Duty: No Game Gnoll Life

It had taken some extra time to prepare a proper expedition into the depths of the Gnoll Forest. First Shiruba had made sure the Hunter's Guild had all her information so they could make sure inexperienced and underleveled parties didn't accidentally get sent into the sections that have become much higher danger levels than the rest of the Isle of Beginnings. Then there was finding a route, for while Shiruba had been able to follow the Gnoll demon cult on her own, leading an entire raid party through the forest was a different matter. Fortunately Shiruba had mapped all her previous treks with how obsessive she had been about it, and was able to map a path through some of the overgrown sections that had lower encounter rates so they could conserve their reserves until they got to their location.

Finally Shiruba pushed through, parting the brush to either side of her. "We're almost there." The gristle wards hung in the delapitated trees and staked upon the ground were more than enough indicator of that. The wolven Cait Sith paused a moment to catch her breath and compose herself, even if her heart was about ready to beat out of her chest in anticipation of such a big hunt, even with the risks involved. "Everyone take a moment to double-check yourselves and your gear, once we're in, we're not going to be able to turn back until it's over."

Yeowang is here for the gnoll hunting, following her friend, backing her up. She was one of the people that worked out what the gnolls were up to, and she took part in several raids to try to clean up the forest-based gnolls before the new magic faction could gain too much traction, and now we're here to find out if it was enough, or if things had alreadly slid past the tipping point.

She follows Shiruba through the forest, and when warned to check her gear, she does so. She doesn't have a lot, to be honest, and what there is of it is not the highest level. On the other hand, she's pretty deadly with her bare hands, so that may have to be enough.

The chance to delve into previously unexplored reaches of the Gnoll Forest? Mikage is easily one of the first to sign up for that opportunity. This particular area has been available since the Apocalypse and has grown and changed and continued to be fascinating. Rama is staying quite close to the Ranger's side even as she moves quietly along with the rest of the party.

"As ready as we'll ever be. You know this place better than the rest of us, so Rama and I will follow your lead." The lynx gives a whuffle beside her and bobs his head once.

The gnolls have grown from simply being a problem to being an existential threat to the Isle of Beginnings. It's no surprise, then, that there are a couple of representatives of the Scale Emblem present. Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana himself, is in attendance, looking every bit as grim from beneath the brim of that wide hat of his as the gruesome totems hanging from the withered trees. "It's too bad Schneider's not here. I have a feeling we could use his unique touch."

The doctor squints at the trees, the gnarled, sickly branches so barren and weak that a strong breeze seems ready to snap the lot from their trunks. "This reminds me way too much of the goblins under Eastal's woods. Keep your eyes out for any strange green fluid, and be sure to avoid being struck by any odd weaponry. I fear Lupusregina has provided her new stooges with the same concoction the goblins were using."

Gwen had been looking for Shiruba today, why she had another load of shipping materials. Her sisters mood had abated but a chance to slow her mother down, just a bit longer was worth it. She was also armed to the teeth as it seem Shiruba has found the Gnolls.

"Good and sure thing. Got my gear, items check. Morri's latest order of shipping supplies."

She looks over to Pro for a moment.

"I don't like it either and noted."

The last time they came through here, Kaydon debuted his newly built weapon to strike down one of the demonic gnoll leaders. This time, however, it seems that things have changed.

The arrival at the border gets the fur on the back of Kaydon's neck to stand up a bit, "These damn things are getting out of hand." He says, standing near the edge of the Gnoll Forest, "Do we have any idea what we're going to encounter in there? Or are all bets off?"

Haru has been overly involved in the Hunter's Guild as of late. When there has been a moment from to the war efforts it has gone to hunts. The occasional recreational race, of course. It merited a promotion in the Hunter's Guild recently. It merited seeing where this gnoll business is going. The white haired Artificer is better built for navigating a city over a forest but it doesn't stop him from seeing new places and taking on new challenges. The human stays towards the back ranks, four golf-ball sized orbs circling in a gentle orbit around him. "If we didn't do that much prior to arriving, then we would have no business being here," Haru observes a bit chilly to the idea of needing to make sure the shoelaces are tied and snacks are packed. He draws out a familiar summon, Eve, which is a black cat. Only something that should be a house cat size is much larger. The size of a dog. Two tails. Two red eyes.

    The gnoll situation was one Fukaziroh had been following, though not with quite the fervour of Shiruba. She's fought the gnolls on several occasions though, and takes an interest in this both because of the unusually strong nature of their capabilities compared to where they should be, and the absolutely brutal nature of their raids and defenses. It's out of place for the game, given the spike in difficulty compared to the quest level, and that sort of thing breaks the 'natural' order.

    She checks her armour and weapons quite deliberately at Shiruba's prompting, loudly clanking vambraces to chest to make that check all the more obvious. Then she raises her hand up and behind her back, reaching to tug at her sword hilt. Several of those present may not have seen the weapon before, since she more typically has used a huge axe in the past. Now she has a huge sword instead.

