Transdim Thieves: Celeste

[Incubus]

Thieves guilds in almost every society operated out of some kind of inn or tavern. It was an easy way to justify the constant comings and goings of people, as well as provide food and beds to an ever changing number of members on-site. Lastly, the legitimate travellers they did have as guests would often provide information. All in all, it became practically a tradition to disguise your thieves guild as an inn for these reasons.

Of course, when the inn in question is situated in a rift between dimensions, it really is only a matter of tradition; there certainly were no casual observers that had to be fooled about its true nature. Resembling more a castle than a humble inn, the guildhouse still had beds and warm meals available at any hour for their members. Behind the bar stood Alec, one of the ranking officers of the guild, also known for being able to make a mean cocktail; he was the first point of contact for anything food or accommodation based, as well as general information on various other guild members.

At one of the tables in the rather large general hall was Sain, another important member of the guild. He was the one to speak to about jobs they had available; if one wanted to make some money, one spoke to Sain, the guild discouraged jobs that were off the books. Unlike the loud boisterous Alec, Sain was a weasel of a man with no known sense of humour, but he was very good at his job and very efficient. The last officer of note was Serena, an alcoholic lush of a mage usually found somewhere with a strong drink in her hands. Despite her flaws, her knowledge of both magic and thievery was near legendary; she now made a comfortable living off training others in techniques and spells. It was easier to stay permanently drunk if one didn't have to risk their life for coin.

On this particular day, the common room was almost empty; besides those three constants, there were only two others in the room. One, a lithe young man in somewhat expensive looking clothing, whom Serena was already hanging off, it was only a matter of time until the pair of them disappeared elsewhere. The other was a small girl cowled in a dark green cloak, sitting by herself away from the entrance of the inn with a small glass in front of her; she seemed to not be paying any particular attention to anything going on.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste entered the thieves guild common room at a casual pace and frowned when she found it all but empty. The three constants were all there in their usual places, but only a couple unfamiliar souls dotted the open ether that was the castle's meeting area.

"Ho hum..." Celeste sighed in a show of boredom. It seemed that today was going to be very much all business. Then she caught Alec looking at her and saw his grin. Perhaps not. Alec seemed to be in a good mood, maybe he had a tale to tell before she inevitably headed off to see Sain about a job. She was running low on coin and needed work, but she had enough on her to buy a drink and listen to Alec's yarns.

"Apa kabar, Alec?" she inquired in the native tongue of her home city - where she knew Alec happened to be from. "What news?"

Her gray-green eyes glittered in the light of the general hall as she sat down at the bar. She removed her dark cowled hood to reveal a length of silver hair tied into a tight ponytail with a leather cord. Celeste had pale skin to match the argent nature of her hair, which combined to make her glittering eyes seem darker by contrast. She accentuated this appearance with dark eyeshadow.

She made a combination of hand signals, ordering a sparkling wine in the guild's non-verbal tongue, and waited for the oft-boisterous Alec to regale her with any new tidings. Nearby, Selena was fast at work with the male newcomer. A fetching man, Celeste admitted to herself after a cursory glance, but not her type. She felt a bit sorry for him though - another boytoy for the great Selena to use and discard.

Alec had reached her then with the poured glass in his hand. She set aside a couple of coins as he handed the drink over.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Alex gave a hearty, nostalgic chuckle, "Always happy to see you Cel, that's all," he replied as he began to fetch her drink. "Things are pretty slow at the moment, a couple of accidents led to us losing a lot of our spies an' that's led to us not having a lot of jobs t' go around. If we don't catch a break soon, we're gonna start havin' people go off the books, an' from there chaos," he explains with a frown.

"But don'tch start worrying that pretty little head of yours, we've still got a few assignments to go so you can get back to workin if that's what you're after," he adds as he passes over the drink. "Sorry I don't have any good news for ya. Well, I guess I can do somethin..." He took away only half the coins she put aside, "Trying times and all that," he said with a shrug and picked up a glass to begin polishing, probably because it makes him look like he's not standing around waiting for something to happen than out of any need to clean it.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste raised her glass to Alec in a token of appreciation, sliding away the coins he'd given back into a pouch at her waist. The pouch had been a gift from her elder brother - whom she had followed into her present profession. It dampened the clinking of the coins within it so that she could carry money around without worry of it making excess sound.

