• Solo • Taboo Strikes I: Hop, Skip and Jump

[Tio Silver]

The Knight's Rest Inn & Tavern
100th Ashan, 717
Night

There were few feelings as irritating as anxiety.

Although it clouded your head, anger could lend strength to your punches. In a similar vein fear could add an extra spring to your step or alert you to danger. But anxiety? No, that never offered any benefits. Anxiety was an uncomfortable feeling that only served to distract someone and dull their mind.

Which was why an irritated scowl had marked Tio's face for the past few trials. He hadn't found any good targets for a job yet since he'd been ditched on this puerile rock the inhabitants called an island, and the lightness of his coin purse was starting to worry him. At this rate he might have to find an honest job! The thought of it almost made him sick in his mouth; making an honest living was so high up on his do-not-do list it'd take a mountain climber to find it! He'd been hoping that an opportunity would present itself to him in time, but now that time was running out he had to take matters into his own hands.

To that end he now found himself in the Knight's Rest tavern, sitting away in one of the far corners and slowly sipping on a drink as he listened to the conversations of the people around him. It was amazing how much you could learn if you stopped and listened in on the conversations of the people around you, especially in a tavern where the alcohol made everybody's lips looser, so long as people didn't know you were eavesdropping. The inn was crowded at this time of night and the sheer amount of noise made it difficult to fully tune in on one conversation, but here and there Tio caught snippets of sentences and remained alert for anything that sounded promising.

"... that Margery, I swear she's such a b..."

"... and the fisherman said he'd seen one that was the size of a..."

"... they're going to some dumb music recital or something so I have the house to myself. I can totally sneak out..."

The last one caught Tio's attention, and he shot a quick glance over to the table he'd heard it from. A group of three teenagers, all female, were sitting together gossiping about some kind of party. From their attire they were all from fairly rich families, which hinted at their houses being filled with valuable items, and all had at least one empty glass on their table which meant they must be fairly drunk. He looked away and strained his ears to focus on the one particular girl who'd been speaking before; if her parents were going out and had left the house in her care unaware that she was planning on leaving to go to a party then he had a good few hours in which to break in and burgle the place before they got back.

He listened in further as they continued to talk, and was able to glean a few more tidbits of information before the girls changed the subject. The party, and therefor the music recital, was in four days time, and the teenager who's house he'd decided to target was confident she could get there at nine and be back home before twelve, meaning that the recital must be starting and ending at around those times as well. He'd have the cover of night to protect himself from witnesses and three hours to complete the job, meaning he could take his time and ensure that he got in and out stealthily and remove any evidence that might lead back to him.

He stayed seated until the girl had finally finished drinking and decided to head home for the night, then left the tavern a short while after them. Keeping well back to avoid raising suspicion he trailed the girls, who were too tipsy and engrossed in conversation with each other to notice him, through the streets of Scalvoris until at last they reached an estate where the party-going girl said goodbye to her friends and went inside. His suspicion had been right; her house was large and well cared for, clear signs that its owners were wealthy people. It was too dark to make out details, but Tio's attention was immediately drawn to the garden and large metal fence surrounding the estate. They could definitely prove problematic to the unprepared, but he had four days in which to gather more info and prepare for the heist.

Pleased that he had a target secured, Tio turned back and walked off into the night. That was enough work for tonight, he'd have to start on the rest tomorrow morning.

[Tio Silver]

Scalvoris Town
101th Ashan, 717
Morning

There was no guide on how to be a thief, but every swindler worth his bacon knew a few simple rules that you needed to stick to if you wanted to make a half-decent profit. The first of those rules was the one that caught out most of the newbies; always have a buyer. Too many upstarts got blinded by greed and snatched up a valuable treasure the moment it was presented to them, but only realized they had nobody who'd actually buy it off them only when the guards were out looking for them.

If you didn't know exactly what you'd be stealing there was usually only one type of person to turn to; a broker. Brokers bought almost anything valuable that could be smuggled to contacts in foreign lands to sell or put on the black market, but only gave the thief a small cut of the item's true value due to the high costs that the rest of the operation took. It wasn't the fastest way to make cash but it was as reliable as one could get in a criminal profession, and so for anyone intending to make a proper living out of stealing knowing the brokers in your local area was vital.

While he couldn't claim to be the most knowledgeable person in Scalvoris, Tio was at least somewhat plugged in to the whispers that went on in dark alleys and had heard of a place where he could find a broker. The man was supposedly running a crummy looking tailor shop as a cover and could be approached without a friend to make an introduction, so as long as you knew the code-word to say to express your interest in selling to him even unknown amateurs could make themselves a profit.

