Duty Session 250: For Whom the Bell Gnolls

After a long walk with her nose buried into a map she's trying to make heads or tails of, Uta looks up, at her surroundings. Yellowed grass. Scuffle marks.

A number of holographic tombstones.

The latter sight drains the color from Uta's face.

"..."

"...okay, okay, calm down. Calm down!", Uta repeats to herself. She reaches into her jacket, and pulls out a squishy red ball, surprisingly elastic for the medieval materials available in Yamato, which she begins to squeeze and release, attempting to slow down her breathing as she does so. "There are tombs /buuuut/... the Hunters' Guild carefully calibrates challenges. They know your skill level. They... they wouldn't give you something above what you can reasonably hope to achieve." She stops, and squints sideways. "...would they?"

Her head is shaken. "No, no, no. Calm down. Calm down. Breathe. Don't think of the tombstones. DON'T think of the tombstones. Do something to distract yourself from the tombstones. Like... like..."

She turns around as she walks, describing a small circle, "...looking at the names on the tombstones. Let's see... this one was... Yorick."

"Alas! Poor Yorick!", she quotes in a clear, Shakespearean English. "I knew him- not, to be fair. No idea of who he is. Next one is- Horatio?" She scratches her head. "...were these people acting out Shakespeare while fighting? MAN. I missed the best. Battle. Ever."

Prophylaxis was actually here like, yyyyyesterday? He may have actually just camped out in the area in an effort to <s>escape from his responsibilities</s> make sure a certain gnoll stays absolutely dead. "You know, I thought I heard a scuffle out this way a little bit ago," the doctor says with a slow shrug. "...Looks like someone rushed in without actually considering what they were up against."

Well... At least adventurers don't stay dead for too long, right? Right. It'll be fine!

"Come on," he says, moving through the killing fields with the air of someone for whom the faces and names of the dead are delegated to the recycle bin of the mind, only to be processed in the depths of recurring nightmare, "We've got monsters to kill."

Kauchemar .. just.. rubs a palm over her face. "Oh, yes, an entire shakespearian troupe did a virtual show and got stuck here, that's exactly it," she mutters in a dry sarcastic tone. Knowing full well said tone is going to go right over Uta's head. "We have virtual idols, why not."

With Xander in hiding and Rylan busy with the ranch, it's up to her to keep an eye on Uta. Hurrah. "Let's just focus on what we came for, okay? Gnoll extermination."

Yeowang has arrived also, here to take part in the quest, and she has apparently caught the end of Uta's soliloquy. "So are you Hamlet?" she asks Uta. "Or was that one of the other victims?" She has arrived with her long hair gathered up in a loose bun and a serious expression as she surveys the scene. "What -is- a gnoll anyhow? Some sort of bizarre fusion of gnome and troll?" She's no expert in fantasy monsters, it seems.

She will circle the area, examining the ground carefully for tracks, though she's not particularly good at it. She's got the skill, though, so she feels obliged to make the attempt. She nods agreement with Proph's observation about having monsters to kill. "I am ready."

"No, I am not Hamlet," replies Uta, and points at a different tombstone "He was."

Following the gnoll tracks to the edge of the forest, it becomes clear that something has changed, here. Flowering plants are now stained with black veins along the leaves and petals. Trees that seem designed to have a friendly, inviting feel to them, are now covered in claw-marks, the leaves falling in dry piles.

There are no animal sounds, here. It is as the world were holding its breath. What there is, however, is an eerie feeling of being watched. Though there are no signs of the gnolls, they must be somewhere, lurking in the shadows.

Uta, still squishing her red lump of elastic substance, speaks in a hushed voice after some walking. "I don't like this. It sounds like a trap." She cups one hand to her ear, and whispers, conspirationally. "Yup. No sound at all. Just like traps."

She swipes through her menu, and materializes her staff. A low, ominous chant is intoned, and sheer darkness begins to puff out from the gem encased in it, ready to envelop the party, while her step becomes more silent than it already was...

