Hardcore Heroes: Episode 23

__NOTOC__
== Synopsis ==
The party, having endured a night defending against giant mosquitoes, prepares to find their missing dwarf companion, Mhorin, before he becomes visible. Van casts spells to locate Mhorin's battleaxe, leading them through the forest where they encounter and avoid a mother bear and her cubs. Hearing rhythmic sounds, Malakai and Kain wait in a tree until it passes, then discover footprints and hear whistles. They find Mhorin but are soon ambushed by goblins and hyenas. The party successfully fends off the attackers, though Mhorin is killed. They bury Mhorin, lament their losses, and decide to infiltrate a goblin fortification. Malakai rescues Delta, who reveals the crew's plight. A giant crab attacks but retreats, followed by an encounter with an owlbear that kills Delta. The party finally reaches Shirebrook after battling a chimera, though with the loss of one dwarf.
==Recap==
=== Thursday, 1509-08-17* ===
Having spent the night defending against giant mosquitoes the party minus a dwarf ready their spells. They figure that since it's about 3–4 hours since sunrise that they have around 4 more hours to find Mhorin before he becomes visible. Van casts Nap on himself the other two are left to defend his unconscious body. 
The hour passes without anyone ambushing them and so Van wakes up, then immediately begins memorizing spells. Once spells are done he uses Idea spell to recall the exact look of Mhorins battle axe succeeding in that he then casts Locate object on the said battleaxe. They head towards beach and then making sure the range covers both beach and the forest walk back from where they came. 
While prowling through the thick greenery they come across a mother bear and cubs which they choose to make a wide berth around. 
A little while later Kain hears something deeper in the forest, something rhythmic. They get on moving for a while, but the sound doesn't seem to abate so instead Malakai and Kain climb a tree and wait until the sound disappears. Satisfied they continue on until they hit the cliffs North of the forest where Kain finds a set of prints. Moment is interrupted by them hearing a set of whistles from south which forces the party to pick up pace. 
Suddenly they hear a dwarven voice nearby and find Mhorin, the whistles continue gaining on them however and so they keep pushing out until the forest begins to recede and ground slopes upwards. Here they stand their ground and face south, waiting for the goblins, weapons and spells at the ready. The forest grows quiet and finally a pack hyenas charges through the bushes towards them.
Hyenas prove to be ineffective the first round and party kills a couple then 8 goblin archers slither out of the bushes and pepper them with arrows luckily none hitting, many of them targeting Malakai who had wisely cast Protection from normal missiles. Next round another barrage of arrows misses the party entirely and in retaliation Malakai sleeps 5 goblins. Goblins seeing their number felled so quickly retreat into forest with Malakai chasing after them into the tree line, but being unable to locate them he comes back to the battle line. Next a group of 15 goblins charges into the fray and jab at everyone they can. Mhorin falls to a spear attack, but the party begins to cut goblins down with every swing until 5 of the goblins retreat into the woods. 
The battle is basically over and while Kain murders sleeping goblins Van and Malakai run into the forest after the fleeing ones. Eventually Van manages to get close enough on them to cast Entangle and begin murdering them one by one. 
Now the party of three reconvenes and they try to figure where to go from here and what to do with the dead dwarf. Kain seems to be the most sullen while Malakai ends up blaming Mhorins death on fact that he choose to come. 
They bury Mhorin's body and mutter a prayer, then leave for the encampment where they stayed at during the night. While walking they reminisce about how many companions have died during their adventures Kain's likely concern. 
They choose to go father south, closer to the goblin fortification. Eventually they find a nice cave on side of the beach which they share with some sea lions. Kain manages to calm some of the wilder sea lions down so they can sleep alongside them.
=== Friday, 1509-08-18* ===
Night passes uneventfully and spellcasters memorize their respective magic. Malakai casts invisibility on himself and leaves for the goblin village while Kain and Van-Healsing wait inside the sea lion cave. 
Malakai gets to the village without a problem and easily flies over the walls, studying who is outside in the fields and whose in the cages. Unable to locate Jarrot he makes do with Delta who he carefully alerts to his presence. Delta tells him that Jarrot died about a week ago when trying to escape so slightly agitated Malakai tells Delta to trust him and with power of Invisibility combined with Levitate quickly jailbreaks the 1st mate. 
They got to the cave before spell runs out and party questions Delta about how they come to this situation. Turns out that with money being low, so low that they've been unable to pay the crew for a while they decided to take up a job offer from a shady person named Barnibus. They bought slaves and then contracted to take them to somewhere in Whiteshore's direction, but because they got paid upfront they went to sell the slaves to the goblins, or at least tried to. Delta went south and those who weren't killed were put to work along the slaves they tried to sell. Cursing both his father and Delta Malakai fails to find reasons to go rescue the rest of the captured humans. 
Just before everyone is ready to sleep a giant 10 foot crab scuttles out of the sea and goes after the sea lions. Party decides they need to help their friendly hosts and defend the cave from the crustacean terror. Injured the crab immediately runs back and party can go back to sleeping. 
=== Friday, 1509-08-19* ===
Night passes uneventfully and they travel to the break in the cliff and get over it without an issue. 
=== Sunday, 1509-08-21 ===
While keeping watch in the woods Malakai realizes there's the sound of crashing trees in distance and it's coming closer. Kain wakes up next and then Van. Everyone readies their actions to engage whatever is coming their way which turns out to be an Owlbear. 
Said owlbear eviscerates Delta in his turn. They begin fighting it with Bear and Van taking the front line. Everyone keeps rolling good damage and quickly the Owlbear goes lower and lower until Kain finishes it off. 
Once the fight is over they drop Delta's body over the edge of the cliff and continue to rest until morning without any more interruptions. Malakai decides to try his levitate and fly trick again, dragging the whole party behind himself as they fly over the forest. 
Unfortunately their luck lasts and they encounter a flying chimera while going towards Shirebrook. The beast breathes fire on Van who screams for Malakai to keep going, but instead Malakai lets everyone down while casting Slow on the beast. Next round Kain hides, Malakai Magic missiles and Van tanks the chimera. Van takes a series of heavy hits and then gives some back. They continue the slugfest until numerically superior party eventually brings the chimera down.
Van cuts off the dragon head from the chimera and then goes to Nap for an hour. Eventually they reach a familiar river that passes into sea and then finally the town of Shirebrook. One dwarf down. 
== Experience and changes ==
* Mhorin is killed by goblins and leaves the party
* Kain gains 2nd level and rolls 4HP for a total of 12HP
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes