The Man Who Gnoll Too Much

Schneider has gathered everyone together at the nominal startoff point for the gnoll duty that we all, pretty much, have done. Sometimes several times. The gnolls are reliably ferocious and a problem worthy of dealing with, to be sure. But Schneider's investigations have raised some deeper questions, and possibly more disturbing ones.

"So, the reason I've called this hunt," Schneider explains, "is that after data draining the glitched gnoll at the end of the duty, we found out some disturbing things. So, it looked like a glitched Haggar had been morphed into Haggar the Deathcleaver. But, we found it wasn't really Haggar at all, it was an Elite Gnoll Warrior who'd been morphed into this new form. So, our plan is to fight our way through to him again, data drain him back into his previous form - now that I know what happened, I think I can steer it that far - and hopefully Setsuna, with Oracle, can talk to him. The first part of the duty, though, we will still be fighting, so that's why everyone's here."

Schneider looks around, then asks, "Any questions?"

"Of course we're still going to fight. Why else would you invite me along?" Vertina replies with a toothy grin that's arguably too cheerful for heading into a potentially dangerous and destructive situation. Not that one can call her comment in accurate. It is why she's usually called on, to handle the brute force stuff so the brainy people can do their brainy things.

Shenmi who, due to being a latecomer to Scale Emblem, one of the lowest level adventurers (not many chances for leveling up in the Palace Lands for the Uncrowned), and having tremendous stakes in case of death, been sticking to the back of the group.

After Schneider's explanation, however, he raises a hand. "I have a question. Uhm, so, this... 'Data Draining' thing... can change the appearance of creatures?"

Clearly a newcomer to this whole thing.

    Setsuna stands in the back of the group, and like any school kid who stands in the back he is totally in his own world as he watches some squirrel in the trees jump branch to branch. Then he suddenly hears his name and stands up straight and looks towards Schneider. It takes a moment for his brain to fill in the gap of some of the things said, the other stuff well it probably wasn't very important. However he opens his mouth to make sure anyways, "So just to recap, we are gonna find this evil Haggar Gnoll, and we are going to slaughter him without mercy and you wanted me here with oracle power to let you know it will all go according to this plan. Ok then. " Taking a deep breath Setsuna closes his eyes and reaches his hand up into the air like he is trying to pull in the answers from the universe. "Yes I see it now, we will win for sure, however I see a lost. Yes poor fluffy tail will be lost." He looks over at Shenmi and frowns, "Don't fear the future isn't written. We can change it, we will win today with no losses." Thre troops rallied, he had done his goal, and he didn't even need that silly headache inducing oracle power.

"I'm just here to punch monsters in the face." Syx says, arms folded across his chest, "I can't do any of your fancy data draining or future sight or anything like that. So I'll just hit stuff until it leaves us alone." He seems to have his mind set on it now.

Schneider says to Shenmi, "If you have some weird piece of data in you that has some appearance information attached to it, I can drain that off. I don't think I'm up to cosmetic surgery yet, though maybe?" To Setsuna, he corrects, "We are -NOT- going to slaughter Haggar. We are going to /cure/ him, by draining off the patches that someone did that turned him into what he is now. And then /you/ are going to ask him nicely what happened. And then, I don't know. What do you do with an extra gnoll?" He shrugs. "Maybe send him off to gnoll around someplace else?" He says to Syx and Vertina, "The other gnolls have not gone away, so we will be fighting our way into this situation."

True to his word, Schneider leads the party once more into the breach, that is, into the overgrown and nasty forest where the gnolls have been performing their unholy rituals. But it's a big forest, and there's not that many gnolls. The gnoll per square km figure isn't very large. But eventually, the trackers in the group find some tracks.

Following the gnoll tracks deeper into the forest, the first thing that catches the eye is a bloody, gruesome sight. A stone altar seems to have been dragged from somewhere within the forest, made of crude, rough stones. Dark red pools of dried blood stain the surface of the stones, as if splattered there from many horrific sacrifices. No obvious tracks lead away. Finding the gnolls based on this set of clues alone will be a bit of a feat, so at this point magical divination seems to be called for, though searching for clues among the detritus is possible for the strong of stomach. For those not divining the gnolls' whereabouts, fresh air would lift the miasma here coniderably.

Divination: 7 Air: 8 Searching: 7 Trackong: 8

Vertina stares at the surroundings they've walked into. She pokes about, but doesn't really find much to pick up on a trail. Her divination skills are more tuned towards split-second sixth sense fighting shenanigans so it's of limited effect there, especially with so many different possible things to have to contend with going through. "I can't tell if this was a ritual, or they just had one hell of a bender party.

Syx seems to have it in his head that he's going to punch the miasma away, as he swings his fists several times at nothing, "I swear this has worked before." He says, as he throws another punch, but it's to no avail

    Setsuna sighs and shakes his head, " No one ever seems to remember the whole 'Monsters are not Friends' seminar Uta and I put on." This could be because Setsuna only ever imagined putting one on, and him and Uta are walking contradictions to this entire statement. Either way though he trudges on with the group.

    The smell of death and blood fills his nose as he looks about the mess and shakes his head, "I miss the days when stuff like this would despawn after a few seconds." Already though he is going to work as his eyes glow with magic for a moment before a broken triangle appears in his right eye. Looking about he grins as his magical eye picks out a blood trail, " I think they went that way."

"The goal of this operation is threefold. First, we will remove a bugged monster from the world. Second, we will acquire information about who might be behind this unusual behavior. Third, if the gnoll proves amenable to further dialogue, we will see what else we might be able to learn from them," says the ever-mysterious doctor who has absolutely been here the entire time.

Up ahead is a grisly sight. The doctor's expression curdles in disgust. "Blood. This is an altar, but it's not made of teeth or bone. It might still be the Beast, but..." They're not going to get anywhere with this awful fog clinging to the forest. Prophylaxis whirls his staff overhead, the stormwood whistling as it catches the air. A vortex of wind whirls outward, drawing in the rank stench and putrid vapors. With a noise of exertion, he sends the gathered gases soaring far into the wilderness. Hopefully it doesn't land on anybody important.

Shenmi listens to Schneider's explanation with heightened attention. "Attaching appearance to data. This is going to be interesting," he mumbles to himself as he taps his chin. His hand is raised again, "Do we know how people can attach this kind of data to creatures?"

Shenmi casts a sideways glance in the general direction of Setsuna, and subconsciously, and warily, adjusts his hat. "No fluffy tail will be lost today," Shenmi states back, determined. "Unless it's the fluffy tail of a monster."

Shenmi looks around. "Hmmm. Divination is in order. As the old adage says, if you want to find things, follow the money."

He twirls his fingers, and as if out of nowhere, a coin appears. He flips it, watches it spin in the air, and catches it on the palm of one hand, which is promptly clapped closed; the bottom hand is slapped on top of the back of his other hand. He observes the outcome, then strides in a specific direction with certainty. "This way," he beckons the others.

Schneider shakes his head to Shenmi, and says, "I don't think anyone's attempted that, or knows how it's done, though we've seen the effects. Is there some data on you that you don't want?"

The search through the remains of the ritual site bears mixed results. The miasma is cleared, at least, and Setsuna finds the faint trail of the one survivor, the instigator, very likely. Shenmi learns a bit more about that gnoll, but significantly, an idea of which way he went, and that corroborates Setsuna's findings. Proph clears the air, and Schneider burns away the fumes. The party heads off, directed by Setsuna and Shenmi, walking for about twenty or thirty minutes.

The sounds of gnoll war cries begin to sound amongst the trees as the party follows the leads they developed and the results of the divinations, though it isn't a gnoll that appears first. No, it is a series of large rabid looking hyenas who seem to each be wearing a spiked collar. They sniff and search, pawing at the ground and growling into the darkness.

Then, behind them, stalks out a gnoll wearing leather armor and wielding a huge, wicked looking bow made out of a strange gnarled wood. The hyenas find them first, alerting with a woop. The hunter points in their direction, sending the hyenas out after the interlopers. The hyenas aren't much of a threat, but if they can be dealt with, or cowed, they can be turned back on the huntmaster, who is agile and keeps out of melee.

Animal Handling: 7 Transformation: 7 Ranged: 9 Fire: 9

Well, that was boring. As is the trek that follows, dragging on with nothing really exciting happening. Vertina huffs, folding hands behind her head as she walks along following the group that has figured out where to go. So there's just that, up until the noisy calls and chanting starts. "Oh, good. Was almost afraid this was going to turn into a bum trip." Now her cheerfully aggressive attitude is returning as the prospect of more proper fighting.

But first we get a horde of normal hyenas. Sure, fine. It'll be a good warm up.

Literally, as Vertina lets loose a burst of salamander flame breath in a sweep across the ground, igniting it into flames in front of the rushing hyenas and setting several of them on fire as they can't stop from charging into the sudden conflageration.

A boring trip means that Prophylaxis doesn't have to spend any precious healing items. You don't want to just toss out potions in the middle of a war if you can avoid it, after all.

As if the universe seemed keen on kicking over his cereal, hostiles appear in the distance. Hyenas! Lots of them. Hyenas with mouths full of awful disease and bone-crushing force. The further they keep those creatures away, the better. Or, you know...

They could just take advantage of the fact that they're mostly grouped up in a 20 foot radius burst.

"Fireball," Prophylaxis says simply, hurling a tiny globe of flame into the hyenas' midsts. It explodes a moment later in a great blast of fire and heat and sound. "Hmph, that should send them packing. Or not. Wonder how much fire resistance hyenas have...?"

"My dear sir," Shenmi begins with a powerful stage voice. "Please allow me to introduce you to..." He bows, removes his top hat, twirls it, and when he stands up again, he's got his hat pointed at the gnoll.

There's an explosion inside the hat, like a firework going off; like a miniature cannon, smoke, confetti, streamers and all, a bun-bun with a tiny helmet and a full body suit, like that of a human cannon stuntman, is shot out of the hole.

"My assistant Bao!", he declares, before twirling his hat again and placing it back on his head, while his other hand sweeps the air and ends up pointing at the target; "also known in some circles as 'the one who shall bite your face off!'"

    Setsuna is just as happy to find gnolls he can kill as the others, his magic eyes fade away as he moves the magical energy into his hands. "You know, if fire is alive, is it an animal or a monster?" Taking his hand wrapped in dark cloud of energy, and sticking it into the wall of fire that Vertina created and pulls out a handful of fire as if it was fresh soil. Holding it in his hand the fire turns black and then brings it up near his face and blows into the fire. As if the monster handler had breathed life into it the fire flies out of his hand, taking on the shape of a wyvern as it begins to hunt it's prey.

Syx grins a little bit as he looks at the attacking gnolls, "This is what I signed up for." He says, as he twists his neck and pops it a couple of times, before he rushes in. His Buster Gauntlets burst into flames as he rushes in, swinging powerful blow after blow at the gnolls that attack. He'll leave the agile one staying out of melee range to the more ranged based members of the party, because he's more than capable of taking care of the ones that WILL get into melee range.

The woods are alive, with the sound of explosions. o/~

Well, Scale is here. Vertina's wall of fire drives back many of the hyenas, which are maddened and driven hard but not quite suicidal. The ones that are a bit madder or more driven are, it seems, suicidal, burning up in the wall of fire. The ones Vertina doesn't cordon off are incinerated by Proph or Schneider, or pummed on fire by Syx, which is probably the harsher of both worlds. Shenmi, alas, hasn't gotten with the Scale program yet, which is 'Fire solves everything' and launches the tiniest not-quite-human cannonball at the huntsman. The hyenas watch it, then turn and chase it down. Was that the plan? That's what happens with the hyenas that haven't been thoroughly incinerated. They're the lucky ones, and the huntsman, on seeing this, runs like hell, the few surviving hyenas, and a bunbun chewing his face.

The woods seem to grow in activity, which can be heard now that the yips of hyenas are quieted. The furry forms of gnolls can be seen in the trees, but a number of them seem wary of coming anywhere close to the Adventurers. These are lower level enemies, the sort that likely suit the newbie status of this area, but they seem smart enough not to engage.

No, that is left to the generals of the gnoll armies. From the trees, a large gnoll wearing what looks to be dark leathers. Black wolf fur covers one shoulder, a series of bat wings dangling from the monster's belt. Most eerie is that there are a series of red runes which seem burned into the gnoll's skin, showing some kind of infernal nature. In one hand is a massive scythe, which is turned to point at them.

With a spit-slathering roar, it begins to stomp forward, swinging the massive blade. It's possible someone skilled with light or scripture could break the abyssal enchantment, otherwise they may have to lean into natural forces against such an unnatural abomination.

Scripture: 6 Earth: 8 Light: 8 Magical: 10/8 Physical: 10/8

"Fire is not an animal or a monster, but it can be argued that it is in fact alive," after all, what are cells if not tiny little engines that burn oxygen in little, very well controlled combustion reactions to produce energy? This is, of course, very much a simplification-- but still! "Fire eats. It breathes. It reproduces. It dies. What do we define as 'alive?'"

Angry demonic gnolls, probably. One of the gnollish generals emerges from the woods, burning with demonic glyphs. Prophylaxis' eyes narrow as the beast charges. His staff taps against the bare earth...

...Causing the woods all around them to explode into rampant overgrowth. Vines and brambles twine around the gnoll's limbs. Branches pin its body in place. Suckers and parasitic growths take root in the creature's skin, draining away its strength with every passing moment...

"I've got it immobilized," the doctor grunts, his mana pool draining to keep the spell going. "Kill it quickly now."

Vertina rocks back and forth on her heels as the remaining hyenas and huntsman flee back into the woods. "Now this are getting interesting." But that's likely not the end of it.

Not in the slightest, as a much bigger and meaner gnoll with a really big sword comes into the fray. Her eyes narrow. She can sense the taint in this one. "I thought we were looking for the glitchy ones?" she asks. Not that it stops her from taking action on the current matter. Because a fight is still a fight. She charges forward, and executes a beautiful dodge roll to get past the brute's swinging sword. She tumbles onto her feet, not stopping as she plants a heel and puts the remaining momentum into spinning around and slamming the other foot, charged with bright ki energy, into the middle of his back.

"Aren't we overthinking this?" Shenmi remarks, curt, while, with complex gestures, he summons bursts of lightning towards the large Gnoll. "It burns. It gets the job done. That should be enough," Shenmi adds, before another swing of his hand crackles with azure energy, departing to, if not devastate, at least damage the opponent.

Syx holds his ground until he gets the signal to attack, once the enchantment is down. As soon as it's done, he's quick, almost a blur as he rushes at the gnoll leader, "This isn't the glitched one, so lets clear the board!"

Syx opens with a flying knee strike, and then uses the strike knocking the gnoll off its feet to get around behind it, grabbing it around the waist and twisting it into the ground with an explosion of dirt and rocks being kicked up from the force of the impact.

    Setsuna looks at the doctor, "Yes but in this world things that are alive usually get categorized. So, by that logic if it is alive, can it be inspected to categorize it? Can we handle it? So many questions." Then the big ugly gnoll with the scythe steps up and the necromancer grins, "Aaaawwww he is all scawy looking. That's cute." Running towards it he draws his dagger and slashes in midair sending sharp waves of dark magic to claw into the gnoll.

Schneider manages to counter the Abyssal Gnolls fell enchantments, though it seems it's hardly necessary given the Scale wrecking crew that's arrived to plant him firmly in the bit bucket. With the enchantments gone and Proph having immobilized it, it's basically a pinata for the others, Shenmi's lightning slamming into it, Setsuna's dark Magic slicing it, Vertina cutting away the last of the fell enchantments, leaving it utterly helpless, basically, which is /not/ how you want to be when Syx attempts to Suplex you. That's all she wrote, the gnoll is ripped out of the restrains Proph conjured and slammed upside down on the ground so, so hard. This is not good for anyone's health, and the Gnoll is gno more.

When the Abyssal Gnoll has been reduced to pixels, a figure appears, entering from the indeterminate distance, somewhere among the trees. At this point, everyone recognizes Haggar, with something very wrong about him. There are glitched pixels around the edges of his form, and an INSPECT has a series of strange characters that follow his new title...

Deathcleaver.

He stomps forward, dragging the huge axe, swinging it in a wide circle that seems to catch everyone in a radius in front of him. It looks asif the boss has gotten a power up since the earlier dungeon encounter. A broken sort of power up, since the last encounter showed that it's not actually the real Haggar, but an Elite Gnoll Warrior that has, somehow, been modded to Haggar, and then modded again.