"Well of course its a trap. That's like Duty Structure 101, having a trap scenerio in a manner the Party is forced to face it in some manner." Kauchemar may be heavy on the snark today, but that doesn't mean she isn't helping, as she adds her own innate powers of Darkness to Uta's effort.

Yeowang nods to Uta about not being Hamlet, and looks down to the tombstone Uta identifiies. "I see." She nods about this whole thing being a setup, and draws shadows around her, sort of thing, keeping to the darker areas as we proceed quietly along. No words now, she'll follow the others' lead and see what may be seen.

"Last time we were here, we'd encountered... Something. A ritual site. We disrupted it then, but maybe..." Prophylaxis' expression turns... pensive, thoughtful... Worried? "Maybe they managed to finish it when those other adventurers didn't clear the dungeon...? If so, then I wonder what kind of danger we're walking into?"

The Magus' eyes glint with dangerous curiosity. He glances at the others, then tilts his head toward the depths of the wood, "Well... Shall we?"

Deeper into the forest, there are more and more signs of gnoll activity. Branches have been sharpened into spikes which stick out in all directions. There smears of blood that coat the nearby trees, as well as ropes which dangle from the foliage, as if something had been trapped there.

That is when they start to hear laughing. It is a maniac laughter that seems to resound from all around them, echoing in the trees. It's hard to tell exactly what direction the laughter is coming from, but it has a distinctly... gnollish sound to it.

Uta slaps her face, and pulls the hand down, slowly. "Oh, great. So crass. The silence was /so/ low-key ominous. Unsettling. Perfect. Reaching into the audience's primeval fears and leaving all the room for imagining the worst threat. But this... /this/..." She turns to Kauchemar. "It's the kind of crass you loathe, is it not?" That said, she begins to look around for any clue as to where the laughter might be coming from...

Yeowang observes the signs of gnoll activity as we proceed deeper into the forest. The laughing might make her efforts moot, but it's hard to track laughing. Tracks, on the other hand .... "This way," she says quietly to the others, and will attempt to follow the tracks she's found. They're not great tracks, and she's not a great tracker, but she keeps up with them eventually. "Skills used though the menu are not as efficient, I've found," she observes. But they work, after a fashion.

And then there comes the hysterical laughter, echoing out of the dark. Prophylaxis' expression darkens. They're getting closer. The thing is... what are they getting closer /to?/ "It could be worse, couldn't it? They could already be upon us. As long as the dread is directed towards something somewhere in the future, it gives us the power to act."

He pauses, glancing to his staff meaningfully.

"...Even if 'acting' might involve 'setting everything on fire..."

Kauchemar turns her head a bit. Turns her head the other way. Twitchs an ear... and then shrugs. "There's too many of them from too many directions at once, even I can't hone in on a specific direction. This forest has terrible acoustics!" As one might expect a bard to complain.

"I would normally disapprove of that notion, Doctor..." Uta remarks, "but today I am willing to make an exception."

Despite all that searching, it's not the Adventurers who find their enemy, it's the enemy which find the adventurers first; enemy which appears the shape of large rabid looking hyenas with spiked collars. They sniff and search, pawing at the ground and growling.

Then, behind them, stalks out a gnoll wearing leather armor and wielding a huge, wicked looking bow made out of a strange gnarled wood. The hyenas find them first, alerting with a woop. The hunter points in their direction, sending the hyenas out after the interlopers.

Uta spins in place, and upon seeing the beasts, she hurries to intone a melody, which causes her staff to light up up and down its body, finally discharging a bolt of energy towards them...

And finally an actual gnoll appears. "Oh look, he brought friends." Eyes narrow as the beasts are released. "Get their master." Then their unnatural color flares even more brightly as they light up. "I've got the mongrols."
Kauchemar slams a hoof to the ground in front of her, her mane flaring back wildly as if blasted by some unholy force as she turns her gaze on the hounds and unleashes one of her hellish screams.

