Showing results by author "Ned Lang" in All Categories

Frank Gerber isn't happy. At all. Being a bounty hunter sucks. Even more so when it pays very little. What sucks even more is that his client decides to skip payday. A pimp dressed in a frilly pink suit. Can his day turn even worse? It can when polite conversation turns into unabashed violence, and Frank finds himself the new owner of the most rundown joint in the Ashpit. With a mounting debt, not nearly enough booze, and a single bartender in his service, he will have to do... yeah, he doesn't know what yet, but he will eventually find out. Everything can wait.

Frank Midnight is on a roll. He’s been making a name for himself in Sankta Varath as a shrewd businessman, merciless killer, and welcoming club owner. He’s sporting some of the meanest weapons and toughest armor in existence, and rides a deviltail mount through the city like a boss. Frank Boss as the orcs call him. Yet, the man isn’t happy. How can he with a thousand voices screaming in his head and the Quinta Empire advancing on Steelheart. Nothing can stop them, not even the might of the Three of Steel, the brutality of Castilian, or the…mildly annoyed Frank.

Frank and his adopted family have plenty of work to do. The guests are thirsty and they want new drinks, the walls yearn for more heads...er, trophies, and his purse dreams of being just a bit fuller. Popularity is never something Frank yearned for, but the club has made him rather important to the Ashpit and its inhabitants. But not everything is roses and sunshine when Frank is invited to a meeting of notable Sankta Varathian club owners. Deals are offered, new faces promise him the world, and gold begins to flow...but as it usually goes, everything that seems to good to be true, usually is.

Es gibt einen Mann in Sankta Varath, der weiß, wie man Köpfe nimmt. Er hat sogar einen speziellen Sack für die hässlicheren Köpfe... Frank Gerber wurde im Laufe seiner vielen Dienstjahre in der Armee des Königs zu einem Killer geformt. Das Militärleben hat ihn aber nicht geprägt. Die Politik war ihm zu fadenscheinig und zu viel Arschkriecherei. Jetzt streift er durch die dunklen Gassen und entlockt seinen Auftraggebern als Kopfgeldjäger reichlich Münzen aus der Tasche.

Frank hat es endlich in die große Liga geschafft, obwohl es nicht alles so ist, wie es beworben wurde. Reiche Klubbesitzer wollen Geschäfte machen, Söldnerführer bieten verdächtige Unterstützung an, wütende Götter fordern Gehorsam, und Ork-Kriegsherren bieten gefährliche Freundschaften an. Zu viele Orks, Zwerge, Goblins, Gnome, Menschen und sogar Elfen warten darauf, in die Midnight Bounties zu kommen. Um den Klub zu vergrößern, muss Frank neues Personal finden, den Klub erweitern um mehr Platz zu schaffen, und vor allem braucht er einen weiteren Barkeeper. Aber nicht irgendeinen...

Blut bedeckt den Boden und die Wände des Midnight Bounties. Aber hey, Ragul, der Vampir-Barkeeper, wird heute Abend nicht hungern müssen! Währenddessen werden die Kopfgeldjäger und Söldner, deren Leichen, unter dem Außenklo begraben werden, an ihren Platz erinnert.Frank und sein zusammengewürfeltes Team haben alle Hände voll zu tun.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.