eighth hunt ⚔ troll hunt

[rokubro]

Characters: Rokurou Rangetsu [Huntsman] and everyone who's coming along on this hunt
Campaign: Break
Format: whichever you prefer!
Open
Summary: Rokurou has made a call to arms to take down this troll (Commission Board #0909)! This is vaguely set before the upcoming poisoning and anyone can join in the fight. Commenting to Rokurou's post is not necessary and can just handwave greetings. To keep things simple(ish), below are the details regarding the troll and various ways on how to fight against it. There are two phases for the fight, but there is no strict order for threads. Players can make their own threads for either portion of the fight and tag each other at will.


⚔ I. PHASE ONE.
The first part of the battle after everyone's gathered and are getting ready to strike. Can use this as an opportunity to mingle, but here's the lowdown for this section:

A. Piercing that hide. The troll's hide is tough and the troll regenerates health, so it needs to be weakened before any real damage can be done to it. However, it is susceptible to magic and the elements. Physical weapons such as blades and even firearms will need to be coated in either poison or magic elemental enhancements that will give the weapon an additional property to break through the skin. Those who can cast magic or throw poison/magic bottles can deal more direct damage to weaken the hide and provide opportunities for the melee fighters.

B. Operation distract! The troll has two heads and thus has a wider range of vision. Because of this it's harder for anyone to get real close without getting spotted, and the troll is surprisingly fast. With various stomps, sweeping motions, and bashing around with its chained mace and club, anyone trying to get close will have a difficult time. Thus it's imperative to create distractions for those in melee range. Alternatively just go straight for the eyes—just fair warning that they slowly regenerate just like the rest of the body.

C. Destroy the weapons. That chained mace and club are definitely a problem, and fortunately they aren't too special—just ridiculously large. Disarm the troll and prevent it from picking either weapon back up and it will be left to fight with just its hands and feet!

Note: The troll itself towers at a whopping fifteen feet and is quite burly. At this point in time, although it can be stabbed and receive deep cuts, no limbs can be hacked off. Maybe a few fingers and toes.


⚔ II. PHASE TWO.
After enough damage has been inflicted, the troll will suddenly let out a massive roar that will send everyone flying back. It will then proceed to split into two separate trolls, each one a half size of the original. It's at this point that it becomes clearer that this is no ordinary troll and is instead an Eraser. With its size reduced and defenses down, the fight becomes a little easier and fairly straightfoward, but be careful—there are times the trolls will join together to tag team. When joined together, their strength doubles and can inflict massive damage, so it's best to keep them separate.

Once the trolls are defeated, everyone will receive phat loot. Huzzah! Anyone who comments here can use this to link threads for redeeming points from the board.

Comments

[rokubro]

[Rokurou had already been keen on watching how Crane would fight, and seeing it in action he is not disappointment. Just from the start he can tell that he is truly a master martial artist. And he's not going to waste the opportunity Crane is giving them.

With his blades coated with the poison provided by Kazuma, Rokurou darts in when the troll is focused on Crane. With a few expert slashes he aims at the back of the troll's knees to weaken its mobility before jumping back to take another slash at its back. He's then forced to retreat when the troll turns with a painful yowl, unable to ignore the surprise attack. Although not definitive, the poison is effective and his blades had been able to cut through the hide to inflict some damage.]

T'ch, this is really going to take a while.

[kawkaw]

[ He swirls around in the air while continuing to dodge the swings aimed at him. Even while moving, he observed the troll's two heads, and how one head seemed to control each hand. ]

So let's have it help us.

[ Swooping around, he flies in the face of the troll holding the club to get its attention. As it follows him, he then zips over to the other head as troll swings its club to try and strike him.

Then he makes a hard turn, avoiding the club that ends up hitting the troll's other head. ]

[rokubro]

[Rokurou watches on the side to allow Crane full maneuverability and is impressed by the tactic! He laughs when he watches the troll smash the club into the other troll's head, momentarily stunning it and causing the body to stagger.]

Hah, guess two heads isn't better than one!

[Of course, Rokurou won't stand idly by. Switching his blades, he seizes the opportunity, he darts in and jumps up high to first land on the shoulder and utilize his gunblade to fire a few incendiary shots at the distracted head, bringing it closer to the other one. He then hops up onto the head with a blade in each hand, he activates the enchantment to set the swords on fire and jumps down to slash each face on the descent. If he's lucky he'll catch one of the eyes, but even then—well no one would like a trail of fire on their face.]

[kawkaw]

[ Crane darted around to give Rokurou time for his attack, and as the trolls' heads reared back with a roar of pain, he uses his wind manipulation to shoot him forward at the troll, delivering a powerful kick to the chest. ]

[rokubro]

[The kick is good! And it's the blow that sends the troll back staggering before it falls backwards to the ground.]

Nice one! Don't let up now!

[They need to get in as much damage as they can before the troll gets back up, or try to prevent it to!]

[kawkaw]

[ It kind of goes against principle to keep attacking an enemy when its down, but these aren't exactly normal circumstances. So Crane dives down, landing blow after blow wherever he could on the troll. ]

[rokubro]

[They're really dealing damage now!

