Her crew was right. Eostre stood in front of the door - definitely locked, of course - marked for a command center. If they could get in... and defeat whatever hostile was within, they would be ready. They were as ready as they ever would be, she supposed.
"Once we're inside, we're going to keep up the same plan. Hit fast and hard, play it smart. Don't get yourselves killed," she said, her voice firm. It was the end. Perhaps a morale boost was in order. "I believe in you all," she added.
HP: 35/40 Military Grade Brass Knuckles Artifact: Novice Support Style A (1/1) Trinkets: Adept Offense Style B (1/2), V2 Beamtube (Adept Agility Style B) (1/2), Novice Defense Style A (1/3)
Eostre's scout ability cooldown in 4 advancements usin strength training
Advancements: 7/21 Mini-bosses: 3/4
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:26 pm
With a sigh, Eostre shoved her shoulder against the door - much like she had before. It hurt, sure, but they needed to get inside and didn't have time for her to fiddle with the lock or try to find another way in. With a groan and a click, the lock was disengaged.
Time to go in.
HP: 30/40 Military Grade Brass Knuckles Artifact: Novice Support Style A (1/1) Trinkets: Adept Offense Style B (1/2), V2 Beamtube (Adept Agility Style B) (1/2), Novice Defense Style A (1/3)
Eostre's scout ability cooldown in 4 advancements -5 HP for doorbuster sale
This is a mini-boss battle, the full rules and mechanics of which can be reviewed here. The room beyond the door seems empty from the hallway, but stepping inside you are swiftly aware that you are not alone! For lurking in the corner is a dark groaning shape. As it turns towards you, you realize you are entering strife! You have encountered a ...
Dice 1 1. ... Insatiable ... (-2 to all attacks) 2. ... Gushing ... (-1 on accuracy rolls) 3. ... Volatile ... (-2 on all accuracy rolls) 4. ... Nightmarish ... (-1 to all attacks) Dice 2 1. ... Regenerating ... (regains 2 HP per player attack, excluding bonus attacks) 2. ... Bladed ... (3 extra dmg taken for each round in battle) 3. ... Psionic ... (using artifacts/ability/items deals 6 dmg to the entire party) 4. ... Mutating... (each member of the party takes 4 damage each time a party member deals max damage(highest roll possible)) Dice 3 1. ... Reanimated Subjugglator! 2. ... Wailing Abomination! 3. ... Hulking Commander! 4. ... Distorted Masses! MINIBOSS STARTING HP: 40/40 If you rolled a 1, take 6 dmg. If you rolled a 2, take 5 dmg. If you rolled a 3, take 5 dmg. If you rolled a 4, take 4 dmg. If you rolled a 5, take 4 dmg. If you rolled a 6, take 3 dmg. If all party members reach 0hp, look below:
You must make a tactical retreat! Scrambling back out of the room, you barely make it to the pod with all your limbs attached. Better luck next time! You have retreated from your mission and returned back to the docking area! Squad commanders, be sure to report in!
If the mini-boss reaches 0hp, look below:
If this is your first, second or third mini-boss fight look below:
If a member of your team is a trained Discipline or Endurace specialist OR registered as in-training for either:
You can close your eyes and draw on inner reserves to keep going. This can only be done once per ship exploration per troll trained. If you are a Journeytroll or higher in your skill: Restore 1d10+3 OR 1/3rd (rounded down) of your hp. If you are a Novice in your skill: Restore 1d8+2 OR 1/4th (rounded down) of your hp. If you are training your skill: Restore 1d6+1 hp. You cannot roll the dice then choose the flat restoration, one must be picked beforehand.
If a member of your team is a trained Troll Relations or Leadership specialist OR registered as in-training for either:
You can manage to cheer, rally, or cajole your teammates into finding more energy. This can only be done once per ship exploration per troll trained. If you are a Journeytroll or higher in your skill: Each team member restores 1d6+3 (rolled separately) hp. If you are a Novice in your skill: Each team member restores 1d6+2 (rolled separately) hp. If you are training your skill: Each team member restores 1d4+1 (rolled separately) hp.
If this is your fourth mini-boss fight, you have reached one of the steering systems! Roll 1d4 in the spoiler below:
1 - The other teams appear to have been successful in their endeavors. There's enough power available for you to reengage the system. The entire room illuminates and roars with life. It's perhaps dangerous to hang around in here too long, but in the meantime the amount of energy in the air makes you feel powerful. 2 - The tendrils of the ship's wiring look like a crime scene, or perhaps a particularly gory nest. Headquarters gives you harried instructions to shut down and isolate the area before the whole ship goes up in flames. 3 - An undead helmsman is still tethered to the center console. They don't have the ability to provide power, but their presence is preventing the back-up systems from triggering. You remove the zombie and the system reengages successfully. 4 - The room is dark and cold, but with instructions from headquarters and the efforts of the teams on the other decks, the system has enough power to reboot itself. The ship begins to thrum with life. It makes your horns tingle and your hair stand on end. Congratulations! You have completed your mission and returned back to the docking area! Squad commanders, be sure to report in!
Another mass of horrors, the psionic screaming of their enemy getting worse and worse. This was like before, volatile and writhing and hard to hit. Eostre took one step into the room and felt anguished as it overcame her, pulling at her arms and bringing her to her knees with a hard blow.
She had gotten too close. "s**t!" she cursed, and did her best to free herself. Her squadron would be close behind her, she would be fine, she was Eostre Diazzi -- this sort of thing was nothing for her. With a kick, she managed some distance between her and the masses.
Boss HP: 37/40 Damage: 3
HP: 24/40 Military Grade Brass Knuckles Artifact: Novice Support Style A (1/1) Trinkets: Adept Offense Style B (1/2), V2 Beamtube (Adept Agility Style B) (1/2), Novice Defense Style A (1/3)
"Yeah, tank and support... We need a mage, somewhere." she said. But her newly restored typical-psykgi-peppermint-and-sugar cheer fell away moment they got the door open. She felt it before she saw it.
"Oh gog." she said, grimacing, her mental wounds all too raw. But the caffiene had helped, and... She looked at Leeroi and fixed him in her mind.
Quote:
9/20 hp
Damage Taken: 6 Damage Dealt: 3 +1 = 4
Boss HP: 33/40
Military Weapon: +1 to damage
Military Standard Medical Kit (Adept Artifact Support A) (1/2 Uses, heal one troll 1/2 hp)
A Collection of Painkiller Drugs (Novice Trinket Support A) (Uses: 0/1, Charges: 2/3, Heals another troll by half their maximum hp)
HP: 04/20 Military Weapon: +1 DMG YTMA Pins: Training in Troll Relations Artifacts: 2/2 Adept Artifact, Defense Style B (nullify the damage from the last hit) 0/2 Adept Artifact, Offense Style B (2d6 Deal double damage on this attack. 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.) BOSS HP: 30/40
Did Hemera ask for another one of these goddamn undead psionics? No. Was she surprised to deal with another one? Absolutely not.
Was her constitution enough for it? Well.
Mera, already exhausted from the previous fight, dealing with blood loss and bruises that could be ignored for so long, cried out in pain at another psionic attack. She couldn't even try to fight her emotions back. She hurt so, so much in ways she couldn't explain. In ways she didn't know how to tend to. And her instinct to ice up for protection just made it worse.
Hemera fell to her knees, gasping. She didn't even know if she could breathe, the onslaught was getting to her so bad. Even throwing her boomerang was a struggle. Somehow, the energy was being sapped from her body. Fast. She didn't have much left in her.
DMG: 2 +1 = 3 Boss HP: 27/40
Quote:
HP: 1/20 Military-grade Weapon:+1 dmg YTMA Pins: Leadership Training Artifacts: Adept Support Style B (0/2) Trinkets: Novice Support Style A (0/1) Power: Novice Defensive Style B (0/1)
It was still a struggle. Being an expert in hand-to-hand combat was useless against things that could scream into your brain, and very ineffective against large creatures that you really shouldn't get too close too. Even with a blade, it was difficult.
Hemera was having a hard time as well. Eostre watched her fall to her knees, and pushed to get closer to her. With a grunt, Eostre fought and punched against the harshly moving masses. If Hemera needed her...
Boss HP: 23/40 Damage: 4
HP: 18/40 Military Grade Brass Knuckles Artifact: Novice Support Style A (1/1) Trinkets: Adept Offense Style B (1/2), V2 Beamtube (Adept Agility Style B) (1/2), Novice Defense Style A (1/3)
It hurt so much, but Psykgi was still standing - somehow still standing. Anger - and defiance - was her last untapped emotional energy source, and it was keeping her up, keeping her fighting.