"Amazing, Felix, but shouldn't it be a bit bigger and have a featherlight spell cast on it as well?" She had asked him sweetly three years ago when she'd last seen him and had received the gift.

Her brother had laughed, a chirpy, slightly high-pitched laugh that both siblings shared, even though his had the deeper maleness to mellow it out. "You're not that good a thief yet, Cel. If you get rich enough that it starts to weigh you down, then you'll have money enough to purchase those upgrades yourself."

It had been a touching exchange, which made it all the sadder that it had been the last time she had seen him. Sometimes men and women in this profession went off the grid, and when they did, sometimes they never resurfaced. People never knew what fate occurred to them. Rotting in a private dungeon somewhere? Dead in an unmarked grave? Or just as easily they could be in a paradise dimension, living it up in early retirement under an alias after a huge score. One never knew, all Celeste knew was that her magic pouch was the last memento she had to remember Felix by.

She touched the glass to her lips and tipped it back, tasting the dry, fruity tingle wash down her tongue, oxygenating in her mouth as it released its flavor. It was a good wine, which meant that despite tough times, the thieves' guild wasn't on its last legs just yet.

"Thanks Alec," she said. "I appreciate the gesture. So this loss of our eyes and ears... are you sure these qualify as accidents? You know how I feel about that word - it implies there wasn't anyone behind it. Hard times don't hit just us - maybe a few of our rivals are making a move to cover the market."

She took another sip, ruminating over the guild's competitors. Her deep eyes flickering to Alec for a moment to guage his reaction to her suggestion. Had he considered this? Yes. She saw it in his face, he wasn't a fool. Fools didn't get far in this business. But apparently no proof of the culprits, if there were any, could be found... yet.

"I'll talk to Sain. Definitely interested in a job. I've been idle too long," she murmured. After finishing her drink in relative silence (unless Alec felt like small talk), she'd head over to the always business-like Sain.

"I'm looking for work. You've got something for me?" She asked, pleasantly, but without pretense.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

"Now what's a smart girl like you doing asking questions you know I can't answer," Alec replied, although the serious look he gave spoke volumes. For someone to have taken out enough of their spies in such a short period, there had to be someone on the inside passing along their identities. It was uncomfortable, no matter who you were in the guild, to think there might be a traitor amongst your ranks.

A few minutes passed in uncomfortable silence as the girl finished her drink, before shifting over to where Sain sat, who looked up at her with a long appraising look. He always scrutinised, but this was even moreso than usual, another sign of the troubling times most likely. "Sit," he said at last in his quiet voice, the kind one cannot help but distrust the moment they hear it. He opened the tome on the table before him, flicking through pages seemingly at random. "I have two jobs at the moment. One is fairly routine, low magic world, religious icon. Not much value in and of itself, but it makes for a great collectors item. Imagine the locals would get quite worked up if it vanished as well, so ransom might be an option. Either way, it's profitable enough."

He paused for a moment, studying her again, before he continued. "The other is... riskier..." he said vaguely and after a moment it was clear he had no intention of explaining it any further.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

"Higher risk means better payoff," Celeste said after the seconds had stretched out long enough. "Tell me about that job."

The idea of stealing a religious icon that was only valuable in a sentimental way didn't exactly feel like her cup of tea. She wanted a guaranteed pay day. Sain seemed to be hinting that there was one, but he was doubting her level of experience, clearly. Well, she wasn't one to shirk from danger. Not if the pay was right.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

He gave a shrug, as if to say it was her funeral. "It involves breaking into an academy for mages. Not only is the place crawling with magical countermeasures, but it's full of magical creatures who serve the master of the school. Because of the closed environment, you'd be recognised as not belonging the moment anyone saw you simply because you're not one of the members of staff or students there. As far as objects of interest, there are a number of magic artifacts, ancient tomes of magic, if you like you could even subdue one of the magical creatures and drag it back home, although that one's perhaps too risky. We'd have no trouble finding a buyer for anything you might bring back. But, like I said, very risky."

He continued to thumb through his book. "I do have a map of the ground and upper floor in here somewhere, it's fairly detailed. But completely missing the basement level, or levels. Don't even know that much. Because of the danger involved, we'd be inserting you some ways away from the building, you'd have to make your way in on foot, and likewise return on foot for extraction. Personally, I'm reluctant to send even some of our top guys on this one, but.." He gave another shrug and let the sentence trail off. Alec had already said enough on matters for her to get the picture of why this was available.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste didn't much like the sound of the riskier proposition, but that was because too many variables were unknown. Hence the risk.

"What do we know about this particular school of magic?" she asked, eager to know more. "How many staff and students can I expect to navigate through? What's the extent of our knowledge about their countermeasures? Why did this school in particular pop up onto our radar?" And finally... "How much heat can I risk bringing on us? Would I be allowed lethal force?"

Thieves guilds were very particular about code of conduct. They weren't an assassin's guild, and they preferred not dealing any death when it could be helped. But the first rule was to not get caught - and sometimes in order to not break that rule, you had to break a lesser taboo, in this case the issue of death. She needed to know who these mages were in particular before she could sign off on slitting a few throats and hiding a few bodies to thin out a path of extraction.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

"We don't have a positive number on the staff; there's only a few permanent members, the master of the academy is the only one local to the plane. There are a few magical creatures who take on permanent roles, the quartermaster, the nurse, the cook, the butler, but beyond that the number is constantly changing based on whims and needs. Currently there are seven students, unless one of them has had an accident fairly recently. It happens."

Sain once again examined her closely. "The school specialises in summoning and contract magic, hence the ever changing staff. It came to our attention because one of our members studied at this very academy. Needless to say, they're not too keen on their old master. The only thing we know for sure about their defences is that the Master's personal study is warded, he'll know the moment anyone steps into there and has a reputation for being quick to respond. All things considered, as long as it cannot be traced back to us, you're free to take whatever measures you deem necessary, with this kind of defences, it may be the only option. Like I said, I don't even like that we're handing out this job."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

This was an odd target, that was for certain. No specific objective, a smash and grab with everybody home. Everything about this job reeked of unnecessary risks.

"Since there's no specific object we're after, does that mean there's a large window of opportunity to strike?" She asked, looking for some bright spot. "This is sounding like a typical burglary, only we try to do that when only the night crew is home, not with everyone on the premises. Does the master of the school ever leave? Why not infiltrate when he and most of the powerful staff are away?"

The way Sain had been talking down the job, she was almost tempted to believe in his assessment. She wasn't anywhere near the best that their guild had to offer, and this wasn't the ideal set up for a job.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Sain shakes his head with a frown. "He's a summoner, he never leaves. At best, he sends one of his more powerful servants to get something for him. But therein lies your best bet; if you can take him hostage, chances are it'll paralyse everyone else. His most potent power is his ability to call upon the aid of others; a formidable power, but not one he can use to his advantage when taken by surprise. It's risky, but I mentioned that already. I still think the whole thing stinks, but what's my opinion these days," he said dryly. "So are you ready to start talking sense, or should we keep talking about this?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

In her mind, Celeste relented. This sort of raid could wait.

"Okay Sain, you've made a good case. I'll take the first job as a warm up. Taking on a master summoner and all his pets and allies seems like it needs more of a plan than simply sending me in on my lonesome with a wish and a prayer."

A certain amount of professional pride made her want to go against the summoner despite all this, but it was tantamount to suicide.

"So give me the details to this religious sect and then set me up with an entry point. I'll do the rest and hopefully by the time I get back, you'll have more sane work lined up."

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Sain nods, "Alright. The idol itself we want you to take is kept locked up most of the time in a special room only used for ceremonies; which means it isn't under direct surveillance. That room itself also doesn't have guards posted on the entrances except during said ceremonies, all you need to do is find a way there, slip inside, grab it and get out," he explains, leafing back through his tome.

"The harder part is actually getting there, only religious figures of a certain rank are permitted into the building where the room is normally. We're uncertain if there's some kind of magical security in that building; it's a low magic world, but some of these guys can pull a few tricks. So we'll have to drop you outside of it. We have found a nice quiet warehouse to arrange a portal, so you won't have to worry about getting into the town. How you go from there is your call, you should be able to slip inside the temple by a window on the upper floors. Their guards are mostly ceremonial, but they will raise an alarm if you're caught inside so watch yourself. The idol is... distinctive. You'll know it when you see it, besides, it should be the only thing of prominence on the altar."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste nodded at the end of Sain's briefing. "That's fine. I'm ready to go in. I'll plan on entering through the upper floors and making my way to the alter with stealth. If anyone gets in my way, I'll make certain they won't be found until after I'm already gone."

She put herself in a goal-oriented mindset, preparing herself for the upcoming task. She would meet Sain in the portal room for her insertion. A certain amount of giddiness and nervousness fought to show itself, but she calmed it with practiced mental techniques and focused.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Reaching the room with the portal, Celeste was offered a set of traveller's robes, apparently the native style to the area she was going. They would easily cover her clothing to allow her to blend in, and could be slipped off in a hurry via a quick release cord the guild inbuilt into all its disguises, should she need more mobility than the robe would allow.

Stepping through the portal, she found herself in a warehouse, as expected. No matter what dimension one travelled to, they seemed to be fairly universal. Merchants got everywhere. The fact that there were a number of mercantile enterprises similar to their own operation, is less honest about what they're really doing.

"You seem lost, are you supposed to be here?" came a voice from not far away, her contact on this side of the portal. Despite its innocent seeming nature, it was actually a code-phrase, she had been briefed. She needed to respond with 'Yes, I have an offering for the temple'.The guild often used practical phrases that wouldn't necessarily be identifiable should others overhear; in theory it ran the risk of running into the wrong person, but given how they operated, no one buy guild members should be anywhere near the portal.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste pulled on the bulky traveler's robes, adjusting them as necessary to give her as much maneuverability as possible, and easy access to the escape cord that would remove them in a hurry, should it become necessary.

She pulled the cowl over her head, letting it shadow her face as she stepped through the portal.

Appearing in the warehouse, she was met with her handler and his code phrase. She spoke the correct counter-phrase, then moved toward him, her arms by her side and casual.

"Do you have any additional information to hand over to me? If not, what is the current hour in this place and what sort of schedule can I expect the temple's occupants to be observing at this time?"

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

The figure approached, giving Celeste her first glimpse of the local inhabitants of this dimension. The first thing she noticed was that assuming this was a fairly average member of the people, she was tall. Not too tall, thankfully, but she was about a head taller than the figure before her. The second was that her skin was the wrong colour; the skin tone of these people appeared to go over past bronze into a dark orange colour. Their eyes were large and black, with no apparent pupils and their ears were small and pointed.

"Information, no. But I have a few more gifts for you," the voice replied. It was speaking in a hoarse whisper, whether or not that was their natural speaking tone or just something this one was doing because they felt it was a necessary part of the spy act she didn't know. That was always the drawback of hired locals; theatrics.

Still, the figure produced a small box and opened it, revealing a make-up kit with an emphasis towards dark orangey colours. It would certainly help Celeste blend in on casual inspection, as long as she managed to keep her face mostly covered. "Currently, it's settling into evening. The guards put on a big show around this time, which gives you a bit to get used to places and observe. Then they'll settle down after an hour or so when most people are going to bed. Very rarely do people try to break into the temple and usually it's just bored children looking for thrills, which happens during the daytime. The guards aren't very alert."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste took in the figure before her, observing his facial structure and bipedal stance, the gait in which he walked, the attitude conveyed in the way he hunched his shoulders. Though he was not human, he had enough human features for Celeste to get a read on him. He would be the sort to think himself clever, and perhaps he was when compared to his own tightly drawn circles of associates, but not compared to the true professional. To the thieves' guild, he would be considered crude and clumsy - and prone to the unnecessary theatrics he demonstrated as he drew close in a conspiratorial whisper.

Her eyes were drawn to the box he produced from his cloak. Once opened, it was revealed to be a make-up kit, with enough in the way of local flesh tones that Celeste might be able to conceal her other worldly nature against casual observation. Her pale white skin provided a decent canvas for this sort of disguise. She took the box from the man with a nod.