    She glances at Haru, pretty much agreeing with his claim but at the same time more inclined to be playful in her response. "My gear's all here!" she claims. "I'm all here too, as much as I ever am! Mighty Battle Fairy reporting for some serious ass kicking!"

    The necromancer had found himself drawn in to this duty but wasn't exactly back to 100 percent, Setsuna was still sorting through all the memories and knowledged gained during his accursed strange mood. With him is his three headed cerberus, now a year old and quiet a bigger pup then he was when first acquired. As Setsuna looks baout he looks towards the doctor, " So are we hunting the fake Haggar again or is this another gnoll to deal with? I swear these gnolls are worse then goblins."

Once everyone has prepared Shiruba nods, takes another breath of equal parts anticipation and anxiety over leading such a big venture, and heads foward. She appreciates having so many friends an allies willing to help with the problem, but now wasn't time to get mushy about it. "Specifically the demon-worshippers," Shiruba answers Setsuna, "But that doesn't mean the others aren't also possible considering the two subsets are at odds with each other."

As the group moves on, the forest starts to become more... normal again. Abiet unusually silent, as the Hunters in the group are likely to quickly pick up on the lack of animal or other natural sounds. It was a bit disorienting, moving from the clearly corrupted forest, making it all the more nerve racking...

"Hold up," Shiruba stopped, raising a hand to stall the others. Then with the other pointed ahead at the faint gleam of a trip wire. "Looks like these Gnolls haven't completely abandoned their ways as vicious hunters." They are going to need to either disable the trap triggers, or find a way to avoid them, a bit daunting in itself when how many there may be or what kinds are unknown....

As Shiruba holds them up, Mikage crouches as she looks around, eyes sweeping the area. "This is trouble." She admits, her voice kept soft. However, it is Rama who starts to sniff at a nearby area of ground, giving an uncertain sound before he steps forward and suddenly is caught in a trap, dangling from a back leg, upside down in the air.

"Shit, I'll be right there, Rama, stay calm. I've got you." So, rather than helping the others locate traps or avoid them, the Ranger is preoccupied by climbing a tree to cut down her animal companion. She does, eventually, manage to get the lynx cut down and scoops him up underneath one arm, following after the others who manage to make it past traps with less problems.

"Stay close to me, okay? No wandering off or you might very well end up eaten." As she sets the lynx back down, Rama's nub tail droops a little and his ears tuck.

Yeowang is one of the people that does not have the skills so many gamers have. Traps and tricks and game things are alien to her, though tripwires are normal enough. But so many! She will pause here, and concentrate on where she stands, and her surroundings, and as she moves through, what she is approaching. A wire here, step over it. Another there, step around. It's tiring, this level of awareness is taxing and can't be kept up, it requires a fierce degree of concentration. But it is almost completely proof against most hazards, and stands her in good stead here, allowing her to pass without incident.

Kaydon raises one hand in a fist to try to get people to stop, but the reason he did that was because he was stepping on a tripwire. He motioned for everyone around him to move away, because he didn't know what kind of trap this was going to set off, and he didn't want anyone else getting hurt when he moved off the wire.

Once anyone around him is cleared, he jumped off the tripwire and two pillars of wood slam down into the spot where he had been standing, the impact still knocking him back and sending him into the dirt. But at least he wasn't dead. He may need a bit of healing however.

    Setsuna looks at the traps and grins, "Oh this will be fun. I really should have rolled as an imp." A hand gesture to the cerberus has them lay down before the necromancer takes off running to the first trap ad the moment he triggers it he blinks away. Reappearing on another and then another. Really if he slowed down or didn't react fast enough he would end up in deep trouble but then again he is the crazy necromancer that lives in scale tower.

Haru has more determination in his step than usual. It is like he knows where he is going and it is in front of him, one step at a time. The orbs that circle around him have a dimmed quicksliver property. The summon remains in the wake of his shadow. He ignores the warnings that have been hung by the gnolls. The place is too still. It is too quiet. He runs a finger along the side of his silver monocle, the gloomlight glinting off of it. Traps. Of course.

"Better crafted than the ones before," Haru asides to Mikage's commentary. The Enchanter narrowly ducks to avoid a spider-thread thin razor trap. He slides low, avoiding the foot trap the first trap was designed to lure him into. The reaction time is spot on with a combination of talent and good fortune to make it through unscathed. "But not crafted well enough for an Artificer," he dusts his jacket off.

"I don't think I've gotten a chance to mention it to you yet," the doctor asides to Shiruba, "We know who's responsible for all this. Apparently it's Lupusregina Beta, the same one who was behind the corruption of the woods in Eastal." Prophylaxis advances carefully, cautiously, "We managed to purify the previous Haggar. He had been corrupted into that state by the elders of his tribe who somehow 'overwrote' his data with Haggar's. So be cautious of any... glitchy-looking monsters--"

Prophylaxis was advancing carefully, cautiously, but apparently not carefully or cautiously enough. He trips a wire, and has to fall to the ground to avoid the barrage of poisonous darts that fills the space he had once occupied.

