Hardcore Heroes: Episode 08

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== Synopsis ==
In Redport, Croak and Van engage in a series of dares at the Hobgoblin's Head, leading to pranks and a field-plate commission for Van. Malakai buys an engraved dagger from a local wizard and offers his services. Croak encounters a contact of a rogue he had previously set up, receiving a job to deliver a package from Ratsburg. Suspecting lycanthropes, Van seeks advice on dealing with giant rats in Ratsburg, while Croak and Malakai prepare poison. The party travels to Ratsburg, kills some rats, and deals with a were-rat attack. They manage the townspeople's safety and treat a bitten child. Afterward, they return to Redport, where Croak connects with his contact, Van updates the town crier, and Malakai trades for magical items using hypnosis.
==Recap==
===Wednesday, 1509-02-10===
The Hobgoblin's Head in Redport. Croak approaches Van offering to play a drinking game the first dare being making barmaid slap a random patron minding their business, Croak almost succeeds by sneakily slapping her butt. The next dare is for Van to trip a patron coming out of the pub so he takes a fire poker and casts Trip on it which goes perfectly. They continue drinking until Croak makes him the offer to commission a field-plate which he graciously accepts. In a good mood Van goes to have measurements taken while at same time they go on a tripping rampage in the streets.
Malakai seeks out the local wizards shop that's run by an elf named Sithlidyn and buys an engraved iron dagger. They have a bit of small talk and Malakai offers his services in the shop, mentioning Rohana as his reference though the mail correspondence might take up to 2 weeks.
Over to the other side of town Croak's attention is caught by a stranger who turns out to have been a friend of the rogue that Croak set up the previous night. He offers a job that the deceased rogue was supposed to take, picking up a package in a town named Ratsburg and delivering it back to Redport. Croak tries to get more information out of the man, but he is fairly tight lipped and adamant about it being a trial run. 
===Thursday, 1509-02-11*===
In the later days Croak attempts to scout out possible disenfranchised youths he could use as his own workforce by making them do small tasks and seeing how clever, sneaky and able they are in completing the tasks. Van hears a possible job of going to a town called Ratsburg to clear out some man eating rats that have appeared there. Croak of course perks up and takes the job urging Van to seal the deal.
Suspecting were-rats Van goes to the temple of Quantarius to ask for advice on how to deal with lycanthropes and prevent diseases related to them. The cleric there gives the advice to find belladonna and silver that can be bought in the cleric shop in town. Meanwhile, Croak tries to find some cheap rat poison, making light of the problem while Malakai insists though that giant rats might need more poison that one can carry. The shopkeeper warns them to be careful with the belladonna berries. They also buy a litre of peanut butter and gloves showing Chis embroidery.
Malakai seeks out an alchemist by name of Waadsworth to identify the 2 magic potions they looted from Rosa's hut. They turn out to be a healing potion and a potion of vitality.
Before everyone leaps onto the road though Malakai asks whether they might wait a few days so he can finish learning the spell he is studying, the other two agree to give him the time.
===Friday, 1509-02-12===
Malakai learns the Sleep spell. Party heads out onto the road towards town of Ratsburg. While walking they ponder about their plan of action, how they might find the rats nest and how much poison they might need.
Near sundown everyone finally arrives at Ratsburg and are greeted by a small crowd gathered to meet them. Woman named Fanny informs them of about a dozen giant rats down her cellar. They argue for a while as Croak insists they try to feed poison berries and Van wants to stab them to death. In the end they agree to check the cellar themselves and then leave the poisonous berries once they're done with what rats they can see.
Malakai Poison clouds the cellar and they go down to chop off some paralyzed rat heads. They get in a small squabble over wanting to burn the rat bodies since the peasants might have wanted to eat them so Van goes ahead and gives Fanny a gold piece. Done with the rats they could find Croak goes and gathers all sorts of leftover food which he piles up and adds belladonna to.
Later everyone goes to a local, somewhat rudimentary, tavern in the town and rent the space for the night. They have a few drinks and eventually bed down.
===Saturday, 1509-02-13*===
Morning comes without an issue, while Malakai and Van memorize their spells, Croak goes to check out the green barn that the rogue from Redport had told him to take the unknown package from.
Van goes to check out Fannies cellar and while he doesn't see any rat corpses he does note that the refuse pile had been picked at during the night.
