Arakrod Crime Family

The Arakrod Crime Family is a Dwarven crime family based in Arcstead. The family's main business is extortion. Of Arcstead's crime families, the Arakrods have the most developed system.

History
The Arakrod crime family was formed when Arcstead was still a garrison town, even before the Hokud family built their casino. The Arakrods moved to Arcstead and began running a protection racket against local ranchers. As the city grew, so did their complex operation.

Protection Rackets
The Arakrods run an extensive protection racket against the citizens of Arcstead, and earn enormous amounts of money from it. This money is laundered through the Port of Arcstead, where the Arakrods hold three of five seats on the Board of Directors.

The Arakrod system is the most advanced in Arcstead due to their extensive use of written records - they have a file for every business which they "protect," and run a general check every three months. Enforcers were to take money from only one business at a time, report the money at the warehouse that functions as the Arakrod headquarters in Arcstead, and then go back to take more money. While this system was cumbersome for the enforcers, the Arakrods were thus able to check who hasn't paid their bills on time and how much they have paid.

The Arakrods also have subdivisions within their crime family for each sector of Arcstead that they operate in. Each sector has a director, which allows enforcers to report to a secondary location rather than the headquarters, and allows for greater expansion of the crime family. Typically, an Arakrod directorate covers ten to twenty thousand people.

Enforcement
The Arakrods enforce their rackets ruthlessly, brutally torturing and murdering those who do not pay their dues to the family. A favorite location for this is the Port of Arcstead, as it is dark and empty in the night, and has plenty of locations to dump bodies. A location found by the Arcstead Militia in a warehouse contained a chain that held the victim up by one leg while members of the family took turns hitting them with a bat, like a piñata.

Actual Protection
The Arakrod Crime Family also began using its clout to protect other crime families. In a deal with the Ualas and Embermail crime families, the Arakrod began protecting drug smuggling locations in the city and provide membership perks to members of the other families in exchange for the Embermails and Ualas agreeing to provide information to the Arakrods on the spending of purchasers in Arcstead (allowing the Arakrods to check if their victims were paying enough).

Membership Perks
The Arakrod crime family decided to begin offering membership perks once their growth began slowing. Members of the Arakrod family enjoy exemption from the protection rackets, but also several other services that the Arakrods got thanks to deals with other crime families.

Arakrod members are given discounts on Embermail and Ualas goods, and have permanent access to Hokud dens. Members are also always able to get a job at the Port of Arcstead, to make sure the police don't check their personal finances.

The Arakrods also made a deal with the Dezmig and Volgrumm families to provide weapons to members of the family that are imprisoned. Experts in Arcstead estimate that about half of shivs, clubs, knives, and mauls inside of Arcstead prisons are provided by the Arakrod agreements with the Dezmig and Volgrumm families.