Hardcore Heroes: Episode 04

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== Synopsis ==
Father Owen and Van head to the sheriff's office, only to find the sheriff struggling with a mysterious figure who quickly disappears. Realizing they can't catch the culprit, Father Owen decides to take Van to Baroness Valmont. Meanwhile, Malakai hides his scrolls before being arrested along with his friends and his father's sailors. Amid the chaos of a bullywug attack, Croak and Corni attempt to negotiate their release but fail. At court, Baroness Valmont addresses the attack, a supposed lich, and the theft of temple scrolls, eventually imprisoning the group. In their cell, tensions rise as the group debates their next move, with Malakai secretly passing a dagger to Croak. When taken to the baroness, Rohana interrogates them, but they are surprisingly cleared of knowledge about the scrolls. Rohana advises them to leave town, prompting a series of farewells and preparations. However, their journey turns perilous when a storm wrecks their ship, stranding them on an island. They encounter hostile hobgoblins, leading to a series of skirmishes as they plan a night ambush. The final battle is intense, with Corni disappearing after being severely injured, leaving the party uncertain about their fate.
==Recap==
===Sunday, 1509-01-24===
Father Owen brings Van almost by his hand to the sheriff's office only to see a mysterious figure fighting with him and then disappearing, (see DwD 74 for more details). Baffled by this, both holy men gawk at the fight and when father Owen realizes he won't catch Tyrus Bellows he decides to take Van to Baroness Valmont. 
Malakai meanwhile hides his scrolls under some floorboards in his house just before guardsmen come to arrest him and all the rest of his friends at various places in the town. They also arrest Malakai's fathers sailors. Just as Croak and Corni are being led to Baroness however an out of breath dwarf comes running yelling for guardsmen to head to mines due to a bullywug attack and that there are miners left behind inside the shafts. Croak tries to use the chance to talk his way in letting them help or letting them go by themselves to baroness Valmont, but the guardsman won't have it, especially after he calls Baroness "the little empress".
Finally everyone arrives at the court and all three issues are brought forth, the bullywug attack, the supposed lich that Sheriff Tyrus went after, and the theft of the scrolls and potions from temple. She refuses the party's help at dealing with bullywugs and quickly relegates the bullywug problem to captain of her guard, instead simply sending the party to dungeon.
They are put in a single cell while the sailors are split in two separate cells. Quietly they talk among themselves for a while, Van saying that he knows Croak was involved somehow. Croak tries to make Van see the theft and usage of scroll as an empowering thing, that the church is neglecting its duties in not using them, but Van doesn't buy it. Tensions rise as Malakai denies any connection and also secretly passes a dagger to Croak. The party basically splits into Croak, Malakai and Van, Corni. Malakai attempts to get to Vans self-preservation side while Croak tries to imply the party knows what to do with the scrolls better than the church while Van thinks cooperation is the best route. Corni, the true neutral gnome in the party just says do what you think is best. Even between Croak and Malakai there's uncertainty because if they do run there's no telling whether Van would go with them and whether they could ever return to Shirebrook. 
===Monday, 1509-01-25*===
Van makes the last plea to Croak to just go with it as a guard finally comes and escorts them to the baroness. She asks them if they have anything else to say, but nothing significant comes up so she invites in Rohana, to the horror of the party. She goes to Corni first and him being entirely uninvolved in this states that he is an innocent gnome, then goes to Croak, he attempts to resist, but fails, however she doesn't say anything yet. Third is Malakai and he actually manages to resist her at which point she turns to baroness and states that the 4 of them do not know anything about these scrolls to their surprise. Van is especially surprised and quite glad at this.
Baroness lets Van go on his way as he has healing duties to do, but rest of the crew are assigned to Rohana for some herding so she brings all of them back to her shop where she immediately tells them it's time to head out of town and that this will eventually surface to bite them, so they ought go and let it all blow over for now. Croak tells the truth about where he put the potions which also prompts Malakai to go fetch those scrolls. Corni graciously fetches Rohana some wine-skins of his of ale. They all meet back up, sort of unknowing what the future will hold now, Rohana gifts Malakai a staff with quartz that's always glowing. Van-Healsing tries to come up with way he wouldn't have to leave, but no matter how you look at it, there would be a chance for him to lose his head over this. Party also offers Rohana the healing spell that's on one of the scrolls, but she refuses stating she would also need to leave town and she's already built a life here.
