Side RP: Chaos in Hara

It’s all going so well. Uelten carefully steadies the pile of crates, and Coreene deftly — if nervously — makes her way up. There’s an unexpected complication as she reaches a height where she can peer in the window, though. The pile is just a bit farther away from the wall than it seemed.

No matter. Coreene carefully inches forward to try and get a peek inside... carefully... carefully...

CRACK!

She puts her hand down on a crate that gives way beneath. As her weight shifts unexpectedly, the crates do the same. Everything teeters... teeters... and starts to tumble down. Coreene is just able to get a glimpse in the window as she falls past it: maybe ten or so people standing, watching over maybe forty others, who are all sitting on the floor, their heads bowed.

Of course, it’s hard to do much counting while you’re falling.

The crates collapse with a loud clatter. Loud enough to be heard inside? Hard to know. Coreene ends up in a heap, lying among the splintered remains.

Just when it seems like the disturbance is going to go unnoticed, two people appear around the corner from the front of the warehouse. One of the men is huge, both in height and girth. Shaggy brown hair juts out from beneath a dented helm, and his chin is lost in a cloud of bushy beard. He wears a breastplate, dented and even rusty in spots, and his clothes beneath are stained and in poor condition. He carries a longsword that manages to look somehow small in his meaty fist. The other is an elf, tall and haughty in his expression, wearing black leather armor that has clearly been polished and tailored carefully. He wears a pair of short swords belted at his waist.

They come a little way down the alley, looking for the source of noise. Neither seems to be looking toward where Coreene and Uelten hide.

The two searchers come upon the pile of crates, and they look at each other with skeptical expressions. The elf speaks up first, lip curled in a faint sneer. "Whoever was out here was certainly clumsy," he says, prodding at the splintered crates with a toe. He looks around the alleyway once more, eyes narrowed. "Trying to look in that window, I'd wager."

He gives a short jerk of a nod toward the window. "I doubt he'll like the sound of that. We might have to move the whole operation."

The larger man grunts, speaking in a deep, gruff voice. "We move all the time. We're used to it. Lots to do, no time to sit around and wait."

They continue on down the alleyway, and round the next corner, disappearing from view.

Just when it seems the excitement has passed, Coreene feels something in her pocket vibrate slightly, and muffled sounds come out from the same place. Not quite loud enough to hear more than a couple of feet away, but it’s still a bit of a surprise, given the tension of the moment.