There is a long tradition of ridiculous precious gems in heist fiction.  For example, the Muppets had to deal with the Baseball Diamond. In this case, there is The Double Diamond.  A diamond, with another diamond inside it.

  That's not what a certain man dressed in a passable imitation of ninja is here for tonight.  The downside of fabulous artifacts, increased security.  The upshot, less attention is paid to everywhere else.

  Modern art is always odd.  Like, there are all those soup can paintings.  Joe has removed a replica Chef Boyardee can carved from amber.  Now he just has to leave.  Easy right?

  Why is the narrative even asking that.

Because the narrative is setting up the poor PCs for adventure!

Emerald is here as well, also wearing a ninja-style outfit as cat-burglars tend to. Though she was stealing a different piece of art. In this case, a tribal mask (think Majora's Mask). Everything was going as planned, except the part where some rat was nibbling at a wire.

Emerald and Joe were doing flawless. But as the 3' short fox peeks around a corner only to look up and see Joe looking down at her, the rat elsewhere finishes chewing, causing the alarm to go off. Emerald's heart stops, both at the sight of another thief, and the sound of the alarm. A little puppy yelp escapes her.

  Joe's initial thoughts on seeing a... well, that's kind of short.  Okay, his SECOND thoughts are being glad this isn't as awkward as it could have been, as it doesn't seem they came after the same artsy stuff.

  Unfortunately, unlike 'no, I want to steal that!' disputes, alarms can not be settled with Rock Paper Scissors.

  "...Yeah, we should probably get farther away from the main exhibit now."  Why can't the entire museum be covered in skylights?  No consideration for escape route conveniences.

  Meanwhile, Sunglasses Mc NightGuard grabs two tasers.  "Let's ROCK AND ROLL" and kicks open the unlocked door of his security booth.

Emerald would feel sorry for the badass night guard if not for the fact she feels MORE sorry for herself and thus, will head off with Joe, clearly running at speeds that keep up with the guy twice her height. Convenient! "No argument." she says quietly.

Seems both Emmy and Joe are headed in the same direction. Emerald comments, "If we both are thinking to go this route, what are the chances the guards here will think of this route also?"

  "Half and halfish, Main exhibit is farther from this way than the others.  But paranoid logic could have people checking here because of that.  If you had a better way out I could actually fit through that'd be great."  Joe is always tempted to just leave through main entrances, as silly as that would be.  He heard a guy got caught when the statue they were stealing got wedged in a revolving door.

  Meanwhile, NIGHT GUARD dive rolls over a 'Please Do Not Touch The Display' and stops in an Action Pose. "Surprise Criminals!...  Wait, the diamonds still here... IT MUST BE A FAKE! Clever bastards! Well I'm MORE clever than Clever!"  That rambling done, he backflips over the sign and starts running in the direction Joe and Emerald went.

  Meanwhile, a THIRD criminal about to climb down through the skylight sees this, and thinks he should just go home. so he does.

Emerald considers a moment. "This way!" she runs off in the direction of the women's restroom. Once inside, she points out the restroom has windows, normally out of reach, but if she were hoisted, she could get out and then lower a rope.

Given enough time, Emmy or Joe could climb and exit anything. But time is exactly what they DON'T have, so teamwork ftw!

  Restrooms!  Required for sanity (and sanitary) reasons, the ultimate structural weakness.  Joe wishes he thought of that in the first place.

  "To think, if you were just that much smaller I could have probably thrown you up there." Note to self, next time, don't be a cheapskate and skip grappling hook guns.  He flips over a trash barrel for added height benefits when giving Emerald a Boost.

  Meanwhile, NIGHT GUARD reaches the restooms.  "Catburglars are girls! There for they would think I'd never follow them into the Ladies room.  But I'm onto them, they know I know and went to the MENS room!"  Action Door kick!  "Eat tasers crime!"  "AAARG"  "Ah geez, sorry Larry."  Poor Larry the Night Janitor.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 00:57, Thu 05 Apr 2012.

Emerald winces. "Sounds like the guard is next door and overzealous." she says quietly. Boost is go, before opening the window with her tools. Then quickly, she climbs through and lowers a rope as promised, securing the other end quickly.

  Joe has a MacGuyver moment, as he yanks open the handsoap dispenser... then yanks open another one cause that first one was empty, and carefully (getting soap on your hands when you need to climb would be DUMB) punches a hole in the top of the soap pouch with a knife and tosses it at the door.

  That done, he starts climbing on up.  Right as NIGHT GUARD jumpkicks the door open. "Stop breaking the law asshoalaaagh! landed! on! Keys!"  And when you are a janitor or security guard, that's a LOT of keys.

"Sorry! Hope you feel better!" Emerald cries out to the fallen guard as she waits for Joe to climb up and out before running away with him. "Right on the keys..." she comments.