Croak and Dagger

Croak and Dagger is a collection of the coolest, oddest, most inappropriate heroes the realm could ask for. Started some time post Age of Heroes by former adventurer Craig Firebrand, Croak and Dagger started out taking every day odd jobs from apple-picking to pizza delivery, and have moved up to demon slaying and cult extermination. This motley crew of misfits were the first recognized adventuring party since the Sankofa Accord.

Its current members include:

• Clymene
• Omerók
• Andol the Magnificent
• Maribelle Blackpyre
• Aiden Thorin
• Aileen
• Craig Firebrand
• Hildr Firebrand
• Skulk Greymind
• Sayrax

Former or deceased members include:

• Lydia Barrett (Laura)
• Quoruk Cluiekill
• Barbatos
• Incineryn Blackpyre

The Adventures
A chronicle of all of Croak and Dagger's adventures.

Heroes for Hire

...and so the page turns to a new tale. With adventure just on the horizon, five individuals from across the realm answer the call of renowned adventurer, Craig Firebrand. After the Sankofa Tragedy, adventuring parties were banned and in their place new factions of power fight for control in their absence. Craig looks to defy the world powers that forsook heroes and show them how much the world needs its heroes. Five adventurers, five stories, one purpose. Adventure is calling...

Bad Apples

The soon to be founders of Croak and Dagger met on the docks of the capitol of the Human Kingdom, Meadowcraft. K'jalis, Clymene, Omerok, Barbatos, and Robyn all gathered at the address provided on the bottom of a crumpled piece of parchment paper with a poor illustration of one, Craig Firebrand. They were a little underwhelmed to see that Craig has been forced to rent out a room at a local fishery as his base of operations. Nobody said starting an adventuring party was going to be easy. During the meeting, a well-dressed, very well-groomed knight is in the midst of scolding Craig, before leaving with a huff. Craig reveaed the knight to be Roland Castille, an officer in the human military and the son of Edgar Castille, Craig's old adventuring buddy. Craig introduced the group to Quoruk and Dennis, a rough looking Aarakocra and a Firbolg in need of a bath, who helped Craig secure the room at the fishery. The daring, high-octane adventuring party that Craig promised is only eight people strong. Craig promised the five recruits that if they stuck around long enough, run enough dirty, gritty jobs, that their labors would be very well rewarded. They just had to trust Craig and his process. This is when their first contract comes in from the small autumnal town of Oakvale.

Mayor Tobias Fillmore greeted Croak and Dagger outside the town hall and explained to them that Oakvale has a yearly Cider Festival that brings in tourists and gold that keeps Oakvale afloat for the frigid winter season. More than that, it's an Oakvale tradition to have sweet, freshly-pressed apple cider made readily available. Newton Tell, the only cider maker in Oakvale, hasn't been seen in days and nobody has had the time to check on him. Mayor Fillmore feared the worst and sent Croak and Dagger to check on Newton Tell and bring back at least six casks of his delicious cider. On their way to the orchard, Croak and Dagger are intercepted by a group of no-good bandits that had just come down from the orchard in a hurry. Rather than explain themselves like good law-abiding individuals, they ordered Croak and Dagger to relinquish their weapons and they'll be allowed to past. Not seeing this as a legitimate business practice, Croak and Dagger decided to relinquish their weapons into the skulls of the bandits. The two surviving bandits, the leader and his recently vine-wrapped associate, immediately surrendered and thre down their weapons. Croak and Dagger let the associate go with a harsh warning, but question the bandit leader. The leader explained that he and his men were hired to rough up Newton Tell on account of the debt he owed. When they arrived however, the orchard came to life and attacked them. Croak and Dagger decided to explore the orchard and bring the bandit leader along, promising to free him once they completed their contract to Oakvale.

At the main entrance of the orchard, Croak and Dagger were immediately attacked by possessed strawmen with a fear of fire. Things inside the eerie orchard weren't much different. The trees came to life and attacked them as well. The Awakened Trees proved to be formidable foes as they battered Robyn and broke his leg with one good slam. After handling the trees, Croak and Dagger were able to proceed to Newton's cottage where they found ingredients for making cider, and a few possessed apples that gnashed at them with razor-sharp teeth. Amongst Newton's possessions was a strange drawing of a large black figure covered in shadows with "the Black Blade" scribbled all over the back of the paper. It seemed whoever this Black Blade was might have had something to do with the hauntings and possessions at the orchard. Assisted by the ghost of Newton Tell, Croak and Dagger brewed more than enough sweet cider to fulfill the contract. With the cider in tow, Croak and Dagger gave Newton Tell a proper burial and released the bandit leader as promised. Back at Oakvale, Croak and Dagger celebrated with the townsfolk and drank pints of sickly sweet apple cider. During the celebrations, Clymene bumped into a large Fallen Aasimar with a thing for black attire and black makeup. She looked eerily familiar...

Bleeting Around the Bush

After successfully completing their very first adventuring contract, Croak and Dagger received another one in the form of a strange goat knocking at their door. Omerók used his Druidic abilities to speak with the goat who revealed itself to be Finethir Shinebright, a self-proclaimed Master Polymorpher whose student stole his wand and turned him into a goat. Fearing that his student had gone mad with jealous power, Finethir tasked Croak and Dagger with finding the wand and returning Finethir back to normal. Before they could leave Meadowcraft for Finethir's school in the woods, they were stopped by Ugo, a large Orc hired to find Finethir and bring him back to the school. Seeing that only the worst awaited Finethir if he was taken, Croak and Dagger did the only reasonable thing when faced with an Orc and his attack dogs. They called the city guard and had the Orc arrested.

Upon arriving at Finethir's makeshift wizard school, Croak and Dagger avoided any confrontation by approaching Finethir's student, Amon Nok, directly. Amon explained that Finethir had always verbally abused him and often had him running errands disguised as "lessons". So one day Amon took his tutelage into his own hands and stole Finethir's wand and turned his mentor into a goat. Croak and Dagger talked Amon down from starting a fight, and even scolded Finethir for the way he treated Amon. Croak and Dagger were able to get the wand from Amon, and attempted to use it to change Finethir back. One of two things would happen, either Finethir would be turned back into his glamorous self, or he'd violently combust and repaint the interior of his school. Thankfully, Finethir did not explode and was returned to normal without a single life being lost. Finethir apologized to Amon who hesitantly accepted the apology. The two then promised to enroll in a proper Polymorphing Class at the College of Meadowcraft.

Dhor' Dash

Croak and Dagger's third contract came from a pizza shop owner in the Dwarvish town of Dhormire by the name of Oroku Saki. The middle-aged Kobold explained that every other day he received a delivery order for six pizzas, and every delivery they refused to pay and recently rough up one of his delivery boys. Oroku has since refused to deliver pizza to the address, but wanted the outstanding debt settled by any means necessary. Croak and Dagger went to the address and were perplexed to see it was the entrance of the sewers. They navigated the foul smelling sewers and found a large sealed door that led to a hideout beneath Dhormire. There Croak and Dagger met the debt-accruing culprits, four Tortle brothers dressed in blue, red, orange, and purple ninja garb. A fight ensued and the Tortle brothers proved to be quite agile and adept at avoiding Croak and Dagger's strikes while preventing them from entering their home. It was revealed that the Tortle brothers had kept a hostage underneath their home, a red-headed Dwarf named Lydia Redfort whom they insisted on calling "April". Once freed, Lydia ended the fight with one well-placed Eldritch Blast that disintegrated the head of the orange Tortle brother, scaring the rest into surrendering. The debt had been collected, and a damsel was saved. The eldest Tortle brother swore this wouldn't be the last that Croak and Dagger saw of them. He would avenge his brother's death...

