Hardcore Heroes Arcadia: Episode 4

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== Synopsis ==
In the passage, Baron Georg grapples with managing his Barondom, deciding to appoint Vanessa as Chancellor after a meeting where they discuss the need for increased government oversight. The appointment is swiftly formalized in a brief ceremony. Meanwhile, Malakai deals with a frantic Malkis cultist and confides in Father Owen about troubling signs related to the god Malkis. He also negotiates with Lord Kavington, ultimately offering him a stipend and a village to settle in. As preparations for a dragon battle intensify, tensions rise between Georg and Malakai over strategy and the inclusion of Tyrus Bellows, leading to Tyrus's dramatic death at Malakai’s hands. The wizards then plan their next moves, with Georg heading to Thornwood to recruit Hanes Valmont and Malakai seeking further divine guidance.
== Recap ==
=== Thursday, 1509-12-15 ===
In Misty Rapids Georg makes sure the smoke mephits are chained and muzzled. He isn't sure how the mephits conjure more of their kin into the world, but chains seem to be enough to hold them restrained. 
Once that is done he checks up on the situation in his Barondom. Sheriff come to complain to him that there's people seeking his judgment on matters, but he is always absent. Georg considers hiring a chancellor to do these day to day tasks which are beneath him, Vanessa is possibly an option, the only one really since he doesn't trust anyone.  
He travels to Vanessa's home interrupting her meeting with some random merchant, there he politely waits while the merchant obviously somewhat uncomfortable finishes his meeting with the rogue and she attends to him. They exchange some pleasantries and he broaches the topic with how outrageous it is that the people want more government regulations, being a smart lady she objects of course telling him that some oversight is needed from those in power. She seems to have made use of the conjured steel Georg made. Finally the Baron begins by complimenting her good sense of power structure, likability, how she knows what needs to be done and what doesn't. She starts getting an idea what he may want of her and questions whether he didn't want her to keep in the shadows, but by Georg's words when the world is enveloped in shadow the best place to hide is the light. He then proposes the position of chancellor to her or perhaps knighthood or sheriff position. She ponders over it briefly, but the taste of power seems to draw her in rather quickly as she starts asking whether she can appoint her own underlings and move into the keep. They decide to create a ceremony right that evening.
The ordeal is brief, Georg rambles for a minute or two, makes her swear oath to him with some townspeople and nobles in attendance. He swears her in with a steel ingot (retroactively changed to mithril sword) and then its over. She quickly starts creating her cabinet while Georg goes off to experiment with the mephits. He attempts to read their mind with ESP, but only gets slurs out of them. Georg leaves a message at his rangers house about his aim to slay the green dragon and asks him to come help with the harvesting.
Back in Shirebrook, Malakai with there and back again: a necromancer's tale, book about a necromancer trying to bring people back with their full consciousness, and vices and virtues of necromancy is sitting in forest reading. With help of them having come to conclusion that life in essence is chaos and in comparison undead are the epitome of order since they're under control of the one who created them. He then suddenly gets the feeling that something is scrying on him. He looks up and back, and then sees Aldric walking past him into the woods. Malakai gets up ready to follow, but the dead wizard fades into the forest, the scrying however stops as soon as he locates the spot of the scrying. Uneasy he goes back over to his two books.
Later during the same night Malakai goes to father Owens temple, the doors to it still are open despite the late hour and Malakai gets an acolyte to rise Owen from sleep. When the sleepy old man questions Malakai why raise him at this hour Malakai tells him that he has dire news and invites Owen to his tower which the cleric begrudgingly accepts. 
There he plays the same tune of Malkis constellation missing from the sky, using the telescope to make a point. Owen expresses his doubt at first, but eventually he starts questioning it as well. Once the cleric has been sufficiently eased in he speaks of the beast in the mountains that's been behind the disappearances, then he tells of his travels into the mountains and of what he saw and heard in the mountainous path, that he thinks the voice belongs to Malkis himself. Shocked Owen takes a few steps back, stutters a little bit and asks why him, why Malakai choose to come to the cleric with this. Likely unexpectedly for Owen Malakai tells the cleric that he is neither equipped to fight a god nor inclined to serve one, but he would rather side with another one and asks if perhaps Astair can be asked for guidance or persuaded to lay them aid. Owen agrees that he will definitely pray to his god, but again expresses his surprise that Malakai came to him with this to which the wizard says that despite not being a holy man himself he has a habit of making friends with them and that he is genuinely concerned about the tides of fate that have been eroding the world around them. Mumbling to himself father Owen heads back to his church. 
