Some sketchy designs for some important characters in Adder's story. Explanations below but the tl;dr is Shardrin is her old friend with benefits, Crow is her old boss, and Maltyrr and Maltana are her twin girls that she abandoned. yeah
Shardrin - Adder's old friend with benefits. The two were assigned to live together when Shardrin came into her home city of Death's Toll, not long after Vhaeraun had died. Adder was in grieving, but her grief tended to look "wrong" to most people. She covered up her pain with jokes, sarcasm, and and a facade of apathy, leading those that knew her to assume she couldn't take anything seriously and that she didn't really care that Vhaeraun was dead, even if she really did.
Shardrin came into this community with a collar around his neck. A thick metal one with gemstones that his former mistress had put on him from a young age, leading his neck to be pinched, scarred, and discolored. His voice is also high pitched and quiet because his vocal chords never developed properly. He got it cut off when he came to Death's Toll, and had the pieces fashioned into a necklace to reclaim what had held him back before. He's soft spoken and quiet and very observant, still coming down from how tense and dangerous Lolthite culture was.
Shardrin was one of the only people to notice that Adder was truly grieving. Despite others telling him their opinions on her, he observed carefully and got to know her in their time living together, and noticed that all of her humor was just a deflection. During this quiet period they studied their magic together, Shardrin honing in on his passion for wizardry. Despite being treated like a black sheep and an outcast, Adder was still heavily pressured (though distinctly not forced) to further the drow population in the town. She finally acquiesced and had kids with Shardrin, a set of twin girls.
Although she truly appreciated being heard and having someone not treat her like she was lying about her grief - she's an opportunistic one, and definitely took advantage of the fact that he wouldn't say no to anything she asked. She may not find Lolthite culture all that appealing, but just having a taste of being obeyed and worshiped without question, she couldn't pass it up.
Maltyrr and Maltana - Adder's twin girls. Unable to handle the grief and scorn, Adder left Death's Toll when her kids were six. She never wanted kids, definitely didn't want to raise any, so she left them for Shardrin and the rest of the community to take care of. Shardrin wasn't that surprised, knowing how miserable and free spirited she was, so they parted ways. She was always free to return, but she longed for the life she had before.
Maltyrr is a daddy's girl, and has taken up interest in joining the Vhaeraun clergy. She straightens her hair to be more like Shardrin. She accepted when Shardrin told her that Adder was gone and that she wasn't interested in getting to know her kids, she was sad but she moved on quickly. She still had her father and the rest of the community for support.
Maltana followed a different path. Even though they were inseperable as kids, her and Malbryn started to fight. Maltana couldn't accept that someone was out there that gave birth to her and didn't want her, so on her fourth decade, she left to go find her. Along the way, she ended up converting to Eilistraee, taking up the new name Moondancer. But she is still seething with resentment for her twin that refused to come with her and the mother that is still out there somewhere and is only using the Eilistraeeans as a means to an end.
Vynn'rar (better known as Murder of Crows or just Crow) - A wealthy businessman and high-ranking member in Death's Toll. He wasn't high enough to be a full council member for the city, but a rank or two below. He runs his business the Night Stalkers, a group of assassins. He collects contracts from various nearby towns and gives them to his mercenaries to fulfill. He took Adder into his company when she was about 80 years old or so, and took it upon himself to teach her how to hone her fighting skills. She became a high ranking member in his company, and thus, in Death's Toll as well. They used to be close, with Adder often spending time in his office bothering him while he's trying to do important work.
He's highly intelligent and good with his bookkeeping, and studies transmutation on the side, usually with his crows. He'd be a Swarmkeeper Ranger. He experiments with their forms, one notable successful one is a two-headed dog-crow abomination thing. He also has a giant Deep Crow. He can see through any of the crow's eyes at any given time, of which he has at least a hundred of, so he can send them out to scout out and cover large distances to track down targets.
His mild soft spot for Adder due to their history led him to lending her a lot of money over the years. A lot of it went to her gambling addiction. He tried to hold back but she would always get him to crumble. Up until he'd had enough - she wasn't doing her job, she was putting the cash flow in jeopardy, and hadn't paid back anything - and had to punish her in a way she'd understand, marring her "perfect" looks by taking off her finger.
