Jed Derks

Jed Derks is a huge bruiser of a man, tipping the scales at just past 500 pounds according to the horse scale that weighed him last. "The Beast" is barely literate and nearly unkillable. He is the muscle of the Rappaport Gang. As if his sheer size wasn't enough, Derks has also been heavily "augmented" by Dr. Ezekiel Vance, a mad scientist whose body-altering technologies have become quite popular among the pit fighters in the city of Clear Lake.
Derks' most distinctive augmentations are a metal plate that covers half his head, an enormous oversized steam-powered claw he has to drag behind him when he walks, and various pistons and gears where he needs stronger muscles. Derks may be one of the most heavily augmented subjects of Vance's experiments.
The motivation behind Derks' devotion to the Marshal is a bizarre self-help ethic which he developed when Rappaport hired him (as he likes to say, "Ah never learnt the meanin' uf the word cain't."). Derks had been a pit fighter, one of the best in fact, and he never flinched when his trainer/coach/handler insisted he get another augmentation. Then Rappaport came along and explained that he could make a lot more money by joining her gang. So Derks, under the guidance of Rappaport, "explained" to his trainer/coach/handler how he had a better offer and was "movin' on ta greenur pastures." The man was found snapped in half in the middle of the training ring.
Because of Derks' self-help ethic, he can he negotiated with more than the other members or the gang - if you can stay out of reach of his claw for that long. The sudden disappearance of Derks has been a shock to the pit-fighting industry. Despite the horrible death of his coach, some people still believe it to be a publicity stunt.
Category:Inhabitants
Category:Inhabitants of Clear Lake
Category:Inhabitants of Muscadawick
Category:Inhabitants of Saldonia
Category:Men
Category:Born in 1531
Category:Members of the Rappaport Gang