Wolf Gang

Biodata

Background / History

Five years before Lailas’s investigation, the Wolf Gang was a small group struggling to survive in the slums. It subsequently absorbed neighboring groups and became Fried City’s largest gang. Lailas describes its expansion as both continuous and consistently successful; Renato initially suspects powerful backers without knowing their identities 32. Lailas later identifies Lord Orton as the gang’s political patron, while Benjamin credits Gnessa’s support during his poverty with giving him the opportunity to expand the gang 70 100.

Shantytown is the gang’s original power base and the place where Benjamin first made his name. By the time Renato investigates it, Wolf Gang thugs are stationed throughout the neighborhood 43.

The gang’s conflict with the Iron Fist Gang temporarily stops after citywide martial law is imposed. Uta returns to Shantytown, his birthplace, while the city’s gangs keep a low profile to avoid action by City Hall 64. During the later siege, the Wolf Gang withdraws its manpower into Shantytown and barricades the neighborhood against outsiders, creating a protected area for the cult activity Renato and his companions investigate 91 92.

Benjamin’s ambitions extend beyond territorial control and money. He describes the pursuit of “True Knowledge” as his purpose and ultimately treats his political patron and trusted subordinates as expendable sacrifices for a ritual intended to give Dakoul a physical vessel in the Material Plane 100.

Organization and Leadership

Benjamin rarely acts personally. According to Lailas, his whereabouts are difficult to trace, his publicly registered businesses are legitimate, and he is rumored to have close ties to several Inner District councilors. Underground operations are divided among three lieutenants, only two of whom are identified in the provided account 32.

Lord Orton’s patronage provides the gang with political protection. Nevertheless, Benjamin later reveals that Orton is not the mastermind behind the cult ritual and dismisses him as a man whose reliance on money and influence makes him insignificant 70 100.

Manpower and Equipment

• Shantytown garrison: Renato conservatively estimates that nearly one hundred Wolf Gang enforcers are concentrated in the neighborhood during the siege, in addition to the cultists who may have gathered there 92.
• Lame Dog enforcers: Renato counts thirteen armed men during his confrontation with Uta. Most wear leather armor or gambesons and carry weapons such as clubs, cleavers, and axes; he sees no spears, bows, or crossbows 64.
• Uta’s equipment: Uta wears chainmail reinforced with metal plates and carries a short steel axe, which Renato confiscates as evidence in a smuggling case 64.
• Solas’s bodyguards: His two escorts at the restaurant wear finely crafted chainmail and carry swords. Renato judges their bearing to be that of experienced combatants rather than ordinary gang thugs 76.

Territory and Operations

Smuggled Weapons

• Seized stock: Renato keeps four longswords and submits the remaining sixty-odd weapons to Blacksmiths’ Guild inspection commissioner Wolfram 26.
• Quality: Renato considers the captured swords mediocre and estimates each could sell for two Silver Crowns, or three with the right buyer. Grisel likewise disparages his gang-supplied sword as cheap junk 27 44.
• Resale restrictions: The weapons count as stolen goods in town. Their provenance and the Blacksmiths’ Guild monopoly make them difficult for Renato to sell safely 25.

Coercion and Violence

• Targeted killing: The gang employs Grisel against informants, debtors, and anyone obstructing its activities 43.
• Child’s death: A destitute mother tells Renato that gang members beat her son, who was younger than ten, to death for stealing a loaf of black bread from a Wolf Gang stall a year earlier 64.
• Retaliation against complainants: The mother says the Guard Station refused to prosecute because the gang was supposedly maintaining market order. After she repeatedly sought justice, gang members broke her legs 64.
• Claim of responsibility: When Renato questions Uta about the child’s murder, one of Uta’s men claims responsibility after receiving a meaningful glance from him. Renato warns against taking another person’s blame and takes the man for questioning; a conviction is not established 64.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Smuggling Interception

• Malik hires Renato and Perly to seize the Wolf Gang’s marked crates and deliver them to the Adventurers’ Guild, offering twenty gold coins and a magic item 22.
• Renato recognizes that the supposed Red Iron smuggling lead was a rumor Malik deliberately spread. Malik intends to undermine the Wolf Gang through the Blacksmiths’ Guild rather than confront it openly 22.
• After the interception, Wolfram examines the seized weapons and authorizes a ten-gold-coin payment for Renato’s submitted smuggling information 26.

