- Archetype
- Scavenger heavy
- Augmentation
- salvage-armored
- Location
- The Deep Dregs
Overview
Every pack has two or three members who are bigger, slower, and meaner than the rest. Brutes are the pack's blunt instruments — broad-shouldered figures in layered salvage armor, carrying weapons too heavy for anyone smaller to swing effectively. Pipe clubs wrapped in salvaged rebar. Sledgehammers made from engine blocks welded to steel conduit. The weapons are crude, massive, and devastatingly effective in the close-quarters corridors of the Deep Dregs.
Brutes do not think tactically — that is the chief's job. They advance when told, hold when told, and hit whatever is in front of them with as much force as their improvised weapons can deliver. Their armor is the thickest in the pack: layers of salvaged plating riveted over previous layers, each piece scarred and dented from earlier engagements.
Place in the Pack
In the pack hierarchy, brutes occupy a privileged position — they eat before runners and lookouts, sleep in defensible positions near the chief, and receive the best salvaged equipment. The privilege comes with obligation: brutes are expected to absorb punishment that would kill lesser members. They are the pack's shield and its hammer at once.
Brutes work instinctively with guards — the brute attacks, the guard covers the brute's flanks. This pairing is the core unit of any scavenger engagement. Against other gangs, a single brute can dominate a corridor. Against corporate security or anything with real weapons, brutes serve as the distraction while runners extract the pack's most valuable members.
A brute throwing its full committed weight into a corridor fight is the most legible violence the pack produces, which makes it prime material for a crop runner's rig. The combat itself sells; the moment a brute reaches for combat stims to keep going past an injury sells for more, because that is the first step down the road that ends in a berserker, and the market pays a premium for the slide. The brute does not know the recording is happening, and would not slow down if they did. Both facts raise the price.
| Body Type | human |
|---|
The heavy muscle of the Deep Dregs packs. Bigger, slower, meaner — they carry the heaviest weapons and go first.
Brutes carry weapons too heavy for smaller members to swing: pipe clubs wrapped in salvaged rebar, sledgehammers made from engine blocks welded to steel conduit.
Their armor is the thickest in the pack, layers of salvaged plating riveted over previous layers; a veteran brute's armor tells the story of every fight they have survived.
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