Duty Session 521: No Game Gnoll Life

Goldenblade has, after her recently failed run at the keystone, exhaustively planned another run. Checking other adventurers' notes, planning her strategoes, and wracking her brain for every optimization she can think of, she prepares herself with as much forethought as she can. Then she puts out the call to random people to help out with the run, because how can that go wrong?

She /does/ brief everyone on what to expect, at least, and will coach people clumsily through the praparation process, because the debuff was pretty miserable. Still, there's only one end that matters anymore, and so it's that ending or who cares about the worst hangover ever, since the last one. "I think we can do this, with what we have planned. Is everyone ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be" Ayame says with a small smile, hefting the Sentinel's Shelter on one arm and twirling her wand in a gloved hand "I can't promise the earth, sun, and moon, but I can at least give a little breeze" She chuckles weakly, listening to the briefing before she nods seriously

"So, ready when you all are"

Haru doesnt think too deeply on his exhaustion levels. After seeing what extreme exhaustion is by the Blood Curse, he has less room to complain about long nights and less sleep. That is the positive spin: better baselines. It inspires him to work even harder.

The Artificer is not as talkative, though. A hand raises in greeting. "Ready, and as long as we work together we will have favorable results," and also turns his gaze to Ayame. Now that is a familiar face that has been a minute. "Ayame, how have you been?"

"I have heard that Sleight of Hand is on demand," Shenmi begins, "and, let me assure you, you have come to the right person for this." A quick survey of the party, and, oh! A face he doesn't recognize. "I do not believe we have met before, Milady." A deep bow. "Sehnmi Jingren, Master of Misdirection, Weaver of Illusions, Provider of that Sense of Wonder you had long lost!". When he returns to stand, with a flourish of his hand, he produces a bouquet out of nowhere and offers it to Ayame. "A little icebreaking gift."

    Fuka observes Shenmi's courtly behaviour with a smirk, clearly amused. "He's also known as Baoman." she observes to Ayame. "Don't worry, this will be a breeze! After all I'm here!" she claims. Did people miss her because she's small? Well, possibly.

    Fuka seems relatively idle during Goldenblade's prepwork, but the attentive will realize that she's actually paying attention, nodding along to keypoints encouragingly even if she plays at being bored by the lack of action.

Goldenblade leads on when everyone is ready. There's only so much prep you can do before it becomes too much of a drag, but we underthought this before, and she's willing to give it due consideration. She snickers as Shenmi introduces himself to Ayame, nodding to Haru about working togetger. "We certainly planned it better than last time." to Ayame, she says, "No celestial bodies required, just your own." Fuka gets a skeptical look, as one gives to kids playing on one's freshly manicured lawn, but she's small, what harm can she do?

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.

"Busy. The Baroness has many redeeming qualities" Ayame tells Haru "But her paperwork and record keeping were not among them" She offers a slightly amused smile and nod, shifting the circular shield on her arm and stepping in and up, running her wand around the rim of the shield, the runes lighting and providing a soft glow ahead of her in a soft, clear violet.

"I'm afraid that sleight of hand isn't among my talents. Forthright and honesty, however, are" She blinks at Shenmi, and her cheeks actually flushing slightly at the offer of the bouquet, taking it "Ah. Thank you" She notes with a red-cheeked nod

"I'd never overlook you" She tells Fuka with an amused wink

Then she steps forward; and while she might not be the best for watching, that's a nice glow she casts, and it is a VERY big shield.

Haru gives the nod to Goldenblade on the level of planning that was done prior to. There will be more call outs, there will be more communication. He heads in with a position towards the back as a squishy. However he does miss more than a couple of the traps along the way, causing him to recover with health potions. Taking one down, he tells Ayame, "I know the feeling. I was promoted to Craft Commander in the Silver Swords, New World Alliance. It involves a lot of paperwork. Shiruba is very inspiring, but does not focus on the administrative activities. It is often Yeowang or myself that handle that." He puts the empty potion away and finishes with, "Good to see you out and about."

"That's fine..." He glances at Haru, who mentioned the new Adventurer's name, "...Ayame, isn't it? We all have our own strength. Forhright and Honesty are precious, treasure them. A woman of Noble Spirit is a shining jewel in this world, a paragon to serve as an example to-" And here a mock-scolding glance is cast in Fukaziroh's direction. "-others-."

"Oh, traps! A classic!" She pivots on one foot, and fixing his gaze on each member of the party in turn, with a smirk, he begins, "I know something that might work here."

He waves his forearms in front of himself, fingers wiggling, a few times, and ends with his arms crossed on his chest, fists closed.

A grin, and as the fists are open, between each pair of fingers, there is little white ball, about the size of a table tennis one.

"Observe!", he says, and spins, throwing the balls all around.

They fly around, and as Shenmi continues to spin, more and more white projectiles zip about, each of them landing neatly on a trap's mechanism, that makes it snap harmlessly.

Three, four spins, and a good portion of the trap is no longer a threat. Shenmi stops spinning, legs apart and arms, equally apart, spread up in the air, in a 'X' shape. "Thank you, thank you dear audience! I'd be here all week if I weren't eager to get the whatever counts as an unpleasant afterlife in this world!"

    "Wake has great talents!" Fuka notes cheerfully. "But don't sell yourself short, Ayaa~ You have huge talents too!" the little Sylph offers with an encouraging grin.

    She studies the situation before them. Familiar... the traps and all. Different arrangement, but those gnolls do like their trapped exterior. "In this case my talent... is to shine the light of obviousness and reflection!" Fuka declares, summoning a blazing globe of fire and light to illuminate and cast the various traps into sharp relief. "This should make it somewhat easier for all of us to see what's underfoot and get through with... well, mostly with everything I guess!"

    And with that, she traipses though, light on her feet, mostly avoiding anything by virtue of having no shadows to worry about, or of various reflections from bits of metal making themselves a little more obvious.

Goldenblade leads the way into the trap-filled woods, and it is there her leadership fails. Or at least she's not leading, unless you can follow an amazingly twisted and hidden path, avoiding traps, lines of sight, surprising one squirrel so badly he chokes on an acorn, before appearing unscathed at the end of the way, and looking back to see if anyone did, in fact, follow her lead. So .... no? "Ayame! Look out!" *wince* "Haru!" *another wince* At least Shenmi seems to have worked out how not to get impaled on a trap. "Well done," she says approvingly, and hrms as Fuka seems to have her own trapfinding technique. She sighs for everyone relying on magic, though.

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.

Goldeblade sighs at the Kennedy Assassination joke. "Stupid grassy gnolls."

"You see, that technically means I can give you requests" Ayame tells Haru "That's my group. But I don't make things - just neater administrative systems" She winks "And very occasional potions. I must be one of the only people who didn't bother much with crafting skills"

She didn't find tripwires. Except with her feet. And, well - the reason for the boots, the shield, the gloves, become clear, as things impact her and spatter against the surface of the rimmed defence, as she advances slowly behind it, letting others show off as they disarm them. Even if she squirms and ends up with shreds in her shirt and skirt from razor arrows she barely hid behind. Grazes and light cuts at best

"You flatter" She tells Shenmi with a small, worried smile as she moves on and in, still looking around with that solid, braced stance "And thank you for that, sir, but I am very unused to such things. Just helping out, as best I can" She assures.

And a little smirk at Fuka "Really. You're going there already?" She asks with an arched brow "That was just a little rude" She winks down

"And yes. Be careful" She tells GB with a small huff

"I am fine," Haru lets Goldenblade know. Injuries are part of the advance and his health bar is slowly returning as the healing potion takes effect. He walks with an unhurried pace as he nods to Ayame, "I would like it is we did that, Ayame. There are a lot of good ideas that are going around, but we have to temper those with logistics before they become just rogue dreams." He thumbs up, "All about that crafting life. Did you get a chance to look at the Enchanted Glass sample set I dropped off at Eas? If not, lets get a drink and go over some of the new materials."

Speaking of new, there is that sniper. Haru vrrrs up his four Ioun Stones and starts laying a volley of magical assault down the killzone. Magic Missiles: They tend to not miss. Solid chip damage across the shield wall advance.

"I prefer the term 'appreciate.' Flattery makes it sound so sycophantic," Shenmi dismisses with a flick of his hand. "Ah, the Baroness. I have met her once. She was interested in Uncrowned affair. Helped her arrange a meeting with some other members of the Palace Lands rebellion. And, in turn, she helped me developing some techniques." Lost gaze. "Haven't met her in a while, I should go pay her a visit one of these days."

"Good thing we have no book depositories in the vicinity, then!", Shenmi comments to Goldenblade before clearing his throat at Fukaziroh's teasing of Ayame. He's not reproaching her or blushing or anything. He's simply pointing out that he, himself, is not following that line of discussion. Not at this point, at least.

