Luckner - hired gun

Luckner Deschamps (a.k.a. birth name: Junior Augustin, gang names: Smoking Mirror, Tezcatlipoca)

He livens up the team by not being a goody goody. He is a lovable rogue while also being truly scary at times

Physical Description

Body Features

He is 5’ 9” tall with dark skin with a lean, muscular build. His hair is formed into collar-length dreadlocks. His dreads are crimped periodically by clipped wedding bands. At the time he thought they contained magic, but now he thinks they are useless to protect him. He has a handsome face with a large, expressive mouth and eyes that have made many a man’s blood run cold.

Identifying Characteristics

His skin is covered in a uniform grid of Aztec skulls. A few of the skulls are crossed off.

Apparel & Accessories

Luckner takes pains to always be looking sharp. He makes sure his hair and clothes are just so.
He wears dark gray clothes and silver jewelry. His clothes include a waterproof dark gray long coat with aramid panels, a waterproof black gambler hat, dark gray kevlar motorcycle pants with a few additional military aramid cargo pockets sewn in, Short jungle boots, a synthetic thermal shirt, synthetic thermal long underwear, wool socks, partial gloves, and in severe weather a camo balaclava and reversible camo/ghili poncho (ghili on the inside for warmth, or on the outside for better stealth). Sometimes he wears a separate hood or balaclava instead of a hat - especially when trying to conceal his hair and the distinctive rings in it or when it’s very cold but not raining.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

He was born to subsistence farmers in Haiti. A Haitian gang (Les Diables) killed his family and forced him to become a child soldier at age 9. He believes the gang might have forced him to kill his family, although his memories of this situation are mixed up. This is because the next night he was given drugs and forced to kill another family while being told “These people are your family. You must kill them to prove your loyalty to the gang, otherwise we will torture you for days and days.” He reluctantly did as he was told and killed them, but the drugs, extremely high stress levels, and his youth caused the memories to become confused with the previous night’s events.
When he was 14 the summer was warm, which caused a hurricane which devastated Haiti. Convinced that the worst of the cold weather was over, the gang decided to invade and conquer the US mainland. They invaded but the cold weather soon returned, resulting in high attrition in his gang who ended up surrendering to and merging with a Mexican gang called The Hummingbird Boys (Los Chicos Colibrí). He rose rapidly through the ranks of this gang, quickly becoming a field commander famous for his skillful use grasp of military tactics and psychological terror. His unit maintained high mobility, sweeping quickly across the land and consuming every resource like a plague of locusts.
At the height of his powers though, he became haunted by increasingly frequent nightmares. They increased in number until he was waking up in terror multiple times every night. Then one day, on a whim, he showed mercy toward a starving family, granting them safe passage and some rations. He would occasionally do this in order to maintain an image of unpredictability and to assert dominance over his troops. The family also reminded him of his own. When he lay in bed that night, however, he slept the entire night in blissful peace, and woke refreshed and happy. The same thing happened when he later executed some captured gangsters rather than incorporating them within his ranks. A pattern soon emerged - helping the innocent or killing the guilty resulted in good sleep. Doing evil resulted in horrifying nightmares and sleep deprivation.
Quickly grasping the pattern, it began to influence his decisions as a commander and his troops noticed. A power struggle resulted with a second in command agitating to replace him. Eventually the situation became open mutiny and he gave orders to his loyal troops to massacre the disloyal faction. During this time he slipped away with only two bodyguards accompanying him. Once safely away, he surprised his bodyguards, killing them both. He has been on the run ever since then.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Upon being promoted to a commander of the Hummingbird Boys he was given the name Smoking Mirror after the god of night and sorcery (Tezcatlipoca) due to his tendency to conduct brilliantly organized night raids and clever tricks. His regalia was fashioned after the his namesake.

Intellectual Characteristics

When examining culture from the before world, he has a tendency to misinterpret the context to be much more practical and survival-oriented than it actually is. For example, when looking at a magazine for teen girls explaining the latest fashions in hair, clothes, and makeup, he might guess that the magazine was put out by a gang in order to explain how to wear gang colors appropriately.

