An impressively tall and slender man with a taut, wiry musculature and sharp features with a substantive chin.

Eric is known as someone who treats people well, but his mysterious business and his failure to clearly disclose its purpose makes some people nervous.  Those who have used his services rarely share any complaint.  Those who have been refused his services contrarily complain quite profusely.  There is disagreement about whether he is a good or nefarious presence in town.

Eric Krieger uses the same name he was born with, and his history can be researched by anyone with time and money on their hands.

Eric is a Special Services Provider.  And figuring out what that means, exactly, has been a source of consternation to many people.   In truth, he is a moderately wealthy man spending his riches to amuse himself by engaging in what he calls 'professional philanthropy.'

A big, strong man.

Good hunter and wilderness survivalist

Good Brawler and Wrestler

Good with a Knife

Excellent shot with a rifle or pistol.

Has a pleasant, deep singing voice and enjoys singing or reciting poetry.

Generally 'handy' thanks to an early life of helping his father do whatever needed to be done on the family farm.

Carries a slight German accent due to growing up in a German-American community.

Slow Draw with a pistol.

Poor Climber.  Despite his wilderness skill, he does not climb well.

Poor rider who prefers an amiable mule to a spirited horse.

Poor gambler who has trouble gauging the odds or estimating the strength of his hand.

Poor alcohol tolerance, as he rarely drinks alcohol.

Father - Karl Krieger.   Mother - Ida Krieger

Sisters - Emilia and Julia

Hans Krieger was the first of the Krieger family to immigrate to the burgeoning United States. He arrived in August of 1776 with the Jager Corps of Hessian Infantry. His service was brief, however. He was captured while engaged in Christmas Season celebrations during the Battle of Trenton in December of 1776.

Like many Hessians, he elected not to return to his home country after the war, settling in Virginia. He married and had children, living in a small community of German immigrants located in Spotsylvania County.

Hans' great-grandson Eric was born to Karl and Ida on July 13th, 1840. He was the youngest of three children and the only boy. His sisters were named Emilia and Julia. Karl was proud of the family's history of military service, and conveyed this pride to his son and daughters.

The family had a moderately successful family farm which was profitable more often than not. Eric would often hunt to provide supplemental meat for the family, and became comfortable in the wilderness alone. This ensured the family had meat on the table every night, regardless of any hard times that periodically visited them.

Eric attended a local community school during the off-seasons, and home schooled otherwise. He did well enough that he was able to enroll in the William and Mary college at the age of eighteen, with an intent to study law.

When the Civil War broke out, he felt compelled by the family's history of martial service to enroll in the military. He dropped out of college just before graduating, and became aware of the newly commissioned independant command known as the Loudoun Rangers. Captain Mean, the commander of the Rangers, was willing to recruit Eric because he demonstrated excellent wilderness skills.

Eric wrote home to allay his mother's dismay at his abandonment of college in favor of military action. "Mother, this is not like most wars. It is not being fought by nations over the issue of territory or riches. It is being fought for the sake of liberty. Freedom itself. What nobler cause could there be?"

But Eric did not understand what war could be, particularly when working with a partisan company that applied unconventional warfare behind enemy lines. Between 1862 and 1864, the Loudoun Rangers penetrated Confederate territory, conducting raids and skirmishes to disrupt Southern operations. This meant more than shooting at men in orderly lines. It meant subduing sentries in secret. Slitting throats in the middle of the night. Sneaking into enemy encampments and buildings. Sniping enemy officers.

Any kind of dirty fighting known to mankind was engaged in by the Rangers. Most of their exploits never made the history books.

In 1864, Captain Mean left the Rangers as they were absorbed into the regular Union army. Eric's appetite for war had dwindled, and he took advantage of the opportunity to end his service at that time. He contemplated the possibility of going back to school to finish his law degree, but he had lost his appetite for that as well. Nor did he feel a strong urge to return to the family farm.

He didn't know what he wanted to be or do. He wasn't sure what sort of man he'd become over the past two years.

That was when he met George Thiel, a senior empployee of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. George was impressed with Eric's resume and offered him a job. The work sounded interesting, so Eric signed on.

The investigative work was indeed interesting. In 1865, Eric even engaged in a bit of spy work for the Union army. But that evaporated quickly as the war ended. For the next several years, Eric performed several investigative jobs and security gigs. But he was troubled by the increasing number of assignments that seemed to involve spying on workers at manufacturing plants and railroads. This was not work he wanted to do, and he did not consider it honorable.

Fortunately, there was an alternative. George Thiel claimed to be similarly unhappy with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and opened his own competing Thiel Detective Service Company, and recruited Eric away from the Pinkerton Agency.

Once again, things started well. But within a year's time, Eric found himself assigned to spy on railroad workers again. Usually not out of fear for crime, but rather unionization. It was the same sort of assignment for a new company.

In 1875, Eric was assigned to spy upon members of the Union Pacific's employee contingent to be sure they weren't organizing for better wages. He became aware of employees who weren't organizing, but who were behaving in an odd fashion. Eric reported this to his superiors, suspecting a criminal plot. He was told to focus on organizing, and so dropped the matter.

Mid 1875, 25,000 dollars were stolen from a Union Pacific rail line in Missouri. It was just as Eric had proclaimed- some employees were in cahoots with robbers, feeding them the information they needed to rob the train. It became known as the Kinsley Kansas City Train Robbery, after the mastermind Roger Kinsley and the proximity of the train to Kansas City when it was robbed.

The robbers were eventually caught, but they had almost none of the money on them. They claimed that their haul had been burgled from them in the middle of the night, but authorities believed they'd actually hidden it somewhere for later retrieval.

The money was never found.

When Eric began saying 'I told you so' to his bosses, he was perceived as a liability and was fired without any good cause.

Now, late in 1876, Eric has come to the town of Kalispell. He is opening the Krieger Special Service Company, a mysterious building where he also lives. The services the Company offers are not widely understood, and the advertising of the business is unclear.

The reality of the situation is a secret that only Eric himself fully knows.

He was the man who burgled the Train Robber's ill-gotten gains. He has come to Kalispell with 24,000 dollars in gold and silver coin, the remainder sent to his family in Virginia to help them to prosper.

Eric has decided to 'retire' to a life he can fully value, because he has designed it to his own specifications. He has decided to become a philanthropist, but not a distant one. The Krieger Special Service Company's product is good deeds. Deeds Eric performs himself, or with the aid of occasional employees. He decides what 'good' means, and it has ranged from performing menial labor for people who need a hand, to much darker deeds in the still of night. He charges something for his services, but never more than what his clients can afford. No matter how little that may be.

SPECIAL POSSESSIONS

Colt Open-Top 7-shot pocket revolver in .22 caliber, kept up one sleeve in a well-hidden but slow-to-access forearm holster.

Large knife kept in a shoulder-holster under his coat or suit jacket

Small knife kept in one boot.

Brass Knuckles kept in a pocket.

Lock picks kept in a pocket.

1866 Springfield Trap Door Rifle in .50-70 caliber.

'Chestnut,' a very placid and obedient draft mule big enough to carry Eric and his things.

Special Service Office with living quarters.

Good  Turns - I need townsfolk to come to Eric's place of business, seeking help with various things.  

Weirdo - I need townsfolk to create intrigues and rumors about the strange foreigner and his strange ill-defined business.

Criminal Suspicion - It would be nice if the law is concerned about where this guy got all the money he seems to have for all the things he is engaged in.

Violence - Eric is a warrior, and he should fight sometimes.

Romance - It's lonely being a Special Service Provider...