Hail friends,
Some adventures lead to more treasure than others. Other adventures lead to failures that are blessings in disguise. Then there are some adventures which require much more patience than most. And of course, some adventures are all of the above.
This is one of those adventures and we begin by taking the way-back-machine over one month into the past.
::1 Month and 4 Days Ago::
There I was, minding my own business, when someone interrupts my early morning silence.The veteran reward "Clothing Adjustment" box had just been added to The Lycaeum and I wasn't going to miss out. At this time, the veteran reward clothing had already been re-blessed (unfortunately). But if I were a careless reward-clothing-having Sosarian, what would be the most likely time of day I'd carelessly take any other valuables with me as I adjusted my clothing in an unsecure loction?
(At the crack of dawn, of course.)Enter Duke.
Part-time tamer of Cu Sidhes, part-time warrior of CoM, and of course, my latest nemesis.
I take a closer look.
*pop*So there I was, ready to do the dirty deed, when he pops to life. He runs out the doors in the direction of the bank and the path to the moongate.
I make two rounds of the bank, the museum, and The Lycaeum. He was too fast (and I didn't have him on tracking) and I lose sight of him right away.
(Damnit.)
(Bastard.)
Against my better judgement, I stick around. I make camp where I saw him last and I wait.
::10 Minutes Pass::(Gotcha.)
He runs north towards the hedgemaze and this time I wasn't going to lose him.He does the teleporter dance until he finds the right one.
2 seconds to change out of animal form, half a second to target, and 1 second to steal. That's all I needed and it was right there for the taking.
Duke casts a magical gate and I stay right where I am.
(It was going to be close.)
Normally, when someone casts a gate, they'll walk one step away from the gate and re-enter with another step. I stand my ground and the odds were stacked on my side. I had all but 3 of the 8 possible directions covered (north, north west, and north east).
It was as close as I knew it would be.
I get my target just as soon as he's finishing his spell. He's free to move and I'm in the middle of taking what's mine.
He steps north, I miss, and he steps through the gate unscathed.
Past the point of no return, I follow right behind my latest nemesis.
I catch up to him just as he's finishing an invisiblity spell.
He vanishes.
I hide and he runs off.
...
(Mother fucker.)
Disillusioned (and off my game), I head back to the scene of the crime and wait for this creature of habbit to finish what he [we] started.Duke doesn't disappoint.
(Or am I not disappointing him...?)
(It's so hard to keep these things straight sometimes.)
He takes all the necessary thief-hating steps.
"An Lor Xen!"
He casts his thief-hating invisibility spell and disappears next to the Clothing Adjustment box before I can snoop his pack.
*tracks*When he's done, he runs a thief-hating distance out and around the corner -- just far enough to cast a magical gate before I can stealth in close.
*squints eyes*
Gone!
(Again!)
DUKE! WE'LL MEET AGAIN! I SWEAR IT!
*pumps fist*
...
(I look again.)Instead of losing my quarry, my tracking sticks. According to my sources, he's been whisked away, far off to the north.
*whips out map of Britannia*
The only significant landmass north of Moonglow (not obstructed by a server line) was... the Isle of Ice?
He gate soon disappears. (With his thief-hating senses on full alert, he was waiting for me to follow again, no doubt.) But in light of this new information, I wouldn't have to tip my hand just yet. I head on home and use a roof rune for the entrance to Dungeon Deceit. I start looking house-by-house, one section of the (large) island at a time, until I found what I was looking for.
(Gotcha.)
I mark a rune closeby and wait around for 15 minutes.
He never steps outside.
*squints eyes*
(This isn't over.)
Round 1: Duke