Lets go kick that mini-bosses ass!
Emboldened by your descisive victory over the Imphants, you exit the area through the shed, walk back down the hall to the control room, and hit the button for floor 5. As usual the door briefly seals, the room briefly shakes, and the colors on the elevator control panel change.
Floor 1 -----> Basic Dungeon TutorialFloor 2 -----> Combat TutorialFloor 3 -----> Scholarship TutorialFloor 4 -----> Introduction to Friendly NPC ArchtypesFloor 5 -----> Introduction to Common Mini-Boss ArchtypesFloor 6 -----> Lock and Key Tutorial, ExitYou exit the control room, walk down yet another new hallway, and emerge into yet another industrial looking new room.
To your east are three frightening looking creatures, each contained in a stasis cage. Unlike the cages in the friendly NPC room, these ones pulse sickly shades of green and purple.
To your west is a large and noise piece of machinery behind a thick pane of glass. Up against your side of the glass are three large, conspicuous, and identical red buttons.
You keep calm and wait for Mr. Levy to pop up via intercom to explain the situation. The wait is not long.
"Bet you are spoiling for another fight after your epic victory in last room, hmmmmmm? Mini-bosses are particularly dangerous creatures that roam most dungeons. The ones in this room have been weakened by toxic stasis cages, so you'll have a fighting chance, but usually trying to 1v1 a Mini-boss in a fair fight is a fools errand. With that in mind, I will now teach you about the three common flavors, or archtypes, of mini-boss that you will encounter most often. Think of this lecture as the how and why of them trying to kill you." "In the northernmost cage, to be released by the northernmost button, we have an Incubus. Incubi and Succubi are fiends that wield potent magic. Said magic honestly makes them the most difficult of the mini-boss archtypes in a fair fight. Luckily, for you at least, such fiends are the easiest mini-bosses to avoid fighting; Cosmic bylaws forbid them from using their... preferred feeding methods... on humans until they hit level or age 18. So unless you are traveling with a fully mature party member, or the fiend has an objective to guard, you can usually stroll past an Incubus without a fight." "The most straightforward mini-boss archtype is the Bugbear, and we've procured one for you in the center cage. Some might have a few spells or tricky abilities, but usually they just prefer to get up in your face and hit you hard. Bugbears feed on vile magic, which they can generate by inflicting pain upon others. Luckily a Bugbear's gluttony usually comes second to its sloth; If you offer a Bugbear a cursed item it can feed off of without having to put in the effort of hurting someone, there is a good chance it will leave you be." "Last, and perhaps most dangerous in the wild, is the Wyrmling in the southernmost cage. A dragon's courage and honor typically scales directly with its size. A young dragon, or an individual belonging to a smaller species, is a cunning coward skulking around the dungeon for meat and treasure. They stalk adventure parties, and attack when the quarry is weak or preoccupied. It would behoove you to learn the signs of a Wyrmling stalking: dragon shaped footprints, dragon shaped shadows, piles of colorful scales, and treasures guarded by elemental flavored traps. If caught before they pounce, most wyrmlings will talk a big game but flee once once you show that you can defend yourself." "Do note that just because you can avoid a fight with a mini-boss doesn't always mean that you should. The rewards for killing such a creature are typically worth while. Of course, the choice is yours. As for here and now, you only need to press one of the
three red buttons to complete this lesson and unlock the final floor of the tutorial dungeon, mmmmmkay?"The PA system falls silent, leaving you once more alone with your thoughts... and a sudden revelation; You have no clue how you can tell this while the bastard is in stasis, but you get the distinct feeling that the Bugbear in the center cage might be interested in an item in your inventory. Could this be the sense customer ability on your
character sheet kicking in?
What do you do?Assets by DALL-E.