The streets were bustling with throngs of people walking to work at the middle hours of the morning, but few of them spared a glance at Tio as he slipped through the crowd. He turned off down a narrow alley into a street filled with a row of small shops and pushed open the door of an old but well maintained shop, strolling inside into a sea of colourful fabrics and clothes that'd been in fashion arcs ago.

Opening the door had triggered a small bell to ring announcing his arrival, and it wasn't long before the shop owner appeared from a back room. He was well built for a man who seemed to be in his fifties, with a bald head and impressively thick handlebar mustache, and despite his formal clothing radiated a faint thuggish aura.

"Welcome sir, welcome. In the market for a new item of clothing?" Said the owner, giving him a wide but disingenuous feeling smile.

"Why yes actually, I'm looking for a new jacket to help keep the heat off." Tio replied, casually slipping the code word, 'keep the heat off', into his sentence.

At the mention of keeping the heat off the owners eyes narrowed, betraying a sudden wariness. "I see. It certainly does get hot this time of year doesn't it sir. I have some lightweight fabrics at the back of the store, why not come with me and pick one that suits you."

He led Tio to a small office at the back of the shop with a variety of appraising tools littered across the desk and offered him a seat, closing the door behind them and sliding a thick metal latch across it. He then took a seat in a big brown leather armchair on his side of the desk and turned to face Tio, all hints of his friendly shopkeeper persona dropping from his face.

"So you're interested in having some items fenced are you? I don't think I've seen you around before, what's your name?"

"Tio Silver. I haven't been in Scalvoris for long."

The owner nodded. "I see. Well Mr Silver you can call me Mr Banks, and since you're new in town let me make a few things clear. First of all never, and I mean never, snitch on me. I have plenty of friends in the Elements who'll discredit any allegation of my involvement, and plenty of other friends around this island who will make your life a living hell if you do. The same goes for bringing heat to my doorstep; if you get followed by anyone or seen bringing wanted goods into my shop, by accident or not, I'll take it as an act of betrayal. Are we clear on that?"

Tio leaned back in his chair. "Crystal."

"Good. Second rule, leave all personal issues outside. I have connections to practically every crook on this whole damn island, and I don't care if you have a bone to pick with any of them. I will not give you the details of any of my clients or any other freelancers under my employ, I will not arrange direct meeting with them for you, and I most certainly will not take any responsibility for problems they may have caused you. This is a place of business, if you have a problem you take it outside."

Tio nodded. "Sounds fair to me. However I can't help but notice how you mention you will not arrange a direct meeting. Does this mean that you will do indirect meetings?"

"Of sorts. If a client of mine has a particular item they wish to get hold of, or has some other job a thief may be of help with, then they will pass the details on to me and I will inform whomever I think may be appropriate for the role. In these cases the client will remain anonymous and, except in special circumstances, the item in question will be delivered here and then passed on to them through me. This affords my clients a degree of that anonymity they value quite highly."

"The final rule is, quite simply, don't fuck up. I like people who can bring me goods worth selling and can do so on a regular basis, and to those people I like to offer better deals on the products they bring in. If you aren't one of those people don't expect to be working with me for long, I have no patience for time wasters."

Tio smirked at him. "Oh don't worry about that, I can be very serious when it comes to my work. In fact I have plans to bring in a haul in three days time."

Banks sat up straight, a look of avaricious interest gleaming in his eyes. "What kind of haul are we talking about here?"

"There's a high class house ripe for burglary that I know will be empty for an extended period of time. I should be able to bring you a lot of jewelry, expensive furnishings and maybe a piece of art or two."

"Good. Make sure to keep the loot completely concealed when you bring it to me, and enter the shop through the back entrance. Oh and if you see any swipe any medals or awards they might have, they have a high market value right now."

"Will do. So we have a deal then Mr Banks?" Tio replied, offering him his hands.

Banks took the offered hand and gave it a tentative shake. "Yes Mr Silver, I believe that we do."

[Tio Silver]

Scalvoris Town
104th Ashan, 717
Night

Tonight was the night.

For the past three days Tio had observed his target, blending in with groups of people as the passed by and watching as the members of the household had gone about their daily lives. There were a million things that could go wrong with a burglary; you might find that the lock was tougher to crack than you'd expected, or the owners might have left a guard dog to watch the place you hadn't known about. However the vast majority of these problems could be avoided by taking the time to observe and learn about your target before you struck. Knowing your enemy and all those other pieces of advice soldiers liked to throw around could be applied to more than just the battlefield.

From his scouting Tio was confident that there would be no unexpected interruptions during his robbery; there were no signs of any pets in the house, and although the family employed a maid and a gardener both of them finished work late in the afternoon. There was another problem however; the house's security measures. The largest and most obvious one was the large fence that surrounded the estate; it was just over twice as tall as he was and comprised of rows of thick irons bars connect at the top, middle and bottom by three rails running horizontally along them and topped with sharp spear heads. There was enough room between each spearhead to slot a foot in, but considering how difficult it was to scale a fence at a completely upright angle already this house would be considered tough enough to deter the average thief.

The second was the garden behind the fence that left the thief wide open to be spotted by neighbors as they approached the house. This problem was somewhat solved by the cover of night, but also forced the additional requirement upon Tio to keep his burglary as quiet as possible. Night would hide him enough to stop people from spotting him accidentally, but if he made enough noise to draw people's attention they might see him moving about in the dark and call for the guards.

And finally there was the locks on the actual house itself. While he hadn't been able to get close enough to identify any particular design, from what he'd seen of the doors as people had entered and left the house the locks were definitely well made, and he had neither the skill nor equipment to pick locks of that quality. Normally he could smash his way through a window to get in, however the noise limit the garden set on him prevented him from doing so this time as the sound of glass breaking was sure to attract the neighbors attention. During his observation he'd thrown a few ideas around and was pretty sure he had a solution for this problem, but due to the nature of it he had no way of checking if his plan would work beforehand or not.

Tio approached the estate from the back, wandering around the perimeter of the fence until he reached an area where he couldn't be seen by anyone on the main street. He double checked to make sure no one was watching, then slung his backpack off his shoulders and opened it to reveal his signature black skull-shaped mask. It felt like it had been a long time since he'd last worn it, and as he slotted his head into it and felt its familiar weight again a feeling of calm anticipation fluttered in his stomach. Putting this mask always had that effect on him; it was like a trigger for his mind to recognize that it was time to put his usual carefree nature aside and focus his full attention on the mission, like an actor hiding his true self behind a well-rehearsed persona.

It was time to be Taboo.

The other items in his backpack were a coil of rope, four empty rucksacks and the pile of bones that amassed to make his thrall Risas, and as Taboo turned his jacket inside out so that its plain black surface was on the outside he made a gesture with his hand like a king ordering a subject to rise and watched as the pile of bones shuffled around and clicked themselves together. Forming from the skull downwards Risas crawled out of the bag, to an outside observer looking as if he was exiting a bag far to small for him to possibly fit in, and stood to attention by Taboo's side.

Taboo took the coil of rope from out of his bag and slung the backpack back over his shoulders, then unraveled a small part of the rope coil and put it into his pocket. Risas moved over to the fence and leaned back against the railings so that he was facing Taboo, then bent at the knees and formed a cup with his hands. There was a pause as Taboo made a few mental calculations in his head, and then suddenly he dashed forwards towards Risas, sprinting with as much speed as he could muster! He hopped, skipped into Risas' cupped hands, and jumped just at the moment that Risas pushed upwards, boosting him so that he sailed through the air up to the top of the fence! Before gravity could catch him again he whipped one foot into the gap between the spearheads, landed on the top connection rail and hopped forwards, falling down onto the other side of the fence and rolling with the impact as he hit the grass.

After standing up and shaking the effects of the impact out of his legs, Taboo took the coil of rope out of his pocket and flung the loose end back over the fence, where Risas grabbed on to it. Being nothing more than a skeleton Risas was fairly light, and so Taboo had no trouble in pulling the marrow up to the top of the fence, where it could climb over normally without being troubled by the spearhead being as it was already dead and all. Once Risas had dropped down they both dashed across the gardens, keeping as low and silent as they could to minimize the risk of being spotted, and in a couple of trills had reached the backdoor to the house.

Now it was time for the really tricky part. The house had wooden guttering along the roof with a drainpipe around the back leading straight down to the ground, which Taboo approached and gave an experimental pull on. It felt shaky and a bit too insecure for his liking, but was still probably strong enough to support his weight. Gently Taboo wrapped his hands around the surface of the pipe and began to slowly shimmy up it, inwardly cringing every time he felt the pipe give way a little under his weight and trying his hardest not to think about what would happen to him if it broke completely. His progress was slow and deliberate, like a snail on a tree branch, but eventually he reached the roof.

