You've already got enough daggers; you don't really need to waste time getting some slightly fancier ones while there are obviously more valuable objects that you can pilfer.

You look around for potential traps or alarms around the display cases and find nothing, so you get started and begin carefully cutting the glass.

The jeweled crown is what really catches your eye. The regular jewelry is going to bring a nice price of course, but that crown isn't like something you've ever stolen before.

You remove the glass and grab the crown. No sooner have you picked it up and that's when you feel an unnatural chill in the air and you're struck by a powerful vision.

You see a sprawling city though it's much larger than any sort of city you've ever been to (granted you've only been to Holgard, but you can tell it's much bigger than that). Also unlike Holgard everything is very orderly and the buildings are in much better condition in general.

At first you wonder if you're seeing some city in the Delantium Kingdom since you've never been there, but something about this place seems different. Like you don't think you're even in the same time period. The people are dressed very different than you know. The building architecture isn't like anything you've ever seen.

Once again searching your memory again of your sister's old stories, you think you're seeing Galpatis. Or at least some portion of the old empire.

Currently, you're seeing everything from above. Almost like you're flying over the city, but you're not actually there. The only thing that is certain is that you're still holding the crown in your hand.

Before you can ponder what exactly is going on, a voice suddenly pierces your mind.

"THIEF! DISCARD ME NOW OR FACE DIRE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR GREED!"

Well that command couldn't be much clearer.

As far as you know you aren't in any immediate danger, but then right now you're seeing a vision and you don't know what's going on in the "real world." For all you know you could be surrounded by guards.

The "voice" you're hearing could even be some sort of protection to scare rogues such as yourself into dropping the crown.

You're either going to have to mentally break the illusion you're experiencing or drop the crown and give up on this prize.

You keep the crown

This is a unique form of security, but you're no weak willed fool. You begin to try to disbelieve your surroundings and try to move.

Seeing as you're in the air, it's almost like you're swimming. It's all pretty surreal and you're expecting this illusion to end.

"FOOL! IF YOU WANT THE SACRED TREASURES OF GALPATIS SO BAD THEN EXPERIENCE ITS TRUE GLORY!" The voice booms and suddenly you're falling towards the city!

The shock causes you to panic because now this doesn't feel like an illusion. You immediately drop the crown believing that it might correct things, but all that happens is the crown starts falling to the ground too.

At first you think you're going to die, but then you notice that you're falling not just towards the city, but you're over an area which looks to have some large trees. With a little luck, MAYBE you can slow your descent before hitting the ground.

Shifting your weight slightly, you brace for painful impact of attempting to hit every branch on the way down.

When you're within reach of the top of the tree, you desperately start grabbing at extended branches just within reach. You unsurprisingly break several of them trying to hang on, along with ripping your hands up pretty good. You're very lucky you don't get impaled and eventually you hit the ground bruising most of your body. You curse when you notice your pistol has broken into two pieces.

However, you're still alive. Though in your dazed state, you realize that your "arrival" didn't go unnoticed with several strangely dressed onlookers pointing at you. A couple of them even shout over at you.

You sit up and using the base of the tree you stand yourself up. You're in a lot of pain right now, and it's at this moment that you realize you can't understand what any of these gawkers are saying to each other or you. Some of the words sound similar to ones you know, but it's almost like they're all speaking a different language.

You at first wonder if you hit the ground so hard that it damaged your head so you can't understand what people are saying anymore, but given where you are and how everyone is dressed, you've got a bad feeling that you're a LONG way from Holgard anymore.

And for all you know this could still all be some elaborate illusion.

In any case, you're drawing a crowd and you've had enough experience to know that's never a good thing. You quickly make your escape away from the crowd, especially when you hear more shouting coming towards your position.

You don't know where the hell you are, but you're guessing it must be a park of some sort inside the city. You need to find a secluded place and get your bearings.

As you move as quickly as you can with a twisted ankle and sore feet, you spy out the corner of your eye, the crown laying in the grass by some bushes. Seeing as this is what got you into this in the first place, you figure you might as well retrieve it.

No sooner have you picked it up again, you hear the voice again.

"STILL ALIVE THIEF? YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU LOOK."
"End this illusion…whatever you are!" you sputter.
"THIS IS NO ILLUSION. WHAT YOU SEE IS VERY REAL. JUST LIKE YOUR PAIN. YOU WANTED A GREAT TREASURE OF OLD GALPATIS. THERE IS NO GREATER TREASURE THAN LIVING DURING THE APEX OF ITS GLORY. TIS MORE THAN A SCOUNDREL LIKE YOU DESERVES!"
"Wait. You're…you're saying I'm actually here? I traveled back in fucking time?! Bullshit, this has to be an illusion!"
"DISBELIEVE AT YOUR OWN PERIL, BUT THERE ARE NO LIES AND THERE IS NO RETURN. YOU LOST THAT OPTION WHEN YOU STUCK WITH YOUR GREED. YOUR LIFE OF GREED HAS ALREADY COST YOU DEARLY. HOWEVER, YOU HAVE THE CHANCE AT A NEW LIFE IF YOU LET GO. CONTINUE ON YOUR PATH AND YOU WILL MOST CERTAINLY BE DOOMED."

This is a lot to take in. You truly do not know what to make of all this. If this crown, or voice, or whatever is telling the truth, you are in deeper shit than you could have ever imagined.

You're stuck not just in an unknown city or even a foreign land, you're in a whole other time period!

You've got to think. Of course, while you're thinking about how you're going to survive in this new situation, you still might need a lot of coin to make it a little easier.

You look at the crown.

You keep the crown

Again, this crown got you into this mess; you might as well keep it at this point. You tuck the crown away in your pack hoping that it stops speaking to you.

You limp away and eventually find your way out of the park. (Or what you assume was a park anyway)

You walk down a street catching a lot of glances. Most of the inhabitants of this city are human (Though you're seeing a couple of races that you've never even seen before) so you're not standing out so much on that aspect, but the way you're dressed is definitely cause for intrigue.

Unfortunately for you, you're so intriguing that when several military looking men come running in your direction they immediately begin shouting at you in a language that you still can't understand.

You aren't really in any condition to run and there are enough of them that you don't think you could fight them all. You don't even have the advantage of your pistol any longer.

Having no other choice, you attempt to play it dumb and make gestures that you don't understand them. It isn't really a plan, so much as it's the lack of one since you really can't understand them. Though eventually when they get exasperated enough, you understand them all too well.

One of the soldiers grabs you while another begins grabbing your belongings such as your weapons and your pack. They toss everything out, but when they see the crown, all of their eyes narrow and you know enough that you're in even deeper shit.

You can't make out everything they say in between the beating, but you think you understood some of the words as older forms of various swears. You also heard "emperor" which is very bad since as far as you can figure, the crown belongs to the emperor of Galpatis Empire.

While you expect to be killed right there in the streets, the soldiers eventually stop beating you and take you away in chains. Apparently they uphold a very civilized legal system here and you are to be properly judged rather than just executed immediately.

You spend months in a dungeon waiting for judgment. During those first few weeks you try to find a way to escape. When you never find an opening of any sort, you just give up. After all what would you escape to? You're nowhere near home or anything else that you know. You are a man out of time.

Resigned to your situation, you spend the remainder of your time learning some of the language to crudely communicate with the guards or other prisoners. You learn manage to learn a few things that your sister would find very interesting seeing as she did read a few things about Galpatis. Your chances of ever telling her are nil of course. Still, you hope she's doing a lot better than you currently are.

Eventually your day arrives and predictably your case is pretty cut and dry. You're found guilty of stealing one of the emperor's royal crowns (You guess he has several) and the sentence is death. You have to wonder why it took so damn long to sentence you seeing as they found it on you. You can only guess this place has a really backed up legal system on top of it being "civilized."

While it doesn't help you out, it makes you wonder if this was "meant to happen." Like were you supposed to go back in time and steal this crown? Did this originally happen?

But then you didn't really steal it at all or at least you didn't steal it in this time period. The guards just found it on you, but they clearly were LOOKING for a thief. So what happened to the original one?

You eventually stop worrying about it; it's not going to matter anyway.

The waiting period for the execution is happily a lot swifter and by the time you walk to the chopping block; you're ready to accept your fate.