War with the Iron Fist Gang

• The Wolf Gang sends Malik a box containing two Iron Fist members’ ears and a note declaring war 31.
• Malik claims Benjamin has identified Renato as the attacker and offers gang membership as protection. Renato does not commit, questioning whether Malik is exaggerating the danger to recruit him 31.
• Lailas observes that Fang Uta appears to be actively seizing territory. Although the Wolf Gang cites earlier Iron Fist provocations, she does not know the conflict’s true cause 32.
• Renato’s subsequent walk through Wolf Gang territory produces only casual warnings from its thugs, leaving uncertain whether the gang has identified him or informed its rank-and-file 33.
• Citywide martial law temporarily halts the fighting, and Uta returns to Shantytown 64.
• During the siege, Renato recruits Malik against the Wolf Gang by promising official recognition for the Iron Fist Gang as a citizen militia. He uses his official titles and the Speaker’s written orders to make the offer credible, although he privately considers Malik’s hopes of legitimacy doomed 92 94.
• Malik leads his men toward the Limping Dog, intending to kill Benjamin and take the rival gang’s territory, while Renato and the Harpers search for the cult ritual 95.

Slum Disappearances

• Lailas and Renato investigate disappearances on Wolf Gang territory, selecting Solas’s lounge at the Gilded Dice as a source of confidential records 32.
• They scout the casino and record its altered floor plan. Lailas later proposes waiting until open gang warfare draws guards away before making their next move 33 34.
• Records implicate Solas and the Wolf Gang through repeated purchases of basic food and crude clothing. Lailas interprets these supplies as provisions for keeping a group of “expendable people” alive 42.
• At this stage, the missing people’s intended use remains unknown. Lailas warns that Solas may serve interests beyond the Wolf Gang, but withholds further information 42.
• During his later casino raid, Renato finds further bulk-purchase records and a two-year-old coded letter bearing Dakoul’s black-ring symbol. He can only partly understand the letter, which appears to request that the gang provide something, and conceals it rather than expose the possible cult connection 68.
• Renato tells Lailas that the receipts cover two years of large purchases. She proposes examining events from that period but says the Baron’s priorities are locating the missing Old Speaker, Caspar Reisingen, and maintaining political balance, rather than pursuing the disappearances 70.
• After meeting Solas, Renato privately approaches Detective Aldo about the unresolved connection. He later shows Lailas the letter and relays Aldo’s suspicion that a secret organization is involved; Lailas identifies signs of the Dakoul Cult and leaves to find Aldo 77 88.
• The subsequent Shantytown investigation reveals actual Dakoul Cult activity, culminating in Benjamin’s admission that he directs the ritual 95 100.

Grisel’s Assassination

• Malik commissions Renato to kill Grisel for one hundred silver coins. He alleges that the Wolf Gang bribed guards to facilitate Grisel’s prison escape; the bribery is not confirmed 43.
• Perly’s experimental Silence spell conceals Renato’s otherwise noisy armor, allowing him to enter the gang’s crowded territory covertly 43.
• Renato confronts Grisel after the killer strangles a woman in an alley, severs his arm, and kills him 44.
• Renato takes Grisel’s head, searches his corpse, and uses a key and directions found on him to enter his home 44.
• Malik later pays Renato the promised hundred silver pieces 67.

Constable’s Confrontation with Fang

• The Assassins’ Guild offers an unusual commission to investigate the Wolf Gang’s local boss in Shantytown and determine what he is doing. Renato keeps this assignment in mind during his official patrol 62 64.
• After hearing the crippled mother’s account, Renato orders Burton to record her statement and forces his way into the Lame Dog with George and Burton 64.
• Renato demands Uta’s axe as evidence in a smuggling case, breaks his wrist, and confiscates the weapon. Uta threatens that the Wolf Gang will settle the score 64.
• Renato also demands answers about the child’s murder and takes the man who claims responsibility to the Security Department for questioning 64.
• Perez’s subsequent reprimand makes Renato realize that the gang has a backer more powerful than an ordinary merchant. Having located Uta, Renato considers the Assassins’ Guild assignment complete and decides to move from the Silver Deer Inn into the Inner District 65.

Dreamweed Raid and Political Settlement

• Malik introduces Renato to merchant Fair, who offers fifty gold pieces for investigating the Gilded Dice’s illegal tobacco trade and shutting down the establishment. Fair supplies an anonymous tip about raw materials in the cellar, Malik confirms the shipment’s presence, and Fair pays twenty gold pieces in advance 67.
• Renato obtains a search warrant by bribing Perez, then has Burton assemble ten armed guards. He positions guards at the rear entrance and upstairs windows before breaking into the casino 68.
• Renato defeats the cellar guards in darkness, discovers the Dreamweed operation, and searches the upper floors. He takes valuables and breaks into Solas’s magically locked private suite, where he finds the records and coded letter connected to the disappearances 68.
• Lailas warns Renato that Lord Orton is the gang’s patron. She says the Wolf Gang will leave him alone and make conciliatory gestures for the time being, while cautioning that the apparent political hostility between Orton and Baron Atwood does not explain their actual relationship 70.
• Perez later presents the casino case as a minor misunderstanding caused by employees acting without the owner’s knowledge and directs Renato to meet Solas at the Poets and Nightingales Gallery 76.
• Solas offers superficially conciliatory conversation while issuing a veiled threat. Renato refuses to be intimidated, and Lailas watches over the meeting in disguise 76.
• No substantive agreement is reached. Renato outwardly maintains cordial relations because of Orton’s backing and his superior’s instructions, but continues investigating the cult connection 77.

