Going up against a wizard - a real wizard, not a trainee one like Effren � was a tall order.� On the other hand, Prue wouldn�t propose something of this magnitude unless she thought we had a good chance.� Additionally, the possibility of actual magic items was hard to ignore.� If we sold them, we�d be rich by DownTown standards and if they were useful, we could keep them and be even more effective.
I could tell the others were a little unsure, so I piped up to move things along.� �I�m in�.
It took a while to get everyone on board with the plan.� Effren, who had first-hand experience of wizardly power, was eventually swayed by the chance to get one over on a member of the wizard community that had rejected him.
Nana, as always, needed to be reassured of the safety of the scheme.� Of course, there are never guarantees and we didn�t have much experience robbing wizards, but we had a solid plan.
Buster, bless him, only needed convincing that the wizard in question is arrogant, haughty and uncaring towards the common man and was also so rich that he wouldn�t really miss anything we took.� Which was all probably true.
The plan itself was pretty solid.� Firstly, we all had to get out of DownTown.� Without legitimate business in Faircrest, we had no right to leave.� However, security was fairly lax.� We�d done this before.
Once in the town, Prue had arranged a meeting with Wizard Thiviar. We had in our possession an old scroll.� No one could read it, so it must be pretty ancient.� Actually, Effren is our reading expert, with the rest of us having various levels of competency.� I had forced myself to sit through some of Father Terry�s lessons at the All-Church so that I would be able to handle things like street signs and bottle labels.� Buster, at the other end of the spectrum, hadn�t seen the need.
Effren, though, actually reads for fun, so he should know what he�s talking about.� And he talks a lot, if you let him.
The idea was that Effren, backed up but Prue, would meet with this wizard and attempt to sell him the scroll.� This part of the plan wasn�t too dangerous, we�re not trying to pull anything at this stage.� We have a scroll, we don�t know what it�s about and we want to find out if its valuable.
Meanwhile, Buster, Nana and I would be in Uptown at the wizard�s place.� We were to scope it out, but if we could get in to make a start on the heist.
We had to split the team this way.� Effren was necessary at the meeting as he would be able to converse on the wizard�s level, and stretch out the meeting as long as possible.
As for the burglary team, we needed Buster for dealing with any guards and breaking things such as stubborn doors and windows.� Nana wold be on hand to neutralise any hostile magic.� And me?� My job would be would be avoiding standard traps and applying common sense.� If it was simply too dangerous, we�d walk away.
The meeting with the Wizard Thiviar was taking place in a fancy luncheon joint with Uptown aspirations.� The owner was beside himself that an actual wizard would be in his establishment and it hadn�t taken much for Prue to convince him that he should offer them a free lunch.� Ongoing patronage from a wizard would be the kind of opportunity that he couldn�t turn down.
We wouldn�t normally refuse a free lunch, particularly a fancy one, but in this case Effren and Prue would make their excuses and hurry to join us at the scene of the crime.� While the wizard was enjoying as many courses of fancy food and fancy wine as the owner could provide, we�d be in his base stealing his stuff.
With everyone happy with the plan, we had an hour left to kill before we made our way to Faircrest itself.� The guards on the gate would be about to finish a long shift and would hopefully be less vigilant.� Although there were normally few restrictions on moving from DownTown to Fircrest, the guards would take a dim view of any weapons and armour. We�d have to be careful.