Excerpts From Nonexistent Books

Friend – Aunt Ellthea Savage
The elderly patron of the former merchant house of Savage and Vic’s only remaining blood relative (aside from a few distant cousins). Well-built and caring, if inflexible in her morality, she and her late husband took Vic’s family in after their ruin. Out of obligation to her family, she will allow Vic to lay low with her after a caper and is willing to suffer the brief intrusion of his “friends” into her otherwise staid existence as a dowager. To make ends meet, she runs a small pastry shop with her husband’s daughter from a prior marriage, and she dreams of one day restoring the family fortune and seeing its line continue.

Friend – “Tapman” Scruthers
The barman and co-owner of the Lucky Ogre inn, and a former cutpurse in the city’s underbelly. He and Vic met as ne’er-do-well youths, and while he has managed to pull himself up from those humble origins he is always willing to share a drink with his old friend. While Scruthers has distanced himself from outright thievery, he still maintains a profitable sideline as a local information broker and is willing to rent rooms to thieves and others of low repute provided they behave themselves.

Friend – Pearcy Lightpocket
One of the city’s more successful thieves, Pearcy is something of an elder statesman, being all of 45 years old and still active as an occasional cutpurse—an unusual achievement. Though he generally works alone, he’s also the unofficial majordomo of a group of thieves that come to him for advice, which they trade for tips. Percy was something of a mentor to Vic some years ago and they will occasionally meet over ale to discuss comings and goings and techniques.

Neutral – Pickett the Fence
A pawnbroker of some repute, Pickett is also one of the most successful fences in the area, with a reputation for being able to turn around just about any item given enough time. While his rates are lower than some other fences, the fact that he’ll buy anything from anyone, provided that they have not crossed him in the past, has kept him afloat. His pawnshop deals entirely in legitimate items; the items he fences are farmed out to a network of apprentices in various other locations. His discerning eye for craftsmanship is legendary, as is his businesslike and professional demeanor.

Neutral – Constable Muttermelon
A sergeant in the city watch, Muttermelon has a reputation as the most corrupt and inept constable in the area. A family connection to the powerful Muttermelon clan keeps him gainfully employed and liberally supplied with information, but he is willing to betray anyone and anything for enough coin (with which he feeds a compulsive gambling habit). As such, he tends to be sought out by ne’er-do-wells as a bribery target, smuggling things in or out of the city prisons or passing on confidential information.

Neutral – “Pinchy” LaRoue
“Pinchy” is, as his name suggests, an infamous pickpocket. He is charming and popular and often hired on as additional help for rogues looking for an added put of muscle or finesse; this is counterbalanced by his occasional unpredictability and overwhelming selfishness. Rogues still talk of the Hannover Job, in which he was hired to steal a noble’s signet ring to start a feud between two houses. He performed as requested, replaced the ring with a forgery, and made a fortune selling it to an outside buyer as the noble houses and the thieves they had hired tore each other to ribbons.

Enemy – Kyr Whisperblade
Kyr is legendary in the regional underworld, not only for her skill and beauty but for her ruthlessness and ambition. She waylays, murders, steals, and plants on a whim, often stealing items or jobs from other thieves. In addition to being horrified by her methods, Vic has been upstaged, humiliated, and robbed by her on multiple occasions, and nurses a powerful grudge.

Enemy – Constable Graveline
A lieutenant in the city watch and Muttermelon’s supervisor, Graveline is a dedicated career constable who attempts to ruthlessly stamp out crime and lawlessness from his city. His adherence to the letter of the law and his willingness to take a personal hand in operations means that he has crossed paths with Vic multiple times, encounters that almost always end with Vic in jail or relieved of his stolen goods. As skilled a constable as Muttermellon is corrupt and inept, he is perhaps the most effective law enforcement in the city.

Enemy – Lady Faxhall
Lady Faxhall is the only child and heir of the Faxhall family, who were until recently a merchant family. They were ennobled around the time that the Savages were ruined, and profited greatly from buying their businesses at fire-sale prices during the plague. Some even claim that they caused the plague through sorcery to eliminate competitors; Lady Faxhall keeps a collection of family rings and sigils from families the Faxhalls have destroyed. Vic, in addition to blaming her for the misfortunes that befell his family, has been caught several times trying to steal Savage heirlooms back from her collection.

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Vic Savage was born into a prosperous merchant family in a major regional center. However, his parents’ business was ruined by an outbreak of plague and they were essentially forced into the street, winding up with relatives in the bad part of town. He spent a large part of his late childhood and adolescence on the street, running with urchins and impromptu thieves’ gangs. Those pursuits resulted in an athletic and dexterous temperament, while his family’s fall from grace meant that he slipped easily into the role of a rogue and sometime thief, though their former station means that he prefers to steal from people he believes deserve it.

Somewhat impulsive, Vic tends to speak before he thinks, and often rushes into situations as well. While he’s quick to claim that he has a silver tongue he actually stumbles somewhat with words and has a hard time convincing anyone of his point of view. He’s also easily distracted and prone to daydreaming. His prosperous background means that he had a relatively good education as a youngster; he also tends to prefer gaudy and expensive clothes for that same reason.

Vic wears his dark hair short (to keep anyone from getting a handhold) and tends to be unshaven despite his pretensions to a more noble appearance. He is of average height.

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