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 Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:10 am
Toshihiko Two It's time. Meet me at Princess Island @ 1300 Toshihiko Two Don't forget to eat a good breakfast! When Harrison arrived at the Island's observation deck, Clarice was waiting with a smile, "You've been working hard, Harrison. Let's see how far you've come since waking up." Through the deck's window, at the center of the little island, the princess was waiting. A tiny herpicorn pranced after a butterfly, just coming up short on it's leash, it's little princess hat wobbling precariously as it tried to wiggled just a little bit farther. Eventually giving up with a little huff, it looked toward the hunters with a distinct pout, revealing a small black pirate patch over one of its eyes. "He's been working pretty hard to get better as well."
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:48 pm
Harrison had heard his fair share of promotion horror stories, and been involved in a few of them. But he'd seen enough friends earn their stripes. It had taken some thinking. Ranking up meant clearance for more dangerous missions.
Clearance like the kind Ben and Sandy and Barney had.
For B0nez, though, it was about leveling. Nothing was more natural. He was already talking stat trees and min/maxing. Dying didn't seem to register much with the ghost, although he was slowly coming to understand it as something like a 0 respawn rate, and playing on insane mode. It mattered to Harrison. Harrison wasn't even an officer here, just a trainee, and when it got tough, he would have to be tougher.
He wanted to show Clarice they were ready for all manner of weird s**t. For whatever. Science experiments, grocery runs, tasks, missions... not going solo toe-to-toe with Magic Horses, that was better off avoided, but most things.
Out of those, Princess Island made the most sense.
"He's got his horn sheathed," Harrison said, grinning as the Herpicorn stalked his prey. "You really fixed him up good. He looks ready for a fight." He hadn't doubted Clarice could do it, even if there weren't too many other minipets that made it out of the kitchen. Killer and him were both survivors.
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:40 am
Clarice's expression was both proud and slightly pained. Harrison must never find out how many herpicorns had died so that Killer could live. Flushing slightly, Clarice adjusted her scarf and replied, "Oh well, he did half of the work with his um... will to live." This was total bullshit, as the minipet turned out to be as prone to nearly dying as the trainee. The remains of her smile slowly faded, "Hes still not...quite... as he was. The eye patch has to stay on, it's basically what keeps his form together now." The patch was actually less of a patch and more of a plug inserted into the tiny unicorn's eye socket. If removed for too long, the herpicorn would begin to melt again, even in FEAR-saturated environments. "But we can go over that later, for now, it's time for you to prove yourself as a Moon Hunter. This course will run a bit differently this time, instead of building walls, you'll be fighting directly to defend your princess."  Moon Hunter
PRINCESS ISLAND
The princess is in peril from hordes of shadowlings! Harrison must defend Killer from enemies approaching from all directions!
If you win: Harrison Advances! To a more impressive yet inevitable death scene later in his career!
If you lose: Clarice would say there are other herpicorns but uh...their population has taken a dramatic dip recently.
Mechanics
Your princess has 20 hp
First, roll the strength of you defense, using 4 d12
The order of the die determine the HP for each barrier location. For example, with bricks, rolling 5/6/8/1, would mean that path 1 has 5 HP, path 2 has 6 HP and so on.
Roll 4 d12 for the attacking forces. Once again the order of the dice correspond with the path being affected. Then do the math to determine the status of your defenses and princess.
Example:
My defenses are 5/6/8/10
The attackers are 3/7/3/8
The result defenses are 2/-1/5/2
Negative numbers are taken off the princesses HP, leaving her at 19 HP.
Go back and rebuild your defenses in the same manner as before, you'll be building on top of old defenses so you add the new defense HP to the remaining defense HP. Negative numbers = 0 HP for the defense, not negative HP.
Minimum rounds to complete the course is 3
Bonus Mechanics
Their defense expertise allows them to build slightly sturdier barriers. This applies to all paths that start at 0 hp. They do not stack. So if you are re-building on a barrier that lasted from an existing round, this bonus does not apply, as it is already still in effect.