"Ugh," the magus grunts, his face covered in mud, "Well, that's an ominous omen. Hrmph."

    All joking aside, Fuka's bringing her A game here as much as she possibly can. She likes and respects pretty much everyone here, and while she enjoys goofing around she has no intention of letting everyone down. Her experience with gnolls and the warnings of the others give her a good idea what she should expect here; her experience with gaming likewise giving her a keen appreciation for traps and just what she needs to be on the lookout for.

    Fuka's not going to be able to carry the group here of course. Traps really aren't her thing, but she doesn't freeze, making her way though with somewhat more caution than actual skill and managing to avoid the worst of the traps through some combination of gamer skill and luck. "Careful Prof." she murmurs. "That's great to know, super educational, but getting shot here would be omenous indeed." she needles, then offers him a hand up.

Gwen seems to be in a serious mood she'll stop at Shiruba's warning to look for traps or other issues. It does not go so well Gwen will face check several traps before all is said and done.

"When I get my hands on these on them..."

She mutters but it could be a lot worse right?

Shiruba is already in her hunter mentality and it's carrying her through this obstacle. Though she gets a bit of help in using Golau Chwilio's scanning function, holding one arm forward to deploy the Relic strapped to her forearm. The red light sweeps over the area briefly, then pinpoints several tripwires and even a couple of pits, and a rusty snaptrap to boot. She's glad she took the time to use the tools she has, working her way past the motely collection of traps. "I've heard about Lupusregina, yes," she replies to the good doctor. "Robert filled me in a bit after we discussed my own findings."

Now everything was a little on edge, and it doesn't help matters when an arrow zings by very too close for comfort. A form vagely Gnoll-like and clad entirely in green shades briefly stands on a nearby hill, already in the process of raining down several more shoots with surprising accuracy for such a typically brutal and blunt monster race!

"Shit!" Shiruba cusses. "He's got us in the open! Keep moving, or find a way to get him to back off!" Come to think of it, if that camoflague is made from natural resources it's probably moss, leaves and peat. Peat in itself is notoriously flammable.

Yeowang's preternatural awareness lingers as she steps aside from the arrow incoming from the gnoll on the knoll. When Shiruba says to keep moving, she does, dodging and slipping aside from the incoming arrows. Sadly, that awareness doesn't help her shoot more accurately, and her return fire is not accurate at all, nor precise, hitting over several yards off target for some shots. It is not enough to drive him away, or really, to do anything.

    Setsuna and the Cerberus roll to the side as he looks towards the attacker and grins. He looks at the three headed beast and grins, " It's just a game of fetch, go and fetch me the pesky gnoll." With his order given Setsuna dashes off as he provides a distraction. As Setsuna runs one way the Cerberus stands up and runs other circling wide before cutting in towards the gnoll, and when the three headed beast find the gnoll(s) they will indeed have found a new chew toy.

The four stones floating around Haru stop and hum, moving with Haru as he rolls to a tree. "Yeah well he can't aim very well if we put the pressure back on him," the Enchanter says in an impatient growl. The Ioun Stone begin to hum as they adopt an amethyst core, a dark light pouring out against the silver. The human steps out after the next shot is fired. Stones begin whirling in front of him like the circular barrels of a minigun. Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka. Arcane bolts pulse out at a far distance, providing covering fire while he advances forward to another tree. The shot themselves are long and with that sort of fully automagic fire, need to be kept tight against the sniper. The Wave Artes practitioner's accuracy is on point today, harassing the enemy with interrupting fire to unsteady the aim and chip the health away.

Thankfully, Rama has learned his lesson and stays right at Mikage's side as the group delves deeper into the forest. The Ranger is usually quite good at moving quietly and not attracting attention, however, the group that they are bringing with them is large which means they are bound to...

That is when an arrow zings by over her head. She presses her lips together to ward off another curse, reaching back for her Elemental Machine bow and pulles Dawnbreaker out, grabbing an arrow from the quiver at her waist. "Try shooting through a storm." She aims high, causing the arrow to impact higher up the hill.

Where it impacts, however, there is an explosion of storm energy, driving rain and wind all around the arrow-shooting Gnoll, making it significantly harder to aim those shots.

    While Fuka's currently in searching mode when it comes to traps, she was tending to look only close in for immediate threats. Her first understanding of the sniper's presence comes when an arrow punches into her torso, only partially blocked by plate-and-chain.

    Startled, more shocked than in pain, the little sylph shrieks. "That BITCH!" she complains. Her armour's pretty good, keeping her from suffering a grievous injury, but she falls back to extract the arrow and quaff a minor healing potion rather than being able to lash out in retaliation. "Shoot him for me, H!" she cheers as she tends to her injury.

Gwen is muttering at this point.

"This is like the old Memes of Hogger come to life..."