Meanwhile, Corni goes to speak to his own father in Halfpint, excited about prospect of adventure, but retorts about not being responsible and abandoning his duties to the family so they get in a fight and with few last wineskins of his ale Corni runs back to rest of the group after basically getting disowned by his father.
Malakai has a more calm and measured talk to his father, explaining what happened and that they will need to leave town now to which he is somewhat startled, but accepts, thankful for his life and seemingly surprised that Malakai would go these lengths for him, especially after Malakai proclaims he will find whoever did this in Redport. They set a meeting point at the Hobgoblings head for whenever he will arrive at Redport.
Van-Healsing gives the most cryptic message of all, telling Frederick he will do great, and then walking into horizon. Everyone finishes their business, buy winter blankets and head down to docks to charter a ride. 
===Tuesday, 1509-01-26*===
Unfortunately the ship they book seems to be as lucky as Croaks HP rolls and despite Malakai's knowledge a storm takes the ship and rolls it over in a fit of nature's fury. Corni is the first to opens his eyes, finding himself on a beach on an unknown coastline surrounded by debris, bodies and waterlogged, still sleeping, teammates. One by one everyone comes to and begin exploring the local area, finding out it's definitely an island.
They find a sailor who they wake up and then find they are being watched by a hobgoblin, unsure what to do party makes some vague gestures to which it simply walks back into forest. This prompts them to start working more actively so they go loot the ship's remains finding fresh water, some food and other bits. They continue being busy until the sailor brings their attention back to the forest where 4 of the goblinoids have appeared. Croak attempts a friendly gesture of giving them some salty apples, but his attempt is met by a war-cry and a charge.
Van reacts quickly and casts Entangle on 3 of the 4 enemies. Malakai Magic missiles and Corni hits them with an arrow. Everything seems to be going well until Croak almost dies from a single attack again. But luck is on parties side as the last hobgoblin dies without getting another attack off.
Everyone gradually moves into the forest, Croak with his hunting proficiency finds tracks of at least 12 hobgoblins. Getting an idea, Corni stumbles further into the forest and finds a squirrel. The squirrel informs him that the hobgoblins live where the water comes out of ground in middle of the island, it also says that they might be 2-3 times the parties number. Party plots ambushing the goblinoid camp in middle of night since they're not nocturnal and they need time to build a raft which they might not get if they don't get rid of the hobgoblins first.
As they're all discussing this and going back to their temporary base-camp they're met with the sight or rather the lack of sight of their supplies which puts the plan of assaulting hobgoblins forward to this night. Everyone decides that ambushing them in night while they're sleeping is best route and so they just start passing time until Croak finds himself having snuck upon a single goblinoid lurking in a tree spying on the rest of the party still on the beach. He climbs the tree, but halfway a branch breaks and the hobgoblin is alerted to his presence. Croak immediately tumbles down and runs screaming for help, but the foe disappears into woods.
Even more nervous now, the party assemble on beach and wait until the night at which point they stab the light staff into beach and wait for the hobgoblins. At one point voice rings out of the forest, the captain of the ship that crashed, but suspecting it being a trap the party doesn't budge. Waiting game follows, hours pass until midnight comes and so, they give the sailor a torch to light their targets and Corni begins the combat with an arrow. Fight seems to go fine until a single spear hit impales Corni straight through. Van takes a heavy hit as well, but after that, a heavy hit after a hit the goblinoids go down. Party immediately sets out to find Corni, but he is nowhere to be found.
=== Experience and changes ===
* Malakai has total of 2387XP
* Croak gains 4th level and rolls 6HP for a total of 11HP
* Corni, played by theripper, is killed in action and thus leaves the party
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes