Brin exited the forest and ran straight across the open plain between the trees and the walls; there was no cover out here, but there was also no reason to be out here looking in this direction. He should be safe, but still he ran quickly.

He decided to climb up the guard platform. Sure, he could simply climb the wall, but the town walls were just big straight logs with sharpened tips all pressed together. It would be a little awkward, and jumping down the other side would make a sound. Probably not an issue, but he didn’t want to start the night taking needless risks.

Once he got to the wall, he threw his grappling hook up to the platform up on the watchtower. It hit with a noticeable clack, but not so loud that anyone would hear it unless they were right there. Hopefully.

He waited for thirty seconds and when he didn’t hear any sign of movement on the other side of the wall, he started climbing.

He climbed to the top with Marksi and the backpack on his back, and it wasn’t difficult at all. It still surprised him all the things his body could do with Dexterity after the first threshold. Sure, he’d been close for a while, but he had a whole lifetime of experience in his old body, and it still adjusted his perception on what was possible. It made him more careful than he needed to be. That might be a problem some day, but for tonight, it was perfect.

He got to the top, wasted no time in rolling up his grappling hook and stashing it away, and then crept down the stairs. Hogg’s sound circle had disappeared the instant he’d started on the road away from the house. Clearly Hogg didn’t plan on helping him with this. He was wondering if the old guy was even watching, or if he was determined to ignore the whole thing in the hopes it would give Brin a better achievement. Either way, he couldn’t depend on him.

Besides, he didn’t really need the sound circle. It had been a useful training aid, but it had served his purpose. He walked down the stairs silently.

At the bottom of the watchtower the only thing in sight was the backs of the nearby houses. Before he could second guess himself, he walked up to the nearest house and pressed his hand against the doorknob. He turned it slowly. It wasn’t locked.

He crept inside and closed the door behind him. The interior was dark but he could still make out the shape of obstacles. He was in a hallway that went straight through to the street, with a staircase on the left and a doorway to the kitchen on the right. The only obstacle was a little entryway table.

He ran his hands along the entryway table, and found that it was the kind with a little drawer. He opened it, and felt inside very carefully, so that whatever was inside wouldn’t roll around and make a noise. He felt a hand-mirror, a pin-cushion, and then a cheap deck of bark-paper cards. He took the cards.

There was no achievement. He hadn’t really expected there to be one, but he’d hoped.

There could be two reasons. The most obvious, and the thing he hoped was the problem, was that he hadn’t gotten away with it yet. He needed to get out of the house, probably out of the town, before he could count this as really “stolen”.

That was easily testable. He left the house the way he’d come, then walked up the watchtower and rappelled down the other side. He walked into the forest.

To his surprise, he got a notification.

Congratulations!

You have gained an achievement.

Thief (Common)

You have temporarily stolen something with every intention of giving it back.