Jonas Cromer

A foe for The Yellow King: Aftermath

A decade ago longtime mob enforcer Jonas Cromer took advantage of his boss’ connections to the Castaigne regime to wangle a spot in an experimental supersoldier program. Most of the test subjects died while undergoing treatment. Others suffered fatal or debilitating aneurysms over the subsequent months and years. Not Jonas. His fellow gangsters describe him as too angry and stubborn to die. Even before he entered the program he had already survived two separate shootings and a stabbing, all of which would have finished a less determined man. Jonas shrugged them off.

He didn’t even mind the way the unearthly pallor the treatment gave him. Some people think he’s part Carcosan. In the old days he did little to dispel this false assumption, which only enhanced his air of menace. With the aliens gone, and reviled by those still able to remember them, Jonas now downplays this aspect of his underworld legend.

Their departure left him with a worse problem. The treatment requires periodic injections, without which he succumbs to painful chronic fatigue. He can threaten a former regime doctor he knows into formulating more of it when his supply runs out. The hitch lies in access to ingredients. Every so often Jonas has to source a quantity of Carcosan DNA. Each time he searches for remaining amounts of this increasingly rare substance the quest grows harder.

Like most legbreakers, Jonas takes a sadistic professional pride in his work. He strikes an impassive, taciturn demeanor. When he does talk, it is in a low, slow resonant voice. Between debt collection and the occasional hit job, he relaxes at home by building a massive model train set. None of this mob pals have been to his place or know about this hobby. He doesn’t want to be caught enjoying anything, lest it make him look weak.

As main antagonist: Jonas’ search for Carcosan DNA has him tracking fugitive scientists also sought by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A regrettable murder or two may have occurred along the way. The ex-insurgents can advance their political agenda by assisting a commission member, who wants whoever has been bumping off his targets stopped.

As secondary antagonist: When the team pursues a foe with mob connections, their quarry calls in a favor to have Jonas shadow, sabotage, and lean on them. He might ambush someone in a dark alley or prefer the efficiency of a planted car bomb.

As witness: Jonas has a recent location for the fugitive the ex-insurgents are hunting. Maybe he tapped this person for alien DNA. Or perhaps he followed them at the behest of his mob capo. Attempts at Intimidation piss him off, but he’s always open to Negotiation, if there’s something in it for him.

Numbers: 1

Difficulty: Vastly Superior (Escape 2, Other 5, Kill 6)

Toll: 2

Tags: Human

Injuries, Minor and Major: Picked Up and Thrown Hard/Monstrous Battering

The Yellow King Roleplaying Game takes you on a brain-bending spiral through multiple selves and timelines, pitting characters against the reality-altering horror of The King in Yellow. When read, this suppressed play invites madness, and remolds our world into a colony of the alien planet Carcosa. Four core books, served up together in a beautiful slipcase, confront layers with an epic journey into horror in four alternate-reality settings: Belle Epoque Paris, The Wars, Aftermath, and This Is Normal Now. Purchase The Yellow King Roleplaying Game in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.