Boss of the Colegio
Ht: 6' / Wt: 400 / Hair: black / Eyes: brown / Age: 50 / Creed: Iagosi / Status: active
Arriaga is a well-established loan shark and criminal boss in Ladroa. He is known to operate several gambling houses in the Colegio and Mercado districts, but his organization also dabbles in narcotics and prostitution. All three of these things are technically legal in Ladroa, but of course one does not rise to such a position of power without crossing certain lines. In the case of Arriaga, intimidation, extortion, blackmail, and murder are all tools of his trade.
Arriaga manages his organization from his flagship gaming house “The Golden Branch." Located in the heart of the Colegio district, this establishment serves both rowdy students and well-heeled visitors to Ladroa. In addition to bleeding them of their money in the usual ways, he also brokers information and access to other more questionable goods and services within his network.
Description
Arriaga is middle aged, with a round swarthy face, dark hair, and a thick black beard. His once-burly frame long ago succumbed to the corpulent excesses of his lifestyle, and he is now immensely fat. His obesity notwithstanding, he is a vain man; he is always dressed in quality tailored garments, and appears well-groomed. Even, so, his lowborn accent and uncouth manner dispel any pretentions to a higher class.
Recent History
Historically, Arriaga has never competed with the Grey Stripes, and their turf has little overlap with his. However, he has long looked covetously on the Puerto district and the clandestine trade that happens there. Until recently, the Puerto had been overseen by the aging Order of the Grey Stripes. As deeply embedded as the Stripes were, they had grown weaker, and their operations were flagging due to poor exploitation of the Puerto's potential.
Although Arriaga was wealthy, he lacked the manpower to engage in outright warfare with the Grey Stripes over their territory, or defend such an area from other challengers. Fate turned his way, when the Grey Stripes seemingly collapsed from within due to their internal struggles with the Reborn in Darkness cult, leaving leadership of the weakened militia in the hands of the young and inexperienced Lady de Cinza.
Arriaga had not precipitated this turn, but he was quick to seize upon the opportunity. His first action was to move in on some of the former Grey Stripes Puerto holdings, the Talumari Earring (a brothel) and the Leonera (fighting pits).
He also proposed a secret alliance with Salvador, the patriarch of the Mendigos beggars' gang of the Bosque district. Although the Mendigos had long been allies of the Grey Stripes, they conspired together to eliminate the de Cinza heiress and split the Puerto holdings, with Arriaga at the head and Los Mendigos taking over the turf on the ground.
This scheme failed due to intervention by Jack Tyrsson's band, who learned of the plan when they killed Arriaga's chief enforcer, the swordsman Agila. After Kian Grey gained access to the Golden Branch disguised as Agila, Tyrsson's group kidnapped Arriaga and secretly detained him in the undercroft of the old Scoala del Arestido (recently a covert temple of Agruesh).
Arriaga was later released and allowed to return to his territory under strict conditions from Kian Grey (still disguised as the late Agila). The conditions are as follow:
- Agila gets a 25% cut of Arriaga's profits in the Colegio
- Arriaga shall not expand his territory
- He will stay far away from Lady de Cinza and her Grey Stripes... on pain of death
- Arriaga must submit his ledger for inspection every week
- Any word from his co-conspirator Salvador will be reported promptly
- Vosloo will serve as Arriaga's new lieutenant and handler (as Agila's man)
Only time will tell whether Arriaga will continue to comply with these restrictions...
* * * *
