Stone Houses(#27944Rnto)
At the base of the Bree Hill, about a hundred comfortable-looking stone houses line the small and winding road that clings to the lower reaches of the hill. Red brick chimneys are built alongside each neatly-placed house and several of these chimneys spew forth smoke. A handful of skinny trees grow between some of the houses, and there in the centre of the street stands a green water pump. In place of one of the houses is a conspicuous gap, dismal-looking gravel that is still blackened in places, though weeds have started to reclaim the desolate space.
Light filters out of several of the windows of the houses that line the street. The light casts enough illumination among the night time shadows to allow folks to walk.
A misty rain comes down from the night sky. The midnight spring air is cool but pleasant around you.
Contents:
Sign before the Common House(#17613n)
Obvious exits:
East leads to Garden.
Stone House leads to Foyer.
Lorekeeper Residence leads to Lorekeeper Residence.
Common House leads to The Common House of Bree, Common Room.
West leads to GER: Centre of Bree.

================================== Bree Time ==================================
Real time: Tue Jun 14 21:30:17 2005
Bree time: Midnight <2:30 AM> on Mersday of Spring - May 25,1435
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent Moon
===============================================================================
Breelands Weather
The midnight spring air is cool but pleasant around you. A misty rain comes down from the night sky.

It is very early morning. Almost too early to be considered early, as it were. That is to say that midnight ticked by a mere two and a half hours ago and therefore it can hardly be considered morning yet. One thing is for sure- it's dark. Pitch. Black as.. well.. night (even though it's not). Rain dribbles from the sky, slowly. If it's possibly for rain to fall slowly. If it is, then that is what this rain is doing. Dribbling slowly. All the lights in the houses have been blown out (save one or two), and everyone is tucked away sleeping, safe and warm. The streets are quiet and empty. Quiet, slow, dark.. empty.
Something shifts the shadows around the lighter part of the darkness. A figure sits upon the wall, though she wears a cloak of black, and has therefore managed to conceal herself well by doing nothing more than getting wet and being dark. A red ember suddenly appears, as if from originally nowhere, flares and briefly illuminates a pale, frowing face, and then fades again. Smoke twirls into the air, and is crushed by the rain.
Scarlet Greythorn: Quiet, dark and smoking.

A lone and tinier than usual silhouette appears down the path, stepping lightly as she moves along the path. Tugging the hood of her ragged black cloak over her head, two beady green eyes peek out solemnly at the world. Giving a shiver here and there for dramatic effect, Aleria pauses as she stops in front of a house. Seeing as the curtains aren't drawn, she stands on her tip toes and wobbles about as she tries to peek inside. Unfortunately for her, there are occupants. Sighing glumly, she continues on her way and comes to a halt in front of the wall, and in the process in front of Scarlet as well. One corner of her lip lifting into a dry and one-sided smile, she makes no motion to say or do anything else just yet.

Scarlet has been watching the girl's process, and even as she draws up- and the woman finishes blowing out another trail of smoke- she speaks, or murmurs, since circumstances force her to be quiet and secretive. "Don't worry, there'll be time for that tonight.. In fact, do you remember I meantioned a certain project I was hoping to begin work on?" Sharp eyes watch, then look quickly and critically over the small figure. It is a predatorial gaze, no doubt, but there is no hatred or malice toward the girl within.
Giving a slow and deliberate nod, Aleria shifts her cape around to get better coverage from the light rain that falls. "I do remember," she reponds in a dry and almost monotonous sounding voice. "I've been wondering what it was, you know." Lifting the toe of her right booted foot to scratch at her left ankle, it then moves out in front of her and traces a circle in the dirt. No eye contact is made just yet, instead she continues to show only her profile to the other woman and focus her gaze onward.
Smoke pours from Mt. Doom as the Dark One's evil sorcery lags the game.
The smoke clears as good triumphs and the database saves.
The gaze narrows, and still she smokes, and again, and falls silent for some moments. "It is nothing particularly exciting, though it will lead to something of more interest... I suppose I should just tell you and we can be on with it, and out of this rain." Scarlet frowns and clicks her tongue against her teeth. "Well. There is a man who was... impolite to me. I need to borrow some things of his- insignificant things, but things that can be nevertheless traces back to him. A gold ring, or a coin-pouch with his initials. Small things that could have fallen at the scene of a crime, do you understand? Now, if we can do this well, and silently, I suggest we enter some other houses nearby- ones with which there is no connection to us, nor the fat-man. Here, we can take coins or jewelery, or whatever takes our fancy..."

