Major Story Arcs
Four Devils, One Hell
Calhoun is a rogue Grendel, unattached to any regional group. He lives in New Orleans and gambles regularly, winning all the time. It’s against the Grendel Code to have a lot of money, but he secretly gives it all to a local children’s home. He fights with a sword can and is quick to kill if he plays against a cheater.
A private detective, Josef Mantovani, comes to town looking to solve the murder of the Batiaque brothers back him in his native Milwaukee. Calhoun, who is normally a loner, agrees to help, because he was once the lover of Simone Batiaque, their cousin. He won her as a prize while gambling, but fell in love with her–and then lost her to another man in the same way. She has since turned into a vampire. Calhoun and Mantovani team up and try to follow some of Mantovani’s clues. They find that the Batiaque brothers were killed by a man named Dulac. They capture and interrogate him. He tells them that Renute, the local Grendel leader, believes in a prophecy that whoever is the heir of Charlemagne on the 800th anniversary of Hunter Rose‘s death will become the reincarnation of Rose (the original Grendel). The Batiques were the closest descendants to Charlemagne, but Renute is also related, so if he kills off the Batiques, then Renute will become Rose himself. Dulac breaks out of his bonds and attacks them, but Mantovani stops him and Dulac runs off.
Mantovani and Calhoun try to find Simone, since she is the last of the Batiaques. Calhoun tells Josef that the reason he gives away all his gambling winnings is to atone for what he did to Simone, and he’s now helping Josef for the same reason, and that he shouldn’t trust him otherwise. They find her in a swamp, being attacked by Renute’s men. She kills some of her attackers, as does her unnamed son, but she is killed herself. Calhoun and Mantovani finish off the rest of the men.
Josef takes the boy under his wing, but Calhoun secretly goes off to meet with Renute. He offers him the boy in exchange for money. However, Renute’s men find the boy first, and takes Calhoun captive. Calhoun is actually glad because he realizes he almost made another huge mistake, just as he had with Simone years ago.
Renute, who is secretly a vampire, later attacks all his own men and turns them all into vampires as well. Then he brings Calhoun, Mantovani, and some other trouble-makers (including Alfred Bixby, the man who originally lost Simone to Calhoun) together in his headquarters, where he has amassed an enormous amount of Grendel-related treasure, including the Mona Lisa. He actually hates everything about Grendel, and has an atom bomb that he plans to use to destroy the relics and the heir to Hunter Rose. Alfred attacks Calhoun out of anger about Simone, but they eventually realize that Renute is the true enemy. They all attack Renute and his men. Calhoun is mortally wounded by a vampire, but still manages to defuse the atom bomb before dying. Eventually Renute and his men are defeated. Bixby adopts the boy and Mantovani returns to his detective business.
Power and Abilities
Calhoun seems to have preternatural luck. He wins at gambling even when the odds are nigh-impossible, and comments on his own ability to luckily find things, or to defuse the atom bomb through luck.
He is a skilled swordsman.