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. ... Shambling... (+1 on accuracy rolls) 2. ... Grotesque... (-1 to all attacks) 3. ... Rotting... (+1 to all attacks) 4. ... Skeletal... (-1 on all accuracy rolls) Dice 2 1. ... Armoured... (only 3 players per turn may use a special artifact/ability/item) 2. ... Oozing... (-1 to weapon attacks that deal less than 6 damage) 3. ... Disemboweled... (-5 miniboss HP) 4. ... Swift... (players take 2x the amount of damage on their first turn) Dice 3 1. ... Daywalker Captain! 2. ... Zombie Gerbil Pack! 3. ... Mutated Daywalker! 4. ... Undead Slime Lusus! MINIBOSS STARTING HP: 15/15 If you rolled a 1, take 4 dmg. If you rolled a 2, take 4 dmg. If you rolled a 3, take 3 dmg. If you rolled a 4, take 3 dmg. If you rolled a 5, take 2 dmg. If you rolled a 6, take 2 dmg. Your attack this turn does double damage. 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 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 second mini-boss fight, you have reached the control room! Roll 1d4 and look in the spoiler below:
1 - Powering on the ship is easy enough, with the instructions from headquarters in your ear. The screens show that the ship is functioning perfectly, and headquarters patches in the control of a remote helmsman. They wait until you have returned to your boarding pod and leave, before steering the ship away.* 2 - Powering on the ship is easy enough, with the instructions from headquarters in your ear. As the screens boot up however, dozens of red warnings and errors flash across the screen. It seems like there has been critical damage to the ship in multiple places. Your team is instructed to leave the small black boxes containing deadly explosives in key positions on your return path to the exit. 3- The ship refuses to power on, even after you follow headquarters instructions to make sure they are plugged in, and hitting ctrl-alt-del. It looks like something core is not functioning. Your team is instructed to leave the small black boxes containing deadly explosives in key positions on your return path to the exit. 4- Powering on the ship is easy enough, with the instructions from headquarters in your ear. The screens show that the ship is functioning perfectly, and headquarters patches in the control of a remote helmsman. They wait until you have returned to your boarding pod and leave, before steering the boarding vessel away.* If any troll in the party has helmsman authority, they can steer the ship to given coordinates, then return to the boarding vessel with the rest of the team. Congratulations! You have completed your mission and returned back to the docking area! Squad commanders, be sure to report in!
What was through the door was something so horrifyingly damaged that, for a moment, Psykgi saw it for what it was. A troll - long dead, long destroyed, an avatar of death with guts hanging out and flesh falling from its bone structures. All too easily, for that moment, Psy could see it as her -- her horns, her flesh, her blood, her bones.
It was only a moment, though. She just needed to... recalibrate herself.
"All right, lets take this thing out!" she said, as alarms rang out around them...
Quote:
16/20 hp
Damage Taken: Damage Dealt: +1 to damage
Military Weapon: +1 to damage
Military Standard Medical Kit (Adept Artifact Support A) (2/2 Uses, heal one troll 1/2 hp)
Zap Grenade/Drones (Adept Trinket Offense B)(Uses: 2/2 Charges: 2/3, 2d6 Deal double damage on this attack, 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.)
In training: Troll Relations
4/10 advancing 0/2 minibosses
A loud alarm will start to sound through the ship as the door is opened!
"Buffel is hit for 2 DMG and hits the daywalker for 6 DMG!!!"
BOSS HP: 9/20
4/10 advances
The lowblood had been beaming since he'd recieved the compliment from Psykgi. He really was a damn good sharpshooter, now that he thought about it. He'd been worried for the longest time that the loss of his arm had permanently weaken his shooting ability, his greatest talent (next to trapping and harmonica playing, of course.)
They creature they came upon couldn't be mistaken for just any other zombie. It almost looked like the undead captain he'd faced off with on a previous ship. that one had been lightning-quick and strong as all get-out. He could actually have a decent challenge with this one. Upon the redblood's command, a fire ignited behind Buffel's eyes. He wasn't feeling the ennui of slow dull corpse shooting anymore.
”Aye aye, sir! Lightin' 'em up!”
Seemingly spurred on by the sudden energy, his hand transformed without him even having to think about it. Firing rapidly at the beast, the sharpshooter buried a whole round (save one initial shot while he was still lining up) into the beast, which writhed in pain and lunged at the boy. It had the speed alright. He tucked and rolled out of the way, a bit more hastily than he'd intended but not too worse for wear from it.
Nictor Sabbat HP: 8/20 Damage: 5+1+1=7 In Training: Endurance 1/1 Trinkets/Artifacts/Items: Military Grade Weapon (2d6 + 1) Adept Artifact Defense A (style A -3 damage taken, 4x per battle) 4/4 Novice Support Trinket, Style A (Heals another troll by half their maximum hp, 1x per battle) 1/1
Advancements: 4 Minibosses Defeated: 0
Quote:
Miniboss: 9-7=2/20
Nictor was bouncing back up right, though given his coordination, that quick of a rise led to almost falling again. Blinking repeated to try and clear his vision, he swung his gaze around to where motion and sound was coming from. Except that led to him lilting and stumbling in that direction, right towards the rotting torn open daywalker.
Nictor may be a little bit more disoriented than he expected. The blaring siren of noise coming from everywhere was also not helping, the sound felt like it was permeating his skin.
A blurry smear that might have limbs and was a mash of aged and unpleasant colors on a dulled grey base and Nictor’s head was screaming but he wasn’t reacting yes because what was this thing again?
His hands made impact on the inner wall of the daywalker’s back, sinking into old decaying flesh as Nictor tried to catch himself. What was he touching, what was filling his decision, why was the only thing he heard his blood pumping in his ears?
The reality of the situation sunk in when the daywalker’s teeth did, slicing through the suit and into his shoulder and the oH.
The sharp sting of pain kicked nictor into action, if only to stop it but when he pushed his hands just ripped through the flesh of the monster instead of actually moving it. Distantly he registered how disgusting and horrifying that was, but his hands never stopped moving, scrabbling for purchase until he got a hold of the thing and shoved it away. The daywalker didn’t move far thought and was already lunging for another bite, but this time it’s face did not meet fabric, flesh, and muscle but hard steel that snapped the head around violently so that the head now hung limply again it’s shoulder, oozing both the yellow it recently ate and other nasty rancid fluids.
The juggalo let out a wild war call, leaping at the undead thing. "YOUR GODDANMED END IS NOW!" She hollered as she threw her daggers into the mess of rotten flesh. She tried to avoid her other trolls, trying to keep her flailing knees and wiggling arms from hitting any of the other trolls.
Advance 5 Attacking boss
Taki-di rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-6)
Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:28 pm
Nictor Sabbat HP: 13/20 Damage: In Training: Endurance 0/1 Trinkets/Artifacts/Items: Military Grade Weapon (2d6 + 1) Adept Artifact Defense A (style A -3 damage taken, 4x per battle) 4/4 Novice Support Trinket, Style A (Heals another troll by half their maximum hp, 1x per battle) 1/1
Advancements: 5 Minibosses Defeated: 1
Quote:
Endurance heal: 1d6+1
Nictor pulled away from the monster as Punkie finished it off, wild and panicked eyes watching it twitch on the ground until it went still. He loosely held his staff in his left hand while the right was clamped tightly over the bite. He couldn’t look away from the daywalker for a moment, both to ensure the eradication if the threat and the repressed churning sick at seeing this. At doing this.
He blinked a few more times, the aching in his head having been balmed over by adrenaline, and grimaced at the blood seeping between his fingers and spreading and staining his suit. Well. That’s not great. Hissing a sight through his teeth, Nictor shuffled closer to the rest of the group, the other gravitating together post fight, himself included. His breathing was slowly calming, but he still felt his heart thud heavily in his chest, the low thump of his own pulse in his ears. He’s just have to put pressure on his shoulder for a while, it would scab over soon. Probably.
Well, that had also gone fast -- all the better. It was time for a pep talk - she needed one herself, to be sure.
"Great job everybody!" she said cheerily, "Wow, what a capable group we have here!" She clapped her hands, ignoring her injuries. The physical ones weren't much, to be honest. It was the other ones, the ones unseen, that she needed to deal with. Later.
"I bet, by gosh, that we are almost there! Lets keep chugging along, all right?" She gave them a thumbs-up. "Yeah!" she added for good measure.
Something in her wanted to keep going.
"We're probably going to have to face something else before we're through, but if we keep going like we have been, I bet we can handle it!" she grinned, "So lets keep going - lets soldier through. Back in formation, everybody, we're taking this ship home!"
Quote:
20/20 hp
Damage Taken: 1 Damage Dealt: +1 to damage
Military Weapon: +1 to damage
Military Standard Medical Kit (Adept Artifact Support A) (2/2 Uses, heal one troll 1/2 hp)
Zap Grenade/Drones (Adept Trinket Offense B)(Uses: 2/2 Charges: 2/3, 2d6 Deal double damage on this attack, 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.)