Away she went moving onwareds she's got to keep going as it seems they now have something huntring them now.

"They are learning." Up comes her shield as she charge on ahead trying draw the fire of the attacker as she goes. She's clearly poping a large number of taunts as she goes.

Now Kaydon is, as ever, going to do his best to just rush straight at the attacking gnoll. His gunblade comes to bear off his back, the powerful weapon knocking arrows out of the air as they approach him. He's able to cover the ground quickly, aiming to force the gnoll sniper out of position. If you can force a sniper out of position, others can bring them down.

"Thanks," Prophylaxis grumbles, hoisting himself up with Fuka's offered hand. He's only a little muddied, but not at all bloodied. Which is probably for the best...

Because he's going to need /all/ of that blood today.

An arrow whistles by the magus' ear. With a curse, Prophylaxis spins on his heel and extends an open hand toward the projectile's origin. From the heel of his palm, a wave of pale white energy sweeps outward and crystallizes into a rigid barrier between the gnoll and the rest of the party. "Get him!" Prophylaxis shouts, his mana pool draining from the strain, but that wall is keeping the arrows out-- and letting the others fire their own projectiles through it.

It was a good ambush, but... Maybe the gnoll shouldn't have missed his first shot.

The group fortunately has several good defenders with them, with both physical and magical shields to hold off the rain of arrows while the ranged combatants retaliate. She isn't one to take getting shot at by an enemy archer lying down... Though Shiruba does take to one knee to steady herself. Then starts shooting back. Her skill shows, as she actually shoots her arrow THROUGH one of the sniper's, and into his bow arm. It's enough of a disruption for others to bring more painful strikes down on their opponent, taking him out of commission.

The party moves on, while gnolls lurk warily in the distance. That is not unusual behavoir, they did such before when Adventurers proved too much to tackle up front, waiting for one of their superior warriors to take the field.

Or in this case, for their enemies to walk into a much nastier trap than before. It turns out those cackling laughs were also some kind of chant, as a barrier of dark magic springs to life around the party once they step into the next clearing.

Shiruba's fur bristles at the dark arcanum radiating around them. "Now we know we're getting closer..."

Yeowang is caught with the others in this odd magical trap. Her knowledge of magical traps is, perhaps, less than zero. Her knowledge of mundane traps is low, and her knowledge of magic is zero, so maybe her knowledge of magical traps isn't negative, but from any distance, you couldn't tell.

On the other hand, the Shadowfist class comes with a few dispells based on arcane runes such as the ones composing the circle entrapping us. She can manu cast them, she's never learned the motions required, which seem nonsensical to her. So, she menu-casts her dispel against the circle, but nothing happens. Something was supposed to happen. "I wonder if some of these are only used against certain things?" she muses, identifying the problem right away. Of course that does not give her a solution, because she has no idea how any of these work. In real life, if you're surrounded, you kick for the knees to knock someone down, and move to a non-surrounded position. This magic business is frustrating. There's too much actual work she needs to do in this game to have time for this magic business.

Prophylaxis grunts as the wall of dark magic materializes. He's seen a lot of shields in his day, but this one is...

"...I can't make heads or tails of these glyphs," the doctor admits with a sigh, "I'm not familiar with the language. Probably Gnollish. Or Demonic. Either way, we're going to have to tough it out; I don't want to risk erasing the wrong rune and teleporting us all a hundred meters into the sky or something."

Which means it's instead time to pass around healing potions, because with a trap like this, they'll probably need them.

Mikage's bow is lowered as they continue, but it isn't quite put away entirely. There are still too many dangers surrounding them to let her guard down. Sure enough, it seems that there is good reason to be on guard as they soon find themselves part of an even larger trap.

Rama looks around, growling at the Gnolls, his claws scrabbling at the ground. "Let's see... the little that the Shadows taught me suggest maybe a weak point if we remove this arcane symbol." Taking out her sword, Mikage plunges it into one of the symbols, only to have a burst of dark energy shoot up the weapon.

Both she and Rama are blasted backwards, taking damage smoking faintly from the impact of the arcane energy. "Ow... okay, that didn't work."

"I swear I've seen some of these runes before." Kaydon says, as he tries to think of where he's seen them, though it seems that more than anything else he is prodding the edge of the ring with his gunblade, trying to find a weak point or a way to disrupt one of the runes, though when Mikage gets blasted back he runs over to help her back to her feet, "Was worth a shot at least."

Haru walks to where the grassy gnoll once was, giving one last arcane bolt into him. He gives Fuka a thumbs up for the git 'em request. Accepted and delivered. Even Eve gets in on it with pawing the pixelated remains to all the ferocity of a little panther.

The next area feels off. Haru's Ioun Stones seem to be reacting to the environmental mana. Thats normal. It is a rather dark and dreary place that has had infernal gnolls in it. Fire and Dark should be expected. It isn't until the trap fires off and the party is caught in its grips that the Enchanter gets it. Well concealed! It even merits a grin on his face for the style of such a trap.

His four ioun stones begin whipping around him. They blur so fast that they look like a solid ring of silver and purple. The Artificer starts walking, pouring raw arcane from his large reserves into the focus that repells the trap in a small area. It is like wading through water. Step after step, until he is out of the zone. Having weathered the magical storm he pulls out a mana potion, chugging it back. "Don't overthink it," he says, taking the spare moment to make sure they are not about to be ambushed in this vulnerable state.

    "Those hyenas are laughing at us. Well WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?" Fuka challenges, as the group strides neatly into an arcane circle which a shaman triggers. It probably makes for a great and ironic opportunity for the gnolls to laugh, much to the sylph's annoyance.

    Fuka's knowledge of magical traps is perhaps not too bad, but relies heavily on her being able to examine an enchantment. Identifying and countering an arcane trap... not so much. She tries to cast a dark curse of her own to drain the magic out of the trap, but it's only middlingly effective.

Things were far from over, who knows what else the Gnolls might have waiting for them. She had no idea what could be done, as the Gnolls are fading into the shadows laughing. There's something u0p but she has no idea what's going on and a magical trap like this is beyond what Gwen is able to do with Magic. Dark Magic is something she has no talent with. This shows this painfully shows as all her attempts to breka out fail, though some are comical if this was not so serious...

    Setsuna looks as they are trapped by the barrier and looks at the group, " Wait a minute. How did this happen?" The pause is given for a moment before he finishes, " We?re smarter than this. This shouldn't be happening." Finally he reaches out and touches the barrier for a moment before his hands become surrounded in darkness and then looks at the puppy, " Oh beast who guards the underworld. Show them what a barrier truly is." The cerberus becomes engulfed in dark magic before it begins to claw at the field, like it really needs to get out and go do it's business.

It would seem that whatever dark magics the Gnolls are using has warped in its own ways, making it difficult for even the experienced arcanist in the group to dissert its structure. It's likely a sign of Yeenagi's influence on their ways, working more demonic traits into the magic they're using. Eventually the group just resorts to hammering several strong attacks into the barrier to break it the old fashioned way. Hopefully having to expend that energy won't bite them in the collective rear later on...

Now the forest is starting to become corrupt looking again. Then outright demolished on top of that. The cause? A pitch black and absolutely ginormious gnoll, branches and even broken parts of entire trees jutting out of his fur like massive cockleburrs. He was just thrashing about in a feral tantrum, but when the Adventurers come into view his attention is immeadiately on them. Spittle the size of buckets splay from his maw as he roars and starts stomping heavily towards them, making it clear just what the rest of the forest area got ransacked by.

Shiruba's ears slick back against her hair. "That is one -really- big Gnoll... like high gnolltitude huge..."

"Good God, that's a big gnoll," Prophylaxis mutters not-quite-under-his-breath. Of course, Shiruba said much the same already anyway. The doctor gestures with his staff, bidding the land around him to gather up into sizable boulders. With another flick of his wrist, they go sailing into the distance, pelting the colossus with explosive cannonballs...!

Unfortunately, he is very, VERY large, and the doctor only has so much mp...

Under normal circumstances, Mikage wouldn't expend quite so much mana before reaching the end boss of an encounter, but the group seems to be struggling enough that it becomes necessary. Even Rama has a bit of a droop to his ears.

It's an exhaustion that extends into a look of disbelief at the entirely too large Gnoll that awaits them. "Alright... well, let's do this."

She starts to pull elemental energy, trying to create an area that will slow down the large Gnoll by channeling powers of light into the area. it flickers up in runic symbols on the ground, but it seems to be draining her mana quite quickly. "Can't hold this too long." She admits, even as Rama's fur spikes up from the elemental energy spend.

"That is a big frickin' gnoll," Haru observes similar to Proph as he steps into the thing's shadow. What isn't in its shadow? Titan gnoll. Supermassive. Somewhere out there it may have a child, black gnoll sun, a bard in training in a sound garden. Unlikely! Haru keeps a steady stream of ranged arcane bolts at the thing. It has a tough natural defense and it comes down to chip damage again and again. "Probably has barriers too that just eats up the damage," the Artificer says, wailing on the thing with what feels like a stream of magic pebbles in comparison to its size.

    Setsuna looks at the giant gnoll with a grin, "Your big." Looking over at at his pet he grins and then looks back at the gnoll, "Caught bigger." Setsuna crouches and buries his hands into the dirt for a moment as he begins to channel necrotic energy into the ground and from the ground rises a mass amount of bones of the fallen, some of them so old they are petrified and build a tight cage around the gnoll locking it down for the time being. "Whatever anyone else is going to do please do it!" There is some urgency in his voice.

    Fuka looks over at Setsuna. "Are we? Are we really?" she asks dubiously. They ARE trapped after all. It takes some time, but they do manage to finally free themselves, at which point the gnoll adversaries have made themselves scarce.

    Fuka's a little concerned by this. What's the point of a delaying trap? It wasn't an ambush. Then... *stomp* *stomp* *stomp*.... She nods to Shiruba. "Large of ass and foul of ... uh, everything?" she tries, actually intimidated. Well, sure, she's not *always* a size queen! Sometimes bigger truly isn't better!

    Not really sure how to approach the situation, Fuka calls upon the power of earth to armor the party with thorns. It's not the most effective approach, really. It's quite possible this supermassive gnoll won't even feel the thorns as it pastes them mightily.

    "Hey wait I know this game! We need to jump and climb up it and stab it in the top of the head!" Fuka cries out abruptly. "Or maybe just run away! This looks like a terrible idea!"

Yeowang has pretty much no fear in this game, she's used to problems that are within her capability level of handling. This is why she rushes the giant gnoll and attempts her usual karate routine on his ankle, which is about all she can reach. It does not affect him, and he does not note her as a threat. Not that it keeps it from attacking her, but it doesn't go after her specifically, just thrashing around. Well that, at least, is something, though her inability to hurt it is troublesome. She looks at it more closely, and ... it needs some sort of magic to help.

This is pretty frustrating for her she will try a ritual from her shadowfist menu that will maybe allow her to hurt it. No, that didn't help. This magic business is frustrating. Do people really do this? Why?

Gwen is big she's very big as far as people go and now they run inro a massie Gnoll a Gnoll so big she feels as smol as Fuka normally does she suspects. She doe not have things go well against the monster it does not go well at all as she moves in. It takes a moment fore her to get in as she slams her sword into the ground.

"GRAND CROSS!"

Holy energy bleeds out of Gwen in the form of across, she's using her very HP to fuel this attal but the woods are so tained her holy power is just drowned out by the night in the end leavin her panting worn and hurt for little to show for it.

"Holy crap that thing is huge!" Kaydon, helpful as ever, manages to point out something that everybody else can see. He's not able to get within melee range of the thing, so instead he throws knives and daggers at it, trying his best to hit it in weak points when he can. It's not nearly as effective as if he could get up close and personal with it.

Setsuna uses his power over monsters to try and stall the supermassive gnoll though it's size makes it difficult to bind it for long. Mikage makes the monstrousity see the light, which seems to burn through it's unnaturally dark hide in a blistering display. Shiruba even hits with one of her super lightning arrows, though even the arcs of electricity can't entirely cover it's girth. Multiple other attacks don't even seem to phase the gnollgatuant horror. Not even the rock cannon. They're not going to be able to fight through this.

"Everyone scatter, now!" Shiruba shouts. If they all run around the giant fiend in different directions, they still have the advantage of being smaller and faster to get away from him. Hopefully.

The supermassive black gnoll stops, growls something in annoyance, and tries to turn around to chase after them again... but his size makes just turning an awkward motion, and instead he tumbles over backwards. It's like a giant distorted ebony version of that one candy movie's inflation scene, his stubby limbs wobbling haphazardly in his prone position.

As the group is not being persued, they can slow down and make sure they continue farther through the woods without farther incidents, especially now that Shiruba has enough time to take out her map again and help lead the way. Until finally the horrid visage of the blood and bone decorated cave rises before them. Shiruba points at it. "That's it! That's the cave I saw the cultists sneak into." It is somewhat odd that there are no guards posted outside.

But once the group enters it is easy to see why. They aren't needed. There is a huge door here, and after walking up to inspect it with her hand, Shiruba mutters. "Magically sealed. No way to bypass it," she points at one of the indentations, "without the proper keys. Hmmm. Let's look around for clues." BUT NO SPLITTING UP. This is serious business, not a wacky cartoon mystery.

Investigating eventually leads the group down a side path and into a cavern with a pool of water. And a lot of dead creatures stewn about. Sea creatures. "This.. must connect out to the coastline, somehow. I'm not sure how far inland we still ar--" Shiruba's musing is interrupted by a slosh of water in the pool, and she barely scrambles out of the way of the form emerging. While it still resembles a Gnoll, it has distinct gills on the side of the neck and scales in patches where one wouldn't expect. A low growl has a gurgling sound as it raises an absolutely massive, rusted weapon and splashes forward through the water, intent upon adding the Adventurers to its morbid collection...

Haru takes a fair amount of a beating with the great gnollitude. He kicks back a health potion when it is all over. "o/` Nobody gnolls, the trouble we've seen. Nobody gnolls, the boss fight o/`" he says, whistling some levity into the deep dark woods. The boss can't be too far away with the tension raising where it is. Haru is positively delighted to see what it might be so that it can be layed low and the lands more secure for a time. He wonders if the dark festival has anything to do with how strong these things are.

