Duty Session 307: For Whom the Bell Gnolls

Once again, Jazuhanzu has reached out to the others in her orbit to let them know that she was going to accept a mission. Apparnetly, the gnolls are acting up in the newbie areas again and those just dipping their toes into hunting are having trouble with them.

Thus, the twee-est Undine is present, waiting outside the forest, staring into the darkened, shady interior with alkmost lambet eyes.

"Good to see you two," she tells Lin and Ayame on thier arrival.

Ayame unslung her shield, smiling a touch to the wet witch as she turns up, and giving Lin a curious once over before a nod "Good to see you again" She tells the former "And to meet you. Ayame" She offers brightly, hefting her shield "Want me to take point? I heard about the raids ..."

A random invite from Jazz? What could go wrong! It won't be like the last time, Lin's sure of it. "No problem!" is his cheerful response before heading for the meeting.

He bounces up through the low level grasslands, absently kicking at the rocks that now peek through yellowed grass. "Good to see you as well. How's it going?" The Pooka shoots a friendly wave at Ayame and seems all too ready to get behind someone with a shield.

"There's Gnoll tracks," says Jazz, pointing at the trail in front of her. "In the grass, there, and there. Leading in. COme on, then, let's go."

It isn't long before the adventurers are confronted with a stone altar, where a number of trinkets have been placed that are of obvious value to someone. There's a definite creepy hum in the air, however, and Jazz looks at it with dismay.

"Well. This is awkward. I guess the gnolls have been futzing with this to give themselves a buff. Let's take it away if we can."

"Don't ask me about them" Ayame grins to Jaz, adjusting her grip on her shield "Sorry. I'd love to comment more, but ... things like this are a long way outside my understanding." She fusses with it halfheartedly, nervously, before shrugging "I don't really engage with ... their way of thinking"

"Gnoll tracks. Huh. I don't think I've heard of an area suddenly jumping up in level before." Lin follows behind the party, staying safe. He gives the Adventurer gravestones a wary eye as they move, but brightens when he sees the creepy stone altar. "This is pretty neat though! Check it out. A ton of weird stuff." Without thinking, he rushes forward to the altar and begins to inspect the trinkets for any sign of their purpose. "This looks mostly like some junk. They were using it in some kind of ritual, at least."

"...okay, so..." Jazz reacehs out and taps the shirne with a feather duster. Dust goes everywhere, and so does a shower of sparks.

"... you know what," she begins, "let's just leave this alone. We could hurt ourselves if we mess with it too much and there's just the three of us."

She backs up a step, then whirls with her long coat to head deeper into the forest.

At first, it's barely audible, the gnollish laughter echoing in the woods, but soon it seems to be everywhere around them with increasing mania.

Jazu's tentacles twitch around her face, pointing this way and that as if searching for the source of the vibration.

"Great," she mutters.

Ayame watches Jaz with the feather duster, and just grins, sighing with a little amusement before she refrains from commenting, putting on a serious face. She nods her agreement, heading on in further and holding in a breath. Her pale blue wings flutter frantically a moment, her ears laying back, before she takes slow breath in and then lifts her ears, looking around, and then points "That way" She mutters, moving towards it and lifting her shield warily

"But.. but..." Lin objects to being dragged away from a potential mystery. There's so much to discover! To learn. It goes up in a puff of feather-blown dust and sparks. He pouts but follows on with Jazz and Ayame. "We totaly could have figured it out. I mean, they're gnolls, right? Anything they can do we can do too." That's when the laughter starts. He stares into the darkness, eyes wide.

After a particularly loud cackle from the depths of the forest, Jazz startles. Her wand-feather-duster discharges a blast of brilliantly burgundy-colored energy and leaves a tree smoldering lightly.

"... no one saw that," she grumps.

Still, they're getting closer to the source of the gnoll war cries, and indeed, another one emerges from the forest, battering his shield rythmically and chanting.

Jazz stares at him a moment then pinches the bridge of her nose. "Of course it'd be a sing-off. Screw that."

A hissing gout of steaminging, boiling water is directed right at him by her. That looks like it'll hurt.. if it hits.

"You'd think so. But the monsters here have been smart, for what I've found. And they know more we do, sometimes, simply because they've got ... the coded expereince" The Sylph says with an uneasy little note.

Then the opponent appears, and she relaxes a tiny bit. "Finally" Ayame lets out a relieved sound. Her ears lay flat, she hefts the shield, and then simply moves ahead; bashing about with the heavy, metal-rimmed shield as she lays about with merry abandon.

"Everything around here is smart. That's my thinking, anyway. It's all smarter than people give it credit for." Lin half-muses to himself and half-responds to Ayame. When their gnoll opponent appears, he seems relieved. Violence, at least, is uncomplicated. Have you tried bringing fire to a dance fight? You win basically every time. They're always unprepared. Lin lifts his spellbook and lets off a quick round of blazing fireballs that explode into shimmering multicoloured dust.

Jazz, Ayame and Lin are able to make short work of the gnoll in question, at least, reducing him to pixels.

