Shaulus

Shaulus is the most taciturn member of the ranking Hydra Scorpions. Rather than take advantage of an opportunity to speak, he simply takes his orders and his leave in silence, only rarely offering proposals or even any objections of his own before returning to solitude in the expanses of Dragonhome. He's often sent by Basalt to make good on threats made by Jahn's racketeers, or give Forseti an extra set of claws to work with, or handle jobs that the Steelhound would make too high-profile for the Scorpions' liking. In the interim, Shaulus doesn't take a rest from dirtying his claws on Basalt's behalf; rather, he turns to raiding livestock and rare familiars.

It's not out of loyalty to Basalt that Shaulus toils away on crimes that enrich the mob far more than they do himself; he has a debt to pay. In years past, before he became one of the Hydra Scorpion's many stingers, Shaulus was a mercenary outlaw, taking up jobs or rustling as it suited him, beholden to no one. He struck at lesser lairs on the verge of civilization, where laws are generally a local affair and enforcing them is a tricky business, then retreated to roam the wilderness. It was harsh, as are all lives of crime, but it gave him solitude and independence. Once, he would have scoffed at the notion of affiliating himself to any sort of criminal organization, no matter how advantageous; but in the end it was he who put an end to this freedom.

Circumstance stacked the deck against him the day he walked into a targeted lair and straight into the middle of a Scorpion operation. The first rule of the Scorpions is not to allow any other crooks to interfere with their affairs, but Shaulus wasn't about to let any two-bit goons who clung to their organization for support rather than stand on their own four feet stop him from going about his business. What began as a dispute turned into an argument, the argument blew up into an altercation and the altercation erupted into a vicious brawl when neither side would stand down, or stand for any perceived slights to their thieves' honor. Shaulus limped away from the fight, but the Scorpions never rose again.

After the heat of adrenaline wore off and Shaulus began asking around about these Hydra Scorpions icy dread settled in his bones like frost on the Cloudscrape Crags. He hadn't bothered much about them in the past, not caring for their dependence and regulations, but what he now heard worried him. Sooner or later word of the goons' deaths would make its way up the chain of command to the boss Basalt himself, and it'd be a matter of time before the Steelhound was set on his trail and he became nothing more than an example for other criminals.

Shaulus decided he would not spent his last days being hunted like a dog. So instead of scurrying into some hiding hole in the wilderness he marched up to the nearest den of Scorpions and demanded to be brought to Basalt.

Basalt was livid at being crossed by a common outlaw, but decided that Shaulus's skill and strength were worth making use of. They struck a bargain, and Shaulus was brought into the Scorpion fold.