=== Friday, 1509-12-16 ===
The art objects from chimera lair are a vest of chain mithril, matched mithril longsword, an ornate waterproof scroll case, heavy and ornate pendant. Malakai takes the shirt, Tyrus the scroll case and Georg takes the rest. 
In the early morning a guard comes knocking on Malakai's door telling him that the Malkis cultist might have gone a little insane. The man then hands Malakai pages of scribbles, a mountain of pages with spiders scribbled on it and tells Malakai then the cultist ran out of paper and scribbled on the walls until he ran out of ink at which point he started using his own blood. The guard advises perhaps it's time to put the man down and with a sigh Malakai says that he will be down shortly. 
There's also 2 messages one from miss Miller and one from a Lord Kavington, apparently both about same issue.
First Malakai goes to the clerics room though, the room is a total mess and the man has stripped himself bare and crawls on all fours apparently imitating a spider, his face doesn't even seem to recognize Malakai when the wizard calls for him. When the man tries crawling to Malakai he kicks him in the face and orders the guards to put the mad cleric in dungeon. 
Next he has the applicants gathered. Once assembled they immediately get to fighting with her accusing the Lordling of trying to steal her job. The man introduces himself as Lord Erwin Kavington of Thornwood, he then tells a tale of his family serving the Count there for generations and that they have dabbled in dog breeding for generations. He then goes on to say that due to the happenings in Thornwood he is open to the idea of moving his estate, properties and facilities to Shirebrook. Malakai is open about the troubles they have faced, but it is also means there's ungoverned villages south of Shirebrook which he offers to the Lord, problem just being they're also uninhabited. They discuss whether an estate in town or one of the southern villages would be best and the noble asks for a stipend of 300 gold. Malakai makes an offer to let him pick a village of his choosing south of Shirebrook, once things have settled down, as well as servants and 200 gold stipend for now, the Lord seems to find this acceptable. Malakai shows him to the Twintower estate which is empty. Malakai also gives a finders fee of 75 gold to Miller who the noble refused to employ due to their conflict.
Then Malakai checks out the ballistae and speaks with Kel Lorry Goldfeather. The knight tells him that she has successfully been delivering the gold and it's been taken each time. 
Georg teleports into the wizard tower and then goes to hand in Chancellor Landslide chest with 1000 gold. Malakai find himself the war room and as he is looking over the maps Georg comes in. He greets Malakai amiably, expressing slightly humorous surprise to still see him alive to which Malakai replies that they will talk about the shadow mountains later. Malakai recounts their progress so far and tells that the dragon seems to go out every night stealing farm animals, he brings up the concern of hiding their army from the dragon before the battle and before the weapons are finished, Malakai's idea is hiding some of the forces behind the cave for former. Georg makes a note to instruct people to work inside tents more while the other wizard considers stopping work in moments when wind is blowing towards the cave to stop the beast from smelling the army. They also ponder attaching rope to their ballistae bolts in hopes to either drag it down or slow it down, but one the knights leading their forces, Kel Longwind, expresses her utmost doubt it could do much against the dragon at which Georg sarcastically questions whether she is an expert dragon slayer, but likewise she tells to leave the thinking on these matters to those who have practical world experiences and don't sit in library all day. 
They begin drawing up a map and placing ballista around, hoping to achieve the most encirclement, but still fuming under his robes Georg excuses himself with a glare at the knight. Malakai gives her a fair warning not to agitate him further. 
While Georg goes to oversee the carpenters work Malakai continues discussing matters with Kel Longwind.
That evening they have a large diner with all the nobles assembled, it's noted that there's a bit of a food shortage due to the assembled army and they're having to bring it down from other townships. Afterwards they retire to the war room where Georg explains that with their most effective range of 150 feet they ought to make a ring around the cave with longbow men and crossbows. Their ranged forces are composed of 20 heavy crossbows and 22 light crossbows, they decide to make 3 concentric circles around the spot with Georg hiding behind the entrance ready to block the exit and Malakai staying at Magic missile range. They ponder using Goldfeather or perhaps an unseen servant to deliver a sign that says “Fuck you, you scaly piece of shit”, Georg adds Explosive runes on top of that, figuring that by time the dragon reads that the trap will be sprung anyway, also they can just camp it out if it retreats into the cave.
