[center]
[h2]Odd or not, in the cart it goes![/h2]
[h3]
[color=red]Fayt[/color]
[color=98fb98]Marken[/color]
[color=00aeef]Bullhorn[/color]
[/h3]
[sub]A collab by [@Riffusmaximus], [@Lasrever] & [@Zelosse][/sub]
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It was with a bit of sour disappointment Fayt entered this new world. There was nothing seemingly interesting to do in a forest except run into some dangerous forest monsters. Kicking a small pebble out of the way as the sight of the forest came into view, the orcish Thief sighed to his friend, seeing he didn’t get an answer from the priestess. [color=red]“So much for the party thing…” [/color]
 
Well, maybe they’d get lucky and find a hidden temple or a dungeon inside the forest. 
 
Or maybe just a guy and his house in the middle of nowhere.
 
Before Fayt could speak, the elven Thief had taken the lead and caused a scene. From the back, one could clearly see the green-skinned avatar raising a hand to his face. [color=red]“Gee, is that how ye do diplomacy? Ness’ time, leave tha talk to som’n’ else, yeh?”[/color] the orc muttered as he distanced himself from the group leaving the house.
 
He didn’t come here to fight. Fighting wasn’t the Thief’s forte anyway. That was best left for all those fighting classes. His talent was looting. And from what he’ve seen in the house, there could be something worth taking in there. 
 
With a malicious glint in his eyes, Fayt turned to Marken with a grin [color=red]“How ‘bout we leave ‘em to their problems, an’ help ourselves out?”[/color]

Well, that hadn’t gone well. Marken had decided to try and stay out of the confrontation once someone else started it. He didn’t really feel like getting in a fight, preferring to ensure his own safety compared to most of these people’s.

Maybe he’d have chosen different initially if he’d realised how bad they’d be at talking things out, but it wasn’t as if he could change that now.

[color=98fb98]“They really should’ve let me do the talking.”[/color] Marken sighed, looking slightly frustrated with how things had turned out. Turning to Fayt, he decided to forget about his frustrations, breaking into a wide grin. [color=98fb98]“Anything that saves me getting a bash over the head! May as well make the best of being stuck here.”[/color]

[color=00aeef]"Oi."[/color]

Like the two thief classes, Bullhorn had positioned himself from the bulk of the group and gone on his lonesome, aiming to avoid the npc now that others hadstarted a commotion. To his line of thinking, the npc was either strong enough to solo a whole squad of folks or would only be enough for a single combatant.

Neither option was attractive to think about.

[color=00aeef]"You two need a third?"[/color] Bullhorn cast a sideways glance at the group forming up near the npc, giving a little sigh. 

[color=red]"The more the merrier!"[/color] Fayt enthusiastically answered, giving the newcomer a thumbs up.

Glancing back and forth from the hermit to his house, the orc nodded to himself. If the guy was going to just stand there and wait for everyone to charge at him, then that makes things just easier for the Thief and his two partners.

[color=red]"Lesgo do some... 'shopping', whaddaya say?" [/color]

Fayt didn't really bother for an answer though, seeing as he was already walking discreetly towards the house.

Marken followed, though the cart meant he couldn’t be nearly as subtle about his movements - instead of trying to avoid notice, he decided to move quickly, figuring it’d be easier to let it look like he was retreating from the inevitable fight. Because really, there was no reason to risk his goods for people who insisted on starting problems right away. He was a merchant at his core, after all, and profits came first.

Despite appearances, he really wasn’t much of a fighter. Letting other people take on your battles was always much safer.

Arching an eyebrow, Bullhorn didn't inquire as to what the thief meant by 'shopping'. It seemed a fairly obvious answer if you thought about it. Unbothered by the moral conflict of doing right or making a profit, the horned mage merely nodded his consent and flashed a similar thumbs up to Fayt. The situation outside was going to get ugly and having a way to possibly funnel cannon fodder the boss summoned would be useful. 
Unless.. Shaking his head, Bull focused on the now rather than trying to predict the future.

[color=00aeef]"Ready when you are."[/color]

Nodding once more, Fayt now looked up, examining the house. It would seem like there were a few windows up there. Perfect.

