“No cloud from your hit, it seems the fire on your axe burned off the spores,” Karen said as she went by Alburet.
“Ah, cool,” he muttered as he joined in as the group all reached the gnoll who was casting another spell.
“Entanglement coming in,” Tiny rumbled as he dropped his shield and axe and grabbed at the gnoll. Vines shot up out of the ground wrapping around their legs as Tiny wrapped his arms around the gnoll. “Got him, master.” Tiny's arms were straining to hold the gnoll in place as it thrashed in his grasp.
“I'll free you all,” Bob said from outside the entanglement area as he began to cast Fire Blasts at the vines holding their legs, starting with Tiny. “Tiny, drag it over to Karen.”
Fluff came to a stop next to Bob, her eyes red, “I want to kill that thing for making me throw up in here. That was just wrong.”
Bob cackled as he tossed another bolt, freeing Tiny, “Have to wait for the vines to go away first.”
It took a bit for Bob to free them, while the gnoll bit at Tiny's shoulder, causing him to lose a little life with each bite. It was over shortly after though, the gnoll got sliced apart by Karen just as the entanglement faded.
The group let out a sigh of relief as they gathered around the corpse. “Okay, I don't remember them being that hard,” Karen said a little sheepishly.
“Glad we didn't go for an encampment right away now,” Alburet chuckled.
“Yeah,” Fluff muttered as she wiped at her mouth again.
Alburet handed her some tea, “Here Fluff. Rinse and spit.”
Fluff did that as Karen looted the corpse, “Huh. It gave me a spring vine as loot. Maybe for an alchemist?”
“Probably,” Alburet replied, “Need to see about getting some health potions anyway. We can check when we get back to the city, I guess.”
“Okay,” Karen said as she put the vine away. “So, what plan did you want to go with next time?”
Alburet let his lips curl up into an evil smile, “I'm glad you asked.”
A bit later the group was crouched further down the trail, waiting for the next Gnoll Wanderer to come by. After a bit of waiting the sound of another mob could be heard. Alburet could feel his excitement of the coming attack building as another minute went by before he heard Stacia begin her wordless song. The others piled out of the trees to find the Wanderer standing there in a daze while Stacia stepped towards the gnoll slowly, singing as she did.
Tiny put away his shield and axe as he came up on the gnoll’s side. Alburet and Bob started their Fire Blasts in tandem. Once they were ready they tossed them in unison as well. Both fires hit the gnoll in the back, setting the green moss and vines on its back aflame. The damage broke the daze effect, but as the gnoll let out a howl Tiny wrapped it in his arms and held it in place. As soon as Tiny had it Karen and Fluffball laid into it with their weapons, taking small chunks of its life away with each hit. Alburet went forward to join them with his axe and shortly afterward the gnoll died.
“That certainly cheeses the fights,” Alburet chuckled. “Daze plus holding it in place. It might have been able to use the spores on its back to break the hold if we hadn’t killed them first.”
Fluffball snorted, “Those things sucked, I’m glad they burned.”
“Glad I noticed them igniting from Alburet’s weapon last time and then they didn’t go off on me after he’d hit the gnoll in the back. Or it would have been worse, am I right?” Karen added.
“I haven’t hit anything yet,” Tiny rumbled.
“I don’t recall these things having the black cloud of coughing or the spore attack. I wonder what else has changed in the encampments,” Karen murmured with a thoughtful expression.
“We know we can easily take the singles if we cheese them like we just did. Let’s go look at an encampment and see what that’ll entail for us.” Alburet suggested to the others, who looked a little apprehensive before agreeing.
They set off down the trail that Karen thought would led them to an encampment. A few minutes later the trees started to thin and a couple of tents could be seen just off the trail ahead. Stepping off the trail and into the tree line, the group gathered together. “Okay, so before, there would have been a healer, a spell casting damage dealer and two melee in these camps with occasional wanderers adding in. Since they changed the abilities of the Wanderers we don’t know what these guys might have. Before, the Gnoll Spiritualist healed and removed debuffs, the Soul Render did straight up dark damage as well as having a damage over time spell that could stack up damage, and the Claws applied a bleed as well as being able to stun.” Karen looked at the others, “Now though, that might all have changed.”
“We have two succubi,” Alburet smirked at Stacia and her double, “so we can lock down two of whatever’s in the camp. I think we should kill the melee first while Stacia keeps the potential difficult ones controlled.”
“What if a Wanderer comes into the camp?” Fluff asked.
“If that happens, Stacia will drop the Soul Render and daze the Wanderer instead. Anyone else have questions or concerns?”
“How good was round two last night?” Bob asked with a snicker, “Who won, Karen or Stacia?”
Shaking his head, Alburet bopped Bob on the head, “Bad imp.” Looking over at Fluff to apologize, he was a little puzzled to see that she was only a very light shade of pink. “Sorry about Bob’s comments, Fluff.”
“No, it’s okay,” Fluff replied shaking her head slightly, her brow furrowed. “I don’t seem as embarrassed about it. Weird.”
“Ah, it means Ma’ really is able to help ya,” Stacia said, one of her bodies giving Fluff a pat on the back. “Means ya might well be makin’ head way on ya issues.”
Karen and Alburet exchanged a glance before looking back at the still thoughtful Lunari. “Anyway,” Alburet finally said, “since no other pertinent questions are forthcoming let’s do this thing.”
“It was pertinent,” Bob muttered, “I really wanted to know, so it was pertinent to me.”
“I guess we can set the tents on fire and see what comes out,” Alburet suggested, ignoring Bob’s reply. The others didn’t have any better ideas and the only other option was to walk into the encampment.
Alburet studied the set up for a moment longer, two tents with a fire pit between them. The tents were hide lashed to poles, more teepee than tent. The trail ran right into the camp and then out the other side. Alburet nodded to Bob and they began casting their Fire Bolts in tandem then tossed them onto a tent each. The sound of the gnolls yammering in excitement started up almost instantly as the hides caught fire. Two gnolls came rushing out each tent, two Gnoll Claws from one and a Gnoll Spiritualist and Gnoll Soul Render out of the other.
Tiny went charging in at the Claws while Stacia dazed both spell casters. Fluff was two steps behind Tiny as he ran in, while Karen was a shimmer that followed along behind her. Alburet left Bob casting his Fire Bolts to chase after the others while both Stacias stood next to Bob, singing their songs. Tiny hit each of the Gnoll Claws before switching back to the first one, blocking one attack while taking the other three.
Alburet winced watching Tiny’s health dip from that attack, rushing forward to get the heal he had onto Tiny. Fluff paused, waiting for Tiny to hit his target again before she attacked it as well. Karen popped into view as her blades hit the gnoll from behind, easily out-aggroing Tiny and making it spin on her. Tiny taunted the gnoll back to him, allowing the second Claw hit him again and stacking more bleeds onto Tiny.
Alburet got there and slapped the vitality buff on Tiny, hoping it would help keep him up longer. The bleed damage was adding up, as well as the raw damage from the hits. After getting the buff on Tiny, Alburet slid around the side and got a better view of the two gnolls they were fighting. The Gnoll Claws didn’t have the plant growth on their backs nor were they hunched, standing at their full seven-foot height. They were not using weapons, instead using their namesake claws which looked razor sharp as they sliced at Tiny again.