Duty Session 512: No Game Gnoll Life

    The war was on it's way back to the palace land, the tower had opened up to a land that wept instead of sings and Setsuna is sitting infront of a bunch of dead trees that will lead to Gnolls. Along with Setsuna is the Cerberus that is now roughly 80% as tall as a Fukaziroh. Then again, some records say that Cerberus's never stop growing really, and will end up continuing to grow into something suitable for the seventh floor. For now Setsuna waits, he had taken the quest at the Hunter's Guild and put out a call. Today though it was a special call, for today was the day they were going to find the last keystone for the damn door and nullify the gnolls.

Soujiro Seta does not need much in terms of incentive to show up for challenging content. The Samurai is always having a good timing training and putting that training to the test with the endless wonders in the world of Elder Tales. He has acquired the other two keys in previous runs against the Gnolls, so he lets Setuna know that he will join in on the event.

The blue haired samurai walks over in a unhurried pace. "Setsuna," he says with a friendly smile and bright eyes, "looking for a run at the elusive boss here?" He still thinks of it in game terms and is no stranger to grinding content to get the right enemy or the right drops. "I wonder what we will find beyond the door," he says as he looks from Setsuna to the entrance of the Gnoll Lands. Its that kind of curiosity that makes even basic field adventures filled with potential.

Schneider is a guildie of Setsuna's and a longtime proponent of fireballing gnolls back into the stone age. Given his propensity and the amonut of gnolls expected, this seems like a likely outcome. He is glad to see the back of the Palace Landers, and while he would have liked to have done more, he didn't. He was definitely doing things in the background, though.

Seta's question is echoed im his mind as well. What -will- we find. "Just one way to find out," he says.

    Most of Fukaziroh's work during the war of the dragons has been behind the scenes. Protecting refugees, scouting, carrying messages, and of course training. Training is always a vital activity, and she tries to make sure she always spends some time in dangerous circumstances. Like, say, volunteering for a gnoll hunt around the lands most threatening the refugees from the war. Now that the refugees are on their ways home, she's free to take another mission.

    Of course right now she seems to be mostly ignoring the upcoming mission and is instead studiously playing some kind of balancing game with earth magic. It looks like she's trying to cast an Earth Pillar spell except instead of launching things into the air, she's raising and lowering them almost painfully slowly. Of course since there's a huge slobbery doggy she's taken to trying to raise and lower a sizeable hunk of raw meat rather than a stone, with the most likely outcome that she gets to take occasional breaks from the spellwork when her prize gets in reach of the Cerberus pup. An event that's typically met with giggles from the little sylph.

With the Palace Land matters having gone to a sort of cold war status for now it was time to get back to other important matters. For Shiruba, that was digging back into the situation with the demon worshiping gnolls. Fortunately it looks like she isn't the only one eager and willing to get back to work on the matter. "Good, maybe we can finally make some more progress on getting that final keystone figured out." Windburn gave a light click of her beak in agreement as she perched on the wolfgirl's shoulder.

With the weapons almost finished, Shiruba has managed to pull Kaydon away from the forge, convincing him that they should try to help control the gnoll population a bit more. The were fang gnoll was a bit reulctant to leave his work so close to being done, but after putting one of the finishing touches on the lance, he had opted to go with her.

Seemed like he was still thinking about it though as he walked along side her, "You know Shiruba, I think other than the Jaeger, these might be the best work I've ever done. I hope it's good enough for them."

    Setsuna yawns and stands, giving a bgi stretch as he gets himself ready to go. "Seems like we have plenty of people here. So I am all for moving forward if no one else argues." There is no hesitation or delay to give time for anyone to argue. Setsuna simply begins to walk on in to the fun time of the Gnoll land. Setsuna speaks up as he walks, "Maybe the third keystone is a myth. Maybe we should just get that accessory maker ,what ever his name is, to make a fake one."

     The suggestion is put out there but Setsuna doesn't say much more as they walk, he is looking for something expecting it almost. Then Demon lets out a whimper and Setsuna holds up his hand. " Seems we reached the trip lines. I assume everyone knows not to trip them or else it is going to seriously hurt." Setsuna seems to be hesitating for a moment himself as he whistles for Demon to come near him and preps for them both to make the run.

Schneider follows Setsuna into the breach, metaphorically, but the triplines comment doesn't really register until he trips one. The explosion turns up a cloud of earth and smoke, and he coughs, waving away the smoke, and taking another step forward into another explosion. He sucks down arcane power to heal himself, but at this rate, he'll run out of HP or run out of mana sooner than he'd like. "Don't we have like mine-hunting dogs or anything?"

Shiruba nods, and Windburn takes off from her shoulder to make a pass over the area. As usual Shiruba picks her way through afterwards, avoiding pits and tripwires.

And right at the end lets out a yelp as a snare catches around her ankle and yoinks her up into a tree. "That wasn't a trap last time," she muses, more annoyed than anything. "They've started to accomidate for our repeat intrusions." Her falcon wings over, and after a few grabs at the rope with her talons manages to snap it, freeing Shiruba to drop back to the ground. She gets up, dusts herself off, and moves on. No time to linger over miscalculations.

They'll find this last keystone yet, dadgummit.

With the Palace Landers expelled from Yamato for the time being, the time has come to tackle a few of the other problems brewing throughout the region. Such as the gnolls! As it happens, Prophylaxis is rather concerned with the whole gnollish situation, considering that this ritual was supposedly time-sensitive and they'd been letting it percolate unresolved for literal months.

At this rate, there's going to be some kind of SUPER GNOLL waiting for them at the end of this little misadventure.

By now the start of this 'dungeon' has become rather... not /rote/ but certainly something the good doctor is familiar with. Before even entering the woods, his spell is mid-cast. Several mirror images materialize around the party, false duplicates to distract whatever gnolls might be waiting in ambush. "Watch out for any incoming attacks. We're due for a sniper."

All these traps, and the patterns keep changing. But if you know what to look for, you can spot the traps ahead of time. Now if that actually helps or not, that can be up for debate. Kaydon manages to weave his way through the traps, stopping to clear them as needed to help the others, but his mind still seems elsewhere while he works.

    Distracted by both her attempts to surreptitiously feed a pair of deadly animals and her head being in the clouds when it comes to ways of lifting heavy loads, Fuka blithely wanders through the heavily-trapped region. There is a blind goddess said to protect fools and children, thus proving Fuka is neither. No, she stumbles into a few traps, disarming them with legs, arms, and face. It's a good thing she wears heavy armour, because otherwise she'd probably be out of this mission right from the start. As it is, she'll probably need some healing. And possibly some instructions to get her head into the game and not be so careless!

Soujiro Seta gives that wordless smile back to Schneider that says it all: 'Yes! We will find out. Today will be that day. Lets go take care of this dungeon and find out. Sparkles.' Souji, master of nonverbal language. Its all in the eyes. And the face. And the...

The Edo styled Samurai changes his equipment out from his kimono garb to his plate garb with notable red colors. "Who is this," Souji asks Shiruba upon noticing Windburn. His kind heart makes him a favorite amongst animals, notably cluck clucks. Maybe he should introduce some of them to Windburn! Start an avian club. Then! Have them support Schneider. Aviation club!

Kaydon's Lance gets notice too, as a fighter that appreciates good weaponry. He may use two katanas, but he naturally has smithed a number of weapons to keep up with the repairs that endless training(tm) has him through. Thank the Goddesses for Miho keeping his stock up.

"This part is the easy part, lets go!" Souji says with a confident smile as his foot hovers right over one. Its supernatural how he seems to predict the future, taking a deeper step and just missing it. In fact, that becomes a common theme as he goes through the area with near-misses from start to finish. Is it skill? Luck? Look at that face, he is practically the image of the :D face by the time he makes it through the trap zone.

