Nikolai Blackhammer

Nikolai "Nicky" Blackhammer, pimp and early entertainment entrepreneur in Gypsum, Colorado territory. Nikolai runs the Cricket Variety Theater, a notorious brothel, and combines a reputation for brutality with an uncanny instinct for forging political alliances.

Nikolai first came to America in the mid 1800's from Russia after a rumored falling out with the Orekhovskaya gang, a powerful Dwarven criminal group.

Blackhammer was one of the founding settlers of the town now known as Gypsum and was the first Dwarven resident to own his own business; he represented the beginning of a second wave of residents, attracted by the promise of riches to be stripped not from the earth, but from the prospectors and miners.

The Cricket Variety Theater offers rented companionship, gambling, and other entertainment. Local miners are invited to engage in what is advertised as weekly "prize fights", although prizes are seldom said to be actually awarded.

It is said that Nikolia Blackhammer is responsible for much of the criminal activity in and around Gypsum. His alleged gang buys and sells stolen goods, focusing on magical items, and has been tied to many of the stagecoach and trade wagon robberies that plague the area.

Even though rumors swirl around Nikolia Blackhammer, Nikolia maintains that he is an honest businessman and dismisses gossip as the prattling of disgruntled gamblers, stuffy moralists, and racist businessmen.