Shantytown Ritual

• During Fried City’s siege, Renato and his companions narrow the cult’s activity to Shantytown. The Wolf Gang’s barricades and concentrated manpower obstruct access, prompting Renato to enlist the Iron Fist Gang alongside Lailas’s Harpers 91 92 94.
• When the force enters Shantytown, the gang members formerly stationed at the checkpoint have vanished, leaving the barricade unattended. Malik dismisses Renato’s concern and advances toward the Limping Dog 95.
• Renato’s group finds a courtyard of hooded worshippers injuring themselves around a pulsing magic circle. Reggie appears beside the cultists and greets Renato 95.
• Renato later encounters a writhing mass of fused people that includes Uta, Solas, and Detective Aldo. Benjamin introduces himself as the man directing the ritual, revealing that Renato’s assumption of Orton’s leadership was mistaken 100.
• Benjamin dismisses Orton and the fused men as sacrifices. He explains that his new ritual will give Dakoul a body in the Material Plane, allowing the knowledge produced during His descent to be recorded 100.
• Benjamin also states that he destroyed a group of Harpers six months earlier and burned his research notes and a Harpers Badge 100.
• Recognizing Renato’s connection to Gnessa’s Grimoire, Benjamin offers friendship, shows him an escape tunnel leading outside Fried City, and invites him to protect the ritual before they escape together 100.

Relationships

• Iron Fist Gang / Malik — Territorial rivals. Malik uses outside adventurers and guild scrutiny to strike at the Wolf Gang before their conflict escalates into declared war. Martial law temporarily interrupts the fighting; Malik later joins Renato’s Shantytown operation in hopes of destroying the rival gang and obtaining lawful militia status 22 31 64 92 94 95.
• Renato and Perly — Adventurers responsible for intercepting a weapons shipment. Renato declines to become an Iron Fist member and initially prepares to leave Fried City if the threat becomes immediate. As a constable, he later confronts Uta, raids the Gilded Dice, and organizes an incursion into Shantytown; Perly supports the investigation and efforts to stop the cult ritual 22 31 64 68 91 92 95.
• Lailas — Investigator pursuing the slum disappearances. She initially targets Solas’s records rather than Fang Uta, whose wartime entourage makes him difficult to approach. Later revealed as a Harper, she identifies Orton’s patronage, protects Renato during his meeting with Solas, and brings Harpers to the Shantytown operation 32 70 76 91 94.
• Lord Orton — Political patron, identified by Lailas as the most senior serving city councilor. His influence helps shield the gang from the consequences of Renato’s enforcement actions, but Benjamin ultimately treats him as expendable rather than as the cult’s true leader 70 76 100.
• Gnessa — Benjamin describes her as his guide to knowledge and dearest friend. He credits her financial support with enabling the Wolf Gang’s expansion and recognizes Renato’s possession of her Grimoire as grounds for offering him friendship 100.
• Dakoul Cult — A coded letter in Solas’s suite first suggests a connection. The gang’s sealed Shantytown territory later contains cult worshippers and a ritual directly controlled by Benjamin; Uta and Solas become part of its sacrificial flesh mass 68 88 92 95 100.
• Security Department / Perez — Renato uses official powers to confiscate Uta’s weapon and raid the Gilded Dice. Perez discourages his intervention in the slums and later minimizes the casino’s wrongdoing while arranging a conciliatory meeting with Solas 64 65 68 76.
• Fair — Merchant opposed to the gang’s Dreamweed trade. Introduced through Malik, he finances Renato’s investigation and supplies the tip used to seek a search warrant 67.
• Assassins’ Guild — Issues an unusual assignment to investigate the Wolf Gang’s local boss in Shantytown. Renato completes the location-finding aspect by confronting Uta at the tavern 62 65.
• Harpers — Oppose the cult activity protected within Shantytown and join Renato’s operation. Benjamin claims to have destroyed an earlier Harper group six months before his confrontation with Renato 94 95 100.
• Blacksmiths’ Guild — Inspects the gang’s confiscated weapons through Wolfram; its control over the local weapons market also obstructs resale of the stolen shipment 25 26.

---