Duty Session 16: Gnoll it All

    The party sets out, possibly after stocking up at a store to get things like lanterns for those in the party who can't see in low light conditions. The path is the path, quiet at first... but as they get further from town, monsters start to appear. Relatively harmless things like porings and kobolds, sure, but in much greater numbers than usual. Mizuki actually has to break out the serious magic, fireballing groups and summoning armor of ice to increase her defense while she stabs monsters trying to pile onto her. It's a bit more tiring than planned, but certainly doable. Still... this situation could be bad for a newbie, so Mizuki suggests that Reika stay in the back -- Shiruba and Kaydon volunteer to guard her, while the rest of the group forms the vanguard.

Reika listens to the explanations about the different abilities, while she follows Mizuki out of the church and unto the roads. "I don't think I have those abilities..." She follows the instructions in her UI to take a look at her abilities, and sweatdrops "Ah.. heh... uhm, yeah, I never really... played the game to play it, so it seems I only got the minimum of 3 abilities in my list..." She scratches the back of her head "I guess I should start by fixing that. If you don't mind... I'll stand back and observe your fighting, maybe I can take a few pointers from it."

She said she doesn't want to be a bystander before, but she has to first become someone that isn't useless.

    Merek walks along with the party, his swords sheathed upon the back, while he wears a cloak which shifts about in the wind, along with the scarf which he wears. The man looks to the team, and nods a bit, "Alright, I'll do what I'm able to protect people," he mentions, while he looks onto the horizon as well.

    (Also, when they approach the road out of town, Mizuki changes up her equipment, swapping out her in-town jacket, shirt and pants for something new: Nautical-themed armor! Everyone but Gwen probably assumes it's in preparation for their upcoming sea voyage, but in truth, Mizuki just wanted any other armor set to replace the leather battle bikini.

    The new armor is a blend of fantasy and history -- a black hat with a feather plume that seems to be somewhere between a cavalier hat and a tricorner hat, a realistic buff coat with a red sash around the waist and a blue cloak for warmth on the cold seas. Two shoulder belts cross over her chest, with pouches for holding things and sheathed daggers. Black trousers complete the outfit.)

In a bit of a coincidence, Nevarri (alongside Jazhanzu) is also making a return trip to Alne, having made her way to Carmina Gadelica in order to deliver logistical updates in the form of MAPS. LOTS OF MAPS. AND SEA DATA. AND MAPS. Gwen would have received a giant pile of the things.

"We wanted to make sure everything was smooth sailing when the time came. We've also got a couple of weather forecasts, which will be updated daily!"

NOW though, Nevarri is stretching a bit as she waits alongside the rest of the leaving towners, "Since we're also heading back, may as well go as a group and make it all safer, yeah?"

Before then striking a pose, pointing to eyes and then pointing out to her Audience of... Nobody in particular, "Because I'm your Explorer's Guide to ETO!"

A Beat...

"Oh wait..." She sulks, "I'm not making a video guide..."

Jazz, on the other hand, has been relatively quiet en route. Nevarri will have found her prone to getting distracted and wandering away during their exploratory efforts. Mostly in the sense that she was poking at some nook, some cranny, some crevice. Curiousity and a relative paucity of common sense, perhaps, or easily being distracted in any event. They did apologize, admitting they weren't used to having company.

She just sort of looks at the sulking salamander, pinches the bridge of her nose, awkwardly pats her on the arm.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll survive not having an audience."

Jazz's voice is, perhaps, more cheerful than she'd intended. The pains of having a Most High Adorable Anime Girl Voice Actress.

    The waning gibbous moon hanging in the sky overhead at least prevents the road from being pitch-black, but to anyone used to a world of street lights and regularly-illuminated highways (travelled by cars with headlights...), it's darker than travelling by night has ever been. Even campgrounds have some lighted areas for safety, but here there are miles and miles of distance and no light posts to be seen anywhere.

    At least you can SEE into said distance, this part of the island is for the most part rolling, grassy fields. There are scattered trees and bushes about, but for the most part there isn't much for the monsters to hide behind and sneak up with. With an open plain, the party can mostly see groups of monsters from outside aggro range and either detour around them or plan to attack them as optimally as possible and blast through.

    Sometime past midnight, the party starts to hear distant howls. None of the monsters they've seen have been the howling type. Well, maybe kobolds? They look vaguely canine. Mizuki's ears perk up and the fur on her back and tail bristles.

