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]

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.

[kawkaw]

[ He frowns a little. He's known bears, wolves, and even a shark or two. He isn't as familiar with lions, though he has read about them in the library. ]

I suppose that's one of differences of my world. Since we're all people where I come from, there isn't anything that would make up any kind of meat. We're all... [ What had someone called it again? ] vegans, I think is the right word.

[rokubro]

Huh, so that's how it works.

Wait, what about fish and bugs? Do they also talk?

[kawkaw]

Yup. One of my friends back home is a praying mantis.

[rokubro]

And...you never wanted to try and eat him, right?

[Bird. Bugs. Don't mind him, please.]

[kawkaw]

[ He can't help making a face at that. ]

No?

[ The questioning tone is more about the fact that he'd even suggest such a thing than anything else. ]

[rokubro]

[This is both strange and funny, if only because Crane's reactions. But Rokurou knows when to quit so he just chuckles and apologizes.]

Sorry, it's just a bit strange to wrap my head around. But it's also a bit fascinating to think about. I take it your friend is also a martial artist?

[kawkaw]

I suppose I could see how it might seem odd to those who aren't used to it.

[ Kind of like the idea of 'meat' is weird to him. ]

Mantis? Oh yeah, he's a Kung Fu master, as well. There's actually a group of us that fight together to defend our home.

[ Crane, Mantis...if Roku knows about Kung Fu, that might be sounding a bit familiar. ]

[rokubro]

[...They are starting to sound a bit familiar. If not "Kung Fu" specifically because world differences, then at least something similar to it just under a different name.]

Who else is part of the group?

[kawkaw]

[ Something about him brightens a little, because it's not often that he gets to talk about his friends. ]

Oh well...There's Monkey, Viper, and Tigress. All masters as well, of course.

And then there's Po, the Dragon Warrior.

[ Unlike the others, 'Po' doesn't quite touch on what species a dragon warrior might be. ]

[rokubro]

[Huh. Yeah those are sounding more and more familiar. But it's that last one that truly catch his interest.]

A Dragon Warrior, eh? What's he like? A real dragon?

[kawkaw]

Er, not so much. Po's actually a panda.

[rokubro]

A...panda?

[Let's just assume there aren't pandas in Bersria—]

[kawkaw]

[ He hesitates a moment, because he isn't sure if the questioning tone is because Roku doesn't know what a panda is, or if the idea of a panda being a fighter is weird.

Considering his own experience, he could understand the latter, but with this place the former wouldn't surprise him either. ]

Have you, uh...ever seen a black and white bear before? Pretty large, kind of...round? Generally slow-moving?

[ He can't help cringing a bit in his head as he describes the general view of pandas. He'd gotten over biases long ago, but only after being proven very wrong. Still, the people in his world tended to seem the same to animals in other worlds, so if pandas do exist in other places, they'd probably be seen in a similar way.

Though he still can't stop apologizing to Po in his mind for it. ]

[rokubro]

[Hmmmm.]

Not around Midgand, but I think I might have seen a picture or some artwork in a scroll back at the estate once.