This is an out-of-character thread for player sign-ups to participate in an upcoming boss fight. Characters should not have any in-character knowledge about what is to come unless they have explicit prognostication powers; and even then, I request that they not be used in such a way that could reasonably prevent the event from occurring at all.
This event will be taking place at 8 PM Eastern on May 2. After some IC set-up, the boss fight will likely begin at around 9 PM Eastern. If you didn't sign up, that's okay; if you want to participate, you're more than welcome!
It's time for the mask to come off, and for Christa's long-awaited assassination attempt on Trinity to finally take place! Christa has a sinister plan to lure Trinity to the Battlefield Park manor for their fated clash, but she knows that her plan will result in a number of Trinity's friends following her there to help. And that's where Christa's conglomeration of ghostly armor, the Sword Dancer, comes in. It will keep her friends occupied while Christa fights Trinity to the death!
This boss fight is modeled after prior boss fights that have taken place in Duel of Magic such as Blood of the Dragon, except that this one will use Duel of Swords mechanics. To give a fresh overview of what exactly will happen, this is an everyone-vs-one encounter, and the bot will not be involved at all. It will be manually called. Everyone who engages the Sword Dancer will get 5 HP, and the Sword Dancer's HP will be scaled based on the number of opponents. To be specific, the formula is 10 + (5 x N).
The boss submits one move, and everyone fighting it submits their own move. The boss's move is individually resolved against every combatant's move to deplete its own HP and its opponents' HPs based on how much the move scores. It's basically an inversion of how scoring normally works. Normally, hitting TH over LC would gain you one point as you ascend toward five. But instead, hitting TH over LC reduces their HP toward zero. If the Sword Dancer reaches zero HP, the encounter is over and you win. If a combatant reaches zero HP, they are incapacitated and unable to continue fighting the Sword Dancer. If all combatants are incapacitated, the encounter is lost. Everyone will be fighting at four mods tonight, regardless of rank. I know that prior boss events eschewed modifiers, but the boss gets to use them too, so it's only fair for everyone fighting them to also have them.
Not all moves in DoS are created equally, so tonight, we're going to even the matrix out with some extra perks. Disengage has an extra use in this boss fight: healing! As long as it doesn't get hit, it will recover 0.5 HP up to the starting amount of 5. But if you Fancy it, not only will it recover 1.0 HP instead, but you can give that HP to someone else, so that players with higher HP can take on some of the risk inherent in using DI for the benefit of players with lower HP. If you want to heal someone else, indicate the target when sending the move. In addition, Slash will deal 1.5 damage if it connects.
The move sequence has been decided ahead of time by RNG, The candidate moves are, in order, TH, HC, LC, LP, CP, SS, DU, and SL. A d8 is rolled a whole buncha times to decide the sequence, matching to the moves in order. Repeats are skipped. Because DoS's moves aren't created equally, the selection is refined a little bit. SL is only used every second time that it comes up to reduce its occurrence. Every second SS becomes SH, because SS/SH/DI have strongly overlapping purpose. Every fourth SS becomes DI. If the end of the sequence is reached, it is looped.
The boss also has special moves, which upgrade/replace specific moves in the sequence after various triggers occur, except for one trigger that will cause it to occur on the very next round. The special moves will be secret until the event, but I am happy to give you hints on what special moves are coming:
- A move from Duel of Swords with a Feint modifier applied to it.
- A move from Duel of Swords with a Focus modifier applied to it.
- A move from Duel of Fists given custom interactions and a Fancy modifier applied to it.
- A move from Duel of Magic given custom interactions, but no modifier, because it will beat a lot of moves.
I'm really hoping to run an event that will be a lot of fun for everyone!