A firey look at her teammates only made her angrier - the Seargent was faltering. Oh no you don't... Leeroi was faltering... ABSOLUTELY NOT.
"Leeroi!" she called to him, "Don't let it get to you!"
She wasn't about to let that happen, absolutely not. He was not going to cry. He was not going to die. ******** this massive horrible monstrous thing with its ******** brainwaves and it's ******** horrible oozy bits. She was going to hurt it until it stopped unliving. She snarled, attacking it as hard as she could - which wasn't so hard, she wasn't in good shape, but it was at least ferocious.
Quote:
3/20 hp
Damage Taken: 6 Damage Dealt: 2+1 = 3
Boss HP: 20/40
Military Weapon: +1 to damage
Military Standard Medical Kit (Adept Artifact Support A) (1/2 Uses, heal one troll 1/2 hp)
A Collection of Painkiller Drugs (Novice Trinket Support A) (Uses: 0/1, Charges: 2/3, Heals another troll by half their maximum hp)
HP: 00/20 Military Weapon: +1 DMG YTMA Pins: Training in Troll Relations Artifacts: 2/2 Adept Artifact, Defense Style B (nullify the damage from the last hit) 0/2 Adept Artifact, Offense Style B (2d6 Deal double damage on this attack. 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.)
Leeroi was losing focus. Floaters in his vision started to obscure his attacks, and he could tell that his eyelids were having trouble staying open. Still, he kept his feet planted, trying his damndest to keep moving, to keep fighting. At this point, he couldn't hear anything- but that didn't stop him from charging up to the beast and firing, screaming out in anger and anguish.
One last psionic wave knocked Leeroi to the floor. His eyes fluttered shut. For a moment, all he could hear was the sound of his own bloodpusher beating.
BOSS HP: 13/40
zeflamigo
Interstellar Astronaut
Offline
zeflamigo rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1Total: 1 (1-4)
zeflamigo
Interstellar Astronaut
Offline
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:53 pm
Quote:
HP: 10/20 Military Weapon: +1 DMG YTMA Pins: Training in Troll Relations Artifacts: 2/2 Adept Artifact, Defense Style B (nullify the damage from the last hit) 0/2 Adept Artifact, Offense Style B (2d6 Deal double damage on this attack. 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.)
Visions replayed in Leeroi's head. Horrible memories resurfaced, painful ones. Leeroi had brought a lot of pain on himself over the sweeps, but one memory stood out to him. Fighting Eridia and Azrael— with Psykgi at his side. The memory of getting his scars hardly affected him, because he knew Psykgi was there to back him up. She always was. He needed... he needed to be there for her.
Leeroi sat up with a start, gasping. His hearing slowly returned to him, and he quickly got to his feet again. "Psykgi?" He called out, scanning the room with worry. There she was, fighting her a** off to take down this horrific beast. He started to move towards her, when a scream caught him off guard.
Finish it off quick, he said. The final stand, he said. Then Leeroi had to pass out on them. Tidings of comfort and joy, that. Hemera herself knew she couldn't hold out for much longer, either. But she had to do something. Anything. The entire squad would keep suffering, getting wrecked more and more every moment that this thing was near them.
Mera pushed herself up and caught her boomerang. She held it tight in her hand. As her nose bled and her eyes went blurry, she ran up to the psionic mass. The conjoined pile of bodies continued to scream into her mind. With her own loud cry, Mera drove her boomerang down, in deep, into one of the prominent heads. Then another. One after the other, hoping it would make the pain stop or at least weaken it. Panting, she pulled her boomerang back out while her foot stood firmly on top of the back bones of the mass to help stabilize her.
But the force of pulling the boomerang out, while successful, gave enough push for her leg to slip into one of the spaces between the corpses. And in there, something caught hold, like arms, more and more as the seconds passed and kept pulling it in. The open space she fell into slammed shut around her leg. Mera whined and struggled to pull it back out. In her distraction, she couldn't see another bony arm lash out and grab her other foot and pull it in. The sudden, speedy move made her drop her weapon in surprise. Hemera, with no other options, slowly being pulled into the mass, started to scream.
As her legs sank in she swore she couldn't feel them anymore.
