I woke up screaming, covered in cold sweat. The events of last night had crept in my dreams, filling my night in horrors of reliving the moment I had killed Jimmy. I know he was going to attack me if I didn’t do anything, but before that moment, I had never actually killed anything. Why would I have? Before yesterday I was living in modern earth with all the convenience that came with being a lower middle-class citizen.

But my first day in this fantasy land of my own creation had ended up with murder. And even though the man I had killed was simply nothing more than an NPC, and by extension my own creation, it had felt real. The horror in his face when the light dimmed from his eyes was too real for my comfort.

I tried to shake the gloomy thoughts off of my head, and looked around my surroundings. When the discussion with Onyx was over, I had been given a bed in one of the spare rooms. It may have even belonged to Jimmy. The thought of laying in a dead man’s bed didn’t bother me last night when I was tired, but now. I had to get out.

The common room was mostly empty. One of the men I had seen previously lounging on the couch was still there, fast asleep. Apparently, no one had woken up to my sudden night terrors. I wondered what I should do now. I could flee. I still had my money and I was certain that I could find a place to catch my breath and relax from the rather traumatic first day I had. But on the other hand, I could stick with this crew for now. If they were committed to robbing a nobleman, why shouldn’t I profit from that too. With my knowledge and their criminal -well… not expertise- but skill, we had a decent chance of getting something out of the Rindell household.

I sat down on the chair I had been “interrogated” on just a few hours ago, and mulled over my actions that would impact my near future. In the end, it was really not a choice at all. I would stick with the group. I needed money, and these minions would allow me to gain more and faster than I could on my own.

One week later I was crouching in an alleyway with two men from the hideout, looking at our target; a three-story house with cast iron fence outlining a neat courtyard. Everything was in place for the mission.

During our week of preparation, I had visited the market square four more times, nicking coin purses and minor trinkets when I could get my hands on them, and invested my loot in new gear.

I had changed my baggy clothes from back home to something more fitting to this world, so I wouldn’t catch an eye due to my unusual garments. I was wearing a loose-fitting black tunic, with a leather vest on top, high-waisted pants and a pair of soft leather boots. It was a modest outfit, but it suited me rather nicely if I do say so myself. I also had a piece of cloth wrapped around my face to hide my features just in case someone saw me during the heist.

I glanced across the street and saw Onyx with one of his crewmates eyeing the building. We had gone over the plan many times, and they had observed the house throughout the week to learn the guard patrols in the area. In my opinion, we were as ready as we could be. Onyx looked at my direction and I gave him a subtle nod. It was go time.

I watched how he and his partner, a slim man called Steven, walked up to the gate and started arguing. They were to cause a distraction, so I could guide my team through the backyard and into the building. When we saw the guard focusing on Onyx and Steven, I gave the signal and we ran towards the fence and started climbing it.

Being a stylish, pseudo-modern iron fence you could see in modern-day wealthy suburbs, it did very little to offer any actual protection to the property, if someone wanted to climb over it. Instead, the purpose was to show off their wealth, and mark out their territory, while the actual security was imbued to the house itself. Works fine for me. Few moments later we had crossed the spikes at the top and were descending quietly to the yard. Scaling the fence was surprisingly easy. Even I with my zero skill in anything related to climbing managed to cross over it. I glanced at the gate quickly and saw that the guard had joined the shouting match, trying to get onyx to move further away from the house. Onyx played his part well, now shouting at the guard in ever-increasing volume. He wouldn’t have too long before the city watch would come over to calm the situation down, but for now his distraction was a welcome one.

Silently we moved as a unit to the backyard, and I told my team to start turning rocks to find the key to the cellar. It would be an old, rusty iron key with a small tag on it and hard to miss, once you found it. I didn’t remember the precise location, since this was only a beginner house with next to nothing of an actual value, but the basic details were still relatively clear in my mind.

We searched for five minutes in the cover of shouting coming from the front, and eventually, one of my teammates found it.

“Hey Niko! I got it!” He brandished the key over his head and stage-whispered. I gave him an annoyed glance. Seriously. We had talked about this. No noise. But we got the key now, and it was about time we would go in.

I took the item from his hands and moved to the trapdoor that would lead down to the cellar. After working a moment with the old, rusty lock, it finally clicked and I threw the door open.

“Now! Hurry inside!” I spoke in a low tone, not whispering because ironically, it would’ve made more noise. My team went inside, and I followed them last, closing the trapdoor behind me as we entered a cold, dark room.

“Okay. Everyone present? Good. Now we need to hurry. Nothing valuable here for now. Just food and some wine. We may grab a bottle or two on the way out, but eyes on the prize boys” I ordered, and we moved to the opposite side of the room, searching the wall until we found a door. I tried the handle and it opened smoothly to a staircase.

“This leads to the kitchen. There is a servant quarter next to it, so be quiet. I doubt we will encounter anyone, but if we do, non-lethal force only. We don’t want the guards to start investigating a homicide here.”

We hurried up the stairs, and just as I had promised, we came to a kitchen. A dim light came from the windows, revealing unwashed dishes soaking in soapy water from yesterday, few workstations and an oven. A door to the house proper was on our right, and as the NPCs with me went through it, I decided to get myself a quick weapon upgrade.

Onyx’s crew didn’t give me a proper dagger when I was with them, and my flimsy knife wouldn’t do much to intimidate anyone, so I went through the kitchen and got myself a heavy-duty steel cleaver with two utility knives.

Being a chef by my actual profession, before I turned my focus to roleplay game design, I knew how to handle the tools. Now armed with much more formidable weapons, I followed the no names through the door and entered the living space.

I was suitably impressed by what I saw. It was one thing to create a thing with maps, blueprints and notes scribbled to the side, and actually see the place with your own eyes. The floor was covered by a soft, Persian-style rug. Suits of armor stood by the walls in front of expensive-looking tapestries that were hanging from the ceiling.

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The whole place oozed of wealth, and if I had time and a way to carry these things, I would’ve cleaned out the whole place. But I was on a clock, and had a weight limit. I looked around, trying to ignore my inner greed raven. Two rooms. One leading to the dining hall, another to a living room. No good. I saw the living room door open and heard muffled voices coming from within. I wanted to scream. Didn’t I just say, eyes on the prize? But on the other hand, I couldn’t blame the no-names for giving in to their greed. If I had been in their positions, I would’ve fallen into the same mistakes. But I wasn’t, and I wouldn’t.

I headed upstairs, looking for the study room. The house owner’s bedroom held nothing of value, and I wouldn’t dare to enter them, in fear of waking them up. It would just lead to a mess. No. The study had a few cool things. Beginner-level spell scrolls, and a safe with some serious coin.

After a couple of tries, I found what I was looking for. The study. It was a small room, filled to the brim with bookshelves, papers and other knick-knacks. On the far side of the wall, there was a large painting, depicting a very plump, balding man, looking just like I had imagined him. I entered the room, closing the door behind me, and browsed the shelves, seeing if anything would catch my eyes. If this was a game, I would just ask my players to do a perception check, and tell the results on what they found. This was giving me a whole new insight on what the characters would go through in-game. If I ever got back to my world, I would be the greatest game master there ever was, having lived through the experiences of being a character.

I was on a clock and needed to hurry, so I doubled down on my search efforts. Our plan was a simple one; Provide distraction to get us in, loot everything not nailed down, wait for the next distraction to sneak out. Simple, efficient. But still, so many things could go wrong.

Not finding anything dashing on the bookshelves, I moved on to the desk. I opened drawers and rummaged through them furiously. Letters, Inks and quills, small trinkets. I knew some of these may be of some value, but I was in for the big haul. So after a couple minutes of frantic searching, I finally focused my attention to the portrait. The real prize. I grabbed the heavy frames and lifted the painting off the wall, revealing a ‘hidden’ safe, and laid it carefully against the desk.

The safe was made from sturdy metal. Inscribed steel if I remembered correctly. No use trying to break it with brute force. I looked at the locking mechanism. A simple rotation lock you could find in any ordinary safe in the real world. But simple did not mean easy to crack. There were few ways to include a puzzle like this to the game. First was of course hiding the correct code somewhere in the room or the house. I had done that, but I couldn’t remember the combination, or where it was hidden. And the second one would be to get high enough perception or thieves tools roll to see if one could open the lock just by listening to the pins clicking in place. Of course, I didn’t know how to do that.

I sat on the desk, mulling over my situation. I really hadn’t thought this through as well as I thought I had. What could I remember from this place, and the people within? House Rindell was a minor noble house. Insignificant in the bigger picture, but had some wealth to their name. Mr. Rindell was a drunk, who spent his family money on prostitutes and expensive clothes. Mrs. Rindell was.. I couldn’t remember. The quests I had planned for this place were mainly focused on the man. That left me with the children. Insignificant to my current predicament.

A new plan started to form in my head. A drunk master of the house. I could work with that. He would most likely remember the combination, but if I was right, he would hide it somewhere in plain sight. I switched my position on the desk to see the room how he normally would. No hidden numbers that you could only see if you looked at the room from a right angle, and I didn’t expect any. I started going over the items on his desk carefully, turning them over and trying to see every detail. It was difficult, as the only light source was the windows and the moonlight coming through.

“If I was a drunk, trying to hide the answer to the safe in this room, where would I put it..” I muttered softly. Best hiding places for these were the obvious kind. So obvious that any reasonable man would think of it just as misdirection. Hide a tree in a forest and all that.

Then something caught my notice. I was trying to lift a small dragon statue from the table, but it wasn’t budging. Now that was out of the norm, so I focused on it. It was a neat, ornate little thing, that reminded me of a paperweight or a really big seal. As I was looking at it, I started to remember a line I had written on my notes.

“If the player succeeds in an investigation check, they will find the code hidden in an ornamental statue on the desk.” Gotcha! I pulled my head closer, and in the dim moonlight, I saw that the dragon had gemstones set in it. Seven on its head, fifteen on the chest, and four on each of its legs. Would that be an eight?

I stood up and turned to face the safe, placing my hand on the knob. I rotated it slowly clockwise until I hit seven. Then counterclockwise to fifteen, and clockwise again to eight. I heard a click coming from the safe and an evil grin stretched on my face. Thank you, past me!

I swung the door of the safe open and looked at my haul. A small pile of gold and silver coins, a small notebook, and two small cases, one looking like an ordinary chest, another shaped like a tube. So that’s where the spell scrolls were. No mystical and magical weapons, but that was to be expected. I grabbed everything from within and stuffed them all to my messenger bag that was hanging from my shoulder.

With my monetary problems fixed, for now, I glanced back at the room, trying to see if I had missed anything important. I had, and I nearly slapped my forehead as I realized the most important thing I had forgotten. Ink and paper. To be successful, I would need to write down everything I could remember. My old crumbly receipt just didn’t cut it anymore. I took a few bottles of ink, quills, and nibs and a handful of small, blank leather-bound diaries, adding them to my loot, and headed out of the study. Now, what else? I could try to sneak a sword out of the guard-room, but I didn’t know how to use one, and I wasn’t planning on learning. Daggers and knives were useful early on, but I was in a world with actual magic in it. I would be a fool if I didn’t take advantage of that. And my plans to get back home required a hefty dose of magical might.

I went downstairs, meeting the rest of my crew in the entrance hall, all carrying heavy bags filled with various goods of moderate value. I saw a few golden candlesticks poking out of one of their bags and I sighed. To each their own I guess. Overall their total haul may be worth more than what I had gathered, spell scrolls not included, but they would be having a hard time selling their loot.

“What did you find?” One of them asked, looking at my light bag suspiciously.

“I don’t know yet. I visited the study room and found a couple of interesting things. I didn’t have time to search properly. Are we ready?”

The men nodded, and we headed back through the kitchen and into the dark cellar. So far so good. No major hiccups. Navigating through the cold room was easy, now that we knew the direction where the trapdoor was, and I joyfully nicked a couple of the wine bottles I saw on a rack. No need to leave the good stuff to the NPCs. I knew how to enjoy it better.

I saw the trap door being opened, so I moved in line with the crew to head back out. One by one we climbed through, and soon enough, we were crouching in the backyard of the house. Looking around for any threats, I noticed the guardsman patrolling the front of the building. Good. But no sign of Onyx anywhere. If he wasn’t soon here to give us a way out, we would have to improvise. I hated improvising in these kinds of situations because it could only lead to someone being killed or captured.

I signaled at the men in my company to gain their attention and hissed through my teeth. “Spread out. Wait for Onyx’s signal. If he doesn’t show up soon, make a run for it. Remember the plan.”

I got nods as a response, and we all started circling the house, spreading out to different exit points. This would make it much harder for the whole group to get caught in case something happened. And after we were done here, we would all head to different hiding places to wait for a couple of days, and regroup at the main hideout. I wasn’t planning on following this step. I was out of the city as soon as I could, now that I had money to spend.

So I waited. Five minutes went by, and no sign of Onyx. Well poo. I wasn’t going to stick around and wait to get caught, so I started climbing the fence. Apparently, my team had similar thoughts, and I heard a loud -CLANG!- coming from my left. I whipped my head towards the direction of the sound and saw one of the no-names laying on the ground, holding his head. The idiot had put too much in his bag and had fallen. I needed to hurry.

I heard shouts coming from behind me, and saw over my shoulder the guard running in his direction. Sorry bub, but you are gonna have a bad couple of years in prison ahead of you. I focused on my climbing efforts and made it safe over the wall. When I touched the ground, I bolted straight towards the closest alleyway, not looking back. I was safe.