[Genteven - Solo (Job)] Risk & Rewards: Strike for Gold - Eye for Appraisal & Information Gathering
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 6:41 pm
70th of Ash, 4622
Beyond the pristine walls that keep the common folk from the wealthy, leaving much to be desired by the many. After stepping through some strict security measures in the form of an increased group of guards patrolling their designated perimeter & locked gates. The Amber-eyed Alistian is currently in the second story of what seems to be a personal study with no light source present other than the luminous orb that floats gracefully above & its pale cascading light coating the land in shrouds of thinly veiled gleam & shadows.
The thief takes a moment to let his cat-like eyes adjust to the room he just entered. The study itself had a large quantity of books of various colors, Covered in different coloured leathers, cloth & buckram. A large desk made of black walnut with intricate designs of carved waves & various symbols that pay homage to the empire.
From what Jared could tell, this particular person valued books quite a bit from their expansive collection; Not only that, tomes tend to hold quite a vast amount of knowledge in regards to a variety of topics depending on the author who created the book & even then the value of a book is quite significant as the creation of such an item requires a large amount of dedication to product one.
From the creation of parchment, which requires the hide of various animals which needed to be treated by a tanner before being able to write on, or the more recent addition of paper which required large amounts of wood pulp & fiber to make semi-decent quantity item would cost a fair amount of farthings. This doesn’t include the pigments needed to produce inks which is a trade secret from other ink-making guilds, as each formula was closely guarding against what the citrine-eyed thief could recall.
The thief could recall being hired to steal some valuable intel for competitor ink merchants; they mentioned checking for things such as fixatives, types of minerals, animal parts or plant resins that would produce the colorant in question & taking samples of various raw materials. It was an exciting thievery request, but the payout was good, and that was all that mattered to the thief at the time of the commission.
Nevertheless, A few books would be pretty nice to have for when Ash passes & Frost settles in for the season & if push comes to shove, the apprentice thief could haggle with some fences or merchants for the sale of such precious items. However, the buyer's taste would be a massive factor in how much the thief acquired the coin for his exceptional work.
Take a few minutes to scour through the collection of books & tomes that are currently present in the ornate study; While the thief wasn’t much a reader himself, improving his literacy skills would prove helpful in the grand scheme of things as it would allow him to interpret words more clearly. In a sense, Jared, while being a petty thief, the Alistian male, Jared would not be considered a master thief by only practicing his larceny skills. Instead, a master thief requires a wide variety of skills, from planning espionage missions to learning a variety of languages & appraising items for a profitable sale.
“Seems like whoever this person is, they seem to hold quite an array of items. Makes you wonder what other precious things this household contains….”
Realizing that there would be more items to pocket than expected, the nightfall magus takes a moment to pull the shroud of darkness around and condense it into a malleable clay, briefly twiddling his fingers and stretching it far & folding it as if it were dough. A couple of minutes would pass as the thief finishes making a satchel out of Umbralplasm to hold some of the books he plans to take, some containing valuable information about the history of the empire, some about the theory of raw magic & applications and others being more miscellaneous and to top it all off, a bottle of ink which would sell a decent price.
Once the stolen items have been stowed away, the thief could make his way over to the door, which he believes could lead into the main hallway of the second-story building; The alistian man was playing into a fine line of infiltration for being caught now could result in a prolonged chase or possibly battling for his life.
The thief did not stop pursuing his goal of stealing as many valuables as possible; Placing his ear against the door, Jared slowed his breathing rate to concentrate more on the subtle sounds that might come from the hallway. Then, closing his eyes and focusing on what he could hear, the petty alistian thief could listen to the light sounds of creaking but nothing else, indicating that someone else was on the floor but trying their best to remain silent.
Opening his eyes once more, Jared’s gaze quickly shifts over the brief gap under the door as the flickering light suddenly vanishes from the warm candlelight to the palest shimmer of the moon’s light. It could be determined at this point that this mysterious person was on the prowl just like he was & the need to stay silent was paramount at this point.
As the minute passes, beads of sweat begin to form around the petty thief’s forehead, actively listening for when the coast is clear; the amber-eyed thief takes a moment to put his gloved hand on the handle, briefly applying pressure to slowly open the door and wedge it open by a sliver, just enough to be able to peer into the hallway.
While his vision in the dark was not specular compared to other races in Atharen, the night owl thief could see a short wispy shadow move down the hallway, slowly making its way to one end before briefly pausing before conducting their search.
“Seems like someone has beaten me to the punch line… I need to see if I can find another vantage point to take since this floor must have been plundered for any valuables by this figure alone, but I need to leave a contingency distraction before making my move.”
Touching the door's shadow, Jared briefly takes a deep breath as he infuses some of the umbralplasm he has on his person to Confide, picturing a series of loud thudding footsteps that would alert many people if they attempted to pass through the door.
“This should do it… Well, it is a ticking time bomb now. So let's get moving before the chaos erupts.”
Once the figure was done searching the hallways & enters a nearby room, the obscura-cloaked thief made his way into the hallway and quickly but quietly closed the door behind him before searching to his left and right to see if he could search for any possible places for that could still contain some valuables.
“I guess the ground floor is the only place left untouched, and for a good reason… Probably more people awake and closer to danger, but when there is a risk, there are rewards….”
Seeing that there was a stairway that led down to the ground floor, Jared took a moment to look back to see if the figure was still in the room they had entered. Then, creeping forward towards the staircase, the thief takes a moment to crouch forward, listening carefully for anyone from down below. A brief moment of silence followed by another second of stillness was enough to convince the thief to make his move to the ground floor.
With each step descending to imminent danger, so too do the potential rewards may also yield. While the thief is cautious about many things in life, there has to be a delicate balance of taking risks, for not doing so means one is not willing to progress & chooses to be stagnant.
As seconds pass with each feathery step leaving minimal sound emitted from the nightfallen's boots, a final turn of the stair indicates that light is present, bright as if a lamp was present. Sticking close to the shadows and avoiding much of the light present, the sounds of little chatter whispering on the ground floor mainly guards discussing various topics to pass the time.
“Alright, let’s make the search quick, nab anything of value & get out of here as quickly as possible.”
Seeing that the light had not moved in the past couple of seconds, the thief could deduce that the light source was either wall-mounted or currently sitting on a surface like a cabinet or a table & while removing the light source would be advantageous, the risk of someone noticing a disturbance was too great of a threat. Nonetheless, the light source would damage his Obsucra but reconstructing the cloak of shadows would take minor effort on the petty thief's end.
Rather than waiting at the staircase, it was time for the thief to move and lay low. Taking a deep breath & exhaling to calm his nerves, the thief makes a quick swoop as his shadowy form burns against the lamplight for a moment, quickly turning his gaze about to find a patch of darkness that he could nestle into recovery & assess the situation once more. Quickly realizing that where he just entered was another hallway exposed due to the glass windows directing itself towards the courtyard, the thief immediately ducks down under the glass panes as more of his Obscura burns away. Having a limited choice about the situation at hand, the thief allows his Obscura to burn away, revealing his physical form as a pale-skinned man covered in leather armor, hooded & a black cloth covering the lower sections of his face.
“Well, this is annoying but can’t be helped. Once I can find a suitable place, I can rebuild the cloak again but for now. It is time to search for anything of value….”
The thief takes a moment to let his cat-like eyes adjust to the room he just entered. The study itself had a large quantity of books of various colors, Covered in different coloured leathers, cloth & buckram. A large desk made of black walnut with intricate designs of carved waves & various symbols that pay homage to the empire.
From what Jared could tell, this particular person valued books quite a bit from their expansive collection; Not only that, tomes tend to hold quite a vast amount of knowledge in regards to a variety of topics depending on the author who created the book & even then the value of a book is quite significant as the creation of such an item requires a large amount of dedication to product one.
From the creation of parchment, which requires the hide of various animals which needed to be treated by a tanner before being able to write on, or the more recent addition of paper which required large amounts of wood pulp & fiber to make semi-decent quantity item would cost a fair amount of farthings. This doesn’t include the pigments needed to produce inks which is a trade secret from other ink-making guilds, as each formula was closely guarding against what the citrine-eyed thief could recall.
The thief could recall being hired to steal some valuable intel for competitor ink merchants; they mentioned checking for things such as fixatives, types of minerals, animal parts or plant resins that would produce the colorant in question & taking samples of various raw materials. It was an exciting thievery request, but the payout was good, and that was all that mattered to the thief at the time of the commission.
Nevertheless, A few books would be pretty nice to have for when Ash passes & Frost settles in for the season & if push comes to shove, the apprentice thief could haggle with some fences or merchants for the sale of such precious items. However, the buyer's taste would be a massive factor in how much the thief acquired the coin for his exceptional work.
Take a few minutes to scour through the collection of books & tomes that are currently present in the ornate study; While the thief wasn’t much a reader himself, improving his literacy skills would prove helpful in the grand scheme of things as it would allow him to interpret words more clearly. In a sense, Jared, while being a petty thief, the Alistian male, Jared would not be considered a master thief by only practicing his larceny skills. Instead, a master thief requires a wide variety of skills, from planning espionage missions to learning a variety of languages & appraising items for a profitable sale.
“Seems like whoever this person is, they seem to hold quite an array of items. Makes you wonder what other precious things this household contains….”
