Duty Session 501: No Game Gnoll Life

Gnolls. At this point in the gnollpocalypse it is understood that the Gnolls over in this part of the forrest are not your typical gnolls. They are bigger, badder, more corrupted, and preying on younger Adventurers who should have a more level appropriate experience in this region. It is as if someone took the wrong turn in a Dark Souls game judging by change in the landscape. Trees are largely barren. Anemic branches reach towards the skyline in packged clusters. Warning with carved, blackened bones hand from the treeds to ward off further trespassing. Human and monster skulls hang there through the hollow eye cavities. They clatter against each other with a foul wind.

Fowl wind? Soujiro is here with his Cluck Clucks. Why do Cluck Clucks follow Soujiro? It is a mystery. Maybe his secret skill is to magnetize these birds towards him. The Samurai is wearing his red combat armor today, lowering to pet the cluckers and letting them know, "I'll be fine. We need to keep this place safe so you can graze here. I won't be alone." One Clucks in disbelief. Another clucks, its n-n-not like it cares. The mass clucking starts before they begin to waddle away. Standing up, the front line fighter takes stock of the area. The people. The request was out to go 'hunting' today in Gnoll Man's Land. Perfect chance to apply training, experience gains, and establish peace during the already tense wartime.

Schneider has joined the quest to blow up the gnolls, because they're big and ugly and an affront to Dark Schneider and handsome heroes everywhere. Well, that's the official purpose. The mundane reason is it's a fun game and he's helping out his friends. And of course surppressing the gnolls while the Palace Landers are around is tactically important. The Palace Landers are froggy lately, and so keeping the gnolls on the back foot will hopefully keep us from having to deal with two major problems at once. Also, they're walking XP. It's a bit risky, but he's no longer the sort of noob the forest was intended for, whose tombstone markers still show up occasionally. No, the Exploder Wizard is, as the old song says, an arsenal of doom.

It is to the surprise of no one to find Shiruba here, ready to venture into the breach of the Gnoll Forest once more as soon as she heard another venture was being put together to do so. She's been determined to see this problem through to it's conclusion, but that final keystone has still eluded her. But the gnolls can only keep it hidden for so long. She WILL find it eventually, no true hunter or explorer will be so easily dissauded. She takes a moment to adjust the tension of the line on her bow. "Anyone need a rundown on the first few obstacles we tend to come across, or has everyone else done this enough times by now to know?"

Gnolls, once again. Prophylaxis has come once again in his quest to burn the gnollish menace out from the Land of Beginnings for good, which is of course assuming that they can actually track down the necessary gnolls this time. They're actually pretty elusive, all things considered! Or at least, the ones that they're all looking for are... slippery, to put it lightly.

One more gnoll, and they should be... /More or less/ set.

Last among the line of cluck-clucks that are following Soujiro Seta, there is something that is almost certainly not a cluck-cluck. It is, in fact, more like a Songbird.

Uta blinks and looks around. "Wait, what am I doing here? Last thing I remember I was in line for something and then- oh, righ!", she exclaims, punching the palm of her hand. "As a member of Crescent Moon," Uta begins, "It is my duty to ensure that nebies can practice and grow safely!"

Kaydon has been trying to take down as many of the gnolls as he can, his focus being on trying to give gnolls a more positive view by the average Lander, which means getting folks to not act scared when they see him in were fang mode. Easier said than done.

But he figures if he takes out the demon worshiping ones, he might have an easier time. "Yeah there's a ton of traps, the idea being to wear us down before we get to a sniper. Unless they've switched it up. After that there's a magical trap, a few fights, and then a boss. Plus the door." Kaydon says to Shiruba, as he hmms, "We haven't figured out how to get past the door yet. I think that about covers it yeah?"

"A refresher is helpful, Shiruba," Souji tells the Silver Sword commander with a warm smile. It extends to Kaydon's assessment. It is a good warm up for the brain and cohesion.

After a tactics and planning session, the party is set to go. The Adventurers travel deeper into the forest. Warnings left by the gnolls are ignored. For many this isn't the first trip in. They know the risks. The party soon finds themselves on what looks to be a perfectly normal stretch of woodland path. It is eerily quiet. No brd sounds or hints of other animal life is heard within the trees nor the underbrush. Everything is still. Too still. Too perfect.

Suddenly light glints onto a fine bit of thread in one of the tree branches. Traps. Once the first is spotted it becomes obvious that there are more. They are in the initial trapped area. Knowing that an area is trapped does not universally help. Some are easy to spot and 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 without drawing undue attention.

The previous Tea Party member is positioned near the front. Souji is an offensive tank and being in a place to take on danger from the front is where he belongs in formation. His eyes are keen enough to spot the traps, raising a hand to signal the first. From there he goes to move swiftly and gracefully through the wire traps. For a heavy armor wielder, he moves quite quickly, but if it is enough to match for the skilled gnollish trapmanship is yet to be determined.

Schneider warches Uta following Soujiro around like a cluck-cluck. "Helping newbies, is it?" he wonders. He nods as Kaydon summarrizes the threat report, not that it changes how Schneider will fight anything. He's a one-trick pony, though it -is- a pretty good trick. When the first traps are revealed, he stops where he is. He will let someone else find a way through, and then follow them. "Stupid traps," he grumbles, hurling fire at the groud, where it explodes, of course, but also incinerates several of the traps that had been planted. There is an 'I meant to do that' moment, and he will proceed.

A simple glance over the area and Shiruba determines that most of the traps have been merely reset rather than moved. She has done this enough times to have most of them memorized by now, and navigating past the obstacles isn't all that hard as long as she keeps an eye out for any differences that might be a new placement. But for the most part, stepping over tripwires and avoiding patches of grass or leaves that look out of place get the job done.

"Newbies, yes," Uta begins to explain to Schneider, as if his wondering question was a literal one meant for her. "Crescent Moon's stated goal is to help newbies grow and have fun in the meantime. This area was specifically meant for them, and all the shenanigans with the Gnolls are depriving them of an important- WELP!"

Uta springs in the air as a trap snaps right next to her. "What in the world is WELP!" The impact of her landing elsewhere disturbed another trap. At this point, her proceeding is all a leaping from place to place, with possible unneeded but very impressive shows of acrobatics thrown in, to avoid traps and possibly disarm some.

This is the third time Prophylaxis has been through these woods, and by now he's... /mostly/ familiar with the sort of tricks that the Gnolls like to use to make sure that their dark works remain uninterrupted. Like Shiruba, it doesn't take long for the doctor to figure out that the Gnolls haven't actually bothered to relocate their traps this time. Getting around the wires and pitfalls is relatively simple as a result. "Just follow along behind me, we should be fine for now," Prophylaxis says, stepping gingerly around a crude pressure plate.

Kaydon knows the traps are there, he's run this three times and managed to set them off each time. This time proves no different, as he manages to stumble into a second try while trying to dodge his way out of the first trap.

That's how Kaydon ends up dangling upside down by one of his legs from a rope attached to a tree. He sighs, and tries to get a good hit on the rope with his sword, but he can't seem to get it with the swinging. Someone may need to help get him back down.

"Thats right, Uta," fires up Soujiro with Uta's declaration of helping the newbies! There is that shine of determination and passion in those blue eyes as he does a double-fist-clench hypeface. Sparkles. Sparkles everywhere.

Just enough, Soujiro. The samurai makes his way through wire after wire without tripping over any. There is more than one that requires him to step-and-stop before falling victim to the trap behind the traps. Pivot. Graceful footstep. Several traps burn up from Schneider's fiyah, opening paths up that would be difficult to traverse otherwise, deft feet or no. Deft eyes and memories from Shiruba help her along this newly formed path in a more methodic approach along with Proph, Uta brings it back to the Souji levels of speed, reaction, and grace. What is trap evasion without a /little/ Gratuitous Acrobatics after all? Kaydon took it to a new level with some high wire act before Soujiro cuts his wires down with a deft katana strike and a free hand to catch him so his landing doesn't attract a ton of attention from the noise it would create.

