Founded decades earlier by the Gnome Rogue Nessa Nina Quickpick Rumbauld Pennyluck, the Whistledrop Crew had operated out of Phyracress with a reputation for skill tempered by an internal code of honor. For a time, the thieves' guild was famous throughout the Fencrest Foothills, and none could figure out the location of the Whistledrop Hideout. As Nessa aged and took fewer jobs, however, the Crew’s activity slowed. Though it still had talented members such as Punmiri Tel-Phaeun and Merc Firewater, the leadership of the Crew was uncertain.
Hope for continuity emerged when Nessa took on a masked Vistani thief known as Dee, whose talent and discipline marked her as a potential successor. Around this time, the Crew also took in a young runaway noblewoman traveling under the name Elle, later known to be Ellenor Breathamof Fang's End. Trained primarily by Dee, Elle proved adept, and the two grew unusually close. Their similar builds and shared use of masks allowed them to imitate one another convincingly, a tactic they used during jobs and to protect Ellenor’s identity. Nessa Nina came to see the pair as the future of the Crew, believing leadership and legacy might pass to them together.
Unbeknownst to the Whistledrop Crew, Ellenor’s family had hired mercenaries to retrieve her and erase the scandal of her flight. The pursuit was led by her brother, Nigel Breatham, who followed her trail across western Commona to Phyracress. When much of the Crew was away on a heist, Nigel and his band located the Whistledrop hideout; in the dead of night, they descended the well and launched an attack against the reduced defenders. In the chaos, Dee hid Elle and used their resemblance to delay Nigel, allowing her friend to remain undiscovered.
The ruse ended with Dee’s death, killed by Nigel in a fit of rage, along with several other members of the Crew. The hideout was left in ruins, and by morning little remained but ash. Ellenor vanished entirely in the aftermath, leaving no word of her fate, and Nigel was left without a trail, disappearing as well. Faced with the loss of her chosen successor, the deaths of her rogues, and the exposure of the hideout, Nessa Nina formally disbanded the Whistledrop Crew.
However, some members of the Crew would later connect, particularly in the Break-In At Bleak End.