Realizing that there would be more items to pocket than expected, the nightfall magus takes a moment to pull the shroud of darkness around and condense it into a malleable clay, briefly twiddling his fingers and stretching it far & folding it as if it were dough. A couple of minutes would pass as the thief finishes making a satchel out of Umbralplasm to hold some of the books he plans to take, some containing valuable information about the history of the empire, some about the theory of raw magic & applications and others being more miscellaneous and to top it all off, a bottle of ink which would sell a decent price.
Once the stolen items have been stowed away, the thief could make his way over to the door, which he believes could lead into the main hallway of the second-story building; The alistian man was playing into a fine line of infiltration for being caught now could result in a prolonged chase or possibly battling for his life.
The thief did not stop pursuing his goal of stealing as many valuables as possible; Placing his ear against the door, Jared slowed his breathing rate to concentrate more on the subtle sounds that might come from the hallway. Then, closing his eyes and focusing on what he could hear, the petty alistian thief could listen to the light sounds of creaking but nothing else, indicating that someone else was on the floor but trying their best to remain silent.
Opening his eyes once more, Jared’s gaze quickly shifts over the brief gap under the door as the flickering light suddenly vanishes from the warm candlelight to the palest shimmer of the moon’s light. It could be determined at this point that this mysterious person was on the prowl just like he was & the need to stay silent was paramount at this point.
As the minute passes, beads of sweat begin to form around the petty thief’s forehead, actively listening for when the coast is clear; the amber-eyed thief takes a moment to put his gloved hand on the handle, briefly applying pressure to slowly open the door and wedge it open by a sliver, just enough to be able to peer into the hallway.
While his vision in the dark was not specular compared to other races in Atharen, the night owl thief could see a short wispy shadow move down the hallway, slowly making its way to one end before briefly pausing before conducting their search.
“Seems like someone has beaten me to the punch line… I need to see if I can find another vantage point to take since this floor must have been plundered for any valuables by this figure alone, but I need to leave a contingency distraction before making my move.”
Touching the door's shadow, Jared briefly takes a deep breath as he infuses some of the umbralplasm he has on his person to Confide, picturing a series of loud thudding footsteps that would alert many people if they attempted to pass through the door.
“This should do it… Well, it is a ticking time bomb now. So let's get moving before the chaos erupts.”
Once the figure was done searching the hallways & enters a nearby room, the obscura-cloaked thief made his way into the hallway and quickly but quietly closed the door behind him before searching to his left and right to see if he could search for any possible places for that could still contain some valuables.
“I guess the ground floor is the only place left untouched, and for a good reason… Probably more people awake and closer to danger, but when there is a risk, there are rewards….”
Seeing that there was a stairway that led down to the ground floor, Jared took a moment to look back to see if the figure was still in the room they had entered. Then, creeping forward towards the staircase, the thief takes a moment to crouch forward, listening carefully for anyone from down below. A brief moment of silence followed by another second of stillness was enough to convince the thief to make his move to the ground floor.
With each step descending to imminent danger, so too do the potential rewards may also yield. While the thief is cautious about many things in life, there has to be a delicate balance of taking risks, for not doing so means one is not willing to progress & chooses to be stagnant.
As seconds pass with each feathery step leaving minimal sound emitted from the nightfallen's boots, a final turn of the stair indicates that light is present, bright as if a lamp was present. Sticking close to the shadows and avoiding much of the light present, the sounds of little chatter whispering on the ground floor mainly guards discussing various topics to pass the time.
“Alright, let’s make the search quick, nab anything of value & get out of here as quickly as possible.”
Seeing that the light had not moved in the past couple of seconds, the thief could deduce that the light source was either wall-mounted or currently sitting on a surface like a cabinet or a table & while removing the light source would be advantageous, the risk of someone noticing a disturbance was too great of a threat. Nonetheless, the light source would damage his Obsucra but reconstructing the cloak of shadows would take minor effort on the petty thief's end.
Rather than waiting at the staircase, it was time for the thief to move and lay low. Taking a deep breath & exhaling to calm his nerves, the thief makes a quick swoop as his shadowy form burns against the lamplight for a moment, quickly turning his gaze about to find a patch of darkness that he could nestle into recovery & assess the situation once more. Quickly realizing that where he just entered was another hallway exposed due to the glass windows directing itself towards the courtyard, the thief immediately ducks down under the glass panes as more of his Obscura burns away. Having a limited choice about the situation at hand, the thief allows his Obscura to burn away, revealing his physical form as a pale-skinned man covered in leather armor, hooded & a black cloth covering the lower sections of his face.
“Well, this is annoying but can’t be helped. Once I can find a suitable place, I can rebuild the cloak again but for now. It is time to search for anything of value….”