Crokus Bale

Level 20 Variant Human Warlock

Available with DM subscription
STR
8 (-1)
DEX
12 (+1)
CON
14 (+2)
INT
13 (+1)
WIS
10
CHA
16 (+3)

Defense

Armor Class 13 (Mage Armor (optional via spell) or base)
Hit Points 143 (d8 per level +2)
Speed 30 ft.

Proficiencies & Skills

Saving Throws Charisma, Constitution
Skills Arcana +7, History +5, Deception +8, Perception +4, Investigation +5

Character Information

Crokus Bale presents as a scholarly traveler, dusted with the inevitability of ages. He wears a cloak stitched with sigils of the hourglass and a belt that cradles an ornate timepiece that whispers softly when danger nears. He speaks with a measured cadence, always calculating the cost of every word. His eyes reflect a mind that has seen centuries, but a human heart still clings to the hope that time can be mended. He is a broker of borrowed moments: offering more time to those facing doom, in exchange for a price that rings cruelly through the ages. His presence is both comforting and chilling; he can provide a buffer against catastrophe, but at the expense of someone else’s present. His origin story—one of betrayal by his apprentice, a soul-twisting pact with hellish powers, and a wandering vow to never again let time slip away—drips through every choice he makes. While he seeks to protect the living, his methods are ethically murky and morally gray, leaving friends and enemies alike pondering whether time should be bought at all.

Character Background

Crokus grew up on the edge of legitimate scholarship and darker, forbidden knowledge. His parents were scholars who studied the flow of time in ancient tomes and celestial charts. They disappeared when a rival faction attempted to weaponize time-based magic, leaving him an orphan who survived by his wits and quick calculations. He pursued an apprenticeship with a renowned chronomancer who taught the first lessons on bargaining with time as a currency. The companion he trusted most—his apprentice—ultimately betrayed him by striking a pact with hellish powers to reverse his own death. The betrayal left Crokus scarred but unbroken. He wandered as a broker of time, offering to extend the lives of those facing doom or to rewind moments to avert catastrophe, but the price was always a debt paid out of the lives or the futures of those he loves. His philosophy hardened: time is precious, fragile, and best understood by sharing its burden sparingly. He now travels between mortal realms and infernal pacts, always watching the sands slip away. His deepest fear is losing someone dear while holding onto power, and his greatest aspiration is to discover a way to mend the broken strands of time without costing others what they hold most dear. His life is a continuous negotiation with fate, a delicate balance of aid and sacrifice, and an odd optimism that even the cruelest clock can be reset if one learns to read its gears.

Unresolved Plots

  • Who truly betrayed Crokus—the apprentice or a hidden hand within the order of chronomancers?
  • Where did the hourglass originate, and who truly forged its binding sigils?
  • Will the Lords ever demand a debt that cannot be repaid without harming a loved one?
  • Is there a future where time runs backward without costing someone dearly?
  • Can a broker of stolen time ever break the chain and protect the living without becoming a monster?

Secrets

  • The hourglass was made from glass harvested from a fallen star and bound with a vow that can only be broken by true sacrifice.
  • Crokus secretly keeps a moment from his own past that would erase a memory of someone he loves if revealed.
  • The apprentice did not betray him by greed alone; they sought to reverse death to save a loved one but paid the wrong price.

Fears

  • Running out of time for those he cares about
  • The day he cannot bargain a life back from doom
  • Losing himself to the bargain in the pursuit of power

Aspirations

  • Restore balance to the time-stream and protect innocents from borrowed seconds
  • One day stand against a lord and not be corrupted
  • Master the hourglass to end the cruel exchange of life for time

QUEST -- Restore the Fading Hourglass

Crokus seeks a way to stabilize the hourglass he wears, a relic of time itself. He believes mastering the weft of borrowed time could prevent its cruel evaporation. This quest drives him to seek ancient chronomancers, clockwork artifacts, and forbidden rites that might anchor time to a safer rhythm.

Current Stage

Identify the previous owner of the hourglass and locate the original inscription that binds its power.