    Setsuna grins at Schenider, " I brought mine, did you forget to bring yours. " Looking down at Demon he gives a whistle before the two meld in to the shadow and begin to appear in steps and pieces jumping ahead until they are out of danger. As for the rest of the group, while some people seem to have trouble getting through the other traps, the majority of the party appear to be unharmed. The biggest benefit is that their number 1 healer was able to make it through without harm.

     Safe now they can start moving forward, that is until the ever annoyiing sentry appears and begins to rain large arrows down upon them. These are not randomly shot either, no instead the arrows seem to be almost cutting them off, making it harder to run away or evade. Each shot though gets closer and closer, only a matter of time till the party is a pin cushion. It appearss the options are shield yourself, return fire, or burn it all down. Whatever will people do.

Schneider grumps to Setsuna, "I don't have any mine hunting dogs." He apparently has a mine-hunting face. But he manages to get past that, finally, and moves forward again. This is all good until some idiot starts lobbing arrows at us. Schneider, feeling put upon when one hits him in the ear, glares and chants:

"Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell!" That sounds pretty bad, right? It's worse. Schneider bellows, "HALLOWEEN!" and the world, the sniper's world anyway, erupts into flame. Flames shoot hundreds of meters into the sky, and a broad area around the target is incinerated down to the bedrock as trees burn and earth melts like water. Schneider's patience level with this idiot: Zero.**

Well the traps may of changed but the camouflaged sniper gnoll was still atop a hill. This was an easy encounter for Shiruba to prepare for. She simple steps to the side of the initial shot, pulls arrows from her quiver as she does so, and by the time the sniper gnoll is making more shots so is she to shoot them down. Being a ranged specialist herself she can just imagine how frustrating this is for the sniper, and that's exactly why she's doing it, to throw him off his focus so someone else ca--

-- Right, Schnieder is here. That solves the problem of roasting the pest. Carry on.

Kaydon takes an arrow to the shoulder, and gets knocked on his ass for his effort. That's what he gets for letting himself get distracted.

He's eventually back on his feet but it seems that Schneider and others have all but nuked the offending gnoll, so he rips the arrow out of his shoulder and mutters under his breath to talk to Giganpor about that new armor.

There is supposed to be a sniper here.

But that kind of requires there to be a forest from which the sniper is going to be shooting from. You know, like, this forest here.

This forest that Schneider is about to make not-exist.

"Ah, right, everyone stand behind us please," Prophylaxis says in the most matter-of-fact tone of voice he can muster. He lifts his staff and materializes a bubble of protective force around the party...

But not because of any fear of incoming shots-- oh, no! This is all because he'd very much like for everyone to not get caught up in a Helloween in its natural habitat.

An arrow that comes Souji's way is cut in half as he draws out one of his katanas. The attack appears in a blur of white hot steel and the sound of a 'TING' echoes as the arrow's durability crumbles to pixels. Rude.

"I'll draw the agro," Souji says as he starts walking out in the open towards the archer to take point in the advancing formation. TING! TING! Ok, that is downright terrifying, he is just plucking the arrows out of the sky with his blades. It requires support from Proph, Setsuna, and Shiruba while he is out in the Tanking stance. Slow and anchored as he makes his way up the sniper's killzone. It gives the ranged and fire room to aim or channel magics. There it is. Fire. Knowing and trusting your allies, and Schneider's Fire is exactly what he expected to see.

The heat is the trigger for Souji to spring into action, closing the gap in a fast sprint through the fire and the flames. A metallic chime of severance and Souji unleashes all the reserved retaliation damage from his Sword Arte, dropped in a single burst on the sniper's face.

"That encounter is one of my favorites," he says as the two katanas go back in their sayas, "missile parries feel so good to pull off."

    Embarassed about her stumbling into traps (but not THAT embarassed), Fuka apologizes to those who have to extract and/or heal her, promising to make up for it later!

