Hardcore Heroes: Episode 03

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== Synopsis ==
Van-Healsing is summoned by a priest to meet Mother Ellyse, the high cleric of Shirebrook, after learning of Sir Edgar's death due to a sudden illness. Tasked with the burial rites, Van-Healsing gathers his party, including a reluctant Croak, and they head to Burnshire, wary of wolves and suspicious activity. Upon arrival, they investigate, learning from the head cook that Lord Twintower recently visited Sir Edgar. Croak proposes a devious plan to Spike to ambush Lord Twintower, aiming to shift property rights. Meanwhile, Malakai discovers his father is gravely ill and, with the party's help, navigates a series of complex investigations and schemes, including stealing a magic scroll to heal his father. The party's intricate plans and moral dilemmas unfold against a backdrop of political intrigue and personal quests.
==Recap==
===Wednesday, 1509-01-20*===
Van-Healsing is approached by a priest and asked to come to the head temple as Mother Ellyse, the high cleric of town, has asked to see him. It turns out that sir Edgar, the landed knight of Burnshire where the party had been 3 weeks ago, has died. Elise offers to let Van do the burial rights since he is known to have had some connection to him. Naturally, he is very disturbed by this and inquires to the manner of his death which turns out to have been some sort of a sickness that took him in about 3 days. He immediately goes to gather the party starting off with Corni in Halfpint who agrees quite readily with coming. Croak has some objections however pointing out the dangers they faced on the road, but he caves in with some sweet-talking. Everyone does feel some trepidation however when Croak points out how much power Spike held at this disposal.
Eventually everyone leaves Shirebrook and head out towards Burnshire, wary of the news of wolves in area. They make their way to the village without problems and are met by guards who invite them to sleep in the keep. Van asks the lady of the house whether there had been any suspicious activity, but she denies anyone having had access to their food. She of course doesn't entirely rule out foul play, but asks Van not to take too long investigating the manner of sir Edgars death. 
===Thursday, 1509-01-21*===
Next morning Van seeks out the head cook, asking whether she has seen anything suspicious, but only particularly notable thing she mentions is Lord Twintower having visited sir Edgar. She also brings up that the village is now being disbanded and split apart now that sir Edgar has passed away which comes off as putting Lord Twintower on the suspect list.
Meanwhile Croak and Corni go seek out Spike in his house, questioning the situation that death of the knight puts Spike in. Spike tells him that while he would have wanted to stay in Burnshire, Lord Twintower is actually kicking everyone out of the village, with some compensation. While Corni is siting silently Croak offers a devious plan to Spike, ambushing Lord Twintower on the road to the village so that property rights move around once more. Spike is very receptive to this, but won't jump into the plan without prior information such as when and with how many men he is coming. Idea is brewed that wife of Sir Edgar is plotting against Lord Twintower which might prompt him to come himself without much of a guard. Suddenly though Spike turns to Corni, asking of his opinion on the situation to which he sort of stumbles about, trying not to seem suspicious and ruining Croaks plot. Some wiggling around questions later they make their way back and midway Croak and Corni finally talk between themselves and Croak explains his idea to double-cross Spike. 
Meanwhile, the other two ask Lady Francene some questions about the meeting her husband and Lord Twintower had, she says that they were old friends and that she was away at the time of he meeting. Nothing much comes out of this though and they are left only being able to vaguely suspect Lord Twintower. People gather, the funeral procession continues without an incident. Prompted by Corni, Croak talks to Van and explains some his plan to set up Spike and kill him, a little bit later he finally explains rest of it while the party is making their way back into Shirebrook. Everyone sort of seems to go with it, some with less morals objections some with more.
Eventually they all make their way into town and it seems like a quiet evening until Malakai finds a crowd of sailors at this house. His father has fallen deathly ill and none of the clerics in town seem to be able to help him. Rohana goes to get Aldric and suggests finding mother Ellyse who unfortunately seems to be out of town.
Malakai goes to explore his fathers ship for any clues. He finds captain's journal and reads that there was trouble in Redport where his father tried to stiff a merchant called Hitchens and got in a fight, then turned to a different one. The merchandise were silks. He also speaks with Delta, the first mate who doubts Hitchens had the courage to curse a man like that, he also mentions the woman he's been in love with.
Malakai goes back to his house and meets up with Aldric who asks for 500 gold for a Dispel magic or enough giant hair to braid a belt.
Malakai goes back to the ship and opens his father's footlocker, finding nothing particular in there except some love letters. Before bed he seeks out Van informing him of the situation with his father then goes to Halfpint to meet with the rest of the party. They talk about the dangers of going after giants hair and whether they should do the Twintower plot first, but it does seem that they're not entirely unwilling to do the task for various reasons.
===Friday, 1509-01-22*===
Next day Malakai seeks out the towns ranger Stirge for advice on giants and how they might approach this mission. He seems a nervous and standoffish type, but lets them inside. He tells Malakai a lot of general information, but nothing very specific while warning him that even Tyrus Bellows might not make it out alive. He does however offer to escort him to edge of the Ashlands. Meanwile Croak and Val-Healsing go to talk to Lord Twintower to realize his plot, however Twintower derails it somewhat, wanting to instead go to Burnshire and arrest the man so they can go to court and use Croak as the witness with Van as someone who pledges for his trustworthiness.
Next they seek out Tyrus, in this deepening hole, who, after Croak makes up that Spike has at least 10 men at his disposal also agrees with going to Spike instead of creating a counter ambush, but he also suggests to seek counsel from Baroness Valmont so off they go.
While on their way Malakai and Corni meet up with the procession and Malakai asks Lord Twintower whether he might assist him in paying Aldric's price for casting Dispel magic to which he agrees since the party has helped him once before and now have brought the assassination plot to him. They are brought to the throne room and baroness comes out to see them. She hears out Twintower and then greets each one of them separately, complementing them or giving them her well wishes. The troops assemble, 2 knights and 20 men along with Tyrus and the party ponders whether go with them or not. Aldric also give them a whole list of body parts from various monsters he would be willing to pay for.
===Saturday, 1509-01-23*===
Early in the morning Aldric comes to Malakai's home to cast his spell and in an impressive display, but it all comes to naught as he declares this is not a magical curse that he can dispel. Malakai kicks everyone out of the room and sits with his father, alone with this thoughts and his guilt about inheriting his father's property. Van-Healsing inquires whether any of the churches in town posses scrolls with magic powerful enough to heal Malakai's father, but one of the other clerics shoots the idea down since they're mother Ellyse's property to do as she wishes, not his. Stumped he goes to Halfpint to mull over his lack of choices and Croak hearing that the main church has the scrolls decides to go explore. Finding the doors locked he has a different idea and makes his way into one of the seedier taverns in town, gathering people that would go to church and create a distraction so he can go sneak into scroll storage and steal them.
3 hours later plan commences and the fancy looking church in the noble section of town begins filling up with rowdy sailor types, Croak slips all of them 4 silver and goes to try his lock-picks on the door. He is successful and slips in through the door finding 8 scrolls and 12 potions, he bags all of the scrolls and 2 of the potions and then promptly leaves heading to Malakai's home. A sleep bereft Malakai opens the door and hearing that Croak has the scroll quickly ushers him inside. They scan through them and finally the last one has the Cure Disease spell, though only clerics have the ability to use these sort of scrolls which means only option is to let Van in on this operation.
Croak heads to Halfpint, scheming in his mind, finds the cleric and sits down with him, talking about gods and men just as he tries to reverse pickpocket the scroll into Van's bag, 3 attempts later he is cough, but he just gives Van a cryptic message and leaves. Left to his tipsy mind and morals Van sighs and heads to Malakai's where he casts the spell and cures his father, then after all is said and done heads to temple to put himself at mercy of father Owen, lying that he doesn't know who gave him the scroll. Meanwhile, Croak goes to Threefingers tavern and plants some potions on one of the people that distracted the clergy while he stole the magic scrolls. 
==Experience and changes==
* Croak gains 3rd level and is at 4999XP
* Van gains 2nd level and rolls 7+1 HP for total of 11HP 
* Neal officially implements the whole reason for Gnomes rhymes as sort of a sign of respect and intelligence
*Dates are extrapolated from previous mention of an exact date. 
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes