Duty Session 496: No Game Gnoll Life

Since the Apocalypse, a specific section of forest in the Isle of Beginnings has become known as the Gnoll Forest. Though many monsters close to the central island of Yamato are lower level, and perfect for lower level parties, this location has become an anomaly. Even approaching the location, there are obvious signs that this place has been overrun.

The trees are largely barren, with anemic branches reaching up towards the skyline in densely packed clusters. From these trees, a variety of warnings have been hung to ward off further trespassing from Adventurers. There are human and monster skulls with rope run through the hollow eye cavities. Bloodied and twisted Adventurer equipment is stabbed through on pikes. All around the area, the refuse of so many dead has been left here, making the location eerie and ominous.

Uta is looking at a skull, some sort of macabre arboreal pendant. She rubs her chin, disquieted, and mutters to herself, "...I wonder if it's a Lander or an Adventurer skull. We Adventurers aren't supposed to leave drops. And Landers... uh..." Pause. Blink. She turns around, with a frown. "Wait a minue, this is not the Clinic of Tolbana!" She lets out a -massive- sigh of relief. "Thanks goodness! The situation of the patients was looking -really- dire..."

Shiruba is on the hunt one more. Because the gnoll problem wasn't going to take care of itself. And it was frustrating that they had to repeatedly deal with this locked door mechanic requiring multiple lootings to open instead of just getting to the source of the problem.

Though the first thing she comes across in getting a group together is not a Gnoll but a Very Lost Spriggan looking for the clinic. ".. Really, Uta?" At least she's on the right continent this time but still. "How do you--" Then shakes her head. "Nevermind. But since you're here, we could use someone with medical capability while dealing with the demonic Gnoll infestation."

Soujiro Seta remembers this place. The Samurai spent a lot of time here back when the levels were reset to go do his early level grinding. Not often do you get to level yourself back up from 1 unless the game features it, and getting to redo it with Elder Tales was great. So it is disturbing to see the state of the area be so macabre. "I hope that they did not lose much and fought well," he says as he heads over to the Adventurer equipment that is strewn around as a warning. "Nor lose love of the land with this situation," he looks to the others here. Slaying gnolls is always better with people. He gives a warm smile. A warm 'lets kill some gnolls and put their heads on spikes' smile. No sparkles.

Schneider always sweatdrops when Uta observes things and what she was expecting. "But, all dead people despawn," he notes to Uta. "So, skulls have to come from some sort of Create Skulls power that the mobs have. They wouldn't belong to anyone, that way, of course," Schneider considers, off on this macabre tangent. "Or maybe it's a ritual you can do on a gravestone that produces a skull. It'd have to be an adventurer, then..."

Kaydon had been patrolling around the outside of the gnoll forest, working on making sure his gunblade was top notch. The advance on Shibuya had been delayed, so he had to find other things to do in the mean time, "It's best not to think about it, it's just a game mechanic." Kaydon offers, as he wanders up on the group< "You guys going into the forest proper? Been wanting to do it, but I don't wanna go in there solo. Even I'm not that good."

"It is a sad situation, yes..." Uta comments, looking around. "I never knew this place before the Apocalypse, but as a member of Crescent Moon, it is my duty to help the newbies in any way I can, so. Hm. One of these days I should take the quest to deal with the demonic Gnoll infest-" Blink at Shiruba. "Oh, right! You just offered that! I accept!" She swipes her menu open. "How do I accept, again?"

The mention of medical skills might make Soujiro Seta notice a thing -- unlike last time, where it was Gwen wearing a Nurse's uniform, this time it's Uta. And the others will notice that it's an upgraded version since her Strange mood.

She looks between Schneider and Kaydon at their explanations about skulls, and nods a lot in acknowledgement, before swiping her menu again and materializing her staff. Onwards!

The Adventurers travel deeper into the forest, ignoring the warnings that the Gnolls have hung in the trees. They soon find themselves on what looks to be a perfectly normal stretch of woodland path. It is eerily quiet, with no bird sounds or hints of other animal life within the trees or underbrush. Everything seems a little too still, a little too perfect.

That is when light glints onto a bit of fine thread in one of the tree branches. Once the first trap is spotted, it becomes more obvious that there are others all along the forest path. Some are easier to spot, while others are well hidden.

It will take a keen eye, skilled hands, and quick feet to spot, disarm, or avoid the traps and get through this area of forest without drawing undue attention.

"It is a sad situation, yes..." Uta comments, looking around. Now that she attempts to raise her voice loud enough to be heard, as opposed to mumble, it turns out to be hoarse. "I never knew this place before the Apocalypse, but as a member of Crescent Moon, it is my duty to help the newbies in any way I can, so. Hm. One of these days I should take the quest to deal with the demonic Gnoll infest-" Blink at Shiruba. "Oh, right! You just offered that! I accept!" She swipes her menu open. "How do I accept, again?"

The mention of medical skills might make Soujiro Seta notice a thing -- unlike last time, where it was Gwen wearing a Nurse's uniform, this time it's Uta. And the others will notice that it's an upgraded version since her Strange mood.

She looks between Schneider and Kaydon at their explanations about skulls, and nods a lot in acknowledgement. She occasionally pinches her forehead, as if she had a migraine, but she pushes on. Eventually, when they are done, she navigates her menu and simmers her staff into existence. Onwards!

The Adventurers travel deeper into the forest, ignoring the warnings that the Gnolls have hung in the trees. They soon find themselves on what looks to be a perfectly normal stretch of woodland path. It is eerily quiet, with no bird sounds or hints of other animal life within the trees or underbrush. Everything seems a little too still, a little too perfect.

That is when light glints onto a bit of fine thread in one of the tree branches. Once the first trap is spotted, it becomes more obvious that there are others all along the forest path. Some are easier to spot, while others are well hidden.

It will take a keen eye, skilled hands, and quick feet to spot, disarm, or avoid the traps and get through this area of forest without drawing undue attention.

Schneider nods to Uta, follows the group along to the odd clearing, proceeding past where the others have stopped. He turns to see what's keeping people, and falls into a pit trap. Climbing out, looking scruffy and down on HP, he nods about being careful, then trips a tripwire and gets a blast of fire in the face. He is, it seems, the designated trap tripper. If it wasn't for the high regen rate he maintains, he'd be hurting for HP. As it is, he's falling behind, but not too badly. It's embarassing, but what can you do? Other, than, like, train yourself to spot traps. Because that's way too obvious an answer.

Shiruba doesn't get into the topic about the skulls. It's -hopefully- just a set piece to establish ambient atmosphere for how foul and corrupted this section of the forest has become. "The thing to remember," she starts with the lowdown on this particular quest, "Is that we won't be dealing with typical Gnolls. There's magic uses, a sniper, those altered through various demonic rituals," she stops, ears raised. "And traps. Don't forget the traps."

Right as she herself stumbles over a root, and nearly falls into a pit. "Oof!" she grunts as she thumps against the dirt wall after managing to grab the edge barely, and drag herself back up. "Damn it, they've changed the layout since before. Monsters are not suppose to be smart enough to do that!" She's getting really annoyed at this demon cult being better than it should be.

Soujiro Seta does notice the change in Uta! He goes as far as to make a quick reference to how he thinks it is great that she is taking up Gwen's example, unbeknownst that the Kung Fu Nurse is, in fact, a Nurse! It is small talk chatter as the group heads furthr in. There is this general air of 'not serious' and 'safe' when Soujiro is around. Very peaceful samurai even though he is in his red armor right now that functions as Heavy armor type akin to platemail for the Sam/Ronin class. "We are, welcome aboard Kaydon." He gets the name from a quick inspect that has his eyes glance upwards. Always nice to see fellow fighters in the mix.

It is an uncanny trick of Souji's to have a certain knack for intuition and insight. Not super brainy, but more in tune with the present. It is the quietness that he observes. A scan of the eyes to notice them. "Traps," he announces. As for how everyone wants to deal with them, he doesn't say. He isnt a strategist! However he is very nimble as the dance-like advance sees the Samurai advancing without any self-doubt through the clear dangers with light, swift steps. He does not trip any traps himself and is surprisingly adept at avoiding those triggered by others. Its almost as if he can see three seconds into the future.

This time around Kaydon is not really able to do much to avoid the traps. After failing two in a row, he decides screw it and just powers his way through the rest. It's not pretty, but the gnoll were fang lives up to his Juggernaut title and forces his way through the traps the hard way. He will need to take a few moments to either get healed or drink some potions once they're past all the traps though.

"Gwen is, indeed, someone we all look up to," Uta comments. No irony in her voice (but, as said, lots of effort and some wincing). She seems to have missed her pun completely. "We all aspire to be as good as Gwen." And she goes on to explain how she's one of the experienced gamers she's trying to learn from. Also, how she's the one who designed her current Nurse's outfit. And that brings the conversation to Uta apologizing for not wearing a hat the last time they met.

Traps! Uta begins to scan the area for-

Forget that. She has to grimace and pinch the bridge of her nose. Migraine time!

And with the migraine, comes a trap and falling right into a hole in the ground.

"...help..."

After so many traps, the party of Adventurers is bound to be keeping an eye out for anything unusual as they delve deeper towards the heart of the Gnoll Woods. In the past, there had been many lower level Gnolls in this area, but they seem to have vacated, leaving behind only remnants of their passing.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an arrow flies down towards them from a small grassy hill nearby. A large Gnoll stands up, a pelt of grass across his back and his fur a distinct shade of green that had allowed him to blend in with his surroundings. A wicked looking bow is held in one hand, firing arrow after arrow towards the Adventurers.

That derp with the traps was a bit embarassing, but Shiruba quickly puts it behind her and forges ahead. This time she can at least prepare, nocking a particular arrow in her longbow as the group proceeds. Quietly she counts the steps past the field of traps... any moment now...

Wolf ears flare at the twang of a bow string in the distance, and she sidesteps the initial arrow. A quick glance at where it landed and at what angle, to calculate what hill in which direction and how far the grass-camo sniper is shooting from. Her own arrow is drawn back fully as she turns to face him, and fires. The distance makes it difficult to see, but there is a brief flicker in the air where the two arrows collide and Shiruba's superiorly sharp-tipped one splits right through the gnoll's!

Shiruba already has a second arrow nocked in her bow by that point, and fires again to intercept a second arrow. Her skill and training in Archery allows her to fire and reload more than fast enough to keep the interception shots coming until someone can blow that gnoll off his high ground.

Schneider comes under assault from the grass-covered gnoll on the grassy knoll. He grumbles, but this is what we're here for. But it's a tough target, with the range and concealment ... wait, screw that. He chants.

"Deep Doomsday. To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." Those that have adventured with him before know the deeping gloom presages fiery destruction, and he does not disappoint.

"MEGADETH!"

A horrific firestorm engulfs the gnolls position as best as Schneider can pinpoint it. He's off by a bit, but as they say, close /does/ count in hand grenades and nuclear war, which this seems to count as. The conflagration sends up a plume of smoke rather than a mushroom cloud, but that's probably just SFX.

Of course it is natural for Souji to help Uta out of a ditch, literal or figurative! The blue haired samurai ducks as a flaming spear trap goes over his head, lowering himself to reach down to give Uta a hand. All that training he does /all/ /the/ /time/ would make it look like he is off balance on the edge of the pit. But! He isn't! A strong hand to help hoist Uta up as a swinging log comes towards both of them. The blue eyed samurai turns to it, cleaving it in half with a blurr of steel from his katana, drawn fron its sheath as part of the strike. "You okay?" he asks. Sparkle.

Of course they are okay! Adventurers are tough! Mostly. That is going to be put to the test with a ranged fight going on. Ranged mobs: The bane of MMOs. It would be best to utilize cover and block line of sight. Does Soujiro do that? No. Instead he dashes forward, taking a vanguard approach to being at the point of an assault and drawing attention to himself as any good tank should. KATING! One of his katanas deflects an incoming arrow, another being dodged to the side as he rushes to close the gap. Nothing like applying pressure to ranged units when a dual katana wielding fighter rushing towards them with a look of joy and carnage in their eyes.

Uta, after being pulled out, stares in amazement at Soujiro Seta's prowess. "...Wow," she finally says. "...I understand why you have so many fans..."

Arrows! Arrows fly in! Uta's wings spring up as she hunches over and crosses her arms in front of herself, and with a raspy chant, tendrils of Darkness writhe around her, encasing her Spriggan figure into a chilling nightmarish aura. The Arrow that headed her way... is not quite -deflected-. It looks like it's sucked in, and spat out sideways, twisted and gnarled, in a way that, were it alive, would say 'please kill me'.

The writhing aura dissipates, and Uta, left there, looks around, confused, and comments, "...I thought there'd be a gazebo as well around here..."

Where there once were hundreds of lower level Gnolls who roved these woods, there seem to be far fewer now. Those that remain are seen almost as shadows in the distance, watching the Adventurers and then leaving behind eerie laughter as they dart away into the forest. They seem... wary.