Gaining a quite greedy and sparkling tint to her green eyes, Aleria folds her bony arms in front of herself and nods with satisfaction. "Mmm, something that would let someone know it was him, right? I see. Initials, a ring, certainly." A finger moves to flick an speck of dust off of her sleeve. "I'm sure we could do this. Should be quite simple, really." Briefly licking her lips, her gaze drifts off towards one of the houses. "Another pair of boots would be nice," she muses before looking down to her feet.

"Well, it shouldn't..." Scarlet begins, drawing out the inevitable 'but'.. "But the fat-man is a Breeguard. He should be on duty, and I hope he doesn't have a wife, because rings shall be found in the bedroom... but we should be able to take care of her anyway, if it comes to that. But like I said, once this house is done, we shall enter a few others and take whatever we like. I'm sure there shall be a nice pair of boots somewhere in there, too." Another pause, and she licks her lips thoughtfully, and lets the end of the cigarette fall to the ground. "I also have the keys to the Breeguard Headquarters... I wonder if we could put this to our advantage.."

Aleria gives a light and apathetic shrug, suddenly backing away to lean up against the wall. Though she doesn't try to sit on top, oh no. Leaning up against it is just fine for her. "Another shirt would be nice. This is is so very old." She wonders again out loud. Arching an eyebrow, she tilts her head to the side and up so she can finally initiate eye contact. "The kes to the headquarters? My, how did you manage that?"

Scarlet smirks, hands disappearing into pockets within her cloak. "Are you expecting payment for this task, are you? Despite the fact that I am letting you share in whatever we find after the fat-man's house, and even then I wouldn't be too concerned about you taking whatever coins you find. I am in two minds whether to make this appear as just another robbery, or not have him notice at all until he goes to wear Uncle Henry's ring and can find it nowhere... It is one of the finer details of the plan that I have not come to reach a decision over," And again she pauses, meeting the gaze of the girl and arching an eyebrow. "Oh, I have my ways. It was really not that difficult, though I expect they'll be more wary of the location of their keys from now on."

Aleria looks back out onto the path, observing those few souls that walk by. Studying each and every one of them carefully, as if each poses a threat to the slim girl, her head moves back to rest against the stone of the with a gentle 'thump.' Only daring to speak again once they are a considerable distance away, her voice remains low and conspiratorial. "Payment or not, there surely must be a few extra coins lying around. Enough to afford a better meal for a few days, or something." Eyelids drifing close for a moment as she contemplates, they swiftly open back up to meet Scarlet's own. "I see," is her soft and brief reply.
"Like I have already said," Scarlet begins, frustration rising quietly from the depths of her otherwise confident and unphased tones, "Whatever you wish to take from the other homes, you may. I have no doubt there shall be coins or gold to be found. We shall just have to remember that those which are not Breeguards shall be sleeping." Now she slides off the wall and stands- quite a lot taller than the girl. "I am finished with sitting in the rain- shall we go?" And without awaiting and answer, the woman sets to walking. "With the fat-man's house, we must leave no clues that we are women robbing him- he will suspect me. I think perhaps it is best then if we leave cloaks and boots at the door when we arrive- then there shan't be footprints.

Aleria doesn't seem bothered in the least. Rather, she gives a smug look of amusement and moves to follow. For being short, and therefore with short legs, she seems to be able to keep up pretty easily. Though she has to push herself in a jog to do so. "Certainly. No shoes, of course. Not a single trace," she mumbles in agreement, her gaze focused on the woman's head in front of her.
"Of course, usually it wouldn't matter so much- but I think this man already doesn't like me, and would be happy to blame any crime on me if he could, but provided he has no evidence, there is nothing he can do." Scarlet has 'striding with confidence and arrogance' down to a fine art. Her walk suggests that even if there were a troll in front of her, she would not be phased, because she has somewhere much more important to be. She slows, however, in front of a dark house, and lowers her voice to nearly a whisper. "We are here."

Darting a hand underneath her cape, and rummaging around for a moment or two, Aleria finally comes up with one of those lockpicking sets she holds dear. Waving Scarlet aside with a flick of her wrist, she goes about the motions of unlocking the door as quietly and as sneakily as she can. One of the things she's quite good at. Backing away once the deed is done, and slipping the items back where they came from, she reponds in an icy whisper: "And we're in."

