In the first place there's too many of them and in the second place they didn't grow up hungry. They think that they know what's needed to run a crime family but they lack the hunger that put Old Man Palladino in the boss' seat. One of them is the head of a tech company - maybe he has a brain, maybe he doesn't, but he's got Family money backing him. Another one's a lawyer, a few of them are in legitimate fields, then there are the ones who think that they had what it takes to run the family business. A couple of the challengers are even girls. Old Man Palladino is okay with the idea of a girl taking over the family business but concerned over the number of claimants. He knows that most of them don't have what it takes and wishes that fewer of them were making their moves. He even hopes that most of them live through the change of guard of but he's a realist. He knows that some of them are going to be too stupid to back down and his real hope is that those ones can have open caskets at their funerals. He would hate to have to order (or even authorise) a hit on one of them, but when the thing is what the thing is then what are you going to do?
All of this presents a problem for Nelson. He needs someone to give him his orders. Someone to select his targets. Now he has too many people vying for his attention. Most times his orders come via cut outs and he doesn't always know which member of the Pallandino family is issuing the orders.
As his ordered life descends into chaos, Nelson tries to keep to the tactics that he's built his life around. He gets a name (and usually an address) and goes to work. He casts as powerful a veil as he can - knowing that the threshold will rip part of it away. He either follows someone into the house or slips in with his Burglary skill. Sometimes the threshold rips away too much and he has to drink a potion to give himself a new veil, but he always manages. Once inside he waits patiently until the family goes to sleep, then he creeps from room to room with a camera (film, not digital). After taking photos of the family sleeping, Nelson slips out of the house.
Once home he develops the film, selects appropriate photos, and puts them in an envelope with a note that says something like "pay your debts" or "respect the agreement". Then he slips back into the house and leaves this "polite reminder" behind. Sometimes he even puts the envelope on the pillow next to the sleeping target.
Most times that's enough. If the target doesn't come running, begging to be allowed to make payments, then Nelson makes a second trip. Often he has to avoid extra security but it's rarely an issue. He takes more pictures, develops them, but this time the note says something along the lines of "three day grace period". If no attempts to pay are made by the end of the grace period he returns to finalise the problem. Normally he carries a pair of silenced weapons, one to use on the target and one to use if he needs to shoot someone later (he hates linking crime scenes).
Afterwards he takes the used gun(s) and silencer(s) to a blast furnace - destroying all the evidence.
Then he goes to a meeting. Every time Nelson kills he attends a NA meeting pretending to be drug addict who got drunk to control his urges. In a way it's true; Nelson sees them as parallel addictions. Just as booze is softer than drugs, killing with a gun is softer than killing with his bare hands. Better than killing the way he wants to. The way he craves to. And he doesn't just go after a killing. No, he tries for a meeting a month, mixing up which ones he attends so no one tracks him. Sometimes he'll attend AA or other 12 step meetings - since he's already lying about his addiction what's a few more lies if it helps him keep it together?
In between killings Nelson feeds his desires by being a professional dom, drinking, gambling, and otherwise distracting himself from his inborn need to kill.
Nelson has lived this way for decades, but (as mentioned above) the old ways are dying. The mob isn't what it used to be; hungry rivals are always sniffing around looking for an easy mark. The use of film (necessary because of the amount of hexing he does) marks him as an anachronism. Worse are the crooked cops, ones who enter the drug trade and expect their badges to give them a pass. Nelson knows that it's only a matter of time before one of them refuses to pay what he owes and Nelson worries how the Wardens will react over a cop killing - even the killing of a crooked cop.
Yes, Nelson has encountered Wardens. They see him as one of countless mercenary thugs, one with more self control than most. Technically he's probably on their list of things to deal with but he doesn't use magic to kill and he only kills people who deserve killing - which puts him below everything that preys on innocents. There's some debate over whether he's human enough to be their problem or if he's a less than human predator. Nelson has never been soul gazed, not with his constant use of sunglasses, and might not be human. Or maybe he is human and is simply deluding himself over his status. Regards of if he is an inhuman predator or just another human with odd powers, if Nelson begins killing at random the Wardens will deal with him.
For his part, Nelson sees the Wardens as his death. He knows that if he ever gives into the cravings that the Wardens will take him down. Sometimes that knowledge is the only thing that keeps him from giving into his cravings.
Using him in a game:
(Note: most of these suggestions boil down to: The PCs encounter Nelson. He's a killer but he only kills other killers. How to they react?)
- the PCs hear the legend of the unstoppable hit man called Silent Night. He's just another background element in the city - until someone gets involved with wrong crowd.
- The PCs are in the Nevernever when a portal opens and a semi veiled man ducks through it. One of Nelson's missions went bad enough that he had to use his backup plan - ducking into the Nevernever and hoping to wind up in a less dangerous situation. He and his silenced pistols will help the PCs until they all get somewhere safe. This is a nice, non-hostile way of introducing Nelson to the PCs.
- There's something hunting in the wrong part of town. The PCs hunt down its lair and discovers that someone else has already dealt with the problem - using silenced pistols to end the threat to his boss' interests.
- There's a monster hunt going on and someone suggests that the PCs could use some extra muscle. A few phone calls later and Nelson shows up, looking like an old style gangster in a grey suit. He's not there for idealist reasons but to pay back a favour to someone who helped him defend the Palladino family assets from a different (now dead) monster. How do the PCs deal react to a mercenary?
- there's a monster that needs fighting. Red Court / White Court / Black Court - or maybe something else that impacts on the city's sex trade. The PCs get an unexpected ally - one that disappears when the threat makes a deal with the Pallandino family. How to the PCs handle this desertion?
- There's an up and coming mobster who runs afoul of the PCs. Problem is, the mobster's one of Old Man Palladino's heirs and he knows how to tap Silent Night for a job. Nelson doesn't know why one of the PCs is a target but assumes they are in the rackets. Nelson does his standard "here are photos of you sleeping" job - how do the PCs react?
- someone comes to the PCs with a sob story; her husband's in trouble and he's dragged the rest of his family in with him. She's found photos of her family sleeping with a threatening note and she's panicking. Can the PCs help her? What she doesn't know is that her husband owes six figures for a drug deal that was supposed to set him for life. The deal went south but the Palladino's want their money - or at least a payment plan. If the target makes a good faith offer to pay something then Nelson will be called off. Otherwise the target (but not his family) will die.
- someone a PC vaguely remembers from college needs help. He's got an envelop full of photos and he's sure that whoever took them had to be something supernatural to get passed his security system. He knows that the PC has something to do with weird stuff - can he get some help? Of course he's leaving out the suitcase of cash he's got stashed in the trunk of his car, full of money he owes the Palladino family, and the two bodies he buried in a riverbank to get the money.
- The PCs are doing whatever it is they're doing when they stumble over a dead body. Someone who thought that he was tougher than the Pallandino family was told that he wasn't. If the PCs get involved they'll learn what kind of a man he was and have to decide if the dead man deserves revenge.
- While Nelson is having fun in Vegas one of the claimants to the Pallandino throne decides to get cute. He (or she) gets someone to act like a serial killer who uses Silent Night's MO. Striking at night, using a silenced weapon, just like Nelson. The only real difference is that the serial killer uses a digital camera and takes the photos after the killing. That and he (or they) is leaving the name "Silent Night" in blood at the crime scene. The PCs start dealing with the mess - which gets messier when Nelson gets back in town with orders to reclaim his reputation no matter how many killings it takes to do that.
- the PCs encounter a tech start up that looks like a pump and dump con job. Someone tried to raise extra cash and now that things have gone bad he's gone running back home looking for backup. Old Man Palladino, he likes the boy and asks Nelson to straighten things out. The PCs are left to wonder: How did things go from checking out a high tech con job to being warned off by the mob?
- the PCs are going up against a major lowlife (one with lots of goons working for him) when the lowlife gets targeted by Silent Night. Maybe the PCs even see one of the envelopes of photos? They think that they have new ally in the fight, but when the lowlife makes peace with the Palladino family the threat goes away. That, or the lowlife they've almost dealt with is mercilessly killed in his sleep.
- the PCs are in conflict with a lowlife. When he turns up dead the police are torn - was it the PCs or the near mythical Silent Night? Either way, one of the PCs look like a good fall guy for the crime.
- On the run, the PCs stumble into a N.A. meeting and think it's a nice place to lay low for a while. Something follows them and interrupts this guy while he's sharing. When things go bad someone gets marked for revenge. See, Nelson needed that meeting and doesn't like anyone interrupting him when he's sharing. He's acting without orders on this one, but sometimes things get personal.
- one of the PCs have an addiction problem or otherwise go to meetings. That PC runs into a nice, quiet guy who's been fighting his addiction for years. If the PC is supernatural there's a good chance that Nelson will notice and trail the PC for a while (checking to make sure that the PC isn't a threat). If there's a monster hunt going on then they might end up with Silent Night for backup.
- An ally of the PC goes to meeting and makes a new friend. When the PCs call their ally for help they get a bit extra, an average looking guy who's there to help the ally (and maybe the PCs).
- If the PCs are shady then someone comes to them openly admitting that he's a rival of the Pallandino crime family and he needs help. The Pallandinos have this ghost named Silent Night working for them and the rival want the PCs to help him destroy the legend.
- One of a PC's neighbours wind up dead - shot dead in the night. It seems that he was involved in the rackets and didn't think that he needed to pay his debts. A typical gangland slaying. Do the PCs get involved?
- The PCs stumble across an envelope full of pictures of a family sleeping. Photos of children sleeping. That's just plain creepy - do the PCs investigate? If they do they find that the people in the pictures don't want to talk about it. They owed a debt that they didn't think they could pay - but when they saw those pictures they were inspired. They found enough money for a down payment and agreed to an instalment plan and they don't want the PCs getting involved in their ongoing criminal activities. Especially not until they've paid off that debt.
- The PCs hear some details about Silent Night and assume that he's supernatural. Otherwise, why would he use an old fashion camera in this day and age? As they learn more about him, do they get involved or leave him to kill other killers?
- A PC friend or ally of Nelson is injured and Nelson loans out his amulet. Does his father get involved?
- One of Nelson's half-brothers hits town. He's a killer who's only semi in control of his actions. Nelson tries to help him a bit... A serial killer with boosted physical abilities mixing with a mob hit man with magical abilities - that's not a good picture.
(Note: this was first posted at
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,30354.0.html and there's a bit commentary there - mainly about typos.)
