| rdfs:comment | - Pirate, mercenary, smuggler, gallows thief and renowned blackguard, Captain Edward Van Der Kraal has been many things in his life, almost all of them disreputable. He has escaped death a great many times over the years, fought agains the dark-mist kindred of the Cursed Marches and lived, raided the Norscan Coast with fire and sword and it is said even survived shipwreck on the infamous Vampire Coast of Lustria and somehow returned to tell the tale. Many of these stories and scores more like them that dog his heels may be no more than tall tales and tavern gossip, but what is certain is that Van Der Kraal is a hard man to cross and a born survivor, albeit his adventures have left him grizzled, scarred and maimed, but only a fool would think him slowed down by his injuries. Although a black-
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| abstract | - Pirate, mercenary, smuggler, gallows thief and renowned blackguard, Captain Edward Van Der Kraal has been many things in his life, almost all of them disreputable. He has escaped death a great many times over the years, fought agains the dark-mist kindred of the Cursed Marches and lived, raided the Norscan Coast with fire and sword and it is said even survived shipwreck on the infamous Vampire Coast of Lustria and somehow returned to tell the tale. Many of these stories and scores more like them that dog his heels may be no more than tall tales and tavern gossip, but what is certain is that Van Der Kraal is a hard man to cross and a born survivor, albeit his adventures have left him grizzled, scarred and maimed, but only a fool would think him slowed down by his injuries. Although a black-hearted cutthroat of the first order, he is also notoriously a man of his word, which makes him rare indeed and sought after as a mercenary. For Van Der Kraal, a contract signed is an oath in blood never to be broken except upon pain of deadly vengeance and as more than one treacherous employer has found to their cost, the Captain is a hard man to kill and one who makes an art form of revenge when riled.[1a] Marienburg is Captain Van Der Kraal's home port, and in recent years he has commanded a mercenary company of dark repute that goes by the name of Manann's Blades, named for the quixotic and violent sea god of the Empire. This troop of hired killers, cutthroats and brigands are at home on the battlefield of the Old World as they are serving as marines on privateer ships out on raids of plunder along the Sartosan coast. Under Van Der Kraal's command, the Manann's Blades have gained a reputation as dark as their captain. At the time of Tamurkhan's invasion, the Blades had taken the rather unusual job of guarding Marienburg's "investments" in the shape of the prototype Land Ship war machines they had commissioned from Nuln's famous Gunnery School. Along with these machines, Manann's Blades were drawn into the heart of the battle against the horde.[1a]
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