The Silver Shrew 

Vareena Tholestone, a young girl of 8 when her life changed, lived with her parents in the unremarkable town of Shamburrow.
Before her eighth birthday, she played in the streets with some of the other girls and flung mud at the boys when she could, as they were always getting into trouble.

When she wasn't playing however, she was learning how to cook and sew from her mother and unlike many of the girls her age, learned to read and write from a priestess in the local church to Pelor. It gave her great advantage over her peers and eventually gave her access to some of the town's hidden secrets.

Learning to read and write sparked her inquisitive mind to try and understand the many symbols left on walls and other surfaces across town. It didn't take her all too long to figure out their meaning and no sooner had she done so than she got in trouble. Or rather, her mother did. At this stage, it was a mere warning that she shouldn't meddle. Five weeks later however, armed men stood at her door, telling Vareena's mother to make Vareena stop (or else). Vareena's mother of course, was shocked and promised them that it wouldn't happen ever again. In fact, she swore this.

Unfortunately for her mother, Vareena did not stop. Her love for reading was too great. So great in fact, that as a present to herself on her eighth birthday, she wrote down the code and used this "lexicon of mystery" to carve a message on the fence outside her home which said "queen for the day, free for all time".

Later, her birthday was celebrated with Humblebee honey cookies and a tiny silver shrew hung from a necklace.
Vareena couldn't be happier and ran through the house for most of the afternoon singing about her mother and father and the greatest gift in the world.
So naturally, that night, she slept like an owlbear in hibernation.

That same night, the guardsmen came into Vareena's home and took her mother prisoner. The charge was treason and espionage through her daughter. Vareena, being a child, was found innocent. Not even when she screamed through the court, explaining everything, did the court change its verdict.
Vareena's mother was a traitor and a spy now. And nothing could change it.

The usual sentence in these cases was death by hanging, but since Vareena's mother was the wife of a respectable member of society, she was exiled to live in the forest instead.

Vareena, thoroughly outraged by her mother's exile and the judge's prohibition to seek her out, acted out.

Her father, the local blacksmith who had chosen not to speak against the court for fear of losing his job, told her several times to abandon her behaviour. But Vareena wouldn't hear of it.
Vareena continued to act out, and soon got mixed up with the wrong kinds of people, stealing and manipulating to get by.

On the night of her sixteenth birthday -when she came home to boast of her skill- her father put a bundle on the table and went to bed, never to wake.
This to Vareena, was a sign that she should search for her mother in the nearby forest, whatever the consequence. Only a few weeks later she left the town of Shamburrow, only to find a note hanging from a half-rotten door to a cabin near the river, deep inside the forest. The note read "Maura Tholestone, exile of Shamburrow and inhabitant of this cabin, is hereby summoned to Blightward in service of our great king Yenorin Hawklight".

"In service of our great king," Vareena snickered. As if she needed more reasons to rob his royal bum blind.
Well, she thought, if fate wanted her to emty the royal treasury into her own pockets, she sure wasn't going to argue. In fact, she would do it with nothing less than absolute glee. If only to spite the man who had nerve and saw fit to summon her mother to the city of lies and falce façades.

Vareena fastened her bootstraps again and ran for blightward.
During this four week journey, she stopped only once to dine and rest longer than her usual four hours at the Fiery Fae Inn.
While she was sitting there, alone at a table, she noticed a small group of traveler -obviously thieves- sitting at the table near the back entrance no doubt waiting for a full Inn and a quick haul.
Vareena smiled to herself, finished her dinner in peace, and stood up. The band of thieves looked at her and she at them. She winked at the young tiefling girl of the band and walked towards them, picking pockets (unnoticed) along the way.

The tiefling girl and her friends looked at Vareena with mixed awe and anger as she sat at their table smiling heartily as she did.
Vareena looked them each in the eye, set down the bag with newly stolen coin and asked pleasantly for their names.

The tiefling girl answered first.
"Stragdaval is my name, and you have some nerve..."

"Stealing more and more skillfully than you? Giving you the coin I took? Oh yes, that takes nerve." Vareena interrupted.

"Hey!" the youngest human boy cried.

Vareena laughed despite herself.
"In love are we? How adorable".
The boy blushed with feigned anger and obvious shame.

"What's your name boy?" Vareena asked quickly.

"Andon," the boy answered.

Vareena smiled and nodded, settling finally on the face of the oldest human boy.
"How about you then? D'you have a name?" Vareena asked.

The boy stared at her blankly and said not a word, to which Vareena's smile grew with obviously glee before she asked again.
But again, the boy didn't answer.

"Very well then," Vareena said, "I will call you Silent Shadow when we speak. For lack of a better name".

The boy raised his head slightly, then nodded annoyedly at her.
Vareena clapped her hands together once and told the younglings all she had learned about thievery, in exchange for their company, trust and loyalty.
Impressed by her vast knowledge, they agreed eagerly and even accompanied her to Blightward the next day at noon so Vareena could take care of something 'important' before their next job.

Three and a half weeks later, after arriving in Blightward, Vareena left her band of comrades at the Tearful Traveler Inn and asked the local court for an audience with the king. But when the king gor word of the reason, he sent back a letter denying her audience and explaining that Maura Tholestone was no longer in his service. It went on to explain that she was now kepper of books and scrolls at the blightward library.

After reading this, Vareena ran as quickly as she could to the library and asked for Maura Tholestone. The woman behind the clerk's desk paused for a moment, tapped the desk nervously and finally concluded that Maura was probably on the second floor but not to run please.