In training: Troll Relations
4/10 advancing 0/2 minibosses
Psykgi uses troll relations to heal everyone! She heals herself for 4
Buffel, as was well-known to most just by looking at him, was not a military man. All the same, he'd been reinvigorated by the redblood's genuine praise and his near complete recuperation of his old aiming prowess during this mission. His chest bursting with pride and excitement, the yellowblood actually outright saluted his leader as he made his way over to the reforming squad.
”Well said, sir! The whole team was aces out there!”
He gave Punkie a congratulatory pat on the back as he passed by on her left. ”That was a mighty fine take-down, Ms. Vielli. And yer comin' out o' yer shell Nic, I can tell!”
He pointed at Nictor with his metal hand, taknig care that the revolver portion was well capped and put away. No need scarin' the guy back into nervousness.
Punkie was grinning at the beginning of the redblood captain's speech, but by the end of it all she was sobbing and shaking. "Captain!" She hollered, throwing her arms around the girl. "That was the most ******** beautiful thing these goddamned spongecloths have heard!| She pulled back from the redblood, wiping a tear away. She would need to ask the girl if she could come over sometime for help with her sermons.
Advance 5 Healing from Psykgi's wisdom
Taki-di rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1Total: 1 (1-4)
Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:33 pm
Nictor Sabbat HP: 15/20 Damage: In Training: Endurance 0/1 Trinkets/Artifacts/Items: Military Grade Weapon (2d6 + 1) Adept Artifact Defense A (style A -3 damage taken, 4x per battle) 4/4 Novice Support Trinket, Style A (Heals another troll by half their maximum hp, 1x per battle) 1/1
Advancements: 5 Minibosses Defeated: 1
Quote:
Psykgi heal: 1d4+1
Nictor visibly drew into himself, making a clearly uncomfortable face as he ducked his head and looked at their leader. He was, he was pretty sure she had pushed him when he was moving to take care of the door. It was, rather unnecessary, but really most trolls didn't expect to meet anyone so flighty and jumpy as Nictor. More than that, he felt this vague churning sensation, a small simmering guilt that he hadn't been able to assist her when the zombies had grabbed and pulled her down..
He failed to help his leader and then he over reacted when she ordered him to open the door and pushed him. Yeah, that sounded about right.
Those concerns aside, the praise made something inside him ache unhappily. Capable? Him? He was pretty sure not, she was referring to the other two for sure and besides, the idea of being capable in this field? That hurt. That managed to wedge itself firmly in his brain and the fuzzy empty feeling was forced to yield around it, the idea taking root and echoing. Her intense cheer was at odds with the sickening sinking sensation that Nictor felt. He opened his mouth but then closed it saying nothing.
And then Bufflel piped up and drove the wedge deeper, right right the haze and now it was just sitting there right where he could see it. The only thing sitting there existing past the haze. Could Buffel have meant something else than that? He sort of desperately hope or wished but it was too late, the notion had sunk in. Coming out of his shell, showing his inherently violent nature.
Nictor stared almost blankly, with a muted look of something, definitely tensing at the mechanical hand, he'd seen what it could do why was it pointed at him, but it was gone quickly and he was left feeling lost and upset and could nothing for it right now.
"Thanks!" she said, giving Punkie a very sincere hug back. She... sure didn't get many hugs in her life. All of... one troll, really.
When we're both planetside, we're going to have a nice relaxing time together. Yeah. she thought to herself.
But gog did she need the hug right now. It did its job - it encouraged and uplifted her. She almost felt like the face she put forth to the world!
"I'll have to pay you back for that one later!" she said to Punkie, "For now, though, you go ahead and take point. Obille? I hear some shuffling coming down from the corridor - whats the sitch?"
Quote:
20/20 hp
Damage Taken: 1 Damage Dealt: +1 to damage
Military Weapon: +1 to damage
Military Standard Medical Kit (Adept Artifact Support A) (2/2 Uses, heal one troll 1/2 hp)
Zap Grenade/Drones (Adept Trinket Offense B)(Uses: 2/2 Charges: 2/3, 2d6 Deal double damage on this attack, 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.)
The yellowblood dutifully scouted ahead a bit, sizing up the horde heading toward them. He saw them shuffle closer and waited until it seemed no more were joining behind them. Not a lot, but not the worst he'd seen to be sure.
She still had the captain's words singing in her plumpbiscuit as she went. Maybe they were singing too well. She missed by a mile, and went tumbling over and over. The juggalo rolled a little too far, and went smack into the wall. There were stars in her eyes as she dizzily looked around for the zombies. "I- i think i got um, cap-captain."
Nictor Sabbat HP: 14/20 Damage: 4+1=5 In Training: Endurance 0/1 Trinkets/Artifacts/Items: Military Grade Weapon (2d6 + 1) Adept Artifact Defense A (style A -3 damage taken, 4x per battle) 4/4 Novice Support Trinket, Style A (Heals another troll by half their maximum hp, 1x per battle) 1/1
Advancements: 6 Minibosses Defeated: 1
Quote:
Zombies: 9-5=4
Nictor tensed at the mention of approaching trolls and whipped his head around with a choked whine to look. This, okay, yes, sure, focus on this and not the dark dark pit opening up inside him.
That deep dark empty pit with fear and insecurity welling up and spilling out like a plague.
Don't think about it. His hands were shaking so badly.
There they were, shambling shuffling moaning, as terrifying as ever. His nerves burned and burned and he was pretty sure they were about to burn out. They had to at some point. They probably already had and he hadn’t realized it. Maybe that would explain the empty headed feeling he had more often than not, the sluggish halt to certain kinds of thoughts.
The constant adrenaline surges and crashes probably weren’t helping either.
That didn’t stop him from shaking, from his breath picking up, from everything being too much, it had been too much this whole time but he was good at forgetting about that temporarily.
Nictor took a step, not sure why or where, just staring at the creatures, getting a little too caught in that empty feeling, checking out for just a moment, this was sort of an awful time to let himself examine it. Capable. To be capable that meant he was good at this violence. That insecurity, that seed was rooting deep too quickly and we being fed far too well but he couldn't deal with that right now. Absolutely could not. Not unless he wanted to die. Letting it pull him under too deep and he'd drown and not even panic and instinct would be enough.
Distraction from the oncoming came in the form of Punkie making to attack and fumbling, ending in a face first smack into the wall. Nictor cringed sympathetically, that was definitely not fun. He wanted to help, but there were zombies- wait.
Wait she's just face planted and there were zombies.
Nictor's breath hitched at the realization. Punkie wasn't up to defend herself at that moment and the ship crew were closing in on her and, and, and he didn't know her, he didn't know a thing about her but that she was loud and proud and Nictor had been helped by numerous team members he'd had on these ships. He didn't want to see that, didn't want the monsters to get to her.
Quickly he started forward, trying to get to Punkie to help her but the zombies were already here, getting closer, closer, got within staff reach, and the overriding pull that brought him stumbling to Punkie's assistance also had hims striking out at the zombies in his way.
Before he could stop himself, before he could think to stop, his body moved. His shoulder stung viciously at the motion, uncomfortable heat pulsing from the wounds but it drove his body to react, to swing and break any that got too close. His breath hitched again, and again and it sounded like a sob or a dry heave but his eyes remained dry. Instead he saw a blur, saw his hands move and attack but felt so little of it, just watched as it played over top of itself and kept happening, but he kept moving, had a purpose to his actions, a goal in mind that made him keep going.
Nictor reached Punkie, looking strung out and frantic, but the strain of sympathy he'd had when first seeing her fall was still there. His hands fluttered uselessly for a moment, the movement awkward since one hand held a staff, maybe stop waving that around. Finally he tentatively offered a hand to help her up, grimacing a little.
"Uh,a-a-are, y----ou ah, okay?" He asked, nearly biting down on his lip and barely restraining himself to just worrying it, still fidgety and stressed from what he'd just done to get over here.
Cpl. Psykgi Mentha Nine? That was an awful lot. Well, not as many as it could be, but not exactly something to be thrilled about. "All right, you know what to do." And apparently even the little guy was doing it. He was hyperventilating and moving jerkily, but he was getting there. With some training - and maybe some psychological assistance - why, he might actually be pretty decent.
Or drugs. Drugs might help.
Psykgi smashed the daywalkers with her axe with renewed ferocity -- no way she was going to let them get on her like that again. Or, at that, the especially promising orangeblood. Who was being saved by...
Yes, she knew he had potential.
"All right team!" she said, stepping away from the fallen corpses and bringing her axe back to a 'ready' position, "One left!" She took a moment to assess her team. "Whos' got it?"
Quote:
19/20 hp
Damage Taken: 1 Damage Dealt: 2+1 to damage=3
1/9
Military Weapon: +1 to damage
Military Standard Medical Kit (Adept Artifact Support A) (2/2 Uses, heal one troll 1/2 hp)
Zap Grenade/Drones (Adept Trinket Offense B)(Uses: 2/2 Charges: 2/3, 2d6 Deal double damage on this attack, 1 ongoing damage for all turns after. The ongoing damage from these stack.)
