Hardcore Heroes Arcadia: Episode 2

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== Synopsis ==
In this passage, Malakai, having completed an inventory of Aldric's tower library and discovering a mysterious message in Aldric's journal, becomes increasingly concerned about the presence of a green dragon in the local mines and the mysterious disappearance of townspeople. He engages in various magical studies, attempts to learn new spells, and faces tense encounters with local figures such as Gary, who brings gold but remains evasive, and Landslide, who distrusts him. Malakai eventually teams up with Georg, a cloaked figure with enigmatic motives, to confront the dragon and investigate the shadowy disturbances in the mines. Their efforts uncover clues about the shadow plane and green dragon's capabilities, leading them to plan a strategy to deal with the dragon while managing local political tensions and magical threats. Meanwhile, a confrontation with Tyrus Bellows reveals further layers of intrigue and mistrust, but the wizards and the rogue eventually agree to a tenuous alliance to tackle the looming dangers.
==Recap==
=== Wednesday, 1509-12-07 ===
During his time in what he still mentally refers to as Aldric's tower Malakai has completed the inventory of the library which has books such as Conjuring for beginners 1, What not with which to metal, Basics of enchanting 1, Common and dangerous mistakes, Vegans guide to spell-component, Thousand and one uses for a corpse. There's a few other interesting ones such as Everything poops, one book book about dimensional spaces and a whole series about illusions such as how to spot one, how not to get lost in all the illusionary work and so on. 
Without a single book that deals directly with planar knowledge though Malakai goes off to find someone who can sew him a family sigil. First time without an immediate cataclysm taking his attention Malakai ponders what to do, retrieving the gryphon towers library comes to his mind, but fighting off a whole flock of gryphons might be somewhat dangerous therefore he ends up trying to learn Chill touch instead. Unfortunately he fails the spell learning, however during his studies he notices that Aldric's journal still has some wet ink on the last unfinished page which shouldn't be possible since he died weeks ago. A little concerned he looks around the room, eyeing the place where Aldric once sat at his desk before his death then back to the journal which seems to spell out “Why” in the smeared out ink. Malakai panics a little and goes up and down the tower checking if anyone is there, but finds nothing nor no one one. 
=== Saturday, 1509-12-10 ===
Some spell studying and necromantic tome reading and general reading later he also learns that the woman in the portrait was Aldric's mother, Aldina. The autobiography seems to be rather flattering without any mentions of his difficulties getting along with people, however it does shine a light on some of his deeds in Shirebrook such as helping lift it out of financial problems, building an observatory, advising the Baroness, securing the mines from monsters and so forth. 
Mention of the mines makes Malakai ponder a little, with all the time he's spent here he isn't aware of the true importance of them, but checking with the output it turns out they're not of regional consequence, rather only suitable to feed the towns needs. Thoughts of making some dwarven lives miserable puts a smile on his face briefly.  
Getting on with his day Malakai readies some penal glans for his Clairvoyance spell and scries on the canyon which he visited. There he sees a trio of smoke/mist mephits lazily hanging out in the air. Twice more Malakai tries to scry along the canyon, but isn't able to find any obvious cave entrances.  
No success on the shadow mountains side the wizard decides to visit the town to check if there's any new terrible, horrible things happening. On his way out though he runs into Gary whose bringing him 2000 gold, somewhat amusingly he politely refuses to come inside the tower arguing close associating might undermine his usefulness. When Malakai tries to discern how much exactly the 50% he took is he gets led on a roundabout, even ESP seems to not be quite enough for this clever rogue so Malakai lets up on him and asks if he knows of any other local pots of gold. Nothing immediately accessible turns up, idea of creating morality constable position is passed around, but soon with a charade of Malakai threatening him with a dagger they go their separate ways.  
Back in the tower Malakai is interrupted from reading by the sensation of being spied upon, he carefully goes over to Aldinas portrait, pull out the daggers from it and waves at whoever it is watching before sitting down and waiting. Minutes pass until out of nowhere with sound of popping a darkly cloaked man appears a few feet before Malakai. He jumps out of his chair, dagger in hand and addresses him as the Wraith of the tetherwilds. The young man with his marble skin replies with an elusive “I have known many names” while making no moves. Tense moment passes and Malakai eventually discards his dagger onto the table, taking Georg's question of whether he is Aldric's apprentice with a chuckle, replying that he has gone to greener or rather wetter pastures. The messenger Malakai sent seems to have relied the general gist of things in Shirebrook, though shit hit the fan by Malakai's words is an understatement. Georg doesn't seem to be quite as aware of Malakai and Van though as they are of him to Malakai's slight discomfort.  
