Nights in Kimbergale were darker than in other spots around the Diamondlands. The tall trees that kept the town closed in and provided levels of walking and living areas for the mostly gnome populated town were not meant to give one access to stargazing. The layout also allowed for longer hours of business as the day and night were more artificial with created lights and hours of activity.

The town was separate from the mining and delving towns that were more common in the area, it relied on entertainment for its tourism and economy. There were farms and groves for food and tinkers and workmen for amenities, all gnomes were natural tinkerers after all. Anyone who visited the town found their way to one of the many many entertainment hubs, as gnomes were regular show-offs as well.

Gnomes loved to make things outlandish and extravagant, the buildings were either built with the trees around them in mind or obviously out of mind. Take the Para Parrish Art Museum, It was a dome made of glass, completely out of place on the six floors of the stacked main town. It was made of several diamond shaped glass segments that only connected via smooth polished wooden dowel separating and emphasizing the shapes between them. It had been a tricky construction, getting each pane of glass to fit and mold the shape accordingly so that they formed the fantastic dome. Inside the building was rather the same, extremely out of place.

The exhibits were on several dividing walls and half stages like a multilevel and impossible maze. The maze within had several exits and entrances with distracting and beautiful pieces that drew the eye in every direction. It was almost impossible to see all of the exhibits in one day, making it easy to allow for repeat customers between visiting curiosities and lessons of history and art. Along with the permanent placements were a number of traveling segments that had come from other societies and communities of art and history that littered the Diamondlands, these would stay for a few months or weeks at a time to draw in veteran viewers who had seen all the permanent pleasures of the gallery.

Famous artists and collectors had a spot in the museum, where it was believed to be the most secure for their priceless contributions. At this moment, there were not fewer than ten collectors who entrusted the museum with interesting ideas of an artistic mind. One was a collection of animal shaped rocks, not carved, but simply rocks that looked like a notable animal. Another was pieces of historical artifacts that had been quarried and believed to be from early Deck civilizations outside the capitals of each continent. One set was of particular interest to an outside party and if she had her way it would not be there much longer.

This outside party had been to the museum to check on the items with her boyfriend earlier in the week. It was a good disguise, a date to the museum was not exceptionally romantic, but she did not like overly romantic gestures and he was simply interested in the styles of the people in the new world he was calling home. She also did not like to hit a target so close to home, but the collector was going to be moving the pieces in the next couple of days and she had been hired to collect one item and had wanted one part for herself.

Throughout history there were several cases of theft that baffled the authorities, all were attributed to a single thief, the Vortex Sneak. She was in Kimbergale tonight and she would get her prize. The name was passed down in the family, notable for a storm of burglaries and break-ins to cover what items they were usually after. This would be different as there were no lead up break-ins, it was going to be a one time quick done job. The target was a small item to barely be missed, it was a tool, a favor, a family heirloom. Not her family, but it should have been and the collector would barely miss it.

Cinder had not earned a last name yet, she was simply Cinder and she liked that. Traveling was an easy love for her and a permanent job or title would tie her down. Earning a living as a Player was more to hone her skills and gain experience points for more abilities. All hers were focused on unseen movement and the procurement of goods. When she was younger she stole to feed herself, then she was accepted into a new family, they let her keep the name although she was far from a third child in their eyes. The actual third sister, Cidna, was very nice but was not a proper sister to cinder. Edna had been very young when she joined the family and so Cinder was able to get along with her much better. But each of the other adopted siblings seemed to have a purpose, for Cinder it was more like a destiny that she needed to uphold.

Cinder’s family from before this adoption had been wiped out, or at least that is what she had found on her own. A probably unknown accomplishment, the assailant must have barely known that they had taken out a notorious crime family in the Diamondlands. That is the point of a sneak after all, to never be caught. She had wondered about revenge, but there was no way to know who had done the deed. It had been when she was a little girl and all she remembered was the chaos and fire of the attack the night that their original home town burned.

After that, it was all a blur, she knew the details but told no one, she was just known as an orphan when she had passed out of the gateway near Kimberglade. The only memories of her family she had was a small diary that was hers. It told the story of the Vortex Sneak, the mantle she now bore as a responsibility to her family. She would uphold this responsibility as long as she could get paid for it, as she was really very good at stealing.

