Kragor the Merc: Lost and Found

Damn forest. Damn sinkholes. Suddenly the ground disappeared and everything went dark... I don't know what part I landed on, but it wasn't a soft landing. All voices seemed distant; had the feeling that I've fallen into water, but it was all dry leaves around... Truth be told I don't remember much until I looked into the headlight of a jeep which winched us out.

On the way back home there was talk about ruins and spiders but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Apparently I had a concussion. I hadn't felt so useless since Sora managed to shoot me in the leg - and that was ages ago. I healed up pretty well that time, but this time I don't know. Curse getting older!

Rosina did the best she could and I sleep off what was left the following day. We sold the poison we collected but Erza still wasn't back and it was getting time for a new job. Even the money didn't really seem to matter. I needed time to think...

Partly blaming the concussion, which in truth wasn't so bad anymore, I stated I'd do a solo job. Something nice and easy. A good thing with rarely questioning others is that they rarely question you, so I took a standard gig for Grootgrond and headed out. It was first when I was packing my stuff I found the biomod I bought from Rosina a few days ago. Was it worth it? What difference would it make? I let it stay in my stash.

The job was an escort - food and other supplies for Iron Hill. There were five other mercs on the job; had worked with two of them before prior to the Apex Predators entering the scene; they were known as Rus and Keg (yes he drinks. A lot). The other's I'd seen around. Nothing special, but at least you got what you expected. I took the rear post in our three truck caravan. One of the mercs made some comment about it was where my face belonged so I accidentally discharged my shotgun at the ground next to his foot. He shut up for the rest of the trip.

As we were moving out it dawned on me I hadn't really thought about which direction I was heading since me and Keria survived those double-crossing bitches in the forest. That was 18 years ago - hard to imagine. After that, things had just happened after each other - it had been an easy ride to just tag along. But what did I really have to show for those years? The credits are gone, that's for sure... a few more scars but it's not like anyone would notice outside of the face. A few contacts for sure, but Keria doesn't like me more than she has too, Zima doesn't bring as many jobs as he used to while Kronaug is about as useful as he's ever been. There is of course young Mr Blackbourne but haven't heard from him in a while. The more I thought about it the more it felt like the world was trying to give me a hint. "You're old, you damn fool. Sell your stuff and take a job as a guide for some new team who don't know half a thing about the Fringe. Make enough money and leave this shithole behind." It was tempting and this made me pissed off. Yeah, right, like you'd have any of that money more than a week. But what the fuck else could I do?

Eventually we reached Iron Hill, just at the break of dawn. It was a sorrow sight. Other mercs were handling security and while money seemed to go into new fences the workers didn't seem to get much of it. This is what the Fringe do to you: it gives you credits, but never enough. You work your whole damn life but still you're somehow always short on credits.

We off-loaded and turned the trucks around, accepting a second cargo going back to the city. The drive continued. So what was it then? Well, fuck it, I thought. No one knows the future - well maybe some half-crazed mage staring into some pond somewhere. But other than that. Something my mother had said to me on a bloody night in a very different life... "We prove ourselves to the gods so they know where to place us when we return after death. Until then we fight on". Never believed in any damn gods and I'm pretty sure death is quite final for anyone but the super-rich. But you never know... There was a biomod in my stash back at base. It was a start. Well, curse all the gods and the world with them! I am Kragor and I will go down in a fury of bullets. The Fringe may take everything, but I'll give it a name to remember...

Core Rule Update: Conditions & Wards

You'll now find an updated Core Rule book available for download.

What is new:

Added conditions:

• Altered Metabolism
• Deep Sleep
• Insomnia

Magical Wards:

- Added a short section on the creation (and maintenance) of magical wards.

Kragor the Merc: Apex Predators

The mission was done; the camp had been cleaned, though the odd shot from Juron could still be heard through the nightly mists of poison gas. As it was over the damn pain started to creep up on me - all I wanted to was to get back to town and get it sorted out. Unfortunately Silence let know it was 8h until our relieve would arrive. Ed took one look at the wound and said I shouldn't wait... well, he's the medic. But as always, field operations are never easy. Don't know what he actually did apart from cut me up and then put a bandage on it all so for the rest of the wait I had Angeline pile up a bunch of mattresses for a confy seat and I took guard duty. It was one of the longest waits in my damn life - and that's saying a lot.

After the relief force arrived and gave us a pat on the back (figuratively of course - I would have shot anyone who tried that on me at this point) we headed back home. Tried to ease the pain with some mort but the body said no to that, so fuck it. When we finally hit town and some better roads at last it felt like I could think again. Perfect timing for Erza to declare she had to go help her brother - who had managed to get himself into trouble. Is it something all orc women do, rush to the rescue like that? Didn't want to dwell on that thought though... and I didn't have to. In the next sentence Erza gave me command until her return. Oh, lovely day.

Silence dumped the gang off at Freelance and me at the medbay. Rosina seemed to take one look at the wound and started cursing, which can't have been good. There was also an inquiry of the sort "didn't you have a medic with you?" which started to raise an interesting question. It was sleepy time and surgery for me soon after though, so it would have to wait.

It was later that day when I crawled myself back to base. Ok, I walked but I felt like crawling. Had taken the bullet Rosina removed with me - as a souvenir for Ed to give him something to think about. He didn't get time for that though as it was off to collect our money and as it was the first big job we'd done we spent some time talking about a team name. After all, we could be earning a reputation here. It landed on Apex Predators. I can't really recall who came up with the idea, but as far as names go I can live with that one. At least it means something.

The clans wanted to do business at a construction site - a bit cliché but as long as I get my share... They seemed fairly impressed about our work at the camp so there might be more business coming our way - but then they also suggested we'd let them know if we were running escort business to avoid any trouble. I'll leave such fine nuances to Erza to decide about (and her response I dare say I can figure out on my own).

Back att Freelance it was posting the money (taking us past the Demon's Head and off the Dukkha job) and then to get some sleep. Unfortunately Demon's Head ladies Jiang-Pfeng and Sandrah appeared to be man-hunting for the night and with the rest of the Demon's Head out somewhere it was Juron and Ed who got the attention. Not that they seemed to want it, though Juron certainly tried to tell Sandrah off in the wrong way. Jiang had some smoking stuff going on - so it was rebreather on just to be on the safe side. I trust that poisonous bitch even less with a chem than I'd trust Ed in a negotiation these days. Fortunately it all calmed down eventually but yeah, its easy to remember I do this for the credits and not the social encounters.

The following day it was time for more work. The Demon's Head were less than pleased to see they got the Dukkha gig after all, which rendered some satisfaction. I however had my eyes set on Ed's personal files to try to get to the bottom of that mystery-man before we entered negotiations. Didn't have time to read much though.

We took a job for Terra Petroleum, which was a perimeter patrol. I was less than pleased to find we'd have to treck part of the route on foot - the fucking reason I hate Dukkha so much. I'd readily admit I wasn't the best country-trekker even 20 years ago and it hasn't improved over the years... Well, no pain no gain. At least it would take us into territory were we might find some lizards to make us some extra money. Off we went.

About 40h later we had covered most of the route with a slight delay, cutting into our sleep, but Juron and Lucas had still managed to slay a lizard and extract some venom and we were moving out on time. It all looked good, apart from the fact that I had probably been taking one too many wakers to stay alert on this job. But this was the last push - I only had to keep going...

Kragor the Merc: For a Stick Full of Credits

It is never a pleasant experience to get shot, but for the right amount of cash...

Its been a busy week. Getting back from the last run we set out to sell the raw poison we acquired. Staking the streets proved fruitful and we found a dealer with the necessary means. 8 grands switched hands as we agreed to make a second delivery in order to keep the price up - left that one to Erza as I won't have her make me responsible for any more business deals.

Our day off turned into an exercise-regime managed by the Freelance android Siri. Fucking bone-breaker but I'll be damned if I turn out last (or second-last; Angeline doesn't really count...). Meant the rest of the day got reserved for a long shower and some extra sleep. We had been expecting Lucas back with two arms today, but apparently there was some complications so neither of Lucas' arms would be there to aid us in the upcoming days.

The day after that it was mission time and given our agreement with the street dealer we aimed for another GERO scouting gig in the hope of finding lizard. Well, the scouting went according to plan, but no beasties this time. We'll just keep trying.

Back at base it seemed as if Elizah had gotten another contract for Dukkha. It would go to the first team to volonteer (Juron actually seemed eager for this, but he was rather alone in his opinion) or the team scraping the bottom at the end of the month. That would of course be us. Erza expressed some idea about paying all our mission money to Freelance to let us bail, but fuck that. I take these jobs for credits - I don't pay them back to get less work. If we'd end up on Dukkha that was how it was going to be.

As on queue we got a meeting with Silence - the fruit of our little mishap with the Clans. It was a big gig, worth 100 -fucking- thousand credits. As expected Silence wanted a lion's share, but who was to argue? Even with Freelance getting it's share it was going to be plenty for each of us. The mission itself was to wipe out some clan renegades who had a walled camp out in the wilderness. It would certainly require some gear upgrades but even so leave a decent sum for the bank. Not that money tended to stay there for long but I do know my account enjoys the occasional visit anyway.
With Silence covering the basic necessities such as food and transport we were given free reigns to discuss the assault itself. At this point it became apparent that particularly Ed and to some degree Angeline had problems doing this kind of job. Some fucking moral-bullshit talk again - I don't get how these people see the world. Its the Fringe for fuck's sake - everyone is guilty of something. And these were not only outlaws - they were outlaws outlawed by other fucking outlaws. They were about as guilty and unwanted as anyone outside a tax office was ever going to be. Luckily we managed to steer up the situation before Silence took back her offer.
Back to the planning Erza had the idea to use explosives to take out the camp's generator and vehicles. One of two towers were to be cleaned by Silence with a sniper rifle to allow us entry, as apparent minefields prevented us from planting anything outside the walls. At this point Ed came with the brilliant idea to use gas grenades to further add to the confusion. Admittedly, he probably thought of tear gas or some nonsense like that but it only goes to show that any idea can be improved upon. Poison gas it was. So the final plan was for Silence to snipe the towers, Erza and Juron to wreck the generator and vehicles, Angeline to launch gas grenades into the camp using a mortar and me and Ed to provide support and work on the body count. That is, I figured Ed would support the others while I worked on the body count. Figured he would feel better about it that way.

It was a 24h drive to follow - one that Silence did all on her own. I got the feeling some part of her had the urge to impress us, while the other simply did things as it was used to: going solo. I don't complain.
Reaching the site we waited for darkness to make our approach. Seeing everyone in their full combat gear - even Ed had purchased an armor - with night vision and everything sure was an impressive sight. I looked forward to the thrill. And then it was time.
Silence did her part and we started climbing into the now unmanned tower at the corner of the base. Juron proved to be less than friendly with the climbing gear and was forced to wait for us to open the gate instead. Meanwhile me and Ed got down the tower and took up positions. Then Erza blew the shit out of the generator. Things started to go fast. There was a shower shed between me and the barracks, so I pulled out my brand new silenced pocket pistol and went to clean it out. Next time I'll use the fucking semi-mode on the thing, but with a little luck and a shot from Ed we had two dead outlaws who never got off a shot. Moving on I switched to my other purchase for the week: an auto shotgun. Had been wanting one of these for years and it seemed perfect for the job. At this point Juron had apparently tired of waiting so blew up the whole friggin gate. I think some of the dazzled thugs coming out from the nearby barracks saw me in the light of the explosion and we started exchanging fire. It became a blur from there on. Some part of me registered getting shot twice but it was not until it was all over that I realized one of the injuries was rather serious. I must have killed close to ten people in that short time span - didn't really think about it, just let the shotgun blaze. It was the price to pay for the money we earned. Two gunshot wounds and a shit-load of ammo.

The Centuria Dice Roller

Another update for the character generator: the Centuria dice roller!

Select the number of rolls to make and then how many dice for each roll. Resulting dice are displayed to the left, including the [!] symbol for Critical results.

A direct link can be found here: http://generator.appcloud.se/RandomDice.aspx.

As for the generator the update introduces a few bug fixes but no new features.

Kragor the Merc: Real Business

Finally it came down to some real business. After a lengthy discussion (several minutes, I assure you) about how to handle our resent clash with the clans we decided that in order to make money we had to spend money. That is, we pay our debt and then we check if there's some interesting money to be made from those fuckers until we decide we have the means to settle scores. Encountered the usual "I want to follow the law"-kinda talk - as if there is such a thing as law in the Fringe. Thankfully, but not entierly surprising, Silence turned out to be able to help - both with paying off the debt and getting us some action. It seemed like a one-time offer though, so I took the money before anyone was stupid enough to turn it down. Pretending to have a plan with it seemed enough to have everyone tag along - a bit more literary than expected as I intended to go myself but got Erza and Juron as a tail.

As usual we had a day off after work so we used it to settle our debt. Also, Angeline was scheduled to be released from the hospital so Ed volonteered to pick her up. It wouldn't surprise me if he told her something stupid, but hey, that's not my problem. In the end we all ended up at the Mint as the debt had to be settled in the Blocks and only Juron had the stomach to eat some of their food. It felt strangely satisfying to be all together again, Lucas' arm excluded of course.

All in all, it put us back 5'000 creds (apparently the clans charge extra if you kill their goons) so pressure was on when getting a new job. We decided to go with GERO, thinking staying in the game with them could do us credit (hehe) in the long run. It quickly turned out we were right; not only did we get better-than-average salary; they also produced some high-tech rebreathers as freebies. It was a scouting mission so it also felt as we knew what the difficult part would be. Driving - check. Scouting - check. Reading the damn maps - fuckit. We were right.
But against all expectations, in the middle of finding out where the fuck "here" actually is, we stumble upon a giant lizard. Charging in, Erza brought it down with two well-aimed shots to the head. Checking it out Angeline - she's really like throwing a die that girl - believed it to be a giant bluestone lizard. Given that their poison glands sell for 5k - that's 5-fucking-thousands - it was like finding a real phoenix in the junkyard. Stepping it up we even managed to finish the job on time - every second counts - and thus it seems as we made some big money on this one. Feels good to be doing some real business again.

Kragor the Merc: Just another run

Happy wasn't part of the repertoire as we headed back to get Lucas another arm and Angeline back on her feet. I for one didn't mind the silence though; it gave me time to think. That the GERO gig had been busted by an inside job seemed pretty obvious so I was more thinking ahead. Vengeance would of course be nice, but that was a long road and we needed both intel and money before we could make any moves in such a direction. Generally you could get the other if you had one of them and since we were certainly more cut out to get money than intel then that seemed like the road to take. We only needed to get past Ed's negotiation skills.

After having dumped Lucas and Angeline at the medfac we returned to base. Did a short report to Eliza and learned that Erza was in the building - which felt like very good news. The old gods might know I for one ain't much for military discipline, but sometimes it has it's uses. Unfortunately, while Erza was off the charts on that one her bartering skills were perhaps not what would get us a good salary. I decided it was time to get this sorted out and get my hands on some tech which could aid us.

We had a day off before it was going back to work though, and from Eliza we learned there would be some premium tech available at our dependable arms supplier. It seemed as a good way to spend a day, coupled with the fact that Lucas couldn't be expected to do much else than walking. That didn't stop Erza from making a small challenge against the Demon's Head and pick a fight with the clans - the local crime mob. Good thing we had a working day coming up or we'd end up with more enemies than we have bullets for. On the other hand, bullets are quite useless when you haven't got any enemies so it might still turn out interesting in the end.

The job we took was a standard escort, this time for a corp called Grootgrond. I had some damn trouble staying off the vitagels - guessing they're getting to me - but besides that there was nothing we couldn't handle. This time that included the contract dealing; my investment in a module covering last year's business prices paid off as we got standard fares at the higher end of the scale and even full-payment for a five man team with only nine arms. A few more jobs like this (which would also give the good doctor time to attach that new vat-grown arm to Lucas' shoulder) and we'll be ready for some more serious business.