    The little Sylph cackles at Ayame. "A little rude? Of course! You should know that by now at least!" she agrees unabashedly. Poor Hyuga might not go there, might not get involved in innuendo and banter, but of course Fuka's all over it. That's basically what she does!

    Likewise, Fuka's approach to a sniper is ... well, kind of unique. Powering up her own internal shields, setting herself to shed light and be quite a target, she skips towards the archer singing out. "Hit me if you can ~/o"

    That, and the massive sword she draws, ought to make her quite a target. And given her general tankiness especially when she augments her defense, piddly arrows aren't going to do much once the element of surprise is gone. Oh, she might take a hit or two, but nothing she can't treat with a simple potion or two. Better her than the cloth-wearing squishies this group is full of!

A lone bowman is no threat to Goldenblade's recently improved tanking skill. She'd trained hard, and it shows, her blades cutting arrows out of the air, whirling to parry and block the incoming projecttiles with ease. Ayame's reply draws a smirk, but the tank is proof against the assassin's arrows as well, so she gets a thumbs up, and she nods approvingly as Haru returns fire effectively. "Very good." Fuka's hard tank approach is completely effective, her shields impregnable. She grunts agreement with Shenmi about no book depositories in the area. "Too damn right."

Where there were once hundreds of lower level Gnolls who roved these woods there seem to be far fewer now. Only one or two are seen almost like shadows, keeping their distance from the Adventurers. That is, until they come through a copse of trees to find what looks to be a long abandoned fountain, overgrown with moss and crumbling in places.

There is still a little bit of liquid that trickles out, gathering in an oddly colored pool at the base of the fountain. Around it are a group of relatively regular Gnolls. However, upon seeing the approach of the Adventurers, they quickly scoop up mouthfuls of the strange 'water', gulping it down.

The Gnolls seem to shudder and then become impossibly more bulky, their eyes red and their maws drooling with white foam. They turn, growling and baring massive teeth at the Adventurers.

"I'd be delighted to see the options" Ayame tells Haru with a nod "I adore seeing what new things come up we can work with. Presenting new options is how we get ahead" She assures

"Of course. And I do present a large target" She winks to Fuka, before hefting her shield even as the barrier around it flares, and she darts forward, providing cover as she runs.

Even as she does, she grins back faintly to Shenmi, nodding "She's very approachable!" She calls, taking the arrowstorm in her shortened stride.

By the time he's done attempting to flee or protect himself from the projectiles, it turns out Shenmi did not completely succeed. He walks into the area skewered by a few arrows, groaning, "Ow. Ow. OW," as his HP declines. "Is there a Healer in the party? I need a few sticks removed."

But there is no time to perform surgery!

"...what's in that water? Protein shake?" He slaps his face. "Oh, great. Swol Gnolls. Now they're going to never-skip-leg-day us to death."

This area is more up Haru's alley. Alchemy. "I'll get to working on a counter alchemical effect," he says calmly, leaving the fighting to the team as he makes his way to get a sample of the water. Scooping a canteen's worth up, he retreats back, testing it against a series of prepared vials until one finally works with a fizzy red color reaction. "Looking ahead is good," he ackgnollages, throwing a mixture at one of the gnoll's head which comically shrinks it down.

    This location seems somewhat unfamiliar. Fuka oohs as she sees the fountain and the occly coloured pool at the base of it. Then makes a sour face as the gnolls drink it. "You shouldn't drink that you don't know where it's... well, yeah you probably know exactly where it's been!" she cries out.

    Fortunately she too knows her potions, and can identify both the nature of the boon granted the gnolls and the accompanying debuff to their tactics and self-preservation. "Potion of berserk! They won't stop from pain, they'll hit hard, and won't take any actions to protect themselves from bleeds, burns or poison!" she warns the adventurers. It's likely to be a rough fight, but they can make it through. And hey, she's got some pretty good healing potions to help the group recover after! They may taste like literal hot garbage, but they work!

Goldenblade is, it seems, not up to the fight against these buffed up gnolls, and she takes an awful pounding before we can win through deeper into the forest. It's tough on everyone, it seems, Ayame taking a beating as well, though her shield keeps the damage to manageable levels as Haru counters the gnolls' buff, contrary to Shemni's fears. Fuka seems to understand exactly what's going on, and she takes the best course of action she can, given the circumstances. It's not an easy fight, but the party eventually wins through.