Morality & Philosophy

He does not perceive childhood as a separate state from adulthood and interacts with children as if they were merely inexperienced adults.
He was given large quantities of drugs and alcohol as a young child, especially including cocaine and marijuana. Cocaine would be used before battle, and marijuana would be used after the battle (or victory celebration) in order to calm down enough to sleep. Marijuana would also be used often during the long periods of boredom faced by a soldier. As a result he does not see drugs, alcohol, or tobacco use as shocking in adults or even children. He is aware of the problems each of those cause, but thinks about them in a very utilitarian manner.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Above all he wants to survive and be free from nightmares. In the occasional moments where these two factors are not foremost on his mind, he finds himself increasingly thinking back to growing up on his parents’ farm. In particular, that entire period of his life is symbolized in his mind by the image of a grassy hill. It is a windy day and the sky is clear blue with puffy white clouds. It’s not too hot and not too cold and he is keeping an eye on their small herd of goats. He has a shaggy white dog.
One of his nightmares is reliving the night when his family was killed in front of him. Another nightmare is being tortured to death. Another is being caught by Huitzilopochtli or working for him but knowing that he suspects treachery and not being able to escape. He dreams about freezing to death, burning, starving, or being tied down and watching people roast and eat his limbs while he still lives.
Huitzilopochtli has placed a huge bounty on his head, equal to his weight in gold (~145 pounds). The value of gold is vastly lower than it was in the before world, but this is still a huge amount of money. He knows nearly everyone who has encountered the hummingbird boys will want to kill him. As their activity has always been confined to the American southeast, the people he counters who have heard of the gang are travelers (such as caravaners) and immigrants from that region. He also knows that any hummingbird boy will want to kill or capture him for being a traitor. If brought back to Huitzilopochtli’s custody he would surely be tortured to death. In addition, members of nearly any other gang may wish to kill him for being a member of a rival gang, kill him for being a traitor even though to a rival gang, or capture him to sell him to the hummingbird boys. Very few members of rival gangs will be impressed that he betrayed his own gang. He is not terribly easy to recognize as the former commander, because in that role he was nearly always dressed in Aztec finery with large colorful feathers, jewelry, and face paint. Every commander had a distinctive look that served as their heraldry. His numerous Aztec skull tattoos however clearly mark him out as a former Hummingbird Boy of long tenure. This is enough for anyone familiar with the Hummingbird Boys to wish him death.
He likes reading comic books and adventure stories. He is also sometimes fascinated by the comfort and frivolity of the before world and may spend a long time staring at department store catalogs.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

He is an expert marksman, especially with a rifle. He is familiar with nearly every form of light and heavy portable weaponry and has a passing familiarity with many military ground vehicles. He knows almost nothing about aircraft. He can often identify the direction and distance of a concealed shooter, as well as the weapon used. He is skilled at hand to hand combat. He’s had little formal training in this, but lots of observation and experience.
He is highly skilled in tactics for units from the individual all the way up to the battalion size. He is a skilled negotiator (in terms of military and political situations). He has an excellent grasp of the use of terror and intimidation in order to accomplish his goals as cheaply as possible.
He is a very skilled survivalist, able to live off the land and stay healthy with little or no equipment and in almost any weather or habitat found in the US southeast or midwest, or the Caribbean isles. He has never been to a desert though, and would be unfamiliar with that environment.
He is strong (especially for his size), quick, and agile.
He is handsome and charming.
He is fluent in Haitian Creole, English, and Mexican Spanish. He knows many Nahuatl words as well as all of the secret signs and symbols of the hummingbird boys.

Virtues & Personality perks

Although the players won't know it initially, his nightmares make him very trustworthy.
He is slightly more skilled and clever than Candymouth. He has already had a lengthy military career and fought in countless battles.
He is able to spot a disassembled .50 caliber machine gun in the junkyard, and reassemble the parts into a working gun.
He is able to identify light weight composite ballistic panels in the junk yard and recommends having them installed in the truck.
Luckner wants to be paid a half million monopoly per month, which is quite cheap compared to his value.

Vices & Personality flaws

He struggles a bit with his naturally flamboyant tendencies since he needs to remain anonymous and unnoticed for his survival.
If hired on the crew, Candymouth will become their enemy.
He will occasionally be recognized as a hummingbird boy, and that will be very dangerous for the crew.
The hummingbird boys will also be potential enemies.

Personality Quirks

Verbal tics - Refers to young men as “son” often as a put down.
He is not good at holding on to his money. He likes to splurge on luxuries and women. He also loves gambling, despite not being especially skilled at it.
He had little or no formal schooling. He has read many books as an adult due to the value he placed on military studies, but has very little skill in mathematics.

Social

Mannerisms

Verbal tics - Refers to young men as “son” often as a put down.

Other Affiliations

• Hummingbird Boys