Mid sentence Malakai notices an odd shrieking sound in distance and shuffles around Georg to the window, eagle eyed and to his own horror he catches a shape in the sky, a shape much like a dragons. Georg taken out of spying on Malakai's literature immediately expresses his scepticism of this while poking his own head out of a window. They share some awkward wizardly moments when Malakai asks him of his means of travelling here, but gets muttering in return until pressed by a new cataclysm moves to the larger topic at hand, why he even called Georg here. They make their way to the observatory where the map is and Malakai explains the dwarven village they found and their findings there, but with general confusion and somewhat difficult time expressing the core of the events Malakai ends up departing to check up on the town with a last don't touch my stuff at Georg. The method he does so seems to impress Georg somewhat, him not having seen "Polymorph Self" up close yet. 
In town Malakai finds a random scared peasant in the streets, he forces the man out his stunned silence who then admits that there indeed was a dragon of yellowish green tint in the sky flying in westward direction. Next he finds a guardsman who he has go around to check if there's been any more mass disappearances.   
Back in the tower Malakai informs the other wizard of this which he finally accepts while scratching his chin. With knowledge that mostly the elder dragons gain magical casting Georg dismisses the idea a green dragon likely is the cause for the disappearances. Urgent matters at hand though they need to get to the town, but thinking of his image Malakai prompts the idea it might be best if they're not seen together so Georg turns invisible. They bumble around a bit, but with Georg actually excited to see his first dragon he proverbially pulls Malakai out of the tower.   
On their way out the keep they run into Landslide who yells at Malakai for summoning a dragon which of course is ridiculous, but they still lug around angry words like a married couple with Landslide either believing this is Malakai's shadow dragon, since such coincidence would be extraordinary, or that Malakai is somehow at the cause of this. When the Chancellor calls him an useless son of a bitch though and Malakai tells him to watch his tongue, they end up staring each other down before Malakai stomps his way out the keep with Georg questioning whether he even came to the right town. Georg of course takes the news that the last Baron retired in odd circumstances with a grain of salt, but they more important matters at hand for further inquiry.   
The day is warm and peaceful, much unlike the atmosphere. The new party split and Malakai flies his way to the mines where a lone dwarf makes its way out of one of the entrance and runs until Malakai intercepts him. His eagle form suffering a punch to the beak before he finishes transforming. By the frantic dwarves words the dragon seems to have crawled it's way into the mine which has but a single entrance/exit.   
A little bit later invisible Georg arrives. They stand around looking at the mine entrance, mulling over acid breath, Malakai mentions that this really isn't Georg's problem if he doesn't want to deal with it, even offering payment to him if he were to help, but Georg retorts that he doesn't want his copper pieces. Malakai jokes that he really is a bad omen before heading closer to the entrance with Georg trailing behind until he notices faint wisps of green vapor at the entrance of which he warns Malakai.   
At the entrance they notice a ripped open dwarf corpse, far beyond saving. There isn't much they can do at this time, but Malakai does get the idea to collect a sample which Georg volunteers for. Before he can even reach the visible gas his arm suffers caustic damage, however he manages to a sample and soon after they depart.   
Back in the wizard tower, Malakai offers to tell the full story of the shadow beast to the amusement of Georg who can hardly think of a more pressing matter than a green dragon in the mines. Malakai manages to slide in some dwarf hating in-between getting an awkward chuckle from him. Georg seems to be fairly interested in the new and gone to hell Shirebrook quoting that Misty rapids is not nearly so at this time of the year.  
Malakai finally begins retelling the investigation starting off with the residue illusion aura that he believes to be an aftereffect of a powerful spell, which when dispelled didn't reveal anything more, and then further on their scrying on the taken townspeople which showed the cave with bones and boons. He also mentions how the beast managed to scry back on Malakai and how he used Clairvoyance to pinpoint the location of the lair which Georg commends. Georg mentions that smoke mephits are generally lower plane denizens, but he doesn't seem to have personal experience with them.   
Their meeting is interrupted by a pounding on the door, a servant has come to call Malakai to Chancellors emergency council. To the servants surprise Malakai tells him to wait as he goes back up and retells of Van reading the emotions and experiences in one of the villages, confusion, misty, shadowy, colourless place which apparently was what Rohana got out of Georg when she mind-read him. 
While Malakai runs off to the meeting Georg explores Aldric's Tower, he reads some of his journals on Aldric's journey to Misty rapids and how Georg was suspicious yet too squeaky clean. He chuckles a little bit while checking if there's any mention of artefacts in the local lands for he finds nothing.  
