Criminals of Crowfield

If you went to the days before D&D and asked someone to name the “thievish” characters of fantasy literature, they would say Cugel the Clever (1965) and the Gray Mouser (1968). A particularly well read person might mention Lord Dunsany’s Mr. Nuth (1912). Some might have been tempted to mention Bilbo Baggins (1937), but they would be wrong; Bilbo only pretended to be a burglar.

Cudgel and the Mouser have something in common: they’re both magic-users. Whether or not Mr. Nuth used magic is up for interpretation. Lord Dunsany writes that “To those outside the magic circle of business, his name is scarcely known,” so it certainly seems plausible.

It seems odd to me, then, that D&D thieves are not magic users. So in my world, they are! This isn’t a hard leap to make. When you look at a thief’s core abilities, it becomes apparent most of these abilities already exist as spells.

Core abilities

The thief class is first introduced in 1975’s Greyhawk supplement. In that volume they’re given the following basic abilities:

Kindred Spirits

“We should just kill him,” said the fighter. He delayed wiping the blood off his sword in case it was just going to get messy again.

“We can’t do that! He’s just a boy,” exclaimed the cleric. His booming voice reverberated with compassion. Militant compassion.

The wizard smiled at her husband’s kindness. She knew the passion in his words; she felt the strength of his conviction in the slight tremble behind the boom. She knew that there would be no convincing him otherwise. Plus, she liked the idea of being an adoptive mother. “We can raise him,” she said.

“We?!?” shouted the fighter in disbelief.

“We,” the wizard pointed to the cleric and herself. “Ordric and I.”

“It’s the least we can do after we killed his kin,” said Ordric. He looked into his wife’s eyes and smiled. They were always on the same page.

Imojingo, Shaman of Roc Nester

Like Humans, Goblins are not a unified people.

Like Humans, Goblins are divided into nations, tribes, clans, and families.

Goblin nations are often named for mighty beasts, like the Dragon Nation, the Beholder Nation, and the Owlbear Nation. One of the lesser nations is the Roc Nation.

The Roc Nation is comprised of various clans. There's the Beak Clan, the Talon Clan, and the Roc's Eye Clan. Of the lesser clans of this lesser nation was the Roc Nester Clan.

The Roc Nester village was on the banks of a mystical river. It was said that people with the gift could peer into the river under the full moon to see true visions of far away places. For this reason it was called the Genuine See river, which was eventually shorted as the Gen'see. Long ago, a Roc Nester wizard named Eastlin invented the crystal ball by freezing the river's full moon water and casting a special spell on it. While the invention brought Eastlin great wealth, the visions he saw drove him to madness.

Stone Age

I've visited quite a few medieval castles and ruins, but some of the most memorable places that I've visited have been Neolithic.  Places like Stonehenge, Avebury, Skara Brae, and Hetty Pegler's Tump.  There is just something about getting on your hands and knees to crawl into a stone age burial mound and to be alone in the burial chambers that leaves an impression.

One of the burial chambers in the Uley Long Barrow.  I did not see a barrow wight.