Dregs

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'Early Childhood'==

In the year of 1515, in the docks district, Athkatla, Amn, a Pirate who did not leave his name, stopped off to enjoy a little time ashore. He drank, he sung and revilled with his shipmates about their recent plunder. But most importanly, He rented the "Services" of a young woman. The Pirate awoke groggily the next morning, collected his clothes, left his payment by the bed and took off back out to sea. He was her third customer.

5 months passed before she realised what the swelling of her belly meant. She panicked, but alas, the child was to far grown for herbs to expell him from her womb.

On the day of the child's birth, after many bloody hours of labour, she looked apon her son. "All that effort for this whingy lump of flesh?" She gasped. She was tempted to throw the child out on the street there and then. Only the horror of her workmates that she would even suggest such a thing kept her from doing so.

The boy grew up unnamed in the whore house tended by his mother, but thrust roughly aside, or palmed off to another lady of the night, whenever she had work to do. After the third year of this, the boys mother had had enough, and so he was shoved out on the street during her working hours. It was here that The Boy became aquainted with the other penniless orphans that scuttled about the streets at night. Being only three years old, he was was the youngest of the group, but The Hoodlums quickly taught him how to take advantage of his age and size. They nicknamed him Dregs.

One night, after a bout of successful thievery by The Hoodlums, they were followed into an alley by two drunken sailors who had seen some of the pilfered coin. The Hoodlums were divvying up the loot when they heard one of the sailors' voices from the darkness. "Good work young 'uns. We'll be taking that gold of yer hands now." The orphans snapped around and began backing away from the puddle of coins on the floor. But Dregs was not so easily perturbed. He stood between the sailors and the money and said in his childish voice.

"No."

The sailors looked at eachother, a little confused, before bursting into laughter at this tiny being who thought it could stop them.

"Allright then, Braveheart. Try and stop us!" They began moving towards the boy.

"No!" Dregs repeated, as the sailors drew knives

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this" Grinned one of the sailors.

"NO!" Shouted Dregs for a final time as a blot of lightning flew from his outstreched hand into the grinning sailor's face. His smoking corpse hit the ground with a dull thud. The other sailor stared, stunned, at his fallen compainion. His eyes turned back to the three year old that had just killed a grown man, and bolted.

The Shadow Thief, by the name of Jerald, came calling to the brothel shortly after that. Jerald collected the boy to "test" these arcane powers that the surviving sailor had been telling storys about. Spending the day with him, Jerald noticed, that not just was the boy a magician, he was a superb thief. Jerald however, being the sly old dog that he was, and knowing that The Shadow Thieves would not be too crash hot on the idea of a guild rat that could throw fireballs, told his superiors, that the boy was just an excellent swindler, with not a drop of arcane blood in him. This was duly noted, and the boy continued working for the Shadow Thieves through The Hoodlums, only now, Jerald would talk to him, and get him to do certain errands.

'Envolvement With The Shadow Thieves'
Dregs ran with The Hoodlums untill he was 9, at which time he became more involved with The Shadow Thieves, and started being asked to do jobs directly, and moved out of the whore house and into the bunking at the guild. Jerald was still his unofficial master however, and he would oft assign tasks to Dregs such as gathering information on the history of the Zhentarim or finding out the current affairs in Anauroch and such things. Jerald was fastidious about details, and would often get Dregs to repeat a small bit of information about a previous task, so he quickly learned to either write things down, or commit them to serious memory.

At the age of 11 Dregs was offered the chance to be the youngest Pick Jockey in living memory, all he had to do was proove his skills in a creative way, to impress the guildmaster. The next day, as the guildmaster (Renal Bloodscalp) listned to the guards doing their morning rounds, he noticed it sounded a bit different today. *Clank* *pad* *Clank *pad*. As opposed to the usual, *Clank Clank Clank* of the boots. Renal looked out his window to see every guard in the district walking around with only one boot. He Grinned. The new boy would be a fine thief.

By 16, Dregs returned to the whorehouse, but this time, as a patron. Having little else to spend his earnings on (seeing as he stole whatever material possesions he desired.) He fritted away his coins at the house that raised him.

At 17 Dregs was on the verge of gaining bladeship, whereby he would be of equal rank to Jerald, when he was sent by his superiors to investigate certain riches that were said to be being held in Zhentil keep. And so Dregs set off to find out, what these riches were, where they were, and if he could get his hands on them.