Duty Session 248: For Whom the Bell Gnolls

    The hunter guild just couldn't stop itself, start solving the Goblin problem and they start bitching about the Gnoll problem. So all that complaining has led Setsuna to sitting on his Dire Wolf, trying to work on the big guys tracking skills. The wolf paced left and sniffed, the wolf paced right and sniffed, another few steps this way and that and marks this territory as his, which is quite impressive as he manages to do this with Setsuna on his back. So now he simply waited , if he got lucky a scent would be found and they could move forward, or others would show and they could move forward. Anything to shut the hunter's guild up.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another. "This isn't that unusual," Shiruba remarks as she made sure Thundersnow was in working order. "Clear out one monster infestation, and others will try to move in on the now open territory. Consider this more of a preventive measure." She watches the dire wolf pace around in typical beastily manner. "Your new friend seems to be accomidating well."

You go and beat the crap out of one batch of monsters, and soon everyone is begging for you and your hyperviolent friends to go and beat the crap out of some other nearby batch of monsters. It's a never-ending cycle of murder and carnage, but as long as someone is willing to pay for it to get done, there will always be adventurers out to do the job.

Today, Prophylaxis is among them. He's a little quieter than usual, and wears just a bit of fatigue and concern on his face today. But... "First a skeleton, now a wolf?" Prophylaxis sighs, shaking his head slowly. "Setsuna... We're going to need to get you a monster stable. Somewhere that isn't near the Landers, ideally."

Yeowang is here to help, strangely enough. Or possibly not. She seems to prefer the Scaleys over her own Alliance lately, which may seem odd in light of recent events. She's not offering any comment right now on that, rather, she's eying the ground in a considering way. Inspect shows her to be a Hunter subtype, but she's not very good at the hunter-type things. Not from lack of desire, but it hasn't been the focus of her training. Her training -does- allow her to kick the teeth of goblins or gnolls very hard, so there's that.

    Merek is coming with the party to assist, the man wearing his dark attire, in addition to that bracelet and gauntlet which he wears. There's a look to people and a nod, while he begins to find a nice place to settle in with folk, "Alright, will do what I am able to assist."

    Setsuna looks over at Prophylaxis with a grin, "Funny you should mention it. There is a nice spot near Tolbana, would be great spot for weary mounts trying to go up and down the tower. Though setting one up on the seventh would be awesome too." Looking at Shiruba he nods, " Yes he is a good boy who is getting along well. Also we need to talk at another point about well not Gnolls, but about a map." That was all he said as they moved forward.
     As the group follows the gnoll tracks and moves closer to the forest there are some signs of things. Some blood, some organs, some dead animals, a dead lander, nothing out of the ordinary before they come upon a sone altar. This altar seems to have come rom have been be the reason for all the bloo and guts. The other interesting thing though is the trinkets, and how they are laid out in just a way that seems to be resonating with magical energy. If the group could disrupt the magical flow, they might manage to debuff the gnolls. Sides it is a mysery, who doesn't love a good mystery.

    Merek looks to the place, while he takes a moment to lift up a hand, while he will draw a circle, "I call upon the angels to guide me to the path. SANCTUARY!" Then there is a light that shimmers along, which will give them the path of that magical resonance to unlock the cryptography within.

Yeowang follows the group, is not the right person for mystical things. She's entirely grounded in RL, and has never played video games in her life. Her little brother does, she never had an interest. So all the mystery and mystical is just so much confusion to her. She pokes at the trinkets in a vague way, but is mainly waiting for the party to figure this out so she can move along.

"I don't want anyone complaining about monster-mounts eating the grunties," Prophylaxis groans and massages his temples as if a headache was coming on. With this crew, sometimes it just feels inevitable.

But at least he can distract himself with... Solving a puzzle!? No, with conversation. Specifically, with Shiruba. "Speaking of monsters, we really need to talk about the Undead situation in the Ninetails Dominion. It's come to my attention that the conflict is... escalating in many different ways. Have you seen the pamphlets posted around the Hunters' Guildhalls? Things are getting pretty dire." He shrugs, then. "I was wondering if the NWA had any plans to enact any countermeasures."