Passing from the edge of the trees in a rough, circular clearing, the group soon finds that a group of these Gnolls have gathered on the outskirts, watching them. As soon as the last of them have stepped forward, it seems to activate some kind of trap. Dark magic looms up from an arcane circle on the ground, trapping the Adventurers within.

It will take some knowledge of magical traps such as this, or at least some raw arcane abilities to be able to discern how to escape.

Kaydon seems to have not accounted for the sniper after the traps, because while he is in the middle of downing one of his healing potions he takes an arrow straight to his right shoulder, which knocks him to the ground. He lays there dazed for a couple of moments, but eventually picks himself up and joins back in the fight with the others.

Once that fight has finished, they manage to move on, only to stumble into yet another trap, "If I ever find the guys who taught them how to make traps, I swear.." He decides to attack the magical dome around them with one of his swords, it doesn't really seem to do much of anything though, "Could we dig our way out, maybe?"

If there was a gazebo here, it's a smoking ruin now. Megadeath doesn't leave much behind, landscape-wise. buildings, mountains, things like that often don't survive. But. Moving forward once the smoke is cleared, it seems like we're walking from one trap to the next. "If we could be a bit more proact-" he cuts off as once again the trap is sprung.

These gnolls aren't as bad as the sniper, but they're annoying as the party works out way out of the trap. He's got to dig up so much of the book learning he's picked up in the game to work out the how and what of getting the hell out of here.

"Ahaha," Souji does the humble laugh at the notion of having so many fans. Its true. Somewhere out there is a fan club writing fan fiction about him. Not that Souji would openly admit it. He is happy so see so many smiling faces. Or in the case of his enemies: the x.x faces. "If we find a gazebo, we must attack it," he asides to Uta, familiar with the old dungeon crawling meme. He would return his gamer card if he did not know of the infamous gazebo encounter!

Another trap! Souji does not fall directly into it so much as is a footstep away from being locked in place with magical paralysis debuffing. There goes that sixth sense again. He trusts in his instincts, not really /understanding/ the trap so much as navigating around its triggers or bursting Light Artes from his hand to delay the reaction. It keeps the debuff from sticking on him as he makes his way through and in so doing avoids the additional trap steps of being hit by damaging effects. He is expecting something on the other side to turn off, like a switch, but alas it isnt that kind of trap! Not that he notices at least. Magical trap!

Shiruba jumps back with a start as the magic field crackles into life around them. Followed by a hmph of annoyance. She tries to analyze what's going on with the spell but once again comes upon the issue with it being straight Scripture induced and not the Cryptography she's more familiar with, rendering little aid from her effort to the others. Good thing they've got a literary professional with!

Spriggans, Creatures of Darkness. As soon as she is ensnared by the dark restraints of the trap, Uta is not devastated by it; she is mobile enough to give them a couple tentative tugs. Arcane chills are sent her way. "Oh, hey, nice," she says, with a smile. As a Spriggan, Dark is second nature to her, so she seems less fazed than the others. "Looks like a runic bramble," she croaks. "As the name says, there should be runes around her...a-HA!"

There they are, the runes!

Uta takes some time to study them; she even has to stop a few times to wince and grimace. Headaches must be coming back. But, eventually, she seems to nod in comprehension, and with another raspy chant, fwoosh. The Dark Constraints that were binding her in place are sucked back into the runic rocks. "And just to be on the safe side..." She swings her staff, and- WHACK! Off goes one rune-inscribed rock. WHACK, WHACK, WHACK!

There go three more rocks...

Further into the forest, the true effect of the Gnoll presence becomes more omnipresent. The ground earth beneath their feet has tar-black color to it and the little foliage that surrounds them all seems to be withered and gray. Not only that, but the aggression flag remains, suggesting that there are unseen enemies all around them.

Well, perhaps not entirely unseen. First there is one Gnoll that steps out from the trees, then a second identical one that emerges from the other side. The two unsheath weapons, one a sword and the other wicked looking mace. Both are absolutely enormous for their kind, with black markings snaking up from their hands across their arms. The pair have clearly been tainted by whatever force infects this place. As the dark markings come to life, glowing rings of elemental energy surround both of them.

One ignites rings of fire, seeming to wield them with wicked strikes and quick motions. The other utilizes swirling vortexes of wind energy, lashing them out at range. Using counter-elements seems the best way of breaking through these magical wards and defeating the trouble-twins.

Schneider is going into this fight without much of a plan except to fight as hard as he can. But the attacker keeps hitting him with health drains. Luckily, this is the regernation champion of the world, or he is in his origin anime. Here, he's just a cobbled together character with some of the characteristics. But one of them is a fierce regeneration which conuters the health debuff, and lets Schneider concentrate on DPSingh the bastard down without his health running out. It's a narrow thing, but the party is eventually successful with the complicated fight.

Gnolls with burning rings of fire? Alright Johnny, time for the west to meet the east! Soujiro, Water Breathing technique, First Form: Dice up Gnolls... with water! His two katanas get imbued with a blue-white light as he heads on in to start taking the fire gnoll. A wide slide into the in front of him sends waves of crashing water in the creature's direction that follow along the line of the slashes. The sword dance continues with every upward slash, like crashing waves upon the shore of his foe. The Samurai presses a steady amount of damage and pressure onto the foe, getting damage returned in kind as he exploits the fire-water elemental weakness.

Shiruba emits a growling noise as the two giant Gnolls that are clearly demonically tainted by the dark scrawls across their forms stomp onto the field, and start whipping up their elemental attunements. One with fire, the other with air. Naturally one would consider countering elemental attacks, but she gets a twidge in the back of her mind that maybe a direct opposite isn't the best option, they're going to possible expect that.

Instead Shiruba draws one of her lightning rod arrows from her quiver, nocks it in Thundersnow Howl, and draws back to start charging up electrical power in the projectile until it's glow is turning a reddish orange color. "You know what happens to a Gnoll in a thunderstorm?" She takes aim, holding the building energy as long as she can, then fires. "VERMILLION HARPOON!"

The wind gnoll probably wasn't expecting a similar force being used against them. But the harpoon's piercing effect spears right through the elemental defenses and into the Gnoll. The chain of lightning surges that erupt from the arrow, upon a foe already super charged with Air magic, results in more or less overloading the Gnoll until the uncontainable energy burns him apart from within.

"That."

Magic was never really Kaydon's best weapon, he couldn't actually control it. He could do sword artes, but against ranged mages, that always lead to problems. He was attempting to counter the one using the fire magic with his own sword, getting in close to use a water-based arte, but he mis-times it, and winds up getting blasted full on in the face with the ring of flames, having to retreat back a bit in order to re-orient himself, and then rush in again when a chance presents itself.

Uta is visibly distressed and needs to rest her voice. So, what she does instead, is launch into a martial arts kata to avoid the incoming blows, and then, she begins to spin her staff, faster, and faster, and faster... until it generates a tornado strong enough to at least match the opponents' force, and slowly, very slowly, overpower them.

The party is successful in defeating the opponents, and after a long time of traveling through the dangers of the Gnoll Woods, they eventually stumbles upon a massive cave structure that was previously discovered by an intrepid Adventurer. This seems to be the heart of the Gnoll problem, as it radiates a feeling of dark magic and there are web-like black lines that emerge from the mouth of the cave and snake through the ground, stretching off into the rest of the forest. The entire area is strewn with blood and gore. Claws have dug deep into stone and bones are littered everywhere.

Upon entering the cave, they discover what appears to be a locked door which seems to contain notches set into it. This does not seem to be able to be picked or forced open, held tight shut by some sort of magical force.

So, they are left to explore one of the side passages. It is in one of these that they come upon a massive pool of water that seems to be eerily still. It is encircled by gruesome bits of mutilated sea creatures, each of which dangles from the walls, pinned there by tridents or spears. Some even appear to still be alive, still twitching.

Then, from the water, a massive creature climbs up, as if it had been somewhere underneath, waiting for them. 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.

There's that stupid door again. Kaydon takes a moment to tap against it with one of his hands, "I should bug Scale about just setting up some explosives." He murmers to himself, before turning and continuing down the path. Until the encounter with the massive waterlogged gnoll.

Now knowing how to make weapons means you know what weaknesses weapons have. And a weapon like that, rusty and jagged as it is, has a lot of them. Kaydon stands still for a few moments, musing as he looks over the weapon. He knows he can break that thing, he just has to find the right way to hit it in order to break it.

He holds, for just a moment, as the creature comes towards them, and then he springs into action. This hybrid gnoll will have to face one that is an adventurer, and Kaydon fully intends to show which is better. He rushes up, slashing at it's leg with the hidden blade, and then swinging around the side. He spotted a perfect spot to slam his weapon into that rusted one, where it will give way to the superior steel that Kaydon has meticulously crafted.