Mechanical Rewards
  • Access to a limited number of additional time-dagger-like projections (rituals) per long rest
  • Temporary HP when sacrificing a small portion of time (roleplaying flavor)
Narrative Rewards
  • A chance to glimpse the future of a beloved, or a way to save a person he cares about

QUEST -- Extract a Moment from a Liege of Time

Crokus must barter with a powerful lord of the Nine to retrieve a single moment stolen from a past life. The catch is the moment might alter the fate of someone else he cares about.

Mechanical Rewards
  • A spell slot conversion under a rare condition
  • Infringing a normal time flow grants advantage on a single attack or save
Narrative Rewards
  • Gains a shadow of a past life that whispers strategies in dire moments

QUEST -- Betrayal Forged in Time

Crokus confronts his former apprentice who betrayed him for hellish power. The reunion could mend or permanently fracture their shared fate.

Mechanical Rewards
  • A bond with a former mentor that grants informational access
  • A unique pact boon granting insight into temporal anomalies
Narrative Rewards
  • Resolution of the current crucible: trust, betrayal, and their consequences

Major Decision

Context

When faced with the cost of saving a loved one by stealing more time from someone else.

Choice Made

Accept the exchange and risk the cost cascading into future generations.

Impact

Gains the Timebound Mastery feat (permanent) and a unique invocation that lets him alter a moment in combat once per long rest, but accrues a personal debt—for every such use, a minor curse advances that may manifest as a physical reminder of the time stolen.

Major Decision

Context

At a crossroads between using his pact to barter for knowledge or to protect someone he cares about.

Choice Made

Protect the vulnerable by sacrificing knowledge.

Impact

A permanent bonus to wisdom or insight could replace one spell slot with a protective ward; but he loses access to a powerful chronomancy ritual until he recovers it through a quest.

Major Decision

Context

When confronted by the Nine Lords themselves about the cost of his services.

Choice Made

Refuse or renegotiate the terms.

Impact

Gain the 'Broker of Time' feature, letting him bargain for time with a cost paid in other material assets or magical components. Creates a social leverage chain and a lasting reputation.

Transformative Moment

Trigger

Apprentice's betrayal and pact with hellish powers.

Transformation

Crokus becomes a wanderer who exists between moments—trusted by some, feared by many. He forms a strange moral code around time as a currency.

Mechanical Changes

Charisma

Increased by 2 as his bearing shifts to a confident broker of fate.

He learns to manipulate time’s perception and negotiate with cosmic powers.

Transformative Moment

Trigger

The moment of choosing to rescue a life by sacrificing his own time.

Transformation

A narrow escape from death changes his scope of responsibility, reframing time as a tool for preservation rather than mere control.

Mechanical Changes

Constitution

+1

A toughening of his resolve and an increasing tolerance for risk.

Transformative Moment

Trigger

An instance where the Lords of the Nine demanded a price for a discharged debt.

Transformation

He embraces his role as broker, accepting the cruelty of the balance between life and time.

Mechanical Changes

Intelligence

+1

Grows more calculating; gains a rare insight into temporal loopholes.

Ally:
Ilyria Voss

Relationship Mentor
Influence 7/10
Loyalty 8/10

Shared History

Ilyria was a fellow chronomancer who recognized in Crokus a rare talent to see strands of time others could not. They studied together in a secluded guild hall where sand and glass were ritual tools. Ilyria urged restraint, teaching him to measure time not as a currency of conquest but as a fragile thread. When the betrayal happened, Ilyria tried to intervene, but the apprentice’s pact swirled around them. Their paths diverged when Ilyria’s own research began to threaten Hell’s reach into the mortal realm. They still exchange signals through coded hourglasses.

Potential Breaking Points

  • A hidden truth: Ilyria’s contract with time binds her life to the hourglass's endurance.

Enemy:
The Betrayer Apprentice

Threat Level 9/10
Conflict Type Betrayal and cursed bargain

Personal Stakes

Both owe debts to hellish patrons; their ongoing conflict is a test of who will survive the debt’s harvest.

Possible Resolutions

  • Expose the apprentice’s patron, force a mercy bargain
  • Redeem the apprentice or end their life to sever the debt

Faction: Nine Lords Temporal

Standing 2/10
Influence High intrigue, rules of the time-lattice

Obligations

  • Provide time-shadows for barter
  • Maintain balance with the mortal realm

Benefits

  • Access to forbidden time-rituals
  • Protection against other temporal brokers who seek to steal his moments

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