In the meeting Malakai makes a rundown of his journey near the mine, Landslide immediately latches on thought of making a full body leather suit and when Malakai tells him he's not a designer accuses him of shrugging off responsibility. Without letting him offer any more ideas Landslide dismisses Malakai who questions him, but gets the taste of a politician playing game of politics which ends with Malakai leaving in a huff.  
Malakai isn't in the wizard tower but for a moment before he gets a brilliant idea and goes by the dungeon for a freshly amputated finger which one of he wraps in fabric and other one drops naked into the jar of acid vapor. Georg joins in on the experiment by sprinkling iron dust in. The dust corrodes and looks like fabric wrapped finger has taken less damage than unwrapped, but not significantly less to call it a good method of protection. While the wizard are experimenting Georg muses on how it had to be THAT mine which perks Malakai's attention, Georg then says how it's true that this continent is apparently cursed. Georg explains that perhaps the shadow planes aren't far beneath the earth here then further on how the day Rohana read his mind he paid a visit to the mines, that the dwarves had dug a little too deep. Finally he tells him that it was indeed a portal to the shadow plane, ornamented to boot, and that maybe it's the proximity to the shadow mountains or maybe there's more of these in there in the mountains. They ponder the circumstances for a while. Georg admits that there are spells that might transport one to another plane, but it's powerful magic that shouldn't be taken lightly. He makes a point of mentioning that illusion magic is definitely not the school that would make travel possible however, they decide to make way into town to look at the residue there.  
While Malakai is leading them to the town Georg breaks his Invisibility to quickly recharge his spells and ends up Dimension Dooring out of the keep which freaks a few people out.  
At the square Georg casts True seeing and explores the 600 feet magic aura together with Malakai, Georg mentions that this isn't illusion which prompts the other wizard to look through the gem with his Detect magic active which he hadn't done before. This new methods reveals that spell was of conjuring nature which implies the people were summoned somewhere. Malakai offhand mentions if the location was the lair they're probably already dead so he asks if Georg can check if someone is still alive  which he can with sleep and item that belonged to person of interest.  
Two of them then go the main temple where Van often slept. Frederick is busy speaking soothing words to the dwarven families of the miners when Malakai approaches him, he tries to involve the wizard in the matter, but Malakai whispers that there's is no hope for them then asks to be lead to Vans room. Frederick coughs and excuses them, in Vans room Malakai finds some golden locks which should be suitable for the spell. With a little bit of disgust Georg slips the hair into one of his hundred pockets and with sun already coming low to the horizon they head to the tower. Georg seems alright with the idea of sleeping in Aldric's attic, at least more so than trying to bunk with Malakai in a single bed.  
Making their way into the keep both of them note an increased presence of guards which peaks Malakai's attention who decides to go find Landslide. A nervous servants bars him from entering the room where Landslide is having diner though, hesitant, Malakai learns from the servant instead that the soldiers are levies that have been called in. He ambles before the doors for a bit before decided it's not worth the trouble to bother the dwarf so he goes back to the tower where Georg is busying himself watching Voraci's constellation. 
Offhand Malakai mentions to him that Malkis constellation has been missing for a while which Georg scoffs at at first, but since he hasn't been outside in the night for a while for stargazing he doesn't actively argue against it. Georg then fishes out a ruler and casts his signature "Georg's Handy Metric" spell with which he attempts to measure the distance to Voraci constellation, but it returns an error message and a headache. 
Malakai reminisces that Aldric had books about intraplannar and transplannar summoning which he then goes to read to check if a conjuring spell might leave a signature over which to tell the two apart. Unfortunately they mostly talk about theory of conjuring things though and not quite what he was looking for. They have a wizard lan party reading books when Georg burns an ESP spell and catches Malakai thinking that maybe he shouldn't have killed Aldric. Towards end of the night Georg wakes up and has his mind blown that he hadn't noticed Malkis constellation had been missing. 
=== Sunday, 1509-12-11* ===
Wizards pass the night without trying to murder each other. Early in the morning Georg casts Past life on Van and gets an error which to Malakai's relief should mean he's still alive. Based on this Malakai theorises that they probably aren't in the shadow dragon lair, although Georg disagrees on the reasoning they move on to thinking how might they find Van if he is the shadow plane. With Georg needing a book from his own keep and Malakai still wanting to check out what Landslide is doing they decide to part and meet up the following day.  
Georg Teleports to Misty rapids without issue, retrieves his book on dragons of Arcadia and then swings back through the town on top of his Phantom steed. Mother Emma gives him a quick heal on the dragon burned hand of his, adding a reminder to do his best for the people. But other than people being a little scared of more warfare everything seems to be calm in town so he rides back to Shirebrook.
Back in Shirebrook a large meeting is had, Chancellors reads a message from the Count that apparently 2 green dragons had been sighted near Newfort one of which settled in Shelterwood while the other settled in the Lost Coast. Implications being that Count won't be able to help them now. Malakai then inquires what are the soldiers here for, Landslides answer is that the initial idea to deal with the shadow mountains threat was to assemble an army which essentially this is. Malakai offers to take a small force out of the 126 militia and 26 knights for a scouting mission first, although first they must deal with the green dragon in their mines. 
Turns out that during the night a message was sent from the dragon that it will kill people until a large sum of gold is delivered to it. Malakai of course points out that since the men are already summoned they should deal with the beast to which Landslide for once agrees. The wizard then suggests building some ballista and surrounding the mine with longbow men, spaced out so that only so many can be hit at once with its breath, but random nobles from the meeting start objecting and dismissing his readiness to lead men. They argue for a while, but Malakai rolling poor on his history he ends up backing down citing that he only is here to solve the problems not create more. They agree though they might need to give the dragon gold to keep it appeased until their forces are ready, perhaps 50 gold to start off. 
Later in the day Malakai recasts his stone skin and then polymorphs into a hatching green dragon using it to experiment with its resilience to the gas. Seems like the being in a dragon form won't protect him from the gas though. Malakai then visits the dwarf that delivered the message from dragon, from him he learns that a map of the mine is left in the office near the mines.  
Quick incursion to the mine is had without issue and Malakai returns to the dwarf who he has mark which tunnels might   
be too small for the dragon as well as which chamber might the dragon rest in. Later Malakai tries to find some people who might be willing to die on the shadow mountains expedition which turns out to be none, because apparently people like to be alive, however some of the knights seem ready to go on dangerous mission for the glory of their house.  
In the evening Georg arrives atop his phantom steed. Malakai shares the news about the dragon and his plan to deal with it, keep the dragon appeased until their ballistas are ready. They then read the book about green dragons, learning of their characteristics and that the gas can be dissipated by wind and time. It also mentions that adult green dragons are known to cast limited spells, they breathe underwater and prefer enchantment spells. They also learn of Xorathis and decides that's likely where the 3 young dragons came from. 
Departing from the dragons Malakai explains that he wants to capture some smoke mephits for interrogation and scout in which Georg seems willing to join up in. Georg also offhand mentions having contacts in hidden valley which makes Malakai somewhat curious. They make plans to up the crystal run river, possibly putting the mephits into cages once they capture one, maybe sew its mouth shut. 
=== Monday, 1509-12-12* ===
Night passes and in the early hours both wizards learn their spells while having idle chatter. They are however interrupted when sound of metal on stone comes from the lower floor in the tower, Georg on guard casts some defensive spells while Malakai drops a light stone down the staircase. They both start walking down the stairs to see a cloak clad figure pulling grappling hook up, ignoring them. When Tyrus Bellows finally looks up both Georg and Tyrus freeze, both men going into fight or flight situation with Malakai trying to calm them down and explaining he needed Georgs help with the disappearances. They trade a few accusations, but before Malakai can do anything Georg casts Improved blink which prompts Tyrus to slash at him with a miss due to Blur spell he cast earlier. Georg blinks behind the fighter, but next is Malakai's round which he uses to web the whole tower. 
Completely immobilised for now Tyrus tells Malakai not to trust Georg, but Malakai tries to appeal to him that they need to work together to save the town. Tyrus keeps accusing Georg of serving a litch, but he shoots back at him accusations of being an murderous outlaw with Malakai trying to make them see that they're only ones capable to keep the darkness at bay. Malakai tells Tyrus of the green dragon in mines and that rumor of people disappearing from town including Van and Kain are true which makes him shut up for a moment. Georg accidentally makes it slip that Malakai murdered Aldric, but Malakai plays it off believably. Initial steam running out the two men sort of calm down, Georg makes a gleeful admission that he sent Demon's eye dagger to him, but turns out Rohana had checked it beforehand so Tyrus buried it in the black pine marsh. Georg does admit wanting it back, but Tyrus replies that he'd then have to give him Carl back, the dagger he stuck in Georg.  
Finally though with heads somewhat cooled off Malakai can cancel his web and they agree to a temporary truce/alliance. Georg and Tyrus agree to trade their dangers once the mephits mission is done. 
== Experience and changes ==
* 2400XP for both Malakai and Georg (10% included)
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes
Category:Georg Episodes