=== Saturday, 1509-12-17* ===
They meet with Tyrus Bellows sometime later who appears to be willing to fight the dragon, but would want to have the wizards close by to himself which both of them would rather not do. Malakai tries talking him into tanking the dragon citing protective spells and their large arsenal of ranged people, but Tyrus is very skeptical about their effectiveness and believes they'll be worth only a single shot at best not doing much to the dragon, he also expresses distrust of Georg not to fireball him in the back. He almost starts heading out of the door, but Malakai explains that he is really the only one who can survive a breath weapon from the dragon and that they have no one else who could go in melee with it. They briefly pass over the idea of recruiting hill giants to fight the green dragon.
Finally Georg brings up that if Tyrus walks out of that door he will miss his chance to be welcomed back into this town.
The fighter glares at him, but it doesn't quite work. They keep trying to cajole the ex sheriff, but he is adamant about not being used as dragon bait and ignoring all the spell enchantment. Eventually it becomes clear that unless the wizards stand 5 feet away from Tyrus he won't join the battle. Malakai asks Georg if there's anyone else he knows who might fill the role and he notes Hanes Valmont possibly agreeing to sign up with this, Tyrus apparently knows the man an chuckles about him being as strong as he is stupid.
Tyrus says his farewells to Malakai and then turns to Georg and asks for his dagger back, Georg muses over confiscating his other blade, but Tyrus brings out a wrapped package which assumingly has Demons eye in it. They amble around for a short while with Malakai trying one last time to persuade him, but ending up calling Tyrus a coward which makes him wave to Georg to hurry up with Carl. Georg looks at him and with “it’ll be my pleasure” casts Improved blink. Tyrus waits for the spell effect to reveal itself, but the next round Malakai simply casts on both knocking Tyrus out and blinding Georg momentarily. 
With Georg blinking around Malakai just cuts the fighters throat and then informs the blind wizard of this. Once Georg has gotten his wits back Malakai tells him that he couldn't let Tyrus walk away with this sword as he hands it to Georg. The platinum blade with a pearl in its pommel, dragon-scale handle and ivory decor is handled between the two until Malakai, citing being friends now asks Georg what did the voice tell him? Not having had time to speak of this before Georg shows the same interest in what the voice told Malakai, Georg is not entirely in agreement that it's Malkis for certain, but he agrees that it's a possibility. Malakai mentions hearing that Georg might be a servant of Malkis, but he doesn't confirm nor deny, he does mention that it wasn't easy keeping Baron Song alive through the assassinations however. Malakai also adds his culling of the Malkis clerics in black pine marsh and the prisoner in his dungeon, then retells of the cleric telling Malakai that Malkis wants the displacer beasts which later turned into the cultist going entirely mad and scrawling spiders everywhere. Georg still expresses skepticism about it being Malkis, citing demons or perhaps powerful clerics of other gods, but they turn to the expanding pool of blood between them and Malakai says that he needs to inform Landslide of this. 
Georg inventories Tyrus's corpse on which is green naga armor, bronze dagger, magical longsword, grappling hook, rations, wealth from the chimera, the scroll case and few other nick knacks.
Malakai finds the Chancellor in his bedroom and informs him of the slaying, Landslide asks to be shown the scene so, with armed escort of 2, they head back to the by now looted corpse. In the tower Landslide examines the dead body, asking the common soldiers for confirmation and once everyone agrees to its identity the foot soldiers drag the corpse away with Chancellor staying behind. He then questions how the fighter got into this room, is pointed to the grappling hook then asks how Malakai invited him to be here, Georg interjects in between telling Landslide that he invited Tyrus himself with intention of letting him slay the dragon which could mend the relationship with Count, but that it turned out Tyrus is more cowardly than he had anticipated and refused therefor they came to blows. Malakai passingly asks if Landslide has spoken to Owen lately, but he hasn't.
Georg then plans on going to Thornwood tomorrow and getting Hanes. Both of them seem to be in agreement Hanes might be better fit to be their minion anyway since Tyrus was too independent and might’ve turned on them eventually. 
With the sun still far off they get back to discussing the voice, Georg not being entirely sure it was Malkis, proposing some sort of a malevolent demonic entity to which Malakai counters that if it's powerful enough to grant clerical spells it's as troublesome if it was Malkis. Georg musses that if it was a demon he'd be even more troubled since they might at least expect gods not to have entirely destructive intentions.
