Underberg Family

## The Underberg Family

   -**Description:**The largest organized crime group in Fargo . Run by a prominent Dwarf family.

-**Territory:**Their primary territory is Fargo and Statistical Region 3 of the RRDMZ , with operations extending as far as Moorhead  across the Red River and Grand Forks in Region 2, although Fargo remains the center of their power.

-**Legitimate Businesses:**The Underbergs maintain a number of legitimate business, both as fronts for their criminal enterprises and as revenue streams in their own right. These include, but are not limited to:

* Underberg Utilities - A major sewage and building maintenance firm. Both the largest legitimate business run by the Underbergs and a source of access for other activities.
* Underberg Motors - Formerly Corwin Auto until the Underbergs bought the Corwins out in the late 2050's. The original business where the late patriarch Buddy Underberg got his start. Has declined in importance since his death, although still important for fencing and money-laundering purposes.
* The Family, through Hunter Tharaldson, maintains the law firm of Tharaldson-Vogel out of the Grand Forks area (Region 2), but maintains offices in Fargo (Region 3).
* The Family owns a number of businesses, such as the Flo's Laundry chain of Laundromats and several area bars and restaurants, such as Kroll's Diner, The Corner and Buddy's Bomb Shelter.

* While not an actual business, a lot of Underberg networking and contacts and a lot of their public respectability comes from their deep involvement with the local Sons of Moria chapter, of which Flo especially is a patron. Their involvement with the SoM charity events gives the Family a great deal of Public Relations armor and they will always find support within the large Dwarf community in the Fargo area.

-**Rackets:**The Underbergs have their fingers in a little of everything from dealing drugs and BTL's to financial scams, from auto theft to smuggling, from protection to gambling to prostitution. Nearly everything that happens in the greater Fargo area that's illegal provides them with a cut. Their main line, though, is managing the flow of smuggled telesma  the Zone from the Sioux  to the MSPlex for the Callahan Family.

-**Affiliation:**The Underbergs run operations in Fargo explicitly on behalf of the Callahan Family, a Family within the Twin Cities Combination, the local Mafia  outfit. The Callahans, under Boss Michael 'Cave' Callahan are themselves sworn to work for Don Leonard 'Leo' Catarone , ultimate head of the Mafia for Minnesota and surrounding areas.

-**Major Members:**The Underberg Family is an actual family, with leadership currently composed of Florance 'Ma' Underberg and her four grown children, all of whom are Dwarves (*Homo sapiens* *pumilionis*), as was their father, Buddy:

* Florance 'Ma' Underberg , current head of the family, widow of the late 'Buddy' Underberg and not someone you want to cross. Technically she's handed over a lot of the responsibility of running the family to her eldest son, Everett but everybody knows that she's still running the show from behind the scenes and while their enforcers may follow Everett's orders, its understood they do so because Ma says to do it.
* Everett Underberg , the eldest son, the legitimate, public face of the Family. runs Underberg Utilities. Heir presumptive.
* MacKenzie (nee Underberg) Rasmussen , the eldest daughter, takes care of financial fraud and money-laundering, in charge of Underberg Motors, a rising star in the family.
* Brady Underberg , the black-sheep of the family and the youngest. Has responsibility for street-level operations, dealing, fencing, etc. Ran his operations out of The Corner in Moorhead, which he also manages for the Family. Currently operating as the Family's representative in Winnipeg while the heat goes down in Fargo.
* Hunter Tharaldson , a nephew of Ma's and the only non-Dwarf in the upper management, having expressed as an Ork (*Homo sapiens robustus*) in early puberty. The diplomat and lawyer of the family. Runs a law firm in Grand Forks, where he represents the Family's interests.

Beneath the Family proper is an informal clique of old, trusted lieutenants, who are often either distant relations (such as the Myhre Sisters) or were (like Underdog, Hamm and the late Sammy the Squat) part of Buddy's old crew.

Under Ma (on paper it's Everett, but everybody knows how things really stand), the Family is run by "The Table" an informal circle of close lieutenants who Ma consults about Family business. People who are known to have "A Seat at the Table" include: Ma herself, Everett, MacKenzie, Brady, Hunter, Underdog, Elle Myhre, and the most recent addition, if rumors are right, the shadowrunner Ether.

Notable enforcers include Niall the Healer, a night-shift foreman at UU who leads a crew of legbreakers, Swain Magnuson, who acts as Ma's bodyguard, the rune-mage Kensington and others.

-**History:**The Underberg crime Family was founded by Ryan 'Buddy' Underberg, one of the first generation born with UGE and an aggressive and successful car salesman at Corwin (later Underberg) Auto, who moved from simple dishonesty and tax dodges and into crime in the late 2030’s, about the time he married Flo Gardiner . Cut a deal with the Catarones to insure the flow of telesma from the west and the Group to limit damage from crime to Company assets. Profited from both sides in the Second Sioux War . After Buddy died in the late '60's, Flo took over the Family's business and established a reputation as a much harder, less relenting figure than her husband.

**-Relationships With Other Organizations:**

* **Twin Cities Combination:** The continued dominance of the Underbergs in the Red River area is possible because of their support by and for the Callahan Family's smuggling operations. For all intents and purposes they are part of Don Leo and the Combination's extensive syndicate.
* **Tiospaye (Lakota Mafia):** The peace between the Underbergs and the local clan of the Tiospaye, run by the formidable Whiskey Jack, can't be called anything but 'uneasy'. It has exploded into violence several times in their long relationship, but they've always been brought back to the table by their shared economic interests, because the simple fact is that they need each other, they need the Tiospaye to provide the black-market telesma and the Tiospaye need the Underbergs to plug them into the Twin Cities Combination's marketplace.
* **Invierno Cartel ("Winter Cartel" "Cowboy Mafia"):** If the relationship with the Tiospaye is uneasy, the relationship with the local Ghost Cartel is downright disturbed. The Cartel is careful to operate just outside Underberg turf even if they do occasionally test the boundaries. The Underbergs would have gone to war with them years ago if it wasn't for the Cartel's relationships with the Tiospaye. The peace with the Cartel is contingent on the peace with the Tiospaye.
* **Heathens MC:** The Heathens are a partner, if not always a reliable one. The Underbergs have long employed the Heathens as connections in the Sioux Nation and hired them as extra muscle. The Heathens have always been good customers for vehicle mods, weapons, drugs and telesma. But they are still the Heathens and are a weapon that can't always be controlled.
* **Lake Devils:** The Underbergs attempts to woo the Tiospaye's top band of smugglers away from their employers have never met with any success, but it doesn't mean that the Underbergs can afford to stop trying.
* **Tamanous:** If there's one thing that the Underbergs, the Winter Cartel and the Tiospaye can all agree on, its the shoot-on-sight order they have out for the ghoul organ-leggers.
* **Moorlocks:** This ghoul syndicate on the other side of the River answers directly to the Underbergs who support their activities in order to both help control the UCAS side of their operations and as a counterbalance to the Tamanous influence in the small ghoul community.
* **The Jacks:** These nomads are a constant nuisance, mostly outside the major urban areas, although they don't have the numbers or resources to be anything more.
* **Gangs**: The gangs of Fargo are almost universally either run by or at least with the tacit approval of the Underbergs. The most closely connected are the Dirty E's, the Blind Pigs and the Ralphs, but everybody pays the Underbergs a cut.

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