Bounty Hunter

A bounty hunter^[15]

Bounty Hunters, also called Manhunters,^[29] are Imperial or Xenos citizens who are licensed by their worlds to capture or kill fugitives, criminals and creatures for a bounty.^[1b] Some Imperial worlds are known to even allow mutants, abhumans and xenos to serve as bounty hunters as well.^[3a]

Necromundan Bounty Hunters

A bounty hunter^[14]

On the hive world Necromunda in the Segmentum Solar, bounty hunters are amongst the toughest and most dangerous of all Underhivers and are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds. They tend to be loners who neither need nor want to be associated with a gang, though some are erstwhile gangers and might still bear some of the distinctive trappings of their former Clan House. Many Abhumans on Necronmunda also find the life of a bounty hunter suits them well, for the Blood Warrant that serves as their license and writ allows them to go where others of their kind might ordinarily be barred. Thus, it is not uncommon to see Beastmen, Squats and other stable Abhuman strains operating as bounty hunters far from those areas on Necronmunda that are set aside for their kind.^[1b] The Merchants Guild also has their own private order of bounty hunters, known as Adurators, who are granted special privileges and are equipped with the best weaponry and equipment the Guild has to offer. While they normally work on Guild bounties, it is not unusual for an Adurator to also collect bounties in the Underhive, where they can more easily throw their Guild authority around.^[1c]

The majority of official bounties on Necronmunda are displayed at Trading Posts in the Underhive, and offer rewards to anyone who brings in outlaw leaders, gangs, mutants and other criminal types. The rewards offered are good, but the job is a perilous one and many bounty hunters die out in the wastes, slain by the outlaws and mutants they set out to hunt.^[1b]

It is also common for bounty hunters to hire their services to a gang leader, if there are no decent bounties to be had or if their interests and the gang's are aligned, but such allegiances tend to be temporary.^[1b]

The Hive World also has the Psi-Hounds, which are bounty hunting Psykers created and controlled by Lord Helmawr's Psykanarium program, and the Psylock Cabals, who offer to hire out their Psykers to Bounty Hunters.^[3a]

Venator Gangs

Main article: Venator Gang

While they tend to work alone, some bounties may be so dangerous that it requires several bounty hunters to work together in brief alliances called Venators.^[2] Though some can become permanent partnerships and it is not unusual to see Venators, composed of blood relatives whose families have bounty hunted for generations^[3a].

The Malfian Blood Guild

A psychic bounty hunter using bio-lightning.^[30]

On the hive world of Malfi in the Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscurus, the Blood Guild is an organisations of bounty hunters and man-trackers that have risen to infamy across the sub-sector and beyond. Owing its origins to some long forgotten internecine war in Malfi’s history of vendetta and civil infighting – a history that predates Malfi’s “liberation” during the Angevin Crusade in M39 – the Blood Guild has long served to track down and apprehend or kill fugitives whose warrants have been issued by the Malfian Senate. Those blood warrants are aptly named, issued in the form of a tough parchment scroll bearing the seal of the authorising body and carrying within it a gene-lock circuit amulet designed to identify the victim by their blood when spilled over it. The execution of these warrants usually requires the subject’s termination, or more rarely their capture for trial – with some warrants adding further gruesome specifics to the discharge notice. The returning of the bloodstained warrant results in payment drawn on Malfi’s own Obsidian Chancellery. Falsifying such a warrant in some way is a dire matter indeed, and immediately results in a blood-price of truly staggering proportions being placed on the head of the malefactor by the guild.^[16b]

The Bloodsworn, as the members of the guild are called, are professionals, the best it is said that money can buy at their craft. Drafted from the ranks of hardened ex-guardsmen, disgraced Arbites, outcast armsmen from the noble houses and all manner of killers and gunfighters come up from the underhive the hard way. They operate under only one rule – a warrant must be carried out scrupulously, but it doesn’t matter what methods are used. Owning little in the way of loyalty to each other either, several Bloodsworn might seek to execute the same lucrative warrant. Such, often lethal, competitions are actively encouraged in the guild as a means of weeding out those not up to the standards of the guild’s reputation.^[16b]

As a part of Malfi’s often impenetrable legal code and endemic culture of vendetta, a holder of a Bloodsworn Charter has certain rights above that of a mere common hired gun. The warrant enables them to bear arms in areas where others would not, access to legal record, enter private dwellings, and even avoid interference from the enforcers and local armsmen in pursuit of their warrants. These powers are not limitless and any Bloodsworn have to be wary about who’s property they trample on or in whose territory they operate unless they wish to find an abrupt and bloody end. Nor do their customary rights extend to the holdings or persons of the Adepta or Malfi’s rulers, not that many would be so foolish.^[16b] Once confined to the continent spanning hives of Malfi, the Bloodsworn are recognised across the Malfian Sub-sector^[16b] with charter houses on the sub-sector’s worlds. ^[16c] And for the right price is there nowhere the Bloodsworn won’t track down their prey regardless, something that has spread their infamy across the sector and beyond. Afforded a fearful respect throughout the Calixis Sector, and aside from their as bounty hunters, many also turn their hands to assassination, bodyguard and mercenary work if the chance arises, relying on their skills and reputation to set a high price for their services.^[16b]

Becoming part of the Blood Guild is deceptively simple: the candidates (who can’t themselves be under subject to warrant or are subject to ”higher oath”) must make their way to one of the guild’s charter houses, offer payment of a thousand Throne gelt, and they are given a grey warrant to successfully claim by any means necessary (which can include the help of others) – grey warrants are those that have languished uncollected on the charter house’s books for some time, usually because the money offered doesn’t merit the danger involved in the collection. Once successful, the candidate must then swear a blood oath to abide by the guild’s rule, is given a guild symbol as credential and is entered on the charter list. They may then claim the right to the title of Bloodsworn and execute lawful warrants, as long as they survive to do so.^[16c] It's known that even some mutants from the Malfian underhives are among the Bloodsworn.^[17a]

Many Inquisitors are not above hiring members of the Bloodsworn into their own service, and some even back their Acolytes to become Bloodsworn to take advantage of the cover it can provide during their covert operations.^[16c]