Croe’s Cutthroats
Mercenários Assassinos — Compilado de Todo Material
“No coin too dirty, no task too bloody, no one untouchable.”
-The motto of Jarok Croe
Most assassins prefer to work alone, practicing their solitary profession from dark alleyways. Jarok Croe has always been a more personable and affable murderer; he enjoys the company of his peers. He teaches by example, instructing his subordinates in the fine art of stalking humans and slitting throats. Croe has earned a reputation as a survivor without equal who repeatedly evades certain death.
Jarok Croe was born in the slums of Fharin where he learned the way of the blade as a child. At one point he apprenticed as a pistoleer under a discredited former officer of the Cygnaran Army. Once he had mastered the gun, he provoked his teacher to a duel and gunned him down, claiming as a prize the silent pistol, Hiss. He later spent time in rough neighborhoods across Cygnar, serving a variety of crime lords as an enforcer.
Croe went into business for himself, hand selected his men with the highest standards, and expects nothing less than perfection. He has assembled a honed team of killers, skilled highwaymen, and wilderness trackers, all experts in the art of stealth and ambush. Croe’s men are well versed in poisons and are capable of mixing deadly resins and unguents. In battle they are disciplined and capable of great coordination. They strike from hiding with a barrage of poisoned crossbow bolts before closing to cut survivors down with their murder weapons.
They slip unseen again into the woods only to strike again when least expected. Their unconventional tactics have baffled and decimated considerably larger forces pitted against them.
Croe and his fellow assassins have been implicated in atrocities across Cygnar. The most infamous was the Ceryl Marketday Massacre in 601 AR, after his gang was spotted by informants and cornered by the watch in the city’s most crowded open market. Croe’s men took the entire square hostage, threatening hundreds of men, women, and children. Their bluff was called when the watch attempted to flank their position.
Croe set the quarter ablaze after ordering the execution of everyone in reach. Over sixty dead were left behind and not a single man of Croe’s team was caught. Thirty other murders including the assassination of the former mayor of Fharin and six Cygnaran army officers are tenuously linked to Jarok and his team.
Croe is blithely disdainful of legal authorities and enjoys tormenting agents of the Cygnaran government and army. His death or capture is a top priority of the crown. Scout General Rebald has several agents assigned to nothing other than bringing him to justice. None of this has deterred Croe, although being hunted has forced his group to leave Cygnar and seek refuge abroad. He has a variety of hidden boltholes in Ord where he is rumored to have the backing of the Mateau Merchant House.
The outbreak of war has opened lucrative opportunities. Though Croe and his men call themselves a mercenary company, they value no code nor do they follow a written charter. Their only rule is obedience to Jarok Croe who pays and equips them well. Their company is scorned by more “reputable” mercenaries yet also feared for their brutal efficiency. Croe has his own peculiar work ethic and scrupulously stalks those he has been hired to destroy.
Jarok Croe’s almost preternatural ability to evade death has become legendary. He favors drinking an illicit alchemical concoction — a favored brew of the trollkin said to be deadly to humans — perhaps as part of a strange alchemical regimen. In battle he is difficult to spot. He hides among his men, and his unassuming face blends with theirs. Bullets intended for him invariably find his subordinates instead, and he always seems to find a means of escape. Some of his men whisper that Croe sold his soul to bolster
his luck, and all tread carefully around him.
Fonte: No Quarter 2