Shiruba's ears perk at the mention of a map, as she can guess what map Setsuna is talking about. Since he was there the time she got that other information, and has also in general been working on certain Undead issues. "Another time in the near future then," she nods as the group procees. "The main force... has been quiet, and that's NOT a good thing in this case."

What they find... is not what one would expect to find in any sort of Gnoll camp. Yet, considering what the Goblins had somehow gotten their hands on, it's not as much of a surprise as it would of a few weeks ago. Merek illuminates the alter with some divine lighting, and she ahs. "Almost like a blacklight in a crime serial... It's some manner of blood ritual." She pulls one of her spare parchment pieces out of inventory, and uses it like a paper towel to soak some of the blood and wipe it away. "No blood, no blood sacrifice... that and it looks like they were trying to write runes with it, so I'm just erasing it."

    Setsuna looks at the doctor with his best serious face, " Are you telling me we didn't build the grunty farm as a monster feeding ground? Hmm I may owe reparations." Setsuna says nothing else but looks at the problem at hand and nods in agreement with Shiruba " Obviously you break the circuit and the lights turn off as well. " With an urging his wolf grabs a dolly that was covered in lander blood and shakes it back and forth before tossing it into the air. It lands a few feet away and the wolf looks to the group with a happy face.
    The group can feel the magic of the altar dispel as they manage to break the flow of magic and can move deeper into the forest. It appears they are on the path to carnage as they pass carved up trees and , what many would consider a bunch of junk. No gnolls appear to be about but if someone was to look at the trees then they would see that the birds are watching them. Not just any birds, but big carrion birds. A signal squawk pushes them into motion as the birds are coming to collect more junk and blood. Perhaps the group could use the junk though?

Yeowang eyes Merek when Prophylaxis asks his question. "Countermeasures?" she asks. "We're not doing -anything- as far as I am aware. I was misled when I apped Grandeur, I was not aware we were supporting goblins against players and Landers." She has a chip on her shoulder about that, apparently.

When the birds swoop down, she does what she can to fend them off, grabbing some debris from the ground. She's agile and avoids their attacks, but can't manage to counterattack them, swinging the debris wildly to try and smack them. No such luck.

    Merek walks along to the next place with the party, while he takes the time to think about it. "We can fight the undead all we like, but we need to come up with strategy. It is war. With that in mind, we should focus upon the mission. If we win, it's more experience and gold, maybe loot reward. We can use that in the fight." Then he begins drawing a full shield along in front of him, to defend from any of the enemies. "I have an ace up the sleeve to deal with the Queen. She doesn't know about what I did with the weapon."

Prophylaxis arches a brow at the... disparity of answers coming from the New Worlders. "I... see. It's a little troubling to me that there's not a strategy in place /already/ to deal with them," he scratches idly at his cheek, disbelief playing across his face.

And then a bird dive-bombs his head. A moment later, Prophylaxis has literally burst into flame, and has begun hurling projectiles up at the avian menace.

No gnolls so far but being the Hunter she is Shiruba tenses at the sound of large carrion eaters. "Probably attracted by the blood and filth left by the gnoll rituals." But she can deal with birds, whipping up one of her wind barriers and using it to forcefully slam the birds away from the group until they get the hint to leave them alone.

"What I mean," she continues after the interruption, "Is that amongst the general activity the commanders themselves have been quiet. Which means they're likely up to something." She frowns a bit at the extra snippiness. "None of us knew he was doing that either," she somewhat snips back.

    Setsuna grunts as the birds get through his own shield but between Merek, Prophylaxis, and Shiruba the group is shielded enough to get away from the birds. Perhaps though it is simply being done on instinct for a couple as they all try to talk business. " Perhaps we save the water cooler talk for the water cooler and focus on the now before we focus on the soon to be now. " As he watches another bounce of a shield not as his own making, he was trying to shield himself though, from possible drama.
     The group manage to be able to simply walk away from the birds and it seems all is well , until a gnoll warcry echos through the woods and before them was a large armored gnoll. The armor is a meix of metal and animal parts and he seems absolutely ready to take a few adventurers with him. There is also a rhythmic sound of chanting in the air tat is probably some form of musical buff to disrupt.