The hyenas all skid to a stop, being more scavangers than actual hunters, when faced with a prey that might actually fight back... and turn the run back into the woods with their scruffy tails between their legs.

Yeowang says to Prophylaxis, "Please don't burn down the forest /with us in it/." Any further comment is lost as the gnoll huntsman sets his pack of hounds on us. The dogs are not a problem, she's liberal with use of hard kicks and sweeps to keep them down, and by the time they're dealt with, the huntsman has a good lead. Yeowang draws her bow, but she's not particularly skilled with it, and shooting through forest is problematic at the best of times. So, she's not particularly helpful.

"Now now Uta. Sometimes a wound must be cauterized. Sometimes, we do not have the choice, and must do what is necessary to save the patient. Or in this case, I suppose, to save ourselves." The Cait Sith's floppy ears twitch ever so slightly as the brush rustles. "Something is coming," he murmurs, moments before the huntsman is upon them.

But a new sound has split the air. A sound beyond simply the baying of hounds and the cackle of hyena-faced beastmen. A haunting note cuts through the grotesque, bestial babbling as the wind whips into a frenzy. Prophylaxis looks the gnoll straight in the eye and raises his staff...

A spark lances up into the sky.

...And a veritable deluge of lightning pours down in reply, crashing down into each of the hounds-- and their gnoll master.

The combined work of the adventurers result in tens less foes roaming the fields, and thousands and thousands more loose polygons fluttering in the air.The woods seem to grow in activity. The furry forms of gnolls can be seen in the trees, but a number of them seem wary of coming anywhere close to the Adventurers. These are lower level enemies, the sort that likely suit the newbie status of this area, but they seem smart enough not to engage.

No, that is left to the generals of the gnoll armies. From the trees, a large gnoll wearing what looks to be dark leathers. Black wolf fur covers one shoulder, a series of bat wings dangling from the monster's belt. Most eerie is that there are a series of red runes which seem burned into the gnoll's skin, snowing some kind of infernal nature. In one hand is a massive scythe, which is turned to point at them.

With a spit-slathering roar, it begins to stomp forward, swinging the massive blade.

Uta narrows her gaze at those runes; she takes a few seconds to study them, then points the gem of her staff at the approaching monster, and begins to vocalize a new song. The movements of her staff align with the runes etched onto the enemy's skin, and soon, a beam blasts off towards them, Uta's song continuing relentless, as does the movement, in an attempt to weaken them.

The hulking gnoll in leather and furs comes forward with his blade ready. "Now this are finally getting interesting!" Kauchemar cackles. "o/~ I'll make the Earth. Move. Under yor feet!" Which is exactly what she does, summoning several spires of black crystal bursting out of the ground around the slobbering hulk, driving him back and cutting away at his armor with their jagged edges. "o/~ Bring you tum-bl-ing down, tum-bl-ing down! o/~"

Yeowang blinks at the roar of the monster we're facing. She's still not quite used to monsters. She's been fighting people for over a decade, but monsters are an entirely different kettle of fish. On the other hand, this monster's got something ... weirdly different about it, so rather than fight it with fists and feet, she will scroll through her abilities and attempt to use some of the class's mystical abilities. She doesn't properly understand them, and she's not particularly good at the interface, but it seems she has somehow contributed to breaking the abyssal enchantment.

"I promise I won't burn the forest down while we're still inside," Prophylaxis says with a smile that some might describe as 'totally innocent' and others who know better would call 'distinctly worrying.' But at least for now, he seems to be fulfilling the word and spirit of his promise.

For now.

And as long as the gnolls keep coming, it seems he'll have no reason to make good on his threat. Even if they have begun to grow... progressively less 'normal.' "Hogger was bad enough... Are they allowing themselves to be possessed by demons or something?" The doctor frowns severely as the abyssal gnoll emerges. He lifts his staff high again-- and brings its back end slamming down into the ground. Immediately, a torrent of brambly thorns erupt from the earth and go about the business of dragging it into the depths of the tortured land. "I wonder if this has anything to do with... Hm..."

