Hardcore Heroes: Episode 05

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== Synopsis ==
In the dead of night, the party inspects a bloodstained patch where their companion Corni disappeared. Despite Van-Healsing's urging to rescue him immediately, the group decides it would be too dangerous to fight at night. Instead, they make camp on the beach, setting up a protective barrier of staked hobgoblins. Their rest is disrupted by a monstrous female hobgoblin who kills two of the sailors before they manage to defeat her. After a night of uneasy rest, they discover a hobgoblin camp and, using a combination of fire and strategy, eliminate the threat by smoking out the hidden enemies. They bury their friend Corni and, after a calm morning, venture to the mainland. There, they explore, encounter dangerous spider webs, and arrive at a town called Anvil. They interact with the locals, sell some spices, and are approached by a young smuggler seeking help. After some deliberation and a tense battle with his treacherous partners, they defeat the villains and notify the sheriff, who commends them and takes the young smuggler into custody.
==Recap==
===Wednesday, 1509-01-27*===
Concerted by crickets and other midnight wildlife the party inspects a patch of blood where Corni used to stand desperate to find any clues to his whereabouts. Van-Healsing urges the party to go forward and rescue Corni, but both Croak and Malakai shoot down the plan since none of them can fight well in the night therefore it would be suicide. Van concedes and they begin figuring out how they are going to take watches so they're not murdered in the middle of the night. Everyone rejects Sean the sailor taking a watch so they make a plan how the spell-casters can properly get their rest. They make their camp on the beach with a dead man's land with staked hobgoblins between the trees and them, and go to sleep or at least attempt to.
The bedding part is interrupted by hobgoblin chanting that starts filtering through the trees and slowly gets louder, a monstrous female hobgoblin steps out, dressed in bones and holding a spiked club, leading another sailor behind her. She steps into light and lets out an roar then immediately clubs the sailor to death. Sailor Sean runs at her, but gets killed in a single hit as the party come to their senses while she approaches them. Croak gets a hit, Malakai misses. Next few rounds go in favor of the party, hitting the hobgoblin boss multiple times without her laying a finger on Van until finally she falls to last of Croaks darts. She is decapitated and holding her head like a trophy Croak roars at the other hobgoblins who silently retreat.
The night passes uneventfully as everyone gets their share of sleep, particularly enough to memorize spells. Croak hunts some local wildlife while Malakai loots the hobgoblin for her armor. Croak however dislikes the idea of wearing it. They try their hands at fishing while they discuss how to proceed with their situation, all of it seems to lead towards the hobgoblin camp though.
They trek through the underbrush for about an hour before they spot a tipi like hut and a fire pit lined with skulls so Croak pulls up his pants and goes to scout it out. Some steps in they spot the corpse of Corn and the corpse of the captain, even more determined Croak continues on without seeing any hobgoblins, but does find out that there's a hole into the ground inside the tipi. He returns to the party and proposes smoking the goblinoids out of their hiding hole, hoping that there's no other hobgoblins around to see the smoke and come at them from behind that is.
Croak pokes his head in and sees a 15 feet drop, shrugs, and drops down oil that he then proceeds to light on fire. They put the hut skins over the hole so the smoke doesn't come out, but the hobgoblins seem to put it out, not without some panicked screaming. The party chatters for a bit and then just start throwing everything burnable down the hole, it takes a bit, but soon enough a good fire is lit and screaming resumes as they suffocate the hobgoblins to death. While the kindle burns out and smoke leaves the pit of death they bury their friends, Corni. 
===Thursday, 1509-01-28*===
Night passes without an issue and Malakai being the brave wizard he is goes down the death pit to see what the hobgoblins had. Nothing much comes up however, the supplies that were stolen, a bear rug and a lot of corpses. Later on they judge that one of the land masses across the sea seems closer so they decide that's where they will go. Malakai hunts some more wildlife with magic. 
===Friday, 1509-01-29*===
Morning comes without trouble. The group gathers and pull the canoe to shore readying themselves for the trip. Water is loaded up. They ponder for a moment how they might use this island as their personal vacation spot and then with a merry mood leave few hours after dawn. Journey isn't long and they reach the mainland some hours later. Not knowing where exactly they carefully set to scout their immediate vicinity, Malakai being the most experienced at finding his way takes point on this exploration.
They find a river, hide their canoes and begin walking upstream expecting to see some civilization sooner or later. Some 10 minutes into it they start seeing giant spider webs which makes Van immediately nope-the-chis out and turn back. Despite this Croak and Malakai decide to throw a rock at the web just to see how big the spider is and of course Croak almost gets bit in his big round head, luckily the other two notice it and run away screaming and pulling him along. 
They continue through most of the rest of the day and according to Malakai arrive at Anvil. It seems like a normal town, populated by mostly humans and halflings so party goes on in.
They find the sheriff, Kel Deodrin, and ask for some directions as they check out the town on the way to the inn. They find at that the town is run by Baroness Adina Largewise and the forest is called Firewoods. Eventually they make their way to the inn where they finally have a proper meal and go to sleep.
Croak tries to sell the spices, the recipe he tries to bluff is “A spicy mold wine of normal proportions made from mulberry, few hops and other ingredients.” They haggle for a bit, but with a lot of sweet talking Croak manages to sell the spices for 50 gold.
Later on the party is approached by a young man who asks them for help, but in an indirect way that rubs Van in the wrong way, but Croak in just the right way. He takes the boy outside and talks to him revealing that he is a smuggler of halflings feet together with one of his friends, but their partners, a wizard and a fighter have double crossed them and now hold his friend hostage at their hideout. Croak thinks about it for a minute and then offers to help him for the halflings feet he has stored in the barn to which the boy reluctantly agrees.
They go back inside and Croak comes, almost, clean about the situation arguing to party to help this poor young man who was forced into this nefarious business by an evil wizard. Van would rather inform the law of this situation, but some arguing later about time and second chances they end up going by themselves, with the boy armed with a copper weapon to prove himself to them he's truly sorry.
They trek outside the village and find the barn. They sneak up on the barn and see 2 figures in it, a grey robed wizard and one other. Van leads the charge with walking up into the entrance of the barn and trying to negotiate, every nerve fiber likely straining not to let some magic missiles loose from Malakai as he stands behind barns doors. The wizard refuses to admit he is a smuggler of any kind so they go back and forth in a knife-edge manner until he attempts to cleverly disguised the beginnings of spell within speech, but the party doesn't fall for it.
Spells go off, people fall unconscious and the wizard dies after Croak stabs his unconscious form with his broadsword. Rest of the fight doesn't last long and the party set to looting the bodies as townsfolk start gathering outside the barn and gawking. Van requests one of them bring the sheriff while Croak finds a spellbook hidden among the crates as well as a bag of the infamous halflings feet, 6 in total 2 of which he takes for himself, but leaves the rest.
Soon enough the Sheriff Kel Deodrin arrives, Van talks to her and explains the situation then turns the young man, Reggie, in. She shrugs about the situation and commends the party as she drags Reggie to her office, likely to be hung.
== Experience and changes ==
* Malakai gains 2nd level and rolls 2HP for a total of 6HP
* Van gains 3rd level and rolls 3+1HP for a total of 15HP
* First time Sean makes coffee on stream
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes