The Misadventures of Nym, Chapter 1

Nym laid across his bedroll, looking up at the ceiling of what he called “home”.  He had taken up residence in a worn down, boarded up house in the slums of Athkatla a good while ago.  He had been trying to find good paying jobs, but already they were very hard to come by.  As such, he was forced to pick a few pockets every now and then just to keep himself fed.  Sometimes, he would just outright sneak some of food under his robes from the nearby tavern if he was not able to sneak enough coin from the commoners.

On one particular evening, as the sun had begun setting into the horizon, Nym decided to visit the fence that normally hang around the eastern side of the slums.  He snuck through the little cubbyhole that led into an alley, and then made his way to the streets.  He casually walked along the streets, seeming like any other commoner in the area.  He passed a couple courtesans as they began to come out for the night, and wait for their customers.

Further down the street, he found his usual fence still hanging around his usual spot, chatting it up with a few passers-by, and the occasional courtesan.  Nym approached the fence, and began to chat idly with him.  Nym asks if there has been anything new lately, but, apparently, there was nothing, aside from selling the usual tools of the trade.

“What about any jobs?” Nym asked.

The fence simply shook his head, “Nay, nothin’ at all mate.  Though I be hearin’ ‘bout some rumors lately, but nothin’ too big yet.  I’ll let ye know if I learn anythin’ new.”

Nym nodded to the fence, and went about his way.  No jobs at all, and little money from picking pockets.  Life was beginning to seem rather rough lately to Nym.  But then, there was that house where some gnomes live in the south-eastern portion of the slums.  An idea suddenly came to Nym, and he made a bee-line for that one house.

As he walked up to the front door, he could already hear the loud snoring from within.  And tried to the door, and surely enough, it was locked.  He muttered a bit to himself, cursing that he should take some time to learn how to pick locks some day.  Then he cast that one thought away, and produced a burlap bag from beneath his robes.

He untied the string, and within the bag were several little caltrops.  Nym grinned, and poured the caltrops in front of the door.  He used his hands to carefully push them into place in front of the door, then got up, and knocked.  He listened after knocking, but nothing could be heard, aside from the snoring.  He knocked again, this time harder.  This time he heard muttering, and a few curses being said inside by someone.  Nym quickly looked around, and moved around a corner of the house, slipping out of view.

A male gnome opened up the door and poked his head out, mutters.  “Hello?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.  He looked around a bit, but could see no one at all.  He took a step forward, at the same time shouting out “Hell— OW!!!!”.  He was cut off by the sudden pain in the sole of his foot.  He looked down and saw the caltrops, and kicked them away, shouting and cursing at the top of his lungs.

From around the corner of the house, Nym watched, chuckling to himself lightly, but still keeping silent.  The gnome cursed many more times, slammed the door shut and locked it.  For several more moments, yelps of pain and more cursing could be heard inside, and as Nym walked away, he couldn’t help but laugh at the poor gnome’s misfortune.  ‘Twas a good night for a prank by Nym, at least as Nym thought to himself.

However, Nym couldn’t help but overhear the gnome mentioning about reporting the prank to the guards the next day.  Nym knew he’d have to stay low for a while after pulling off the prank.

            Nym made his way back to his home, sneaking into the dark alley and through the cubbyhole.  He stopped for a moment to reflect on the events thus far for the night, and grinned to himself.  However, he was cut short in thought when he heard a loud creak in the floor boards.  He knew he hadn’t moved one bit at all, plus the sound had come from the opposite side of the room.  He glanced around, trying to see who the intruder was.  As he looked around, his eyes met another pair of eyes with light glinting off of them.  He then noticed the faint outline of a figure in the shadows.

            The figure took a step forward into a more lightened area.  Nym could see that this was a woman.  She wore a shawl that covered her whole head, except her eyes.  She wore leather that was darkest black.  Her step also made no noise, leading Nym to believe that her boots were padded.

            “What are you doing here?!” Nym demanded from her.  For a moment she kept silent though, however it seemed as if she may have been grinning.

            “Why did you pull the prank on that gnome, hmm?” she asked back at him.  Nym just kept silent.

            The woman chuckled a bit, and asked, “And why did you pick that man’s pockets from the other night?”

            For a moment, Nym seemed confused.  “What man?  I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

            The woman chuckled again, and explained in detail the man that Nym had apparently pick pocketed.  Nym thought for a moment, then suddenly realized who she was talking about.  The previous night Nym had pick the pockets of some noble man.  He only got away with nine silver coins though, despite the man’s noble appearance.

            The woman noticed the expression on Nym’s face as he was remembering the previous night.  “Yes,” she said, “the noble whose pockets you picked last night.  He is my apprentice.”

            Nym just simply looked at her, not sure what to do.  He remained silent, and unmoving.

            The woman smiled underneath her shawl, and let out a chuckle.  “I had no idea he was so much of an imbecile.  I would have expected him to have caught you, but he never noticed anything was missing until the end of the night.  You’re obviously much more talented than he.”

            Nym felt a bit more relaxed, and in fact a bit relieved.  However, he kept his wits about him.  The woman looked him straight in the eyes, narrowing her own as she did so.  “We are watching you Nym,” she said to him as she slid back into the shadows.  She soon disappeared from all sight, and despite his best attempts to find her, he could not spot any evidence of her ever even being there in the first place.

            All except for a single parchment on his bedroll.  Nym bent down and picked it up.  It was a note demanding that he meet in a specific place in the docks district of the city.  On the parchment was a rough map showing where in the docks he was to meet whoever had placed the note there.  Nym was supposed to be there by an hour before the moon’s peak.

            Nym immediately set to gather his supplies.  He already had his rapier with him, but he also decided to grab his shortbow and a quarrel of arrows in case he needed them.  He also grabbed a bag of caltrops, just in case he needed to get away from an pursuers.

            Nym made his way towards the docks soon after.  As he neared the bridge district of Athkatla, he passed by a patrol of guards.  The guards regarded Nym suspiciously, and the one who seemed to be captain of that patrol approached him.

            “Where are you headed to citizen?” the guard captain.

            “Just to the docks sir,” Nym replied.  The guard captain simply nodded.

            “And just what are you intending to do once you reach the docks?”

            “Just a bit of fishing sir,” Nym replied, hoping the guard captain would fall for the ploy.

            The guard captain nodded again.  “Carry on then,” he said to Nym.  The guard captain and the rest of the patrol continued on their patrol route, while Nym walked casually towards the docks.  Once he was some distance away from the guard patrol, he let out a great sigh of relief.  For a moment, he was thinking that he might get thrown into a cell for carrying concealed weapons on his person, being that they were all hidden under a rather shoddy cloak.

            Two hours before the moon’s peak, Nym arrived in the docks district of Athkatla.  He found the place that had been sketched out on the note, where he was supposed to meet some mysterious person.  However, since he had an hour or so to spare, he thought that he may try to make a bit of profit out of this excursion.

            Thus, Nym slipped into the shadows, and down the street a ways.  He came across a drunken sailor, who was singing at the top of his lungs.  Nym cringed a bit as the sailor sang, since the sailor was much off tone, and had quite the high pitched voice for a male.  Yet, Nym deftly snuck up behind the sailor, and cut off the mains coin pouch from his belt.  Nym quickly stuffed it underneath his robes and slipped away, and turned into a dark alley.  Once he was sure he was safe, he took out the coin pouch he just pilfered and counted its contents.  Nym was rather surprised, having laid claim to a whole twenty-five coins of gold.

“This sailor was either from a rich family, or he was well paid,” Nym mused.  He then added the contents to his own hidden coin pouch, and slipped back out to the street, keeping to the shadows.

Several moments later, he came near another drunken sailor flirting with a courtesan on the streets, a ways down from a darkened alley.  He thought for a moment, and decided that he wanted to challenge himself by slipping coins from both of them.  He proceeded to bring himself near them, keeping to the shadows still, and out of sight.

He was closest the courtesan first, so Nym chose to slip a bit of coin from her.  He came up close, and watched the drunken sailor.  However, the sailor was much too drunk, and much too occupied flirting with the courtesan to notice.  Nym slit a hole into the courtesan’s coin pouch, and slipped out several coins, and quickly pocketed them.

Nym didn’t bother to count his catch quite yet.  He simply backed away from the two a bit, and stood tight for a few moments.  Once he was sure that he was in no danger at all, he snuck up to the still drunk sailor, who was still flirting with the courtesan.  Nym kept low, his small knife out ready to cut the purse strings from the sailor.  Nym gently grabbed the purse, and snapped his knife out to cut the strings…………… but the sharp side of the blade was pointing the wrong way!

The drunk sailor felt something of a tug against his belt, and suddenly looked down, seeing Nym with his hands on the coin purse, and trying to cut his strings with the wrong side of a knife.  The sailor looked at the thief incredulously, causing the courtesan to also take notice of Nym.

“Wha da hell are you doin’?!  Thief!” the drunk sailor yelled out.  Then at the top of his lungs, and cried out, “Guards!!!”

Nym didn’t know what to do for a moment.  He couldn’t just slip into the shadows then and there, because he would be all too easy to track.  The only thing he could think of was to run, so run he did.  As he ran, and turned his head around, and spotted the courtesan slipping into the shadows and away from the drunken sailor.

Nym spotted a dark alley ahead, and quickly turned into it.  He kept an ear out, however, as he hid in the darkness.  He heard a patrol of guards rush to the sailor, and overheard the sailor crying out that the thief had gone ‘that way’.  Nym slipped further down the alley, into deeper shadows, and held still.  He heard the guards come to the alley, and could even seen them at the lighted end of the alley.

“Eh…….. where is he?” one guards asked.

“Bah… I don’t see anything here at all,” another guard stated.

“Ah, the sailor probably pointed us in the wrong direction men.  The guy’s drunk anyway.  But keep your eyes out for anyone suspicious, alright?”

There was a sounding of a ‘sir, yes sir’ from the rest of the guards, and then the patrol moved away from the alley.  Nym breathed another sigh of relief as the guards finally moved away.  For the remainder of the hour, Nym kept low and out of sight, especially of any guards, until the appointed hour of the meeting.

Once the hour before the peak reached, Nym was back at the place designated in the note.  And looked around everywhere, but could see no one that would seem to be someone who would want to meet with him.  Just the usual drunk sailors, courtesans, commoners, and the  occasional beggar.

However, unbeknownst to Nym, a man hid in the shadows nearby, watching Nym closely.  He drew out his sap, and a black hood, and waited.  When Nym came close enough, the man quickly put the hood over Nym’s head, and attempted to knock Nym unconscious with his sap.  However, Nym squirmed just enough that the sap went rushing by Nym’s side.  Nym squirmed out of the way of his assaulter and pulled the hood off, throwing it off to the side.

“What the hell are you trying to do, kill me?!” Nym yelled at his attacker.  Nym noted that his attacker looked exactly like the woman who had intruded into his home earlier that night.  The man wore a shawl over his head, hiding all but his eyes.  He also wore a pitch black leather.  More than likely, this man’s boots were also padded.  Nym had figured that perhaps this man was the one whom the note referred to.  However, the man kept silent, his eyes on Nym, and took a step forward, his sap still in hand.  Nym took a step back away from the man, but the man kept on pressing forward.  Nym continued backing off until he found his back against a wall.  There was nowhere else left to run, and there was no one else in view.

Having no other options left, Nym drew his rapier.  The man that had assaulted him stopped his approach, put his sap into a loop on his belt, and drew his shortsword.  It was without a doubt that these two would fight.

Nym began by suddenly thrusting forward with his rapier at the rogue before him.  The man quickly twisted off to the side, but still took quite a gash to his left shoulder.  The man winced a bit in pain, but ignored it for the most part, as he tried to drive his shortsword into Nym.  However, Nym was wary of this move, and twisted his own body just enough such that his attacker’s blade slipped right by his side.  The two broke off from each other, and as Nym twisted back around to face his foe, he swiped at him.  However, to Nym’s dismay, the rogue was a bit too far for him to hit, as there was nothing but the whistle of air passing by the blade.  Taking advantage of this, the rogue put his left hand out his front of him, moving it to make sure Nym’s rapier stays safely away, and pushed forward, burying his shortsword into Nym’s stomach.

Nym’s face contorted into a look of shock and pain.  He looked down, seeing the shortsword buried into him.  His grip on his rapier weakened, thus dropping it to the ground with a loud clang.  Then all the world began to fade away to Nym, and darkness took him over….