A short bit later Malakai leads Georg down to the dungeons to show the cultist to him. Georg pulls out a copper coin and casts ESP on the man, but hears only the word betrayer when Georg tries some polite small-talk, he then asks who betrayed him to which the cultist replies Malakai. Next Georg confirms with the cultist that he serves Malkis after which the man says that Malkis wants, further interrogation leading to spiders and apparently what's the best for his children. The cultist also keeps calling Malakai the betrayer, that Malkis won't be betrayed and that he wants offerings. Malakai not hearing any of this still reiterates that the man is mad, but asks Georg what he thinks Malkis wants the creatures for to which the younger wizard replies that probably just competent followers this making Malakai ask him whether Georg is a follower then, but Georg dodges the question. The cleric picks this up and whispers in Georg's mind not to lie, that the wizard has done more for Malkis in the last year than he managed to do in a lifetime. Malakai threatens the cleric that he won't simply follow any god especially the betrayer god Malkis who abducted his friends.
They devolve into a philosophy discussion from where true power comes from, Malakai proposing that it comes from order and control of the masses while Georg argues that either of them are stronger than some king, that being Malkis vision. Malakai then calls forth a vision of where either of them were kings, power upon power and Georg jokingly warns him that's already fairly close to what Malkis might be thinking. He then asks why he is being called the betrayer by the cultist to which Malakai replies that likely cause is him informing father Owen of this. Chaos is most useful when controlled is Malakai's words. 
Georg gets ready to make his way to Thornwood to fetch Hanes, deciding at Malakai's request to leave the sword in Shirebrook. He makes his way there in less than a day and comes to Count Songs throne room and waits until the court ends. 
While feasting on some strawberry cupcakes Georg gives a rundown of the situation to the Count and Hanes who with grim stoicism is standing behind him. Though when he is ready to ask if Hanes could be invited to help with this Song mentions that the Chancellor in Shirebrook has been overstepping his bounds and perhaps they could let the situation play itself out and mayhaps have another Barony for pickings. Song goes on to explain that if Count Ironhyde sees that the village is not functioning properly he may be less inclined to go to war with Count Song over it. Georg at this is biting his tongue which invites Song to inquire why he seems to be so reserved about this at which Georg tells him of his involvement in Shirebrook so far, the ballistae constructed, Tyrus's death and his plans to prop Hanes up as the hero of the town, being a person who might have one of the closest claims to the mightiest sword in the kingdom. Song mulls over this and starts pondering out loud how Hanes has been disowned which means he has a weak claim to the throne, but perhaps his child could have a claim. The Count ends up on note of letting Shirebrook deal with this on their own and instead tells Georg that once he is finished setting up his pieces in Misty Rapids they ought to start looking towards Rainwood, at end rhetorically asking can Georg believe that the keep there recently burned down, Georg however denies having done that one and soon they part.
Georg awaits until the nightfall to go and speak with Hanes. Cookie opens the door and distrustfully makes Georg ask if he can speak with Hanes before she lets him in. Hanes seems to be wary as well, looking in the corridor before ushering him in. Georg asks the fighter what does he think of the topic they discussed with Song and the man lamely answers that he just does what Song wants him to do. Georg tries asking what does the man want, but he just reiterates the idea that he won't do anything out of bounds what Song would want him to. 
Georg then walks to Ramdels room where he tries knocking, but after no answer Dimension doors in coming face to face with an young man. They share a moment of surprise until Georg exclaims who the bloody hell are you. Turns out that Song has appointed a new Ark wizard named Thoros so Georg apologizes to him and leaves. 
Malakai puts out an advertisement for a new town sheriff offering 250 gold as a sign up prize bonus to the normal sheriff wage. It's likely that he can only appoint a new sheriff in a few weeks time however. 
Malakai also visits father Owen who tells him Astair has indeed confirmed that Malkis is in prime material plane, but he doesn't seem to have given any more tangible guidance besides unity and that too many forces which work in their own self interest are about. Disappointed Malakai goes back to his tower and Clairvoyances about 100 feet ahead of  the spot where Malkis spoke to him. There he sees what appears to be a normal canyon, he sees no man-made structures, weird shadows or anything else. 
He also asks Landslide to send a message to their Count and ask him for a single strong fighter which the wizards could buff and who could tank the dragon long enough for the wizards to bring it down, he decides to perhaps fly to Newfort himself with the message in tow. 
== Experience and changes ==
* 4538 XP to both Georg and Malakai (including 10% prime requisites bonus)
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes
Category:Georg Episodes