A flurry of movement swept through the Cithlar estate. Piles of alchemic reagents and ancient manuscripts were torn apart, leaving nothing but spotless floors and organized shelves in its wake. Mud left nothing behind as it placed every bubbling vial, glowing crystal, and pulsating organ in its proper place. With the assistance of Dictionary, it was able to identify every artifact to be placed in its proper location... or at least close enough. If Mud couldn’t tell a cow’s heart apart from a Nephilim’s, it was good enough to just have a shelf for general hearts. In this way, the first and second floors quickly became cleaner than they had been since the day the Great Enchanter had purchased the mansion.
Just as Mud was finishing with the first floor and was proceeding towards the basement, a pounding erupted from the front door. Could this be the 'beasts or pests’ that The Master had assigned as enemies? Looking through the window and listening to their conversation, Mud decided they were definitely ‘human’, and possibly 'pests'.
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Pounding on the door, Bark yelled for the fourth time.
“Old man, are you dead in there? Open up already!”
With a triumphant look on his face, Bark finally lowered his hand and turned smugly towards his accomplices. At the last moment, feeling there was no harm in being careful, he added, “alright, we’re coming inside to make sure you’re okay! Speak up now if you don’t want us to break in!”
Filled with confidence from the lack of reply, Bark turned towards his muscular companion.
“You see, Jericho? He’s definitely dead. There’s no way that crotchety fool that always complains about noise would stay quite while I scream and pound on his door. Once we swipe all the expensive junk in his house we’ll be set for life.”
Reaching for the door, Bark found it to be locked. This was expected, so he didn’t let it bother him. Instead, he cooly ordered his lackey- or rather “friend” to bust open the nearby window.
Spitting to the side, Jericho lifted his knobby wooden walking stick and struck it full force against the window. Rather than shattering as expected, glowing purple runes instead appeared at the point of impact and deflected the blow. Jericho dropped his weapon in surprise as the shock of impact returned to his arms, accompanied by loud cursing from Bark and giggling from Cob.
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Mud was incensed. These fools were trying to damage The Master’s home! And equally as unacceptable, they planned to steal The Master’s possessions! The needed to be stopped by any means. Well, almost any means. Mud’s options were limited by a higher rank order the master had imparted it with. Do not intentionally kill a human. These words were law to Mud, and a rule of its universe. The Master’s orders were as impossible to ignore as gravity or the passage of time. That being the case, the only options were to kill the humans unintentionally, or make them leave without killing them. Since intentionally trying to unintentionally kill them seemed dangerously close to disobeying an order to Mud’s mind, that left only the second option.
Observing through the window, Mud decided it would have a bit of time before the intruders managed to enter the house, and that it was highly unlikely their attacks could do any damage to the structure. Slithering over to a neatly arranged book shelf nearby, Mud grabbed thick tome on human anatomy. It was important to know how much they could be damaged before dying.
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Several hours later Jericho was panting on the ground as Bark stomped angrily back and forth in front of the door.
“What the hell is this place? The windows are harder than steel, the keyway ate my picks, and the chimney has a metal grate. Who the hell puts a grate on their chimney? This guy is insane! And what are you giggling about!?”
Bark turned furiously towards Cob, who had just stood there giggling and doing nothing to help since they arrived. Despite his sharp gaze, Cob just kept giggling and walked towards the door. Rolling aside a small rock near the entrance, he leaned over and picked up the spare key hidden beneath.
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“Damnit, Cob. This is why I hate you.” Deflating somewhat, he added “and why I take you on every job. Good work.”
The door opened slowly, and three figures cautiously entered.
“I didn’t know Cithlar was such a clean freak. This place looks like it's never been lived in. “
“I never woulda guessed from them messy duds ‘es always wearin’.”
The room was truly immaculate. The only thing out of place was a single open book on the floor next to a bookcase. Bark crouched down and examined the book appraisingly.
“Some medical book, looks well made. We could probably get a few silver for this.”
Taking on a more serious demeanor after entering the building, Cob looked around cautiously. "We should make sure Cithlar is dead before we touch anything. “
“You worry too much, Cob” said Bark as he scooped up the book and dropped it in a sack.
“’e’s right. If that ol’ man didn’ notice me wailin’ on the windows fo’ tha’ last bit, ‘e’s either dead or ain’t ‘ere.”
Cob grimaced but didn’t reply. Why were these idiots always in such a hurry? Cob hated how they always just did the first thing they thought of, without thinking it through or asking his advice. At least it was entertaining watching them suffer for being idiots. That was the only thing that kept him with them all this time. Thinking back to how hard they had tried to break into the building, Cob let out a light chuckle.
Just as Cob was thinking about how idiotic his companions were, Jericho wandered off by himself through a nearby door.
“What are you doing? Groups should always stick together during an infiltration. “
“I’m ‘ungry from swingin’ my stick so much. I’m gonna make myself lunch. I saw the kitchen when we was hittin’ the windows.”
“Just let him go, Cob. He can’t be reasoned with when he’s hungry. More importantly, start grabbing stuff that looks expensive” said Bark, who was rapidly following his own advice.
Letting out a bitter sigh, Cob wandered over to the bookshelf and started reading the spines.
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It seemed that luck was on Mud’s side. Or, perhaps, his foes were simply very incompetent. Shortly after entering the building one of the humans separated from the group and began wandering through the house. The foes appeared to not notice Mud’s presence, which confirmed one of his earlier hypotheses. Humans rarely looked up. The entire time Mud observed the group, they had only done so once, immediately before the slim one climbed onto the roof. Otherwise, they kept their vision fixed firmly ahead or even down. Given the massive blind slots in human vision due to the placement of their eyes, Mud was able to easily avoid their lines of sight by gripping the spaces between the roof planks with its amorphous form. Mud vowed to itself to keep its eyes on a constant rotation of all possible viewing angles whenever possible. No way would it fall for such a simple trick as staying in a blind spot!
[Stealth Skill obtained at level 1]
Right now, Mud was following the shortest and thickest of the intruders. While this foe seemed to have powerful attacks, it only acted under orders from the slim one. Since it was separate from its Master, perhaps it wouldn’t even think to fight back when Mud attacked. Mud could only hope this human’s Master forgot to order it to avoid damage.
Arriving in the kitchen, the thick one moved over to a nearby cabinet and began searching the contents. Then, to Mud’s dread, it ate a cracker. A thought ripped through Mud’s mind at the sight; I order you to defend my home, and my possessions. I’m sorry, Master! Forgive me! That cracker has been thoroughly destroyed. There was no recovering it now. Mud needed to act immediately before more damage could be done.
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THUNK.
“What was that noise?” Cob spun around and pulled out his shortsword.
“You’re so dramatic, Cob. Jericho probably just dropped something. You know how clumsy he can be.” Paying the situation no mind, Bark continued to stuff the books with the fanciest covers into his burlap sack. “If you’re so worried about it, go check on him. I’ll be fine here by myself. And put that thing away, you'll put your eye out.”
Scowling in annoyance, Cob moved towards the direction he had heard the sound from. This time he moved with extreme caution, checking for ambushes along the way. He paused for a moment when he noticed a bit of the hallway roof that was covered in fresh brown plaster. If this was the dungeon he would suspect it hid a trap, but in an old man's house it's more likely one of his experiments had burned a hole through the floor. Nobody put deadly traps in their own home, unless they wanted to die the next time they got drunk or started to sleep walk. Something about that patch of mud triggered his adventurer instincts, but he couldn't figure out why. Being impatient to ascertain the state of Jericho, Cob hurried on to the next room.
What he found did not put him at ease. On the floor of the kitchen was a pool of fresh blood, with drag marks leading to a nearby window which appeared to have been opened from the inside. Outside the window lay an unconscious, bleeding, and nude Jericho.
That was when Cob heard a noise from the direction he had left Bark.
THUNK.