Raul Kortenaer

* Scab leader
* Armor

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> SCAB LEADER – "Fucking mask is getting sweaty. I want take my mask off, but..." He shrugs.
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Krenel Sergeant Major **Raul Kortenaer**, or the **Scab Leader,** is a major antagonist in *Disco Elysium*.

## Background

Foster brother of Ellis Kortenaer, they grew up in the same abusive household before they entered the Ijsbrand Military Academy in Vredefort and later joined Krenel, a private military company responsible for upholding the might of Oranje's great capitalist conglomerates. Raul's deployment in the Semenese conflict alongside his brother was a morally corrosive experience, as were the atrocities he was complicit in. He always followed Ellis' lead and acted as his second-in-command, the sergeant major to his colonel. He respected his brother's orders and his decisions, which kept the other members of the squad in line, Phillis de Paule and especially Ruud Hoenkloewen. All together, he has 15 years of experience in live combat.

In '51, the squad was deployed at Wild Pines' behest to aid in containing the Dockworkers' Union strike. At first they were only supposed to monitor the situation and organize strikebreakers. Raul took charge of the strikebreakers, as the largest and loudest of them, although his leadership skills and wooden performance were lacking. The entire team succumbed to the temptations of Martinaise, drinking and using drugs, with Ellis falling in with Klaasje. When Ellis died, seemingly lynched by the Hardie Boys, the situation rapidly deteriorated. As Ellis' team continued their work, cognizant of their colonel's rotting body hanging on the tree, they began organizing for a tribunal: a public, violent retaliation against the people of Martinaise. In Krenel parlance, a 'retaliatory strike'.

## Interactions

* From Day 1 Raul can be encountered disguised as the scab leader, shouting about the right to work at the gates of the harbour. It's a very, very poor disguise, but he'll stay in character unless the detective asks him about the Hanged Man's tattoos.
* If you speak to the smoker on the balcony, he'll tell you that a large, muscular man came asking about the hanged man before you. It'll earn you 5 XP and a clue to the other mercenaries' existence if you haven't learned about them already.
* He is the principal antagonist of the tribunal, which occurs after finding Ruby, the Instigator. He's dropped his disguise and come decked out in armour, drunk off his ass, and about to let his team rip through Martinaise. Your goal is to minimize casualties and ensure that the mercenaries are pushed back. Since Raul does not have a helmet on his Fairweather T-500 ceramic armour, you can shoot him in the face (wounding him in the cheek and causing him to die of blood loss) or throw the Spirit Bomb at him. Shortly following the outbreak of violence, he shoots you in the thigh, leading into the conclusion of the tribunal.
* Although he does not appear following the tribunal, Raul's status is determined by its outcome. He dies if you successfully attack and gravely injure him. If you don't succeed in wounding him, he lives, even if Kim Kitsuragi shoots and wounds him. (If you do not kill Raul, he will kill Titus Hardie.) If Kim does shoot Raul, he discusses Raul in the post-tribunal debriefing: he was sent to the same "butcher shop" hospital where Titus died, but was then recovered by Krenel forces and moved to a better private clinic (unlike you, the Hardies, and most of the characters in the game, Raul has Krenel-provided health insurance).

## References

SCAB LEADER – "Honest men and women. With rights -- to work. To be useful. Not toys for corporate interests." The man runs a hand through his steadily graying military haircut.

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> SCAB LEADER – Wordless, he takes the photo and looks at it. Grey eyes dart back and forth on the glossy surface -- his face is unmoving.
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 – {{{3}}}
LOGIC [Easy: Success] – ...click, click, click! The realization comes to you, like a picture puzzle coming together. His name is Raul Kortenaer -- the dead man's name is Ellis Kortenaer. He's \*brothers\* with the deceased!

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] – No -- probably foster brothers! Ellis was put into a foster home, remember...
RAUL KORTENAER – "He wasn't my fucking brother! We just grew up on the same farm and got beat into place by the same sick fuck..."
YOU – "And then went to the same military academy. And the same unit. And the same war..."
RAUL KORTENAER – "I am a Krenel major with over 15 years of live-combat experience. When my colonel gets hanged by clay-monkeys I lead the platoon on a \*retaliation strike\*."