Special Equipment:

Rainbow Medallion (see below), daggar

Appearance:

Gingersnap is a boy of about thirteen, but he looks like he’s eight.  He’s very small, and has extremely unruly ginger-red hair.  He’s most often dressed in ragged clothes, and covered in grime.  In short, he looks like any of the other thousands of beggars.  He is very intelligent, and though he usually speaks in the dialect of the gutter, he will slip occasionally and say something that doesn’t quite fit with his position.

Background:

Tolby Kinnis was the son of a fairly well-to-do merchant.  His mother had died when he was a baby.  Tolby recieved the best schooling his father could afford, as he was an only child.  His father had dreams of Tolby taking over the family business.  Then he was killed by bandits that attacked his caravan.  A distant cousin somehow got himself named Tolby’s guardian, and took over the merchant’s business.  He was a cruel man, and took over everything that should have been Tolby’s.  It slowly became obvious to Tolby that living long enough to legally claim his inheritance was unlikely to the extreme.  He ran away when he was ten.  He had no other family, and family friends were blissfully unaware of his cousin’s nature, so they would have innocently handed Tolby back over to his cousin if they found him.  Tolby took to the streets, living by his wits, earning a few coins when he could, stealing a few when he had to, and begging when he had no other choice.  He eventually made friends among the denziens of the lowest rung of society and the underworld.  He was nicknamed “Gingersnap” because of his oddly colored hair.  He’s grown accustomed to his life, but he still hopes to take back what his cousin stole.

Roleplaying Notes:

Gingersnap is probably one of the best sources of information that the PCs could find.  He hears many rumors on a daily basis, and his friends among the criminal quarter tell him things without even thinking about it.  Not much happens that he doesn’t hear about eventually.  The Rainbow Medallion is a gift from a friend of his, a rainbow dragon (chaotic good, polymorph self, all other common dragon abilities), whom he once did a favor.  Give it any effect you like.
And then of course, the PCs could get involved trying to help Gingersnap reclaim his inheritance.