ESME SOLEDAD is a 17 year old Thelas nomad from Columbia. She is in the Combat Zone looking for her older sister Luba. Luba was a drug mule for a Cartel, delivering Synth Coke to Stomp in Night City. Esme had been trying to convince her sister to get out and join her on her boat, but her older sister had one last job to do, something that would earn her enough to start fresh. Something went wrong, and Luba disappeared. Esme originally thought she was dead, but found out that her sister was sold to L’il Miggy by Carnicero after her plans to quit were discovered. That was 6 months ago, now Luba is here in the Combat Zone, desperate to find her sister and get her out. She is squatting in a rathole shed in an ally deep in Stomp territory, and has been casing the brothels looking for any sign of her sister, but she has to be very careful to avoid anyone discovering what she is up to. She has taken a job at a local restaurant to make money to survive on while she is in the Zone, but has her boat and crew on standby, doing a bit of local smuggling, for a quick escape. She has also been in contact with Maelstrom through their Nomad branch, and has paid them to escort her and her sister out of the Zone when she finds her.

NO-JOE woke up wounded in an alley next to a burning building in the Combat Zone 2 years ago with no knowledge of who he was or even what his name is. He was found by members of Hard 8 wandering the streets, who took him to Doc martins, but while the ripperdoc was able to treat the wounds, he could do nothing to restore Joe’s memory. Hard 8, feeling some measure of sympathy for the man, tried using their own web of contacts to determine his identity but nothing came up. No-Joe has been working odd jobs around the Zone, trying to earn enough money to have the Digital Renegades run a hack on police databases to see if they can find out who he is. For some reason, police make him extremely uneasy, and while he has attempted to leave the zone several times, the police presence has always made him turn back. He cannot give a reason for it, but when he sees police, his gut tells him to run. Perhaps this is why he has procrastinated for so long to determine what his real identity is, the fear that whoever he was, must have done something horrible to be on the run from police. To add to this, is the fact that he was found with a half empty gun. He has attempted to get rid of the gun several times, but has always retrieved it, for some reason he simply feels safer with it on him. Also disconcerting, he was attacked by Dee-Zee’s two months ago, and was able to fight off 6 of them effectively, hand to hand, before they fled…

GHOUL haunts the Zone. Some say he is looking for something or someone, most say he is just Psycho. He is universally avoided. When he enters a market place, all eyes, and several weapons, turn towards him, and even after he leaves there is a sense of nervousness. He wears filthy rags, but it is obvious he has had extensive cybernetic replacement and augmentation. He is also always armed. He speaks very rarely, and when he does it is in a harsh electronic whisper. He survives by trading weapons, ammo, and goods for food, water, and sometimes electronic parts, as if he is building or repairing something. Ghoul never stays in one place, or if he does no one has been ablet o find his crash pad. He has beens potted in every area of the Zone. There are rumors that he was a Dee-Zee who was kicked out, or possibly that he was one of Maelstroms Psychos who managed to escape, but the booster gang denies this. He has however been seen leaving small packages of food, toys, or other small items, at places where children inhabit. The Zone Rats have tried to approach him, but he flees whenever he spots them, or any other child.

TIP-TOE is a freelance assassin working in the Zone. He has never failed to eliminate a target. Tip-Toe first showed up in the zone 3 years ago. No one knows where he comes from, or how he got stuck in the Zone, but word on the street is he used to be a big deal, but after a corporate hit went south his employers turned on him. Now like so many who can’t, or won’t escape the Zone, he does what he has always done. He takes jobs in and out of the Zone, though no one is sure how he gets in or out. He is very expensive, and has used his reputation to extort protection fees from even the largest and most dangerous gang leaders in the Zone, preventing them from hiring him to take each other out… though he has been used to take out lieutenants, family members, and other high ranking members of the gangs. He lives somewhere in the Gauntlet, but no one has been able to run up the actual location. Tip Toe prefers to use a wrist mounted crossbow and knives, though he is apparently proficient with a wide variety of weapons.

PROPHET is the Zone equivalent of street preacher and philosopher. He mostly hangs out at the North West end of the Zone at the small half circle park of off Martin Road, but he has been spotted proselytizing across the Zone. He has even managed to acquire a small cadre of followers. He spouts an odd mixture of Southern Baptist Christianity, Zen Buddhism, Shintoism and some stuff that just seems made up on the spot. Most of the people think he is just a harmless lunatic, but Prophet has shown the ability to defend himself rather ably. He calls himself a warrior poet, a Ghetto Samurai, and a Spiritual Pimp. Oddly, he avoids Bushido territory.

ROSALIE MILLER was burned horrifically during Carnival. On the third day, she and her family were trying to reach the car to escape, but gunmen who were hiding inside the garage, shot her and her husband as the door raised, apparently with thermite rounds. Her husband was killed instantly, but the shot hit her in the leg, burning right through, and igniting her clothes. Somehow she survived, barely. She was found and extracted to Night City Generals burn ward during the recovery effort after Carnival, they were able to keep her alive, and successfully implant skin grafts and cyber-optics, there was no funding to do much to fix the terrible scars she was left with. She was released from the hospital, and with no where else to go she returned to the Zone in hopes of finding her son and daughter, they were 12 and 8 at the time, and they were not at any of the relief centers, nor were their bodies recovered. She believes them to still be alive and searches for them tirelessly. Because of this, she volunteers at the Elders School, escorting the children. She also trains heavily to defend herself, learning from Bushido and Shrapnel instructors who teach at the school. She always carries a shotgun with her, rumored to be loaded with the same type of thermite rounds that ruined her life. She still believes her children to be alive, but thinks they might have fled the Zone. She drives the streets of Night City looking for them, but has been stopped by police several times for loitering in front of playgrounds and schools.

HALF-SHELL is a former nomad affiliated with the Snake Nation. He had few skills, though he was a fair hand in a fight. Unfortunately he was greedy, and this led to his one specialty. He would sign on with caravans then sell them out to a group of Raffen Shiv. He would arrange the ambush spot, disable the radio, and if he could, even weaken the group by slipping drugs in their food or water supply. The plan came crashing to a halt however when the Raffen Shiv attacked the wrong target and was decimated, several members were taken prisoner. The convoy Half-Shell was on was running late, and hadn’t left the market yet, and the crew that got attacked radioed back that they had captured Raffen Shiv raiders, and they had revealed that there was a traitor in the nomad community selling out caravans. Half-Shell overheard, and fled. Knowing he would be hunted throughout the nomad community, on every road and trail, he had only one option. He went straight for the Combat Zone. He has been hiding out here ever since. Half-Shell rents a room in the Cauldron and leaves only when he has too. However his money is running low and he is getting desperate. He is hunted not only by nomad bounty hunters, but also by the survivors of the Raffen-Shiv group, who think he betrayed them as well.

LARGE MARGE is a fixer loosely affiliated with the Furies. She is a thoroughly unpleasant and unhygienic woman, who somehow knows every move being made in the Zone and who is making it. She deals primarily with setting up jobs, easy heists within the Zone to score the Furies supplies, drugs, guns… She holds no real loyalty to the Orphans, and will deal with anyone who seeks her out provided she can pay her fee in cash or trade. She has a fondness for junk food, old recordings of soap operas and black and white romance films. She is also a woman of mean sexual appetite, and has been known to trade her information for sexual favors from attractive members of the opposite sex. In addition, she also has an in with the Digital Renegade Ditto, who for some reason owes her deeply. Marge acts as a middle man in setting up fake ID’s and new identities for people. Marge has 9 children, all from different fathers, and 8 grandchildren, who act as her bodyguards and gophers.