DMG: 6 +1 = 7 Boss HP: 6/40
Quote:
HP: 0/20 Military-grade Weapon:+1 dmg YTMA Pins: Leadership Training Artifacts: Adept Support Style B (0/2) Trinkets: Novice Support Style A (0/1) Power: Novice Defensive Style B (0/1)
Hemera started screaming and Eostre leapt into action, directly behind her now. s**t s**t s**t. Eostre balled her fist up and punched the enemy, her trench blade cutting at the ball of corpses near Hemera, slicing them as she went. A fever pitch as she hurried to free her sergeant, honestly, but she kept her demeanor stoic. She didn't want anyone to see the panic she was feeling as her pumpbiscuit raced. The mass had gotten a hold of her sergeant, and was pulled her in. But as it died, she could feel the psionic whispering waver, and its grip on Hemera loosen. "Hemera, I got you," she said, voice gentle and calm. Eostre wrapped her arms around the tealblood's waist and shoulders and pulled, her weight own weight bearing against the immense weight of this horrific mass of dead trolls.
Looking at Hemera like this, the blood and bruising, the weakness in her body as Eostre pulled her out of harm's way-- with a gasp, she looked in horror as she removed Hemera from the enemy's hold and saw her body. Or what had remained. "Oh Hemera, s**t..." This was-- it was bad. Genuine feeling flooded her and she bit her lip.
She... she didn't have time for this. Eostre had to get them out of here before anyone got hurt further, before Hemera was hurt further. She lifted Hemera onto her shoulder with a soft hup, and her eyes darted around. Her hand was firmly on the sergeant's back, holding her in place, and Eostre was thinking as fast as she could. She needed to...
Boss HP: 0/40 Damage: 6
HP: 12/40 Military Grade Brass Knuckles Artifact: Novice Support Style A (1/1) Trinkets: Adept Offense Style B (1/2), V2 Beamtube (Adept Agility Style B) (1/2), Novice Defense Style A (1/3)
"Furore!" she shouted, advancing toward him as quickly as she could. She had to do something. It was dead so that meant she could get to the control panels. "Take Hemera. I have to power on this ******** ship. Make sure she's okay," Eostre demanded, pulling her sergeant gently and placing her into Leeroi's arms. He was probably the best suited to carrying her for now.
With that, she went to the control panel. The little HQ voices started up in her head and she frantically worked the controls, hitting buttons and switches. The dark room was silent for a moment, but then the quiet buzzing happened, and the room brightened a little as there was enough power to reboot the deck. She was gasping and sweating, and they were all beaten and bruised and hurt but--
They were alive. And they recovered this area. She looked back at her squadron.
HP: 12/40 Military Grade Brass Knuckles Artifact: Novice Support Style A (1/1) Trinkets: Adept Offense Style B (1/2), V2 Beamtube (Adept Agility Style B) (1/2), Novice Defense Style A (1/3)
Advancements: 7/21 Mini-bosses: 4/4
purplerosesbeauty
Springtime Spirit
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zeflamigo
Interstellar Astronaut
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 8:58 am
Sputtering in disbelief, Leeroi rushed towards Hemera and Eostre as soon as he could process what was happening. He took the tealblood into his arms with no guff whatsoever, albeit shaking a bit. Panicked, he struggled to find the most comfortable way to carry her, while also trying to soothe her.
Leeroi's bloodpusher threatened to jump into his throat. He paused as if to say something, but stopped himself. In a sudden move, he leaned in and kissed the tealblood on the lips, unbothered by the blood on either of their faces. It was soft, but forceful, and just long enough that it left him breathless. It was everything the blueblood wanted, and no amount of battle damage would change that.
Pulling back just a hair, he lingered close, just catching his breathing. "Hemera," He said, voice low. "That was ******** badass as hell." He complimented, wholeheartedly genuine. He gripped her harder, a little squeeze as a gentle reminder of safety. He wasn't going to let anything happen to her.
"What do you need from me?" Leeroi asked, suppressing any panic in his voice. He needed to be calm, as much of a struggle as that was. He bit his lip, quickly trying to figure out what the next plan of action had to be. "Can you ice that over? Trust me, you don't want me to cauterize it." He joked lightly, smiling down at the tealblood. A feeling of doubt fluttered in his chest. Was he helping at all?