Hardcore Heroes Arcadia: Episode 5

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== Synopsis ==
In the passage, Malakai, while dealing with the logistics of spellbooks and inventory, discovers a mysterious saltwater puddle and is prompted to confront Aldric, who he suspects of being a threat. Malakai then visits Lord Kavington to inspect a prized tracking dog but leaves when he realizes the kennels are not yet moved. He spends the rest of the day preparing for a dragon battle, negotiating with the knight Kel Longstar, and setting up defenses. The dragon's attack is initially devastating, but the beast soon disappears, leading Malakai and Georg to uncover a secret tunnel in the river. They spend days fortifying their defenses and tracking the dragon, but it eludes them. Eventually, they discover a portal to a shadowy realm, leading to a tense standoff with Chancellor Landslide, who demands the portal be destroyed unless Malakai can rescue those trapped within it within two weeks. Malakai and Georg prepare for their rescue mission as the night of the new moon approaches, signaling their entry into the shadow realm to save the abducted.
==Recap==
=== Saturday, 1509-17-12 ===
While Georg is out chasing Hanes Malakai gets himself a large chest and reconsiders his spellbook assortment. Problem with 4 large tomes being they take a fair bit of weight and getting a traveling one appears like a rather enticing option to his spine. With 10 gold per page for a wizarding book and 10 for the cover buying a new spellbook is held back on however. Instead he goes over his traveling inventory to see what he can drop into his chest, 12 Malkis sigils being one of a the number of things. Carrying around 50 pounds of coins seems extreme so Malakai also gets a 10 gp bronze chest for storing his money besides the large one for items. Bronze chest gets 999 silver, 249 iron, 910 gold, 199 platinum. 
In between the inventorying Malakai notices a small puddle with droplets around it at the foot of his bed, he comes up to it, inspects it and concludes it's salt water after tasting it. A connection forming in his brain this makes a chill run down the spine, now alert he goes to sit at Aldric's table and calls out that he knows he is there, the old fool, that he isn't scaring him. Warily he eyes the puddle again, but with nothing of note happening finishes the task he was in process of.
Done with tidying his items Malakai heads out of the keep to visit Lord Kavington with intent to check out his canines. Kavington is still in process of moving his belonging over to Shirebrook, but as a showpiece he has indeed brought over a dog for his benefactor. In temporary kennels there is a medium-sized, hound looking, floopy eared Betsy whose is a prized tracking dog of Kavington's. Having intended to bring back a wardog though Malakai instructs Kavington to inform him once the kennels have been moved to Shirebrook proper, but until then there's nothing else to do at the mansion so he leaves.
Rest of day is spent checking on the ballistae and finding a knight that's known for greatest hunger to make a name. Kel Longstar appears to be a match so he invites the scarred, mean looking knight to his tower to discuss a quest he would like to give her. 
In his tower Malakai pours both of them a drink and explains his need for someone to tank the dragon for a short while, aided by spells of various kinds. She seems cautious and asks what sort of spell so Malakai has her swing at his arm to show off his Stone skin. For the breath weapon he mentions scroll still in the towns temple and then adds casting Fly on her which intrigues her greatly. In a perhaps erroneous decision Malakai says to himself that it's a shame Tyrus wasn't brave enough to fight the dragon, which has her pause and retort that Tyrus was as brave of a man as any before following Malakai to observatory. Malakai tells her that he had thought so as well, but when the cards where on the table he decided to turn away, though she still replies that he surely had his reasons. In the upper floor of the tower Malakai shows her the armor and weapon once wielded by Tyrus Bellows iterating that they would be a loan to fight the dragon, she eyes them and asks Malakai what would be the reward for risking her life to fight the dragon be. He lists options such as being given a position of a minor noble in some village, given a handsome sum of gold or perhaps serving him in town which could mean her continuous use of these items and perhaps ownership of the naga armor, though sword is likely out of question since he still needs to research it. He also hands her a healing potion for the battle. It appears Kel Longstar is willing to take the deal and so with promise to visit her later to cast Fly for practice Malakai dismisses the knight. 
Malakai inquires with father Owen whether he can boost the troops morale somehow and the cleric offers blessing some of them. He later also comes up with a Courage spell for soldiers and Remove fear spell for the knight.
Both the wizards make sure to recast their stone skins and Georg exchanges his deep pockets robe for a regular one. 
Malakai makes sure to cast Stoneskin on Kel Longstar. Georg makes the Explosive runes trapped sign.
=== Tuesday, 1509-20-12 ===
Having gone to Misty Rapids and then back Georg stands besides Malakai with their forces in the keeps courtyard. There's tension in the air as everyone gets ready for the fateful day and when the ballistae begin rolling through the streets even Shirebrook proper becomes quiet in anticipation, people clearing the streets as the soldiers march through them. 
Georg's ranger shows up in town with a cart in tow for the dragon parts.  
Malakai convinces Georg to hand Kel Longstar a potion of speed. Malakai also casts Strength on the knight.  
The parties total forces are made up of 22 light and 20 heavy crossbows (1d8+1 amd 1d10+1 damage respectively) and 7 light ballistae (3d6) 
Malakai explains his plan to split the forces into 7 groups, each consisting of a ballista plus 2 operators, knight and 5 soldier crossbows. Father Owen casts Courage on a single group of soldiers and then stays around to Remove fear Longstar before running the fuck away. Georg gets Fly ready, Malakai precast's Polymorph and Invisibility. 
Kel Lorry Goldfeather walks up to the cave and leaves the note in front of the entrance before going back behind a ballista. The world seems to grow quiet as anxiety fills the air, cold hands gripping crossbows and eyes darting. Suddenly water stirs in the river nearby and a dragon head emerges from it, breathing noxious gases at the ballista that was stationed in front of the cave. The 50 feet long, 40 feet wide and 30 feet high plume of gas instantly slaughters the whole squad, but doesn't reach the next ballista crew that was adjacent as well as Goldfeather who was in between the two ballistae. A crew next to Georg is first to react and a ballista bolt scores a hit, however all the crossbowmen miss. 4 more ballistae fire one of which crits the dragon, but all their crossbowmen crews miss. As a sprite Malakai flies closer to the dragon and casts Mirror image. On the dragons turn it slips into the river with a cloud of mud obscuring the view of it which blocks attacks from the next ballistae. Georg commands the crews to reload as he prepares for the dragon to come back up.  
Everyone holds their breath, attacks ready, but the dragon isn't showing back up. Malakai transforms into an eagle in anticipation, but nothing happens. In 20 minutes the water clears and Malakai begins scouting up the river, but there's no signs of the dragon. Unless the dragon turned invisible they should’ve been able to see it leave the area of thrown up mud though so they have to assume it's still nearby somewhere. Georg has some miners summoned who he berrates for not mentioning a water entrance to the mines, but they shoot back that it would be ridiculous to have one considering they have to constantly pump water out of the caves. They're left with the assumption that the green dragon tunneled into the river itself which Georg is exasperated about. Party makes plans to start repairing the air pump to get the gas out. 
Malakai transforms into a fish to check out the river and finds a shaft leading into the mines which he then informs Georg of. Georg puts a wall of iron into the shaft to the mines. Day slowly passes while as they wait for the dragon to pop up again and Georg begins engineering a bellow to the mines. 
Turns out building a barrier from copper would cost over 500 gold so instead Malakai has a wooden one made. Obviously not about to risk his own hide to pump the gas he delegates the task of strong arming someone for it to a knight. 
=== Wednesday, 1509-21-12 ===
During the night there's an incident where the dragon slinks out of the mines to smack the wooden screen on top of the pumping duty guy. One the ballista manages to react in time to score a hit on it which forces the beast to retreat back into the mines. Georg is the one on duty, but the dragon is gone too quickly to get a Lightning bolt on it. 
=== Thursday, 1509-22-12 ===
Next day Malakai starts using Unseen servants to keep the pumping going while the screen is rebuilt. They move a ballista to point directly down the cave. Georg gets the sunset to sunrise shift while Malakai gets sunrise to sunset shift. 
=== Sunday, 1509-25-12 ===
Uneventful couple days later, during the night when Georg is on watch one the sentries atop the hill suddenly cries dragon. Camp wakes up immediately with horns and whistles going off, waking up Malakai as well and Georg casts Fly on himself. The sentry comes running down the hill screaming that the dragon is in the water. Malakai joins the party and ballistae are shifting to point at the river, but as time passes no attack comes. Sentry informs them that the dragon was swimming upriver so they assume it's just making a run for it, both flying wizards begin chasing the underwater dragon which they cannot see. 
Adrenaline boosting their senses both the wizards spot movement and Georg throws a Lightning bolt into the river while Malakai shifts into a fairy form which would let him cast. The spell does minimal damage however and Georg takes cover at the bank of the river. Again the dragon is lost in the darkness, both wizards carefully study the surface of the water, but lack of light in the close to new moon lit night plays to the advantage of the dragon. Malakai summons shadow crocodile and has it scout the river for the dragon, however the spell expands its duration without anything happening. Malakai throws a light stone into the river, but it doesn't seem to help. 
An hour passes without either the wizards or the ballistae groups spotting anything so they're left to assume the dragon successfully escaped. At daybreak Georg has a tracking dog look for the dragon as well as scouting parties, but besides 1 false start where bullywugs apparently scrimished with one the scouting parties there is nothing to report. 