Taboo lowered the rope down to Risas and, once it'd grabbed on, pulled him up the side of the house. As soon as it was on the roof Taboo ended the flow of ether he was sending to Risas and watched as it collapsed into a pile of bones. He gathered them up into a pile and stuffed them into one of the rucksacks, but left the bag open so that the bones could easily get out of it, and then took the bag over to the chimney and dropped it in. There was a muffled thunk as the bag obscured the noise of bone hitting brick, and satisfied that his plan was going as intended Taboo walked back over to the drainpipe and slid back down to the ground.

He then went over to the window of the room underneath the chimney and peered inside, spotting the bag of bones inside the fireplace. Calling on the spark inside he sent a new channel of ether over to the bag, and once again the bones clicked themselves into place and reformed the skeletal body of Risas. The marrow approached him and clicked open the latch to the window, pulling it wide open to allow him inside.

Smirking to himself behind his mask Taboo hopped over the windowsill and into the house. That was the hard part over, now it was time for his favorite part; the looting!

[Tio Silver]

Like a prince in a palace Taboo strutted about the house, browsing through the assorted valuables as if he owned the place. Anything fairly small that could fetch a good price was snatched up and piled into one of the rucksacks; jewelry, decorations, and whatever nel he could find about the place, and fairly soon all of his bags were filled to the brim with pilfered riches. The first two bags he filled he passed over to Risas to hold, who chattered away with his teeth as if laughing along with him as they explored the various rooms about the house.

"My oh my, isn't this a nice little place." Taboo chuckled to himself as they entered the master bedroom, which was furnished from top to bottom with high quality fabrics and fine art. "A little on the gaudy side though, too many flashy things competing for the eyes attention." One by one Taboo grabbed the items about the room and packed them into his backpack. "In a way I suppose this burglary might be good for them; perhaps they'll learn to appreciate the value of minimalism. Yes, I think I'll chalk this up as a victory for good interior design."

He picked up a top hat left on a dresser and placed it down onto Risas' head, smirking to himself at how well it fitted the skeleton, and then rummaged through the bedroom wardrobe until he found another one to wear on top of his mask. "Just look at us, all dressed up in fancy clothing. I'll bet that..."

He froze mid-sentence as the unmistakable sound of a lock turning emanated from downstairs, followed shortly by the rattle of the handle as the front door swung open.

"Cathy, we're home!"

Shit! The owners were home early! It was dark downstairs which might buy him some time, but he only had a few seconds until they realized they'd been robbed. He had to get out of here before they found out or else they'd be on guard!

Taking out the coil of rope from his jacket, Taboo moved over to the bedroom window and slid it open as quietly as possible. Risas took hold of one end of the rope, and Taboo threw the other end out of the window and used it to quickly abseil down the side of the house. As he reached the bottom a light came on in one of the downstairs windows, and though they were muffled he could hear raised voices. The owners had discovered the crime! He needed to hurry! With a tug he pulled the Risas' end of the rope down to him and stuffed it into his backpack.

Back in the bedroom Risas picked up the bags of loot and dropped them out the window, straight into Taboo's hands. Taboo placed them down gently on the floor and then stood directly underneath the window, opening his backpack as wide as it could go, whilst Risas climbed out of the window and maneuvered itself so that it was standing entirely on the windowsill.

Taboo then cut off the flow of ether he was sending towards the marrow again and in an instant the skeleton fell apart, crumbling into a hundred small pieces. The individual bones fell down into Taboo's waiting back, clacking against each other softly as they landed, and as soon as the last piece and the pilfered top hat landed in the pile he drew the backpack shut and swung it over his shoulder, grabbed the bags of loot and ran for it.

Behind him he could hear the sound of the raised voices getting louder. Perhaps they'd spotted him, but either way there was no way they'd be able to catch him now. Once he dropped the goods off at the fencers he'd lay low for a while and then he should be all clear. He laughed in delight as the thrill of the crime washed through him.

Mission accomplished.

[Alistair]

Tio

Knowledge
Necromancy: Thralls can be de-animated and reanimated at will.
Necromancy: Using thralls for a boost.
Necromancy: Dropping thralls down the chimney.
Acrobatics: Leaping a fence.
Stealth: Darkness is your ally.
Stealth: Staying quiet is the key.
Stealth: Don't let neighbors see you.
Intelligence: Eavesdropping for information.
Intelligence: Tailing a target.
Appraisal: Evaluating art.

Loot: +2 Top Hats
Injuries: N/A
Fame: -2 Breaking a City Law
Devotion: N/A

Points: 10, These can be used for magic

Comments: Tio, please submit knowledges with your review request. In the 2.1.0 system, the reviewer does not find your knowledges, you find them. This is to save time and to ensure that you get the knowledges that you want. I will update this post once you have given me your knowledges. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please let me know.