Hardcore Heroes: Episode 25

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== Synopsis ==
In the town of Newfort, Van navigates a crowd gathered for a spectacle, learning from a man named Thaladad that he's been there since dawn. Kain advises Van against causing a scene, especially using magic, while Malakai provocatively offers him swan meat. Kain fails to dissuade people from the feast, and Malakai's disruptive behavior attracts unwanted attention. The group then heads to the castle, where they split up: Van naps, Kain's inquiries in a dwarf tavern backfire, and Malakai has a tense encounter with a guard. Kain's efforts to calm a dwarven mob only escalate their anger. After reuniting and resting, Van captures a crowd's attention with a spell and a speech, then the group meets the new Count to discuss missing dwarves and receives a writ of homage. They encounter various tensions, including Van's casting in public and Malakai's queries about a missing person. Back in Kain's village, they investigate with magic but find no new clues. Returning home, they discover Baroness Valmont has died, her daughter Sella now in power. Van and Kain are tasked with investigating disappearances, and suspicions arise around a noble named Teddy. Van plans to attempt raising the Baroness, while tensions within the group about prioritizing their tasks remain high.
==Recap==
=== Wednesday, 1509-08-24* ===
Newfort. It's about middle of the day and Van is making his way through the gathered crowd that has come to watch the spectacle. He asks a random person whether this man has been here long and gets that he's been here since the dawn today and his name apparently is Thaladad. 
Kain manages to catch up to him and urges not to make a scene especially not to make a scene with magic since this likely isn't illegal even if it's very distasteful. 
Malakai in contrast comes up to them with a plate of swan meat and tries to goad him into taking some sort of action. Having to bat away offers of swan Van stands in the crowd distraught. 
Kain attempts to talk some people out of joining in on this feast unsuccessfully while Van gathers that they might still be here tomorrow which means he could prepare more appropriate spells for dealing with the situation. 
Eventually Malakai grows tired of the scene and as he's walking out of the crowd he smacks away a plate of swan which immediately gathers the attention of nearby people which in turn makes the speaker spot him. He begins postulating even louder while also making fun of him for being one of those Nadinis hippies or even worse a Chis sympathizer which makes Van loudly question his method of cooking the swans. 
Eventually 2 guards come and break up the gathering which prompts the party to finally go finish their task. Malakai is thwarted from freeing the caged swans by Van and Kain. 
The castle looks impressive and as they walk towards it they briefly joke about Redbeard turning out to be the Count's son. Turns out that the new Count will be accepting writs of homage tomorrow morning however so Malakai goes out to see if there are any wizards in town while Van goes to the Mountainside inn to nap and Kain squirms into a dwarven sized tavern. 
Kain is met by a complete silence and the bartender coming to meet him with a “What the hell are you doing here?”. When he pulls out 3 gold coins though one dwarf volunteers to come answer his questions. Said questions go fairly poorly though when the dwarf calls him a racist for assuming he might know the missing dwarves Mhorin was searching for just because he's another dwarf. Turns out the dwarf didn't know about the Mountainshield clan disappearing and soon the whole tavern is informed and filters outside to yell back at Kain about illusions and magics. Kain manages to calm them somewhat and tells of the details further, and about his village, which somehow gets the dwarven mob to question Baroness Valmont's ability to keep her subjects safe. In a flash the mob riles itself up into marching towards the keep to demand that the count rejects Baronesses Writ of Homage while Kan is left questioning his life decisions in the streets. 
Malakai finds himself a guard who begins to question him suspiciously after Malakai's interest in magic shops. They go on a little while, the guard expressing his distaste is magic and telling Malakai they generally don't like magic users in this town, Malakai makes some offhand comments about dwarves which in turn makes the guard seem like he'd love to take Malakai in for whatever offense he could find. This promptly ends when Malakai informs the guard the he is the official Emissary from Baroness Valmont. Bewildered and worried about his job the guard soon after excused himself and jogs back to his post. 
Back to Kain, while trying to explain that the Baroness has actually tried to fix the problem by appointing a wizard to investigate the dwarven mob turn from thinking that Baroness is neglecting the issue to that Baroness removed the dwarven clan in the first place. 
Without any ideas how to fix the situation Kain goes to find Malakai and informs of this turn of events. Kain seems to begin understanding Malakai's animosity against dwarves, but he takes it a bit far so they sit in silence until Van finishes sleeping and memorizing spells. Once Van goes comes down and has his face-palming moment about Kain's information gathering they all part ways and Malakai is left to drink with a Mirror image of himself.
=== Thursday, 1509-08-25* ===
A new day dawns and party heads to the keep by the long way which gets them to encounter the anti-Chis proselytizer. Van casts Enthrall and captures attention of almost everyone including Kain. The cleric makes a long winded speech about Chis also representing inner beauty of people and that this Thaladad person is leading their souls into depravity and away from the gods. Once he has made enough points Van finishes his counter-proselytizing with a Cure moderate wounds spell on a random man and rejoins the party in carriage. Kain is very distraught with him blatantly casting spells in middle of town, but all he gets is a “What spells?” and a wink so after Jeeves is done discussing how great the speech is with their horses they finally make their way to the keep. 
Gate guards forward them up into the new Counts throne room. They wait around for about an hour for the count to come and once he does the first party he calls forward is coincidentally Shirebrooks delegation. Malakai steps forward and gives the Count the Writ which he reads and then comes the question about the missing dwarves. Both Van and Malakai explain their findings to the Count, but it all goes in a down spiral for a while, particularly when Van insinuates that the facts Count has received were from an angry, drunk dwarven mob. Kain steps in and calms the situation a little with his experience, attesting to the parties effectiveness and judgment. Eventually the Count loudly decrees that Baroness Valmont will need to look into the disappearing villages, but he does give them the return letter for the Writ of Homage. Before they are kicked out of the procession Kain perks up and also informs the Count of Mhorin and his participation in their investigations and even though he died the Count seems more appreciative of them. Finally they are dismissed and leave.
Before they leave however Malakai comes up to delegation from Whiteshore and asks about Venlen/Waveskipper, the man seems not to recognize these names, but promises to send a letter to Malakai if he hears anything. 
On the way to the gates Van sees Thaladad who gives him the evil-eye as they pass each other. 
Determining that Malakai doesn't actually have roadworthy spells party decides to stay the night in Newfort.
=== Friday, 1509-08-26 ===
Everyone wakes up to a sunny and breezy day. Van takes a moment to inspect the 50-60s old man Jeeves and his long tie, black suit, pale sagging wrinkly face. After having breakfast they go onto the road. 
=== Sunday, 1509-08-28* ===
Party arrives back in Kain's empty village which seems to be slightly worse for repair, the bits of food that had still been around have now been scavenged by animals. Careful of monsters that might have taken a liking to the empty buildings party makes way to the double gauges in earth where Van attempts another Dispel magic without any visible effect. Kain loots 2 shovels and a pick which they use to dig through the tracks in earth. 
After multiple hours and about 6 feet of dirt they give up. Kain however convinces Van-Healsing to detect any residual thoughts and emotions before they leave his village so everyone beds down just outside the village. 
=== Monday, 1509-08-29* ===
Night passes uneventfully and Van casts his spell getting a vision where he is blind or rather in dark haze which is not totally dark, but in which he cannot see anything and feels fear, panic and panic for the persons children. 
They also get the idea to cast Speak with Dead on a hair from Kain’ mother, but Van fails the spell, but it is unknown whether because she has been dead for longer than a week or because she's still alive. 
Before they head to Shirebrook Malakai goes to track the swathe of destruction left by the giant, but it is lost after the woods end. 
Finally everyone decides its time to head home, but once they get past the river and arrive town immediately the trio notice something is wrong. There seen to be fewer people in town and those that are seem to have some sort of intent. Van immediately goes to ask the closest villager what's going on and learns that Baroness Valmont has died and that her daughter, Sella now sits on the throne. 
They make their way to the keep and are let in by the gatekeeper. The keep seems quiet and on edge, they are lead into a parlor while a guard goes to inform the Baroness of their arrival. Somewhat on edge themselves they await Sella, Malakai leaves to talk to Aldric before she arrives a while later. She thanks Van for the service and informs him that they think she was indeed poisoned, but refuses to let Van see her body. When Van informs her of the decree Count Roderick Ironhyde put on her she places Van and Kain as responsible for the investigation into the missing people. 
Meanwhile, Malakai asks Aldric for information as what has been happening here, but besides getting that they have no leads they end up squabbling once more until rest of the party arrives. Aldric seems to be very standoffish when it comes to working with Malakai and also refuses to help Van attempt Raise undead so the party ends up going to Rohana's shop. 
Rohana seems a lot more approachable and informs them they've been investigating everyone in the keep and that there's 1 suspicious person she has her eyes on. A noble nicknamed Teddy that was set to marry Sella in about a year. Rohana tells of late Baronesses history, how at one point Sella and Teddy Hardwood were set to be engage 6 years down the road and how Elliot Valmont died in a riding accident despite her being known as a good rider, which, her being the oldest child and Sella being the second oldest meant that Sella was set to be the heir of the throne. A year before the engagement thought Beatrix delayed their engagement due to practical reasons and now, again a year before their engagement Beatrix has died. Rohana says that marrying the heir to Barony is a large jump in reputation for the Hardwood family and even thought she doubts that Teddy himself would have the stomach for murder it might be someone else from his family. Party seems to be in agreement this is a possible lead for further investigation. 
Van has his own plans to add to this. He asks whether she might get him inside the crypt where the body of the late Baroness is and explains that with an Uplift spell and another cleric with equal power he could cast Raise dead on the Baroness and with the power of Hold and Neutralize poison keep her from dying again. 
Kain brings up a topic the disappearing villages as well. Rohana tells of her experience with reading mind of a man who goes by name of Litchguard or Georg and that he had similar thoughts of shadows and darkness. She suggests that he might have some information on the matter, but warns he leaves a trail of death, wraiths and mystery behind him. Kain offers his thoughts that perhaps they could go to Countess of Thornwood and see if she can get Baron Song to order Georg to help them. Malakai voices his doubt of going behind the wizards back as being a good way though. 
Argument ensues about whether to prioritize the death of Baroness or the disappearances. 
Van-Healsing and Rohana set to go into the crypt the following day where he may casts the spells he wishes to under the gaze of Rohana. 
== Experience and changes ==
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes