Fighting Mr. Carpainter, the Corrupted Leader
Before the heroes opened the doors to Mr. Carpainter's office, Paula pulled Vike to a kneel. She leaned in close and handed him the Franklin Badge. "I want you to have this," she whispered, "It will keep you safe." Vike donned the badge and he knew it was more of a gift than a tool.
Opening the doors, the heroes once again came face to face with the man who leads the Happy Happy cult.
"Ah, I see you've once again come to oppose me." He started, "Oh, and you've saved my precious little priestess. This makes no difference, you still won't progress any more than last time. In fact, I'll save you the wait and deal with you now! Begone!"
Mr. Carpainter raised his paintbrush above him and the familiar sounds of thunder surrounded to room. With a bright flash of lightning, Vike was struck. But he was invulnerable to the effect, and it deflected right back at Mr. Carpainter.
"Bloody heck! H-how did you..?" Mr. Carpainter, now a little smokey, examined Vike's character a bit more.
"Ah, a Franklin Badge! I should've seen it earlier. Well, if my old tricks won't work, I've still got new ones."
Two cultists to the left and right of Mr. Carpainter prepared their brushes for combat.
"Happy Happyists, assist me in burning out these wretched stains!"
With a snap of his fingers, the doors that lead out of the office slammed shut, and the walls seemed like a hazy fog. Something about Mr. Carpainter- No, something from behind him was causing illusions.
Once the battle started, John took the cultist on the right, while Smog soloed the cultist on the left. Vike and Cyrus took Mr. Carpainter together, and Jeffeus and Paula both cast spells from the back. The whole party had become much stronger since their last meeting with the leader. Especially Cyrus, who had developed new moves ever since their visit to Lilliput Steps. The cultists weren't much of a problem, but Mr. Carpainter was not so easy. He used a mix of powerful paint and lightning attacks, the latter of which was often deflected.
The fight raged on for a moment, but eventually Mr. Carpainter began to look tired from the action. He is an old man after all. He turned away from the party and kneeled down at the Evil Mani Mani Statue, muttering prayers. A dreadful magical force came from the statue and it began to move. It stood up and approached the party. They attacked it at first, but it stood there and examined them.
Suddenly, it melded into a different form. It resembled Cyrus, but still as an eerie gold statue. Almost machine-like in its precision, it threw punches just like the monk could. Vike took a heavy beating from the statue and fell to the ground. As he began bleeding from the wounds, his pendant called to him. It sought more blood. Fitting for a vampiric relic.
The Mani Mani Statue quickly changed form again, this time into one that resembled John Smith. It struck with its sword, quickly and critically dealing damage to the party. Vike, watching the statue cause such chaos, gave into the pendant's call. He was enveloped with red mist and became another silhouette. This time, he was in the shape of some horrific demon-like creature. He felt his life drain quickly, but his now clawed hands felt stronger than ever.
Walking ethereally toward the Mani Mani Statue, it stared back at him, recognizing a threat. The fighting ceased as everyone gazed at the new and terrifying form Vike had become. Everything was silent as Vike reached into the statue's chest. He couldn't feel its body, but felt its evil spirit. By just clutching it, he poisoned the spirit with something awful. Something that hurt the soul more than it hurt the body. In using such a strong attack, Vike lost the last bit of his health and fell, returning to his Dhampir form.
The Evil Mani Mani Statue became mortally wounded and weakened. As a result, the other heroes were able to quickly cut it down. It fell apart under all the force and stopped emitting its magical energy.
Mr. Carpainter woke up and came back to his senses. Jeffeus tended to Vike and woke him up as well. As Mr. Carpainter got to his feet, he was suddenly lifted by his tie by Cyrus, who glared into his eyes as he extended a blade from his wrist.
"Coward," Cyrus started with a scowl, "you're not going any further. I've seen you do it every time now. You use your people to do the dirty work for you, while you sit up here on a golden altar, intoxicated by their worship."
Mr. Carpainter struggled and attempted to speak, but Cyrus' clutch tightened. "You exploit them," he continued, "and when they can't do it, responsibility confronts you, you do everything you can to avoid it. Cultists, Lightning, Cursed Statues... But when all fails, you have nowhere left to go."
The other party members felt like they needed to do something, so Vike and John both attempted to pull Cyrus away, or attack him even. They were both met by an electric shock emanating from Cyrus.
Cyrus continued his speech. "You can't expect to just be let go after all you've done here. After all the people you've USED. I'm not going to stand for it. Not this time." Cyrus suddenly thrust to attack, but John Smith quickly pulled up his sword and deflected the attack. Cyrus turned, fury in his eyes. As his gaze fell upon his party, he saw only worried faces. He dropped Carpainter on the floor walked towards the large open window.
Without looking back, he said, "Fine, side with the monsters. Even with everything he's done. He doesn't deserve your mercy..." Stopping his speech short, he jumped out the window and disappeared.
Vike's magic item is called the Vesper Charm, and it allows him to become what I call a "Nightmare Form." Coincidentally, I didn't even realize vampires turning into mist was already a thing until after I made the item.
The only item we haven't seen the effects of is Jeffeus' Flash Camera. I wonder what it does?
For Mr. Carpainter's fight, I used the Otherworldly Foe Remix, by SPIRE_FAN. I used this remix of Mr. Carpainter's theme because not only did it absolutely fit his feel, it's also just the highest quality remix I could find. This remix perfectly captured the intimidating feel for this fight, as well as the "trippy" aspect. Mr. Carpainter's use of magic is to manipulate and control people, so for his theme to be mysterious and kind of trippy (for lack of a better word) makes sense. He might be an old man, but the power he syphons from the Mani Mani Statue makes him a formidable foe. It's especially helpful that Carpainter and the Mani Mani Statue have the same battle theme.
The "Cyrus' Glare" image was made using a techinique I've never tried before. First, I modeled out Cyrus using Hero Forge, a DnD character tool. I made models for all the party members so I'd have a reliable reference to use when drawing them in Aseprite, which I did for this image. I traced over a screenshot of the model, colored it in, and detailed it. The blade, tie, and scar were added in Aseprite.
The process was much easier than if I tried to do it without a model, and it of course gave an extremely high quality result. The only thing I'd have against using a model like this is that it doesn't fit the style of the rest of the campaign. That, and tracing may hinder me from improving greatly at drawing. I will use this technique sparingly.
This is a screenshot of the model.
2 comments