NPC Profile
Full Name Brutus Korvan (Known across the underworld as Brutus Neckbreaker) Ancestry & Class Half-Orc / Iron-Knuckled Pit Brawler & Packmaster (Barbarian / Brawler 6) Role & Title Packmaster of the Pale Dogs Gang; Champion of The Kennel Affiliation Pale Dogs (Leader); mercenary contractor to House Balacazar & Killraven Crime League Location The Kennel (Underground fighting pit and slaughterhouse below The Warrens)
🐕 Overview & Personality
Brutus “Neckbreaker” Korvan is the undisputed master of violence in the squalor of The Warrens. He earned his moniker eight years ago during a bloody uprising in the fighting pits beneath Ptolus, when he shattered the spine of the previous gang chieftain with his bare hands before tossing the corpse to the hounds.
Brutus is ruthless, cunning, and completely devoid of high-minded moral pretension. He views the civilized society of the Nobles’ Quarter and the Temple District as hypocritical predators who hide behind fancy robes and lawbooks, whereas he has the honesty to take what he wants with an iron-spiked knuckle and a pack of starved war-dogs.
Despite his fearsome reputation as a savage brute, Brutus is surprisingly pragmatic. He knows that if his gang steps too far into Midtown or targets wealthy noble scions without discretion, Commissar Igor Urnst will send the Janissaries of the City Watch to hang every Pale Dog from the city battlements. Consequently, Brutus acts as a ruthless gatekeeper—controlling street crime, collecting shakedown fees, and renting out his thugs to the highest bidder in the war between House Balacazar and the Killraven Crime League.
🥩 Physical Appearance
Brutus is a towering mountain of muscle, standing nearly six-and-a-half feet tall with a thick, bull-like neck and a barrel chest crisscrossed with jagged scars from knife-fights and animal claws. His greenish-gray skin is weathered and dirty, and his lower jaw features two prominent, yellowed tusks that jut upward over his sneering lip.
His left ear is torn away—bitten off in a dog pit decades ago—and his massive forearms are tattooed with interlocking jaws of snarling mastiffs. He wears a heavy, stained leather vest reinforced with iron plates over bare, scarred shoulders, trousers tucked into muck-stained knee-high boots, and heavy steel knuckle-dusters permanently strapped to his calloused hands. At his side, two enormous, white-furred war-mastiffs (Gore and Gristle) walk at his heel, obedient only to his gravelly voice.
⚔️ Pathfinder 2e Remaster Statblock
BRUTUS NECKBREAKER CREATURE 6
Unique | NE | Medium | Humanoid | Orc | Human
Perception +14; Darkvision
Languages: Common, Orc, Thieves' Cant
Skills: Athletics +17, Intimidation +16, Survival +12, Warrens Lore +14
Str +5, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +2, Cha +2
Items: +1 striking spiked knuckle-dusters, heavy iron club, studded leather,
iron dog-whistle, purse with 45 gp and bloody silver rings.
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AC 23; Fort +17, Ref +12, Will +12
HP 110
Ferocity [reaction]
Snapping Command [reaction] Trigger: An adjacent enemy misses Brutus with a melee Strike.
Effect: Brutus commands an adjacent Pale War-Hound to immediately make a Jaws Strike against that enemy.
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Speed 25 feet
Melee [one-action] Spiked Knuckle-Duster +17 [+13/+9] (Agile, Free-Hand, Magical), Damage 2d4+9 piercing
Melee [one-action] Heavy Iron Club +16 [+11/+6] (Backswing, Shove), Damage 2d10+9 bludgeoning
Melee [one-action] Jaws +15 [+11/+7] (Unarmed), Damage 1d6+8 piercing
Raging Thug [one-action] (Concentrate, Emotion, Rage): Brutus enters a state of savage fury.
He gains 12 temporary Hit Points, a +2 status bonus to melee damage rolls, and a -1 penalty to AC.
Lasts 1 minute.
Neckbreaker Slam [two-actions]: Requirements: Brutus has a creature grabbed or restrained.
Effect: Brutus lifts the creature and slams them into the cobblestones or a wall.
The target takes 4d8+9 bludgeoning damage and must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save
or become Clumsy 2 and Stunned 1 (or Paralyzed for 1 round on a critical failure).
🧭 Story Hooks for Adventurers
- The Fighting Pit Challenge: To gain an audience with Brutus and extract information regarding a missing delver, the party’s champion must step into the mud pit of The Kennel and survive three rounds unarmed against Brutus and his prize mastiff.
- The Cult Mutagen: Brutus discovers that one of his lieutenants secretly accepted gold and a vat of chaotic mutagen from the Cult of the Ebon Hand, which transformed half a kennel into tentacled monsters that slaughtered four of his men. In a rare act of desperation, Brutus secretly reaches out to the party to purge the abomination before the infection spreads.
- The Turf War Bounty: Caught between assassination attempts from both House Balacazar and the Killraven Crime League, Brutus offers the party a chest of stolen gemstones and a stash of old dungeon maps if they eliminate a rival hit-squad hunting him in the Warrens.