The Menagerie (Daggerheart) (2024)

This article is about the adventuring party. For the place, see The Menagerie.

The Menagerie is a motley crew of adventurers that came together looking for work.

History[]

"Critical Role plays Daggerheart" (Sx83)[]

This adventuring party were in Fort Overmarsh trying to attract the attention of people in need when they met two elves and faeries from the Velvet Grove, who told them that their home had been claimed by some sort of corruption that was poisoning the land and its people. The Menagerie agreed to help for free as a "free sample" of their capabilities, asking only that their new "employers" spread the word of how good of an adventuring party they were.

The group traveled to the Emerald Sky and to the corrupted region, where they encountered several creatures and the guardian of that sacred fane, Boko the Glen Warder, in a very altered state. Working together, the Menagerie managed to help Boko regain control, after which the guardian revealed to them that the corruption had started shortly after the suspicious visit of Dyson Broche, a man Bunnie knew.

"The Menagerie Returns!" (Sx84)[]

In order to investigate the strange corruption the Menagerie traveled to Bunnie's hometown, and on their way there Pango left the group temporarily to do some underground research on the corruption and its connection with the Seep. They visited Bunnie's work, the Lily Locket Lounge, and after some investigation and promising that the faun would cover an injured performer, the adventurers found out that Dyson was in the area, and located him at a nearby casino. Upon interrogating him, they found out that at the Emerald Sky he had limited himself to fulfilling an order from the Kroatona family, the gangsters who controlled, among other things, the casino where they were at that time.

With some effort, the group slipped away unnoticed by the area's mafia agents, but when Ondra sent Xarlo a vision of Mortimer, the guy Dyson had dealt with, they decided to find him traveling through the sewers. They eventually located the basem*nt in which Mortimer and his people were hiding, and a battle ensued. Xarlo stole from the ribbet gangster a strange and fascinating amulet, while the rest of the team attacked and neutralized the enemies; Bunnie and Oppy managed to stop the fight and magically confuse Mortimer, making him believe that his people had betrayed him and someone he didn't remember had stolen his amulet. Initially the group convinced him that they were detectives tracking jewel thieves, but as more gangsters arrived, Mortimer grew suspicious and stressed (since it was his birthday and he was hurt). The members of the Menagerie ran away, and although Kexon managed to leave on his own and Oppy took Danté and Xarlo to transport them out of there, Sweetpea and Bunnie were left behind, failing to stun their enemies with magic, and being captured by the mafia.

"Ménagerie a Trois" (Sx85)[]

Bunnie and Sweetpea were interrogated, and although Mortimer was tense, convinced that they were lying to him, and ready to kill them as soon as he knew who had taken his amulet, he revealed that his order to Dyson (to cause the corruption in the Emerald Sky) had been made to pay for a favor that a mysterious baron from Champion's Crown had done to the Kroatonas by having a local mine that competed with them shut down. The adventurers managed to escape after neutralizing and confusing Mortimer with magic, and reunited with their friends outside. Using her own magic, Sweetpea disguised them all and herself as attractive women to go unnoticed, and they returned to the Lily Locket Lounge to participate in Bunnie's performance. The show was chaotic: while Kexon and Oppy walked among the audience trying to gather information, the other four performed remarkably well, despite clear sabotage attempts, which led to them sabotaging the number of the next performer, Mafauna, who they suspected was trying to have the best results. After the show, she attacked the Menagerie supported by her back dancers, but the adventurers managed to neutralize them, and Matron Boa Adra convinced the audience that everything had been a staged fight.

After avoiding some Kroatona gangsters, the Menagerie went to the closed mines to investigate. There, they had to trick a man with their illusory disguises so that he would help them get in, but after they locked him in a room they went deeper into the cave, finding signs of violence and corruption, including a corpse from which Sweetpea learned that a dangerous creature delved in the mines. Eventually they found strange crystals and an abscess of black tendrils, and immediatelly after they were attacked by a glowing skink-like hydra. They fought the monster bravely, but they discovered that it was linked to the abscess and that it was able to regenerate, so Sweetpea started attacking the crystals, breaking some of them. At one point Kexon almost died, after the hydra bit and swallowed him, but the wizard managed to get out of the creature. Once Danté destroyed the remaining crystals, the monsters stopped glowing, and without its regeneration, it wasn't able to survive Xarlo and Bunnie's combined attack, after which several dust skinks escaped from its corpse. After that the group left the mines (briefly talking to the man that had helped them, telling him that the beautiful girls were gone but so was the seep in the area), and they began to consider whether to visit Champion's Crown to find the baron.

Members[]

Companions[]

Allies and friends[]

• Everett Cole
• Boko the Glen Warder
• Lamont

Enemies[]

• Dyson Broche
• Kroatona family
  • Mortimer Kroatona
• Mafauna

Trivia[]

• A menagerie is a collection of wild animals. The party is probably named like that because most of the group comes from lineages with animal traits.
• Technically the full name of the adventuring party would be "The Menagerie of the Grymm Wardens of Lochspire", and part of the cast joked about how they should keep adding terms and titles to it to make it longer.^[1]

References[]

Art: