The Grinning One

"*The Mage-King and his Grand Council may rule this city on the surface, but here's a word to the wise: Brezzenta's alleys and dives have a separate ruler, a king whom you best pay homage to, if you wish your stay in this city to be a pleasant one.*" - Brezzentine commoner's advice to a newcomer

**The Grinning One** is the undisputed ruler of Brezzenta's underworld and leader of the criminal organization known as the Laughing Shadows. He is a master of disguise and thievery, a talented alchemist, a deadly assassin, and a Chosen  of Oghludar - the Eternal Troublemaker.

A criminal mastermind, the Grinning One took control of Brezzenta's underworld by personally assassinating the largest crime lords in the city and taking over their syndicate, before absorbing all other criminal groups in the city into the organization and renaming it the Laughing Shadows.

The Grinning One

## Appearance

The Grinning One is said to have many guises, but the one he typically employs is that of a rather tall scrawny man with white-painted skin, yellow eyes and a big goldentoothed grin, wearing purple and green, symbolizing his devotion to Oghludar who also wears those colors. He usually wears a long purple coat and a green and purple hat with green feathers in it.

## Personality

On one side, the Grinning One is decadent and flamboyant. He has turned the Court of Thieves (Corte di Ladri) into a palace of pleasure, where he lives a life of luxury and indulgence, treating himself to a harem of harlots, bloody displays of gladiatorial fights and the attempts of hapless captives and disloyal thieves to make it past the deadly puzzles, traps and monsters in the infamous Labyrinth of Laughs (Labirinto la Rizio).

## History

#### **Origin**

Born the only son of an abusive drunk of a father, Chialo Caldrazo began his criminal carreer early as a cat burglar and ruffian working for the Conglomerate of Thieves, a network of smaller gangs of thieves, smugglers and assassins, which would later become the Laughing Shadows when the Grinning One assassinated the Five Bosses and took power, after one of them double-crossed Chialo and nearly killed him.

After his father died, Chialo was taken in by one of the Five Bosses, a crime lord by the name of Lamasa (it later turned out that Lamasa had actually killed his father). Chialo became one of the best, if not the best thief working for the Conglomerate. He pulled off many great heists and assassinations. He killed high-ranking Balazanath mages and city officials, and stole highly priced magical items such as the Cloak of Stars, the cloak which had belonged to the nation's founder, Balazanar Brezzen, the First of the Mage-Kings.

After having proved himself for years, Lamasa approached Chialo and asked him if we wanted to become a Boss. The catch was that he had to kill Vigelo Sarini, one of the other Five Bosses.
Chialo carried out the job, but when he appeared before Lamasa to get his reward, Lamasa ordered his men to kill him, and in the same instance revealed that he had killed his father.

Left for dead in an alley, battered and bleeding, Chialo cursed Lamasa and the Conglomerate, and prayed for Oghludar to revenge him. Next thing he heard a maniacal laughter coming from the shadows. "If you want revenge, you'll have to take it yourself," the laughing person in the shadows said and tossed a golden mask to Chialo before disappearing.

#### **Rise of the Laughing Shadow**

Brezzenta's criminal underworld used to be split between several smaller competing criminal organizations, most of them nothing more than street gangs. The largest of these organizations was called the Conglomerate of Thieves and it was ruled by a circle of crime lords called the Five Bosses. At one of the meetings of the Conglomerate at their secret underground headquarters - the Court of Thieves, the underbosses found the heads of the Five Bosses, each placed on a silver plate. A person wearing a black hooded cloak and a golden grinning mask appeared from the shadows before the shocked underbosses, and declared that he had killed the Five Bosses and that he intended to kill anyone who stood in his way to become the one and only boss of Brezzenta's criminal underworld. He offered the underbosses to join him and ordered those who accepted to kill those who refused.
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