Skulls

Skulls

The Skulls are one of the many street gangs that operate in Paragon City. They are a death cult, of sorts, who seek personal glory and power through death, no matter whose.

Today, their leaders lurk about one corner of Perez Park, called the Boneyard. They vie for control of the park, but are in the midst of a seemingly endless gang war with the Hellions.

The gang has recently spread heavily into the King’s Row zone, established new chapters as it tries to take over new territory. In King’s Row, the Skulls will battle anyone – cop, hero, rival gang – to dig in their stakes.

As the war in Perez Park has reached a stalemate, it seems they want to expand in other directions to advance their position. Fledgling chapters have also been reported in Atlas Park and Galaxy City. Although not often found on the streets in Galaxy City, various drug labs have been reported.

Despite their morbid trappings, the Skulls are ultimately a street gang, and thus concerned with usual aspects of organized crime. They run extortion rings, commit robbery, and sell drugs. Of late, like many in Paragon’s underworld, they are pushing Superadine.

In fact, they have been pushing it so hard in Perez Park and in King’s Row that they threaten to flood the streets.

Some in the PPD suspect the Skulls may be working with a new partner to take control of the market. It is known that the Skulls deal with the Trolls generally on good terms.

One unusual rumor about the Skulls that has sprung up since the Rikti War is the story of a lone wolf hero obsessed with the destruction of the gang. His – or her – name is unknown, though some of the street tales suggest his (or her) family was killed by Marrow Snap and Marrow Drinker.

Some stories describe him as a feral hero, barely able to communicate. He pulls in new heroes to his cause with a terse, muttered phrase, “Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.”

The organization of the gang is fairly straightforward. The Gravediggers are the foot soldiers of the Skull gang. They are normally armed with knives and guns, and do the grunt work.

When first brought into the gang, their initiation rituals all center around death. It is typical for a new recruit to be ordered to kill a random target (the victim is often a member of a rival gang).

A veteran Skull will then take a number of new recruits to pick out caskets for their inevitable death. To them, dying as a member of the Skulls is the greatest honor one can find. By embracing death, it not only has no power over them, but gives them a dark inner strength.

Finally, new recruits must go on a “black wake,” where they dig up a body and claim the deceased’s skull as their new “face.”

The veterans of the Skulls are nicknamed Death Heads. They have earned their bones through acts of bloodthirsty violence. They run the Gravediggers through their paces, and report directly to the top bosses – the Bone Daddies.

The Bone Daddies are chosen through some secret, black ritual performed by the original founders of the Skulls, the Petrovic brothers.

This ritual gives them power over the negative world, and allows them to tap into spirit killing energy that they can use to feed off of their victims. Heroes who have faced them have stated that Bone Daddies are dead inside, their bodies just haven’t realized it yet.