- Mission Details:
- Job Title: Defeat SwollenMan
Rank: B Rank
Player Requirements: B rank, or 2 or more C Ranks; 7,500 words per player; needs 2-5 mages maximum; Players can only do this job once
Job Requirements: You must defeat the legendary SwollenMan and his cultists. Take any lost children back to the village.
Job Location: Any place with mountains
Job Description: Recent rumors have cropped up of children going missing in the mountains. Around this same time, families and friends have noticed that there is an ongoing trend belief in an evil entity named SwollenMan. A report has come in of various groups of children and very young mages alike falling prey to the myth of the evil and omnipotent entity named SwollenMan. A grotesque, globular and obese man wearing a pin stripe suit and lacking any facial features, this entity is said to kill by the dozens all around the world. Some youth have grouped up despite their parents warnings,and begun exploring the mountains and forests to find SwollenMan. The rumors were propagated by various believers and cultists who claimed to have seen the SwollenMan and in sudden understanding of his all powerful greatness, have chosen to protect the entity. Discover the connection between myth and fact, explore the mountains, and put an end to the rumors, the cultists, and SwollenMan once and for all.
Enemies:
Weak: Lost Children x10: Lost in the mountains, these children which have survived on their own have become wild and violent. Fairly easily subdued, these children need to be taken back to their families at some point, but beware. They like to kick, scratch, and bite and are extremely hungry. Feeding them will subdue them but if you get close to one of the little buggers, they will probably attack you and deal D rank damage.
Normal: SwollenMan Believers x10: These believers are those who have heard the rumor of SwollenMan and are obsessed with tracking the entity down and seeing him for themselves. They believe that if they can find SwollenMan and appease him, then they will be protected from his heinous appetites. They carry various types of weapons and despite being a bit unhinged, they know how to use the weapons at an average level. Mostly, they are dedicated to their journey and will fight any who seek to hinder them or any who plan to go after the entity. They carry swords, staffs, and bows and quivers. They deal C rank damage each, but the main issue is that there are so many of them and they don't seem to be able to be reasoned with. They do not use magic and they are not mages. It takes 1B rank hit to take 1 of them down.
Strong: SwollenMan Cultists x6: These cultists are like the believers, except for they are mages and are much more adept. They are proficient, intelligent, but obsessively insane. They will die to protect SwollenMan and fight vehemently to bring victims to SwollenMan for his insatiable appetite. You learn from them, and the small group of sobbing children with them, that SwollenMan is an entity that eats people and that is why he is so fat. The cultists are not very good at working together, but they are strong. If you set the children free, they will run around in fear and can end up targets of the cultists.
Two of them are requip mages, with weapons that deal B rank damage and armor that can block two B rank hits. They take 5 B rank hits to take down.
Two of the cultists use lightning magic, and focus on paralysis attacks and debuffs that reduce or improve abilities by 1 rank. They take 3 B rank hits to take down.
Two of the cultists are summoners which summon magical beasts, monsters and spirits to help attack. The cultists can each summon no more than 3 summons at a time which deal C rank damage each. These cultists take 3 B rank damage to take down.
Boss: SwollenMan: This entity is old and very large. Standing at 5m tall, he appears to be a very fat man with a huge waistline, and plump arms and legs. Where his face should be, is a blank featureless slate and the only way to tell which side of him is really the front is by observing where the front of his black and white pinstripe suit and tie is. SwollenMan is quite powerful to fight and has many strange abilities that define just where all those rumors come from. First, the area where SwollenMan is filled with a thick dense fog, likely some spell to reduce easy travel and make capture inevitable for children. The fog stretches in an area around SwollenMan for a radius of 30m. SwollenMan doesn't appear to be holding any weapons but he has the following abilities to attack with. SwollenMan takes 10 B Rank hits to take him down.- Teleport spell: He can teleport up to 10m before making an attack and prefers to hide in the fog and teleport behind his victims. This is an unlimited ability unless SwollenMan plans to also attack and then it has a one round cooldown.
