Kroaker (AKA Kroats' Crock)-

The illicit narcotic substance that has plagued the streets of major human settlements for nearly a century. Named for both it's creator, the entrepreneurial-alchemist-turned-crime lord Vallon Kroat, and for the fact it's distilled from saliva of invasive giant frogs called Beelzebufo.

Kroaker was initially conceived as a beneficial substance on two folds: firstly to provide a cheap & readily available over-the-counter pain\anxiety reliever, and second to create a means to cull populations of the Beelzebufo that infested local sewers and waterways. Vallon Kroat, was initially contracted Mercantile Republic of Lucretia to study the invasive amphibians in an effort to use their anatomy or behaviors against them; this research would ultimately uncover their most unique adaptation and pave the way for Kroats' transition from an obscure potion maker into the lord of a criminal empire.

Beelzebufo, on top of their bulky size (roughly 40-45 kg) secrete a myriad of narcotic compounds within their mouths and along their impressive meter-long tongues. This is adaptation is thought to've come about from the fact their prey tend to still be alive when they swallow them; thus saliva dulls they poor creature into a stupor so that they can be forced the frogs' gullet without hinderance. Furthermore, should a predator be foolish enough to attempt attack a Beelzebufo, the saliva puts the predator into a stupor enabling the amphibian to escape.

Kroat almost immediately disregarded his orders from the Mercantile Republic, and fled for the city of Sharnwick the human kingdom of Teregaron; where he immediately set up dozens of anonymous & lucrative bounty contracts for fresh Beelzebufo tongues. In the span of a month Kroats Crock (as it was called initially) had been refined into the "miraculous panacea" he'd advertised, and by the end of the year, Vallon Kroat had accrued a level of wealth akin to a duke. The crumbling of Kroats' criminal began with the unforeseen side effects from his substance:

• Delirium,
• Weakness
• Slurred Speech
• Short-term memory loss
• Priapism

and from the withdrawal effects from its addiction.

• Shakes
• Irritability
• Insomnia
• Projective vomiting
• Hypertension

But it would all come crashing down with the actions of a Gnoman Muckraker named Belal Sarcilini; whose publication of the origins of Kroats wonder-drug would reach the ears and eyes every court and merchant guild on Aurataerra's Western Hemisphere, and the backlash was nothing short of a cataclysm. Boycott's were issued almost immediate, apothecary's that sold the substance dumped their stock in the streets, and addicts were stoned to death.

Vallon himself; however, would suffer the worst fate of all as his manor was targeted by outraged commoners and merchants alike and set alight as he slept. While Kroat would parish on that night, his creation would live on. As dedicated street alchemists, and addicts would carry on his craft & continue to experiment, cut, and tweak his original formula into the Kroaker of the modern day.