But just when it looks as if they might come out victorious, the battle music changes there's a massive roar that sends everyone flying back. When the dust clears and they're able to stand, the troll has risen...but now instead of one, there are two of them.]

What the...you've got to be kidding me!

[kawkaw]

[ SERIOUSLY ]

Well...let's just hope they're at half strength now that they're split up.

[ Without another word, Crane flies straight at the troll on the left, unleashing another gust of wind to drive it back and farther away from the other one. ]

[rokubro]

[While Crane takes the left, Rokurou dashes in to deal with the right. They do seem a little easier to handle, but still fairly tough.]

Just keep them apart!

[kawkaw]

On it!

[ He lands another kick on the troll, causing it to stagger back a little. Luckily, Crane seems to annoy the troll enough that it was more intent on trying to catch him than reuniting with its twin. ]

[rokubro]

[With the two split, the battle drags on for longer than anyone probably likes, but the combined efforts of everyone in the group, especially in keeping them apart, pays off. Eventually the troll falls and disappears, revealing itself to be an Eraser in the end and not your typical troll. That's...a bit troubling, but at least it's been dealt with.

After the battle, Rokurou will meet with everyone, and when he sees Crane he grins and raises a hand in greeting as he walks over to him.]

Nice job back there! Never fought with a bird like that before, but I have to say—your skills were very impressive.

[kawkaw]

[ Crane was in the midst of preening his feathers which, on the outside might seem like a strange thing to do after battle, maybe even a bit vain. But sorting through his feathers helped him take stock of anything out of place that he wouldn't have noticed during the heat of battle.

Hearing the voice and the steps approaching, though, he glances up and offers a smile back. ]

Thanks. I do my best to keep my skills sharp.

But yours are remarkable as well.

[rokubro]

[...Yeah that's a bit weird. Or rather, it's like a dissonance from seeing the mighty warrior bird performing something like a normal bird would. But he doesn't too much mind.]

Heh, thanks. Could use some more training, though. Trying to cut through those trolls was a lot more difficult than I'd like. But hey, it was good exercise.

[Although... Thinking about it and considering what Crane was doing, he can't help but ask—]

Do you lose feathers when using your skills?

[kawkaw]

Well, I think the fact that the trolls were actually Erasers might have made it more difficult.

[ The question has him pause, and he stretches out his wings, flapping them a few times to get another feel for them. ]

Not generally. I have a few abilities that I gained when arriving in this world that causes me to lose some feathers sometimes, but I don't usually need that ability in this form. But it helps to check myself over after a fight to make sure nothing is damaged or twisted that I didn't notice before.

[rokubro]

Fair, fair, but even so, these things are out there in those stories we have to fix up. Can't be struggling when it counts.

[That's really just an excuse, he's a sword training junkie so he really doesn't need a reason to train more.]

And that makes sense. [Checking the feathers, that is.] But what other forms do you have?

[kawkaw]

Well, nothing wrong with a little practice.

[ He certainly wouldn't dissuade anyone from some training. ]

I have a human form granted by my Essence. I used to use it exclusively when I first got here, but I'm trying to get past the urge to use it.

[rokubro]

I've heard of humans transforming into animals, but this is the first I've heard of an animal transforming into a human.

[If he hadn't seen the ducks before or have experience with daemons and malakhim that have animal forms, he would been more surprised to see a talking crane to begin with. But instead he finds it somehow stranger that it can transform into a human.]

How was that experience for you?

[kawkaw]

The story it comes from is apparently about a crane that is saved by a human, so it takes on a human form to marry them.

[ He's just...not going to mention that the crane in the story is female. ]

It was very strange, to be honest. There are no humans where I come from, so I had no idea what I even was at first.

[rokubro]

[...Huh, interesting. That sounds like some of the stories his family used to tell.

But he's going to be more surprised by the other part.]

Wait, really? No humans at all? ...So it's just a world of talking animals?

[kawkaw]

That's right. There's nothing unusual about it, so I was surprised when I came here to find animals didn't speak.

[rokubro]

Is it the same one as those talking ducks?

[kawkaw]

Not exactly. The world Della and the others come from seems to have people with human-like qualities, despite being animal-people. Where I come from, people are look just like the animals you see around here, except they can talk.

[rokubro]

Interesting...

[A small pause.]

So... ...Like... Do the carnivores eat, uh, you know. [Slight gesture towards to indicate fellow talking animals.] Or like fish or anything like that—does every animal talk or are there differences?

[kawkaw]

[ He frowns a little. ] Well, different provinces have different accents, and some regions have slightly different dialects. Other countries have different languages as well, but I've never actually left China.

But carnivores...those are people who eat meat, right?

[rokubro]

Huh, so it really is a lot like people. [And he's oddly able to just roll with this idea and finds it rather fascinating to imagine. Granted it helps that he's grown accustomed to there being different races and such both in his world and in this one.]

But yeah, we usually refer to predator animals carnivores since they mostly eat meat. Lions, bears, wolves, sharks.