The intent is simple: To live up to his Blade Breaker moniker and shatter Lochcairan's weapon into bits.

Well the door is still locked. Expected, but still disappointing. The group has to once more venture into the side passages.

More disappointing is when they finally find the chamber at the end of one, and it has a pool of water in it. Shiruba emits a dog-like whine of frustration. "Aaaaw, I already passed this challenge. Maybe we can backtrack an--" No such luck as the amphibious gnoll leaps out of the water. "--Dang it! There was a small hope he wouldn't respawn."

Welp, boss fight is still a boss fight. But this time, being a monster Shiruba has fought before, Lochairan is at a disadvantage, and the hunt is on!

Shiruba circles part way around the chamber, keeping back to the edge to stay out of the water's tidal current. While doing so she starts shooting, using her crystal tipped arrows to knock rocks off the ceiling to hit Lochcairan from above and disrupt his attack patterns.

Occasionally the water still manages to catch and throw her around, but after getting slammed into the wall the Cait Sith is back on her feet and back at it. There's time to worry about being hurt and tired afterwards!

Schneider is an Exploder Wizard, it's true, but there's spells that work against soaking wet monstrosities of the deep, and fire is not a great effect against the Creature from the Black Lagoon. But Water does present an option from Schneider's stash of spells, and he casts, "Pact of Kiss upon the altar, blood of spirits, do not falter, Rain down the lightning! Tesla!"

Eletricity arcs across the surface of the creature, every tingle zapping some of its HP, and Schneider smirks wryly, because that's a far better effect than he'd been expecting. Sometimes when you throw mana at a problem, it sticks.

The door is a whole new challenge for Soujiro. Its clear in his eyes, one who loves a challenge and content like this, that he has made seeing what is beyond it a high priority on his list. Especially if such foul enemies are part of the issue. "We will have to keep killing him until he gets the message," the samurai tells Shiruba. Immediately he does a burst dash up towards the Boss to adopt his Vanguard tanking stance. Its an interesting style to see as it focuses on counter attacks so that each attack directed towards him helps contribute to the overall damage output of the party. He has a natural regeneration and the evasion methods keep him well sustained. A well balanced front liner.

The weapon of the boss come crashing down onto Soujiro, getting a heavy deflect to the side with one of his katanas. He spins. Another. Another. Like a top he repeats it over and over during opening to disable the boss until he finally gets through and debuffs the boss through 'breaking' his weapon. This will make staying in the front even easier. The samurai grins, shifting his stance to more offensive now that his health bar does not need to be as worried about of the harder strikes in the boss' rotation. The man loves boss battles and raids.

The wise thing, at this point, would be to keep one's distance and cast ranged magical attacks until the monster goes down, right?

Right.

Yet, Uta runs up, leaps in the air, and keeps roundhouse kicking the monster in whatever counts as his face. One! Two! Thr-

*SLAM*!

Into a wall she goes. "...UGH, NO! I needed to land four more hits to meet my quota of HP! Four more-"

KNOCK

One runic rock flies in from who knows where, ricocheting against the walls of stone, and ends up hitting the monster right in the face.

"Wait, is that...", goes Uta.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Three runic rocks ricochet in in rapid succession.

Seems like Uta met her quota.

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.

The water falls silent again, then starts to drain away, leaving behind only a few crystals at the bottom of the pool, and an ominous hole into some dark fathoms below.

Uta, tired and low in HP, peels herself off the wall she'd been slammed against earlier on, and approaches the now dry pool.

"Oh, hey. Looks like we've found the drain of the bathtub..." She turns to Shiruba. "Think you can learn more about it?"

"It probably leads to some underground resevoir connected to the ocean somehow," Shiruba replies. "Allowing him to heal, be spawned again, whatever. We're dealing with demon worshippers, after all. But trying to follow him would be a bad idea, when we don't know for sure where it comes out. Or if it's entirely underwater, or..." Shiruba decides it's better to distract the Spriggan, pointing at the crystals. "There, those are the sapphires that are needed to form one of the three keystones to unlock the door."

Schneider is panting and bleeding by the time the fight is over, and he's about lightninged out. "I think I do need to work on that, maybe." He's put off self-improvement for a while, or rather, he's been focused on the one he can't get. But the fight is one, and he holds up the keystone thing. "So, this is what we're here for?" He looks at it. Hrm.