    Merek looks then to Setsuna, and nods a bit to the man. He doesn't comment upon the conversation that's between Prophylaxis, Shiruba, as well as Yeowang. The man lifts up his potion, while he swings that into the gnoll, an explosion while he then begins to draw his greatsword with him to fight it.

It turns out that birds burn well! Do you know what also burns well?

Gnolls.

Gnolls burn well.

"Hmn," Prophylaxis says at Setsuna, providing the most non-answer of non-answers in the history of non-answers. As the Claw-Fighter advances, however, the Magus is at the ready...

And bombards him with a barrage of yet more fire.

Perhaps it wouldn't be the best idea to split the party's attention at such a critical juncture, but... It is concerning, regardless, that the ball seems to have been dropped so thoroughly with regards to the Undead threat.

But hey, worst case they have their tower, right? Right. It'll all be fine!!

Now we're getting to the part of the adventure where Yeowang excels. Fourteen years of martial arts is, in fact, more than the game can handle, at least with respect to her character build, and she occasionally feels shortchanged by how it evaluates her performance. But for the moment, she is OK with how she ferociously kicks the snot out of the poor gnoll, her boot slamming it over and over, knocking a bit of HP down with each blow. It's not like RL, where you cna daze or disorient an opponent, or wear them down, it's just knocking their health bar down a bit at a time. But it works.

"Agreed." Even as she's replying Shiruba is nocking an arrow in her bow and firing. It sticks in the gnoll brawler's armor... which was entirely the intent, as the arrow ignites, and in doing so starts the wood fiber on fire as well. She veers to the side to avoid getting pinned down by the melee attacks, and continues to shoot fire infused arrows into the thug until he finally perishes.

tSetsuna really hates to be the voice of reason, really jates it. If he is the voice of reason, then who is the voice of insanity. no one ever picks up the slack. However it seems he had some impact as they all decided to focus on the problem at hand. Fire and fist, fire here, fist there and Setsuna watches waiting for a single moment before he casts a single fire buff. It was a simply thing, something that many magic smiths probably used, raising the temperature.
     As the gnolls metal armor melts around him he becomes an expensive piece of art. It's a nice piece, something that belongs on an art tour, melted gnoll. However as the armored gnoll dies activity picks up. Gnolls moving between the trees, in the shadows, easy pickings but still a lot of them. Then stepping forward is a couple of gnolls wrapped in cloaks before they begin to pelt the party with potions that appear to be rather acidic.

    Merek looks to the gnolls when they finish off the one they are fighting. The man takes a look along the place, then he sees the potions coming to the party, while he takes a few potions from the belt, then he swings those into the potions the gnoll throws. They meet, cancelling each other while he takes the time to then swing in with the black-cerulean circles of that magic which he wields.

Shiruba quickly sidesteps a potion vial thrown her way. Then draws back her bow, one of the two elemental gems inset in it's arm glowing as she does so, and with no physical arrow nocked it produces its own projectile of aetheric air that Shiruba uses to shoot several of the potions out of the air and back towards the gnolls throwing them

Yeowang blinks as her first whiff of the fumes from the gnoll's flasks reveals their noxious contents, and she changes her attack pattern. The roundhouse kicks generate a wave of air somehow, in a way that wouldn't happen in real life, or not to that degree, but she'll make use of it, fanning the air as she kicks the snot out of the potion-using gnoll. Roundhouse kick, roundhouse kick, roundhouse kick, it's the same move over and over, but it fans the air clear enough while she drains it's HP with each impact.

The tension is thick, and not necessarily between the SEA and NWA, but possibly within the NWA themselves as well...!

But more pressingly is the sizzling alchemical concoction boiling at the good doctor's feet. Mere inches more and he could very well have suffered some serious acid burns! Prophylaxis' lips draw into a fine line as he extends a hand toward the gnollish alchemists... And promptly finger-snaps a series of crackling, strobing magic lights around each of their heads. "That should throw off their aim," he says, ducking behind a withered tree for cover.

Poor Setsuna. At least Prophy is still a voice of reason where fights are concerned...!

    Setsuna can play this game and throws a potion, it hits the gnoll straight in the head when suddenly it occurs to the Necromancer. That was a health potion and the gnoll heals a little. On the other hand the others don't just wait around or throw health potions. Prophylaxis blinds them with strobing lights and Shiruba knocking the bottles of acid back on the gnolls. Merek is actually successfully doing what Setsuna triesnd Yeowang just getting straight up in their face , the gnolls pixellate into nothing. Thats when that ominous moment can be felt and are the gnolls chanting latin? That part was probably just imagination.
     Stepping forward is an old Gnoll friend, Haggar is back and appears to have been ODing on the vitamins. A few glitching pixels here and there but the death cleaver has definately leveled up since the last time he had been seen. Raising his axe he charges forward in boss level anger swinging the axe wildly.

There are some high tensions still. Shiruba will stand by her position that it's not her job to worry about What Happened, as Bear already did, but she's been out helping with the goblins in the tower and other matters to try and help clean up some of the mess. There's still things like the Undead, the other Goblin infestations, and her ongoing training for her to worry about, too. And lesser infestations like these goddamn gnolls...

"Huh." She stops and stares a moment as the group finally find the center of the chaos. "Haggar got a mid-season super sentai villain upgrade." Even as she's cracking wise Shiruba is drawing back her bow, this time both gems glowing as she draws on their power, and form an arrow of lightning-infused ice in it. She back-pedals quickly to stay out of the reach of that axe swing, and then fires her shot, aiming for one of his shoulders in hope that the power freezing electric blast will disrupt his ability to wield the weapon effectively.

"This one's back again, I see," Prophylaxis grunts softly at Haggar's re-(re-)appearance, just about as ugly as ever and still... flickering with the sort of glitchy nonsense that he remembers from last time. "It's still afflicted with whatever hit it between the first Gnollish outbreak and now, huh? That'll be a problem."

Not just because it's so damn strong now-- but buggy monsters like Haggar always seem to take more punishment than they should.

...So Prophylaxis just dumps pillar of pillar of shifted earth on top of the damn thing's head until it stops moving.

Yeowang starts as Haggar lands with a crash, glitches and all, and she fades aside as he charges. She's got a special way of attack worked out, she fades back out of his aggro, and when he charges someone else, she comes up on his flank and kicks him very hard. When he turns on her, she fades out again, and lets someone else pick up the aggro.

She repeats the process for as long as it works, her kicks are ferocious, and no mistake, though she's not entirely happy with how the game evaluates her attacks. On the other hand, she's never fought a gnoll before, so who can say how tough they are. She's certainly entirely capable of kicking the stuffing out of it for as long as it takes, avoiding its counterattacks with agile evasions and kicking it, mostly in the face, with the occasional body blow thrown in to keep it off its rhythm. If such a thing has a rhythm.

    Merek looks about the place, then he begins with the protection magic along the party, while he maneuvers. The man swings the weapon and tries to keep a bit of that monster's own attention upon him while he fights.

    Setsuna tries his best to stay mounted and direct the wolf to attack and at the same time channel magic into his hunter's eye to find weak points. At some point though he just didn't have the magic for both and Setsuna would be damned if he lost control of Roki with the doctor around. That would be one told you so he couldn't live down. Yeowang however moves in and begins to engage Haggar directly, while Merek does his best to shield the party. As Prophylaxis buries the Gnoll in earth and Shiruba puts an arrow through the monster's heart he falls. In his place is a chest, ready to be looted and reward people with very nice monster pelts. As Setsuna looks around he feels like he is on the verge of remembering something but shakes his head.

Shiruba takes one of the pelts, holding it up to examine. "This is definitely of higher quality than the pelt from the original venture." She folds the pelt back up and tucks it into her inventory. ".. With his glitched state I doubt he'll stay dead forever. We should probably make our way out before more trouble shows up."