Ash-Who-Laughs
Child spy & cinder-whisperer · Trickster
“I counted your secrets while you were still deciding to keep them.”
Gender
Genderfluid
Age
9 years
Species
Dragonborn
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral
Appearance
A small dragonborn child barely four feet tall, with soot-grey scales that flicker between charcoal and dull ember-orange when excited. Two stubby horns have only just broken through the ridge of the skull, filed smooth by nervous claws. Wide copper eyes with vertical slit pupils dart constantly. A frayed, oversized spy's cloak—clearly stolen from an adult—hangs to the ankles, cinched with twine. Ashy smudges mark the snout and fingertips, and a chipped front fang gives every grin a crooked edge.
Occupation
Street informant and infiltration specialist for a shadow guild
Personality
Traits
Motivations
Craves attention and the thrill of knowing things nobody thinks a child could know; terrified of being sent back to the orphan-kennels, so it makes itself too useful and too slippery to discard.
Goals
To gather enough blackmail-worthy secrets to buy a real home—and a real name chosen by nobody but itself. Short term, to win the dangerous game of outsmarting the spymasters who think they own it.
Secrets
It has been quietly selling the same information to three rival factions at once, and has memorized a ciphered ledger that could topple its own guild. It also saw who really murdered the Margrave—and is saving that secret for the highest bidder.
Way of speaking
Quick, sing-song, and riddling, hopping between whispers and sudden giggles; answers questions with questions, mimics the voices of adults it has eavesdropped on, and trails off mid-sentence when distracted by something shiny.
Equipment
Special abilities
- Can exhale a thin cloud of concealing ash-smoke
- Squeezes through gaps no adult could fit
- Flawless mimicry of overheard voices
- Reads lips across crowded rooms
Possessions & property
- A cracked locket containing an ash-grey scale, said to be from a parent it never knew
- A collection of buttons stolen from important people
- A knotted-string cipher only it can read