Trainees: 0 hp bonus
Moon Trainees: +1 hp bonus to each path
Hunters: +1 hp to each path
Moon Hunters: + 2 hp to each path
Status Wave: (current wave number)Path 1 HP:Path 2 HP:Path 3 HP:Path 4 HP:Princess HP: /20 [quote="Status"]
[size=14][color=#00BFFF][b]Wave: (current wave number)[/b][/color][/size]
[b]Path 1 HP:[/b]
[b]Path 2 HP:[/b]
[b]Path 3 HP:[/b]
[b]Path 4 HP:[/b]
[b]Princess HP:[/b] /20
[/quote]
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Toshihiko Two rolled 12 4-sided dice:
2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2
Total: 25 (12-48)
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:07 pm
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Toshihiko Two rolled 4 12-sided dice:
1, 8, 5, 6
Total: 20 (4-48)
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:09 pm
Status Wave: (current wave number)Path 1 HP: 2 Path 2 HP: 9 Path 3 HP: 6 Path 4 HP: 7 Princess HP: 20/20
"You want me to keep them off of Killer?" Minis fighting other minis was one thing, but shadows...well, he expected Killer could handle them too. Except he was still recovering. Harrison scratched at the scar on his cheek. No time to build barricades. Four directions. And sometimes that was how it'd be. Life or Death. He wouldn't always get a say in it. His stomach dropped out a little, though. Did it have to be Killer, fresh out of the medical unit? Clarice would have spent all this time fixing him up, just to bring him here...
But she did that every day with Hunters. Fix them up, put them back out again, trust the Moons to do their jobs. She was just as invested as he was, and she trusted him to handle this one.
"...Okay," Harrison said, finally. "Me and B0nez'll take care of it."
He unhooked B0nez from his belt loop, and started down the path to the island.
He didn't hold with babying the Herpicorn any, he was made for fighting, not petting, but he bent to pat his side with two reassuring thumps. "I got this one," he said, "you can keep your hat on." The dusty paths stretched out over each direction of the island, and Harrison thought he could already hear the far-off chittering. He wanted to feel good about this, but he didn't. It wasn't a defensible position for close-combat. There was a long stretch before they got to him. That would have proved to his advantage with a sidearm. He shifted his grip, and B0nez appeared in a burst of light.
What's the plan, Harrison asked him.
Kite them, B0nez suggested, Keep moving.
Harrison looked at the tether, and set his shoulders. Going to have to do something else, he said, positioning himself.
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Toshihiko Two rolled 4 12-sided dice:
12, 4, 2, 11
Total: 29 (4-48)
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:28 pm
Status Wave: (1)Path 1 HP: 0 Path 2 HP:[/b 5
Path 3 HP: 4
Path 4 HP: 0
Princess HP: 6/20
They all seemed to come out of everywhere at the same time. He cut through two, five, ten, and still heard a sharp whinny behind him. The hat put Killer at a disadvantage. He was on the mend, though, and even if he had hooves and teeth it wasn't the herpicorn's job. There wasn't a place to hide, or back up. He had to stick by Killer, and Killer was tied up.
Stupid. s**t.
Moon division. Be like a wall. He wasn't a ******** wall. He was more like a sieve. They were getting pounded, and for every one he'd put down another would slip through. He turned to kick one off the herpicorn, pinned another like a butterfly, cut through the piles, but by the end...
Killer looked beat to hell.
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:34 pm
It's just a fat horse, B0nez said, We'll kite this next time, pick them off. Wring as many kills out of this as we can.
He'll die, Harrison thought.
They're not going to let you level, B0nez said.
And they wouldn't, not if he threw in the towel after one round at the training course that was supposed to be his division's strong point. He was a shitty defender. Another round like that... he looked up at the observation deck. He had a small break in between rounds, normally for rebuilding defenses. But he didn't have any extra material. It was the same as last time. Him. B0nez. Limited area.
It's just a promotion, Harrison thought back, trying not to think too hard about the pay upgrade.
He bent to unfasten Killer from the tether, held him secure so he wouldn't get jostled too bad, and headed back to the observation deck. He stared hard at the ground. He didn't want to see Clarice's expression.
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:47 pm
At Harrison's forlorn return to the observation deck with Killer, Clarice crossed her arms and frowned at the trainee, "Harrison, what is the purpose of the Moon division?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:11 pm
"Defense," Harrison mumbled, "Building stuff," and looking briefly at Killer who was scuffed up pretty bad, "Not letting the other divisions get the sh... crap beat out of them."
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:17 pm
The assistant nodded, "And why did you take Killer out of there before finishing the course objective?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:03 pm
There was really only one answer to that.
"Because he woulda died," Harrison said.
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:21 pm
Clarice placed a hand on his shoulder and then reached up to grab his face with the other, squishing his forcing him to look her in the eye while, "So why the ******** are you acting like you did something wrong?" She was smiling now, "Not gonna lie, you did a s**t job on that, and it was only the first round. But you made the correct choice as far as I'm concerned, and it's one that almost every Moon hunter finds themselves faced with. The mission or your team?"
She let go of his face with a sigh, and gently picked Killer up to inspect his injuries, "It's not always easy, and this won't be the last time you have to make it, especially with what's on the horizon. Now...I'm going to approve you for Intermediate, but there's a couple things I'm going to need you to do, because seriously? That was pretty sad, guy."
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:24 pm
Harrison looked up at Clarice, bracing for an eyeful of disappointment.
He hit a wall of confusion instead. She was smiling. Why was he acting like something was wrong? Because he was a lousy defender who lasted all of one round- yeah, alright. What she said. It was a s**t job. But-
Mission or the Team.
He thought immediately of the last Mission reports, and how he'd put down the jungle lair as a Success. They recovered tablets, like they set out to do, but they lost people. Dead Hunters and Failed Missions were...horses of a different color. He knew that. What they did was risky, but it was stupid to die when you didn't have to. Hell, most times it was stupid to die for even a good reason.
And then she said something he hadn't been expecting to hear at all.
"...R-really?" It was hard to keep a big grin off his face. Approved. They...did it, somehow. He wouldn't have to give up on the pay raise after all. The next sentence wiped the grin off.
He nodded guiltily. "I know my combat stuff is uh, kinda shitty," Probably because we spent more time playing video games than on the training fields.
Hand-eye coordination, B0nez repeated like a religious mantra.
"Name it, whatever you need."
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:43 pm
Killer jiggled and fussed at her as she inspected him and began treating the injuries with tiny rainbow bandages. "We'll start out with the most important two, kay? Once you've taken care of them, we'll see where you need to go from there. First is you and this guy..." Killer tried to n** her hand, but she just gave him a swat on the butt and checked his little hooves, "...are going to go to Halloween and train at the Battle Center. He'll be needing the physical training and you...need to learn more about battle strategy and tactics."
Her smile faded as she looked back at Harrison, "You need to learn when to heal in a timely fashion." She glanced down at Killer and began to scratch the pudgy unicorn's ears. "You keep coming back from battles a bloody mess, Harrison. It's not okay. You may be a Moon hunter, but that doesn't mean you're disposable."
The herpicorn sort of just flopped and melted as she continued to pet it, "That's the second part. I want you to complete the Life training course so you can get approved for runic bandages." If anybody could use a set of their own bandages it was Harrison.
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:29 pm
Battle center. Hell yeah, he knew there was something like that. Killer could work his way up to shadow hordes and giant dragons.
"Can do," he said. "You hear that? We're doing battle training," he told Killer, pleased. He knew the herpicorn was probably itching for it. Even after all that on the island, he was still spoiling for a fight.
He shrugged uncomfortably at the second part. It wasn't like he was proud of being Sgt. Puddles, it was just that everybody kept gunning for him, and coming back limping was better than not coming back.
Still, there were plenty of other hunters who came back from missions with barely even a dent in their Fear shields.
"That's the one with the piranha pool, right?" Harrison asked. "Guess those'd be handy to have, all considering."
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