Vallaki’s toymaker, Gadof Blinsky, calls himself “a wizard of tiny wonders,” but he has been consumed by despair lately because no one seems to like him or want his toys. His fascination for eerie playthings causes most other locals to avoid him. The baron enables Blinsky to stay in business by giving him a couple of gold pieces a month to make festival decorations.
Blinsky is a heavyset man who wears a moth-eaten jester’s cap during store hours, more out of habit than to humor visitors. When he meets new customers, Blinsky recites a well-rehearsed greeting:
Wyelcome, friends, to the House of Blinsky, where hyappiness and smiles can be bought at bargain prices. Perhaps you know a leetle child in need of joy? A leetle toy for a girl or boy?
Blinsky believes the baron is right—that the only way to escape from Dibril is to make everyone in town “hyappy.” Blinsky would like to do his part by making sure that all the children in Dibril have fun toys.
Background
Blinsky considers himself a student of his grandfather, the great inventor and toymaker Fritz von Weerg. Blinsky has been using his grandfather's journal to try to reconstruct von Weerg’s greatest invention—a clockwork man—but he cannot seem to complete the work.
For the past two months, Blinsky's best customer has been the baron’s henchman, Izek Strazni. Izek doesn’t pay for the dolls but instead threatens to burn down Blinsky’s shop unless the toymaker delivers a new doll every week. Every doll is modeled on a specific description of the same person, who Izek says he sees in his dreams.
Recently, Blinsky gained a new companion; the monkey Piccolo. Piccolo was given to him by
Ms. Belasco from the Orphanage in exchange for several new toys for the children. Overjoyed, Blinsky has begun training the monkey to fetch toys from hard-to-reach shelves. The toymaker has also fitted Piccolo with a custom-tailored ballerina tutu.
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