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Schneider breaks into his now-infamous chant, the little sylph quivers in excitement. This is going to be AMAZING! She begins her own chant, not so loud, not so well-known. And perhaps, not so fast. Helloween explodes, followed shortly by Fuka's own version of a lethal explosion spell. Shards of earth propelled by fiery explosions erupt, but she fires her blast way too late, causing much spectacle and noise but ... really not hitting anything of any note.

    An arrow whizzes towards Setsuna and Demon snatches it out of the air, snapping it in two and dropping it. Demon does it again and again as he protects Setsuna until Shiruba and Prophylaxis has their shields up and Soujiro is parrying the missiles. Meanwhile Schneider and Fukaziroh are dropping a barrage of fire on the damn Gnoll, and afterward the air smells like cooked Gnoll. It is not a pleasant smell.

    The party moves forward and as they walk into a clearing of trees, magical runes burn into the ground as they create a barrier around the party aof some serious dark magic. The barrier begins to slowly collapse around them and will be squeezing them rather tightly if they don't get free soon. Out of the bushes comes several Gnolls working the magic of the barrier to shrink it. Likely when the barrier is destroyed the magical backlash is going to destroy them too.

Shiruba lets out an exasperated sigh as the magic barrier springs up around them. "How do we keep walking into -this- one specifically?" she laments. She's tried to memorize the glyphs and such but they don't ever seem to be placed the same either, so there's not much she can do about the matter.

"I think this might not be able to be bypassed." Kaydon replies to Shiruba, as he pokes at a few of the runes. He still hasn't figured this one out, but will follow any directions that the folks who can figure it out send him to do.

Dark magic. Foul magic... Fowl magic?! Soujiro has it in with the Cluck Clucks. The regular chick magnet is protected by the well wishes of his feathery friends. He couldn't tell the party /how/ he knows where to step around the magical trap, but he does. It looks exactly like the tripwire trap from before. Maybe the samurai is blessed. Maybe the secret is in the tea. Either way it is good that the front line tanky-dude is avoiding trap damage on his way forward so he can soak it up in combat encounters. "Schneider," he says as he walks over a rune, "it always is fun to see that spell go off," sidestep another rune, "a real big badda boom."

As Souji reaches the other side of the trap he turns to Shiruba and the question 'Why this one' as the Samurai says, "I think Kaydon is right, Shiruba. The Gnolls may have designed to put this in our way. A lot. We got this." He extends a hand out to people getting close in case they need to make a jump at the last minute before a rune nukes them.

Schneider saunters off after dropping Helloween on the gnoll. He may walk through minefields, but no archer's going to get the drop on him. Walking on after the smoking ruin is left behind. Proceeding on, the clearing of trees and magical runes, and now the closing barrier. Schneider looks around, but this is a standard enclosure rune, the gnolls not being very clever or creative, and he quickly unwinds the spell from its source, turning it into a useless flash of energy. Poof.

Is it still an insult to call someone chicken because their mysterious connection to fowl gives them the power to avoid stumbling directly into traps? It seems kind of inappropriate to do so, doesn't it? That's not cowardly, that's just being preternaturally disposed to not exploding!!

Unlike Prophylaxis, who stumbles directly into the hazardous energy field, smacks his face into the barrier, and has to stand there helplessly while the rest of the party extracts him from his situation.

Well, they've all been there. It's totally normal! Yep, totally and utterly normal.

    The Blind One is the goddess of fools and children. And ... well, perhaps Fuka IS at least one of these, at least at heart. While she happily blunders her way through the adventure, she's still at least a little inclined to try to prove herself among powerful adventurers, including several she looks up to in admiration.

    When the gnolls spring their arcane trap, Fuka moves quickly, infusing herself with light energy. Light to counter darkness. Light to see when all is hidden. Light to compensate for ... blindness. Okay so the metaphor isn't perfect, but touched as she is by the Goddess's favour due to her current state, it's enough to allow her to push her way through the arcane shield with either some sort of divine luck or an innate understanding of enchantments such as this. She beams, grabbing Proph by a sleeve and tugging him free. "No time to rest! We got this!"

