battleshipex. Strawberry, Boss 1 (Reply)

You've seen some weird things in your time, but nothing weirder than a container of piping-hot French fries growing underground. You hope it's okay that you ate some while you were gardening. It's been a long morning and you're starving.

Stray wasn't kidding about the lunch rush. You can see through the windows that the formerly empty cafe is filling up with all kinds of supernatural creatures. You see some old friends among the trolls and sprites, and you want to stop and say hello to them, but you're covered in dirt and know better than to go in the front door of the cafe. Instead, you haul all the vegetables (and the remaining fries) to the back entrance, where Stray eagerly collects them. "These will be super helpful!" they say. "Give the dirt to Runner, will you?"

You look around, not sure who Runner is or how they're going to collect the giant heaps of dirt that you turned up while looking for vegetables. But when you turn back to the dirt pile, you see long, slender green vines twining up over and around it. Several of the vines briefly entangle themselves to form a dragon's head on a long neck. "Thank you, my darlings," the dragon coos as you stare. "This is exactly what I needed."

Then the vines – no, you realize, the runners – return to slithering over the dirt, dividing and shaping it into odd little mounds and drawing designs on them. Green energy crackles along the runners and infuses the heaps, and they suddenly bounce up from the ground, startling you. As you yelp and jump back, the heaps of dirt land on their... feet??

Glowing green words on their foreheads make it clear that these are golems. You haven't encountered them before, but you've heard stories. Not sure what to expect, you stay huddled with your teammates in the shadow of the cafe, waiting to see what happens next.

Runner coalesces again. "Sweet children of the soil! How I missed you," it cries. "Come take your places."

The golems seem to know what that means; some start turning the remaining soil into a patio area, while others fetch chairs, tables and green-and-pink-striped umbrellas from a storage shed. You see one of them stop to fondly pat the X-ray machine. Apparently they didn't mind being prodded by it.

Stray comes back out and nods approvingly at the golems. "Nice work," they tell Runner. Then they turn to you. "All right, time to get onstage!"

"Onstage?" you repeat, alarmed. You're exhausted from working in the field, not to mention filthy.

"Yes, yes, onstage! We promised the customers you'd entertain them. Aren't you all bards?"

You look around at one another. "More or less," one of you admits.

"Then leave the serving work to the golems and come perform. Customers always tip better when there are bards." Stray points to a water tap sticking out of the building. "But wash up first."

With no other option, you all line up for a chance at the tap. At least the water is warm, and someone in your party even remembers to cast Detect Fuck-Water and make sure it's safe before anyone touches it.

When you're moderately presentable, you head into the cafe and get ready to perform. An income tracker appears on your dashboard as you set out your tip jar. You hope it's an easy crowd.

Strawberry Boss 1 progress tracker

Strawberry Collection | Prompt Collection (AO3) | Prompt Collection (Automagic App)

The boss starts with 350,000 hit points. Your Dirt count of 54400 grams, plus overkill equivalent to 8700 grams, reduces that to 286,900 hit points. For the rest, members of Team Strawberry post works to their team’s collection.

During boss battles, works score points. Works in a single medium (only fic, or art, or podfic) may claim a maximum of 10,000 points; works scoring more than 10,000 will count as 10,000 points.

Works in multiple mediums may claim a maximum of 10,000 points per medium, with each medium capped at 10,000 points (ex. 2000 points of fic + 14,000 points of art = 2000 + 10,000 = 12,000 points).

In addition to points, there are boss-wide goals for AO3 labels, such as “F/F works” and “M-E rating.” You must collectively achieve these goals to complete the boss. Each work counts once towards a boss goal.

Fic and podfic are worth 1 point per word, using the AO3 wordcount.

Images are worth 500 to 2500 points. List the points earned in the author’s note to make sure the mods score your artwork correctly. Each image (or panel or frame) in a work is scored as follows:

Art has a base value of 500 points for a single character, vehicle, or structure depicted in monochrome lineart with a blank or solid color background.

Additional points may be layered on for complexity:

500 points for the second character, vehicle, or structure depicted in monochrome lineart
250 points for each additional character, vehicle, or structure after the first two
250 points for each character, vehicle, or structure depicted in more than one color
250 flat points for shading
250 flat points for a detailed background

Full-color art styles that do not use lineart (e.g., painting, pixel art) will be scored equal to the point value of a character with lineart and color, e.g., 750 points for each of the first two characters in full color and 500 points for each character in full color after the first two.

No individual image or panel may score more than 2500 points; any score greater than that will be capped at 2500 points. Unique, separately created images may be combined in a comic or compilation, for which each image will be individually scored (maxing out at 2500 points each) and the scores added.

Tags are irrelevant during boss battles, as long as the work fulfills a request.

During a boss, each team member is capped at 50,000 points, with no cap on the number of works.

Team members (and only members of that team) should post works to their respective team collection.

Good luck!