Black Jack

**Children**

* Ember

**Parents**

* Remedy
* Black Beard

**Siblings**

* Marina (+Lapis▪)

**Niblings**

* Hortense
* Napoleon
* Waldemar
* Calliope
* Laureigh

**Lizard & Friends**

* 5-H4Y
* Dannet
* Esther
* Gobbo
* Jacques
* Lizard †
* Staci
* Vinnis

## Description

### Personality

Black Jack is a swashbuckling half-elf bard. He takes pride in his performances and is overly devoted to his husband and son. Despite his apparent bad luck, he is a jack of all trades and can be good at most things, after enough tries or pure luck.

### Appearance

Black Jack is a fairly tall, slender man with pale skin and elven ears. His black hair rests at his mid back and he has blue eyes. He wears black leather outfits and white shirts, usually featuring his Pick of Predestination on a necklace.

## History

### Backstory

Krikon was born in the Bay of Debris to the Black family. His mother, Remedy, diligently cared for him and his sister Marina. His father, Black Beard, worked for Porter Savage so was away from time to time, but still cared for his children. Growing up, Marina and Krikon were close. Marina would teach him magic here and there, despite Krikon's inability to cast spells as strongly as her. They would play out their father's tales of the seas, taking it in turns to be Black Beard and his first mate, Cutler Bones. Relegating the other children of the Bay to play as their crew mates.

When Krikon reached the age of eight, he was finally able to go on his first sail with his father. Black Beard had planned the same route as he had with Marina, however an unplanned storm shifted them off course and they became lost at sea.

Popped up in Atha Empire and haphazardly grew up there as a member of the Black Teeth, all of their memories of home foggy and to locals of Atha their stories seemed almost unbelievable. No one had heard of their ship, the Bay or any other place mentioned. Slowly they conformed to their new lives, letting the foggy memories drift away. The Black Teeth took up mercenary work along with assisting merchants on their trade routes.

Black Jack eventually split from The Black Teeth, wanting to explore the inland more as they had only really docked on ports. It was on this journey that he met fellow bard Gaeleath at a tavern in X. After trying to assert dominance on each other by having a bard-off, they ended up realising their music worked well together and decided to travel as a duo.

When travelling Atha, Gaeleath and Black Jack joined the X Decadal Bard Contest, competing as a duo. After a gruelling week of battling out with other bards they became the final victors and were crowned the winners. A large celebration was held to commence the end of the contest and they finally realised they might be more than just friends.

To celebrate, Gaeleath finally took Black Jack to meet his family, forgetting to mention how large and intense his family was. Pannthea, Gae's sister, seemed unamused with this impromptu visit after many years of him being gone, however his father Reluraun insisted they stay. After staying a few months travelling and performing with the Charmore Family Circus, Gaeleath and Black Jack ended up married.

For their honeymoon they decided to return to the tavern they first met in. Whilst drinking and chatting with the customers of the bar they heard a commotion outside. There was a giant demon in the middle of the road. One of the locals pointed out that Gae and BJ had won the X Decadal Bard Contest and insists they will be the ones to save them. After a valiant battle they defeated the demon and it disappeared into a cloud of billowing smoke. When all was said and done they heard a baby crying where the demon once was. After the closer look the baby looked like a tiefling mixed with a dragon-born, red and scaly. They take him into the tavern and everyone claims that they had never seen a child like that in this village. After looking around for potential parents they eventually take the baby in as their own, naming him Ember. Gaeleath and Black Jack return to the Circus, hoping to provide the child with a relatively stable upbringing.

### After

After leaving the Snapped Quill Archive, Gaeleath and Black Jack see off the rest of the party on the way back to the Human Isles where the Circus is still located. Their first port of call is to get magic compasses that are attuned to Ember’s location, just in case someone threatens to abduct him in future.

When they return they find that Ember has started his first proper growth spurt, looking a bit older than when they left him. He’s also gotten into magic from a book Dannet left him. Whilst Gae and BJ are very supportive of this, they send Dannet a very strongly worded letter about leaving him with spell books to practise while they weren’t around to supervise. They also teach him lower level spells due to him still being young and fairly inexperienced, though he does pick it up suspiciously quickly compared to other magically endowed children. They also find that Ember has made his own family tree and added the adventuring team under ‘aunties and uncles’ on Black Jack’s side of the tree. He also made Circus names for them.

Gaeleath’s tent is first used to host their actual government official wedding, all of their adventuring party are invited and it turns into a week long celebration (Vinnis better RSVP). After this they run the first production of the ‘Goblin Wars’, which turns into a nine part series, with the prequels coming out after the first instalment and sequels added after this. As the tent now focuses on plays and musicals they train up young performers and create quite the acting troupe. GobboPlays also became a subsidiary of The Charmore Family Circus, with Gobbo being allowed to travel with them when needed. A showing of ‘Braving the Unknown’ is also put on now and again, along with Gae and BJ’s duo act ‘Stalwart P’ featuring from time to time.

Even though both Gaeleath and Black Jack swore off adventuring for a while, Ember eventually plucks up the courage to ask if they will take him on his first one. Black Jack, longing to find his sister after all these years suggests to Gae that maybe travelling to find her might be a good ‘first quest’ for Ember. Gae agrees and his sisters are more than happy to manage their tent for them while they are away.