Further into the forest, the true effect of the Gnoll presence becomes more obvious. Trees are knocked, the roots turned up towards the sky. Dirt and rocks are flung in multiple directions. Something has gone very wrong here and the forest is taking the brunt of the damage.

It does not take long to see the source of the destruction. An absolutely massive Gnoll looms higher than the tallest trees in this part of the forest. The creature is stark black, tree branches sticking out from portions of the monster's fur. The red eyes of the beast are frenzied, and it seems to be attacking anything and everything that comes anywhere close.

Unfortunately, the Adventurers have come close, and that means they have found themselves the target of this giant, feral Gnoll.

"That" Ayame says as she stares at the enormous figure "Is one hell of a gnoll. Fuka, is that how we look to you?" She asks with a nervous chuckle, adjusting her grip on her shield and edging forward, muttering as the defences flare and strengthen around her

... only for the Gnoll to simply shatter it with a few blows, pounding the secretarial sylph into the dirt as she tried to corral it into a corner

    Fuka looks up at the gnoll, looks ... up at Ayame. "You shouldn't call yourself ugly, you know?" she wisecracks. Then winces, preparing to set up a fight. "Uh... you know, maybe we'd better just run? This doesn't seem to be going... Ack! That looked really painful!" she says brightly.

    Fuka abandons her plans for going on offense - really, what would she do to such a colossus? Climb it and stab it repeatedly in the neck? Instead she grabs Ayame somewhere convenient and helps to haul her out of reach. "Dare I say it... RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!!!!"

"I'm going to blind him with MAGIC!", exclaims Shenmi, as, waving his hands in complex patterns, produces the Mother of all Flashes, in the hope of reducing the Monster's ability to see.

Haru recalls the great misadventures of dealing with the Supermassive Black Gnoll. There is simply Gnoll escape from this one. He focuses on using Dark magic to push back the creature's advances but its Dark Resist is on a whole nother level. Cosmic, even.

The massive gnoll is hard to manage, and Goldenblade's skill for this is marginal. She gets a few arrows into it, but she is no archer. Ayame is hard put to corral the huge thing, her tanking techniques can't quite stand up to the pounding as she taunts it. Fuka, in fact, seems to have the best course of action planned, Brave Sir Robin style. Shenmi is at least able to blind it, aiding Haru's Dark magic, allowing the party to get away, with the creature unable to effectively pursue.

After a long time of traveling through the perils of the Gnoll Woods, which are very perilous, but not too perilous for the brave party, they eventually stumble 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. They come to a chamber that seems to have been filled with a fine black sand. It sticks to their feet and shifts on the slightest of breezes. At first, the room seems empty, however, there is a shadow that looms from above as a massive Gnoll drops in from above, landing with a dull thud on the sand. This one is a bit different than many they have seen. They have a leaner build suggesting that this may be a female, and they wear furs and leathers rather than traditional armor.

As soon as she lands, there is a swirling vortex of wind that starts to form around her, blowing rocks and sand around the arena and making it almost impossible to see.

Ayame shimmies a swift, surreptitious 'scape, eventually, though by the time they regroup, the Sylph is somewhat battered, and worn, light suffusing her shield arm to support it and hold it in place as she winces and moves on in. There aren't really words for the others, only a look of quiet, bitter intent and a small nod as she moves on in.

This time, she moves in, shield first once more, shuffling with a pained look, but as the wind begins to swirl, she spreads her wings, and lets it lift her briefly; before the wand is levelled and a bright burst of light impacts and explodes right in the gnoll's face, exposing paths through the tempest as she flutters to ground level once more

    Fuka's not happy about fleeing the giant gnoll, but she'd be even less happy with everyone getting squished and sent to respawn at their respective temples. Having beat the supergiant once with a seriously OP group, she knows it probably doesn't bear any of the gem keystones, so it's really not worth it. Sometimes the coward's way is the *smart* way, even if it stings and burns.

    As they approach the cave however, Fuka's glad they made the right decision. Their resources are low, but this isn't over yet! There is room for victory, if they proceed with skill and brave intent! And the enemy is ... the sandweaver. Ugh, how unpleasant. Something something itches and gets everywhere.

    Sighing, Fuka resigns herself to fighting blind. She hefts her Arc-ane Blade, letting loose with a battlecry, then charges into the sand. As a Sylph she's pretty good in sensing things, in handling storms, and in moving fast. As a small sylph wearing heavy armour, the sandstorm itself isn't that big of a threat. Only the blindness slows her down, and even so she has a pretty good idea where to go based on the patterns of the blowing wind.

    Soon, the combination of various skills and attributes puts Fuka in melee range of the sandweaver, despite the sandweaver's best attempts to make things otherwise. As Ayame illuminates its face, Fuka's in good position to take advantage of it and put sword into sand dancer. Insert, remove, repeat as necessary. Fuka's into it!

Haru descends down the side passageway after remembering the last time that they were there. This time it is going to be different. Sand? Yes. Black Sand is different. He draws an arm in front of his face as the first black of the sandstorm so DaRudely buffets him. "Earth," the silver haired man says as it gets a salt-and-pepper look after the sooty sand sticks to it. "Big mistake," as he draws his hand away. The four ioun stones around him begin to rotate in a circle, orbiting him at fast speeds. "Was ki ra chs arhou merra" the stones sing out from their metallic hums, sounding song-like metal-on-metal tunes. At the end of hymn, buffs appear on the party in the form of a multi-colored halo that sits above their heads. The buff screen shows it as 'Crown of Hope' that provides resistance against the attacks while the party searches for where to fight and take the boss down.

The Artificer draws the natural Earth mana from the room, heating it with fire and putting gashing glasswork into the enemy so that even when they dance away they are still bleeding damage over time effects.

"You know, I normally offer a bouquet to the ladies, upon first meeting them," Shenmi remarks, casually, tho the Gnoll. Scratching his chin and offering an askance look, he adds, "...but in your case, I'll make an exception."

The vortex interrupts his incohate attempt at casting some sort of spell through wide circular motions, and he has to hold onto his top hat.

"Fine! Bao, it's up to you now!", the Conjurer exclaims, removes his hat, and, predictably, there is a Bun-Bun inside.

The Animal companion is released, and Shenmi points, "Go! Find a way, Bao!"

The Bun-bun sniffs the air, squints a little, and hops off. More sniffing and squinting ensues, but eventually, the small creature is lost from sight.

He probably dug a hole to hide.

Goldenblade is, it seems, far too fast to be impeded, and the eyes in the back of her head seem to be more than a metaphor as she dodges attacks that come from exactly behind her in the swirling mess. Ayame sheds light on things that were hidden, clearing the swirling air enough for attacks to be made effectively. Haru has planned well for this encounter, and his spell is perfect for the situation, giving the party that very effective buff, and then putting a hurting DoT on the Boss. Fuka, small though she is, is fierce, and the swirling sand does not impede her significantly, her sense of positioning nearly perfect despite the chaos. Shenmi has Bao to scout for him, and he releases the Bun, but Bao has more sense than to get tangled up in this, and instead after a look around, will burrow into the earth and take cover until the crisis is over, leaving Shenmi to fend for himself.

The battle against Seviira is no simple matter. Not only does the boss have multiple health bars to contend with, but the swirling sand makes it nearly impossible to locate her or predict where her attacks might come from. The party is buffeted, blinded, and forced to fight more strategically in order to deal with this sort of foe.

Eventually, however, they are able to contain the Gnoll to a point where her spells have less impact, meaning that more damage can be done. She growls, howls, rages and sends black sand flying, slamming the Adventurers back into walls or trying to bury them beneath the ground, but it is to no avail.

As the last bit of her health is eliminated, the monster roars and shatters into points of light, a handful of amber colored gemstones falling to the ground to land on the dark sands which once again, fall still. "Do these go in the door we passed?" Goldenblade asks of the keystones. She will go back and check, and place her keystones in. She hadn't noticed it before.

Ayame sways a touch in place, spitting out sand and shaking it from her bun, but there's a grim look of satisfaction on her face as she stretches "It's been far too long since I joined all of you in this" She says with a smile, bending to get one of the keystones, studying it idly before moving to let it join Goldenblade's "You'll need to pull me along with them more often. I don't recall this one." She chatters

"I think it goes in the door, yes," exclaims an exhausted Shenmi covered in dark sand from head to toe. Might as well be soot. "I have to unearth my assistant, then I think we can head over there and... do the thing, I suppose," he gestures vaguely.

"Why," Shenmi begins to Ayame, "It'll always be a pleasure to be in a party with you. As in, an adventuring party. As opposed to a celebration. Which is still a pleasure to be involved with, but is a different thing." He rubs his chin. "Speaking of which. I believe, we have absolutely deserved something like that." He claps his hands and projecting his voice around, asks, "Anyone up for a festive dinner at a tavern once we're done with this?"