Los Malditos (“the Damned”) are a band of four or five mercenaries, named after fighting a dragon, who carry an infernal curse and serve as forced “messenger agents” of hostile powers, including the Green Dragon.
| Type | Group (mercenary band) |
| Spanish entry | Los Malditos |
History
After the battle against the dragon the band chose between Los Malditos and Los Temerarios (“the Reckless”); the first prevailed. Yet “stories of the malditos” circulated in the territory before that encounter.
Bonds
They work by contract and coercion, never loyalty, given a mission and a deadline (“a week… four days… two weeks”; the record wavers). Three bonds hold them:
- A trade: mercenary work.
- A debt: a pact of servitude to the Green Dragon (“I won’t say slaves, but like servants with an agreement”), whose help they later beg to escape it; and lodging from Amador, “when they behave”, for an unnamed future favor.
- A curse: “the reprisal that we four are having for attacking those creatures of the devil” of the cistern.
The records also list them as crew of a “ship of slaver Malditos”.
Reputation
They are bargaining chips between greater powers, known as “deceitful traitors”. California wants “a scenario of intrigue” where the parties settle matters without Los Malditos in the crossfire.
Description
No record describes their clothing or arms. One is recognized by his “good boots”, coming down with a sword and a small chest. From the defeated aviator Pentoide, “this aviator of Malditos”, they tore his boots and “some skin that was a mark to show they had won”.
A Book of Malditos speaks with “a very high-pitched voice”, likened to the voice of Patience.
Open questions
- Four or five? “They are like five malditos” in one record; “we four” in their own words.
- Three ships (the captain’s, the flying one, the slaver) or one?
- What the curse consists of.
- Whether the earlier stories concern this band, a namesake or a mishearing.
- Whether the book is tied to the band, and who speaks: the book or Patience.
- Where they are.