The Debt

Croak and Dagger took a small detour from their usual adventures to visit Clymene's home village of Yulyu, a large village that sat just north of Meadowcroft. It had been some time since Clymene left the village, against her mother's wishes, to become an adventurer. Clymene's mother, Atalanta, was the fearsome head of the hunters, and was more than disappointed in her daughter's choice of career. Croak and Dagger met Clymene's father and sat down to have a meal, when said meal was interrupted by the arrival of the large, black-haired Aasimaar from Oakvale. She quietly introduced herself a Hildr and had returned from a nearby keep which she swiftly cleared of bandits that had been harassing Yulyu. Hildr returned with barely a scratch on her or her Direwolf Baruk, both of whom would be on their way once they were paid by the village as promised. The problem on Yulyu's end was that they had barely a bag of gold of their own to pay Hildr with, having amassed a debt with the High Elves of Val-Adin. Croak and Dagger, to avoid a very unpleasant encounter, talked Hildr's price down to a fraction of what it was, and paid her. Her cold, detached demeanor frightened not only Croak and Dagger, but also the village of Yulyu who might have been the next site of Hildr's latest massacre. Hildr left without blood being drawn.

It was revealed later that night, that K'Jalis knew Hildr from his time in prison. She was a member of the Forsaken, a gang that K'Jalis ran with during his short stay in prison. When asked about the Forsaken, K'Jalis's usual cheerful demeanor dropped. He had only said that he hoped the other members were far, far away. Much later, K'Jalis was awakened by Baruk at his bedroom window. The Direwolf led K'Jalis to an ominous tavern staffed by figures in black tattoos and cloaks. Hildr was staying at the tavern and thought it was as good a place as any to catch up with K'Jalis. The exchange was short. Hildr warned K'Jalis that the Forsaken hadn't forgotten what he had done, that they were very much interested in finding him. On his way back with thoughts of the Forsaken finding him and his friends, and what would happen when they did.

Liberator's Day, the Sword of Embers

Liberator's Day was a celebration of the armed forces and those who served, or currently served the Alliance. It was a large city-wide festival complete with merchants, game booths, an archery tournament, and a performance in the arena. Croak and Dagger eagerly seperated and went off into the festival to see what merriment and hijinks awaited.

Clymene and the Archery Tournament
Clymene decided to enter the Liberator's Day Archery Tournament where some of the Alliance most notable, up and coming archers came to flaunt their skills with a bow and arrow. Most favored to win was Raiah Theron, an elite soldier in Val-Adin's coveted Jaeger Corp. Determined to prove herself to her mother and the visiting High-Elf military leadership, Clymene entered. Clymene briskly climbed to the top three finalists and would fight for the number one spot in a three-way archery battle with paint-filled ceramic arrows. Feeling out of her element, Clymene looked to the stands where K'Jalis got the crowd to cheer Clymene on. The first to be eliminated was Kikyo Yukino, an archer from the south-east Alliance territory of Sheng-Lao. It came down to Raiah and Clymene, who at the last second struck one another perfectly. It came to a sudden death match, the two Elves would be given two arrows and ten paces away from each other. The crowd was dead silent as they began to count down. On the final count of 'ten', Raiah and Clymene drew fast on each other. Clymene displayed an incredible feat of marksmanship when she shot Raiah's arrow mid-flight, and striking Raiah dead center in the chest. Bright blue paint covered Raiah and the crowd roared and cheered. Clymene had won!

The Reenactment of the Battle of the Valley of Whispers You can't keep a man of the arts like K'Jalis away from a performance. K'Jalis and Barbatos were committing themselves to joining the reenactment of one of the most notable battles of the Seven Year War. They smooth-talked and pestered their way into joining the performance troupe, and even went as far as changing the mood of the performative battle. Where excited children and their parents awaited a spectacular, grandiose battle in which the Humans defeated the villainous Goliaths, spectators were instead met with a gruesome, bloody reenactment. It was riveting, emotional, and downright brutal. Edgar could only watch on in horror as the troublemakers had completely rewritten the script and subjected not just the people, but King Alexius himself, to this new, less glamorous performance.

