| rdfs:comment | - When the council announced all ghouls were to removed from Columbus Gate, it left many residents angry and confused. Indeed, a few had joined the Brethren of the Shroud, but most had fought steadfastly for their home. Hank Emvrew was one such ghoul, and he had even joined one of the mercenary bands to help defend the town. His leader, a black man whose parents had fled from the Klansmen Confederacy, publicly spoke out about the policy, along with several other captains.
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| abstract | - When the council announced all ghouls were to removed from Columbus Gate, it left many residents angry and confused. Indeed, a few had joined the Brethren of the Shroud, but most had fought steadfastly for their home. Hank Emvrew was one such ghoul, and he had even joined one of the mercenary bands to help defend the town. His leader, a black man whose parents had fled from the Klansmen Confederacy, publicly spoke out about the policy, along with several other captains. The council would compromise and allow ghouls in as long as they were in a mercenary band or a caravan. Emvrew used this to convince several other ghouls, and told the council he had formed a mercenary band. The humans initially thought it was a trick a refused him, until he demanded a test. They told him his group could have a contract and an office if they could wipeout a swamper warband. Not knowing what it would entail, Emvrew signed his men up. His ghouls were poorly trained, although highly motivated, and were eager to begin after being told the contract. The swampers they were hunting were a rogue band from the south, having broken off from the Brethren. The ghouls set off into the wilderness, underestimating the skill of their prey. Despite their relatively low numbers, the swampers manages to rig dozens of traps in their surrogate swamp home, killing three ghouls the first day. The two forces would clash the next day, with the swampers launching an ambush that killed four. Frustrated and tired, Emvrew knew they had to kill these swampers soon. Pushing on through the night they managing to find the mutants' camp and set up around it. Firing the first shot, Emvrew would personally scalp the swamper chief before leading his men back to the Gate. Returning with nine less bodies but scalps aplenty, the council reluctantly gave a contract to Emvrew and told him to claim a new home before returning to them. Splitting up to search, one of the others came upon the baptist church on 2nd street, in the northern part of the town. After seeing it was pretty stable, the ghouls moved in and cleared the few radroaches in the basement. They spent a day scavenging materials and shoring up the windows of the building, but a development would delay their visit to the council. As a result of their time in the hellish swamp, several of the ghouls would turn into Glowing Ones. Never seeing one before, the ghouls briefly panicked before realizing they were the same otherwise. Having turned himself, Emvrew picked two of his men to go with him to see the council, where he had to defend his presence again. Barely allowing the mutants to stay, the council asked the name of their band. Answering them with the Glow Skulls, Emvrew and his ghouls have been earning their keep in the town. In their twenty years of service, they have won the approval of even the most stubborn of their critics, and even the friendship of others, notably their comrades in Dermit's Slingers. They have also earned several enemies, the foremost being The Shockers.
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