Schneider at this point waves everyone back, and says, "Okay, the plan is this. Rather than fight him and get his back up, I'm going to try to ... to drain off whatever's been done to him. The rest of you, just avoid his attacks while I'm draining him. After I do that, it's up to you, Setsuna, to talk with him. If he wants to fight instead of talking, then it's back to plan B, kill him hard. But if Setsuna can get through to him, maybe we can find out what's happened to these gnolls." Shield: 7 Evasion: 7 Sneaking: 6

"Stall tactics. Got it!" Vertina calls back to Schneider. Not a problem, this is what she did all that training for. Which leads to the Salamander Martial Artist essentially running circles around Glitch-Hagger, faster than he can spin his oversized axe around. "That's the downside to be scary weapons! They're REALLY SLOW. JUST LIKE YOU!" she taunts, then dodges again. Fast enough her movements are leaving scorched patches in the ground from the heat generated in friction.

"Get out of the way. Gotcha," Shenmi nods.

He extends his hand diagonally, reaches for grabbing something-

And turns down to look. "Oh, I forgot. Hm. I'm going to need a new mantl-"

Leap-dodge! Just in time to avoid being cleaved in half; a massive notch is left on the ground where the axe slammed down, and Shenmi is panting not far away. When the monster raises its weapon again, Shenmi flicks through his menu, frantic, materializes a woolen blanket (for want of anything better), places it over himself, and like some sort of plaid ghost-

The blade of the axe slices the air, and the blanket. Poor Shenmi must be toast by now, if- no. Wait. He's not there. Where'd he go?

"Okay so the plan is rope a dope? I can do that." Syx says, as he gets Haggar's attention by hopping up in front of him and giving him the finger, "Hey you fat sack of crap, I bet you can't catch me!" He then lightningsteps behind Haggar, and then repeats the process a few times, leaving himself just out of reach of that axe at all times, to allow them all the time they need in order to drain the data off of the gnoll

    Setsuna is cut in half, horribly, there are so many pieces and parts as he is cut down that even the other gnolls get in on throwing things at his dead body. Then the body parts disappear as Setsuna watches the cruel display and shakes his head. "Endearing little fur balls, ain't they." Stepping back he looks over at Schneider, "ANY TIME NOW!" There is only so long one can stall after all.

"Mmn, keep it held down and unable to break away. I can do that." Prophylaxis focuses for a moment, the temperature of the air around him abruptly plummeting. He goes pale, then icy blue, rime forming in layered sheets over his exposed skin. The doctor takes several steps directly towards the gnoll, a wave of cold flash-freezing the surrounding vegetation with every footfall.

"Come on then," he commands, glacial walls rising from the ground to cut off the glitched gnoll's escape routes. Spikes of ice erupt from the earth all around the doctor like a mobile, frozen phalanx. Yet more icy lancets alight in the air around him, ready to strike and pin the gnoll in place should it draw too close. "I'm not going anywhere. Let's see what breaks first, my body or that axe of yours?"

The gnoll furiously attacks the party, but to no real effect, smacking the earth where Vertina had just been and spraying dirt everywhere. Shenmi finds safety in his ... is that a security blanket? Well, it turns out, he's pretty secure, so that works! Setsuna's demise alarms Schneider until he realizes that it was only an illusion that got smashed. Syx's rope-a-dope has Haggar spinning so hard he almost falls over. The only reason he doesn't, is Proph has frozen him in place, restricting his movement almost completely.

With this level of distraction, Schneider manages to burn away pretty much all of the glitches in the Haggar the Deathcleaver overlay with one massive explosion that doesn't hurt the gnoll at all. The former Haggar, now labelled Elite Gnoll Warrior, finds itself momentarily dumbstruck to be clear of that code overlay, and Schneider shouts, "Over to you, Setsuna."

    Setsuna looks over at Schneider and nods his head, "Ok magic word time. Clatoo, Verata, .... " Setsuna trails off as he draws a blank for a moment, and is grasping for the word mumbling several iterations of what is possibly the right on before he finally says, "Nicto. " The magic symbol of a butterfly appears on his forehead as he begins to try to speak for it. "Tell us what happened to you."

     The Gnoll seems a little out of it at first after being returned to normal. It will growl and snarl in its own language, but Setsuna is able to translate some of the words, " Bones. Ritual. Elders. Were-Fang. Woman. Red. Braid. Create. Haggar." After that the Gnoll returns to it senses and goes back to trying to kill us all.

"A were-fang woman with a red braid. That's Lupusregina..." Prophylaxis mutters, his brow knitting tight. "Bones, too. That means it could very well be the Beast. Is Lupusregina working on behalf of the Beast somehow...?" Alas, that's about all they're going to get out of it. Gnolls are unfriendly even without being horribly glitched to all get out. The doctor's expression sours before he taps his staff against the ice...

...And abruptly causes all of those frozen defenses to /burst into flame/ to thoroughly cook the now weakened gnoll. "Well. Damn. I had hoped she died in the goblin tunnels under Eastal. But I guess she's a little more stubborn than that. I wonder how many other strange monster sightings she and her ilk have been responsible for...?"

Vertina keeps her distance as Schnieder and Setsuna are doing their thing. But she's not idle, indicated by the twitching saurian tail. No, she doesn't expect this to last, so she's already charging up for the inevitable to come.

Though they get some info at least. Nothing that makes sense to her but she's not here for that part.

She's here for when the Gnoll goes back to being an angry rampaging monster. As soon as he shows the signs of shaking off the communication she lunges into action, leaping into the air and twisting around. A flaming aura erupts around her feet as she comes down in what any video fighting came would call a drill kick, grinding her flaming feet into the gnoll's form.

Shenmi emerges from behind a rock. "Lupusregina? Were fangs? Bones? What... what is all this about?", he asks, while he gives Bao some scratches between the ears; the bun-bun seems to somehow have been recovered, suit and all (but the helmet must have been removed to allow the scratching). "I feel like there is some backstory I'm missing here."

Syx is right there with Vertina when she goes in on the gnoll. Since he's probably the last one standing, Syx is able to grab him up after the drill kick from Vertina, the flaming salamander launching himself and the gnoll into the air before Syx performs what can only be described as a 'flaming whirlwind piledriver' to the beast. You know, the kinda thing Zangief might do in a Street Fighter game.

It's absolutely overkill for something that is not a glitched out boss anymore, but Syx is Syx, and there's no kill like overkill.

Schneider is intrigued as Setsuuna is able to translate what the gnoll says using the words that controlled the robot in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Even if he almost bungs it up like Army of Darkness. Schneider's dad liked old movies. Vertina kicks the snot out of the Elite Gnoll Warrior even as Proph's attacks eat its HP like chicklets. Shenmi adds more fire, that's his Scale props showing now, and Syx piledrivers the monster, though this is an /Elite/ Gnoll Warrior, so he's got a bit of toughness left. Not much, after all that. Schneider's glad Proph knew who that was because the only redhead with a braid he knows is one of the Olympus players he occasionally sees around, but she's human. "Lupusregina, who's that?" he asks. But if a gnoll needs killing, he won't hesitate. "Deep Doomsday. To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now," Schneider chants. "MEGADETH!"The boom echoes as flames surruond the gnoll. The massive attack hits the gnoll, who might've had 1 or 2 HP left, and obliterates him. "So, now we know, now what?" he asks.

    Setsuna steps back and holds his head, there is no pain but he reactgs still as if there is. Perhaps it is some type of conditioned response. Sitting back he lets the others deal with the problem of an elite gnoll as he sits back and learns something he didn't know. He can talk to the monsters who can't speak adventurer. It is quite a thing indeed. "We can ask Uta to do some deep dive on the name since we have a name, I mean I can always try to just oracle her. Do you think she likes cold calling?"

Vertina shrugs. "None of that made any sense to me, hope you nerds got something out of it."

Schneider can only shrug, giving Vertina a sympthetic look. "The lore stuff is neat and all, but there's way too much for me to keep track of. I'm just here to make things explode." He actually -does- do a lot of the digging, but there's too much for him to synthesize. "Though I'd be happy for the Reader's Digest Condensed Version later."

"Lupusregina Beta was responsible for some nonsense in some caves under Eastal's forest. The goblins in the region were corrupting the woods through some kind of bugged artifact," Prophylaxis explains. "She's a werefang with red hair and a long braid. Dresses like a maid. Kind of cute, if she wasn't trying to kill us all." The doctor shrugs, "...She's been part of a trend of individuals trying to empower the various monster races. Another, Entoma Zeta, was operating in Westelande alongside the insect monsters in the area. Keep an eye out for anyone with a greek letter in their name who keeps company with monsters."