AT A GLANCE: The Shadow Thieves are 
a wide-ranging guild of thieves, spies, 
and assassins who perform particularly 
dangerous, evil-aligned, and lucrative 
ventures.  Their activities, unlike those 
of most thieving guilds, are not limited 
to a single city, and they range they range 
the length of the Sword Coast. 

ELMINSTER'S NOTES: A group directly 
opposed to the Lords of Waterdeep, the 
Shadow Thieves are based in Athkatla, 
in Amn, where they have a massive 
training complex and a testing-ground 
for the assassins they sponsor. 

These thieves were once the Thieves 
Guild of Waterdeep, until they were 
driven out of that city, or slaughtered, 
by the Lords of Waterdeep.  The 
Shadow Thieves have sponsored an 
Assassin's Guild in Athkatla with the 
eventual aim of SLAYING all of the Lords 
of Waterdeep.  In the meantime, this 
secretive organization appears to have 
reached some sort of agreement with 
the merchant-kings of Amn, who would 
like to see turmoil in their TRADE rival, 
Waterdeep, and who wish to avoid 
being on the assassins hit list themselves.  
Under this pact the Merchant-kings 
leave the Shadow Thieves along, 
and are in turn left alone. 

The Shadow Thieves operate up and 
down the Sword Coast; their trademark 
is a black silk mask impaled upon 
a stiletto blade (usually used in assassinations, 
or left behind at the scene if a 
garrotte or poison is employed instead).  
No names, levels, or even numbers of 
Shadow Thieves are known; high-level 
operators are thought to be few.  Former 
members, SLAIN by the Lords of 
Waterdeep and the Company of Crazed 
Venturers (an adventuring company) 
include the thieves Quist and Mashtun.