    Setsuna shakes his head and looks at the barrier and then at Shiruba and the back at the barrier, " I just assumed we like going this way and triggering this trap. It's much easier then the fountain. However if you guys just don't want to get close." A magic circle under Setsuna appars as it drains away his life and from the ground rises a demilich outside the barrier that begins to slaught the gnolls. At the same time Soujiro seems to have avoided the trap by some level of insight and Schneider is managing to override the spell all together. All of this work would only be possible though due to Fukaziroh, using her own magic to push back on the barrier. Once the barrier is taken down the gnolls dead, there is nothing else to do but move on.

     Out of the barrier and back on track towards the Gnoll lair leads them across a duo of Gnolls. One Gnoll stands wielding a a mace and other the sword, one burns with fire and the other has a fury of air spinning around them. Two Gnolls, two elements, tied together, one can not die as the other lives and neither can die without countering the element which they wield. The party will need to wisely use their powers to solve the problem ahead.

Schneider gives Seta a thumbs-up at the praise for his explosion, and follows further into the forest. The ground changes, and the unseen anemies lurk, but the arrival of identical gnolls with themely weapons, and it seems like a thing. Well, this is another tricky prospect that can't be defeated with more boom, sadly.

The key to this is holy magic, it seems, a sort of lynchpin, and ironically it's the same sort of magic that flows when he restores his HP. Which is convenient, because restoring his HP is a good thing, and his HP recovers as he unlocks certain seals with that same power radiatin out.

The oppressive environment can't get the ever pleasant Souji down. He is giving the dungeon its due respect for the danger it provides, but at the same time? He is enjoying this. Two challenging traps so far and one burnt sniper. It is nothing that this party of power players can't handle. Reminds him of the time with the Tea Party. It is not /quite/ the same. Everyone was close, or he thought that they were at least. That sort of bond is unique just like the bonds here are unique. He wouldn't trade Shiroe's schemes for Proph's or Nazuna's sharpness for Shiruba's. They are different people. So getting to redo Elder Tales is a chance to NewGame+!

Speaking of making new experiences out of old content. This encounter is familiar. "Fire Gnoll and Vortex Gnoll," the Samurai recalls the mechanics, "a counter-element fight with an anti-Dark counter in there." He motions towards the Fire Gnoll and dashes in, a wave of water trailing behind him before he unleashes it in a crashing wave that imbues his katanas in a blue light. "I'll hold this one," the tanky Sam says, keeping the elemental counter up and holding emnity for damage control.

"Shit, okay." Kaydon looks at Soujiro as he agrees to take on one of the gnolls. Kaydon rushes to meet the other, his gunblade flashing the water arte as he clashes up against it. He can't put the gunblade to full effect without being able to use fire artes, though. A weakness of the weapon that hinders him during the fight, but also inspires him.

Eventually he pushes back against the gnoll warrior, and enables the rest of the group to strike hom with their attacks, as he works in his own strikes when he can.

There's no time! They have to keep going! Prophylaxis is yanked out of his magic circle of doom before it (and he) goes boom! "Thanks??" He should be thankful, Fuka just saved him! But will that mean much against... the gnoll brothers!?

Maybe. Soujiro outlines the situation well. Double gnolls, each one with a different elemental affinity, each one empowered as well by darkness. Prophylaxis takes in a sharp breath of air and slams one foot into the ground. Immediately, the one opposite to Soujiro's gnoll of choice... abruptly freezes solid.

Because that's totally fair.

"Got the other one. Won't hold for long, though, so maybe someone else should get in there?"

".. Fair point," Shiruba replies when the fountain is brought up. She's seen that once and it was exactly enough to not want to deal with it again. Guess we just deal with the barrier trap and move on.

Which brings them to the dynamic elemental duo of gnoll gladiators.

"Keep it up guys! We've got this now." Even as she draws one of her special arrows back in her bow, charging it up full of elemental energy and firing it... up into the air.

So the resulting lightning comes crashing down on both of the gnolls while they're too occupied dealing with others to use their elemental defenses against the furious discharges.

    "Awwww crap!" Fuka complains as the combat mechanic is explained to her. "They're air and fire, and those are my best elements!" she observes. Still, she's a flexible mage. That flexibility is the core of her strategy, so she dives into the possibilities and comes out with...

    Well, she *tries* to douse the flames of one gnoll. Proph got it first though. "Oh right, you bonded with that Ice maiden. Tell me, Prof, shaved ice? Or natural?" she asks innocently.

And that's when Prophylaxis also freezes Fuka.

Lightly.

She'll be able to break herself free, it's fine.

    In the face of the duo, Setsuna only seems to manage a ball of water at the flaming gnoll. It splashes on the flame and sizzles and doesn't seem to phase them. Fortunately Soujiro's water arte seems to be much stronger and cools the flame. Then you have Prophylaxis dropping the air to freezing tempetures before Shiruba drops lightning on it. Finally it is Schneider who manages to break their link with his holy magic and the magic destroys the two gnolls as they turn to pixels.

     After the duo they reach the cave system, and this cave they have found their way to , appaers to be new. The cave is made of black sandstone and leads down into what appaers to be an empty chamber. Then from the top of the chamber drops a Gnoll, wearing furs and leather and appars to be the only female of the trio. Turning back she whips up a vortex of wind and sand blinding the prty in an artificial sandstorm. The group is going to have to find their target before they can kill her it seems.

A new kind of gnoll. "Not a myth," Souji says what everyone is thinking. WAS there a third gnoll or was it one big trolling loop designed to lure the Adventurers into a dangerous place again and again? Its pretty smart, when you think about it! By now Souji imagines his part knows that he is going to dash in and start holding boss agro as a main tank. He starts using a defensive technique that he learned from training with Shiruba. What do you do when you are harsh elements! You stride on through. Not much different from a sandstorm and a snowstorm. Except temperature and... ok they are very different. The sixth sense samurai relies on his instincts to constantly evade and parry off blows while leaving the damage to the rest of the party.

So once more into the cave, a glare at the door, and moving on into the side caverns....

... Black sand? Shiruba stops almost as soon as she steps upon it. This was different. Did they finally...

A more slender gnoll drops into the room, and starts kicking up the sand. "Whoa, not often you see a female gnoll outside of their breeding grounds." But her kicking up the sand like this was Dune. Air full of sand makes it hard to fly in already limited space, so Windburn just lands behind her trainer instead of trying. All the stewn dark sand in the air would make this really hard for people to fight.

Or it would, if Shiruba wasn't as prepared as she is. She pulls an arrow back in her bow, channeling both Fire and Light into it, and shoots it up at the top of the cavern. Where it burst in a bright blaze, illuminating the otherwise dark and grim cave enough to see the shilouette of the gnoll moving amonst the waves of sand she's casting. "There she is, hit her with everything we've got!"

"That's a new one." Kaydon comments, as the female gnoll drops in. He snarls back at her, rushing in to the fight. She's using earthen magic, but Kaydon can do the same with sword artes.

He weaves his way through her attacks, and then launches downwards with his gunblade to smash the ground, kicking up a wall of rocks directly into the gnoll's face at point blank range, using the blast from the gunblade to open her up for an attack as he closes the rest of the distance.

    Lightly frozen Fuka fillets. Yes, this is how Fuka knows she made a great joke. After breaking herself out of the little shell of ice, she shivers. "Noted! Prof doesn't like frozen dessert. A shame, but there's no accounting for taste!" she beams.

    The good mood propels her through the boss battle with the windy gnoll. Da Rude Sandstorm gnoll. Unfortunately that's one song Fuka doesn't know, so she has to squint through the blowing sand and wait her turn to lash out with Frank whenever the gnoll appears in range, or whenever they can track her down and get themselves close.

Schneider is a bit surprised to find that we've found a different route. That was our whole goal, right? A female gnoll with furs and leathers, and a vortex of wind blinding, keeping him from doing anything particularly effective. He's twisted around, reaching out and trying to work out what's where, and where even -is- the target. He gets a brief glimpse every now and again, that urges him to continue on, but then he loses sight, and he grumbles as he continues searching.

A new gnoll? A new gnoll! Praise all the gods that do and do not exist, especially the one that gave Prophylaxis the power to flash-freeze certain joke-slinging Sylphs.

"Finally," Prophylaxis sighs, more relieved than intimidated by the sight of the third gnoll. "Do you have /any/ idea how long we've been looking for you? No, probably not. But it is what it is." Wind, it seems, is this gnoll's forte. The doctor's lips draw into a slight frown as he finds himself wishing he actually did wear glasses. Or better yet, goggles! Sadly, he has neither. But that just means he has to make his first shot count.

There's plenty of sand swirling in the room. The doctor grabs several fistfuls, gathering the grains into globes of earth. The grit grinds together, blazing with heat and, eventually, turning to glass. With another gesture of his staff, the doctor sends the superheated globes sailing into the gnoll, detonating as they draw near into blasts of billowing flame, razor-sharp fragments and molten glass...!

    Setsuna looks at the Gnoll and then doesn't as he is caught in the sandstorm. Blind in the sandstorm he throws earth around and he is sure he hit someone with that pile of rocks, who though well that is another story. An arrow of light and fire burst through the stand storm to hit the Gnoll. The arrow sends her spinning into a wall of earth created by Kaydon before Fukaziroh has managed to track down the gnoll as well and strike at it. Dancing to and from infront of her is Soujiro making her scream in rage before she finds the end of the Doctor's cannon and she pixelates.

     The Gnoll turns to pixel as the moment her sandstorm is down and she can be seen the party is able to quickly overwhelm her. Where she once stood is that a small pile of amber gemstones glistening in the cave light. Setsuna grins as he picks one up, "About damn time."

Shiruba hoists her bow over her head and releases a howl of victory!... and then takes a moment to extract herself free of the black sand that had been piling up around her legs since she hadn't been moving much while focusing on her signal flare shots to keep revealing the boss to the rest of the party. "Finally! Figures this one was an Earth elementalist. And a female, too. Though her style would take a more agile build, so maybe that's not as shocking as it is to see one in general," she murmurs, still analyzing the matter even as she's collecting her part of the the future keystone.

Soujiro Seta has that quiet, warm excitement in victory. It comes with bright eyes and a warm smile. The fun was in the journey and he basks in the good feels of an accomplished party. "I could go for fighting that one again, it really put the training to good use," he says to Shiruba. There is no secret to getting better in Elder Tales. You just commit yourself to it and don't discredit the lessons you learned along the way. It helps when there are people to share in the experiences and the experiences itself are rather fun. "Up for some training?" he asks. Yes. They just smacked down a big, elusive boss and he has energy to spare!

Prophylaxis stares at his own share of the treasure: Just one of the many keys that fell out of the gnoll-shaped loot pinata. He sighs with some measure of relief, slowly turning the gemstone around in his fingers. And then he says: "Great. Now we just need to get some of the other slackers to find and kill her, and we'll be set."

"Anyone want to take bets on how long that'll take?"

"At least another month." Kaydon says in response to Prophylaxis, as he puts his gunblade back into the scabbard, "I'm going to head out, I have something I need to finish." He says, as he glances back at the group, "Thanks for getting me out, Shiruba. I needed this."

Schneider looks up whne the swirling mess comes to an end, and finally, finally he can attack the bad guy. Girl. Goll, Whatever. WHo shatters because she's dead. "Well, damn," he says, looking around to everyone, fishing through the rubble to find the keystone he's supposed to get. "So, OK. What now?" Propoh's comment gets a shrug. "We've shown it can be done, anyhow."

Windburn reclaims the perch on Shiruba's shoulder as she turns to follow Kaydon. "I figured getting some action would help you remember what weapons need to stand up to."