Damnéd Guttersnipes!

They look like children - any children they want. So we call them guttersnipes.

One moment a scruffy urchin, the next a stroller-bound bairn, or Little Lord Fauntleroy, or whatever you can imagine. Just not what they can imagine.

You see, whatever you were expecting when the thought "child" occurred to you upon seeing them is how they present themselves. Whether this is mere glamor or true transformation is not known. The effect is party-proof: whoever saw it first generates its form in their mind, and that is what all will see until they leave your sight.

But why exactly you think you are seeing a child is not known, nor is their true form, if they can be said to have one. Those few who are honest among them claim to have forgotten it in the long years in our Ouroboros. Most recall that they once lived in another version of our city, one where cruel child lords ruled: they wanted to be like these lords. Instead they have found their way here, where children are often mistreated and usually discredited as cheats and liars (they are, both real ones and guttersnipes).

Guttersnipes as a whole are capricious and mischievous, often straying into downright malevolence when the humours take them. Naturally they use their youthful guise to great effect among us, sowing chaos and malefaction every which way they can.

For whatever reason they cannot be banished by the blind masons, something the latter are eager to hide from their elvish masters. They fear they will be sent back to the pits to undergo some fresh hell, a return to the ocularum or worse. So there is an uneasy truce between the masons and the guttersnipes: they will be left to their tricks and japes so long as they stay far from the watch of the elves. The blind masons call this the Accord, the guttersnipes call it Our Naughty Little Secret. *shudder*

There isn't exactly a magic bullet for countering guttersnipes (though real bullets work fine). There is no dead giveaway, no telltale mark hidden somewhere upon their skin (many are the children who have been cruelly stripped down to their undergarments when adults search for such a thing). And they are highly intelligent: if one can hold conversation with the philosophers of Ouroboros, one can certainly play the innocent.

But while they represent a force of chaos and often petty crime, they aren't exactly evil. After all, so long as the Accord with the masons is in effect, they must keep their presence relatively hidden. While many know of them, and most have heard tales, none among them are so brazen as to raise their heinous acts to the awareness of the city (and by extension the elf houses) at large.

So there is an uneasy balance in Ouroboros. As there always is...

Anthony van Dyck

"Parents"

It is unfortunately common in our fair city that the guttersnipes trick honest men and women into financing their nefarious schemes and gaudy lifestyle.

This is easily done. The guttersnipe, arriving in the home of those with young children, will instantly be mistaken for their true offspring. From there, the guttersnipe will proceed to rob the parents blind, all while receiving room and board.

All that would be fine, if not for the fate of the true child. For the ruse to work, they must not return home while the guttersnipe is at its work. The honorable impostor will merely kidnap the child and hand them off to its gang of cronies for safekeeping until the work is complete. But too often these days, the children are drowned in the sewers, cut up and left in different alleys, or simply vanish.

Usually the business is concluded inside a week. But there are known cases of guttersnipes staying on rather long-term, even permanently, if the setup is particularly sweet (who doesn't want rich parents?). Most of the victims never realize this, but some do, and often this ends in violence. But in Ouroboros, where anything is possible, even this is not the case. Rarely, the parents will keep the guttersnipe even after the jig is up. Some even prefer them to real children. The conversation is better.

Antonio Mancini

Street Encounters 5

1	Scampering child bumps into you, bursts into tears and flees, later another child is hawking something of yours, many interested buyers gather.
2	You pass a coffee house filled with cackling children playing at deadly games, they invite you to join, become violently insistent if you do not.
3	An enraged lady in waiting is locked in a gutter duel with an elvish child dressed in stolen finery, her finery maybe for it is hilariously oversized, yet the child is winning: the guttersnipes have grown bold in these waning days.
4	Two screaming children tussle on the ground, biting and scratching, they are identical, but which is the guttersnipe? Both beg for aid and offer reward: one their parents riches, the other a secret spell known only to the young.
5	Gang of guttersnipes block your path, clad in rancid decadence, wielding razors and sharpened sticks, "alms for the young madam?".
6	Somber (or titillated) crowd gathers, the object of their attention is a dismembered baby, that same baby watches wistfully from their ranks, dressed in tricorner hat and blue frock.
7	Small girl offers you a smoky ball, patterns and colors flash once accepted, too late you realize it has fused with you, children up and down the street cackle madly.
8	Ragamuffin urchin on an auction block, charismatic, gathering a throng of onlookers, peddling dreams (erotic or otherwise), this is of course a trick, they will invade your dreams that night and devour the dinners your mind sets out.
9	A procuress, well-known, approaches you with a delicate offer: many of her clients prefer guttersnipes, would you care to partake? If the secret gets out, she could be ruined.
10	Exceedingly young junkies crowd the alley nearby, few are actual guttersnipes, can anything be done to save Ouroboros' youth from the grips of addiction?