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
• Logan Karstark

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.

The Underdark

One of the deadliest early contracts that Croak and Dagger had taken up. It started out as a simple caravan escort. The client was a middle-age caravan leader named Beltran Scott who spoke of a new, up and coming town far out east called Bog Harbor. It was ripe for settlers to build homes, shops, and a life away from the hustle and bustle of cities. Beltran hired Croak and Dagger on the spot to escort his caravan full of families to Bog Harbor where they'd be paid in full for their work and even given a pint of ale on the house. Not even halfway through the trip, the caravan was shaken by a terrible earthquake that split the land beneath their feet. Without a moment to react, the caravan, and Croak and Dagger were swallowed up into the void of the Underdark.

Croak and Dagger awoke to pitch blackness and stumble around in an attempt to recover themselves. K'jalis remained at the top of the opening with Beltran, having barely escaped the earthquake. Further down below, the other members of Croak and Dagger were startled to see that the other survivors of the fall had been plucked away. The party followed the gore and bloody drag marks to two large, hungry Hookhorrors that immediately turned their sights on their newest meal. The Hookhorrors slashed and cornered Croak and Dagger, one was in the midst of scaling the wall to snatch at Clymene, when the other was finally felled by Incineryn. K'jalis joined his friends not a moment too soon, when the fighting and smell of fresh blood, drew the horrible denizens beneath the gravel of the Underdark to the site of the fallen caravan. Quickly, Croak and Dagger escaped down one of many tunnels, narrowly avoiding hungry, boney hands.

Further down the tunnel, Croak and Dagger encountered a terrifying new creature of the Underdark. What appeared to be two Illithids turned out to be some strange hybrid, abomination between an Illithid and a Shardmind. The crystalline creatures set themselves on Croak and Dagger, but not before more of them sprung out and attacked as well. The ambush was cut short when a figure from above dropped hunks of crystal onto the feral Hybrids, giving Croak and Dagger room to escape. The figure introduced herself as Moonstone, she was a villager with the Shardminds of Oasis, a small colony of Shardminds that existed within the Underdark. Moonstone told the party that the attacking Hybrids were beginning to skulk closer to Oasis and threatening the safety of anyone that left. The leader of Oasis, Whitestone, blamed the Illithids and believed the Hybrids were the failed attempts of a ritual gone wrong. Whitestone promised Croak and Dagger that if they dealt with the Illithids and their newest creations, she would help return the party to the surface. With no other options before them, Croak and Dagger accepted Whitestone's proposal.

Croak and Dagger trekked the deepest reaches of the Underdark and found the Illithid's lair, a temple built into the side of the walls of the Underdark complete with Eldritch relics and statues dedicated to their figures of obscure, destructive power. The party was surprised to find that the temple was mostly empty, except for the bodies of a number of Illithids and strange figures dressed in black attire. After some scavenging, the party discovered that the strange figures were members of the Black Sun Cult, a group of fanatics and zealots that followed a figure known as Caelrogh Soledad. They believed in merging the realms and its creatures, that through this shared, destructive fusion a mortal could achieve their full potential. They believed that the Gods had separated the realms to make mortals weak, and only through regular sacrifices, and a cataclysmic ritual called the Day of Black Sun, could Caelrogh be summoned and the rifts between planes opened. What had happened in the temple, was a series of failed sacrifices, or so Croak and Dagger thought. Beneath them, the temple shook and quaked, and a voice told them to leave immediately. Croak and Dagger being...Croak and Dagger, they instead taunted the voice and attacked crystalline veins trying to keep them out of the basement. The veins quickly snatched up all but Clymene, and pulled them into the depths. Rather than risk herself being captured as well, Clymene wished her allies the best of luck, and abandoned them. She got as far as the front door of the temple when a Hybrid Umber Hulk paralyzed her and dragged her down to the basement to join her friends.

In the basement, Croak and Dagger met a being dubbed the Hybrid Queen. The Hybrid Queen was a massive, sentient ecosystem of plantlife that had been corrupted by the ceremony above and warped into a crystalline beating heart. It explained that all it wanted to do was purge its tunnel of the Underdark of all sentient life, whether it be Illithid, Shardmind, Duergar, or any other humanoid-like being. It would not seek to conquer, only to protect itself and its new hive of Hybrid beings that were corrupted by the Black Sun Cultist. When it seemed like a truce of some kind might be met, the Hybrid Queen noticed the mark of Vecna on Clymene, who earlier in her adventures had blindly prayed into the open and was struck a deal by the Arch-Lich. Seeing the mark of Vecna threw the Hybrid Queen into a fury, choosing to cast the party members out onto the surface as far away from the Hybrids as possible. Despite having been returned to the surface so quickly, Croak and Dagger couldn't help but wonder what fate awaited those in the Underdark. And whether they would see the Hybrid Queen again.

Black Hole Sun

The Day of Black Sun had arrived. Hildr Firebrand, a sentinel of the Black Sun Cult and Craig's daughter, planned on using sacrifices from the village of Yulyu to complete the ceremony, and open a doorway for Caelrogh to step through. Croak and Dagger weren't having it. The first real test of Croak and Dagger's metal lied just on the horizon. Their first battle with a woman of unbridled rage and power.

Part One

Croak and Dagger were startled by a village of Yulyu bursting into the tavern. The villager explained that black-robed cultists had attacked the village and kidnapped a number of villagers, Clymene's father among the kidnapped. At Yulyu, Atalanta and her huntresses prepared themselves to track down the cultists on horseback. With Croak and Dagger joining her, Atalanta took off in the direction the cultists fled. The tracks led to an abandoned campsite deep in the forests behind Yulyu. It seemed that the cultist had fled. Yes, it seemed that way. One of Atalanta's hunters activated a trap by the campfire which ignited and threw a number of Croak and Dagger off their feet. All at once, a number of cultists attacked the rescue party and a battle ensued between the Black Sun Cultists, and Croak and Dagger.

Croak and Dagger were vital to gaining the advantage over the Black Sun Cultists. It seemed victory was in their grasp when Hildr made an appearance, and went to work on separating Atalanta from the others. Joined by Barbatos, Clymene quickly went to aid her mother is the fight against Hildr who proved to be a walking tank. Atalanta's nimble strikes were no match for Hildr's supernatural speed and strength. Hildr dropped Atalanta then went to work on Barbatos and Clymene who struggled to keep up in their first fight against someone of Hildr's caliber. She cut Barbatos's arm off, beat Clymene down, then went to finish Atalanta off. Clymene, hellbent on protecting her mother, notched an arrow and prayed it would do something, anything to Hildr. Before she could loose it, it was Vecna's voice that answered. The Lich Supreme called in their previous debt, and told Clymene to let her mother die as payment, or he would take Clymene's soul as payment instead.

Clymene kindly told Vecna, of all beings, to go fuck himself and fired at Hildr...just before Clymene turned to ash. The arrow did next to nothing to Hildr who taunted Barbatos, called him and the others D-List Adventurers, then broke Atalanta's back against the nearest tree. Hildr and her cultists fled into the forest, leaving behind a dying Barbatos, paralyzed Atalanta, and non-existent Clymene. In the aftermath of the fight, Croak and Dagger sought the help of renowned artificer, Charles Harper, who gave Barbatos a prosthetic arm as well as give Omerok the necessary ingredients to bring Clymene back from the dead with a Reincarnate spell. Croak and Dagger was pulling themselves back together...but without K'Jalis.

In a heartfelt goodbye letter, K'Jalis explained he had a deep history with Hildr that went back to a group called the Forsaken. K'Jalis didn't have the heart to tell his friends in person, that he was scared of them and what this ritual was leading to. K'Jalis was gone.

Part Two

(WIP)