[color=red]"Marks, ye stay here on watch. Imma toss ya stuff from the window up thare. New guy, ye come with me." [/color]

Taking a few steps back, the Thief took a running start. Agile footing ran up the walls and deft hands clung onto the edges of the house with surprising parkour skills. Before a minute even passed, the orcish figure was at the window of the house's second floor. Up there, he tied a grappling hook to a length of rope he had produced from his backpack. Once the hook was secured to the window's lower frame, Fayt let go of the rope, where it was hanging next to Bullhorn.

Quietly, the acrobatic thief motionned the Mage to join him up there.

[color=00aeef][i]In the real world I never would have gone along with this..[/i][/color]

Silently following along with the skilled and experienced thief players, Bull sheathed his dagger and watched the nimble orc scale the side of the building with frightening ease. Appearances were deceiving apparently. When the rope fell he took hold and pulled, easily hoisting himself up the side of the house as he put hand over hand until he was over the windowsill and next to Fayt.

[color=00aeef]"What next." [/color]

As soon as they went up there, they were greeted by a rather spartan looking room; the shopkeeper's bedroom if the single plain bed there was of any indication. While clean, it was bare of any real decorations. Indeed the only noteable thing was the stairs going back down, as well as another door behind a plain wardrobe.

[color=00aeef]"Whoever the owner is, either it's minimalist for show or they have something to hide."[/color]

If it was something to hide they would need something large. Either under the bed or 'decoration' that wouldn't look out of place to the casual observer. Marching across the room, Bullhorn pressed his back to the wardrobe and gave a grunt as he moved it slowly to the side and fully revealing the door. Flashing a smile of satisfaction, he motioned for the thief to do their job.

[color=00aeef]"Odds of a trap are high. Be careful."[/color]

[color=red]"No worries, I'm on tha job."[/color]

Fayt chuckled with confidence. Traps and secret passages? That was what this Thief character was made for. 

Closing her eyes for a second, Faith suddenly saw her vision returning with a faint red outline all around her field of view when she opened her eyes. Similarly, Fayt's dark brown eyes seemed to slightly glow with a red hue as his Search skill was toggled on.

A shopkeeper with minimal furniture. That indeed raised suspicions. Whatever he was hiding, the green-skinned avatar will waste no time finding those secrets.

The room beyond the door was outlined clearly, as well as outlines of what seemed to be boxes and objects stacked on boxes, but nothing else. No traps, just a large room with a lot of things in it, albeit dark without any source of light in it.

Looking aeound the room, Fayt had a mixture of surprise and disappointment on his face. Despite the darkness of the room, Fayt had no problem seeing thanks to one of his passibe skills. He navigated through the room, ushering a quiet [color=red]"Clear."[/color] to his Mage partner. Looking through the boxes, Fayt found nothing of peculiar interest, at least it would be in the real world. Inside a medieval game, the existence of TVs amd radios, electronics even, no matter how old they were, was way too technologically advanced for the game's usual setting.

[color=red]"Das... strange."[/color] Fayt muttered as he examined the contents of the room.

Marken, who’d held off on climbing in until he was absolutely sure nothing had murdered the other two, pulled his way through the window far less gracefully than they had and flopped unceremoniously to the floor. Of course, he could have stayed outside, but he’d ultimately decided against it. After all, he was best placed to figure out what was worth taking - and, for that matter, to talk their way out if they were discovered.

Looking down towards the room, he called out as loudly as he dared, choosing not to head down into the darkness. [color=98fb98]“Anything interesting down there?”[/color]

Fayt jumped in surprise even as it was a familliar voice whi called out to him. [color=red]"Gee, ya scared me. Thought you'd still be down thare."[/color]

The orc pushed a sigh of relief out of his lungs, turning his sight back to the boxes that have been rummaged through.

[color=red]"I... dunno? Lots o' TVs, radios, statues and junk. Stuff outta place for the game. Think ya can salvage these and find a use?"[/color]

[color=98fb98]“Should find a use, if you give me some time. Even if I can't, stuff that sticks out like that's valuable.”[/color] Marken squinted at the outlines - all packed up, it looked like. [color=98fb98]“Don’t bother unpacking all that, just take the boxes. I’ll climb back down; you just pass them down to me so I can get them on the cart.”[/color] And then, all things going to plan, they could find somewhere to hide out, look through the goods, and wait for the rest of the mess to blow over so they could get to the real fun stuff. 

Normally he'd have been more altruistic about the whole thing, but they were the ones who'd decided to get him warped out into the wilderness, so he didn't really want to stick his neck out for them. It wasn't as if you could go around joining every random stranger's fights, or you'd never make any progress.