    As the party crests a hill going around one group of monsters, they come into sight of... hyenas! Shaggy, flea-bitten hyenas! Which are already too close to avoid aggroing.

    Moonlight glints off the hyenas' eyes and drooling mouths as they turn to look at the party and approach...

Gwen joined others for her trip to the Marina she's keeping, things organized and she has a pickup she needs to do, so it's best to travel with others for it. The towering Sylph woman is clearly a tank even in her local vendor gear, which is an improvement over the newbie gear she woke up herein.

"You can put on a show in a Pub or somewhere else you know. Busker it for a bit right?"

Gwen notes her voice is a bit deeper in keeping with her stature but still feminine and she seems to be mostly in a good mood. She notes to Jaz "So good to meet you, by the way, I'm Gwen Pendragon."

She notes and keeps moving,

"This is still kind of surreal isn't it?"

Then she pauses for a moment as she takes note of something.

"Oh you ahve to be kidding me...It's Ed and company /again/."

WIth that she take her shield and level it what seem to be engines int t come ot lise and she ire it off yelling.

"SHIELD BOOMERANG!"

Sending what should normally be a defensive weapon is bouncing around like something out of a Western comic book and when it's all done she'll hold out her arm as the shield lands back perfectly.

Reika safely stands back during this, and watches the attack more attentively. She might not have those attacks, but she can pick things up from it, hopefully. She jumps up into a tree, landing on a branch. If there's something she has already figured out, is that her class selection makes her agile. She can jump further, run faster and lift heavier things than she would expect in the real world. So jumping in a tree is relatively easy right now.

It gives her a good vantage point,a nd hopefully stays out of reach of the hyenas.

    Merek looks to the hyenas, while he begins to check for food which he might have on him. He doesn't, then he sighs a bit, trying his best to keep away from them, the team managing better a bit than him it looks like.

Nevarri sighs as she pulls out of sorcerer's staff, which being not glammed up is one of the generic cooked staves, "Right... I can do this... Running away and letting my escort tank the encounter is not an option anymore..." Anywho who has watched her guides would know that she often had accompaniment into higher leveled areas and they did the hard work for her.

She takes a breath, before yelling, "Shoo! Bad dogs! Go away! SHOO!" COMMAND ANIMAL SKILL! That's how it works, right?

"Oh, come /on/," mutters Jazz.

She reaches into her satchel and throws meat-bits, some kind of dried fish it would appear, down past and away from the Hyenas. Meaty-smells will, at least, distract them long enough to allow passage. Some of them, anyway. it's worth a try.

Gwen's efforts earned a big, wide eyed stare. "Wow-eee," she manages to utter. She's still not used to seeing... *things* like that happen in front of her.

    "Weather forecasts will be important crossing the ocean! And... come to think of it, it would've been good to know it wasn't going to rain BEFORE starting this journey..." Mizuki replies to Neva. "I'm counting on you to guide us safely!" She smiles and offers a thumbs-up. "It's good to see you again."

    Mizuki is one to get concerned whenever Jazuhanzu wanders off. "Hey! Don't get too far from the party... sorry, but with monsters out in such big groups, getting ambushed could be a serious problem!" She sounds worried.

    And then they come into view of the hyenas. "Ed? ...Oh, was that one of their names in the Lion King? Well, we don't have any lion king here, so does that make me the tiger queen?" She draws her daggers and dashes in to harry the group of hyenas. Some of them are distracted by the food Jazuhanzu throws to them, others display a 'pacified' status icon and flee at Neva's command, and the rest... Gwen's shield bounces between them, damaging and stunning them and making it easy for Mizuki to pick them off with her daggers.

    "Come on, let's keep moving before they finish their midnight snack..."

    Unfortunately, that leaves them trying to find their way back to the path by dead reackoning. It shouldn't be THAT far out of sight... in fact, it should be right past that copse of trees... As the party rounds it, though, they come into sight of... a gnoll that, by the looks of it, has been patrolling this spot in the path for hours. He's worn a little circle into the path from endless pacing...

    Merek begins drawing the blades from the sheaths which he keeps on the back of his attire, then he twirls them around while he nods to the gnoll. "Alright, I am going to tank him, if you all could use the distraction to take him on, we might be able to win easily." He waits, then he begins to speed in, his blades coming about in a flurry while he strikes along the creature.

