Picker

Picker
Fan art by Corporal Nobbs aka Luktarig
Biographical information
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Social information
Affiliation	Bridgeburners
Occupation(s)	Soldier
Rank	Corporal

Picker was a member of the 7th Squad of the Bridgeburners. She was a head taller than the average Gadrobi. She was Blend's lover.

Ganoes Paran thought her 'an old veteran' when he first met her. Her feet were rag-wrapped and she began picking at a tooth. This habit or using the phrase of 'the way I pick it' might have been the original inspiration for her name. She spoke with a gravelly voice.

In her youth, she was abused by her father and ultimately slit his throat.

In Gardens of the Moon

Picker had the rank of Corporal in Sergeant Antsy's squad and was a survivor of the Siege of Pale. She met Ganoes Paran when he first arrived in Pale and gave him directions on where to find the sergeant. Hers was the first face Paran saw when he regained consciousness following the attempt on his life. Assessing his wounds, she noted that they had not been Kalam's work and that they were at least an hour old.

In Memories of Ice

Blend and Picker with the Torcs by Shadaan

After the events of the Gedderone Fête at Darujhistan, the Bridgeburners rejoined High Fist Dujek Onearm's now "renegade" army at Pale. Picker's squad was assigned to patrol the smuggler trails through Tahlyn Mountains between Pale and Darujhistan. There, she unthinkingly bought a set of three interlocking ivory arm torcs from the itinerant artisan, Munug. Blessed by Treach, they could not be removed once worn.

Dujek allied with their former enemies Caladan Brood and Anomander Rake to fight the Pannion Domin. Cadre mage Spindle led Picker, Blend, Detoran, Hedge, and Trotts into the Warlord's command tent to steal Fiddler and Hedge's old card table. Rigged to win card games using the Deck of Dragons, it had been lost as a spoil of war when the Bridgeburner camp in Mott Wood was overrun. Spindle and the squad soon put the table back into action to swindle their fellow soldiers. But the presence of a new and heretofore unknown Master of the Deck card caused the plan to backfire, lightening their own purses.

The allied armies marched towards Capustan which was besieged by the army of the Pannion Seer. Antsy's squad travelled by Quorl to the Vision Plain where they were tasked with waiting for Quick Ben. Captain Paran took the rest of the Bridgeburners to the Barghast Range to secure an alliance with the White Face Barghast clans. During this time Picker's torcs began to painfully constrict and heat. They had to be repeatedly doused in water to bring them down to a bearable temperature.

Once both adjectives were achieved the Bridgeburners reunited. By this time, Capustan had fallen and Captain Paran was eager for a fight. Picker and the Bridgeburners fought their way into the city past the Tenescowri using Moranth munitions. Advancing through the devastated city they stumbled upon Gruntle, the Mortal Sword of Treach. Gruntle requested Picker's torcs for himself and Picker was happy to be rid of them. The torcs unlocked at his request. For a time she shared Antsy's anxiety and paranoia over Paran's leadership of the Bridgeburners, but the captain eventually gained her admiration and loyalty. She made a silent pledge to straighten up the squad for him.

After the siege was lifted and the Pannions defeated, the necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach approached Picker for directions to someone who could provide them supplies. Not knowing who he was and not caring for Bauchelain's haughty manner, she knocked him unconscious with a gauntleted fist to the face. Before Broach could come his partner's aid, Blend dropped him with a sword pommel to the skull. Picker advised the manservant, Emancipor Reese, to teach his masters the proper forms of address when they awoke.

The Bridgeburners were assigned to reconnoiter the alliance's next target, the city of Coral. Along the way, Captain Paran promoted her to Lieutenant, second in command to himself, and charged her with keeping the Bridgeburners together as they approached the Pannion Seer's forces.

During the Siege of Coral, Dujek sent the Bridgeburners into the city by Quorl under the cover of darkness. Their mission was to attack the keep of the Pannion Seer while the High Fist led the rest of the army into the city itself. Picker's squad fought K'ell Hunters with Moranth munitions in the streets surrounding the keep while Hedge and his sappers worked to gain entrance. Her squad was decimated by the undead K'Chain Che'Malle until the arrival of T'lan Imass First Sword Onos T'oolan gave them an opening to return to the keep. Once inside, Picker was nearly killed by a Hunter's attack but for Blend pushing her out of the way and Hedge's sacrificial use of a cusser.

Amidst the hard fighting with the Seer's Urdomen and Seerdomin, Picker made a temporary alliance with Lady Envy to rescue Toc the Younger in return for magically healing her soldiers. After retrieving Toc's body, Picker led the few surviving Bridgeburners back outside just before Anomander Rake crushed the keep from above with Moon's Spawn.

After the battle, Picker and the Bridgeburners retrieved their fallen companions from the rubble. They were joined by Rake who apologised for toppling the keep around them. Calling her and her surviving squad "worthy company", he received Picker's approval to entomb the fallen within Moon's Spawn. Reunited with Paran, Picker confessed his faith in her leadership had been misplaced with disastrous results. But Paran refused to agree and his opinion was backed up by Dujek.

Dujek allowed Picker and the surviving Bridgeburners to secretly retire as had been Whiskeyjack's wish. They went to Darujhistan where Antsy convinced her and Blend to use their accumulated back pay to establish K'rul's Bar in the Elder God's former temple.

In Toll the Hounds

Picker, Blend and Antsy by Shadaan

On her way back to K'rul's Bar, Picker was ambushed by Dester Thrin of the Darujhistan Assassins' Guild who had taken on a contract on the owners of Krul's Bar. She killed him with a longsword which she had hidden under a long cloak.

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