=== Monday, 1509-26-12 ===
With no dragon sighings Georg begins looking towards the mines again. He Clairvoyances the sealed off room with the portal and spots no gas in there so they begin making plans for teleporting into it so they can get down to business. 
=== Tuesday, 1509-27-12* ===
Wizards prepare their spells and then Dimension door into the sealed off dirt room which has a tunnel leading out of it blocked by bricks. With the words unseal the shadow realm the writhing and billowing shadowy purple portal comes to life. Somewhat wary Malakai inquires about whether they can get back and Georg gives him quick instructions that on the other side there's only a small pocket/room, though Georg is a little sceptical about it granting access to the greater shadow realm he does theorize they should be able to teleport around or scry on Van. Without any time to waste Georg pops through the portal first.
On the other side is a small, dimly lit stone room with 2 windows and stone table with a note of “I owe u Amulet of Malkis” with a sketch of the amulet on it as well. The walls also have an inscription "We hide away what we cannot destroy, Drexl the Bloodthirsty's weapon, Amulet of Malkis." Curious Malakai inquires with Georg whether this is the phylactery, but Georg does his best not to answer properly nor even admit that he has it when Malakai asks whether he can see it. Instead Georg looks out the window unto the vast grey wasteland. They try to get some idea where they might be located, but the scenery has no familiar landmarks, only hills and a vast forest off in the distance. Malakai with his cartography skill however starts putting two and two together, noting the mountains the wasteland and forest he comes to conclusion they must be in the Draken Ridge area with Draken Wasteland being next to them. 
Just wandering around seems like a waste of time, however neither of them have a divination spell that can scry on a specific person. Georg makes some calculations and figures they should be able to teleport to Misty Rapids from here if he shrunk Malakai. They study the room carefully for a bit and then return to Shirebrook. Before they Dimension door back to surface Malakai thanks Georg and tells him he won't tell anyone of his secret at which Goerg essentially rolls his eyes, shooting back that the idea of him being the reincarnation of Drexl is prosposerious anyway. Georg mentions his pet theory that Tyrus knew more about this portal and the amulet than he let on, that perhaps he was this places guardian, but since he is dead now they might never know, although it didn't seem like it was true either way. 
Shirebrook is still standing when they teleport back, dragon not having been seen since they left. Kel Longstar seems disappointed that she didn't get to fight the dragon. 
A while later Malakai is back in his tower with Longstar where she drops off her armor, he tries giving her 20 gold, but she drops it onto the ground with a disdainful look. At this perceived slight the wizard webs the whole tower again and confronts her about it, she appears to be shaking, but with steely nerves tells him that she is no mercenary that can be paid off. Not yet ready to kill a knight Malakai lets her wiggle in the web for a while. 
=== Wednesday, 1509-28-12 ===
Malakai makes his way to Chancellor Landslide, gives him a rundown of the events, how they wounded the dragon and chased it, but then lost it. He also informs him of the portal beneath the mines and his intent to go rescue the people sent to shadow realm. Landslide not having been informed of the portal asks Malakai to clarify on it and he reiterates it as finding the portal when they were exploring the mines. Georg doesn't seem like he would’ve shared this information, but Chancellor of course immediately starts going over the dangers of such a thing beneath Shirebrook. He also expresses some doubts that the people are still alive on the other side. Malakai shifts attention to the dimensionalist standing next to them who explains that he was the last person to seal it shut and that the whole area might just be cursed in general at which Landslide spits back that maybe the portal is the reason for that. Malakai then agrees to possibly destroy the portal, but not after they've rescued their people, which might take about 2 weeks by his quick estimation, depending on what sort of trouble the people have gotten themselves into. Landslide inquires whether the portal will stay open the whole time and Georg replies that he doesn't actually know whether it can be shut from the other side. Both the wizards argue against destroying the portal when Landslide gives them an ultimatum of 2 weeks before he has his people destroy it while they're inside. Malakai also argues that Van might possess more knowledge than any of them on this if he is still alive and also that the portal might be their only trump card in fight against Malkis and other dark forces. Landslide gives them an ultimatum of end of January to get back to Shirebrook before he knocks the portal down. 
As they're walking away Malakai tells Georg not to be so distrustful and that as long as you understand how someone like Landslide works you can twist them to your advantage. That evening they go get some rations for their journey. 
Georg sends 4 ballistae back to Misty Rapids with his ranger in tow, who he paid 25 gold for the trouble. 
=== Thursday, 1509-29-12 ===
On the night of a new moon the Arc Wizard of Shirebrook and the Baron of Misty Rapids slip into the portal to go rescue people abducted to shadow realm. 
== Experience and changes ==
* Both Malakai and Georg gain 5500XP
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes
Category:Georg Episodes