Gwen looks over to Jaz for a moment "Really?"

Gwen turns a bit red and keeps moving once they are done with it.

"Ding, why did it have to be Gnolls again? Least it's not Goblins. No you're a catgirl. we should test if catnip works on you sometimes." She keeps moving as they now run into a Gnoll yup Gwen called this one.

"Looks like we'll have to deal with it again. She gets an idea and get a grin. "That one he looks like he's the outcast I got an idea.."

Gwen will take a gold coin, tossing it, away from the path to see if the Gnoll might chase after it, not because her's dog-like. No, but because he's likely broke as hell being the lowest on the pack rung. It will either distract him for her comrades or get him wholly out of the way.

Nevarri nods at Merek, and raises her staff, pointing it outward to the Gnoll, "Right!" And when the Gnoll is sufficiently distracted by the Shiny and/or the tank, the Salamander Elementalist's staff lights up with non-elemental magic and she lobs a globule of magic.

"Either there's an awful lot Gnoll, or they also respawn!" Having (off camera) heard whispers about players respawning in the church.

Seeing the gnoll going for the gold coin that Gwen tossed, Jazz takes advantage of the moment.

She raises her hands, an orb of water coalescing around her wiggling fingers before she takes aim at itsd backside. A jet of water is sent firing after it with all the pressure of a very real fire house to send it further away from them. "Hopefully, it gets the idea and stays the hell away," she grumbles, glancing towards Gwen and giving her a shrug. "What? The shield trick looked cool." She's sheepish towards Mizuki's corrections of her tendency to want to wander as well.

    Mizuki chuckles nervously at the mention of catnip. WOULD it do anything? "I just hope that boss only spawns in that one area..."

    But then they come into sight of the gnoll. "Get him!" Mizuki urges the party, then takes a deep breath and spits a fireball at the gnoll, which has already begun to chase after the coin Gwen threw. The coin glints in the moonlight as it rolls to a stop, the gnoll reaching down to pick it up. "Huh huh. My shiny..." The fireball explodes in a big blast of flame, briefly blackening the gnoll's character model, and Neva's magic adds insult to injury, making the creature stumble backward before Merek charges in with his blades!

    The gnoll prepares for a counter strike, but Jazz's water magic blasts it out of it, freeing Merek to slice one, two, three streaks of glowing pixels across the monster as it yips in pain and then explodes into polygons.

    Before they can celebrate, though, there's the sound of splashing and stomping from a nearby pond -- stomping wet paws splash water about as a warg rider charges towards them from the pond.

    Okay. Okay, it's a tougher monster, but they can handle it, right? It's when it sounds that horn that Mizuki's fur goes bushy again. "Aw, fuck." And here her MP is already half-empty from the nuke she just used...

    Merek looks to the mount and gnoll which is coming their way, while he takes a moment to consider the method of that travel with water. The man thinks about it, then he begins to gather a little bit of the water, his magic chanting bringing that about, while he begins to call it into those whips which he brings upon the mount, a lashing along upon it while ice begins to form where it strikes.

Nevarri goes wide eyed at the incoming Gnoll, and glances about to the water source that the Gnoll had just gone through, before grinning and pointing her staff in that direction, channeling a some MP and swinging the staff so as to guide an onslaught of water rush, and have it SLAM into the Warg rider.

"Back off!"

Gwen makes a note for when things settle down to test this on Mizuki, for now, however, the Gnoll is taken out pretty darn hard. With that one out of the way. With that one out of the way she moves on and then comes something else worse the Gnoll coming for Warg Riger, Gwen quick casts a water spell but it ends up missing the rider by few inches. No crying over it as Gwen moves to try and intercept attack coming at her allies and it's a good thing she's getting into the front.

First, Jazz's eyes get big when the first gnoll disolves into polygons. "Whoa!" She hadn't actually seen much violence in her time here, after all, and this is the first time she's really seen a *monster* blow up like that.

She really is that new.

But then there's a very wet gnoll and rider with spears coming their way, with wspears being THROWN their way. "Ahhh!"

She throws her hands up, finges still wiggling, and orbs of water coalsce around her hands as she creates defensive shields that that swirl out and erupt in front of the thrown spears out of her own proective and reactinve instinct.

"...how does that even work?!" She has no idea what she's doing.