After so many traps, the party of Adventurers' alertness is at an all time high. An eye is kept out for anything unusual as they delve deeper into the woods. This area once had many low level gnolls aligned to the area's theme. Now they seeem to be gone, vacated, with only remnants of their passing to mark they were ever here.

Seemingly out of nowhere an arrow flies down towards the party from a grassy hill nearby. A sniper. The 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.

"Taking offensive point, rushing up," Soujiro says while leaning back up against a tree. Both of katanas are drawn out as he taps out a countdown for the upcoming rush. Then he is off, doing a Solo Dash towards the sniper and drawing as much fire as he can by applying melee pressure of a fast moving samurai closing in on the position. Katanas are trained to deflect arrows in standard anime-samurai flair.

Schneider makes his way haphazardly through the traps as much by mischance and luck as by good planning. Bending over to investigate a shiny stone just as a swinging spear goes over head, or pausing to turn back for a moment, just as a rock falls at his feet. He steps over the rock, and looks around, just as the party detects incoming fire from a grassy gnoll on a grassy knoll. Well, he's got the solution for that. He's got a few solutiions for that, in fact. The one he picks is to sweep his cape from over his shoulder, in an arc that makes it billow out, like a sort of shield. As it fans out, a blaze of fire sweeps out from the edge towards the clump of shrubbery that seems to conceal the sniper. It is now a clump of burning shrubbery, and while it conceals the sniper, technically, the sniper is no longer happy about this, and the burning shrubbery highlights his position.

"Really Kaydon?", Shiruba teases the one gnoll she does like, even as she quick shots an arrow to snap the rope for him. "At least you're tough enough to survive the hard way. Imagine what it would be like for the inexperienced newbies."

As the group moves on she keeps Thundersnow Howl ready, knowing what's coming up. Sure enough, there the sniper is in his grass camouflage on the hill. There's enough defenders in this group, so she keeps back and fires shots at the gnoll in return. Even if she can't hit him, she can keep him harried and distracted while others advance on his position to finish the job.

Yep, there's the sniper gnoll again. How many of these things do the gnolls even have? Prophylaxis, anticipating the whole *thing* that's about to happen, preemptively erects a glimmering barrier of white, crystalline flame. A handful of arrows slam into the wall, shattering into so many little splinters.

"Welp. If we keep going along like this, it's only a matter of time before we run into the giant monster."

"Yes! For the newbies!"

Uta has not mastered the art of the sparkl, but she joins in unison at the fist balling and dreams of a better future! For the newbies!

But such idyllic moment is shattered by arrows. ARROWS. "Ugh!", Uta exclaims. She inhales, and darts through the open area. Arrow after arrow are shot her way, but each time, with a sweep of her hand, she summons either a sheet of ice, or a wall of rock, or perhaps a writhing non-Euclidean mass of maddening tendrils made out of Darkness Itself, or maybe a small globular lightning, just enough to fry the arrow into dust.

Kaydon, after having been cut down by quick work thanks to Shriuba, lands hard, but gets up, managing to keep himself safe from other traps. Once they approach the sniper's range, Kaydon is actually on the ball, rushing forward and blocking incoming arrows with his gunblade, knocking arrows down out of the sky. He knows Shiruba will be more than capable of burning that gnoll archer down without any issue, he just has to keep its attention long enough for her and the rest of the group to destroy it quickly.

