The Fool's Menagerie (Thee-Fu-Ls-MehN-Ah-Je-Ree)

The Fool's Menagerie, sometimes known as just "The Fools" or "The Menagerie", are an adventuring party operating in Dagan. The original group members were brought together by Emperor of Sithim Shumar Hashite's KENGIE initiative, investigating the shadowy organisation Nyx and it's stranglehold on affairs on the Island of Kquimlar. As of CR 11059, the group had disbanded and it's members had went their seperate ways.
The party's members are as follows-

• Amerash Idisar (sometimes mistakenly called Aburash), Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut. After his village was destroyed by a Saintly Militia of the Inquisition, Amerash was rescued by a small order of fellow Dragonborn dedicated to worshipping Bahamut. While being healed by them, he had a vision of swearing an Oath of Vengeance against the Inquisition, which Bahamut accepted. For years and years, Amerash trained and worshipped Bahamut in the abbey where he was saved, before receiving a summons by Emperor Shumar to join the KENGIE initiative.
• Zub Rufka, Minotaur Barbarian. Originally a farmer from the Feywild, Zub had what could only be referred to as a mid-life crisis and abandoned his wife and children, crossing over to the Prime Material Plane. He learned to draw on the powers of his ancestors whenever he entered his rage-state, blowing a horn fashioned out of his grandfather's horn to incite his feelings of rage. He was eventually summoned by Emperor Shumar to join the KENGIE initiative.
• Bimp Torgusar (sometimes under the alias of "Bimp Grunkleton"), Gnome Ranger. Once guardian of a forest community, Bimp's family was slaughtered by Orcs, leading him to harbour a deep hatred towards them, learning their weaknesses in order to hunt them more effectively. He was summoned by Emperor Shumar to join the KENGIE initiative.
• Altus Frey, Human Cleric of the Triad (specifically, Torm). A devoted acolyte of the Triad who was sent by the Triadic Order as a person to join the KENGIE initiative.
• Arkhir Fenris (She/They), Tiefling Rogue. The first addition to the group after the other members initially came together, Arkhir ran away from home and was raised on the streets of Elvastad. She adopted the mannerisms of a Swashbuckler as that was her sister's favourite kind of story, and worked as a criminal contractor with her childhood friend, protector and current roommate, Rohelda. She was brought into the party on Rohelda's recommendation, as someone who had worked for the Zhushimas in the past and also to supplement the party's capabilities.
• Dain Galdain, Dwarven Ranger. The second addition to the group after the others came together. Hailing from the Grand Hills of Thalin in East Chotas, Dain was sold into slavery by his mother after his father died. Trained as a "Gloomstalker" to protect other slaves down in the tunnels that they mined from underground beasts, as well as from incursions from Drow or Duergar from the Underdark. Over many years, Dain's resentment of his situation grew, and then in a moment of great rage, he killed both his owner and his mother with a pickaxe. He was arrested for this by the United League of Cities, and sent to the "Golden Fields" labour camp. There, he took part in a failed riot which, none the less, allowed him to escape. From there, he stowed away on ships for about a month or so until finding his way to the Island of Kquimlar. In Dawieos City, Dain was contacted by some kind of Ape-headed spirit, that gave him back the pickaxe he used to kill his owner and mother, as well as giving him a purpose: to find the Fool's Menagerie, saying that they were his 'new family'. He tracked down the party to their safehouse in Elvastad, where he explained his situation to the few party members in attendences, who reluctantly allowed him to accompany them in their current missions against the Zhushimas.

After meeting at the Royal Palace in Al-Hashar, Amerash, Zub, Bimp and Altus grouped up by circumstance, as the last people left unassigned an organisation to investigate. While waiting, a group of Zhushima thugs masquerading as a dockworkers union showed up at one of Al-Hashar's piers, stopping all work. The party headed over and dealt with them, with the thugs revealing that they were employed by the Zhushimas after a throughout beating. Presenting this information to Emperor Shumar, he gave them the task of investigating the Zhushima Crime Syndicate and uncovering it's connection, if any, with Nyx. The party were directed to two other people- Jola Dalonasi, Sithim's chief Natural Philosopher, and Fara Ristall, head of the Wahid Makhfiun (Sithim's secret and only military force, also known as the Couriers). Jola Dalonasi, after finishing up testing spell-proofed materials with an Earth Genasi Bladesinger Wizard named Tendo, pitched her plan to the party for infiltrating the Zhushimas- the party were to attack one of the gangs of Zhushima thugs making collections for the criminal syndicate, and would use a special kind of acid developed by Jola herself to dissolve the gold pieces collected by the Zhushimas. From there, the Zhushimas would react and force the party into their service in order to get the money back- opening up an opportunity to investigate further. Fara Ristall gave the party a letter to deliver to the Chief Constable in Elvastad and wished them luck, telling them the location of the Courier Safehouse currently being used by a fellow adventuring party known as "The Eclectics".
The party (unnamed as of yet) found passage to Elvastad on the ship of Captain Halgug Golden-Eye and his crew, the Azure Siren. On this voyage, the party experienced many strange, dangerous and interesting encounters. One day, the Azure Siren was attacked by a vicious band of Sahuagin, which the party handily defeated. Another day, the party was fed strange colourful fish by the crew (as a practical joke) and found that it produced hallucinations, with every party member experiencing prophetic, lucid dreams that night. On some other day, an abandoned ship was found floating adrift along the river, only containing one crazed scholar, some books, and strange spirals drawn all over the ship. The scholar told the party to "beware of Thariz-" before being psychically killed. Zub, deciding to be thrifty, cut a deal with some of the Azure Siren's crew members to fix up the boat and sell it on. All of these encounters occurred in-between the rest of the voyage, which was rather pleasant, with the party learning the game "Liar's Dice" and fraternising with the crew. Captain Halgug took a liking to the party, and even gifted them a "Sending Parrot" so the party could contact the ship if they ever needed their assistance. Eventually, the party arrived at Elvastad.
The party (still unnamed) did not go to the safehouse right away, instead opting to deliver Fara's letter. Heading to the Chief Constable's office, the party were welcomed amicably. However, once the Chief Constable read the letter (given to him by Amerash), his opinion of the party soured so much that he challenged Amerash to a pistol duel in the street outside of the office. Amerash shot true, mortally wounding the Chief, however Amerash saved the Chief's life by using his lay-on-hands ability to heal the Chief's damage. After that odd sequence, the party headed to the safehouse- an open-plan apartment located above a black market fence's shop. This fence was Larahkk Findis, and he would go on to help the party during their time in Elvastad. Entering the safehouse, the party found the Eclectics, and began strategizing about how the party would attack the thugs making the collection at Alkier's Savings and Loan bank. During this time, one of the members of the Eclectics, the half-orc Rohelda, suggested bringing in another person to the party that had experience with the Zhushimas beforehand. This person was Arkhir Fenris, and from then on, they were a member of the party (albeit after a lot of nudging from Rohelda...).

After a couple of days of planning, the party made their move against the Zhushima thugs. Killing the thugs and dissolving the gold, the group made their exit back to the hideout to discover a... strange scene. The Eclectics were all gone, and instead there was an odd figure. Holding a "delayed fireball" spell in their hand, they identified themself as a "Representative" of Nyx. The conversation was kind of odd and went around in circles, but the salient point was a threat- stop interfering with Nyx's interests, or pay the price. They also told the party that Stoggarth Zhushima was imminently coming to the hideout to force the party to partake in a sit-down with the full Zhushima trio. Just after the Representative left and just before Stoggarth arrived, Rohelda appeared back at the hideout unharmed, which Arkhir was infinitely glad about. However, Rohelda didn't know what had happened to the Eclectics either.

Type

Adventuring Party