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With the effect of the leveled city, Kimberglade never truly went to sleep. People were up all day and night doing chores and jobs, so even at the late hour Cinder was not alone as she got to her first checkpoint. It was above the level of the museum and the top of the dome was right below her. The building above was a post office or rookery, filled with caged mechanical birds to carry messages between towns. There was instant messaging, but that was expensive. Each of the cages had a trapdoor and a grate from the time in the past when they had used actual birds for the task and the cages needed a drainage area. It had been over a century since then.

“Thank King for magic” Cinder muttered as she lowered herself into the crawl space below one of the cages. It was cramped, but had been made for a worker to get below and clean, back when the inhabitants of the cages were actual birds.

She started to work getting through the bottom of the floor with a vile of acid she had tested for the purpose of this job. The floor melted away revealing the dome roof below. Once the hole was large enough for her to get through, she lowered herself through the floor and, due to the size of the structure below, could just stand on the curved top.

This was the top of the museum and with her enhanced dexterity she was able to work her stance to remain in place while she activated a spell with an incantation. Focusing on the soles of her shoes, she activated the sticky spell. Her soles were in place now and she had no threat of moving down the side of the structure. She could recall it at mental command and reinitiate it when stepping, the focus was the drawback to the spell.

Cinder began to work attaching an anchor above and cutting into the glass near her feet to lower herself into the museum. Her plan was to lower down most of the way and use the enchanted teleport ammo ball and her slingshot to get to the outer end where the items were kept. Cinder finished cutting the glass and slipped her hood over her head adjusting the mask so that it’s enchantment activated.

This hood was one of the only pieces of heirlooms left to her. It was called:

The Dark Cloak

The hood can give you a heightened Attention and Awareness. The hood obscures your identity so it is more likely the viewers will overlook your presence.

It was an indispensable article for any heist, the diary that she had left with had given her the location of several small caches of stored family heirlooms like this cloak for the inheritor of the title, the Vortex Sneak.

As she lowered into the open area under the glass ceiling her eyes searched for her target and movement hoping to trace the routes of the guards to the same movements she had memorized during her visit the day before. She had mapped the route to the exhibit in question and readied her slingshot and ammo for the task. One of her attributes was in Craft, it gave her mainly perception and identification abilities in her HUD to assist with potion and poison creation. It had been how she knew the acid she used earlier, and it helped her craft and enchant her own ammo, with the assistance of her sister.

Edna’s entire build depended on ranged spells and getting to places to use those spells effectively. She had 3 teleport spells, the ammo she had made with Cinder was enhanced with a Recall teleport. In spell form it would bring you to a location you could see and then back to your original space at a command. In ammo form the effect was timed instead of based on command, but Cinder could use it effectively. She would have two minutes to get her items and then it would put her back in the same place up above.

Cinder steadied her breathing focusing on the shot before the tough part of the mission could begin. The yolk of the slingshot went back and fired, a moment later she was no longer hanging from the rope in the air but on the other side of the room. She moved quickly to get her exact bearing and cursed under her breath realizing she was further than she would have liked from the target exhibit.

Silent, but quickly she moved to the glass case housing the ledger she was there for. Working hard to ignore the valuable parts of the exhibit, she began the extraction process she had devised, having to rush since the time it took her to get to this point had not allowed any wiggle room for the task. The glass cutter worked wonders, it had a dispel charm for any security measures the glass might have. Within seconds there was a hole big enough for her hand and the ledger to make it out, and her eyes lighted on another object that could be good to procure.

Cinder moved to the second stand pocketing the ledger, the cutter went to work again and soon she had grabbed out the bluish pink crystal that could tell her a lot if she could find a spell strong enough to activate it. A memory crystal could be created by individuals connected to earth and intuition, and she remembered that her new boyfriend did have the proper attribute to learn the spell.

Just as her finger curled around the crystal, her time was up and she was recalled back to her previous location, having to catch her bearing and the rope in the moment of disorientation from the spelled shot. It was a close thing but she was effective at not making a sound as she swayed from the rope then crawled up like she had never been in there in the first place.

Crawling out of the space below the cages, she moved to get to her final checkpoint and go over the ledger she had obtained. A quick and almost easy successful heist was a great way to end a night.