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chiickadee
Princess Hoarder
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Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:46 pm
Mist Hunter The Miss Taken Tower
General Information As the general, jack-of-all trades division, the Mist Hunter training course is a combination of the other divisions' training challenges and also one of the more complicated. The goal of this course is to rescue the princess in the tower. Below her, you'll find yourself confronted with a number of shadowling attackers, and beyond them, a room of only slightly deadly traps. But even should you reach her location, you still need to pick the lock on the manacles holding her in place. Unskilled fiddling with the locks will prove unhealthy for both the princess and yourself. And once that's done, you need to make your way back down through the traps and shadowlings, defending the princess the whole way.
The Miss Taken Tower is one of the most challenging and frustrating courses available.
If you fail: your princess dies, and you are quite possibly KO'd. Senior hunters are observing and will make with a timely rescue as needed.
If you win: the princess will adore you for the rest of her exceedingly brief existence. Peen points for 100% health for you and the Princess, shadowlings fought, going for consecutive rescues.
Part 1 Mechanics - roll your regular attack - roll your regular attack again - if you miss an attack, you lose 50% of your full HP - if you have an available recovery bonus, you may try to use that to avoid HP loss
Bonus Mechanics - This bonus is consumable. - for the Mist Course, it is recommended you review the mechanics of the other division courses, as the division bonuses carry over.
Part 2 Mechanics - there are two steps worth of traps in this room, so you'll be rolling twice
- roll 1 d10 to determine what your character is about to step into - use your bonus mechanic to adjust as you can - adjust your HP and bonus count accordingly - roll 1 d10 to determine what your character is about to step into - use your bonus mechanic to adjust as you can - adjust your HP and bonus count accordingly - roll list: (feel free to get creative about what the traps actually were) (-50% HP is off your full HP, so if you hit -50% twice, then you are 100% KO'd)
01. horrible death 02. - 50% HP 03. - 50% HP 04. live 05. live 06. - 50% HP 07. horrible death 08. - 50% HP 09. horrible death 10. live
Bonus Mechanics - This bonus is consumable.
- Trainees: 1 flag - Mist/Death Trainees: 1 flag and one instinctive move - Hunters: 1 flag and one instinctive move - Mist/Death Hunters: 1 flag and two instinctive moves
Part 3 Mechanics - use the given roll for your hunter to try and open the lock on her right manacle. Rolling a 1 means you fumbled, and the cuff exploded causing both you and the princess to lose 50% of your full HP. - roll to repeat the process on the left manacle.
Bonus Mechanics
- Trainees: roll 1d4 - Mist/Life Trainees: roll 1d6 - Hunters: roll 1d6 - Mist/Life Hunters: roll 1d8
Part 4 Mechanics - roll 2 d8 to determine your defense against the trap area. - roll 2 d8 to determine how much trap damage targets the princess. - adjust her HP accordingly - roll 2 d8 to determine your defense against the shadowling area. - roll 2 d8 to determine how much shadow damage targets the princess. - adjust her HP accordingly - leftover defense does not stack
It seemed somewhat unfitting for a life hunter to only have access to some of the runics. It'd been a few weeks since the return of her guns, but Ami still felt the usefulness of runics echoing at her back. She had more free time now that she set her own schedule in the library, which left plenty of room for work, of course.
She knew this course well. It'd been difficult as a trainee- flat out impossible for one without a weapon. She felt ten times more confident this time though, Junpei thrumming happily on her head. He always liked these stupid courses, far more than she did. The only one she was good at was, inevitably, the lifer one. Jenga had returned to being just a game for her- focusing was easy. Now she only did it if a trainee needed help and she had time. Then again, she almost "never had time" when it came to trainees.
The first floor was all too familiar. Shadow monsters to dodge or slice through with Junpei. It was an exercise that felt vapid to her. Fighting was ingrained in her psyche now.
Ami's eyes narrowed as the mob encroached upon her. Her glaive summoned, she began slicing the air until it met with shadows. The black droplets of FEAR fell to the ground, dissipating into thin air.
She wondered who was in charge of wrangling all the shadows that they'd fight. That job held no jealousy from her, that was for sure.
< On your left. >
Before she could even think about it, her spearhead jabbed sideways, lodging itself in the forehead of a strange gangly sun-shaped monster. Months ago she would've been insubordinate, questioning Junpei's judgment, but now? Now they were one brain. How's your charge?
< Not yet. Keep swinging. >
Her feet met with stairs, hard stone steps that led up the side of the tower. Right, they had a princess to rescue. Looks like we don't have time.
After a close call, Ami slipped through a hole in the stairs, just as a steel grate covered it. Shadows' tendrils pushed through the small holes, trying to break into the next area, but it was no use. They were trapped down there. It might've seemed sad from an outside view, that their existence was merely to be destroyed in a contained area, but Ami had no sympathy. Killing was natural now.
Ah yes, the trap stairs. Many an arrow had volleyed into her spine, many explosions set her foot on fire. Good times had by none whatsoever.
She wasn't taking chances. Recalling previous trials, the second stair and the seventh stair were rigged with traps most often. It was still quite random, but she liked to base her decisions on statistics, if she could.
A flag was throw onto the stairs. As suspected, the stair began to corrode in a sickly sort of green glowing. Ami wasn't particularly sure what was happening to the stair, but she knew she didn't want it to happen to her foot. It looked acidic almost, certainly not something she wanted.
She daintily stepped over the green step, frowning gently at the steps ahead. There were still about 15 stairs to go, and one more trap. It could've been any of them, and she was out of flags to test the ground with. If only she got unlimited flags. C'est la vie.
Her mind drifted elsewhere as she carefully tiptoed up the stairs. Mostly to household tasks- did she turn off the stove? How much needed to be cleaned today? How at home had Madeline made herself already?
Of course it fell on Lex too. They hadn't done anything particularly romantic as of lately, but Ami found herself lulled into a strange sense of security nonetheless. She'd never tell Marcus, lest her hold it over her head forever, but it was nice having someone come get her every night. Even if she protested, he'd wait patiently for her to finish. Was she madly in love? No. Ami still doubted that she could ever be that way again. Still, it was nice. Cozy.
A click shook her thoughts. Gears in the walls were turning, and Ami heard the click that began them. Without thinking, she spurted forward four steps, just barely dodging a flamethrower that got not one but two stairs below her.
< Why couldn't they flood the room? I love it when they flood the room! >
There she ... he was. Oh no. Wash, in a fluffy princess dress. She could've slapped her forehead had she not been so exasperated by this point. Wash in a princess outfit? Okay, sounds good. Time to rescue.
Her hands went immediately to the cuffs as golem!Wash babbled something incomprehensible. The lock- she'd seen this kind before. It was a simple maze, just moving a dot from one point to the other. Easy enough.
As the lock clicked, she feared the other lock wouldn't be so easy. The lab techs were probably going to laugh at her as she went for the next one. She could hear them already.
Just as she'd suspected. The second lock was a coded lock. There were scribbles all over the lock, some clues being red herrings and some being the correct ones. She didn't have much time to decipher it with the way Wash was beginning to wander around, but she did the best she could. A meant 7, O meant 2 ...
She plugged in what she thought was the correct code, 9203. As she hit submit, she realized her error (O hadn't been 2, O had been 3), but it was too late. The device was already clicking, and the soft beep it made was only a precursor to the explosion that sounded in her face.
Ami was knocked back a few feet, but it wasn't anything she couldn't recover from. She'd have to wash her face off and redo her makeup later, but nothing scarring. At least now the lock was broken? < You're okay, but try not to get hurt too much more. >
You don't have to tell me twice. Ami's hand snapped out for Wash's wrist, dragging the large man towards the stairs. She couldn't carry him after all, he was much too large, but she could at least pull him along. Luckily princess golems were somewhat willing to follow whatever you asked of them.
Now came the hardest part. Getting back down through the tower. The first challenge was getting Wash in a position for defense. Luckily there was no timer on this training course, but she still felt a sense of urgency. If she took too long, the lab techs might get bored and throw in something like flaming dog monsters to come get her. She wouldn't put it past them.
Next was getting her glaive in a position of defense while walking down the stairs AND keeping Wash close. Ohhh how she wished this was the real Wash. He could've just summoned his shield and protected her. He was a moon after all.
What was the first thing she'd face? Right, the flamethrower. She didn't want to get Wash toasted but at the same time, she couldn't get him to move quickly. She'd have to think outside of the box.
Well, they'd avoided the traps on the stairs. The only thing left was the shadows. The steel grate creaked open, small tendrils of darkness coming to meet her. There were only two ways out of this place. Either she went through that gate, or the lab techs killed her off. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
< Charge is almost full. >
Ami nodded, throwing herself into the fray first, spinning Junpei as she fell. Wash, of course, toddled after her like the golem he was. Ami panicked as she hit the ground, worried that Wash would land on her. She timed it perfectly though, and she caught him, arms outstretched. He was immediately set down (or ... dropped ...) but due to her intervention he hadn't been damaged. Before she could brush herself off, he was already toddling towards the exit. Right towards the shadows.
Ami kept a circle around Wash. If anything entered within a few feet of him, her blade was streaking through it. Synchronizing with Junpei, she split her staff, giving her twice the area of effect than before. Her reach wasn't as good, but she didn't need that. She need to get to that damn door.
Shadows began pushing on her, hands on her back, claws on Wash. She was only a few feet away! They were so close! Wash toddled along like today was any other day, but Ami was fighting her damndest to keep the shadows back. She wouldn't lose.
Finally, a loud siren went off as she slapped a button on the door. The steel groaned as it slid open quickly. Wash got a shove outwards, Ami quickly followed. The door only opened for a few seconds each time (unless through manual overhaul hacking of the system from the outside), so getting through was the hardest part. The system was put in place to keep the shadows inside- it made sense.
She was panting by the time she came out, but she'd done it. Wiping off some of the charcoal on her face, she handed the golem off to another lab tech. Another day, another training course. Now what to make for dinner ...
