We all know that our world of Fantasy gaming comes with pre-programmed characters that the player has no control over. These are known as Non Player Characters, or NPC. In the fantasy realm of Ember Wind, there are guilds; collections of players who band together under one banner for a purpose. Some guilds participate in combat, others are filled with crafters and tradesmen. Trade guilds use Guild Vendor NPCs to act as storemen. They sell the wares the guilds make for money which they then send back to the player whose item was bought. The one question we all probably wonder is, what is the life of an NPC Guild Vendor like?

Romulus Artarion was his name. A scrawny Emporian NPC whose only job was to shout at players and trade things for gold. He was hired, rather bidded for during the weekly vendor bids, by the potion makers of Mystical Entities. In his astonishingly limitless inventory, laid hundreds of thousands of potions, including a long list of their prices, stats and effects. Being a guild vendor, he had to memorize it; all two hundred pages at a hundred items a page before the next day began. That is of course, once he dons the guild tabard and throws up the banners in his shop.

The next day came with no surprise. He was stationed in the big city of Town of Initiations. The day was bright, hot and humid. The trade center was rather large, a hundred vendors were jammed into a secluded corner of town, far away from the crafting stations and the main entrance. Hundreds of people roamed in and out of the trading plaza. There was chatter everywhere coming from nearly everyone. Town guards walked around on their designated patrol routes.

Romulus stood just underneath the pavilion. His shop was more of a roof on 4 corner poles. A couple of furniture items scattered about to make it appear real. Hidden behind the countertop to his right was a small silver box. This box was locked and it was called "lock box". To the average NPC, it was a no touch item that contained valuables and gave bounties to people who were spotted. To every player, it was a challenge.

Romulus shifted back and forth between the heel and toes of his feet, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next customer. Behind Romulus was a player in sneak mode.

In sneak mode, players are "hidden" to NPCs and free to do crime as they see fit. Being hidden allows them to steal and murder without getting a bounty. The only loophole is, they can't be in the line of sight of any other NPC or city guard. Being within the line of sight of players does not reveal the hidden player. No amount of noise reveals a hidden player, either.

The hidden player was geared in heavy armor and the sound of clanking metal echoed behind Romulus. Romulus knew someone was back there but his code prevented him from moving, much less turning around. He wanted to say something to the passing guard but couldn't because of the programming. He was forced to stand there, smiling and waving.

The hidden player snuck up to the counter on Romulus' right and started picking the lock of the lockbox. The sounds of lockpicking were rather loud and Romulus sighed heavily knowing that it was happening. The hidden player popped open the lockbox and looted everything inside it. The lockbox then faded away and the player snuck away. A couple of minutes later, the lockbox respawned with randomly generated loot and the next player came to steal it.

On the roads in front of Romulus, other NPCs strolled about with the crowds. One player activated stealth mode and walked into Romulus' line of sight. The hidden effect immediately wore off but the player still kept going. The player whose name plate now hovered over their head was known as "Lorddong of Dongs". He snuck up to a wandering NPC and pickpocketed them. This was in plain view of Romulus who then could finally say something. "Guards!" he cried, "Thief! Get him!"

Immediately following his cries, Lorddong of Dongs was given a bounty of several hundred gold and other NPCs cursed him out. "Damnable thieves, they should hang."

The player then sprinted past Romulus and entered stealth mode and remained out of sight. Romulus could no longer say anything as the player he just witness pickpocket a passing NPC, lockpick his lockbox and steal everything out of it.

The player then mounted his horse and galloped out of view as he flew by guards. Naturally, the guards took chase and five or six of them chased him across town using all sorts of spells and abilities to stun and root him. They began beating and stabbing him to death. The player activated a stealth ability which casted a magical invisibility effect. That hid him from the guards who were standing on top of him. He then promptly snuck off and waited in the wilderness for six hours while the bounty slowly wore off.

In the wonderful world of MMORPG, the crime rate is extremely high; worse than the era of pirates in the real world. It was only a matter of minutes until the next genius decided to pick a lock or pick a pocket in front of Romulus. Two hours into the work day, he'd witness sixteen failed pickpockets, knew of another twenty or so lock box thefts that occurred behind him and the guards only killed three and received the bounty pay from one. Twas a great start to the first workday of the new week...