Backstory Building

Alright, let's build a little back story.
Is everyone from this village? (We can assume so, but there could be some wilderness living).
The town is large, so perhaps you don't know the others, do you?
Why did you answer the call of the king?

Anyone want to have gotten my guy out of a sticky situation? Or caught him trying to scam you, but let him off the hook for a favour?

We can assume I've got one identity that's from this village at least ;)

Answering call of the King somewhat involuntary (at least at face value).

My guy is from a farm on the out skirts of the town. He could have gotten your guy out of a sticky situation when he was traveling to market one day.

Wallamin was called to the Kings service because his patron demanded it.

Would be reasonable that my character and azira's might know each other, both being charlatans, and living in the city. Keiron is from this town, and knows a lot of people, and has scammed many more, so they might have run into him.

Depends on who's asking, most people he'll tell because there's good money in it. Religious ones he'll tell because his deity demanded it. And sometimes he'll tell people he did just for the hell of it.

Azira, that could work with my character. I could be a member of the towns guard but due to my sister being a member of the thieves guild, I let you go when I caught you doing some unsavory activities. But in return you owe a favour, this call to arms from the king is that favour being called in.

So I like the idea that cazzumz has because everyone else has charlatan for background. So it would bring cazzumz in to the fold and we could all know each other from different ways

@The_House: that sounds reasonable. We've probably bumped into each other, perhaps seen each other for what we are, and had occasional contests to see who can fleeze the most from a mark?

@Cazzumz: sounds good. I'll set my bond to you then, I owe you a big one for getting me out of there.

@Todd: True. Oh, and I didn't realise we were all charlatans before now :p Are we the league of unsavoury gentlemen?

Is Cazzumz ok with getting three charlatans out of a bad place? What did we do? Did we all fleeze the same noble? Did we band up for a big heist? How did Caz stop us, and why did he let us go (other than knowing his sister)? Did his god tell him we were going to be useful later?

Anyhow, being charlatans we can all burn the identities that were "caught", but since Caz knows us through his sister, he'd still be in a position to call in the favour from us.

I feel my character would be edging on the corrupt side of things so having my sister tied to the guild I get called in to get certain people out of situations.

Possibly have direct ties to one of you, I call in a favour and ask for you to get a team. Guards can't afford to send their trained men (or would just prefer to send lowlife criminals under supervision)

I like that idea

I don't mind Keiron being the one who gets the rest together, unless someone else wants to take that spot. We could be related in some way (probably not by blood, he is a tiefling), to give a more direct tie, or maybe childhood friends.

I'd like to imagine we were running a rigged gambling racket, and it was going fine until some noble wanted to play. So we screwed him of all the money he had, and he came after us in vengeance.

Would it be a safe assumption that all of you might have a crime attached to your name, even if you haven't been arrested for it?

For Keiron, sure.

Hm... I'm suddenly second guessing being a charlatan... My initial thought was that "Thyrian" changed identities like the rest of us changes coats, but I just realized he'll stick out a bit as a tiefling, so not sure if that makes sense or not. I'd originally assumed he'd done things before, but always burned identities that were found out. Are there enough tieflings in the society to make that viable, or should I find another background?

I see Elran not having a crime tied to him. Just not turning in others for crimes, keeping them on the street as informants. Obviously murderers he will turn in but anything under that he might let slide (unless he's coming under scrutiny or just doesn't like the person/reasoning). He sees it as the more people on the street the more able hands there are to help defend against the lycans and vampires.

Depends on how subtle your tiefling features are. Horns probably won't stand out, giant wings probably will. Since humans are the main race, you'll probably be fine since humans have a hard time discerning different individuals in specific races.

Keiron is also a Tiefling Charlatan, I figured that was part of the reason he was a Charlatan, the expectation for him to be bad pushed him into it. And I'm assuming he gets away with it, so you probably could.

Wallamin is a charlatan but he is pushed in to it by his patron. His patron leaves him little clues to follow but they don't always workout. The patron likes to see him succeed because then he has more power in the world but he still finds joy in his suffering when he fails

Sounds good to me. In that case, "Thyrian" has probably gotten busted for minor crimes, scams and the like before, but he always burns the old identity and takes up his reserve when that happens. "The Law" might be confused by this, but I'm guessing us charlatans recognize each other when we meet. "Oh, that's who you're now, got it, Thyrian"

Sound like Elran has gotten us off different smaller crimes then? Mine is probably fleezing the wrong noble in a game of cards (I swear I didn't know they were marked)

I'm thinking background wise I may customise it as laid out in the PHB, taking mostly from soldier but taking the criminal contact feature. Just so it makes sense I can contact people of 'ill-repute' easily as I imagine it isn't just you three I've let of the hook.

Seems reasonable. I'm guessing Keiron (or whatever his real name is) has probably been caught at various times for little things here and there, so no reason you wouldn't have gotten him out of those.