Malus Blackdagger

Malus Blackdagger was a bandit leader of the Sword Coast North in the late 15 century DR. He and his brother Traven Blackdagger had joint command of the Blackdagger Bandits in the late 1470s DR, and were the most successful and notorious bandits of the area at the time.

History
Hailing from Luskan some time in the 1400s DR, Malus and Traven Blackdagger started out as a pair of penniless brothers. It was unclear whether they were related to the old pirate Bartholomew Blackdagger or were simply inspired to adopt his name and legacy. They gathered a small gang and turned to banditry, and had much success. Coming to be called the Blackdagger Bandits, they became notorious and yet more bandits and other criminals went to their side.

With the rebuilding of Neverwinter in the 1470s DR, trade along the Sword Coast North swelled and so too did the Blackdagger Bandits' numbers and riches. They seized the ruins of Cragmire Keep and rebuilt it as Blackdagger Keep, making it their fortress and base of operations. They raided caravans on the High Road, extinguished warning beacons at Raven Cliff Beach so they could loot the wrecks and enslave the survivors, and engaged in protection rackets with businesses like Melkhor Goldseeker's Angelhead Mine. Blackdagger pirates were reported to be plying the waters off the Sword Coast. With them posing a serious threat and disrupting trade, Lord Dagult Neverember of Neverwinter put a bounty on the heads of Malus and Traven Blackdagger. Shortly after, the two brothers apparently disappeared and were not seen by anyone outside the bandit army. This started much speculation and rumors that someone else now commanded the Blackdagger Bandits, who remained as powerful and organized as before.

The truth was more nefarious. The Red Wizard necromancer Kallos Tam met Malus and Traven and proposed to excavate and take control of the undead army within the Cragmire Crypts, giving them the army they desired to take over Neverwinter and become lords of the land. The brothers were receptive to his offer, only doubting if Kallos could do it or not, and expecting he would try to retain control of the undead for himself, and thus the real power in the alliance. In the, he broke the magical seal of Cragmire Crypt and discovered inside some artifacts he was seeking, found the undead army still waiting there, and, he said, the means of controlling them. While Malus prepared the defenses of Blackdagger Keep and an attack of Neverwinter itself, Traven and Kallos went with some of the Blackdaggers' best fighters into the crypts to take the undead army, and they put Jareth Grim in charge of the Blackdaggers' raids.

Just in time, the Harper agents Garl Gnarlclaw and Xalliana discovered the plot and recruited an adventurer, the Hero of Sleeping Dragon Bridge, to help them destroy the bandits. Finally, Garl and Xalliana were able to move a siege tower close to Blackdagger Keep. With it, they sent a band of adventurers to storm the keep and finally slay Malus Blackdagger before his bandit army could assault Neverwinter.

Relations
Malus was the brother of Traven Blackdagger.

The two had a number of trusted lieutenants: Jareth Grim, their raid leader in their absence; Krag Foultooth, leader of a group of gnolls who joined the Blackdagger Bandits; Kallos Tam, a Red Wizard of Thay; and Marion Hexbane, who respected them because they, in her words, "are willing to set their sights on so high a target".

Background
Early versions of Neverwinter gave the Blackdagger Bandits a very different backstory via one of its in-game Lore entries. In this, Traven and Malus were pirate captains who operated on the Sword Coast North between Neverwinter and Luskan some time after the Spellplague of 1385 DR and reigning from Blackdagger Keep, until they were killed and the keep destroyed in the Mount Hotenow eruption. The ruins were later occupied by bandits and Kallos Tam reanimated and controlled the Blackdagger brothers, who took over the bandits and turned them undead. However, this Lore entry was later removed and the undead models for Traven and Malus replaced with living models. Some elements of this remained, with undead-seeming models for Marion Hexbane and others and pirate trappings for bandits who seem to do little actual piracy. In any case, the whole Blackdagger Ruins zone and this storyline were removed in July 2021.

Either way, the connection of the Blackdagger Bandits to the still-undead actual pirates led by Bartholomew Blackdagger in the Pirates' Skyhold zone is unknown. However, a Lore entry there makes allusions to new Blackdagger pirates and the question of whether they are related to or simply inspired by Bartholomew Blackdagger. In addition, both Blackdaggers use the same banner and crest, displayed above, but this may be a case of a reused model.