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: 104
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.
Comradery, joy, relief... They had done good. Luxara was about to turn to Forera to respond to her commentary with a jovial grin, but like Aerona, she let all excitement falter at hearing something nearby. They had come so far. She wanted to write it off, but they were in no position to do so. Couldn't take any chances. Luxara nodded before crouching down. She inched over, crossobow at the ready. Sweeping around, she nearly grit her teeth in angry surprise. A drone. A drone, here. Now. Helllll no.
While the confused creature was trying to sense of his location, she slammed her crossbow on his backpack to get the bulky thing to veer away without seeing the Mother Grub. His wrapped head did him no favors, instead just tipping the greenblood off at how easy it would be to mess with him. "Hey, ugly! You seem a bit far from home!" she taunted, zipping around to get a few shots in while drawing him stumblingly away from the closer position to the broodmother.
Rasali was beside herself with glee and adrenaline. Luxara was a beast! The drone was wounded to begin with, and if the four of them kept up this momentum, they’d be able to get back and ship the Mother Grub off to safety by dinnertime.
Unfortunately, Rasali’s imagination failed to consider the erratic behavior that accompanied a frantic drone with a head injury. In its fight to throw off Luxara’s attacks, the drone zeroed in on Rasali mid-swing. It caught her around the middle and the two of them entered a rather pathetic, if not bloody slap fight.
"Nice hit, you two!" Forera grinned, having immediately jumped into the fray to join the others trying to distract the drone from the Mother Grub. While the drone looked quite confused compared to a normal one, she would definitely not underestimate it. Every hit it dealt to her, Forera simply couldn't dodge-- He was like lightning! Almost admirable. Until he yelled GRENADE and the tealblood immediately dropped to the floor. A hard thump on her head made her groan-- That wasn't a grenade, that was a radio. Still hurt, though, ugh!
Aerona does 5 damage! HP : 19 / 20 BOSS HP: 83 - 5 = 78
As her teammates went to work distracting the drone, Aerona opted for a farther away option. She didn't want to kill the drone, of course - the poor guy looked to be just about as disoriented and out there as you could be - but that would make it easy for him to get lost in the woods. And hey, if the swamp creatures got him, it wasn't her fault.
She dodged a few Bo staff hits and took a sharp one right down the small of her back "Yaaahck!" She yelped. Aerona was more annoyed than anything. She sprinted away from the fray and whistled to get the drone's attention, then lit a firework and threw it into the bushes. When it exploded in a glittering shower of gold, it would be sure to get his attention. And hey, if he ran the other way all the better. It worked like a charm.
Aerona shot a smile to Luxara, running off of her adrenaline. She was killing it. Literally.
In between beatings, the drone seemed to get a momentary second wind. Right as Luxara was about to reload, the hulking creature grabbed her by the coat and yelled in her face.
"Aww, s**t!" she squeaked on her way up. She raised her arms the best she could to block the slaps barraging her face. "Lemme go lemme go lemme go!" She wiggled around until, finally, she and her coat slipped out of his fingers.
Aerona does 4 damage! HP : 17 / 20 BOSS HP: 73 - 4 = 69
"Damn, Moon." Aerona mused. She stopped for a moment to look at her. Seeing her marksman abilities and how her nimble forest-hopping affected her movements was fascinating. Unfortunately, the distraction was enough to give the drone an opening. Her boot skidded across the ground as she found herself lifted up by her bandana, choking while trying to escape from the delusional drone's grasp.
"Hey, leggo!" She yelped. Finally, she landed a swift kick to the drone's chest and fell onto the ground with a crash. She crunched through branches and leaves. Aerona groaned and picked herself back up. The drone had already turned around! She didn't question the sudden loss of interest and ran the opposite direction. This enemy was impossible to predict.
Rasali freed herself from the drone’s grip with a mighty wallop. She then gave them an extra slap across the face with her free hand before jumping back out of the range of the drone’s beefy arms. Rasali laughed triumphantly, only to gasp as the drone called for a grenade. Head trauma or no, that was not a close-quarters weapon!
Rasali ran to disarm the troll before anyone else could blow up, only to get knocked in the head by the disoriented drone. Rasali could tell from the hollow crack against her forehead that that was most certainly not a grenade.
Oh gog-- This was what she got for throwing her only weapon like thing at damned Kursha. After slugging him with her metal hand, the drone quickly slapped her in the face with his staff, making a groan rip her throat. Soon after, the tealblood was assaulted with a couple whacks and punches from both the bo staff, letting out a loud, impatient, frustrated snarl. "STOOOP IT!" She managed, shoving the drone away and rubbing a bruise, angry. Dumb drones!
"I know you're having a bad night and all and you're lucky to be alive considering how many of your guys got totally demolished back in the tunnels but like. Do you really have to be here?" Luxara asked as she zipped around. It was as if she didn't even feel the sting of her smackdown!
She could tell this thing was getting frustrated. Between the bolts embedding in the hide and Luxara's quips, well, good, really. "You did uh good or something so like. Get the hell out! Shoooooo!"
Rasali snarled. This drone was being far too troublesome for their own good. With anger and resolve numbing the pain of Rasali’s head, she worked her way back into the enemy’s range. The drone had a precision weapon, which Rasali tangled with her chain. She may have gotten bruised up in the clumsy struggle, but it was all proven worth it when Rasali yanked back on her weapon like a chainsaw ignition. The length of chain whipped wildly around the drone’s bo staff, giving them a good bludgeoning as the weapon unraveled and returned to its owner. Rasali smirked with bloody gums.
Forera was on fire. Okay, not literal FIRE, but she was doing pretty well, at least for her planning for her next attack! Jumping from one side to the other, the girl threw some mud at the drone with a giggle and managed to get behind the struggling creature, whacking him in the head with her robot hand and grinning wildly. "Made'ya look!"
Aerona does 5 damage! HP : 14 / 20 BOSS HP: 38 - 5 = 33
THWACK!
Right between the horns. Aerona saw wingbeasts flutter around her vision and stumbled back onto the ground. She was, thankfully, out of range of the wildly swinging drone. This would be a nice place to go... To sleep...
"GRENADE!" Nope! Aerona popped back up to see the drone pick up a pinecone and use it as yet another faux explosive against his targets. She scratched her wounded head. There wasn't any time to waste. She got back to her feet, wincing, and began to move again away from the Mother Grub after taking quite some time to realign herself with ups, downs, lefts and rights.
Aerona had a stupid, but potentially hilarious idea. She popped a firecracker off of her belt and shouted "GRENADE!", promptly chucking it at the drone. If that didn't freak him out and make him skedaddle away, she didn't know what would.
Okay, now the guy was really getting mad. Luxara ducked under one sweeping chittenous arm as it reached out to slam into her, but as she turned with a big old grin, it swooped back and whacked her good in the back of the head.
"Son of a-!" She cowered down as her head pounded at the blow. They were made well, jeez. At the tail end of her biting remark, the drone shouted out, and a supposed grenade hit her right in the same spot.
"Okay, how about no." Wobbling, stars in her eyes, she kicked the thing away and made a sloppy effort to reload. "Goddamn jjjjackass."
The main reason she hated nature so much was because of how many spiky formations or just plants grew that way. Forera supposed it was the way they kept unwanted bad guys away, but hey, she wasn't attacking them, they were in the way! The drone had charged her, which led her to jump right into an area with extremely sharp, unwanted plants. She let out a snarl in pain and pulled away, running toward the drone and giving him a quick knee in the shin. "Aaand stay down!!"