Bullhorn rummaged through the items with casual disinterest, picking up what looked like old and outdated television and radio sets scattered through, if they were being honest, with a whole lot of worthless junk. The why of it all was elusive. Of course even outdated electronics could be useful and anything metal could be salvaged to make other things but that didn't explain anything about the situation or why the man would go to such lengths to hide this.. junk.

The only reason he could see at all was thanks to what little light shimmered in the darkness. The thief had already gone further in thanks to their dark vision but from the sound of it there wasn't anything else to see. Thinking back on the wardrobe, it gave him an idea.

[color=00aeef]"Oi. Maybe this is a double fake out? There might be another 'wardrobe' hiding a trapdoor somewhere on the floor. Look for a heavy statue or a pile of this trash thats bigger than the others." [/color]

If his hunch was true the real treasure, something the shopkeeper might want to protect above all and thus be worth fighting for, was hidden in this house. 

[color=red]"Nope, I see nothin' hidden, I'd know with my Search skill. Unless..."[/color]

What if this new campaign was still in development and Fayt's skill wasn't working as it was supposed to? Within the blink of his eyes, the red glow vanished, and Faith's vision returned to normal. Well, darkvision normal.

Searching carefully throughout the wardrobe, Fayt concluded one thing:
    
There really was nothing noteworthy in this attic.

It was sort of a let down, but at the very least they got something very unusual from all this, no matter how junk-ish it looked like.

[color=red]"Well, there really is nothin' here but all that scrap. No mattah. Marks, get ready down there. We'll toss ya the stuff from up here."[/color]

With that being said, Fayt tried to take a box by his lonesome self, but he found himself unable to lift them off the ground.

[color=red]"Shit, that's heavy. Help me pick it up, we'll just toss ya the contents one by one an' leave the lighter stuff in the boxes."[/color]

Pausing at the request, Marken headed back, grabbing the other side of the box next to Fayt. [color=98fb98]“You should start training! Get yourself lifting some real weights.”[/color] He was only teasing, of course, looking at his partner in crime with a chuckle.

[color=98fb98]”Let’s make it quick as we can, eh? Any luck we’ll be long gone by the time the fight’s over.”[/color] He grinned, bracing himself for the weight.

[color=98fb98]“Ready when you are.”[/color]

Picking up whatever looked most salvageable, Bullhorn did his best to help lug their valuables up and out the way they had come in. Their plan to vanish before the npc knew they'd come was wise.

[color=red]"Easy fer ya to say, big guy!"[/color] Fayt replied with a grin, letting out a grunt escape his throat as he started lifting the heavy boxes. [color=red]"Yeh, easy come, easy go. We be goin' in a jiffy."[/color]

[color=98fb98]“Right. So first, we pile all these up.”[/color] Marken grinned. [color=98fb98]“Stick them in front of the door, leave everything that doesn’t look valuable inside, and they should make a good barricade.”[/color] Really, he was the only merchant around here anyway; the others were unlikely to make good use of all this, and letting everyone have a piece of their discovery would just cut in to profits.

Marken Monet was [i]not[/i] about to toss away party funds that easily. It’d benefit everyone in the end. [color=98fb98]“Unload the valuable-looking electronics first, then we can look through the scraps.”[/color]

[color=red]"Righto!" [/color]

Doing as Marken suggested, the trio of thieves moved the heaviest boxes in front of the door while keeping an eye out for the would-be valuable electronics. Anything else, they simply moved it to block the only way to reach them. Despite their effort and their hurry, it would still take them quite a while to sort through the whole attic and retrieve what was of interest.

As the trio bent their backs to secure the loot, Bullhorn couldn't escape overthinking the situation. This could go down many ways but one of them seemed the most troublesome and at last could be ignored no longer. Speaking up, he brought his attention to Marken.

[color=00aeef]"Do you think its wise to carry all this when we have no idea where to go next to sell it? For all we know at the moment the guy outside is the only npc for miles." [/color]

A wiser plan, to Bullhorns thinking at least, was get far away and stash the goods where nobody would stumble on them. Travel light, find a buyer, then come back for the heavy stuff later. 

[color=98fb98]"Cart's there for a reason."[/color]Marken laughed. [color=98fb98]"We leave stuff behind, it won't be there when we get back. Just stack it all up and I'll do the planning."[/color]