Drake Bartoff is the nom d’adventure of Draik Bartyne, a mercenary, amateur apothecary, and some-time temple guard for Kasira, Goddess of Luck. Born 11 Kilta 2992, the 26 year old has a wiry build, standing 5′ 6″ tall, with brown hair and hazel eyes, and weighs 146 pounds. Of average looks, he has a pleasant singing voice, and amazing agility and reflexes, the latter of which has served him in good stead in battle. Moderately claustrophobic, he has been dismayed in recent months at the number of times he’s found himself in small underground spaces… a recent violent encounter that turned him to stone for several days was the last straw. He is now retired to his home town of Dür, Nolkior, where he intends to carry on his uncle’s apothecary business and conduct his own researches.

Darik was born in the castle town of Dür, in Kinenshire, in the Kingdom of Nolkior, to Ser Athal Bartyne and his wife Lady Elesa Bartyne (neé Semos). Sadly, Lady Elesa died just a ten-day after his birth, of a birthbed fever. Dartik and his older brother Alakor spent their early years at Cleme Manor, the fief their father held in the nearby countryside. Though their father, as a knight of the Caelite clerical order The Lord of Paladins, was often away fighting the northern barbarian tribes, it was a generally happy childhood. Draik looked up to and lionized his brother, six years older, and for his part Alakor was always protective of the boy.

This happy life ended when Draik was seven years old. Ser Athal was killed in battle with the Firilani during a skirmish in the Kurikmarch in Kilta 2999. The boys fell under the guardianship of their uncle, Ser Athal’s older brother, Querdon Bartyne. An apothecary in Dürtown, and a recent widower, Querdon had little interest in the boys except as free labor. His rearing of them, as of his own two sons, alternated between neglect and harsh discipline. As they grew older he found uses for them in seeking out the plants he required and for the drudge tasks of the laboratory.

As unpleasant as this was, at least Draik had the love and support of his brother – until the day he disappeared, two years after their father’s death. Querdon seemed surprisingly unconcerned, claiming Alakor had run off, too lazy to face “a man’s work.” But Draik never believed it – his brother had hinted to him in the month before that he suspected his uncle was involved in some shady business, although he was unsure exactly what. Draik was stubbornly convinced that his brother had been murdered for learning the truth – if not by their uncle, than by whatever shadowy men he might be involved with.

It was almost eight years before he learned the truth, when he discovered a note from his brother, long lost and brought unexpectedly to light. Following that clue, Draik uncovered his uncle’s hidden dealing with Ser Danyes Bernan, a local knight who was secretly the head of a Zalik-mal group dealing in illicit drugs. Querdon supplied the group with many of the forbidden plants and extracts they needed. Draik became certain that Ser Danyes had killed Alakor, and that his uncle knew it.

Determined not to suffer the same fate, Draik fled from Dür with the aid of Komnal Julander, a freehold farmer who had been friends with Ser Athal and out of remembrance of him had always been kind to his sons. He saw Draik of well provisioned and with a few coins. Vowing to return some day and exact justice on both his uncle and Ser Danyes, Draik headed into the night. When the sun rose again he had become Drake Bartoff, freebooter and adventurer.

During the next eight years he became a mercenary, working both independently and with some of the mercenary companies abroad in Nolkior, Arushal, Darikaz and the Republic. The first, and most important was the Hand of Vengeance, where he met the man who would become both mentor and friend, Colith One-eye. Taking him under his wing, training the raw 17-year-old  boy, he saw to it that the boy learned the skills to survive in a hard world, despite not being a natural warrior. Eventually Colith sent Draik off to another company, and from there he became a body-guard to a tent maker in Kamdisol, Kornun Tayarte.

His most recent job was as a Temple Guard at the Lothkir temple of Kasira, the Goddess of Luck, in Arushal. There he met a young noble scion, Vulk Elida, who was training to become a cantor. Over the last couple of years the two became close friends, and when Vulk left the temple to begin his mendicant year as a newly anointed cantor, Drake left with him. This was due in equal parts to a desire to protect his friend, and out of boredom with the life of a temple guard.

Vulk’s first commission was to deliver a vital message to the Earl Savartim at Kar Kolhurn on the shores of Dragon Lake, even though it was late in the year. There, during the year-end celebrations of Kristala Va, they met a very nice young scholar, Mariala Teryne, whom they convinced to accompany them south to Savartim before the snows began in earnest. Little did any of them realize then what a fateful meeting it was, or that something great had begun…