Duty Session 472: For Whom the Bell Gnolls

    The band of gnolls in the forest has become a topic of significant interest of late. A large number of official-ish people have taken an interest in finding out just what the heck is going on in there. So they've put out a new call for adventurers: Go in and harass the gnolls, keep them off-balance, while the higher-ups in the local Guilds decide what they're going to do next.

     Which is what leads Miyako to have returned to the area, taking a seat on a stump and idly strumming her guitar while she waits for other adventurers to gather.

Now you see her...

Now you don't!

Now she's here again!

Is she a ninja or just a swift Spriggan?

Whatever you call her, you can't deny the fact that it's Kotono and she's taking the swift route here. Landing with a swift somersault, Kotono looks to Miyako and says, "Here I am! I had to stop to grab a few things along the way, but I'm ready to go!"

Haru is becoming all too familiar with the gnolling grounds as of late. The new call out to address the problem has him on Peko over to see what is happening. Has a Gnoll ascended into the great pit fiend levels? Are they resting on a grass, becoming a grassy gnoll? The Enchanter gets off, running a hand through his hair with one hand and waving to those assembled with the other.

    Rizadoman has been in a sort of self imposed exile for the last few months and him being present for anything has been a rare experience. So for him to be standing here ready to kill gnolls it might be a bit of surprise considering rumors were he was hunting goblins. Readying his shield on his arm he looks at the others for a moment before looking in the direction he thinks they will be going, "I am ready when the party is."

    Miyako nods cheerfully to Kotono. "Glad to see you, Ko-chan. I trust you had no problems getting everything together?"

    Rizadoman and Haru she knows well, of course, and she offers them a pleasant greeting. "Hail and well met, fellow lunatics! I trust you're ready for tromping about the forest and annoying the crap out of a bunch of gnolls?" She pauses, looks at Haru, and asks, "No Fuka today?"

    It's time to get underway, however, as Rizadoman reminds her, and she hops up from her stump, tucking her guitar away in her Inventory. "Right, you all know the drill. Let's do this." Into the woods she goes, followed by three daring adventurers! Why, this will be one to write a song about!

    Well, probably not. But there are certainly weird things about that command one's attention. Strange growths on leaves and flower petals, claw marks on the trees... and an eerie silence. The Spriggan girl quiets, herself, padding along as quietly as she can.

    So you know those old Godzilla movies where he stomps through the city and well it is pretty obvious he is there. Yes that is Rizadoman, and even as it seems he is trying to be quiet, weeeelllll it's not going so well. Fortunately if he is the only one who is making so much noise, it's probable that he is just come off as a giant predator in the forest, which maybe that is exactly what he is.

It is good to see familiar faces. Haru offers a wave to Miyako and Konoto together, "Ladies. A pleasure as always on this wonderful murderific evening." Or day. Whatever the correct time reference works. The topic of 'no Fuka' gets a brief pause there. "No Fuka," he says, giving Miyako a crafted smile, "but still all the Enchantment you'll need."

It is seeing the big ole law lizard that gives the Artificer a grin and a fortunate change of topic. "Riz, also nice to see you. What have you been up to? Gnawing on kobolds or goblins or trolls." He ponders that one. "Trolls. I wonder if you can get regenerative effects from that." He takes out a pad for an alchemical note to check on later. Someone has to experimented with that already.

The strange growth on the leaves and flower petals make the Earth master in Haru stop to ponder. The silence. "Feels like a trap," he offers low on his breath. The Enchanter's choice of focusing magical Artes is through his orb. Well, orbs now. The four small golf-ball sized orbs float around him and slowly spin around to provide an aura of darkness over the party that reduces their profile to sight. Muffles sounds. It can't do much for scent, its already a tall order to cover two senses with his level of Dark-i-tude.

Some aren't suited for sneaking, and some are.

Kotono happens to be the latter. The Spriggan keeps low to the ground and makes slow, deliberate steps to avoid being seen. Even when it looks like she might be spotted, the Spriggan avoids being caught. It's almost like she's a real ninja or something.

As long as she gets by, right?

    Some people tromp through the forest like a herd of elephants. At least Rizadoman isn't one of those. Better than some Miyako has worked with. Things are almost always easier with competant allies. "Of course it's a trap," she whispers to Haru, as the group presses on. "Sometimes the best way to deal with a trap is to spring it. Right, Ko-chan?" Of course, her fellow Spriggan is nowhere to be seen, ninja-ing her way about.

    Miyako bends down to draw a rune on each of her boots, and pads on silently through the brush. She steps around spiked branches and bits of rope that hang from the branches - clearly traps of some sort.

    When the laughter first echoes to her ears, she stiffens, pausing, head swivelling from side to side as she seeks the source. "Ware ambush," she hisses. "They're watching."

    Rizadoman can't argue with Miyako's outlook, "If you know it is a trap and you prepare it simply becomes a trap for your enemy." He then looks over at Miyako as she mentions they are watching and looks through the trees while he grips his shield in hand. The moment he sees light rustling he throws his shield into the tree and there is the sound of several thumps before the shield comes back to Rizadoman's hand. What he hit, well who knows.

"Its a really badly laid trap," Haru offers on the silence that they can sneaksy sneak around. The next stage in 'where are these gnolls and when can I murder them' comes with laughing. "I wonder what gnolls are laughing about, anyway," he whispers, looking for the trail of their destruction. He doesn't find any readily, being less of a 'woodsy' sorta guy and more a 'cafe' sorta guy. Alas, these gnolls can't solve their differences over a latte. "So its a trap-trap. But what if they know we know its a trap. Trap trap trap?" He gives light 'claps' every time he says trap.

Kotono does some searching, putting her skills to good use. And she's able to get an idea of where the laughter is coming from.

"Over there!" Kotono points her blade in the direction she figures out the laughter is coming from. "They're most likely waiting for us, so we'd best be on alert or find another way."

    "Aye," Miyako answers, nodding to Haru. "That's the trick, isn't it?" She grins impishly and flicks her war-fans out from wherever she keeps them. "I suppose we should be polite guests," she agrees, "And not keep our hosts waiting." She hasn't managed to spot anything on her own, but she trusts Kotono and Rizadoman's skills at such things.

    It is perhaps good that she's prepared, because that's when a pack of hyenas rushes the party! Following behind them is the gnollish Ranger, a powerful beast with a strangely-made bow. It's time to fight....

Fighting. Normally Haru would be all 'no, fighting isnt elegant, there are other ways'. No, he has been fighting too many of these particular gnolls to know anything short of culling the numbers is viable. Case in point? They are shooting at the party and sicking their doggos on him. Poor doggos. It is a good time to start stretching out the legs in his new Wave Artes focus, the Ioun Stones. The four floating orbs station on his side, 2 by 2. A focused channel and pure arcane bolts fire off in dakka dakka dakka style down at the huntsman while the clothy caster stays in the back. "Covering fire," he yells, pointing a finger out. Objection!

Fighting isn't always the answer. Sometimes you have to resort to trickery.

Bringing up her spellrunes, Kotono attempts to change herself into a more menacing creature.

Unfortunately, the spell fizzles and it only draws attention to her. "Oh crud..."

What happens next involves a bit of a back-and-forth chase not unlike that in a cartoon as Kotono is chased by the hyenas.

    Rizadoman turns to look at the hyenas and stands tall, infact perhaps he manages to even force another inch or two of growth. Taking in a deep breath he embraces his monster side, and lets out a roar of dominance and challenge before staring into the animals eyes and pressuring them to stand the hell down. Finally Rizadoman adds to it , ".... Or else."

    Covering fire is certainly a good idea, and Haru's is not ineffective. It keeps the huntsman back, at least, while Rizadoman intimidates the hyenas, and Kotono ... tempts Miyako to start playing 'Yakety Sax'. Well, if nothing else, -someone- here has reason to laugh.

    Miyako takes a shot of her own, a sphere of darkness flung from one of her war-fans, but it misses the gnollish huntsman by a wide margin, smacking into a tree behind him and cracking it in half. Still, he seems to have decided to take to safety and retreat, as do most of the monsters. It would seem that it's time for them to get serious.

    The monster that emerges next is a massive, hulking example of the species, dressed in furs and leathers, trophies of his kills hanging from his belt. And fiery runes burned into his skin. To less experienced adventurers it would be a truly horrific sight. And he moves to take advantage of any surprise gained from his appearance, stomping forward with a roar, swinging a massive scythe at the interlopers!

Haru knows a thing or two about earth. Right up there with Ry-Guy in bending it. The Gnollish general soon finds himself at the receiving end of an elemental debuff as Haru conjures up thorn vines to wrap around the big guy. "And this is why," the Artificer draws out the big floating rocks to hurl its way, "we have to keep coming back." Dakka dakka. "And cutting these guys down. Look at how big and demonic this one has grown. Chowing down on his bad guy biscuits like its an all you can eat buffet." Dakka.