Jazz looks relieved. While her initial blast had missed, she was able to marginally contribute while Ayame and Lin did the heavy lifting this go around. Just as the gnoll finishes disintegrating, however, more of them begin to come out of the woods. Lower level gnolls, of course, who've taken positions in the trees to stare at them. They're laughing, of course, as one heavily armored gnoll emerges from the trees, his face shrouded by his hood and a staff held in wickedly clawed hands. He slams it into the ground, then draws bottles full of noxious looking materials that he quickly thorows towards them, reaching for more. Noxious fumes, acid, and explosions of green fire are his weapons of choice.

"Crap," yells Jazz, weaving her hands to create gusts of wind and blasts of water. "Uh... get him!"

"I'm really not smarter than anyone gives me credit for" Ayame tells Lin with a little laugh "If I was, I'd manage not to embarass Jazuhanzu by grinning every time I see her wand. Seriously, she's the cutest" With a small wink back, shaking off her shield. Why yes, she is determined to make the Mer-Maid scowl.

Her shield holds back the first flung flask, as Ayame flinches back from the flying farmacy. Then she twirls her wand, dragging open a portal - ice shards plummetting down. Not at the gnoll, though. No, there's more than one way to tank, and the water plunges into the fires, shatters the flasks before the impact, dilutes the acids, damps the fumes. Ayame looks smug. "You get him!" She calls back

Lin's positioning in the party is well chosen. Staying well out of reach, but not so far from Ayame's shield that he'd be exposed to a surprise attack from another angle. Multicoloured dust sparkles in the air after the fight, illuminating the lower level gnolls and finally the general. "We're explosion dueling, are we!?" He shouts, more than eager to participate. The spell takes some time to cast. The Pooka's eyes are glued to his spellbook as he calls out the words of power, turning the page once and taking a quick breath before continuing. Sparks of electricity crackle about his feet and, off above the treetops, there is the distant roll of thunder in the clouds. He lifts his spellbook to the sky and shouts the final syllable!

Nothing happens for a single long second. Lin looks to the sky expectantly. The air above him glows purple for a split second, then the area is illuminated in blinding white and stark black shadows. Lightning strikes the Pooka, then streams out at the heavily armoured gnoll. As quickly as the light arrived, it is gone. The air splits in half with a deafening crack of thunder that sends leaves and branches scattering.

"Oh, be quiet," groans Jazz as Ayame speaks of her 'cuteness'.

It's an undeniable fact of existence. There is cute, very cute, and then there is Jazz. She puts a hand over her face once the gnoll general is swiftly defeated, and the other gnolls quickly withdraw in a particular direction, leaving a clearly indicated path for them to follow which leads to a clearing where a great symbol is burned into the ground, lamps lit all along its edges.

"Oh," says Jazz, "Boss fight."

Each of htem is blasted by a sudden gust of heat that's nearly powerful enough to take Jazz's hat off. She clutches it and brings it back to her head, her hair wafting around her as if she was underwater as it is.

MAterailizing from the odd symbol on the ground is a great gnoll with a dragon-tail and horns.

"Well *you're* impressive looking," utters Jazz. And then raises her hands and blasts him with water, coating him with tiny, stinging jellyfish that fall away and dematerialize as soon as their work is done.

"What? It's true. You're adorable. Seriously, you make my teeth ache with your sweetness" Ayame grins to Jaz. Maybe it's because - well, the prissy Sylph doesn't often get to tease anyone about this, wriggling about in a sleek skirt and shirt as she does, in comparison with the more sensible robes and adventuring clothes others wear.

Then the boss shows up. And her face falls, and sets, as she mutters two incantations. The first wraps her shield in bonds of power, the other, summons a blade of light extending up from her wand.

"Don't wait!" She calls, as she rushes in, to let the claws, teeth, horns, batter and scratch at her shield, her heeled boots digging into the ground as she fights to quell the assault, slicing back with the summoned blade

Lin stands where he finished casting the thunder strike, sizzling quietly and with smoke rising from the edges of his hair. He does his best not to cough - or let on that the spell was WAY too much for him and he's close to completely tapped out. "Denying it only makes it worse! You've got to roll with the cute punches." Still trying to act casual, he tries to join in on the cuteness discussion.

With the boss showing up, he quietly regrets his previous decision. Should have held back. What's left? Well, there's always fire. Friendly, reliable fire. He holds his back straight and selects a page in his book, then gets to work as party artillery - lobbing fireballs at first, then cycling through other elements as the boss's resistances change. "I... am so glad that was the last fight. I am completely tapped out." He pants for breath and leans on the loot chest, too tired to even open it and find what's inside.

It is, indeed, a lengthy battle. As the jellyfish fall away from the demon-gnoll's form, they make adorable little 'buu buu' sounds as they hop around. Are those smiley faces on them? Maybe?

It's hard to tell. They dissolve too quickly.

Jazz merely scowls at Ayame, though, and her description of her before shaking her head and taking a moment to catch her breath herself.

"...well, glad *that's* over. Hopefully, these can be sold for something worthwhile. I'm frigging broke."

All her money has been going to support the Red Chain, after all.