See this? This is the stuff I come here for.
Halfbreed Mara, Ashen Phoenix
Opening Cutscene: The protagonist enters through the white light into a room resembling an oversized study. Portraits of beasts and desks full of unfinished writing, and an easel's portrait depicting a lion-woman with long scarlet hair. There is a sound like a wind chime, and the camera pans over to an oversized tome bound in cracked, scratched-up red-brown leather. You're sure this wasn't there on that prominent center desk before.
The book flies open with a crack, and with arms crossed a pale sphinx-like being slowly flows up into being, ascending from the pages. Arms crossed, eyes closed and head down. Large bird wings across her back, a combination of ashy greys and shades of black, smoldering slowly with purple flame. Cut to the face, and the eyes open with a mild jumpscare as pulsating violets and starry-sky patterns pulse across the piercing eyes, a sound between a caterwaul and a bird of prey's shriek pierces the room.
Now fully arisen from her tome, Mara hops down from her book. Slowly flowing down to the ground with extended wings she snarls, the violet flames of her feathers flaring up, and the fight begins.
Strategy: Mara shifts between observation and sheer aggression. As a tell, when her eyes flare up like they did in the opening cutscene, she's ready to lunge forth and attack with her claws. If she catches the player in this dash, she's likely to score multiple hits and then try to punt them away. This is brutal. Durable shields and heavy armor help, but dodge-rolling helps all the more.
Her other melee attacks are a forward kick by itself (still knocks the opponent away), and a one-two clawing attack when trying to maneuver herself.
If Mara's eyes don't flare up, her wings will pulse again. She knows a few pyromancies, and going off the Dark Souls 3 list she knows the following: Fire Orb (a large thrown fireball), Black Fire Orb (a dark, slower version of Fire Orb) and Great Chaos Fireball (even bigger fireball that leaves short-lived puddles of lava on the ground as a hazard). When below half health, she'll immediately tap into Power Within -- her physical attack and defense increase, but she'll continually take damage for its duration.
Meeting aggression with aggression would be the best way to deal with Mara. She's absolutely vicious against those who won't defend themselves. If the player tries to kite her, she'll either lunge forward for her mauling combo, or she'll flap into the air and throw down Great Chaos Fireball. When at 1/3rd health or less, she will also snarl and unleash her wail once more. If you can hit her hard enough her, you'll stagger her. If not, dodge away. She'll try to pounce forward and, if she grabs you, will tumble forth and flap herself into the air, chomping on you. This builds up Bleed status, and will also restore some token health to herself to add insult to injury.
When reduced to 1/10th health, Mara will crumble to the ground in a crouch and pant. A bit of dialogue will pop up, "Well done. You've... just get it over with already. Let this end." If the player doesn't finish her off in time, she'll dart her head up and snarl, "Really now...? Save your pity, cur! I DON'T NEED IT!" She'll then rise up abruptly and unleash a vicious explosion from herself, similar to the Wrath of the Gods miracle.
This will also damage Mara and eliminate herself, but only if the player survives the blast. It'd be a painful way to have to redo the fight if it defeats an unwary player. And if Mara dies this way, it almost appears like she's melting into mauve goo before disappearing as normal.
Weaknesses: Though she's aggressive, Mara is a glass cannon in some ways. Heavier weapons can make her stagger, let alone interrupt her pyromancies. While she cannot be broken out of activating Power Within, nor can she be stopped once she unleashes her final blast against a hesitant player, it's very possible to stunlock her if you can.
If going off of Dark Souls 3 stats, she is vulnerable to the Frostbite status effect. Otherwise, protection against fire damage is helpful against her. High stamina with a good shield will be helpful, but trying to tank her claw attacks might not be helpful if the player isn't built towards it. Otherwise, risky as it could be if you fail, skinny-rolling (the opposite of fat-rolling: doing the dodge roll with little to no encumbrance, as opposed to trying to roll with heavy encumbrance) can prove useful. Kiting isn't helpful due to her in-your-face actions, but could be useful to deal chip damage while she's observing and/or throwing fireballs.
Rewards: Soul of Mara -- "Soul of Halfbreed Mara the Ashen Phoenix, who escaped this dying world into her mysterious labyrinth, the Ardentian Ruins." Can be used to create one of two Boss Soul Weapons...
...if it weren't abundantly clear, I like Crossbreed Priscilla and based bits and bobs of this idea off her.
Halfbreed Mara, Ashen Phoenix
Opening Cutscene: The protagonist enters through the white light into a room resembling an oversized study. Portraits of beasts and desks full of unfinished writing, and an easel's portrait depicting a lion-woman with long scarlet hair. There is a sound like a wind chime, and the camera pans over to an oversized tome bound in cracked, scratched-up red-brown leather. You're sure this wasn't there on that prominent center desk before.
The book flies open with a crack, and with arms crossed a pale sphinx-like being slowly flows up into being, ascending from the pages. Arms crossed, eyes closed and head down. Large bird wings across her back, a combination of ashy greys and shades of black, smoldering slowly with purple flame. Cut to the face, and the eyes open with a mild jumpscare as pulsating violets and starry-sky patterns pulse across the piercing eyes, a sound between a caterwaul and a bird of prey's shriek pierces the room.
Now fully arisen from her tome, Mara hops down from her book. Slowly flowing down to the ground with extended wings she snarls, the violet flames of her feathers flaring up, and the fight begins.
Strategy: Mara shifts between observation and sheer aggression. As a tell, when her eyes flare up like they did in the opening cutscene, she's ready to lunge forth and attack with her claws. If she catches the player in this dash, she's likely to score multiple hits and then try to punt them away. This is brutal. Durable shields and heavy armor help, but dodge-rolling helps all the more.
Her other melee attacks are a forward kick by itself (still knocks the opponent away), and a one-two clawing attack when trying to maneuver herself.
If Mara's eyes don't flare up, her wings will pulse again. She knows a few pyromancies, and going off the Dark Souls 3 list she knows the following: Fire Orb (a large thrown fireball), Black Fire Orb (a dark, slower version of Fire Orb) and Great Chaos Fireball (even bigger fireball that leaves short-lived puddles of lava on the ground as a hazard). When below half health, she'll immediately tap into Power Within -- her physical attack and defense increase, but she'll continually take damage for its duration.
Meeting aggression with aggression would be the best way to deal with Mara. She's absolutely vicious against those who won't defend themselves. If the player tries to kite her, she'll either lunge forward for her mauling combo, or she'll flap into the air and throw down Great Chaos Fireball. When at 1/3rd health or less, she will also snarl and unleash her wail once more. If you can hit her hard enough her, you'll stagger her. If not, dodge away. She'll try to pounce forward and, if she grabs you, will tumble forth and flap herself into the air, chomping on you. This builds up Bleed status, and will also restore some token health to herself to add insult to injury.
When reduced to 1/10th health, Mara will crumble to the ground in a crouch and pant. A bit of dialogue will pop up, "Well done. You've... just get it over with already. Let this end." If the player doesn't finish her off in time, she'll dart her head up and snarl, "Really now...? Save your pity, cur! I DON'T NEED IT!" She'll then rise up abruptly and unleash a vicious explosion from herself, similar to the Wrath of the Gods miracle.
This will also damage Mara and eliminate herself, but only if the player survives the blast. It'd be a painful way to have to redo the fight if it defeats an unwary player. And if Mara dies this way, it almost appears like she's melting into mauve goo before disappearing as normal.
Weaknesses: Though she's aggressive, Mara is a glass cannon in some ways. Heavier weapons can make her stagger, let alone interrupt her pyromancies. While she cannot be broken out of activating Power Within, nor can she be stopped once she unleashes her final blast against a hesitant player, it's very possible to stunlock her if you can.
If going off of Dark Souls 3 stats, she is vulnerable to the Frostbite status effect. Otherwise, protection against fire damage is helpful against her. High stamina with a good shield will be helpful, but trying to tank her claw attacks might not be helpful if the player isn't built towards it. Otherwise, risky as it could be if you fail, skinny-rolling (the opposite of fat-rolling: doing the dodge roll with little to no encumbrance, as opposed to trying to roll with heavy encumbrance) can prove useful. Kiting isn't helpful due to her in-your-face actions, but could be useful to deal chip damage while she's observing and/or throwing fireballs.
Rewards: Soul of Mara -- "Soul of Halfbreed Mara the Ashen Phoenix, who escaped this dying world into her mysterious labyrinth, the Ardentian Ruins." Can be used to create one of two Boss Soul Weapons...
- Ardent Staff: A quarterstaff-styled polearm with Fire and Lacerating infusions. Fire is obvious. Lacerating causes stacks of Bleed, which immediately causes victims to lose a chunk of HP when it fills up. As a special effect, grants some MP back (assuming DS3 where they had MP instead of spell charges) when it kills or bleeds an enemy. This is because the Phosphorescent Pole from Demons' Souls is awesome and RPGs need more combat staves. Its description notes that this is based on Mara's life before the fall, and implies that her unfinished painting of the lion-woman was supposed to represent this.
- Ashen Feather: A curved sword with Blessed and Hollow infusions. Blessed grants Faith stat scaling for damage, deals more damage to "reanimated" enemies and notably, prevents reanimated enemies from reviving when killed with such weapons. Hollow damage scales with the Luck stat, and buffs your Luck when you're Hollow yourself. Needless to say, this feather-motif scimitar represents Mara after her fall from grace, noting that she effectively went Hollow in a sense from death after death, miserable life after miserable life, of being a phoenix.
...if it weren't abundantly clear, I like Crossbreed Priscilla and based bits and bobs of this idea off her.
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