Duty Session 287: For Whom the Bell Gnolls

    It was a crazy rumor that couldn't possibly be true, but Arashi's research into Starshadow had pointed her to a gnoll camp. Why? Well a while back a particularly bold pack had raided a library (thinking it was a food library) and took a bunch of books and any other shiny things that weren't bolted down. The chance that the book was still in tact was low, but if there was knowledge to be had, this was to place to come and get it. Of course, before she left Shibuya, she put out a quick call for help in a few places. Now? Now it was waiting to see just who would show up. She's on a wooded ridge over looking a camp of the creatures. The fact they were harassing landers and newbies was just encouragement to deal with them.

Kaydon hadn't actually done the Gnoll fight since it had changed. He was sitting on a stump, tossing his knife up and catching it before repeating the process. He'd built a new one out of his damascus steel, not the same style as his USMC Ka-BAR hwoever.

"So we're looking for a book?" He asks, "And not a shard, right? Like you don't think they have one of those...But maybe a book with info on them?"

"You neeeveeer knoooow~" For goddesses sake, how does she do that?! One moment it's just the two of them, the next the Nightmare is there as well like she just stepped out of thin air. Really it was just a combination of darkness and speed, but it really gives that impression that she is just abruptly... there. "I mean, seriously, this gnolls are into a lot of dirty little secrets they shouldn't be."

"Well, keep your eyes out. I've been all across the newer areas so the sword wouldn't even glow if there is one here. If we're lucky maybe we WILl get a shard as well. More material for you to work with, Kaydon," Arashi points out before looking over at her help. Ah, Kau too? That's cool. The nightmare is usually helpful!

"Lets get to it then," the warhorse states before marching down the ridge toward the gnoll's part of the forest, black veined leaves, dying trees, and not an animal to be heard. "... well this is friendly.."

Ah yes, sneaking. Kaydon doesn't really /do/ sneaking. Sure he was in the Marines and 'moving stealthfully' is a thing. And sure he's working on bringing a weapon from a game all about stealth into this one.

But he can work on actual stealth later. Instead he's just walking, in his were-fang form. Because he'll at least kind of blend in this way.

He rounds a corner and comes face to face with a gnoll. The gnoll yelps, but before he can do anything else, Kaydon grabs the gnoll and pins him to a tree, putting his knife right against the gnoll's throat, "You didn't see anything. Nod if you understand."

The gnoll nods several times in rapid succession and then when Kaydon lets him go, he makes a run for the edge of the forest. Clearly he's not going to sound the alarm.

Despite her method of arrival Kauchemar doesn't so much 'sneak' as she does play in the darkness. Seriously. You both should know better than to expect her to not want to be an attention whore at some point. It's a feat that she's not, like, trying to sing that lemotiff cartoons always used for someone to sneak around. So she's at least keeping to herself and out of sight... for now.

Of course, she's staying out of -sight-, when gnolls probably have much better noses and such anyways.

    Seems Arashi isn't too shabby at sneaking. It's a forest, she has a dark affinity, and that lets her dip and weave among the shadow of the trees. She isn't humming as she goes, so maybe that's why the gnolls don't catch wind of them. Nevermind the one guard they found went running out of the woods thanks to Kaydon. Success. Huzzah!

Further in, the trio has probably closed ranks, much to the delight of the birds in the trees. One CAW and then the canopy erupts into feathers and talons looking to rend the grounded folk. That's a problem.

Kauchemar stops and nudges a chunk of debris with her hoof to flip it over. "Well, it's not the sacrifical altar. Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Don't see a book in this mess thou--" She stops and looks up at the squawks and caws. "--Oooh would you look at that. Scavangers mooching off the scavangers. Funny how that works." She snaps her fingers, and the sword and shield leap from her back to float near her. With the Binder Armaments in orbit of her person it's not all that hard to deal with the birds, as they peck at the shield only to get smacked away by the sword, while Kauchemar doesn't have to lift a finger farther.

o/~ You shoot me down, but I won't fall... I am titanium
You shoot me down, but I won't fall... I am titanium o/~

"I really should be offended by gnolls are gonna be what they are. I'll just continue to be the exception." Kaydon says, as he scoops up a few pieces of armor. He manages to lash them together to form a sort of armored umbrella to protect the group with. Or at least himself and Arashi, since Kauchemar seems to have a pretty good defense of her own.

