Chapter 2:
Go Out With a Bang

After knocking out the guard and hiding the unconscious form, he headed to the governor's quarter's dodging yet another patrol on the way. Two minutes later, he found the narrow hall with a pair of double doors spanning the gap, and a decorative stained glass arrangement above the doors. The doors were almost undoubtedly trapped, but the rogue was much more resourceful than that. He cut a small gouge in the wooden wall to his side, and jumped up to it. Using it as a brief foothold, he quickly snapped his body horizontally across the narrow hall, and held himself in mid-air, braced against the two walls. Every muscle cried in protest, but he held his abnormally trim (for a dwarf) figure. Quickly reaching to his belt with his left hand, he unsheathed his dirk, and began prying out the glass panes. He removed one piece, clamped it in his teeth and popped open a second panel, and smashed the half-inch piece of wood in between.

Now able to crawl through the small hole, with great effort, he slipped over the doorway, and landed softly on the other side. Laying the glass on the floor, he darted down the dark hallway.

Using his handy mirror again, he saw all that lay between him and the governor's room. Two guards in a narrow hallway, both leaning against opposite walls, discussing the upcoming horse race. With no easy way to get through he began slowly creeping toward them, hoping to get close enough before they noticed. He was just close enough when one of them finally noticed the shadow creeping toward them. He yelled, but no one besides his partner was close enough to hear him. A quick stab, and he dropped. The next guard was still drawing his sword when the assailant got to him, getting a stab in the neck.

Looking around the hallway, he noticed one of the rooms seemed strangely out of place. It read, "servant's station". Of course the place had servants, but for their closet to be in the governor's quarters seemed very strange. Taking out a pair of lock picks, he began feeling the inside. It was a 7-tumbler lock, very expensive, and definitely not a broom closet lock. Getting to work, his hands were like big nerves, feeling every tiny groove in the lock like a tiny puzzle. He was on his fifth tumbler when he looked to his right. One of the recently stabbed guards was not dead, and crawling silently the whole way, had already reached the warning bell. The thief thought of finishing him off, but it was far too late for that. The guard wasn't going to attack anytime soon, and the bell was already as good as rung. No point and taking an innocent life.

The bell rung out, loud and booming. Time was running short. Going into a state of complete concentration, he picked the last tumbler just as he could hear distant yells coming toward him. Quickly entering the room, he closed and locked the door. After a quick scan, he realized that this was in fact, the governor's room. Thankfully there was no governor in it, but he of course already knew that thanks to his insider. He began tearing the room apart, leaving no shelf, drawer, or pillowcase unchecked. At last he stared into the mirror, and realizing how thick the mirror frame looked, he smashed the reflective surface with a nearby metal paperweight.

On the inside of the broken mirror, lay what he quickly estimated to be 5000 platinum pieces, and a stack of documents lain vertically inside the open space. These documents he quickly checked out and realized to be the proposal documents and a 10 percent increase on taxes for foreign farm equipment imports. Considering these farm machines are vital to the local farming community, the citizens would be up in arms against this, not to mention the amount of money someone would pay for these documents, if only to get to be the hero who destroyed them. Pocketing all that was in there, he turned to examine what was going on outside when he heard a huge bang at the door.

Shouts came from outside the room, followed by another huge bang. The rogue scooped up the paperweight used to smash the mirror and jumped up to the top of the mirror, then hopped on the rafters supporting the ceiling. Climbing on top of one, he began making his way across the rafters to the side of the room. On the fourth bang the heavy door flew open, and three men slowly walked in. Everything went dead silent. The rogue remained hidden, as the three men spread out. Just as they began tilting their heads upwards, he lobbed the paperweight into the nearby curtain.

Only the curtain's rustling was heard, but all 3 guards turned their heads, and the thief pounced on the closest one. He then took off running for the doorway, stopping only for a second to wave his arm outside the threshold between the room and hallway.

Two swords flashed, but they were too slow to hit him. He grabbed both the guard's arms and did a front flip over them like a high bar. He then let go of the left guard's arm, and back-flipped over the right guard, snapping his neck from behind. He shoved the body at the other guard, and rammed his shoulder into the much lighter door, not realizing that it said, heat shaft. The room was no more than a tiny closet used to conceal the heat ventilation tube leading from the floor below. Acting more on instinct than logic, he slammed the door behind him, ripped of the cover grate, and jumped down the metal tube.

Being a dwarven rogue caused him many jobs in months past, but he never expected the fact that he was a dwarf would save his life. Not only would the sheer fall he was now encountering one that could easily kill the much favored halfling, but the burning coals at the bottom of the shoot would have roasted alive just about any other race.

The thief hit the bottom hard, rolling, but shattering his shoulder plate in the process. The furnace coals provided enough cushion to save his life. Unfortunately that's when he realized that it was hot… DAMN HOT, and he was trapped in a metal tomb. He thrashed violently slamming his heavy dwarven frame into what was thankfully the furnace door. His clothes nearly burned away, and pain engulfing him like the oven in which he had just found himself, he collapsed to the floor, and writhed in pain.

He heard voices, and thought very seriously about just laying there and dying, but something wouldn't let him, he was near the end of the greatest pull in a half century, not to mention all the riches he could ever want. Struggling to his feet, eyes too teary and smoked covered to see, he stumbled to a wall, and felt another metal grate above him, but this one he could feel cool wind through.

Breathing in deeply for the first time since the fall, he felt every inch of his lungs and windpipe burn with the new coming fresh air. Bashing out the grate, he jumped and pulled himself through it with great effort. He could feel he was outside now, but that's as far as his train of thought could go. He got to his feet out of pure instinct and stumbled a few feet. But the ground beneath him began to rapidly slope, and he soon realized he was falling down a hill. He rolled for a few seconds, and then came to a stop on hard stone.

Daring to open his eyes, he saw an approaching horse through blurry vision. Feeling a pair of arms reach him, he sputtered out hoarsely, "don't take me… hide me, please… hide…" and then passed out.

Thus ends the infiltration, but this is only the beginning. What's gonnahappen next? Nobody knows, not even me. However I'll figure it out, and when I do, I'll put it up here. Don't expect quick updates though. I'll aim for one a week, but I doubt that'll even happen. But you know, review this beast. And make me happy. You want me to be happy don't you?