forcing Zindel to groan and manage to shove it off, only to end up having a piece of the skeleton break off into his hands. He shuddered, letting it go hurriedly and forcing down the bile in his throat. He'd never been up in the middle of the day, neither had he ever actually seen one of these in the flesh before. Or well, what was left of their flesh.
He looked toward Etsali whom was still unconvinced, but he was determined to get them to follow him back. "No they wouldn't! Just plead innocent, pretend you didn't know what you were getting into! They'd get over it, some day. They don't have time to be constantly on your asses!" He responded, "You guys are lowbloods anyway, they don't ******** care!"
Ephias's words however, made the teen stop and simply stare at Ephias. He opened his mouth to speak before looking around him and closing it, finally pulling out his weapon and flexing his wrist. "...You know it's not that simple." Zindel responded, simply-- He would die if he went, and they were being stupid. "And besides, you guys will probably be found. You guys need to stop running, running only makes things worse." If they just gave themselves in, especially now, it wouldn't be so bad. It couldn't have been so bad. He didn't know how many times they'd met up with the rebellion, but hopefully they weren't too attached, and they'd listen to reason.
Another undead wrapped its cold and clammy arms around her from behind as she turned to head back closer to the boys, and Etsali let out a shriek as that grip tightened. She struggled to get free and finally, thankfully, was able to slip out of its hold thank to how drenched with swamp water the thing was. She was able to knock it down with a quick kick and then she scrambled over to safer ground, putting her back to Ephias's. They weren't going to last long at all if they kept giving the monsters the advantage.
"Running is surviving too," she cut in, because that was what Keeper would have said. Even right now, in this fight, if they could get an opening, she would grab them both and make a run for it. Except both her friends were wanting to go in different directions and she still didn't know what to do to really convince Zin. Didn't know if he could be convinced at all. "Sometimes it's the only way, you know that. You've got to."
She hesitated a second, then continued. "We're just lowbloods and criminals. They're not going to care enough to keep us alive. And people like you and me, we were always going to be on their bad side one day anyway. It just...came early for me."
Etsali did 4 damage!
quite uneventful
Green Minuet
KitsuneAura
Magical Detective
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Green Minuet rolled 2 6-sided dice:
1, 1Total: 2 (2-12)
Green Minuet
Greedy Trickster
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2015 9:43 pm
∞ Ephias Sagine
Health: 15 Defensive B Trinket: Active Support A Artefact: 1/1
Fear. That was something Ephias understood too well. For how many sweeps had he lived as a corpse, convinced that action would lead to entropy? Zindel was no different. Convinced by the lie of his own powerlessness and the illusion of the world's permanence, the only thing he could do was hold onto his life and the little value that it had. A life spent in stagnation was better than no life at all.
Except that it wasn't.
The doors of change were always waiting to be opened, and as long as they were, there was no excuse to be standing still. Life was only as precious as its owner made it.
Ephias kicked an oncoming undead in the stomach, sending it reeling back. As soon as it stumbled back however, more swarmed in to take its place. He bared his teeth. Even if he and the others could fight them off, he knew that they would not much longer. They needed to move, whether that ended up being forward or back.
“I can't be a part of a system where your potential is restricted by your blood,” he said. Clamping the shears shut, he prepared for a swing. “If you want to go back, that's fine. I won't stop you. But at least go back because it's something you believe in; not because its your only option. Otherwise you're no better than these.”
Ephias took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do. His shoulders tensed. Then, with a feral yell, he barrelled into the line of undead, pushing past them with sheer inertia. He would not remain standing still. A momentary gap appeared in the tide.
Etsali's shrieking didn't do much for Zindel's worry, glancing toward Etsali in a moment of shock before feeling the hard, stiff press of a walking zombie shove him down for a second. A surge of panic electrified him, and the redblood struggled, feeling the humid, dying breath of the zombie breathe into his face, gagging and wanting to throw up whatever little he'd eaten. He shoved it off and stalked his way back to his team, shoving at the nearest zombie and listening to the words of his friends one by one, slightly shocked. "Running is surviving too," -- And she was right, of course, but also very wrong as well. At least, for this situation. Normally, he would've run. But running would mean loosing his life. He grew irritated at her words, weak from their clarity, but he held strong, adamant. "You're innocent though, I'm sure about it...! You're only a criminal in stealing but the crown doesn't care about it unless they find you..."
He grew silent at Ephias's words.
Zindel felt his teeth grind against his others, huffing. "I'm going back because it's the only way I'm guaranteed a safe life, if I keep my head down and don't get the attention from others. Why do you want to show your potential, Ephias, if all it does is show how useful you are and ships you sweeps away or pushes you into rebellion? I believe it's so much safer, staying here. Don't you guys care about your own lives?"