Clang! Clang! Soujiro's katana blade comes up during his rush in, cutting an arrow in midflight followed by another. It is a blur of steel and light against the swift, heavy arrows of destruction from the grassy gnoll. The sounds mirror as Kaydon gets his own blend of ranged attacs coming his way. The burning bushes quickly burn down the sniper's health as well as reduce his rate of fire. Hard to fire a massive bow when the area is on fire, your bow is on fire, and you are on fire. It also makes hitting the target a little harder, as Shiruba finds out during the return arrow fire. The next hail of arrows find their home in Proph's crystaline flame barrier, shattering into pixels like dry wood to a chainsaw. Uta's turn is met with the elemental and Dark deflection and redirection. The pressure is felt as the Adventurers are getting closer and the sniper has yet to slow or stop them. The position is soon to be overrun. Soujiro jumps up, over the sniper as both of his katanas spin like two metal saws over the monster's head. Turning, he issues a Samurai's challenge, forcing him to face away from the party in a standard Tank move of redirecting the miniboss that opens up its back to the final blows from Uta, Kaydon, Schneider, Proph, and Shiruba.

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. They watch the Adventurers and then leave behind eerie laughter as they dart away into the forest. These lower level gnolls seem wary. As they should be given the amount of times the Adventurers are going into these woods and removing their stronger counterparts from existance.

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. More traps! Magic traps. Dark magic looms up from an arcane circle on the ground and traps the Adventurers within. It will take some knowledge of magical traps succh as this, or at least some raw arcane abilities to be able to discern how to escape.

Raw abilities? Soujiro trusts in his instincts. He is not a book smart Proph or Shiroe, but he does put a lot of faith in the feel and flow of things. It doesn't look like he is doing anything particularly fascinating as he proceeds, but he listens to howling of the wind through the small cracks of fate. Looking through the light that shines through in a sixth sense and letting his body respond in kind to navigate him through.

Once again Kaydon knows there's a trap here, he's done it before. But he also knows that he's no good at solving arcane traps, "Damnit." He mutters, "Every time this gets set off, and every time I have no idea how to bypass it." He mutters a little bit, nudging one of the runes with his gunblade, "Hey Shiruba what's the secret to this one?" He calls out to his friend (and guild leader but she's his friend first), "I've got nothing over here."

Shiruba jumps back as the magical barrier trap springs to life around them. Oh, this again. She huffs unintentionally cutely, tail lashing behind her. "There's a way to break the enchantment holding it together," she pouts when asked, "but they're using literary script instead of arcane ruinics so I can't do much to decipher it." Despite repeated times through the forest she hasn't experienced this trap enough times to just raw memorize the way to disable it.

This is the third time Prophylaxis has seen this specific trap. Technically speaking, despite BEING A WIZARD, he doesn't have the necessary in-game skill to read magical script. As it turns out, this doesn't actually matter, because Prophylaxis has seen this specific script enough times to know a thing or two about it.

Which is why he bends over and dumps a vial of acid right overtop a handful of magical runes. As the words sizzle away into nothingness, the barrier begins to flicker and weaken. It's not an elegant solution, but it seems to be working!

Uta, somehow, is right next to Shiruba. Holding a phonograph. Which is running. And capturing the unintentionally cute huff on shellac. "That was -amazing-! It will be a great addition to my 'most adorable sounds of Yamato' compilation- hey, have I mentioned I got a Jazz-squeal too?"

"Wait, did you say literary script, Shiruba?", Uta continues. "Where's that? Let me see, let me see!", she urges, enthusiastic. "I think I have mentioned I used to studying literature outside ETO, and that I was hoping to get to teach it, one day?"

Well, for once it is Uta, and not Prophylaxis, who is faced with challenges befitting their real life background.

Schneider moves on from the grassy knoll with the grassy gnoll on it. Passing through the trees, sees the arcane circle spring up around us. An ambush, then, and he will fight off the gnolls while working on cracking the magical trap that has entrapped us. "This one again?" he says with a shrug, and does the reverse process to break the encirclement.

What do we say to magical traps? Not today. Soujiro's interpretation is somewhat literal, being able to navigate so close to the edge of the trap before finally hitting a rune that jolts arcane direct damage through him. Kaydon gets similar jolts after a few failed attempts on the trap's magical mechanisms. The specific sequence ends up misleading Shiruba, as there are a few nuances that slip the brain up if pulling from memory. Starting with a fresh perspective and taking it slow proves to be the way to go. The combined mental power of Uta, Schneider, and Proph figure out which glyphs need to be deactivated in which order and method that finally breaks the enchantment itself and frees the party to continue onward.

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. The little foliage that surrounds them all seems to be withered and gray. The aggression flag remains and suggests that there are unseen enemies all around them.

Perhaps the enemies are not all that unseen. There is one gnoll that steps out from the trees and then a second identical one that emerges from the other side. The two unsheath their weapons: a sword and a mace. Both are enormous for their kind with black markings sneaking up from their hands and across their arms. The pair have clearl been tainted by whatever force infects this place. Glowing rings of elemental energy surround both of them as the dark markings come to life. One ignites a ring of fire. The other utilizes swirling vortexes of wind. Using counter-elements seem like the best way of breaking through these magical wards and defeating the trouble-twins.

"Water and Air," Soujiro points out to the respective Gnolls as a reminder of their counter elements. There is one element missing, being a counter to the corruption. Soujiro's katanas glow in a white moonlight hue, imbued with sword saint energy as he takes one of the two gnolls on to tank out the agro. The second left to Kaydon or Uta to hold down while the ranged members handle the elemental weaknesses.

Oho, this one's new. Prophylaxis arches a brow at the elementally imbued gnolls, though specifically at the one wreathed in fire. "Counter-elements shouldn't be a problem. Allow me." The doctor gestures, a wave of flash-freezing cold washing over the blazing gnoll, extinguishing its burning wheel in an instant. "That's one," the doctor huffs, "I'll keep it frosty as long as I can."

Schneider is part of the magical team here, and gives a thumbs up, channeling elementals, tiny ones at least, to undo the weird enchantments on the gnoll bad guys. It's strange and complicated, and he's not really into the why's and wherefore's, but he does his wizard thing, and unwinds the enchantments, his own part in this taken carefully and throughtfully.

There's already a reminder of the counter-elements from Souji, so rather than exposition Shiruba gets right down to business. One of her signature arrows is drawn from her quiver, and drawn back in Thundersnow Howl. The gems imbeded in it's arms crackle with arcane energy as electricity arcs up and down the weapon to channel into the arrow, and specifically the special metal the head and shaft are infused with to increase their conductivity. Then fires.

The arrow's attunement to the wind allows it to pass through the whirlwinds without hinderance, and thunk into the ground near the hyped up Gnoll's feet. Lightning crackles overhead, then splits the skies with a powerful flash as it strokes down like a god's smiting blow against their demonic corruption.

Right as the gnoll is raising his sword, which the thunderbolt hits, and channels down through his body to reach the arrow at his feet and ground out, creating a powerful circuit of lightning that overpowers his own elemental attunement as it fries him from the inside out.

Kaydon is doing what he does best, engaging in close quarters with the gnolls. He picks one of the two, the one opposite of Soujiro, and starts to go to town on it with his gunblade. Using a mix of sword arte and the power of his gunblade, he's able to keep its attention.

Should be easy enough for him to smash his way through it by brute force, but getting one of the others in to attack it from thes ides or back in order to drop its health down quicker is very useful. As long as he keeps its focus on him, though, he knows the rest of the group can wail away at it unchecked.

"Well, Air it will be then"!, Uta exclaims. She flicks through her menu, and shimmers her srtaff into existence. White, one snake coiling around it, and a red gem shaped like an an anatomically correct heart -- so much that one might suspect it's not a scuplture, but the actual crystallized heart of a monster.

Which it is.

Intoning a breezy melody (much simpler than the ones she usually sings -- and people might notice: her voice is not as good as usual, nor is her ability to hit a pitch properly), she spins the weapon around, to produce magical currents of air.

Proph's icy magic freezes and shatters the Fire Gnoll's ward. It removes the damage shield and attack buffs on the mini boss and leaves it with a guard and movement debuff. This kicks off a rotation of keeping these status effects up between Proph, Schneider, and Kaydon. Shiruba's howling wind negates the Vortex Gnoll with similar effects and begins a rotation with Uta. Exploiting elemental weaknesses is damaging in itself, but the hidden element here is Light. It deals crushing amounts of damage to the corrupted gnolls, but only when their elemental wards are broken. Souji switches between each set of gnolls, taunt-swapping with Kaydon and taking his heavy hitting skills off cooldown when the debuff is applied. Healthy amounts of damage is lost in moments and both fall in quick succession of each other.

After a long time off traveling through the dangers of the gnoll woods, the party 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, theym 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. It is held tight shut by some sort of magical force. The quest for all these keys! So they are left to explore one of the side passages.

Eventually the party stumbles on what looks to be some sort of laboratory, or what a gnoll might think a laboratory looks like. There are slabs stained with blood where something was clearly tied down and studied. There are diagrams on the wall showing the anatomy of various creatures. Lander and Adventurer races are included in this research. There are sharp instruments strewn throughout the cavern with little care.

At the herart of it all is a hunched gnoll wearing a monocle. A monocle? Somewhere out there a silver haired Artificer sneezes. Half of this gnoll's face seems to have been burned by something. Turning, the creature sneers at them. It puts down a bit of ink and qull that it had been using to document new finds. Turning, the monster grabs for one of the massive knives. The party has clearly been identified as possible new test subjects.

Souji has two modes: Bright Eyes and Dark Eyes. Seeing all the inhumane treatment of living things in a tapestry of villainy? Dark Eyes Souji. He doesn't inform what he is doing, he simply rushes in with his katanas out intent on bringing this boss down with dauntless wrath. Both katanas out in the opening strike, finding himself gaining hate to tank, or be in a tank rotation with others, as he deals swift, weighty strikes with his blades.

With the guards dealt with it's into the cavern once more. The locked chamber door gets a dirty look from Shiruba, and then it's off into the side passages. Down they go, until they finally come to... the mad gnoll scientist's lab. Darn it all. Still not the missing gemstone type they need.

"Ugh!" she growls, showing her sharp yet cute corner fangs. "You guys are really getting on my hackles. And you're ugly! Uglier than usual for gnolls." This time at least she's prepared, as she takes out her Glaive of the Fallen, and flicks it into motion. Using her wind magic to spin it in a defensive circle around herself and intercept the Bloodweaver's initial attack wave.

Then while the air shield is protecting her Shiruba propels the weapon spinning farther away from herself, to tear through the various pieces of equipment in the lab. "IF I HAVE TO KEEP BREAKING YOUR SHIT UNTIL YOU STOP COMING BACK SO BE IT!"

She sounds almost as mad as she did when she ripped Sylver a new one. Almost. That was more personal.

"Ah, this one again," Prophylaxis mutters with some... distress? No, it's more frustration than anything else. He grumbles and flings open his labcoat, revealing vial after vial of medicine. "This one likes to use bleeding DoTs. Fortunately, I've prepared since the last time I encountered it. Thus..."

Vial after vial is loaded into Prophylaxis' gauntlet as he fires syringes at the rest of the party. Each one bestows a minor regeneration buff and, more importantly, a potent Bleed Resist Up buff. "There. Go nuts. I'll keep your health up."

Schneider looks alarmed at the hunched gnoll with the monicle. Is Haru involved somehow? No chance to investigate that now! He triggers the magic in his peko riding hat, which is particularly good for picking out places to go. It's a kind of strange side effect, that he can avoid the attacks, but it's quite effective to keep him from becoming a test subject. He does not want to become a test subject. He very much does not want to be a test subject! So he will keep one step ahead of the attacks, chosing the best route to avoid Bad Things (tm).

"I haven't actually run into this one before.." He says, though it hardly matters. He's dealt with enough bosses over the last couple of years to deal with it however he can. The buff from Doc helps, and he gives Proph a thumbs up before he runs in, gunblade doing its work as he tears into the boss with it.

It's not weak to the fire artes from the weapon, but that hardly matters. He'll switch with Soujiro as needed in order to bring this thing down low, but the gnoll Juggernaut has no intention of allowing himself to be defeated by a far lesser member of the species, boss or not.

Uta, after accepting and inoculating herself with the syringe from Prophylaxis, looks at the diagram. Looks at the Gnoll. Diagram. Gnoll. "Oh no you don't!", Uta exclaims, and rushes for the boss. "FOR SCIENCE!", she yells, as she tries to stab her opponent with the pointy end of her staff, already crackling with magical energies she sung into existenc-

Slash-slash-slash-slash-*SLAM*

She's sent flying across the room, slams against the opposite wall, upside-down, covered in glowing red gashes, and missing a LARGE chunk of her HP bar. Which would now be dropping dramatically, were it not for Prophylaxis's syringe.

The offensive frenzy leads to Soujiro taking a lot more hits than if he was taking a balanced approach. Even with tank shirking between the Kaydon and Souji, the single target damage is heavy. The Bloodweaver has more than a couple wide reaching attacks that can hit the entire party. Everyone's defense gets put into question on regular intervals. Debuff attacks apply thick damage over time bleeds and defensive debuffs on the party. It puts pressure on the healing part of the Adventurers, namely Proph. Also Uta when not being sent flying by the angry gnoll.

These twisted gnolls are powerful creatures. It is no surprise that they act as generals to the gnoll armies of the forest. The battle against Roarschach is long. The beast has multiple health bars to chew through. However, he does have weaknesses. The creature rages when his research is destroyed. This is something that gets put into great use during the boss fight, especially by Shiruba.

The party is unable to avoid taking substantial damage, but the healing group keeps them from falling to damage or debuff. They eventually manage to drop Roarschach to the end of his final health bar. He seems to start catching some sort of final, party-wipe technique called 'Roar of Blood'. The enrage timer for the fight. The party is able to beat the timer and defeat him before it goes off. Dropping to one knee the beast labors a grunt out, then topples forward and bursts into pixels. The resounding effect of a defeated boss including a handful of strange red gemstones.

Soujiro doesn't have anything to say. Not with words, at least. His stance says it all: Vengeance Achieved. Blood is flicked from his katanas and placed back in their sayas.

Shiruba has one strength besides her ranged combat prowess, and that's strategy. Especially against foes she has dealt with before. She remembered the tantrums from last time. This time she specifically exploited that mechanic to make it easier for others. Finally the glaive spins back into her hand and is returned to it's spot on her belt.

Still a little annoyed about the lack of progress on the final lock, but it is what it is. "At least he won't be making any more freaks for a while."

Once the boss is down, and this time Kaydon is sure for the count, the gnoll Juggernaut slashes his blade one last time, and then slides it back into the scabbard on his back, "Looks like I'm gonna need to make some new types of charges." He thinks some charges with other magic types could increase the utility of the blade, allowing him to strike with different elements when situations call for it.

Ruby keystone in hand, he starts to ponder how to best make it work. The theory is sound though. Anyone who knows him would see the same look in his eyes when he gets his mind set on a particular weapon project.

Schneider is panting hard by the time this is done, and he looks around at the aftermath. "We got 'em?" he checks. Because it looks like we got 'em. "So we did good, yeah?" he asks. It looks like we did good. Taking the damage was painful, but in the end, it seems to have worked out. "So what did we get?" Another day older and deeper in debt?

As for Uta, being the type to be engrossed with the library at a party, she's currently studying the anatomical diagrams and the laboratory. Professional interest. "I wonder what's going on here...", she says, as she taps her chin. "I think I will hang out here and try to figure out just -what- this Gnoll was up to..."

Done, again. Prophylaxis sighs as the ruby gems do /not/ find their way into his inventory. Damn you, once-per-character limits. "How /is/ the quest system even still working and updating to account for these bugged-out monsters?" Prophylaxis mutters, "Well. Might as well poke around and see what we can find before we go."

Besides, Uta probably shouldn't be left alone in a place like this.