Big DarkbrowReport
English：Big Darkbrow · Characters
The boss of the Blackshifters, a Hive Prince turned drifter. He holds the Swamp's casinos and its loan books — and with them one corner of the three-way balance of power between its gangs.
Big Darkbrow is the boss of the Blackshifters, one of the five gangs of the Swamp, and himself a Hive Prince. He keeps to the gang's hideout in Shark.
Casinos, loan sharks and a crowd of Hive drifters
The Blackshifters are Hive drifters to a man. The Swamp's bartenders sum them up bluntly: this lot may have walked out of the Hive, but they did not leave the Hive's greed behind with it. They handle the Swamp's money — lending at interest and running the games. The casinos in Mud Town and Shark are theirs, and they can often be seen out in the street having a "word" with people who owe them. The game also hints that they cheat at their own tables.
For the player, as long as you owe them nothing, they have essentially no reason to start anything.
The Letter To Darkbrow
A copy of Letter To Darkbrow can be picked up in the Blackshifter casino bars of the Swamp. It was written by Big Grim before she became the big boss of the swamplands; the grammar is in pieces, but the content is perfectly clear. She proposes that the two of them jointly take out Hash, whose behaviour had grown unpredictable, and her price is the whole city for the Hounds. She closes by pointing out that she has always looked out for him, and on the back is a crudely scribbled stick man with a knife in his heart.
That letter is essentially the whole story of how the Hounds came to sit on top of the Swamp — and it establishes that Big Darkbrow was one of the parties who nodded along.
Stats and fighting strength
His Toughness and Dexterity sit in the 51.6–56.4 range, his weapon skills and melee attack and defence around 43–47, while Strength is only 34.4–37.6 and Perception is practically nil (-1.2–3.6). That is hard by the standards of a Swamp boss, but nowhere near super-boss territory; the real problem is the whole crowd of underlings inside the hideout.
A swamp held up by three lives
Killing or kidnapping Big Darkbrow on his own changes nothing in the world. The real chain reaction depends on the combination of the three gang leaders:
- If Big Grim goes down while Big Darkbrow is still fine, Shark is taken over by the Blackshifters.
- If Big Darkbrow goes down as well, the Grayflayers take Shark instead.
- If Big Grim, Big Darkbrow and Big Gray are all gone, Rot is swallowed whole by the spiders.
Trivia
If the player is already an ally of the Hounds and hauls an unconscious Big Darkbrow all the way to the Hounds' faction headquarters in Shark to show Big Grim, she will mock him to his face as "Lil' Darkbrow", then send the player packing — adding that they should not bring any more of the other bosses over, because the Hounds are busy.