Welcome to Gaia! ::

After they all entered the town hall, Blade more or less had been separated from the other thieves that accompanied him to see what they can scrounge up. For the most part, going about and picking at the nooks and crannies to see what they can find was an individual effort anyway, so he didn't really pay too much attention to where everyone else was headed. The only time he needed to actually start to get worried was if someone was caught, or if some other trouble began to stir up.

'How long are you going to take?' flatly asked Alastor mentally.

The shadow wyrm was resting outside somewhere, nursing the wounds he had received from a recent battle. There wasn't much he could do, but in the case his bonded was in trouble, he could attempt to make a number of people fall asleep if needed. Or he could provide a dark shroud to aid the thief's escape. But other than that, he was going to need to stay put and wait, much to his distaste.

'Not too long hopefully. But I could pretty much leave whenever I feel like it anyway. Just be patient ok?'

With a sigh, Blade shook his head slightly before stepping out and looking around for anything that might have been left behind from the previous night's guest. There wasn't a whole lot left behind, but he still hoped to find a few previous gems and other expensive shiny objects at the least. While he didn't care too much for the wealth he could get out of this, and just loved the feelings he got while he was out and about to thieve and such, he thought it would be nice to get something for his work.

But sure enough, his dark red eyes caught a gleam of light near the window. With a bit of a grin, he quickly moved over towards it to see what it was exactly. After bending over and picking it up, he soon found that it was a small gold ring with a tiny ruby embedded into it. An intricate design could be seen engraved into the metal's band as well. It wasn't exactly the greatest find, but it wasn't too bad altogether.

Just as he went on to pocket the piece of jewelry and move on to find other bits of treasure throughout the area, he paused as he heard something from beneath his feet. Thinking that it might have just been his imagination, he just shrugged and started to move once more.

But the noise rang out from below again, bringing his attention to the floor and what might be underneath.

The thief frowned at this, as he was pretty sure none of the others would be making so much of a racket if they were in the basement of the town hall. After pondering on it for a bit, he decided to go ahead and try and see what was going on. Perhaps one or several of the others met with some trouble down below. Why any of them would be in the basement was anyone's guess, but since he didn't know where anyone was, it was quite plausible for at least one other member to be there.

'Alastor, just to let you know it's probably going to take me a little longer than planned.'

Hearing a mental grumble from the wyrm, Blade shook his head lightly before moving about to see if he could find the entrance to the building's basement.

Now feeling a little wary of what was going on in the basement of the town hall, Blade went on a bit more slowly, making sure to keep an eye out for anything out of place. However, as he went on closer to the source of the ruckus, he began to hear some voices. Some were the familiar voices of one or two of his guild-mates, and others he didn't recognize at all. He couldn't make out much of what was said, so he couldn't be sure if all was well. Well, that's what he thought until he heard someone, or something scream. Paling slightly at the noise, he stared out ahead, feeling quite uneasy now.

Then, finally, he saw some faint figures ahead of him, causing him to slow down to start sneaking closer in case there were any hostilities further on. The area the figures were standing in was dimly lit with few torches, and there appeared to be a number of things strewn about the area. It wasn't until he was a bit closer that he could really see what was going on.

Blade crouched down by a barrel and peeked out from around it once he was close enough to see what was happening. Two men stood by a large mass on the ground before they picked it up and dragged it off to the side to leave it somewhere.

"Don't hurt me!!" cried an unseen man somewhere on the otherside, "I'll never come back here! I'll leave town forever, just p-please don--AAHG!!"

"Silence! You'll pay the price all others have paid for your crimes."

A sharp crack, most likely from a whip of some sort, had stopped the man's pleading. Twitching slightly at this, Blade started to get an idea to what was going on here. And just the thought of it made him sick to his stomach.

The two strange men were now dragging a different guy towards the center of the room. It was the one that had just been pleading moments ago, and he also happened to be one of the other thieves that Blade had entered the building. The men strapped the struggling thief down before harshly bashing him once or twice to get him to stop moving so much.