    Effin birds. Tons of birds. Everywhere. Kau's able to fend them off, Kaydon gets some armor, and the only thing that saves the war horse, aside swatting at the avians with her loaner weapons, is the armor that Kaydon sends her way. With the trio not worth the energy to kill off, the birds lose interest and return to the sky.

As they move further inot the forest, the war chant starts to rise. That just gets Arashi to smile. "Heh, finally.." boss music, she hears. And now a boss is on the approach! The warhorse sets herself, weapons familiar to Kaydon since, you know, he made them, and then the fight is on.

Chants of war, and a big bruiser getting empowered by it. To which Kauchemar smirks, because she correctly predicted which obstacles they'd come up against in this cause. "I'm sure you two can handle the fighting part of this," she murmurs ominously, before stepping back into the shadows of the forest. The chanting continues, the Claw-Fighter looms with it's menacing approaching... and then things start to fall apart for the gnolls as Kauchemar's voice pierces over the chants with her ominous echoing trickery.

"o/~ It's time to get down and dance for your doom
Cuz the Nightmare Bard is comin' for you soon o/~"
And that's when one of the chanters topples out from between the trees, collapsing as his ears are literally bleeding.... and noticably the Claw-Fighter looses some of his dominating presence.
"o/~ Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.... You better watch out when the show's begun
You can't escape this Nightmare! She'll twist your mind with musical flare! o/~"

By that point Kauchemar is just outright overpowering the warchanters with her own voice, sending them flailing and crying as they run for their loves, farther sapping away the harmonic buffs they were giving their champion.

"o/~ It's time to get up, get ready to fight... o/~"
That's when Kauchemar steps back out into the opening, just to let loose her final auditory blast at now debuffed Clawfighter directly with one of her hell screams. "o/~ DEATH EMBRACE THE BASS THAT DROPS TONGIHT o/~"

Knowing that Kauchemar is going to be able to handle the song portion of this, Kaydon grins and pulls his damascus sword out of the scabbard, "I love this part."

And then he rushes forward, alongside Arashi, aiming to lay into the gnoll boss with the weapon.

He dodges around to evade attacks, while doing everything he can to keep the focus on himself so the other two can tear it down with their weapons and kickass beats.

The warchant ends up overwhelmed. The gnolls cheering for their champion boo, hiss, and growl at Kau for interrupting them, which serves as a good distraction for their champion. Kaydon and Arashi surge in, slashing and hacking at the beast. Kaydon does that tank thing he does so well, meanwhile Arashi vanishes from sight a moment, only to come spinning down with both of the weapons she got. It doesn't have quite the same bite as the ones she typically has, but it still does the job. The brute drops, and the gnolls scatter. For now.

And to think that Arashi thought the last grunt was the boss. Now the -dramatic dark choir music- kicks in. "Oh COME ON!" That technique would be on cooldown the rest of the day. BOO. "Oh I'm going to take everything you have you bastard!"

"That encounter is a bit of a fakeout, yeah. Set up to make you -think- it's a big bad boss..." Kauchemar gives the other mare a pat on the shoulder. "But it didn't go to waste, that champion has HP out the whazoo even without the War Chant buffs." Clearly she's been through this little venture a couple of times.

As the Abyssal Gnoll stomps onto the scene Kauchemar stomps as well, causing some rocks and dark crystals to burst out of the ground... which the monstrousity just... has no shits to give and just walks right though it. ".. I guess that technique was a little too grounded..."

Kaydon has a new technique he's been practicing. He puts his sword away in order to focus, as he slams his fists into the ground, and then rushes the gnoll. Close inspection would show his fists covered in rocks, enabling him to put a lot more impact behind each of his punches.

And so he begins to lay into the gnoll with his punches, slipping strikes back from the blade that the gnoll uses. Since he's not sure if his blade can work against the enchanted one that the gnoll has.

Boss #2! Fight! Seriously though, the pwny is still frustrated that this is yet another boss, so she doesn't pull punches. When she charges, it sets the ground shaking with every single crash of a horseshoe against the floor. Between Kaydon's rock-hard punches, and Arashi throwing the beast off balance, everyone has a good chance for a critical strike! The boss howls, heaves, and finally explodes into a flurry of red pixels and such. Victory! Yet The Path Leads On.

"What.. is going on..?" Arashi says, curious, as they move along. The howl just gets the warhorse to pause. Glare. Charge. "OK SERIOUSLY. Enough with the boss rush!"

Kauchemar ... just rolls her eyes for a moment at Arashi's outburst. "You're worried about that, and not the fact that Haggar has not only respawned but looks like he ate the glitchs from a buggy physics engine?"

But enough chat, there's a boss to deal with, and Kauchemar seems to know what she's doing. When 'Deathcleaver' Haggar heaves his axe there's an burst of water, stronger than any typical Waterslide would be, beneath the Nightmare's hooves. The momentum it creates is enough to propel her over and past the weapon, landing behind the monster. And thus giving the others some manner of flanking against an still admitably tough boss, even as she starts pelting more bolts of water and ice into his backside.

"Well that's different." Kaydon says, as he looks at the glitched gnoll boss, "Everybody be careful. I'd hate to see what might happen if that axe hits you."

He does move in though, because they can't exactly abandon the fight. Not where they're at. So it's time for the Damascus blade to go to work. As Kaydon fights, he moves himself into position and waits for the axe strike to come in.

He's not called the Blade Breaker for nothing, as his sword colides with the axe, and the big gnoll's weapon shatters from the impact. With nothing more than a fancy club left, it should be easy enough to take Haggar the rest of the way down.

    Yes. Arashi is more concerned about a TRIO of bosses than she is the glitchy Haggar. "Eh! They got to keep it fresh somehow!" Gamer logic, AHOY. There's probably something to it, but she doesn't have the required whatever to find out about it. SO INSTEAD it is HAGGAR FIGHTIN TIME.

    With her other big abilities on cooldown, the Warhorse decides on an old favorite. A single step, a thunderous emphasis, and the dire-shire surges across the room in explosive fashion, both blades slicing at Haggar's legs as she goes. This repeats. A lot. Until eventually he drops to a knee, allowing Kaydon a nice close up so that he can deliver a coup de grace. Insert Victory For Real here.

"Yeah, that's not a typical death animation either... Oh well! Not our problem... other than he probably won't stay dead."

Kauchemar puts a hoof on the chest that remains to push it towards the other two. "You guys take care of that. I've already been through this performance a few times." That's how she knew some of the things they'd possibly come up against.

Kaydon moves through and pulls one of the pieces of hide out of the chest, "At least the thing still gives rewards.." He frowns, "Wish we had like, a GM we could call about the glitching boss. Though I mean it's not like they can patch it anyway.." He puts it away into his inventory and shakes his head faintly, "One of these days, maybe we'll get some damn answers."

    With the strange death animation, and the chest, Arashi starts moving about with the others, looking at the chest, but noticing something as she does. When Kaydon shattered that massive axe? There's something familiar left behind that both of them may recognize. "..Oh. That is.. a bit shard," she points out as she wanders over to have a look. As for the book? Maybe if someone digs a little deeper into the loot chest they'll find something. A book labelled: Enchanted Alloys.

"Huh. Didn't see that coming... and I'm the one with Divination." Kauchemar rubs her chin. "Granted no one actually broke the weapon before, so... oh well." She shrugs. She's not the one that puzzles over these little nuances for Olympus. That's Proteus' job.

As Kaydon fiddles through the chest, he pulls out the book. Still in pretty good shape too, "This the one you were looking for?" He asks, as he tosses it towards Arashi. Hopefully she's paying enough attention to catch it.

    Forgive the pwny for admiring three shards worth of metal that she nearly doesn't catch the book. She does! It just has to be deflected, fumbled a bit, and finally caught in a moment of awkwardness she doesn't typically show. Embarassed? Maybe a little bit. After taking a look at the book, she simply wanders back over to Kaydon to offer it back, plus the large shard. "You'll need this more than me. Besides, that book may help you over all, and not just with my sword."

Of course Kaydon does take the book back and the shard as well, "I'll add this with the others. Make sure it all gets put together nicely." He replies to her.

Kauchemar dusts her hands together. "Well then, I guess my work is done here. You have fun with your little reconstruction project." She turns to wander away. "I'm sure it will be"

Pause. If to just glance slyly over her shoulder. "Cutting edge."

    Stare. Stare. Dagger Stare. If looks could kill Kau would have combusted by now. ... Sigh. "Lets go, then."