- Fog spell: For 30m radius around himself, a dense fog is created limiting sight and movement, and as victims will discover sound is limited as well. This allows SwollenMan to be nearly silent in his stealthy attacks.
- Fear aura: He can release an aura within 15m of himself that causes victims to feel an intense fear. If victims stay in the aura's range for a post length duration, they have the chance at becoming paralyzed with fear. This aura is a light grey and blends in well with the fog. Can deal D rank damage from contact, but the debuffs linger for two rounds once outside of the aura.
- Poison aura: He can release a poisonous aura within 10m of himself that causes victims to feel an intense burning sensation and suffocation. If victims stay in the aura's range for a post length duration, they have the chance at becoming nauseated, dizzy, and lose their sense of sight temporarily. Can deal D rank damage, but the debuffs linger for two rounds once outside of the aura.
- Black Tentacles: From SwollenMan's back, when he is ready to attack, enormous black tentacles with a 15m reach grow and slam victims. They can hit targets, wrap around targets for a grapple, and drag targets closer in to be consumed by a hidden mouth on SwollenMan's blank face. Being squeezed can deal C-B Rank damage.
- Bite attack: A hidden mouth on SwollenMan's blank featureless face. When ready to feed on a victim, or if in extreme danger, the entity may resort to biting which deals B Rank damage.
Reward: B Rank experience, Strong(+) Weapon of your own customization (found abandoned in the mountains or on the body of a cultist), and 10K Jewels. - Teleport spell: He can teleport up to 10m before making an attack and prefers to hide in the fog and teleport behind his victims. This is an unlimited ability unless SwollenMan plans to also attack and then it has a one round cooldown.
Lonely, mountainous settlements... always seemed like the potpourri of a series of social messes. If it wasn't cultists, it was kidnapping. If it wasn't kidnapping, it was some other vice that most of the law keepers were too out of the way to do anything about. And the onus was on her, or any other mage willing to do something about it, to step into the scene and solve the crime.
Belladonna almost instantly hated Shirotsume the moment she laid eyes on it. It was a little town, but she could see that there were some large buildings... no doubt belonging to some rich feudal lord who probably took advantage of his people. Anything that reminded her of the circumstances she grew up in always left a bitter taste in her mouth. Be that as it may, she always wanted to give everyone she came across the benefit of doubt. People often considered her strange for a dark mage, but there was a reason she was in a dark guild. There were some things the legal guilds couldn't do, things that many lawless and evil people liked to hide beneath. She was dark, so that meant that she could flush such devils out without facing sanction from her guild. And if her 'family' did not sanction her, she gave no damn what anyone else thought.
She was here to investigate the rumors of some thing called the Swollen Man. People whispered it was some sort of deity that some worshiped. Whatever it was, it seemed evil, and it had to go. Belladonna was just here to find out if the rumors were true, if children were being kidnapped for the Swollen Man to feed on, and what else was myth and what was true. And if what she had heard was accurate, she was going to bring judgment on them. Terrible judgment. Hopefully, there would be some other reason for this, and the absence of some over-sized, overweight blob of a cannibal would make the mission flow much quicker. Knowing the world for what it was, and Earthland and all its inherent madness, the blob probably existed.
There was supposed to be another mage with her on this mission. Frankly, Belladonna did not know whether to be pleased, or to be worried that she was being paired with a legal guild mage. They did tend to feel very righteous about their position, and considered dark mages to be scum of the earth. Frankly, in her opinion, many dark mages did very little to change the convictions of others about them. Unnecessary murder, theft and other vices, for no other purpose than to watch the world burn. Belladonna thought it was a very shallow, empty way of thought. She was aware that in the future, she might be feared just as much as the next evil S-ranked mage, but at least, she would have a legit reason. Sacrifice was always necessary...
Sitting beneath the shade of a spreading tree, Belladonna waited for the mage she would be partnered with to show up. She passed the time trying to guess what he would look like, how he would behave and if they would get along fine.
They would get along fine... provided he wasn't spending his time trying to arrest her or something.