Korel the Mage. Just beginning to come into his power as a crafter of the arcane arts, and here he is sneaking through the streets like a common criminal, looking for a place to rob. But not just any criminal, thought Korel, no criminal I have ever known has the abilities that I am going to have to utilize tonight. Besides, he surmised, I am not going after any big risk investments, just a small, quick in-and-out job to give me a jump-start in building my nest egg.
The streets were nearly empty, and from the smells of the sewage ringing the alleys of the homes, Korel could tell that he was entering into the docks of Freeport. Quickly, he ducked into an alley behind a fishery, melding into the darkness. A few people walked by, but no one turned into the alley after him. Relieved to have not been recognized, Korel took a few moments to allow his heart to slow and for his nose to become accustomed to whatever it was that he was standing in right now. As his eyesight allowed him to penetrate the dark, he saw that he was effectively separated from the main road, and far from his target for the evening.
Not chancing being seen this night, he steadied himself as he had done a hundred times before and channeled the arcane energies around him into a focus using meticulous hand gestures and spoken words. The magical forces surrounded his body and clothing creating a slight humming sound which quickly dissipated. Korel looked down at his hands and nodded in satisfaction. He could see right through them to the ground below. Now that he was invisible to the streetlights and those who walked under them, Korel stepped from the alleyway and proceeded further into the docks, taking a very long route to where his final destination lay.
Skirting the brighter lights and heavier crowds of traffic, the invisible mage made his way through the underbelly of Freeport until he came in sight of the building in which he had been looking for. Salazar’s Money Exchange. Korel had found the business yesterday while walking through the city. At first he wasn’t certain that this small grimy building would make much of a target for a heist, but he was soon thinking different.
Korel had gone up to the merchant earlier in the day, a small squat fellow who had little need for exercise or bathing, and did a simple transaction: some gold for a gem. The man was very attentive, seeming to memorize Korel’s features as they spoke. This surprised Korel, as some of the other merchants that he had visited earlier seemed almost bored with the work, and paid hardly any attention to him at all. To Korel, being more attentive meant that this merchant had little or no magical defenses to back him up. For a man who studies your movements and memorizes your face is someone who is worried about the man he is dealing with. The other merchants had enough magical wards that Korel’s arm hairs stood on end upon approaching.
After completing the transaction, Korel thanked the man and stood a few feet away, his back to the building, seemingly counting the money given to him. The squat fellow began making noise from behind Korel suggesting that he was opening a safe of some kind or perhaps a mechanical drawer system. Taking advantage of the merchant’s distraction, Korel lifted his hand in front of him, hiding his movements from the merchant and motioned some quick intricate gestures which signaled a silent version of a magical detection spell. Turning back around, Korel went back to the merchant’s shack and complained to him that the man had counted wrong. The merchant argued with Korel and demanded to have it recounted. Korel agreed and put the small leather pouch on the shelf separating the merchant from his customers.
The man began counting the money in the pouch while Korel eyed the inside of the shack with his magical detection spell in focus. After a quick sweep of the obvious places, he regarded the merchant once more who had finished counting the money. Korel argued with him a bit more, just for effect and left, seemingly disgruntled. Before he turned away, he could see a small smile creeping across the face of the merchant, who believed he had just swindled the mage. Korel knew instantly that the man had filched an additional four more gold form the pouch for the recounting service, but paid it no mind. It was Korel who was going to have the last laugh on this little man. No magical auras had been detected, no magical traps of any kind. Quickly he left the area and stopped at an Inn just off the roadside to flesh out his plans.
Now, one day later, Korel found himself invisible, standing in front of the shack he intended to clean out this evening. He stood for a very long time staring at the enclosure. No sound came from within, nobody came to investigate it’s contents. It was an island of calm amongst a sea of chaotic sounds and smells. He wished for a moment that he had talked his friends into accompanying him this evening. Keith Longwalker’s skills as a trap disarm expert would certainly come in handy this night. But to ask them to come along was to risk having to include them into treasure split, and therefore make this whole excursion much less profitable. So instead he inhaled deeply the night airs, and built up his confidence that he could perform this task on his own.
Silently he began casting protective spells about him. No noise was made, and nothing was seen by anyone who might be watching, for he was invisible. When he had finished, he stepped quietly towards the entrance to the shack on the north side.
The door was made of wood, and looked much more sturdy than the remainder of the outer building. He looked at the seams of the doors and at the handle for anything that looked out of the ordinary. Smiling, for he realized that anything unusual would be hidden too well for him to find, he proceeded with is plan and cast a spell which turned his already invisible body into a mass of vapors and gas. Taking a moment to realign his body in its new form, the cloud that was Korel glided into the shack underneath the door.
Inside the enclosure, Korel took his time looking around for the hidden enclosure that he knew would conceal the precious stones. He found them nearly immediately. Poorly concealed underneath a small piece of wood, which had become warped with time and moisture, showed a glimpse of a gold coin beneath. Korel materialized from the cloud form and reached out to lift the wood covering from the gold – and stopped himself. He froze and looked around the room. The enclosure being hidden by this board was only large enough to hold only a few coins and other trinkets. Hardly enough for what this merchant had at his store. What Korel had nearly tripped was a trap designed to catch the greedy or the impatient. Smiling, Korel dropped his hand to his side and chuckled at the merchant’s inventiveness. It was going to take more than just spells and magic to make it through this, it was going to take intelligence as well; the merchant wasn’t stupid.
Korel closed his eyes and formed the symbols in the air in front of him with his hand. When he had finished his incantations, he moved his finger around in the air, testing it for signs that would reveal where the merchant concealed his gold stash. His finger waved around the room, and finally came to a stop pointing at the floorboards beneath his feet. Dispelling the gold detection spell, Korel stepped away from the boards and hunkered down in the far side of shack. Knowing from experience that some traps disarm violently, he cast a simple protection spell over himself and then steeled his thoughts for the final spell that would unlock the hidden compartment. Closing down all distractions, he mumbled the incantations while following the words with gestures in the air. Directly in front of the mage, radiating in a cone shape toward the floor was a faintly phosphorescent blue pattern that resembled a fog or haze. Audible clicks and snaps were heard, followed by the clinking sounds of weights dropping to the dirt floor beneath.
Once the spell had run its course, Korel stepped to the planks of wood and carefully removed them revealing a buried safe directly below. The mage pulled on the handle of the safe, and the door slid easily toward him. Inside he saw jewels on velvet strips of cloth and small bags most likely containing gold pieces. He recognized the small pouch containing the gold he had traded for a gem the previous day. Still cautious, remembering the short smelly man was very clever in his traps, he cast two divination spells. The first was to determine if anything contained within the safe was poisonous, which turned out to be a wise precaution, and the second, was to verify if the safe had any hidden compartments. Both spells revealed things that the mage wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Avoiding the poison coated gems to his left, he emptied the safe of its contents and then sprung the false bottom of the safe to reveal paper documents.
He opened the documents and realized that the owner of this establishment had entrusted the deed to his business as well as his will and testament within. Quickly he replaced the documents inside the safe and closed the door, locking it once again. He replaced the floorboards quickly and stepped towards the door. Guilt was now eating away inside of the mage. The merchant’s Will had revealed that the man had two sons and a daughter who he had left all his savings and possessions to. The man had a family and a responsibility to them. Korel tried not to think of the merchant as a person, but as a rival, an enemy who must be defeated. Korel tried to picture the man who had filched gold from him while he wasn’t looking. A lowlife merchant who steals from his customers deserves such a fate. But as much as he tried to convince himself, his conscience would begin picturing the man’s children as he explained to them that his store had been robbed.
Korel stopped at the door leading outside to the street beyond. For a moment he thought of dropping the bag of stolen gems and stepping outside and not looking back. He thought for a moment about how his mentor would react if he knew his friend and student was now nothing more than a common thief. He thought again about dropping the bag… but didn’t. Korel tucked the bag into his tunic, cast a powerful version of the invisibility spell on himself, reached his hand, touching the strong wooden door, and blew the hardened wood to splinters. Angry now with himself for being weak, Korel, invisible still, stepped from the broken door into the street beyond. He considered burning the shack to cinders, but chose not to. He told himself that it was a whim that he chose not to destroy the remainder of the worthless little shack. Korel strode from the area, listening to the cries of alarm as the surrounding spectators inspected the worthless remains of the merchant’s shack. The invisible mage never looked back.
Deep inside the mage, the little voice that told Korel to leave the gold behind; the voice that told him to leave the structure intact became quieter still. Korel’s conscience withered a fragment more, and his sanity slipped just a step further toward darkness.