In the meantime, and somewhat grudgingly, Scarlet has begun to remove her boots. She glances in the direction that is (presumably) where the bedroom will be found. "Perhaps leave cloaks and hoods on. If there is a wife, we do not wish for her to see us. At this hour, she should be sleeping soundly and should not easily wake.. but if she does well.. we shan't kill her but we may have to make her silent." Both boots are off, and sitting slightly out of the rain, and Scarlet moves to open the door with a nod of approval. It creaks, quietly, and she disappears into the darkness within.

Briskly kicking her boots off and setting them silently off towards the side, Aleria follows in. Apparently being scrawny and thin has its advantages, because she hardly makes a noise. Only the soft, barely audible patter of her bare feet on the floor. Pulling her hood on tightly, to make sure it stays in place, she slows her breathing to a calm and quiet pace.

You leave the street and enter one of the houses.
Foyer(#26837Rn)
The front room of this house has wooden floors and a small carpet by the door. It is sparsely decorated; only a small drawing of some flowers hangs on the wall opposite the entrance and front window. A set of wooden stairs leads to the second story, but it is dark and curves halfway up, so what lies above is not visible from the doorway. Two doorframes lead to the sitting-room and kitchen, one on the left and the other on the right. Warm, simple and definitely for one of the town's Big Folk, this could be anyone's home. Sunbeams fall through the front window, lighting the front room.
Obvious exits:
Kitchen, Parlour, and Front Door
Aleria enters from the street.
Aleria has arrived.

Well-adjusted to the darkness, Scarlet sets off into the house- moving first through the foyer- picking up ornaments and just generally poking about. Soon she moves into the kitchen- her own feet making little sound on the ground- socks buffeting the noise against the floorboards. There is a jingle of coins from through the darkness as she picks up a small leather pouch and looks it over carefully. "Ah..." She breathes, and in a moment, the pouch is gone- disappearing into the cloak. "Perfect.."

Starting her own search in the parlour, Aleria peeks around and inside various boxes and frames, lifting a few small, expensive looking ones and slipping into the confines of her own cloak. Appearing back in the foyer not long after, a brisk hiss is given in response to the sound of coins. "I suppose we should go upstairs, mmm?"

"They are not for me. The pouch has initials." Scarlet murmurs, in response to the hiss. The gaze shifts, quickly, to look at the stairs, and she licks her lips. "Yes, I think that is where we shall find more important things. After all, it is not often that one carries frames about on their person..." She moves quietly to the stairs, and begins to ascend.
"It's also not often one finds frames of such expensive material," Aleria whispers sharply in response. Casting the topic aside for the time being, she starts to move up the stairs and keep up the rear. Glancing over her shoulder, her gaze focuses on the front door to make sure no one appears out of the blue.
Without shifting her own gaze, and therefore apparently hardly able to see Aleria or where she's looking, Scarlet breathes; "He won't be home for a few hours yet..." Ahead, in one of the rooms, there comes the sound of deep-breathing- the breathing that occurs during sleep. Scarlet places a hand on the handle of the door, turns it, and slides in.

Slipping inside immediately after Scarlet, Aleria now holds her breath as to not make any sudden sounds. Keeping the door open with her bare foot, she leans over inside the room to get a better view. Observing the sleeping woman for a moment or so, her gaze flicks back to Scarlet to see what the woman's reaction is. To creep inside, or to not creep inside? That is the question.

Scarlet is already inside. Boxes and various ornaments, as well as a wool-scarf that hangs at the foot of the bed all disappear quickly and silently save for faint jingles and rattles as they slide to the bottom of pockets. Then, glancing around quickly, she pauses mid-stride back toward the door. There is something cruel that has found a light in her eye as she looks upon the wife. Then, drawing in a breath, she drags herself away, and as she passes, the words "Another night.." could be barely heard beneath her breath. She slides back through the darkness down the stairs.

Aleria spots a sidetable and lo and behold, there are some more coins she wanted. Excellent. Lifting the pouch and tucking it away, a shiny silver ring grants her attention. In an instant, it slips on her finger while she strides on out of the room. Looking quite smug indeed. Quite a profitable night, oh yes. She also slips down the stairs and out the door. Safe at last.