A cave? Gore? Blood? If it isn't /the/ big guy, its at least a big eater. Time to go down and greet it. Haru takes a step back when the creature emerges from the water. "Alright then," he says staring up at it, "get wrecked." A foot stomps onto the ground, crackling it around him in a tremor as his casting stones turn a deep slate color. "Terra. Vocare. Terebro. Numerus. Terebrare. Hostis." Stones from the cave rise and form to a central Earth summon. Arms are vrring to a rhythmic tune, bursting out of their shell as the emerald eyes of the four meter tall companion thunk thunk thunks after the Water fiend.

By the time they find their way into the cave, realizing that it leads to a door closed tight, Mikage is trying to catch her breath, digging through her inventory for any sort of mana potion she might be able to find. In the end, she finds an absolutely tiny one that leaves her frowning at it. "Why did Cyrus even make one this small?"

She chugs it back anyways, looking as her mana bar barely moves. "Shit." Well, there isn't much else to do than face down whatever is waiting for them.

The sight of the gill-wearing Gnoll has her scrunching her nose, though. "These things are getting more and more messed up." Looking to Rama, she draws out her bow, taking a deep breath. "Let's try to keep moving, I'll see what I can do about frying the fish-gnoll."

Moving quickly, Mikage starts to fire arrow after arrow, each one casting the lowest mana lightning spell she can manage with her limited reserves left, trying to spread out the damage and electrify the pool, causing some kind of damage over time.

"You don't need to tell me twice!" That gnoll is-- way, WAY too big of a problem to take down with conventional tactics. Even with a party this large, with as much firepower as they can pack, there's just no getting around the fact that the monster has scads of health and isn't even the thing they're here to kill. If it were, maybe they could have put in just a little more effort to see it fall, but...

No. Eyes on the prize.

"Blood and bone," Prophylaxis mutters to himself, not as a curse but rather as an observation. It's not impossible that The Beast's hand is at work here, but... "Would they serve both demons /and/ the Beast? And Lupusregina on top of that? That's a lot of masters to please..." A sealed door. Troubling. "If the cultists are anywhere, it's probably in there, wouldn't you think?" But there's no getting in there right now. The doctor wipes his brow, a fine mist of sweat having beaded there over the past little while, but he feels a clammy chill there, too. There's moisture in the air, and the distant sound of waves crashing against the rocks.

And something else coming as well.

"What the hell. It's like someone fused a gnoll with a merman!" And the party is spent, exhausted even. Can they fight something like this now...?

Oh. Wait.

That's right.

"Kick its ass," Prophylaxis intones forcefully, his staff slamming into the ground as... A pulse of regenerative energy floods into each and every member of the party, sending their health bars skyrocketing alongside a persistent regenerative buff, "I'll keep you all topped off for as long as I'm able. Go for the throat, and don't let it get away!"

    Setsuna follows along and looks around casually, a bit annoyed at the sealed door. "Can't believe we didn't find a key to the door yet. Isn't that how these things work?" Then of course they come upon the giant water gnoll thing. Taking a moment he launches a barrage of earth at the beast but his shots go wide and hit nothing minor. "Well that was not great." Looking at the others, "Hey did anyone bring a toaster?"

Gwen is given the waning to scatter that saves her from ending up like Yamcha, no crater with a gwen shaped impression today. She will fall back with the others avoding a grim fate as noted. She move she flees she can't win this one and the good new is they get what they seem to be looking for. They found more demon gnolls she wasn't sure what they wanted. It didn't matter really what the were up to only that the Gnoll like thing needt to be taken out.

"They are breeding with fishmen?! What Mad god thought up this idea!"

Wiuth that she's chanting and letting lose with the wind spells.

Gwen calls back to Setsuna "I could but I'd fry us too!"

    Fuka snickers at Haru's singing, always up for some levity. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall. What an ignollble end." she adds, chortling as they leave the giant to pursue their true and final objective.

    It seems to Fuka that her prayers, such as they were, have been answered. A watery opponent. "I gnoll just the thing for this!" she cries, yanking her sword around to brandish it fiercely. The sword thus revealed is almost as long as Fuka is tall (which isn't saying much), and the blade is shaped like a jagged lightning bolt.

    She charges in, hacking away at the boss. Then she triggers the runes she embedded in the blade, releasing air mana into the weapon and sending the mana out the blade as an arc of lightning.

    Okay so, using lightning on a water-based boss is a good idea. Being actually TOUCHING water to deliver the strike though, probably not the best tactical positioning ever. Fuka's contribution to damage is decent, but she manages to zap herself as well, and she's not nearly as tough as a boss monster. Fortunately for her, she's not here alone!

When the call comes to scatter, she will scatter. She has no way to hurt this monster, and it is only a matter of time before a lucky strike will smash her. We manage to evade it, then, and find our way to what seems to be the destination. But we can't get where we need to go? Clues? Surely we can ... oh, a side passage, okay...

But then we find ourselves in a cavern with a pool of water and dead critters ... decoration, since normally monsters despawn? But that's not he complicated part. The compicated part is the watery gnoll emerging from the pool. She thinks about this. So many things that we couldn't fight, or could, if we fought the rigght way. But this one ... she uses her special shadowfist skill to analyze it, gaining insight into its weaknesses, and -then- she attacks. It's still a hard fight, but she can at least do damage, hitting it with punches and kicks. She will not give up easily after all we've been through, and the fast attacks seem to contibute to the overall party damage, which she wasn't doing vs the giant thing.

