Tedbald himself is a commoner of Mousillon birth, whose villainous ways soon outgrew his tiny village on the Grismerie. He left for the city to seek his fortune and none of his fellow peasants were sad to see him go, assuming he would be gobbled up by the monsters they all knew infested the lands surrounding the village. Tedbald reached the city intact and quickly found employment among the dock gangs, part of a floating workforce of thugs working for whoever could pay them next. But it wasn’t enough for Tedbald. He had spotted a gap in the criminal food chain—while there were plenty of racketeers preying on the commoners, there was no one preying on the racketeers. Tedbald gathered a makeshift gang of madmen and outcasts, and set to work.[1a]