Hans Jacobs wasn't Hans Jacobs, and the case was much bigger than just murder. Detectives Summers and Dare had stepped into a secret war between alien demons, ancient sorcerers, mad scientists, and champions of forgotten prophecies. "Hans Jacobs" had been the last Duke of Mondrovia, and the Mondrovian Crown Jewels contained the keys that opened gates to other worlds.

To the horror of the villains who'd slain the Duke, Summers and Dare cracked the case wide open . . . But John Dare didn't survive it; he sacrificed his life to save the world, and to preserve Mondrovia's secret.

The Duchess of Mondrovia gave Detective Summers a new assignment: to form an organization dedicated to rooting out the hidden darkness in the world, and burn it forever in the light. They called it Project Dare.

Now, Twenty years later, John's daughter is the project's chief operative, and the world's most active heroine. With the help of her sidekicks: Danni, Carla, and Unit One, and the aid of a score of allies around the globe, she fights evil - and turns lost souls back toward the path of right. These are The Adventures of Darcy Dare!

If you like to game with superscience, supersorcery, with super action at super speed, this set is for you! Take these figures into your game world and decide what they really represent! Illustrated by the skilled hand of Jon McNally, The Adventures of Darcy Dare is a high-octane, high-adventure set of Sparks: paper miniatures in font form!

Want to see what Sparks are like? Download and enjoy the Sparks: Free For All set at no charge! It includes Sparks from several of our earlier sets, to prepare you for what you'll find in this one! Give it a test drive, and you'll like what you see!

• Darcy Dare (A/a): She grew up in Project Dare's secret Chicago headquarters, hearing tales of her father's bravery and mastering the tools of the trade. A naturally-talented athlete and detective, Darcy is now one half of the Summers and Dare Detective Agency. On the less public side, she's the leader of the Chicago Dare Squad, one of dozens of secret cells dedicated to keeping the world safe for junk food and good music.
• Carla Pretti (B/b): Carla's gang and part-time rock band, the Methadrones, were duped by priests of S.E.T. to be "instrumental" in the summoning of an ancient evil . . . But when Darcy and Danni let her know that the lyrics were ancient Kislochean for "rise from the beyond and devour us as your morning snack," the 'Drones changed their tune and drove back evil in a cacophony of rockin' justice. Since then, Carla's been a regular agent of Project Dare and Darcy's right-hand girl.
• Bruiser (C/c): Davey Jakes was a construction worker for one of Blue Star's puppet corporations when he was tagged as a heavy - a story that'd ring familiar for any of a hundred other strong-arms, palookas and goons employed by the agencies of evil. If Darcy could lure him away from the corruptive influence of his dozen identical teammates and give him a little self-esteem, he'd probably be punching noses for the good guys.
• Klavos (D/d): He claims to be 171 years old - a rogue member of S.E.T. who saw the light when Darcy and Nira saved his daughter, Danni, from certain doom when his own creation (the Jade Serpent Golem) ran amok near Pelotas. Now, he runs the Apollo Coffeehouse near Oak Street, and works closely with Project Dare to steal back many of his mystical inventions from the clutches of evil.
• Danni (E/e): The third human member of Darcy's regular crew, Danni provides the mystic counterpart to Carla's rock-and-slam roughhousing. She's a wielder of the Secret Rays of Stanos, an Ally of the Drunken Yeti Masters, and hooked on high-grown Antigua.
• Agent of P.A.W. (F/f): A masked P.A.W. operative can be anything from a violent thug to a Machiavellian genius - their conspiracy has tracks in every corner of the global litterbox. P.A.W. rejects magic and alien technologies alike, preferring to seek global conquest with good old-fashioned ordnance.
• Detective Summers (G/g): He turned the Summers & Dare Detective Agency into Project Dare when his partner, John, died saving the world. His romance with Duchess Salvo is a matter for speculation; his insistence on abandoning his desk for fieldwork is a consistent worry for Darcy; his favorite pastime is downing a seventy-foot battle robot with his old police revolver. Despite rejecting his role as an administrator most of the time, he's still fast enough and careful enough to hold his own as half of the revised Summers & Dare.
• Goon of S.E.T. (H/h): Under the rule of the mysterious Shadow Pharaoh, S.E.T. plunders the ancient secrets of the world for greater and more dangerous sorcery . . . but they're not above a little old-fashioned physical violence, either, as their ubiquitous goons demonstrate, wielding sacrificial daggers, often charged with mystical energies.
• Qurpl (I/i): On his native world of Lploqnik, Qurpl was a run-of-the-mill Kloog Press Operator, Fourth Class. But when a Blue Star experiment sucked him down to Earth, he became an ally of Project Dare, helping them better understand the ancient World Gates. He runs a record store in Memphis, but carries a Dare Signal Device in his oversize belt-buckle, ready to answer the call - and maybe one day get home.
• Unit One (J/j): Professor Incredulon's Mighty Robot Army consisted of two hundred massive mechagorillas, but only Unit One, the army's general, was equipped with a negatronic brain, making him capable of creative strategy and genuine emotions. To Incredulon's horror, this included the capacity for pity, empathy and love. Now, he's the fourth (and largest!) member of Darcy's regular quartet, a hero with a heart of steel.
• Mrs. Humbly (K/k): Project Dare's eyes-on-the street, this kindly busybody is Oak Street's favorite little old lady, dispensing fresh peanut butter cookies and grandmotherly advice while maintaining a constant vigil for the powers of good. When her signal-wristwatch alerts her, she tells others it means she must return, quickly, to her baking.
• Nira (L/l): The Secret Temples of Miztaclán lie high in the mountains along the border between Guatemala and Argentina, in the Chiapas/Andes highlands. There, alkaloids in the soil can make men immortal, women beautiful, and demons angry. The ninth World Gate is there, a hidden treasure of Nira's people. While she was highly distrustful of Darcy when first they met (the Miztacs had been attacked by everyone else who'd ever found their civilization) she now joins the cause whenever Project Dare is active in South or Central America.
• Oak Street Kid (M/m): Just as Mrs. Humbly reports to Project Dare, "her" kids report to her - two dozen pairs of eyes and ears, boys and girls eager to "grow up and be just like Darcy." In large numbers, they can even take down a mechagorilla in a flurry of skateboards and yo-yos.
• Cindy Wickers (N/n): At age 16, Cindy's still too young to be a formal Dare operative, but her knowledge of the dark arts rivals even that of Klavos. She's a regular at Apollo's, paging through tomes that make the management nervous, eager to help when she can. Darcy caught her necking with Hoggie, once; he insisted he'd been bewitched. No one doubts it.
• Joey (O/o) and Teri (P/p) Yingshan: Vietnamese/Chinese on their father's side and Korean/Japanese on their mother's, the Yingshan twins are active agents of Project Dare, leaders of the San Francisco Dare Squad and busy hopping the globe. They frequently encounter Darcy's group for an action-team up, and Teri's romance with the leader of Dare Detroit keeps her on the move in her rare spare time.