The Heist of the Legendary Sword of Embers During the theatric reenactment, Knight Augustus Brandwell was scheduled to make an appearance. He was to brandish the Tyrell family sword, the Legendary Sword of Embers, and defeat the Goliath savages with it. It was during this rehearsed brawl that the sword has shattered almost immediately. The crowd went silent as two things went through their minds, either the sword wasn't nearly as legendary as they thought, or it had been stolen. A furious King Alexius berated the guards and demanded that his sacred family sword be found. Croak and Dagger took it upon themselves to find the sword and complete one of their most high-value contracts.

Aided by Lieutenant-Captain Griffon Harper, Croak and Dagger's search led them to the blacksmith that was in charge of maintaining the pristine shape of the Sword of Embers. The blacksmith had fled as soon as news of the sword being stolen had be made public, leaving behind his anxious assistant Poderick. The young blacksmith-in-training pointed Croak and Dagger to the Battered Arms, his mentor's favorite drinking spot. There, Croak and Dagger were watched ever so closely by those loyal to the blacksmith. Looking to reach the secret backrooms, Croak and Dagger responsibly started a brawl that led to ears being lost and tiny gnomes being thrown. While trying to get to the blacksmith, the adventurers ran into his beefy bodyguard, a large, green beast of an orc called Skulk who explained that the Carta Cartel hired him to protect the blacksmith, and the sword, at all cost. There was absolutely, positively, no way Skulk was going to let them pass. Unless of course they paid him a compliment, which they did. Skulk was sick and tired of the way his employers treated him, and seeing Croak and Dagger as honorable, super chill mercenaries like him, Skulk joined them and promised to redeem himself by helping them get the sword back. They all turned their attention to the trapped blacksmith who divulged that the sword he had was actually a decoy and that the Carta Cartel was already preparing to leave via boat with the real sword. This was all said before Skulk accidentally crushed his windpipe.

Croak and Dagger, accompanied by their new hulking green ally, sped to the docks where they found the heavily guarded ship that the Carta Cartel were going to leave on. Before a plan could be hatched, Skulk charged forward and knocked over two gunmen before facing his boss on the ship. The man in charge of this heist, was an individual known as Marco-the-Million-Faced-Man, a shapeshifter who had taken the form of Knight Brandwell and stolen the sword out from underneath the king. An explosive encounter took place as Croak and Dagger attempted to stop the ship from leaving by any means necessary. The well-armed Carta thieves shot at them from afar with rifle and pistols, keeping our heroes pinned long enough for them to pull away from the dock. But Skulk wasn't having it. Having survived a gunshot to the head, Skulk angrily grabbed one of the ropes to the ship and held it long enough for K'jalis to board and sneak into the hold. On the ship, K'jalis faced off with Marco who revealed a Forsaken tattoo splayed on his forearm. Marco recognized K'jalis, but the same couldn't be said for K'jalis who tried his best to place Marco. A slew of words and taunts were exchanged and the current and former Forsaken member squared off with swords and guns on the bow of the ship while Incineryn had her own plan. Seeing the ship was well within fireball range, Incineryn lobbed a well-placed shot right into the ship's munitions, sinking it almost immediately. On board, K'jalis barely escaped with his life, and the sword, as Marco was consumed and lost in the explosion. It was messy, but Croak and Dagger had retrieved the Sword of Embers. As payment for their fine work, King Alexius gave Croak and Dagger the deed to the Hero's Rest, a tavern in the city often frequented by Pre-Age of Heroes adventurers. He even pardoned Skulk who became the first outside-member of Croak and Dagger. With their name on a successful contract and their own tavern, Croak and Dagger were finally beginning to make a name for themselves. But as we all know, with status comes more attention. And with more attention, comes danger.