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.

“His kin were a group of vile bandits that had been terrorizing the countryside for months!” You could hear the italics in the fighter’s voice.

The wizard knew how to fight italics with italics. “I seem to remember that you don’t exactly have the most honorable lineage, Tavin.”

Sir Tavin, the fighter, glared but said nothing. He wiped off his sword, and the group returned to Crowfield.

The boy was named “Copper.” He was eight years old. This wasn’t what he wanted, but no one asked him. Having no other choice, he followed them.

---

Sir Tavin, Sorceress Thorina, and Bishop Ordric had long been heroes of the town. Before handling the bandit problem, they had sealed the demon hole in the old iron mine. Even earlier, they defeated the necromancer of Biddlesden. But this was their last adventure together. Ordric and Thorina settled down for a nice family life. Sir Tavin left the town and made a name for himself, eventually becoming the Lord of Woodend.

Copper was smart. Because he was being raised by a wizard and a cleric, he learned some of the ways of magic. Because his adoptive parents had high position in the town, he learned the ways of politics. Because he was cunning, he kept these things to himself.

---

Copper was 16 when he made his move. No one is exactly sure how he did it, but he proved Tavin right one night when he killed both Thorina and Ordric. Some say the last words they heard were “That’s for killing my real parents.”

He denied it, of course. He had a good alibi and there was no evidence, so he was never charged or tried. There were suspicions, though, so he was never entirely trusted by the people in the upper part of town.

Being rejected in the upper part of town, he moved to the lower part of town. He opened a tavern named “Kindred Spirits.” Copper wasn’t a member of the tavern-keeper’s guild. It is said that the guildmaster tried to shut Copper down, but disappeared without a trace before he could.

Over the course of a year, the face of crime in Crowfield changed. Protection rackets became a thing. Prostitution and gambling all came under the control of a shadowy organization. Some might call it a thieves' guild, but in Crowfield it was just called Kindred Spirits. No matter what you called it, Copper was in charge and was untouchable.

---

The tavern is gone these days, and Copper has been dead for nearly 200 years. But people still talk about “The Kindred.” People still whisper that they control all the crime in Crowfield.

Wrap Up

When I was young and reading D&D for the first time I thought the idea of a thieves' guild was stupid and unrealistic. Eventually someone pointed out that they really exist in our modern world, but with names like “mafia” and “street gangs.”

James likes backstory, so I thought I’d give him the history of the local thieves guild. Back in June I called them “The Kith,” but I didn’t like that name. Let’s see if “The Kindred” is better.

Next week will be a tie-in: Crowfield’s thief class. It differs from the official thief class because thief skills are replaced with thief spells.