• Lorna Salvo (Q/q): The Duchess of Mondrovia never expected to rule her country, much less fund a secret project to save the world, but she's accepted the responsibilities of Mondrovia's ancient secrets with the same grace, style, and wicked streak of enthusiasm she applies to every sparkling facet of her life. She wishes the Duke were still around, but she hasn't let herself go to waste: her discreet romance with Detective Summers remains the favorite topic of giggled gossip in Mondrovia.
• Mondrovian Intelligence Bureau Representative (R/r): In addition to funding Project Dare, Duchess Salvo has beefed up her homeland security agency considerably. The M.I.B.s serve as her personal bodyguard, and useful allies for Dare and company, keeping their little country safe from prying eyes and invading aliens alike.
• John Tool (S/s): When Darcy saved the world from the Vampire Kings of Detroit, an action-loving mechanic was an unexpected wild card who turned out to save the day. He's a fully-licensed private eye, fully-certified diesel specialist, and fully crazy about Teri Yingshan. His own Dare Squad makes frequent trips to the west coast when things are quiet in Detroit - which isn't nearly often enough for John.
• Red Portal Ninja (T/t): Occasional allies of P.A.W. and S.E.T. but the bitter rivals of Blue Star for the favor of alien "demons," the secretive Red Portal Clan are a newly discovered, but apparently ancient evil headquartered in the hills between Anshan and Maebashi. Their secret time-travel portal has already will have been a serious headache for Darcy, and probably will be for many years ago.
• Collette (U/u): The Mad Bomber of Dade County - Collette Shapiro - was wreaking havoc in the streets of Miami with no apparent connection to the secret war for the world . . . until Darcy and her crew found a link to all four major syndicates of evil, with Collette conning them each for money while they kept her in the dark about their plot to melt Miami down to build a new World Gate large enough to bring the United States beneath the heels of a massive otherworldly army. Darcy played all four against the middle, and everyone lost except the forces of good. Collette, astonishingly, both survived and escaped, and - now much wiser, a little crazier and a lot angrier - is plotting to take vengeance on everyone involved.
• Dr. Geode (V/v): He's refused several requests to become a formal part of the Project, preferring to keep Geode Labs as an independent source of ultratech wizardry and research. The kindly inventor seems to favor the good guys, though - no mission is complete without a stop at the local Geode Labs Enclave - but a secret from his past keeps his loyalties carefully neutral.
• Hoggie (W/w): Oak Street's native slacker teen was dismissed by everyone, including his parents, as a stoner who'd amount to nothing. But relaxed attitudes aside, he's a good, smart kid, and Mrs. Humbly trusted him. That trust paid off, and now he's one of the most important of the Oak Street Kids, an expert in computers and stealth, and determined to become an operative one day . . . preferably working with Cindy Wickers, who he flatly denies his crush on.
• Trey (X/x): Stunt driver, test pilot, and surfing champion, Trey Quattro is the code name of Operative 34, a one-man Danger Squad dividing his time between Hollywood and the Carolina coast. When Darcy needs a vehicle to defy the laws of physics, Trey is there to save the day, flirt with Our Heroine, and throw a signature thumbs-up as he rides an explosion to safety.
• Agent Blue (Y/y): The dashing hero of Mondrovia, Agent Blue is a superspy's superspy, equally adept at subterfuge, action, and personal grooming. He's got a thing for Darcy, but Darcy hasn't nibbled, yet, torn between Blue and Trey. When they were all involved in the Hong Kong Millennium Caper, the two men cost the Project two perfectly good supersonic minijets in a game of Chicken meant to impress Darcy. Neither one backed down, and a minute later they were trying to outdo one another in paragliding acrobatics. Darcy was already gone, getting lunch with Joey and Teri at the Mandarin Hotel.
• Vamp Ingenue (Z/z): The Vampire Kings love nothing more than eternal youth, and Dalia Stone was one of a hundred killer vampire high-school girls unleashed on Detroit in an attempt to conquer the city. Unlike most others, Dalia fought her inner demons and won (except the one urging her to wear her thrice-great grandmother's dress). Now, she's a vital part of Dare Detroit, and John Tool's plucky immortal sidekick.

The set doesn't stop there; not nearly! You get a handful of extra Darcy sparks in alternate outfits, and fifteen "flats" to use for maps and counters! The set even includes an early "test balloon" version of the main Darcy figure, with less gear and a cute "okay!" salute.

The Adventures of Darcy Dare is a Windows TrueType font. It works on any modern Windows system, and on up-to-date versions of the Macintosh OS (Mac began supporting Windows fonts in OS X). If you have any doubts whether Sparks will work on your system (especially if you're a Mac user), please download the Sparks: Free-for-All sample font and test it on your computer. If the Free-for-All works, this set will too.

The Adventures of Darcy Dare can be ordered either online or via post. If you have a Visa or Mastercard (or a check/debit card that can be used like one), ordering online is easiest! I accept payments via PayPal, the fastest way to get money across the internet.