    Unfortunately for the warg and its rider, this entire party knows water magic and that pond is right by the path. Water is drawn and redirected into attacks and defense. Nevarri knocks it off balance; Mizuki makes a ninja hand sign and then is suddenly holding a kunai made of ice, which she throws at the beast, stabbing one of its legs before it explodes into a cloud of frost, freezing its paws just enough to make it slip and fall. This delays it enough for the frost from Merek's water whips to build up until it's completely frozen and stunlocked -- from there, a series of followup attacks can finish the now-defenseless warg.

    The rider, meanwhile, dismounts and tries to throw spears, but Jazuhanzu catches them with a shield of water -- the rider soon meets the same fate as his mount.

    ...

    ...All is still and quiet. If the party expected immediate reinforcements from that horn call, they don't come. Perhaps it wasn't actually a summon technique? Or perhaps it only has a certain percentage chance of working...

    They move on. And then Mizuki smiles and says, "Looks like this one's ALL WASHED UP! Eh? Eh? We sure put him... ON ICE!" It's too late, Mizuki, you missed the moment.

    It's ominously quiet for minutes. Sometimes they see shapes in the distance. They drop from trees or hop out of bushes and... run away?

    Just as it's looking as if the threat might be over, though, a large shadow blocks the path ahead of them. As a the moon comes out from behind a cloud, it can be more clearly seen -- particularly that its hide and flesh are rent away in places, baring muscle, sinew, and bone. Points of light suddenly appear in its empty eye sockets as that half-skeletal face lets out a sickly howl, and it begins to lumber towards them!

    Mizuki looks around, but there's not much useful in the environment here. "Not THIS thing again... please tell me one of you has an anti-undead skill? Last time we saw one of these we had to run away!"

    Merek looks to the new gnoll, while he takes a moment to lift up a hand, bringing what looks to be a shield about the party, "I'll focus up on defense," he mentions, while he nods a bit to that party.

"It's okay, you tried." Nevarri giggles and pats her on the shoulder, as they move on.

When the shadow looms, and out comes the undead gnoll, she goes wide eyed as she shakes her head, "I'm an elementalist, I don't have light magic to work with! How am I supposed to---"

And then she stops talking, as her glasses glint. No. They don't glint.

They glow.

The Salamander blinks as she stares off not at the lumbering undead gnoll but PAST it. And then she begins whispering words... And repeating them louder, raising a her staff up and channeling magic in, this time a light based...

"Rinn- i firn na i talv o hain tul-, cin will ú- padad- i coe ad-, Take cín fuin, take cín nifred, Awaui! Awaui!"

And then she slams her staff into the ground, releasing a burst of light.

At the horrible thing lumbering towards them, Jazz's eyes get even wider. "Oh, uh...No?" She has nothing that seems terribly useful against undead. The spots on her skin, her face, do start to glow with a flickering bioluminsence, but it fades away quickly and she hardly seems aware of them at the moment.

She steps back to let others handle it, since she clearly has no idea what she can do here.

Gwen looks to Merk for a moment. "I fought one of these before."

She appreciates the shield form Merk and then she moves in she cries out.

"ANCHOR HOWL!"

Green light burst around her body and she gets the attention of the boss all on her, if the worst of it happens she'll be able to inflict several brutal counter-attacks on it. She will also keep in its face as she attacks the thing.

"I'm a Holy Knight, what do you think Mizuki?!"

She grins as she gets in the things face there's sword attack but the odd thing is? Gwen doesn't seem to be using any of the various moves just full-on swordplay, and she looks moderately experienced with it.

    No one has anti-undead skills? Great! Mizuki steels herself for another bad fight... but this time, everything comes together. Gwen tanks, keeping the rot-walker focused on her, its attacks blunted by her armor and further by Merek's shield. Nevarri says she has no light element, and then produces some anyway. What's THAT about, Mizuki wonders, as she stalks at the periphery of the battle. Hesitating.

    But this time is different. Anchor Howl hit. It's tanked. She should be safe, this time.

    Mizuki steps forward, hesitates. The monster doesn't go down right away this time, the mid-boss being a tough nut to crack. But the team has got it down. Gwen tanks, Merek shields, Neva blasts it down. They just need a little more DPS...

    They're counting on her. Besides, if she dies, she now knows she'll come back. Somewhere.

