Open - Party Recruitement | Page 3

_____As everyone seemed to voice their ideas and opinion it seemed they all would be up to the task, but there was still some things they would need to iron out. Her hands moving slowly to pull the map back and return it to her inventory before she looked to the group. It was small like they said, but even a force of three-hundred could make something happen to a force of ten-thousand. The just had to find their spot to fight back. The idea dawning on Kaede, a cruel one but something to get the job done easily. Without the map Kaede simply hoped people remembered most of the details.

”We could give them a reason to focus on us… If they are tribes if we take the leader they will do one of two things. Chase after the leader, or decide a new one. If the second seems more likely we strike their supplies and bait them with our own. Destroy the food, lead them to the mines where they cant swarm around us, or if they think of it destroy the only way to food. It’s a gamble they don’t think to wait for another group to bring food… but hopefully that does not become our gamble chip…”

_____Kaede moved a hand to her chin, thumb moved up to bite at her nail as she kept thinking of other options. She already knew this was going to be a difficult task to deal with, but now that she had more reason to think it over it was starting to show just how vastly under thought she was about it so far. Kaede was going to have to ask them for more time to gather people, it would take some time but maybe it would help out. Moving her thumb to her chin Kaede sighed lightly.

”Well after this it seems I have not fully spent the time i was given correctly. I’ll ask them for more time while I try to gather more people and do some scouting missions to the area to get a better grasp on the situation. If things go well I’ll try and tell you all the new date of the operation, if not I’ll try let you know a few days before so you can get ready… Outside that i think we have everything in order.”
@Ueno Mizuki | @Corvella | @Aalam Abungu

 

Mizuki felt more comfortable now that they'd moved past the introductions and dealing with potential members of their little group of adventurers (it wasn't that she disliked Temperance, but the woman had been a bit of a wildcard that the Caenis was rather uncertain of) and were instead dealing with the task at hand, their first job together. More importantly everyone was now voicing their own opinion and contributing, so rather than being distracted by the discussion about who should be the leader they could first focus on figuring out the dynamics of the group and then see who would be best suited as the leader.

"It has been a while since I fought the gnolls myself, so if you say that they've been improving we'll have to make use of your experience. From what I remember they are clever enough to use ambushes and teamwork, but they lack the creativity to do anything more complicated than having one of them act as bait to lead the victim towards the rest who are in hiding. You'll have to explain what you think they are capable of."

Of course being capable of baiting tactics was already pretty clever for creatures who weren't advanced enough to have their own civilization, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle. The real challenge from Mizuki's perspective was the clan as a whole, if only because the sheer numbers could become a danger through attrition and because the leaders, who you usually didn't encounter, were undoubtedly going to be stronger. Corvella appeared to be in disagreement with the idea that attacking the clan would be too dangerous though, leaving Mizuki to rub her chin as she looked at the map.

"I'd rather not see those people get killed after we've done our job when more gnolls come to reclaim what they see as theirs, but yes it is technically not our concern whether they succeed in protecting that territory long-term as our only task is to help with the creation of the outpost. That said I think the issue with the aggressive approach would be that I don't know how strong the leader of a clan is. I would expect them to be noticeably stronger than the average gnoll, but unless any of you know I'd be hesitant to go fully on the offensive. And as Aalam points out, if we act too recklessly we might just end up getting overrun. We might be able to beat them in a fight, but we can't do much if literally hundreds of gnolls swarm the outpost while it's still being constructed."

As history had proven many times, the power of numbers was a frightening one. It wasn't unopposable, as there were records of small, well-trained armies disposing of more numerous enemies, but half a dozen adventurers against an actual army of gnolls would still be a challenge. However Corvella and Aalam also both seemed to be in favour of taking more drastic steps against the gnolls, even if they weren't advocating the same approach.

"So to summarize, I think we need to be careful fighting the clan because we don't know how strong a gnoll leader is, Corvella wants us to buy as much time for the miners as possible by wiping out any gnoll scouts and destroying any encampments which are too close to the outpost, and Aalam would want to carefully sow chaos and intimidate the gnolls by eliminating the leaders. Is that correct?"

Then came Kaede with her own contribution, which made Mizuki raise an eyebrow as she essentially suggested just messing as much as possible with the gnolls, forcing them to focus entirely on the adventurers so the miners would have an easier time setting up camp as all the Grass Gnolls would be busy trying to kill the mercenaries.

"So Aalam's idea of eliminating the leaders, but in addition also destroy their food supplies so they'll entirely focus on us? If we can beat them in a fight that might be a good method for at least temporarily cleaning the area, but on the other hand if we lose that gamble they'll just alert all the gnolls that there's trouble brewing and we'll run into the same problem of sheer numbers."

Looking back at the map Mizuki frowned, then sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"I think so far we are in agreement in that we should take an aggressive approach, with as main question which type of aggression and how far we should go. Which depends a lot on the finer details. How about we take care of the scouting while Kaede tries to recruit some more allies, so we have a more concrete idea of what we're facing? If it looks like we can easily clean the area of any gnoll settlements that would be the best option, but if they're more numerous and better defended than expected we'd have to be more thoughtful."

@Kaede Hoshi @Corvella @Aalam Abungu

 

It looks like that they are entering the final part of the discussion, pushing through to get the best strategy for this job. Elaborating further on her point about the gnolls' improvement to answer Mizuki's question. "This one tribe I encountered deep in the woods, they employed the clever use of primitive, yet effective traps." She added "Non-players wouldn't be able to spot them without the investigatory sense. The next thing, battle tactics. The same tribe communicates using sign language to change their formation quickly amidst combat, like trained soldiers." The blonde bit her lower lip "The mercs I was with with were taken by surprise. Extreme caution should be taken when we have to engage in combat with smarter clans. But I cannot say if it applies to other clans."

If they were to drive more attention to their group, the question is how many of them can they handle? Maybe one clan at a time. Their number is their real power. No matter how weak each of them individually, eventually their enemy will succumb to exhaustion. She did not want to overestimate herself after her last gnoll encounter went into chaos. "I agree. We would need to find more information on gnoll camps before we can decide what to do next." She took one last sip of the fruit juice "We look out for gnoll camps, travel paths and their potential threat level, clear the camp if we can. I'm good with that. How about you guys?"

@Aalam Abungu @Ueno Mizuki @Kaede Hoshi

 

Aalam looked at her as he heard her plan she wanted to turn them into the targets for the knolls, well that was an idea. It wasn’t the worst thing that he had ever heard, but it would be a challenge to pull off, mainly if they were to target the food supplies. If one of them were caught out by themselves, it could quickly lead to death. Player where good but they weren’t invincible, and death still had the terrible feeling of pain that always seemed to be there. However, she was right with the idea to create a kill box if apply right then it was something that could work in their favor. However, if she needed to chase them, there were certain actions that would enrage anyone even if they were well creature like that. However, not many people would be willing to take such actions. This would require him to have some gear; he would need at last a few more quivers some poison and a few explosives. However, it was a job that could be done.

This was still a plan that would require more field work; he would need to upgrade that map. After all, there was still the number of tribes that they would be needed to break for them to truly clean the area? It was doable, and that was all it boiled down to, however depending on the location he might be able to get the duke to donation s few resources to the construction of those watch posts. Clean up the area and then place in thing to stop it from ever getting that bad again. A little bit of effort would go along away, and if that were the direction the group wanted to go them, he would gladly follow suit. “Yes I’m in this seems like an interesting job, after all, hope it lived up to the presentation. The place can be clean of the threat and fixed so that it doesn’t take hold ag

 

_____With everything seemingly ironed out Kaede Began to tinker with her UI once again. First setting down the rough amount of gold for everything the group had consumed, then sending a friend request to each person, Mizuki likely already having one but the others unlikely. Moving to wake Tsuki-yumi who whimpered from the early wake up and got down to start stretching while Kaede finished things up. Frame bowing lightly before Kaede spoke up again.

”I’ll go speak with the employers again, er i already said that… um… I’ll go get started on things from my side of things and contact you all when things are ready to start moving… If you have plans come up just let me know… so I can try and work around or with it…”

_____Kaede moved to the door and once again bowed before she walked out to start heading to the last spot she knew the group hiring people would be. She had a lot of work to get done, and honestly felt she was the worst for the job. Tsuki-yumi bumping into her leg with a light grumble to assure Kaede before the two went to set things in motion. Hopefully towards something good, that was Kaede’s only real hope for this afterall. It would be bad if this group she was trying to help was not all they said they had been.~

~Kaede Exit~​

 

With a plan ironed out and everybody showing willingness to participate it looked like they had accomplished what they had come together for, at least the initial stages. Kaede wanted a group of people she could keep working together with, which meant that if things went well this would only be the first of potentially many journeys together. However as long as they had a good idea of how to deal with the first task everything else could come after, and if they spent too much effort trying to plan too far ahead it could become complicated and bothersome. Mizuki for her part thought they had everything they needed, and that it was better to discuss the rest once they had advanced a bit further in their relationships and work. Kaede declared that she would be taking care of contacting the employers and setting things up, to which Mizuki nodded and stood up out of her chair.

If you need any help scouting the area in advance I'll be available, although we should make sure not to attract too much attention from the gnolls. If they notice that there's more people wandering in their territory than usual they might suspect that something is going to happen, especially if Corvella's information is correct.

What the blonde woman had to add to the conversation actually worried Mizuki quite a bit, as it was different from what she herself remembered from when she was fighting the gnolls. While they certainly weren't as stupid as wild animals they hadn't been so organized or clever as to use sign language and traps on the level that they could be effective against humanoids, at least not in a forest. She could imagine them using pitfalls in areas where digging was easy, but from what Corvella had said they were intelligent enough to produce and execute more complex plans requiring patience and hard work. Looking at @Corvella Mizuki frowned, showing her concern as she rubbed her chin.

I don't remember them being as advanced as you tell us, which means my information is outdated and we'll have to be careful. If they can use sign language and plan out ambushes like that we'll have to assume they might be capable of more until we know their actual limits, and there's also the possibility that their casters are even smarter than the others... Did you encounter any gnolls capable of casting spells? Those are generally the leaders in absence of one abnormally strong, and we're almost certain to encounter at least one if we're trying to oppose an entire clan or more in their own territory.

Like with the humanoid races gnolls rarely were capable of using magic, and even when they did they weren't that amazing. However they did have something like mystics (if Mizuki's memory served her correctly) and those were the ones to watch out for, as aside from raw magical might they were a lot more cunning than the average clubwielder. Now wasn't the time to enter a broad discussion on the nature of gnolls, since they had just finished their plan and the knowledge of the gnolls being more intelligent than expected wouldn't actually hinder the plan (although it might require some adaptation down the line), so once Corvella had answered her question Mizuki stretched, watching Kaede leave before looking back at the others.

Well, I'm glad that both of you are willing to aid in this mission, and I'll try my best to be a good working partner once we get around to the actual task. For now though I'm going back to training.

Waving towards the two remaining people Mizuki left the room and wandered out of the tavern, glancing back before dropping herself on all fours and dashing off, back into the wilderness where she was spending most of her time in Terrasphere. She was confident in her ability to take down gnolls, but she wanted to make sure there was not even a sliver of hope for the gnolls to prevail.