"I will handle the rest, I suggest you be on your way." She dismissed the man and examined the kit, pulling out the applier and choosing to dab it in the darkest colors first as a base over her face and neck. She then moved on to the lighter colors, highlighting as necessary to make herself look natural based off of the coloration she had noticed on her contact's face. She wouldn't need any on her hands, as she was wearing a thin pair of operator's gloves - a thieves guild's specialty: light and flexible, good grip, leaving no trace and retaining enough feel to not interfere with fine manipulations.

After about fifteen or twenty minutes, an orange-faced Celeste glanced into the mirror and was satisfied with the transformation she had arranged. Closing the kit and securing it at her side, she hid her face in the cowl of her hood and moved out of the warehouse into the street, hunching her body so as to appear shorter than she was.

She made her way to the sound of ceremony, approaching the temple and observing carefully the sights and sounds of everything. She wanted to watch how these guards acted, how attentive they appeared, their movements, their armaments, their apparent strengths. She also wanted to watch the supplicants, to see what the populace was like and what the various catchphrases and observances of this religion were. Finally she would be observing the temple itself, and the nearby buildings, looking for the best access point.

 

[Incubus]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

As Celeste wove through the crowds, she began to realise that perhaps the informant was not being literal about the show being put on. The bells of the temple rang at sunset, but there was no special ceremony beyond the lightly armoured guards making their patrols around the perimeter pompously.

Even now they didn't seem all that alert, too interested in their own pomp to be truly paying attention. They wore a sort of robe/armour hybrid, the shoulders and forearms of their robe covered in leather-looking pads, while the remainder of their outfit seemed to be a thick cloth robe. In their hand they carried a long polearm weapon, but looking at the narrow walkways they patrolled along, it would only be an effective weapon if they were attacked from the front and given enough warning to ready it. On their belts they also carried a small, club-like weapon, presumably as a backup. It was hard to tell how effective the were with their weapons without seeing them in use, but if they were as good fighters as they were guards, not very would be the answer. There was the chance that these guards were some sort of religious warriors however, which would put their fighting skill far beyond that. To be on the safe side, it'd be best if she avoided a fair fight, as if she needed further encouragement to do so.

The streets were already thinning of people at this time, most of them quietly shuffled about, presumably finishing up their days business and heading home. What little conversation she managed to overhear, however, told her that these people did indeed speak in a hoarse whisper. She picked up a few common phrases for how they customarily greeted each other, and bid each other farewell, but nothing else useful.

The upper floors of the temple were very open, large windows provided ideal access points, but the adjacent buildings did not provide convenient ladders to them. The nearby buildings could get her up to the walkways the guards used to patrol, the windows being a level higher, although not outside the range of her grapple. At their current speed, she wouldn't be able to make it from out of sight to the window and pull up her rope before the guard came across her at some point, but her informant had implied that they slow down as the town goes to sleep.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Transdim Thieves: Celeste

Celeste quickly understood the verbal misunderstanding. The 'show' as it was, was merely the pompous patrol of the guard, showing off their big sticks to put the populace's fears calmly to rest. There was no grand to-do of which she needed to observe, so she focused her attention on the guards' patrol patterns, sizing up the opposition. She was pleased to note that the guards themselves shouldn't present too much of a problem, and she'd spied her entry point as well - high above on the second level, where a quick grappling hook toss and rope climb would see her to the open temple windows.

She would need to give the guards time to slow down to a casual pace in their routine, perhaps another hour or so. She could wait. Patience more than speed was a thief's greatest virtue. To pass the time she learned some of the greeting and farewell phrases of the populace, and learned that if she wanted to truly pass as one of these walking carrots, she'd need to speak in a hoarse whisper.

She lounged around in the shadows for sometime, studying and watching for the guard to show signs of lackluster patrolling, before finally making her way to a building adjacent to the temple, where she would make her grappling attempt.

Even when she got to the place to jump from, she waited, counting the seconds between the coming and goings of the guards. They were slowing, but she had to be certain - give herself enough time to do the toss, the crossing, the climbing and the retrieving of the rope, plus add in a few seconds for unseen difficulties. She waited until she was satisfied that the guards had slowed enough to give her that window of opportunity, then she unslung her grapple hook and waited for the guards to pass once more before loosing the rope upwards and beginning her infiltration.