The Hangmen

The Hangmen are a mercenary, paramilitary organization that operates in the Cascade Wasteland. They are powerful and harsh, and will undertake jobs for almost any client, with almost no work being off limits for them. They generally stay in south Seattle, near their base on Hangman Island, but will occasionally venture to remote locations. Despite their business as mercenaries, the Hangmen have over time become more and more insular, seeking out various troves of old world tech and materials, and building their own streams of revenue and supply.

Background
The Hangmen were formed by their current leader, Everett, when he walked away from the fading Seattle Mercenary Company. Desiring a cohort of men to run a group he considered darker and harder than the one he had left, he formed the Hangmen in Lowlight and recruited a handful of soldiers to serve with him and the few who had followed him out of the SMC. Taking the jobs nobody else wanted, they built a small name carrying out hits and jobs for unsavory criminals around the Cascade Wasteland. But their business took off when the started offering full raids and sweeps against the numerous raiders groups of the wasteland. The rich and powerful would pay good money to have these savage groups eradicated. The richer the Hangmen grew, the more men they could hire; and the bigger the raider gangs they could take.

At the time, south Seattle was overrun by the most powerful raider group of the day, a vicious gang run by a man named Durke. They had settled on Harbor Island and been spreading out ever since. The Emerald Association, in a surprising move, hired the Hangmen to destroy one of Durke's outposts in downtown Seattle. The Hangmen completed their task, but despite the end of their contract continued to attack Durke's raiders, refusing to cease until eventually assaulting and taking Harbor Island. Everett hanged Durke from a crane, and the island has been Hangman Island ever since.