Duty Session 167: Gnoll it All

A powerful Gnoll has been reported as creating havoc within one one of the low-level Forest zones. The Berserker and his allies have been making things difficult for both Adventurers and Landers. This encounter seems to only appear at night. The Hunter?s Guild has posted an Obsidian-level Bounty for any brave Adventurers who can defeat Haggar the Gnoll Barbarian.

Difficulty:    Moderate
Rec. Party:    3+
Rewards:       1
World Rewards: None

Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    Night has fallen over the forest, the shadows becoming twisted and take on a dark eerie feel in the places where the moonlight can not reach. The soon to be summer night still has a cool breeze to it. The hunter guild had put out a call to help clear these forest of the dastardly Gnolls that had been plaguing this forest.
    Setsuna sits in front of a small smoldering fire, just enough to cast light on the immediate area before heading deeper into the woods. He had put out a call that he would be here tonight ready to hunt Gnolls, and now it was a matter of waiting. Humming to himself as he uses a sharp knife to idly whittle away at a stick, until it becomes a much smaller stick.
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider arrives at Setsuna's campfire before too much time has passed. "Good evening," he calls. He looks around, then finds a place to hang tight while everyone assembles. "Here for the gnolls, right?" he checks. "I got the job from the Guild and came straight here." He's got no problem with the dark, it seems, though there is something odd the way the breeze seems to blow back his hair.
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

The call of adventure is something that Kita ignores more often than not. The gothically dressed Imp preferring to only get her hands dirty when it comes to sculpting, carving, or other artistic persuits. However, as of late, she's at least made some attempts to get out from underneath her work in Tolbana.

She appears mostly as a shadow as she approaches, until the light catches on her witchy attire. "This one is a lower level quest, if I remember correctly." She murmurs, "So hopefully it won't be too difficult." For those that know her, the young woman's confidence has been shaken when it comes to her own abilities, meaning that she has a tendency to second guess herself as of late.

She swipes her hand, removing a spellbook, which she begins to page through, as if looking for the right set of incantations for what they will be facing.
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Someone's already got a campfire going to mark the spot to meet, nice. Makes it easier for Vertina to find. Not that she was going to get lost. Considering she's following Kita anyways, or possibly along just to make sure the bookkeeper imp doesn't get in over her head. "Lower, yeah, but that doesn't mean it's going to be -simple-... But I'm here to help punch things back into pixels so it'll all be fine!"
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    Standing up from his spot on the ground, Setsuna stretches and kicks some dirt on to his fire. "You know I did a lower level quest a week or so back. Still caught a 24 hour goblin cold disease debuff. Pesky things will get you." Looking over to Schneider and then back to Kita and Vertina, "So off to hunt the Gnolls we go then?" He places the sharp rock back into his inventory and retrieves his staff as he leads the way deeper into the woods.
    The first sign of any thing resembling the Gnolls, is a loud screech that echos through the trees. Followed by what almost sounds like giggling or laughing but are really the yips of the hyena's that Gnolls like to use to help patrol their territory. As they pick up the scent of the adventurers their heads all turn in unison and begin to run towards their newfound prey.
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider nods a greeting to Kita and Vertina as they arrive also, and he nods to Setsuna as he rises up. He follows the others towards the enemy camp, and acks at the hyena attack. Not wanting to waste spells on the hyenas, he hauls out his long sword and lays about him. Sadly, he's not as good with it as all that, and his attacks don't do nearly as much as the hyenas do to him. "Argh, ack," he mutters, trying to fend them off. "Stupid dogs!"
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

"It wouldn't surprise me if Gnolls came with all sorts of diseases, too." Kita replies, shaking her head as she lightly reaches up to tip the edge of her witch's hat forward. "I'll try to avoid catching anything, though."

She seems to linger near the back of the group, obviously not dressed for, or suited for fighting on the front lines. The mage is still fliping through her book when they come across the hyenas. "Oh." There's a surprised sound as she makes a few quick rune symbols in the air, which solidify into a stone block in front of her.