Vareena took a few nervous breaths, nodded thankfully at the woman and walked cautiosly up to the second floor where she called out sofly for her mother. A few agonising seconds later, a frail old woman stepped out from among two rows of books. She wore spectacles now but didn't look less happy for it.

Slightly confused, her eyes settled on Vareena and she smiled.
"Yes dear," Maura said cheerfully, "can I help you with something"?

Vareena was crushed in realising that her mother hadn't recognised her and took a desperate step closer hoping -beyond hope- she would reconize her.

"You know," Maura said suddenly, "I hava a daughter who would be about your age now. In fact you kind of look like her. She lives in shamburrow, not far from here. Probably married to a gorgeous bard or something. She loves to read, you see."

Vareena smiled with tears in her eyes.
"I'm afraid I'm still single." She said in a half-sob.

Maura peered at Vareena for a long while, touched her face probingly and asked:
"Vareena? Is that really you?"

Vareena smiled and cried simultaniously, then nodded.

"My baby!" Maura exclaimed, holding Vareena tight.
"Oh, my darling Silver Shrew, how I've missed you." she added.

Vareena and her mother talked for hours after, catching up on twelve years worth of everything they had seen and done, until the library closed. But even when it did, they talked in Maura's home until the lanterns in the streets were lit.

When Vareena finally left for the night to take up her room in the Tearful Traveler Inn, Maura told her something about an underground sanctum built by the followers of Olidammara. Grateful, Vareena hugged her mother one last time and returned to her band of comrades who had -in the meantime- taken to the town's riches enough to relieve it of a fair amount.

Stragdaval, the beaming female tiefling leader of this endeavor, explained way they had gathered information and how they had pulled it off.

Vareena, feeling both proud and bothered, found no words for either emotion and smiled slightly. The silence was so thick, Stragdaval half expected Vareena to throw a dagger.
But when none came, she asked for Vareena's opinion.
Much to Stragdaval's surprise however, Vareena hugged her quickly to let her know how she felt. But just when Stragdaval would've asked Vareena what this meant, Silent Shadow suddenly spoke.

"So, what's your name?" he asked.

Vareena, startled by the fact Silent Shadow had just spoken and by the question asked "What?"

Silent Shadow looked at Vareena angrily and repeated his question, clenching his fist on what could only be a dagger.

Vareena sighed and stared at him annoyedly, just as he had done some time before.
Recognizing what Vareena had just done, Silent Shadow smiled slyly, then said "Very well then, I will call you Silver Shrew when we speak. After that creature around your neck. For lack of a better name."

Vareena raised her head slightly, then nodded with mock-annoyance and smiled heartily at him.

"I have the perfect gift for you then," Silent Shadow added, "bought it from the local smith".

Vareena looked at Silent Shadow intently as he put a small bundle on the table and nodded at her. Unable to hide her excitement, Vareena opened the package impatiently to reveal a mask in silver, shaped like the face of a shrew.
She picked it up and inspected the finely crafted venetian style mask, taking in the many details of the shrew's nose, snout and eye holes, then put it on.

The second the mask was completely on, something inside her clicked.
She thought of the underground sanctum her mother had mentioned and envisioned it as an underground lair for her thieves to live and hide in. Her eyes lit up at the thought in a literal sense as latent innate magic boiled up inside her and made her eyes shine a bright saphire blue.

Stragdaval observed the strange scene with great alarm and shook Vareena, all the while asking her what was going on. Eventually, Vareena came back to herself and said she'd had an idea. Silent Shadow and Andon leaned in closer in anticipation, much like other children might do for a bedtime story. 

Vareena smiled and stoked the shrew's mask suggestively and said "The Fair Felon Sanctuary". The others laughed for a while, then sighed as if realising she was serious and fired off a lot of questions, all of which Vareena andswered by sharing her plans.
Andon was so excited by this, he jumped in with an idea of his own. He suggested to create a network of thieves and spies in a sort of guild they could call the 'Fair Felon guild'.

A couple of ideas, several people and a good seven years later, the Fair Felon Guild was born and had its heart in the Fair Felon Sanctuary which was known as the 'Keep under the City' to associates. It has grown to connect to the order of the Silver Loom and even the king himself.

Vareena herself, is known only as the Silver Shrew to the outside world. Not as much as a female thief, but as the demonic leader of the Fair Felon guild whose glowing saphire eyes peer through a silver mask as her rapier runs you through.

Her right hand woman, Stragdaval, has formed a connection to Olidammara through her dedication to the rapier and her destiny as speculated by the magi of the Silver Loom. Which is to find the dragonstone. Since the night of the Vile Mist however, a third eye has appeared in the center of her right palm which she protects with an enchanted glove. She can use this eye to read a person's mind but not without cost. This eye is known as an Evil Eye and linked to an unknown entity as well as her. It is considered to be necromantic in nature.

Silent Shadow has grown to become the guild's assassin, deployed only when the guild is sure the target is a threat to the commoners of Blightward.
Andon however, has disappeared some time after the Vile mist, with a cat he was known to carry. Some believe he is dead, thought rumour combined with the sightings of his ex-pet, lead the guild to believe the rumours are true. That is to say, turned into a four armed abomination by the mist.

Maura Tholestone, mother to her darling daughter Vareena and infamous Silver Shrew, currently enjoys her retirement and holds a statuette bearing the likeness of her late husband. This statuette was a gift from her daughter as a memento.
Because of Maura's inability to travel and Vareena's determination to keep her mother happy, she still does not know her husband is dead.