Characters

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Not a whole lot of converting done here, the most common question about this model is what his hat's made of. It's actually a plastic Warhammer shield filed flat, and part of the neck of a superglue bottle. Genius. Really.

Setzer's knife is from a plastic Necromunda Goliath. It's oversized even on an Inquisitor figure, which just goes to show how ludicrous it was on the original 28mm figure! A swap for Malicant's right hand allows him to hold it convincingly, and also provides a characterful feature in the form of the gold ring.

Born into nobility on the garden planet Lufretxia Tertius, Stefan Setzer attended a fine medical educational institute until the age of 21, passing the time with the rest of the bored, foppish youth with hunting and reckless shuttle races. As he prepared to undertake his final year of medical study, however, his whole life changed forever.

A friend of Stefan's father, jealous of the Setzer family's business success, framed Stefan's father for embezzlement. The family's holdings on Lufretxia Prime were seized by the system's ruling trade conglomerate and it wasn't long before both his parents were driven to suicide, the shame of social humiliation too much to bear.

Stefan was devastated but rather than sinking into depression, the event brought out hitherto-untapped resolve in his character. Though Lufretxia Tertius' decadent security forces didn't lift a finger, Stefan worked out for himself who was responsible and, consumed by bitterness, he scraped together enough money to buy a brace of guns. Paying a visit to his father's old friend on pretence of mourning, Stefan greeted the man, and then simply smiled coldly before putting twelve bullets through his head.

He skipped the planet by hijacking a commercial passenger runabout and found himself on the commercial prime planet of teh Lufretxia system. Still in a daze, he found employment as a hired gun with an organised crime syncicate, the dexterity that had helped with his studies now turned to a far more sinister purpose. When the job dried up, however, and he finally had time to reflect, he decided that he had to leave the Lufretxia system, and his past, behind him forever.

Always a fast learner, he was soon able to mask his noble roots and fit in seamlessly in all sorts of underground and unsavoury environments, and this combined with his unwanted talent talented for killing meant that he always had work, when he could bring himself to accept it. Soon, Stefan found his experience hardening him, and killing became uncomfortably easy; but as far as anyone was concerned he was a ragged, penniless undesirable with a criminal record, and he had nowhere else to turn. Resignedly he carried on plying his new trade with a slightly forced professionalism.

Now a veteran gunfighter, the only clue to his past is a single fine, gold ring that once belonged to his father, and this he will never discuss. While many freelance guns maintain an image of honour despite purely selfish intent, Setzer is almost the opposite; for all his pretence of coldness and mercenary intent, he will never harm anyone he believes innocent (although his view of what constitutes 'guilty' is often rather clouded by cynicism). He also harbours a special hatred for the type of corrupt backstabber that changed his life, and ended his parents', and will take seemingly senseless risks if it gives him the chance to put an end to such an individual.

Notes

IX: This character started life as a wilderness guide in a previous campaign, whom our then-GM decided would join my warband for good. We'd initially named him Steve Irwin as a bit of a weak joke, but as time drew on this obviously got more and more ridiculous. By this time I'd already converted the model for him, so rather than ditch it completely I just came up with another character, similar but less stupid!

The original character was a biologist who collected venemous animals for study by a Magos Biologis (hence Steve Irwin - yes, we know, it's not funny...), and therefore had medical skills as well as being a competent pilot; I kept these elements so I wouldn't have to abandon the serious aspects of the character, but came up with a new background to explain how a dusty, rugged gunfighter would have come by these skills, swapping "Steve's" Nerves of Steel skill for ones that played up his manual dexterity, like Quickload and First Strike; his profile isn't amazing but all the skills representing his co-ordination make him a good fighter. Luckily I like the new character, even if my writing doesn't really do him justice.