    Rizadoman tilts his head at the big bad gnoll and even steps forward a little curious, "Interesting. It would appear that if youwere to simply touch those enchants with a little bit of magic they would..." Rizadoman doesn't get to finish his sentence as the giant scythe swings toward him. He ducks and rolls but ... well when Rizadoman stand he is a lizardman with no tail to tell. Yes that is right, his tail was scythe'd and now Rizadoman's concentration is focused on keeping balance.

Earth. Good old Earth.

What about the other elements? Wrong cartoon, pal!

A few spellrune checks, and Kotono's got some earthen magic coming up. Rocks come up and help take care of things. "Finally, I did something right for a change." Kotono comments with a slight smile.

    Miyako is no less ready to leap into battle than the rest, but that first strike is a potent one. She throws herself to one side to avoid it, before coming up swinging!

    But not at the gnoll. Or rather, not /directly/. Instead, she's twirling her fans in a complex pattern, slashing lines into the air and leaving glowing trails behind them. The trails combine to form runes, that she then 'catches' on the fans to hurl at the foe! The light-letters stick to the gnoll's skin, interrupting the lines of its own runes and blotting out others, weakening the creature so the others can better do battle with it.

    Soon enough the general is defeated, and the mocking crowd of gnolls in the treeline fall silent. The party moves onwards, following the general's traill, and the gnolls part before them to open the way.

    The reason they are so accomodating is swiftly made apparent, the trail ending in a lamp-lit clearing, which is suddenly occupied by HAGGAR!

    The monstrous gnoll is huge, swinging a massive axe about him, but the real danger is not the blade. It's the glitched pixellation of the monster's form, the patches of sheer /wrong/ that come and go randomly about him. Best not to run into one of those...

This is a big ole nope. Big boss gnolls are one thing. Glitched boss gnolls? Haru extends a hand and begins to chant to call out his Fire summon. A large bird ablaze descends from the skies in a dive, ending with a loud flap of its wings behind the Summoner. The white haired human focuses, the four orbs turning as hot as balls of magma as they turn and feed his summon the mana it needs for the following attack. Wings buffet, once, twice. The final draw back is a heavy, heated gust that burns diseased plantlife and the gnoll itself as a series of the firebird's feather swirl around the arena in a storm of heat. Haru touches his feather, regaining health he is losing with those big swipes, with every second the storm is in effect.

Sometimes it pays to use strategy.

And sometimes it pays to utilize good old slice-n-dice tactics!

"Here comes Kotono!" The Spriggan yells as she draws her blades and goes in slashing with her two sharp weapons. "Nothing's gonna stop me!"

    Rizadoman finally manages to find his balance as he looks at the new Gnoll with the giant axe, Haggar. "I will stop the axe, take advantage of it." Still wobbling he charges forward shield out and makes sure anytime that axe is raised he catches it with his shield. Sometime he goes even further to interupt the swing entirely. If there is one thing Rizadoman is very good at, it is protecting everyone else.

    Slice and dice, indeed. It seems to be the order of the day, as Miyako steps in to join the fight. She doesn't try to stop the axe with her fans - even if they were tough enough for it, which they might well be, she's more the sort to dodge than block. Instead she goes in low, sliding across the ground with a flick of her wings to add to her speed before bringing her weapons up into a slice at the gnoll's weapon arm. The strike made, she tumbles to the side, getting away from the glitches before re-engaging.

    The fight goes on for what seems like hours, while the remaining gnolls flee to their hidden encampments. Eventually, however, Haggar's HP bar drops into the red, and then not too much later, dips to the zero mark. The massive gnoll shudders, as if slices of him were moving in different directions at once, and them just... crumbles away into pixels that vanish as they near the clearing's floor. Far from the usual 'explosion of pixellation' that normally marks a monster's death.

    Miyako comes to rest against a tree, taking a few deep breaths as she watches the creature disintegrate, staring in fascination at the rather unusual manner of it. "So," she mutters. "That's the 'glitch' folks talk about."

Running up to Miyako, the Spriggan gives a smile to her buddy. "That went better than I thought it would." Her smile fades a little. "A glitch? That's a new one on me." She shakes her head. "I had no idea what that was about, but I don't like it." She sheathes her blades. "It looks like I'd better take a closer look into this."

Her smile returns. "We still did well, we should go relax somewhere."

"Seems like it," Haru observes as he runs a finger along the silver rim of his monocle. The pixelation is too fast for him to get an accurate appraise on anything and even then he doubts anything short of Power Path level powers would be of use with that sort of anomoly. "NOt sure what to make of it other then: Not good."