Fleeing the giant gnoll is not Kaydon's first plan, but it seems to be the best plan right now. Eventually it gets brought down, and they manage to regroup and locate the cave Shiruba had seen.

Kaydon tries the door a few different times, but it seems like it's to no avail. He kicks it, "Doors suck." He mutters, before he follows the rest of the group down the other path, towards the pool, "Is it ocean water?" He asks, though he doesn't get to find out the answer as the big gnoll mermaid thing bursts out of the pool.

Still he's quick on the draw, literally this time, as he brings his gunblade to bear as he crosses the distance between himself the creature, the strike sending an explosion from the mastercrafted gunblade as it channels the magic into the wave arte. He repeats the strike, from a different direction, dancing around the creature as he strikes, backing away to swap with one of the other fighters and allow himself to reload the cartridges in his gunblade.

"An amphibious Gnoll," Shiruba mutters in both awe and disgust at the gills visbily flittering on the monster's neck. "They're fusing themselves with more than just demonic powers now!" Getting against a back wall, and finding even that isn't entirely safe from his sweeping attacks and splashing water, decides to improvise. She nocks an arrow and fires it, not at the boss directly, but into the ground and making a large lump of stone rise up. She repeats a few more times. She's creating wave breakers to dampen some of the force in those water swells, and provide people with platforms to stand on and fight the semi-aquatic boss.

The battle against Lochcairan is no simple matter. He not only has multiple health bars, but he seems to fight both inside and outside of the water. This means that there are massive attacks that utilize that watery pool, threatening to suck Adventurers down into it or slam them hard enough that they impact the chamber walls. However, the Party is able to persevere even while taking quite a bit of damage in the process. Something in the water behind the monstrous Gnoll seems to shift, causing it to glow red. Bubbles begin to form as if the water were boiling. The creature seems about to unleash some final ability against them when the last hint of health is taken and he stops in his tracks, falling back into the water and sinking below. Blue crystals can be seen gleeming in the wake, and then nothing but empty abyss beyond...

Panting a few times to catch her breath, Shiruba walks over and picks up on of the gems. "Lets gather these up, they may be relevant later."

When the monster finally falls, Mikage drops to her knees, absolutely spent. Rama props her up under one arm. "Fuck Cyrus and his tiny mana potions." Oh, she probably doesn't mean it. Maybe.

She grabs for one of the stones, tucking it into her inventory before pushing up to her feet, transforming Dawnbreaker back into a slightly mechanical looking rod that she puts in a holster along her back.

"I don't have the mana to go any further, so let's try to work our way back without drawing the attention of even more weird-ass Gnolls." She suggests. Rama agrees with a feline yowl.

Finally, the monster goes down. The doctor sighs, his damn near empty mana bar a testament to just how close that was. He finds his way over to the blue crystals and peers long and hard into its depths. His eyes glow with arcane power before he finally pockets one of the gems. "It's some kind of keystone," he explains, "I'd wager that we'll need a few of these, plus some of at least two more colors to get that door back there open. We're in no shape to be hunting around for another gnoll to slay now, though. Let's head back and rest up. Pushing ourselves is... obviously not a great idea right now."

    Setsuna looks over at the Cerberus who is starting to growl at him and all the necromancer can do is pop more mana potions. "I know I know, you get grouchy when I am low on mana. Mana hungry three headed brat." Looking over at the others he yawns, "Ok so we come back another day and nuke everything a few times and then charge the boss. Got it."

Haru needs to take a few breaths after that battle. It was a long one and left his health and mana reserves both on the low side. He holds the key, one of the spoils, and looks at it with his amethyst monocle. Each one of his stones begins to circle around it as the two work together, creating a matrix of black-line light around the object. "Safe wager," Haru tells Proph, thinking similar. "We will be at this for a while now." The white semicircles around his monocle light up, performing an appraisal. Once he has what he can gather the light fades. The Ioun Stones go back to his side and he puts the item away into his inventory. "A good showing and good results to show for it."

    Recovering from zapping herself, not to mention having tanked a few hits from the boss, Fuka's a bit groggy now both with pain and mana loss. Good thing they had Proph here. Good thing the group was so capable in general. This was a near thing indeed.

    After a bit she picks up one of the crystals, musing thoughtfully. "So there's probably other gnollbuddys running around these forests we'll have to kill huh?" she asks rhetorically. "yeah, maybe another day, another big son of a bitch to fry. I wonder if that giant is one of those we'll have to kill?"

Gwen says "Do you need me to neogate with him to make btetter ones?" She grins. "I could leave him alone with Morri for a bit." With that said She pauses "So who wants some food! I brought some with me! Dumplings sure but it's fresh!"