Which one of the hyenas quickly runs face-first into. She winces, "Sorry fido, but I'm not dinner tonight."
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

It doesn't take long wandering into the woods for the party to find trouble. Or for trouble to find them. Honestly with Adventurers those two tend to be the same thing. It's hyenas, no surprise the gnolls would use hyenas like watchdogs.

The first one that tries to pounce on her gets a solid reminder of why hyenas should stick to being scavengers. That solid reminder being her heel as the Salamander martial artist easily pivots faster than the beast can leap and swings out the other leg to slam foot into it's face. It crashes into a tree and pixelates from the additional impact damage.
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    The necromancer has learned a valuable lesson in life, handling monsters and handling animals are two different things. As Setsuna tries to give the hyena's a monster treat he gets snapped , feeling the slobber splash on to this finger tips as the hyena snarls. Likely Setsuna would have loss a virtual finger if Schneider had not caught the attention of the hyena. As Kita and Vertina put the whammy on the other two, the three beast decide the adventurers are not worth the effort and turn tail and run.
    As the adventurers knock cold the hyena security animals, they come across a lone Gnoll pacing around. From the look of him he is suppose to be out patrolling, however it seems instead he is slacking a bit. Setsuna smiles and looks over his shoulder and whispers to the group, "If a Gnoll falls in the forest and no other Gnoll is around, does it make a sound? "
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

"Let's find out, shall we?" Vertina darts off before anyone else can say anything. She runs right up to punch the gnoll in the side of the head... And he just stands there, with her fist scrunching his cheek and not a flinch. ".. Uh oh." She gets out, before the gnoll turns and swats her aside with his arm.

The salamander hits the ground on her back with a grunt. "Oof!" Puts one hand on her brow to rub it a bit. "Guess that's why he's standing out alone. Skull too thick to do anything else."
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

With a glance towards Setsuna, Kita manages a bemused smirk. It seems to ease some of the tension in her as she considers the haggard sight before them. "Not exactly the most intimidating of fellows, is he?"

She flips a few pages in her spellbook, then begins to trace out lettering in the air with her delicate fingertips. It forms into symbols, which then ignite red and reappear on the ground in a small summoning circle. There, a red lizard appears, tongue flicking.

"See if you can give him the hot seat, will you?" She asks, to which the lizard replies with an additional tongue flick before heading towards the gnoll... and firing a number of small fireballs right at the poor creature's rear end.
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider is grumbling about his poor performance, he ought to have handled the fight better, he seems to feel, and he would've probably lost more than a finger, if this were not VR. Seeing the lone defender, though, gives him a bit of confidence. Four-on-one shouldn't be too hard, right?

So, it turns out, four-on-one when you're not using magic, and you're a wizard, means it's three-on-one and you're just there to get mangled. He's getting smacked in the face far more than he's hurtig the defender, and he finally just backs off and lets the others finish the fight.
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    Vertina's attack seems to wake the Gnoll out of his stupor as he yips at Vertina apparently saying something. As Schneider moves in more yips and yaps as the adventurers draw the Gnoll's attention. If one could speak Gnoll, they would likely understand the insults about smelling of elder berry. Maybe even understand why it is an insult. However as the two draw the Gnolls attention Kita's summoned creature makes it to the Gnoll unnoticed setting it ablaze. Setsuna swipes his staff in the air releasing a sharp blade of wind and silencing the yipping Gnoll before anyone hears.
    It appears someone did hear though, and my what big ears it has. Somewhere, one of the adventurers may notice a small puddle of water shake, and then another as loud steps can be heard coming from the trees. Bursting through the tree's is a giant Warg, snarling at the adventurers, while off in the distance behind it one could likely make out the shape of the Shaman handler that controls the Warg. Either way they will have to deal with the Warg before continuing...
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

While the first gnoll was not exactly a prime example of the species, but the second seems to be more of a challenge, at least for Kita. The summoned fire lizard trots along, attempting to do the same as it had to the previous encounter, but...

The Warg just takes one look at the little thing and then chomps down on the summon, making it disappear in a puff of smoke. "Maybe... not so easy a target." Kita begins to frantically start paging through her spellbook while walking backwards, looking more than a little afraid of having to face the gnoll or the warg in actual melee combat.

"There has to be something here..." Then she trips right over a root she wasn't looking at, landing on her rear end. "Oof."
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Vertina gets up onto her feet and dusts herself off. "I'm okay. Only thing bruised is my pride." Straightens out her bolero jacket. "Next time I'll use the fi--"

She doesn't get a chance to finish the remark as the Worg comes crashing through the forest at them. "Fire!" She slams a fist into the ground almost on reflex, sending streams of flame speeding along the terrain... but the monster is running headlong already and just charges through them. "Oh come on!" At least she's quick enough to turn and run the other way so she doesn't get trampled, and fast enough to stay ahead of snapping teeth. "Someone stop this thing!"
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider is wincing at his wounds, though his health bar is slowly rising and his mana is shrinking. Not-so-slowly, it seems, but it's what he can do. He doesn't have long to wait, though before long, a giant warg shows up, trying to eat everyone. "Screw this," mutters Schneider, and he responds with a shout of, "GUNZENRO!", hurling fire at the beast. That's actually a /lot/ of fire, and he keeps it up burning the Worg as it barks and yips and whatever other noises it might make. Schneider's not fooling around, it seems, he's going hard, the intense fire dropping the monster's HP steadily.
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    The beast charges at the group, snapping and swiping at whoever is range, really its rampage seems to be stopping anyone from getting a moment to do anything. That is until a large fire attack, launched by Schneider, hits it from one side and the warg lets out a painful whimper and appears stunned for a moment. Then the words can be heard, "I am thou, thou are I. I release you from the chains of old, and bind you to my will." Setsuna says as chains come from the shadows binding the monster and holding him down. "Now then be a good boy and maybe you can eat some Gnolls when we leave." He even pets the Warg on the head , because really even a demonic wolf, is a good boy.
    As the adventurers move forward along the path into the Gnoll camp, one might catch a glimpse of a shadow moving here and there. However, after dealing with the wolf, they seem to be keeping their distance. That is until the moonlight shows a giant Gnoll limping towards them, as it comes closer though it becomes obvious. This Gnoll is not one of the living.
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

There is a wary moment where Kita watches the Warg come under Setsuna's control. Slowly, she gets to her feet, dusting some of the dirt and debris off of her dress. "Right..."

When the next gnoll shows itself, she is quick to duck herself back behind a tree, pushing her glasses up along her nose as she searches for an appropriate spell. "Undead, should be weak to fire." She had already exhausted her fire-lizard summon, so it falls to more typical black magic spells.

She flattens her palm to the page, then draws upward, seemingly pulling magic out of the book, itself. It forms in her hand into a ball of fire, which seems to cause her no ill effect. With a quick motion, she moves from behind the tree, launching the small bolt of fire energy towards the undead's feet, trying to catch them ablaze.
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

"Like I said, just because it's low level doesn't mean it's simple." Vertina is taking the fumbles on her part in stride. The group as a whole is progressing at least.

Though when the zombie gnoll shambles onto the scene she grins and points at him. "*You* I did not forget about! You're the reason I didn't equip my battle gloves yet." Why? Might have something to do with her pausing to chant as monks are wont to do at times, and the back of her hands glow as divine kanji appear on the back of them.

It's with said symbols that she dashes in and starts punching the zombified gnoll with, discharging the positive ki energy with every blow while the enchantment also shields her from nasty zombie side effects because these guys are probably filthy.
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider looks more pleased as the warg is brought under control, and he will proceed with the group until they're accosted by the undead gnoll. "Second verse, same as the first," he comments, then shouts, "GUNZENRO!" He hurls another burst of raw fire at the undead monster, and smiles as its health falls quickly.

Now that he seems to have the hang of this, Schneider seems to have regained a bit of the swagger in his step. Incinerating monsters is much more his thing. The sword's just, like, a formality. He nods at what Vertina says about not being simple. His low mana total right now is a testament to that.
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    The necromancer frowns and looks rather upset, "This is why skeletons are better. No need to worry about the falling apart flesh." Kita has the best idea, " Burn it to ash." Kita's fireball lights the creature on fire, with Schneider's fire spreading the flames faster. Setsuna uses his own talent with fire to turn the flames from a nice orange to bright blue fire. The heat increasing and melting away the flesh on the Gnoll. Vertina is the one who gets the kill though as she charges forward and punches a hole through the undead monster before it turns into digitized particles.
    Onward they continue until they reach the camp and find the Gnoll's standing in waiting, at the center of the camp appears to be the leader. Twice the size of any other Gnoll present, wearing a spiked collar, wearing pauldrons and carrying a rather large battle axe. He lifts the axe and points it to the adventurers before laughing and then leaps forward charging at the adventurers swinging the axe like a crazy Gnoll.
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

The necromancer's enthusiasm seems to catch hold of Kita as they reach the final boss of the quest. That, perhaps, and the fact that so far she has yet to come in close contact with any of the gnolls. It seems to be a relief to someone who doesn't like fighting up close and personal.

However, the sight of Haggar has a breath escaping her as she looks up at the massive beast. "Stay back, tall dark and ugly." She steps back, the pages of her spellbook seeming to move on their own before settling on a page that has a particularly dark looking series of runic shapes on them.

She touches fingers to the page, seeming as if she were drawing ink from it, then writes in black in the air. The lettering bursts into flame, then converges into a ball of purple-black flame that hovers in the air in front of her. The Imp's tail twitches once, and then she snaps the spellbook closed, extending her arm to send the ball of dark flame hurling towards Haggar.
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Vertina shakes her hands off as the party ventures on. "I agree, Setsuna. Skeletons are less gross to punch, too."

Oh look, there's the big guy himself, pissed off they've been beating up his minions again. "This it it. BONZAI!" She charges forward once more, moving almost as a blurr... which isn't enough as Haggar just broadsides her with the flat side of his axe. The Salamander ends up on the opposite end of the clearing. "I'm okay!.. Mostly.. more pride bruises!" Maybe a little punch drunk though.
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider and the others arrive at the final boss, and it's a freaking huge gnoll. "Holy crap, that thing," he mutters, and looks over his spell options. Fire, his usual go-to, is not useful here. But this ... "DAMEDO! Magic shield!" he shouts out, and a crackling forcefield springs up to protect the party, soaking hits from the huge monsters and deflecting the stone axe it swings.
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    As Schneider takes the brunt of the ax swing from Haggar, his shield repels the attack protecting the party. Setsuna steps back away from the giant Gnoll and begins to cast his buffs for the group, though not for himself. "Magic of the forest, grant my allies sight." Kita and Vertina would suddenly be able to see as if it was the middle of the day, and their attacks strike true putting the large gnoll into the ground, figuratively. The other Gnolls look on at the group and then their slain boss. Then they scatter, as quickly as possible. Until moments after the camp is a ghost town. Setsuna laughs as he watches the Gnolls flee into the forest. Looking at the rest of the group, "Good job everyone."
Schneider
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

Schneider gives Setsuna and the others a thumbs-up after the gnolls have scattered. "All's well that ends well," he says, and a breeze felt by no one else blows his long hair back dramatically. He may be critically low on mana, but his ego is at full power, at least. "Not sure what I'm gonna do with a monster pelt, but ..." he shrugs.
Vertina
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

"If nothing else you've got a nice rug." She nuges Setsuna with her elbow and chuckles. "Unless you decide to bring that back to life too."
Kita
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0

When the gnolls begin to scatter, it seems to finally take some of that weight off of Kita's shoulders. She rolls them backwards, swiping through her menu to stow her spellbook away again. "That... wasn't so bad." She takes a deep breath, then lets it out again before looking to the others.

"Thank you, all of you. It's good to have a capable party to delve into these quests with." The pelt that they are left with is plucked up, lightly rubbed between her fingers as she seems to appraise it for artistic qualities. "I wonder if I could get Gwen to make me something out of this..."

Then, she looks over to Schneider, "When in doubt, find a crafter who can make something with it. That's usually what I do." That said, she stows that into her inventory as well. "I'm going to head back to Tolbana. I've got just a bit more last minute work to do on the temple."
Setsuna
Overworld - -3 - 0 - 0


    The necromancer grins and looks over at Vertina as they begin to head out of the forest, " Why not both. A living rug. It can follow me around and eat those who stand on it." He grins because obviously Setsuna is only joking about such a thing. Right?