Etsali had been about to reach out to tug Zindel in closer to her side as he was able to make his way back to them, but his reply made her bristle instead. Wasn't he listening at all? Even if she hadn't been caught as a thief, for all any royalist knew who'd seen her in those caves, she'd gone all in for the rebel side. She and Ephias had both left marks on the greenblood who'd seemed to be in charge of the army, she knew, and while she couldn't speak for everything Ephias had done, she knew she'd killed drones in the process of moving through. No one serving the crown was ever going to look at that and think 'innocent'.
Ephias's battle cry startled her almost as much as the realization of the charge it preceded. As soon as she finished jumping, she whirled to follow, wanting to keep close and prevent that gap from separating them when it inevitably closed back up. She was halfway there when Zindel's words made her hesitate again. Was he following? God, she almost couldn't understand anymore why he was being so stubborn about this, but she couldn't watch his back if he was stuck on the opposite side.
Of course she cared about her own life. Keeper had taught her that surviving was more important than anything. Than all the shinies they'd hoarded, even! But somewhere along the way, she'd started- A cold and clammy hand closed around her arm and Etsali had one moment of absolute clarity, just enough to realize the mistake she'd made, before the horde closed in and pressed her back down into the mud.
There was nothing to think about then but the hands tearing at her and the sharp, sharp teeth.
Etsali deals no damage because she is dying
Green Minuet rolled 2 6-sided dice:
6, 4Total: 10 (2-12)
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:18 pm
∞ Ephias Sagine
Health: 14 Defensive B Trinket: 0/1 Support A Artefact: 1/1
“O-of course!” Ephias snarled as he batted aside a rotting claw. “And I also c-care about yours, which is exactly why...!” He never finished. The moment Ephias turned to face Zindel, he saw Etsali go down under the horde.
“Etsali!” he screamed. A set of claws sank into his already wounded shoulder. The pain that exploded there seemed far away and distant however compared to the sudden fury that possessed him. Ripping away from his captor, Ephias charged back towards his companions. His shears flashed, bashing any undead too close. As he reached the mass of undead, he drove the closed point of the shears into a daywalker's torso and flung it away. A second later he kicked another in the head, and there was a thick crunch as the metal tips of his boots entered its skull.
"You don't need to care about mine, I can take care of myself! But you guys do need to take care of yours--" Zindel was interrupted by the sight of the falling brownblood next to them, eyes going wide as his first instinct was to run, to leave them both-- But he couldn't, they were his, his... His friends, weren't they? He couldn't leave his friends...! Zindel released a growl the moment Ephias exclaimed the name of their friend, hand clenched tight around the handle of his main weapon.
"We need-- W-we need to get out of here! Fighting doesn't seem like it's helping at all!" He exclaimed, feeling a hard tugging sensation on his legs, only to look and see only the body of half a troll climbing up him, trying to... Zindel swallowed dryly, kicking the plant creature as his skin electrified, body tense like a pulled rubber band. He pushed and kicked and dodged through the nearest zombies, feeling several hard bites on his body, sharp teeth clenched in fear. He was trying his best to reach Etsali, but with the intense flood of trolls attacking them, it was almost a wonder Zindel had made it 'till then...!
Another of the zombies fell on top of Etsali as she struggled beneath the horde and she cried out in renewed pain and fear as it added its teeth and claws to the assault. She could hear Ephias and Zindel's voices, but beneath the monsters it was all she could do to keep them from opening her up and killing her right then and there. Finally she was able to get a boot up to kick one off, and there was movement as more of the zombies were attacked and knocked away from her. When she saw red, she didn't hesitate to desperately reach for it.
It didn't matter if it was Ephias or Zindel. She needed help.
Etsali does a grand total of 2 damage!
GreenMinuet
quite uneventful
KitsuneAura
Magical Detective
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Green Minuet rolled 2 6-sided dice:
1, 3Total: 4 (2-12)
Green Minuet
Greedy Trickster
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:19 pm
∞ Ephias Sagine
Health: 10 Defensive B Trinket: 0/1 Support A Artefact: 1/1
Ephias grit his teeth as he reached through the throng towards Etsali. Claws raked at his back. The undead pressed closer all around them. His nostrils filled with the stench of rotting flesh. If the daywalkers did not rip him apart first, they would surely suffocate him. Teeth sank into his shoulder and Ephias let out a yelp. He strained towards the orangeblood. Just as their fingers brushed, a large particularly fetid corpse came between them. Ephias let out a snarl, trying to beat it back with his shears.
