#arja greenpath

This was a prompt put up by my friend Edda in my FC Discord, today, basically asking: if your OC summoned a primal, what kind of primal would it be? So naturally I went wild and plotted out an entire trial. It was a little too damn long and I don’t think anybody read it, so now I’m inflicting it on Tumblr instead. Here we go.

As Arja, self-styled follower of the Greenpath, slumps to her knees with another loved one's corpse rapidly cooling in her arms, the quiet, whispering voice in the back of her skull speaks a little louder. It tells her to hurt. It tells her to maim. And, finally, it tells her to kill. 

The thick fog spilling in plumes from between Arja's fangs envelopes her lover's body, and the traditionally circular arena springs into being around our eight Intrepid Heroes via a dense, tight-knit ring of rotted and blackened trees, vines, and underbrush through which only a harsh, red glow can be seen. The party stands in a clearing in the middle of this dead and wasting forest, suddenly absent of Arja's quivering body and the corpse that she carried with her. A peal of thunder echoes through the woods, a splintering crack of branches under a shifting weight, the rustle of dead leaves in the near-impenetrable canopy sounds far above the party members. All is silent for another ten seconds before, with a bellowing howl, the massive, grotesquely white-furred form of Lyssa, Aspect of Rage crashes from the canopy to the center of the arena and the fight begins.

In Phase One, players must fight Lyssa as she stalks about on two digitigrade legs, swinging her too-long arms in gouging slashes at the main tank. Her autoattacks cleave in a 90-degree cone in front of her, thanks to the reach of her claws. The main mechanic during this phase revolves around: 

 Maddening Mist: At the end of the cast, Lyssa unhinges her fang-filled jaw and breathes a torrent of fog in a 120-degree cone in front of her. This fog disappears after three seconds, and it applies a stacking debuff called Frenzy with different effects for each stack. Stacks decay after 90 seconds, with additional stacks resetting the timer. Frenzy debuffs apply as follows: 

 1 Stack: Vuln Up. +10% damage received. 

 2 Stacks: Damage Down. -25% damage dealt. 

 3 Stacks: Haunted. 

 4 Stacks: Mania. Player loses control of their character for the duration of the debuff. Player character will be compelled to attack the nearest target PC with a potency of 1500 per strike. 

 Haunted: At 3 stacks of Frenzy, a PC becomes Haunted. While suffering from the Haunted debuff, PCs will not suffer the effects of the Vuln Up or Damage Down debuffs from previous stacks, and they will regain the ability to see telegraphed attacks by Lyssa. These telegraphs are not able to be seen without the Haunted debuff. PCs suffering from the Haunted debuff can see Arja's body wrapped tightly around the corpse of her love within Lyssa's ribcage.

Phase 1 chiefly involves ensuring that you reach 3 stacks of Frenzy to become Haunted, without getting an extra stack and suffering Mania. It is very unlikely that you will be able to survive Lyssa's AoE telegraphs without being able to see them. Additional Phase 1 abilities include: 

 Crown of Thorns: A donut AoE that centers on a random healer or DPS, with line AoEs that travel out in spokes from the point of impact. Glowing thorns, much like the ones that puncture Lyssa's eyes, surround the target's head. Cannot be seen without the Haunted debuff. Damage from these AoEs applies a stack of Frenzy. 

 Just Like the Stories: Prey markers on one healer, one tank, and one DPS. After the countdown completes, marked targets will be struck by phantom huntresses for severe damage and left with a Shaken debuff. If this debuff is not cleansed, the targets will suffer a stack of Frenzy. Prey markers cannot be seen by PCs who are not Haunted. 

 Knit the Flesh: Raidwide damage, cast bar must be interrupted. Lyssa shrieks, loud and shrill, goading blackened thorns from the earth around the arena. With a successful interrupt, deals raidwide damage and nothing more. If not interrupted, deals greater damage, applies a stack of Frenzy, and heals Lyssa for 5% of her total HP. 

 Tear the Flesh: Tankbuster. Lyssa snaps at her target with her silver fangs. Applies a Ragged debuff to the target. 

 Salt the Wound: Tankbuster. Immediately follows Tear the Flesh. Lyssa raises both hands to strike a hammer-blow on her target. If a target afflicted by Ragged is hit, they will receive a stack of Frenzy.

In Phase Two, Lyssa drops to all fours, her white fur now patchy and stained with red. Her bestial features grow more pronounced, more terrifying, and her attacks become more vicious and visceral. She's screaming, now, howling and raging wordlessly with every strike. Her mechanics for this phase are more-or-less the same, though the cast bars now read as: 

 DROWN: Conical fog attack. 

 HATE: Donut-and-spokes. 

 HUNT: Prey markers. 

 FEED: Raidwide. 

 GNASH: Tankbuster, applies Ragged. 

 SMASH: Follow-up Tankbuster. 

Lyssa has one new mechanic during Phase Two, and that is: 

 BLINK: Lyssa leaps out of the arena and into the canopy above, becoming untargetable and invisible. A thick, heavy fog fills the arena and obscures all PCs from view; in the mist, all PCs suffer heavy damage from an unseen foe that applies Vuln Up, Damage Down, and Frenzy stacks to survivors. When BLINK begins to cast, three phantom huntresses will appear in the trees around the arena, each of them targeting a random PC with a meteor AoE. If at least two meteors are dropped on Lyssa, the arrows fired by these huntresses will pin her in place and interrupt BLINK. This is strongly advised. 

Lyssa does not have a hard enrage, but each successive cast of BLINK will have one less phantom huntress available to fire an arrow. The third BLINK, and all casts thereafter, can therefore not be interrupted. Upon her defeat, Lyssa falls, crashing, from the trees, peeling apart like embers off a burning, gutted log until only Arja and the body she still holds tight remain. One final, anguished wail rocks Arja's body, and then she burns away, too.