The green barn is found, Croak very carefully scopes it out checking for tracks and finds that there's a single set of prints going into the barn, but not out. He tries to spy into the barn through some holes in the door, but cannot see anyone in it. He lubricates the hinges with some lamp oil and then sneakily heads in, however he can't seem to find anyone in the barn until sound comes from ladder leading to the loft. A well dressed man that Croak almost seems to recognize tells him that this will be the last batch of merchandise since thing's have gotten hot at other end and the suppliers/transports are dead. He gives Croak a bag that turns out to contain 2 halflings feet which reveals the identify of the rogue as being the last survivor of the 3 of the men they intercepted near Anvil. After the deal is done Croak lurks in a nearby building and notes that the man B lines straight out of town.
Everyone assembles back in the centre of town and discusses things when a girl barges in on them and tells them they found a dead rat, they follow the girl to the rat corpse and then seek out the nearest abandoned building. Malakai attempts to get Scooby to sniff out the rats, but they end up playing fetch with a rat corpse instead. Everyone goes into the dilapidated building, but there doesn't seem to be much there so they find a nearby house with a cellar, but there doesn't seem to be much there either besides some rat droppings and a rat hole. Croak goes to another house with an unused cellar and bingo there's a pile of dead rats as well as few live ones.
They count the dead rats and get 38, but the rest of them seemed to have escaped so they decide to kick it for a bit until the lady Erin seeks them out because she heard rats under her floorboards. Croak expresses his distrust of Erin, but they follow her inside anyway. Rat squeaks are heard from underneath the floorboards so they decide Stinking cloud is the way to go despite Erin's protests. Malakai casts his spell and they step outside and wait there for 3 minutes then go back inside, followed by Erin who closes the doors and suddenly begins transforming into a were-rat.
The rat immediately goes for Malakai and hits him once for 2 damage, Malakai responds with a sleep which is ineffective. Van tries to charm her, but that also proves ineffective. Malakai is hit again for 4 damage so in response he leaps out through the window. Scooby falls to a sword hit the next round and the following round Croak is left with 1HP, but as she is hit with silver arrow and a slung silver coin with a Sanctuary cast on Croak the were-rat Erin decides to bail and run into a nearby alleyway.
They immediately ring the church-bells and assemble the townspeople into the church ordering them to close up any hole a rat could get through. They end up getting some sleep inside the church until Fanny comes up to them and says her son, Little Jimmy, was bitten by some of the rats, so party instructs to keep the child under watch and bind him with ropes on the full moon and not murder him like Croak says.
Malakai creates 9 groups of 5 peasants to keep watch. Croak sneaks Fanny and her son a belladonna berry. Night goes on until they are interrupted by one of the watchmen who leads them to Fanny and Little Jimmy who are by now sweating and writhing around so the party moves them to a different room and boards it up. 
===Sunday, 1509-02-14*===
In the morning they find Fanny dead and Little Jimmy still unwell, but alive. Van suspects the sickness isn't lycanthropy related, but isn't sure what it is. They prepare their spells and go onto searching for rats, but they can't seem to find any nor Erin. Concluding that the rats escaped they inform the town of this and that if there's a repeat of the rat infestation they should call upon Redport once more. They suggest the town be renamed to Wrathburg and then head back to Redport. They get there by sundown without an issue, immediately going to the Hobgoblin's Head. 
===Monday, 1509-02-15===
Party wakes up in Redport. Croak heads to Infant Mortality bar to meet up with his contact. The man is found talking to a Jacob person, but Croak interrupts them. Croak tells his contact that he is the Anvil supplier and mentions that Reggie, the previous supplier was punished for getting cough, but due to a problematic cleric, Anvil will cease producing the merch. He inquires to the name of the person who handed the halflings feet to Croak which turns out to be Chrissy/Chriss. He apparently is a minor noble in Hillsborough and helps the thieves get around.
Van goes to inform the town crier of the missions progress and he seems impressed by the party and lets Van know there might be higher calibre missions coming up.
Malakai goes to one of the merchant streets and scans the shops with a detect magic spell. One shop has 2 dim magic items and another has 1 faint, 4 moderate and 1 strong auras. Turns out it's Boren's Imperium that has the 6 magic items, so Malakai avoids that one. Malakai decides instead on the shop with 2 dim magic items, and sees that there are two lit candles that radiate magic. The halfling shop owner perks up and starts talking with Malakai who ends up trying to trade his "Dexterity and agility enchanting medallion" for one of the candles. As he shows the medallion he casts Hypnotism on the halfling and tells him to agree to the trade. They make the deal and Banks, the show owner, closes shop to go identify the medallion over at Sithlidyn. 
== Experience and changes ==
* Scooby the dog dies.
* Van gains 4th level and rolls 6+1HP for a total of 22HP.
* Croak gets the least XP in the session for a the first time.
*Dates are extrapolated from a previous mention of an exact date.
Category:Hardcore Heroes Episodes