    Mizuki steels herself and charges in, leaping on the monster's back. This is where everything started to go wrong last time. She missed, it turned and bit her... but this time, it hits. She cuts a pair of glowing lines into the monster's back with her daggers, despite swinging wildly.

    With Mizuki /doing her job/, tank, healer, and two DPS drop the mob's HP to zero after a few more cycles of using their skills when they come off cooldown. It's only a mid-boss, so it doesn't have any other patterns. It bursts into polygons...

    "Phew..."

    After a few seconds, though, they hear a roar, and the ground begins to shake. A massive shape charges down the path, hefting an equally-massive axe!

    "Oh no..." Mizuki shakes, fur bristling again.

    "No! Not this time!" Mizuki tries to do a ninja hand sign, flubs it, gets it on the second try, and starts hurling dark ninja magic attacks at Haggar! Trying to blind and corrupt him... but they fail to proc. "No no no no no..." She staggers back, and then starts to turn and run!

    Merek looks to the gnoll Haggar, while he takes a moment to think about it. The man nods a bit, "Aye, we'll win," he offers, then he takes a moment to lift up a bow which he keeps with him. He nocks an arrow, then he begins firing upon that creature. He keeps on with that, while he begins to circle.

Nevarri's glasses dim once more, and the sorceress blinks a little bit before looking back and forth at the remains of the undead, "Wait, did I just..." she reaches up and plucks her glasses from her face and stares some more, "I just saw scripture in the air and just... Started reading it. I wasn't even trying to there..." She rubs her eyes a bit before placing them back onto her face. "Here I thought I was blind, I can see more now than ever..." She smiles. "Let's get moving..."

then Haggar shows up, she goes wide eyed, "OKay, no prepared spell, but maybe I can channel that some dark magic like I did light there..."

She raises her staff up and focuses, grits her teeth, and a glow happens, though quite dim... "This... Will have to do..." With that, she swings the staff and points, "GO AWAY!"

With that, a streak of Dark magic flights at the Gnoll's leader, punching at it form afar.

"Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me, another one?!"

Jazz is frusrtated and more than a little frightened. It's all too real, the fighting, the blood. Polygons or no, it's still freaky! Still, sea-weed springs from the ground around the gnoll at her command, grasping and binding around his ankles and his legs, trying to hold him in place for the others, even as razor-sharp foliage digs into flesh.

Gwen charges at Haggar she has some issues with this Gnoll.

"I told you to stay down last time!"

SHe leaps hakcing slashing, however she gets pretty beat up by the Gnoll thankfully that beating spares her allies the worst of it or so she thinks.

    The boss fight begins in earnest! The party mostly stays clear of the targeting indicators (even if Mizuki only does by virtue of running away...) getting their chance to dump powerful attacks into the boss. Well, except for Gwen, who takes more than her fair share of punishment as the tank. Arrows and dark magic pelt Haggar from all sides.

    It's slow going, down one DPS. But they get him to half, and then he changes boss modes. It opens with a stomp that shakes the ground all around him for minor damage and a brief stun that makes the followup attack hard to avoid. Merek and Jazuhanzu may need to put up shields again, but the party is able to keep Hagar from turning the tide! Eventually he loses that last sliver of health, and shatters into polygons, leaving a bunch of pelts on the ground.

    When the party looks for Mizuki, she didn't get far. She's currently buried under a pile of porings. It's kind of pathetic, really. She managed to cast Ozocubu's Armor, and the porings barely do any damage through the ice, but she's uncoordinatedly punching, stabbing, and kicking wildly in a panic, which isn't damaging these things nearly as effectively as she could be. An evasion move and a fireball, or at least a series of well-placed stab techniques, would pop the porings easily.

"Whew..." Nevarri lets out a breath of relief, "This got a litlle crazy." She turns her attention to the other members of her party, "Is everyone else okay--Huh..? Where'd Mizuki go..?"

    Merek looks about the place, while he nods a bit, "Alright, it looks like things will be alright towards a city," he mentions, with a little bit of a sigh. He does look to the party, "I don't think we'll get used to this all."

"..we--- hey, yeah, we're down someoine. Where'd she go?" She's looking around, Jazz is, trying to locate her. The pile of porings, and her reaction to them, is mostly comical. Jazz winds up staring, with a sort of bemused 'wait, for real?' look on her face.