The Darkwall Mountains stretch across the western border of the civilized lands with few passes save for the Crater. These mountains form a natural wall that the nations who border it defend the passes against the demons that fill the Darklands. While some of the tainted manage to travel through the mountains without the passes they are few enough in number that mercenaries and traveling clergymen can deal with them. The mountains themselves are also home to most of the dwarven city kingdoms and beasts both mundane and magical.

Adrian

I follow the two dwarves as our small group walks down the streets of the nobles’ quarter. The target mansion is just down the street and we timed it so that most of the residents will be away on some business or another. Laura continues to tell me about beards but I am not paying as much attention to her as finding all the life signs in the mansion as I gently prod at the fabric of reality to make the needed ripple.

“I can’t tell who any individual is but most of them are outside of the mansion. Too many for me to get past without magically cheating” I say before we enter into the range of sight of the house guards.

“Will you set off the wards?” Laura asks.

“No, but if you want to be invisible too you'll need to stay fairly close to me.”

She nods and I stop making ripples to sense the nearby living. The world seems to waver and dim as I bend the light in my immediate vicinity. I can barely see but if I go further the how of my invisibility will blind me.

“You made it darker” Terrance mutters.

“Side effect but I’m sure you vision is better than mine” I tell him.

The patrolling guards do not notice us as we walk through the yard to the back of the building. Specifically, we go to a servant's entrance because there will not be anyone keeping watch on that door. Laura glances at the door for a second before saying, “we’ll be here a moment, tis locked.”

A small set of tools appears out of seemingly nowhere in her hands as she begins to build what seems to be a key from the various picks. She must have picked this lock many times. How come this hole in security isn’t being filled in?

A key assembled Laura inserts and turns it slowly, a click sounds and the door opens to reveal a currently empty hall. We enter, closing and relocking the door behind us.

The world is refilled with color and light as I cease my hold on reality through the Sphere of Light. I return to feeling out where living things are though I also try to feel the location of golden objects. The building is full of them and I start making a mental list of the piles of small pieces of gold that are in a room below.

We take a left and then go straight past two other halls before I whisper, “someone just turned into the hall behind us.”

“Then we hurry to the proper door, it’s just a bit further. Can you make a false image?”

“Maybe.”

They frown at that answer but I don’t know. Probably not quickly in any event since I would have to constantly adjust the wavelengths of the photons. . .

Luckily, my ability to conjure images out of residual light in the area does not end up being tested as we rush forward and find the door to the archives unlocked.

We quickly close the door behind us as the sounds of a man walking around in a chain shirt enter our hearing. That guard ends up passing by the door without checking it and I let out a breath of relief.

Looking around I see many books and letters on shelves along the walls of the small room. As the other three search for ledgers I look for a different kind of book. Unfortunately, only mundane matters are kept in this room.

Soon enough the others find what they’re looking for and the elf pulls out a carved twig while Terrance sets a stack of paper next to the ledger. She mutters a word that I don’t quite catch. The pieces of paper begin to fill with writing as the wand showers the original with light.

Page by page the elf uses the wand to copy from the ledger. Why not just take the ledger? That would hurt the family or is it a matter of keeping them from knowing that their secrets got stolen?

I assume that she is done as she puts the wand away and Laura turns to me and asks “anyone on the other side of that door?”

I pause for a moment as I once more check for life signs with a ripple on the fabric of reality before shaking my head. They smile and we begin our exit, retracing our steps and once we are at the servant’s entrance I once more resort to bending light to become invisible. Even if the two dwarves and elf could sneak past them I do not have the skill to do so myself.

Once we are outside of the guard’s loose perimeter the male dwarf slaps me on the back, “you did good. I’ll let Griff know that you’re good.”

“But I didn’t do much of anything. You don’t seem to have needed my help” I say.

“For this job, no we didn’t but you made it easier for us and he finished faster than we normally would. We didn’t have to wait and find a hole in the pattern of the guards or deal with any detection issues.

Come by the guild tomorrow, Griff will probably have another infiltration job for you or at least some training for your mundane skills.”

I nod, I suppose that makes sense. They also wouldn’t have sent me on anything too important without testing my abilities. Though I had assumed me entering into their guildhall uninvited had been enough to get past that.

I turn to look at the three only to find that they are already gone. Guess they left, I’ll just pick up some more stuff on my way to my assigned quarters then. I put my hands in my pockets and pull a few pieces of gold through Translocation Grasp from a room that I assume is the Tyris family treasury. They won’t notice a few coins are missing and even if they do they’ll suspect thieves or corruption within their family but there shouldn’t be any way for them to suspect me. Well, aside from divination magic. That might work but I doubt it will come to that. At least as long as I keep the theft’s value to below what it would cost them to cast it.

I walk into a tavern that is mostly empty at this late hour. There are only two individuals drinking in the otherwise empty room. I walk up to the counter but one of the bottles on a shelf seems to draw my gaze.

“What drink is that bottle?” I ask as I point to the dark red bottle.

“Drakeflame whiskey it’s made by gnomes, thirty gold a bottle” the fat man answers.

Whiskey? Why do I want it? I haven’t ever had alcohol but I find myself pulling more coins from the Tyris treasury as I say, “how many bottles do you have?”

“Just the one, have you had it before?”

“No.”

“Then be careful when you open it. Gnomish drink has a perchance for exploding when exposed to air if it gets too warm.”

I look at the counter as he places the bottle on it to find that I’ve put the needed coins down. Why did I do this? I place the bottle carefully in my bag before saying, “can I get some bread and . . .”

“Sure thing, I’ll consider it part of the price for the whiskey.”

A moment later the bartender has placed an unlabeled bottle and three loaves of bread on the counter. I add them to my bag before thanking the man.

He merely nods in return before I exit the tavern. I wonder if anything has happened to Bryan or Abagail while I was out?

A short few minutes later I arrive at the door to the small building that we are staying in and unlock it with my key.

Entering through the door I see that the two of them are still awake and immediately jump up. Abagail seems to be embarrassed but I’ll just pretend not to notice that her shirt isn’t on straight. I always thought that she liked him but I didn’t think something like this would happen over the short few days that I was gone.

I pull out the bread and unlabeled bottle and place them on the table while not looking at Abagail, giving her an opportunity to become decent again.

“Where have you been the last few days?” Bryan asks.

“Working on getting us equipment and a way out of here” I answer.

“How? There should not be anything that pays as well as all the stuff you’ve sent back the last few days” Abagail asks.

“The kind that you wouldn’t like knowing about.”

“What are you doing?” Bryan asks.

“I found and then made a deal with one of the criminal organizations in town. Once I do enough jobs for them they’ll get us out of town.”

Abagail frowns and starts to say something but Bryan voices his question first.

“Are you sure it is a good idea to work with criminals?”

“How else do you think we could leave?”

“Couldn’t we talk to someone from those that brought us here?” asks Abagail.

I shake my head, “I doubt it. Their response to us not being commendable was to provide us with less than the necessities of life and that the only thing they sent us out to do was an unpaid mission where we ended up being knocked out for not immediately returning. It is pretty clear to me that they have no intention of us being anything other than fodder.”

“Are you sure that you can trust who you are working for to keep his end of the deal?” Bryan asks pulling the subject away from the current subject.

“I cannot be absolutely sure but he has been honest with me so far. We need the resources he's given me to get by anyways.”

“You mean that. . .”

“. . .everything that appeared out of nowhere I got from him? No, most of the coins and food I acquired on my own but the things that you can actually use to get better are from them” I say interrupting Bryan.

“I don’t think it is a good idea for you to affiliate yourself with criminals” Abagail says and I let out a sigh.

“It isn’t but I don’t have much choice. We need to get out of here, if we stay all that awaits us is death. It’s risky and they may cheat me but a chance is better than certain death.

What have the two of you been up to?”

They’re quiet for a moment, presumably thinking before Bryan answers my question.

“We’ve been going over the two books that you got us. Specifically, the cantrips in them and trying to understand them and cast them with limited success. The two books conflict each other and we don’t know which version is the real spell since neither work.”

“Have you tried mixing the two explanations together? Each may be skipping a part that the other explains to obfuscate the real how. Like how the books the Althaen gave us never included the incantation.”

Silence reigns for a moment before Bryan hits his head on the table.

“I’ll take that as a no then. Try it tomorrow” I say as I pull out the bottle of Drakeflame whiskey.

I frown at the lack of cups, I should have grabbed some glasses on my way back.

I break off a chunk of bread from one of the loafs after setting down the bottle where only I can reach it at the table. I take a bite of the bland hard bread and am glad that it is chewable. Bryan and Abagail begin to do the same with their own bread and Bryan is the first to open the unlabeled bottle I set down next to him.

He takes a drink before coughing. Abagail pats him on the back for a moment and he then says, “you know that that is alcohol, right?”

“I assumed it was but there wasn’t anything else available at this hour. Besides we are in a world at the medieval level of technology, some alcohol in our system will help with the low level of hygiene” I say to answer him before finishing off the small loaf of bread that I kept for myself.

“Then why aren’t you drinking your own?” he asks.

Rather than answer I open the small bottle. I know that I shouldn’t drink too much at once, whiskey is supposed to burn as it goes down but what I’ve seen in the movies has to be an exaggeration, right? I take a quick swig and swallow as fast as I can.

I feel as if my mouth was filled with a fire for the short moment that the liquid was in my mouth. A searing sensation follows the liquid down my throat and I almost begin to cough before the burning sensation is replaced by a soothing one. I find myself enjoying a pleasant aftertaste unlike anything that I can compare it to.

“That’s weird” I say.

“What?” Bryan asks.

“This drink, it burns at first and then feels soothing. I can’t explain the aftertaste either.”

“Let me try some then, it has to be better than whatever is in that bottle you gave me.”

“Fine but I’m not trading, I brought all of this so I reserve the right to pick what I want.”

“Fair enough” Bryan says as he takes the bottle from my outstretched hand.

He takes a sip and spits it out with a cry of pain. I have to catch the bottle through Translocation Grasp as he drops it to try to wipe the remnants off his tongue.

After a moment he chugs some of the unlabeled bottle next to him before turning to me and saying, “soothing my ass. That is nothing more than distilled fire.”

“What do you mean? It isn’t that bad” I say before taking a few more gulps, the initial burning sensation feeling lighter as I drink.

“Well I’m going to sleep. See you in the morning” I say as I get up and enter my room for the first time in days.

A little dust covers the room and I take another swig. I’m really liking this drink. I don’t notice the growing tingling feeling in my head as I finish the bottle in bed. I know that doing so is a mistake and I’ll suffer in the morning but I do it anyways.

My eyes close and I briefly see some screens from the Architect before falling completely asleep without doing anything to them.

Gain: +75 XP Pogonology, +75 XP Learned, +450 XP Dragon Knight,

Pogonology 0 ->1 (+1SP), Dragon Knight 0->2 (Lesser Draconic)

Adrian Ravnos

Gender: Male

Race: Human?

Age: 17

Strength 13

Intelligence 17

Mana Potential 5

Skills

SP:17

Dexterity 16

Wisdom 17

Mana Potency 4

Languages

Titles

Agility 14

Cunning 16

Luck 15

Traits

Options

Endurance 11

Willpower 15

Perception 15

Magic

Reality Control

Vitality 12

Alertness 13

Reality Control 3

Classes

Racial Class

Appearance 15

Charisma 12

Health 97/97

Mana 4/4