"Hogger? Who's Hogger?", Uta asks.

At first the monster merely crushes the spikes of crystal as he walks right on, but as the casters keep weakening those runes, Uta with her musical blast of magic, and Yeowang with her menu technique, the apparent invulnerability of the party's opponent lessens more and more, until its feet begin to glow red, and its helath bar visibly decreases. Thorns rise up, and encease the screaming demon, twisting around its limbs, its neck... and squeezing it into shattering into a million polygons.

There is a subtle shift in the feeling that surrounds them. Even the hordes of lower level gnolls seem to fall quiet other than a few small yips and laughs that seem to still as soon as they are sounded.

The Adventurers soon find that the path they are on leads to a wide clearing, lamps lit at the edges and a huge mark burned into the ground that identifies it as a boss chamber even before they step foot in it.

There is a feeling of heat, like fire, which rises up from the symbol on the ground as a creature seems to materialize before their eyes. The massive gnoll seems to have large, demonic horns which curl back from his forehead. A draconic tail slams the ground behind him. With a roar, the monster's eyes glow red, which seems to echo the red glow from the rune beneath them.

The demon gnoll stomps forward, claws swinging out with lightning fast attacks which seem strong enough to rend armor.

The claws shoot for Uta, but with a lightning fast leap (one which leaves actual crackling electricity in its wake), Uta bolts back at a safe distance, with a double backwarsd spin in the air. She begins her operatic vocalization again, her song growing stronger and stronger, in a crescendo of intensity and power, and when one would think it safe to stop -- it doesn't. It goes on, the volume becoming far too much for people to hear, until-

The last note is discharged at airport-grade levels of decibels, a shockwave departing from her mouth to wash over everything and heading straight for the demon!

Kauchemar stops. Stares at the demon infused monstrousity. "That is the most metal album looking gnoll I have ever seen... It would be cool if it wasn't going to, you know, try and kill us."

With a flamboyang flash Kauchechar draws her bardic lute instead of a weapon. She taps a hoof a few times, bops her head a bit and starts to strum. It's a jivy, catchy little beat... In fact, it might be a little -too- catchy. When she starts singing, the annoyingly repetition lyrics only make the effect more pronounced.

o/~ This song is just six words long... This song is just six words long...
This song is just six words long... This song is just six words long

I know that you're probably sore just 'cause I didn't write any more
I just didn't get to complete it... So that's why I gotta repeat it!

This song is just six words long... This song is just six words long...
This song is just six words long... This song is just six words longo/~

Yeowang is quite pleased to have beaten the stuffing out of the gnoll general once his supernatural defense was brought down. It almost was't a fight. The end boss, however, is a different story. This massive gnoll also seems to have demonic influence, but no amount of scripture seems able to break it. On the other hand, this one's demonic protection does not make it invulnerable, and when Yeowang slips out of the shadows to unleash a flurry of kidney punches, the damage registers. Not a lot, but it adds up. When it turns to face her, she fades into the background, and it's forced to deal with the others. That's when she fades in and kicks it hard. She continues the beatdown until the fight is done.

She pauses and looks quizically at Kauchemar. "But ... that's seven words?"

"Hogger is... was a gnoll. Used to command this pack, I think. Whether it still does or not is kind of up in the air. Whatever happened to these gnolls, Hogger got hit bad. He's all... Glitchy. His name is messed up, even," Prophylaxis explains. "If I'd hazard a conjecture, I bet that it's the doing of the same things behind the corruption of Eastal's forests and the continued undead threat in Ninetails."

But that's just a guess, and guesses do not help them fight demon-possessed gnolls.

You know. Like this one.

The heat is sweltering and oppressive. The sigil on the ground seems to be primarily at fault, but the sudden rise in temperature is also indicative of something else. Something... critical.

...This monster... is probably weak to ice.

Or at least, a good wintery blast will bring the temperature back down to more manageable levels, even if it doesn't do much to the monster itself. Prophylaxis again strikes the earth with his staff, but this time what unfolds out from underneath him is a blossoming fractal of creeping frost that swallows up the marks on the ground and goes to encase the monstrous gnoll in a frigid tomb.

...Temporarily, sure. But that's enough time for the others to pile on the damage and recover some depleted HP.

The strange marking beneath them seems to echo the glow in Roarn's eyes as the monster rages towards them, all claws and horns and teeth. It is remarkably more difficult than the previous gnoll encounters, with multiple health bars and resistances against many elemental attacks.

Also, it is too fast! Uta's sonic attack finds only a blur in the place where the demon was a split second earlier. Yeowang's flurry of kidney punches docks its share of HP off the demon, and the ice casing from Prophylaxis not only encases, but also seems to damage the demon -- the conjecture about it being vulnerable to cold turned out to be right. The adventurers can now unleash a second round of violence on the the monster, and as to Kauchemar's song, well-- perhaps the demon cannot hear it encase as it is in ice (or if it does -- well, the damage it deals is purely psychological -- which might be exactly the kind of trauma Kauch was going for). It does, however, also have a secondary effect, arcane.

A curse.

"Curse you, Kauchemar!!!", Uta's screaming voice can be heard resonating.

After a drawn out fight, they do manage to break through the monster's defenses. It rears back, hands clenched, and then explodes into points of light. However, the symbol beneath them is still lit, as if something significant had changed here...

A chest remains, containing what looks to be a series of curled demon horns, likely that stuck out from the strange gnoll beast.

When she stops playing Kauchemar points a finger at Yeowang. "THAT'S part of the joke." She doesn't explain the joke, because that makes the joke lame... but the way she emphasizes THAT'S does kind of hint at where the joke is.

She then grins and shrugs lazily at Uta. "What did you expect me to use one of the songs we learned together? That'd just make it more likely to confuse -you-."

With that she picks up her piece from the loot. "... That they have more of these is somewhat concerning. Demons are not simple creatures to toy with... All the more reason the confinscate it for later!" She tosses it into her inventory, rests her lute against her shoulder like it actually was a weapon, and turns to wander off all dark and edgy like.

The demonic gnoll is slain, but that strange glyph keeps right on pulsating into the dark of the night. Prophylaxis' expression turns more grave and stays more grave, even as Kauchemar gives words to what's on his mind. "Indeed. If there are more of these possessed gnolls wandering the woods... It's certainly going to be a problem going forward, isn't it? Maybe someone needs to come through and clear the place out before the situation devolves too far."

But for now... They have loot! Hooray, loot!!

Yeowang gives Kauchemar a puzzled look. The song is one her father might know, it's his era, anyhow, but she doesn't know much about music in any event. She can only gives Kauchemar a blank look. To Prophylaxis, she wonders, "Isn't 'someone' supposed to be us?" She's happy to collect the loot, though she's not really worked out what to do with it past stuffing it into her inventory.

Strained by the battle, Uta stands there, panting, staff still clutched. She doesn't seem able to believe she made it at first, but then, as realization dawns, she teeters closer to the chest. She takes her share of the loot. She holds it in the air, and looks at it. "...This is for you, wherever you are-"

"Yorick!" - "I know, Horatio!" - "Thank goodness you're back!"

In the Church of Mac Anu, two friends go to hug a third which just reappeared bathed in light.

"Thank goodness you made it back!" "Are you fine?" "...I think so?" "Your leg?" He looks down. "Not broken, it seems." He looks around. "Has anyone seen Hamlet?" One of the other two shakes his head. "He should be next though." - "Hopefully he'll respawn..." - "We all did, why shouldn't he?" - "Yeah, you're right!", laughs Yorick. "I think we are all eager to meet him again, right guys?" - "Yes. And have a word about his Artistic Vision(tm) of Battle Shakespeare..."